Path to Transcendence

Chapter 769: Old Man Rivers

Julius might not have been able to learn a new skill or combine [Void Step] or [Void Strike], but he did level up another skill instead.

[Phoenix Incarnate lvl 5 -> lvl 6]

Not that it was particularly surprising. He did end up using it quite a bit during his experimentations. He wasn’t that upset about not merging the skills either. He knew he was on the right track and was more concerned with how alarmed Phoebe had been. When he saw her pushing herself that hard, he hadn’t expected her to be as… squeamish.

Then again, he had gone a little far. He hoped this little incident wouldn’t influence her opinion of him too much.

On the bright side, he had finally gotten permission to enter the rift. And he could go alone. Apparently there had been a big fuss about it, but Leander and Phoebe’s father had put his foot down. Julius would have to thank the man when he met him.

So with no other reason to delay him, he was taken to the location of the rift. Leander escorted him and already gave Julius a few things. One of these items was a compass that should help him find his way back to the entrance. Since the rift was so complex and easy to get lost in, the compass would be his primary way to find his way back. Especially since he was restricted from going to the fifth floor.

Julius was interested in knowing what was on that level, but he knew better than to piss off Clan Dawnfield by messing around in their prized rift. It was already fortunate that he was allowed inside alone without supervision, so he wasn’t about to spit in their faces.

He was also given a few other items. One was a bracelet that would help him deal with the death aura inside the rift. While the monsters primarily used kinetic energy, they were still undead, and death mana as well as a powerful death aura perfused the entire rift.

He shouldn’t have to worry about it, but it was nice to see that Leander gave him it. He was also given several powerful purification potions. This was in case the bracelet didn’t work, and he was infected by the death energies lingering inside. These potions would purify him of its effects as well as any other diseases or curses he might pick up.

The final item they gave him was a one-time-use protection talisman. They gave it to him because consuming the fruit as he planned would leave him vulnerable. The talisman would set up a barrier that would protect him for a period of time while the fruit’s effects ran their course.

He might not use the other stuff, but this would definitely come in handy. He also had Seraphyne and Drasil to help watch over him, but he didn’t want to force them to do that.

To his surprise, the rift itself was quite far away. It was around a day’s trip on a carriage, but fortunately Leander had a flying sword that cut that time into practically nothing. It probably took around an hour total for them to arrive at the site.

Julius could have told the man that he was more than capable of keeping up on his own, but truth be told, he was curious about the flying sword. He wanted to see how they worked up close.

He had seen many people in Corvus using them, and they had always looked really cool. Unsurprisingly, within ten minutes of flying on Leander’s, he was pretty much dead set on buying one of his own when he had the chance.

It wasn’t like he necessarily needed a flying sword, not with his current flying capabilities. But he wanted one because they looked cool as hell.

Funnily enough, the mana cost of using one was greater than he would have to pay if he flew using kinetic energy. But there was something about flying on a massive sword that just made him giddy with excitement. Plus, it was so stable and seemed to be much easier to use than his current flying technique.

Don’t get him wrong, he was pretty good at flying nowadays, but it still wasn’t an easy thing to do. It required a lot of focus and on-the-fly mental processing to keep acceleration and balance stable under extreme loads.

Julius looked with an intrigued tilt of his head as they approached what seemed to be nothing but a large boulder in the middle of a field. He didn’t sense any rifts or mana anywhere.

“Where did you say this rift was?” he asked Leander.

The man smirked as he kept walking. “It’s here,” he said confidently.

Julius frowned and extended his senses. However, he still wasn’t able to sense anything. It wasn’t until he got within ten feet of the boulder that he felt something. He didn’t really know what it was, or even notice it if he hadn't been actively searching for something. But his spatial senses and Space Concept picked up the slightest bits of fluctuations from the boulder.

“Is it hidden?” he asked curiously.

Leander nodded. “Yeah, we thought it was best to keep this rift hidden from anyone who might come across it.”

Julius was honestly impressed; his senses were really good, and it took a lot to hide something from him. He suspected that a pretty talented person made this enchantment to hide the rift.

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“So what? Is it hidden inside the rock?” he asked Leander.

“Close,” the man said and walked over to the boulder, placing a hand directly onto the surface and sending a complicated web of aura into it. It was only then that Julius felt some reverberations of mana and aura. A slight flash of white light lit up underneath Leander’s palm, and then the boulder shifted.

Julius watched with fascination as a thin line appeared on its surface and then swiftly split apart. The boulder pulled away, revealing a staircase leading down into the ground. Warm mana lights illuminated the staircase, and Julius could feel the strong pulsations of mana lining the walls.

He knew right away that these walls were extremely strong. He doubted even one of his spikes would be able to damage them easily.

Leander patted him on the back and grinned widely. “After you.”

Julius looked at him suspiciously but ultimately walked down the steps. The stairs led down to a large ivory door. Several symbols representing the Dawnfield Clan were engraved on the door, and Julius could feel even more mana radiating from it.

They were taking security pretty seriously.

Leander once again pressed his palm to the door, and Julius watched as it swung open. A cloud of cool air hit him right in the face. However, just as he was about to walk through the door, a bright flash of light was suddenly coming straight for his face.

He threw up a barrier instinctively, but it wasn’t needed. The light was harmless, and he suspected it was some type of detection enchantment.

He heard Leander chuckling from behind him. Julius turned and glared at the man for a moment before he turned back when he sensed a figure approaching them. Leander didn’t seem worried, so neither did Julius.

After a few moments, he got a closer look at them. If he was being honest, the man walking towards them looked pretty old. He had a full head of grey hair and looked quite frail.

Leander waved and walked forward. “Hey, Old Man Rivers. You’ve been enjoying your solitude down here?”

The old man completely ignored Leander and walked right past him, only stopping when he was in front of Julius.

“Is this the one who Gin was making all of that fuss about?” Rivers finally spoke to Leander. His voice sounded as if even this many words were tiresome for him.

“Yeah, this is him. What do you think?”

The old man let out an indifferent huff and turned away.

Leander came back to Julius and sighed. “Don’t worry about him. Old Man Rivers is just a grumpy guy. But he’s the one who normally takes care of this place, so don’t get on his bad side.”

Julius kept staring at the old man. Julius was typically very good at sensing someone's tier. One’s presence was usually enough to determine that. Yet, when he looked at the old man, he got nothing.

No mana, no aura, and no presence. If he didn’t know any better, and if he didn’t feel the man there with his spatial perception, he would have thought the man was simply some kind of illusion.

“Does he live here?” Julius finally asked Leander as he examined the large room they found themselves in. It was quite massive; the room was around the size of a large ballroom. There wasn’t much in terms of furniture, but there were enormous inscriptions carved into the stone. Furthermore, he spotted what he assumed was the rift at the center of the room.

A powerful silver barrier surrounded it, and he spotted Old Man Rivers tending to it.

Leander nodded. “He does. At least most of the time. He likes the energy around here and meditates near the rift. He finds it soothing for some odd reason.”

Julius grunted in agreement; it was indeed odd. The silver barrier did a pretty good job restraining the energy the rift was putting off, but Julius still felt an eerie sense of death and force coming from it.

He walked closer to the barrier and examined it closely. He knew that this rift was supposedly only a Tier 4 rift, but it was hard to believe. The strength and danger pulsing from it screamed something higher-level.

“Nasty thing, isn’t it?” he heard the old man say to him. He hadn’t even noticed the old man getting this close. Julius held back from flinching; it was quite a feat to sneak up on him, regardless of whether he was paying attention or not.

He looked over and saw the old man’s eyes staring into his soul. He hadn’t noticed at first, but they were like little sapphire gems, looking pretty similar to Leander and Phoebe’s. How hadn’t he noticed before? Were they only like this now because the man was using some kind of skill?

But then again, Julius didn’t sense any mana coming from the old man.

It was one of the few times in a long while that Julius didn’t really know what to think of someone. That, of course, immediately had him thinking that this old man was someone quite powerful. That, or he had a unique skill that helped shroud all of his mana and aura.

Julius didn’t really know, so he just stared at the old man blankly.

“Are you sure this is the same one that Gin was yapping on about? He seems a bit… slow,” the old man said with a frown.

“He’s fine, old man. Just leave him be and don’t mess with him. I’ve already had to keep the rest of the old farts away from him; I don’t want to have to deal with you either,” Leander said with a roll of his eyes and walked over to Julius.

“You okay?” he asked quietly.

Julius nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Well, take your time if you need to prepare, but you can enter whenever you want. Old Man Rivers has already opened the barrier for you to enter.”

Julius smiled gratefully. “Thanks, but I think I’m ready.”

Leander grinned. “Yeah, I thought you’d say that. Just remember what I told you, okay? The third floor should have a fruit powerful enough to upgrade your affinity to excellent. I doubt anything on the fourth floor would be enough to push it to perfect, so there’s no need to take unnecessary risks. Even if you went back inside again and got another one, I don’t know if that would be possible.”

Julius didn’t like it, but he knew the man was speaking the truth. Getting a perfect affinity wasn’t easy. Especially for someone like him who was starting off with a high affinity, rather than an excellent one. The gap between excellent and perfect was far greater than the one between high and excellent.

He also experienced this firsthand with his other two affinities. Still, he was hoping to at least explore the fourth floor if possible. He wanted to get the best fruit possible. Just because he could enter again didn’t mean that would be anytime soon. He didn’t know exactly how long, but he was told he would need to wait a while before he could consume another fruit.

He looked over at the rift pulsing dangerously and couldn’t help but grin widely. It had been a while since he delved into a rift, and the excitement was already starting to build. He couldn’t wait to see what was inside.