Path to Transcendence

Julius once more watched as the hundreds of bodies around him dissipated into light particles. Even the blood that he was absolutely covered in was gone like it was never there.

He only had one more wave to go and made sure to check his mana before he did.

He frowned when he noticed how much mana he had ended up using. He only had around half of his mana left and that was without him using his more cost-intensive skills, it was less than he was hoping for.

Although he did kind of lose track of time when he was fighting, so it was hard to estimate how long he had fought those ants.

He could only hope that the last wave wouldn't punish him for it.

Regardless, he was excited about what had popped up…

[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 19 -> lvl 20]

Kinetic Augmentation has advanced to level 20. Would you like to evolve the skill?

That wasn't all either. It would seem he managed to get [Thermal Empowerment] there as well.

[Thermal Empowerment lvl 14 -> lvl 15]

Thermal Empowerment has advanced to level 15… Error…

Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Thermal Empowerment] and [Aura Burn] into a single skill?

I was definitely not expecting something like this, he thought to himself, taken aback by the new development.

He had not experienced a simultaneous advancement option and a synergy notification before. But he certainly wasn't going to complain.

It was what he had been hoping for when he chose [Aura Burn].

There were kind of a lot of notifications at once and he wanted to organize them real quick.
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First of all, [Kinetic Augmentation] had reached level 20, which was a big leap and one that he believed happened only because of his newly acquired Concept. The skill had been teetering on the edge for a while and it was nice that it had finally made that last step.

But he made sure not to open the notification, he didn't want to open the option selection yet. Not until he saw the ones he got for [Thermal Empowerment] and [Aura Burn].

Speaking of which, he didn't hold off accepting that notification and accepted it promptly.

Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Thermal Empowerment] and [Aura Burn] into a single skill?

You have learned the skill [Scorching Empowerment] (Rare+)

He wasn't that surprised to see it registered as a superior skill, as a matter of fact, he would be much more upset if it wasn't. He didn't put all that work into infusing his Concepts into both of the skill's usages for nothing.

Although it didn't have the 'of' descriptor, he didn't care too much about that. He was still planning on merging it with [Kinetic Augmentation].

He then checked out his status to see what had changed.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 3

Skills:

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 9] (Epic)

[Sage of Savagery lvl 8] (Epic)

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 5] (Epic)

[Empowerment of Will lvl 19] (Rare+)

[Barrier of Severance lvl 17] (Rare+)

[Soul Tempering lvl 7] (Rare+)

[Scorching Empowerment lvl 1] (Rare+)

[Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)

[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 20] (Rare)

[Flash Step lvl 11] (Rare)

Current Skill Slots: 10/11

Concepts:

[Concept of Sharpness]

[Severing Will]

[Concept of Will]

[Inexorable Resolve]

[Concept of Phoenix]

[Ashen Rebirth]

[Concept of Force]

[Resonating Burst]

Everything seemed to check out. His new Concept was properly reflected in it and he now had an extra slot available to him.

A part of him was tempted to accept [Kinetic Restriction] then and there, but he held off with a supreme act of willpower. He had a gut feeling that the technique would become much less energy-consuming if it was a proper skill. But decided to wait at least until he was done with the Challenge Rift.

The ten minutes were close to being up and the final wave would be approaching any moment. Julius would like to meditate and try to recover as much mana as he could before it did. He had a feeling that this next one was not going to be a walk in the park.

But he would just have to wait and see.

***

The start of the wave didn't begin like he expected.

No, instead of a horde of monsters or god forbid another wave of gross insects appearing in front of his eyes, all he got was a loud rumbling throughout the dark cavern.

It was pretty dark, but that didn't bother Julius. He rarely fought while relying on his eyesight.

But the rumbling did concern him because it was getting louder and louder until it suddenly stopped. Just when he was about to relax a bright light bloomed throughout the entire cavern, blinding him temporarily and when he finally opened his eyes he was stunned at what stood in front of him.

Big.

That was the first thing that popped up in his head. It was at least fifteen feet tall and was built like a tiny mountain.

It was very humanlike in its appearance, but it had distinctly monster-like qualities. It was completely covered in some sort of rough armor made up entirely of dark stone with red craggy lines woven through it, but he could feel the oppressive power coursing through those lines.

Its blood-red eyes stared down at him with complete disdain, which kind of pissed Julius off. He didn't know if this thing was sentient, but the look it was giving him made Julius want to crush the stone around its throat.

It held an equally large sword in one hand with a shield in the other. Each weapon had the same red markings as its skin did and released a similar oppressive aura.

If he was being honest, the giant's whole aesthetic was pretty cool. It looked like a boss monster straight from Dark Souls and he could practically imagine the health bar appearing above its head.

The other thing that really stood out to him was the fact that this monster felt way more powerful than any other Tier 3 monster Julius had the chance to fight.

Just the aura that was surging off this giant screamed that it had at least one really strong Concept that Julius suspected had to do with strength or oppression. He said this because when he was in its presence he got the feeling that he should be kneeling in front of it.

As if he should be grateful that he was even allowed to breathe in the same space as it.

It actually reminded him of the aura of the undead knights, the one with the Corruption Concept, but even more powerful.

If not for his own strong willpower, he would have collapsed to one knee. However, as if it was replying to the challenge, his Emblem lit up violently in response. Roaring back at the monster's aura.

To Julius's astonishment, for the first time since he gained his Emblem, he felt something resist his Emblem. He knew right then and there that this monster had an Emblem of its own. Which also meant that it had at least three Concepts as well.

A part of him got worried about that, but he quickly squashed that feeling. So what if this thing had an Emblem?

He had already fought a Tier 4 before who had a complete Authority of their own. And while he didn't win, he still put up a good fight.

Therefore, this monster shouldn't be a problem for him.

He watched as the giant slowly walked toward him, dragging its long sword behind it as it did. The edge of the blade was obviously sharp considering that just by dragging it, the sword was cutting through the stone floor.

Its shield was pulled up in front of it and it started to slowly pick up its pace from a walk to a jog.

Julius let out a deep breath and prepared himself.

He wasn't holding back this time. This was the last wave and he no longer had to worry about saving his mana. He could fight to his heart's content.

So he activated both of his rare-ranked body enhancement skills and dashed toward the monster.

Fire and small pulses of blue kinetic energy sparked off of him as he ran, constructs forming around his arms, legs, and a small chest piece, but left his face uncovered.

His new skill, [Scorching Empowerment] was unbelievably stronger than the other two skills. He was confident that it was on par with [Kinetic Augmentation] if not stronger at this point.

He layered both of the skills so that he got the benefits of both and the results were glorious. He was able to move faster than ever and he could feel just how much power was packed in his muscles.

When the two of them finally clashed, the shockwave shook the cavern. His new Force Concept surged forth and smashed into the monster's shield.

However, unlike what happened with the ants, it took the blow with relative ease. The massive giant barely budged an inch and in return, it swung its sword with way more speed than a monster of its size should be able to.

He had to use a [Flash Step] to avoid the massive broadsword that almost took his scalp off and get some distance to rethink his approach.

The good news was that his new body enhancement skill was a great improvement. This thing was very strong physically, it made the two-headed bear seem like a toddler in comparison. And it was only due to his improvements that he was able to come out even in the exchange.

If he hadn't gotten the new skill or Concept, he might have been blown off of his feet and into the nearest wall.

With that being said, it might be a good chance to try out his new bombs at this thing. It was way faster than he first initially believed, the sword strike had used some type of skill as well. Perhaps, it was another Concept in work as well.

Thus he jumped back and quickly created a spike. He didn't keep anything back and flooded it with all of his Concepts. Even his newly acquired one.

However, he unfortunately reached a point where the orb wasn't able to contain any more energy. Thus, he sent what he was able to jam inside of it at the monster.

To his dismay, he saw the creature activate one of its skills and hold up its shield. The spike hit really hard, the explosion itself almost deafened him, but after the dust cleared, the shield was still in place and so was the monster.

It was at that moment did he began to understand just how strong this monster in front of him was. This wasn't just any Tier 3. This was a Tier 3 who was on the cusp of advancing to Tier 4.

He believed that this monster would even give Dustin a hard time.

Julius shook his head bemusingly and prevented himself from tossing out another spike. He needed to find a way to take care of this thing before he started to waste more mana sending out constructs at it.

It was a humbling reality to see a monster at Tier 3 manage to keep up with him. He had been so confident that nobody at Tier 3 would be able to beat him after he fought Dustin. He had believed that if he could go toe-to-toe with a Tier 4 as strong as the older man, he would be able to take out anyone else with ease.

But it would seem he would need to reevaluate that assumption going forward in the future.

However, another part of him was glad.

He was glad that he had another challenging opponent in front of him. An opponent that he would be able to fight as equals. After all, there was nothing more he enjoyed more than a good fight.