Path to Transcendence

Reinera POV

Reinera was a mess. Not even her focus skill was able to rein her emotions in. She could not actually believe that things ended up this way. What were the odds?

This might have been the single worst possible way she wanted to tell Julius about her secrets. She was not prepared for this situation at all.

Not to mention that she would be probably dying here pretty soon and knowing that she dragged Julius along didn't do anything for her guilt. Her potentially one true friend at this school and she goes ahead and gets him killed alongside her.

Thank goodness I didn't have any more friends, perhaps if I did I would have killed them too, she said to herself in a bitterly joking tone.

With that being said, it remained that they were stuck in this terrible situation together. All because some stupid noble probably thought that they had an opportunity to damage another faction. That was what really pissed her off.

If it was because of something she did or something she said, she would understand a bit more. However, it was most likely just because of some stupid politicking and that was frustrating.

And now the boy in question wasn't even that mad anymore. It was like the moment he found out that she was Grace and spotted the necklace all of his previous anger vanished.

Furthermore, he was now acting like there was nothing wrong, going so far as to focus his attention on the artifact around her neck instead of their perilous situation.

She just gave him a disbelieving stare. She always knew that Julius was an unusual boy, after all, that was what had drawn her toward him in the first place, but this was different. She expected a different reaction than this.

He didn't notice though and continued on his thoughts. "Would someone like Lily be able to sense such mind-altering effects?" Julius asked curiously, his eyes shining brilliantly as his eyes didn't leave the necklace. It seemed he was interested to know if such subtle mental effects would work on someone like Lily.

She found herself caught up in his casualness as well and answered his question before she could help herself.

"Well, a normal psychic wouldn't be able to, but Lily is well… Lily for a reason. I kind of expected that she already knew that I was hiding something. Sorry, but why aren't you more upset?" She asked with her lips pressed together tightly.

"Do you want me to be?"

"Of course not, but I feel like a normal person would be very upset in this situation," she logically pointed out.

He just shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Aren't you still upset that I dragged you with me?" She asked, confused.

He gave a wave of his hand. "Not that much anymore. I was more upset that a random stranger pulled me into their mess, but obviously you're not a stranger."

She stared at him with a completely blank face.

"Aren't I? I have been hiding my true identity this entire time you know? How can you still consider me a friend after this?"

He gave her a disappointing look. "Of course you're still my friend. You might have been hiding your name and what you look like, but let's be honest, what's the real mask? I have a sneaking suspicion that the princess card is more of a mask than the Grace one," he said bluntly.

She didn't give an immediate response to that. She just stared at the stone floor while biting her lips. That might be entirely too accurate, she thought to herself resentfully.

"You might have a point about that," she finally said.

A stark silence filled the void. One that she was desperate to fill.

"I was going to tell today after our classes," she admitted to him.

She watched as he gave her a curious glance. "Is that why you wanted to talk?"

"Yeah, I noticed that piece of mana you left on me yesterday and thought it was about time to tell you something."

"You noticed that, huh?" His face looked a little bit guilty. Although, she was happy that she was finally getting some real emotion of him.

"I didn't know what it was, I just knew that it was about time to share some things," she explained.

"So you were going to tell me everything?" He asked.

She shook her head softly. "Not everything," she told him truthfully. "Just enough."

He nodded his head. "Oh," he stated plainly.

Another breath of silence passed between them.

"I still don't get why you aren't more upset. Look at where you are because of me?" She asked, confused.

He finally turned and gave her his entire attention. "I told you before, I don't have any plans to die in here." He sounded so relaxed and calm. She didn't understand why. It was like this was a regular Tuesday morning to him.

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"We are in a Tier 3 labyrinth rift all alone, how do you expect us to survive?" She asked.

"We kill the monsters and find the exit," he said like it was obvious.

She let loose a genuine laugh at that, wiping the tears that were still drying on her face. "Oh, yes very simple," she said sarcastically.

He didn't seem to hear the sarcasm. "I know right? The hard part is knowing which direction to head though," he said thoughtfully.

She understood that telling him that he should be more upset wasn't working, so instead she decided to play along with him. "It's probably a good guess that the areas with more densely packed monsters will be closer to the exit," she commented.

"That's a good idea!" he said brightly, heading directly back to the direction where he had sensed the six monsters.

I still don't see how he is planning to deal with the monsters, she thought to herself curiously. It was like he was forgetting that these were Tier 3 monsters they would be fighting. Sure she could handle a couple of them, but she would be hard-pressed to fight an entire group. She wasn't even going to mention that fighting six was way out of her abilities.

"You have a plan I'm guessing?" She asked wonderingly.

He turned his head around and gave her a reassuring smile. "Of course, I do. What do I look like? Someone without a plan?"

She couldn't help but not feel very reassured by the smile. Something in her gut told her that she was missing something. However, she had to admit, she was a little excited to see Julius's plan for dealing with them. Maybe he had a way to outsmart them or to trick them. So she followed him toward the dark depth and toward the group of Tier 3 monsters.

***

Does he really have a plan? She thought anxiously.

As they walked closer. She started to feel less excited and more nervous. Julius had not done anything or set up any traps. So far he has just walked toward the monsters with no preparation, she would have said something out loud, but she was more worried about the monsters potentially hearing her, so she kept quiet.

She would trust Julius for now. She didn't see why she wouldn't, he was pretty confident and from what she knew from him, he wouldn't act that way for no reason.

Still, she expected him to have some sort of elaborate plan of some sort. So she was flabbergasted when he did nothing when the monsters sensed them and started to run at them. The monsters were some sort of ugly decaying creatures resembling a wolf.

Undead, she realized, dread filling her veins. Undead were notoriously dangerous monsters. Not because of their individual strength, which sometimes could be frightening, but because there was always a large number of them. Additionally, there was always a source they came from. In most cases, this meant a necromancer or some sort of undead energy wellspring.

When Julius still didn't do anything, she acted instinctually. She created a lance of light using her epic skill, [Light of Destruction] to rip through the first of the monsters. She wasn't a life mage, but her light affinity had decent effects on the undead at least, and sent the Tier 3 monster sprawling to the floor. She didn't kill it instantly but she certainly injured it.

Still, it's not enough damage, she realized with a sunken feeling in her stomach. They were worthy of their Tier 3 status, their defensive abilities were far beyond the Tier 2s she had been fighting these past months.

Furthermore, it was already impressive that she could even do that much at Tier 2. That was just the tier-jumping power of an epic skill and having a Concept.

It was just too bad that the undead didn't feel pain like most monsters. It was what made them dangerous. Remove the arm of a normal monster and the pain would debilitate them, but for undead, they couldn't care less. They would continue trying to eat your face like nothing happened.

She sent out more spears of light, blasting into the monsters, however, they now understood that the attacks were dangerous and avoided the majority of them with a quick use of a movement skill. She managed to tag a few of them, but there were too many of them for her to handle.

She looked toward Julius who still had an amused grin on his face. His focus wasn't even on the incoming undead but on her. "So that's one of your skills. I have been wondering what kind of skills you had," he said happily.

"Aren't you going to do something!? I thought you had a plan?" She yelled at him, scared as the undead wolves closed the distance and mad that he still wasn't taking it seriously. She didn't want to see him die because he took the Tier 3 monsters so lightly.

He ignored her. "Hmm, their wills are surprisingly weak. It must be because they are undead," he said contemplatively, not suiting the desperate situation they were in.

Suddenly, the casual air around him disappeared and a raging flood of mana and pure power rushed out of him. It felt like the kinetic mana she sensed from him when he fought normally, but this time it was so much more. Reinera almost choked on her own tongue as she felt the immense pressure pulse out of Julius. And she wasn't even the one to bear the majority of this force.

The undead that were leaping toward them were crushed by this force and were suspended in place. It was like they were frozen in time. She didn't know what kind of skill it was, she had never seen quite a skill like it.

However, Julius didn't seem to be surprised at this and calmly walked toward them. She saw him create a sword of densely compacted fire mana with her mana senses. The sword was violet and obviously hot, but somehow the heat didn't manage to reach her. Julius had such a stalwart hold over the fire mana that it just appeared like a normal sword. Regardless, the sheer amount of mana he used was breathtaking.

She had always known that he had such delicate control of his mana, it was one of the first things that she noticed about him that day they met. With that being said, control didn't mean power. Oftentimes it meant the opposite. It was fairly common to see those with amazing control having low mana reserves. It was also somewhat easier to gain control over a lesser mana capacity than one that was large, there was less to wrestle control of.

Reinera herself had a hard time when she was younger with her larger-than-average mana pool. However, she was put through rigorous training for hours a week, focusing on just her mana control until she finally got a good grasp on it.

Since she never noticed Julius's large capacity she had originally believed that this was the case for Julius. A person with not an outstanding mana capacity, but someone who took the time to really focus on their fine control.

It was an admirable quality. As a person who loved mana as much as she did, she deeply appreciated it.

But she was wrong, very wrong. The amount of mana he was using was insane, if he didn't have a massive capacity she would give up all sweets for the rest of the year. The amount he was releasing and controlling at once was larger than the entire pool of some of the close combat-specialized students. For a moment she thought he was actually a Tier 3.

With casual ease, he walked up to each frozen wolf and cut off their heads with a simple slash. The sword did not find the least bit of resistance from the Tier 3 undead's defense. She was able to sense a powerful profound energy surrounding the sword.

There was no doubt in her mind that this was the effect of a Concept. Having one herself she knew just how strong a Concept could be and the difference it could make in a fight. However, this one wasn't like hers. Whatever Concept Julius was using was oppressive and so much more powerful than hers. It made hers look like a toddler waving a wooden sword in comparison.

After the wolves were dealt with, he gave her an amused smirk, as if taking joy in how much she had been freaking out.

"I told you there was nothing to worry about," he said with a smug grin.

"What in the hell's name was that?" She asked stunned at what she had just witnessed.