Path to Transcendence

He made sure to go back to the guild after he ate. He still had to make sure he submitted the materials he gathered. He also had some really good news on that front. Because of the added danger of the Flowering Ginkons, he was awarded extra points and almost already ranked up to D-Rank.

It wasn't exactly the most glorious accomplishment. Typically, it would take a normal person a few days of work, but it meant he would be able to take even a larger selection of missions in the future. He was not even hoping for missions that pertained to Tier 3 rifts. He was hoping that he would eventually be allowed to go along on missions that involved Tier 4s, much like the Blumand mission he went on. He would also gain more access to information about Tier 4 rifts or dangerous areas he could sneak off to.

It wasn't like there was much oversight on people going to delve in more powerful rifts than their tier. Usually, the possibility of death ensured people didn't do that sort of thing. Luckily for Julius, he didn't care.

Which was how he found himself already strolling toward the Endless Forest once again. However, this time he had a better direction about where to go. The first day was more to get an idea of the forest and what made it special.

Today, he was planning to find at least one rift he could delve into. He found out from Terus that they had come from an area that was saturated with Tier 3 rifts. There were even very strong ones that the guild has placed a mission for adventurers to complete.

Since he wasn't high ranked enough, this meant he only had a general idea where these rifts were. But he was hoping that his perception skill would allow him to sense these rifts more easily than someone else would be able to.

He had met up with the others last night and he had explained to him what he was planning to do. They weren't that happy about it, but they quickly understood that there was nothing they could do to stop him unless they physically restrained him.

He let them know beforehand that he might not even be back for dinner tonight. If he found a good rift to explore, he might take a couple of days to delve into it.

They had already gotten their own missions from the Stormcaller's Guild. Apparently, there were a good number of rifts the guild had found and were perfect for Tier 3s trying to advance to Tier 4. That was what they would be doing today.

So after a nice but brief breakfast with the others, he went off on his own. Ready to explore the forest with an excited smile on his face.

***

He entered through a different spot in the forest this time around and spent the next hour or so walking through the forest. It was quite peaceful if he wasn't being honest.

He had only been attacked three times by monsters. They had only been around Tier 2, so he barely had to focus any of his attention on them. He had simply created a small bolt of mana and pierced their head without much issue.

Unlike the catlike monster that had tried to attack them the day before, these monsters didn't seem to be hungry. He suspected that they had tried to attack him because of his aura, or rather his lack of aura. To their senses, he probably seemed weak and an easy target.

This forced him to make a decision. Did he shroud his aura and hope the monsters wouldn't notice him? Or perhaps it was better to reveal his aura and scare off any monsters from attacking him?

In the end, he decided that he would rather deal with the occasional nuisance of a monster rather than someone accidentally coming across him and sensing his revealed aura. So he manipulated his aura to display his usual subdued Tier 3 aura.

He did begin to notice the change within the forest as he got deeper, though. The concentration of the ambient mana was rapidly increasing. He was beginning to understand why the edge of the forest was considered a relatively safe place compared to the rest of the forest.

It was also why he wasn't surprised when he came across a Tier 3 monster quite early. His aura was still shrouded to look like a weaker Tier 3, which was probably why this large insect-looking monster stared at him like he was a tasty meal.

He looked around to make sure it didn't have any friends, but didn't sense anything else around other than some weaker monsters who were avoiding both of them. He didn't find anything and placed his full attention on this monster. It was bipedal and had multiple arms that looked more like blades than actual arms. It was also not a weak monster if its aura was anything to go by. It was toward the middle to upper level of Tier 3.

Julius grinned to himself. This was a perfect time to test his skill. When the insect finally made its move, Julius was already prepared and used [Void Step], letting space warp him a few feet away from the monster's bladed arms.

He still wasn't familiar with the skill which meant he misshot a little, but it wasn't anything a little practice would fix. On the bright side, this insect seemed to have some decent speed, which would help him perfect his skill.

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He didn't use any other skill except [Void Step] to avoid the insect. Each teleport used a good amount of mana, but he did his best to limit the distance which drastically lowered the cost of the skill. He messed up a couple of times and resulted in him getting cut up. He almost lost his arm from the most recent attack, the blades of the insect were covered in sharpness aspected mana and practically sheared right through his bone.

He didn't pay any heed to this, though. He was much too focused on honing his skill. [Sage of Savagery] was on full power as he put everything he had into his movement skill. At first, using the skill was disorientating. But after almost a dozen activations, he was getting used to it.

He didn't know if the insect had much going on upstairs, but he could have sworn that it began to look frustrated at its lack of ability to hit him. He said this because it started to swing more frantically and with more ferocity than before.

He would have kept using it as a practice buddy, but unfortunately, he didn't think wasting all of his mana on his first fight would be a good idea. So with a heavy sigh, he activated his body enhancement skill and covered his arm in a thin layer of mana. The next time the monster swung at him, he didn't dodge and instead slammed his arm directly into it.

He could see that it was startled by the change of pace, and before it could recover, he slammed his foot into its chest, sending it flying backwards until it crashed into a tree. He saw it staggering to its legs. It might have been fast, but it was quite the fragile thing because it was already quite battered by that single hit. Its carapace was cracked and one of its arms was broken.

Not seeing a reason to continue bullying it, he sent a thin needle of mana at the insect and when it pierced its chest, he sent out a small explosion of kinetic energy out of the needle, killing it immediately.

He smiled when he saw that he had at least gained something from the little training session.

[Void Step lvl 1 -> lvl 2]

It wasn't much, but it was still something, so he wasn't going to complain.

He also reminded himself that he had other plans while he was out here. He wanted to figure out a way to improve his Sharpness Concept and see if he could utilize his kinetic affinity a little better.

It was also the reason why, starting now, he would be restricting himself to using only kinetic energy whenever possible. Of course, he would still use mana for other things, such as making a comfortable chair or something. However, he wanted to rely on his kinetic affinity and Sharpness Concept for combat.

He would also make sure to get used to [Void Step], but that was a given.

As he was walking through the forest and regenerating his mana, he came across another monster. This one seemed to have already sensed him, which was impressive considering that he had only just sensed it himself.

It was high up in the trees and looked to be a primate of some sort. However, from the looks of it, it wasn't making any moves on him. For the moment, it was merely examining him like he was doing to it. He also didn't sense any malice so far, so while keeping an eye on it, he continued to move on.

He passed by the tree where it was stationed high and was finally able to sense even more monsters that were of the same species as the monkey. They were further up and closer to what Julius was able to feel was a creek. But they hadn't sensed him yet.

This monkey continued to stare at him from a distance, but hadn't made any moves against Julius either. He gave a slight nod toward the monkey and went on his way.

It would appear not every monster in the forest was looking to eat him. That was good news at least.

He wished more animals were like that monkey, because not long after, he came across the exact opposite. He knew it would happen eventually, but he still grimaced when he spotted a group of goblins patrolling in the distance.

Goblins were still one of the most common monsters even in a place like the Endless Forest, but that still didn't mean he liked them. As a matter of fact, he didn't think anything in the world liked goblins. He doubted goblins even liked other goblins.

However, that was an even better reason to deviate from his path and head toward this group. He decided that this would be his good deed for the day.

He pumped his body full of kinetic energy. It wasn't as efficient or potent as using [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin], but it was likely still more than most Tier 3s could strengthen themselves. He didn't bother to wait until the perfect moment.

He concealed his aura to the max, his ruinous aura made the task more difficult than it would have been before he got the aura effect, but it was still possible for him. Just more annoying than he liked.

He got really close to them and then once he got close enough, he used [Void Step] to close the remaining distance. They didn't even know what hit them.

He pummeled the first two with so much kinetic energy that they popped like balloons. The other four stood by and looked on in shock as their comrades exploded into a fleshy pulp. It's not like they could have done much either way, though. He had already used his kinetic restriction technique to clamp down on them.

Their willpowers were laughably weak and he barely had to exert himself to freeze them in place. He then slowly walked up to them and crushed their skulls, leaving only one single goblin alive.

He watched dispassionately as the monster's eyes strained wide in its sockets. He could smell the fear from the creature and with a vicious manipulation of kinetic energy, he compressed the surrounding air all around it.

However, no matter how hard he tried, he wasn't able to pull off what he wanted. All he was able to do was warp the goblin's body slightly and break its bones. What honestly killed it was his aura, which he had accidentally used too much of when he was compressing it.

He didn't have much time to look at his dirty work because he sensed another group of goblins approaching. They must have heard the fighting because a good number of them were navigating their way toward Julius.

He didn't mind, though. Goblins were the worst, and killing them was therapeutic in a weird way. It was just a shame that they didn't pose more of a challenge. However, he reminded himself that the day was still young and perhaps he would be pleasantly surprised by something.