Path to Transcendence

He felt a little bit like a detective as he did this, which made it twice as exciting after that realization. In the spirit of things, he created a smoking pipe out of mana. It even had a little bit of smoke coming out of it.

Weirdly the smoke was the hardest part of the whole thing. Magical fire unlike real fire didn\'t use wood as a fuel, it used pure fire mana. Therefore, that meant that normal magic fire didn\'t release smoke unless it was used to burn something else.

In Julius\'s case, he tried many things to achieve a nice puff of smoke. What was the point of creating a pipe if nothing was smoking out of it? That was just an unlit pipe, something much less cool than what he had envisioned.

He even tried to use the moisture within the air to create steam, but that didn\'t exactly work out very well. He just ended up making the air hot.

Eventually he had to admit defeat and used a couple of pieces of old paper. He just stuffed them inside the pipe and lit them on fire. He could figure out how to make smoke another day.

Just you wait Mr. Smoke, I\'m coming for you, he swore to himself.

"What are you doing?" He heard a confused voice call out.

"Sorry?" He asked.

Aubrey sat down next to him, placing her tray on the table. "Why are you pretending to smoke a pipe? Don\'t you know those things are bad for your health?"

"I got healing magic," Julius said as if that made the problem moot.

Aubrey gave him a silent stare and then she turned to the person who had just arrived after her. "Lily, Julius is smoking."

"What?!" The blonde-haired girl who still had one eye closed from sleep, jolted awake. "What\'s doing who?" She asked mixing up the words to her question.

Aubrey just pointed at him.

"Tattletale," he muttered to Aubrey. Who just gave him a smug smile in return.

Oh, just you wait, he promised Aubrey.

Lily examined what Julius was doing with a critical glare. "You are way too young to be smoking. Don\'t you know what that can do to your lungs?"

"Like I told Aubrey, I have a healing skill," he pointed out.

"That doesn\'t work like that. You could also say that you cut your arm off and it doesn\'t matter because you have a healing skill," Lily argued.

Eh, that\'s a little close to the mark there, Lily, Julius thought to himself as he remembered himself doing exactly that. However, since he was very intelligent he didn\'t choose to mention this to Lily or Aubrey. He didn\'t have a skill with the word sage in it for no reason.

"Point taken. But I am not even smoking the thing," he told them. He turned the pipe around to show that it was just filled with paper. "Look, I can\'t even pull any smoke from it," he said bringing to his lips and demonstrating for them. There was a hole at the end of it that he could suck on, but it wasn\'t attached to the bowl.

Lily sighed in relief when she saw him as if he had just avoided a catastrophe. With that being said, she still had a question for him. "Why would you want to do that?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don\'t know. It seemed fun," he said.

"Let me try," Aubrey said and before asking for permission reached out and plucked it from his hands. She brought it to her own lips, doing what he had been doing, not at all caring that the pipe had been in his mouth.

"Oh, you might be on to something, Julius. I feel so much smarter all of a sudden," Aubrey said in awe, continuing to suck on the fake pipe with enthusiasm.

"Really? Did he manage to put some type of enchantment on it?" Lily asked excitedly.

"Nope! It\'s completely normal, but for some reason, I feel wise when I have it in my mouth," Aubrey told her.

"Wait, so it\'s just a fake pipe? Why does it do that then?" Lily asked curiously.

"I don\'t know, but here. Try it," Aubrey told her and passed it over for Lily to try.

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Julius watched as his stolen construct was passed around without his say-so. Lily took it between her lips and gave an experimental puff.

Her face went from distrusting skepticism to wide-eyed with astonishment. "You\'re right. I totally feel smarter. Almost like some enlightened sage," Lily said with an expression like that of an old hermit pondering on the mysteries of the universe.

"That\'s great and all. But can I have it back?" Julius asked impatiently.

"Don\'t be like that," Aubrey slapped him on the back. "You can always make another one right?"

She had a point. It wasn\'t like he couldn\'t just create a second one. Which was exactly what he ended up doing. However, when Aubrey saw him making another one, she reached out her hand expectantly.

"What is that for?" He asked purposefully naive.

"Well, you might as well make one for me too, right?" Aubrey asked him blandly.

"I could. But you guys can also share with each other," he said while sucking on his new pipe.

She gave him a sad pout but he didn\'t budge. He was made of sterner stuff than that. He would not cave to something as weak as puppy eyes.

Lily was still pretending to suck on her pipe as she spoke up. "Can you please make another one? I don\'t want to share mine," she asked him kindly.

With a soft nod, he created another pipe within several seconds and handed it off to Aubrey.

"How come you did it when she asked but not when I asked?" Aubrey asked in an offended tone.

"Because she said please," he told her bluntly.

"What? So if I said \'please\' you would have done it?" Aubrey asked with a frown.

"Nope."

"What?!"

Julius gave her a teasing smile. "I just like her more than you."

When he said that, he saw Lily hide the grin that popped up on her face, making sure that Aubrey didn\'t see it.

Aubrey on the other hand didn\'t seem to find it as amusing. "What\'d you say?! How could you say something like that? I am so nice to you," she managed to say with a straight face which was honestly impressive.

He showed his opinion on the validity of that statement with the blank stare he gave her while puffing on the pipe.

"Whatever," she muttered angrily while also puffing on her pipe.

When the guys arrived, they saw the three of them all smoking on their pipes.

"What are you guys doing?" Derek asked confused.

Aubrey gave him a brief glance. "Being smarter." That was all she said, she didn\'t expand on anything else. What was more surprising was that the guys didn\'t even question it. They just shrugged their shoulders and dug into their breakfasts like normal.

***

He kept an eye on the little tracking device he placed on Grace. He was able to determine the general direction for around an hour before it dissipated. It was much shorter than the several test runs he did beforehand, but it was also the first time he used it on another person.

Perhaps there were other factors that influenced how long it lasted. He would have to try again another day.

But on the bright side, it kind of worked. He might be able to use it for hunting purposes or if there is a scenario where he needs to keep track of someone or something. It was a niche technique but one that might find some use.

Plus, it was also a fun way to experiment with various mana applications. He did admittedly feel a little bad about using Grace and basically invading her privacy. However, in his defense, he had already caught Amelia stalking him on several occasions. There were even some times when she thought he didn\'t notice, but he did. So in his mind, this was not as bad. At least he wasn\'t actually following her with his two legs like Amelia did.

Did that really make it better though?

That being said, he was very curious about what Grace was hiding. It wasn\'t like he hadn\'t asked her about it either. He had dropped some very noticeable hints about him knowing she was hiding something.

He was of the opinion that everyone deserved some privacy and their secrets, but at some point, it was too obvious. Considering that Grace hadn\'t even shared what classes she had or even what kind of affinity she had, said a lot in itself.

He didn\'t want to say that he distrusted her, but… he just didn\'t feel comfortable with not knowing what he was getting himself involved with. If she was being targeted by someone else, he would like to be aware before he got surprised out of the blue.

And the way Amelia was so protective of her spoke of someone who was genuinely worried for her safety. It wasn\'t the actions of someone who was just going through the motions. It was possible that Grace\'s life had already been threatened, and that was the reason why Amelia was the way she was.

***

Reinera POV

She didn\'t know how she felt at the moment. After Julius left the library she had gone back to her reading. However, just as she was about to leave, she felt something itching on her back.

What the hell is that?

She extended out her senses and found what had caught her attention. It was a small bundle of fire mana but with one small twist. There was a familiar signature, one she was familiar with.

What is Julius\'s mana doing on me? I do remember that I touched him, but this seemed a little concentrated to be just some remnants.

She would have thought that it was some tracking skill, but she had specific skills that prevented those kinds of skills from even attaching themselves to her. It was the same skill that weakened all debuff effects that tried to latch onto her. Therefore, she was pretty confident that it wasn\'t a malicious application of mana.

It was also Julius\'s mana, so she was certain that he didn\'t mean any harm. With that being said, she didn\'t know what this was. She hadn\'t experienced anything like it. It wasn\'t like any tracking spell she had seen but it certainly had similarities to one.

She was about to ask Amelia about it before thinking otherwise. If she told Amelia, the woman would just assume the worst. It didn\'t matter that Amelia had been comfortable with Julius, she would immediately prepare for the worst-case scenario.

That was just the type of person she was. And Grace could not even argue that it didn\'t have its benefits. Because of that attitude, Amelia had saved her life a couple of years ago, so Reinera wouldn\'t be so critical.

Still, it was better to stay quiet until she figured out what was going on.

It might be time to confront Julius and maybe reveal some of her secrets. She winced as she thought about what Amelia might say if she shared her thoughts.