Path to Transcendence

Julius opened his eyes to see a massive forest of astounding beauty. It was so vibrant and colorful. A stark contrast to the dark and empty void he had been in just moments ago.
He noticed right away how much life mana was in the air. It was absolutely throbbing with life mana. Each plant and tree was releasing so much life mana, he thought he might drown from the sheer amount of it.
Another thing he noticed was how good it smelled. It wasn’t just the smell of flowers, but there was this very distinct musk that was pleasant on the nose. It reminded him of warm sandalwood and cinnamon.
He closed his eyes to breathe it in and smiled as he relaxed.
Too bad it didn’t last for very long.
“Of course, I would get stuck with the masochist,” an annoyed voice spoke out.
Julius recognized that voice. It was the same one he heard from the mountain cave. It was the same one who had slammed him into the ground. He looked up excitedly. He hoped to get the chance to meet them again.
“Oh! Mr. Spirit!” Julius said with a bright smile, looking around, searching for the voice.
“I told you that my name isn’t Mr. Spirit.” The voice didn’t even sound annoyed at Julius anymore, merely resigned.
“Oh yeah, Kaelther mentioned that your name was Terradon or something, right?”
He heard the voice sigh loudly. “Of course he did, stupid bastard.”
Before Julius asked any questions, he bowed deeply. He didn’t know where the voice was, so he just bowed toward the largest tree off in the distance.
“I wanted to apologize once again for my impudent behaviour,” he said, with as much sincerity as he could manage.
He heard the voice sigh again. “I told you not to worry about it.”
Julius picked his head up and smiled. He always knew this individual was a big softy.
“So what does this mean for me? Are you the person who is managing my trial?”
“Yes, for the time being, I will be the one who proctors your trial since you chose this particular path,” Terradon said.
Julius chewed on his lip and looked around. “Um, no offense, but I didn’t think you would be the one who proctored the Life Path Trial.”
“Why not?”
“Well, I thought you were some kind of earth spirit. So it wouldn’t make sense.”
“Just because I can use earth magic doesn’t mean I can’t use life magic. Look at yourself, you can use several other affinities, not just your life affinity,” Terradon pointed out.
“Touche,” Julius admitted before frowning. “So what is this trial I will be taking?”
Julius didn’t get a response right away, but instead felt a gathering of energy in front of him. He squinted at this collection of energy with a curious eye. Then a light bloomed, blinding him briefly. Then suddenly he was standing in front of a man. The man wasn’t what Julius had been expecting to see.
Based on the voice, Julius had been expecting someone who looked a bit more… distinguished, or old if he was being more blunt. The voice sounded gravely and deep, not something he would associate with the young boy in front of him.
He looked like he couldn’t have been much older than Julius. Although Julius suspected this definitely wasn’t the case. For all he knew, Terradon was a thousand years old.
Okay, maybe not that old, but still. It was hard to tell.
“This is what you look like?” Julius muttered.
“What? You got a problem with that?” Terradon asked testily.
“No, no. You look exactly how you sound,” Julius lied with a wide smile.
“Hmph.”
Julius continued on smiling as he observed Terradon. The man, or rather boy, was young as stated before, and he also had some of the softest-looking chestnut hair Julius had ever seen. It looked like the perfect nesting spot for some birds.
However, what really stood out were the set of antlers on his head. Or Julius thought they were antlers. They were essentially small, little horns with several jutting branches. They were adorable, and Julius wanted to touch them.
Unfortunately, he didn’t think Terradon would appreciate that very much. He might have looked adorable, but it was apparent that on the inside, he was more like Dante than a young boy.
“Umm, so the trial?” Julius asked again, trying to shift his focus away from the cute horns.
“The trial has already been created for you,” Terradon said with a frown. It was like he knew that Julius was staring at his horns and wanted to say something.
“Did you create the trial?”
Terradon scoffed. “Of course not. If I did, I would have made it as hard as possible so you would fail, you masochist.”
Julius gasped dramatically and clenched his chest. “What? I thought you said you forgave me before?”
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Terradon crossed his arms and tapped his forearms. “I said that it was fine, but I didn’t say that I forgave you.”
Julius looked away. “Has anyone said you hold grudges?” He grumbled quietly.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“So are you supposed to tell me about the trial?” He asked curiously.
“Yeah, and if you stop looking at my antlers, I will tell you,” Terradon said with a frown.
Julius hadn’t realized he had been staring again. “Sorry,” he said, not feeling sorry at all.
“The trial is a simple one. I’m guessing it was created for you, taking into account your simple and masochistic nature.”
Julius stuck his tongue out. “Rude.”
“Masochist,” Terradon said matter-of-factly.
Julius kicked the grass in silence, not responding to the young-looking boy.
Terradon must have realized that he wasn’t about to talk, and so he continued. “As I was saying, your trial is simple. You just have to protect a village. If you manage to protect that, you will pass the trial. It doesn’t matter how many of the citizens die or how much the village is damaged in the process, as long as it's safe in the end.”
Julius narrowed his eyes. “Really? That’s it? I don’t mean to complain, but this hardly sounds like a trial that suits the Life Path.”
Terradon scrunched his eyes. “Who said this was a Life Path?”
“It’s not?” Julius asked, worriedly.
“Not completely. Sure, there are some aspects of life involved, but I suspect you detected life mana because of your own affinity.”
Julius frowned. Did this mean that his entire decision to choose this path was pointless? If so, was he actually better off selecting the Ruin Path?
He shook his head and rolled his eyes. There was nothing he could do about it now; all he could do was to complete this trial as best as he could.
He stared at Terradon and sighed. “Well, I guess I will have to pass this trial either way. Whether it’s a life-focused trial shouldn’t matter.”
“Well, don’t be too confident. There is a catch.”
“A catch?” He repeated.
“Yes. You will have one little change that might change your mind about how easy this will be,” Terradon said with a grin.
Julius didn’t like the look on his face. “What is it?”
“You won’t be fighting like you are used to,” Terradon said, his grin growing when he saw the confusion and shock on Julius’s face.
“What do you mean by that?” Julius asked, anxious about what he might hear.
Terradon shrugged. “All you need to know is that you will be occupying and fighting in a body much weaker than yours. You will still have a similar appearance and all, but you will not have all of your abilities. You know the little healing skill that you love to abuse so much?”
Julius nodded warily.
“Well, you won’t be able to use that. I guess you could say you will be fighting with the strength of an average Tier 1—no overpowered skills or abilities. You will have to rely on skill and sheer grit,” Terradon said to him, clearly enjoying the raging emotions crossing Julius’s face.
“Wait, hold on—” Julius tried to say, but Terradon was already shaking his head.
“Nope, I have already told you too much. Good luck, little masochist.”
Julius tried to reach out and grab Terradon by the shoulders, but before he could, he felt his body get wrapped up in spatial magic. He tried to disrupt the technique, but it was way too intense and complicated for him to unravel.
He could do nothing but shout in annoyance as he was whisked away once more.
***
Julius landed on his face and groaned. He immediately felt his weakness, and it was a struggle to pull himself onto his feet. He didn’t know if he could trust Terradon, so he quickly attempted to use [Phoenix Renewal] on himself.
To his concern, he wasn’t able to feel a single thing from his skill. It was silent, as if it had never existed in the first place. He didn’t like this feeling. He felt vulnerable for the first time in a while.
His healing skill was always something he relied on when fighting something or someone strong; not having it felt like he was missing a limb or going into battle without a stash full of treats.
Okay, maybe not
bad. But it was close.
His other skills didn’t seem to be working either. Feeling confused about the whole thing, he decided to check his status.
He physically flinched at what he saw. All of his skills were gone, and even his tier was replaced with a N/A. He had no idea what that meant, but he knew he didn’t like it.
In place of his missing skills were three simple ones. [Mana Manipulation], [Physical Enhancement], and [Mana Sense]. They didn’t have any levels attached to them. They weren’t even level one.
However, to his bewilderment, his concepts and other stuff were still there. They were untouched, and he wondered if the trial was unable to affect them the same way it was able to affect his skills.
Unfortunately, this didn’t really help him all that much—most of the time, he had to use his skills to get the most out of his concepts.
Just to be safe, he attempted to use some life mana to try to heal himself. But despite his best efforts, he couldn’t get a single bit of healing done. He might have gotten a little more invigorated, but that was it. Even then, he didn’t know whether he was feeling a placebo effect.
He grumbled unhappily and stood up to look around.
The surrounding area was somewhat similar to where he had just been. The main difference was that the life mana wasn’t as intense, nor was the forest as beautiful. The forest he was in at the moment almost had an uneasy feeling to it.
The plants were yellow and brown, as if they were in the midst of dying. He didn’t hear any animals or monsters nearby either.
He did notice something tugging him in a specific direction. Almost as if the trial were giving him directions.
He instinctively threw out his perception and was shocked to see that he was still able to use his spatial skill. While he wasn’t able to use his healing skill, it would seem that he could still sense the area with his spatial senses. He was very grateful for that, and while the distance seemed relatively small, it was enough for him.
It actually reminded him of the skill when he first got it.
Feeling a little more optimistic, he tried to go through all his skills to see which were still usable. While he did that, he made his way toward the little ping in his mind.