Path to Transcendence-Chapter 284: Who’s That?

Julius had found himself quickly swarmed by Edgar and Kyle as well. Thankfully, Edgar and Kyle were a bit more reserved than Lily and Aubrey had been.

They were just glad he was back safe and sound, though they had some questions of their own.

He did his best to answer them, also further explaining to them about the plan against the princess and how he had been dragged into it. With that being said, he didn’t mention that Reinera had been the one who physically dragged him along with her. He didn’t need them to blame the girl more than they might already be.

Edgar seemed very fascinated by the fact that he had been taken to a labyrinth-type rift and seemed somewhat disappointed with the fact that Julius didn’t fully explore it. He remembered the general vicinity of the rift, though, so if there was ever a time he went back to that area, he might try to rediscover it.

“What is up with your aura? It’s very shrouded but it also feels… different,” Kyle said interestingly.

“Oh yeah, I noticed the same thing, but he wouldn’t answer me. He told me to wait until all of us were together,” Lily said to Kyle before turning to look at Julius. "Now that we are all together, can you answer my previous question?”

Julius pressed his lips together and thought about how he wanted to share the news to explain what had happened. A lot of things happened that contributed to his newfound aura. So much that he didn’t remember everything.

Did he tell them about the Challenge Rift? Because he kind of thought that he should keep that little bit a secret, it wasn’t entirely his own secret to share.

However, instead of harping about it for too long, he eventually decided that he would just let his aura shroud drop and just show them.

So with a gentle control of his aura, he slowly released his aura, careful to not let it attack the others with its ruinous effects. He didn’t need to hurt his friends when he just came back.

At first, they merely looked confused more than anything but that slowly changed. Lily was the first to notice something because her face morphed from curiosity to surprise, eventually settling into concern.

“Wait, have you advanced to Tier 3?” She asked in shock, walking over to Julius and using her aura senses to probe his aura.

“Huh, Tier 3!?” Aubrey exclaimed.

“Yeah, I advanced to Tier 3 while I was gone,” he said with a grin, not realizing that this would be the first thing they would notice.

“Aren’t you worried that you might have advanced a bit too hastily?” Derek asked concerningly.

“I don’t think he really needs to worry about that. Before he disappeared, he already had a Concept and many highly ranked skills. If it’s his foundation you are worried about, I don’t think we have much to be concerned about,” Edgar commented with a chuckle.

The big fourth-year came on over to Julius with a wide smile. “I’m sure you had your reasons. Actually, I am more interested in that body enhancement skill you have running in the background,” Edgar noted.

“Ah, you noticed that huh?” Julius asked with a smile of his own. It wasn’t surprising that Edgar was the first to notice. After all, he had been deeply influenced by Edgar’s own enhancement skill when he created his.

“Hard not to. Is the skill always passively running? Or are you just keeping your focus on it the entire time?” Edgar asked curiously.

Julius got a little excited when he noticed this detail. “It’s always running and it takes no real focus to keep running passively,” he said with a proud nod.

“Wait, so that means that you can probably increase its intensity with little concentration or time,” Edgar realized with widened eyes.

“Oh yeah,” he said with a smug grin. “It doesn’t take much to have it fully activated, it makes it much easier to react to threats in an instant.”

Edgar heard Julius’s words and put his hand on his chin, clearly in thought about something. One of the hardest and most annoying aspects of having an enhancement ability was the fact that it took time to activate. It wasn’t like a person was that physically powerful at all times, it required a large influx of mana or energy to empower oneself. What Julius basically had was a shortcut to increasing his physical abilities. He suspected that Edgar was thinking about incorporating this feature into his own skill.

It was funny because when he first learned the skill was passive, he thought Edgar would be very interested in it as well.

It would seem he was right.

Edgar walked over to Julius and wrapped one of his massive arms around his shoulder. “Would you mind if I could see the skill in action?” Edgar asked enthusiastically.

“Hold up,” Lily interjected loudly. “Why does your aura have a different… flavor?” She asked with a frown.

“I’m curious about that too. It’s like your aura underwent a drastic change. I would have thought you were a totally different person or even an imposter if I didn’t know better,” Kyle added.

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“That’s what I said!” Aubrey exclaimed.

Julius gave her a blank look. “Yeah, but that wasn’t why you thought that. You just didn’t trust that it was me because you didn’t want to.”

“That’s not true! I thought you seemed different is all. Which actually might be explained by your aura,” she argued.

“You are Julius, right?” Kyle asked hesitantly.

He groaned. “Yes, I am Julius. Aubrey has already asked me questions to make sure I am. What? Is my aura that different?”

He knew that his aura had undergone some massive changes, but he thought that its core remained the same. Or at least that was what he was hoping for.

“Previously, your aura seemed much more gentle, which might have had something to do with your life affinity, but now your aura almost exudes this aspect of destruction and death,” Lily noted with a concerned look.

Aubrey gave Lily a meaningful look. “Who knows? Maybe he really isn’t Julius, Lils.”

“What? I thought you determined that I wasn’t an imposter,” he blurted out.

“Yeah, but I think you could have fooled me with that orb,” Aubrey said with narrowed eyes.

“For heaven’s sake,” he muttered, not believing that she was doing this again.

Thankfully, he knew exactly what would finally convince her that he was the genuine Julius. After a quick thought, he connected with Drasil, who was relaxing in his soul space, and found the little guy sleeping like usual.

He then brought him out, and the adorable green spirit appeared on the palm of his hand. Drasil didn’t even seem to realize that he had been summoned outside yet; he was still peacefully snoring away.

He could hear the soft whistling chimes coming from his mouth and noticed the little leaves on his crown shivered with each snore. Not having the self-control to resist the temptation, he gently rubbed Drasil’s belly with his finger.

Drasil cooed softly as he did and wiggled in his sleep, bringing a smile to Julius’s face.

He looked at all of them. “Satisfied?” He asked in an exasperated tone.

“Aw, I missed Drasil,” Aubrey said with an excited squeal, making sure to stay quiet enough not to wake the little guy, and turned to Julius. “I was just joking you know, I was just hoping that you would bring him out to prove yourself,” she said with a smug smile.

Lily also leaned over and gave Drasil's tummy a soft rub as well.

“He didn’t change when you advanced to Tier 3? I thought he might get bigger,” she said with a gleeful smile as Drasil playfully batted away her finger in his sleep.

“He got a bit more energy and our connection got deeper, but nothing else really changed,” he said to her with a shrug.

“He might be staying small like that because you subconsciously want him to,” Derek offered. “One of our retainers has a life spirit too, but she wanted a spirit that could protect her, so she ended up with a giant snake that was quite powerful on its own.”

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He hadn’t thought about it that way before, but it would make sense.

“Okay, we’re getting sidetracked. I still am confused as to why your aura seems so dangerous now. Did something bad happen?” Lily asked, worryingly.

“Yeah, did you brutalize your soul again or almost die because you did something stupid?” Aubrey asked.

“No, I didn’t get the skill because something bad happened,” he said with a shake of his head, in disbelief that they only thought his aura changed because he did something dumb.

“I actually got it because of my new enhancement skill,” he admitted.

“Really?” Edgar asked in excitement. “Your skill is aura-based? That is very interesting. We should definitely try it out.”

“I have never heard of an enhancement skill affecting someone's aura to this degree,” Derek mused.

“Me either,” Lily added. “You haven’t noticed anything wrong with your aura after this change? Destruction and death-aspected auras are notoriously dangerous,” She asked him concerningly.

“There were some issues with controlling it early on,” he admitted with a chuckle. “But I spent a lot of time controlling it and making sure it didn’t affect anyone in its vicinity.”

“What do you mean making sure it didn’t affect anyone?” Aubrey asked, visibly confused.

He waved his hand at her. “It wasn’t that big of a deal,” he said.

“He probably means his aura was trying to kill whoever it touched. I bet it was quite the dangerous aura to be around for a while,” Lily said with a very big frown.

How did she know that? I don’t think I ever mentioned anything like that, he thought to himself.

“Trying to kill whoever it touched?” Derek asked worriedly.

“Yeah, that is the unfortunate thing about such violent auras. They tend to attack anyone and anything in their way,” Lily tells him.

“That sounds… dangerous.”

“Very much so,” she said with a pointed look at Julius.

He frowned at her. “Hey, I didn’t exactly choose the skill by the way.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, realizing what she had implied.

He shook his head and looked over at Edgar. “You want to see it in action right now?” A little bit of excitement crept into his voice.

“Definitely! It will also let me see how much you have changed over these past several months. I have a feeling that you might even have a really good chance of qualifying for the Inter-School Tournament if your power at Tier 2 showed anything.”

He shook his head once again. “I don’t have any plans to join the tournament.”

“Why not? It might be a really good opportunity for you. If you do well enough, you could possibly get enough influence to learn more about your family’s situation,” Aubrey said, confused as to why he didn’t seem interested.

“To be fair, he has us. I don’t think he really needs the influence. But the rewards would be very beneficial,” Derek said.

“Like I told Grace, I will think about it,” he told them.

They nodded in acceptance at his words.

“Well, in the meantime you can always help me prepare. Edgar and Derek are not the best opponents for me. I need a little more variety,” Aubrey said to him as she grabbed his arm, leading him to an empty section of the training room.

“Hey! I am supposed to go first,” Edgar called out.

“I was the first to greet him when he returned, which means I have first dibs,” she shot back.

Edgar looked ready to argue but must have thought better and bobbed his head. “Okay, but I get next.”

“Agreed.”

However, before any of them could proceed, Julius sensed someone entering the room. This made him pause in confusion because he knew that the room was locked from the inside.