Path to Transcendence

Chapter 556: Beat Down

Erik POV

He stood there beside April and Landon. The three of them were completely still while they looked at the unmoving form of the young boy.

None of them had expected this outcome. It wasn’t just the fact that Oliver had actually taken the time to spar with a Tier 3 of all people. No, that was a totally separate surprise. If anyone in the Sentinel Guild heard that the Vice Guildmaster had actually sparred with a Tier 3, they would have been astonished and probably would have called the people who told them that liars.

You didn’t just get to spar with a Tier 6 like you would with a random person you found off the street. There were already a limited number of Tier 6s in the Empire. Just meeting one was a privilege.

However, Erik was more shocked by Oliverʼs reaction when fighting someone three tiers below him. Oliver was known to be the pillar of the Sentinel Guild; everyone knew that their Guildmaster wasn’t someone who cared about the regular dealings of the guild. They did what they wanted, and nobody complained.

Their power was a pretty good reason for this; furthermore, Oliver handled everything else with exceptional proficiency. On top of this, Oliver rarely showed emotions and was notoriously stoic.

Yet, Erik saw an excited glint in the Tier 6’s eyes when he smiled at the still form of the Tier 3 boy. It wasn’t just a polite smile, either; Erik was able to tell that much. From the way Vice Guildmaster Oliver’s aura pulsed out, it was impossible to miss the genuine joy.

April and Landon must have recognized the same thing because they were similarly looking at their Vice Guildmaster with wide eyes—no doubt surprised by this display.

Erik finally looked over at the unmoving form off in the corner of the room. His opinion of Julius had changed dramatically. He knew that Julius hadn’t taken him seriously during their match, but he didn’t think he had been holding back that much.

It was hard to tell just how strong Julius was when he had been going up against someone of the caliber of Oliver Silvertone, but he saw several powerful skills that Julius hadn’t bothered to reveal during their fight.

He even had a teleportation skill for hell’s sake. One that was apparently of high enough quality to take Oliver by surprise. They had all heard stories about Oliver Silvertone. Erik, more recently, since he had joined not too long ago. However, that only meant the stories were fresher in his mind.

Oliver Silvertone was also known by a different title. The Indomitable Sentinel.

Erik had heard the Indomitable Sentinel had made his name when he had single-handedly dealt with a horde of monsters assaulting a city in the central regions of the Empire. This was when Oliver had recently advanced to Tier 6. This horde had included two powerful Tier 6s, and Oliver was not only able to protect the entire city from the countless monsters attacking it, but even kill one of the Tier 6s, delaying long enough for reinforcements to arrive to defeat the second.

That was twenty years ago. Who knew how strong the Vice Guildmaster had become since then

That was the sort of man who suddenly looked at Julius like a long-lost family member. A family member he had buried in the ground and knocked unconscious, but that was besides the point.

“I see you weren’t exaggerating, old friend. You got quite an interesting disciple here,” Oliver noted, glancing over at the other Tier 6 who was silently watching from the side. Erik had been so distracted by the spar that he had almost forgotten that he was there.

He scoffed to himself. Forgetting about a Tier 6 standing in the same room as him… His father would knock him in the head if he found that out.

Erik didn’t really know who this Tier 6 was, but considering that the Vice Guildmaster was friends with him and the sheer fact that he was Tier 6, Erik automatically placed him high on the list of people he respected and feared.

The Tier 6, named Cain, laughed boisterously and went over to the limp form of his disciple, picking him up like one would a stray kitten. The boy’s injuries were bad, and Erik was tempted to go over and force a healing potion down the boy’s throat. However, the fact that neither Tier 6 seemed bothered had him hold back.

“Yeah, he is certainly an entertaining brat. Has a lot to learn and is quite unrefined in a lot of areas, but I hope to teach him some things.”

Erik almost choked on his spit when he heard that. Unrefined? If that was what the man considered unrefined, then what did he think of Erik? Pigshit?

“In that case, you don’t mind if I offer some help from time to time, either, do you?” Oliver asked casually.

Erik practically popped out of his skull, as did his two fellow guild members. He would have already run out of the training room to tell his friends at the guild if not for the oath of secrecy he had taken before coming here.

Erik was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a liar.

“Sure, just don’t teach him any bad habits,” Cain added with a pointed look at Oliver.

Their Vice Guildmaster frowned. “Bad habits? What do you mean?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean?” Oliver repeated a little more forcefully, clearly wanting to hear what Cain meant by that statement.

“Absolutely nothing. Oh look, Julius is waking up,” Cain said, clearly trying to change the topic.

Erik and everyone could see that the boy was as unmoving as he had been a minute ago. However, the man was even shameless enough that he was literally slapping his disciple as if that would magically wake him up and save him from answering Oliver.

Erik didn’t know what to think. The person in front of him didn’t represent what he thought Tier 6s should behave like. He started to doubt whether this was actually a Tier 6 powerhouse.

Furthermore, he didn’t think Julius would be awake any time soon. He barely believed that the boy was alive as it was.

“He won’t be waking up for a while, Cain. I hit him pretty hard,” Oliver said with an exasperated sigh.

Cain didn’t listen and kept on shaking his disciple, giving him none too gentle slaps on the head.

“Stop abusing the poor boy. He won’t—”

To all of their shock, they saw the lifeless body twitch by the slightest of hairs and heard a pained groan.

“What’s going on?” The boy mumbled, grabbing his head despite being held up by Cain. The pain was likely from his mentor slapping him repeatedly in the same place.

Cain, on the other hand, held up his disciple as if showing off a rare treasure he was proud of.

“See? I told ya.”

Erik, on the other hand, was astonished for a totally different reason. The wounds that had covered the boy were vanishing before his very eyes.

He held back a self-deprecating laugh. Of course, Julius could heal himself as well.

***

Julius POV

He opened his eyes and squinted at the attention he found himself under. His head hurt like a son of a bitch. All of his mana, aura, and kinetic energy were still empty, so he must not have been unconscious for very long.

Thankfully, whatever interference Oliver had been responsible for was no longer active, and Drasil was able to share his plethora of life mana.

He thanked his little buddy with a gentle pulse of his tired soul.

He was concerned about how much his head hurt, though. It didn’t feel like a normal headache. It felt like that time he had bashed his head into the face of a mountain. He summoned a mirror from his storage ring and inspected himself.

He opened his mouth and quickly closed it when he found what looked like a handprint on the side of his face. A handprint had eerily resembled Cainʼs.

“Were you slapping me when I was unconscious?” He turned and asked Cain.

Cain acted like he didn’t hear him.

Julius was going to scold him, but thought better of it. Instead, he looked off to the side.

“Imma tell Freya about this,” he muttered quietly, only loud enough for Cain and probably Oliver to overhear.

He saw Cain flinch in response.

While he enjoyed the satisfaction of this reaction, he took the time to look at the notifications he received.

[Kinetic Shell lvl 5 -> lvl 7]

[Void Strike lvl 9 -> lvl 10]

[Void Step lvl 12 -> lvl 13]

He was pretty surprised to see that he had gained a bunch of levels in his skills. His void skills were especially hard to level up. So seeing them both achieve a level was a nice reward for his suffering.

After he did that, he finally paid attention to the other people in the training hall. The other three members of the Sentinel Guild were staring at him with both confused and tentative expressions.

He didn’t know what he did to deserve this type of look, so instead he focused on Oliver, the very same man who had put Julius through that grueling fight. The man had really pushed Julius. Cain always pushed Julius, but this was a different type altogether.

Oliver caught his attention and met his gaze with an amused one of his own.

“Are you okay?” He asked Julius.

“Absolutely peachy,” Julius replied, despite both of them knowing that wasn’t the case at all.

Oliver didn’t call him out, but instead gave him a nod of approval as if Julius’s response had been the correct answer.

Regardless of how tough the fight had been, Julius was happy that Cain had come up with this idea. The fact that he had already gained this many levels in one spar was simply reinforcement that this was a good idea. The brutish man was right; Julius needed variety.

Speaking of that, he looked at the three members who had yet to fight and held back a sigh. However, he looked at them with a tired expression.

“Which one of you wants to go next?”

All he got were looks of disbelief, and he could have sworn he heard the girl mutter something about him being insane.

Julius, on the other hand, didn’t back down. He had just gotten beaten half to death and would really like to fight someone he actually had a chance against. It would be a nice little treat after such a tiresome ordeal.

“Aren’t you exhausted though?” The other male Tier 3 asked Julius, concerned.

Julius pulled out a sandwich from his lunch box and started to bite into it as Drasil infused even more life mana into his body.

“I’m a little low on mana, but I can manage,” he said through a mouthful of food.

His lunch box was such a fantastic treasure. It must have realized how low on mana he was and decided to spawn food that would help him replenish it. The sandwich had a nice little effect that increased his mana regeneration.

He also felt like his soul was healing faster than usual. With the aid of Drasil, Julius’s soul was healing at a noticeable rate.

When the three teens saw that Julius was serious, they looked at Oliver for directions.

They clearly hoped the man would speak up and tell Julius to rest. However, to their shock, the man didn’t do that.

No, instead, he took out two chairs from his storage ring and placed them at the edge of the training ring. Beckoning Cain to join him.

“Please, if he insists, who are we to deny him?” Oliver said, sounding like he was holding back a laugh.

Julius smiled and looked at the three other teens.

“See? He says itʼs okay,” he said brightly.

He polished off the sandwich with one final bite. “Now, who wants to go first?” He said, sounding muffled from the mouthful of bread as he dusted off the crumbs from his shirt. He didnʼt even notice how they flinched with each movement he made.