Royal Road
SomethingOtherThanRain
Path to Transcendence - [Isekai/Litrpg] by l-Ryn-l
Chapter 16: Lost in the Woods
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Julius woke up face down in the dirt. His body was in agony and the pain made him breathless.
Gritting his teeth, he grasped some life mana from his core and sent it throughout his body. The small infusion took the edge off the pain and let him finally breathe again. He noticed something wet was pooling at his side, soaking his clothes.
It smelled like rust and copper, and with a quick inspection, he confirmed it was his own blood. There was a gaping hole on his side and it was leaking out like a deflated water balloon. At this rate, he might die from bleeding out.
He didn't know where it came from but he needed to heal it fast or else he was going to die face down, ass up, in a pool of his own blood. If there were any time to create a skill for healing it would be now.
First, he had to focus on stopping the bleeding. He didn't have any tools or bandages to staunch it, but he checked his core and felt that he had some fire mana, it must've regenerated while he was unconscious.
Rolling over, he concentrated on creating a jet of constant flame. It was hard to keep focused on it, his brain was muddled from either the blood loss or the pain. He couldn't tell at this point. But eventually, he managed to create a soft red flame over his palm. Then gently lifting his shirt with the other hand, he pressed the fire directly onto his wound.
Julius couldn't even scream, choking on his tongue in silent agony. The smell of burning flesh wafted from his torso. Once he felt like he cauterized the wound and could no longer take the pain, he released the flame and started to gather life mana towards his side.
Julius had understood something about life mana. It was different than fire and kinetic mana. Where fire and kinetic were like beasts that needed a firm hand to control, life mana was the opposite. It required a delicate touch and you needed to convince it to do what you wanted.
That's what Julius needed to do, he had to envision it healing him while he softly infused life mana into his injuries. As he was delicately leading life mana into the location of the wound, he desperately tried convincing it to heal him, to save his life.
It wasn't enough. The life mana was just floating around his wound, with no direction, just passively healing it. It was too slow. Julius tried to recall as much information as he had about healing. He wasn't a doctor but he knew enough about biology to get by.
He imagined the life mana visibly healing his tissue, taking oxygen in, and breathing life into his flesh. Rebuilding each cell of skin bit by bit.
This caused a reaction, he started to feel his skin become itchy and feel his body requiring more mana to sustain this process.
Julius let it have it all. But it wasn't enough, he needed something more. Thus, he used the same method he used for all of his magic applications, he just condensed the hell out of it. Julius didn't have the required knowledge to carefully finesse his mana to heal him. Therefore, he would just need to brute force it.
Julius jammed as much compressed life mana into his wound as he possibly could. There was so much mana present, that his side started to glow a brilliant verdant green. Then, to his astonishment, his skin was seen visibly healing. Not very fast, but at this rate, his wound would be healed within ten minutes.
Ten minutes later, and with practically no life mana left, his side was healed. Admittedly, it was a horrendous job that any proper healer would be ashamed of. His skin was left horribly disfigured with burn scarring all across its surface. It was a patchwork of ugly healing at best, but it got the job done.
He also got a notification along with it.
Would you like to learn the skill [Heal]?
It seemed that Julius would finally get that healing skill he was desperately wanting. It would have been more useful ten minutes ago but better late than never. He accepted it quickly.
Congratulations, skill [Heal] acquired.
It also seemed like he had some notifications from the fight that he didn't see.
[Thermal Compression] has reached threshold. [Thermal Compression lvl1 -> Thermal Compression lvl 2]
[Kinetic Release] has reached threshold. [Kinetic Release lvl1 -> Kinetic Release lvl 2]
[Focus] has reached threshold. [Focus lvl 9 ->Focus lvl 10]
[Focus] has advanced to level 10. Would you like to evolve the skill?
Julius was surprised, he always thought that [Unarmed Combat] would be his first skill to level 10 but it seemed like he was wrong. He wasn't upset, and couldn't see any reason not to, so he mentally confirmed to evolve [Focus].
Skill [Focus] is evolving… possible advancements: [Enhanced Focus] and [Combat Trance]
Julius learned about the possibility of choosing multiple skill evolutions when you rank them up. Most of the time, people get offered a general upgrade of the skill. Something that increases it across the board, but there could also be an option to specialize within a certain part of the skill depending on how you had used it.
For Julius, it seemed like he got an option that specializes in combat.
If it was before everything happened, the obvious choice would have been [Enhanced Focus] but now he was stranded in the middle of the wilderness with monsters lurking around. It was expected that he would be doing a lot of fighting. But he really liked how the general [Focus] worked. It was incredibly versatile and was able to be applied to everything that he wanted it to.
While the effects weren't as dramatic as say [Thermal Compression] it was still a useful skill that gave a small boost to many other applications. However, his instincts were telling him that [Combat Trance] was going to be vital in the future.
In the end, he decided to follow his gut. It hadn't steered him wrong yet.
Congratulations, skill [Combat Trance] (Uncommon) acquired.
He tried activating [Combat Trance] the moment he received it and it seemed like his suspicions were right. It no longer worked on everything, it took more manual effort to get to the same level of focus again.
Despite that, it wasn't as big of a difference as he initially predicted either. It appeared that Julius had been getting better at focusing regardless of the skill. The skill had been giving him a little extra boost, but nothing so extreme that it was detrimental.
However, his new skill appeared to only work while he was in combat. It was like the conditions weren't right to activate it yet. Julius was sure that would change once he got into a fight.
He remembered he also got [Heal], something he believed would be keeping him alive for the foreseeable future. Figuring that now would be a good time to test it out real quick, he channeled some mana using [Heal]. The difference was massive. It was faster, more efficient, and more potent now. Julius could feel the life mana thrumming through his entire body, healing small tears and scratches he had.
Now that his life wasn't in immediate danger, Julius took the time to look around and check his surroundings.
He was in a forest of some kind. Massive trees were caging him in on all sides. It was beautiful to see. However, it was definitely not a city, and definitely not Celestia.
This meant that whatever had happened to the teleportation, had landed Julius off course from his supposed location. He didn't know where exactly he was. There were many forests within the empire and even more outside of it.
He would need to find civilization if he wanted to determine where he was. Plan in mind, Julius got up and started walking. The hard part was choosing a direction to start walking toward. He chose to head east just out of simple randomness, he was hoping that there was some sort of vantage point he would find. If he was able to get a good look at the surrounding environment, it would be extremely helpful in dictating his travel route.
The thing about walking alone in a forest with nothing to do is that Julius started to think too much. Julius's head was filled with a hundred different scenarios in which he imagined what had happened to Lukas and Edwin after he was transported. Constantly worrying about whether they were safe, if they had died, or if something else happened.
However, he knew from experience that obsessing over it would lead to more issues down the road. It would just build up until Julius couldn't handle it. He needed to distract himself. It was better to focus on the current task, something he could do.
Therefore, he didn't just walk through the forest doing nothing. He was continuously training his skills while he made his way east. Julius constantly had [Spatial Perception] pulsing to check his surroundings.
To the naked eye, Julius didn't see any activity. But with [Spatial Perception] he could sense small rodents and critters scurrying around the foliage and forest floor. There were also larger creatures he sensed occasionally, but whenever he did, he would take a detour trying to avoid them. He also was storing and releasing small amounts of kinetic energy in his legs, increasing his speed by a little. It was good practice for getting familiar with [Kinetic Release] and using kinetic mana in general.
Furthermore, he was training his fire manipulation, as well. Julius had witnessed Samuel's last attack and noticed that Samuel added centrifugal force for additional penetration and flight stability. It reminded Julius of how the rifling of a gun barrel worked on a bullet.
For a world that wasn't as knowledgeable about physics and or other scientific fields, the people had a surprisingly good grasp on what was the best way to do something. Even if they didn't fully understand why it worked.
Julius had been walking in the same direction for several hours by now. The surroundings were still just large trees, and it didn't seem like the forest was going to end soon.
At the moment Julius was ultra-focused on keeping a spike made of fire mana spinning in front of him. It was a surprisingly difficult technique. When he initially tried it out, he was unable to keep the spike in place as he spun it. It would sometimes shoot out or spin out of his control. The amount of concentration he spent on the construct meant that he was unable to split his attention to his legs.
This predictably led to him failing to sense a tree limb or releasing too much kinetic energy through his legs, resulting in him falling on his face several times. If anyone were watching him, they would see a boy obsessively playing with fire who frequently tripped over his feet, it was certainly an odd sight.
But he kept at it. Eventually, he made an interesting discovery. It seemed like kinetic energy was the perfect complement to this spinning technique. The motion of spinning the spike generated kinetic energy on its own. This would mean he didn't have to always use his kinetic mana to use kinetic energy. He would be able to capture natural kinetic energy in its place. There were so many applications he could use this discovery for, either to increase the strength of his attacks or to save kinetic mana, they were endless.
The sun was getting low to the horizon and Julius was still in the forest. He must have been walking for at least 10 hours, but he still hadn't seen any evidence of society.
However, he realized that he needed to stop for the day and set up a camp. He had finally found a suitable place to sleep for the night. There was a creek nearby and there was a grouping of large boulders that would make for a secure place to sleep with a little work.
First, he went to the creek and checked to see if it was safe to drink. It looked clear and there was a pretty strong current, so he expected it to be safe. He took a small sip to test it, and it was cold and crisp. It was remarkably fresh and he took a deep drink, dehydrated from all the walking from the day.
He was also pretty hungry and wanted to get something to eat before it got too dark. Not that it really mattered with [Spatial Perception], but he didn't want to be running around in the dark regardless.
He sensed a small rabbit-like creature hiding underneath a log and slowly crept toward it while creating a small needle of fire mana. During his walk, he had seen many of these rabbit-like creatures running about and knew they were really quick.
Once he felt he was at a comfortable distance, he stopped and aimed his needle at the rabbit. Spinning it gently, he took in the excess kinetic energy and concentrated on repurposing it to propel towards the needle faster.
Prepared, Julius shot it, aiming at the center mass of the rabbit. However, his aim was slightly off, the extra kinetic energy he used to launch it, caused the release point to be slightly off. The needle missed by a few inches, right over the rabbit's head and way off into the woods. Successfully missing his target and scaring off his dinner, Julius had to find another poor rabbit.
Several minutes later, he found another one that was just sitting there eating some sort of vegetation. This time he had an idea.
Before, when he was practicing spinning the spike, he had compared it to the rifling of a gun barrel. This time he wanted to create some sort of barrel that would keep the projectile from deviation from its course once he released the kinetic charge.
He didn't necessarily need to make a barrel with rifling in, because he was already doing that by spinning it manually. Thus, all he needed to do was create a mental image of a barrel, whose main priority was to direct the object initially, so that it was more accurate.
Julius stalked the rabbit just like before and got himself ready. He recreated exactly what he did earlier, but now he was imagining a barrel extending out to his target.
Lining up his aim, he released the kinetically enhanced fire needle. This time he hit his target right in the chest. The barrel idea worked perfectly.
He even got another notification for his technique.
Would you like to learn the skill [Firebolt] (Uncommon)?
It was a good skill, that he could see having a lot of various uses. It was also uncommon, which was nice. However, he was approaching his ten-skill limit already. Initially, he thought that ten was plenty, but he had seven already and he was just in Tier 1. That on top of his triple affinities, it seemed like he was always going to require more skill slots.
I will have to start thinking about combining skills earlier than I thought.
It was still a great skill so he accepted it.
Congratulations, skill [Firebolt] (Uncommon) acquired.
Getting all of that settled, Julius shifted his attention back toward his dinner. While his technique had proven satisfactory, the results were less than ideal.
Unfortunately, it seemed like shooting an explosive dart at extreme speeds was overkill. The needle shredded through the poor rabbit and exploded on impact. The rabbit with little meat to its bones, was reduced to a paste scattered across the forest.
Julius had a feeling that getting dinner was going to be a more difficult challenge than he expected.
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Royal Road
SomethingOtherThanRain
Path to Transcendence - [Isekai/Litrpg] by l-Ryn-l
Chapter 17: Rude Dinner Guest
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Six tries. It took Julius six tries to catch a rabbit.
It would have been easier to catch it without magic. Not to mention way less humiliating. However, his pride was on the line, and he would've tried a hundred times more to achieve success, even if it meant he went hungry for the night.
In the end, he concluded that he needed to use a less damaging method. Fire magic was too destructive, at least for him. Even creating a small [Firebolt] was overkill, it didn't matter the size of the [Firebolt], it would detonate on impact, exploding its target. It was like using a broadsword to cut an onion.
After his third failure, Julius decided to use just kinetic mana. He created a [Firebolt] like projectile with kinetic energy only, but it became apparent that kinetic energy wasn't as easy to use this way as fire mana.
Kinetic mana worked better in short bursts or if it was contained with a construct. But creating a construct made entirely of kinetic energy and controlling it like he did with fire mana was way too hard.
What he came up with was unexpected. He learned that kinetic mana was a lot freer and easier to move around than other mana types. This meant that he could gather little bundles of kinetic mana from a distance and then discharge them around his target.
In short, this created a sort of concussion bubble, where from multiple directions his enemy was bombarded with kinetic energy.
This is what he ended up doing to the stupid rabbit. He found it and carefully started to collect as much kinetic energy as he could from the environment and then added some of his own to supplement it.
Then he created loose bundles of kinetic energy that were floating by his target and were just a thought away from releasing their payload. Finally, Julius released three separate kinetic explosions from each angle around the rabbit. The shockwave that hit it from all three sides killed it before it knew what happened.
Furthermore, while it broke bones, it left the meat almost entirely intact.
It was ironic if he hadn't failed, he wouldn't have found such a unique way to use kinetic energy.
It was way too slow at the moment, but eventually, Julius could see this ability being a useful weapon in the future. He was honestly surprised he wasn't offered a skill for it.
Prize in hand, he headed back to the campsite. The sun had just set and it was now almost completely dark except for the three moons illuminating the sky.
Foraging some sticks he created a makeshift spilt just like his gramps showed him how. However, it seemed that there was another problem that Julius stupidly missed. He didn't have anything to skin the rabbit with.
He was so used to camping with his gramps, where they each had a couple of knives on hand at all times, that forgot he didn't have one. Also, it wasn't like his affinities were particularly great at delicate slicing or cutting through things.
He tried to look for a sharp rock that might work but he ultimately decided to use his fire affinity to do the job. Julius imagined a scalpel made of fire, a fire that was razor-thin.
It kind of worked. It was similar to what he did when he made the thin needles, condensing fire mana to the point where it had a physical hard shell. Despite that, Julius couldn't create an edge that was thin enough to cut the flesh.
It was much easier to make one single point of the object sharp, like a spike. However, keeping it sharp along the entire edge of something was more difficult. What he created, was a dull red knife as sharp as a spoon. Predictably, it didn't work very well. So, Julius just decided to use his hands to get the job done. He used a pointy stick to create several holes within the skin and then jammed his fingers in the holes and ripped them open.
It was messy and took a long time, but Julius ended up getting it done.
He was just glad he could finally start cooking the damn thing. Once he got it situated on the spit, Julius created a soft fire to slowly cook the rabbit. It was going to be the first time he was cooking with his own fire magic and he was excited to see how it came out. The smell of the rendered fat falling into the flames was magical. It was a supreme effort of will to not grab the rabbit of the spit and just start eating right away. He patiently waited and salivated over his meal.
Once it was done, he tore into it. There wasn't any seasoning or even salt, but it tasted divine. He swiftly went in for another bite, but then time started to slow. He felt [Combat Trance] activate on its own and he got a cold feeling on the back of his neck. Julius was so absorbed with his meal, that he had forgotten to maintain vigilance of his surroundings.
His instincts were telling him he didn't have time to use [Spatial Perception] to look. He instantly let go of his rabbit and threw himself to the side. Right in his place, something swiped through the air.
Julius tried to get as much distance as he could and activated [Spatial Perception]. Whatever it was had moved back to the edge of the clearing. It looked like a large black monster, resembling a wolf.
With just his eyes Julius wouldn't have been able to see it, the forest was too dark at night. But with his skill, he was able to sense it hiding behind a bush waiting for its next opportunity to strike.
His heart was pounding in his chest from the close call. Julius didn't know [Combat Trance] could activate on its own. He was lucky because if it hadn't, Julius wouldn't have come away from that ambush unscathed.
Julius took the time to get a feel for the monster's strength. Based on the pressure alone, he would put it around Tier 1. It didn't feel particularly strong, but he knew that was deceptive. The speed at which it had attacked was faster than any Tier 1 could reach. If he had to guess, it was probably at least a Tier 2. He suspected that as an ambush predator, it was able to suppress some of its aura.
Julius was able to track it as it patrolled around his campsite patiently. It shouldn't be aware that Julius could sense it, but it seemed to be waiting for another opportunity.
He started to place large masses of kinetic energy all around the campsite. Three was his limit for the moment before it became too hard to control them. The monster wasn't staying in place so it would be difficult to use his new kinetic technique, but he could wait until it passed right in front of one of them.
He also created a [Firebolt] that hovered in front of him. The projectile that was created using the skill was much faster to form, but it wasn't as compressed. Therefore, Julius added more mana and used [Thermal Compression] to condense the bolt of mana even further.
The monster wasn't making a move. Julius understood that he would need to take the initiative, and needed to attack it before it could ambush him again. Otherwise, he would have to stay awake for the entire night constantly having to be aware, and the second he let his guard down, it would strike.
But he had a plan. Julius brought the three masses of kinetic toward a spot that the monster was on course to walk to. He consciously avoided looking in its direction, so that it still believed that he was unaware of its location. Monsters were intelligent and the higher tier, the more intelligent they were. Furthermore, it seemed like this particular monster was smart even for a Tier 2. Thus, Julius had to play this right or it might fail.
The moment the monster was close enough to the trap Julius activated it. The unexpected blasts detonated by the clumps of kinetic energy stunned the creature. Quickly, Julius released the condensed [Firebolt], shooting it straight at the monster's face.
The blast of kinetic energy caused the monster to flail erratically, and the [Firebolt] missed, exploding the ground right beside it.
Julius grimaced. The resulting explosion did lead to some burns and minor injuries but the monster soon got its bearings back and immediately sprinted directly at Julius.
A burst of air mana propelled the beast forward. Julius only had enough time to shoot a single [Firebolt], hitting the monster's chest, and leaving a fist-sized wound.
Still, that didn't stop the enraged monster. With [Combat Trance] active, Julius felt an unnatural wave of calmness wash over him and became more focused than he had ever been. Alongside [Unarmed Combat], Julius had precise control of his body. A burst of kinetic energy released from his legs, launching him to the side and he barely avoided the sharp claws trying to cut his stomach open.
The wolf monster had overextended with that lunge, fully expecting that it would have landed. Julius took advantage of this opening and with another burst, closed in and hammered the monster in the back of the skull with a fully powered kinetic strike.
He didn't let up either. Julius landed a couple more flush shots to the thing's head and back, before backing away, narrowly evading its swing.
He vaguely heard a notification in the back of his mind as he just stared at the injured monster.
Julius didn't move in again, he just created another condensed [Firebolt] and sent it at the creature's head. After the quick but brutal assault, the monster was staggering on its four limbs and unable to notice the attack, took the strike right to the side of the head.
It was dead before it hit the ground.
The unnatural calmness and extreme focus from [Combat Trance] faded away and he took a deep breath to collect himself.
How rude. I always knew that I was likely to have to fight monsters, but I didn't think I would be ambushed while eating my first meal. Julius thought to himself.
He looked at the meal that he had worked so hard for. His beautiful and delicious rabbit was lying on the ground, covered in twigs and dirt. Gently, he picked it up and tried to dust off as much grime from it as he could.
There wasn't much he could do to bring it back. It was a goner.
Julius looked over at the corpse that was sitting several paces away with clear resentment. He wasn't necessarily upset that it had tried to kill him, he was more upset that it had ruined his dinner.
He could understand that it was in its nature to hunt and eat, but why couldn't it have waited until he was finished?
He checked the notifications he received during and after the fight.
[Kinetic Release lvl 2 -> lvl 4]
[Thermal Compression lvl 2 -> lvl 3]
[Combat Trance lvl 1 -> lvl 2]
[Firebolt lvl 1 -> lvl 2]
[Unarmed Combat lvl 9 -> lvl 10]
Skill [Unarmed Combat] has reached level 10. Would you like to evolve [Unarmed Combat]?
Skill [Unarmed Combat] is evolving… possible advancements: [Unarmed Combat Mastery], [Combat Reflexes], [Body Control], [Brutal Strike]
There were a lot of level-ups. But Julius knew that it would slow down once he passed the "newbie" stage. Lower ranked skills were much easier to improve and many saw fast growth in the beginning ranks. So it didn't come as a surprise.
However, Julius was intrigued by the message of his [Unarmed Combat] skill. He had finally reached level 10 and he had an amazing four options to choose from.
[Unarmed Combat Mastery] seems like it is the general upgrade to the skill, while [Combat Reflexes], [Body Control], and [Brutal Strike] were the specializations. Edwin told me that I should choose one of the specializations if possible. But which one?
While Edwin was sparring with Julius he told him that [Unarmed Combat] was a useless skill at the General rank but it would shine once it ranked up.
It seems this was what he was talking about.
All options were enticing and he could see ways to utilize all four skills. He wished he was given a description of what the skills did but he wasn't so fortunate. Julius chose to use the process of elimination. The first skill he discarded was [Unarmed Combat Mastery] just because Edwin told him not to choose the basic upgrade.
The second skill he chose to discard would be a much more difficult choice, [Combat Reflexes] sounded like a passive skill that would allow him to react to situations faster. [Body Control] also sounded like it was a passive skill but would give him better control over his movements. [Brutal Strike] was the one that interested Julius the most.
If Julius had to guess, it was a skill that increased his damage to a strike. It would go well with his kinetic energy usage.
After some thought, he dismissed [Combat Reflexes], he felt like in the previous fight he was able to react more than fast enough with [Combat Trance] active. If anything, the skill had some sort of precognition that had saved him from the ambush.
So it became a choice between [Body Control] and [Brutal Strike]. He liked both of them, but active skills were usually more potent because they weren't used all the time.
In the end, Julius thought that [Brutal Strike] would fit his needs better overall. It would work well with his aggressive fighting style and give him another offensive weapon. If he had the skill before he might have killed the monster with one punch to the back of the head.
Congratulations, skill [Brutal Strike] (Uncommon) acquired.
A flood of information went to his brain and he understood how to use the skill instantly. He understood why this skill had been offered. It was similar to his kinetic strike in that it delivered a resonating force that traveled through thick layers of hide or armor. However, it also let him know the location on the body where he could deal the most damage.
Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Combat Trance] and [Brutal Strike] into a single skill?
Already? I just got the skill, a few seconds ago. Not to mention, I was thinking [Brutal Strike] and [Kinetic Release] would combine. However, this sounds pretty good too.
Julius's lips pressed together in thought. His gut hasn't led him astray so far, so he trusted his instincts and he made his decision.
Skill evolution commencing… Congratulations, skill [Savage Dance] (Rare) acquired.
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