Path to Transcendence
Chapter 157: Toxic

After he left the rift with Declan, Julius immediately headed back to campus. He would have liked to stop and see Rae and Orus, but he could always do that another time. He already had plans to delve again, this time on his own. He would visit them after that.

At the moment he was feeling very happy. Declan had finally given him permission to delve solo. The older man had assessed that Julius could handle himself in a rift and accepted the fact that he couldn't always be there to hold his hand.

Julius would certainly miss the company that Declan provided, but he would also enjoy the freedom he would now have. Just knowing someone as strong as Declan had his back didn't make the delving experience feel like there were as many repercussions.

If he were to really get into a bad spot, he knew that Declan would have stepped in immediately.

That kind of ruined the thrill of the whole point of delving though. He didn't like that.

What he did like, was the fact that [Quick Step] had reached level 15. That he liked very much.

In fact, that was a huge reason why he was promptly returning to campus. He wanted to get back as soon as he could so that he could see his options.

Although, it kind of soured the fun out of choosing when he already pretty much decided on the next skill. Still, it didn't hurt to look and enjoy the process at least.

When he arrived, the campus was pretty bustling with people. He expected that since it was the weekend many of the students would have been out in town enjoying their time off. Instead, he saw more students than usual traveling around.

He had planned to get a training room, but since it was so busy, he knew he would have to wait in line. Not wanting to do that, he chose to head to the ledge spot at the back of the garden he had found recently.

When he got there, he was surprised to see someone who he recognized. It was the plant girl from his Applied Combat class. He was eighty percent confident that her name was Tia. She was a little bit away from his spot and was doing some sort of exercise with some plants.

They were swirling around her like snakes coiling around their prey. He felt some very delicate mana manipulations though, it was pretty impressive to watch.

He gave his cheek a pinch and reminded himself that he was there for a specific reason, not to observe other students, no matter how pretty what they were doing was.

He went over to his usual area and sat down comfortably. He took out some crackers and started to munch on them as he brought up his notifications.

[Quick Step] has reached level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill [Quick Step]?

He quickly selected yes and waited.

Skill evolution commencing…

Skill [Quick Step] is evolving… possible advancements: [Flash Step], [Burst Step], [Kinetic Dash], [Blasting Charge], and [Kinetic Leap]

He carefully looked over his options while chewing his crackers with a loud crunch. He wasn't that surprised by the list. [Burst Step] was predictable, [Kinetic Dash] was almost the same option he got during his last evolution, just this time kinetic instead of fire.

[Blasting Charge] sounded like a fun one. He enjoyed imagining what kind of havoc he could create with a skill like that.

He had a feeling that this option was here from his little experiment with kinetic energy and [Quick Step] that resulted in a big boom. It most likely had a similar effect, but was even more explosive.

[Kinetic Leap] was probably from his most recent moon jump when he was fighting the wolves. It was possible that it could be a skill that would eventually evolve toward a flight skill.

That almost had him choosing [Kinetic Leap] before he could think about it.

But he was a different man now. He was a man of focus and resolve. His own Concept affirmed it. He wouldn't let himself get distracted fr-

Shit, I dropped my crackers!

He hurriedly tried to save his bag of snacks that had dropped from his hand. There was a little bit of dirt on some of the ones he saved, but luckily he saved a majority of them.

What was I saying?

Anyway, he didn't hesitate to choose [Flash Step], no matter how alluring the possibility of flight was, he had a plan with Gabriel already. If he wanted any one of them later, he would just have to replace another skill that he could evolve that might give him those same options.

Congratulations, skill [Flash Step] (Rare) acquired.

Julius dropped the cracker he was moving toward his mouth to the ground. A spark of pain dug its way into his soul and agitated the soreness he had been feeling for a while now.

He tried his best to ignore it, but his soul had been acting up for a while now. He didn't know the exact reason, but ever since he had gotten those two Concepts at the same time, his soul hasn't been the same.

There was a deep fatigue that permeated throughout his entire soul. It especially came out whenever he made any increases to his skills.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He took a deep breath and the worst of the pain tucked away. He then bent down and picked up his dropped cracker, plopping it into his mouth after wiping off the excess dirt.

There would be no wasting of any food on his watch.

He also took out a glass of refreshing juice to wash down the slightly thirst-provoking crackers and was about to taste a nice long gulp when he paused. Off to the side, he saw the plant girl, Tia finish with her exercise and look over at him with a weird look.

Or rather, it wasn't directed at him, but it was directed at his food.

They met gazes briefly and Julius saw her blush lightly as she realized he noticed her staring. He just smiled at her reaction. So when she turned away from him, he took out another parcel of crackers from his storage along with the same beverage he had gotten himself and got up to his feet.

He walked toward her direction and placed both items onto the bench that was a few feet away from her. He didn't say anything or even look at her, he just left the gift there for her to grab when he was gone.

She didn't say anything either, but he did see that the second he rounded the corner of a tree, she lunged at the snacks with a big smile.

***

He found himself back in the same Tier 3 rift the next day. Since he now had the freedom to go whenever he wanted to, he was going to take advantage of it.

Unlike yesterday, he got transported to a different part of the rift. This particular section was much more densely compacted with trees, some sort of forest environment.

That wasn't the only difference either. The main one that he noticed straightaway was how many more monsters he was able to sense nearby. There were at least half a dozen separate monsters that were hiding in trees or bushes within a hundred paces of him.

Fortunately, almost all of them except for two of them felt really weak just by going off of their auras. Of the two he paid attention to, one was a similar species to the snake he encountered in the ravine. This one though was much larger and thicker than the previous snake.

The other monster was a bird of some type. It was sitting at the very top of a tree and didn't seem like it was that hostile surprisingly. It had noticed Julius right away but for some reason, it was content with just sitting atop the branch looking out toward the forest.

The snake, on the other hand, was most definitely hostile. It was slowly creeping toward him from tree to tree, using the dense foliage to mask its movements.

Julius didn't let the thing get any closer. He sent a small spike and nailed its head into the bark of the tree it was slithering on. It didn't kill it right away, so he sent a disk of sharpened mana and split its head and upper body from the rest of it.

He collected the core and moved on his way. The other monsters didn't bother him and he didn't feel like bothering them in return.

This Tier 3 rift was much different than the other rifts he had delved into, even compared to the Tier 3 troll rift. This rift was almost a complete ecosystem that he wouldn't be shocked to replace in the real world.

By his limited experience so far, he suspected that there were certain species that were more aggressive than others. Much like how a proper forest full of monsters would be. Therefore the big Tier 2 squirrel-looking monster with large teeth didn't attack him on sight. It was probably because it could sense that Julius was stronger than it or maybe it was just an herbivore.

As Julius made his way deeper into the forest, he encountered several more monsters. None of them were particularly strong or unique, but they did attack him first, so he dealt with them swiftly.

It was honestly, a bit disappointing.

That was why he had made the decision to not use [Armaments of the Arcane] and focus on using [Flash Step] to fight these monsters.

He knew Declan wouldn't have approved of it before, but luckily he wasn't here right now. But he was feeling a bit bored and decided he wanted a bit of a challenge. Hence, his new strategy.

The strategy was quite simple. Sense his enemy and then let them get close enough for Julius to use his new skill to take them out.

He found his first vict- volunteer quite quickly. It was a smallish monster compared to many that he had fought, it was about the size of a medium-sized dog but looked like a raccoon. However, based on its preliminary movements as it stalked him, he suspected that it was very fast.

And he was very right.

The thing came in like a bolt of lightning. Its black fur glows with mana from its skill usage. Black mana extended out from its claws into long blades, surprising Julius. He was a little late in activating his new skill and got nicked by the blades.

The creature disappeared into the dense brush and prepared for another attack. Julius on the other hand was healing the cut right away. The monster must have had some sort of insidious skill covering the blades.

He could feel a bunch of nasty mana seeping into his muscles and even into his soul. It might have even been two distinct skills. One was for debilitating his physical abilities while the second one almost felt like it was eating away at his mana.

Luckily for him, he had [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] which overwhelmed the toxic mana and got rid of it before it ate too much of his mana.

It was quite the impressive skill considering that his healing had more trouble handling it than he expected.

He knew that he should have covered his body with his armor, but he chose not to against his better judgment.

He wanted to test himself and his new skill. [Flash Step] was already proving to be a vast improvement over its previous version. It took less time to activate and the distance he was able to cross felt he wasn't even traveling across it.

It almost felt like the distance was cut in half if that made any sense.

He didn't have any time to think about it anymore as the toxic raccoon thingy came at him again. This time though, he was much better prepared for its speed and skills. He tilted his head to the side and allowed its outstretched claws to brush past his face.

However, he had already prepared a fist and smashed the lower back of the raccoon in mid-air.

To his surprise, the raccoon took the fist much better than he thought it would. There was some sort of bubble that covered its flesh and dissipated much of the blow's force.

Still, it was quite lightweight and so his punch tossed it across the forest's clearing. He didn't allow it to get back to its feet though. He activated [Flash Step] and dashed to its location.

He overshot it by a little bit and so he had to activate it again, but that extra moment had allowed the monster to get back to its feet. It was a little wobbly on its feet but it still tried to escape.

He exploded a small orb of kinetic energy he had created at the beginning of the fight to knock the monster off balance and it tripped over its feet before it could go hiding again. This time he didn't overshoot his [Flash Step]. He landed right on top of it and crashed a fist full of kinetic energy straight onto the raccoon's chest.

This time with the ground underneath its body, the force had nowhere else to go. And the monster exploded like a balloon. It was quite gross and got him covered in a bunch of black goop.

He tried to get as much as it off of him, but it was futile. He had to pull out the impromptu shower item from his storage ring and give himself a rinse. It didn't do much for the smell but it was better than nothing.

Once he was done, he packed it away, collected its core, and continued on exploring the rift. All the while ignoring the painful sting he felt in his soul.