Path to Transcendence

As he walked toward the small town just outside of Heston, he stopped at a bakery to get himself some pastries and a coffee. He made sure to get extras, it was always a good idea to have food on hand just in case he needed to appease someone.

Pastries he learned, were very effective at this. Normally, he used them against Aubrey and Edgar, but recently he learned that Grace had a similar weakness. Not surprising, considering her love for sweets and anything food-related.

He just wished Amelia had that same weakness. It would have made the woman much more pleasing to be around.

He shouldn\'t bash her too much. To her credit, she had been surprisingly civil to him. Other than the annoying questions about his skill, she stayed out of his hair and hadn\'t said anything mean to him.

When he was walking away from the gates of Heston toward the town, he enjoyed the nice weather. He did his best not to think about what Dante had in store for him. He believed that worrying about it would just waste his time and energy.

Either way, he would find out pretty soon.

He saw the little town outside of Heston appear in his vision as he crested over a hill. He turned back to look at the city and the coastline to admire the view. However, his view was obstructed because there was a woman who was standing right behind him.

At first, he didn\'t think anything of it. His instinctual reaction was to assume that this person was just traveling to the town just like he was. It wasn\'t until he turned back around and thought for a second that he realized what was wrong.

He hadn\'t sensed this person with [Spatial Perception] at all. There was nobody else in their vicinity but this woman. Except this woman didn\'t show up to his senses.

It made his blood run cold.

It wasn\'t like what Dante did either. It wasn\'t some sort of void or anomaly that stuck out. It was as if she wasn\'t there at all and blended into the surroundings. If not for him seeing her with his own two eyes, he would not have believed it.

To be honest, it took way too long for him to react. However, when he did, he didn\'t freak out. He immediately came to the understanding that if she had wanted to hurt Julius, she had more than enough chances to do so.

The fact that he was still alive meant she wasn\'t hostile. At least, that was what he wanted to believe.

He slowly continued to walk forward, but he ended up activating [Sage of Savagery] to a higher degree, which allowed him to keep his composure more than he would otherwise be able to. The first thing that Julius thought about was whether or not this woman was the thing that Dante wanted to show him.

Otherwise, what kind of timing was this? A person who was undoubtedly stronger than him managed to sneak up on him as he walked to see Dante? That seemed weirdly suspicious to him.

He didn\'t hear any footsteps or signs that she was following him, but he knew that she was. The fact that he couldn\'t sense her made him very uncomfortable. However, he maintained his composure and didn\'t acknowledge her. That is until his curiosity finally ran out.

"So how did you know who I was?" He asked loudly over his shoulder.

When he didn\'t get an answer after several seconds, he turned back to look at the woman. However, to his shock, she wasn\'t there. He looked around as if straining his eyes would magically find the woman. Still, he didn\'t see a sign of her.

So feeling more confused than anything, he turned back around and flinched when the woman was literally inches away from his face.

The first thing he noticed was how pretty she was. Her features were perfectly symmetrical and her skin was flawless. She was of medium height and had long brown hair that laid down her back. However, it was her eyes that caught his attention.

Her gray eyes had literal bursts of light blooming in her irises. It was like every color in the rainbow was popping little fireworks in her eyes.

"Wow…" he said breathlessly. "How do I get eyes like that?"

He saw her lips curl upward and her eyes sparkle even brighter, before pulling away from him.

"You don\'t seem that surprised to see me," she finally said softly.

"Trust me, I almost pooped myself when I finally saw you. But honestly, it kind of makes sense to see you. That old man did say he had a surprise in store for me," he admitted to her.

"Hmm…" she examined him from up close. Almost like she was observing a hospital patient. "You are quite an interesting little boy," she finally commented with a frown.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Huh? Little?" He asked, taken aback by her tone.

"You also have quite the powerful focus skill it seems," she said casually.

Julius frowned. "What makes you say that?" He asked her, not wanting to confirm if she was right or not. Though, he was pretty sure she didn\'t need him to confirm anything for him.

She smirked at him knowingly like one would at a silly child. "It\'s obvious for anyone who is looking," she said vaguely.

"I see," he said just as vaguely, pretending that he understood.

He didn\'t see or understand at all, but he didn\'t need to tell her that. Yet, her smile said that she saw through his shenanigans regardless.

"So… how did you know it was me?" He asked, repeating his earlier question.

"What do you mean?" She tilted her head and asked him, playing ignorant.

"I\'m assuming that Dante told you about me, but even if he told you that I was coming today, how did you know that it was me? Did he give you a picture of my face? Because I don\'t feel like Dante was the type to take pictures. Not to mention that I don\'t think he took one of me, at least to my knowledge," Julius blabbered.

There were cameras in this world. They actually worked pretty similar to how cameras worked in his old world. The only difference was that the devices used light magic instead. The picture quality was pretty amazing too. Better than modern-day cameras in fact.

"No, he didn\'t give me a picture of you, he didn\'t even give me much of a description of what you looked like. He just told me that he met some interesting black-haired brat that he wanted me to take a look at," she said with a shrug.

"So how did you know it was me?" Julius asked for the third time.

The lady just smiled and shrugged her shoulders at him. "That\'s for you to find out for yourself," she told him.

"That\'s not any fun," he said, a little put out at her refusal.

She didn\'t say anything in response but just continued to give him that same knowing smile. It was actually almost condescending in a way. If he didn\'t believe that she was much stronger than himself, he would have been more offended. But realistically this woman could have been hundreds of years old so he gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Still, he sighed in annoyance. Of course, she would be the type of person who liked others finding out answers on their own. He wished she had just told him. As much as he enjoyed a good mystery, he really wanted to know how she knew who he was. And more importantly how she was able to avoid his detection.

They continued to head toward Dante\'s cabin and the entire time Julius tried to get some answers out of her. However, she remained evasive and didn\'t answer any of his questions.

Fortunately, he still had his secret weapon. It was an effective strategy that had a high success rate.

He pulled out a flaky pastry that he had just bought earlier from that bakery he went to. He made sure to heat it up with some fire mana until a little puff of steam emitted from its surface. The aroma of fresh dough and butter wafted from his hand.

He turned to the woman who had decided to stop following him from behind and walk next to him. He saw her look over at him with suspicion clear on her face. Her brows furrowed in thought as her head went through all the possibilities of why he was offering her it.

Finally, the scent of freshly baked flaky goodness overwhelmed her, and she reached out and took it tentatively.

He smiled to himself. Success! He inwardly cheered. He knew that nobody could resist a good pastry. Not even someone as strong as she was.

Though to be honest, he had zero clue about her true strength. In fact, her aura said that she was a Tier 2, just like he was. However, he wasn\'t that stupid. There was no way that this woman was Tier 2.

Just the way she walked proved otherwise. She walked with such confidence and poise, that it was fascinating to watch. Not to mention that she somehow evaded his detection skill. He doubted many Tier 2s in the world could do that.

Then there was the fact that she knew Dante and she had already kind of admitted that she was the surprise that Dante had waiting for him.

If she was Tier 2, then he was a monkey dressed as a dragon.

To his pleasure, the pastry did a lot when it came to her opening up and helping her answer some of his questions. Of course, he didn\'t ask any important questions to her. Not if you considered questions about whether she preferred coffee or tea as important questions.

"I\'ve never been much of a tea person," she said casually as she enjoyed her pastry.

"Why not?" He asked as he also chewed his own pastry he brought out for himself.

"Eh, my aunt loved it so much when I was growing up, she would always make it for us whenever we went over to her place. Just never had a taste for it, always preferred something sweeter," she admitted.

Julius smiled at that and reached into his storage ring again, pulling out a mug of hot chocolate. He made sure to heat it up before he passed it over to her without a word. He also handed her another pastry when he noticed that she was in the middle of finishing her last bite.

See if you can resist this! He thought to himself while wickedly cackling inwardly.

This time she didn\'t even blink twice about taking either of them. She did give him an acknowledging grin though. She knew exactly what he was doing, but didn\'t seem to mind.

She let out a surprised noise after she tasted the hot chocolate. "What?! This is delicious, where did you get it?" She asked him, much more serious than before.

"It\'s my own creation," Julius told her proudly.

He had bought way too many bars of chocolate from a vendor the other week. Once he had tasted a piece, he immediately bought several dozen bars from the guy. It was by far the best chocolate he had ever had. He literally had a seizure when he first ate it. They were pretty cheap as well, he felt like he got a smoking deal on them.

He used some of them to make his own chocolate syrup which he then used to make several pre-prepared servings of hot chocolate for brisk mornings just like this one. He could indeed confirm with her that they were delicious. He also knew that the others along with Grace agreed with that sentiment.

He could see that when he told her that he made it himself, she looked at him differently than before. It was almost the barest hint of respect, funnily enough.

"How did you make it," she asked very nonchalantly. Almost too nonchalantly in his opinion. He got a sneaking feeling that she wanted to know the answer more than she was letting on.

"Sorry, what did you ask?" Julius pretended as if he hadn\'t heard her.

"How did you make it?" She asked again, but this time she was definitely showing more interest.

He gave her a sorrowful look. "Sorry, that\'s for you to find out for yourself," he said throwing the same words back at her.

She just slowly swiveled her head toward him with a smile. But it wasn\'t a smile of happiness, no it was a much more menacing smile that didn\'t fit her beautiful face.

Ah shit…