Path to Transcendence

Burn himself faster, that was his new idea.

It wasn\'t the best nor smartest plan. At least that was Alice\'s opinion. He liked to think otherwise. Still, if Alice wasn\'t directly on hand he wouldn\'t be trying this. He was really pushing his healing skill to its limits. The fantastic skill was barely able to keep up with the damage he was putting himself through. His skin was evaporating as quickly as it regenerated and his life mana was almost run dry.

"We should probably try another route. This clearly isn\'t working," she commented.

He let out a frustrated yell and stopped the flames. He sent out a compacted blast of fire and kinetic energy at the sky, cursing while doing it.

She was right. This wasn\'t working at all. It had been two full weekends of this. He would come here every Saturday and Sunday to try to evolve his Concept. The problem was that his previous method of setting himself on fire wasn\'t working. There was something he was missing and he didn\'t know what it was.

Hours upon hours of self-conflagration and with nothing to show for it.

It was absolutely infuriating. It didn\'t help that Alice didn\'t seem to come up with any recommendations either. Concepts were deeply personal and the methods to cultivate one were never the same for each person. So she just stood there watching him and occasionally practicing [Spatial Perception].

That was another source of his frustration. She had been able to learn the skill just the other week. It didn\'t take her very long and she was ecstatic to show it off to him.

The only solace he took from it was that the skill didn\'t offer much of a benefit to her considering she already had a similar more advanced skill. The [Spatial Perception] version she learned was also a little bit different than his. Her version went into more detail regarding sentient objects whereas his focused on everything in general.

This meant that she could sense auras with it, while he had to use his normal aura sense in combination with the skill to do so. There seemed to be both benefits and drawbacks to that distinction, but she seemed very happy with the result.

However, he was getting impatient. It was early morning Saturday, but he knew deep in his heart that he wasn\'t getting the Concept today. It was like whatever avenue was open to him last time he set himself on fire was now closed off. He needed to find another way.

***

He found himself walking around town with no particular direction in mind. He had told Alice that he was leaving to find another method. One that didn\'t require him to torch himself for hours on end.

It was kind of cold this morning, so he covered his face with the black cloth that Dante made. It was really a great item and immediately enveloped his face in a comforting warmth. He wasn\'t the only one either. Many people on the street were bundled up with scarves and large coats. Kids were swaddled in multiple layers of clothing, walking around like fattened penguins.

It was a pleasant morning if not for one single thing.

He was being followed.

He almost didn\'t notice it, within this large crowd of people. But after half an hour he kept on sensing the same two people following him around. If he went to visit a stall, they would visit that same stall. If he went inside of a store, they would go inside that store.

And the biggest hint was that he couldn\'t even see them. That meant they had some sort of stealth skill like Aubrey and Amelia.

However, what could be the reason for them following him? The only thing that he had done of any note lately was…

Oh.

The girl he saved. That could possibly be the reason for it. It would make sense too. He was wearing the same exact outfit as that time.

He never bothered to ask the girl why they were bothering her. Honestly, he had forgotten all about that issue weeks ago. However, now he was wishing that he had.

Don\'t jump to conclusions, I don\'t actually know why they are following me, he reminded himself.

Although, that was all he had to go on. The only other reason he could think of was that Duke Greyson\'s camp had found him. However, that was more unlikely considering that they hadn\'t done anything to him since he got to Heston.

His gut was telling him that it was because he intervened with that girl and the group of guys. He had been curious about why a group of Tier 3s were terrorizing a girl and her boyfriend, but he had written it off as simple bullying and harassment.

However, what if that wasn\'t what it was? What if they were trying to get something she had or something she knew? Were they like a gang of thugs and the people who were following him were their big bad brothers?

Truthfully, he didn\'t give a shit. He just cared that these stalkers were following him every step of the way. He had already tried to lose them within a crowd several times, but they didn\'t seem to lose him for a second.

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It was like they had a skill like his or a skill that tracked someone at the very least. They didn\'t have any hesitation in their movements as they followed him at a distance.

He couldn\'t sense their auras, they were shrouded, but his intuition told him that they were at least Tier 3 and not the same weak Tier 3s like that group of guys he incapacitated if they could suppress their auras. Though they could have an item that did so.

He wanted to lose them, but since they seemed to have a way to track him, that didn\'t seem like it would be possible. Therefore, the next thought in his mind was dealing with them himself. If they wouldn\'t stop following him, then he would just have to make them stop.

It didn\'t hurt that he might also get some answers out of them that way. The problem was where he could do this and if he should do this.

The first problem was pretty easy to solve, he would most likely lure them out of town. If they continued to follow him as they had, he could literally bring them to wherever he wanted.

The second was more tricky. He didn\'t know if they knew who he was yet. For all he knew, they just saw him walking by in the same outfit and followed him from there. But if he confronted them, he would be confirming that he was the same person.

Of course that only applied if they were after him for the reasons he suspected they were.

There was also another problem of them following him back to campus. He didn\'t want them to know that he went to school there, especially if they had no idea that he did.

He spent a good amount of time trying to think of other solutions as he tried to lose them in large crowds and alleyways. However, nothing seemed like a great solution. He could go to Declan or the guards and ask for help, but that could reveal his identity. And if these men didn\'t already know his identity, he would very much like to keep it this way.

Okay, I guess they are not leaving me much of a choice.

He let out an aggravated sigh. This was definitely not keeping his head low.

He headed off to the city gates. If he was going to do this, it would be outside of Heston.

As predicted, when he exited the gates, he was followed by the same two people. He diverted his path toward the woods that surrounded the city. He wanted to be as far away from people and witnesses as possible.

It was funny. The idea of him losing to these two people didn\'t even come to mind. They were at least a full tier above him, but he didn\'t feel the slightest bit anxious or nervous. He didn\'t know why he felt so confident about dealing with these people.

For all he knew they were Tier 4s or higher and he would get demolished by them. If he couldn\'t back up his arrogance, then he would be kidnapped or killed. Which kind of defeated the purpose of not going to the guards or going back to campus.

This was probably not the best way he could have handled this. It was too risky and not well thought out.

However, he was committed to this plan. It wasn\'t like he could just explain it to the men who were following him and ask them to let him go.

No, if he was going to do this. He needed to be one hundred percent committed. There were no half-measures, he wouldn\'t lose, and he would find some answers from them.

He was deep enough in the woods by now and prepared himself as well as he could. There were large pockets of kinetic energy he placed around the area and his body was fully reinforced as well.

He sat down and waited for the two men to appear. And appeared they did.

Well, one of them did. The other was still invisible and was flanking around to the other side of him. The guy who was walking toward him was tall, had a bald head, and a very thick beard. He also had a fake smile on his face.

"Hello! What are you doing out here all alone?" He asked Julius.

"Oh, I usually come out here to think to myself, but I think I might have gotten lost this time," he said anxiously, playing along with the guy.

The guy gave him a concerned look and approached Julius more closely. "I\'m sorry to hear that. Here, let me help you find your way back, what do you say about that?"

"You would do that for me?" Julius asked innocently.

"Of course, I would. Here, take my hand," the man said gently, extending his right hand out to Julius.

Julius was always taught to be polite and so he reached out to grab the man\'s hand. However, the moment the man grabbed ahold of his hand, his smile turned sinister. "You sure are an idiot, huh?"

Julius gave the man his own menacing smile. "Are you sure about that?"

The man just laughed and roughly squeezed his hand, trying to shatter Julius\'s fingers. However, he was left surprised when he wasn\'t able to and felt much more resistance than planned.

Julius didn\'t give him a chance to pull away, he released the construct he was holding in his hand with a huge burst of kinetic energy. A dozen small spikes exploded from his palm and skewered the man\'s hand. It tore through his physical reinforcement skill like it was nothing.

The man screamed in pain and tried to escape from Julius\'s grip, but was unable to. The spikes locked him in place. Julius then swiftly created his mana-construct armor around himself. The violet mana pulsed softly as it encapsulated him.

The man stopped trying to escape and instead sent out a large burst of flames from his other hand at Julius\'s face. However, his helm protected his face from the attack, not that it would have done much good. Julius\'s resistance to fire was alarmingly good, he was actually surprised that he hadn\'t gotten a resistance skill for it yet.

His ineffective attack seemed to make the man panic even more so.

Julius manipulated the spikes that were dug into the man\'s hand and tore them out as viciously as possible. He wanted to do as much damage to the hand as he could.

The man gave another scream and fell to the ground, still sending out weak bursts of fire at Julius.

Julius used [Flash Step] to avoid the shortsword that tried to pierce him in the back. He used another [Flash Step] to reappear closer to the still-invisible man. He sent a salvo of strikes at his opponent.

However, he wasn\'t caught off-guard like his friend was and was able to parry Julius\'s blows with admittedly good skill. He was also pretty fast and strong, he must have had a decent physical enhancement skill. Julius would put him at the same physical level as Aubrey. However, this man didn\'t have her skills to work with.

Julius\'s aggression pushed him back right into an orb of kinetic energy he planted and he exploded it at the man\'s back. The man tripped forward and Julius was there with a knee smashing underneath his chin.

The man was thrown a dozen feet and landed next to his friend who was staggering to his feet.

The two men gave each other nervous looks and turned back to look at Julius who was stalking toward them, mana pulsing from his body. Julius cracked his knuckles, a smile on his face that was blooming with excitement and anticipation.

Okay, round two, he chuckled to himself.