Chapter 38: Reaching Civilization

Julius found himself face down in a pile of dirt again. Why did it always seem that he found himself in this position? Why couldn’t he land on his back? Now he had to deal with the taste of earth and gritty grains of dirt covering his tongue. Julius hadn’t had a real meal in a long time, and the first thing he wanted to taste certainly wasn’t dirt.

He got up on his knees and tried to spit as much out as he could, wiping his tongue with the back of his hand. However, no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t remove all the remnants. Julius flung his hands into the air in defeat. He had managed to survive a Tier 3 rift but was ultimately bested by some dirt.

Julius decided to just deal with it until he found some water to clear out his mouth. For now, he had to deal with it. He did want to figure out where Jasper had taken him. Also, he wanted to find out who Jasper really was and what he was hiding.

Julius might be dumb sometimes, but even he could sense when someone was withholding information from him. He didn’t quite believe all of Jasper’s reasonings, for all Julius knew, Jasper had planned everything that happened to Julius and was still manipulating him.

With that being said, Julius honestly felt that Jasper had good intentions. He was aware that he might be getting led around the nose, but his gut was telling him that he could trust Jasper didn’t want him dead. Otherwise, someone that powerful could’ve done it before Julius could even sense it.

Eh, I can’t waste time thinking about it. I am already too weak to do anything about Lukas and Edwin, nevertheless against someone who was quite literally able to control the barriers of space. Baby steps Julius, baby steps.

First, he needed to find out where he was. Jasper said that he would transport Julius just outside of the city, but Julius had no idea how far away that was. It was possible that Jasper’s interpretation of “just outside the city” was thousands of miles away. Who knew with people that strong.

Julius assumed it was morning. The air was crisp and it was slightly foggy. It was similar weather to coastal towns Julius had visited with his gramps in his old world. The early mornings were always colder and slightly dewy from the moisture of the ocean. Heston was right on the eastern coast of the continent so early morning would make sense.

However, Julius had no compass or map still, so he had to use the alignment of the sun to approximate east and start walking. If he was right, then he should be hitting the coast pretty soon. From there he would follow the coastline until he found any sign of civilization.

The environment was quite pretty. There were many rolling hills lush with greenery that were covered with smaller thick trees. The trees were also weird. Instead of the typical brown, some of the trees were made up entirely of bleach-white bark. It made for quite the sight.

As he was walking he made sure to check his status. However, he had a notification waiting for him.

[Fighter’s Will lvl 6 -> lvl 9]

It appeared his experimentation had some excellent results. Three levels for some testing were quite nice. He still hadn’t quite managed to manifest aura around his pointer finger yet, but he could feel he was close. He was just missing a piece, but once he found it, he believed that it would be possible to externally manifest aura.

Julius finally pulled up his status.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 1

Skills:

• [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 11] (Rare+)
• [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)

• [Savage Dance lvl 16] (Rare)

• [Arcane Construct lvl 10] (Rare)

• [Pure Compression lvl 11] (Rare)

• [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 8] (Rare)

• [Fighter’s Will lvl 9] (Uncommon)

His status was coming together quite nicely if he said so himself. Most of his rare skills had already passed the level 10 threshold and [Kinetic Augmentation] was closing in. He couldn’t help but wonder how he compared to others. Julius knew it was unfair to do so, as his reincarnation had come with some advantages. Nevertheless, he wasn’t that delusional to think that the progress he made in these few weeks was normal. Fighting under such stressful conditions had done more for him than another several years of training would have done.

Julius crested over another large hill and laid a hand on the beautiful white tree expecting to see another hill in the distance. His eyes lit up, instead of more hills and trees there was a flat piece of land. It was so flat it looked like someone had carved it right out of the hills. However, it was the thing that was placed on this piece of land that delighted Julius. It was a gigantic city that stretched miles upon miles following the coastline.

Pearly white walls extended along the city protected it from outside threats, but it didn’t take away from its beauty, it only accentuated it. The stark white walls contrasted beautifully with the colorful structures that littered across the cityscape. Every color imaginable was present, from the darkest of blues to the brightest of oranges. There were also a handful of massive towers extended from the city and into the sky, dazzling as the morning sun hit their peaks.

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