Path to Transcendence

Julius was doing great. He had a big smile on his face as he decapitated another wolf. He was having more fun than he thought he would. These undead monsters weren't that strong, but he did see them progressively getting stronger as they made their way down the labyrinth. The wolves were now putting up some resistance to his will.

Instead of being completely frozen the wolves could now slowly crawl toward the two of them. If they weren't still trying to eat them, he would have given them all medals for their improvement.

He was also glad that his perception skill at least allowed him to detect the traps. And because of that, they were able to avoid some really nasty ones. Julius had sensed a particular trap that collapsed the entire hallway with spikes. Then there was another one that had the roof fall on their heads. Of course, there were smaller ones, but the scary ones were always the ones that he wouldn't be able to escape easily.

Thankfully, because of his awesome skill, they were able to make their way pretty safely with only the frequent monster group encounters.

There was a problem though.

"Could you let some of them through next time?" Reinera asked hopefully. Her previous self-defeating behavior was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she was getting antsy.

"You want me to keep some alive so you can practice your skills?" He asked as he created a large slash against the wall, to indicate that they had been in this area before.

"If that's not too much trouble."

He shook his head and laughed lightly. "No, it's no trouble at all. But why the sudden change? I thought you would still be moping around."

She gave him a dirty look. "Never mind."

He put his hands up apologetically. "Sorry. How many would you like to try?"

"It would probably be safe to start with one," she said thoughtfully.

He nodded his head in acceptance and waited for the next group. The actual navigation of the labyrinth wasn't that hard. He had just been following her advice and heading toward the nearest group of monsters. As long as the monsters felt like they were getting stronger, he was pretty confident that they were at least heading in the right direction.

Soon enough the next group of undead popped up in his perception. There were only five of them this time. However, unlike the other wolves, there was one that stood out. This one was much larger and exuded a much more dangerous aura than the others.

He turned to Reinera. "So which one do you want?"

"Um, maybe not the big one," she said timidly.

He nodded his head and proceeded to send four large spikes of condensed mana at the four smallest wolves. He locked them down with his kinetic energy and Inexorable Resolve so that they couldn't avoid them in time.

The spikes speared them through the chest and let loose a small explosion that killed them immediately. The largest and remaining one froze in place even though he hadn't used his ability on it.

It had seen just how easily Julius had handled its brethren and must have felt very hesitant about engaging him in a fight.

"I said not the big one," he heard from behind him.

"Oh? My bad, I thought you said you wanted the big one."

He felt her staring daggers into his back but easily ignored it. He just stepped to the side and motioned to her toward the undead wolf.

This seemed to confuse the wolf even more and before it could react, Reinera sent a powerful lance of light at the thing's face. To its surprise, it took it straight onto its nose, but it was much more sturdy than its friends, taking the blow with only a small wound to show for it.

Its confusion didn't last very much longer. The wolf decided that she was a much less scary opponent and threw itself at her.

Julius smiled amusingly as the girl let out a soft exclamation of surprise and used a movement skill to dodge out of the way.

That's a pretty good movement skill, it actually leaves a mirage behind for the opponent, he realized as he observed the skill in action.

Instead of just continuing to blast the beast with more lances of light, Julius watched as she sent an interesting gathering of mana at the wolf. He couldn't quite tell what it was supposed to do, but the wolf suddenly started to thrash around.

Her initial panic must have worn off because Reinera was much more poised as she sent several large ropes of light at the monster. These ropes ended up strapping the wolf to the floor. The beast tried to break free of the bindings but was seemingly having a difficult time doing so. Then Julius sensed an incredibly large amount of mana formed underneath the now captive wolf. It was very similar to a ritual circle, but it was slightly different.

It seemed more like a medium that could focus and concentrate mana that was channeled into it. The skill reminded him of Joshua's and James's large scale attack.

Julius didn't have to wait long to see what it did, Reinera quickly activated it and a pillar of light formed around the monster. Runic symbols stacked on top of each other and detonated with a powerful pressure of mana.

What was left after it was over, was a half dead wolf that was struggling to stay alive. Or dead. He didn't quite know how that worked for undead monsters.

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The skill must have taken a lot out of Reinera because Julius noticed that she was breathing much more harshly. He wasn't surprised either, that amount of mana was a lot for a Tier 2. He didn't expect most people to have the reserves like he did.

Still, she had enough juice left within her that she was able to send one last lance of light at the wolf, putting it down for good.

He gave a hearty applause, but she didn't seem to appreciate it. A quick glare at the four monsters he had easily slain and back to the single one she had managed to take down with much more effort made him suspect she thought his clapping was more belittling than he meant it to be.

To her credit, being able to take down a pretty strong Tier 3 at only Tier 2 was an impressive achievement.

He even sensed that the wolf had touched upon a Concept already. It wasn't that developed, otherwise she would have had a more difficult time, but it was outstanding nonetheless.

Regardless, being able to fight across tiers was a very difficult thing that only the most elite fighters could do.

It was something that he had been taking for granted since he had been taking Tier 3s on for a while. Admittedly, it would have been much harder for him if he didn't have such a large mana pool. Otherwise, he would be tired after dealing with a few of them just like Reinera was at the moment.

That last attack took a lot of mana, even by his standards.

"Well, what did you think?" She asked suddenly when she regained her breath.

"Huh?"

"What did you think of the fight? Anything you think I should be doing differently?"

He pointed at himself. "You're asking me that?"

She gave him an exasperated look. "I'm not that stubborn. I know when I should ask for advice."

"And you think I would have some good advice for you?" He asked carefully.

"Of course, if you are able to deal with these Tier 3 undead so easily, you probably have something helpful that I could incorporate into my fighting style. I may not look like it or act like it, but I don't like being the weakest one asking for help. Still, if you can help me get stronger then I will gladly put my pride aside," she said straightforwardly.

"I wouldn't dare presume to give you pointers," he said as he shook his head.

"Just be honest with me, please?"

Well, if she really insists…

"Your light attack uses too much mana," he tells her plainly.

"Yes, it's not ideal, but light isn't exactly the most ideal attacking magic," she said, not only seeming to not care about his blunt criticism but was appreciative of it.

"Then why are you attacking like that? Why not have a different way of fighting?" He asked her curiously.

"Because I usually don't have to worry about mana when there are plenty of light sources around," she explained.

I remember now, the others were explaining to me a while ago.

"You have the bloodline thingy right?"

"Yes, I have that 'bloodline thingy'. That thingy also allows me to regenerate mana extremely fast, so I usually don't have to worry about that. I suspect that's why they chose to set the teleportation location to another labyrinth, where I can't use it."

"Wait, they were able to choose a labyrinth as the location on purpose?"

"Kind of. It would actually be easier if they did since there are already several teleportation relays set up in a labyrinth because of the teleportation traps. They would just need to put the specification for transportation as a labyrinth relay and it would just send us to one nearby."

Interesting, so the fact that we were transported to another labyrinth wasn't pure chance then?

"Do you have any other thoughts of what I could be doing better?" She asked him while he was in thought.

"Do you need to make your lances of light that thick?" He asked.

"No, but if I don't I won't have enough power behind them," she argued.

He put his hand on his chin. "How's your physical enhancement skill?"

"It's pretty good. It's better with some light for me to use, but even without it, the skill is pretty effective."

"So why not use that? It's not like you need to fight as a mage," he said to her.

She looked kind of embarrassed. "I haven't really practiced fighting up close," she admitted.

"What? Why not?" He asked confused at her statement.

He was even more confused as she explained why. Apparently, her tutors when she was growing up didn't force her to learn how to fight up close. For one, the younger version of herself didn't want to and secondly, they didn't seem to see the need for a princess to get down and dirty.

That seemed kind of stupid to Julius. But he wasn't exactly the expert on smart decision making. He couldn't expect everyone to train their children to become the best fighters. Some parents just wanted their children to grow up happy.

Look at Declan's family. His children weren't elite fighters like their father but were still very happy with their life.

Still, it wouldn't be a bad thing for her to learn. And what's a better time than now?

The next group they came across was the largest one yet. This group had almost a dozen monsters.

He didn't waste his time trying to stop them with kinetic energy, but instead just launched a bunch of spikes at them before they could notice him. He took out the head honcho looking one first and the rest followed.

He made sure to keep one of them alive for Reinera to handle on her own. Once he made sure nothing could interfere, he handed the sword that he conjured to her. Well, it wasn't a sword anymore. It was more like a spear, he thought it would be easier for someone like her to use a spear over a sword for her first time.

Surprisingly, she didn't shirk away and dashed toward the monster right away. It was a little sloppy and he could see that she didn't have much experience. Her physical enhancement skill was pretty good. It was definitely one of the better ones he had seen from his peers, allowing her to keep up with the undead wolf.

It was why he thought it was kind of a waste that nobody taught her close combat fighting with skill like that.

He was impressed at how well she used her binding skill. The skill itself didn't use that much mana and she could keep on using it without worry.

Whenever the wolf wanted to attack her, she manipulated the ropes of light to interfere. This allowed her to dart in and out safely, scoring some wounds to the monster. Unfortunately, it was still an undead creature, so the wounds didn't affect it that much. She would need to either destroy its core or cut off its head.

After a few minutes of harassing the poor wolf, she managed to score a lucky hit that pierced the core of the beast. He had only needed to use his kinetic restriction technique to help her a single time.

She was a little breathless, but a proud smile was on her face.

He congratulated her but what took his attention was what was behind the group of wolves. He had noticed it when he spotted them. It was a medium sized room, but inside there was something that he was very excited to see.

It was a silver chest that glowed softly in the dim light.

Haha, I knew there would be treasure in here!