Chapter 230: Fleur's Transcendent Pathway

To answer this bravery they just showed as they charged towards me, my foot ejected me from the ground to meet the three Elemental Fusing Realm elites head-on with the Willful Sword in hand.

If this could push them to Transcendence then I would also give it my all. More Transcendents are equal to less work for me after all. I'm more than happy to push them further and if that happens they can then save this world by themselves.

It's pretty to be this optimistic, eh?

"Please take this!"

Isabel shouted as being the one who was on the lead, the staff she was using grew out to a fork-like weapon. A trident. It shined in blue light as a 5-nodes Spell was unleashed and covered her trident giving it a more watery feeling as it fluidly aimed at me.

Clang!

The Willful Sword that was too excited met it and the lightning dragon which it absorbed before materialized from its tip. It roared menacingly before diving towards Isabel's trident and bit at its body. As the force of a Transcendent was transferred to her, Isabel was flung backwards.

Following behind her was Armel, clad in his earthen armor which seemingly made him appear like a golem. The huge blade in his hands shined in orange light as he also activated Spell which complemented his fighting style.

However, just like with Isabel, the Willful Sword in my hand met it and didn't even budge. Comparing our current Strength stat, mine is approaching the double of his estimated Strength. Just that, thanks to all his Spells which enhanced his physical capabilities, he wasn't flung backwards from the recoil like Isabel, instead, his earthen armor broke into pieces which resulted in him kneeling in front of me.

Lastly, Elmer, even with his aged body flaunted his muscular form beneath his clothes. The staff he was using to cast his spells split in half.

He grabbed the two halves of his staff on his hands, becoming a dual wielder.

As his wind-enhanced short sticks came bashing at my head, the Willful Sword met them and once again let loose of the lightning dragon.

However, unlike the other two, the old man persisted longer as he tried to display his amazing combat style which fully utilizes his short sticks.

Unfortunately for him, I now have a Transcendent Body and a much higher Endurance stat so even if I let him hit me, at best, my clothes will be ripped open.

Anyway, I only noticed now but…

Are they actually experts at closed combat?

Was their feeble appearance earlier just them relying on the strength of their spells? When it comes to a real battle, will they not hesitate to pit their bodies against their enemies?

Why didn't they show it when they're training with my clones?

Ah. Maybe it's because they're always filled with Elemental Energy. Now that they're almost drained of it from trying to fight me with their strongest spells, they could only rely on their close combat skills and lower node spells which could enhance them.

Either way, this is good too. I found another point where I could train them.

And turn them into another backstabber and sneak attackers. They'll be an extension of the Aegis Battalion who were now adept at doing that by learning from me.

-

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The three continued to get up until they finally got drained to the point of losing consciousness. When that happened, I had them put to the side before reforming the Energy Zone which I took down earlier.

Bathing them in it and throwing them both Physique and Spirit Boosts, the three instantly made a recovery.

The siblings Almira and Mara's turn also produced the same results as the three. The two of them had good coordination with their Fire and Wind Elements that it was possibly much better for them to always fight in pairs rather than one-on-one. I didn't use the Clones on them and faced them alone. But yeah, the two weren't any stronger than the first three so the result was inevitable.

Boris and Hikari, on the other hand, after they called upon the Door of Transcendence, I had them enter the Virtual Space to undergo another set of training which would involve putting them in a Transcendent Fight.

Even though they're not a Transcendent yet, by raising their stats to match a Transcendent inside the Virtual Space, they could hold their ground against one.

That way, they will already have experience on that level that when the time comes where they will have to fight one, they would be able to react better.

"You worked hard. Here."

Fleur said after I went back to her side. She had a cup full of freshly brewed tea on her hand which she handed to me as soon as I sat next to her. At one point, she set up a table and brewed tea for us.

Due to my overwhelming advantage against them, that training didn't even last an hour. So I didn't really work hard at all. In fact, I didn't even break a sweat.

"Thank you. The five will have to rest first. Just looking at them. They already improved significantly but… the Heroes from our world will always have abnormal rates of growth. At the rate that we are going, Elmer still needs a week of the same training intensity to completely fuse his last Secondary Core. Unless he experienced some kind of enlightenment which could help him hasten the process, he has to continue this training."

I took the tea and sipped it. I'm more of a coffee guy but drinking this tea she made… it's a waste to not savor it.

"A week and it seems as if you're lamenting about that. Don't you know? Elmer is near 100 years old. What is a week for him?"

Ah. Right. For them, that's already fast enough progress. But if I go with the prediction of the Principal, the descent of the Dark World Transcendents will happen within 3 days. A week might be a bit late.

As long as they don't immediately declare war against us, we could build a sizable force against them.

"It seems I got too used to our own progress. You're right. If I tell him my estimation, he might be more eager to train that he might push himself more than needed so I better not."

If I compare Fleur to myself, based on what I observed from our sparring and on what she had shown me, her Power Level is well above 200. Arland only below her by a small margin.

The two Noxian Transcendents are probably at the same level as Fleur but with the help of the Dark World, they were exhibiting a more destructive power than Fleur and Arland. If there's another hidden Transcendent, then that someone would be the real leader of the Noxians.

What I'm currently worried about is… the possibility of someone being a Rank 2 Transcendent. What will be the divide between Rank 1 and Rank 2? Power Level is one thing but if I have to guess, it's an increase in realm.

Nysia had just started her Transcendent Path so some things were still unclear to her.

Arland is too busy with his Formation that I currently won't have the time to ask him. It's also better that he fix it now than later so…

Fleur is the only one I could ask for concrete information about it.

"By the way, Can you tell me something about your Transcendent Pathway?"

When she heard my question, Fleur turned her head to me and stared at my face for a good while.

"You're not joking…"

"Well, yes. Do I look like I'm joking?"

"No. I thought you have already seen your Transcendent Pathway, given how strong you are."

"Ah. Right. My Mortal Pathway is not complete yet, right? That's why any information about it is currently locked. Glimpsing into my Transcendent Pathway is most likely locked behind it."

"I see. I kind of forgot that important information about you. I'm sorry."

"No. You don't have to. Just if it's not rude to ask, I want to at least understand it. The enemies that will descend here will surely have started treading their Transcendent Pathway."

"I understand. It's really treated as a secret of a Transcendent but if it's you, I don't mind you knowing about it. Let's see…"

With her trust in me and maybe her slight interest as well, Fleur explained to me what a Transcendent Pathway is. At least to her understanding…

After completing her Mortal Pathway and successfully passing the Transcendent Trials and transforming into a Transcendent, she spent some time to fully consolidate her new state of being before what we called the 'Glimpsing into Transcendent Pathway' happened.

In her recollection, she couldn't really remember too much what she'd seen in that glimpse; however, a clear path opened up to her right after that and upon stepping into it, her Transcendent Pathway was established.

"My Transcendent Pathway… It put me back to the same state as someone at the Elemental Awakening Realm. I needed to awaken my Main Elemental Core once more. Currently, I'm still in the middle of awakening it and it does not only involve just absorbing more Elemental Energy. To awaken it, I need to understand and incorporate these with it."

Fleur opened her palm and from it, three ice-like strings of Energy sprouted. Those strings of Energy stood and danced freely above her palm.

Upon seeing that, it instantly reminded me of something I possessed.

The Strands of Connection to the Spirit Ocean…