Path to Transcendence

Chapter 418: A Short Mission

Unfortunately, not all of his healings went that smoothly. There were a couple of times when Galten or Freya had to intervene on his behalf. It was especially true on some of the more complex injuries.

One woman had lost her eye, and Julius attempted to regenerate it. He emphasized that because he made a very minor mistake, the eyeball popped like an overinflated balloon. The woman screamed like she had just been subjected to the worst torture imaginable, and it took Galten intervening until she calmed down.

When she finally left the room with two healthy eyes, she made sure to give Julius the stinkiest glare on her way out.

Galten, on the other hand, had not been upset in the slightest. “Don’t worry, it was bound to happen eventually, and to be fair, eyes are notoriously hard for any healer. Many professional healers don’t even have a skill powerful enough to handle such a complex process.”

On the bright side, he had been offered another skill—this one for his life mana.

It wasn’t the most exciting one, but it was a skill that Freya and Galten both believed was worth considering.

It was called [Healing Structure], and it was likely because of the complicated way he wove life mana to handle the strength of his concept and mana.

They made sure he understood that he didn’t need this particular skill either. They stressed that point. They believed that he would be able to heal most people with better results than other healers, just because of his Phoenix Concept and advanced control of his mana.

Since he wanted to be a fighter, it would only take up a spot on his limited list of skills. What intrigued him, though, was that the skill had some possible synergy with [Phoenix Renewal]. The other two agreed. They thought if the skills managed to merge together, they would become a very powerful skill, even more than [Phoenix Renewal] already was.

He set this aside for the time being.

Another bright note was that he had gained another two levels in [Kinetic Control]. Now the skill was at the threshold before it advanced into a rare skill. It only required him to take the final step.

He had been trying, but even with Cain’s help, the skill had not evolved. There was something he was missing.

Additionally, he still hadn’t been able to combine [Spatial Crack] and [Barrier of Severance] as of yet. [Spatial Crack] had gained another two levels from his heavy usage, but there had not been any progress in combining them.

He had been in Auraulos for over three weeks at this point, and he would be leaving for the tournament in just over a month. He was running out of time to do the things he wanted.

It was why he had proposed something to Cain and Freya that night.

“Are you sure?” Freya asked him.

“I think it is a great idea. Let him take a mission and let loose. He might need a bit of fresh air and get a little dirty,” Cain, on the other hand, was very supportive of Julius’s proposal.

“But he might just be wasting time. Time that he could use to learn some other things,” she pointed out.

Julius could not deny her reasoning. She made a fair point.

The Shattered Winter School wasn’t just a simple school. They had members and connections that led to a mission hall much like the Adventurers Guild. Julius had proposed that he take one of these missions in order to evolve his [Kinetic Control] and possibly combine them like he usually did.

“Plus, the missions mainly have to do with the recent attacks from bandits and other problematic parties. It might not be the best thing to send him into at this time,” she added.

“What? Are you worried that he won’t be able to take care of himself?” Cain asked his wife.

“Not really, but humans can be much more dangerous and unpredictable than monsters. I don’t need to tell you that,” she argued.

He interrupted before the two of them could argue more. “Let me take a short mission. If I am not back in a week, then one of you can come and grab me. Does that sound fair?”

“A lot can happen in a week,” Freya said to him.

He held back a sigh, knowing that she was just concerned for him, and looked directly into her eyes, trying to reassure her. “Trust me. I know how to survive. I will be fine.”

“I am not questioning your strength. But I question your judgment sometimes. I have seen how you train at night. Can you exactly blame me?”

He couldn’t argue with her there. He had been getting quite overzealous in his nightly training sessions and had only gotten worse as his skills weren’t combining like he wanted them to.

“I want to go, and I know you can stop me whenever you wish, but I need to do this. I don’t have much time left here. If I did, I would be more than happy to take it slow. But I don’t. Let me take this risk, okay?”

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Freya looked away and stared at Cain. The two of them were likely communicating with each other, and apparently, Cain must have convinced his wife because her shoulders deflated.

“Okay, a week. Not a single second more,” she said firmly.

“Got it,” Julius promised.

***

It didn’t take him very long to find a suitable mission for himself. With Freya and Cain’s permission, he was allowed to choose any mission that he wanted without having the appropriate status.

It was why he had chosen a mission that he believed would be sufficiently challenging yet not too time-consuming.

The mission was quite simple. A village called Kastila was frequently attacked by bandits. It was approximately a half-dayʼs journey away, but traveling on foot or without knowledge of the terrain was quite challenging. This meant that many people chose to select missions in more accessible areas.

It wasn’t the only village to receive this treatment either, and there weren’t enough people available to help.

It was requested that a Tier 4 come and help, but they made an exception for Julius. Not to be too arrogant, but he was better than most Tier 4s anyway.

He didn’t waste any time and headed off first thing in the morning. He deployed his wings, and the moment he left the city’s gates, he leapt into the sky. His kinetic energy had improved a lot in the past few weeks. Still, it was quite the shock to see just how much it changed his flight abilities.

He was more efficient and more explosive than ever before. The fluidity of his kinetic energy was also far better. With these improvements, he hoped that the journey, which would typically take someone who ran the entire way, half a day, would now only take him a fraction of that time.

He blitzed through the sky like a bolt of lightning. There was a limit to how fast he was able to go, though. No matter how much more he pushed, he wasn’t able to get any faster.

Still, it was more than fast enough for him, and he was forced to create a small, narrow shield in front of his face when he started getting slapped by random insects. He also encountered a couple of monsters along the way.

However, he was too fast for most of them to attack him, and the one who was able to didn’t stand a chance. Julius used the kinetic energy he had been building up during his flight to obliterate the monster before its strike could hit him absolutely. Not even bothering to throw an attack its way, he used his body as a human-sized missile.

The blood trail he left behind was still falling from the sky when he was already a mile away.

The view of the northern region was something else entirely. There were many large mountain peaks scattered across the landscape, and an ever larger number of smaller peaks were littered between.

He spotted many towns and villages on his way. There weren’t many places as large as Auraulos, but he didn’t expect there to be either. He spotted one very large city off in the distance, tucked inside a valley between two massive mountains. He was curious, but his mission sent him in the other direction.

He made sure to use the map Freya had given him to guide his way. It wasn’t that hard, though. The mountains all around him made for perfect navigational references.

The cold was also quite dangerous. At the height he was flying, he was forced to run a good amount of fire mana through his body to keep warm. Otherwise, he would have become a popsicle within the first few minutes of his trip. A proper coat would have likely solved this issue.

He spotted a storm far off in the distance. The pitch-black clouds blanketed the enormous mountains beneath them. Apparently, it was one of the more dangerous areas in the Boreal Region. At least, according to Cain and Freya. He was warned not to go near there because many powerful Tier 5s and Tier 6s lived in that storm.

Furthermore, the storm was never-ending. It had been raging for hundreds of years and was a mystery to many people why it hadn’t petered out. Julius didn’t admit this to Freya or Cain, but he wanted to go there just to experience what it was.

He was curious. But he had a strong will and maintained his course, continuing on his way to the village he was supposed to help.

Eventually, he arrived at the village and was surprised to see how isolated the place was. It was situated in the middle of a small valley, where multiple rivers and streams ran through it, despite the soft snow falling from the sky.

The valley provided some protection from the elements, and he spotted several large pillars that must have acted as protective enchantments of some sort. Much like Auraulos, these enchantments were very subtle, and he only noticed because he was looking for them.

His appearance didn’t go unnoticed either. There were people hidden on the top of the valley’s peaks who saw the flying figure approach the village. He assumed they had notified the people below because Julius saw a group of men gather as he landed just in front of the town and outside the protective enchantments.

The people who waited for him were all wearing similar white fur-covered armor, and the man in the middle, whom he assumed was the leader of the group, spoke to him as he neared.

“Halt! What is your business here?” The man wasn’t quite old, but there was some sign of weathering on his face. He had thick, black hair and an impressive beard dusted with snow.

“I am here on behalf of the Shattered Winter School,” Julius explained and reached into his storage ring to remove the paper he was given by Freya, proving that he was telling the truth.

The man and the people around him visibly calmed down once they heard his explanation. However, he still spotted some suspicious looks from the gathering crowd. He didn’t blame them either. He was a stranger, and he was young. He wouldn’t be shocked if they didn’t believe him.

The leader came forth and took the paper from Julius’s outstretched hands, reading it carefully. It was only once the man was finished that he nodded his head and examined Julius with a scrutinous eye.

A few long seconds passed between them before the man grumbled.

“I was hoping for more help than a young boy, but beggars canʼt exactly be choosers.” There was a bit of helplessness in the man’s voice. It was apparent he had been hoping for something else. Not just a lone boy to come to their aid.

“Come with me. I will bring you to the chief. He will give you further directions and explain the situation,” the bearded man told him.

Julius gave the most polite smile he could and bowed slightly. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

The man grumbled something, and he, along with the small group who had welcomed Julius to the village, followed right behind.

He didn’t have the skills or abilities like Lily, but he could tell right away that they were also disappointed at who had come to their aid. It didn’t take a genius to see the crestfallen faces and connect the two dots.

Still, he was there for a mission, and he would make sure he did his best. It didn’t really matter what they thought.

However, first he needed to talk to the chief and get a better understanding of the situation before planning anything else.