Path to Transcendence
Chapter 52: After the Exam

Julius watched as Gabriel stayed where he was and looked at him with jubilant eyes. He seemed more excited that Julius had managed to land a clean hit than Julius himself. Gabriel pressed something on his bracelet, and Julius felt the device no longer restrict his shoulder. It was an amazing piece of equipment.

Gabriel walked up to Julius and placed an enormous hand on his shoulder giving him another large smile. "Good fight, Julius. I genuinely enjoyed it, you really got me there at the end."

Julius was still worried about tipping his hand a bit too much, but Gabriel's reaction put Julius at ease, it seemed that he just enjoyed a good fight, and honestly showing his aura abilities wasn't that big of a deal. Julius had already partially revealed them to that Silas guy before.

Julius turned to face the large man. "Thank you, I had fun as well. How did I do? Do you think I will pass?" Julius was curious about how the man would rate him.

"Oh there's no doubt, you passed halfway through the test when I saw your kinetic enhancement skill and that fire skill. You obviously have fought for real before, I just wanted to see how far I could push you for my own curiosity," Gabriel explained to Julius.

Julius mentally kicked himself, he should have stopped or pretended to be defeated earlier. He could have passed without showing more of his cards. But what's done is done, he did well, and as long as the interview didn't screw him he had a good chance of getting in. He just hoped that this wouldn't bring him too much attention to the wrong sort of people. Luckily, he didn't think Gabriel was the scheming type anyway.

Julius did have some questions he wanted to ask. "You felt, stronger than some of the other proctors that I saw, is there a reason for that?" Julius asked the man.

"Yeah, most of the proctors are assistant professors, they have strict schedules they follow for the practical and are usually Tier 3 but I am a Tier 4 and a Senior Professor of the Combat Department." Gabriel openly told him.

"Why would a Senior Professor handle my exam?"

"I don't know either, there was a last-minute change made by Silas Silvertone the Assistant Director of Enrollment, making me your test proctor," Gabriel informed Julius.

Silas Silvertone? So he did do something, but what was the point of it, a test? Was he just curious after seeing my aura skill or was it my behavior?

He hadn't even started yet, but he was already causing issues for himself. He hoped that this wasn't a precursor to what was to come.

Gabriel was very kind to Julius, he stuck around and talked with him for a while. He asked about how Julius had trained and Julius was able to ask about how often he would be allowed to leave if he attended Goldencrest.

"You will have most of the weekends off, so you should be able to leave campus then. Many of the older students choose to head to town for some fun," Gabriel told him.

That was nice to know, he would be able to see Declan, Orus, and Rae pretty often at least.

Gabriel was even nice enough to give him some tips and even offered to spar with him if he ended up coming to Goldencrest. Gabriel was a Senior Professor so that meant he typically taught the older students, while normal professors and their assistants were the ones who taught the basics to first and second years. Julius hurriedly accepted his generous offer. He was surprised because he thought that Gabriel must've been busy already and offering a first year to spar could not have been the norm. Julius must have impressed him enough.

Gabriel couldn't stick around forever and soon excused himself, getting back to his duties. "Don't wait too long to come and see me!" Gabriel reminded him.

Julius promised he wouldn't and they both headed off their own ways. The practical was the last part of the exam and after he was done he went to a desk where he was told where he could replace the exit and that his sponsor would be notified whether or not he would be accepted shortly.

Julius made his way outside, into the sunny courtyard where many other kids who were also done with their exams were waiting around for their parents or talking to other kids their age.

Julius spotted Declan waiting at the edge of the gate, wearing his black uniform. Julius headed toward him, trying to squeeze around the other kids as he did.

"How did it go?" Declan asked when Julius got close enough.

Julius made a face, "The affinity portion was expected, but the interview could have gone better."

"Why? What happened?" Declan asked with concern.

"It got pretty contentious between me and one of the examiners. She thought I shouldn't even be trying to apply with my affinities. Also, the main examiner tried to invade my aura, but I caught him before he could," Julius explained to Declan.

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"There are always people like that, they think that affinities ranks are everything, I wouldn't let it bother you too much. As for the other thing, It's not uncommon for higher-tiered individuals to do that to Tier 1's or those without an aura. Did it seem like he would punish you for catching him?" Declan asked.

"I don't know. But my proctor for my practical exam was a Senior Professor named Gabriel Keller. He was strong, and nice enough to offer to spar with me during the school year. He told me the same man who did my interview changed who my proctor was at the last minute." Julius told Declan.

"Did you catch his name?" Declan inquired.

"Yeah, it was Silas Silver-something," Julius replied

"Oh," Declan said while pausing to think.

"What? Do you know him?" Julius asked.

"Yeah, Silas Silvertone was one of my professors when I attended Goldencrest," Declan told Julius. "He was a great professor, harsh, but fair. I don't think you will have much to worry about. He never stuck me as a petty man and appreciated hard work over everything else," Declan reassured him.

That was good to hear. It would have sucked if Silas was vindictive enough to prevent Julius from attending Goldencrest. He probably had the power to do so as well, if he was the Assistant Director of Enrollment.

Declan and Julius headed back to the guardhouse where he saw Orus and Rae. He told them what he had told Declan and what Declan had informed him about.

It was funny to see Rae get all aggravated on his behalf. She was cursing the lady examiner and was saying how pathetic it was for a professor to talk to him like that. The lady didn't bother Julius that much, he was aware that some people might feel that way. But it was nice to see Rae all heated up on his behalf. She was too kind.

Orus on the other hand just called the lady examiner a stupid bitch and left it at that. Interestingly enough, while Declan hadn't heard of Gabriel Keller, Orus had. According to Orus, Gabriel Keller was an accomplished Tier 4 on the cusp of Tier 5 who made a name for himself during the last monster flood several years ago. However, he wanted to start a family with his wife and ended up replaceing a position at Goldencrest, quickly making a name for himself and becoming a Senior Professor soon after he got there.

Julius went up to his room and gave the spirit seed some mana.The little thing was hungry as ever, devouring the mana. It was developing rapidly, the buds were now fully blossomed and brilliant white flowers were running up and down the branches. There were many more leaves too, Julius was happy to see such progress in such a short amount of time. Admittedly it was taking in a lot of mana so it made sense that it would grow fast. He just hoped the seed would sprout a life spirit. Julius said goodbye to the little seed and went back downstairs to the courtyard.

Orus had to get back to work as did Rae, leaving Julius on his own. It was a couple of hours until dinner, so he used the time to train. He still hadn't decided what [Mana Manipulation] skill he was going to choose and was planning to wait until he at least was able to use the library at the academy and see if any of his skills were cataloged there.

He did, however, want to see if [Fighter's Will] evolved. He was so close and was curious to see what kind of evolutions he might be offered.

He spent the next couple of hours going through many different exercises for aura. He was almost able to fully cover his body with aura, but it seemed that his soul was the issue. He didn't quite have enough soul energy to cover that much. He had a feeling that he would be able to once he reached Tier 2, but until then he might be stuck.

Not that Tier 2 was far away. He could feel himself pressing against the wall to the next tier and it was only a matter of time before he would advance. Julius was curious about what changes an affinity body would have for him. He felt like [Kinetic Augmentation] did a lot of what a kinetic affinity body would do already, so he predicted that it would improve similar aspects. As for his fire and life affinities, he wasn't quite as sure. He knew that an Affinity Body would allow your body to have a deeper connection with the mana of your affinity, but by how much, and would Julius see that much of a difference?

Edwin had told Julius that Tier 1 and 2 were just to prepare someone for Tier 3. He didn't say what he would need to do in order to reach Tier 3, but he did say that laying down a solid foundation was crucial. Julius wished that Lukas and Edwin had been more helpful in regard to advancement.

Julius spent the entire time until dinner practicing his aura skill, it didn't make any progress, still stuck even after so much effort. It might require something a little more challenging than what he had been doing.

He did open his other notifications, the ones he missed after his spar with Gabriel.

[Swordsmanship lvl 5 -> lvl 7]

[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 11 -> lvl 12]

The level-ups were welcome, but he would rather have leveled [Fighter's Will].

He was kind of wishing that he had another rift available he could throw himself into. It didn't seem like any of his skills had a bottleneck when he was fighting for his life. Maybe, he would need to put himself in some danger to see some actual results.

Sometimes it made Julius wonder why he even chose to go to an academy. Fighting monsters would be way faster to gain skill levels. But he had to remind himself that he needed to forge a stable base before he built a skyscraper on it. If he went too fast, he might ruin himself later on and the entire building might collapse on top of him. He would rather not sacrifice long-term power for short-term growth.

For example, if he hadn't spent all those years training his mana and other skills, he did not believe he would have progressed as fast in the rift. While he might not have seen the numbers going up, those years of hard work allowed him to improve so rapidly. Still, even if he understood it, he would love it if he could evolve his aura skill.

Julius stopped moping and gave himself a good old slap across the face to jostle him. The path to improvement was a long one, and he couldn't get down on himself. He would eventually evolve the skill, it might be today, tomorrow, or weeks from now, but he would.

Julius went inside to eat dinner and resumed training afterward. Orus didn't eat with him, his fiance usually worked late which was why they were able to eat dinner together at night, but it seemed that she had the night off and they had plans for a nice dinner.

Julius wished Orus luck, made a trip upstairs to feed the little guy, and decided to bring them down to experience the late-night air. Julius didn't train with any more aura for the day, he felt that he needed to take a step back and come at with a fresh head.