Path to Transcendence

Chapter 555: Oliver Silvertone

Julius stared up at the man who was still quietly observing him like one would examine a fascinating creature or an unfamiliar pastry. He didn’t know if he liked either comparison, to be honest.

He liked pastries, but that didn’t mean he liked being looked at like he was one.

“Umm. Nice to meet you.” Julius offered.

The man gave him one more thoughtful look and nodded. “Yes, it is nice to meet you. My name is Oliver. When I heard that Cain had taken an apprentice, I was curious about what kind of person they were. It’s not the sort of thing that Cain normally does, despite having a school of his own.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Cain clenched his chest, sounding offended by the insinuation.

“How many direct disciples have you actually taken?” Oliver pointed out.

Cain grumbled but didn’t answer the question.

“My point exactly.”

Cain shook his head before he addressed Julius. “Anyway, they will help you with your training. And don’t worry, I chose them because on top of being a respectable guild, everyone who is a part of the guild happens to be very durable,” Cain said with a grin.

Julius brightened up and suddenly looked at these people in a different light.

Durable, he said? Julius murmured to himself internally, already wondering just what he could do to test this. If Cain said they were durable, then they were likely very durable. The man had high standards. Additionally, he had already fought Erik the other day, so Julius knew how durable he had been. If that was the norm for this guild, then Julius suspected he would be pleasantly surprised.

Julius bowed to the group of people. “Thank you so much for your future help. Is there anything I can do in exchange for your help?”

Cain answered for him. “I have already promised I would give them some personal lessons and help them with their own abilities when I can. As for Oliver, there isn’t much either of us can do for him. He gets a lot of privileges since he’s the Vice Guildmaster of the Sentinel Guild.”

“He’s the Vice Guildmaster?” Julius repeated, shocked, though, to be fair, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, he suspected that Oliver was already Tier 6, and being in a leadership position was to be expected.

“Yep, and you might even know his cousin. Last I heard, he was a professor or something at Goldencrest,” Cain added.

“Cousin?” Julius turned to look at Oliver with a thoughtful expression. “What’s their name?”

Oliver shrugged. “He’s technically not a professor. Last I heard, he had been promoted to Assistant Director of Enrollment or something. His name is Silas, and apparently, he is pretty talented for a branch family member.”

“Silvertone?” Julius asked, already having an idea who his cousin was.

“Yeah, do you know him?”

“Yeah, I have met him before,” Julius commented with a strained smile.

Oliver tilted his head, noticing Julius’s expression. “Is he still a meddlesome prat?”

Julius shook his head. “No, nothing like that… well, maybe a little bit. But honestly, I don’t know him well enough to really say anything.”

It was true too. Julius had really only interacted with the guy during his entrance exam. The way he had examined Julius’s aura was a little rude, but nothing too bad. He had also stopped the woman from being too rude to Julius, which was nice.

However, Gabriel mentioned that Silas was the one who had changed his proctor. So, in terms of meddlesome, that seemed accurate. With that being said, that decision had been the reason why Gabriel had even met Julius in the first place. So in a way, Julius was thankful for Silas’s intervention. If not for Gabriel, Julius didn’t think he would have had such a good start to his time at Goldencrest.

The irony that another Silvertone was introducing more training partners to Julius was not lost to him.

“Enough talking, let’s get going. We don’t have all day. You can fight against Oliver first; he has offered to be your sparring partner today. It won’t be like this all the time, so you should take advantage of this while you can,” Cain said suddenly.

“Why the rush?” He asked his teacher curiously.

“Nothing, just that they are all busy people and we can’t be wasting their time,” Cain explained unconvincingly.

Julius stared at Cain with skepticism.

“Is that the only reason?”

Cain nodded and itched his ear as he looked away. “Yeah, that and it would be a waste of our time too.”

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Julius frowned. “Are you sure itʼs not because you want to see Oliver beat me up?”

Cain shook his head firmly. “No! Of course not.”

Julius sighed and smiled. “Thank god. However, he doesn’t have to hold back too much. I’m guessing you told him about some of my skills?”

Cain winced. “Yeah, I told him about some stuff. I also kind of told him that he shouldn’t be scared of pushing you really hard.”

Julius glared blankly at his traitorous teacher. “So you were hoping for me to get beaten up?”

Cain held his palms up slightly. “Itʼs all for my precious disciple,” he tried to explain.

Julius grumbled under his breath, but also couldn’t find it in himself to complain all that much. If Cain thought it was a good idea, then he was more than okay with going along with this. He would likely come out of this with a higher skill level and having learned something new.

Furthermore, he was already used to Cain. At this point, he couldn’t really imagine it getting any rougher than Cain throwing him around the room like a rag doll, sending him through walls.

***

Julius crawled away desperately trying to get away from this monster.

He wanted to slap the old version of himself ten times for his overconfidence. He came to find out that Oliver wasn’t as bad as Cain.

No, he was worse. And that was saying something, considering that Cain spent most of his day using Julius as a personal stress ball.

“Where are you going? We aren’t done yet. I still sense some mana from you,” Oliver called out to Julius, strolling over to him with a bright expression on his face. Julius didn’t know why, but the initially calm and stoic man had become more and more overjoyed as the “fight” progressed.

“You don’t sense shit!” Julius yelled back, still trying to escape.

This wasn’t even him trying to avoid fighting anymore, either. Julius was truly out of gas. There was nothing left in the tank. Apparently, Oliver had some type of skill or ability that forced Julius to consume more energy than normal.

It didn’t matter how hard he tried to ignore this influence or to be more efficient; he couldnʼt do anything about it. He hadn’t felt like this in forever. As a matter of fact, he didn’t think he had ever been this dry on resources.

It wasn’t just mana either. From what Julius could tell, it was every energy he had. It didn’t matter if it was stamina, kinetic energy, or aura. Everything that Julius tried to utilize, Oliver was somehow able to suck it from him like a Dyson vacuum.

Julius had been expecting Oliver to beat him up like Cain had been doing for the past several months. However, that wasn’t the case.

Sure, Julius was covered in countless injuries, including a broken leg that hadn’t healed because he was out of mana. But that was just the start of his problem when fighting Oliver.

The man didn’t go as hard as Cain typically did, but he was merciless in the way he punished mistakes. He allowed Julius to attack him without really throwing up any defenses; he didn’t even bother to block or parry his punches. However, it wasn’t like he needed to bother doing that sort of thing. That was how massive the power difference between them was.

Each strike Julius slammed against Oliver was met with this odd sensation. It was like absorption but also reflection. There were other aspects to it as well, but he wasn’t able to figure it out quite yet.

That was how he got his broken leg. Julius unleashed a fully powered [Void Strike] at the man, and the result was his right leg screaming in pain. It was like the attack was mirrored back to him, and his entire leg shattered into pieces.

Speaking of his leg, Julius attempted to have Drasil help him with the injury, but apparently, Oliver was able to prevent it as well by absorbing the connection between him and Drasil. Actually, Julius didn’t know if that was how it worked, but it certainly felt that way.

It was such a stupid and extremely annoying ability to deal with.

He was envious and really wanted it for himself.

“Is that all you got? From what I heard from Cain, I expected… more,” Oliver suddenly said at Julius’s crawling back.

Julius froze and slowly strained his neck to stare at the man. He knew that Oliver was taunting him on purpose. Since he knew it was on purpose, it should not have worked, but to his shame, it absolutely did.

He knew it wasn’t a real fight, so there was a little bit of him that had been holding back despite knowing that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to Oliver even if he was already advanced to Tier 4. However, a deep, angry part of him began to surface.

He felt a snarl reach his face and his soul shake under the sudden pressure he forced on it. He literally carved out a piece of his soul and used it to power his skills one last time.

You want to see what I got? Julius growled in his head, not caring that his target was a Tier 6. He was so exhausted and irritated that he just wanted to put his fist into the guy’s skull.

He felt his crown respond to his explosion of emotions. The item, which had been flickering with azure flames, burst into brilliant flames, as if feeding off the soul that he had carved away.

Julius took control of the abrupt surge of energy he held at his fingertips and used it to form one last attack.

He didn’t even realize what he was doing. He was acting entirely on instinct, and he felt his body moving of its own accord.

He didnʼt bother to heal his body; instead, he wrapped his broken leg with mana to keep it in place before he leaped to his feet.

He controlled this immense energy and flooded his entire body with it. His broken leg released even more pulses of pain from it, but that was the least of his issues. The rest of his body was already breaking apart from the influx of power.

He knew he didnʼt have a lot of time, and he dashed toward Oliver. He felt that same annoying absorption field around the man activate once again.

However, in a moment of raw instinct, he vanished from sight, using a modified version of [Void Step] to appear right next to the Tier 6. Something had tried to stop him, but he powered through it. It would only be later, after looking at the battle, that he would realize the field failed to affect him.

He wasn’t even able to register the look of shock on Oliverʼs face during this moment.

Julius was too focused on the task at hand and brought his fist down with all of the strength he could muster; the only thought on his mind was beating the shit out of the opponent in front of him.

For the first time during the entire fight with Oliver, Julius watched as the man raised a hand to block it.

A loud shockwave exploded outward, and Julius flew backward from the force of it. He would have admired his powerful attack a little more, but unfortunately for him, he felt himself fading in and out of consciousness when he slammed against the wall of the training hall.