Path to Transcendence

Chapter 495: Consumer of Mana

“Mmm, this is delicious,” Seraphyne moaned, her little flippers flapping around with glee.

Drasil cooed off to the side as he enjoyed something out of Julius’s lunch box. The spirit still wasn’t able to eat regular food, so he was a bit depressed seeing Seraphyne eating real food.

“Are you feeling better?” Julius asked her.

She nodded with a mouth full of food. “Yep. It took some time to integrate, but everything should be fine now.”

“What about Drasil? Is he going to be alright?” He asked, glancing at his buddy.

She looked over at Drasil as well, but Julius noticed a weird look on her turtle face. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have said she was a bit nervous.

“What? Is something wrong with him?” He questioned anxiously. Vailon had told him that Drasil would experience potential growth with the introduction of Seraphyne. But he didn’t like the look on her face, nor did he like the wave of fear from her aura.

However, he relaxed when she gave him a firm shake of her head. “No, he is fine. More than fine.”

“Then what was that look for?”

Her eyes flickered toward Drasil, who was still busy gorging on his food. “He’s not normal,” she said in a whisper.

Julius narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. “What do you mean by that?”

“I’m saying that he isn’t like a normal spirit.”

“I still don’t understand what you mean by that,” he told her.

“There is something unusual about Drasil. He is clearly more intelligent than the typical spirit, especially given his age. He also has a grasp of life mana that very few will ever achieve. The most unique aspect, though, is his ability to eat mana,” she shuddered as she explained.

“Why are you surprised by his intelligence? He doesn’t even talk yet. I mean, look at you,” he said, gesturing at her aquamarine turtle body.

“I have also lived for decades, whereas Drasil feels like he has only been born within the past few years. He is still practically a child relative to spirits who can live for a very, very long time.”

“Wait, you are old?” Julius asked with a widening of his eyes. He thought she was a child based on how she acted when he first spoke to her.

She glared at him. “No, I am still very young for a spirit. I also have some very special circumstances in which I was born.”

He shrugged and continued to eat his own food.

“You don’t seem surprised about what I said.”

He nodded while chewing. “I’m surprised by how much it bothers you, but none of that is particularly shocking to me,” he said to her.

“Why not? Do you understand how weird it is for a life spirit to consume that much mana? Drasil practically drained me dry when I entered the soul space with him. He is like an endless void who consumes all mana,” she said and shivered at the memory.

“He is a hungry, growing boy. However, it might be partly my fault. I fed him a lot while he was little,” he admitted.

Speaking of whom, Drasil trotted over to Julius’s chair and climbed up on his leg, looking at Julius with expectant eyes.

Julius sighed and took out another loaf of bread from his lunchbox. Drasil whistled happily and grabbed it with a grateful cheer, completely ignoring what Julius and Seraphyne were talking about.

“See what I mean?” She said while waving her flipper at the gluttonous spirit.

“He just has a healthy appetite,” he said in defense of his adorable friend.

“Yeah, an appetite that almost sucked me dry,” she muttered.

“Sounds like a personal problem,” he retorted.

She spat a stream of water at his face, but he was already prepared and used some of his aura to rip it apart. Only a bit of mist actually hit him in the face.

Instead, she hovered over to him and tried to whack him in the face with her short flippers. Safe to say, she wasn’t very successful.

***

In the morning, after a surprisingly nice sleep, he woke up to the beautiful sunrise that he had never seen before. The way the light hit the horizon made the sun glisten iridescently. He took his time to watch until it finally faded over the horizon.

Afterwards, he got packed up and went on his way toward the pillar of light that was still piercing the sky.

The plains were slowly transforming into something a little more intricate. He had already passed by several large rivers and creeks. There were even small mountains with large waterfalls flowing down their surfaces. A lot more plant life was around as well.

While he was walking around, his mind was distracted once again by the fight he had with that mage. It had been very sudden, and while Julius didn’t think he technically lost, it was still a little bit odd for him not to come out clearly on top after an exchange with a person at the same tier.

With that being said, that was a significant reason why he even wanted to come to the tournament in the first place. He wanted the opportunities to fight people who were stronger than him, or at least something he could learn from. The treasures were lovely and all, but he had never been a treasure guy.

He liked gathering and hoarding treasures, but he found himself rarely using them for himself. Most of the time, it was Drasil, or it was banished to the far reaches of his storage ring. Now that he had some time to think about the runic circle, the more Julius was certain that the circle was something that was supposed to replicate a domain.

There was an infusion of Concepts and an Emblem that created this quasi-domain effect. It didn’t even have to rely on too much willpower. He was never lacking willpower, but the thing about domains, something he had learned firsthand, was that they relied on other aspects as well.

Just because he had strong willpower didn’t mean he could ignore a Tier 5’s domain. There were other things involved that restricted him and forced him to detonate his soul. Thankfully, he hadn’t needed to do that when he had been trapped inside the golden circle. However, if he needed to, he could always blow up his soul a little bit next time.

He had gotten pretty good at that sort of thing. He wanted to see if that technique would work on the runic circle. He needed to try and find that mage asap.

Fortunately, it would seem that most people were heading toward the center of the rift, so the odds of coming across the mage again were pretty high. Julius was just praying that something didn’t happen to the mage before that time came.

***

A few hours went by. Several monsters beset him during this period. However, none of them were as strong as the monsters he had faced the day prior. He didn’t know he had been in a hazardous area or what, but the monsters who attacked him weren’t that impressive compared to the area before.

He shot several needles through their heads before they could react. He thought that was going to be the same case for the monster who was approaching him at the moment. The creature was stalking toward him on four legs and had two tusks that jutted out from the bottom of its mouth.

These tusks looked interesting; they had a faint glimmer of red and a fair amount of mana as well. It had already locked eyes with Julius.

If there was one thing he felt he needed to get more than anything else, it was probably a good stealth skill. He could hide his aura really well, but there were so many other ways to detect somebody other than aura senses. He had come across a lot of monsters who had detected him from far away, before he could sense them.

Furthermore, while [Absolute Spatial Perception] was really good at close and mid-range detection, anything beyond a couple of hundred feet, he was forced to rely on his mana and aura senses. Something that had proven could be hidden with a good stealth skill.

These two combinations meant he was often left reacting rather than being the one taking the initiative. He could solve this in two ways. One, he could somehow expand the distance his perception skill could reach. However, the problem then became how his mind would handle the rush of information.

The other way would be for him to gain a stealth skill that would allow him to stay shrouded from other enemies. He didn’t like that they could sense him from so far away and close the distance while he sat there oblivious. It hadn’t really become a problem until recently.

But someday there was going to be someone who would sense him before he sensed them, and get the drop on him, or even worse, his friends. At least if he managed to find a way to hide his presence better, he might solve this issue he had been having.

Ideally, he wanted to do both. He needed to improve his perception skill as well as get a good stealth skill.

Even if he only gained something that only slightly hid his presence, that would be a good start. At the moment, he just shrouded his mana and aura.

For example, Lyra and Jonas had some stealth skills that made detecting them much harder. If not for his proximity, he didn’t think he would have sensed them before it was too late. Lyra could have hidden several hundred feet away and attacked him from there, peppering him with arrows.

She probably wouldn’t be able to break his defenses, but what if someone else could? What would happen?

He tapped his chin in thought. If that were to happen, he would probably still be alright. His healing skill ensured that, still, he didn’t like being on the back foot. He wanted to control the pace, and whoever sensed the other first was already a step ahead. Being a step behind was a great way to get oneself killed.

He slapped himself when he realized the monster was still charging at him. Julius had already sent a needle of mana at the beast, thinking it was over, but the monster had deployed a field of some kind around its body.

It was like a constantly vibrating field, and it somehow managed to absorb enough of the needleʼs force that it didn’t even leave a mark on the beast’s hide. Julius tilted his head with interest at the still charging beast.

He stepped to the side as the tusks tried to impale him, ripping a kick at its stomach. The field once again got in his way, and he felt his foot feel like it was moving in quicksand. This delay allowed the monster to move out of the way despite it not being as nimble as Julius.

The beast continued its charge, and Julius followed right behind it. He had already shot a stronger spike that contained a lot more kinetic energy. He wanted to see just how much this field could handle.

His gut feeling was correct, and the field didn’t handle the spike as easily as before. While it still turned slightly to the side, the spike was still close enough that when he detonated it, the explosion knocked the monster over to its side.

Julius quickly ran in and slammed his foot into the beast, using his kinetic energy to force his way through the field. The monster was a lot heavier than anticipated and he grunted as the steel like body almost broke his toes. Still, the beast was sent toppling over and smashed through some bushes.

Julius was just about to finish it off when he felt something brush against his perception. He forgot about the monster for the time being and concentrated his perception skill into a narrow cone and threw it in that direction.

What he saw made him chuckle in surprise and smile widely.

He turned back to the monster and used his kinetic energy to blanket its body. He crushed its willpower with his more powerful willpower. The creature was held in place by his kinetic energy, and he started to squeeze.

The field around its body tried to react and adapt to this new force, but Julius didn’t let it get the chance to do so. He grunted as he used all of his focus to crush the monster with pure kinetic energy. The field was the first to break, losing its integrity and eventually collapsing on the monster.

After that, the rest was easy. Julius shattered its limbs and sent several spikes hurdling toward its face. He didn’t even look back, knowing the result, and started to run toward the direction he had thrown his perception with a grin on his face.