Path to Transcendence

Chapter 444: Swarm of Birds

The three of them took a teleportation array to the edge of the border of the Empire. The town they arrived in was quite unique. First of all, there were a large number of guards patrolling the area, all of them seemed very tense for some reason.

Furthermore, there was an even larger amount of security leading up to the gates. Massive enchantment arrays were placed all around the east gate, and people were packed in like sardines, trying to make their way over there.

Surprisingly, neither Cain nor Freya seemed to care about waiting in line. They were extremely patient, not trying to find a faster way through, and waited for their turn. When they got to the actual gate, that was where he noticed a change of guards.

They were no longer the local town’s guards either. Instead, the people wore uniforms bearing the Empire’s insignia and looked more like soldiers than actual guards. Several of these soldiers had some type of interesting skill activated.

From what he could tell from first glance, they were using some analysis skill to examine each person who came through the gate. It was quite a powerful skill as well since each one of these soldiers was Tier 4. Not a single one of them was Tier 3, and Julius suspected there were other, more powerful members elsewhere.

When it was finally their turn, they calmly walked up to the man checking credentials. Apparently, you couldn’t just walk into another country without proper documentation. However, many forms of documentation were accepted. For example, a card from the Adventurers Guild was widely accepted by most countries and was used by many people.

There were also various other identifications for merchants or crafters based on which organization they belonged to.

Luckily, they didn’t have any problem with their identification. Both Cain and Freya had documents already prepared for this. Julius wondered what they were because from the soldier’s reaction, he didn’t think they revealed their true identities. It must have been something else. Whatever it was, it must have been good because they were quickly let through.

Julius felt the analysis skills wash over the three of them. The skill was quite interesting. Since the skill didn’t bother to hide its effects, this allowed the skill to be a little more powerful.

Julius didn’t know what skill they were looking for, but it must have come up clean because they weren’t stopped and quickly walked through the east gate. Julius looked down at the well-paved roads and grinned.

While he hadn’t been gone for too long, he was glad that he was finally back in the Empire.

***

Julius was already tired, and the first day hadn’t even concluded.

Cain had decided it was a good idea for Julius to train his flight abilities during this time. After clearing border security, they took flight toward the capital.

They both knew about Julius’s fledgling flight abilities and wanted to see how fast he could go. Truthfully, Julius was a bit proud that he could fly. Not many people under Tier 5 were able to fly, and he was able to do so at Tier 3.

He had quickly created a set of wings and boosted himself with kinetic energy into the sky. They had both been impressed by the creation of his wings, especially Freya.

“You really do have a unique gift for mana manipulation and aura control. Even if you didn’t have any kinetic energy or life mana, you would have been quite the fierce mage. I don’t know many people who weave their aura into their mana; the ones who do usually don’t do it that way. You might really want to get that skill you mentioned before,” she said to him while flying next to him.

As much as he wanted to appreciate her compliment and think about what she had said, he wasn’t able to. He was too busy boosting himself with all he got. For some reason, the two of them thought it was funny to see how fast they could go before Julius was unable to keep up.

It didn’t help that the two of them also knew that Julius was stubborn and prideful. They understood that he wouldn’t back down from the challenge and push himself to keep up with them.

He leveraged his recent breakthroughs in kinetic energy to stay ahead. He didn’t have much time to ponder it, but if he compared his current flight with his initial attempts, it was night and day.

It wasn’t even his speed; it was the level of control he had over his flight. He didn’t wobble like he used to, and each turn was sharp. His wings helped him even more. He had learned that he could use the wings as pivot points. By sending brief charges of kinetic energy through various parts of the constructs, he could alter his flight with even more precision.

“Oh, look, I think they want to say hi!” Julius heard Cain say enthusiastically.

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Julius looked at where Cain was pointing and strained his eyes. As much as he loved [Absolute Spatial Perception], he had to admit that there were many other skills better at seeing over long distances. However, he eventually spotted what Cain was looking at, and he finally saw the mass of flying figures.

“What are they?” He asked, straining to speak over his efforts to keep up his speed.

Cain looked at him like he was dumb. “They’re birds,” he said plainly.

Julius rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I can see that, but what kind are they? And what are we going to do about them?”

Julius could see that these birds had already detected him and, like Cain had said, were coming over to say hi. He was probably imagining things, but he could have sworn that he detected their hostilities all the way from where they were.

“We?” Cain asked with a chuckle.

Julius, who was already getting tired from pushing himself, looked at Cain with thin lips. He then looked at Freya for support. However, the woman seemed oddly quiet and didn’t look Julius in the eyes.

“Don’t look at her for help. You are my apprentice, which means I have the final say on your training,” Cain said happily.

“Is this the only reason why you wanted me to become your apprentice?” Julius sighed.

“Of course not! I want to brag about you as well,” Cain said shamelessly.

Julius blew out some air. “Well, luckily, I am not your official apprentice yet. We haven’t even done the ceremony,” he pointed out.

Cain brushed his argument away with a flick of his hand. “That’s just for formality. You have already recognized me as your master.”

“I might be reconsidering that sooner than expected,” Julius muttered.

Cain appeared next to him with a worried look and shook his shoulders. “Don’t joke about that.”

Julius ignored Cain.

Cain sighed. “Well, I suppose I might be asking too much from you. These little birds might be too powerful for you to handle after all. That’s my bad,” he said apologetically.

Julius felt his eye twitch involuntarily. He knew what Cain was doing; it wasn’t like the man was subtle. But that still didn’t stop him from letting kinetic energy flow through his body as he blasted himself directly at the incoming swarm of birds.

***

Cain POV

“Why must you taunt him so much, dear?” His wife asked him.

He looked over at her with a solemn smile. “You must have noticed too, right?”

She nodded at him. “Of course, but you still shouldn’t push him so much. You have already seen how hard he has been working for these past few weeks.”

“That is why I am pushing him so hard. I am worried about him,” Cain replied.

“He will survive. We have to believe in him and support him as best we can.”

Cain nodded along with his wife. But at the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but let doubt creep in.

Julius was a very special case. He had such a powerful path already, and Cain was absolutely certain that if Julius survived long enough, he would reach the same level as him and Freya, if not beyond.

However, he had to survive. That was the challenging part. Cain was apprehensive about his upcoming advancement. He was almost a hundred percent confident that Julius had managed to get a Special Emblem. This was already a sign of someone who was well on their way to being a powerhouse.

The real problem was that Julius didn’t just have a Special Emblem. He had several other very powerful abilities, skills, Concepts, and a very dangerous aura to boot. As much as he tried to downplay it to Julius, there was a significant risk of death during the advancement process.

He had never seen someone try to advance while having so much power at Tier 3. He had never heard of someone slaughtering opponents an entire tier above them like they were cannon fodder.

Was Julius’s body prepared to take the immense fluctuation of power? Was his mind prepared? What about his soul? That much power wasn’t meant for a Tier 3’s soul.

Cain would feel a lot more comfortable if Julius underwent his second soul evolution. It would at least help Julius with a significant portion of the advancement process. However, it was very worrying for Cain that Julius’s soul had not evolved yet. It was extremely odd, especially if you took into consideration that Julius told them that he had evolved his soul before Tier 3 and that he already has so many skills at epic rank.

The fact that his soul hadn’t evolved made Cain believe that there was some other force at play that was preventing Julius’s soul from evolving.

He wondered if it had to do with something with the boy’s soul damage. Cain had never heard of the soul explosion technique that Julius used. He also hadn’t heard of many skills that prevented the suppression of the domain, either.

It mainly worked because of Julius’s Phoenix Concept, but Cain had to wonder if there were long-term effects of such a dangerous technique. Freya didn’t notice anything in her examination, but she wasn’t a soul magic expert.

In hindsight, they should have had Doren take a look at it. The man had likely dabbled in soul magic quite often and would have been able to tell them what might be wrong.

He sighed dramatically.

“I just want to make sure he is as prepared as possible. I can’t have my new apprentice die from his advancement,” he said to her.

She gave him a side eye, looked back at where Julius was battling an entire swarm of birds, and back at Cain.

“At this rate, he won’t even make it to his advancement,” she grumbled.

He inspected how Julius was faring and winced slightly. It was apparent now, but it didn’t appear like Julius had much experience fighting while in the air. The birds were weaker, but there were so many that it was causing Julius some problems.

“Are you going to help him?” She asked him flatly.

He shook his head. “Nah, he got this,” he said with forced confidence. After all, there was no way his apprentice would die to a bunch of random birds, right?