Path to Transcendence

Julius ran hard. A lot of the students were simply jogging at a pace they were comfortable with. But Julius was here to improve, and how would he improve his physique if he wasn't pushing himself?

He wasn't the only one with that mindset.

There were a dozen or more students who were with him the entire way. It had only been a minute or so but Julius could already see that there was a distinct divide in mindsets. In the front group, were students who were obviously Tier 2 already, based on their auras and their physical capabilities. Then there were the Tier 1 students who were pushing themselves, trying to do their best. Following them were the ones who jogged with reasonable urgency but fell behind. However, then there were the ones who were even further behind, running with no urgency and who didn't care about the class.

It was no surprise that Julius saw many of the kids who were late in the pack in the back. Most, if not all of them were nobles if their expensive jewelry, perfectly manicured appearances, and nonchalant attitude were any hints.

There were several students who were way in front. One was a tall boy with a lean frame. Another was a cute brunette girl who was around Julius's height, standing at about five foot nine. Then there was a big boy who looked like he could be Edgar's younger brother running alongside them. After him, there was a young boy who looked average in every way, whether in height, looks, or frame. Finally, there was a girl with red hair who was tall and ran like a cheetah, outpacing the others.

These people Julius suspected were some of the more talented close combat fighters in his year, just going off of their physical condition. They all felt like Tier 2's and were miles above everyone else when it came to physical ability. Julius had gone through a body transformation already, but these people were much faster than him. Leaving him and the other Tier 1 students in the dust. It was impressive and reminded him that he wasn't the only talented person there. Goldencrest was well known for a reason.

However, Julius wanted to follow through with his plan of appearing to be an average or slightly above-average student. He clearly couldn't try to keep up with the Tier 2's but he also shouldn't be keeping up with the other top Tier 1's. That would give people the impression that he was on their level, at least physically.

But Julius had an idea in mind. He pretended to flag a bit, as if he had used most of his energy at the start and now was getting tired. Ever so slowly, the other students put some distance between them and him.

Professor Edwards said they couldn't use any enhancements to help them. Still, Julius had seen some students try regardless.

That didn't mean Julius couldn't use something that would actively hamper him. He was thinking about one of those weighted vests that many people used back on Earth. While he didn't want to draw too much attention by overperforming he also didn't want to waste his time here. He came to this school to get stronger, not to just act weak, acting weak was just a precaution.

Julius did have an idea though. He was able to enhance how fast his body moved with kinetic energy and was able to somewhat absorb kinetic energy from enemies. So he thought that it might be possible to restrict his movement with kinetic energy. That way he could push himself but his "results" would not appear to be out of the ordinary.

With a new idea in mind, he started to try to see if it worked. He slowly siphoned some of the kinetic energy while he was running, just like he would against a troll. He immediately felt his body become more difficult to move. It was like he was running straight into a headwind. It was perfect, Julius stopped pretending to run slow and started to go all out.

He had to adjust and play around with it so that his maximum speed was just high enough to be above average but not enough to be exemplary. It took some time and maneuvering, but he got it down. Julius noticed Professor Edwards' gaze was following him. The professor obviously could tell that Julius was using mana to do something. But he didn't stop Julius. He must've determined that Julius wasn't doing anything that increased his speed. So with one last look, the professor completely ignored him and went back to observing the other students.

That was the main concern Julius had about doing something like this. The professor showed that he was able to detect students using enhancements, so Julius was worried that the professor would see him using kinetic energy to slow himself and come to the conclusion that he was enhancing his physical abilities.

He was lucky that the professor didn't call him out, Julius just hoped that he would keep it to himself and that the professor just thought of Julius as a weird child.

Julius and the other students had to run for almost half an hour. Even after ten minutes in, Julius saw many students already exhausted. They were obviously not well-conditioned or used to running. The students in the front continued strong the entire time, showing that they were used to physical exertion like this. Even the slackers with their low efforts were showing signs of exhaustion and Julius saw some of them completely stop running. It was kind of sad in a way.

Professor Edwards ordered those who completely stopped to at least keep on walking. Honestly, Julius was surprised at how relaxed the professor was with the slackers. Julius had half expected the man to yell at them like a drill instructor would. But he didn't. Professor Edwards clearly saw a portion of the class not even trying, but stood by and let them. Julius couldn't understand why.

After the thirty-minute run, Julius was exhausted. He hadn't used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to heal himself. He had come to the realization that the skill wasn't able to help his endurance. If he didn't push his endurance to the limits and used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to recover, then he wouldn't improve his endurance. He would only heal himself after the day had ended or after he had recovered sufficiently on his own.

Professor Edwards had them sit down on the field and let them catch their breath. Even the others who had ended the run very far ahead of the others were worn out.

After, the professor had them follow him to the section where the gym equipment was placed and explained how each piece worked and what he expected out of them.

Julius already had a good guess of what most of the equipment was meant to do, but some of the others were shocked at hearing Professor Edwards describe the things they were going to use. Then Professor Edwards explained that he already had rotations set up. The class was divided into five groups of ten each. Each ten-person group would go to a certain section, that would focus on a specific muscle group. One group would do legs, while another did chest and arms. They would work out for the remaining time of class. Then on the next day, they would switch stations.

Not every group did weightlifting. There was a special station that had the group run full sprints, something that would soon become the most dreaded rotation for every one of them.

Julius was surprised at how self-directed the class was. If you didn't want to put in the work, then you didn't need to, but you also wouldn't improve. It was very similar to PE or workout classes he took in high school.

After class was done, the professor told them they were free to go and just left, without another word. Julius didn't know what to think about Professor Edwards. On one hand, Julius enjoyed the independence he gave the students and allowed them to push themselves at their own pace. But on the other hand, he felt like the professor could have scolded some of the slackers. Julius didn't really care about them, if they wanted to mess around then they could mess around. Still, it might negatively affect some of the other students who might see them and believe that it's okay to slack off as well.

Julius put those thoughts to the side for now. It was around nine and the cafeteria was still serving breakfast. He had only eaten some oatmeal and fruit before coming to class but now was hungry for something with a little more sustenance.

The cafeteria wasn't that busy and Julius was able to get his food and eat pretty quickly. He didn't see the others, but he also didn't see Liam either, so that was nice. He stuffed himself full of hash browns, eggs, toast, and bacon before he had to head off to his other class.

His next class was Intro to Mana, with Professor Stewart. Derek said that they had her when they were first years and that she was a strict but good professor.

When he walked into the classroom he saw a center stage with a large desk and multiple boards behind it. The room was organized into a half-circle shape with each row of desks getting higher and higher the further back you were. That way each person had an unobstructed view of the lesson.

The professor was already there, talking with some students who were congregated around her desk. Julius let them be and found himself a seat in the middle of the room. It wasn't in the front where he expected many of the more studious students would be and it wasn't in the back where he knew more of the troublemakers would be.

When it was almost time for the lesson to begin, the professor told the students around her desk to go back to their seats. She faced the students who were all sitting down. Her uniform was crisp and sharp even compared to other professors, she had a pair of glasses and looked middle-age, but it was hard to tell once you got higher up in tiers. Julius was pretty confident that she was around Tier 4, so she could have been almost a hundred and still looked like she did.

"Welcome everyone to Introduction to Mana. This class will focus on practical and theoretical uses of mana. You might already believe that you know a lot of what we are going to cover throughout the year. However, you will be surprised by how many people think they understand the basics and then find out how wrong they are. Most people often overlook the importance of the basics, and when they get to the higher tiers, they aren't able to keep up or fail to properly understand certain aspects of it."

The professor went on about the importance of having a firm grasp on understanding the basics of mana. Julius didn't disagree, but he also thought that she was coming off as a little rigid in her thinking. She made mana sound like a structured thing with strict rules and applications. While she wasn't necessarily wrong, Julius believed that she had neglected to touch upon the importance of creativity.

Julius was a firm believer that creativity does as much or more for learning mana than anything else. Creativity is how you have fun, and without having fun or having passion, practicing mana would become boring and repetitive. It was amazing how much more time you spent training when you actually enjoyed it.

The exercises she was showing the class were efficient exercises that used every part of mana manipulation you would need. They were similar to many of the exercises that Edwin had shown Julius years ago. Such as controlling the shape and color of an orb of mana. However, found that doing those exercises over and over was a mental chore.

When Julius was starting off with mana exercises, he slowly found himself making up excuses to not practice, one day he would say that he was too tired, or that he was too busy, but the truth was that he wasn't having any fun. That was the reason he started to create his own tasks or challenges. It was the reason why he was trying to find a way to create a soft mana construct. He didn't really need to, but he thought making a soft comfortable chair out of fire mana sounded cool as hell. That was why he was going to learn how [Fire Whip] worked as well as other mana-softening techniques.

The fact that it might be useful later in his life was also a nice reason. But he was primarily doing it out of a sense of passion.

You could have all the talent in the world, but if you don't have the passion to use it, then what good is it?

Julius gave himself a mental slap. He was in the middle of his first mana-controlling class but here he was not listening to the professor. He reminded himself not to discount what the professor said, just because he disagreed with her methodology. She might have something to say that might spark an idea for Julius. Or maybe something that he had previously thought was right, but had been wrong the entire time. He would have to keep an open mind and so he concentrated on listening to Professor Stewart.