Path to Transcendence-Chapter 544: [Kinetic Shell]

He didn’t know what it would be, but while he healed his body, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to check it out.

Would you like to learn the skill [Kinetic Shell]?

He let out a light laugh. After all this time, he finally got a defensive kinetic skill offered to him. It had only taken a Tier 6 brutally beating him black and blue for months to get it. Who knew what else he could get if he allowed Cain to bash him for another year?

He peeled himself out of the wall with the help of his aura. He was wedged in there so deep that it still took half a minute to get out. The only bright side of getting hit that hard was that Cain’s attack somehow wiped out any backlash he would have received from failing to hold his mana channel carving technique in place.

When he finally got out of the hole in the wall, he told Cain what had happened and what he had received.

“Finally, jeez. I was wondering how hard I'd have to hit you before you got a defensive skill. I know you only have a high affinity for kinetic, but god damn, that took a long time,” Cain said with a shake of his head.

Julius glared at Cain. “So you were trying to get me this skill this entire time? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Cain shrugged. “It would have defeated the purpose of it. As I told you before, I don’t want to influence your skills too much. Your path is already quite unique, and any outside inference might end up doing more harm than good.”

“Well, it would have been nice to know there was a reason why you were beating me up so harshly,” Julius mumbled.

“Ehhh, at this point it’s more about my pride,” Cain said dismissively.

Julius glared at Cain with suspicion. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you didn’t give up or ask me to stop. I felt like it was a personal challenge to force you to request a break. But you are ridiculously stubborn. I actually forgot about my plan to get you a defensive skill for a while now. I have just been trying to beat you into submission for the past couple of months,” Cain admitted with a cheery grin.

“Oh, wonderful,” Julius said flatly. On one hand, he was annoyed at Cain for basically using him as a punching bag for the past few months just because Cain wanted to win their little “who will give up first?” game. But on the other hand, he was thankful for Cain’s willingness to push Julius.

He doubted many people would willingly and yearn to beat up a young boy in their spare time.

He was internally expressing his gratitude to Cain when he stopped—reminding himself that this wasn’t usually a good thing. If people knew about it, they would argue that Cain was a child abuser. That gave him a little bit of pleasure and made a note to tease Cain about it in front of Freya later.

She would likely give her husband a lot of shit and a good scolding for Julius.

He held back the laugh he had when he thought about the future awaiting Cain.

“But hey! Look at you now!” Cain said optimistically, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, look at me. I finally got another rare skill after months of beatings,” Julius said with a sigh.

“Don’t look so upset. [Kinetic Shell] is actually a wonderful skill. I had the same skill at Tier 3, and it helped me a lot during my younger days,” Cain said with a firm nod.

“You had this skill?” Julius asked with interest.

“Oh yeah. It’s basically a better version of [Kinetic Barrier], and I ended up combining it with two other skills to form an epic skill later on.”

“So should I get it?” Julius asked curiously. He hadn’t really been planning to accept another skill, but hearing that Cain had gotten this same skill when he was younger, convinced him that it wouldn’t be a bad choice. If Cain thought the skill was good, then it must be pretty useful.

“How many skills do you have?”

Julius checked his status real quick.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 3

Skills:

Current Skill Slots: 10/12

Concepts:

[Concept of Will][Concept of Phoenix][Concept of Force][Concept of Space]

Feats:

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Soul Bound Items:

He took some time to admire his status. The comparison between his status before and after the tournament was quite dramatic. He hadn’t thought he would improve so much over the tournament, but he had gained a lot of levels.

“I have ten skills,” he said to Cain.

“And you have two more slots open?”

Julius nodded. “Yeah, I got two more skill slots. I don’t really want to fill them all up, though,” he stated.

Cain shrugged. “You don’t have to get it if you don’t want to. But you might be able to combine [Kinetic Energy Refinement] with it. You can also try to combine it with another kinetic skill.”

Julius chewed on his lip. “Is it really that good of a skill?”

Cain nodded. “Yeah. It might be one of the better and more versatile skills.”

“What does it do?” He asked curiously.

“Well, at the initial stages, the skill is mostly used for defensive purposes, but with enough practice, it is possible to manifest the shell further away from your body. I was able to utilize the skill and integrate it into my domain,” Cain explained.

Julius frowned upon hearing that. The skill was sounding more appealing the more Cain spoke, and Julius was becoming very tempted to take it then and there.

“Do you think I will need another skill if I want to combine them?”

“Depends on what you want. I used three, and actually used something similar to [Kinetic Energy Refinement] when combining it,” Cain said.

“What was the other skill?”

“It was a skill called [Kinetic Absorption].”

Julius stroked his chin and thought about it. “Do you think I can get that skill or a skill like that?”

“Well, considering how long it took you to learn this skill, I can’t say for certain. But your talent for controlling large amounts of kinetic energy has always been one of your strongest skills. If we really try to get it for you, I bet it won’t take too long.”

“And you won’t tell me what skill you got?”

Cain smirked. “Nope.”

“That is so lame. At least let me know what kind of skill it is,” Julius pressed.

“I don’t want to influence it too much. Just know that it's a great skill. Plus, if you want to change your mind, you can always just remove the skill.”

“Freya said not to do that.”

“She said not to do that before your second soul evolution. With how strong and resilient your soul is now, I don’t think it would be too much of an issue if you want to remove a skill. Especially if that skill is only a rare skill like [Kinetic Shell],” Cain stated.

Julius sighed.

“Don’t make a decision now, talk to Freya beforehand, and then let me know what you want. Plus, you can always wait until the tournament is over. The final stage is coming up tomorrow, and you don’t really need any more distractions,” Cain said, sounding surprisingly wise and rational.

One would almost forget that this man ran an entire school renowned throughout the region, given how he usually acted. However, when he needed to be, he was surprisingly mature.

“Okay, I’ll think about it,” Julius said with a sigh.

Cain nodded and smiled at him. “Perfect, now let’s get back to training. I want to see you improve your offensive power next.”

Julius could only shake his head and prepare another attack for Cain. Maybe this time around, he might actually scratch the behemoth of a man.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to ask you and Freya about this, but I got something called a Feat. Do you two know anything about this?” Julius asked as he charged his fist.

Cain snapped his gaze to Julius immediately. It was so sudden that Julius reacted instinctively and attacked Cain out of sheer reflex. Cain didn’t even flinch and took a blow straight to his skull, not budging an inch.

“What did you say?” Cain asked slowly.

***

Julius didn’t know how, but he somehow ended up sitting at the feet of both Freya and Cain. It was like he was in trouble for some reason. He didn’t know anything was wrong, but he couldn’t help but feel like it.

Both of them were glaring at him with undecipherable expressions on their faces.

Freya pinched her nose when he was done explaining to her what had happened.

“And you didn’t think to mention this to us?”

Julius shuffled his feet. “I forgot until I opened my status and saw it there.”

“Of course you did.”

“So what does it mean?” Julius asked, finally looking up at them. “Is it a bad thing?”

Cain laughed. “No, far from it. It means you, like always, are far ahead where you should be.”

Julius brightened up. “Oh, that’s good news then. So why do you two look so worried?”

“Because it just means there’s another factor to consider when you advance to Tier 4,” Freya said softly.

“Why would it change anything?” Julius inquired with a tilt of his head.

“Because a Feat is a mark stamped onto your soul and your existence. It means the Words of the World have personally recognized you. Feats are always unique, and it will be difficult to guess what will happen during your advancement because of their existence.”

He was going to ask them more questions, but he heard the door to the training hall open. The three of them simultaneously looked over to see who it was.

To Julius’s surprise, it was Lily and Marcus.

“You’re still practicing?” Lily noted.

“Just talking, what about you? Are you and Marcus going to work on something?”

“Yeah, just some light sparring. You want to join?”

Julius looked over at Cain and Freya, they had just been having an important talk about feats.

Freya gestured at him. “Go spar, Cain mentioned you need some extra training anyway. And don’t worry about that other thing for now. It won’t really come up until you are getting ready for Tier 5. Just let us know if it changes between now and then.”

Julius didn’t really like hearing that answer, but he could see that they weren’t going to budge. He had seen that look on Freya’s face more than once. Apparently, he had touched upon something he wasn’t meant to until he was much stronger.

He chuckled and felt a surge of pride at his accomplishment.

“Julius?” Lily prodded him.

Julius shook his head and looked over at her with a smile. “Sure. Why not? When was the last time we actually sparred?”

Lily grinned. “Probably back at Goldencrest.”

“You want to test how much you have improved?” Julius asked challengingly.

“I’m not the same person I was several months ago,” Lily said with a confident expression.

“Me either,” Julius said with a prideful grin.

“Prove it.”

Julius looked at her and then at Marcus, who was standing there quietly, letting everything unfold. Then he shrugged.

“Let’s do it then.”