Path to Transcendence

Skill Combination Token consumed…

Julius watched in awe as the token dissolved into dust and felt a powerful feeling surge through him.

It wasn't like he was feeling it through his body either. It was like a burst of energy was funneled directly into his soul.

There weren't any options for him to choose which skills he wanted to merge either. It was like the token already knew exactly what he was looking for because he felt the token connect his [Scorching Empowerment] and [Kinetic Augmentation] on its own volition.

He gasped as the connection continued to get stronger and stronger. It was slowly becoming a bit overwhelming. It made the energy he felt when he advanced, seem paltry in comparison.

Was this the power of a pinnacle-grade token?

If so, he could see why Richard and Rebecca seemed so shocked to learn that he had one.

With this much energy, he couldn't see a way that he wouldn't be able to merge them together.

The thing he was most anxious about was that he felt more than just those two skills start to connect. There was an additional thread other than just the two skills.

Concentrating as hard as he could, he did his best to follow the connection. It was only thanks to his practice with his soul space that he eventually found the other skill and he could not help but feel a little bit confused at what was being combined alongside the others.

That made him hold back the natural process that the token was trying very hard to kickstart.

He turned toward Richard with great effort. The energy that was coursing through him at the moment, made even moving his head a huge issue.

"A-another skill is a part of the combination," he stammered out.

Richard teleported next to him in the blink of an eye and placed a steadying hand across his back. "What skill is it?" The man asked anxiously.

Julius didn't hesitate to tell the man, it would be dumb to hold back the skills name during something like this.

"[Soul Tempering]," he grunted out, the energy coursing through his soul was now becoming less uncomfortable and more painful by the moment. He didn't know how long he would be able to withstand it and believed he needed to make a choice soon.

It didn't matter if it was a yes or a no, but if he didn't, his soul might pop like an overinflated balloon.

"[Soul Tempering]?" He heard Rebecca mutter bewilderedly.

Richard on the other hand only smiled more widely and patted Julius a bit too excitedly on the back, almost knocking him into the dirt with his superior strength.

"It's the more advanced version of [Soul Resistance]," the man commented eagerly before looking at the distant wall with a nostalgic expression. "Actually, my parents wanted me to get [Soul Resistance] when I was younger. I was supposed to evolve it into a powerful defensive aura skill eventually that would also be able to bolster my physical abilities. I assume that [Soul Tempering] is something very similar." Find exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire

Julius groaned as another wave of energy wreaked havoc through his soul. "Maybe not the time for a trip down memory lane," he yelled out impatiently, the pain was very much increasing at a rapid pace.

Richard placed both hands on his chest and realized that this was not the time to remember his childhood. "Sorry, sorry. Bad habit," he quickly apologized to Julius and continued to speak. "You should definitely take it. It is probably being used because of the aura aspects of your fire enhancement skill. It will help strengthen the more intangible characteristics of the new skill as well as your soul," he advised Julius with a confident tone.

Julius could only nod at the man that he understood and quickly let the process continue without holding it back anymore.

Synergy detected.

Appraising requirements…

Congratulations. Skills requirement met.

Congratulations. Concept requirement met.

Congratulations. Soul requirement met.

Would you like to combine [Scorching Empowerment], [Kinetic Augmentation], and [Soul Tempering] into a single skill?

Notice: Pinnacle Grade Token presence detected… Improvements to the skill will be made.

While he was taken aback by the notice he received, it sounded like a nice addition and a benefit of the pinnacle grade, so he accepted it without another thought.

However, he almost immediately regretted accepting it. If he thought the pain was bad before. It was nothing before the absolute mountain of pain that crashed right on top of his soul.

It was much worse than his previous soul pain and he could feel himself screaming out.

It was as if someone had stabbed a lightning bolt into his soul and let it go wild. There was nothing he could do but endure.

Fortunately, his mind was unable to bear the pain and he felt his consciousness slip away once again. The last moment he recalled was the stone floor of the chamber approaching his face.

***

When he awoke, the first thing he felt was the cold stone pressed against his cheek. As well as the dull pain emanating from his nose.

Did I smash my face into the ground? He thought to himself curiously.

It didn't matter too much, he quickly healed his face, the pain fading away quickly. However, he remained lying against the stone floor for the time being. The cold stone was very nice to feel against his otherwise very hot body.

He didn't know why, but for some reason, he felt unbearably hot at the moment. If he didn't know better, he would think he had some sort of fever. But with [Phoenix Renewal], he didn't think it was possible for him to even get sick anymore.

However, soon the stone floor no longer offered its wonderful coolness, and the heat from his face was somewhat abated. Thus, he picked himself up and turned to look at the three of them who were simply staring at him with wide eyes.

"None of you tried to hold me up before I smashed my face into the ground?" He asked a little offendedly. He didn't blame Reinera as much, but he was certain that Richard or Rebecca would have been able to catch him before that happened.

The two older people at least had the grace to look properly shamed.

"We were surprised," Richard meekly explained.

"I still am," Reinera said loudly, still staring at him with wide eyes.

Julius gave her a curious look, noting that she had not made any moves toward him which was odd. He half expected her to be the first one to run at him. "Surprised about what? Is something wrong?"

As he asked that, he looked down and gave himself a once over. He gasped as he saw small flickers of blue light pulse sporadically throughout his body. He wasn't consciously able to sense why it was happening, but perhaps the new notification would have some answers for him.

You have learned the skill [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] (Epic+)

It was a sigh of relief when he saw the notification. After all of his hard work, he had finally managed to gain a better body enhancement skill.

It certainly took much more effort than he had previously been expecting and had taken a pinnacle grade token to accomplish it, but it was done. On top of that, it was a superior epic skill, which he had no idea what that meant, but it couldn't be a bad thing.

He was guessing that the sporadic blue spurts were because of his new skill. It wasn't exactly turned on, but he was able to sense that the skill would always have some sort of passive effect, regardless of the circumstance.

That was a good thing for a couple of reasons he could think of right off the bat. For one, it ensured he had some sort of protection at all times and it didn't require him to use a lot of his focus to activate the skill.

Secondly, since it was already passively on, he could already tell that he could ramp up the power much faster than it otherwise could.

As a matter of fact, that was exactly what he did. He sent some mana through the skill and the blue bursts of light became much more solid and fluid. His entire body was pulsing in kinetic energy and fire as well. The power that coursed through his veins was incredible.

It made [Kinetic Augementation] seem so weak in comparison. Not even the combined power of [Scorching Empowerment] and [Kinetic Augementation] could hold a candle.

Not only that, but the power was much more stable than in the past. Previously, kinetic energy had always been a bit jumpy and hard to keep still, but it would seem the addition of a new skill helped balance out the kinetic energy.

Furthermore, after a closer examination, he was able to sense some aspects of life as well. It wasn't quite as potent as his [Phoenix Renewal] skill, but he was able to see that his Phoenix Concept had some influence over the skill.

Perhaps, it was a bit too much to ask for the skill to have both his fire and kinetic energy in addition to his Phoenix Concept. It might be something he could increase as the skill levels up and eventually evolves to the next rank.

He also was happy that he had two more open slots for new skills. Now that he had [Pyrokinetic Embodiment] it should mean he had a total of three more slots.

The only thing that worried him was the name of the skill itself. The pyrokinetic embodiment descriptor was pretty much expected. However, the last addition to the skill gave him pause.

It was just a simple word, 'ruin' but it filled him with some unease.

Richard had already told him that his skill had been [Blazing Embodiment] at epic and Julius had expected something similar. Embodiment was a descriptor of skills that often evolved from enhancement skills that had some sort of aura aspect to them.

The aura after all was the embodiment or projection of one's soul, so it made sense to him. But seeing his skill being called 'of Ruin' gave him seriously dangerous vibes.

Sure, many of his skills leaned toward the destructive variety. It was natural since his main offensive affinities were fire and kinetic energy.

But that didn't mean he would get a skill with such a violent-sounding name. After all, he had been going for Phoenix-related things lately and had hoped that he would see it in his new skill.

Actually… now that he thought about it, his Concepts were also somewhat destructive related. He had a Sharpness Concept, a Concept revolving around ash, a Will Concept, and a Concept of Force.

At least three of those had some sort of violent connection.

Thus, the ruin descriptor was becoming more acceptable to him. In fact, he was already beginning to like the sound of it more and more as he thought about it. The skill sounded strong and if the token was the reason why it had that change, he wasn't going to be the one complaining.

Actually, I am hoping that it will be my future opponents doing the complaining, he laughed to himself with a devious grin.

After he took some time to feel out the skill he turned to look at the three of them with a proud smile.

But the smile quickly faded as he watched none of them walk over to him.

Matter of fact, despite his hopes, Reinera's eyes widened even further and instead of tentativeness, they were filled with something resembling fear.