Path to Transcendence

Chapter 144: Matter of How Long

Julius soon forgot all about the confrontation with his roommate. He had bigger and more important things to worry about. Things such as playing with his new [Quick Step] skill.

During the next several rounds with Gabriel, Julius focused a lot on incorporating the skill into his fighting style. If he was being honest, it wasn’t that hard. It fit his style quite well and the main thing that he needed to get used to was the increased speed.

Something that was very nice now that he had the official skill, was that the skill activated much more smoothly and much more effectively. The conversion of unattributed mana to his legs was now seamless. There was no lag in gathering the ambient mana. It was one fluid step. Now it didn’t feel like he was a toddler learning to walk.

Unfortunately, the quick movement skill wasn’t that powerful yet. When used with his kinetic energy it fell kind of flat in comparison. [Kinetic Augmentation] enabled him to empower his entire body with kinetic energy and while it wasn’t as explosive as [Quick Step], the fact that it was almost at the end of rare, meant that it was much more powerful than [Quick Step].

However, that was why he wanted to level up his movement skill. The general upgrade of [Quick Step] was [Flash Step] at the rare rank. After that, he would be offered [Instaneous Step] once he evolved it to epic.

According to Gabriel, once he got to that point, he would need a suitable Concept to evolve with the skill. Hypothetically, Julius would be able to evolve it with his Sharpness Concept. However, it was hard to say what that would do for his skill and what he would be offered.

He would still likely be offered [Instantaneous Step], but Gabriel mentioned that there was a possibility that it would not be the same skill as his own version. Gabriel’s version used his Body Concept, Brutal Surge to evolve with the skill.

Julius would eventually want a similar Concept if he could manage it. Then again, there were many other things he needed to do before that.

The good news was that he had improved [Quick Step] by a respectable amount for an hourʼs worth of work. Gabriel knew the skill well enough that he knew exactly where he needed to push it.

The biggest downside of the skill was the long time between activations. On paper, it didn’t seem like it was very long. The reactivation time was around a couple of seconds, however fighting against someone like Gabriel, a couple of seconds would be more than enough time for him to put several fists into Julius’s gut before he could use it again.

That was the reason why the two of them had focused on Julius’s ability to activate it in quicker succession.

Which was exactly what Julius ended up doing for most of the night. He still took breaks in between of course. In those breaks, he would work on his aura and the next Concept he was attempting to get.

After much decision paralysis, he had finally decided on a Fire Concept. He believed that a Fire Concept would have some very nice implications for his new epic skill.

A part of him wanted to see if he could get a Space Concept, but he had zero clue where he would even start. He was hoping that in just over a month when he went back to Dante’s place, he would find some sort of answer there.

While the grumpy Tier 6 didn’t elaborate on his plans for Julius, it was a logical step to reason that it had something to do with [Spatial Perception] and thus spatial abilities, and hopefully a Space Concept as well.

For now, though, he wanted to focus on three main things. One was [Quick Step], he had a feeling that he would see more progress in an uncommon skill than anywhere else, so he wanted to work on that. Then there was his aura, which he always made sure to set aside time to practice. Finally, there was his Fire Concept he was planning on getting soon.

He was already making really good progress on his [Quick Step] skill. It had leveled up a couple of times after the first round between him and Gabriel.

[Quick Step lvl 3 -> lvl 5]

Also, as a little cherry to top it off, during that time he had also leveled up [Barrier of Severance] again.

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[Barrier of Severance lvl 10 -> lvl 11]

It was one of his most beneficial sessions with Gabriel yet. Which is why he had been running suicides with [Quick Step] for the past several hours. He wanted to see just how much he could level [Quick Step]. Whenever he got too tired, he would just give himself a little jump with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and he was good to go again.

It wasn’t fighting but the intensity that he was pushing the skill showed its worth. Not only was he trying to activate it almost immediately after its use, but he was manually loading more mana than the skill automatically supplies. This made it take longer to activate, but the power difference was very noticeable. He was able to cross longer distances within the same amount of time.

It was only when he managed to squeeze out one last level that he took another break.

[Quick Step lvl 5 -> lvl 7]

It was the second one of the nightly training session, and probably the last one of the night. He could feel the skill slowing down significantly. It wouldn’t be long until it took an entire night to get a single level.

He sat himself down on a mat and got to work on his Concept training.

He didn’t want to sound too full of himself, but he felt like his second Concept would come to him much easier than the first one.

He had already connected to that deeper plane before and was still kind of connected to it in some ways. Whenever he used his Concept he could sense it reaching out and connecting with that other place.

He knew the basics of how fire worked already, but like he found out last time, knowing how fire worked wasn’t the most important part of it. A larger part of it was understanding how fire connected with his own path.

He didn’t really know that yet. Perhaps, he needed to feel it in order to understand it.

So with a quick application of fire mana, he created a soft red flame just over his palm. He tried to get a sense of how the fire made him feel. He controlled it so it was like a bucket of water that was rolling down his skin.

However, that wasn’t enough. The flame wasn’t hot enough for him to feel its heat. He would need something more.

And he had something exactly in mind.

He had been so careful about using it. He still didn’t know how he had controlled that blue fire back when he was a Tier 1. There should have been no way for Julius to maintain control over such a dangerous power. The only reason he could come up with was the fact that he had been so desperate to survive that he had reached deeper than he should have been able to.

However, he was different now. He had skills and practice that the old Julius didn’t. He even had an epic-ranked skill that might be able to hold it now.

Before he could start to doubt himself, he began driving kinetic energy into his fire. Immediately he felt the strain of holding it together. The small flickering red flame quickly started to pale and turn colors.

Realizing that he couldn’t do it without the aid of [Armaments of the Arcane] he created a sphere construct with rapidly changing mana. [Savage Dance] and [Empowerment of Will] were both fully activated.

There wasn’t any room for error. He couldn’t lose focus for even a second. And he was loving every second of it. A huge crazed smile was on his face the entire time.

Luckily, [Armaments of the Arcane] ended up being the perfect vessel for his dangerous flame. Unlike previous attempts, he felt the construct was able to withstand the power and volatility of the flame even as he pumped more and more mana into it.

The orb of fire mana slowly turned in an azure hue, the heat brimming from its surface even though the fire was being contained with the construct and densely packed layer of mana.

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 3 -> lvl 4]

This isn’t enough, he thought to himself.

He still wasn’t experiencing the true feeling of its heat. It just wouldn’t be possible with his construct containing it. He would have to feel its flame directly.

He knew it was stupid, even for him, but he still wanted to try. With a calming breath, he slowly molded the construct into a different shape. The orb slowly flattened and warped into a long cylindrical pole.

He was funnily enough using a lightsaber as his reference and inspiration. Once he felt he had the shape down and well controlled, he slowly released the magical valve he created within the construct. It was more of a metaphorical valve that symbolized his control of the flame than anything else, but it worked well for his purpose.

Almost immediately he felt the power of the flame smash through the valve and roar out of the top of the pole. The brilliant blue flame that burned out of the top was hotter than any fire that Julius had ever felt.

Even with him controlling the construct from almost a dozen feet away, he could feel its heat searing the skin on his face.

The fire almost seemed alive in some ways. He understood then and there, that he would never be able to fully control fire. It was like people. You could never control every action of people without taking away what made them people.

He needed to guide and convince the fire to work with him. It was a symbiotic relationship between him and the fire.

Knowing he was getting near to what he was looking for, he sat down and closed his eyes, searching for the answers. He knew he was close to figuring out a Fire Concept. It was all a matter of how long it would really take him.