Path to Transcendence

The first thing he looked at was the shining white sapling. He already had a good idea what it was for. Since it was from House Easten, Rebecca and Richard knew just how much Drasil meant to Julius.

There was a high probability that this sapling was something that Drasil could use. The only question was how he was supposed to activate it and what it was meant to do.

He looked up from the items and gave a questioning frown toward Marcus. "Did they provide any instructions?"

Marcus shook his head. "I was just given that, nothing else. Why? What's in there?"

Not seeing a reason to hide the item from either of them, he gladly handed over the glass bottle to Marcus.

"I think it is supposed to be for Drasil, but I am not sure," he said to the man.

Marcus looked very confused for some reason. But he took the bottle anyway and inspected it. "Who or what is a Drasil?" He asked while activating some kind of skill.

"Oh, you haven't met him yet?" Julius asked, a little taken aback that Marcus didn't know about Drasil. He definitely thought that Marcus was already aware of the little fellow's existence.

"No, I haven't met anyone named Drasil. Is he another friend?" Marcus asked with a tilt of his head.

"He's my familiar. He is also a life spirit I raised from a little seed," Julius said proudly while placing his hands on his hips.

He heard Lily chuckle from the side.

"Huh, I guess that makes your unique style of fighting a little more reasonable," Marcus noted.

"Hey! I would like to clarify that's not how I normally fight," he pointed out fervently.

"Of course not," Marcus said skeptically before returning to the little sapling.

Julius huffed in irritation as the man just ignored him, but started to watch much more intently as Marcus's eyes turned a brilliant violet color.

Furthermore, what was more astonishing was the powerful thrum of mana he sensed from whatever skill he was using. It was enough that he could feel the literal weight of Marcus's mana as it wrapped around the object. However, he almost laughed out loud when he felt the mana curiously poking at the sapling like a kid would a small critter.

"I can't be sure without taking it out of this bottle, but from the looks of it, this appears to be some type of natural treasure that is imbued with a lot of life mana. Which would make sense if it were for your life spirit."

"What about this other one?"

Marcus looked at the chain necklace with an intrigued expression. He did the same type of analysis with his mana as he had with the sapling.

After a few minutes of Marcus examining it, he shrugged.

"Yeah, I don't know. There are many enchantment layers on it, making it close to impossible to analyse properly. Whatever it is, it is valuable. The materials it is made out of are extremely resistant to outside influence. I can barely make the thing react to my mana."

Julius agreed with Marcus's assessment. The item was weirdly resistant to mana and, to some extent, to aura as well. He couldn't provoke a reaction with his mana or aura either. In a way, it felt exactly like a plain piece of iron.

"Try feeding it your aura signature again, like you did with the box. Perhaps, you might learn something after you do that," Lily supplied.

That wasn't a bad idea and it certainly didn't hurt to try it, so with nothing to lose he reached out and instead of poking it with his aura, he tried to force feed it to the necklace.

This time, he got a reaction. It was slow at first, but gradually he felt the necklace sucking in his aura like a vortex.

As this was happening, the necklace's chain links started to glow, and small, detailed runes appeared on each individual link. It was startlingly beautiful.

Then all of a sudden, he felt something grab hold of his soul and tug him forward. Caught off guard, but too curious to fight back, he let the item do its magic.

A flood of information dumped into his brain, and he was able to sense the item latching itself onto him and locking itself into place. However, the sensation was a little bit too much for him to handle at once, and he stumbled as he grabbed his head.

It wasn't pain exactly, but it was more like he was experiencing a bout of vertigo and had to find a pillar to hold himself up against.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked concerningly as she quickly stood by his side and supported him with her arms.

He groaned out loud but nodded his head. "Yeah, I am okay," he assured her.

"What happened?"

"Well, I think I know what the item is supposed to do," he said with a chuckle.

She perked up when he mentioned this. "What is it? Does it obscure your presence or have a similar effect?"

"Nope, the enchantments placed on the necklace will prevent anything from sensing it. I believe it is more for practical purposes rather than an indicator of what it does," he explained to her and shook his head one last time to get rid of the weasiness he had just experienced.

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However, once that feeling dissipated, he couldn't help but let out a wide grin and intently stare at the necklace.

The necklace would be a fantastic tool for him. He could see why Rebecca and Richard would recommend such a reward to him. They knew how hard he had been training and practicing during his time with them.

He would have to make sure to properly thank them the next time he saw them. There was no way this wasn't expensive and an extremely valuable tool. He hadn't heard of something quite like it before, and it was probably for good reason.

He recalled having a similar discussion with the two of them about the possibility of experiencing such a thing, but he didn't think they would remember that talk and even go as far to give it to him.

"What does it do?" Lily asked impatiently.

He laughed brightly. "I think I should show you instead."

He looked around at where they were standing. There weren't many people around, but he would rather not show off such an item for the first time in a place like this.

"Although this probably isn't the best place to show you," he admitted.

"We can always go to one of the residences House Violet owns if you want," Marcus offered.

Julius nodded his head. "That would work. Is that fine with you ,Lily?"

She sighed. "Yeah, it is, but let's not take too long. Even though the tournament is going on, students aren't really allowed to leave campus for too long."

"We'll be quick," he promised.

***

When they arrived, the servants and retainers around the residence all pampered Lily to no end. It was like their favorite daughter had arrived and they pulled all stops to make sure that she was taken care of.

It was hilarious to watch, and even better, Lily didn't like it at all. These people were so dearly trying to please her, and she could not have been more uncomfortable.

Marcus, who had been standing right beside him the entire time, was silently laughing as well. Julius could practically sense the amusement seeping through the man's aura even though Marcus had a tight hold on it.

They were taken through the residence to a room that looked very similar to one of the training rooms at Goldencrest.

"Lady Lily, please let me know if you need anything else. I will come the second you call for me," the lady said with a very deep bow before walking away.

When she finally left them alone, Lily let out a tired breath.

"Shall we go inside, Lady Lily?" Julius asked with a teasing bow.

He got a mental slap in return for his cheekiness, but he laughed all the same. Marcus couldn't help it either and was lightly chuckling right beside him.

"Shut up," she grumbled toward the two of them and opened the door to the room.

He was wrong. The room was much nicer than the ones at Goldencrest and was spatially enlarged to fit a massive field. He didn't know what enchantments were applied here, but there was a staggering amount of mana.

There was also an entire section off to the side that looked closer to a whole weapons store rather than a simple rack of training tools. Everything, ranging from a sword to something weird that looked very similar to a double-sided scythe, was displayed.

There were also several smaller sections where various training tools were laid out just in case. He even spotted a smaller version of an obstacle course off in the corner. He was starting to see why House Violet was considered one of the wealthiest Houses in the Empire.

He could not even begin to imagine how expensive it was to create such a room.

"Jeez, are all the training rooms like this?" He asked in shock.

"No, this is one of the nicer ones, usually reserved for our more important guests who come to Heston," Lily said casually.

He nodded distractedly as he went over to the weapons and inspected some of the more unique ones. He noted a pair of gauntlets made from some type of black metal and saw that a pair of blades were hidden behind the arm guards.

"Interesting," he murmured softly to himself.

"Are you finally going to show us or what? The anticipation is killing me," Lily complained.

"Give me a second, okay? While I got a set of instructions to follow, it doesn't mean I have used it before. For all I know, things will go very badly," he explained while playing with the necklace.

"What do you mean by 'badly? Is it dangerous or something? Like something that is going to blow you up?" She asked.

"Why does everyone always assume that everything associated with me has to deal with explosions?" Julius asked offendedly.

"To be frank, the first time I met you in person, you were blowing yourself up," Marcus muttered.

"Huh? What was that?" Lily asked, sounding very confused.

This made Marcus and Julius remember that she didn't know the exact details of the fight. While Marcus had told her about his fight with the Tier 5, he did not inform her about his suicidal tactics. Something he had been very grateful for.

However, seeing the man slip up his words, those feelings of gratitude were swiftly fading away. Marcus, to his credit, tried to recover from his mistake instantly.

"I meant that when I saw Julius for the first time, he was getting blown up by the Tier 5," Marcus amended.

And while it still didn't sound very good, at least it made it sound like it wasn't his own choice to blow himself up. With that being said, it didn't look like Lily was completely convinced.

Luckily, her curiosity about the item won over. "Well, there is only one way to find out. But if you feel like it is too dangerous, I am sure that Marcus would be more than willing to test it for you."

"What?" Marcus froze and looked at Lily in disbelief upon hearing her volunteer him as a guinea pig.

"I don't think the item would allow him to use it. I think it keyed into my aura and my aura only. And I don't feel confident about transferring it over yet without breaking it," Julius said.

"I mean, if you think it can be dangerous, then you should take some time to figure out exactly what it does," she tried to warn him.

He shook his head. "Nah, I'll be alright," he said with much more confidence than he was feeling.

Before she could say anything else or try to stop him, he activated the item, flooding the necklace with mana. It took an astonishing amount of mana even to get started, but once he felt the runes fill up, he mentally envisioned the spot several feet in front of him and surged his mana.

When he opened his eyes, he realized nothing had happened and rechecked the instructions.

After a moment, he understood his mistake. Shaking his head at such an obvious oversight, he took control of his willpower and aura, then sent it off to the same spot before activating the item.

This time, something happened.

He suddenly felt like someone had jammed him into a trash compactor and everything around him became muddy. But before he could regain his bearings, he found himself falling onto his face.

He looked up and back where the two of them were watching, but he felt confused when he didn't see them. He looked around and finally found them. They were all the way across the room, staring at him with wide eyes as they witnessed him teleport across the room.

He laughed loudly and waved toward them. However, his laugh faded as he realized that the arm he was waving was missing a few pounds of flesh.