Path to Transcendence

It wasn't that much of a surprise that they couldn't find a suitable shelter in the hour they had until night.

They did make some good distance though. Reinera's physical enhancement skill was surprisingly sustainable for long distances, especially when she had access to natural light.

It wasn't like his uncle's sun affinity which was restricted to sunlight, but it was able to use all sources of natural light. That meant the moon and the stars apparently as well.

I can see why their bloodline ability is so sought after now.

Julius ended up having to dig them a big hole in the middle of the plains. He did have a tent in his storage ring, but he didn't like the idea of being so exposed at night. Their tent would literally be the tallest thing for miles around.

It took more mana than he felt comfortable with, but since there were two of them, he had to make it larger than he would if it was just himself.

After he finished digging out the hole, he used a large tarp that he bought a while back to cover the top. He also set up some enchanted rods that Kyle insisted he get.

The rods would supposedly dissuade any monsters from approaching. According to Kyle the man who had been selling them severely underestimated their actual value.

Once they got settled in, Julius brought out some of his food to share with Reinera. The moment the girl saw the food, she perked right up and practically salivated all over it.

"I always questioned why you had so much food on hand at all times, but now I am deeply appreciating your foresight," she mumbled through a roasted leg of meat, fat dripping from her fingers and splattering on the compact dirt.

They finished up and after such a long day, as well as a satisfying meal, Julius watched as Reinera passed out on the mat he rolled out for her. Her quiet snores filled the empty hole.

He didn't do such a thing. While he had been getting a good night's sleep every day for a while now, he didn't want to take the chance tonight. He had gone without sleep for weeks in the past, so a night shouldn't hurt him that bad.

Instead, he used the night to meditate on his Spatial Concept and cultivate toward Tier 3.

His Concept meditation was a bust, which was unsurprising. But his cultivation proved fruitful.

Tier 3, much like Tier 2 didn't require that much input from the person. It was a natural process that almost every person would inevitably get to. However, for people who challenged themselves and improved, that process went by much quicker.

Still, there were things he could do to expedite his advancement. Getting to Tier 3 required one to assimilate their entire existence together. That meant his soul, core, and body had to be properly aligned.

One way, which was the simplest, was to channel mana from his core throughout his body and then back into it. This action could be hard for some, but after some practice, it would become natural.

The most difficult part of advancing to Tier 3 was undoubtedly the soul aspect of it. It is where most people find themselves stuck. This is where Julius had an advantage. He had already touched upon his soul many times in his reckless training and eventual recuperation.

[Soul Tempering] helped a lot on this end. The skill didn't just temper his soul, but he found that his aura was similarly affected. Which made sense, his aura was a representation of his soul. It was why control of one's aura made advancing much more seamless.

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He didn't know exactly how close he was to advancing, but he felt he wasn't that far away from it. After all, another method to advance was to experience challenges, kind of like forging yourself through fire. And if there was anything he had been doing for the past year, it was challenging himself.

For now, he would just have to be patient and wait.

Unfortunately, patience wasn't exactly one of his virtues.

***

He barely noticed when the morning arrived. He had been playing around with [Spatial Perception], making sure that nothing snuck up on them, and also to see if there was something he could use to learn a Concept.

Reinera quickly awoke afterward.

They enjoyed a quick and easy breakfast, shoving pastries and coffee down their stomachs before packing up and leaving their makeshift hole.

It was pretty chilly in the morning air, so Julius made sure to keep a small barrier of heated air around Reinera. He didn't need one, since he could just infuse some directly whenever he wanted.

They traveled along the boring plains for hours. They did see a few creatures along the way, such as a herd of bison-looking monsters. However, the monsters didn't care much for them and didn't bother them.

It wasn't until the later afternoon that they finally saw something. Just on the horizon, was what looked to be like a town.

Julius watched as this made Reinera almost cry for joy. While Julius had been fine with constantly running for hours on end, it was obvious she had not been. While her enhancement skill was really good and she never had to worry about running off of mana in the bright sunlight, it would seem that her body wasn't used to such intensive running.

On top of many breaks, Julius had to infuse some life mana into her occasionally to help her keep going. So when she finally saw an end to her suffering, Julius saw her run toward the town with such speed that it shocked him.

He had to push himself to keep up with her.

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***

When he caught up with her, he grabbed her shoulder gently.

"You might want to use that necklace of yours to change your appearance," he said once she was paying attention to him.

He saw the look of realization bloom on her face and her face flushed at her potentially thoughtless mistake. She quickly activated her disguise and he watched as her brilliant silver hair and bewitching features toned down to more subtle beauty.

While they were at it, they took the time to change out of their Goldencrest uniforms into more subtle clothing.

Well, his new outfit was subtle. Reinera's was still a very expensive-looking outfit if you knew what to look for. The black cloth had a brilliant glimmer to it and showed all of the telltale signs of being made from higher quality materials.

"Better?"

He gave a non-committal shrug. "Better than before at least."

They approached the walls of the town with a much more calm pace. At first glance, he was a little surprised at how different this town already was from Heston. Unlike the awe-inspiring and impressive city walls of the larger city, this town's defenses weren't pristine.

The stone walls had large slashes and looked quite worn in comparison. It gave the appearance of a wall that had a history of many battles. Also, unlike Heston, the walls weren't shining brightly with mana-enforced enchantments.

They found one of the gates that allowed entry into the town and walked up to a line where there were already several people waiting to be allowed in. A pair of guards in light armor were standing by it and were checking over the people coming in.

The two of them got in line and awaited their turn. As they waited, Julius took the time to inspect the two people in front of him. They had a large bundle of cloth strapped to a wagon they were dragging behind them. And when it was their turn to approach the guards, Julius was able to sense the two people handing over some coins to the guards discreetly.

Oh boy. Do we need to pay a toll or something?

Julius understood that not every place would be like Heston. Heston was a city with practically no crime but it was still surprising to see bribery right in front of him.

When it was their turn Julius walked up to the guards with a smile on his face.

The shorter one spoke to him first, the grip on his spear tightened just a hair. "What's your business here?" His tone was slightly rude and condescending. But Julius didn't let that bother him, if rude and condescending bothered him, he would have thrown Aubrey from the top of a cliff by now.

"We are just passing through, hoping to get some food," he calmly explained to the man.

"Well, the toll is two silvers for each of you to enter," the guard told them.

"Two silvers? That is robbery!" Reinera exclaimed.

"Are you calling us thieves girly?" The other taller man called out in a threatening tone.

Julius watched as her face got increasingly angry as she heard his reply, but he intervened before she could do anything that might cause them problems.

"We don't have four silvers to give you," he lied to them.

"Well then you can't enter," the short guard scoffed at them.

Julius reached into his pockets to grab a handful of coppers, probably just over two silvers and presented them with the most ashamed expression he could manage. "I'm sorry, but this is all we have. But we still need some left to eat."

The guards laughed at him and the tall one reached over to grab the coppers roughly from his extended hand. "I guess that will have to do," he said with a hearty laugh.

Julius kept his calm, but he felt Reinera was about to do something. So before she could, he bowed his head. "Please, sir. We need that money to eat."

The short guard looked over at this friend. "You should at least leave the kids with something," he said with an arrogant smirk.

"You're right, that wouldn't be very nice of me if I took all of your money."

Yep, like that's not exactly what you are doing right now.

"Here," the taller guard said to him while tossing a single copper at him. Julius had to restrain the temptation to punch the two guards into the next town. Instead, he kept his head low and walked through the gates.

As soon as they got far enough away from the guards, Reinera spoke up.

"Why did you let them steal from us like that? There is no way a town like this has a toll of two silver," she exclaimed furiously. Her eyes were blazing with righteous anger.

Julius had stopped pretending to be so meek and looked at her with calm eyes. "You really want to pick a fight with a bunch of town guards over a few silver?"

"I don't care for being robbed in broad daylight."

"Why do you care so much about a couple of silver?"

"It's not about the silver, it's about the principle of it. Those guards are supposed to protect the town, not extort its people," she argued to him.

"You're just used to living in cities like Heston and the capital. You can't expect the same things in rural places like here. Not to mention, that it would just bring too much unwanted attention to us. We don't need to get in trouble with the locals when we don't even know where we are," he calmly explained to her.

"It doesn't matter. People shouldn't be stealing from each other regardless of where they live. It's not right," she vehemently stated.

I bet it's hard for her to understand the concept of doing anything for some money. She is a princess, after all, she has most likely never had to deal with being poor before.

In his past life, when he was being raised from gramps, they didn't have a lot of money. His gramps was living on his social security income and only got a little from the state because of Julius, so money was never in abundance.

Looking back on it, moral obligations didn't seem to matter as much when he was poor. Even he had done some dubious things just for a few bucks. In hindsight, it wasn't something that he was proud of, but he could understand why he did it.

A few bucks could have bought the old Julius a good many things.

Now, it wasn't so easy to think that way. It was hard to when he had handfuls of platinum and many valuable cores in his ring. By all standards, he was quite wealthy.

He didn't bother trying to argue with her anymore. It wasn't like she was exactly wrong in her opinions, just a little bit naive in how realistic a task like preventing stealing or coercion would be.

Instead, he gave the town a good look. As expected, it was nothing like Heston. The streets weren't pristinely cleaned nor did all of the people wear really nice clothing. Furthermore, there were a lot more children running around.

These children were obviously not well off, but they all had smiles and laughter on their faces as they played around on the cobblestone streets. It was a nice little reminder that showed that money didn't necessarily mean happiness.

He ended up pulling aside the most trustworthy looking person he found and asked them for directions to a good inn that had tasty food.

The lady he asked was very kind and generously gave him very specific directions to an inn called Gentle Breeze. Apparently, it was a local favorite and had amazing food. It also sometimes had a performance for the patrons to enjoy.

He ended up talking with her for a while and found out that this town was named Stonewall. He didn't get to ask her where that was in relation to Heston, but he would hopefully be able to find it on a map tomorrow.

He thanked her sincerely for her help and went on his way. However, without her noticing, he floated a gold coin over to her pocket.

He ignored the broad smile that Reinera gave him after she spotted him doing so.