Path to Transcendence

Chapter 83: Post Advancement

Julius stood up from the mat, feeling a little off while doing so. He felt stronger, but not just in a physical sense either, he instinctually understood that his body could handle mana much better than before.He could already feel his mana enforcing his body without activating any skills. He didn't realize it previously, but his body was like a clogged drain. Now though, it was sparkling clean, his pipes were free from any obstruction and mana could flow through him much more efficiently. It felt like he had just undergone the world's best detox and was feeling amazing.

He looked down at his body, fully expecting it to be covered with black sludge, but much to his pleasant surprise, there was only a fine layer of black substance. Maybe, his body transformation with [Kinetic Reinforcement] had expelled the worst of it. The smell wasn't that bad either, it was slightly off-putting, but nothing compared to the absolutely filthy stuff he had been covered in before.

Julius still went over to the cleaning station and scrubbed the fine layer of black stuff from his body, but it only took a couple of minutes until he was sparkling clean. He did notice a few things about his physical changes. He was slightly taller now, he was probably still under six feet, but he was getting close to it. He also noticed that his muscles had slimmed out. He thought he would have looked bigger, but his muscles had compressed down instead. So while he was leaner than before, he was certain he was stronger by a good twenty percent.

The others were still patiently waiting for him to finish cleaning up. Surprisingly, even Aubrey was silent throughout the entire time, not telling Julius to hurry up or anything.

Finally, when he was finished and put on his uniform again, he walked over to the others. He saw that everyone had large grins on their face. Even Kyle was wearing a nice smile directed at Julius.

Edgar was the first one to break the silence. "See? That wasn't so bad wasn't it?"

Julius shook his head in amusement. "How long did I take?" He asked them.

"It was only around ten minutes," Derek said.

"Only that long?" Julius thought he had taken much longer than ten minutes. He felt like it had been almost an hour.

"Yep, you didn't have a lot of impurities to expel either. You are lucky, mine was absolutely vile," Edgar said enviously.

"Yeah, I was also surprised how little impurities there were. Did you go through any treatments or rituals when you were younger?" Aubrey asked him.

"Nope, not anything that I can think of. I did go through something similar already when I acquired a body reinforcement skill that counts," he answered.

Julius watched as the others thought about that. Surprisingly it was Derek who looked more concerned.

"You already went through a body skill metamorphosis?" Derek asked worriedly.

"Body skill metamorphosis?" Julius asked confusingly. He hadn't heard of something like that before. Was that what he had gone through? Or did he go through something else?

This time it was Edgar who answered him. "Typically, it happens when certain body enhancement skills reach a certain rank or evolution requirements. I have one but I got it when I reached Tier 2, not Tier 1."

"Is there a difference?" Julius asked him.

"I don't know, Derek might know more, but I couldn't say." Edgar honestly told him.

Julius turned to Derek and looked to see if he had anything else to say.

Derek frowned and took his time thinking before he answered. "I don't know if there is any real difference. There are so many factors that play into it, that it is hard to say even with re

This is a stupid move that I would never try in a real fight— no, I definitely would. Actually, I think I may have already done something similar before. He chuckled to himself.

Julius created thick constructs, layered with mana around his arms and braced for impact. As he saw Aubrey cover her fist with her [Diamond Skin] skill, he almost had second thoughts about it. However, it was too late, her fist crashed into him like an eighteen-wheeler. There was a little part of him that hoped that Aubrey would hold back just a touch.

She didn't.

She smashed her fist right into his arms without holding back. He got launched across the room and slammed against the barrier on the other side.

He groaned in pain and tried to get back to his feet, but struggled a little bit since the device's restrictions were already in place.

The good news was that he wasn't considered dead, according to the bracelets. The bad news was that it thought the attack had broken or fractured some of the bones in his back.

With that being said, his injuries were more from the impact against the barrier than anything else. The actual punch hadn't done that much damage, but the force behind it had tossed him like a ragdoll. Funnily enough, his arms were still in pretty good shape. They were fractured, but still usable according to the bracelets.

Julius deactivated his bracelets and then reactivated them within seconds, and jumped back up to his feet. He looked at Aubrey with a crazy smile and said, "Let's go again."

She smiled at him with the same crazy eyes and got ready for round two. Julius had gotten a feel for how much punishment his new body could take. It wasn't anything that surprising, but taking a direct hit like that last one would have most likely killed him a few days ago. It appeared that his advancement had already shown its benefits and he grinned at that thought.