Path to Transcendence

Today was the day. After putting it off multiple times, they finally decided to enter the Challenge Rift.

It had been about a week after he got [Aura Burn] and unfortunately during that time, he hadn't found a way to merge the skills into a single skill.

On the bright side, he got a few more levels to add to the skill as well as [Thermal Empowerment].

[Thermal Empowerment lvl 11 -> 13]

[Aura Burn lvl 1 -> lvl 7]

It turned out that using his skills against a far superior opponent, especially one that had a debuffing element to it, was good training.

[Aura Burn] in particular was a good skill for this particular situation. It was a skill that relied on clashing his willpower against his opponents. And his opponent's willpower wasn't like the monsters he had faced in that rift he had done last week.

He had tried to use his Emblem alongside it, but there was an obvious restriction on how much his Emblem was able to interact with an uncommon skill.

However, both he and Richard believed he was close to something. Whether that was another breakthrough or another merging of his skills, they didn't really know for certain.

That was one of the reasons why they thought it would be a good idea to go into the Challenge Rift, they were thinking that the rift would give him that extra push he needed.

They were also hoping that since he had filled out his slots, the rift would reward something other than a brand-new skill. Opening up the possibility of the rift rewarding him with a method of combining the skills he wanted.

***

"How are you feeling?" He asked Reinera.

She looked up from where she was sitting on the stone wall and gave him a brief smile.

"I don't know. A mixture of nervousness and excitement, I guess. You?"

Julius shrugged his shoulders and looked over at the crowd of people who were preparing the rift up ahead. "Kind of the same. I don't want to perform poorly and get some shitty reward after all this time waiting."

"Tell me about it. How embarrassing would it be that after all this time we get some standard and boring reward from the rift." She said with a laugh.

He laughed alongside her. "Please don't jinx it. I would rather that not happen."

"Are you two ready?" He heard Rebecca call out to them.

"I am," he replied before turning to look at Reinera. "How about you?"

"As ready as I am going to be," she said with a sigh.

Rebecca gave Reinera a gentle pat on the head and a warm smile. "You don't have to force yourself if you don't feel like you're ready. It's better if you wait until you feel like you are the most prepared."

The younger girl looked up in surprise. "I thought you were the one who has been pushing me to get ready for exactly this?"

"Grace, I have been pushing you because you clearly need someone to give you a kick in the butt at times. But you have done a good job these past several weeks, there is nothing I can complain about when it comes to the effort you put in. So if you still feel like you need more time, then take it. You won't get another chance at this Challenge Rift," Rebecca said softly.

Reinera hesitated for a second and looked over at Julius. He didn't say anything, letting her know that her decision was completely up to her.

He and Rebecca watched as the girl thought to herself for a few moments, giving her as much time as she needed.

But they both smiled when the hesitative look on her face was slowly washed away and was replaced with one full of vigor and life.

"No, I want to do this," she said resolutely.

Rebecca nodded at her and had a proud smile on her face. Julius was proud of her as well, he believed that she would do well in the Challenge Rift. She had been doing a lot of work with her willpower training it would help her better compete with other people's Concepts.

Plus, she had an Emblem as well, which would help her even more.

He was more worried about what the challenge might be. Rebecca and Richard who had both done it, seemed confident in their success, but they obviously couldn't give them any hints.

He heard a voice call out from the other side of the room. "We're ready for them!"

It was one of the people who was helping with setting it all up.

Julius gave Reinera an encouraging smile before they both headed toward the large archway placed at the center of the even larger cavern.

They were below the main estate and reminded him of the underground chamber at House Hyperius.

He took a look at where they would be entering. It was something that was very different from what he was used to.

The rift wasn't the usual pale blue color, it was a bright white swirling vortex. It was also much larger than the rift portals he had gone through. It took up almost the entire large archway.

He walked past a few people. Richard, Rebecca, and the Patriarch were expectantly there, but there were several more people as well.

There was the person who had called them over, the elder he believed was named Arthur, and another person who hadn't said anything. He had no idea who that person was but he did notice the man giving both him and Reinera distrustful looks quite often when he thought Julius wasn't paying attention.

"Do we enter it like a normal rift?" Julius asked. Discover stories with empire

"Yep, just reach out and touch it. You will receive a notification and if you accept you will be swept away," Richard said excitedly.

Julius was ready as he would ever be and gave Reinera one last glance before they both simultaneously reached out and gave it a poke.

Would you like to enter this Challenge Rift?

Notice: Once you enter you will not be able to leave until you complete the Challenge.

The notification was expected but still felt weird reading it.

He gave Rebecca and Richard one last look before accepting.

When he accepted, he felt the usual pull from the rift and he was taken away.

***

When he opened his eyes he was met with another notification.

You have entered a Challenge Rift. By doing so, you have agreed to attempt the challenge and will not be able to leave. The only paths to leaving this rift are to overcome the Challenge or death.

However, if you are to succeed in completing the Challenge and show your merit, you will be rewarded for your efforts.

The Challenge for this rift is to survive ten waves of opponents. Each wave will be more challenging than the last and you will have ten minutes to recover before the next one begins.

If you survive ten waves, you will have completed the Challenge and will be able to leave promptly.

Please select the difficulty you wish to Challenge…

Easy

Medium

Hard

Julius read the message several times to make sure he didn't miss anything.

It was one of the most wordy notifications he had gotten so far. Most of his notifications are quite simple and straight to the point.

He was also taken aback by the option to choose what kind of difficulty to go with. He hadn't been expecting something like that, but it was something he was very intrigued by.

It was clear that the harder the difficulty the better the rewards would be, but it would also mean more danger.

With that being said, there was only one real right choice for him.

He selected Hard without another thought.

You have selected Hard difficulty, please prepare for the first wave.

Good luck…

After he read the last message, he took a look around at where he had been taken.

It was a small room with a single podium at the center of it. He strolled up to the podium and looked what was on top of it.

The only thing there was a circular button. Nothing less nothing more. Just a little red button.

However, it wasn't that hard to figure out what that button would do. It would most likely control when the waves would begin.

Before he pressed the button, he took the time to prepare some of his skills. If the rift was allowing him time to prepare and give himself an advantage he would take it.

Perhaps, this grace period was a part of the Challenge itself and those who used it were already on the right track.

He created a nice layer of armor around himself with [Armaments of the Arcane] and created several constructs that hovered over his shoulder like little drones. After he did that, he waited to see how fast his mana regenerated.

It wasn't fast nor was it particularly slow, it felt like normal. However, he was already expecting that this Challenge was going to be a fight of endurance.

In the old games he used to play, waves usually relied on large numbers to wear you down. If there were ten waves required to be completed, he would have to make sure he wasn't wasteful with his mana. No matter how large his pool was.

He wanted to perform well so that he got himself a nice reward, especially since he would be attempting the hard difficulty.

Once he got prepared, he just waited until he had recovered all of his mana. It was only when he was completely topped off that he looked back toward the button.

Not seeing a reason why to wait any longer, he reached over and pressed it.

He suddenly felt himself get wrapped up again and he found himself standing on top of a small grassy hill. He looked up and saw that the sun was directly overhead and was bearing down on him with quite the amount of heat.

He had been transported again but unlike most times, he didn't feel any discomfort or nausea from the teleportation. It must have been a feature of the Challenge so that nobody died because they got a little motion sickness.

He laughed to himself and looked down the hill where he quickly spotted what would be his first wave. His laughter just as quickly faded as he observed the incoming horde.

"Of course it's goblins," he muttered to himself.

All he saw was a blanket of at least fifty goblins all running toward him up the hill, each one of them screaming with various crappy weapons in their arms.