Path to Transcendence

He quickly walked up to the chest with anticipation clear on his face.

This was his first treasure chest and he was going to savor it. When he had heard that chests appeared in labyrinth rifts, he had gotten very excited. He always wanted to be a treasure hunter when he was a young boy.

These chests were a big reason why labyrinth rifts, while dangerous, were highly sought after. The items they contained could be very intriguing and powerful.

Though he didn't care that much for the value of the treasure, he was more excited about just opening it. It could have a pile of coal for all he cared, he just wanted to see what it beheld.

He eagerly approached the chest and crouched down in front of it. Its shining glow made him shiver in anticipation and he reached out to touch it.

He heard Reinera say something to him but he wasn't focused on her at the moment.

He gently lifted the lid with his right arm and before he could react something leapt out of the chest. It was a black shadow like figure with a huge maw. The jaws of the creature snapped down onto his arm and removed his entire forearm in one bite.

He didn't even have a chance to retaliate before the thing went back inside the chest without another word.

Well, that was certainly rude, he sadly thought to himself.

It was a common occurrence in labyrinths. Trapped treasure chests would pop up every now and then to trick adventures. And it seemed that this chest was one of them.

He stared aimlessly at the innocent looking chest as his arm dripped blood down onto the stone floor. He distractedly felt Reinera run to his side and try to staunch the wound, but he was too upset to give his attention to her.

My first treasure chest took my arm, he realized depressingly. It wasn't supposed to be like this, he was supposed to get a pile of gold or something fancy to wear, like a crown or cape.

Instead, all he got was a missing limb and a distressed girl by his side.

"You're going to be okay, Julius! I have a potion that should be able to heal you. It won't be able to heal your arm all the way, but it will make sure you won't bleed out," Reinera said in a panic.

He gently shook her off of him and prevented her from uncorking the potion she took out of her storage ring.

"I'll be fine," he assured her. Which unsurprisingly, didn't assure her at all.

"We don't have time to argue. Just take the damn potion before you bleed out," she yelled at him.

"It's fine," he said a little more aggressively. He held up his arm which was no longer bleeding. "See? No more blood."

"You're not fine! You just had your arm eaten by a mimic!" Reinera pointed out like he hadn't noticed that.

He just sighed and stood up to his feet. Then he pumped a little bit of mana and activated [Phoenix Renewal]. The skill reacted immediately, in fact, it was already working on it passively without his say so. However, with a bit of mana, he felt his flesh regenerating at an unbelievable rate. His new healing epic skill proved its worth in gold.

In a matter of seconds, his arm was completely back to normal. Functioning and everything.

"What did you do?" Reinera asked. He detected something that sounded close to trepidation in her voice.

"I got a healing skill," he said to her.

She didn't say anything and just reached over to poke his arm as if to make sure that it was really there.

"What are you? Part hydra? That would certainly explain your power for a Tier 2," she said way too seriously to be joking.

He gave her an affronted look.

"What? It would make sense," she stubbornly stated.

He didn't dignify or acknowledge her and turned back to the chest that was still sitting there looking like an actual treasure chest.

"I don't even want to ask how you are able to regenerate your limbs. I fear I won't like the answer," she said under her breath but loud enough so he could hear it.

Julius continued to pretend that he couldn't hear her and crouched down in front of the evil chest one more time.

"I know you have some treasures in there," he whispered to the mimic menacingly.

"You know that it can't understand you right?"

He knew that she was most likely right, but he wasn't going to give up his first treasure chest opportunity this easily. He would at least try to talk things through like a civilized person.

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Mimics were fascinating creatures. They would often mimic valuable things like a treasure chest and surprise their prey when they weren't expecting it. However, he also knew that they carried items to use as bait. So he was pretty sure that this one had at least a couple of valuable items.

Thus, he was hoping he could convince it to give him one.

"Come on just give me something. It doesn't have to be something really nice, but I want something. You did take my arm to be fair," he spoke to the inanimate chest.

Reinera seemed content to watch him try to talk to the monster with a disappointed shake of her head.

When he didn't get a response to his pleading, he got a little bit closer and reached out to touch the exterior of the chest. However, the moment he touched it, the creature's maw tried to snatch the same arm again.

He pulled back his arm in time, unlike last time. "Okay. I see how it is," he said with an understanding nod.

He stood up and brushed the dirt from his pants. Once he got a good distance away, he gathered mana from his core and started to create an overpowered spike. This wasn't like his normal spikes either. This spike was only a little bit larger than his usual ones, but the biggest difference was that instead of a pale violet color, it was sky blue.

Even with his mana control, heat poured off of it in droves and he had to keep his entire focus on it so that it didn't go out of control.

He didn't say anything but just pointed it at the chest in a threatening manner. He didn't know if he was seeing things, but he could have sworn that the chest was rattling back and forth. Even Reinera was backing off fearfully, instinctively understanding how powerful this spike was.

"Last chance," he told the mimic as he prepared to absolutely obliterate it.

Much to his surprise, the chest quickly opened, and out flying came a shiny gold necklace, landing right at his feet.

However, he stopped himself before he chose to pick it up. "I want another one," he told the chest.

He almost felt the indignation of the chest as he demanded more. But with a threatening gesture with his spike, the chest coughed out another item. This time it was a small buckler that one could strap to his arm.

"Thank you. You can keep the arm in return," he told it graciously before turning back to Reinera with a proud smile on his face. But she wasn't paying attention to him, she was too busy giving the mimic an undecipherable stare.

Hehe, doesn't matter. I got my first treasure, that's all I care about, he thought satisfyingly to himself.

***

Reinera POV

She didn't know what to be more shocked by. Was it Julius's overwhelming might? Was it the fact that he could somehow regenerate his entire arm back in mere moments? Or was it the fact that she had just seen him extort a mimic?

Not only that but the mimic seemed to understand him and actually give him two treasures in the end.

All of them seemed more implausible than the last.

"Here, try it out," she heard Julius say to her as he passed over one of the extorted items.

She carefully took it, scared that it would somehow be a trap or a cursed item. But after a quick look with her senses, she couldn't sense any malicious intent on the item. It was actually quite impressive if she was being honest.

The mimic must have been really scared for its life if it just handed over something like this.

She wasn't an expert crafter or enchanter, but this buckler was top notch in quality. It certainly didn't look like it from first appearances. Its slightly torn-up leather straps and scuffed metal didn't leave the best impression. However, her mana sense was able to see an incredible amount of mana and inscriptions layered over the shield.

It was something that was definitely on the upper end of Tier 3, perhaps even Tier 4 if it was in top condition. She wouldn't know the exact abilities of the shield until she took it to an evaluator or analyzer, but she could tell there was a potent defensive ability along with a repulsive attack option attached to it.

"Why are you giving this to me?" she asked him. She was no stranger to valuable items, but seeing him easily give one up surprised her.

"Because you are probably going to be the one who needs it the most," he told her bluntly.

At first, she was going to argue, but she quickly caught herself before she could stick her foot in her mouth. She hated to admit it, but he was correct about that. He was much stronger than she was and now that she had seen his healing skill, she was becoming even more convinced that his confident attitude wasn't just arrogance speaking.

With that being said, she still didn't know how he would be able to handle the boss monster who was guarding the exit. There was bound to be one, and she was just hoping that they didn't run into a very powerful one. The weaker it was, the happier she would be.

While he might be able to regenerate limbs at will, it didn't mean she could. And she was very much emotionally attached to her limbs.

***

The next group of monsters they came across were quickly dealt with by Julius. She watched as he slaughtered entire groups down without a second thought or any signs of slowing down. Julius was able to navigate their way through the labyrinth without setting off any of the traps.

She knew that he had a good perception skill, but honestly, it was getting a little bit too insane.

She had slowly become desensitized as she watched. At some point, she realized she was already subconsciously thinking of him as a Tier 3 instead of a Tier 2. That was just how strong he was.

He kind of reminded her of her cousin. Quentin was almost a dozen years older than her and she had never seen him fight for real, but she had heard stories of him taking down hordes of Tier 3 monsters as a Tier 2, much like Julius was doing.

However, unlike Julius, Quentin had the best available resources in the Empire to fuel his progression. What did Julius have? As far as Amelia was able to find out, he was a commoner who was sponsored by a vice-captain of the city guards. Not someone she would expect to have resources getting stuffed into him like a hog getting fattened for the holidays.

That being said, she was becoming even more doubtful about that information. There was no way someone like Julius was able to get this strong without someone helping him along. She had a good feeling that there was someone backing him. It might even be some old monster that is hiding away.

People of the Empire would be surprised to learn that most of the publicly known Tier 6s were less than a fraction of the actual number. However, it shouldn't be that surprising considering that Tier 6s could live for hundreds of years.

Take a look at Heston, before she came here she was informed that there were at least a dozen known Tier 6s just hiding away in the city. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities if one of them had taken Julius under their wing.

She gave the boy in question a quick glance as he obliterated another pack of undead wolves, leaving exactly one for her to take care of.

Actually, I think I would be surprised if one of them hasn't already.