Path to Transcendence

Chapter 510: Everyone Arrives

“Thank goodness. I don’t know if we would have found you if we hadn’t smelled it from the other side of the temple,” Edgar stated with a drooling smile as both he and Derek approached.

Julius opened his mouth and closed it. He guessed he had indeed magically lured the two of them. He had been joking, but clearly it worked.

Not even half an hour after he started prepping the food, they showed up. It wasn’t just them either. He would say it was just a coincidence, but ten minutes before them, Irene and Liam had shown up. The pair had sniffed out the campsite and spotted Julius before making their way over.

Aubrey hadn’t been very thrilled to see Liam, but she didn’t give the other boy as much shit as Julius thought she would. Julius thought she would demand that Liam leave, but instead she said they were welcome to stay.

A couple of minutes after that, Lyra and the handsome weirdo showed up. They were both delighted to see Julius, even if it was for different reasons.

Now, with Derek and Edgar finding them, he really thought something was going on. It was like watching a bunch of moths drawn to a flame. Did his cooking have some kind of luring effect?

He was committed to testing his theories later; in the meantime, he was making more food since the number of guests had increased.

Julius also felt like it would be wrong for him to send them away. Even the weirdo was welcome. He was odd and seemed to have ulterior motives, but the way he looked at the food helped convince Julius to let him stay.

Both he and Lyra looked like they would appreciate it, which made a big difference.

Julius gave the meat one last flip and set down his tongs before heading over to reunite with his friends alongside Aubrey. He wanted to sit down and talk with them some more, but he had a lot of other stuff on the stove as well. Thankfully, he had already made a little extra in the hopes that Derek and Edgar would show up, but he hadn’t been expecting four other people to arrive as well.

The smell of savory grilled meat filled the campsite, and he saw that other nearby campers were staring at their group enviously. He didn’t blame them either. From what he could tell, they didn’t have much of anything when it came to food.

Most of them had rations that would stay preserved for long periods. So while they were gnawing at their semi-stale bread and dried meats, they were forced to smell of Julius’s food.

He could tell they wanted to come over and ask for food, but Julius wondered if they recognized Derek or something, because once Derek showed up, they seemed less inclined to do so. Instead, they just occasionally snuck forlorn looks.

Julius took the grilled meats off the grill and onto a sheet tray. The juices were literally flowing from the morsels, and the surface glistened magically with rendered fat, looking ever so tantalizing.

He was forced to slap Aubrey’s hand away from the meat when she reached for it.

“It’s not ready yet. Give it some time to rest,” he said sternly.

“Rest? Why can’t we just eat it now?” She said with a pout.

“Because you will be glad later. Now stop bothering me and let me finish the other stuff. The longer you interrupt me, the longer it will take for us to eat,” he said threateningly.

That seemed to do the trick, because she quickly scurried away and started collecting some plates and utensils. Edgar helped her, setting up a seating area for all seven of them to eat together.

While they did that, he tossed a quick salad together with some surprisingly tasty vegetables he had gotten from Derek’s kitchen. He didn’t know what the farmers did to these vegetables, but everything was so flavorful and had a unique brightness that really emphasized their freshness. It made for a delicious salad and barely required any dressing.

He also checked on the bread he had made. He opened up the oven, and the scent of freshly baked wheat wafted across the campsite, making him drool over the flames. He didn’t even bother to use aura to grab the bread. He reached in with his bare hands to take them out.

After he did that, he took out the rest of the side items.

With Edgar possibly arriving, he had made potatoes three ways: roasted, mashed, and some of the leftover potatoes from the night prior. He knew how much Edgar loved his potatoes and wasn’t surprised when Edgar stopped what he was doing to watch Julius place them on the table with an excited grin.

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Julius had also thrown together a large assortment of roasted vegetables when Liam and Irene showed up, realizing that it would be safer to make some extra food. So he also finished up glazing some of them with a nice, sweet, herby sauce.

All in all, he was pleased with the spread so far. He gave himself a firm nod of satisfaction and started inviting them over to eat.

He was surprised at how fast they all came running over. They already had their plates in hand and were salivating at the mouth. He was a little nervous when he saw their hungry stares and subconsciously backed away with his tongs.

***

They were all laid out on the ground. Half of them were in food comas, and the other half was begging Julius for more cake. They already had a slice but were greedy for more. How shameless could they be?

He didn’t concede, though, and shook his head. He needed to save some cake for himself. He couldn’t deplete all of his cake inventory in one night.

They weren’t happy about that, and they were close to attacking him, but thankfully, they held back.

He let out a sigh of relief.

“So what have you two been doing?” Aubrey asked Derek and Edgar where she was lying on the ground. Her stomach was bulging at the seams of her shirt.

Derek and Edgar didn’t answer right away, looking at the other four people around them with a questioning look.

Julius knew what they were asking, and so he explained the situation to them. He told them that Liam and Irene had come over, lured over by the smell of the food, much like they had. He also explained who Lyra and Jonas were.

He only found out Jonas’s name because Lyra had referred to the guy by it several times.

Apparently, Derek knew Jonas’s siblings. House Arkwright weren’t best friends with House Zenith, considering their close relationship with Duchess Willow, but they were still friendly. Apparently, Derek had met Jonas’s older siblings years ago and had gotten along well with them.

Jonas seemed very excited to hear this and quickly started a conversation with Derek with a level of subtlety that scared Julius.

Irene and Liam went off to their own little area. They didn’t leave, but the long history between Liam and the rest of them was likely the reason they kept their distance. Still, they thanked Julius for the food and were even nice enough to give him a treasure they had found during their trip as a gift.

It was a pretty item that used a strange combination of ice magic and wind magic to create a small blizzard inside a glass bowl. Julius would have thought that something like that would be perfect for Liam, but apparently, the concepts used in the item’s creation were something that Liam had already learned, so he didn’t find that much use for it.

Julius wasn’t about to complain, though. While it wasn’t something he was about to use for combat, he already had several ideas he wanted to try with it. He didn’t know how it would turn out, but he wanted to try making his own ice cream with it.

The item should be able to cool down a custard quite quickly, and the wind magic should be able to churn it. At least that was his hope.

Maybe he should try doing that tonight?

Lyra and Jonas also decided to follow Irene and Liam’s actions. They went off and set up their own little camp a couple of hundred feet away. They probably realized that Derek and Edgar wanted to talk to Julius and Aubrey alone.

Only once, when the four of them were alone, did Julius create a large barrier around them. He used his aura to supplement the sound isolation aspect of the barrier, and while not as pretty as Lily’s version, it should work well enough.

When Derek tested the barrier, he finally told them what had been on his mind. Apparently, he had been hunted down quite aggressively during this stage. At first, he thought it was just a coincidence, but after the third attempt, he realized it was being done on purpose.

It was fortunate that he had come across Edgar during his journey to the center of the realm, and the two of them had been able to team up in order to fend off these attackers.

Julius thought about the first stage and how he had been harassed as well. Honestly, he was a little surprised that something similar hadn’t happened to him so far.

Although, to be fair, he felt like he had already dealt with a lot of other ambushes from other parties.

However, even with the two of them, they had some trouble with the constant battles. Apparently, they were lucky enough to find a cave to hide in. Furthermore, in this cave, the two of them had gotten some nice treasures. Edgar had found a pretty powerful earth-aspected treasure, with Derek finding himself a nice little soul-nourishing treasure.

With that being said, Julius heard some worrying news. According to Derek, Garrett Greyson had somehow gathered quite a massive group himself. Aubrey confirmed this when she had gone off earlier.

The Greyson Scion had amassed a large number of some of the most talented Tier 3s into one group. They were camped out on the other side of the temple, and from what Julius was hearing, this group was already making plans for when the doors opened.

They waited to see Julius’s reaction. They knew better than anyone else how he felt about House Greyson and his relationship with them. They must have known that hearing that name would upset him.

He didn’t freak out as he would have a year ago. He honestly didn’t know this Garrett Greyson guy. He was also young, so it was unlikely that he had anything to do with the attack on House Hyperius. As far as Julius was concerned, he didn’t have any beef with Garrett Greyson. Therefore, he would give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

When they saw that Julius wasn’t freaking out or anything, they relaxed and kept talking to each other, hypothesizing about the reason for this gathering of people.

Still, he didn’t like the sound of that. Especially not if they were going to interfere with how people would enter the temple if it eventually opened. What other reason did he have for collecting so many people in a group?

On the other hand, a part of him was very excited about the possibility of him going against so many different fighters. Who knows? It might be fun. He couldnʼt wait to see what would happen. He might even find that skilled mage once again.