Path to Transcendence

Round two didn’t go so well either. Neither did rounds three, four, or five. No matter what Julius tried, he wasn’t able to penetrate Gabriel’s defenses with his constructs. [Extreme Mana Resistance] was according to Gabriel, an epic-ranked skill that almost completely protected one from mana-based attacks. Furthermore, Gabriel had another epic-ranked skill called [Steel Fortress] that literally made his body a living fortress. Julius thought that since mana-based attacks didn’t work, he could use physical attacks.

While he did land a couple of shots, once Gabriel fully activated [Steel Fortress], it was like punching the Empire State Building. Even if he got through a single layer of defense, there were dozens more layered on top of each other behind it.

The only thing he didn’t try was his kinetically enhanced blue fire. Julius didn’t go that far, but he suspected that even if he did use it on Gabriel, it still wouldn’t work.

The biggest issue that Julius faced was Gabriel’s Authority. He didn’t keep it active the entire time, otherwise it wouldn’t even be a fight, but Gabriel showed it off at Julius’s request. Authority to Julius’s senses was like an advanced application of aura and mana, but also something else as well.

Julius’s constructs couldn’t even make it past a single inch of it. It wasn’t like the troll’s aura that had slowed down his constructs and gradually broke them down. Gabriel’s authority recognized the instant the constructs entered its sphere of influence, and then they just ceased to exist. Gabriel tried to explain it to Julius, but he was awful at it. All Julius got was that once his constructs entered the space Gabriel had complete control or “Authority” of the construct. This means that Julius could no longer control it, which is why it ceased to exist.

After Julius tested his constructs on it, he tried to see if getting up close was any better.

It wasn’t.

Julius found himself unable to even take a single step when he entered. Gabriel’s authority surrounded him and pressed him on all sides, immobilizing him completely. Gabriel told Julius that if he had created his constructs or infused his body with his own authority, he wouldn’t have been affected so drastically. It was why Tier 3 to Tier 4 was such a large increase in power.

---

Gabriel and Julius only sparred for an hour, Gabriel still had other duties he had to take care of, but he said they could resume sparring the day after tomorrow.

Although the sparring had only lasted an hour, Julius was happy to see that he had made more progress in the short time than the entire night he spent training.

[Arcane Construct lvl 14 -> lvl 15]

[Pure Compression lvl 13 -> lvl 14]

[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 13 -> lvl 14]

[Empowerment of Will lvl 4 -> lvl 6]

[Mana Layering lvl 4 -> lvl 7]

It was the largest increase in levels he had seen in a while. Fighting against someone who was much stronger than him and challenging himself worked. He was very glad he had taken Gabriel up on his offer.

After Julius and Gabriel finished, Julius hurried to the library. He knew he had stayed behind much longer than he or the others expected, but he hoped that they didn’t think he had forgotten about them.

He got to the library in record time, quickly scanning his badge at the entrance and waving at the librarian who smiled at him. Julius still hadn’t gotten her name yet but reminded himself to find it out sooner rather than later.

Julius went up to the second floor to the section where they told him they would be studying. There were several groups of students also sitting at the larger tables, quietly discussing things with each other. However, Julius hadn’t seen them yet.

It was only when he made his way to the back he sensed them. All five of them were still there, Kyle was in the middle of explaining something to Edgar. Talking more than Julius had seen the entire time he had been around them.

Julius quietly walked up to their table, not surprised to see that Lily had already noticed him. She must have an amazing perception skill or aura sense because she always knew when he was around.

Julius didn’t see an open chair, so he grabbed an extra chair from another table and brought it next to their table. The group had all finally noticed Julius’s arrival and looked at him. “Sorry, I was late, it took it much longer than I thought it would,” he apologized.

“Yeah, you took a really long time. Did you have to go do something beforehand?” Aubrey inquired.

“No, I was with Professor Keller the entire time,” Julius told her.

“Professor Keller needed to talk to you for an hour?” Derek asked, breaking his attention from the book in his hands.

Julius had been thinking about telling them the truth. It had been almost a week since he had known them, and he felt like he had a good idea of what kind of people they were. They had welcomed him into their group and he didn’t want to lie to them. So, he didn’t.

“He wanted to spar with me,” Julius admitted to them.

Julius observed the reactions of each of them. Derek acted like he didn’t quite hear what Julius had said. Aubrey thought he was joking. Edgar was looking at him with a very intense gaze. Kyle was looking at him with a blank expression. Then Lily was outright looking at him with an astonished look.

“Haha. That’s very funny Julius,” Aubrey said.

“I’m serious,” he said.

She still didn’t look like she believed him and just shook her head with a smile.

“He’s not lying, Lily told her friend seriously. It wasn’t until Lily said that Aubrey took Julius’s word seriously.

“You’re telling me that Professor Gabriel Keller, one of the strongest Tier 4’s at Goldencrest and someone who is practically guaranteed to advance to Tier 5, wanted to spar with a first-year?” She asked skeptically.

“One of the strongest?” Julius was curious about how Gabriel stood up against other Tier 4’s.

Edgar was the one who answered him. He still had an intense look on his face as he looked at Julius, scrutinizing him. “Professor Keller is a Senior Professor of the Combat Department for a reason. He is an absolute beast. If he is the second strongest, I don’t think there would be many people willing to say they are first.”

“Hey don’t change the subject. Answer the question.” Aubrey said a little too loudly. It was surprisingly Kyle who gave her a slap across her shoulder, reminding her that they were in a library. Then looked at Lily with a pointed glare and Julius felt Lily’s aura and mana work together to create a bubble that surrounded the table completely.

It was a very elegant and skilled use of aura and mana. Julius had amazing control himself, but Lily’s control was different than Julius’s. He would describe his control as quick, firm, and, explosive. He would describe Lily’s control as soft, gentle, and subtle.

It was the same principles that he had been trying to learn with [Fire Whip], but he hadn’t quite managed it. He might have to ask Lily for some advice later.

The barrier she created was most likely a barrier that contained sound so that they could talk more freely without disturbing anyone or having anyone listen in. It was a very nifty technique and Julius tried to examine it as closely as he could. He wanted to see if he could do it as well.

However, it was not the time for stuff like that and Julius thought about how he wanted to answer Aubrey. What was he supposed to say? Professor Keller wanted to spar with him because he wanted a good fight. Why would they believe that? Julius was just a Tier 1 first-year.

“Remember that I told you guys that I met Professor Keller?”

Lily, Edgar, and Aubrey nodded, but the other two looked confused since they weren’t taking Hand-to-Hand Combat.

“Yeah, you mentioned that you met him when he was proctoring your practical exam. But that confused me, because why would Professor Keller be proctoring your exam? He is a Senior Professor, and his assistants are supposed to take care of the practical exam testing. At least that’s how our year was tested,” Aubrey said.

“That is how it’s supposed to go,” Derek said. “Why was your’s different?”

Julius told them the truth. “According to Professor Keller, Assistant Director Silvertone changed it himself.”

“Silas Silvertone?” Lily asked.

Julius nodded his head. “You know him?”

“My father is friends with him. They went to Goldencrest together and they keep in touch frequently. He even showed up to a couple of my birthday celebrations over the years. He was always nice to me. Why would he change your proctor out of the blue?”

“I had my interview with him and two other professors. The woman professor had some choice words concerning my interest in Goldencrest, so she and I got into it a little bit,” Julius said.

“Why would she do that?” Aubrey asked curiously.

“She didn’t think that someone with only high affinities should be attending Goldencrest?” Julius answered.

“That’s stupid,” Aubrey said.

Julius agreed with her, the woman had been stupid. He was lucky that she hadn’t been in charge of whether or not he got into Goldencrest.

“You only have high affinities?” Derek asked, sounding surprised.

“Yes, is that so surprising?” Julius looked at Derek.

“A little, there aren’t many students who get in with just high affinities. It is almost predominantly excellent or perfect affinities,” he admitted.

“We’re getting off-topic again. Why would Silas do something like that?” Lily wanted to find out the reason why.

Julius realized that he would have to share that Silas tried to invade his aura and that Julius smacked it away. Though, Julius didn’t care at this point. There were already plenty of people who knew about it, and as long as they didn’t go shouting about it from the nearest rooftop, then Julius would be fine.

“During my interview, Silas tried to invade my aura. He noticed that I was able to deflect his probe, and that must’ve caught his attention. I don’t know what other reasons he had, but that was the most significant thing that happened,” Julius explained.

“So you do have an aura skill,” Edgar said.

Julius turned to Edgar curious to see that the guy wasn’t surprised at Julius’s reveal.

Did he already suspect? When would he have found out?

“You knew?” Julius asked Edgar.

“I thought it was odd that you were taking an aura class, but plenty of first years do, so it’s not uncommon, but the incident with Liam was what convinced me. I was right next to you so I was able to see you take control of your aura for a moment, it was too purposeful to be the aura of someone without an aura skill.” Edgar admitted.

Huh. Julius didn’t realize Edgar had already an idea that he did as well. Did that also mean Lily knew too? Just going off of what Julius had seen from her, she must have phenomenal aura control, which might have allowed her to sense Julius’s control over his.

“That’s so cool! An aura skill at Tier 1 is quite impressive, usually only rich nobles get one at Tier 1, and it still takes an incredible amount of luck,” Aubrey told him.

“Yeah, my family tried to feed me some soul elixirs, hoping that I would get one, but it never happened. That with the fact that Julius isn’t a noble and got it naturally is very rare indeed,” Derek said.

Technically Julius was a noble, but he still managed to get it without any outside help. As long as angry trolls aren’t considered “help”.

“I would like to keep my aura ability secret though,” Julius asked of them.

“Of course, no one will share any of your secrets. You’re a part of the group now.” Lily said while patting him on the back.

Julius smiled upon hearing that. He knew that they had kind of adopted him into their close-knit group but it was nice to hear it said out loud.

“So you think Assistant Director Silvertone purposefully switched your proctor because he found out you had a naturally acquired aura skill?” Edgar asked him.

“No, I think there had to have been other reasons too, but I have no idea what they might be,” Julius told him.

Julius had been thinking about what could have made Silas choose to give him Gabriel as a proctor. Did Silas know that Gabriel would take an interest in Julius or was it pure chance that Gabriel wanted to spar with Julius afterward?

Julius felt like every day he had more questions and not enough answers.