Path to Transcendence

He was keenly aware of the interested gazes from both of them. Alice had more concern lining her gaze while Dante had more excitement in his. He didn\'t know how he felt about that. Knowing that someone was enjoying themselves as they watched someone go through pain was a little alarming.

He didn\'t waste any more time though. He created a shell of mana around himself. This time, however, it felt much more fluid.

His control of mana really showed its improvements as he was able to create his construct with much more ease than before.

Once he had created another hole at the very top for ventilation, he slowly ignited the fire mana. The first several seconds were just him getting comfortable with the warm flames that surrounded him. The fire itself didn\'t harm him nor did it affect the clothing Dante had given him.

Okay, let\'s slowly increase the heat.

With a mental command, he slowly increased the intensity of the flames. He didn\'t add kinetic energy but he did use the less volatile version that used pure fire manipulation.

It was then that he started to feel the burn of the flames. The violet flames started to wrap themselves around his limbs and started to turn his skin to ash. He was surprised though.

The last time he had done this, it was much more painful than this. It had been agonizing to bear even with the help of his Concept of Will. However, this time he was handling the pain much easier than previously.

Compared to the pain that his soul had been going through the last several weeks, this was quite tame. He also wondered if his new skill had anything to do with it. [Soul Tempering] was an interesting skill. Alice had forced him to get the skill because she said it would help stabilize his soul, but he wondered if pain reduction was also another benefit.

He gently reminded himself that he was currently busy and should try to focus on the important things. For one, his primary goal was to get this Concept of Phoenix that Alice and Dante had mentioned.

He tried his best to contain his excitement but he was very delighted that such a Concept existed. It had only been a fantasy and a hope, but now that it was confirmed, he really wanted to get it.

Though, he didn\'t really have any good ideas about how he would go about doing that. The last time he had been focused on gaining a Fire Concept, not the Phoenix Concept.

However, going off of what Dante had said, a Phoenix Concept was a mixture of fire and life affinities. Therefore, following that same reason, it was possible that a Phoenix Concept needed both aspects of a Fire Concept and a Life Concept.

Unfortunately, that was where it got confusing. Alice seemed pretty confident that he could simply evolve his Concept, but it could also be possible that he needed a Life Concept to combine with his Fire Concept much like how his skills combined together.

Honestly, he didn\'t really know how he was going to go about learning a Phoenix Concept. Still, the best probable solution was just to get started.

The last time he set himself on fire, he was focused on how the fire interacted with him. He had concentrated on how the fire burned his skin and tried to understand the connection of the flames to himself. Not only him personally, but to the entirety of his path.

However, unlike last time, he wanted to switch to the opposite side of the coin. He wanted to see how life fit into his path. The best way he knew how to do that was to use his [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] skill.

The healing skill had been one of, if not the best skill he had. It had saved him countless times and was a big reason for his current strength. However, he rarely thought about how the life mana interacted with his body and what it meant to him overall.

Concepts he had learned were a symbol and representation of his path. His Sharpness Concept was a weapon that cut through the shackles that attempted to restrict his freedom and mortality.

His Concept of Will was a symbol that characterized his unwillingness to cede or to give up. It was a show of his unwavering will and resolve. It was proof that he wouldn\'t be bullied into giving up his goals.

His Fire Concept was a little bit different. It was the burning passion of his soul. It was the light that shimmered in the darkness. It was the light that illuminated his path.

So what did life mean to him?

That required more thought than he expected. And even after over an hour of him burning and healing himself, he wasn\'t able to gleam any hints.

Alice and Dante both respectfully remained quiet and were doing things of their own while they watched. Dante was tinkering with another one of his projects. This one was a hat he made himself and a hat that Julius had doubt was very comfortable. Julius found it funny that a guy like Dante enjoyed knitting and making cozy things.

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Alice was reading a book. She was constantly aware of Julius\'s actions though and was prepared to jump in if anything happened. She became much more relaxed once she had seen how well Julius had handled the initial period of the process.

***

He eventually had to stop. He wasn\'t able to evolve his Concept and there was only so much abuse he could or wanted to take. He could definitely have gone for longer, but he understood the importance of pacing himself much better now. There was a time and place for pushing himself.

That didn\'t mean he had to do it at all times. That was the cause of his current situation.

He wouldn\'t be able to continue setting himself on fire while he was at school. Alice made him promise only to continue where he left off when she or Dante was around. She explained to him that it was important that someone was there to assist his acquisition of his new skill and Concept.

While his soul had gotten better and got a little more space for him to work around, it was still in a precarious situation. If he were to get impatient again, it was possible that he would cause worse damage to his soul than before.

He didn\'t want that. He was a changed man, he was learning how to be patient. At least that was what he was telling himself. He didn\'t think the others would necessarily agree with that.

He was currently walking back to campus with a happy bop to his step. He was still very excited that his soul no longer felt like it was getting squished by a hydraulic press. The feeling was absolutely liberating.

Of course, fate couldn\'t allow him to feel that good for very long.

He was traveling through a district that had lured in many adventurers. It made sense considering that one of the major Adventurer\'s Guild buildings was just up the street. Unfortunately, that meant that there were more frequent incidents in this district than in most others.

Still, it wasn\'t a huge problem considering most of the rowdy customers kept things within a limit. Most people understood the unspoken rules. As long you didn\'t cause too many problems or hurt any innocents the guards kept a loose grip and let the adventurers have their fun.

Julius himself was only taking this route because he had found a nice food stand that sold some delicious meat skewers that were charred over some magical charcoal the owner bought from a specialty merchant. They were fabulous and he had been planning to buy some to share with the others.

It was a little late and they most likely already ate dinner, but he knew that they would gladly enjoy a second supper once they smelled the skewers. It was actually Edgar who had shown him the spot when Julius tagged along with the big fellow who was getting a replacement for one of his training armguards that got damaged.

However, his attention was caught by a loud commotion at the side of a building. A quick pulse of [Spatial Perception] revealed it to be a group of four guys who were harassing a handsome young man and a beautiful woman.

The group of men then grabbed the lone young man by the arms and held him to the side. Then the apparent leader of their crew got closer to the woman. The woman had a scared look on her face as she pressed herself against the stone wall behind her.

Julius was about to ignore them. It wasn\'t his problem to get involved with and he didn\'t know the circumstances of the situation. For all he knew, the woman and the young man deserved it or perhaps there was a good reason for the group of guy\'s behavior.

The mistake he made was locking eyes with the woman. Her eyes were filled with desperation and fear, asking for his help. Julius tore his gaze from her and continued on his way, but just as he was about the round the corner, he stopped.

Don\'t intervene, it\'s not your business, he reminded himself.

However, even as he told himself this, he was already turning around. He probably wouldn\'t be able to forgive himself if something happened to the woman because he chose to do nothing.

The irony wasn\'t lost upon him, he wasn\'t doing it to help her, he was doing it because he wanted to keep his own conscious clear.

Did that make him selfish? Probably.

Was it still helpful for the woman? Yeah, most likely.

Before he reached them, he made sure to cover most of his face with the black cloth. The woman had already seen his face, but it didn\'t hurt to take precautions with the other group. Who knew what type of backing they had?

"Hey! How\'s it going?" Julius asked the group with a bright smile once he approached them.

Everybody simultaneously turned to look at the newcomer. Julius gave them a quick once over. They were younger than he first thought. They probably weren\'t much older than eighteen or nineteen years old.

However, they were all genuine Tier 3s, he was able to get that much from their auras. There were pretty much no signs of aura control from them.

However, I have just been proven by Alice that I shouldn\'t judge people based on their "supposed" tier. So maybe I shouldn\'t be so quick to judge.

A guy with short black hair and a brutish-looking face was the first person who talked to him. "Mind your own business. This doesn\'t involve your concern," he said dismissively. He probably assessed Julius\'s own tier the moment he saw him and determined he was a nonthreat.

Julius was no longer wearing the ring that Professor Youma gave him, he had not really needed it for a while. However, he was still displaying his Tier 2 aura. He had learned that sometimes hiding your tier was a sign of its own. There were two usual explanations for hiding your aura, either you were well-trained in aura control or you had the money to spend on an aura-concealing device.

Therefore, he had taken a note from Alice\'s book and while he was actually Tier 2, he enjoyed the idea of luring others into a false sense of confidence and showed off his Tier 2 aura without shame. He also tried to make it seem more normal and weaker than a normal Tier 2, but he was still working on that part.

This brute in front of him was the perfect example of dismissing someone as a threat because he believed someone was a tier lower than himself. He didn\'t even give Julius another glance and turned back to the young man the other two were restraining.

Well, that\'s just rude, Julius thought to himself. He walked closer to the guy and gave him a gentle poke on his back with still a big smile on his face.

The man didn\'t seem to appreciate the fact that he was being interrupted again. He mashed his hand right onto Julius\'s face and gave it a harsh shove. A reaction that really didn\'t fit the circumstances.

Julius didn\'t move from his spot, but he looked at the boy with a little less friendly gaze. That one action gave him enough information about what kind of boys these were.

So that\'s how it\'s going to be?