Path to Transcendence

His first week of classes didn\'t assign anything and so he had mistakenly believed that Goldencrest didn\'t have homework like normal schools. He was immediately proven wrong when Professor Stewart, Professor Youma, and Professor Rowe all asked for the students to turn in their assignments when they entered the class.

He didn\'t know exactly what to do except sit in his seat awkwardly. Apparently, it was common for professors to assign work over the weekends when there were no classes.

Speaking of Professor Youma, he was the only one who really took notice of Julius\'s reappearance. He didn\'t necessarily look or talk to Julius, but Julius felt the professor\'s aura poke around his aura as he was talking to the rest of the class. It was a greeting in a way.

Even though Julius had been working on many of his other skills he had been constantly working on his aura in the background. He felt like he had almost gotten a handle on his newly acquired Tier 2 aura strength and could start practicing other more advanced techniques.

After Professor Youma browsed through his aura like it was a public library the professor gave Julius a pat on his head with his aura. Julius annoyed with the nosy professor tried to tear apart the man\'s aura in retaliation. Yet, all that accomplished was the man blowing away Julius\'s attempt like it was a piece of lint.

Damn, competent professor. Julius inwardly griped to himself.

He stopped himself from thinking about the day\'s events and paid attention to the final minutes of the lecture Professor Rowe was giving them.

"The nature of swarm-type monster floods can be particularly dangerous to those with skills that do not cover large areas of damage or multiple targets. Many duelists and fighters who excel in one-on-one combat have found themselves in exceptionally dangerous situations and even on occasion get completely overrun by the sheer number of monsters. So in monster floods with swarm-types, you will find that the composition of fighters differs greatly from typical floods. Compatibility and type match-ups are essential variables for choosing your opponent."

A guy raised his hand in front of the class. "What if you specialize in single combat but there isn\'t any other choice but to fight a swarm?"

Professor Rowe nodded his head sagely. "Good point Mr. Abbelton. You won\'t always be able to choose what fights come to you. And it\'s not a matter of if, it\'s a matter of when. Every fighter eventually finds themselves in a position where their backs are pressed up against the wall and they have nothing else to do except to fight. Our job as professors is to prepare you for that." He looked at the rest of the class intently.

"This is why throughout the year, you will be tested rigorously on various aspects of fighting that will test your strengths and most importantly your weaknesses."

There was a pause in the classroom as the students took in what Professor Rowe explained.

That was until a single person presented a question. "Does this mean that we will be tested against monsters in rifts that specifically counter us?" This time a question was asked by a young girl with brilliant white hair and rainbow eyes that shimmered with every color. At once, the entire class went quiet, the soft rustling of paper and hushed whispers went silent.

The person who asked the question was Princess Reinera. The same person who everyone in the school had their attention on. The entire day Julius had to overhear dozens of conversations that all revolved around the newly attending princess. It was his good fortune that he only had her in his class for Applied Combat.

Julius admittedly saw why people were going crazy over this girl. She was breathtakingly beautiful. The way the ambient light shrouded her figure made her glow wherever she walked gave her the appearance of an angel descending from the heavens. Julius had a guess that the reason for this was because of her bloodline. And he wasn\'t going to lie, it made her look very cool.

For how well-known the Imperial Bloodline was, not many people knew exactly how it worked. All they knew was that those with the Bloodline were able to harness the energy of light to enhance and empower themselves to ridiculous heights.

Even though Julius was a little annoyed with how much chaos the princess had caused over the past couple of days. He was also looking forward to the answer to her question. He looked at Professor Rowe expectantly.

Professor Rowe nodded his head at her. "You are correct, princess. While it won\'t be any time soon, you guys will eventually be prepared and taken into rifts that are both optimal and poor match-ups for you."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Many of the students broke into excited discussions after hearing this. They like all kids their age, wanted to use their skills to fight monsters.

Julius on the other hand leaned back and thought to himself about his own weaknesses. He wondered what kind of rift would be a perfect counter to him. What type of monster species would he find the most difficult to take on?

He kept thinking about it even after Professor Rowe dismissed the class and told them that their homework was researching specific examples of swarm-type monster floods in the last hundred years.

Julius quickly left the room. Many of the students had left their seats and were approaching the princess when the second class was over. He thought this was the best time to leave. As he was exiting the classroom, Joshua and his friend James hurried after him.

"Hey, so you still want to eat lunch with us today?" Joshua asked after he caught up with Julius.

Oh, I almost forgot about that.

Julius thought about it and he couldn\'t find any reasons why joining them would be a bad thing. It certainly wouldn\'t hurt to try at least. So he nodded his head. "Sure, let\'s hurry before the rest of these guys get to the cafeteria." Julius pointed his hand at the crowd that was surrounding the poor princess.

Joshua looked back and chuckled. "Yeah, I don\'t envy that kind of attention."

The three of them found themselves sitting at a table together. Joshua asked all the normal questions. Such as where Julius was from and what kind of affinities did he have. Julius remained noncommittal with his answers. He didn\'t give any details and when Joshua tried to press for more, it was surprisingly James who was the one who scolded Joshua.

"Stop being so nosy. Not everyone feels comfortable sharing their entire life story with people they just met."

Joshua was a considerate person and immediately realized his rudeness, apologizing right away. Even went as far as to offer his last piece of bread to Julius as an apology gift.

While Julius didn\'t really explain who he was that well, Joshua took the initiative to introduce himself to Julius. Joshua was the son of a Count Rollins and James was the son of a Lord underneath the count. The two of them had known each other for years and had grown up with the same people.

Julius found out that the two girls they were with the other night were named Kyla and Ashley. They didn\'t have the same schedules so they ate lunch earlier, but they usually ate with the two of them for dinner and had met them last year before any of them came to Goldencrest.

Julius and the two of them broke off from their conversation when they heard a loud commotion come from the entrance. He already had a pretty good guess about who was the cause of such a scene. Therefore, he wasn\'t shocked when Princess Reinera walked through the cafeteria along with a line of people following her like little ducklings.

The rest of the students who were in her path quickly made way for her. Each of them smiled and said hello to their fellow royal resident. Although she had a pleasant smile on her face. Julius could tell that she was getting annoyed by all the attention. Julius was starting to feel a bit bad for the girl. That didn\'t mean he was going to intervene and help her, but he could at least empathize with her.

While most of the students parted ways for her, Julius saw a first-year boy walk up to the princess with an overly dramatic swagger. He looked like a noble too. The boy had so much gold on his outfit that Julius was curious as to whether or not the boy got tired from the sheer weight of the metal on his body.

Julius observed as the boy gave a flourished bow and introduced himself. Julius didn\'t quite hear what the boy said, but he assumed that it wasn\'t that impressive if the princess\'s face was any indicator. The boy also had his own posse who had followed him as he approached the princess.

By now, almost everyone\'s attention was on the interaction. The princess was still being polite, but whatever the boy was offering she didn\'t seem interested. The others in her posse let out an audible gasp as if they were insulted on her behalf.

Suddenly, there was a commotion between the two other members of each group. Julius wasn\'t paying attention to how it happened, but somehow two guys were getting into it. Then out of nowhere, punches started getting thrown and it became absolute chaos. One moment it was calm and peaceful and the next was absolute pandemonium.

Food went flying off of trays, tables were flipped, and people went crashing into each other. The princess was doing her best to settle down her group, but after the first punch was thrown it was like a tsunami. There was nothing she could do to stop it.

Julius had to admit that it was all very entertaining. He and the other two were further back so they weren\'t in the thick of it, but the occasional food came their way. Even some fights that had spread out ended up knocking into their table.

Julius was smart and took precautions. He had already gotten up with his tray and moved further back to the end of the cafeteria, with Joshua and James wisely following him.

Julius ended up sitting on top of a table snacking on the piece of bread that Joshua had given him as he enjoyed the festivities.

I should really come here more often whenever I am bored. This is better than any movie. He happily thought to himself.

He used a bit of kinetic energy to divert a flying chicken bone that had somehow made its way all the way to this end of the cafeteria. It was impressive when he thought about it. Someone must have just yeeted the thing across the large room.

Eventually, the staff members had to intervene, quickly putting an end to the chaos. Usually, they let the students work it out themselves, but this time must have been too far even for their standards. They used their auras and skills to settle down the crowd. On occasion using more forceful methods on the ones who were really wound up.

Some students had gotten more hurt than what was acceptable, which meant that the staff had to call healers over for help. It was a big mess that required more clean-up than anything else. Healers showed up and had to heal broken bones and busted-up faces. Luckily, people weren\'t just throwing out dangerous techniques and had held themselves to just throwing punches.

He didn\'t know the etiquette or general rules of food fights in the cafeteria, but not using dangerous techniques must have been one of them.

It was a good thing to remember if he ever found himself in the middle of one.