Path to Transcendence

Chapter 592: A New Belt

He had been very disappointed that he hadn’t gained any skill levels after the near-death experience. Or at least, he had been. Turns out that having a damaged soul had a weird effect on skill levels. Something about not being stable enough to manage the power increase.

His soul was still a little sore and worn out, but it was a world apart from its previous fractured state. Therefore, the moment he began using these skills, he received many notifications.

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 19 -> lvl 20]

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 20 -> lvl 21]

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 21 -> lvl 22]

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 22 -> lvl 23]

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 23 -> lvl 24]

Over the course of ten minutes of using his healing skill under the guidance of Freya, Julius was able to level up the skill four separate times. Apparently, it really paid off having his soul shattered into pieces. Five levels in one fight was more than he had ever experienced.

Although, to be fair, he suspected that most of these levels came from his subsequent efforts of holding his soul together.

That wasn’t the only skill that had some delayed levels.

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 26 -> lvl 27]

[Sage of Savagery lvl 26 -> lvl 28]

[Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 24 -> lvl 25]

[Void Strike lvl 10 -> lvl 11]

[Void Step lvl 12 -> lvl 13]

[Spirit Fortification lvl 15 -> lvl 16]

[Kinetic Shell lvl 16 -> lvl 19]

[Graveforce Impact lvl 10 -> lvl 14]

He had gained many levels. Especially in his rare skills. [Kinetic Shell] had even managed to reach the threshold of rare rank. He suspected that the merging of his three kinetic skills was almost ready. He could feel the three skills slowly weaving together the more he used them. It also felt like his advancement was speeding things up.

Additionally, Julius found out several very important things about his advancement. The first and most evident one was that he was no longer hindered by his mindʼs limited ability to control multiple techniques. Well, he was still limited, but that limit had now expanded.

It had been a real struggle to handle his body enhancement, aura skills, kinetic skills, and constructs all at one time. Hence, it made using his void skills such as [Void Step] or [Void Strike], but more difficult on top of his already challenging load. That wasn’t even mentioning things like [Absolute Spatial Perception] and infusing his concepts into his skills.

However, now that the strain has significantly lessened.

Julius took a deep breath as he recovered some of his stamina. If there was one thing about Cain, it was that the man was disturbingly thorough when it came to matters of combat. Cain tested Julius in everything.

The other thing he noticed about his progress was how his body recovered. He was starting to realize what Freya and Cain meant when they said a Tier 4 body required much more focus and energy to recover.

The sheer amount of mana his body required to heal a little fatigue was quite staggering when compared to when he was in Tier 3. Of course, his body was a lot more powerful now, so there was a benefit as well. He could feel how dense his muscle fibers were and how much they had been strengthened by the advancement process.

The amount of mana he had at his disposal was quite extraordinary as well. He thought he had a lot of mana before, but it had more than doubled now that he had advanced. No wonder the Tier 4 he had fought in the past hadn’t been drained of mana when fighting against him. The reserves of a Tier 4 were truly massive. He could only wonder how much mana he would have when he advanced to Tier 5 or even Tier 6.

Still, he was grateful for his larger-than-average reserves more than ever. He suspected that he wouldnʼt be able to properly use his body without the mana to fuel it.

Alongside his mana-hungry body, there were other amazing improvements. He could tell that his healing skill was more efficient than ever. It was like his body had been specially recreated for the sole purpose of channeling his life mana. So while his skill required more mana to heal himself, it was much smaller than he suspected it would have been if he hadn’t received the Ruinous Phoenix Body. A body that was heavily focused on healing.

Overall, the improvement in his body and his healing skills’ newfound efficiency heavily outweigh the increased cost of mana.

He also noticed the way his life mana technique, which he had learned from Tezuko Willow, had undergone significant changes. Previously, it felt like absolute hell to control and handle the explosive pockets of life mana he carved into his channels.

However, that had changed. It was like his new body had taken his previous actions into account, and there were already sections in his mana channels that were carved out specifically meant for his life mana to flow through.

The technique still wasn’t easy to use, far from it. But it no longer felt like he was trying to carve runes into a steel wall using a wooden stick while he was drowning. Now, his issue was the opposite. He could tell that his mana was quite a lot more powerful, and he had be careful about hurting himself.

Of course, his advancement wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There were several glaring issues. One of them was that he was having an extremely difficult time controlling his new body with any ounce of grace. Something that Cain was clearly enjoying demonstrating to Julius.

He attempted to slip Cain’s jab, but his timing was way off, and he ended up getting whacked by the following strike. He backed up, but used too much kinetic energy and tripped over his own feet, flying five feet backwards. Cain didn’t even bother to chase after him.

His face reddened in embarrassment, and it didn’t help his pride when he saw Cain chuckling at him. Instead, he stood up and dusted his pants, acting as if nothing had happened.

It was like he was learning to fight for the very first time. Imagine fighting with weights strapped to his ankles for his entire life, then one day taking them off. Then double that.

There was no buildup, just sudden acceleration. It felt jerky and harsh.

“Any tips?” He asked Cain again.

“Not tripping over your own feet would be a good start,” Cain offered unhelpfully.

“Try to restrict your flow of mana for the time being. At least until you get used to it,” Freya commented as she observed from the side. She was being very meticulous about examining Julius’s new body.

Like Julius, she had also noticed the most glaring issue with his body. It was a little too powerful. Just like every powerful thing, his body requires a lot of power. Each movement consumed a lot of mana and aura. He never would have thought that he would have that issue. It had always been his body that fell behind his skills, but it was the opposite now. Despite having more epic-ranked skills than a fledgling Tier 4 should have, he found that they were lacking compared to his body.

He laughed to himself. Now he had even more incentive to get some legendary skills.

He tried to use his ruinflames, but that didn’t work as planned. All he got was a small, quite pathetic sputter of flames. Freya believed he needed to cultivate and refine his core further before he could use his ruinflames on his own.

Even his crown that had flicked with what seemed like amusement when it felt Julius’s attempt. The crown had grown during his advancement. It was still a little beat up, but it certainly looked better now. The metal shone brighter, and the flames it generated felt denser.

Julius shook his head wildly and sent a pulse of aura at it. The crown quieted down soon after that.

Cain continued to push Julius through his paces for the next two hours. Julius certainly improved a lot during this time. There was something quite enlightening about learning on the fly as someone punched him in the face.

But eventually, it was time to get some other things handled. One of them was to prepare for his little adventure. They were going to head over to House Zenith’s estate and have a discussion with Derek’s family. His friends should also be there.

Julius felt Drasil give him a gentle nudge from within his soul, and the little spirit soon sat on his shoulder with a proud expression.

“What made you all happy?” Julius asked his familiar with an amused smile, picking up Drasil and holding him in his palms.

Drasil didn’t respond, but simply looked at Julius, telling him the answer should be obvious. So Julius took the time to examine his friend closely. Unlike his crown, Julius didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary. Drasil’s size hadn’t changed, nor had his color. The crown of vines was still the same as usual as well.

Drasil’s look of disappointment when he didn’t notice anything hurt him more than he cared to admit. However, Julius soon found something that hadn’t been there before.

“Ahh! You have a new belt!” He said with a proud nod. It had blended in with Drasi’s leaf- like clothes, but he could see something that resembled a belt on the spirit’s waist.

Drasil whistled and nodded at Julius with a pleased expression on the adorable spirit’s face. Then Drasil removed the belt from his waist and displayed it to Julius. The flimsy belt suddenly transformed into a long staff that was as long as Drasil was tall.

Julius clapped with enthusiasm, and Drasil stood there, satisfied with the reaction. Julius had no idea what the staff did or if it did anything in the first place, but he wasn’t about to rain on Drasil’s parade.

***

Lily POV

As more information started to flood in, the more she realized how bad the situation was in the capital. Her gut feeling had been correct. The random attacks had been diversions. The real targets were high-profile individuals. Several important crafters of the Empire had either already been killed or were missing in the chaos, including several merchants with whom House Violet had relationships. Her father and family were running around, trying to get a handle on this mess.

Apparently, House Quincy had been attacked as well. Kyle was okay, but one of his brothers was missing.

It was becoming more evident that the attack had been planned for a long time. But there was also a sense that it was rushed. The timing of the attack seemed odd.

The first suspects were obviously the Conclave, but there was also considerable suspicion toward other countries, such as Corvus and the Alliance of the Morning Sun. From what House Violet’s connections had found, an alarming number of foreign dignitaries and visitors had all left the capital this morning.

For example, a representative from the Ivory Coin Merchant Group, based in the Alliance of the Morning Sun, had made plans to leave abruptly before the sun rose. Then, a few hours ago, during the chaos, someone tried to break into one of House Violet’s hidden vaults.

Fortunately for House Violet, her father was deeply suspicious and paranoid. So the vault’s location had been willingly revealed to a small number of their employees. However, it was a misdirection, and her father, with the help of Marcus, had already transferred the contents of the vault to another facility upon arriving in the capital before the tournament began. Lily had thought it unnecessary at the time, but now her father’s foresight was proven to be the correct course of action.

It wasn’t just House Violet that was upset by this attack. The entire capital was up in arms. The Conclave, or whoever had orchestrated this attack, had made one mistake. They had managed to anger the entirety of the Empire in one fell swoop. For the first time in decades, the various noble houses and guilds came together as one. They had a common enemy, and they retaliated in the most convincing manner. Anyone suspected of having a hand in this attack was apprehended or killed without mercy.

Even noble houses that would typically be considered rivals to House Violet were exchanging information at a rapid rate. They had already tracked down the representative of the Ivory Coin Merchant Group, and a team with a Tier 5 was personally sent to hunt the man down before he could escape too far. They had already pinpointed the man’s location. Instead of heading west, as anticipated, the representative had fled east. They already had another team based in the area prepared to apprehend or delay him until the Tier 5 arrived.

This wasn’t the only person they were planning to question. They had already apprehended several people, who were ready to be questioned by their mind mages. Several other houses have already offered several individuals to House Violet in hopes of retrieving valuable information. Typically, other houses wouldn’t do this, but time was of the essence, and House Violet’s mages were the best at retrieving information, especially when the health of the suspect wasn’t a concern. They could rip their minds to shreds if it meant getting the information they needed. The Empire had already given them a pardon in preparation for this.

In fact, that’s where Lily was heading right now. There was a person House Zenith had captured who was known to have affiliations with the Conclave. He had been caught trying to escape the capital in the mayhem.

Since it was one of their more direct leads, Lily was responsible for the interrogation. Her skill in mind magic was of the highest importance during situations like this. Her ability to flirt around standard protections made her invaluable.

And make no mistake, she would dismantle the manʼs mind brick by brick until she found what she needed. And if she found out the man had anything to do with Julius’s disappearance, she would make sure that there wouldn’t be anything left of him when she was finished.