Chapter 524: Sneaky Bugger

Julius found himself standing in the dark, all alone. There were no noises, no trickles of mana, aura, or anything really. It was like he was in a dark abyss.

He kept thinking about the last few words Kaelther had said to him. They continued banging around in his head. It was confusing, and he didn’t like it.

He felt a bit suspicious and decided to do some digging. He had enough experience thanks to Lily. She had shown him a few neat tricks in case someone tried to play with his mind. She had assured him that his mind would be hard to break in, regardless, thanks to a combination of his abilities and his willpower.

However, he might come across people who could influence him without him knowing. That was why he had set up small areas to indicate whether he had been influenced. He thought of it as if you were to put a piece of tape on the edge of a door, to see if anyone had entered while he was gone.

Lily said it was a great way to detect people without requiring too much skill, and since it was such a simple technique, most people would overlook it.

Julius frowned when he found that some of his alarms had been tripped. However, he was confused because it didn’t look like it was mind magic or what Lily had shown him. This was different.

It wasn’t like Kaelther had controlled his mind or emotions, though. He was quite sure that it wasn’t anything that deep. It felt more like a small suggestion to listen to Kaelther’s words. However, now that he had detected this little probe, it was very clear that it was an external influence, and he could ignore it if he wished.

If anything, the suggestion wasn’t even hidden very well. It was right at the forefront of his mind and almost like the tall man had wanted him to find it.

Julius was even more confused and would have kept on thinking about it if not for the sudden burst of light that illuminated the dark space.

A halo of warm light appeared overhead, and he found himself standing on a flat platform that extended as far as the naked eye. However, what caught his attention were the multiple paths of light that surrounded him, stretching in all directions.

They were all of the same color, the same iridescent hue from the temple. Some of the paths glowed brighter than the others. But that was it.

He stepped closer to the nearest path of light and knelt next to it. He used his senses to see what these paths were. He wasn’t given a notification at all, something he had been hoping for. At least something that would help him understand what was going on.

He was pretty sure this was what Kaelther meant by ‘making a choice’. If he understood him correctly, Julius would have to choose a path to go down. Kaelther made it sound like it was a crucial decision for him, too.

He counted ten paths in total, but they all looked identical, so how was he going to choose?

He didn’t see a timer or anything, so he thought there wasn’t a time limit. That meant he could take his time and investigate these paths more closely. If his decision was really that important, then he wanted to make sure that he made the right one.

He created a chair out of mana and sat down next to a random path. The light gently pulsed back and forth across the pathway. He took a deep breath and let all of his attention be placed on his senses.

He entered a meditative trance and tried to sense anything he could.

For the next several minutes, he wasn’t able to pick up on anything, but he didn’t give up. There had to be something here for him to go off of. He didn’t think that trial would give him a random choice on blind luck.

Kaelther definitely made it sound like it was a choice. Blindly choosing one out of ten paths didn’t sound like a particularly good choice. So that meant there had to be something for him to observe.

He let his mind fade into the background and let himself drift.

***

He felt something hit him in the back of the head. He startled awake and opened his eyes with a little snort. He looked around in concern. He wiped the drool from his mouth and the gunk from his eyes.

Well, that was a bit embarrassing. He had been trying to get into such a deep trance that he accidentally fell asleep instead.

Thankfully, it would appear that there wasn’t a consequence for that. All of the paths were still there just like before.

He looked around, though. What had hit him? He didn’t sense anything.

He wouldn’t have been surprised if Kaelther had been the one to hit him.

Julius shrugged and stretched out his neck. He didn’t know how long he had been asleep, but the little nap was much needed. He hadn’t been sleeping that much for the past week, and the rest was enjoyable.

He yawned and flexed his arms upwards. After that, he took out a small sandwich from his soul-bound treasure. He had attempted to remove something from his storage ring beforehand, but had been unable to.

However, for some reason, he was able to access his lunchbox. Perhaps it was because it was attached to his soul, but he wasn’t about to complain. It meant that he was still able to eat some food.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Clearly, what he was doing wasn’t working, so he needed to change something up. In that case, there was nothing better than sitting down and having a meal.

He was munching on his sandwich as he examined the pathways once more. It became increasingly clear that he needed to choose one path. However, with ten of them in front of him, it was a hard choice to make.

He sighed and let the soothing sensation of the life-infused sandwich flow through him. He hadn’t really noticed at the time, but the potion that Kaelther had forced fed him worked really well. Julius barely noticed it working, but unlike the previous times he had stressed his soul, there were no signs of damage. As a matter of fact, he believed his soul was in better condition than it had been in a while.

The food from his lunchbox gave the potion a little extra boost as well.

He suddenly stopped chewing. In that slightest moment when he had been focused on the life energy from his food, he felt something ping his senses. He looked up and at the various pathways in front of him.

He swallowed his food and took another large bite. He didn’t know if he was being schizophrenic, but he could have sworn he felt something.