Path to Transcendence

Lily POV

She chuckled and saw that the others were having a jolly time as well. Aubrey in particular was having a blast. She was laughing boisterously and was immensely enjoying all the people visibly and audibly confused of what just occurred before their very eyes.

Edgar was laughing right beside Aubrey, slapping his knee in amusement at the people's reaction.

Derek was doing his best to hold in his own laughter but there was a shit eating smirk on his face that he wasn't able to hide. Kyle, at the very least, was able to rein in his reaction, but she was still able to notice the guy's enjoyment from the waft of emotions she was getting from him.

She tried to listen in as all of the people clamored loudly about how a first-year was able to beat one of the stronger participants.

Aubrey was still laughing her ass off and pointed at the surrounding crowd. "Look at their faces!"

Her loud voice caught the attention of the closer people. Their confused expressions quickly turned into offended ones. They didn't appear to appreciate her laughing at them at their own expense.

Derek nudged her while still stifling his own laugh. "Stop making fun of them. How are they supposed to know? I think their reactions are appropriate considering the circumstances."

"Yeah, but it's still funny to see!" She said with an even wider grin.

He shook his head. "Not as much as you're making it seem."

She pointed a finger at his face accusingly. "I know you find it hilarious too! I bet on the inside you are peeing your pants in laughter."

"I am not!" He denied fervently.

Aubrey turned to Lily and looked at her questioningly. She didn't even need to ask the question. Lily knew exactly what she was asking with that look.

She looked over at Derek's pleading look and tried to hide a giggle from escaping because they were both aware that he found it hilarious. He just had more manners than Aubrey.

However, Aubrey had already caught their exchange and exclaimed loudly. "See! I knew it!"

But before she could say anything, Derek zapped both of them with a little lightning before pouting off to the side.

After another soft smile to herself, she turned back toward the field where both Julius and Bethany were walking off of it.

Bethany Jacobs was someone she had known for a while, and while they weren't exactly friends, they had run across each other quite a lot over the years. Lily had even faced her in prior tournaments.

Unfortunately, Lily had not won against her before. So she knew better than most that Bethany Jacobs was not someone to take lightly. Her ability to destabilize people's mana and her powerful mana-based attacks were quite well known throughout the school.

The Jacobs family was a well-established House with generations of powerful people at their disposal. This wasn't just a first-year beating a Tier 3 who was in their third year and had recently advanced. This was a genuinely good fighter. Someone who had a good chance at getting a slot for the Tier 3 Inter-School Tournament.

This expectantly caused the interest of many who attended Goldencrest and perhaps more importantly, she could see that many of the representatives of the various guilds and organizations took note of Julius as well.

If he had wanted to remain lowkey, it would seem that period was over. He would now be a person of interest and of high potential for these groups.

Despite this, she grinned widely because she was excited to see that her friend was finally getting the recognition that he deserved.

***

Julius POV

He was pleasantly surprised by how the fight went. He hadn't been expecting that much, but his opponent had shown him some interesting skills.

Not only did she have pretty impressive mana control, but she also had a very exciting skill that disrupted his own mana.

It wasn't like any of the other mana-disrupting skills he had seen either. This one didn't seem to rely completely on Concepts or a powerful skill. It was almost like she was doing it manually.

If he had to compare it to something, it would be like she had been vigorously shaking her mana at a frequency that interrupted his own connection. It caught him off guard the first time she used it.

Luckily, he quickly understood that he just needed to reinforce his mana with his willpower. That way ,his mana wouldn't be as affected by this weird mana frequency.

As he was reviewing the fight in his head, he noticed the girl walking up to him.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Good fight," she said to him.

"You too."

"I wasn't expecting you to have such a powerful ranged attack. Did you not use it in your prior matches because you wanted to keep it a secret?" She asked him with a grin.

He shook his head with a matching smile. "Partly, but mainly because I have been focusing on my close combat skills. I still need to work on my constructs."

She scoffed at him. "You say that, but how many people do you think can shatter my barrier with only a few attacks?"

He tilted his head at her. Upon seeing her reaction, he didn't think he should tell her that he was holding back and that he could have created many more spikes at one time. That would probably only make her feel worse.

"If it makes you feel better, I am going to try and take your mana disrupting technique and implement it into my own skills," he told her right to her face that he was planning to steal her skill.

She smiled confidently. "Go right ahead, you wouldn't be the first person to attempt it. My family has been honing this technique for a long time. You should see my father use it, he makes my version seem like child's play in comparison."

"Any advice or maybe some tips of how to make it work?" He asked cheekily which had the girl give him an exasperated roll of her eyes.

"Wait until next time, I am not going to lose so easily. Just watch and see," she promised him before turning to walk away with one last grin.

***

As he was returning to his friends, he noticed that someone was approaching him.

To his bewilderment, it wasn't a staff member or another student. The woman seemed to be one of the people who had come to watch the matches, and if his intuition was correct, she was probably one of the scouts that Lily had mentioned earlier.

He stopped to let the woman come up to him. She was quite tall for a woman and although her beauty wasn't on par with Lily's or Aubrey's, she had this weird appeal to her that had him already feeling quite positively about her. He had no idea if it was one of her skills that was causing this or it was just her natural presence.

"Can I help you?" He asked before she could open her mouth and say anything.

To her credit, she went along with it very easily. "That was a very splendid fight," she complimented.

"Thank you, though I suspect that is not the reason why you came over to me," he said with a meaningful look.

"Straight to the punch, I see, I respect it," she said with a chuckle. "As I am sure you might have figured out already, I am a representative of the Stormcaller Guild based here in Heston. My name is Kiera, and I just wanted to introduce myself first before more people inevitably do so as well."

"I can't say I have heard of the Stormcaller Guild," he said to her with a frown.

"I am not surprised that you have. We aren't exactly the most renowned guild, as our numbers are quite low compared to other organizations. We specialize more in quality than quantity. With that being said, you can ask anyone and they will tell you that we are still one of the most successful groups with an impeccable record."

"I still don't see why you would come to me. I wouldn't be shocked to learn that this was my first fight that you have seen so far. If you guys emphasize quality, what makes you think I fit that description while only seeing a single fight?" He asked skeptically.

She smirked. "You don't think we wouldn't be impressed with just that?"

He looked at her with a calm expression. "Not for a moment."

She chuckled once again. "You're right, normally we wouldn't. But I happen to have good instincts about who I should recruit. Plus, you are a first-year who managed to beat a very good mage whom many would find hard to win against."

"And those instincts are the reason you approached me?"

"Partly."

"Oh? What are the other reasons?" He asked.

"We like to focus a lot of our efforts on commoners. While nobles are willing to join our organization, we found that commoners have fewer strings attached to them and they can often be diamonds in the rough if we cultivate them properly," she explained.

He nodded at her reasoning, but he didn't know what she was trying to ask of him.

"Regardless, you still haven't stated what you are offering me or what you are asking from me," he told her.

"Oh, I thought you already knew what I was here for. We are offering you the opportunity to join our guild."

"That is quite fast," he noted. "You don't need to see anything else from me? What if you find out that I am not actually what you are looking for?"

She looked at him with a grin. "I think you are exactly what we are looking for. And don't worry about resources, our guild has the resources to cultivate you, which rivals larger organizations. On top of that, since we have fewer members, these resources are much more available."

That was actually a great point and if he was interested in joining a group, it probably would be a big decider for him.

When she saw him ponder her words, she shook her head. "There is no worry about giving an answer now. You can take your time, I simply wanted to introduce ourselves to you before all the others come and attempt to gobble you up. In the meantime, take this," she said while handing him a card.

"Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. The location of our main building is on that card, you are more than free to come and visit."

He looked behind and saw that his friends must have wondered where he had been because they were coming to find him.

Kiera saw this as well.

"Well, it was nice to meet you. I hope that you choose to reach out to us," she said before turning away to leave.

He watched as she left just as quickly as she arrived and then looked down at the card she had given him. It was quite a pretty card, he must admit. However, he made sure that there wasn't anything weird attached to the card. He didn't want to keep it if there was some kind of location tracker enchanted to the card.

There was one thing that had bothered him the entire time he was talking with the woman. She had shown incredible control of her aura, to the point that he had zero clue about how strong she was. She seemed pretty normal, but he was confident that she wasn't wearing any aura items. There wasn't any of that artificial feeling that he associated with them.

No, this lady was at least skilled enough to shroud how strong she was from him. Something that was quite interesting, considering his recent improvements.

However, it certainly gave credit to her claims that her guild focused on having quality over quantity. He didn't see many people like that. It had surprised him, but many of the people he had come across since he came back didn't have that level of control.

Despite that, he understood there was no point in thinking about it for too long.

He examined the card one last time, and once he ensured there was nothing but paper and ink, he tucked it away into his ring. By the time he did, the others had finally arrived with a very excited Aubrey in tow.