Path to Transcendence

Both Julius and Reinera answered and asked a few more questions before being excused. Afterward, Lady Rebecca had taken them to a section of the estate where the two of them could relax. Before she left, she told them that they would talk to them after they settled some other matters.

Once they got into the room they were provided, he asked Reinera a question. "You really want to advance to Tier 3 already?"

She gave him a confident look. "I have been pushing the boundaries of Tier 2 for over a year now. I haven't seen much progress with my skills so I should be pretty much ready to go. I have the feeling that it's the same for you?"

"Pretty much. What do you think they will do to help us?"

"Tier 3 isn't that hard to advance to. They probably have a room set up with specific enchantments that will help our cores, bodies, and souls merge with more ease. It shouldn't take us too long to do so."

Julius nodded but couldn't hold back his curiosity anymore. "What's a Challenge Rift?"

Reinera gave him a slow look of confusion. "You don't know what a Challenge Rift is?"

"Not a clue," he shamelessly admitted.

"Well, I guess for commoners it wouldn't be a surprise if you haven't heard of them. A Challenge Rift is a special kind of rift. There are not too many in existence and those found are highly protected and coveted by other parties. They are rifts that provide some sort of challenge specific to the theme of the rift and to the person taking it. That challenge can vary quite wildly, but there is always one thing that the rift gives you for completing it… a reward. It is also different from typical rifts in that they don't disappear after one completes it. They remain long after completion and for many years after."

Julius paused as he heard her explanation. It sounded like these rifts were quite valuable.

"What kind of rewards are we talking about?" He asked clearly the most important question.

She grinned at him, knowing how much he liked his rewards. "It depends. Some Challenge Rifts are better than others. There are a few that the Adventurer's Guild holds onto that are supposedly really good but are only available to their most loyal members. The royal family has something similar. But most of the time, even in the lowest ranked ones, you can be rewarded a custom-made item suitable for your path."

"And for the higher-ranked ones?" Julius asked, his eyes sparkling as he imagined what else there could be.

She shrugged her shoulders. "You name it. Soulbound weapons that will grow alongside you as you advance, soul empowerment treasures, Concept manuals, powerful skills, and the list goes on and on."

"Why don't nobles or other rich families send their children into these rifts as much as they can?" Julius was thinking that if these people had access to rifts like this, wouldn't it give such an unfair advantage to affluent families?

"Most Challenge Rifts are Tier 3 rifts or above, with only a small number of Tier 2 Challenge Rifts ever recorded. That means one has to usually be Tier 3 or above to enter one. The other limitation is how many times a person can delve into a Challenge Rift. Each specific rift can only be attempted a single time and is not always successful. It's a challenge for a reason, a lot of people die in these rifts if they aren't prepared. So it's not always worth the risk. There is also a mechanism that the Words of the World implements that prevents people from discussing the challenge. This prevents cheating and giving other participants an unfair advantage," she explained to him.

"But couldn't you just have a network of a bunch of Challenge Rifts between families or guilds and have people attempt these rifts around the world?" He asked a little bit confused, he was already imagining how these rifts could be taken advantage of.

Reinera nodded at him. "People tried this before, but there is a set number of limitations on how many Challenge Rifts you can do in one's tier."

Julius got interested. "What determines that number?"

"A bunch of things. Soul strength, tier, how advanced one's previous Challenge Rifts were, and many others. Some people found that after a single high-tiered Challenge Rift they weren't able to do another until they advanced to the next tier."

He smiled to himself. Soul strength? Does that mean I might be able to do more?

He knew having a strong soul had given him many advantages already, but it seemed like there was still more he could benefit from it.

"What about House Easten's Challenge Rift? What kind of reward will their rift give?"

He was excited to hear what she had just negotiated for them. He would love to have the opportunity to get himself a Concept of Space manual. That sounded like it would be a huge help, especially considering how difficult a time he had been having trying to learn a Space Concept. Although, the odds of that happening were probably close to zero.

Instead, of giving him an answer, she just shrugged. "I have no idea."

He tilted his head at her confusingly. "Why did you ask for access to it if you didn't know how valuable it is?"

She gave him a smirk and fell back into the soft couch that was placed in front of a fireplace. "House Easten has been known for its powerful members for a long time. Marquis Easten himself is considered a very powerful man, with potentially even more powerful children."

"What? Like Lady Rebecca?"

"Yes, exactly like her. However, she isn't the only powerful child of that man. Marquis Casidus Easten has four more children other than Lady Rebecca. His second youngest is Charles, he is also a powerful Tier 5 just like Rebecca. He made a name for himself some years ago when he singlehandedly protected the region from a rift outbreak. His third youngest is Toriana. She's not like her siblings and didn't become a fighter. However, don't underestimate her, she made a name for herself by becoming a talented enchanter, going on to create a guild of her own."

"I thought you normally didn't pay attention to every noble," Julius commented, remembering something she mentioned a while ago.

"I don't. But House Easten has been quite popular in recent years, it's hard not to hear about them in the rumor circles, even all the way in the Captial."

Julius was about to reply but he realized something. "So when we were escorting Cory, you knew all of this?" He left his real question unvoiced, but he knew that she would understand what he was asking.

He watched as she pressed her lips together and looked away from him. "I wasn't exactly planning to get caught. I was hoping we could get away without notice."

"But?"

"But, I didn't think it would be that bad if we did either," she said unapologetically. "Also, Cory was so adorable, how could we have said no to him?"

She has a good point. And I agreed, so I am as much to blame.

He was about to ask her more questions, but he knew that they couldn't be sure that they were alone. For all they knew, someone was listening in to their conversation at this very moment.

"Okay. What about the other two children?" He asked eventually.

She paused. "I don't know much about the second oldest, Valen. Much like Rebecca, I haven't heard much of anything about them other than their names, he's supposedly strong though. The eldest is quite famous though."

"The eldest son?"

"Yeah, Aden Easten, the Sword Tempest. He won the entire Tier 3 Inter-School Tournament when he was in his second year. He never competed again after that, going off into the world, and advancing rapidly through the tiers. Last I heard, he had already gotten to Tier 6, but there's not much information on him. It was like he dropped off the face of the continent when he left his school."

"What school did he go to?" He asked.

"A smaller and rather unknown school at the time. Trinity Sword Academy. They aren't small anymore, not since his victory. A lot of sword users try and go to the school, with the hopes and dreams they can be the next Sword Tempest."

"How did that go?"

She chuckled. "Honestly? Pretty well. There have been quite a number of talented geniuses who have come from Trinity Sword Academy, but no one like Aden Easten."

Julius strolled over to the other couch and plopped down just like Reinera did, taking out a sandwich from his storage ring as he did. "Is that why you think House Easten has a high-tiered Challenge Rift?"

"No, it would be silly to assume that Aden Easten got as strong as he did because of a single rift. However, I also find it hard to believe that a House as strong as House Easten doesn't have a good Challenge Rift."

Julius took a bite and chewed on it while he thought. "What if it's just a regular Challenge Rift?" He asked once he swallowed his food.

She brushed aside his concerns. "It doesn't really matter too much, any Challenge Rift will be useful to us," she explained.

"But if it's strong then all the better?"

She turned and gave him a smug smile. "Oh yes, all the better."

"..."

A brief moment of silence pervaded them.

"You gonna share that sandwich?" She asked suddenly.

***

Casidus POV

After he had Becca escort Julius and Grace to a guest room, he had Arthur and Beth join him again. The Adventurer's Guild representative had already left by this point and Cory's father, Richard was busy with reuniting with his son.

"You can't be serious," Beth argued from her seat. Her expression looked very displeased and her gray eyes were stormy with disbelief.

"It is not an unreasonable request," Casidus said to her.

"Yes, it is. How can we just allow them access to our Challenge Rift?" She exclaimed.

"We do it for many of our allies. I don't see why we won't do it for these children," he pointed out.

"Exactly, we do it for our allies. Not for some random children that come to our doorstep, Casidus. Come on Arthur, help me convince him."

"They did save young master Cory, Beth. In all fairness, they might have done us a bigger service than many of our so-called allies have done over these years," the older man commented from his seat.

"Why are you defending them?"

"I like them," Arthur said with a bright smile.

"What? Because he didn't fall for your stupid aura trick?" Beth scoffed.

"Partly," Arthur admitted. "But during that time, I was able to get a good read of his aura. I liked what I saw."

Casidus watched Beth quiet at this. Arthur was known for his aura-sensing abilities and his opinion held a lot of weight in House Easten.

He also made a good point about them doing more for them than their so-called allies.

Many of their allies were more political associations created because of necessity rather than choice. If they could let the spoiled scions of House Krayt use their rift, he didn't see a reason why he couldn't allow these two children to use it as well.

Cory's life was more valuable than the entire rift in his eyes. Cory could go on to become quite a talented young man. Even rivaling Aden, as ridiculous as some might think that was.

Not everyone shared his opinion on that, but Casidus believed that Cory with his bloodline, could tower above his generation given some time and nurturing.

The boy already had a passion for magic, now it all depended on how well they were able to cultivate that passion into something tangible. The boy was just a little bit odd, but then again what generational genius wasn't?

"I still don't think it's the best idea," Beth added.

He shook his head. "You don't have to worry about that for now. They requested something else that should be decided before they can even enter the rift."

"What did they ask for this time? To see our entire library of our legacy skills?" Beth asked, only partly joking.

He grinned. "No. They wanted help to reach Tier 3."

"Tier 3? Why would they want that? I assumed they were asking for access after they reached Tier 3 later on. Are they planning to advance just to gain access to the rift now? That seems shortsighted." Beth asked.

"I don't know about that," he said, staring out the window that overlooked the city, a frown on his face.

"What do you mean?" Beth asked.

"I mean that when I used my domain against them, I didn't get the sense that they were in the beginning stages of Tier 2. It was only a brief look, but they both might be ready to advance."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Even the girl?"

"Not worried about the boy?"

Beth shook her head. "No, the boy felt strong for a Tier 2. I imagine he is already prepared to advance. The girl though didn't seem that outstanding in comparison."

He took his attention from the cityscape and looked at Arthur. "She might not look like much, but the girl already has a Concept of her own. She's quite the talent. I am actually very curious what House she hails from."

He saw Arthur's brow raised as he was shocked by that revelation. "Interesting."

"Indeed."

"What do you two think about the boy?" He asked them, curious about their thoughts.

"He's probably some bodyguard her family trained to protect her," Beth threw out.

Arthur nodded toward her. "I agree, that seems most likely. But his attitude didn't show the deference expected from a retainer."

"So what are you saying?" Beth frowned.

"I don't know. But I don't think we should make any assumptions quite yet. I felt a curious feeling of stubbornness in the boy's aura, something that indicates a Will Concept."

Beth frowned again and didn't respond. She was busy thinking about something.

Casidus gave each of them a look. "For the time being, their reward remains undecided. I suggest we come back to the Challenge Rift discussion at a later date. Do either of you have an issue with House Easten helping these two with advancing?"

The two of them shook their heads.

"Okay, then it's decided."