Path to Transcendence

He wasn't even given the chance to wave at them before Aubrey was already in his face.

"Who was that?" She asked loudly.

He used a single finger to push her forehead away from him as her nose was practically pressing into his own.

"Have you ever heard of personal space?"

Aubrey smacked his finger aside and threw her arms around him, squeezing tightly. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means… never mind," he said, his voice muffled in her chest.

Lily thankfully helped peel her off of him and he was able to see the light again.

"You should hear what some of the other students are saying about you!" Aubrey exclaimed.

His face twisted in confusion. "What do you mean?"

He didn't know if he wanted to hear what people were saying about him. They already haven't been that nice to him about the Reinera stuff. He had even heard people accuse him of manipulating her with some kind of magic, turning her into his slave.

He didn't see how they could think that, if that happened, he doubted he would be alive to see tomorrow. Her family would likely wipe his existence from the continent.

"I think I'm good," he said.

"What? Come on, some of it is hilarious," Aubrey insisted.

He deflated and let out a depressed sigh. He had a feeling he was going to hear what it was, regardless of whether he said yes or not. "Okay, what are they saying?"

However, once he said this, it was like the floodgates were unleashed and they all started speaking at once.

"I heard some theorizing that you somehow experienced some sort of time dilation rift where it was actually three years instead of several months," Edgar said with a wide smile.

"Some say you are actually a bastard son of a powerful House and that is the reason you are so strong," Derek added with a knowing smile.

"Although most are whispering that you are the princess's gigolo and that her family gave you a bunch of treasures to consume. Which helped you advance to Tier 3 so quickly," Aubrey said proudly as if it was something he should be pleased about.

He squinted at her in disbelief. "Why do you make that sound like that's a good thing?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, she's a princess, I feel like that is a compliment."

"In what world is that something I should be proud of?"

"I don't know, but I know I would be," she said enthusiastically.

He shook his head in disappointment and was already regretting his decision to ask them what they had heard.

***

It seemed like deja vu or something because once again, he found himself getting stared at by half of the student body as he walked around campus. Only this time it wasn't because people found out he was friends with their local celebrity.

This time it was because he had shown the school that he wasn't just some weak Tier 3 first-year. He had proven that he was someone that people needed to take seriously.

This was funny because almost the entire time he had been at Goldencrest, students had underestimated him. Of course, he did a lot to help this sentiment spread, but it remained a fact that people believed him to be a less-than-stellar representation of strength.

His prior incidents with weak monsters at the beginning of the year probably didn't help him either.

"I still can't believe you beat Bethany," Joshua exclaimed from next to him.

"What? Do you know her or something?" Tia asked curiously.

"Yeah, her family and mine are pretty good friends. She would come over to our estate from time to time when I was younger with her siblings to play. My cousin is actually still really good friends with her," Joshua replied.

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that your cousin was a fourth year. Is she also participating in the tournament?" Polux said.

"Yeah, she is. But she doesn't think she will be able to get a slot for the Inter-School Tournament. Her skillset doesn't specialize in pure combat. She has more of a supportive role on her own team," Joshua explained before turning to Julius once again.

"Regardless, I know Bethany, which is why I know that she didn't hold back like some of the people are claiming. She would not have blitzed you from the start if she were. She only does that when she is taking it seriously. Which makes your achievement all the more impressive."

Julius smiled in gratitude at Joshua's compliment and continued to snack on the muffin in his hand.

Unfortunately, it would seem that not everyone was convinced that his win was exactly 'legitimate'. Once the wilder rumors died down, there were still an alarming number of students who believed that his win was a fluke. This was especially more common among students who weren't there in person.

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"Those people are stupid. Anyone who was there in person knows what happened. The ones who were and are still denying it are just coping. Like I have been telling you guys for months, Julius is very strong. He is so strong that I am already making bets on him winning the entire thing," Polux stated firmly.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Polux, while I must admit that Julius is stronger than any of us thought even after you telling us, he still has to beat the likes of Liam Abrams, Irene Greiche, Derek Zenith, Edgar Crow, and others," Tia said and he couldn't help but notice that she placed much more emphasis on Edgar's name when she listed them. It would seem that her crush still hadn't gone away and that made him chuckle internally.

"Well, it's too late, I already put in most of my money earlier this week," Polux said with a proud smile.

Julius whipped his head over at the wolfkin boy and he wasn't the only one. Joshua and Tia had similarly given the boy looks of confusion.

"Wait, you were serious?"

"Yeah? Why would you think I was lying?" Polux asked, sounding genuinely startled.

"How much did you bet?" Joshua asked hesitantly.

"I don't know the exact number, but I asked my tribe to send over some additional funds, so it is a pretty hefty number. And the best part is that I submitted my bet before you won that fight, which means my odds are much better than they are probably at now," Polux said enthusiastically.

"I didn't take you for a betting man," Julius commented with a laugh.

"Is it really a bet if I already know the outcome?" Polux said arrogantly.

Tia smacked Polux hard. "Shut up, now you are just sounding like an idiot. How did you even manage to find a place to place such a bet?"

Polux didn't even flinch when he was hit. He merely dusted off his shoulder. "Haven't you guys been paying attention? There are students advertising it all around the communal areas."

Julius didn't know that, though to be fair, he didn't hang around in those areas, especially with how things were recently. Even the library wasn't quite as safe as it once was.

While the librarians did a really good job of not allowing students to harass him and Reinera, they could do nothing about people staring. This meant that he found himself only getting alone time at the beach or at the training facilities.

Speaking of training, he reminded himself that he wanted to try another variation of his experiment later tonight.

He had been working on two main things. One was his Space Concept, which was having mixed results, and the other was improving his constructs.

When it came to his Space Concept, he was still having a hard time figuring it out. When he went out the other weekend, he visited Declan and Orus, but he also made another trip to Dante's, where he was able to see Alice for some time.

It wasn't for very long, but he was able to ask her for more advice. When he mentioned his frustrations with his lack of progress, she laughed loudly at him.

She told him that some people went dozens of years without ever touching upon a Space Concept. While some were able to learn spatial skills, the actual acquisition of a Space Concept was on a different level. So even with his likely high affinity for it, he was still going to find it hard.

Not to mention that he was still Tier 3 and that his mind still hadn't taken that step into Tier 4 territory, which probably hampered his progress.

She admitted that it had taken her years to finally acquire her own Space Concept.

Her reassurances helped him calm down. He was still used to learning Concepts pretty quickly and he had to remind himself that he couldn't expect everything to come so easily.

Still, it was a bitter pill to swallow because he really wanted to acquire one. He only had three more skills left to evolve to epic and he was already imagining how nice his status would look once he was able to.

Speaking of status, he hadn't looked at it in a while and decided to pull it up.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 3

Skills:

[Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 7] (Epic+)

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 12] (Epic)

[Sage of Savagery lvl 13] (Epic)

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 9] (Epic)

[Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 6] (Epic)

[Barrier of Severance lvl 18] (Rare+)

[Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)

[Flash Step lvl 16] (Rare)

Current Skill Slots: 8/11

Concepts:

[Concept of Sharpness]

[Severing Will]

[Concept of Will]

[Inexorable Resolve]

[Concept of Phoenix]

[Ashen Rebirth]

[Concept of Force]

[Resonating Burst]

He looked at his status with a smile. It certainly showed some improvements since the last time he was Heston. If the current him fought the old him, he wouldn't even have to move a finger, he would be able to beat him with just his aura.

After he reviewed his status, he changed his mind. He wasn't going to work on his Concept training tonight. He believed that it might be a good chance to change his approach and it wouldn't be a bad idea to work on something else in the meantime.

[Barrier of Severance] was quite close to advancing, and it might be a good idea to work on it instead of slamming his head on the steel wall, which was the Space Concept.

He already had some ideas about different ways he could use [Barrier of Severance] and how that might be able to advance it to level 20.

He might be able to adapt the skill so that it worked with his aura skill. He didn't know if it would work, but if he could use the sharpness aspect of the skill to elevate his aura's ability to cut through his opponent's defenses, it might be worthwhile.

However, he wasn't putting many expectations on it since it was more of an excuse to train his skill in funny ways. There were other ideas floating in his head which he could try if it didn't work as well.

"Hey, are you listening, Julius?"

He shook himself out of his own world and turned to Joshua who had been talking to him.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"I asked if you were ready to go and head over to watch James's final match?" The other boy repeated.

"Oh, is it already time?"

"Yeah, it should be starting in less than an hour. I want to get seats before it starts, though."

"We'll be fine, he's fighting in Arena 5 which means there won't be that many people," Tia reminded him.

"It doesn't hurt to make sure," Joshua defended himself.

Everyone else had already finished their last match of the prelims. Polux had actually finished with a flawless record, and Joshua had gotten close but ended up losing his final match when he went up against a talented second-year.

Tia had gotten close as well but had similarly ended up losing her final match to a powerful fire mage whose fire devoured her vines.

This was a very impressive result for all of them, showing the progress they had made in the several months Julius had been away. Tia had even already made some very nice changes to her vines in the past couple of weeks. It was much more difficult to sense them with one's mana sense.

Without another word to each other, they all headed toward the arena to support their resident fire mage.