Path to Transcendence

Chapter 374: Mysterious Fog

He had to worry about two things when fighting the Ironblood Boar. One was its sharp tusks, and the other was its ability to soak up damage.

While he already knew that monsters often had more impressive endurance and physical bodies, the fact that this Tier 3 monster was taking his punches with such ease was a remarkable feat. Despite blasting the poor thing with kinetic energy over and over, he hadn’t done much.

The boar looked a bit worse for wear, but ultimately it was still fine. The only thing that seemed to have any effect was when he infused his Sharpness Concept into his kinetic energy. Of course, this had its dangers as well. Since he wasn’t looking to waste too much of his energy, he didn’t really want to use this method all that often.

Having to use [Phoenix Renewal] to patch up the damage he did to himself because of this technique wasnʼt the most mana-intensive, but it still took enough that it was noticeable. More than he felt comfortable using for a single beast. That was the reason he hadn’t used it all that much. He only used it for a couple of attacks.

Of course, he wasn’t hurting himself as badly as when he first started experimenting, but the fact still remained that it was a high-cost technique.

He likely could have used his constructs and his aura to defeat this thing, but the point of entering this rift was to improve his other abilities.

After smashing another strike into the boar’s body, he leaped back to avoid the retaliatory charge. He didn’t have to use [Void Step] that much either. With [Absolute Spatial Perception] he was able to detect the signs of activation when the boar charged up its mana. This gave him plenty of time to react once he knew what to look for.

He still used [Void Step], if not to just keep practicing it. But it wasn’t necessary. On the bright side, he had slowly managed to lower the cost of the skill with each activation. He was hoping that he would eventually get to the point when the skill cost as much as [Flash Step]. That was a big pipe dream at the moment, but a man could dream.

He slammed the bottom of his heel into the passing by boar for the dozenth time. There was still barely any reaction from the beast.

Fuck it, he sighed to himself.

He wasn’t here to play it safe and keep his mana tucked away. He was here to improve his skills and Concepts. If he needed to spend some of his massive mana pool to do that, then he would.

He nodded his head as he made his decision and without any of his prior worries, he started to crank up his efforts. He grunted as his mind went into overdrive, trying to mix the two abilities. The sensation of razor shards flowing through his body alongside his kinetic energy made him shake his head at his bullheadedness.

It would seem that his style of fighting always needed to find a way to hurt himself more than his opponent. He almost lost control of the energy a couple of times, but he managed to hold on with [Sage of Savagery].

Infusing his Sharpness Concept into something like his kinetic energy was a difficult thing. It likely had to do with the fact that the two energies didn’t match up that well. Kinetic energy wasn’t meant to be ‘sharp’, it was meant to be forceful. He related it more to impact and blunt force.

But perhaps that was where he had been going wrong. Why couldn’t his kinetic energy be sharp? In a weird way, it was. There was this sharpness to how he moved when using kinetic energy. The sudden acceleration and unpredictable movements he was able to make were very sharp and distinct.

He continued to use that feeling as he infused the concept into his kinetic energy, and much to his surprise, he found that it was working right away. It was slight, and if he hadn’t been paying so much attention to how much damage he was doing to his own body, he would have likely not detected it, but he found himself having an easier time infusing the Concept.

Who would have thought that such a simple change of perspective could impact the technique? It was because of this exact same change that he was able to actually use the technique without hurting his body all that much.

And the next time he slammed his fist into the boar, he found the kinetic energy rippling out and into the boar’s hide differently than it had been. There was now a large gash in the side of the monster, something that angered the beast immensely.

The Ironblood Boar let out a deafening roar as a huge flow of aura was released. Julius sensed it activate some kind of skill that reminded him of a berserker skill. A blood-red aura covered it, and its eyes turned scarlet, looking at Julius with hatred.

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However, he couldn’t help but grin because he felt like he was on the verge of discovering something. The boar launched itself at Julius with even more speed than before. Unlike previously, he couldn’t sense when it would charge. The berserker skill masked the mana usage and prevented Julius from getting a heads-up.

It didn’t matter though.

He used a burst of kinetic energy to avoid the boar once more. This time around, the infused Sharpness Concept made his movements faster and sharper. It was like he was using [Flash Step] all over again. Only this time around, it was for his every action, not just his feet or movement. Even the way he cocked back his fist was unnatural in how sudden and sharp it was.

When the boar dashed by him, he used [Void Step] to appear right on top of its back. He then drove an elbow right into the neck of the beast. He tore a gaping wound into the hide and before the boar could throw him off, he used [Void Step] once more.

He appeared right underneath its chin. The monster had no idea where he had gone and was trying to look at its own neck to find him, which gave him the perfect opportunity to slam an uppercut into the throat of the beast.

Out of pure reaction and instinct, the boar slammed its tusks at the source of its pain. Julius blocked with his gauntlets. His construct was more than enough to hold out against the boar. While it had one of the most impressive defenses from a Tier 3 he had seen so far, it didn’t have the offensive threat to hurt him as long as he used his own barriers to block it and didnʼt allow it to gain momentum with a charge.

He siphoned as much kinetic energy as he could from the impact and used the rest to fuel his arms as he yanked on one of the massive tusks. He brought the boar’s head downward and in a singular smooth motion, he slammed his knee upward and into the face of the monster.

He felt his Sharpness Concept aided by his kinetic energy cut deeply into the bone of the boar’s face. However, he didn’t let up and slammed his knee two more times in brutal fashion. However, he noticed that as the boar accrued more damage, it gained more power from its enraging skill.

Julius didn’t care. He used his mana and created a rope that wrapped around the other tusk of the boar. He then grabbed hold of this rope and, with the accumulated kinetic energy, he used both arms to throw the boar.

He grunted in exertion as the heavy weight of the boar fought against him, but he gave one last yell and heaved with all of his muscles until he felt the fibers in his arm tear into fine shreds. But eventually, he managed to throw the boar and smash it into a nearby tree.

The boar was dazed and scrambling on its side to get back up, but Julius didn’t allow it. He used [Void Step] one more time and appeared twenty feet above the beast. The teleportation used more mana than he normally would have liked to use, but he wasn’t paying attention to it at the moment.

He then used all of his accumulated kinetic energy and propelled himself onto the fallen beast as fast as possible. It was like gravity had increased a hundredfold as he plummeted to the ground like a falling meteor.

The sheer force he was able to generate in those mere twenty feet was enough to finally break through the hide of the boar. His feet plunged into its chest like he was driving a metal stake through it.

The beast’s blood was surprisingly very hot, and if not for his innate fire resistance, he likely would have been burned by it. He used a small [Void Step] to remove himself from the crevice he created inside the chest cavity.

He was covered in blood once more and used some fire mana to burn what he could.

He looked over at the now-dead beast. While it wasn’t that versatile, it showed why specializing could be so powerful. Just on defenses alone, it was superior to the Tier 4s he had fought so far. Its offensive threat wasn’t to be ignored either. If he wasn’t careful, it could have speared him with one of its tusks.

Luckily for him, he wasn’t.

Congratulations, Second Floor Cleared. You will be transported to the third floor automatically in ten minutes or if you would like to immediately head to the third floor, just say “Next Floor” out loud.

He got the notification and once again took the time to recover. He actually hadn’t used too much mana. More than he had been planning, but nothing that would severely limit him. He had no idea why he had been so greedy with it. He shouldn’t with how much mana he had.

He also looked at some of the other notifications he received.

[Sage of Savagery lvl 16 -> lvl 17]

[Void Step lvl 3 -> lvl 4]

He didn’t see any notifications about improvements to his Concept, but he was okay with that. He felt like he had made some good progress and he wasn’t about to complain about gaining two levels in his epic skills.

When the ten minutes were up, he was taken to the next floor. The environment was still a forest, but unlike the last floor, there wasn’t any liveliness. It was as silent as a mouse. There was also a dense fog that blocked vision all around him.

He looked at the message from the rift.

Third Floor Clear Condition: Navigate your way out of the forest.

This floor didn’t seem to have any straightforward directive like the last two floors. This one simply gave him an obscure condition, not mentioning any monsters to defeat. However, he knew that there was no way it was as simple as it appeared. There had to be some kind of trick or aspect of it that made it the third floor.

He reached out his [Absolute Spatial Perception] and tried to sense past the fog. He found himself narrowing his eyes in confusion as he wasn’t able to sense any mana or aura around him.

However, he knew that wasn’t true. There was definitely mana and aura around, but for some reason, he wasn’t able to sense it. Thankfully, he could still use his spatial senses to determine distance, but he didn’t like that he couldn’t sense mana. It was worrying.

He would bet all of the snacks in his storage ring that this effect was caused by fog. He also had a feeling that this floor wouldn’t be as easy to clear as the previous ones.