Path to Transcendence

Chapter 253: Prepping the Bait

The next couple of weeks were spent preparing for his mission as bait.

When he wasn’t practicing his new skill, he was training his aura control, which had become exponentially harder to tame after his new enhancement skill, especially when it was active.

He had gotten pretty comfortable with keeping his aura under wraps when he wasn’t using the skill actively, but once it was turned up, it became a whole other issue.

The first time, he really pumped his skill was during a spar with Richard. The resulting aura blast, shellshocked Reinera from where she was training with Rebecca. It was quite a debilitating effect, especially on those Tier 3 and lower.

But that was also a good thing. It gave him a very powerful weapon to use against his future opponents. All it required was for him to learn how to properly control it.

With that being said, he found his new epic skill to be absolutely delightful. Other than the destructive and ruinous aura, the skill was better than he could have imagined.

It took the best parts of [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Scorching Empowerment] in order to create a powerful skill. Fire and kinetic energy surged through his body enhancing beyond anything he had ever experienced.

It was actually so strong, that he still hadn’t been able to use it at full power. The one time he had tried, he almost tore his entire body and soul into two.

However, that wasn’t something he was worried about. The amount his body and soul could handle was plenty at the moment.

He estimated that his physical strength when the skill was active rivaled Dustin’s and Edgar’s strength. Which said a lot.

Richard and Rebecca were especially impressed with the power of his skill.

Since the man sparred with Julius almost every day, he saw firsthand how much of a difference [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] made on his abilities.

What had once been one of his weakest aspects, had now become one of the most powerful.

In fact, it actually made him feel like his long-range attacks had fallen behind now.

Despite, the sometimes negative nature of his aura because of his skill, he was glad for the evolution. There was so much potential within the skill and it was only just at the beginning of epic. Imagine what it could become later down the road.

Furthermore, the ruinous aura was not only successful as a debilitating effect, but it actually worked better when he made contact with his foe.

The few times he managed to land a strike on Richard, he found that the ruinous aura would seep through the blow and into the older man.

It didn’t matter what kind of aura defenses the man created, the ruinous aura was able to break down the man’s aura and in some applications, his mana.

Richard had a similar skill that allowed him to burn his opponent’s mana and stamina. Two very important resources during a fight. But Julius found himself with a very similar ability. When he focused on it, he could direct his aura through Richard’s body and effectively destroy his aura and mana.

It wasn’t quite burning the mana like the man’s skill did. But it was more like violently exploding his aura and mana, which in his opinion was much worse.

Richard’s skill only targeted mana and stamina, but he seemed to target the aura itself. Which had some very painful effects.

On top of that, the explosion would also disrupt Richard’s usage of any of his abilities if the man wasnʼt using his domain or authority. It didn’t matter what resource they drew on. The man was still skilled though, and so Julius wasn’t able to capitalize on the man’s distraction.

However, on a weaker opponent, one that wasn’t Tier 5, he suspected that he would be doing a lot of damage. He would have to be careful about using such abilities on people in the future. It was a vicious and destructive ability, one that put a lot of responsibility on him using it correctly.

***

He dodged Reinera’s staff that was swung at his head and sent an open-palmed strike at the girl’s chest. However, she slapped his hand away before he could make contact and jumped back with a use of [Quick Step].

She had gotten the skill recently because Rebecca had decided that evolving [Quick Step] would be the best option for Reinera to get [Blink] or some other teleportation skill instead of continuing to try their previous plan. It was similar to what Julius was going for, but just a slightly different direction.

And it had helped immensely in regards to her abilities in close combat.

Not to mention, that her staff was an amazing addition as well. The staff gave her the reach and offensive support she dearly needed.

Unfortunately for her, it still didn’t mean she was able to close the gaps between the two of them, much to her annoyance and to his amusement.

It became a little game for them to see how often she was able to land a strike on him. So far, her record was five strikes in a single day. Something she liked to point out whenever she could.

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At first, he had been nervous about sparring with his friend but finally agreed to it after much pestering. In the end, it was decided it would be good practice to see how well he was able to control his aura.

And it was a smart decision too. He found himself making more progress than ever before when he risked hurting his friend. He was now able to use the skill without accidentally attacking others with his aura.

As a matter of fact, he just got another notification for the skill.

[Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 1 -> lvl 3]

[Sage of Savagery lvl 9 -> lvl 11]

During these past weeks, he also managed to level up [Sage of Savagery] twice because of the sheer amount of focus it took to control his aura. Without the skill, he doubted he would have made as much progress as he did.

Reinera noticed that he had gotten distracted and stopped her next attack midway through. “Another level?” She asked.

He nodded happily. “Yep.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “You know I have a perfect affinity for light and I still seem to level my skills slower than you do. I don’t know how you are able to constantly level up your skills with only high affinities.”

He cocked his head at her. “What do you mean by that?”

“Seriously?” She asked.

When she saw he was indeed dead serious she couldn’t help but chuckle to herself.

“You do know why affinities are so important right?”

He nodded. “Of course I do. They help people connect more easily with skills of a certain affinity or aspect. Which means they can improve those skills more easily.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Close enough. But you still don’t see why I am baffled by your improvements?”

What is she trying to say?

He could only shake his head at her with a curious expression on his face.

All he got was an exasperated sigh in return. “Most people who have a high affinity your age would be struggling to earn a single rare skill at all. The path from uncommon to rare is not as easy as you make it seem to be. I have witnessed you get a couple of uncommon skills and level them up all the way to rare and finally merge them into an epic skill in a matter of a month or so. Do you not understand how weird it is?”

He shrugged at her. “I didn’t rank them up the most traditional way. I combined most of them to become rare skills and then combined those to become an epic skill,” he explained.

If he had to rank each one up to its level cap, then it would have taken much longer than it did. But since he went about it the way he did, it ended up taking much less time than he expected. Plus, the token helped out immensely. He didn’t want to think about how long it would have taken him to combine the skills if he didn’t get it as a reward.

It most likely would have taken him more time than the initial gathering of the skills itself.

“I don’t know if you realize this, but you only get offered a skill combination when you already show proficiency in using the skills in tandem. So you being offered to merge them, means you are already able to use them well enough. So my confusion still stands. How do you do it?”

Huh, he didn’t know that. But it made sense when she put it that way, he thought to himself.

“Truthfully? I just train a lot. You have seen my healing skill, it allows me to push myself harder than most could ever feasibly do even if they had constant healing from a dedicated healer.”

“Yes, I get that, but the stress your soul must be undergoing would be insane. Rest is an important thing, everyone knows that,” she said to him in a matter-of-fact tone.

He scratched his head awkwardly. Apparently, he was the only one who didn’t know that.

“Well, that was an issue for a little bit,” he said tentatively and quickly held his hands up in the air when she got visibly worried. “But not anymore. My skill can help with that and I also got that [Soul Tempering] skill I told you about to help with that too.”

“Wait, so that’s how you got that skill?” She asked in disbelief. “You basically just trashed your soul and earned an advanced [Soul Resistance] skill as a reward?”

He paused for a moment in thought before nodding his head. After all, that was a pretty basic but apt explanation of what he did.

She didn’t even try to reason with him anymore and gave up in a loud huff, throwing her hands into the air.

He awkwardly watched her as she walked in circles, kicking up every loose piece of dirt in her wake, and muttering to herself.

Eventually, she stopped and turned to him. Shockingly, all signs of annoyance were gone and were replaced with one of worry.

“Are you sure you want to go on this mission? I understand you’re strong and all, but there is undoubtedly going to be at least two Tier 4s attacking the caravan. If they’re a bad matchup against you, it could be trouble,” she said anxiously.

“I don’t mind being the bait. In fact, it’s a bit exciting. I want to see the surprise on their faces when I start to beat them up,” he said with a smile.

She laughed at that. “Oh, I am sure you are going to startle a lot of them.”

“Right? Plus, I have some questions and I want to see if I can find some answers to them on this mission.”

“Questions?” She asked curiously.

“Just some things that I want to get some clarity on,” he explained simply.

Reinera didn’t try and press, she already had a decent idea of what he wanted to find out anyway.

“Well, while you are doing that, I will be acting as a ‘honey pot’ for some arrogant noble,” she said with a sigh of disdain as if the idea of socializing with nobles offended her.

“Aren’t you practically a noble yourself?” He asked with a grin.

“Hey! I am royalty. There is a difference between me and someone like that,” she said with a haughty upturn of her lip.

He put his hand in the air apologetically. “My bad, I can’t believe I made such an egregious error, milady.”

She let out a dramatic huff. “Well, you should be. Next time I won’t be as gracious and will have your head on a pike,” she said threateningly.

“Sure sure,” he said dismissively with a chuckle.

“I will, just you wait and see,” she insisted.

“Well, if you want my head, you are going to need to do a lot better fighting me than you have shown so far,” he taunted and closed his eyes in laughter.

He had to dip down his head as she tried to take his head off once more and stepped out of her reach.

He wagged his finger at her. “See? You are too hasty, with your mana attacks and staff, you shouldn’t be the aggressor so often.”

He let out another chuckle as the response he got was in the form of a volley of light spears heading toward him.