Chapter 524: Sneaky Bugger

Julius found himself standing in the dark, all alone. There were no noises, no trickles of mana, aura, or anything really. It was like he was in a dark abyss.He kept thinking about the last few words Kaelther had said to him. They continued banging around in his head. It was confusing, and he didn’t like it.

He felt a bit suspicious and decided to do some digging. He had enough experience thanks to Lily. She had shown him a few neat tricks in case someone tried to play with his mind. She had assured him that his mind would be hard to break in, regardless, thanks to a combination of his abilities and his willpower.

However, he might come across people who could influence him without him knowing. That was why he had set up small areas to indicate whether he had been influenced. He thought of it as if you were to put a piece of tape on the edge of a door, to see if anyone had entered while he was gone.

Lily said it was a great way to detect people without requiring too much skill, and since it was such a simple technique, most people would overlook it.

Julius frowned when he found that some of his alarms had been tripped. However, he was confused because it didn’t look like it was mind magic or what Lily had shown him. This was different.

It wasn’t like Kaelther had controlled his mind or emotions, though. He was quite sure that it wasn’t anything that deep. It felt more like a small suggestion to listen to Kaelther’s words. However, now that he had detected this little probe, it was very clear that it was an external influence, and he could ignore it if he wished.

If anything, the suggestion wasn’t even hidden very well. It was right at the forefront of his mind and almost like the tall man had wanted him to find it.

Julius was even more confused and would have kept on thinking about it if not for the sudden burst of light that illuminated the dark space.

A halo of warm light appeared overhead, and he found himself standing on a flat platform that extended as far as the naked eye. However, what caught his attention were the multiple paths of light that surrounded him, stretching in all directions.

They were all of the same color, the same iridescent hue from the temple. Some of the paths glowed brighter than the others. But that was it.

He stepped closer to the nearest path of light and knelt next to it. He used his senses to see what these paths were. He wasn’t given a notification at all, something he had been hoping for. At least something that would help him understand what was going on.

He was pretty sure this was what Kaelther meant by 'making a choice'. If he understood him correctly, Julius would have to choose a path to go down. Kaelther made it sound like it was a crucial decision for him, too.

He counted ten paths in total, but they all looked identical, so how was he going to choose?

He didn’t see a timer or anything, so he thought there wasn’t a time limit. That meant he could take his time and investigate these paths more closely. If his decision was really that important, then he wanted to make sure that he made the right one.

He created a chair out of mana and sat down next to a random path. The light gently pulsed back and forth across the pathway. He took a deep breath and let all of his attention be placed on his senses.

He entered a meditative trance and tried to sense anything he could.

For the next several minutes, he wasn’t able to pick up on anything, but he didn’t give up. There had to be something here for him to go off of. He didn’t think that trial would give him a random choice on blind luck.

Kaelther definitely made it sound like it was a choice. Blindly choosing one out of ten paths didn’t sound like a particularly good choice. So that meant there had to be something for him to observe.

He let his mind fade into the background and let himself drift.

He felt something hit him in the back of the head. He startled awake and opened his eyes with a little snort. He looked around in concern. He wiped the drool from his mouth and the gunk from his eyes.

Well, that was a bit embarrassing. He had been trying to get into such a deep trance that he accidentally fell asleep instead.

Thankfully, it would appear that there wasn’t a consequence for that. All of the paths were still there just like before.

He looked around, though. What had hit him? He didn’t sense anything.

He wouldn't have been surprised if Kaelther had been the one to hit him.

Julius shrugged and stretched out his neck. He didn’t know how long he had been asleep, but the little nap was much needed. He hadn’t been sleeping that much for the past week, and the rest was enjoyable.

He yawned and flexed his arms upwards. After that, he took out a small sandwich from his soul-bound treasure. He had attempted to remove something from his storage ring beforehand, but had been unable to.

However, for some reason, he was able to access his lunchbox. Perhaps it was because it was attached to his soul, but he wasn’t about to complain. It meant that he was still able to eat some food.

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Clearly, what he was doing wasn’t working, so he needed to change something up. In that case, there was nothing better than sitting down and having a meal.

He was munching on his sandwich as he examined the pathways once more. It became increasingly clear that he needed to choose one path. However, with ten of them in front of him, it was a hard choice to make.

He sighed and let the soothing sensation of the life-infused sandwich flow through him. He hadn’t really noticed at the time, but the potion that Kaelther had forced fed him worked really well. Julius barely noticed it working, but unlike the previous times he had stressed his soul, there were no signs of damage. As a matter of fact, he believed his soul was in better condition than it had been in a while.

The food from his lunchbox gave the potion a little extra boost as well.

He suddenly stopped chewing. In that slightest moment when he had been focused on the life energy from his food, he felt something ping his senses. He looked up and at the various pathways in front of him.

He swallowed his food and took another large bite. He didn’t know if he was being schizophrenic, but he could have sworn he felt something.

To his shock, he felt that same ping again. Holding back his excitement, he carefully followed this feeling and eventually connected it to a path that was at his nine o’clock.

It looked the same as the others, but now that he had made this connection, he could see that it was different. It was like he was seeing it in a totally different light. There were faint flickers of Life Concepts coming from it. Vibrant bursts of vitality and life were sparkling from it.

Seeing that proved to him that the other paths should have similar identifiable traits, and so, with a much more confident feeling in what he was doing, he swiftly checked out the other paths.

Now that he knew what to look for, it was apparent. He had no idea how he didn’t see it beforehand. If he had to compare it to something, it was like how he changed the frequencies to his perception skill, only this time, he changed his other senses.

It wasn’t as easy, and the sensations he was fed back were challenging to parse through, but he eventually figured out some of the paths. Or what he felt were significant hints of what they might be hiding.

They all had a theme. For example, the first one he had found had something to do with life mana.

Another one had some hints of fire mana, or something very similar. He couldn’t say for sure that it was fire, but it felt hot to the touch.

There was a path that felt like a sword gliding up and down on his senses. The sharpness felt like it was about to cut him at any moment.

He kept on deciphering these paths. One was likely linked with his Force Concept. The reverberations he felt from it were very similar to his Resonating Force Concept.

Several other ones were very odd. He could understand the connection some of them had with him. He had a fire, life, and kinetic affinity. His first Concept was also a Sharpness Concept. However, he didn’t know what some of these other paths did.

One of them felt spongy and plush. That was the best way to describe it. He had no idea what that path could represent. Another one felt like it had some kind of connection with water. He didn’t have an affinity for water, the only real connection he had with water was the one he had with Seraphyne. Perhaps that was the reason why this path was being offered.

There were a few other weird ones that he didn’t really consider. They felt… off.

There was one that really caught his eye, though. This one was the hardest to figure out what it represented. But luckily, his crown helped him out with that. The sadistic little piece of metal basically dragged Julius by the hair until he was in front of him.

It was only when he looked really close that he realized that this path had a connection with his ruinous aura. Once he made that connection, the entire sensation of the path overwhelmed him.

He was completely enveloped in fire and destruction. More importantly, what caught his eye was how much sheer power he felt coming from his path. Out of all of the paths, this one felt like the most powerful.

He almost stepped onto this path before he could help himself. But he tore himself back.

He needed to reorganize himself, and he quickly eliminated some paths he didn’t care for or didn’t think would be good for him.

After he did that, he was left with four paths. The Ruinous Path, the Fire/Thermal Path, the Force Path, and the Life Path.

He had thought about considering the Sharpness Path, but at the end of the day, his passion wasn’t with sharpness. It was a nice utility, but he wasn’t a swordsman. He was more like a blunt hammer.

After some thought, he eliminated the Fire/Thermal Path as well. He felt like the ruinous one handled that pretty well; it would also probably go better with his current skillset and the Ruinflame Crown.

He thought about the Force Path. It was actually very attractive to him. The only thing that worried him was Cain. Julius had already promised Cain that he wouldn’t do anything with his kinetic abilities without Cain’s direct input. This included skill evolutions and concepts.

Julius didn’t know if this mattered for this trial. But considering what he was feeling from these paths, it was indeed a possibility. So with a sad frown, he gave the Force Path up as well. However, he wasn't too upset. He still had one of the premier uses of kinetic energy to train him, so it wasn't a significant loss.

That left the Life Path and the Ruin Path. Both were good in his opinion. The Life Path might help him become an even more resilient killing machine. But the Ruin Path was by far the strongest. The sheer weight of the path dwarfed the other paths, including the Life Path. It was also the brightest.

Honestly, that decided for him, and he slowly stepped forward to the Ruin Path. However, just before he took that final step, he felt that little probe Kaelther placed in his mind ping several times consecutively.

That had him freeze in place, and Julius remembered the final words Kaelther had said to him. He told Julius to find a balance.

A balance.

It was like a wave of calmness washed over him.

It was only that moment that he realized that the crown on his head was glowing a bright blue. The embers were raging off the metal as if it were activated. He could practically feel the crown's excitement when he was about to step onto the Ruin Path.

He clamped down on his soul and used his focus skill to steady himself. He punched himself in the head, feeling a cold sweat on his back.

He didn’t know how it happened, but somehow the crown had been influencing his emotions and mind. It had been so insidious and subtle, he hadn’t detected it at all.

If not for Kaelther’s little present, he might not have at all.

It was only now that he realized that his decision to choose the Ruin Path had come primarily from the crown. Or rather, it fed on his own desire.

“You sneaky little shit,” he looked up and muttered at the crown.

He could have sworn he felt the crown flicker in response. It almost seemed to be pouting that its plan didn’t work.

He didn’t give it more time to try and influence him, and before he could even look at the Ruin Path again, he stepped on the Life Path. The moment he did, he felt himself being whisked away.