Path to Transcendence

Before they decided to head back, he had one last thing he wanted to do.

He had planned to do it before, but had gotten sidetracked with playing with his new item.

So without further ado, he took Drasil out of his soul space. The adorable green guy popped up right on his palm. Like usual, the little lazy spirit was fast asleep, snoring away like nothing else mattered in the world.

He attempted to poke Drasil to wake him up, but all that accomplished was Drasil grabbing tightly onto his finger and snuggling it like one would a stuffed animal.

When he tried to retract his finger, he ended up pulling Drasil along with it. So with a life spirit dangling off of his finger, he waved it at Marcus.

"This is Drasil. He is a life spirit, indulgent glutton, and as you can already see, a lazy little guy who loves to sleep." Julius quickly introduced his familiar to the other man.

"Hey, don't talk badly about Drasil. He does his best, and you should treat him better," Lily scolded him. She then walked over and gently removed Drasil from his finger, cuddling the small spirit to her chest while scratching his stomach with her own finger.

"I'm not wrong. He rarely does anything except sleep. The only time he really wants to be awake is to eat my mana," he said with an exasperated look toward Drasil.

Marcus walked over to Lily and inspected Drasil up close. His eyes were glowing purple, as they had when he had analysed the items earlier.

"Fascinating," he murmured.

"What's fascinating?"

"Your familiar is. He is very healthy and well developed for a life spirit," Marcus commented.

"He better be, I give him enough mana," Julius said with a pointed look at the spirit.

"It's more than that. He has a solid foundation, much more advanced than you would normally see from a regular life spirit. You said you raised him from a seed?"

"Yep, fed him my mana and out he came," he said.

"Are you planning to give him that sapling tonight?" Marcus asked, still staring at the sleeping Drasil in Lily's hands.

"That was the plan. Although if he doesn't wake up, then I will just have to do it another night," Julius said while removing the glass bottle from his storage ring.

He raised the bottle into the air and let the light from the room illuminate the brilliant white sapling contained within. The bottle was blocking any mana that might come from the sapling, but he could practically see the life mana emanating from the treasure inside.

After he turned it over in his hands and gave it another inspection, he walked over to Lily, who was drowning the sleeping spirit in affection.

"Hey, wake up, buddy. I got something to show you," he said to Drasil.

Predictably, this didn't work, and Drasil continued to snore away.

Sighing, he created a small ball of life mana in his hand and hovered it over Drasil's face. Almost immediately, the gluttonous fellow snatched the orb with astonishing speed. Grabbing it with his two tiny hands and bringing it his mouth to suck on.

Unfortunately, his motions seemed to be an instinctual reaction, and he remained 'asleep' as he suckled on the life orb.

"I told you a thousand times to stop eating while you sleep," he reprimanded the spirit.

Drasil let out a satisfied coo as he drained the orb of mana.

"If you want to sleep, that is fine with me. But I guess that means I will have to find another life spirit to give this tasty treasure to," he said with a sad shake of his head while dangling the bottle over Drasil.

To his immense amusement, Drasil stopped pretending to be asleep and tried to snatch the bottle in front of him. However, unlike the orb of life mana, Julius was much faster than his familiar and quickly moved it out of reach, much to Drasil's displeasure.

"What, did you really think you could trick me?"

Drasil looked away guiltily and chimed quietly. As if he were saying to Julius, "It was worth a shot."

"You're getting too spoiled lately. Maybe I should cut back your diet," he muttered quietly to himself.

He heard Drasil gasp dramatically and leaped from Lily's hand onto his nose.

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The little spirit tugged as hard as his tiny fingers could onto his nostrils and let out a symphony of sounds that vocalized his vehement protest at this idea.

Staring crosseyed at Drasil, who was staring at him with sadness, he sighed. "Okay, I won't cut your diet, but you have to start listening better."

Drasil nodded firmly and threw up a single arm in a mock salute, while promising Julius he would.

Seeing that his point was made, he picked Drasil up from his nose and placed him on the nearby table. Then he handed the life spirit the bottle containing the sapling with a chuckle.

The little guy yelped in joy as he grabbed the bottle, which was practically his size, and ran around the table in excitement.

Julius had learned that Drasil was much stronger than one would expect from a spirit of his size. He had personally witnessed Drasil tossing a rock twice the size of his little self with ease just because the rock was in the way of a spot in the grass where he wanted to nap.

He had also learned that Drasil could sense life mana no matter how small, wherever he was. Thus, he wasn't surprised when the spirit seemed to know what was in the bottle or at least knew that it had something to do with life mana.

"A good foundation and remarkably intelligent, too, it would seem," Marcus noted with a grin.

"Yeah, a little too intelligent at times," Julius admitted with a smirk of his own.

"Better than the opposite."

Julius had to acknowledge the truth in that statement. He was very grateful that Drasil could understand him. He didn't even need to tell him with words. Drasil had the ability to sense Julius's emotions and thoughts with such clarity that it made words obsolete. The connection between the two was strong and only got stronger as time went on.

Julius had even gotten much better at sensing Drasil's emotions. With that being said, it was a much more difficult task. A life spirit's mind didn't work the same way a human's did. Sometimes, he had no idea what certain flashes of emotions and images coming from Drasil meant. Thankfully, Drasil usually only had two real thoughts going on at one time.

Food and sleep.

Therefore, if he had to deal with Drasil's occasional trickery, he would say it was well worth it.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when he felt Drasil tugging on his hand. Looking down, he saw Drasil's pouting face.

The spirit had been trying to open the bottle in order to get to the sapling. He had even gone as far as to wack the glass bottle onto the table and it would appear that he had given up.

"Do you need help opening it?" He asked with a knowing smile.

Drasil nodded aggressively and held out the bottle toward Julius.

The bottle was just like the box, and opening it required some of his aura. So, he quickly funneled his aura and felt the cap snap open.

The moment the seal broke, he was able to feel the incredible surge of life mana immediately. It was so potent, he almost sneezed from the overwhelming sensations. Whatever this sapling was, it was positively blooming with mana and there was something else along with it.

It felt like a Concept, but it was a sapling, so he was confused about why he was feeling that way. Whatever this treasure was, Drasil was undoubtedly overjoyed to see it.

Just like he did when he sensed the lotus he had received from Lily, Drasil cheered loudly and raised his arms toward the now-revealing treasure, motioning at the bottle.

Julius, understanding that Drasil would know better what to do with the treasure than he ever would, passed the now open bottle to Drasil's eagerly awaiting arms.

Before he could inspect the sapling, Drasil tilted the bottle upside down. Julius watched as this natural treasure disappeared down the gullet of his life spirit in the blink of an eye.

He wasn't going to lie, he expected to see a big boom of mana or something of the kind, but he was slightly disappointed when all he saw was a burping Drasil who now sported a bulging stomach.

"It is probably going to take him time to digest and break down the treasure," Marcus commented to him, probably seeing Julius's expression.

"How long do you think it's going to take?" Julius asked, sensing the rhythmic pulses of life mana from Drasil's stomach.

"I don't know. It's too hard to say, but the treasure definitely felt like a powerful one, so I imagine Drasil might take quite a long time to absorb it completely."

Julius nodded at Marcus before turning toward Drasil, who looked immensely pleased and satisfied.

"How was it?" He asked his familiar.

Drasil cooed softly and staggered over to Julius to give him a grateful hug.

Julius could sense that Drasil was getting tired very quickly. Apparently, consuming a treasure like that made a spirit sleepy, and Drasil was about to fall asleep on his feet.

Picking him up with both hands, he removed a small blanket from his storage ring and wrapped him up in it. Drasil, chimed his gratitude and started snoring almost immediately.

Lily, who had been watching intently the entire time, walked up to him with pleading eyes that eerily resembled what Drasil had looked like only moments ago, holding out her hands and looking at Drasil.

"How many?" He asked her.

"Two cakes from Holly's Bakery," she stated firmly.

"Five," he shot back.

She looked at him with such disgust, as if he had just punched her mother in the face. "No way, that is robbery. I will do three, and I get to hold him until we get back to campus."

He shook his head. "Four and you get to hold him until I head off to bed," he offered.

She was about to argue, but stopped in her tracks when he held up the snoring Drasil right in her face. When she saw him and heard the soft snores that sounded like the gentlest breeze rustling the leaves of a tree, she deflated defeatedly.

"Deal."

He smiled victoriously and happily handed over Drasil to her. He had successfully haggled with Lily and came out on top, not something done easily.

Sure, it might have required him to sell off his familiar like a commodity, but he was sure Drasil would understand. It was all in the name of food, and if anyone could empathize, it would be the gluttonous little life spirit.

So with a pleased expression on his face, he gave himself a pat on the back for a job well done.

However, that feeling only lasted a few moments when he spotted the similarly pleased and victorious expression on Lily's face.

He was starting to have the feeling that he hadn't won their negotiations at all.