Path to Transcendence

Julius found himself face down in a pile of dirt again. Why did it always seem that he found himself in this position? Why couldn’t he land on his back? Now he had to deal with the taste of earth and gritty grains of dirt covering his tongue. Julius hadn’t had a real meal in a long time, and the first thing he wanted to taste certainly wasn’t dirt.

He got up on his knees and tried to spit as much out as he could, wiping his tongue with the back of his hand. However, no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t remove all the remnants. Julius flung his hands into the air in defeat. He had managed to survive a Tier 3 rift but was ultimately bested by some dirt.

Julius decided to just deal with it until he found some water to clear out his mouth. For now, he had to deal with it. He did want to figure out where Jasper had taken him. Also, he wanted to find out who Jasper really was and what he was hiding.

Julius might be dumb sometimes, but even he could sense when someone was withholding information from him. He didn’t quite believe all of Jasper’s reasonings, for all Julius knew, Jasper had planned everything that happened to Julius and was still manipulating him.

With that being said, Julius honestly felt that Jasper had good intentions. He was aware that he might be getting led around the nose, but his gut was telling him that he could trust Jasper didn’t want him dead. Otherwise, someone that powerful could’ve done it before Julius could even sense it.

Eh, I can’t waste time thinking about it. I am already too weak to do anything about Lukas and Edwin, nevertheless against someone who was quite literally able to control the barriers of space. Baby steps Julius, baby steps.

First, he needed to find out where he was. Jasper said that he would transport Julius just outside of the city, but Julius had no idea how far away that was. It was possible that Jasper’s interpretation of “just outside the city” was thousands of miles away. Who knew with people that strong.

Julius assumed it was morning. The air was crisp and it was slightly foggy. It was similar weather to coastal towns Julius had visited with his gramps in his old world. The early mornings were always colder and slightly dewy from the moisture of the ocean. Heston was right on the eastern coast of the continent so early morning would make sense.

However, Julius had no compass or map still, so he had to use the alignment of the sun to approximate east and start walking. If he was right, then he should be hitting the coast pretty soon. From there he would follow the coastline until he found any sign of civilization.

The environment was quite pretty. There were many rolling hills lush with greenery that were covered with smaller thick trees. The trees were also weird. Instead of the typical brown, some of the trees were made up entirely of bleach-white bark. It made for quite the sight.

As he was walking he made sure to check his status. However, he had a notification waiting for him.

[Fighter’s Will lvl 6 -> lvl 9]

It appeared his experimentation had some excellent results. Three levels for some testing were quite nice. He still hadn’t quite managed to manifest aura around his pointer finger yet, but he could feel he was close. He was just missing a piece, but once he found it, he believed that it would be possible to externally manifest aura.

Julius finally pulled up his status.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 1

Skills:

• [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 11] (Rare+)
• [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)

• [Savage Dance lvl 16] (Rare)

• [Arcane Construct lvl 10] (Rare)

• [Pure Compression lvl 11] (Rare)

• [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 8] (Rare)

• [Fighter’s Will lvl 9] (Uncommon)

His status was coming together quite nicely if he said so himself. Most of his rare skills had already passed the level 10 threshold and [Kinetic Augmentation] was closing in. He couldn’t help but wonder how he compared to others. Julius knew it was unfair to do so, as his reincarnation had come with some advantages. Nevertheless, he wasn’t that delusional to think that the progress he made in these few weeks was normal. Fighting under such stressful conditions had done more for him than another several years of training would have done.

Julius crested over another large hill and laid a hand on the beautiful white tree expecting to see another hill in the distance. His eyes lit up, instead of more hills and trees there was a flat piece of land. It was so flat it looked like someone had carved it right out of the hills. However, it was the thing that was placed on this piece of land that delighted Julius. It was a gigantic city that stretched miles upon miles following the coastline.

Pearly white walls extended along the city protected it from outside threats, but it didn’t take away from its beauty, it only accentuated it. The stark white walls contrasted beautifully with the colorful structures that littered across the cityscape. Every color imaginable was present, from the darkest of blues to the brightest of oranges. There were also a handful of massive towers extended from the city and into the sky, dazzling as the morning sun hit their peaks.

However, the most impressive thing was a colossal gold structure deep in the city, it was built right on top of a cliff that extended over the coast. The gold-covered spires and twisting architecture glimmered with the most incredible display of elegance and strength. It would have made King Midas envious.

There was no doubt in Julius’s mind, that this was Goldencrest Academy, and that the city that surrounded it was Heston. The stories and descriptions Julius had read, didn’t do it justice, you had to experience it for yourself to understand the majesty of it.

Julius hurriedly searched for the entrance into the city, there had to be a general gate that accepted visitors. Heston was a major trading hub, many merchants made their way here to trade their goods. Therefore, Heston must have some sort of entrance for the general public.

After a quick search, Julius found a gate closest to him. It was just a couple of miles away, but he could see the line of carts that lined up in front of the gate. He quickly made his way down, practically sprinting with [Kinetic Augmentation] active. This meant he was able to reach the gate in a very short amount of time.

Julius approached the well-maintained path that the carts were driving on. It honestly impressed him with its condition. The path was completely smooth, no cracks or broken stones were in sight, and many intricate decorations and light fixtures surrounded the path, making it look very pretty. There was no doubt that the path had been created with magic. There were no seams in the path, it was just one beautiful slab of perfectly even rock.

There were a lot of carts waiting in line, stretching on for hundreds of yards. It must have been merchants or those who wanted to set up in the market before the day started. Fortunately, Julius spotted a separate line that appeared people without carts were able to wait in line. It was much shorter, with only several dozen people waiting to be let in.

Julius quickly hustled over to get in line. Nervous and excited at the prospect of seeing a city for the first time since he came to this world. He had been isolated for his entire time here and couldn’t help but be excited at seeing a place bustling with people once again.

He took his place at the end of the line, oblivious to the looks he was receiving. Julius got behind a man and a young child who appeared to be his son. Both were wearing plain brown breeches and beige linen shirts. The father had a sword sheath on his hip and a large pack over his shoulder. The son was holding onto a wooden doll that was bearing a sword and shield. It was a very impressive piece of woodwork. The facial features and joints were extremely detailed, speaking of the care whoever made it put into it.

However, while Julius was admiring the son’s toy, the boy himself was trying to get as far away from Julius. His face was a mixture of disgust and fear, then retreated silently. The boy was pinching his nose, and hiding behind his father’s leg.

Only then did Julius take a look at himself. He was still shirtless, his pants were barely hanging on by a thread, and he was covered in blood and mud. He must’ve become desensitized to smell but it didn’t take a good imagination to understand that he must have reeked like death and rotting corpses.

The father was also wincing at the smell wafting from Julius, but had one arm around his son, protecting him from Julius. The man took in Julius’s appearance and apologetic demeanor, realizing that Julius wasn’t a threat he turned both himself and his son around, looking back toward the gate, ignoring Julius.

Damn, I think I would have preferred him insulting me to my face over just straight ignoring me like that, Julius thought to himself.

The father didn’t acknowledge Julius’s presence for the rest of the time, completely disregarding his existence. Luckily, the line was moving fast and Julius would be able to enter the city soon. Hopefully, he would be able to find somewhere to clean up and get some clothes on him once he entered. However, he quickly realized his next problem. Money. How was he going to pay for clothes without any coin?

The only thing of value he had was the chieftain core and two other cores. He was lucky that he had that much. Before he left, he stuffed as many of the cores he had lazily scavenged in his pockets just in case he needed some money. But Julius lost most of them during the fight.

He would need to find a place to exchange the cores for money. He was hoping the guards at the gate would be willing to point out a place for him to go to. However, he was beginning to have doubts about receiving any help in his current state. He didn’t imagine many people would want to help a half-naked teen covered in blood. It was even a possibility that the guards wouldn’t allow him into the city in his current state. He should have washed up before he came down. He just got so excited that he forgot that his appearance was quite disheveled.

Another man had gotten in line after Julius, but he quickly made sure he kept a good distance away from Julius. Now that he was aware of it, he could sense a lot of people’s stares focused on him. Some were disgusted, some were pitying, and some just didn’t care.

Finally, Julius made it to the gate. He stood in front of a pair of guards with his hands loosely by his side. The one guard in front was a large man and had a chiseled face with brown hair. He wore a set of silver and gold armor with elegant designs imprinted onto the chestpiece, and on his side hung a sword with a wolf head ornate on the pommel. It was quite the flashy outfit, but it was a clear message to any who entered the city that these weren’t just your average guards, they were elites.

The other guard didn’t have metal armor but was equally impressive. Tall and lean, sporting a confident stance with stern eyes that took in every detail. He had an immaculate black and gold long coat that flared at the bottom.

The man in the coat stared intensely at Julius over the shoulder of his armored comrade as Julius approached. Julius knew that his appearance was going to give him some problems, but he still tried to put on a pleasant demeanor. He placed a bright smile on his face, unfortunately, Julius felt that had the opposite effect he was going for. Instead of putting the guards at ease, he felt they got more suspicious.

He couldn’t blame them either. A smiling fourteen-year-old, no shirt, barely any pants, and covered in gore was indeed a suspicious sight. The two guards took his appearance in and didn’t even blink at the stench that Julius knew he was assaulting them with. The gags he had heard from the crowd as he waited confirmed that he smelled rank.