Path to Transcendence

Julius was slammed against the back wall of the training room. He groaned as he picked himself up and was forced to block Cain’s kick heading straight for his head.
Julius didn’t know if Cain suddenly started to feel competitive after seeing Duke Zenith and Vice Sect Leader Cassandra, but he noticed their spars had gotten a little more intense, which was saying a lot considering that they had already been going hard in the first place.
Julius sent a thick wave of flames at the man. While it didn’t do much, it at least obscured his view for Julius to reposition. Cain wasn’t using his domain, so it allowed Julius some leeway and gave him more opportunities to counterattack.
Unfortunately, Cain didn’t need to see where Julius’s exact position was. He just needed a general idea of it and sent a wide blast of kinetic energy at Julius. With an exasperated groan, Julius was once again knocked off his feet despite his best efforts to siphon the excess kinetic energy.
He was distinctly aware that he would have likely been heavily injured or perhaps outright killed if Cain had attacked him like this a couple of months ago. The fact that Julius was somewhat able to withstand the attack was a true testament to the progress he had made.
Still, it hurt like hell. No matter how much Cain “held back”, there was only so much Julius could do to defend himself. He felt several of his ribs, a few of his other bones, and a couple of organs get vaporized from the immense force rushing through his body.
It was only thanks to [Phoenix Renewal] that he wasn’t out of commission. Something that Cain was well aware of and took advantage of Julius’s regeneration powers. The man had already beaten Julius half to death a couple of dozen times in the past hour or two.
Julius was both thankful and resentful at how easily Cain was willing to rip him apart. What was more annoying was that Cain knew very well that Julius wouldn’t give up. Cain had quickly understood that it only took a few pokes and stabs at Julius’s pride for his stubbornness to last him through the training.
In fact, he was doing it again. Cain stood patiently as he gave Julius a challenging look, daring him to get up again. Almost taunting him to give up and take a break. And like the predictable creature Julius was, he staggered to his feet.
Thankfully, Cain was merciful enough to allow this. Julius took a little time to gather his breath as the rest of his wounds were healed, then quickly took control of his fire mana. The fire mana responded to his commands and formed into a thick rope. This rope wasn’t like his usual constructs, which were made up of hardened mana; this rope was made of pure blue fire.
He was beginning to see what Cassandra had meant about his fire not being as free as it should. It wasn’t to say that he couldn’t use his fire mana for constructs like his spikes, but he had so many other options at his disposal that it felt wasteful and almost downright stupid not to explore them.
It wasn’t like he didn’t have good mana manipulation skills. He should only be limited by his imagination. Furthermore, her advice about his fire being freer had really stuck in his mind.
Having precise control had always been his goal. He wanted to have complete authority over his fire, but perhaps he was holding the fire back. It might be better if he allowed his fire to have some leeway to do its own thing.
Fire was an unpredictable force of destruction, and by limiting what it could do, he felt like he was handicapping his own abilities.
The robe of fire flickered as the flames tried to burn everything within reaching distance. It took him surprisingly more effort for his mind not to instinctively hinder this reaction. Then, before he could lose total control of the whip, he flung it at Cain.
Cain didn’t bother to move; he simply stared at the whip and let it crack against his skin. The sheer heat of the whip was already much hotter than his usual constructs, but sadly, Cain’s body was much too robust to compare the actual difference. Not to mention, since the whip wasn’t a construct and made entirely of flames, there wasn’t much physical power backing it.
This meant the main, and really only source of damage came from the heat itself.
Regardless, Julius could already feel a distinct difference in the heat of his fire and the heat of his constructs. While clearly not a better offensive tool than his spikes, he could already see the possibilities. He would ensure that he continued to train this aspect of his fire. He would have to thank Cassandra once more when he saw her again.
Cain snatched the whip out of the air before it could hit him again and used a large burst of kinetic energy to annihilate it. Then, with a teasing grin toward Julius, he brushed his hand on the imaginary burn, as if he wanted Julius to know how easy it was for him to deal with his fire.
Julius gave the man a middle finger, letting him know how he felt about Cain’s taunt. Cain only smiled and then, in a blur of movement, disappeared from Julius’s sight. Thankfully, Julius was already quite familiar with dealing with the insane speed of Cain and was already in motion. He placed every defense available to him. Whether that was a barrier, a wall of kinetic energy, or a wave of fire, he used them all.
Cain shattered his barrier, overwhelmed his wall of kinetic energy with his own kinetic energy, and was completely unscathed by his fire. Julius did his best to dodge, but Cain was just too fast and slammed his palm into Julius’s chest, shattering his entire rib cage and sending him flying back like a rocket, burying him into the wall all the way on the other side of the massive training room.
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“Julius!” He heard Lily shout and run towards the crater in the wall, helping him down. She wasn’t the only one there watching him get thrashed. Christina had decided to stay and watch, and Derek’s cousin was mortified at what she witnessed. Her mouth and eyes were wide open as she watched him stitch himself back together.
She had insisted on watching, saying that it wasn't fair that he got to watch her train and not the other way around. However, she had been weirdly silent since the start of the session.
He spat out a glob of blood and rubble from his mouth. “I’m good,” he wheezed out as his healing skill was already working overtime to heal him. He slowly peeled himself out of the wall and slumped to the floor.
While he was recovering, he checked his notifications.
A lot of these notifications weren’t from the training he had done with Cain. Some of them were from the little aura battle he had with Adrian. The man had singlehandedly helped Julius gain two levels in his aura skill—something he hadn’t seen outside of an actual battle.
He also managed to level up his focus skill, which now made it his highest-level skill at level 21.
He also weirdly earned another level in [Absolute Spatial Perception], but not from training. It came because he had been using the skill nonstop when he was in large crowds. One of the most significant downsides of the skill was that he wasn’t able to track everything in the sphere of perception. There was a limit on how much information his mind could process, and in large crowds like the one in the capital, it was hard to catch everything.
[Spirit Fortification] had also gotten some nice gains. Funnily enough, it was the exercises with fire mana that helped things. He had thought that the skill was mainly for constructs, but he found out he was very wrong. The skill was an all-around damage boost to all of his mana-based attacks as long as he added some aura to the mix.
For example, the whip he had created at the end had been boosted by the skill. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter in the face of Cain Steelborn. It might as well have been a wet noodle to the man.
Cain had also placed a strong emphasis on Julius advancing his only rare skill in his skill slots. The man had been the pretty brutal taskmasker, forcing Julius to deal with larger and larger amounts of kinetic energy constantly.
To be honest, that was where most of Julius’s injuries came from. It was his inability to deal with the massive quantity of kinetic energy that caused his body to implode from the pressure.
But to Cain’s credit. It worked annoyingly well. Julius had already gotten the skill to level 14 in a matter of two days since he finished the first stage. While his methods were somewhat flawed, they were incredibly effective.
Lily had something to say, though.
“What the hell is this? Is this how you train all of your students?” She asked with a dark glare at the much more powerful man. Her previously hesitant attitude was nowhere to be seen.
Cain shrugged. “Just the ones with an overpowered healing skill and regenerates like an undying troll,” he argued.
“I’m fine with it,” Julius intervened before she could get angry on his behalf.
“I understand a certain level of brutality is considered normal, but this is ridiculous, even for you,” Lily said while gesturing to his beat-up body.
“Why are you training so hard? You are probably
strongest, or at the very least,
of the strongest people participating, which is insane considering how many talented people there are this year. You are training like your life depends on it,” she said, her voice heavy with concern.
He nodded and walked up to her to give her a hug, making sure that he cleaned the blood from his body beforehand. Only when he released his arms around her did he speak.
“I am not training to fight Tier 3s. I have long been fighting Tier 4s and sometimes even stronger than Tier 4. I can’t be satisfied with just winning a tournament full of Tier 3s. I am looking way beyond that,” he said.
While his words may have sounded arrogant to some, he didn’t feel that way. It was merely a fact, and his experiences throughout the past year have supported this.
“I understand, but do you really need to go this far?” She argued, looking at his torn-up clothes and the carnage where Cain had thrashed him for the past couple of hours. Thankfully, his strategically coordinated hug worked, and she calmed down.
“No, but I don’t want to ever be in a position where I am helpless to help the people I care about. I understand that someone will always be stronger, but I can’t rely on someone like Doren coming in to save us. I need power of my own, and despite how strong I am for a Tier 3, it doesn’t seem like it is enough,” he explained.
She gave him a defeated sigh. “I know I can’t stop you. But please, take care of yourself. I want to see you live to a ripe old age.”
He nodded. “Don’t worry, that is the plan,” he said with a grin and quickly took out his beat-up lunch box. He was hungry and needed some fuel. He also thought it would be a nice little gift to alleviate Lily’s worries.
He opened the box and he spotted a row of simple little granola bars. They didn’t look like much, but he knew better. He quickly took two of them out and handed one of them to Lily.
She didn’t even say a word and snatched the bar out of his hand so fast, using her improved physical speed to aid her. He smiled when he saw that his plan had worked.
This item has quickly revealed itself to be one of his most valuable treasures. He didn’t need weapons or shiny babbles, but this lunch box was everything that he needed. The bar may have seemed simple, but he felt the powerful surges of life mana flow through him, refreshing him in a way his healing skill was incapable of.
Lily wasn’t the only person who seemed to want in on the fun. He felt a pulse from his soul, and Drasil appeared over his shoulder.
Drasil usually didn’t eat real food, preferring life mana over anything else. But ever since Julius had gotten this lunch box, Drasil made a point to eat from it whenever possible. Perhaps it was because the food was primarily made up of life mana, but all Julius knew was that Drasil loved it as much as he did.
The little glutton didn’t say a word and simply placed his hands out. Julius didn’t even blink an eye as he handed over his payment to his life spirit.
Drasil let out an excited coo as he received his gift and proceeded to take a small nibble out of the bar, savoring the bite as if it would be his last. Lily was right beside the little guy, rubbing him on his head. Drasil leaned into the pets, and Julius couldn't help but smile.
He didn't say it to her, but moments like this were exactly what he wanted to protect. That was why he needed to get stronger, and he would. No matter the cost.