Path to Transcendence

Chapter 607: Paying the Price

Turns out that they had to detour into the forest earlier than they anticipated. They heard rumors that the attacks had gotten worse over the past day, and a large caravan was attacked by several powerful Tier 5 monsters. That was very unusual, and if the authorities in the area weren’t already alerted, they certainly were now.

Of course, this still meant they were going to enter the forest by themselves. Cassandra snuck them past a patrol, and they began their trek into the forest. Honestly, Julius had been enjoying the walk so far. The forest was absolutely stunning. It was like breathing in pure life mana with each passing second.

Drasil loved it as well. The little guy was sitting on his shoulder, practically shoving handfuls of air into his mouth. The small leaves on his crown were glowing with the immense amounts of life mana.

Julius began to see what Loreyn meant when she mentioned that the surrounding area by heavily used roads was different from the densely populated forest around them. He could already sense countless creatures watching them from the shadows as they walked through the trees.

They weren’t the only humans doing this, either. He had already spotted several groups trekking through the Brightwood Forest. These people seemed to be adventurers of some sort. He didn’t spot any civilians or merchants with them. They were likely searching for a rift or a specific material.

But for the most part, it was monsters. They were typically weak. The majority settled between Tier 2 and Tier 3. Cassandra could have likely hidden them from the notice of these creatures, but that would defeat the purpose of Shin and Maya’s training. She also hid her aura so that it didn’t scare off any animals. She asked the rest of them to do the same.

Julius didn’t really mind and let his aura collapse onto itself, which got a weird look from Caldrus.

“What?”

“Is that how you shroud your aura?” The old man asked curiously.

Julius nodded. “Yeah, why? Is there something wrong with it?”

“No, nothing wrong. In fact, it is very effective. But it doesn’t hurt or feel uncomfortable to shroud your aura like that?”

“Eh, it actually works out better this way, especially considering the nature of my aura. It’s an uncomfortable aura to handle in the first place. I am used to it by now,” Julius explained. Truth be told, he was well aware that his techniques for utilizing his aura were very different from the norm.

But his aura was also very different from other people’s aura. He simply leveraged the aura’s natural ruinous properties to help him. For example, Caldrus had probably noticed how Julius used his aura to destroy itself, essentially erasing his own aura. Getting one’s aura shredded like he was doing to his own was typically painful and uncomfortable.

“Hmm. Okay, if you need a break, let me know. Or I can help you if you want to try another technique.”

It sounded like the man was subtly telling him that he should change his aura-shrouding technique.

“Maybe I’ll take you up on that,” Julius said with a nod. He didn’t have any plans of changing his technique anytime soon, but he did want to experiment a little bit, and having some to manage some of his aura would be of great help. He couldn’t exactly ask anyone. His potent aura would hurt most people at or under his tier.

Cassandra and Caldrus’s auras were sealed tight. Their level of control was impressive, and despite having auras many times more powerful than Julius’s own due to their advancement, they didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping it completely contained. In fact, Cassandra and Caldrus must have activated a stealth skill of some kind, or one of them did. Julius could barely sense them with his own senses.

It was like a blurred veil that disrupted his senses and required him to constantly adjust [Absolute Spatial Perception] to keep them within his sight. They extended this veil to Loreyn as well, and honestly, it was better this way.

On the other hand, Maya and Shin stood out like lightbulbs. Some aura leaked from Maya and Shin. They had similarly activated shrouding techniques, but there were some signs of leakage. Maya’s was much better. Her stealth skill came in handy, but he could tell that she could only hold it back for short durations. Occasionally, she needed to release some of the pressure before it boiled over.

Unsurprisingly, not all monsters were so kind as to let them pass unchallenged. He spotted a monster just up ahead, preparing an ambush. He was sure that Cassandra and Caldrus noticed it too, but they didn’t say anything.

He noticed that neither Maya nor Shin had detected this monster yet. They had flinched at every noise the moment they entered the forest, but after walking for a couple of hours, their focus waned, and they were already growing tired from constantly using their senses.

They paid the price for this. The snake monster, ten feet long, leapt out of the trees and attacked Shin. The creature’s fangs snapped toward his face, but thankfully, the teen was able to react just in time.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He threw his arm up, and by a miracle, the snake was knocked off course and only got scratched by one of its fangs instead of clamping down on his throat. Maya reacted instantly, and her staff was already slamming into the snake, sending it crashing into a nearby tree.

Shin acted swiftly, too, and his sword was flashing down at the monster’s scales. The burning edge of the blade gouged out its flesh and forced it to retreat, but not before Maya hammered it once more with her staff. The snake flew off and landed awkwardly onto a nearby boulder, its blood spilling onto the stone.

Shin tried to go after the monster, but suddenly staggered and fell to his knees. A dark vein was quickly spreading through his hand where the snake had nicked him with its tooth.

Venom.

Fortunately, the snake was already in the process of retreating. It quickly vanished into the shrubs and escaped. It might have gone back for more, but Maya was still there.

Maya, seeing that Shin was injured, went over to him and pulled out a potion from her storage ring. She poured the liquid down Shin’s throat and watched with worry when Shin coughed up blood as his muscles spasmed erratically.

The healing potion was working, but it wasn’t enough to get rid of the venom inside his veins. Next, she took out another potion, which looked different, and had him drink it. Julius suspected it was an antidote, and it worked better than the healing potion, but the venom was strong. It persisted despite the two potions being consumed.

Maya had a concerned look on her face when she saw that it wasn’t gone yet. The dark veins had slowed to a halt, but didn’t go away.

Even Julius was impressed by the venom’s fierceness. It was stubbornly clinging to Shin, and Julius took this time to examine the venom more closely. He was surprised to sense so much life mana inside a venom. In fact, he would say that the venom was mainly made up of life mana with a few other things added to it.

“Come on, try and burn it out,” Maya said to Shin firmly.

Shin was already sweating profusely as he fought the venom from spreading further, but he nodded and followed Maya’s instructions. A pulse of fire mana raged through Shin’s body. The fire mana itself was pure and powerful.

It was obviously the first time Shin had done something like this. Julius spotted several errors that should have been easily avoided, but it slowly worked. He saw Shin grunt in pain as the fire mana burned through the venom. The dark veins on his hand were gradually fading away, and an expression of relief replaced the pained one.

While this was happening, Julius spotted another monster approaching from the back. He wouldn’t have done anything, but he noticed that this monster wasn’t a Tier 3 as the snake had been. This was a Tier 4 monster, and so he let his kinetic energy spread out.

[Field of the Shattered Will] slowly expanded, and he condensed it tightly. It was a little difficult to manage, but he finally did so and then extended the field. It no longer surrounded him on all sides, but he was able to extend its influence slightly.

This extra distance allowed him to encapsulate the small creature sitting in the trees with kinetic energy. He immediately froze it, feeling as his willpower overpowered the creatures. He sensed the panic and pain within the monster’s aura, but he held it firm.

He didn’t kill the creature, though. Instead, after a few moments, he let his kinetic energy ebb away. The small creature must have gotten the warning, and the moment it was free, it sensed it running in the other direction.

Once he made sure that it was gone for good, he looked over at Shin and Maya, who were recovering from their ambush.

“Are you guys okay?” He asked calmly.

“Okay? I almost got my throat ripped out and then poisoned to death,” Shin said heatedly.

“Technically, it was venom,” Julius said.

“What?” Shin sounded more confused than angry.

“Poison is something you ingest or absorb through your skin. Venom is typically from a bite or sting. Hence, you almost died from venom, not poison,” Julius replied helpfully.

Shin was about to retort something not very nice, but Maya held a hand to his shoulder. “You got all of it?” She asked him.

Shin glanced back and nodded. “I think so. I used a little extra to make sure.”

“Good, drink another potion and recover,” she advised.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Julius noted.

“What? Why?” Maya asked with a confused frown.

“I mean, you guys have already used two potions. At this rate, you are going to run out of potions before we reach halfway through. Youʼve got to save them for emergencies,” he said to both of them.

Shin opened up his mouth, but Cassandra decided to make an appearance. “He’s right. You need to manage your supplies during this field trip. That’s another lesson I want you to learn before we leave this forest.”

She examined Shin’s injury briefly before she turned her attention to Julius. “I thought I told you not to help.”

“I didn’t help,” he said with a shrug.

“I saw what you did to that Tier 4. You chased it off,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, I didn’t feel like it would have been fair for them, especially since they had just finished with their last fight.”

“The outside world isn’t fair. They need to learn that.”

“Yeah, they can learn that tomorrow. This is their first day, and they are already tired. I understand that you want to help them get stronger and more experienced, but that’s gonna take time. You can’t rush it and make up for the past. You’re just gonna hurt them,” he said to Cassandra.

At first, he thought she would get mad at him for saying this to her, but instead, she sighed. “Yeah, perhaps you make a good point.”

She looked over at the two teens. “Take some time to rest and recover. Get some food and make a brief camp. We will rest for an hour and then continue. Does that sound good?”

Both Shin and Maya nodded gratefully, relaxing in relief.

“Good, while we rest, I will go over your fight with each of you and review what you did right and what you did wrong.”

Julius saw the two of them wince at this and look at the ground, embarrassed.

She sighed and turned around to look at Julius. “As for you, there are some Tier 4s roaming around the area if you feel a bit antsy. I’m sure that Caldrus would be willing to go with you while these two get some rest.”

Julius shrugged. “Sure, I’ll take a look and see if any of them might provide a fun fight,” he replied, getting up and brushing off the imaginary dirt from his pants.