Path to Transcendence

The Adventurer's Guild was quite impressive. The building itself was one of the larger buildings he had seen in the town so far. It was also one of the busiest as well. Countless people were coming in and out of the building. Many of them were wearing armor of various kinds. However, most of them had some type of light armor, made from leather or other types of cloth.

One person in particular had some armor that caught Julius's eye. It looked very similar to scaled armor and was likely from some type of lizard monster. But what really drew his eye was how the leather dissipated mana upon contact.

It was weird, and he doubted many could see it, but whenever ambient mana made contact with the leather, it would break away. It was like a built in disruption skill, he had a feeling that Kyle would have loved to see it in person. It was too bad he was already busy with his apprenticeship.

Upon entering the guild, they drew some eyes. He believed it was partly due to their age. They were definitely some of the younger people there. Even in a world where someone who was over forty years old looked barely over twenty, they still stood out as young people. With that being said, there were also a good number of even younger Tier 2s hanging around.

Lord Holten also stood out. While the man's aura was carefully controlled, he still had a presence that stood out. One that commanded respect.

However, the moment they entered, Julius did the smart thing and immediately separated himself from the others, walking up to the furthest counter where he spotted a receptionist who had a decently short line compared to the others. He hopped in and waited for his turn.

When he finally got up to the counter, he was greeted by a woman with a firm look on her face. She was pretty young and could have even been considered cute, but the severe expression didn't make her look very welcoming. Perhaps that was the reason her line was shorter than the others.

"Hello, I would like to register as an adventurer, please," he said cheerfully, not allowing the woman's sternness to dissuade him.

The woman barely reacted and simply reached down underneath the counter and passed him a piece of paper. "Fill this out and then wait over there. When your name is called, we can start your examination," she said plainly.

He nodded enthusiastically and took the paper from her. "Okay, thank you!"

Once he filled it out, he handed it back to her and went over to wait at the benches where she had pointed. He noticed that he wasn't the only person who was registering either. There were already a couple of young people sitting there.

One was a particularly young boy who was only Tier 2. He looked very anxious for some reason and his clothes were a bit tattered. Another was a pretty black haired girl who looked the opposite. She was Tier 3 and looked very collected. Her clothes were simple, but very clean. He could even subtly sense the mana running through the threads of the black cloth, meaning they likely had some kind of enchantments sewn into them.

The boy was too absorbed in his own worry to notice Julius sit next to him, but the girl certainly did. She glanced over when he sat down and he felt her examine him when he was looking the other way.

He didn't pay her much mind, though. He had made sure to keep his aura around a low Tier 3 level. So when she used her aura to probe him, she shouldn't have found him too interesting. He had learned that hiding his aura wasn't as good an idea. Like Lily's parents had done, it was better to control your aura as if you were a normal Tier 3 rather than shrouding it completely.

The girl who was trying to extend her aura to him was trying to hide everything, and honestly, she did pretty well. He wasn't really able to get anything from her except that she was Tier 3 and decently well trained. However, he doubted many other Tier 3s would even be able to sense that much.

Once she had investigated him and found nothing to be curious about, it would seem she dismissed him and then ignored him.

After a few minutes the young boy was called over to the desk and Julius winced sympathetically when he saw the boy almost trip trying to get up from the bench. He had a feeling that the boy was registering out of necessity rather than an actual desire.

Not long after the boy left, Aubrey came over first.

"Ugh, I should have followed you. Your line was much shorter," she complained as she plopped down next to him lazily, jostling him with her shoulder.

The girl who was still there looked over at Aubrey, and Julius noticed that she was interested in his tall brunette friend right away. To be fair, Aubrey was someone interesting. She didn't really care to hide her aura like Julius chose to.

Stolen novel; please report.

She would keep it restrained politely, but anyone looking at her would know that she was Tier 3 and a decently powerful one at that. Her aura skills had improved by leaps and bounds alongside her mirage skill. However, for some reason, the girl never bothered to shroud her aura to the extent that Julius did.

Apparently, she didn't see the need to do that and had often criticized Julius for using so much effort to mask his own. She liked to say that he would have so much more time to focus on his other skills if he stopped learning how to disguise his aura like an assassin.

She wasn't exactly wrong, but he still liked to do it. He considered it an extra precaution.

The girl's probing didn't go unnoticed by Aubrey and Julius spotted his friend glance over with a frown. "Didn't anyone tell you that it is rude to do that," Aubrey said bluntly.

This seemed to alarm the girl, and she was frazzled for a brief moment as if she never expected someone to be able to detect her aura probing or at least have the courage to speak up about it. "Oh, I am sorry. I didn't mean any offense," she said quickly and genuinely apologetic.

Aubrey simply nodded and turned away, accepting the apology for what it was. She did end up getting bored as they waited, though, and started to poke Julius in the shoulder, trying to get a rise out of him. However, he had a will of iron and managed to prevent himself from giving her exactly what she wanted.

Eventually, his name was called, and he was taken into the examination room, where a different woman greeted him. She explained to him that she would be asking some questions and that he only needed to place his hands on the glowing orb in front of him. It was likely an orb that could detect deceit, or that was what he believed, since he could feel the orb pulling in some of his aura.

The questions revolved around a few main points. One was that the Adventurer's Guild wanted to know if he was a criminal or just a bad person. They would ask things like if he wanted to use the Adventurer's Guild to hurt anyone or for any nefarious purpose.

Of course, he had nothing to hide on that front and told the truth, which caused the orb to remain unchanged. However, he couldn't help but feel his heart skip a beat when she asked him another question.

"Have you ever killed anyone?" She asked in a completely monotone voice.

He paused for a few moments as he considered his answer. When he had arrived in this world, he would not have ever imagined that he would end up killing someone. Not to mention how many he had at this point. It was enough people that he had lost count, and what made him more conflicted than anything else was that he didn't think it was necessarily a bad thing.

In the end, he nodded his head at her. "Yes."

She looked at him with a little surprise. It was likely a question she had to ask everyone, but she wasn't expecting a young boy like him to admit that he had. He saw her jot something down on her notepad and looked at him with a little more caution.

"Was it self-defense?" She asked, paying him a little more attention.

He nodded confidently. "Yes."

This seemed to make her relax, at least confirming he wasn't some serial killer. She then went on to ask more questions about what he was hoping to get out of joining the guild. He answered truthfully and when he was finally done, she sent him to another examiner who would test his abilities.

***

His next examiner, a well built man with a guild uniform stretched over his muscles stood in front Julius with a polite smile. This man was supposed to gauge Julius's abilities and determine if he had sufficient skill to protect himself out in the wild.

The Adventurer's Guild gave out grades corresponding to Tiers. Tier 2s were given iron grade, Tier 3s were given bronze grade, Tier 4s were given silver grade, and Tier 5s were given gold grade. Of course, the terms were interchangeable. The names of the grades mainly stuck because of the material of the guild badge each grade had.

He didn't know what Tier 6s were given as grades, but that wasn't something he had to concern himself with just yet. He was still far away from reaching that point.

Typically, a Tier 3 would be given a bronze grade if all went well. All Julius had to do was make sure the man knew he could keep himself safe. Although it was uncommon, there were cases when someone was denied registration or downgraded to something below their usual grade.

For example, if an examiner decided that a Tier 3 didn't meet their standards or the standard of a Tier 3 combatant, then it was possible to give them an iron grade instead of the usual bronze one. This normally only applied to people who were non-combatants and didn't specialize in fighting.

Sometimes, crafters who joined the guild were like this, and they didn't really care since they were there for the missions and opportunities to find quality materials to craft with.

The examiner locked his eyes onto Julius as he strolled into the room. The room itself was just a normal training room warmly lit up from many mana lamps. There was also a nice selection of sparring weapons off to the side.

While the examiner took time to examine him, Julius just calmly stood there and let the man do his thing. Eventually, the man finished his initial examination and looked at Julius with a curious expression.

"You're a little young, aren't ya?"

Julius gave him a confused tilt of his head. "You think so? I saw some Tier 2s around here who looked even younger than me."

The examiner bobbed his head. "Yes, but like you said, they were Tier 2 and would only be given the lowest level of missions or job options. They really won't be in much danger. A lot of the time, they simply gather materials, do jobs, or act as assistants for stronger people. But you aren't Tier 2."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I don't know, that is what I am going to be testing you on," the man explained.

Julius nodded his acknowledgment and listened to the man as he explained how they would conduct the examination. However, he couldn't help but be curious about how the examiner would test him.