Path to Transcendence

Reinera POV

She screamed out as she sent out one last blast of light at the remaining golem, making sure her Concept was infused with it.

Thankfully, she managed to take it out with that last attack and fell back onto her butt as she was exhausted.

Tenth Wave completed… Congratulations, you have completed the Challenge with high marks. Please wait as your reward is generated…
Enjoy more content from empire

She smiled as she read the message. She had done well, especially considering the conditions of the rift.

A wave-type Challenge Rift was one of the more notoriously difficult ones. They often had the highest mortality rates and this one had a dangerous personalized aspect if one chose the hard difficulty like she did.

It used the first several waves as a measure to see how powerful she was and give her an appropriate challenge.

It quickly learned that she relied on her mana and her light-based attacks. That was why she was presented with monsters who had a good chance to counter her. She had to use many of her trump cards in order to survive and save as much mana as she could.

However, that last wave was really dangerous. One wrong step and she could have died.

The rift had sent a total of five really strong Tier 3s who all had powerful Concepts of their own. Not only that, but they were metal golems, monsters that were notoriously difficult to break through their defenses, especially if people had a light affinity like her.

Thankfully, she managed to come out on top. Barely.

She had a few crumbs of mana left and her willpower felt drained as she had to fight against the combined willpower of the golems. Fortunately, golems didn't have the strongest willpower and she was able to outlast theirs.

She was more grateful than ever for Rebecca's willpower training. It was harsh and borderline sadistic, but it had prepared her for this Challenge Rift and would allow her to get an even better reward out of it.

She was confident of that. She had done a good job, even if it had been more difficult than expected.

She was back in the same room that she was first brought to, patiently waiting for the reward to be generated.

And after some time, she eventually got notified of her rewards.

Evaluating difficultly…

Hard difficultly selected.

Challenge Rift reward generating… Successful.

You may select one of the options…

Staff of Brilliant Luminosity (Growth-Type)

Superior Rare Skill (Light Affinity-Based)

Concept Manual

She looked at her options and almost gasped in surprise. She had been hoping for good rewards, but honestly, she had mentally prepared herself for something a little underwhelming.

However, getting an option for a growth-type weapon was something that she was hoping was offered.

Even though her family was in no short supply of amazing items or weapons, having a growth-type weapon that was custom-made for her by a rift was not something even her family could give to her.

Rift items were always of the highest quality.

Honestly, if it was a spear or sword, she would have no interest, but having a staff offered to her was extremely tempting.

Especially now that she had been learning to fight up close and personal lately. Having a magical conduit would not only help her improve her already amazing mana control, but she could use the staff to protect herself in the event of her long-range attacks not being able to keep enemies at bay.

Something that the rift had just proven to be a very real possibility.

The superior rare skill, while amazing, wasn't something she was as interested in. The odds were high that it would be a superior skill that used her current Light Concept and not a new one.

Sure, she had just managed to gain another open skill slot after her advancement, but she didn't know if she needed another light skill. Most of her skills revolved around her affinity, and Rebecca had recently brought up the idea of having her get a skill that could help her protect herself a little better.

Something that could save her if she needed to get away quickly. Something along the lines of Julius's [Flash Step] but one more tailored for mages.

She might even be able to get the skill [Blink] with Rebecca's help, considering the older woman had gotten the skill when she was younger.

Reinera's tutors had tried to get her a spatial skill, but spatial skills along with time skills were notoriously difficult to learn, especially at Tier 2.

However, now that she has advanced, she might be able to more easily.

As for the Concept Manual... well, she had heard stories about them. Sometimes they worked and sometimes they gave you a Concept you didn't have any real connection with. Concepts were deeply personal anyway and she was taught that it was better to get a Concept on her own.

That was why she dismissed it pretty easily. If she wanted another Concept, she wanted to do so on her own. Or at least with a treasure that would help her own natural process. Not something that would artificially give her one.

The only exception was for people who were literally stuck at Tier 3 and needed a Concept no matter the way they got it. Some people were just unable to learn a Concept no matter how hard they tried. Thankfully, she wasn't one of those people.

Still, the options were pretty clear and that was the reason why she decisively chose the staff.

The moment she chose it, she felt a surge of mana and a heavy weight drop into her open palms.

She brought the staff to her eyes and eagerly examined it. The staff was honestly quite simple. It was a single piece of metal about three to four feet long and a couple of inches thick. However, what stood out was the iridescent shimmer of the metal along with the intricate carving along the length of it.

She hefted it in both hands and was shocked at how comfortable it felt. The thickness of the shaft was perfect and the length was as well.

The carving along the length acted as a perfect texture to help her keep a nice solid grip. The surface of the metal itself also wasn't slippery like she had been expecting either, it was somehow a little bit tacky.

She gave the staff a twirl around and began to funnel mana into it. Her eyes widened in amazement as the staff sucked the mana up so fast and was already in the process of manipulating it to her intent.

She smiled widely as she created an arrow of light in front of her. The arrow itself had come together seamlessly and somehow felt much stronger than she ever could manage.

The staff managed to compress more light mana into the small arrow than she thought possible.

It was an amazing staff to behold and to top it all off… she concentrated on the small mark on the inside of her palm and activated it.

In the blink of an eye, the staff disappeared from sight and out of her hands.

The mark was something that most growth-type items had and would allow her to always have the staff a thought away even if she managed to lose her storage ring. The other benefit was that she would be able to recall it no matter where she lost it. Making sure she would never be defenseless.

She took it out again and returned it just as quickly, just to see it in action once more. Reinera couldn't help but start to giggle as she played around with the staff.

However, as she was doing so, she couldn't help but think about what kind of reward Julius might earn when he completed the Challenge.

***

Julius POV

He held up his fist and stared at it with awe. That last punch had been so destructive, that he quite literally froze in shock.

Because of his momentary lapse in concentration, he found himself beset by the remaining five large ants. Their claws took huge pieces of flesh out of him before he quickly used his kinetic restriction to stop them.

They had Concepts but their willpower was no match for his. Not to mention his Emblem only had to make its presence known before they keeled over.

Julius quickly jumped back and healed, deciding not to end them all there.

Instead, he wanted to test out his new Concept. It seemed to be a very similar Concept that Gabriel had, something that Julius had been fascinated with ever since he had seen it.

He had been trying to get something that would pair well with his kinetic affinity for a while now. And he finally found it.

A Force Concept was what he needed in order to evolve his [Kinetic Augmentation] and/or the Concept he wanted to merge along with his [Thermal Empowerment].

He looked at the still-frozen ants and released his technique allowing them to once again attack him, but this time he was prepared.

He reached down and channeled his newly acquired Force Concept: Resonating Burst with a smug grin.

Then as the ants leapt at him, he pumped it through his fist and crashed it against the nearest ant.

The strike was just as powerful as the last and demolished the ant in a single blow. It almost felt like he was hitting the ant several times in a single strike.

It was gone in a mist of blood and he turned around to do the same thing to its friend.

The other ants swiftly backed away and their fear was evident. This entire time, Julius hadn't shown quite this level of destruction and offensive power.

After all, he hadn't even used his spikes or orbs to deal with the ants. He had just been using his fists to beat them all up. Thus this change of pace must have surprised them.

The only ones remaining were the most problematic ones. There was one ant in particular that was frustrating to deal with. It was the one that used the white beam to attack before, it also seemed to have some sort of strange evasion skill.

It reminded him of Aubrey's skill but relied more on pure speed to do so. That made it harder to track it, but luckily he had a way to do so without relying on his kinetic restriction technique.

He took the space that the ants gave him with gratitude. And he made the bold decision to turn off [Kinetic Augmentation].

Instead, he only used [Thermal Empowerment] and while he did so, he pumped both Phoenix and Force Concepts into the skill.

He knew it was a bit greedy and might not work, after all the skill was only uncommon. But he wanted his synergized skill to have both aspects of Phoenix and Kinetic. And something told him that he needed to try.

[Thermal Empowerment] was at level 14 and was just a hair away from evolving. Thus, if Julius wanted to get a skill that could synergize with [Kinetic Augmentation] he would need to utilize both Phoenix and Force Concepts before it did.

If it was upgraded before he was able to, he might not get an option offered to him.

So he pushed, he pushed both Concepts into the skill and immediately felt the skill resisting like crazy. What he was attempting to do was try to squeeze a gallon of water into a half-gallon bucket.

It was seemingly impossible.

But with a stubborn grimace, he continued to press forward doing his best to shove each of the Concepts into the skill, just so that they might influence them enough to give him a nice option.

And then it happened. It was only for a small moment, but he felt each of the Concepts connect to his skill.

It's ugly work at best, but it should be fine for now, he thought to himself.

The connection was so unstable and would break apart at any moment, but before it could, he dashed toward the remaining ants with blistering speed that rivaled his speed when using both enhancement skills.

The two regular ants didn't even know what hit them until they were already dead.

The last weird one was the only one left and had already gotten far away from him, throwing more beams of energy at him with frantic movements. He sidestepped each one, the training course he did with Rebecca made dodging them seem so easy, and in a matter of a single burst of kinetic energy, he was in front of the final ant.

With a [Thermal Empowerment] and [Aura Burn] fully active, along with the two Concepts, he swung his arm at the monster. It was fast, so he missed slightly and only swiped at its legs, but that was enough.

Three of its four limbs were gone in a mist of yellowish blood and it released a screech as it crashed at the center of the bowl.

He didn't give it another moment to get up and quickly was there to put a leg into the back of its skull with a crunch.

Congratulations, Ninth Wave completed… Please wait ten minutes for the Tenth Wave.