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SomethingOtherThanRain

Path to Transcendence - [Isekai/Litrpg] by l-Ryn-l

Chapter 1: The Beginning

A note from l-Ryn-l

This is my first work of writing. Any comments or reviews are welcome :)

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Julian woke up staring at the sky, the sun glaring down at him.

How did he survive that fall? There was no way he should have been anything other than a pancake on the forest floor.

He also had a huge migraine that was like a jackhammer inside of his head. Rolling over and trying to get to his feet, he felt… off, like there was a disconnect between his mind and body.

All of a sudden he felt a massive rush of information inside of his head. Things he previously did not know were now suddenly just there. Names and faces. His favorite food. Years of memories were being jammed inside his brain at an unprecedented speed. It was overwhelming. The pain, the sheer amount of information. It felt like someone was trying to shove his brain into a jar the size of his fist.

He felt blood dripping down his face, and unable to take the pain, he fell unconscious.

Gwen POV

Gweneth was a retainer of House Hyperius. She had worked for the noble house for over two years now. Originally, she was an adventurer and their party's support mage. Reaching Tier 3 with healing abilities, she received many offers from powerful houses and guilds.

However, she chose House Hyperius because having the backing of one of the most influential powers on the continent was very appealing. On top of the generous pay, they also offered to sponsor her to Tier 4, teaching her things that only those from established powers would be able to.

It was a no-brainer. All it would require from her was to watch one of their young scions.

A brat just over 7 years old. It was an easy job; she just had to bathe and feed him. Otherwise, he would just play around all day around the estate, while she tried to advance. However, Julius always came back when the sun started setting because he had to eat supper, which is why she wondered where he was. It was almost time for his meal, and he never missed anything regarding food.

Feeling slightly nervous, Gwen started to search for him around the estate. Stopping to ask various workers around the property if they had seen the young master, she continued her search. She eventually found him lying beside a tree on the edge of the property.

Probably took a little nap after running around so much, she laughed to herself.

Gwen walked up to him to wake him up. Though, when she got closer she noticed that there was blood running down his nose collecting in a puddle beneath his face.

Panicking, she quickly rushed towards him and activated [Diagnosis]. Her skill allowed her to see that Julius had minor brain bleeding. Completely shocked as to why or how it happened, she quickly started to use [Advanced Heal]. She carefully dissolved the excess blood filling his brain and slowly reduced the swelling. Once she stabilized his condition, she started channeling small amounts of healing mana throughout his body.

It was probably overkill, considering that his head was the only injury, but she had plenty of mana, and this wasn't a time to be stingy with it. After a few seconds, she could see the tension in his face relax and she released the breath she didn't know she was holding.

Cleaning up most of the blood all over his face, she carefully picked him up and carried him back to the mansion.

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Royal Road

SomethingOtherThanRain

Path to Transcendence - [Isekai/Litrpg] by l-Ryn-l

Chapter 2: He Tries

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It's been a week since the incident, and Julius has finally started to sort through the clutter of memories. He was the son of Gregor Von Hyperius, one of many younger brothers of Lukas Von Hyperius, the current Patriarch of House Hyperius.

House Hyperius was awarded the rank of Marquis centuries ago by the Emperor for its achievements during the Great War. It governed the Valorbury region, a large territory with many smaller houses underneath it.

He didn't know who his mother was and had only seen his father a handful of times.

It seemed like his father and family overall did not particularly care about Julius, or rather, himself. His father had returned to the estate several times over the years, but in that time, had not visited to see Julius once.

Compared to other great houses, there were not many members of House Hyperius. The most recent monster flood took the lives of many of their elites. For a house that made their name for their martial prowess, this was a major blow to their power. Their few remaining elites were either offered better options from more powerful factions or wanted to settle down to start families of their own. This meant that House Hyperius was experiencing pressure from the remaining great houses, losing much of their influence and holdings in the past decade. It was only due to the strength of their Patriarch that they weren't swallowed up entirely.

Reaching Tier 5 before turning forty years old, Lukas Von Hyperius was considered one of the most talented individuals of his generation. His talent was what made the former Patriarch name him his successor. However, when the former Patriarch died in the prior monster flood, Lukas was still under fifty years old but was widely known as one of the most powerful Tier 5s in the Empire.

Julius had many questions. There were so many questions that he wasn't able to answer. He was restricted to a few areas of the estate. There was something about his circumstances that confined him to the estate. He was not allowed to visit other areas and most of the time had to eat his meals in the kitchen or his room.

To be fair, the estate was massive. The mansion alone would make Bruce Wayne's mansion feel like a studio apartment in comparison. It could house hundreds comfortably, and the land it resided on was even more ridiculous. So, even if you lived together, you could go years without seeing each other. So he couldn't say it was even that bad, he had more space than he did in his previous life. With that being said, it was lonely being confined in these prison-like conditions.

Reviewing his memories, he found himself pitying the former Julius. There weren't many children his age around in the first place and the ones who were already had their groups. At seven years old, the only people he had interactions with were Gwen, Edwin, and a handful of workers, and even then, they were employees of the house, not his friends. It was also important to mention that not a single one of his blood relatives interacted with him during these seven years.

For the previous Julius, this was a curse. However, for the new Julius, this was a blessing in disguise. Because while he was confined to this part of the estate, as long as he remained inside the area, he was free to do whatever he wanted. He didn't need to worry about pretending to be a seven-year-old child all the time. But it was odd, that in all these years his family treated him like he didn't exist. Another unanswered question.

However, there was one thing that he was very excited about.

Magic.

It seemed that magic was possible in this world and that everyone has the ability to use it to some extent. It also had something to do with skills. The memories he gained didn't have many details describing them, but he understood they were important. According to Gwen, he would learn more once he went through his baptism when he was twelve. Unfortunately, even after pressing her for more answers, she said the house restricted her about what she could tell him.

Magic and skills were apparently how he was able to recover so quickly. His caretaker, Gwen, was an accomplished healer and found him outside unconscious. From there, she was able to heal him and within a day he awoke in his bed feeling better than ever.

It was truly an amazing feat, and he would be feeling even more excited if it wasn't for the fact that he had been under strict orders not to move for the last week.

Therefore, he has spent the last week sitting in bed eating, sleeping, and going over 7 years' worth of memories. It seems that he didn't just take over Julius' body. It was more accurate to say that their souls somehow combined. There wasn't a separation between identities. Nonetheless, because Julius was only around 7 years old, the memories and weight of his soul were slightly lower than Julian's. This is why he suspected his personality hadn't changed that much from his previous life.

He also still had many questions regarding the events that brought him here, like if that light show was the reason why he arrived in this world or what else might have happened to his world during that anomaly. He couldn't believe that something only happened to him, but he didn't have enough information to figure out his questions. But learning and understanding magic would probably be a good start.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be an issue. Magic was not easy to learn. After a week of trying everything his brain could think of, he ended up back where he started. From visualizing to chanting, he made no progress.

Although he would be damned if he didn't stop trying, it was magic for heaven's sake. He and every kid always dreamed about the day they acquired magic. Now, it was an actual reality for him and he would be an idiot if he didn't put everything into learning it. He would not allow this chance to pass him by without giving it his all. He made a pact with himself to commit to learning magic, even if it was too difficult, he wouldn't give up.

So, he tried.

For years, he followed the same routine every day: wake up, try focusing on using the mana around him, fail, eat, and once a week go to see Edwin, a scary middle-aged gentleman for his educational lessons. He wasn't able to access any real knowledge from the library. He was allowed to read stories or history but all techniques and guides were kept heavily restricted.

Julius was thankful he retained his memories because learning another language would have been annoying and hard to explain to everyone.

Following his lessons, he would spend the rest of his time reading whatever piece of literature he got his hands on or trying another method to use mana. In three years, he tried many techniques he thought of or found in stories. But nothing seemed to click for him. It was frustrating, to say the least. But he never gave up.

His latest attempt was to blindfold himself as he went around the estate. He got this idea because he believed that by depriving himself of his other senses, he could concentrate on his mana-sensing one. He would randomly walk around for hours, bumping into everything until he got used to it. Despite going through with it for almost a year, Julius didn't accomplish his goal. But he was adamant he was on the right track. Being able to perceive mana was an obvious condition to use it.

Thankfully, since he was still considered a child who hadn't undergone his baptism, most adults thought his admittingly odd actions were just that. Actions of a child. Julius didn't think anyone really knew why, and the ones who did know did not believe him.

Because they only saw him as a young child. That's how it worked in both worlds. Adults rarely ever take children seriously. But it certainly helped him in this case. He was now able to practice with complete freedom without many distractions. Therefore, he embraced the facade of a slightly smart yet eccentric child without second thoughts.

He kept that up for a long time, and although he didn't get a grasp on mana, he managed to enhance his other natural senses. He swore his hearing was magnified by a significant amount. He also became much more sensitive to tastes and smells. Another interesting development was that he was developing a sort of sixth sense.

He would be able to tell where people were standing or sidestep if he was about to run into them. It also became very hard for others to sneak up on him. And interestingly became more sensitive the more often he did it.

Making a decision, he set aside his focus on finding a way to use mana for a while and decided to explore this possible ability a little more, focusing everything he had on developing it.

As a result, he started pushing the limits of this ability. How detailed can he perceive something, how far away does it extend to, is it only restricted to people or can he sense objects? Those were the questions he wanted to find out. So he spent hours every day experimenting with this new power. Using his stubbornness as a sledgehammer, hoping to break through the invisible wall he felt was just beyond reach.

So, he cranked up the intensity. Instead of depriving himself of just his sight, he stuffed pieces of clay in his ears and nostrils. Now, he could not see, hear, or smell. He wanted his entire focus to be on this supernatural ability. He also decided he needed to add some complexity to his actions.

Rather than meditating on a bench or grass, he wanted to add stress to his training, hoping that it would act as a catalyst for improvement. Therefore, he exercised around the estate and swung a wood staff he made at a gathering of trees and other targets, pretending they were enemies. It took a while for the results to show. But they slowly did. Now Julius was able to run around without ramming into trees or walls. He was also able to hit most of his intended targets without missing. It was unbelievable for someone who was previously from a world that didn't have magic.

There were times Julius would try random things, like guessing how many petals are on a flower or how many coins are inside a purse without looking. Julius also liked a game where he would grab a random rock and throw it while trying to track its trajectory. That was a much harder endeavor. Being able to perceive a small inorganic object while it was moving was a challenge. But Julius noticed how challenging himself with games like these was improving his ability. Plus, it was just fun for him. It didn't feel like training because he was enjoying himself so much. Therefore, he got into the habit of making up random games that would force him to use this perception ability in more creative and challenging ways. It was during this, that Julius experienced explosive growth.

Julius's dedication had proven its worth, his perception ability had grown to the point that he didn't need the blindfold and aids anymore. One morning he woke up and realized he was activating it instinctually.

It was as if it was just suddenly there. Like another sense. He felt extremely validated for all his efforts. However, it seemed like using it along with his other senses for very long was not possible yet. He believed the amount of information that his brain had to process was probably too much for him to handle. However, he noticed that with practice using it with his other senses, he increased the time he was able to keep it up. In the meantime, he removed his ear and nose plugs to slowly introduce more stimulus for his brain to get used to at one time.

Regretfully, now that Julius was almost twelve, his antics were becoming less of an adorable quirk and more like he was just a weirdo. He observed the other workers in his part of the estate to start giving him strange looks from time to time.

While he hadn't quite learned how to listen in on people's conversations using his perception ability yet, his ears were still unnaturally sharp and ended up hearing many of the workers talking about him behind his back.

Nevertheless, Julius sucked it up and ignored them, continuing with his training. It wasn't like anything they were saying would get him to stop. Not after he had improved so much.

In the end, he didn't care what the others said or thought because he was having so much fun. He might not have learned to manipulate mana yet, but this ability to perceive in every direction is in some ways more magical to him than throwing a fireball.

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SomethingOtherThanRain

Path to Transcendence - [Isekai/Litrpg] by l-Ryn-l

Chapter 3: Strange Child

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Edwin POV

Edwin was enjoying his morning tea while reading an interesting report about the recent developments in the Kingdom of Corvus. Corvus was one of the Luminous Empire's largest trade partners. Situated on the empire's western border, Corvus was having issues with its northern neighbor. According to the report, The Alliance of Morning Sun had elected a new leader. The country's previous Prime was more interested in cultivating beneficial trade agreements with other countries. However, this new Prime, Halom Anderaz had a different plan.

Anderaz completely voided many of its prior contracts and planned to renegotiate its terms with Corvus. This obviously angered many in Corvus, who in retribution, decided to restrict shipments that were planned to be sent to other countries. These tensions between the two countries and the various mercantile guilds and businesses have drastically raised prices and caused civil unrest in both regions.

Luckily for House Hyperius, it's situated in the eastern region of the Luminous Empire, very far away from the potential conflict, Edwin noted.

Edwin's attention was brought to the door that had just opened. Walking through was young Julius, still wearing a black piece of cloth around his face. Edwin was well aware of the young child's strange exploits. Everyone in the estate, even those who never met him had heard of his peculiarities. But typically, Julius took his lessons seriously. Which meant that he usually took off the get-up before the lesson started.

He is by far one of the most peculiar children I have met. Remarkably intelligent in many areas of study, but he can be completely lacking when it comes to many other areas, Edwin remarked to himself. The young scion of House Hyperius has been the subject of much gossip around the estate these past years. People took notice that the young child spent most of his days roaming and playing around the estate doing weird things by himself.

At first, when Julius decided to wear a blindfold, people thought it was cute. They thought he was just pretending to be a character out of a story. However, as years went by and when he started to jam pieces of clay up his nose, people began to question the sanity of the young Hyperius.

Edwin could not understand why Julius was so insistent, playing around like this. Edwin had discussed it in passing many times, but to no avail.

Even now, Edwin was watching Julius as he got out his materials for the lesson. He was still blindfolded and was taking his sweet time. Edwin knew Julius was doing it on purpose in retribution for the times Edwin did it himself.

Exasperated, Edwin reached over to try to remove the stupid things. But surprisingly, Julius neatly swayed out of the way. Edwin had always had a suspicion that there was something more to the blindfold than at first glance. Julius was able to navigate his way around the estate quite well for someone unable to see but Edwin had always thought that the blindfold was sheer enough that Julius could still see through it. Not to mention that Edwin actually tried to be quick about it. For an untiered to be able to dodge him when he was somewhat trying was embarrassing. He was a Tier 4 who largely focused on speed. Besides, Julius wasn't even looking at him.

Hmm…I wonder.

Deciding to do a little test, he used a bit of mana and wrapped it around a little sugar cube from the table and launched it at the back of Julius's head.

Julius POV

Julius was purposefully taking his time unloading his bag and setting up his stuff for the lesson. He learned this from Edwin himself. It was a tactic Edwin used to annoy him and he found it quite effective when used on others. Whenever Julius had a question about skills or anything to do with what tiers were, Edwin would pretend to ignore him while slowly sipping his tea. Therefore, he made it his mission to be as petty as he could get away with. Nothing too drastic, the old man was still very intimidating and Julius suspected Edwin of being at least Tier 3 or 4.

Julius still had his blindfold on and he could feel Edwin shifting in annoyance behind him.

Hah! Doesn't feel so good when someone else ignores you huh old man?

Edwin didn't actually look old, he had the appearance of a fit thirty-year-old man with medium-length black hair that curled at the tips. He had dark eyes and sharp facial features that made him look quite strict. But he also had a poise about him, that exuded confidence.

Suddenly, he felt Edwin tense and quickly reach out to Julius's head. Julius, who had learned to react very quickly to sudden perceptions thanks to his training, instinctually shifted his head to the side.

Playing the ignorant, Julius pretended like he didn't even notice Edwin's actions. However, he soon felt something rise behind him. It was small, barely the size of a pebble, but it was oddly square, like a cube.

How is it floating? I don't feel Edwin moving at all, but is he using mana to float it? I also feel something else, like there's swirling air around the object. Is this mana manipu–

Without warning the cube-like object was shot toward him with alarming force. Julius only managed to tilt his head a few degrees and it still nicked him across the back of the head. A stinging pain erupted from where he was hit and dropping his act took off his blindfold to confront the crazy old man.

"Oww, what was that for?" Shouted at Edwin.

"It's rude to ignore others, Julius," Edwin calmly responded.

"I would argue that throwing things at others is more rude," Julius argued.

Edwin just stared at Julius. It wasn't long but it was enough to feel uncomfortable. Finally, Edwin chose to ask a question.

"How did you know?"

"Know what?" Julius played dumb.

Edwin pressed his lips together. "How did you know what I was doing, even though you were not looking in my direction?"

"I am pretty sure I have told you before. Haven't I?"

"No, I am quite certain you have not. When I asked you last time, you said you were doing it because it was fun." Edwin said impatiently.

"Well, it is fun. That doesn't mean there aren't other reasons." Julius replied.

"So what are these other reasons?" Edwin stressed.

Julius thought about answering. To be honest, while he hadn't kept it a secret about what he was doing with his time, he never gave a complete explanation about why he was doing it. Certainly not explaining his perception ability. He kind of liked keeping it a secret. However, it seemed like that was no longer going to be an option.

"I originally started to wear a blindfold to get a sense of mana. I was hoping that by depriving myself of my other senses I would be able to sense it easier. I wasn't able to do that. However, a side effect is being able to sense my surroundings without relying on traditional senses." Julius explained.

Edwin was surprised. For one, he noticed that Julius had spoken quite eloquently for a child who hadn't awakened yet. Secondly, noble houses have tried to get their children to sense mana before their baptism for many years. However, they had never accomplished this with any reliability. Finally, an ability like this was quite outrageous. How does someone just gain the ability to sense everything around them by just wearing a blindfold?

"You're telling me that you are able to perceive your immediate surroundings because you wore a blindfold?" Edwin asked for clarification.

"Not just wearing a blindfold," Julius added.

Edwin just looked at Julius with a deadpan expression.

"I also practiced," Julius said innocently.

"Practice… he says. Julius, do you know how outrageous that sounds?" Edwin asked him. Julius shook his head.

"There are many skills that improve perception. Most fighters end up getting one as a utility skill. Skills like [Mana Sense] or [Life Detection]. However, there are usually restrictions on what they can perceive. [Mana Sense] has limitations, the major one is that it can only detect mana and not anything else. [Life Detection] has the downside of being able to sense living targets, not inorganic objects. Even the skill [Danger Sense], which can detect practically anything as long as it presents a danger to the user's life, cannot sense small things outside of its scope. There are strengths and weaknesses to every skill. But your skill seems to be very versatile without much drawback." Edwin deeply explained.

Julius had just learned more about skills and magic in that short rant than what he had managed to find on his own for several years. Information about stuff like this was kept away from him. Furthermore, all his questions always seem to come back to his baptism, which was only a few months away.

Julius did not know how to respond to Edwin's statement. According to him, his ability, or rather, skill was able to do too many things without a limit. Except for mana, he still hasn't quite figured that out.

Wait a second. That last thing Edwin threw at me was different. Was that weird air around the cube mana? If so does that not mean I can sense mana? If so, then all this time I have had the answers right in front of my face but was too blind to see it. I gotta ask him, I have to know, Julius decided.

"Was that last thing you threw at me made up of mana?" Julius asked with wide eyes.

"It wasn't made up of mana, but yes, I surrounded a cube of sugar with mana." Edwin said.

This was amazing. So he was able to sense mana, which means there is a great chance that he would be able to find a way to use actual magic.

Julius was still a little upset that he had been able to do this for who knows how long, but honestly, it was more of a relief. He had been trying for almost five years to learn how to do magic and without any success, it was hard not to get pessimistic about it. If he didn't know with certainty that it existed he wasn't sure if he would have been so stubborn.

Nevertheless, Julius had finally done it. He wanted to run around with joy, and shout from the rooftops. Maybe eat some cake. Yes, definitely cake as a celebration. I will ask one of the chefs to make one. This is a momentous day! He couldn't keep the massive smile off of his face. Grinning like a maniac.

All of a sudden he felt something hard pelt him in the forehead. It broke him out of his daydreaming. He looked down and saw a sugar cube broken in half lying in his lap. Looking back up, he saw Edwin holding another sugar cube, preparing to throw it again.

"Do I have your attention again? Or is there something more important taking up your focus?" Edwin asked with amusement.

"Sorry, I was just excited," Julius said smiling. "I didn't know my ability could detect mana until now. But now that I can, I believe I can start learning how to use mana."

"I think you are misunderstanding something, young master. Most people, unless they have the [Mana Sense] or similar skill, are not able to detect mana other than their own. Even then, the majority of people simply direct their mana into whatever skill they acquired." Edwin clarified to Julius.

That was a revelation to Julius. He had always thought it was logical that people would have to be able to sense mana before they could use it. If he understood Edwin correctly, he was mistaken. He guessed that this was the main dilemma of trying to practice without having access to knowledge and resources. He just didn't know enough to train effectively.

Regardless, he had a feeling that things were about to take a big change of direction once his baptism came around.

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