Path to Transcendence

"I'm not trying to say anything. I just want to know what happened and what you remember happening," she said.

He didn't see the point in not telling her. She deserved to know, considering all the help she had given him.

"During the blast, I managed to obtain a Concept of Phoenix," he told her.

"During the blast?" She asked skeptically.

"Why, what do you think happened?" He asked her. He had a feeling she already had a theory in the works.

"I don't know," she said, looking like she was lost at sea.

She shook her head and smiled at him reassuringly. "It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you are alive."

***

As they were sitting down on the patio of the cabin Julius couldn't help but think back to what Alice had said. She seemed pretty sure that he died and he was inclined to believe her. He didn't really want to tell her about his experience in his soul though. It felt much more personal than sharing his skills.

Not only that, but something stood out to him. She mentioned that she saw him die. Meaning that she was there and possibly following him the entire time.

He always knew that was a possibility. She was after all a Tier 6 powerhouse, so it wasn't a shock or anything like that. No, what made him pause was whether or not she had anything to do with the two men following him.

The guy said it was a coincidence, but Julius found himself not believing in coincidences as much. She had let him leave Dante's too easily for his liking. It was almost like him giving up and leaving was a part of her plan.

He didn't have any proof, but if she had anything to do with the two men finding him, he wouldn't be too happy about that. He didn't die, so he wasn't too upset, but it was very important to note that he should have died. Which meant that she would have been responsible.

He didn't know how he would exactly feel about that if it was true, so he decided not to confront her just yet. He wanted to settle his own emotions before that.

However, the more he thought about it, that idea was becoming more and more likely. If there was one thing he learned about Alice over this past month or so, was that she always had her own agenda.

It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was something he was aware of.

He shook his head, trying to put those thoughts to the back of his mind. He had a healing skill to evolve. A skill that other than [Spatial Perception], was one of the most anticipated skill evolutions for him.

That was the reason why they came back to Dante's cabin. Alice wanted to help him evolve his skill once she learned that he had gotten it to level 20. He explained that his soul felt pretty amazing and that he doubted he would need any help, but she told him that it was better to be safe than sorry. He couldn't argue with that reason.

He sat down alongside Dante and Alice, both looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness. He ignored their looks though and focused on the latest of his notifications.

[Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] has reached level 20.

Appraising requirements…

Congratulations. Skills requirement met.

Congratulations. Concept requirement met.

Congratulations. Soul requirement met.

Would you like to evolve the skill [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]?

He didn't hesitate for a moment, he instantly selected yes. Afterward, he felt a surge of energy, and his Concept of Phoenix activated with a resounding boom.

Skill evolution commencing…

Skill [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] is evolving… possible advancements: [Phoenix Renewal], [Phoenix Body], and [Revival of Ash].

Julius reviewed the options with an unsteady frown. The first skill wasn't unexpected. It was the skill he assumed it would become once he evolved it, dropping the pseudo from its name. It was also probably the safest choice he was offered.

He already knew what the skill entailed and could pretty confidently assume that the skill was similar just more powerful than the previous version. It wasn't like his healing skill wasn't powerful, in fact, it was extremely potent for its rank.

However, the problem he was having was that the other two skills sounded really nice as well.

I know, first-world problems. But I really like the sound of the other skills, they are really interesting.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He was having a mini-internal crisis. For one, [Phoenix Body] seemed like a ridiculous skill. It was a skill that appeared to be giving him a closer connection to a real phoenix. He didn't know what the skill would entail, but it was a pretty safe guess that it was a good skill.

He just didn't know if it was a better choice than [Phoenix Renewal], a skill that hadn't let him down yet. His soul damage notwithstanding. But he also didn't know what it did. Was it a physical enhancement skill that used fire and life to bolster his body? Or maybe it was a healing skill that acted differently [Phoenix Renewal]

The third skill offered sounded just as tempting as the others. [Revival of Ash] sounded powerful. Revival always sounded like a good idea, especially when he was so close to dying. Or according to Alice, actually dying. Perhaps, that was the reason why he got this skill offered.

It was possible that she was right and Julius really died but came back due to his acquisition of the Concept. So far, that is just speculation though. He was also interested in how it compares to [Phoenix Renewal]. Would it still heal him like a healing skill or would it just act as a safety net for extreme situations?

Would he have to give up on some utility for such a powerful revival technique? Or was it just a better skill than the general upgrade? Luckily he had two qualified people he could ask right next to him.

"I got three options," he said loud enough for the two curious people to hear.

There was a quiet silence that followed.

"Well, what are they?" Dante finally asked after getting impatient for Julius to elaborate on his own accord.

"[Phoenix Renewal], [Phoenix Body], and [Revival of Ash]," Julius told them.

"[Phoenix Body]? That sounds interesting," Dante commented while scratching his beard.

"Right? I'm just worried about what kind of skill it is. Is it still a healing skill or is it some body modification skill instead?" Julius explained his feelings about it.

"The answer might be somewhere in the middle. By the sounds of it, it definitely has some relation to other body enhancement skills. There are a couple of similar sounding skills at the epic rank that I have come across during my years. One of them was the [Fire Spirit Body] that a mage managed to get," Dante stated.

"What kind of skill was it? Do you know?" Julius asked very interested in the answer.

"I can't say I know everything about it, but I can confidently say that it was a very good skill. That mage went on the become a Tier 6 monster when it came to fire magic. To my understanding, the skill allowed him to gain an even higher affinity to fire as well as bring a multitude of physical, mana, and soul-related benefits. His body was partly spiritual, meaning that it became much more difficult for his opponents to actually hurt him. His mana capacity was raised significantly, but I believe it also came at the cost of using other mana sources. Though I can't be certain of that, he used mainly fire mana to start with and might have just decided to use it for everything," Dante carefully explained.

"What about the soul-related benefits?" Julius asked.

"I don't really know about that. I do know that his personality changed to reflect his new skill but also his aura became like literal flames itself. It was a very potent upgrade to his aura, that he used to his advantage," Dante said.

"Do you think it would be a good skill for me to get?" Julius questioned. Other than the possibly mind-altering effects of the skill, the benefits sounded pretty nice. He also didn't know how he felt about potentially losing his ability to use kinetic energy, but Dante admitted that he didn't know if that was even true.

"It's truly hard to say. For one, the skill probably has some similarities. You will most likely gain an increase in your fire and life affinities and the ability to use those types of mana. However, I don't know what that might mean for the healing aspect of your skill. It might completely remove the active healing part of the skill and just vastly increase your passive regeneration."

"You're saying that it might be possible for me to retain the ability to heal myself, but at the cost of more enhanced and powerful active healing?" Julius frowned.

Dante sighed and started to tug on his beard in thought. "There's only so much an epic skill can do. You are lucky that your rare skill was able to do some much at that stage, but you also had a Phoenix Fragment to lean on, so it was understandable. However, you can't expect a skill to be able to do everything that I just explained while still keeping the same healing capabilities of a similar skill."

Julius took all of that information in. He didn't like the idea of giving up his current healing abilites. They have done so much for him so far. It was the reason why he was so powerful for his tier. It didn't just heal his injuries. It also allowed him more time to train, and if he added his drive, it made him able to catapult himself over other students his age.

Although the idea of increasing his affinities and gaining some nice physical and soul-related boosts was a nice thought, he wasn't willing to give his healing up.

"Do you think it is possible to gain a similar skill later down the road?" Julius asked the two of them.

This time it was Alice who answered. "Absolutely. You might not get the same skill, but a comparable one is definitely a possibility. Many people choose the general upgrade skill and try to gain one the other options by hard work."

"You do have [Kinetic Augmentation] close to epic, but if you were to try to add some Phoenix-related physical enhancement skill to it, you might get something interesting out of it," Dante added.

"You really think so?"

"Nope. I told you I am no expert in Phoenix-related skills. In fact, I doubt there's really anybody who is," Dante said with a chuckle.

Okay, so [Phoenix Body] is out for now. Though it is a skill I might want to get later down the line.

"What about [Revival of Ash]?" Julius asked them.

Alice took the lead on this one. "Like how Dante explained it. Most epic skills have a limit on what they can do. Revival sounds very powerful indeed. I know of a couple of revival skills out there, but every single one of them comes at a steep cost. If that skill lets you revive at will, I am certain that it will not be cheap and it will definitely not let you keep such potent healing abilities."

"What kind of revival skills have you heard of?"

"The most prominent one is called [Second Light], it's a powerful revival skill that comes at the cost of life essence. While the loss of life essence is annoying and will leave the user in a weakened state for a long time, it is only temporary, just like your soul damage. More importantly, it is better than dying in the first place," Alice explained.

"So what? Do you think I should get [Revival of Ash]?" Julius asked her, similar to how he asked Dante.

However, unlike him, she had a much more definitive answer. "No. I think you should get [Phoenix Renewal]," she said very confidently.

He paused in surprise, he certainly wasn't expecting that definitive of an answer.

I wonder why that was.