Path to Transcendence

The main thing Julius noticed about the difference between his and the troll's skill, was that his was flat in comparison, as if there was no dimension to it. His was like a line on a piece of paper, while his opponent's was like an intricate woven rope.

When he noticed it, he was surprised that he hadn't come up with a similar idea. Weaving strands together would be similar to what he does with compressing mana, but doing it in a slightly different way. It was something that he could probably apply to all his mana manipulation uses. Especially, his fire mana and maybe his kinetic mana, but kinetic energy worked a bit differently than fire and life mana, so it was hard to predict.

Julius began to condense several strands of life mana around his shoulder. Then he started to weave them together like he would a braid. Immediately he could feel the strands latching together creating a strong bond and giving off a stronger aura. His [Heal] skill was different from the troll's skill, in that it tried to infuse his body with mana, gently suffusing each nook and cranny of the injury with life mana. The new method Julius was going to try would be similar to strangling his injury with a rope of life mana. He was going to wrap it around the injury, creating a noose, and tightening it.

It was much more aggressive than what he expected out of a healing skill, but it definitely worked for the troll, so he was open-minded to trying it. If it didn't work, then he wouldn't lose anything but some time and energy.

After a little while, it still hadn't accomplished anything. The rope of life mana was still squeezing his shoulder but it wasn't healing it. However, he belatedly realized that his intent was still the same as when he used [Heal]. He had already recognized that this new healing technique was more brutal and domineering, but he was still trying to gently caress it to work.

Julius needed to become more ruthless and commanding if he wanted it to work. He no longer allowed his mana the option to not do exactly what he told it. It would listen to him, he didn't give it another choice.

Suddenly, there was a swift reaction from his shoulder. It began to hurt, even more than when he broke it. However, he could also see his flesh and bones weaving together at a rapid pace, it was still slower than the troll's but it was very mana-efficient.

The more aggressive nature of the technique allows for faster and more efficient healing, but in return, I experience more pain. This is probably because I am not gently infusing life mana anymore. That said, I will gladly take that trade-off. Julius observed.

Julius would estimate this new technique was around five or ten times faster than [Heal]. It also would seem he received a new skill for his actions.

Would you like to learn the skill [Regeneration]?

Congratulations, skill [Regeneration] acquired.

Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Regeneration] and [Heal] into a single skill?

Congratulations, skill [Restoration] (Uncommon) acquired.

It wasn't entirely unexpected, but it was still a nice upgrade to his skills. Julius tried out this new skill right away. Activating [Restoration], his shoulder which was almost already healed, finished healing in a second. Then, some of the soreness that he was feeling after the fight was also healed. It seemed like [Restoration] was able to deal with his fatigue just as well as his wounds.

He assumed that it would become more handy once he was fighting multiple opponents over a long duration. So far, most of his fights have been relatively short.

Finally, he felt like he was a little less vulnerable. His defense was still non-existent and he had to find a way to remedy that, but having a much better healing skill would be crucial to improving his survivability.

Julius found himself walking again. He had always imagined a day when he would be adventuring and fighting monsters, but he didn't realize how much walking was involved. Nevertheless, it did give him time to practice some of his skills

He was still attempting to create hotter flames by adding kinetic energy to the reaction, but improvements were slow. He also still wanted to create some sort of defensive technique. The idea of absorbing kinetic energy from an attack was still on top of his list, but so far he hadn't been successful.

It was weird because he was able to absorb kinetic energy from the environment already. He would have expected to be offered some sort of kinetic absorption skill by now. However, it might only become available after he raised [Kinetic Release] to level 10.

[Kinetic Release lvl 8 -> lvl 9]

Speak of the devil. As if it could hear Julius's thoughts, [Kinetic Release] leveled up to level 9, just a single level away from ranking it up. Up ahead, he could finally see the large mountains looming in the distance. They were the only landmark miles around and the reason he chose to walk in this direction.

Rifts varied in size quite a bit. However, the rule of thumb was that the higher the tier the larger the rift. And it certainly seemed like this rift was quite expansive. Luckily it seemed like there was some natural wildlife spread around the plains, so he wouldn't go starving. But he hadn't found any water yet and had hopes that the mountains in the distance had some.

When he approached the base of the large mountain, he spotted a small group of trolls patrolling the area. He instantly lowered himself down into the tall grass and observed them.

There were four trolls walking side by side coming down from the mountainside. Unlike the one he fought, these ones had some clothing and weapons on them.

It looks like the troll from earlier had some friends, Julius commented to himself.

The clothes at a glance seemed like they were made out of some plant-based materials, rustic and tribal looking. Their weapons were massive grey clubs that resembled stone, but the largest of them had a dull silver axe strung over its back. If he had to guess, he would think that this one was the leader of them.

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Julius had no intention of fighting them. One of them was already hard enough, taking four of them on would be suicide. He should just allow them to walk on by and make his way up the mountain in the meantime.

Except, there was something inside Julius that wasn't allowing him to back away. As much as he wanted to ignore the group, something within him was fervently disagreeing with him. It wanted him to take on all four of them.

Julius didn't understand. Why was he so set on trying to get into a fight with them? Was it pride? Or was it stupidity?

Maybe if they didn't have such extreme regeneration abilities, he would have a chance.

It's because I need to do it, Julius realized. He couldn't fool himself, there were most likely even larger groups of trolls ahead and he couldn't afford to not use every opportunity to get stronger. If he couldn't kill these four, how could he expect to kill the rest? He needed to be able to clear this rift if he wanted to escape, that meant he would need to kill these monsters regardless.

Sighing to himself in resignation, Julius's gaze narrowed and he started to create an enhanced [Firebolt]. He needed to take out at least one troll in the first attack. He felt like he could handle two of them if they were as strong as the other troll, it would be difficult, but possible. If he was able to kill one in the initial volley, then kill one more before they reached him, he might have a chance to take care of the other two.

"This might be the most idiotic thing I have done in either life," Julius chuckled to himself. But he needed to get as strong as he could and he couldn't achieve this by playing it safe. He needed to take risks and put his life on the line. Otherwise, he would be too weak to face future challenges.

Julius didn't just create one enhanced [Firebolt] but began forming another one after he finished the first. It was strenuous work, controlling two volatile projectiles. His mind was quickly becoming exhausted and he activated [Restoration] to heal his fatigue. The new skill was able to be activated with barely a thought and soon was releasing a refreshing burst of mana into his head, alleviating some of the stress.

Holding two enhanced [Firebolts] Julius quickly approached the four trolls as quietly as he could. Once he got into a comfortable shooting position, he patiently stalked them for only a bit. He was waiting until the one in the back stopped moving so much.

Julius wanted to go for the leader, but it was walking upfront and its back and flank were covered by the others. This meant he had to go for the one in the back.

Readying both attacks, he waited for the right moment, struggling to maintain control of the constructs. [Savage Dance] was humming in the background, zeroing in his focus.

Now! The moment the troll in the back stopped to scratch its head, Julius released both bolts right at the troll's head.

The troll did not stand a chance. A sharp whistle resounded through the empty plains, the first bolt gouged a huge chunk out of its head and the second one completely vaporized the rest in a fine red mist in an instant. Even its regeneration skill wouldn't be able to save it.

The other three, stopped in place, confused about what had just happened to their partner. Its headless corpse was lying at their feet. They didn't seem to sense where the attack came from and that gave time for Julius to ready another barrage.

He could see them sniffing the air, trying to figure out where Julius was. But after another few moments, he had another set of enhanced [Firebolts] up and ready. Each of them had taken a large chunk of mana, but Julius should have enough to finish the rest off. He waited until they were all turned in the wrong direction and launched the bolts at the closest troll.

The first one he aimed at the chest since they were moving around, he didn't want to risk missing entirely. However, he aimed the second one at the troll's head, hoping that the first one would stun it, thus allowing the second bolt to hit flush.

The first strike did stun it like Julius expected but the second didn't quite hit the monster's skull, it hit at the base of the thing's throat. Leaving a gaping hole and blood flowing out like a river. It wasn't down for the count. Although it had fallen to its side, Julius could see the wound on its chest and throat healing over. Shit.

The remaining two, one of them being the leader, found Julius and charged right at his location. He didn't run away from them, nope, instead, he met them head-on. Pumping too much kinetic energy through his legs he dashed straight at them. The kinetic energy ripped apart his muscles, as his body was unable to take that much power. However, thanks to [Restoration] he was already healing the damage. Julius was healing his legs just as fast as he was tearing them apart.

As he got closer, the leader was in front with its axe unleashed from its back. This thing was much larger than the other troll he fought earlier and the one who was sprinting behind it. It was probably around eight to nine feet tall and it was much more muscular.

Once Julius and the leader got within reach of each other, the troll appeared to manipulate mana into its body. [Savage Dance] was instinctively letting Julius know that this monster was enhancing its body. Glowing a dim red light, the troll leader swung its axe downwards in a flash.

Holy shit, that is fast! Julius was shocked.

Even though he already expected the attack, it almost split him into two. He barely evaded it with a step to the side and proceeded to continue sprinting at the other troll.

The other troll took a side swing at Julius with its stone club and Julius had to dive to the ground. After his roll, he was behind the troll and instead of attacking it, he got up and ran towards the troll he had downed. Its friends had completely abandoned it in the confusion and was just now stumbling its way back to its feet. Before it could fully recover, Julius jumped and launched a fully powered kinetic knee strike at the troll's head. Then, he released the enhanced [Firebolt] he was preparing at the monster's face point blank.

The detonation obliterated the troll's head. However, the close distance of the explosion left painful burns and tears over Julius's body. [Savage Dance] saved his life again and threw him away from a decapitating strike from an axe while he was distracted.

However, the other troll was already on top of him and landed a kick during his roll, punting him over a dozen feet, and crushing multiple bones in his body. [Restoration] was running at full power, trying to heal some of his ruptured organs.

He somehow managed to get back to his feet before the remaining two made their way over. However, the entire time he was cursing at himself. What kind of arrogant moron thought taking all four on was a good idea? Oh yeah… me.

He didn't have much time to express his annoyance at himself, he was too busy trying to survive the attacks from two very enraged trolls.

He quickly sent out a barrage of [Firebolts] as fast as he could. Though he could release normal ones very rapidly, they did not have the punch his enhanced ones did.

The standard [Firebolts] were enough to stop their charge momentarily more out of surprise than anything. But even when they landed on their faces, it only took out a small chunk of flesh. Which was almost instantaneously healed. They took a moment to stop and look at Julius with murderous gazes.

Yep, just ended up pissing them off more, Julius chuckled nervously.