Path to Transcendence

Chapter 404: Old Teacher

Edwin POV

After the attack on the estate, Edwin had been heavily injured and barely managed to escape. It was only because of Lukas’s sacrifice that it was possible. Despite being outnumbered, Lukas had been able to hold his own for a while.

However, no matter how strong he was, there was a limit to how much he could fend off the other Tier 5s. In the end, Lukas burned his soul to generate enough power to kill his opponents. Only Edwin had made it out alive.

Even then, his body had been severely burned by the resulting explosion, and his soul was in even worse condition. It took him many months just to walk normally again.

Just thinking about that night made him furious beyond belief. He would have never imagined that Samuel would go that far and betray his House. Not to mention how many of the other Elders were obviously in on it.

However, it was that night and the injuries caused by it that ultimately gave him a chance. If not for that experience and the rage burning inside him, he would have never been able to acquire a powerful skill like he eventually did.

One night, he was resting at a small inn he had rented, taking medicine that would help him heal faster, when he felt his soul undergo a massive change. It was more drastic and violent than his soul evolution. He had no idea what initiated it. Perhaps it was the medicine that he had bought from an alchemist. Or maybe it was just a simple coincidence.

This painful experience kick-started his acquisition of his new skill. It was the first legendary-ranked skill he would eventually learn. The skill was called [Shadow’s Unrest].

Edwin had always regretted his younger self’s arrogant and shortsighted mindset. He had sacrificed so much for immediate power that it negatively impacted his foundation. It was what prevented him from advancing to Tier 5.

Lukas had known and did his best to help Edwin. But it wasn’t a simple problem to fix. No amount of training or practice could repair the damage he had done to his foundation.

However, [Shadow’s Unrest] changed that. His soul underwent a profound transformation, and with it, he discovered that his foundation had been miraculously restored. He was able to start progressing again as a Tier 4.

The skill not only healed him, but it was a skill that was fueled by his rage. [Shadow’s Unrest] gave him the powerful ability to ignore other people’s wills and, to some extent, their Authorities and Domains. It might not sound that powerful, but when you reach Tier 4, a lot of the fighting is a battle between wills and Authorities rather than pure combat skills.

Once he had completely recovered, he began working on the plan he had been drawing up when he was stuck in bed. He wanted to find out who attacked them and then kill them.

He already knew that Clan Genshen was involved. But they were just hired help. He knew that. The person who was actually responsible had simply paid for their services.

Luckily, he had some contacts who were able to investigate things for him. It wasn’t hard to figure out who was involved. Not long after the attack, many Houses, including House Greyson, had started to take over the Valorbury Region.

He eventually learned that House Greyson was affiliated with an organization called the Conclave. He had also learned that the Conclave had done similar things in other regions. This clearly pointed to the fact that they likely had something to do with the attack on the estate, if not being the primary party to blame.

Once he learned of that, he had already decided on his plan. He knew that he wasn’t strong enough to fight these people straight up, not if they were able to have so many Tier 5s attack the estate. But he had other skills he could use.

That was why, for the past year, Edwin had been slowly working his way through the ranks of the Conclave. It wasn’t very hard to do. He was a Tier 4, and thus, his abilities were very valuable to any organization.

The hard part was getting in through the doors. Thankfully, he had some skills that allowed him to skirt around some of the soul oaths. They weren’t without drawbacks, but they allowed him to enter the organization without being chained to an oath.

He had been steadily doing missions for the Conclave as he progressed through the ranks, earning the organizationʼs trust. Most of the missions were relatively tame and not as distasteful as he initially thought they would be.

He had only been forced to kill a small number of people. And to be honest, these people had it coming to them. They were a group of criminals who had been in the Conclave’s way, and Edwin had been tasked to take care of them.

He had done more morally dubious things in the past.

However, the following missions started to teeter on the edge of right and wrong. There were some of them that he didn’t want to do, but still was forced to if he wanted to work his way up. His skill [Shadow’s Unrest] actually helped him compartmentalize his emotions and allowed him to finish these missions.

On another note, Edwin was surprised at how well the Conclave treated their members. They weren’t shy about sharing resources or helping train their members. They had a plethora of skilled alchemists who created a large variety of potions or pills that helped Tier 4s advance. They also rewarded those who went above and beyond generously.

As a matter of fact, once they realized Edwin was skilled, they assigned him to one of the higher-ranking members. Tuan was a miserable prick most of the time, but Edwin admitted that the Tier 5 was strong.

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He had taught Edwin more than he had imagined, and it was partly the reason why Edwin was on the edge of Tier 5. With the resources he was receiving and the added help, it wouldn’t take too much longer until he was ready to advance.

Regardless, the man was an ass, and Edwin contemplated shoving a blade into the man’s skull every day.

Of course, moving up the ranks led to other issues. With the organization keeping a closer eye on him, he wasn’t able to investigate as freely as he used to. On the bright side, it allowed him access to more sensitive information that he wasn’t privy to before. It was where he had learned the general structure of the organization and the reason it had been expanding so rapidly.

There were some very powerful people behind this group. They obviously had their own agendas, but he had not figured out what their end goal was. Did they take out House Hyperius just to gain control of the Valorbury Region? Or was it a smaller piece of a larger plan?

That was what he was still figuring out. But with this newfound access, he became more confident that House Greyson had directed the attack on the estate. More specifically, it was Wesley Greyson who had orchestrated the attack. The Conclave was definitely involved as well, but he was unsure as to the extent.

He was in the middle of figuring out a way to kill Wesley Greyson. His current plan was to wait until the upcoming tournament at the capital. The man would undoubtedly attend, and with the large influx of people coming to watch, it would be simple for Edwin to sneak around. He didn’t think it would take much convincing for Tuan. The surly man had already expressed his interest in going to the capital for an upcoming mission.

That was something he would have to plan for later.

At the moment, Edwin and Tuan had been sent to the Endless Forest for a mission Tuan hadn’t told Edwin until the last moment. However, that was done purposefully by Tuan. The Tier 5 knew that Edwin wouldn’t like the mission and hadn’t told him until it was too late.

Their mission was to oversee an attack on an expedition sent by the Adventurers Guild. There were many issues just for that alone. The guild was pretty uncaring about the politics of other groups, but they didn’t like it when someone messed with them.

Although they weren’t as unified as other organizations, the guild had one of the largest collections of powerful individuals on the continent. In the past, the guild had wiped out massive organizations that had overstepped their bounds and pissed them off.

This would be a significant risk, and he still didn’t know the exact reasons they were taking it. He had a bad feeling that the Conclave was targeting specific people from this expedition.

And he was right. He spotted several teams of mercenaries attacking the distracted Tier 3s. Some were successful, while others were not.

To his concern, he spotted one of the really strong teams getting taken out by a random person on the perimeter of the battlefield. Tuan spotted this as well and didn’t look very happy when he dragged Edwin to investigate.

Upon closer inspection, the person who had handled the Tier 4 group was shockingly only a Tier 3. Edwin scowled deeply. There must be some explanation of how a Tier 3 killed four Tier 4s. He had seen Tier 3s beat Tier 4s in the past. He had done it multiple times himself. But he had never heard of a Tier 3 beating several Tier 4s at once. It was inconceivable.

The boy was young as well. He was completely drenched in blood, so it was hard to tell precisely how young he was. Edwin did his best to look for equipment or items that would explain how he managed to beat the Tier 4s, but the boy had nothing on him.

He barely had any clothes, let alone any equipment.

He didn’t really want to kill someone so young, but he couldn’t disobey orders when Tuan was standing in front of him. He was getting really close to becoming an integral member of the Conclave. The work he had put in during this past year was coming to fruition. He wouldn’t let it slip through his hands. He would kill this boy if it meant he got the chance to take revenge.

The main thing he was worried about was the man standing off to the side. It was to their good fortune that he didn’t seem interested in interfering. Edwin had a feeling that it would be over quickly if he chose to.

With a heavy heart, he attacked the clearly tired boy. Right from the start, he understood why the other team had been killed. The boy was ridiculously strong. He almost caught Edwin off guard on several occasions.

The boy was never unaware of his opponent’s actions. It was an annoying thing to deal with and reminded Edwin of a certain boy he had trained. However, as the fight continued, he began to notice some alarming similarities.

The kinetic affinity wasn’t so rare that you would see it often enough, but the combination of a fire affinity was a little rarer. However, what truly had him alarmed was the faint sense of life mana coming from the boy.

What were the odds? He didn’t want to believe it. He had already gone through these past years writing Julius off and thinking him dead.

But if he was correct, it wasn’t the right place or the right time to come out to check it. Tuan was still right there looking at them, and the last thing he wanted was for the Conclave to become aware of Julius’s existence.

Edwin almost took a fist to his face for his lack of concentration. He wasn’t the only one who was feeling like something was off, either. He spotted the boy starting to behave and move weirdly.

To his shame, it took Edwin longer than it should to realize what the boy was doing.

He stifled a grin when he spotted the same exact footwork drills he had instilled into Julius long ago. He felt as though a weight had been lifted from his heart, and he let himself bask in the moment, thanking fate for giving him this opportunity. He felt himself getting choked up with tears, but maintained his poise. He still needed to figure out what he had to do.

He couldn’t exactly go and hug Julius at the moment. For the time being, he continued to fight.

However, he started to appreciate the fight more. He paid attention to how Julius moved and fought. He spotted some errors and almost found himself pausing to reprimand Julius like he used to.

Despite the mistakes, he couldn’t deny how strong Julius had become. How the hell had the boy he had trained gotten so strong in such a short period? It was unfathomable.

Edwin was enormously proud but was definitely going to interrogate the boy later.

He looked up at Julius, who backed away and found himself choking on his spit when he saw Julius pull out a blindfold.

This stupid boy, he said to himself with all of the love and care he had buried away for the boy he thought he had lost. Julius clearly was doing this on purpose and had likely recognized Edwin as well.

Coming to a realization, he nodded his head resolutely. As much as he wanted to be upset that all of his effort to infiltrate the Conclave was now put into jeopardy, he couldn’t find it within himself to be angry.

Revenge was a sweet thing, but seeing Julius after all of this time might have been an even greater gift. He had been about to fight the Conclave because he believed he had lost everything, but now that had changed. The problem was that he had no idea what to do now.