Path to Transcendence

Julius didn't know why he tried to copy Edwin. First off, he still didn't know what affinities he had. Secondly, he didn't understand the technique Edwin used in the first place. Julius had just wrapped his fist with mana, as he would if he was trying to levitate an object. Just this time, he was able to use far more mana than before, and so it visibly glowed. In all honesty, it would have been less humiliating if he had just missed his punch.

However, that reminded Julius that he needed to still do the ritual that determined his affinities. He had gotten so wrapped up in sparring to test his newfound abilities, that he had forgotten that he needed to find out his affinities before he started to learn new techniques.

As such, the three of them were walking to the basement where Julius had done his baptism. Lukas was still smiling and teasing Julius along the way, while Edwin was trailing behind them, just shaking his head and averting his gaze every time he looked at Julius as if he were ashamed of him. Julius already knew that he wasn't going to live this one down for a very long time.

Lukas had already coined a name for his technique. He was calling it Julius's [Twinkle Strike], a very powerful skill that allowed its user to twinkle his fist before punching. Its primary function was to confuse the opponent into thinking it was actually going to do something, but in reality, it was just a glorified fist-shaped lantern.

Julius took the teasing in stride, he knew it would eventually blow over and he had to admit it was funny.

Once they had reached the beautiful chamber Lukas immediately went to a cabinet in the corner of the room. Lukas reached into it and pulled out a large handful of glowing mana stones alongside a cube-like object. He then placed them around where the pedestal for his baptism had been. The pedestal was no longer there, but he noticed complex lines intersecting each other into a runic pattern.

Julius wasn't well-versed in runes. However, he knew they were known to be one of the more difficult fields of study in academies and any runemaster would have a bright future ahead of them, with plenty of opportunities. Julius was initially interested in learning runes, but it seems like runes were similar to language comprehension. That was something Julius wasn't good at in his previous life nor this one either.

It seemed like Julius was better at understanding things by hitting them or being hit by them. It made him realize that he was sort of a meathead in a way. If he hit a wall in learning something, he was more likely to just find a way to go through it, instead of around it. Solving most of his problems by just being stubborn. Which, when he thought about it, was a talent in itself. Feeling self-assured again, he paid attention to what his uncle was doing with the ritual.

Lukas had placed the mana stones equally along the border of the circle. There seemed to be around a dozen marble-sized mana stones encircling the cube.

"Hey Twinkles, come over here," Lukas said to Julius.

Julius pretended to ignore his annoying uncle, looking away at the murals decorating the room.

His uncle snickered at Julius's antic, instead of waiting for him to come over voluntarily, he decided to bring Julius to him.

Julius was snatched from where he was standing and carried over to the middle of the ritual. Julius barely felt any mana used to achieve this, there was another force he felt was being used. He couldn't quite determine what it was, but he suspected it was some aura ability that his uncle and Edwin had hinted at before. Levitating objects with mana was easy, but something that had a will was much more difficult. The only way to levitate someone was to override their will with their own will.

Julius didn't quite get it, but it was impressive how easily his uncle managed it nonetheless. He guessed that was the power of a Tier 5.

Now that Julius was placed within the center of the circle, sitting right in front of the cube, Lukas focused some mana to activate the runes of the ritual.

"Place your hands around the cube," his uncle instructed.

Julius complied and immediately felt himself getting bombarded with mana from all directions. It wasn't absorbing mana, alternatively, it was flowing through him. There was a slight discomfort but not too bad. It was comparable to getting rinsed down by a very powerful hose.

A couple of minutes passed before it ended. Julius had no idea what the purpose of that was, but Lukas plucked the cube from his grasp. Julius was curious about what had just happened.

"What was that and how does it determine my affinities?" He asked the two of them.

His uncle chose to answer him. "It takes a few days to prepare, but during this time, the runic circle absorbs mana from the atmosphere. The reason for this is that the ritual needs to have enough mana for each affinity to test. Most affinities are present in the natural world in ambient mana, so it only takes time to accumulate. It then distributes the mana throughout your body. Then that is where the cube comes in. The cube is a device that was created to measure how well you naturally respond to mana. Thus revealing your affinities."

"So if I am understanding it correctly, the ritual is meant to pump me full of various mana like fire mana or water mana. Then the cube senses how I react to each one and then measures my affinity to it. Right?" Julius asked.

"It is much more complex and there are thousands of interesting studies that describe it in a more detailed fashion, but yes," Lukas said.

"Wait, is that why controlling ambient mana is more difficult than your own?" Julius had another question.

"Yes, there are many affinities that make up ambient mana and most people only have an affinity to a few, so if the ambient mana is comprised of only one percent of the mana of your affinity, it would obviously be harder to control," Lukas explained. "That is why it is important to find your affinity once you create your core. Because your core is now able to generate mana on its own, you should logically want to produce mana you have the most affinity for."

That would mean that his core would produce only what he focused on. He knew people could have multiple affinities they used. But if he had a fire and a water affinity, would it be better for him to just choose one or the other?

"Hypothetically, If I were to have two affinities, does that mean I would focus on one or could I balance each one out?" Julius asked.

"You could, it has been a long-time debate of whether to diversify or specialize in affinities. Both have their pros and cons but in the end, it comes down to personal preference," Lukas said.

That made sense to Julius. It was a decision he had to make, whether he wanted to be a jack of all trades or focus on a single aspect. If he focused on one, he would probably be able to practice it much more frequently, but it also left him open to bad matchups. What if someone had an affinity that had an advantage over his? But if he diversified, he would have to split his focus on two different affinities. It was a tough decision with no clear answer.

"Wait a moment. Before I formed my core, I had to absorb ambient mana into myself to use it. So how did I manipulate easier than regular ambient mana?"

Edwin who was still there with them decided to answer this question. "When you take in ambient mana, your Will automatically changes the mana into a suitable version for you. It is not efficient or better than mana of your affinity but it is easier than normal ambient mana."

"Those things are the things you can learn when you leave to go to an academy." Lukas interrupted. "If you don't have any more questions about the affinity ritual, let's get our attention back to your results."

Julius was excited, he didn't have any clue what his affinities might be. He knew his uncle had the rarer sun affinity, which was a blend of light and fire mana, and Edwin had the shadow affinity, but he was curious about his own.

Lukas inspected the cube and once he interpreted it, he spoke. "It seems like you have a high affinity to fire, life, and kinetic. You also have a medium affinity to water and air. As well as a low affinity for light."

Julius was somewhat disappointed. Affinities were ranked as low, medium, high, excellent, and perfect. He was hoping for at least one affinity to be excellent, and praying for one to be perfect. With that being said, he couldn't be too disappointed. It was better than average. Most people had one affinity at high and only a couple of lower-rated ones. He had a total of three at high, another two at medium, and one at low. He wasn't surprised at his fire affinity, but life affinities were rare and kinetic even more so. High-affinity life users were usually healers or supporters within a party. While kinetic users were rarely seen in the empire. Most known users were from the northern countries, like the Kingdom of Valde, where some of their warriors had an affinity for kinetic.

Even though having three high affinities was more than most people, in reality, the majority would choose only one or two of the three affinities to create their path. Furthermore, having an excellent or perfect affinity would have practically guaranteed he was a top talent of his generation. Only five percent of people got an excellent affinity and only one in a thousand got a perfect affinity. However, with a population of over a hundred million, that still meant over a hundred thousand individuals had a perfect affinity in the empire alone. So while it was an uncommon achievement, it wasn't unheard of.

With that being said, just because you have a perfect affinity, doesn't mean you will rise to Tier 5 with certainty. Affinities are useful indicators of how fast you can progress your path, but there have been times in history when people with medium or low affinities have become absolute powerhouses. Affinities are also able to change over time with hard work or extreme circumstances.

There was a famous story about William Prashe, a rice farmer born in the empire with a low affinity for water. William would go on to become one the strongest people on the entire continent. It was said that he had progressed his affinity all the way from low to perfect. It was never confirmed, but it gave rise to the idea that affinities weren't the end all, be all. They were simply one's starting point on their path.

Having a high affinity wasn't going to stop Julius from advancing. He might even be lucky for one of his affinities to become excellent over the years. If there was something that Julius was good at, it was that he always improved, no matter how small.

Julius looked over at his uncle and Edwin, who were having their own discussion. He couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but based on the few things he overheard, they were talking about his progression plan.

Finally, they seemed to be in agreement and both turned towards Julius.

"First off, congratulations. You have successfully become a Tier 1 and now have identified your affinities. That means you have officially begun your path." Edwin said.

"Also, don't be too worried about your affinities. I know you were hoping for an excellent or perfect affinity, but high in three of them is a good result as well. Especially, kinetic, a particularly rare affinity and one that suits your fighting style quite nicely." Lukas added.

They were both being supportive, even Edwin who usually wasn't, was congratulating him. It would feel slightly more authentic, if his uncle didn't have a perfect sun affinity himself, and Edwin had an excellent shadow affinity. But they were trying, and he had realized in his past life that sometimes trying was all that really mattered.

On the bright side, he already had some early ideas about which affinities he would go with. He had pretty much decided that he wanted to have at least two. Julius's core was much more intense than others at this stage. He didn't quite know how much more, but based on how much he had to absorb and condense. Also from what the two of them told him about other people's core formations. He could theorize he had a much larger capacity than average. The small investigative probes he sent to his core, felt like there wasn't an end to it.

Even the light show he tried with his fist had used a massive amount of mana, but it didn't even make a dent in his reserves. Therefore, he was thinking that he should diversify his affinities. He wouldn't have the issues of splitting up his meager resources if his assumption of his large capacity was correct. Hence, the main issue would be having enough time to practice possibly multiple affinities instead of one.

However, Julius had a wonderful plan for that as well. It was a simple but genius plan.

Practice. All he needed to do, was to practice more, practice harder, and practice smarter. Simple really.