Path to Transcendence

Chapter 743: Hidden Objectives

He stared at the aftermath, still not believing his eyes. He knew that he used a lot of mana, but the level of destruction laid before him was still surprising. He gently lowered himself down to the ground, and once he was standing in the crater, he finally checked his notifications.

Congratulations, you have completed your skill evolution trial. Evolution of [Armaments of the Arcane] will now commence…

Notice: Hidden objectives detected…

No use of mana replenishing treasures or external aid detected…

Modifying evolution…

Congratulations, you have evolved [Armaments of the Arcane] -> [Primordial Armaments] (Legendary+)

He let out a toothy grin as he admired his new skill. He hadn't been expecting something like this. A hidden objective wasn't something he was prepared for, nor was it something he was aiming for. But he certainly wasn't going to complain.

Furthermore, he was glad to see that the name hadn’t changed much. Rather, it appeared to keep much of the versatility that he’d come to love about his previous skill.

Climbing his way out of the crater, he met Lily and Marcus. Both of whom were glaring at him exasperatedly.

“What?” he asked with confusion.

“What do you mean ‘what’?” Lily said with a scowl.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“I don’t know, because you caused enough destruction that you have forever changed the landscape of this place. Or the fact that you detonated so much mana that the city will send search parties out to see what the cause was,” Lily said, rubbing her forehead.

Julius winced and scratched his nose, properly chagrined. “Well, that sounds like we better get going then.”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” she said flatly.

“But hey! I got a good skill out of it,” he offered optimistically.

She didn’t seem as pleased as he was, but perhaps it had to do with the fact she was still busy wiping the ash and dirt from her face.

***

It turns out that having four legendary skills was still quite a lot for his soul to handle. It wasn’t anywhere near close to full or bursting, but he could feel a distinct weight that wasn’t there before. He wondered what the limit was for him. And whether or not the quality of the legendary skills in question affected how many he could have.

On his way back to the city, he did end up testing out his new skill a little bit. He didn’t need them anymore, but he attempted to conjure up his wings over his back.

The mana came to him seamlessly. It was like everything clicked into place. He always had a good connection to his mana, but this was on a totally new level. On top of his newly improved mana senses from his soul evolution, he almost cried from sheer joy when he activated the skill for the first time.

He’d never felt his mana behave so lively and so intuitively. It knew exactly what he wanted from his intent and visualization alone. He also quickly realized that he could become incredibly lazy if he relied on the skill too much. He made note of that before anything else.

Each feather on his wings bloomed like little flowers into existence. His fire mana moved on its own, slotting into the perfect place without any instructions. His aura infused into the wings without his input, stabilizing and enhancing the construct even more so. Not only that, but the ruinous aura acted almost docile. Nothing like how it typically behaved.

He wiped a tear from his face. It was wonderful.

It took almost no time for a pair of beautiful and delicate wings to drape over his shoulders. The deep blue hue his constructs normally took on was no longer present. Rather, the wings were practically white with the barest tint of dark blue around the edges. Additionally, there were small sparks of silver light traveling along the length of his wings.

He didn’t want to admit it, but they appeared very similar to what he imagined the wings of an angel looked like.

He gave them one experimental flap and was shocked at how easy it was. He shot upward with greater speed and acceleration than he had anticipated. Normally, they were there to stabilize his flight, but now it seemed they were there to increase his speed as well.

He would have to play with them to see what else had changed.

He did find out several things. The skill itself was very similar to his previous one, but this time he noticed a few important differences. For one, he was able to control a larger amount of mana than before. He didn’t try to handle as much as he could straight off the bat, but just during the brief second he connected to the skill, he was aware of the skill’s potential. It was like he couldn’t stop the mana from flooding in.

The other important point was the skill's ability to handle his Authority. He’d still be practicing with it, but unlike the epic version of the skill, it was like there was an empty cavern for his Authority to funnel through.

Overall, the skill was just an elevated version of his previous skill, with a newer, shinier look.

He was forced to dissipate the wings when they got closer to the city, though. They were a little too eye-catching, and considering he’d just left a large crater outside the city, he didn’t want anyone to spot him and stop him to ask questions. That would be a little awkward to explain.

***

He found himself sitting beside Lily at a nearby little restaurant enjoying a nice little lunch. It was a beautiful day out, and the food here was quite good. They made their own smoked bacon in-house, and they used it to make some of the most delicious sandwiches. They also had a nice outdoor seating area where they could watch people walking down the street.

Julius had already polished off his sandwich and was picking at his remaining fries while Lily was still working on her own sandwich. He took this moment to examine his status.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 4

Skills:

• [Calm Before Ruin lvl 7] (Legendary)
• [Phoenix Incarnate lvl 4] (Legendary+)
• [Primordial Armaments lvl 1] (Legendary+)
• [Lord of the Dying Sun lvl 2] (Legendary+)
• [Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 29] (Epic)
• [Absolute Spatial Perception lvl 25] (Epic)
• [Void Step lvl 23] (Epic+)
• [Void Strike lvl 21] (Epic+)
• [Spirit Fortification lvl 28] (Epic)
• [Field of the Shattered Will lvl 21] (Epic+)
• [Phoenix’s Mark lvl 8] (Epic+)
• [Harmonic Balance lvl 9] (Epic)

Current Skill Slots: 12/14

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Seed of Authority: Seed of Phoenix’s Ruin

Concepts:

• [Concept of Sharpness]
• [Pure Severance]
• [Concept of Will]
• [Inexorable Resolve]
• [Concept of Phoenix]
• [Ashen Rebirth]
• [Concept of Force]
• [Resonating Burst]
• [Concept of Space]
• [Chaotic Space]
• [Concept of Balance]
• [Burning Serenity]

Feats:

• [Feat of Enduring Resolve lvl 2]

Soul Bound Items:

• Fledgling Phoenix’s Lunch Box (Growth Type)
• Ruinous Crown (Growth Type)
• Lightweave Necklace
• Blanket of Gluttonous Renewal (Growth Type)

It had grown quite a lot, and he couldn't help but grin widely when he saw the four legendary skills taking up space within his skill slots. It was like all his hard work was paying off, and he was finally experiencing the rewards.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Lily suddenly asked him, wiping the corner of her mouth with a napkin.

“No reason,” he said smoothly.

“You were looking at your new skill, weren’t you?” she asked knowingly.

He turned away. “No.”

She chuckled but didn’t say anything else.

He pouted and threw another fry into his mouth. “So did you find out who was behind that little fiasco the other day?” he asked.

Apparently, there had been a problem at one of the construction sites, and someone decided to cause some issues in the middle of the night. They vandalized the building’s walls and destroyed many of the materials lying around. It wasn’t that big of a deal, and somewhat expected, but still annoying nonetheless.

“No, they avoided detection pretty well. We have some people trying to track them down, but I don’t expect much.”

“You think it was another clan or business?”

Lily nodded. “Probably, but unless we find clear evidence that they were behind it, there’s not much we can do.”

Julius was going to propose an idea he had, but his attention was drawn by the commotion down the street. It seemed that a carriage had crashed into another carriage. However, while one was more of a wagon than a carriage, the other looked quite expensive. It was as if it were carved from ivory, with intricate gold embellishments running along the edges.

A young man with white and gold robes walked out of the expensive carriage, and a young woman in a brilliant blue and white dress followed him. However, she was holding her head and had a frown marring her otherwise beautiful visage.

“Are you daft?” the young man shouted at the teenage male who had been driving the carriage.

The teenager, alongside an older man who looked like his father, was on the ground, busy gathering the contents of their carriage that had spilled all over the road.

“I’m talking to you!” the rich young man shouted again.

Julius looked over at Lily, and they didn’t have to say a word to each other. He both stood up at the same time and got ready to leave. They both knew when trouble was brewing, and neither wanted to be a part of it if it became a larger issue.

He placed several coins on the table before leaving and walking down the street in the opposite direction of the chaos. He didn’t know what happened or who was in the wrong, but he knew that his luck was so bad that it was likely that he would get dragged into it if he stayed around.

Unfortunately, it would seem that fate had it out for him once again, and his eye twitched when he sensed the young teen who’d been driving the carriage running toward them. He had a scared look on his face, and his arm was bleeding profusely.

Julius had no idea what happened in those brief moments, but it must have escalated. To make it even worse, it would seem this teen was dragging his problems with him and straight at Julius and Lily.

Julius quickly pulled Lily aside and let the teen sprint by. Julius noted that the teen was quite fast for only being Tier 3. Julius didn’t know if it was fear or actual talent that gave the teen such speed, but it was a little impressive regardless.

He hadn’t been planning to interfere; he really wasn’t. But when he saw the compressed bolt of rainbow mana rushing towards the teen’s back with alarming speed, he couldn’t just sit there doing nothing. He reached out to the bolt and wrapped it around with his aura before pulling a few strands loose. The bolt fell away into motes of light.

The teen didn’t even notice that he was that close to being killed or grievously injured. He continued sprinting down the street in desperation.

Once Julius was pretty sure that he was away and out of danger, he started to head away from the scene. However, in a flash of light, the young man in the white and gold robes appeared right in front of him.

Now that Julius got a closer look at him, he found himself scowling internally. The guy was ridiculously handsome. Like otherworldly beauty. Julius couldn’t see a single blemish on the guy’s skin, nor was there a lock of his perfect golden blonde hair out of place.

“Not fair,” he muttered subconsciously.

The guy who was glaring darkly at Julius twitched with confusion. “What?”

Julius blinked. “Sorry, what?”

The blonde guy seemed torn between being angry and puzzled. In the end, he seemed to decide on an irritated scowl.

“Why did you do that?”

“Do what?” he asked, pretending to be unaware.

“Interfere,” the guy ground out, clenching his jaw. His aura flared in response to his emotions, pressuring Julius.

“Why do you think it was me?” Julius asked curiously, swatting the aura aside like an annoying mosquito. Truth be told, he was quite interested to know how this guy seemed so certain that it was Julius who interfered. There were dozens of other people all around the street. Why did he seem so confident about Julius?

“Are you saying you weren’t the one who disrupted my mana?” The scowl was quickly replaced by a more calculating and cold stare.

Julius noticed that Lily was about to step in, but he gave her a soft mental nudge, letting her know to let him handle it. He didn’t want to get her involved if it wasn’t necessary.

Julius stared back at the guy and itched his cheek. “I’m not, not saying I didn’t do anything,” he offered.

“What? Stop with the riddles. Tell me yes or no, did you or did you not disrupt my mana and let the assailant get away?”

Julius wrinkled his nose. “I stopped what seemed like a massive compressed bolt about to tear through a young teen’s chest.”

“So you did.”

“I stopped what seemed like a completely unreasonable amount of force from being inflicted on a citizen of this city,” Julius said with a nod.

The young man grit his teeth. “You had no right. You have no idea what he even did, do you?”

“Crashed into you?”

“Yes.”

Julius sighed. “And?”

“And?” The guy asked with disbelief.

“Does that constitute you killing him?”

“Absolutely,” he responded with an alarming amount of conviction.

Julius was speechless; he simply blinked as he stared at the handsome man. “Seriously?”

“Do you even know who I am?”

Julius shrugged. “Nope.”

“I’m Soren Dawnfield, Inner Disciple of the Nine Peaks Sect,” the man said with an upwards tilt of his head, as if that was something Julius should know or be impressed by.

“Okay…” Julius said with a shrug.

For some reason, Soren’s face twisted in a weird way, and Julius couldn't help but wonder why. Did he say something wrong?