Path to Transcendence

Chapter 509: Temple and Food

Aubrey hummed happily as she rummaged through the dropped stuff from the assailants. Like usual, she wasn’t able to take off their storage rings, but on the bright side, she found four tokens in total.

This meant that between the two of them, they now had plenty of tokens to access the trial or whatever was supposed to happen at the end of the second stage. She also found a small pendant she removed from the spearman’s neck.

It must have been from this realm because she was able to take it. He didn’t know what it was, but she seemed happy that she got something at the very least.

Only after she made sure she got everything from these people did she decide to stand up and look at him.

“Do you think we should head toward the center now?”

He shrugged. “Probably. There are only a couple more days left until the realm closes, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get as close as possible. But if you don’t really care about passing the second stage, then we can stay and see if we can find any other goodies.”

He really didn’t care too much for the final stage if he was being honest. As much as he wanted to fight some strong people, he could also do that against Tier 4s. The crown had already given him a lot to work on.

That, on top of his imminent advancement to Tier 4, meant that he had his plate full. He admitted that a big reason why he felt reluctant was that he just wanted to laze around and play with the crown. If he continued with the tournament, he would have less time to do that. But he also had to think about Cain.

If Julius didn’t get to the third stage, Cain might actually beat him up until he was a smear on the training ground. He wasn’t lying either. Cain hinted as much before he wished him luck—something about not being an embarrassment to the Shattered Winter School.

Aubrey glanced at the pillar of light that was still visible even in this dense forest as she collected her thoughts.

“I think we should go toward the center. That little pearl is actually much better than I suspected it to be. I feel like my willpower has already increased significantly. I also notice that its effects have not yet been fully drawn out. It is gradually helping me improve over time. If we didn’t find the Challenge Rift, then perhaps I would be more antsy to search for more treasures, but now I am simply curious what lies at the end. Also, whoʼs to say we won’t find any treasures along the way?”

She actually made a good point. With the Challenge Rift, he had also gotten something quite good. Knowing his luck, he was a little surprised that he got something quite valuable, albeit a little cursed. But who knows? With her, his luck might turn around, and they might find something along the way.

***

He tried to hide his disappointment when they weren’t able to find anything else. The two places he had seen that might have housed some kind of treasure had already been poked around by other parties.

If there was a treasure there, it wasn’t there anymore. They were too late.

Both of them silently pouted as they rode the flying board. It wasn’t that surprising that they were too late. There were a lot of people around them now. Everywhere they looked, there was someone else.

A lot of groups, but a good number of solo people as well.

They got plenty of envious looks when they flew past. It would appear not everyone had an item that could transport them—the ones who did typically had a device that could only transport themselves, but that was it.

He laughed loudly when he saw a person literally flying on a broomstick. There were other items for travel, but for the most part, people were traveling on foot.

The pillar of light was really close, and they spotted the actual source of the light. From what they could determine from this distance, the light was coming from some kind of man-made structure.

It was curious to see, and before long, they arrived at what looked like the front of a temple. They weren’t the only ones there, though. There were a lot of people scattered around the area. Most of them were camped by the temple entrance.

He scanned the crowd and spotted several familiar faces. He saw Liam and Irene off to the side. He wondered whether they had found each other during their journey here or upon arrival.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

He wasn’t that shocked to see them. Liam and Irene were pretty strong, and they must have gotten even stronger after the tournament. When he had seen them the other week, their auras had been very different—Liam’s in particular.

Julius was curious if Liam’s loss to him had motivated him. He was also curious who would win in a fight between Liam and Derek at the moment. From what he had heard about their four years together, Liam and Derek had been neck and neck. Nobody really knew who was stronger, but it was agreed that they were the two strongest fourth years.

Although Julius had spotted them, they hadn’t seen him so far. They were busy talking about something, so they didn’t notice. He would have to remember to go and say hi later. He didn’t want to do so right now; there were a lot of eyes around, and he didn’t want others to start drawing conclusions.

In addition to Liam and Irene, he recognized several faces from the tournament. He didn’t know their names, but their faces were very familiar. He didn’t see Christina anywhere, though. He hoped that she would be able to make it. He knew she wasn’t trying to advance to the third stage, but he believed that she was selling herself short.

From what he had seen so far from the other competitors, she had a decent chance at getting into the top hundred. Especially now that she had made some significant adjustments to her skills in the past week or two.

Stella, Marcus, and even Cygnus had been invaluable in ironing out some of the details and honing her skills even further.

He spotted another group of familiar faces off on the other side of the temple. He was somewhat surprised to see that Lyra and that talkative weirdo were here as well. They must have decided to team up after Julius had left.

He still hid his face before the weirdo could see him, and Aubrey gave him a confused look, wondering why he was behaving strangely. He whispered to her that he would explain later. He didn’t want to catch their attention accidentally. He felt it would cause nothing but more problems.

Thankfully, Aubrey didn’t insist on teasing him and followed him away from Lyra and whatever his name was. He believed it was something like Joe and Jon.

On a side note, he wondered how they managed to get here before him. Maybe they didn’t take as many detours, or maybe his little teleportation fiasco had sent him pretty far away.

Speaking of that fiasco, he looked around and tried to spot the mage or the girl. It had been hard to get a good look at the girl with her cape and all. But the mage had some pretty recognizable white robes. He doubted many other people would wear such white clothes for something like this.

However, that was a no-go as well. He wasn’t able to find either of them. If they were around, they were hiding. He sighed and dropped his shoulders in sadness.

He had really been hoping to find them again. Even if they had attacked him for no good reason, he wanted to see some of the mage’s skills again. They were very refined, and he felt like he could steal some of the tricks he had used.

While he was examining everyone around him, he also kept an eye out for Derek and Edgar. He hadn’t sensed them yet and neither had Aubrey, but he would keep his eyes peeled.

***

They found a little spot to settle down. Aubrey had already socialized with other groups and gathered some vital information.

Apparently, anywhere within close distance to the temple was off-limits for fighting. It wasn’t even a rule set by the others. It was physically impossible for people to fight. Some kind of magic spell or enchantment prevented people from killing or beating each other up.

It was probably for the best, and a big reason why people felt so comfortable camping next to one another. As for the temple, the large twin doors were closed. People had been trying for the past couple of days, but no matter what they had attempted, the doors stayed closed.

Some believed it would open automatically on the last day or something. Others thought that some kind of requirement needed to be fulfilled. It could be tokens, people, or something entirely different.

Julius set up a nice little camp for them while Aubrey was hunting for information. Her penchant for socializing and talking really came in handy. Apparently, it was very easy to get this information if an attractive girl asked.

He had a feeling that if he had been the one to ask, he would have been received very differently. Hell, he had already noticed that people were staying away from him. According to Aubrey, his crown on his head produced an uncomfortable, somewhat painful sensation.

He felt bad and told her that he would remove it, so that she wouldn’t feel any pain. But she was the one who insisted he wear it. She explained to him that she had been noticing a sharp increase in her willpower improvement when she was close by.

Her pearl that she was still digesting helped her as well, but the crown hastened the process, so she wanted him to keep on wearing it. He made sure to tone it down as well. The blue embers were still there, but they had dwindled quite a bit.

To most people, it would merely look like a beat-up iron circlet that occasionally flickered blue. Perhaps it was the fact that it seemed so ugly or that it gave off the feeling of a cursed object that dissuaded people from trying to steal it from him.

He wasn’t about to complain, though. They had no idea how useful to him this crown was. Plus, it was soul-bound; he didn’t really have much to worry about in that regard. No matter how hard they tried, they wouldn’t be allowed to take it from him.

Distance didn’t matter, as long as he wished for it, the crown would appear to him. It was a nice little feature of soul-bound treasures, and he was starting to understand why people liked them so much.

While he waited for Aubrey to return, he began setting up other things for the camp. He took out all his kitchen supplies and started preparing some food. It was getting pretty late, and he would like nothing more than a nice hot meal.

He also hoped the smell of food would magically lure Derek and Edgar to their position. But that was honestly unrealistic, and his hopes of that were pretty low.