Path to Transcendence

His last night was bittersweet. Both Richard and Rebecca had come over to see him and he explained to them what had happened.

Rebecca was in denial and disbelief when she heard him. But for some reason, Richard had not seemed that surprised at all. It was as if he expected something like this to happen.

After he had a lengthy conversation with them, he told them that he and Reinera would be going back to Heston. They both decided not to hide anything from them, especially since they already knew about Reinera's true identity.

Which surprisingly made the girl feel better. He had a feeling that a lot of it was because they treated her like a normal young girl even though they knew she was a princess. It told her that they didn't care so much about her status rather than who she was.

They didn't do anything too special. There wasn't a grand party or celebration, just a simple dinner like usual, but they did spend more time than normal hanging out late into the night.

The two parents even allowed Cory to stay up well past his bedtime for this occasion. Something Rebecca never allowed.

Speaking of Cory, the little boy was devastated to hear the news. He had been getting used to Julius's and Reinera's presence. Therefore, hearing that they would be going back broke the boy's heart.

There were a lot of tears and snot, but Julius was already prepared. He had preemptively taken Drasil from his soul space and offered the life spirit as a sacrifice.

Thankfully, Cory had a special obsession for Drasil and his tears disappeared quite quickly once he had Drasil in his clutches.

Drasil had looked back at Julius with teary eyes, the betrayal shocking the cute spirit. But Julius understood that sometimes sacrifices were necessary.

***

The morning, all of them found themselves standing in front of the wooden beams.

Before he left, he really wanted to give this training course one last shot. He had still not been able to complete the thing. With that being said, he hadn't given it a shot since he got his new epic-ranked enhancement skill.

"You do realize that this course is not really meant to be completed right?" Rebecca reminded him.

"Just because you keep on telling me that doesn't mean I am going to give up, you know? It just makes me want to prove you wrong that much more," he said to her with a cocky grin.

She shook her head and walked away, activating the enchantments on the course. "Well, don't let me stop you then."

He gave her one last smirk before directing his full attention to the course. The smile slipped off his face like water and he activated every one of his skills.

It was weird to think that he was feeling more nervous about this than he had when fighting the Tier 4s and even the Tier 5. When he had fought them there had been no real expectation to win. Thus, the fear of losing wasn't really there.

However, now that he had gotten this strong, he believed that this course was definitely completable. If he could defeat a Tier 4 then why couldn't he beat a course meant for Tier 3s? That added pressure made his heart beat a little faster and he had to use [Sage of Savagery] to temper his emotions.

So with a steady and calming breath, he charged himself full of kinetic energy. When he felt prepared, he sent himself blasting through the course.

As usual, the first stages were easy. He had those ones already figured out and breezed through them without much issue.

It was the last section that always gave him problems.

It didn't matter if he was fast or if he noticed the threads before they hit him. The reality was that the threads were way too close together in order to dodge. It was a simple problem of being too big to squeeze past them.

He did everything perfectly, he perceived the threads, understood where he needed to place his body, and adjusted promptly. But like always, he was always tagged by a single thread.

The red light, signalling his failure once again, lit up the entire course.

He looked up into the sky and let out a frustrated sigh. The problem wasn't even his speed, it was the fact that he physically couldn't move out of the way in time. There were literally no gaps to go through.

The only way he could even get through without being touched would be to either teleport past the strings, become intangible like those two people he had fought, or somehow become half as big.

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None of them were actual solutions.

He would very much like to teleport but he hadn't gotten to that point with [Flash Step] yet. It was still at level 16, even though it was one of his more regularly used skills.

The other issue was that even if it was at level 20 and ready to evolve, he would need to have a Space Concept to go along with it. Therefore, since he has been having an extraordinarily difficult time learning a Space Concept, as evidenced from his [Spatial Perception] skill which was still sitting at level 19, he was unable to teleport or use any spatial movement technique.

Intangibility also wasn't an option. That wasn't something he believed was even possible with his current skill set and affinities. While it would have been nice to have, especially after seeing the practicality of such a skill in action, he sadly probably would never be able to.

The last option was even more unlikely.

He knew that there were people out there who had special magic that could alter their physical forms. Types of metamorphosis and flesh magic could probably help with something like this, but once again, he didn't have that really available to him.

So with a determined sigh, he went at the course once more.

He really wanted to finish it. After all, this was one of the first things he started when he arrived at House Easten, and being able to complete it before he left would be a very nice personal accomplishment.

Forget about beating up a Tier 4, this course was more important to him.

Which was why he resolved himself to keep it going until he got it. Marcus would have to forcibly kidnap him if he wanted to remove Julius from this course.

Something he didn't doubt the man would do.

And so he failed.

He attempted the course a couple of dozen times over the hour. But each time he failed at the final hurdle with a single thread nicking him or tripping him into the poles below.

His frustration was at an all-time high. Reinera and Richard both tried to calm him down and convince him that it wasn't worth it, but he wasn't listening.

He wasn't about to be beaten by a bunch of wooden beams, harmless lights, and stupid threads.

Once more, he lined up at the start. This time he wasn't even thinking, his mind was completely locked in. There was nothing except him and the course. It was funny, he didn't even have the need to use [Sage of Savagery] anymore. His frustration and willingness to succeed were more powerful than the skill could help him.

He channelled all of his emotions into his willpower and used that to empower his skills. So with roar he blasted from the start, not even noticing that his burst of speed ripped apart the wooden beams behind him.

***

Rebecca POV

She could only shake her head in half amusement and exasperation. Julius was much too hard-headed. She could understand his motivation and why he was so desperate to complete this course more than anyone else.

She had spent more time than she cared to admit trying to complete this course when she was younger. It was to her immense frustration that she was only able to complete it after acquiring a spatial skill that allowed her to 'cheat'.

To this very day, it still bothered her.

So when she observed the stubborn boy throwing himself at the course, she couldn't help but chuckle.

She also couldn't help but frown as she examined the boy demonstrating a level of speed and strength that wasn't on the level of a Tier 3. Definitely not a Tier 3 who she personally observed advancing recently.

"Are you sure we shouldn't step in?" Grace, or rather Reinera asked her with a concerned frown.

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Rebecca glanced at the young girl. While she had been surprised when her father told her about the girl, she hadn't really cared all that much. At that point, she had spent more than enough time with Reinera to see who she really was, and just because her name changed didn't mean the girl changed too.

Princess or not, Reinera was still the same person she had been helping train these past couple of months.

"No, let him keep trying. It's probably for the best."

"He's pushing himself too hard though."

"He's more resilient than you give him credit for," she said to the young girl with a reassuring smile. However, on the inside, she was just as worried. The boy was using a lot of mana and kinetic energy, much more than a typical Tier 3 body could handle. She knew that his new body skill was impressive, but there always was a limit.

The boy was so concentrated on completing the course, that his aura was radiating out of his control. The destructive aspect of his aura was seeping out the boy's skin and tearing apart anything in its way.

But she also noticed that he had a much better handle on it than when he left. Whatever improvements he made during the mission must have paid off because although his aura was exuding more than what was normally safe, it was a lot better than what it had been like before he left. The effects of the aura were relatively benign and wouldn't detrimentally affect anyone Tier 3 or above.

With that being said, it was more powerful as well. Whatever he had done that had enabled him some measure of control also amplified the weight of his aura, making it arguably more dangerous.

Thus, she extended out her Domain as a precaution, protecting Reinera. Cory wasn't with them otherwise she wouldn't have allowed this to go any further.

Instead, she just watched everything unfold.

At least she did until she saw what he did next.

In a flash of bright mana, Julius's entire arm disappeared in a mist of blood. She stood up and was about to move in when she noticed that the boy appeared to not be surprised by this. As a matter of fact, it looked like he had been planning it because the thread which had been about to touch him, passed him by without touching him.

Then before she could even begin to comprehend what was going on, the boy threw himself forward, hit the target, and detonated his leg. The limb also vanished and the explosion gave him the necessary power to dash between the small gap she noticed.

Her mind didn't even realize that he had passed the line that signaled the course's ending.

All she could do was sprint toward the now limbless boy with a panicked expression on her face, already retrieving a bottle of healing potion from her storage ring.

However, when she kneeled next to him she couldn't help but want to smash his head into the ground because instead of looking in pain or shock, he had the audacity to laugh loudly and pump his remaining arm into the air in celebration.