Path to Transcendence

Julius and Lyra were riding the disk, but it would seem that he was the only one of them who was having fun. She was on her knees, desperately trying to hold on.
“Can you please stop?” She pleaded with him, her face almost pressed against the disk.
He sighed and acquiesced to her request. He stopped feeding the disk mana, and the item slowed down. It didn’t even come to a full stop when she jumped off it; she was bent over and looked like she was going to throw up.
“Do you know how to control this thing?” She asked him with a gasp.
“Sorry, I haven’t gotten used to it yet. I will get better, I promise,” he said, holding back his laugh.
“We are walking,” she stated, looking at him as if daring him to argue with her.
***
A big explosion rocked in front of them. They glanced at each other before they headed off in the same direction.
They were still in the plains, but there was a lot more vegetation all around them. Weird-looking trees and plants were all around him. It didn’t even look natural in some respects. But it was beautiful nonetheless.
When they arrived at the scene of the explosion, he was somewhat interested in seeing the chaos before him. Dozens of figures were fighting; more than half of these figures were monsters, but others were people.
They didn’t seem to be having the best of times either. It didn’t help that they weren't working together. They appeared more concerned with interfering with one another rather than taking on the monsters together.
The monsters weren’t unusual either, at least at first glance. Despite being far away, Julius thought these monsters looked a lot like goblins. They had the same stature and features, but they didn’t have the vibrant green skin he was accustomed to seeing.
Rather than the green skin, they had a very gray complexion. It made him wonder if these were actually goblins or not.
Julius and Lyra got closer to them, staying far enough behind to see what was happening. What made Julius believe that these weren’t goblins was the fact that they were strong. Nothing like the weak monsters he had come across in the past.
He saw these little monsters react with incredible speed. They only bore these ugly-looking weapons, but each strike was dangerous. They were flashing all over the place, and their strength wasn’t anything to mock either.
He saw one of these gray goblins knock down a spearman despite the substantial size difference. The spearman desperately tried to fend off the goblin, but another goblin decided to take the opportunity to attack the vulnerable opponent.
A shortsword made of warped metal drove into the shoulder blade of the spearman. They were so busy fighting the other goblin that they were caught off guard and shouted out in pain as the goblin removed the shortsword.
There was so much blood that spurted out of the wound, and as the spearman tried to staunch the bleeding, the goblins were like sharks. The moment they smelled blood, two more goblins stopped their fights with the other competitors and ran over to the spearman.
Their weapons tore huge hunks of the spearman, and despite the guy’s cries, they didn’t relent. The guy’s shrieks turned into breathless gasps, and his eyes dulled as he died from a final dagger shoved under his chin and into his brain.
The monsters cackled as they stood over the dead body, staring at the other humans with bloodthirsty looks. The ruthless demonstration and brutal death seemed to have had a profound impact on the rest of the humans. Their faces went pale at the bloody sight, and he could see their hands shake. One of them had even dropped their staff onto the ground in their fear.
Julius couldn’t help but wonder if these geniuses ever fought in a real-life or death battle.
It was likely that these kids had been trained by their wealthy families and schools. It was also important to remember that they were truly just kids. The odds were high that they were kids who hadn’t experienced some of the crueler parts of the world. Their terrified auras spoke as much. Even from all the way where he was hiding, he could literally smell the fear rolling off them.
The idea of death was foreign to them. They had been trained in simulated training areas and regulated sessions, but seeing one of their own peers get taken out in such a way must have been shocking.
He wasn’t even sure if they remembered that they wouldn’t actually die here. Although, to be fair, seeing anyone go through that would be a deterrent to most rational people.
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Julius stood there quietly as he watched the standoff between the remaining humans and these weird goblins. That standoff was swiftly shattered when a horror-struck girl panicked and broke out in a run.
When she ran off, the boy who had dropped his staff quickly followed. This seemed to be enough for the rest of the humans, because they all took off right behind them. The goblins all cackled as they watched the humans run off frantically.
They didn’t just let them run off, either; they quickly gave chase to the retreating humans. Julius didn’t make a move to help them. After all, this was still a competition, so he didn’t feel bad. Plus, they wouldn’t actually die. If that weren’t the case, then perhaps he would have stepped in.
The speedy little devils swiftly caught up with some of the slower humans and started to shred into them. With their composure broken, they were easy targets, and the creatures slaughtered two more humans. Their deaths were just as brutal as the first guy’s. Their screams echoed throughout the plains.
He looked at Lyra and noticed that she seemed a bit pale as she observed the scene. He didn’t say anything, though; he didn’t feel the need to embarrass her.
However, he did stand up and head over to where the goblins had come from. According to his senses, the other humans had come over for a particular reason. There was a small rocky ravine nearby, the place he suspected the monsters had come from. It was just barely out of sight at the moment, but his spatial senses picked it up.
He wanted to see what had intrigued them with his own eyes. He wasn’t that worried; he also wanted to obtain the tokens as quickly as possible, because if he did, then he wouldn’t have to worry about it later on.
“Where are you going?” She hissed softly at him.
He glanced back and noticed that she hadn’t made any moves to follow him. He tried to reassure her with some hand gestures. “I’m just going to take a look.”
“Did you just see what they did to all those people?” She asked nervously, looking at the trails of the goblins who were still chasing down the escaping competitors.
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s why it is a perfect opportunity to go investigate now.”
“What if there are more goblins?” She asked.
He shrugged. “There almost definitely are more, but at least there are fewer with some of them distracted. What? Are you scared?” He asked, pretending like he didn’t understand why she would feel that way.
She nodded without hesitation. “Yeah, those things are cruel and strong. Additionally, I match up against them pretty poorly, and if that ravine is any hint, I don’t know how effective I will be in such an environment.”
He actually admired that she realized that vital bit of information beforehand. It was true, in such an enclosed space, her bow would be less effective than if she stayed on the plains. The narrow cracks and spaces would make it hard for her. It was a smart conclusion based on the facts before her eyes.
“Yeah, but there might be something cool in there,” he said with an excited grin. “Aren’t you curious as well?”
She nodded agreeingly. “Of course, I am. But you are also a mage, so you might run into the same issue as me. Furthermore, if we go explore in there, we will be forced to fight close combat with a bunch of really fast monsters. My close combat skills aren't the worst, but I don’t have confidence if I have to fight more than three of them at the same time. I think we should— Hey!” She called out to him, halting whatever she was about to say.
While she was pointing all of this out to him, he was already walking away again. He understood her reasoning, but to her credit, she didn’t know that he loved close combat fighting. He was more than fine with exploring the ravine.
In fact, he really wanted to. Those little devils seemed like pretty exciting opponents despite being Tier 3. It was weirdly difficult to find actual challenging monsters now that he was strong. The only ones were usually Tier 4 and above.
But these little goblin variants were quite interesting. He wondered how well he would fare and how many he could take at once. He also didn’t really mind showing off some of his close combat skills.
Now that he had demonstrated some of his prowess in the first stage, he expected that many of the influential powers were already gathering information on him. And if they were any good, they would find out that he was a close combat specialist when he participated in the Goldencrest Tournament.
The information was bound to get out at some time; he mainly kept it a secret because he wanted to challenge himself. If he went all out, he probably wouldn’t find this realm that exciting. At least by setting a limit on himself, he might gain some nice levels out of it.
Look at the fight he had with Seraphyne. She had helped him achieve some notable milestones.
Speaking of Seraphyne, she was oddly quiet. He tried to communicate with her, but it was as if she were asleep or something. He let her be for the time being; she might be tired or something. He didn’t know how spirits worked.
When he was almost at the ravine, he smiled when he heard Lyra on his heels.
“If we die from this, I am going to kill you in the real world,” she muttered and proceeded to take out two small daggers from her ring. These daggers were quite interesting.
Her bow was nice and all of that, but despite not being a crafter, he could tell that the bow was meant for simple power, speed, and durability. These daggers were different. They had some interesting properties that poked at his mana senses.
He was ninety percent sure that they had some kind of poison or something with a debuff effect. They also had this intense sharpness coming from them that didn’t resemble his Sharpness Concept. He wondered if it was because this sharpness was built into the daggers, which was the reason it felt different.
“Trust me, you are going to have a lot of fun. Plus, who knows what kind of treasures we might find here?” he pointed out with a bright smile.
She huffed at him in response, but continued to follow him as they headed deeper into this ravine. Her face was still pale, likely remembering what had happened to those other people, but she braved forward.
Julius, on the other hand, was grinning like an idiot as he thought about what he might find in this little ravine. If the lake held so many intriguing secrets, what else might this realm have hidden beneath its surface?