Path to Transcendence

"Well now that is out of the way, I want to discuss the terms of your reward for saving Cory," Marquis Easten said to them.

"There is no need to reward us, Marquis Easten," Julius told the man, brushing him off.

"First off, call me Casidus you have earned that much at least. Also, there is no way I am going to let my grandson's saviors walk away empty-handed."

"No no, don't worry about it."

"Please, I insist."

"Okay, I accept," he said a tad too eagerly.

His gramps had always told him that you never accepted someone's invitation the first two times. Politeness demanded you had to reject the first two and only then you could accept it the third time.

"..."

The Marquis was baffled at the quick change of his attitude, giving him a weird look.

Even his daughter and Reinera were giving him odd looks as if they couldn't decide whether to be amused or disappointed.

Julius shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, the Marquis insisted," he explained, trying to defend himself.

"Yeah, but you aren't supposed to be so shameless about it," Reinera mildly scolded him.

"I wasn't! I waited until he offered three times before accepting," he argued.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Yes, but you can't just shamelessly accept it just because he offered it three times. You should accept it with some grace and humility."

She's probably right about that.

"Sorry," he said to her and to the Marquis.

The man waved his hand. "Don't worry about it. I was going to reward you regardless, so I don't mind."

He turned to see Reinera, "See? He doesn't mind?"

He watched as she looked down and muttered to herself.

"Name your price, I will do my best to make sure that it comes true," the noble lord promised.

Julius thought about that for a moment. He hadn't really come in thinking about getting a reward. He was more concerned about leaving the estate after dropping Cory off without anyone noticing he was there. This whole situation wasn't something he had been planning on.

Which is why he stood up from the comfortable seat he was lounging in and paced around. He was racking his head about what kind of reward he wanted. His go-to was to just ask for a favor and a part of him was really tempted to do so.

However, he wanted to force himself to ask for something that could help him now. Almost all of his favors have been unused and just sitting in storage. Perhaps, it would be a good thing to get something real instead.

With this being said, there was one thing that he had been wanting for some time.

He stopped pacing around and looked at the Marquis. "I want to advance to Tier 3."

Tier 3 had been a goal Julius wanted to reach for a while now. As nice as skills and Concepts were, tiers were still the backbone of strength in this world.

No matter, how many good skills he had, there were just some barriers that he couldn't cross with skill alone. He had realized this after Dustin had wiped the floor with him. He needed to advance to Tier 3 if he wanted to get stronger.

There was only so much he could squeeze out of Tier 2. In fact, he had been outgrowing Tier 2 for a long time now. It felt like that even when he first advanced to Tier 2. At that time he was already pushing the limits of the tier, funnily enough.

Now, he was really struggling to make any progress. His skills were pretty much capped. His soul would only be able to handle so much more. It was a big reason he suspected he wasn't getting any notices about acquiring any new skills.

Not any powerful skills at least. If he wanted to learn some lower-ranked skills he could probably fill out the rest of his slots. However, he wanted to save them for something more important.

He had been attempting to push his physical strength to the next level. It was something he had also realized when fighting Dustin. The skill that did the most damage was [Armaments of the Arcane]. There was no doubt about that.

Dustin had taken many attacks from him head-on, however, he always made sure to avoid his constructs.

It has been the same for a while too. In the troll rift, he had shown that his constructs were the most powerful of his attacks.

However, he was currently more of a close-range fighter. To be honest, this might have not been the best decision, logically thinking. With Julius's mana control and epic ranked skill, he would have been an incredible long-range mage.

Yet, he found himself enjoying throwing himself into the frontlines much more than standing back chucking spikes of death. And in his opinion, enjoying his style was more important than what made the most sense.

He was a firm believer that if he loved a style he could take it much further than a style he chose for practicality.

It was why he respected people like Sarah who stubbornly insisted on training something people would consider silly, like [Mana Bolt].

Getting bashed up and duking it out with fists was what he enjoyed and he wasn't planning to stop doing that.

At least not primarily.

That being said, he needed to find a way to get stronger in the close combat department. He had done some extensive comparing of his physical enhancement skill and Edgar's while they sparred.

The big guy's skill was much better than Julius's [Kinetic Augmentation]. Even though kinetic energy was one of the best affinities to have when getting a physical enhancement skill, Julius felt like his was a bit… well, in Dante's words 'lacking'.

Edgar on the other hand had managed to create a skill that synergized both of his affinities into a single powerful skill. Earth and fire combined into a physical enhancement skill that put Edgar on top of the Goldencrest and Tier 3s in general.

So far, Julius had not come across anyone else who had such a robust body skill.

However, an epiphany came to Julius when he was offered the skill [Phoenix Body]. If he could somehow learn a body enhancement skill along those lines, it might be possible for him to find a way to combine said skills. That way he would be able to leverage all of his affinities.

He didn't like the idea of just having a skill that used one affinity. Kinetic energy was potent, but if he could implement some of his other affinities aspects, he believed he would be able to leap in his strength.

At the moment, much of his strength came from the sheer amount of mana he had. He was able to pump so much mana into [Kinetic Augmentation] that it didn't matter too much.

However, just as he had seen with Dustin, that was a limitation. He had run out of mana pretty quickly. Constructs alongside his other mana-intensive techniques, sucked him dry.

If he wanted to get better, he would need to clean up some of his skills.

Perhaps, the first skill he needed to figure out was his physical enhancement skill.

In order to do that, he would need to advance to Tier 3. He didn't think he would be able to do it without having some more leeway in his soul.

Furthermore, he was already pretty close to Tier 3. He had been feeling it for a while. His soul has been sufficiently tempered and now he just needed to bring everything together.

A couple of months ago Professor Youma made an offhanded comment about the importance of insights if one wanted to trigger their advance to Tier 3. He mentioned that each person's insight was different.

There were no real rules behind it, and it also was something that eventually happened by simply experiencing life. That was why most people reached Tier 3 by the time they died.

There were many times it happened after traumatic events like losing a loved one or surviving a tragedy. It was never the same for every person, but one fact remained the same… It had to do with the person's aspirations.

That was what Julius was stuck on. He felt like he was there. He felt like he was looking across the other side of the fence, but he wasn't able to get his leg over on the other side.

That was why he asked the Marquis for help. Perhaps the man had a way for Julius to advance quicker or more easily. He was a noble of a House with centuries of history behind it after all.

"That's all?" The man had an expression that made it obvious that he was expecting something different than what Julius requested.

Reinera smoothly interjected. "That is just one request." He noticed that her tone was still the tone of a princess. It was kind of impressive how quickly she was able to behave so differently when needed to.

He also was taken aback by her statement. Just one? I was pretty happy with just that. Although, it wouldn't be a bad thing if Reinera was able to get some more out of this. I am not the best at negotiating, which is why I like accumulating favors, he reflected briefly.

"What else do you guys want?" The Marquis's voice also went through a similar change. Instead of the casual tone he had been taking with them, he switched over to become a little more serious.

"We want access to your House's Challenge Rift," she stated directly.

When she mentioned that, he saw both father and daughter go rigid. There was no longer a comfortable atmosphere in the room. It was tense.

Julius on the other hand, had no idea what they were talking about. Challenge Rifts? He had never heard of them.

Were they some sort of secret rift that nobles had access to?

He liked the sound of that. He liked it very much so.

Good job Reinera! He praised her. He was just going to ask for help advancing to Tier 3, whether that was personal advice or a special natural treasure that would facilitate it. But he was glad that Reinera had interjected. He would not complain about getting more from this.

If they could manage to get access to something that sounded as cool as a Challenge Rift he would be more than happy. The only thing was that he didn't know if these two were taking the request very well. They still hadn't answered and were looking at Reinera with frowns.

"What do you know about our Challenge Rift?" The Marquis asked Reinera with cold eyes.

She shook her head. "Not much, but I do know your House has one. That is the other reward we are asking for. On top of procuring peak-quality Advancement Potions and isolated chambers for both of us to advance to Tier 3, we want access to the Challenge Rift. What do you say?" Reinera asked.

A brief silence washed over the room. It only lasted a few moments, but honestly, it felt much longer.

"The fact that you are so certain we have a Challenge Rift makes me slightly suspicious, but it is also not an unreasonable request. I will have to consult with some of my elders about it, but I don't see it being a problem as long as some certain details can be agreed upon," the Marquis finally stated.

Reinera gave Julius an excited smile. He had no idea what she had just asked for but it seemed like it was a good thing, so he returned her smile with a grin of his own.