Path to Transcendence

He had been playing around with his new skill for hours when he eventually received a message from his communication device. It was from Lily, who asked where he was.

He didn't really want to tell her that he had been up the entire night. She had been very insistent that he get a good night's sleep, and she had a good point.

A big reason why he had gotten into trouble with his soul damage was because he wasn't sleeping for weeks on end. But this was also the first day that he had really stayed up all night, so it shouldn't be that bad.

Still, he didn't see the harm if he avoided telling her what he had exactly been up to.

As he left the room, he made sure nothing was too badly damaged. Some blast marks were on the stone, but overall, the room was in one piece. Which was quite an accomplishment for his standards, so he was proud of himself.

He checked the notifications he had gotten during these past several hours of training.

[Spatial Crack lvl 1 -> lvl 3]

[Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 8 -> lvl 9]

[Flash Step lvl 17 -> lvl 18]

It was quite surprising that he was able to level up [Flash Step] even though he had not done that much in terms of diversifying its usage. He couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with his new skill correlating with the following general upgrade for the skill.

[Spatial Crack] has also shown some nice improvements. While he hadn't really learned how or what to use the crack for other than creating a space bomb, he was quickly becoming much more proficient in creating them.

The time it took to create them had been cut in half, and he was beginning to understand the process a little better the more he used the skill.

He really wanted to figure out how to connect the two points, though. He believed that once he did that, he could take the first step toward using these cracks for teleportation. Unfortunately, the only thing he could currently use them for was as a weapon.

Because if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that whatever was sent into these cracks didn't come out intact. He had even taken the risk of collapsing a crack on purpose just to see what happened in closer detail.

Of course, this was all in the name of science, and he took the proper precautions.

Still, the collapsing spatial crack was quite powerful. The explosion was unlike his other explosive abilities. It was as if space itself was tearing the nearby object apart. It was probably why he had taken so much damage and found it so difficult to heal afterward.

He would even go as far as to say that this new skill leaned more toward the offensive side of things. The only thing that prevented it from becoming an actual viable attack was how long it took to activate.

It still took him several seconds to create the distortion, and then a few more to purposefully collapse the crack in space.

In a fight, his opponent would have already thrown dozens of attacks in that span. Furthermore, he would be relying on the fact that they wouldn't be moving either. Since the point couldn't be moved mid-activation, the only way it would work is if his opponent was practically crippled or too lazy to move.

For now, he wasn't going to be thinking of his new skill as either a movement or an attack skill. It was going to simply be a skill he could use to get a better grasp of spatial magic and how it worked—using it as a way to gain a Space Concept and hopefully evolve his other related skills.

***

He met Lily and the others at the cafeteria, where he spotted them almost finished with breakfast.

"Where have you been? You never miss breakfast," Aubrey said with a mouthful of food.

"Sorry, I got sidetracked," he said to her.

"No worries, it just means less food for me," she said grumpily.

Edgar looked over at her with a baffled look. "What do you mean? How does Julius's attendance affect how much food you get?"

"What you haven't noticed?" Aubrey asked him confusedly.

"No, what did I miss? Did something happen?"

"Yeah, I can't believe you haven't noticed that whenever we go get food with Julius, the staff always gives us bigger portions," Aubrey said with a disappointed shake of her head as if she couldn't believe Edgar hadn't noticed yet.

"There's no way that's actually real. It's just in your head," Derek said to her assuringly.

"I am not wrong," Aubrey argued fervently. "I have taken notes and made extensive comparisons to what I get served when I am with or without Julius. Everything I have investigated shows that whenever I get food with him, I get more food than usual."

"Why would they do that? It's not like we can't get up for seconds, Aubrey," Derek pointed out with a gesturing look toward the line.

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"The proof is right there," Aubrey exclaimed while jabbing her finger at Julius's plate of food. "Look how much more food he got compared to us."

Edgar leaned over to stare at Julius's plate. "Hmm, actually, now that you mention it, it does kind of look like there is more than what I was given. I think they gave him the crispy corner piece, too," he said with a conflicted frown, looking very upset at this spectacular revelation.

"I can't believe you guys never noticed. It is a big reason why I missed him when he was gone for those several months and is the reason why I always try to get served with him," Aubrey stated while throwing her arms up in the air.

"Come on!" Julius exclaimed toward her. "That's why you always insist on getting in line with me?"

She looked at him like he was stupid. "Of course it is. Why else would I do that? Hell, Lily has been doing it since the very beginning," she said, pointing to where Lily was dutifully ignoring their gazes.

"Really?" He asked when she still didn't look up.

"I mean, that's not the only reason," Lily eventually muttered when pressed under the stares of all of them.

"Why do they treat him better than us, though? I have known a couple of them for years," Edgar stated, sounding offended at the realization that Julius was getting preferential treatment.

"I don't know, but they love him for some reason. Their emotions always brighten up when they see him," Lily mentioned with a shrug.

Julius grinned widely at this. "It's not my fault. I just happen to visit some of them in the kitchen and help them cook or clean up occasionally."

Edgar weirdly got very interested when he mentioned this and stared at Julius's plate of food with much more intensity than before. Julius could see the cogs in the boy's head already in motion.

***

After breakfast and some time to relax, he found himself standing in the crowded stadium, surrounded by clamoring spectators who were screaming at the fights happening around them.

It was his fourth match of the second stage, and he was against someone who had been doing very well for themselves so far.

It was a third-year named Devin Bolten who was said to have a chance to win a slot. This was a very impressive feat that only people like Edgar and Derek had a chance to achieve last year.

It was probably his first match, other than Bethany, in which his opponent was someone he needed to take somewhat seriously.

It showed right away, too. The other boy used a greatsword but swung it around like it was a rapier. He had a water affinity and utilized it in a way that reminded him of the crazy woman he had fought on the plains. He maintained the grace and smoothness that often came with water users, but he had this powerful weight behind all of his blows.

It wasn't just that, either. Julius had to be mindful of the reverberating blows that came afterward.

These echos would try and off balance him with pure weight, it reminded him of fighting against the tides of the ocean.

Julius stepped back as the greatsword tried to split him in half once more and sent a powerful kick at the hand that was gripping the handle.

Sadly, a thin but strong barrier of water mana surrounded his opponent's hand, protecting him. Still, this allowed Julius to take some of the initiative, and he blitzed forward to attack. The third year showed surprising skill as he used his greatsword like it was a shield to fend off his blows.

Julius was too fast for the boy to keep up, though, and he eventually sneaked a blow through a gap. His opponent gasped as the blow slammed into his ribcage, and he had to use one of his skills to retreat.

Julius tried to chase, but the flood of water kept him away just long enough for his opponent to catch his breath and reestablish his guard.

However, his opponent's expression had changed a lot from the first moments of the fight. At first, it was obvious that his opponent wasn't taking him seriously as he should have.

It didn't seem to matter to him that Julius had not technically lost against anyone else. Like many other students, he probably believed it was a fluke, mainly because he had been fighting against weaker opponents or had had good match-ups.

So it was pretty gratifying to see the silent acknowledgment on his opponent's face as Julius pushed him back slowly but surely.

Devin had not been able to get the upper hand a single time during the match, and they both knew it.

House Bolten was quite a renowned House in its own right. According to Lily, it had a great track record of cultivating strong warriors who protected the Empire during the Monster Floods. This is why so many more people eagerly watched this fight than they normally would.

Despite Julius having been fighting in the packed stadium for the past few matches, he didn't hold any naive thoughts that his fights were the ones most people were spectating. There were names like Derek, Edgar, Aubrey, and many others that people came to watch.

For the first time, his fight was one of the most viewed, and he could hear the confused mutterings from the crowd as he handled Devin with casual ease, especially from people who hadn't seen any of his previous fights.

Devin also seemed to hear this, as his opponent appeared to get more frustrated the more he listened to the whispering. Unfortunately, Devin let his anger get the better of him, and for the first time, he launched himself at Julius without the careful control he had shown so far.

Julius calmly sidestepped or slapped aside the brutal strokes of the greatsword. Devin had given up entirely on any signs of defense or maintaining proper positioning. The attacks were strong, sure, but definitely not as dangerous as they had been during the beginning of the fight.

He let the anger exhaust the third year and watched as the boy's attacks got sloppier and sloppier as the fatigue started to kick in. The reverberating attacks were no longer as threatening, and after avoiding one last tired swing, Julius slammed his heel into his opponent's chest, sending him flying off across the field.

A defensive skill managed to block most of the damage, but it must have drained a lot of mana. Mana that his opponent was almost out of.

Gasping for breath and with a red face full of frustration, the third year dragged his sword up with both hands, still not giving up.

Unfortunately, the match was already done the moment his opponent let his anger control him.

This time, Julius stepped forward instead of avoiding the blade and slammed his hand around his opponent's wrist, halting it in midair. Then, before Devin could do anything, Julius buried his forehead into the boy's face.

He ripped away the greatsword from the weakened grip of his opponent with a powerful surge of mana. Then, before the other boy could do anything, he pivoted around and used the momentum of the spin to smash the boy with his very own weapon in a brutal blow that might have killed him if he wasn't wearing the silver bracelet.

Once he was certain the fight was over, he dropped the sword to the ground uncaringly and walked off, not bothering to listen to the roaring crowd. He was more focused on the upcoming training session, which he was already planning for his new skill. To him, that was much more interesting than beating up someone he knew he could win against.