Path to Transcendence

Chapter 763: Small Lesson

He didn’t really want to leave Goldmere at the moment. Not with the Conclave messing about. But unfortunately, Lily wasn’t giving him a choice. She made it known in no uncertain terms that he would be going back with Leander and that he should not worry about her.

He didn’t really like it, but the fact that Marcus was with her as well as several more Tier 5s from House Violet helped alleviate many of his worries.

Two days after the meeting with Leander, Julius found himself riding in a carriage through the city alongside Leander and Phoebe. Soren wasn’t with him, which was probably intentional. They probably thought it best that the person who caused all this mess did not have too much contact with Julius. He was glad for it.

Still, he frowned as he looked out the window. He had not been in this part of the city before and took his time to observe his surroundings.

It was much more industrial in this district than in other parts of the city. He saw countless merchants and other groups transporting merchandise and other items around. However, a few more minutes of inspection were enough to understand what this district was for.

He spotted a massive airship rise above the buildings. It looked like everything a traditional ship you’d see on the ocean, except the ships he’d seen weren’t able to fly. This ship was around the size of two school buses stacked together, and it was impressive to just watch as it floated higher in the air with seemingly no issue. He barely felt any mana coming from it.

He continued to stare at it as it flew over the city and made its way up to the clouds. He’d seen airships coming and going from the city before, but this was the first time he felt truly awed when looking upon them. On this particular ship, he saw what looked like the Golden Cauldron’s Sect banner strewn across the front. He imagined it meant it was one of their ships, transporting sect-related goods.

He couldn’t help but wonder how much cargo one of the ships could hold. It was hard to imagine that they didn’t have some kind of spatial enchantments on the inside. But he also wondered what kind of limitations the enchantments had. He knew there were certain issues with large-scale spatial enchantments, especially those that could move.

Almost all of the large-scale enchantments he’d come across were anchored to a single plot of land or a large building. He talked, or rather was forced to listen to the shop owner from whom he’d bought his new ring. The man explained the complications and the added cost of creating a storage space anchored to something as small as a ring. The ship might have been larger and had more space to inscribe runes, but he suspected that created a whole bunch of other issues.

Not to mention there were likely hundreds of other enchantments clashing together. He wasn't an expert by any means; he only had a very simple understanding of enchanting, but he imagined it must have been a mess to organize all of the enchantments in a cohesive manner.

He shook his head and shifted his attention to his left when he felt a pair of eyes gazing at him.

“Umm, can I help you?” he asked Phoebe, Leander’s sister.

The young woman didn’t seem much older than him and was quite attractive, but Julius was more concerned about the way she kept on looking at him. It wasn’t hostile, but it felt like she was staring at a tasty piece of cake that she wanted to dissect.

“How do you do it?” she finally asked, her voice surprisingly warm and polite, a vivid contrast to her intense eyes.

He pressed his lips together. “Do what?”

“How do you keep it from going out of control?” she said, gesturing with her hands.

“You mean my kinetic energy?” he probed curiously. He suspected that was what she was talking about. Leander mentioned something about her trying to go down a similar path to his own, one that was more heavily aspected in destruction and unbalanced. He assumed that was the familiar sensation he sensed when he first saw her.

She nodded. “Yes, how do you keep it from damaging your body?”

Julius frowned and glanced over at Leander. He didn’t know if it was his place to give her advice.

Leander, to his credit, seemed to understand what he was asking. “It’s fine. You might be one of the only people she could actually ask for advice. Her path isn’t something myself or our father can help with. We have a much more balanced approach to kinetic energy. Any advice to her would be extremely valuable.”

Julius nodded and turned back to Phoebe. “Truth be told, I don’t.”

“Pardon?” She furrowed his brows in confusion.

He nodded along, understanding her confusion. “As you know, part of the cost of using kinetic energy is damaging your body. But instead of fighting it, you must embrace it.”

Her face twisted as she listened to his words, looking even more confused. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but must have decided otherwise, and clamped it shut. Funnily enough, he saw Leander hiding a smirk as he turned to stare at the window.

He scratched his head as he thought about the best way to explain it. “You have to accept the fact that the kinetic energy isn’t gentle. That it’s going to flood into one’s body violently and recklessly.”

“So you’re saying that I need to allow it to mar and destroy my body?”

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“Sort of. At first, it’s quite a painful process and not very practical unless you have a way to heal yourself, but continuously doing it over time will force your body to adapt.”

“That doesn’t sound like much of a solution.”

Julius shrugged. “That’s what I know. Control is useful, but if you control it too much, then it becomes weaker. Cain instructed me to let the kinetic energy rampage through my body and use my will to keep it from doing too much damage.”

Seeing that he wasn’t convincing her or making her understand it, he scooted over until he sat beside her. “Look here,” he said and held out his arm to her.

She glanced at his arm with a frown.

“Grab it,” he said a little more firmly.

She seemed doubtful but grabbed it nonetheless. He then began to let his kinetic energy trickle through his body, sending several pulses up and down his bones. He did it slowly, but didn’t hold it back. His body had undergone several significant transformations as he advanced from Tier 1, making his body an optimized conduit for kinetic energy, but it still wasn’t perfect.

Even with his experience and control, the kinetic energy still left small marks throughout his body. His passive healing made these small marks essentially a non-issue, but not everyone could do that.

He suspected that this was why Cain had a self-healing skill of his own too. Then again, the man’s body was such a destructive masterpiece that Julius didn’t know if that really mattered. He’d never seen a body like Cain’s before, and it wasn’t even close. It was as if the man’s body were built for the sole purpose of handling kinetic energy. He always wondered if Freya had a hard time healing her husband because of this.

He continued to send small pulses of kinetic energy through his body as Phoebe examined it. At first she didn’t seem that interested, but after half a minute, he felt her squeeze his arm in surprise. He grinned; it seemed she had finally noticed something.

He looked over and saw that Leander was just as intrigued. He had leaned forward and was looking at Julius with his full attention. His dark blue eyes were glowing softly as they no doubt examined each movement of kinetic energy.

Julius didn’t see a reason not to, and so he extended his other arm to Leander. The man was taken aback, but understanding what Julius was offering, he smiled gratefully and took the proffered arm.

“Fascinating,” he said with a soft whisper as he ran his senses through Julius’s arm.

Julius didn’t mind this either. For one, he quite liked Leander. He didn’t know if it was because the man learned at the same school that Cain and Freya managed, but Julius felt the man was trustworthy. It also helped that Leander seemed very willing to help Julius get what he wanted, such as improving his kinetic affinity.

“It doesn’t hurt?” Phoebe eventually asked, her eyes not leaving his arm for a single second.

“You get used to it,” he said with a shrug. “Do you have a focus skill?”

She looked up at him, her hand still wrapped around his forearm. “For pain specifically?”

“Yeah.”

“Not really. It’s a combat variation that helps dull pain when I’m fighting, but nothing like a pure [Pain Tolerance] or [Pain Resistance] evolution. I use it to enhance my control over my kinetic energy more than anything else.”

“Do you have a healing skill?”

She shook her head.

“Then I’d suggest you have a healer on hand during your next training session. That or have something that would help you heal your body.”

She chewed on her bottom lip. “Do you have a healing skill?” she asked him.

He paused for a moment and saw that she seemed genuinely curious about this. Rather than fishing for information. He was about to answer her, but before he could, he felt Leander straighten his robes and stand up as the carriage rolled to a stop.

“We’re here. We can discuss things later,” he said, beckoning them to get up as well, but placed a hand on Julius’s arm.

“I just wanted to warn you that not everyone has been informed of everything. Some might know you are Master Cain’s apprentice, but they don’t understand the full meaning of that, or the extent of our debt to Master Cain. That being said, if any of them do or say anything, just let me know, and I will personally handle it, okay?”

Julius laughed lightly. “I appreciate the warning. But don’t worry, I’m just here for the rift. I can handle some petty people for a brief period.”

Leander gave him a relieved smile and patted him on the shoulder before escorting him out of the carriage.

When Julius stepped onto the platform, he was quite surprised by the number of people waiting for them. There were half a dozen people, all wearing robes signifying their association with Clan Dawnfield. However, what really caught his eye was the airship sitting directly in front of him.

It wasn’t actually that large. If the airship he saw flying moments ago was a cargo ship, then this one seemed more in line with a pleasure yacht. Not only was it much smaller, but it was much prettier, too. It was almost completely white, with tasteful accents of blue and purple around the frame.

He could see some of these people working on the aircraft, making sure it was good to go. Some of them glanced over at Julius nervously. He didn’t know whether they knew who he was, so he followed Leander aboard the ship.

The only other time he’d been aboard an airship like this was when he was at the Burning Sun Sect. This one was very different. The ship he’d flown on before was more like a warship. So the level of luxury was quite a contrast.

“You’ve flown before?” Leander asked him.

“Yeah, but not like this,” he said with a nod.

“I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s really comfortable and quite fast. We’ll be back at the estate in no time.”

Julius nodded. He couldn’t wait to see what kind of rift awaited him.

***

The ride was pretty nice. Leander wasn’t kidding when he said it would be a comfortable flight. He barely felt any disturbance of the wind. Even when a monster attacked them on the way, he didn’t really notice it when a cannon blasted the creature from the sky.

On the bright side, he got to spend some much-needed time meditating, and there was something innately relaxing about meditating while flying amongst the clouds. He couldn’t quite describe the feeling, but it was incredibly soothing. He actually found it perfect for his Concept of Balance.

He tinkered with the concept and how it interacted with various skills or abilities. Funnily enough, Leander was a wonderful source of help with this. He’d sensed Julius’s Concept of Balance on his own and explained that he had one of his own.

He had some tips for Julius about what he could use the concept for other things. In fact, the man showed him the technique he used to help him fall asleep at night. A weird, but very helpful trick Julius was going to use from now on.

It was better than his own trick. Which was to essentially choke himself unconscious with his aura or to bash his head hard against a really hard surface.

For some inexplicable reason, Leander made a noise that sounded like he got punched in the throat when Julius told him this. But when Julius asked him what was wrong, he brushed it aside and quickly had Julius try out a new exercise instead.