Path to Transcendence

It was extraordinarily difficult to keep control of his aura during all of this chaos.

He did feel the mana absorption that Beck and Stephanie had been trying to warn him about. It was a fascinating technique. If he was right, it worked so well because there was some sort of Concept backing it.

He had no idea what the exact Concept was, but it helped whatever skill that was trying to suck away his mana. Too bad for the monsters that he had an Emblem which made it impossible for them to take even a smidgen of his mana.

The Null Fiends in general were pretty strong even without their mana absorption skill. They had quite impressive defenses and as well as excellent physical strength.
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After he took down one of them, he was beset by another Null Fiend, who was looking to take revenge for its comrade.

This time, instead of claws to the face he got a compressed blast of pure mana sent at his back. He felt Stephanie, who had been keeping a close eye on him about to activate a skill to protect him, but before she could, he used [Flash Step] to avoid it.

The blast ended up missing and hitting a teammate who was in front of him. Luckily, one of their mages was paying attention and created a barrier in front of them before it could hit them.

Oops, I should be more mindful of how I dodge attacks. There is no need to endanger another team because of my carelessness, he reminded himself.

Julius stepped forward and dashed at the fiend before it could send another blast. He used his kinetic restriction technique subtly, just enough to delay the monster. But a moment was more than enough for him.

He crashed a fist full of kinetic energy and fire mana into the Null Fiend, this time using a bit of his aura-burning effect as well, testing out his new aura. Their physical defenses were strong, but he had no idea how strong their aura defenses were.

He quickly found the answer. It would seem that they were not as good at aura defense because his skill penetrated the monster's aura and scorched it. It must have surprised the monsters because it was staggered for another brief moment.

But before it could get its bearings, he got in close and clobbered it with a bunch of strikes, not giving it a single opening.

With one final punch, he crushed the monster's head with finality.

After that, he took a step back and took a deep breath. His aura hadn't slipped, but it had come close. It was only due to sheer willpower that he rangled it back.

However, it would also seem that had a nice benefit for him. He got a notification of something he had been impatiently waiting for ever since he got to Tier 3. It was something that he had been expecting to happen much sooner. But it was better late than never.

[Empowerment of Will lvl 19 -> lvl 20]

[Empowerment of Will] has advanced to level 20. Would you like to evolve the skill?

While he wanted nothing more than to see what kind of options he got, he reminded himself that he wasn't in the clear yet and that there was a better time to check it out.

He looked around at the battlefield. Most of the Null Fiends had been already taken care of. The other fighters had done a spectacular job at quickly dispatching the monsters. The only remaining ones were a handful of leftover monsters at the edge of the group.

It was amusing to see that nobody intervened in these fights either. It would seem that there was a sort of gentleman's code not to interfere with someone's fight.

He didn't notice anyone dead or heavily injured thankfully. The worst injury was someone who had taken a blast of mana in the back, but their healer was able to quickly heal it without issue.

He then took a look over toward where Rolus had been fighting the lone Tier 4 Null Fiend. He had kept a scrutinizing eye on Rolus and how he dealt with the Tier 4 monster. And he was happy to say that he wasn't disappointed.

Rolus was strong, that was not in doubt. The man was able to take out the Tier 4 with little trouble. The only reason why it took as long as it did was that the Tier 4 Null Fiend had monstrous regeneration abilities. But it was quite one-sided and Rolus barely broke a sweat.

If they had to fight the Tier 4 without Rolus, he would suspect that the group would have been in much more danger. They were lucky that wasn't the case.

While he was feeling lucky, it would seem that the other people around him felt a bit differently.

"What is this shit luck? First, we have to deal with more monsters than usual, but then we get attacked by a group of Null Fiends?" George complained while wiping his face with a towel. Julius also spotted a pair of shortswords dripping in blood in the handsome man's hands.

Contrarily, Beck, whose armor was covered in a bunch of fiend blood walked up in a great mood. "What are you talking about? This was amazing! I thought I would have to stay in the back the entire time watching the mages have all of the fun."

George gave him a shake of the head. "Well if you enjoyed it so much, maybe you can deal with the next group of monsters by yourself."

"You really think they would allow me to do that?! That was a nice warm-up, but I want to fight some more" Beck said enthusiastically.

Huh, I shouldn't be shocked to see that Beck is a battle maniac too, Julius inwardly noted.

Julius had been watching all of his new team's fights. Beck was by far the most aggressive out of the bunch. The large bearded man had smashed into at least a dozen different Null Fiends and had been absolutely smothered by them in return.

However, the man was terrifyingly tanky. He took blasts of mana and sharp claws like they were nothing. His taunting skill also helped everyone in the group to focus on the bare minimum of opponents. He was a good tank.

Matt on the other hand had shown amazing prowess as a team leader and with a sword. He was the glue to the team, always in the place where danger was the biggest.

Furthermore, there was no doubt that the man had some sort of sword or sharpness-related Concept. In fact, he might have sensed something that resembled an Emblem as well.

The man was likely close to gaining his Authority and advancing to Tier 4.

Stephanie was very skilled too, although focusing most of her attention on him, she still made sure to properly support all of her teammates, creating the occasional barrier and healing people who needed it. Her healing skill was pretty amazing as well.

He had no doubt that it was an epic-ranked healing skill because its effectiveness was decently close to his own healing skill which was a mark of its power.

Aaron was a simple fighter. He focused on pure body enhancement and swung his massive hammer without any worries. He had gotten the most injured, but the man also had a regenerative healing skill that kept him healthy throughout the entire fight.

George on the other hand… Julius didn't know exactly how to explain it, but the man was unusual. The man made sure that nobody was attacked from behind and made sure there weren't any holes within their defenses.

Julius sensed the man sending out some sort of communicative skill to the others throughout the whole fight. He also had some scary damage-dealing skills. Out of all of the fights Julius tried to keep track of, George was one of the few people who was able to take out a Null Fiend with a single attack.

It was a combination of aura, mana, and stamina that allowed the man to unleash a devastating strike in an instant. A perfect skill for ambushing or catching a monster off guard.

George was obviously skilled so that just made Julius even more confused. Why had the man allowed that monster to shoot him in the back?

There was no way that George hadn't known about the threat. Julius had caught the man looking at the fiend who attacked him with [Spatial Perception].

So the question remained. Why did George allow Julius to get attacked from behind without stopping it or even alerting Julius to it? Did the man have something against him? Or was it simply an accident?

He couldn't think of an answer that he was confident with, so he packed it away to think about at a later date. It didn't let it bother him too much, he wouldn't have been injured too bad if he hadn't noticed it soon enough.

Just as he was about to head over to the two fiends he took care of, he was slapped on the back by a still enthusiastic Beck. "How was that, Julius? Did you have fun? Maybe next time you can participate more actively," the man boisterously said in laughter.

"You were probably too busy smashing your face against the monsters to notice, but he did take care of two fiends himself you know," Stephanie called out from behind.

Beck quickly turned his entire body to look at her. "No shit? Two of them? Did you help him?"

Stephanie chuckled at Beck's startled expression. "No, he did an impressive job holding his own."

Beck turned back to Julius with a proud smile. "I guess I underestimated you, huh?"

Julius scratched the back of his head as everyone's attention was on him. He kind of wished that Stephanie hadn't said anything, but it wasn't too much of a big deal. He was still keeping most of his abilities secret.

"I got lucky, I guess."

Beck shook his head and gave Julius another hearty slap. "Luck is a sign of a good fighter. No need to be embarrassed about a bit of good luck."

Julius smiled at the man, who was quickly becoming one of his favorites in the group despite their first interaction. The man wore his heart on his sleeve and if it offended some, then it did.

It is kind of like how Aubrey acts, he realized with a solemn smile.

"Come on! Let's get things cleaned up and then we can celebrate your first fight with us!" Beck said while dragging Julius over to one of his own kills.