Path to Transcendence

"Finally!" He heard Reinera yell out to him before he had even approached her.

He waved at her as she approached. The first thing he noticed was her aura. It was still restrained by whatever enchantments her disguising item had activated, but it didn't hide the powerful feeling he got by looking at her.

"What took you so long? Did you have any problems?" She asked once she got within arms reach.

He nodded at her. "I did, but eventually got over it. What about you? How was your advancement?"

"It all went as expected. I wish Amelia was here to see it though. She is going to be mad at me for advancing without her," she said to him, wincing at the thought of Amelia's anger.

Julius winced alongside her. He could already predict Amelia's anger when she found out Reinera advanced without her.

Maybe, I will brag to her that I was here. I bet that would make her really jealous, Julius thought with a smile. While he and Amelia had developed a much more courteous relationship, he still made sure to give her a hard time as much as she gave him a hard time.

It was only fair after all.

"Have you tested your ability to use ambient mana yet?" She asked.

He shook his head. "Not yet, is it that much of an improvement?" He knew that Tier 3 was the first step for people to actually manipulate ambient mana with a sense of control but didn't have the chance to test it out yet.

"Yeah! You should try it out! Look at what I can do," she excitedly told him, practically jumping up and down with barely contained joy.

He watched as she closed her eyes and concentrated. At first, he had no idea what she was planning to do, but he noticed that the mana all around them started to come together. It didn't matter what kind of mana it was, it all was gathered up vortex of mana.

Julius was impressed. He couldn't help but wonder how much time she had been playing around with ambient mana since she advanced.

Once she was happy with the vortex she had, he felt her reach out to something. It was hard to tell what it was and he probably wouldn't have known if he wasn't already aware that she had a Light Concept. But she managed to infuse her Light Concept into this vortex of mana slowly.

As this was happening the swirling vortex of invisible mana slowly became visible to his eyes. It was a wonderful medley of various colors of the rainbow. All of it spiraled together before dissipating into the air with a shimmer.

"Now you try it!" She said while grabbing his arm. "I want to see what kind of things you can do with…" She trailed off as she stared at him.

"What? Is something wrong?" He asked.

"Your eyes," she said with a weird expression.

"My eyes?" He asked worried, reaching for them instinctively. He recalled the weird sensation that lasted for a while, but he didn't know if that had any more permanent effects.

"They are different," she said slowly while also getting closer to him, examining his face.

Different? What does she mean by different? Are they a different color or something? If so why didn't the Marquis say anything?

"How are they different?" He asked her while grabbing her shoulders.

"Look for yourself," she said as she held out a mirror she removed from her storage ring.

Julius took the mirror with a nervous expression. But sighed when he saw what she was talking about.
Experience tales at empire

His eyes were different. But they were barely different. They were still primarily black eyes but the only thing that had changed was that there was a very thin ring of red surrounding his irises.

It was barely noticeable and only upon closer examination would someone see it.

"It's not that bad. You made me think that I had some type of deformity," he accused her.

"No, I noticed them because I saw something flash within them," she argued.

"Something flashed within them?" He asked confused.

"Yeah, there was a burst of red, almost like a small flame flicker in them. But it was gone after a moment."

That was weird. She said that something red flickered in them, but he also didn't know what she meant by that. The only thing he had been doing when she noticed it was when he reached out to his Concept as he was also gathering some ambient mana.

Oh, he realized to himself.

With a quick thought, he touched his Phoenix Concept once more.

"There it is again!" She said while pointing at his face and getting closer to inspect his eyes.

"Interesting," he muttered. It would seem that his eyes flickered when he used his Phoenix Concept now. However, he couldn't see the use of something like that or why it was there now.

It would be different if it was some sort of ability but as far as he could tell, he didn't get any new abilities.

He checked his status again for good measure.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 3

Skills:

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 7] (Epic)

[Sage of Savagery lvl 7] (Epic)

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 4] (Epic)

[Empowerment of Will lvl 19] (Rare+)

[Barrier of Severance lvl 15] (Rare+)

[Soul Tempering lvl 6] (Rare+)

[Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)

[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 19] (Rare)

[Flash Step lvl 10] (Rare)

Current Skill Slots: 9/11

Concepts:

[Concept of Sharpness]

[Severing Will]

[Concept of Will]

[Inexorable Resolve]

[Concept of Phoenix]

[Ashen Rebirth]

He didn't spot anything different except for the change to his tier which now said he was officially Tier 3. That little detail did bring a small smile to his face though.

"Do you have any ideas why?" He asked Reinera.

She shrugged. "No clue. A side effect of your advancement perhaps?"

"I thought you would have a better idea considering your own… you know," he hinted at.

She shook her head with a grin. "I was born with them. It's a side effect of my bloodline, nothing more. But your's seems to be some kind of body modification that was made during or after your advancement. It's not too uncommon, but a lot of times people's eyes change because they have some sort of eye-related skill. One of my family's retainers has a pair of eyes that look like the eyes of an eagle, all because he has a skill," she told him.

Julius frowned. But ultimately it didn't seem to be that bad. On the contrary, he should be happy. He had always been a little upset about having such plain black eyes. Now he had something that made them a bit more unique.

"Do they look cool?" He asked.

She didn't bother responding but he noticed her exasperated shake of her head.

"They're cool right?"

"Yes, they are cool alright," she muttered. "Now let's go get some food, I have been wanting to show you this place I found a couple of weeks ago," she while tugging on his hand.

"Food?"

"Yes, food."

He didn't need any more explanation. The sandwiches he ate had not filled his empty stomach and he could definitely have more.

"Well what are you waiting for, lead the way," he said to her.

As he was following her around the estate, toward the exit, he noted that she was very familiar with where she was going.

"Oh yeah, don't forget you lost the bet, so you get to pay," she said to him offhandedly.

Bet? Oh, right. The bet on who finishes first, he remembered.

"Yeah, I guess I lost," he grumbled to her with a defeated sigh.

Her victorious grin only made him more suspicious of why she was taking him to this specific spot.

He preemptively clenched his coin purse a little tighter, praying that she wasn't going to clean out his wallet.

***

For the next few days, Julius took the time to explore the city of Blumand with Reinera. They went shopping, and sightseeing, but mostly ate a lot of food. They mainly relaxed and slowly got used to their newly advanced bodies.

Julius in particular accidentally broke a glass at a restaurant while he wasn't paying attention.

Additionally, there was one surprising development.

Lady Rebecca had come to Julius and Reinera the other day and offered some help. She explained to them that in return for safely returning her son, she wanted to help them with their training before they were to head into the Challenge Rift.

Speaking of the Challenge Rift, Julius managed to squeeze out some information from both Rebecca and her father. Apparently, the Challenge Rift in question was a pretty decent one that rewarded skills more so than items.

And according to Reinera, this was something that would benefit them more. While items created by conditions of a Challenge Rift were better than most human-made items, they were still just that.

Items.

Skills on the other hand would last for the rest of their lives and could potentially have a greater impact on their strength.

Which excited Julius as much as it did Reinera.

Their timeline for entering the special rift was a bit complicated. It needed some time to recharge and since it had been used pretty recently, that meant they would have to wait around two weeks at the very least to enter.

That was fine with Julius because in the meantime they were able to relax and train for a bit.

That is also where Rebecca came in. He had already heard from her father that Rebecca was one of the few people who had earned a Concept in Tier 2, which also meant she was a proper prodigy.

Therefore, her offer to help them train was very valuable and one that Julius and Reinera both accepted quickly.

Today was their first official day of their training with the noblewoman and he was anticipating what she had planned for them.

However, when he arrived at the training yard, he was surprised at what he saw. All of the times beforehand, Lady Rebecca had always come across as a prototypical noblewoman. However, Julius now spotted her wearing a tight combat suit that showed all of her curves and long legs. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and there was no makeup on her face.

In one hand she held a scary-looking stick, which Julius immediately got a bad feeling about.

Reinera was already there and waiting for him, playing with young Cory off to the side. Apparently, Rebecca hadn't let Cory out of her sight for the past few weeks, understandably.

"Okay, now that we are all here, let's get started right away," Rebecca said to them.

"What are we doing exactly? You wouldn't tell me before Julius got here," Reinera asked.

"We are going to work on you getting used to your bodies first. That is going to be one of the most important things to work on. As of now, you guys are both physically stronger, but until you train you won't be able to control or even properly leverage this new power," Rebecca explained.

"How are we going to do that?" Reinera asked nervously. It was like she already knew the answer to that, but just wanted to make sure.

He knew exactly what was going to happen. This wasn't his first rodeo and he was prepared to get beaten and bruised up. That stick had told him everything he needed to know.

He also didn't want to let Rebecca know but he had missed training like this. He was itching to throw out some punches and get some in return.

He also couldn't wait to test out his new body and his skills in combat. This would be an amazing way to do so.

Rebecca got straight into it, she calmly instructed them to head into the center of the training area with a stern face. All the while, she was smacking the intimidating stick into her palm.

Reinera looked over at him in worry, but he gave her an encouraging smile and thumbs up in return.

However, it didn't seem to work and all he got was a glare back.