Path to Transcendence

The scaly fellow wasn't the only one that was showing signs of aggression. There were other monsters who were waiting with tense auras. They were simply waiting to see if anyone else was going to make the first move.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait for long for one of the monsters to get impatient.

He pivoted to his right and grabbed the stone missile out of the air. A winged monster hiding up in a tree had shot it at him.

It wasn't that powerful and compared to the monster he had just fought, it was like catching a tennis ball out of the air. He hefted the projectile in one hand, getting a sense of the weight of the object, before cocking back his arm and throwing it.

He cheated a little bit and aided the throw with kinetic energy to stabilize the flight but he didn't feel confident in throwing an unfamiliar elongated object without some magical aid. Still, the result surprised him.

He would have thought it would be a bit more careful since it had just attacked him. However, the creature didn't even notice the retaliation before it was too late. Its own projectile tore through its chest with ease. Killing it in a single blow.

While this was going on, the other monsters must have realized that this was their best chance to attack. The second he killed the winged creature in the trees, all hell broke loose.

Almost a dozen various long-range attacks swarmed his position.

He didn't feel danger from any of them though and dodged most of them, but still took a few glancing blows. But the damage they did was pretty nominal. [Thermal Empowerment] actually did a pretty good job protecting him from these attacks.

He was more focused on the scaled monster and the fact that it was now dashing toward his unprotected back.

It was only about a few feet away from him when he finally stopped pretending that he didn't notice it. He quickly turned and stepped toward it, with his knee brought up. The monster was predictably shocked at Julius's sudden actions and was caught with a crushing blow underneath its jaw.

Julius could have sworn he heard something crack and then the creature went flying off until it smashed into the tree.

Although the hard impact did a lot of damage, the thing that did the most damage was his recent breakthrough with his skill and his Concept infusion.

As his strike connected, he felt his Concept overwhelm the monster's Concept with more ease than it had with the two-headed bear. And just like the two-headed bear, he felt its aura ignite into a blaze.

While the other monster had taken this burning effect pretty well, this monster seemed way less resilient. It let loose a piercing scream and started to thrash around in the dirt.

The other monsters who had sent out attacks of their own didn't make any other moves to attack again. In fact, when he had kneed that scaled monster against the tree and it started to screech, they all took a step back and hesitated.

However, they still weren't running away.

Julius sighed, a little annoyed at their behavior.

They were like vultures waiting for someone else to kill him and then swoop in to take a pound of flesh for themselves.

And he didn't like that one bit. Not at all.

The two-headed bear and to some extent the scaly guy at least had the guts to attack him head-on. He could respect that. They tried to take him down, but they didn't do so without taking risks of their own. They put their own safety on the line in order to get a chance.

These other monsters just shot at him from a distance when they thought they were safe. But the moment they thought they were in danger, they pulled back and froze in fear or hesitation.

He wasn't going to let them keep on doing that. They probably thought he was some person who didn't have a way to take care of them as long as they maintained their distance.

He didn't mind proving them wrong though. With a mere thought, he created over two dozen small spikes of mana the size of a pen with [Armaments of the Arcane] and charged them with a bit of kinetic energy.

He did this so fast, that the other monsters hiding behind the trees didn't have time to react.

They were only realizing their mistake when the blue spikes formed around him in a deadly halo of blue light. Julius could only shake his head at them when they started to try and retreat.

But by that time, it was far too late.

Julius sent these terrifyingly powerful tiny spikes at the crowd of monsters with precision.

His advancement to Tier 3 hadn't just improved his physical strength and speed. That was simply the easiest thing to notice. No, the thing that might have been the biggest upgrade was his mind.

He didn't know if it was due to advancing with [Sage of Savagery] and his Will Concept, but his mind was so much more flexible. He was able to concentrate on each individual monster in the forest and target each one of them.

It was like a symphony of explosions as the thin needles of mana tore through all of the monsters with laughable ease. They made the two-headed bear's defenses seem like an impregnable fortress in comparison.

Not a single opportunistic monster survived. All of them were snuffed out in an instant.

Honestly, if they had all just decided to attack him at once, there was a good chance he would have allowed them to without using his other skills.

However, he wasn't just going to sit there a let them bombard him with long ranged skills until he got tired. That wouldn't let him get the type of training he wanted with [Thermal Empowerment].

The only monster left was the scaled creature that was still spasming by the tree. It wasn't quite dead, but honestly, it was practically on the verge.

Its aura was falling apart before his very eyes. He kind of felt bad for it even if it had attempted to ambush him.

The damage he was sensing seemed very similar to what he had done to the woman who he had stolen the access card from. In that case, he had used his aura to collapse the woman's in a very brutal manner.

However, in this case, he had used his body skill. Although his body skill was heavily derived from his aura skill. Perhaps that was the reason he was able to burn his opponent's aura so effectively.

I was looking for a debuff kind of attack I could add to my body skill, but I didn't think it would be something quite like this, he inwardly thought.

He shot a spike of mana at the poor creature and quickly put it out of its misery. There was no need to let it continue to suffer.

After he did so he checked the many notifications he got during the training session as he walked deeper in the rift. Discover hidden content at empire

[Thermal Empowerment lvl 6 -> lvl 11]

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 4 -> lvl 5]

[Flash Step lvl 10 -> lvl 11]

He was also surprised by the next notification.

Would you like to learn the skill [Aura Burn]?

He had been thinking it was a part of his new skill, but apparently what he had been doing was just another ability entirely.

With that being said, he didn't know if he wanted to take this skill.

The main reason was that he only had one single skill slot left to fill.

However, he had a feeling that he would be getting another skill slot pretty soon. Most people get their extra skill slot as a reward after they advance to Tier 3. That was the most common method.

But Julius had gotten his when he was in Tier 2. This led him to believe that he would be getting something offered to him pretty soon. Perhaps, it would happen when he evolved a few more skills. At least that was what he was hoping for.

Then again, he was planning to merge his body skills into one in the future anyway, so he would have another open slot when that happened.

There weren't many skills he wanted to get either. He kind of wanted to get a skill for his kinetic restriction technique now that he was in Tier 3 and had more space in his soul to get a skill for it. But honestly, he didn't know how practical that would be.

He liked it because it felt really cool to freeze his opponents with just his will. But against stronger opponents, it wasn't as effective.

But would getting a skill make the technique stronger? That was the question.

He left it be for now. He could decide at a later date. After all, it wasn't like there was a timer for his decision. He still had the notification for the [Heat Control] skill he could accept at any time.

Maybe he would try to see what kind of skill he would get with his kinetic restriction technique before he decided.

It actually might not be a bad idea to try it out when he was in this rift.

He had made some really good progress with his body skill, so perhaps it would be smart to take a small break from it and change it up a little bit.

In fact, he believed he had a couple of volunteers coming up ahead.

They hadn't noticed him yet, but it was a small pack of monsters.

He had made some decent distance from where he had the fight with the two-headed bear and came across a more open area with a small lake up ahead. And right next to the lake were a bunch of weird-looking monsters.

They resembled goblins in a way, but they definitely weren't the usual goblins. These ones didn't have the green skin or the softer humanoid features. These were darker brown-skinned and had canine-like features. Long fangs and sharp-looking claws from their hands glimmered when the light hit them.

This was also the first time he had seen a group of the same species working together since he entered the rift.

So far, it had been all solitary monsters doing their own thing.

This group was different though. They looked very much like a pack. There was even a leader directing some of them. This leader was taller and meaner looking than the rest of them, so it was easy to distinguish it from the others.

Some might have avoided confronting this pack of monsters by themselves. In fact, Lily would definitely urge him to ignore them but he couldn't help but look at these monsters and think of them like potential sparring partners.

Who knows? He might even get a skill offered for his kinetic technique. That would be very helpful in allowing him to decide whether he should accept [Aura Burn] or not.