Path to Transcendence

Chapter 327: Time Would Tell

After Alice took the woman and transported her to one of House Violet’s properties, Julius and Lily returned to campus as if nothing had happened.

He got some sleep and woke up after having a weird dream. He typically didn’t dream very much, but he had one of him, Lukas, and Edwin for some reason. The days when Edwin would train him and they would eat meals together afterward.

It was bittersweet.

However, he put the dream to the back of his mind and focused on what he wanted to accomplish for the day. He wanted to find Tristan and find out if he told his father. It didn’t matter if logic pointed toward Tristan breaking his promise to Julius.

Julius firmly believed that the boy was being sincere.

Still, he wanted to find and ask the other boy if he did. The issue was finding Tristan. It wasn’t like Julius knew where the boy’s dorm was, but it was probably a safe bet to head over to the cafeteria and wait there. If Tristan wanted breakfast, then Julius might be able to spot him there. If he wasn’t, then Julius could wait for him when he ate lunch or dinner.

It wasn’t like he had anything planned for today anyway. It was supposed to be a day to relax before the finals. He would wait for as long as he needed to.

***

While he waited for Tristan to show up, he opened the notifications he received last night. He had been a little too tired and drained to check them. He just wanted to get to bed and leave it for the next day.

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 10 -> lvl 11]

[Sage of Savagery lvl 14 -> lvl 15]

[Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 7 -> lvl 8]

[Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 9 -> lvl 10]

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 13 -> lvl 14]

[Spatial Crack lvl 3 -> lvl 5]

As expected from a battle against three Tier 4s, he managed to level a lot of his skills. Truly, a life-or-death battle was the best way to see improvements and skill level increases. He knew that he should have been more upset about the assassination attempt, but if he was being honest, he kind of enjoyed it.

He knew people would call him crazy if he told them that, but he had been missing that fear of death and the unknown consequences should he lose. Life ever since he had come back seemed so… boring.

Of course, this didn’t mean he hadn’t been enjoying his time with his friends, but there was this missing feel of excitement he had gotten used to—the thrill of fighting for his life, the exhilaration of overcoming someone stronger and getting stronger in return.

There was something so addictive about this feeling.

He shook his head and chuckled inwardly. He was indeed a battle maniac, and he wasn’t sure if he actually believed that was a bad thing anymore.

Even when he woke up this morning, he realized that he had gotten the best night’s sleep he had in a while. After the blood stopped pumping through his veins so fiercely, he had experienced this unbelievable serenity and sense of peace.

It didn’t matter if he knew that people still wanted him dead. Last night had been fun, and he couldn’t believe it, but he was kind of hoping it would happen again.

Lily would smack him so hard if she could hear his thoughts right now. He was sure the rest of them would be lining up too.

He laughed once more to himself as he turned his attention to his notifications. He glanced over the one about [Spatial Crack]. He had gotten that notification a while ago and simply had been ignoring it up until now. It had come from his nightly training sessions, and while he hadn’t made any massive breakthroughs, he felt like he was slowly beginning to understand the skill better as time passed.

[Armaments of the Arcane] finally leveled up. It felt like forever since it had, and he was glad that it did. He had been working on the skill on the side for some time, and it was showing results. The skillʼs ability to hold more mana in each construct and its ability to contain a payload of his aura were quite useful. It had undoubtedly shown its use during last night’s fight. He was sure that it took more than one of his opponents by surprise.

Of course, there was still so much that he could improve. He felt like he had simply touched the tip of the iceberg. If he continued exploring this new way of creating constructs, he believed he would be able to make some genuinely horrifying attacks.

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He also wasn’t that surprised that [Inexorable Aura of Ruin] had leveled up. The skill had been hovering at the edge of advancement for a while and must have only needed that small nudge to push it over.

Regardless, the skill had shown its worth. He would not have been able to incapacitate the woman as quickly as he did if not for the aura. It made disrupting her techniques much easier than it would have been if he hadn’t had it.

It wasn’t surprising to see either [Sage of Savagery] or [Pyrokinetic Augmentation of Ruin] see an increase. Both had been instrumental in his victory. One allowed him to keep his focus fighting three very different fighters and withstand their Authorities. While the other gave him the physical capability to keep up with their Tier 4 bodies.

However, he was most excited about the increased level of his healing skill. [Phoenix Renewal] had some high and difficult requirements to level up. It seemed like each level required him to be hurt even worse than in the past. But the poison must have been quite the little bugger because after he took care of it, he must have be deemed worthy of another skill increase.

He let out a small, victorious fist pump. He knew that he was becoming a little addicted to seeing the numbers go up, but he couldn’t help it. It was just so damn satisfying.

***

After standing outside the cafeteria for a while, he finally spotted Tristan walking in with his friends. The same ones that Julius saw with him the last time he talked with his cousin.

He didn’t walk over immediately, instead he tried to get his cousin’s attention discreetly. But no matter what he did, the other boy didn’t look in his direction. He was too busy laughing and joking around with his friends.

Eventually, he decided to send a soft probe of aura toward his cousin. It was only after this that he managed to draw Tristan’s attention. The boy must not have trained his aura senses all that well because it took several pulses at him until he started to look around wonderingly.

When they met eyes, Tristan immediately understood what Julius wanted and nodded his head, looking at the cafeteria door.

Julius then went outside to wait for Tristan, going around the corner where no students were walking by. It took several minutes, but eventually, Tristan arrived.

“Hey, what’s up?” Tristan asked when he saw Julius. There was still a smile on the boy’s face, and he didn’t seem anxious at all.

Julius decided to get straight to the point. “Did you tell anyone about me? Like your father or other family?”

Tristan scrunched his forehead and shook his head. “No, I promised you that I wasn’t going to tell my father because you asked me not to. Why? Did something happen?”

“Are you sure you didn’t mention anything to anyone?” Julius asked again. He channeled some aura and wrapped it around his cousin. It wasn’t meant to be threatening; he just wanted to be certain that Tristan was being truthful, and this way, he would know if he was being lied to.

However, thanks to his special aura, it wasn’t comfortable for Tristan. The other boy went pale white as Julius’s ruinous aura loomed over him like a guillotine. Despite this, Tristan still shook his head.

“No, I haven’t even talked to anyone since we last saw each other. I wouldn’t even have the opportunity.”

Julius frowned. Either Tristan was a brilliant actor, or he was telling the truth. And based on what he was feeling with his aura, he was pretty confident that it was the latter.

He sighed and pulled back his aura. Tristan was visibly relieved as the oppressive nature went away.

“Why the skepticism all of a sudden?” Tristan asked hesitantly.

Julius didn’t see a reason to lie to him. He believed it would actually help his case and convince his cousin to continue keeping his existence a secret.

“Someone tried to kill me yesterday.”

“What?!” Tristan exclaimed. “Here at school?”

“Not at school, but when I was walking around town.”

Tristan had an alarmed expression on his face. “Why would someone do that?”

“I told you, that’s why I need to make sure you didn’t tell anyone about me. So did you or did you not discuss anything about our talk the other day?”

Tristan shook his head once more. “No, like I said. I haven’t talked to the family in a while. I mean, the only people who know I even talked to you were…” Tristan trailed off and frowned.

“What? Who?” Julius leaned forward and asked.

“My friends. When I went over to talk to you the other day, they saw me talking to you. But there is no way they know I am your cousin. I mean, for godʼs sake, I didn’t even recognize you.”

Tristan said this, but Julius could sense a sharp feeling of unease coming from his cousin.

“But,” Julius prompted.

Tristan chewed on his lip. “But, I have been suspicious that Verno, one of these friends, has been spying on me for my father or someone else.”

Julius stood up a little straighter. “What do you mean by that? Why do you think he has been spying on you?”

Tristan ran a hand through his hair anxiously. “I mean, he is always asking what I am doing, making sure to know where I am and who I interact with. But then there was this time that my father mentioned a conversation I had with another student from an important House, but I couldn’t recall that I ever told him about that. The only people who knew about it were Verno and the other student.”

“So you’re saying that your friend could have told your father about you meeting with me?” Julius asked while looking toward the cafeteria, where this ‘Verno’ was probably still sitting and eating.

“Yeah, it’s possible. But there is no way he could have made that connection,” Tristan pointed out.

“He doesn’t need to,” Julius said.

“What do you mean?”

“Only your father needs to make a connection,” Julius said with a sigh.

He hoped that this Verno person hadnʼt told Tristanʼs father and that it was just the Conclave getting back at him. Funnily enough, that would be more of a relief.

On the bright side, at least he knew that Tristan hadnʼt broken his word. That gave him a better opinion of his cousin, and perhaps he could be a person who could be trusted down the road.

Only time would tell.