Path to Transcendence

It wasn't that bad. Not as intense as he had been expecting at least.

However, Reinera might have heavily disagreed on that. Rebecca made them strain their bodies until Reinera was gasping for air, crawling along the ground on her knees. Julius on the other hand faired way better, much to Rebecca's surprise.

She shouldn't be though and neither should he. Julius had always pushed his physical training to the limit, which meant that he was in much better shape than Reinera and most people.

The only people who have kept up with him were monsters like Edgar. With that being said, his ability to use all of his newfound strength was difficult. Using it efficiently was even more so.

They only sparred for a little bit. And it was a stretch to call it sparring. It was more like Rebecca was trying to get a gauge of their current physical abilities. Afterward, they moved on to more practical and simple training.

Rebecca showed them many exercises that helped with their transition. Many of them weren't actually focusing on strength. Almost all of them had to do with balance.

She would make him do various calisthenic exercises or force him to run across a small course she set up to test his agility and balance.

Those were surprisingly difficult. Perhaps, before he advanced he would have been able to easily breeze through the course. However, now that he had more strength, he found himself jumping a bit too far or not enough.

He had the improved power, but not the finesse yet.

It was weird, there was so much more power in his muscles but he didn't really gain much mass. He might have gained a little bit of height, but that was it.

There was also the issue that he was able to channel so much more kinetic energy through his body with [Kinetic Augmentation].

It wasn't quite double, but it was pretty close. However, he also ran into another issue with that.

He would have expected that since he was able to channel almost twice as much mana and kinetic energy, it would mean he would be almost twice as strong.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work that way.

For one, his efficiency was quite far from perfect. Secondly, there was some sort of diminishing returns to how much mana he pumped his body with and how much strength his body got.

At least that was what Rebecca explained to him. She said that he would eventually need to learn how to infuse his Concepts into each movement. That would be the first step of advancing to Tier 4, along with a lot of other stuff.

Julius got pulled away from his thoughts as he watched Reinera get about a third of the way through the course before she finally slipped and smacked her head into a wooden pole. Falling like a sack of flour and hitting the dirt with a thump.

He winced but assured himself that she would be okay. She had a pretty good physical enhancement skill of her own. He was more worried about her pride. She was getting kind of frustrated with the whole thing.

Which was understandable. She must have fallen and smashed her head into the ground at least a couple dozen times by this point. No matter how strong their bodies were at this point, it didn't feel good.

He would know, he had done the exact same thing just minutes ago. It was embarrassing.

She at least made some good improvements. She had gotten so much further than her first attempt.

He got up when he saw Rebecca give him a look, letting him know it was his turn again.

"Remember, trust in your mana's newfound responsiveness. As long as you realize it in time, your mana and intent will help you do the rest," Rebecca advised him.

He nodded with a smile before getting up. On his way, he passed by a muttering Reinera who was giving the entire training course a very dangerous look.

If the thing was burned down tomorrow morning, he would know who to blame.

He went over to the beginning of the course and readied himself. Once he was good, he set off like a rocket.

The first section of the course was easy. It was a simple task about trying to get to the other end as fast as he could while also striking the occasional obstacles marked in red. They needed to inject a set amount of mana each time in order to successfully trigger the target.

That wasn't a difficult challenge for either of them. They both had really good control of their mana. The problem came after.

Once he reached the other side, he needed to stop on a dime and land exactly on a skinny pole that would shift around in erratic patterns. Fortunately, his kinetic energy helped him a lot with this maneuver. He was able to siphon all of his momentum with a thought and with more ease than when he was Tier 2.

With a series of confident jumps that had only come after falling dozens of times already, he hopped from one pole to another. It didn't matter too much if the poles were shifty little things, he had gotten used to the irregular movements of the poles already.

Kinetic energy for the win.

After a brief moment, he was able to complete it. He didn't check to see but would bet that Reinera was scowling at him as he finished what she had been having so much trouble with.

The next obstacle was much more challenging. It introduced an element he would need to actively dodge. He looked at the wildly swingling threads of thin wire in front of him with a smile. Even with [Spatial Perception], it was hard to keep track of all of the wires in front of him.

The goal was to get across to the next area while not getting touched a single time. It was so difficult because even if he got grazed by a wire, the course would know and automatically fail him.

It tested his balance, perception, and knowing where each part of his body was at all times.

The key he realized after many failed attempts was to plan ahead. It was probably a way to train newly advanced Tier 3s to leverage their upgraded mind just as much as they did with their bodies.

When he analyzed the patterns, he found out that there would always be an opening at some point. His goal was to find this opening and use his newly improved physical traits to take advantage of it.

Therefore, he forged on methodically. Each step was deliberate but also very explosive when needed. Even since his advancement it almost felt like his perception had slowed down. The threads which would have been too fast for him to track with his eyes alone, were no longer too fast.

His focus was completely on this and nothing else. However, this also helped him as he had no time to overthink his actions.

He didn't have time to think about how much power he put into a step or if he jumped a bit too hard. He was finding his balance, improving each step he took.

He was having fun, more fun than he would have expected if someone told him that he was going to spend his day jumping like a grasshopper.

With a big burst of speed, he leaped head-first through an opening of threads, landing on his hand, and rolling to his feet. He looked back toward the rest of the third section with a big grin. This wasn't his first time completing it, but it was still rewarding to do so.

His smile went away as he stared at the next obstacle. This was where he has failed every time he tried. It was an unfair combination of all three obstacles shoved into one monstrous challenge.

There was still the heavy storm of flying wires, but now instead of a flat surface to move on, he needed to be able to dodge them by leaping from pole to pole. However, by far the most difficult aspect of it was the fact that Julius wasn't able to take his time or choose his route. He needed to run pretty fast just like the first obstacle, weaving in and out of the wires with inhuman accuracy. He also needed to strike the occasional target with mana on his way.

This severely limited his options and possible paths.

His previous strategy of being patient and methodical could only be so effective when he was forced to run. A beam of light followed him at a constant pace, the only indicator of how long he had to get past the threads.

He couldn't 'cheat' either. Rebecca would know exactly if he was and would fail him if she caught him doing that if the detection system installed didn't do that already.

Careful use of kinetic energy had him past the first set of wires, reaching the target with a red circle in the middle of it, striking it, and infusing it with the right amount of mana.

He then reached the second, and third with equal effort. But just when he thought he thought he was going to get past the fourth, he was smacked from behind.

The wires wrapped him up and had him tripping over his feet. Just like Reinera, he fell and smacked his face unto the next nearest pillar with a dull thud. Before hitting the dirt in a puff of dust.

As he groaned in the dirt, he heard them talk.

"That's it for the day. We can resume tomorrow at the same time if you want," he heard Rebecca call out.

"How are we supposed to finish the course? It doesn't seem feasible," Reinera said to her while Julius was dusting himself off the ground.

Rebecca laughed lightly. "That's kind of the point of this course. It was built for our Tier 3s to practice their body control. It is also not really meant to be completed. The fact that the two of you are adapting pretty well is a show of your talent."

Julius noticed that Rebecca gave him an odd look when she said this, but he didn't know the reason why. Experience exclusive tales on empire

Shaking his head, he went over the two of them with a frown on his face. He had really believed he had a chance on that last run.

When he arrived next to them, Rebecca handed him a small glass bottle before doing to same to Reinera.

"Take these. They are simple endurance recovery potions, it will help your muscles heal faster," she said to them.

Julius was a bit hesitant but when he saw Reinera uncap it and swallow it in one go, he quickly followed.

It tasted distinctly like fresh lemonade. He licked his lips to get the remnants of flavor onto his tongue and felt the effects of the potion kick in instantly. His muscles felt a wave of life affinity mana wash through them and slowly heal the fibers back together.

While he had his healing skill, he hadn't used it in front of House Easten yet. It was something he learned was useful to keep hidden for as long as possible. Not many people expected such a powerful healing skill from a Tier 2… correction Tier 3.

He was curious as to how much it changed since he advanced though. He had no doubt that it was a bit more effective now that he was Tier 3, but he also knew that Tier 3s were harder to heal. Which made him wonder if those conditions canceled each other out.

He would need to test it in his spare time. Preferably without other eyes on him. He didn't want to try and cut a hand off with someone around. They might get the wrong idea about what kind of person he was.

Before she left, Rebecca turned and grabbed Cory who was playing with his toy soldier that Julius made, and took him in her arms. Rebecca had done a lot of testing on the thing to make sure of its safety before finally allowing Cory to keep it.

"You forgot to tell them, Mum," he heard Cory call out. Ever since he had come home, Cory has become much more vocal and clearly more comfortable, to everybody's relief. Julius had dreaded the possibility of the kidnapping causing some sort of permanent mental damage.

Rebecca stopped walking for a moment. "Thanks, Cory. I almost forgot," she said to her son before turning to them. "My husband and I wanted to invite you guys to dinner at a place in the city. We want to thank you properly for saving Cory, we haven't really been able to do that so far."

"Dinner?"

"Yes, there is an exclusive spot that we made reservations for tonight. We hope you two will come along. Trust me, you won't regret it," she said with extreme confidence.

Julius watched as Reinera quickly turned to him with bright eyes. He could have sworn that her rainbow eyes practically burst from her disguise.

"Can we go?" She asked him hopefully.

He looked at her like she was crazy. "Who do you think you are talking to? You really think I am going to say no?"

Not a chance. Free food was free food.