Path to Transcendence

Chapter 766: Rotund Spirit

Phoebe POV

Before they had left for Goldmere, her father had given her a long talk. For some reason, he told her to try to become friends with Julius if possible. That was quite a dumbfounding thing to hear, especially from her father of all people.

Phoebe had always been independent. Her brother would call it being a loner, but she preferred her peace. It wasn’t her fault either; when she was young, she had tried to make friends with kids her age. But it was hard when you were Varian Dawnfield's daughter. Even more so when she was as talented as she was.

Leander was lucky; he had Cedric and Hannah. Cedric might have been a lazy moron, but he had the talent to keep up with Leander for the most part. He was also the son of the patriarch, so he had that status too.

Hannah might have been even more talented. She was the daughter of a cook and didn’t have the stellar affinity, but she was born with an excellent fire affinity, which she later improved to perfection after a fortunate opportunity when she was younger. Her personality and close relationship with Leander meant the clan made sure she was cared for in every way possible.

While she didn’t specialize in pure combat, she handled herself very well for an alchemist. If you gave her enough time to prepare, you would find yourself in a world of pain.

Yet, Phoebe didn’t have anyone. Not that she needed anyone. And her parents didn’t seem to push her otherwise. Leander always made sure to make time for her, and that was enough.

So when she heard her father actually encourage her to make a friend, it felt weird.

She knew some things about the Shattered Winter School from Leander. He couldn’t talk about everything, but he was quick to praise his time there. It also helped that his time there proved fruitful. He was always a hard worker, but he was never as talented as Cedric or Hannah. Yet when he returned from the Northern Region, he was completely different.

He’d become an absolute monster. She didn’t know what happened to him, but he turned from a better-than-average Tier 3 into one of the best of his generation. Thankfully, he’d never changed, though. He was still the loving brother and kindhearted person she always knew. The one who would spend late nights helping her form her core and refine her skills.

So when she heard him talking about Lord Cain like he was god-blessed, she immediately took notice. But that wasn’t to say she was going to make friends with Lord Cain’s apprentice just because he was talented.

She didn’t care how much of a prodigy someone was; she wasn’t about to forfeit her self-respect just so she got closer to him. In fact, she was fully prepared for the boy to be an arrogant ass much like Soren.

Yet, he wasn’t. He was a smidge impudent and spoke to her brother a little too casually for her taste, but he wasn’t like she feared at all. He was honestly quite pleasant to be around. He didn’t speak all that much, and more importantly, carried an alarming amount of tasty food on him.

Leander had often snuck her down to the kitchens ever since she was a young girl. Mainly at night, for a late snack after training. It was where he’d met Hannah after all. Not surprisingly, food became her way to decompress after a particularly long or hard day.

Still, as much as she liked food, she didn’t keep as much of it on hand as Julius did. It was like half of his storage ring was filled to the brim with snacks. Most people would keep their rings full of important things. Stuff like potions and life-saving consumables. Or other valuable items that one needed to have on hand. You know, normal things.

But apparently not him.

Either he had an incredibly large storage ring, or he was one of the weirdest people she had met. Furthermore to that point, there were also some things that made her double back in bewilderment. The way he described skills and training made him sound even more… odd.

He talked about hurting oneself sounding like an everyday occurrence. Phoebe was a hard worker; she trained every day and never slacked off. But what he talked about wasn’t training; it was self-mutilation.

However, from her brother’s reaction, it seemed to work. She hadn’t seen Julius fight yet, but she knew her brother was impressed for some reason. And she trusted the eyes of someone she trusted over her own senses.

So when she stood across from him in her family’s private sparring yard, she felt a bit of nervousness for some reason.

“So what did you want to start on?” he asked her curiously.

She opened her mouth and closed it promptly after. She didn’t really know how to answer that. She had asked him to help her, but she didn’t really know where to start.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted.

He didn’t look bothered by this and grinned. “Well, Leander said you wanted to work on your kinetic energy and emulate it so it becomes more like mine, correct?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but how do we do that?”

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“Well, do you remember what I said before?”

She grimaced. “Yeah, but I don’t have a healing skill.”

He waved his hand. “Don’t worry about that. I have that covered.”

She scrunched her nose. “What does that mean?”

She wasn’t going to lie; she didn’t have much interest in torturing herself. But she also wanted to improve. This past year has been quite slow for her. She hadn’t made much progress with many of her skills and hadn't really achieved what she wanted to with her kinetic energy. So even if she didn’t want to, she was willing to at least try out his insane training method.

“I got the healing handled.”

“You have a healing skill you can use on other people?” she asked in surprise.

He narrowed his brows for a moment but shook his head. “I’m not the one who is going to heal you,” he finally said with a weird expression for some reason.

She was about to ask another question, but before she could open her mouth, she saw a faint flash of light appear over his right shoulder. To her astonishment, she saw a humanoid figure sitting on his shoulder.

From what she could discern, this figure seemed to be some kind of spirit. The life mana radiating from the spirit indicated it was a life spirit. Not only that, but it was ridiculously cute. It was only around the size of her palm and had a dark green cloak draped over its shoulders. She spotted what looked like a crown of vines and flowers poking out of the hood over its head.

However, what drew her attention was the protruding round tummy pushing out of the cloak.

Did spirits get pregnant? She thought to herself in confusion.

“Is that a life spirit?” she asked, intrigued.

“Yep, this is Drasil, and he is my familiar. He will be helping us out today, so you don’t have to worry about healing. Just focus on your kinetic energy and let him handle the rest.”

Drasil smiled widely and waved at her from his perch. He almost fell off Julius’s shoulder, though; the enlarged tummy seemed to pull him off balance. Julius was luckily there and used his hand to balance the rotund spirit.

Phoebe stared as Julius rubbed Drasil’s stomach gently. She knew she had a slightly dazed expression on her face, but she couldn’t stop staring at the spirit. Now that she was getting a closer look, she began to realize just how potent the mana coming from Drasil was.

Julius had already confirmed that he was a life spirit, but she hadn’t met any life spirits before. So she didn’t really know if this feeling was normal.

She looked over at Leander and noticed that he didn’t look as surprised. Rather, he was looking at Drasil with what could be described as fascination and adoration. If she didn’t know any better, he looked like he was tempted to snatch Drasil and cuddle him to his chest. Not exactly shocking, since she always knew that Leander had been jealous of Hannah's spirit since they were young, but it was still quite funny to see such an expression on her brother's face.

“Okay, first let’s see what you got. Show me how you normally use kinetic energy,” he said, breaking her out of her own thoughts.

She shook her head to clear out the distractions and let her mind focus. Then she slowly drew on her kinetic energy, letting it evenly infuse her muscles and bones. She packed it full until it felt completely saturated.

She nodded once, to let him know she was ready. He nodded in return and beckoned at her to come at him. She might have gone easier against another Tier 4, but this was someone who Lord Cain had taken as an apprentice. It was also someone who had beaten Soren quite handily.

And despite Soren’s relative inexperience and arrogance, he was quite strong for his tier.

She launched off her feet and closed the distance, accelerating her movements with each step. She kept her body tightly coiled together, and only when she was in front of his face did she snap out a swift punch.

As she anticipated, he was quite fast as well. He didn’t seem the least bit bothered by her speed and slipped to the side of her strike. She felt a little unnerved but continued to press forward, attacking him from other angles. She danced around, trying to find the right opening, testing his defenses methodically. However, that was easier said than done. He barely moved from his position, making minimal movements to parry her strikes.

He slapped her jab to the side with a little more force than she expected, knocking her slightly off balance. But he didn’t move in to attack her.

“Crank it up a bit,” he said to her with a calm expression.

It was only then that she realized why she felt something was off. She didn’t sense so much as a fluctuation in his aura or kinetic energy during the entire fight. It was like he was absorbing all of her kinetic energy for his own movements and used his aura to destroy whatever he couldn’t.

She also realized that his body was unnaturally strong and heavy. She’d sparred against her brother from time to time, and she’d say that Julius’s was every bit comparable.

Hence, she gradually increased the amount of kinetic energy she used. She started really going after him, so much that her focus skill automatically activated, and she started fighting a little more seriously.

Her limbs whipped out and struck like compressed pistons. She was throwing punches that normal Tier 4s would be struggling to defend against. Yet, Julius didn’t seem to be bothered at all. He continued to casually deflect or withstand her blows without issue.

She was starting to breathe harder, her strikes contained bits of her Authority and Concepts. She was no longer testing him, but actively trying to dismantle him.

She drove a particularly brutal knee upwards into his body when she felt her leg suddenly get swept from underneath her, and he grabbed her leg, throwing her away. She managed to balance herself at the last moment, and just before she dashed back in, she let out a surprised grunt when he unexpectedly appeared right under her nose. He didn’t attack her, though. He simply stood inches from her face with that same casual expression on his face.

Sweat dripped from her forehead as they stared at each other.

She didn’t even see him move; she only felt the vicious explosion of kinetic energy. And it was at this moment that she truly understood what Julius had meant when he was talking about how he used kinetic energy. It was harsh and brutish. There was no elegance or grace; it was pure, overwhelming momentum.

She could see why he insisted on having a healer. She suspected if she ever tried to use kinetic energy that way, she would tear her own body apart before she even reached her target.

He stared directly into her eyes. “Did you catch that?” he asked with a tilt of his head.

She nodded slowly as she internalized and memorized the exact way he used his kinetic energy. Her heart raced as she stood there and grinned when she realized this might be a lot more fun than she anticipated.