Path to Transcendence

Julius wanted to groan in frustration.

"I thought you said the children here were good kids," he said accusingly toward Elder Han.

"There are, but as I said, some of them have gotten arrogant," the meddlesome old man stated with zero shame. As if one of them hadn't just tried to smash his head apart after the spar was clearly over.

Julius stalked on over to the prone figure of the boy who had tried to hurt him. He didn't help the boy up, no, he gave the boy another small kick for good measure.

"Hey! That's cheap!" One of the other boys called out angrily.

"Cheap? You mean more cheap than swinging as hard as he could at a defenseless person's head?" Julius retorted back without looking.

"Well, obviously you're fine!"

"So that makes it okay, huh? What if I hadn't been prepared? What if he actually managed to hit me?" Julius asked the boy.

Truthfully, if Julius had managed to get hit by that strike, it would have done pretty minimal damage since his physical enhancement skill had been still active. Additionally, he would have just healed whatever damage with his healing skill. So there wouldn't have been a problem.

However, he wasn't going to tell them that. In the end, one of their friends had just tried to ambush him after losing the fight.

It was a show of poor sportsmanship and a reflection of how he fought. That thoughtlessness was the reason why the poor boy had been beaten so easily.

It wasn't like the boy had shitty skills. As a matter of fact, Julius was pretty sure that he had several at rare already. A pretty good feat for someone living at an orphanage. Likely better than some of the students in his class.

Although, he suspected that had a lot to do with the old man. But he doubted many of them realized that.

After Julius's retort, the boy went beat red and had his fists clenched.

"Calm down, Ibram," another girl told her friend with a hand on Ibram's shoulder.

"Calm down, Sarah? You saw what he just did to Scott."

Scott? Oh, that must be the boy in the dirt, he thought to himself.

"Scott deserved it and you know it."

Just as the other Ibram boy was about to say something, Elder Han clapped his hands together with a deafening boom. The sound was much louder than what an old man should be able to produce.

"This is why I asked Julius to help you guys," Elder Han spoke. The usual teasing tone was nowhere to be seen. His voice was authoritative and stern, and Julius saw that every one of the children stood up a bit straighter.

"After your guy's success hunting some monsters, you have grown too arrogant. I thought it was needed to show you guys that there are people out there that you are no match for yet."

"And you're saying that this guy is? I admit he beat Scott, but that doesn't mean he could beat the rest of us. If Scott fought a little smarter, he would have likely beaten him," Ibram confidently stated.

"No, he wouldn't."

The assertiveness and absoluteness of Elder Han's words cut through all of them.

"Even if every one of you guys fought him, you would die before you could scratch his skin," Elder Han told them bluntly.

"That's a bit unfair Elder," the girl named Sarah defended herself and her friends.

"Why is that? Do you think that just because you guys can take down a Tier 2 monster by yourself you can win against any Tier 2?" The old man's rebuttal was sharp like a whip, his sarcasm evident.

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"No, that would be unreasonable, but to assume that we would all be defeated so easily against another kid our age seems unfair to our hard work," the girl calmly argued.

She has a point. I don't blame her for being offended. If someone told me that no matter what I or my group of friends did, we wouldn't be able to beat another person of the same tier, I would be similarly offended.

"That's just the harsh truth of the world. And I want to show you this before you all head off onto your own journeys. There are just some things that you can't fight your way out of. I would rather you find out now, than die in a few years because of that pride," Elder Han said more gently.

"Look, we get that we won't be able to beat some of the geniuses of the sects or academies who have perfect affinities, but you can't expect us to constantly live in fear of fighting someone who has perfect affinity," a different boy spoke up.

"It's not the people with perfect affinities, that I want you to worry about, Finn. It's the people who get as strong as them who don't have such advantages that you should be wary of. You will be surprised at how many people with subpar affinities go on to become powerhouses."

"What like him?" Ibram asked skeptically, pointing at him.

Hey, stop bringing me into this. I just got caught up with the old man, I didn't mean for this to become such a thing.

"Exactly like him."

Shut up, old fart.

"Well, I still don't believe you. To say that all of us together wouldn't stand a chance against him is too much," the boy adamantly stated.

"Why don't you try?" Elder Han welcomed daringly.

Julius gave a harsh look toward the old man. "I have no intentions of dealing with this drama. If you are so worried about the children, then you should find a way to deal with them yourself. I'm certainly, not going to fight them all for you."

"Oi, sounds like you are scared," the boy kept on talking.

"Shut up kid, the adults are speaking," Julius casually dismissed the boy who was probably older than him. But he was getting annoyed at the kid's attitude.

He heard an angry response, but he tuned it out. All of his attention was on the old man.

Elder Han gave him an acknowledging nod. "I understand your hesitancy, Julius. However, what if I gave you something in return."

"What could you give me?" Julius asked, not outwardly showing his interest.

"What if I could help you evolve your physical enhancement skill?" Elder Han threw out.

Julius paused at that. "What would you know about that?"

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"I might have a useful Concept that will go along quite nicely with that skill."

That did intrigue Julius. The only problem with that was that he didn't think he would or should get another Concept or epic skill before getting to Tier 3. He had learned his lesson and understood that his soul could only handle so much.

"Under normal circumstances, that would be a good offer, but I would have to wait until Tier 3," he honestly told him.

"Oh?" Elder Han's grey and bushy eyebrows lifted in excitement. "So you're at that point huh?"

"What point?" The girl named Sarah asked. "And what did you mean by teaching him a concept?"

They both ignored the girl, much to her annoyance.

Elder Han nodded. "Okay, then how about a favor? If there's something you need and if it's within my abilities, then I will provide it. Does that sound fair?"

Julius smiled inwardly. He liked favors. Elder Han didn't know that of course, but the thought of gaining another favor greatly appealed to Julius. Especially, from someone as enigmatic as this old man. It was his secret weakness, after secret treasure chests of course.

"That could work," he said approvingly.

"Wonderful!" Elder Han clapped his hands happily. "Everyone, you all sound very confident in your ability to beat this boy. Now you can prove it."

Julius gave a look at who he would be facing. There was the boy Ibram, Sarah, another girl, Finn, and the last boy. The Scott fellow was still lying unconscious so Julius wasn't counting him.

Okay, so five of them versus poor old me, that doesn't sound very fair to them, he internally joked.

"You still feeling arrogant huh?" Ibram called out as the rest of them got into position and stared down Julius. However, unlike Ibram, the others didn't look as confident. They were anxiously looking at him, the Sarah girl in particular seemed very wary.

At least not all of them are like those two boys.

Julius smiled at the boy who was angrily pacing back and forth, sword in hand, and waited for Elder Han to begin the fight.

"Begin," the old man shouted out.

As expected the Ibram boy dashed in, but unlike the Scott guy, he was much faster. He had some sort of speed-focused physical enhancement skill, but Julius could already tell that he sacrificed power for it.

The two girls and one boy were mages it seemed. They sent out a medley of ranged attacks. One was a plain old mana bolt, one was a barrage of rocks, but one was interestingly a powerful shard of metal.

He didn't activate his armor, instead just covering himself with [Barrier of Severance] and using [Flash Step] to avoid the attacks. He also made sure to dodge in a specific way that forced the two other boys who were charging in, to get hit in the back from their friends.

It didn't do too much damage, as they both seemed to have some defensive skills and the girls weakened them before they hit, but it still staggered them.

Unlike his fight with Scott, he didn't play around for that long. He moved in to take advantage of their off-balance stances. He took out Ibram first. A quick smack with an enforced arm tore the boy's sword from his grasp and a follow-up kick sent the boy careening right where his friend was unconscious.

The other boy used the opening of Julius with commendable skill. He sent a quick thrust at Julius's back, completely silent as he did so. Julius dodged but found himself in the volley of another barrage.

Instead, of trying to sidestep them, he pushed forward and dashed toward the undefended group of mages. He saw their eyes widen as they realized what he was doing and tried to retreat.

However, [Flash Step] quickly had him right in front of the metal mage. The boy named Finn was definitely the only one who was the real danger. He sent a blast of kinetic energy into the boy's stomach, making sure to hold back. He didn't want to blow a hole into the boy's stomach after all.

The other two girls quickly followed. He did the same to them and had taken them all out by the time the last spear-using boy caught up.

The spear user was skilled, tall, had long limbs, and utilized his superior reach to good effect. The only problem was the boy didn't seem to have any explosive or powerful abilities to give him an opening.

After humoring the boy for a little bit, he finally grabbed the haft of the spear, pulled him in, and gave a little headbutt to the boy's dome. Sending him into the dirt with a thump.

Afterward, he looked around to see that all of them were either still on the ground or were still struggling to get up.

Eh, maybe I should have held back a little bit more, he inwardly winced.

Elder Han seemed to enjoy it though. "Haha, I told ya, didn't I?"

Julius watched as Sarah stumbled to her feet and cradled her head. "Why is he so much stronger than the rest of us?" She asked despondently.

"Like I said before, there are gaps that you can't easily overcome, even at the same tier."

"What? Like the concepts you mentioned before? Is that what you mean?" Sarah asked.

"That's exactly what I mean, Sarah," Elder Han said proudly.

"Well, then how do we get one of those?" The Finn boy asked.

"It's not worth it at Tier 2. You could spend years trying to learn one. It becomes much easier once you get into Tier 3."

"So why haven't you told us about them before?" Sarah asked with a frown.

"Because if I did, you would have all tried to get one. Maybe you would have, but that time would have been better spent training your other skills," Elder Han explained.

Just as Sarah was about to argue, Elder Han waved his hand, cutting her off.

"We already wasted enough time. You have someone who can help you get stronger. Why don't you use him instead of asking a useless old man questions?"

Julius gave the 'useless old man' a meaningful look. Elder Han spotted it but shamelessly ignored it.

Julius just shook his head but was quickly distracted by the horde of teenagers that approached him with fiery intensity in their eyes.

***

Sarah POV

When Elder Han said that they didn't stand a chance, she and the others did not believe him. Although they respected the old man more than anyone else, it was hard to trust the opinion of someone who looked like they could keel over and die at any moment.

Still, when he had dismantled them so easily, it was impossible to ignore that Elder Han was right.

Thus, once they dusted themselves off they shamelessly asked for help. Even Ibram swallowed his pride and asked the boy for some pointers.

However, Sarah knew that Julius wasn't just there to teach them new skills or techniques, he was here to show them that there was always someone better than you out there.

It was humbling and frustrating in equal measure.

However, then it was finally her turn to get his help.

"Why do you use [Mana Bolt]?" That was the first thing he asked her. It almost sounded like the idea of her using [Mana Bolt] offended him in some way.

"I wanted some more offensive powerful spell to use," she explained like she had a thousand times to everyone who had the same question.

"Is that all? Because if so, that's a pretty poor reason."

"How is me wanting to do more damage and contribute to a fight a poor reason?" She said offended by his tone.

"Because it is wasteful and your use of the skill is not very good. To be honest, your skill does more damage to my eyes than if I just let it hit me in the face," he told her with a completely straight face.

She felt herself get riled up. "You keep talking like that you will find the answer to that pretty quickly."

He raised his hands and laughed at her. "Sorry. But it's true. Why don't you use your water affinity instead? There's plenty you could do with it to be useful. One of my friends uses their water affinity as a hybrid fighter. He has some pretty cool buffs as well."

"Because I want to use [Mana Bolt]," she stated stubbornly.

He looked as if he was going to continue arguing, but must have decided against it. "Okay, then let's work on that [Mana Bolt], because it is absolutely sad to see it as is."

She sent a low-powered [Mana Bolt] at him for that, and she wasn't that surprised that he avoided it without even looking at her.

"First, you have to learn how to compress it more."

"Compress it?" She asked curiously.

"Yes, if you want to make [Mana Bolt] work you have to compress your mana, otherwise it will be too weak. Also, you are wasting a lot of mana as you create each [Mana Bolt]. Focus on making sure that all of the mana you use ends up in the [Mana Bolt], right now about half of your mana ends up dissipating in the air, mana that could be used to empower it even more," he explained to her.

For the next while, he helped her work on her skill. He was surprisingly a good teacher. Sarah had learned most of her mana control from the workers of the orphanage, but Julius seemed to have a much higher standard when it came to control.

It was almost to the point of perfectionism and she would have complained if it wasn't for it working so well.

By the time he was done helping her, she had already gained two levels in [Mana Bolt] and each bolt of mana was noticeably stronger. Before, her attacks had almost floated towards her target, whereas now she actually felt like they were tearing through the air to them.

It wasn't just that, but there was much more weight behind each bolt of mana. As if the mana from the bolt was like a hammer, smashing into the defenses of Julius's barriers.

She sent another fully empowered [Mana Bolt] at Julius with a smile, all the while inwardly thanking Elder Han for bringing this boy to them.