Path to Transcendence

As he looked at his notification, his mind went back to the guy who had been hidden in the upper shelves of the ravine.
Julius was immediately suspicious of the guy. His aura control was the first indicator that something was weird. It was very well controlled, like Lily Violet, kind of well.
Anyone like that was someone to be cautious of. That, or they had some fantastic tutors, which was also something to worry about. He was also too friendly and too handsome. It almost felt like this guy was purposefully displaying an affable aura. It creeped Julius out. There had to be something wrong with the guy.
However, the guy’s last name stood out to him. He felt like he had heard about House Arkwright recently. It might have been Derek or one of his family members who had mentioned them. If Julius recalled correctly, they were an important house in the Empire. To be fair, it was hard to keep track of all of these noble families. There were just too many of them.
He would make sure to ask Lily or Derek when he saw them next. He expected they would know more about it than he would.
In the meantime, there was a hidden alcove just beyond the broken stone throne, and he wanted to check it out. Thankfully, the other guy seemed to understand that Julius tried to check it out alone, and so he stayed behind.
Julius didn’t sense any movements deep into the cave, but he had already been shown that some people or creatures could avoid his skill’s detection. So with a cautious eye, he continued to make his way deeper.
It was larger than he expected, and it took him almost five minutes before he came across something. It was a small recess tucked away, but he grinned widely when he spotted all of the stuff piled haphazardly across the room.
He skipped over to the piles and started to dig around.
To his disappointment, most of the things were junk. A majority of it was the same weapons he had seen the monsters use, or what seemed like materials from dead monsters. There were also small cores littered all around the floor, but Julius didn’t have much interest in them.
However, there were some interesting things buried underneath the junk. He spotted a small plant drowned under a pile of swords. This plant caught his eye because of the dense amount of life energy he felt coming from it. It had one single bright blue bud hanging off its stem.
The plant wasn’t even in the ground anymore; it looked like it had been ripped up and tossed to the side. Yet, it was in pristine condition, as if it had just bloomed yesterday. He quickly collected it, but while he wanted to examine it more closely, he had a lot of other stuff to go through. He would look over everything else once he was done.
It took a lot of time going through everything. But in the end, he came out with around a dozen items that had caught his eye. He didn’t think they were anything on the same level as some of the stuff that Vailon had given him, but they were nice nonetheless.
One item in particular had piqued his interest. It was a plain-looking stick. Truthfully, he didn’t think it was an actual stick. From the looks of it, it might have been an old want or a magical focus of some sort. However, it was hard to tell because it was very beaten up.
The wood it was made out of was dry and was splitting down the middle. It felt like it would turn to dust if he squeezed it hard enough. With that being said, his mana senses were drawn to the item like a moth to a flame.
Just underneath the damaged wood, he could feel a fascinating bit of fire mana radiating outward. If he looked really closely, he could see the dull orange glow flickering in and out from the core.
He was tempted to snap the wand in half to see what this core was, but he resisted the urge. There were other things that he wanted to test first. For example, the fire he sensed wasn’t just any normal fire. There were some unique properties in it that he could feel rippling beneath the surface.
Now that he had learned more about advanced fires from Cassandra, he was more aware of the different fires he came across. While he doubted this wand was made of an advanced form, it was special enough that he wanted to inspect it.
The wood did an excellent job at dampening the fire mana being emitted. If not for his physically touching the stick, he suspected he would never have noticed its special properties.
With that being said, he was definitely going to spend some time with it when he was free. He might even learn something that would help his fire.
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Among the other items he shoved in his ring were some herbs and various other things that were full of mana or had something special about them. He still didn’t have a dedicated analysis skill like some, but he could always take them to someone who would be able to analyze them for him.
As for the token, he looked all over the place for it. However, he realized he had completely overlooked it when he first entered. There was a small podium tucked away at the entrance. Sitting on the podium was the token.
It was the same coin that Vailon had given him, and like the previous one, it didn’t emit any mana or aura that he could tell. He knew that there was something special about it, which only made him more curious since, by all appearances, it was a simple coin.
Only when he believed he had gotten everything from the room did he decide to leave. However, just as he was leaving, his senses were pinged by something. He slowly turned back around and walked over to the wall he had been pinged.
He squinted his eyes and let his senses touch the wall to see if there was anything hidden beneath the stone. But nothing came up. Still, he was pretty sure that he had felt something.
He tilted his head as he stared at the wall in thought. Seeing no reason not to, he cocked back his fist and charged it with kinetic energy. Then, before he could think of a better thing to do than potentially cause a cave-in, he slammed his fist into the wall.
He made sure to concentrate his aura to pierce as deeply as possible. If something was there, his aura should naturally try to destroy it. He didn’t even need to direct it to do that. His ruinous aura had a will of its own sometimes.
Nothing happened at first. The only thing he accomplished was to create a large hole in the cave’s wall. But instead of walking away, he did what every rational person would do. He hit it again. Then five more times just to be sure.
He was about to give up when he finally felt something. The wall, which was now destroyed, was slowly being filled in. It was very minute, and it was only because his entire focus was concentrated on the wall, but he was able to sense the slightest bit of earth mana flow into the broken pieces.
It wasn’t just the mana being channeled into the wall that had him suspicious. It was the way it flowed through it. The flow pattern reminded him of a self-mending enchantment in some ways. Could it have been a natural occurrence? Perhaps.
But the odds were relatively low, and sensing this, he only became more determined to investigate further. A slight grin popped on his face as he began to charge more kinetic energy into his body. He removed his clothes, not seeing a reason to get them dirty with all of the debris. He also swiftly created a couple of drill-like constructs around his hands.
He smashed them together to test them out and was happy with the thump they made. He looked at the stone wall and back at his fists. Then he started to wail on the wall without remorse.
***
“Why won’t you just fucking break,” he grunted with one last poignant blow and stepped back.
He wiped the sweat from his brow. Even with his healing skill maintaining his stamina, he was a little tired. He went after the wall with all that he had. He probably would have created a cave-in if not for strategically placing large beams made out of mana around the cavern.
He had gotten a little more excited when he found out the stone was getting exponentially stronger and denser the deeper he went. Once he made it around five feet deep, it was like smashing his face into impenetrable steel.
He loved it.
It meant he could unleash every bit of his power without much restraint. The only thing he didn’t use was [Void Strike]. However, he wondered how effective it would have been. He hadn’t used the skill against something non-sentient before, so he didn’t really know.
On the other hand, he didn’t see a reason not to. It wasn’t like he was making much progress anymore. He had hit a dead end; he was basically just slamming his head into a brick wall. But it was still quite enlightening.
Most punching bags or training aids nowadays don't last when he hits them. It was rare for him to find something he could test his mettle against.
He backed up and gave the impenetrable wall one more look before nodding slightly. He took a step back and started to activate [Void Strike]. The familiar spatial energy rushed through his arm, down to his fist.
The energy's chaotic nature remained as restless as before. It forced him to maintain absolute concentration, or it would backfire on him. He had learned from his past mistake that it would not be a pleasant experience.
That was why he wouldn’t lose control.
He accumulated all the kinetic energy he could safely handle and slammed the drill that was shrouding his hands into the wall. There wasn’t a loud explosion like the previous attempts. [Void Strike] had a funny way of working, and most of the force was focused deeper beneath the surface.
While there wasn’t an explosion of any kind, this time he actually did some damage. The stone exterior that he had been trying so hard to punch through for the past ten minutes had finally cracked a little bit. It was so minor that he had to get within two inches to notice, but he did notice something.
That was all he needed. That was all the encouragement he needed to continue with his attempts. He didn’t care if he had to stay there all day; he kept on pummeling the rock until his hands fell off. It was a personal affront at this point, and he wouldn’t be denied.
He took a step back and cracked his neck, letting his [Sage of Savagery] take over a little more than usual. Then resumed his brutal beatdown on the stone wall.
It took longer than he expected, but after some persistence, he was finally able to create a large fissure down the middle of the stone. However, the moment he did that, he felt an overwhelming amount of mana press down on him.
It happened so fast that he wasn’t able to react in time. He could only grunt as the pressure forced his body down into the ground.