Path to Transcendence

Edwin POV

Edwin was enjoying his morning tea while reading an interesting report about the recent developments in the Kingdom of Corvus. Corvus was one of the Luminous Empire's largest trade partners. Situated on the empire's western border, Corvus was having issues with its northern neighbor. According to the report, The Alliance of Morning Sun had elected a new leader. The country's previous Prime was more interested in cultivating beneficial trade agreements with other countries. However, this new Prime, Halom Anderaz had a different plan.

Anderaz completely voided many of its prior contracts and planned to renegotiate its terms with Corvus. This obviously angered many in Corvus, who in retribution, decided to restrict shipments that were planned to be sent to other countries. These tensions between the two countries and the various mercantile guilds and businesses have drastically raised prices and caused civil unrest in both regions.

Luckily for House Hyperius, it's situated in the eastern region of the Luminous Empire, very far away from the potential conflict, Edwin noted.

Edwin's attention was brought to the door that had just opened. Walking through was young Julius, still wearing a black piece of cloth around his face. Edwin was well aware of the young child's strange exploits. Everyone in the estate, even those who never met him had heard of his peculiarities. But typically, Julius took his lessons seriously. Which meant that he usually took off the get-up before the lesson started.

He is by far one of the most peculiar children I have met. Remarkably intelligent in many areas of study, but he can be completely lacking when it comes to many other areas, Edwin remarked to himself. The young scion of House Hyperius has been the subject of much gossip around the estate these past years. People took notice that the young child spent most of his days roaming and playing around the estate doing weird things by himself.

At first, when Julius decided to wear a blindfold, people thought it was cute. They thought he was just pretending to be a character out of a story. However, as years went by and when he started to jam pieces of clay up his nose, people began to question the sanity of the young Hyperius.

Edwin could not understand why Julius was so insistent, playing around like this. Edwin had discussed it in passing many times, but to no avail.

Even now, Edwin was watching Julius as he got out his materials for the lesson. He was still blindfolded and was taking his sweet time. Edwin knew Julius was doing it on purpose in retribution for the times Edwin did it himself.

Exasperated, Edwin reached over to try to remove the stupid things. But surprisingly, Julius neatly swayed out of the way. Edwin had always had a suspicion that there was something more to the blindfold than at first glance. Julius was able to navigate his way around the estate quite well for someone unable to see but Edwin had always thought that the blindfold was sheer enough that Julius could still see through it. Not to mention that Edwin actually tried to be quick about it. For an untiered to be able to dodge him when he was somewhat trying was embarrassing. He was a Tier 4 who largely focused on speed. Besides, Julius wasn't even looking at him.

Hmm…I wonder.

Deciding to do a little test, he used a bit of mana and wrapped it around a little sugar cube from the table and launched it at the back of Julius's head.

Julius POV

Julius was purposefully taking his time unloading his bag and setting up his stuff for the lesson. He learned this from Edwin himself. It was a tactic Edwin used to annoy him and he found it quite effective when used on others. Whenever Julius had a question about skills or anything to do with what tiers were, Edwin would pretend to ignore him while slowly sipping his tea. Therefore, he made it his mission to be as petty as he could get away with. Nothing too drastic, the old man was still very intimidating and Julius suspected Edwin of being at least Tier 3 or 4.

Julius still had his blindfold on and he could feel Edwin shifting in annoyance behind him.

Hah! Doesn't feel so good when someone else ignores you huh old man?

Edwin didn't actually look old, he had the appearance of a fit thirty-year-old man with medium-length black hair that curled at the tips. He had dark eyes and sharp facial features that made him look quite strict. But he also had a poise about him, that exuded confidence.

Suddenly, he felt Edwin tense and quickly reach out to Julius's head. Julius, who had learned to react very quickly to sudden perceptions thanks to his training, instinctually shifted his head to the side.

Playing the ignorant, Julius pretended like he didn't even notice Edwin's actions. However, he soon felt something rise behind him. It was small, barely the size of a pebble, but it was oddly square, like a cube.

How is it floating? I don't feel Edwin moving at all, but is he using mana to float it? I also feel something else, like there's swirling air around the object. Is this mana manipu–

Without warning the cube-like object was shot toward him with alarming force. Julius only managed to tilt his head a few degrees and it still nicked him across the back of the head. A stinging pain erupted from where he was hit and dropping his act took off his blindfold to confront the crazy old man.

"Oww, what was that for?" Shouted at Edwin.

"It's rude to ignore others, Julius," Edwin calmly responded.

"I would argue that throwing things at others is more rude," Julius argued.

Edwin just stared at Julius. It wasn't long but it was enough to feel uncomfortable. Finally, Edwin chose to ask a question.

"How did you know?"

"Know what?" Julius played dumb.

Edwin pressed his lips together. "How did you know what I was doing, even though you were not looking in my direction?"

"I am pretty sure I have told you before. Haven't I?"

"No, I am quite certain you have not. When I asked you last time, you said you were doing it because it was fun." Edwin said impatiently.

"Well, it is fun. That doesn't mean there aren't other reasons." Julius replied.

"So what are these other reasons?" Edwin stressed.

Julius thought about answering. To be honest, while he hadn't kept it a secret about what he was doing with his time, he never gave a complete explanation about why he was doing it. Certainly not explaining his perception ability. He kind of liked keeping it a secret. However, it seemed like that was no longer going to be an option.

"I originally started to wear a blindfold to get a sense of mana. I was hoping that by depriving myself of my other senses I would be able to sense it easier. I wasn't able to do that. However, a side effect is being able to sense my surroundings without relying on traditional senses." Julius explained.

Edwin was surprised. For one, he noticed that Julius had spoken quite eloquently for a child who hadn't awakened yet. Secondly, noble houses have tried to get their children to sense mana before their baptism for many years. However, they had never accomplished this with any reliability. Finally, an ability like this was quite outrageous. How does someone just gain the ability to sense everything around them by just wearing a blindfold?

"You're telling me that you are able to perceive your immediate surroundings because you wore a blindfold?" Edwin asked for clarification.

"Not just wearing a blindfold," Julius added.

Edwin just looked at Julius with a deadpan expression.

"I also practiced," Julius said innocently.

"Practice… he says. Julius, do you know how outrageous that sounds?" Edwin asked him. Julius shook his head.

"There are many skills that improve perception. Most fighters end up getting one as a utility skill. Skills like [Mana Sense] or [Life Detection]. However, there are usually restrictions on what they can perceive. [Mana Sense] has limitations, the major one is that it can only detect mana and not anything else. [Life Detection] has the downside of being able to sense living targets, not inorganic objects. Even the skill [Danger Sense], which can detect practically anything as long as it presents a danger to the user's life, cannot sense small things outside of its scope. There are strengths and weaknesses to every skill. But your skill seems to be very versatile without much drawback." Edwin deeply explained.

Julius had just learned more about skills and magic in that short rant than what he had managed to find on his own for several years. Information about stuff like this was kept away from him. Furthermore, all his questions always seem to come back to his baptism, which was only a few months away.

Julius did not know how to respond to Edwin's statement. According to him, his ability, or rather, skill was able to do too many things without a limit. Except for mana, he still hasn't quite figured that out.

Wait a second. That last thing Edwin threw at me was different. Was that weird air around the cube mana? If so does that not mean I can sense mana? If so, then all this time I have had the answers right in front of my face but was too blind to see it. I gotta ask him, I have to know, Julius decided.

"Was that last thing you threw at me made up of mana?" Julius asked with wide eyes.

"It wasn't made up of mana, but yes, I surrounded a cube of sugar with mana." Edwin said.

This was amazing. So he was able to sense mana, which means there is a great chance that he would be able to find a way to use actual magic.

Julius was still a little upset that he had been able to do this for who knows how long, but honestly, it was more of a relief. He had been trying for almost five years to learn how to do magic and without any success, it was hard not to get pessimistic about it. If he didn't know with certainty that it existed he wasn't sure if he would have been so stubborn.

Nevertheless, Julius had finally done it. He wanted to run around with joy, and shout from the rooftops. Maybe eat some cake. Yes, definitely cake as a celebration. I will ask one of the chefs to make one. This is a momentous day! He couldn't keep the massive smile off of his face. Grinning like a maniac.

All of a sudden he felt something hard pelt him in the forehead. It broke him out of his daydreaming. He looked down and saw a sugar cube broken in half lying in his lap. Looking back up, he saw Edwin holding another sugar cube, preparing to throw it again.

"Do I have your attention again? Or is there something more important taking up your focus?" Edwin asked with amusement.

"Sorry, I was just excited," Julius said smiling. "I didn't know my ability could detect mana until now. But now that I can, I believe I can start learning how to use mana."

"I think you are misunderstanding something, young master. Most people, unless they have the [Mana Sense] or similar skill, are not able to detect mana other than their own. Even then, the majority of people simply direct their mana into whatever skill they acquired." Edwin clarified to Julius.

That was a revelation to Julius. He had always thought it was logical that people would have to be able to sense mana before they could use it. If he understood Edwin correctly, he was mistaken. He guessed that this was the main dilemma of trying to practice without having access to knowledge and resources. He just didn't know enough to train effectively.

Regardless, he had a feeling that things were about to take a big change of direction once his baptism came around.