Path to Transcendence

Chapter 97: Concepts

Julius looked at the big bald man who was staring at him with frightening intensity. He knew that he should not have gone missing for two weeks, but it was for a good reason. Still, that didn't mean he didn't understand where Gabriel was coming from.

Julius knew that the big guy was just concerned for him. At least in the beginning anyway. Once he was sure that Julius was okay, he looked over the room and saw the big disc that was still stuck in the wall. Julius saw him do a double take, acting like it was a very big deal.

These rooms were meant to take a significant amount of damage. Not to the extreme as the training rooms in the main training facility, but still should have been enough to handle most damage. So seeing Julius puncture the defenses must've come as a surprise to Gabriel.

Finally, Gabriel broke his intense stare and silence. "What have you been doing in here?"

Julius didn't mind answering. It wasn't a big secret or anything.

"I was trying to evolve a couple of my skills so that I can combine them with some of my other skills."

"You are telling me that you were trying to evolve some of your skills within a couple of weeks?" Gabriel asked a little skeptically.

Julius just shrugged his shoulders and nodded. He was telling the truth, if Gabriel didn't want to believe him then it wasn't his fault.

"Okay, I have never asked you to tell me your skills. I know that you have several very good rare-ranked skills, but would you be willing to tell me about some of your other skills?" Gabriel asked.

Now that, Julius found it a little more difficult to answer. That would require him to tell him more of his skills than he had with anyone else. He hadn't even told the other five about his skills. He told them about what kind of skills he had, but he hadn't told them the specifics. They hadn't told him the specifics of their skills either. They all just explained their builds and that had been enough so far.

"What would you want to know?" Julius asked him.

"That." Gabriel pointed at the disc protruding from the wall. "I'm guessing you want to create a skill that relates to that construct that is sticking out of the walls and that has damaged the training room."

Julius had the grace to look a little sheepish. However, he didn't mind sharing the details about that. He had been thinking that Gabriel had been asking to see his status sheet. But if anything, telling Gabriel about his idea might help him a lot.

So he explained to Gabriel what he was looking for and even told him some of the skills he was planning to combine.

"You are trying to make an epic skill already? I thought you were trying to create another rare skill, but epic is a totally different beast," Gabriel said taken aback by Julius's plan.

"What? You don't think it will work?" Julius was curious as to Gabriel's opinion on the matter.

"I haven't heard of [Arcane Construct] before but the idea is solid. The process of creating an epic skill is very different than the previous ranks. It is why people get to Tier 3 before trying to create one. With that being said, you almost have the most difficult part of creating an epic skill already done."

Julius turned to look directly at Gabriel with a confused look. What most difficult part? Having multiple skills at rare?

Gabriel gave a big-bellied laugh when he saw the look on his face. "You don't know do you?"

"Know what?" Julius asked with a frown.

"I am not surprised that nobody has told you yet. Epic-ranked skills are typically not acquired until Tier 3, so I'm guessing no one has thought fit to tell you yet." Gabriel laughed again.

"Why is it so amusing then?" Julius asked a little annoyed.

Gabriel had stopped laughing long enough for him to explain himself, but he was sporting a massive grin. "Because do you know how many people fail at learning a Concept? Do you know how many people are stuck at Tier 3 or are unable to learn an epic skill because they fail to do so? If they knew you have accidentally come across one, they would try to stab you in the face out of envy."

"What the hell do you mean?"

"Look." Gabriel walked over and stood next to the disc that was still in the process of breaking down. "This here is one hell of an impressive construct on its own. But what caught my attention was the hints of a Sharpness Concept emanating from it."

Gabriel must've seen the bewildered look on Julius's face because he continued. "Okay, so there are a few things a person must do to progress further along the path. Some mistakenly believe that it takes an epic skill to reach Tier 4, but they are misinterpreting something. They don't need an epic skill but instead, they need to comprehend a Concept. An epic skill is created by a Concept, but some don't understand that a Concept is necessary to develop one's Authority."

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"A Concept?" Julius pressed for more details.

"A Concept is a phenomenon birthed by natural occurrences in the world. Such as a Fire or Water Concept, or in your case a Sharpness Concept," Gabriel explained.

Julius had never heard of that before. He had heard mentions of Concepts in the past and in some texts, but he hadn't understood that they were significant beyond what he had assumed they were. He had thought Concepts were just that, Concepts and ideas, he had no idea that they were tangible requirements for advancement.

Another thing that caught his attention was how much more clear and concise Gabriel's explanation was. Before, when Julius had asked him about Authority, Gabriel had made it sound like a totally different language, but now Julius suspected that it was done on purpose.

"So you are saying that I have touched upon one of these Concepts?" Julius asked.

"Yeah, though I am surprised that it was sharpness. Most of the time, people's first Concept is related to their affinities. In your case, I suspected that you would learn fire, kinetic, or life-related Concepts before anything else."

Honestly, Julius thought the same thing. He would have expected for him to learn the Concept of Fire before anything else. It was his most used affinity for his constructs after all. But then again, he didn't so much use the properties of fire or heat in his constructs, unless he made them explode. However, now that he knew about it, maybe he should seriously consider doing so.

"If I were to combine my skills into an epic skill with the Concept of Sharpness, what kind of effect would I get? Would it be better to just wait until I have as many Concepts as I can before I evolve it?" Julius wanted to know the effects of a Concept and if there were any repercussions of combining them with certain Concepts.

Gabriel was smart enough to know what he was asking for. "As I mentioned before, epic skills work a little differently than rare skills. They require a Concept in order to make that leap forward to the next rank, but that doesn't mean they aren't allowed to grow anymore. Yes, if you were to use multiple Concepts for one skill, that skill would be stronger in the beginning, but that doesn't mean that you can't add another Concept to a skill once it has evolved to epic. Having a single Concept is just a qualitative requirement."

If Julius was understanding it correctly then that would mean that he didn't need to worry about creating the perfect skill with the perfect set of Concepts. It sounded like he would be able to adapt the skills with Concepts he learns later on.

So if he wanted to add a Fire Concept to his skill later on he could. That meant that he didn't need to wait until he had all of his Concepts ready to go.

"You said I almost have a Concept. How do I know when I do learn one?"'

"Oh you will know, trust me," Gabriel said vaguely.

"What do you mean I will know?" Julius asked.

"I'm not saying anything, you are doing great all on your own. And when you finally get a Concept, you will know exactly when," Gabriel told him with a shit-eating grin.

"Thanks, very helpful you are," Julius sarcastically complimented the bald man. "Any other brilliant suggestions?"

"Um…" Gabriel looked up to the ceiling with a pondering look. Then he turned back to Julius and shrugged his shoulders "I don't know, eat better and sleep good, I guess."

"Nothing about creating an epic skill or what skill I should choose for my evolution of [Mana Layering]?" Julius asked him with a deadpan stare.

"Nope," Gabriel said happily. "You have your own path, I don't want to influence you or your choices too much. You have been doing fine. More than fine, since you almost have a Concept and you only just became a Tier 2. Sometimes having a unique path that fits you better is more important than having the most optimal path."

Gabriel walked over and gave Julius a hard pat on his shoulder. "You are going to be just fine." He wiped some of the blood that was still dripping down Julius's neck and wiped it on his uniform. "More than fine."

The first thing that Julius ended up doing when he left was head over to the nearest garden. He had been cooped up for two weeks straight and wanted some fresh air. The training room wasn't exactly the coziest place to stay for an extended period, and he was sure that they were not made with that in mind.

He sat down on the trunk of a tree and coaxed Drasil out of his core. The small spirit still spent most of his time sleeping in his core, feeding off of Julius's life mana. However, he did enjoy coming out and being in nature.

Julius did sense other people in the garden as well. [Spatial Perception] picked up on some students hiding behind the foliage. To his embarrassment, he saw that there were a few couples that were having "fun" away from prying eyes. He made sure to keep his focus away from them and give them some privacy. He felt kind of creepy, observing their private interaction, it wasn't his fault that his skill was too good.

He felt Drasil rummaging around in one of his pockets, searching for the life core he loved so much. Julius smiled at the cute spirit and took out the core from his storage ring. Drasil chirped in joy and frantically climbed over Julius's lap to rush toward the core.

Drasil jumped on top of the core, hugging it with all four of his limbs. Julius smiled as the adorable green spirit cooed in happiness and rubbed his face all over the core.

Julius just sat down and watched Drasil play around with the core as he thought about what he wanted to do regarding Concepts. The fact that Gabriel had told him that Concepts were a thing was a revelation that changed how he was going to approach things.

He was a little upset that he hadn't known about this even after spending so much time trying to find information about epic skills and higher tiers in the library. He wished he had known about it earlier. But at least he knew about it now. If Gabriel hadn't come and searched for him, Julius might not have known about Concepts until much later, so he should be grateful for what he got.

He was confused as to why the others hadn't talked about Concepts to him. He was pretty certain that they had epic skills of their own. While they didn't know exactly how close Julius was to creating his own epic skill, he would have thought that they had a good idea that it was the next logical step for him.

He didn't think they were purposefully hiding things from him, but it seemed like a big thing not to talk about. He would have to ask them the next time he saw them.