《Path to Transcendence》


 Prologue

    After Julian lost his parents and sister several years ago, he hadn''t known what to do. As just a young child, he wasn''t emotionally prepared to deal with everything that came after. Their deaths hadn''t even been a possibility in his mind. Death was an obscure thing to young Julian.They were killed in a car accident. Some stupid drunk driver coming home from the bar late at night was several times over the legal limit and hit them head-on, killing them instantly in a ball of flame.


    He didn''t have any other relatives other than his mother''s father. Luckily, his grandfather took him in and raised him as his own. His gramps had lost his own wife a few years earlier but learning of his daughter''s death had hit him harder than it had hit Julian. Julian had seen his grandfather often crying over old photo albums of his mother.


    Julian had been angry for a long time, it took years before he was able to get past the worst of it. The rawness faded with time, but the pain and rage never went away. However, the loss and anger he and his grandfather shared brought them closer together. They would take week-long camping trips to the middle of the wilderness, hunting, fishing, and enjoying nature in its purity. The time they spent with each other was therapeutic for both of them and allowed each other to heal from their anguish. They both learned to continue living their lives and they did, for several years at least.


    But now he was gone too. It wasn''t like it was unexpected. His gramps was almost 80 years old but it still hit Julian hard. In fact, it might have hit him harder than losing his parents and sister. Because this time, he understood the value of family and appreciated it more than before.


    His gramps didn''t want to have a funeral or any type of service, most of his friends had passed away already, and wanted his ashes spread on the mountain they had often camped on.


    So that was exactly what Julian did. He was sitting on the edge of the cliff that he and his gramps used to watch the sunset over the horizon. He had his gramp''s urn full of ashes lying in his lap, looking over the green forest that expanded all across. He spent hours there, sitting there and reminiscing about the memories that they had gathered over the years.


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    Julian didn''t have many close friends after his family''s death. He had friends from school, but most of them were just people he saw and hung out with. Most of them didn''t even know about his family''s death.


    His gramps was his best friend, they had shared everything together. He taught Julian all he knew, from cooking to hunting to just being a decent human being, he taught him everything.


    After a while, he finally saw the sun begin to fall over the horizon. The orange light from the sun cast a beautiful ray of light over the forest and sky. However, he noticed something off in the distance. Large flashes of blue and violet streaks were stretching across the sky. Beautiful arcs of light danced and sparkled.


    He didn''t know what it was. It certainly wasn''t lightning, not when there wasn''t a cloud in sight. So what could it possibly be?


    Even after several minutes went by, the light show continued without any signs of stopping. Julian didn''t know what it was, but he didn''t believe there would be a more magical send-off than this.


    With a smile on his face and tears running down his cheeks, he opened up the urn and tossed his grandfather''s ashes high up from the mountaintop. He watched as the wind took the ashes and scattered them all over the forest standing below. sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was a stunning scene, arcs of magical light dashing across the sky with the sun setting just over the horizon. It was a fitting goodbye for the person who saved him from despair and gave him a little hope in his bleak life.


    However, just when he was about to turn around and make his way down the mountainside. The ground started to tremble and an enormous gust of wind hit him from behind, blowing him right over the edge.


    The world seemed to slow to a crawl as he tried to turn around and grab anything that might save him. But there was nothing. It was a straight drop over a couple hundred feet. So, with the extra time the world seemed to grace him with during these last moments, he took a moment to think about his life.


    Although the world brought him plenty of misfortune, he lived a good life and even after everything, he wouldn''t change anything because it would mean he wouldn''t have gotten to spend all that time with his gramps.


    So, with a final smile, he peacefully accepted his death and plummeted down to the trees below.

 Chapter 1: The Beginning

    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.


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    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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 Chapter 2: He Tries

    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. S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    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.


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    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.

 Chapter 3: Strange Child

    Edwin POVEdwin 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¨C


    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.


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


    "It''s rude to ignore others, Julius," Edwin calmly responded. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "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.

 Chapter 4: The Chamber

    In the months coming up to his baptism, Julius started to make some progress. He couldn''t quite manipulate ambient mana but he could sometimes push it around like one would try to move air by waving their arms really fast.Edwin also became more involved than before. In the past Edwin and Julius''s relationship was at most considered, professional. However, since that day Edwin started to take interest in Julius''s life. In contrast to previous years, Edwin would take the time to answer some of Julius''s questions. He wouldn''t answer everything, but compared to how it used to be, it was huge progress. As such, Edwin helped explain what a baptism entailed. He didn''t go into too many details but Julius was able to get a general understanding.


    A baptism was a ritual everyone, from nobles to commoners went through. It was a process that infused mana into a child at the age of twelve. The infusion of mana would start the process of developing one''s Core, allowing mana to be stored internally. This enabled children to start absorbing mana and try to consolidate it into a Core. Once they concentrated all of their mana into a Core, they would officially be considered a Tier 1.


    However, it was during the process of trying to develop a core that one would finally be able to have their own mana to practice with. That is the reason Julius had not been able to manipulate mana. Learning how to use your own mana can already be difficult, but trying to manipulate ambient mana as an untiered was on another level of difficulty. However, mana manipulation will be much easier to learn once he awakens and can use his own internal mana.


    A baptism was also used to determine someone''s innate talent. Those with higher talents could be infused with more mana and develop their core much sooner than others. This was a good indication of how much mana you could handle at once.


    Soon, the days leading up to his baptism closed in. He noticed that everyone other than Edwin started to act differently around him. Wondering why, he asked Edwin the next time he saw him.


    "I am not supposed to tell you this, but I feel like not telling you would just do more harm than good at this point", Edwin said in resignation. "I need you to promise that nothing I say leaves this room, this is just between you and me okay?" Julius promised.


    Edwin hesitated for a moment before continuing. "I bet you realized it already, but everyone has always stayed their distance from you correct?" Julius nodded in agreement. Seeing his response Edwin went on. "There is a reason for that. Your father does not have a good standing with the house. Although he is the patriarch''s younger brother, many of the elders do not hold favorable opinions of him. He has always been rash, arrogant, and quite careless, causing many issues over the years."


    "This caused many to talk about disowning him from the family. But one day he showed up with you. He said you were some child between him and some commoner. Unsurprisingly, the elders were not happy to hear that and some wanted to throw both of you out of the house. Despite that, thanks to the Patriarch''s intervention they allowed you and your father to remain, on the condition that it would be reevaluated after your baptism."


    That was a lot to take in. As Julius processed what he had just heard he started to connect the dots. He was always curious why some servants of a noble house felt so comfortable acting casually around a young scion like himself, even going as far as to insult him. It also made sense why people like Gwen and some of the others he knew had been growing more and more distant over the years.


    "So the reason why people were isolating themselves from me, was because they thought I would fail?" Julius wanted to confirm.


    "Yes, considering the circumstances of your birth as well as your peculiar behavior, many do not have high hopes," Edwin confirmed.


    Did they think that his abnormality was an indicator that he was going to do poorly at his baptism? He thought many of the strange looks he had gotten over the years were because they thought of him as an odd duckling. However, looking back, he understood those looks were more pity than anything else. That was also probably why his family never interacted with him. If they thought there was a high chance of losing him anyway, why take the risk of getting close?


    So all those times when Gwen, Edwin, or someone else was dismissive or distant, they were probably just emotionally distancing themselves away just in case something happened to him.


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    It all started to make more sense. He was far too absorbed in his own training to notice these clues until it was almost too late. However, Julius still had a question for Edwin.


    "What changed your mind?"


    "You did." Edwin simply said.


    "How?" He pressed.


    "I had always thought you were an intelligent child, quick to pick up lessons but you had very odd habits that were similar to what I have seen in other children who were¡­ mentally challenged. But seeing your skill completely changed my opinion. You don''t get a skill like that unless you are extremely talented or hard-working." Edwin explained further.


    "...So you thought I was retarded. Hold up, does everyone think that?" Julius asked, afraid to hear the answer.


    Edwin didn''t say anything for a few moments.


    "Yes," he finally answered.


    "Does this mean you now think I will do well enough during my baptism?." Julius asked.


    "You have nothing to worry about. Of that, I am absolutely certain."


    "How do you know?"Julius asked worryingly.


    "Once you get to my age and tier, you just know things. Trust me you are going to be fine." Edwin added confidently.


    Julius decided to trust him. It wouldn''t matter if he worried about it anyway. With only a couple of days until he turned twelve, there wasn''t anything he could do. Once he realized that, a lot of his worries and stress went away. Julius took a deep breath, steadying himself. He had learned that sometimes, knowing something was out of your hands made stress less of a factor.


    And so the day of Julius''s baptism arrived. Deviating from his typical routine, Gwen made sure he wore his best set of clothes and told him to follow her. She didn''t mention where they were going or explain what was happening.


    After hearing what Edwin had to say to him, he could see that she had completely distanced herself away from him. He wasn''t going to lie; that kind of hurt his feelings. While they weren''t close, she had been the person he had seen almost every day for most of his life.


    Gwen led him to a part of the mansion he was unfamiliar with, then opened a door that led further downwards.


    "Of course, there is a creepy ritual chamber in the basement," Julius muttered under his breath.


    He didn''t know if she heard him but she continued on anyway. Once they started to reach the bottom, the entire floor opened up. It was the farthest thing away from a creepy chamber. Lamps with floating orbs of soft yellow light illuminated the chamber. There were intricate carvings embossed with gold on every wall and pillar. In the center of the ceiling, there was a beautiful mural of the sky. Right in the middle of it was the depiction of a glowing sun, shedding light across the entire mural and chamber. It felt oddly divine. Like heavenly light flooding down on the mortal realm.


    It was gorgeous. It was completely unnecessary and probably cost way too much. But it was glorious.


    He was so distracted by the beauty that he completely missed the crowd surrounding a pedestal in the middle of the room. There was a surprising amount of spectators, which made Julius slightly anxious. He only recognized a few faces. One was the Patriarch, Lukas Von Hyperius, who stood apart from the others and was closest to the pedestal. The Patriarch was a very handsome man with wide shoulders, long blonde hair, and immaculate clothes; he was the quintessential image of a lord. However, it was the eyes that got Julius''s attention. Golden yellow, glowing with an oppressive presence emanating from them, like he was looking down on everyone and everything. It reminded him of the sun depicted on the mural.


    It seemed like his father was forced to come as well because he was there too. However, his father didn''t even bother looking up at him as he approached. But with a quick glance Julius could tell he got his mother''s looks. His father, just like his older brother, had long blonde hair tied in a bun but a much sharper face and brown eyes. Julius on the other hand had soft black hair, a heart-shaped face, and dark brown eyes.


    He also spotted Edwin in the back who gave him an encouraging nod. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The Patriarch, who was technically his uncle, suddenly spoke.


    "Come here young Julius," Lukas commanded.


    Those eyes looked down on his much smaller frame with such intensity. There was nothing he could do but obey. His legs started to move on their own before he even knew it.


    Once he was close to the pedestal, he could see a round device implanted directly on top of it. It shone with a brilliant white light, sparkling with energy.


    "Are you aware of what a baptism is?" Lukas asked.


    Julius didn''t trust himself to speak, so he just nodded his head.


    "Yes or no?" Lukas demanded.


    "Yes," Julius managed to squeeze out.


    "Okay, I want you to put your hands onto the awakening orb. Once I say begin, I want you to pull as much mana into yourself as possible. Don''t stop until you can no longer take in any more. Clear?"


    "Crystal," he responded.


    "Excuse me?" Lukas asked, narrowing his eyes.


    "I meant yes, yes I understand." Julius quickly amended.


    Giving Julius one last long look, he placed Julius''s hands onto the orb.


    "Begin."

 Chapter 5: The Baptism

    The second the Patriarch said to begin, Julius began to feel a warm feeling suffusing his entire body. However, just as quickly as it came, it slowly went away. The mana started to congregate towards the center of his chest. No¡­ not towards his chest, deeper, more like it was heading directly into his soul.A part of himself that Julius never knew existed appeared within him. He could sense the mana from the orb start to collect within this chamber. The mana was like water vapor, slowly filling up the room.


    When the entire room was filled with this mist it stopped filling on its own. The mana coming from the orb was slowing to a trickle.


    This is what Edwin meant by determining talent, Julius realized.


    So, it became the challenge of how much mana Julius could fit inside before stopping. Instead of just allowing the mana to fill up on its own, he began to try to shove in as much as he could into it. However, that started to no longer work either. He was letting more and more slip through his fingers, and most of it wasn''t going to him but getting lost.


    Panicking slightly, he decided to change methods. What if he didn''t shove the mana? What if he sucked it in, like air through his lungs? Visualizing what he imagined, he began to take deep breaths, trying to suck in as much mana in with each breath. It started to fill up rapidly, and the pace increased noticeably. The room started to fill up with a thick fog rather than a fine mist.


    Julius started to understand that the more mana that it was filled with, the greater the difficulty in bringing in more. It didn''t matter how much you wanted to continue. In the end, it became more of an issue of how much you can stuff inside a limited space.


    With that being said, Julius had a random thought. He knew from his previous memories that condensed mist was just water. Therefore, it should be theoretically possible to fill it up until it is all liquid. He was curious what his core would look like if he accumulated as much mana as he could within himself. With this goal in mind, he renewed his focus and tried to condense all the mana even more, using the momentum of what he was taking in to compress what mana he already had into one side of the room.


    For a moment, nothing happened. It looked like he was just exerting himself unnecessarily. Until, for a second, he felt a little give. It was a sign that it was possible.


    However, the rate at which he was bringing in new mana was slowing down. It became similar to breathing through a thin straw. No matter how hard he pulled in, there was a limit. But what if he didn''t try to breathe it in? Why would he try to sip it in when he could aggressively drag it?


    Julius thought about what he could adjust, and after some moments came to a realization. Just like the vortex of a whirlpool, he would rip the mana from the orb and pull it into himself, constantly gaining more and more momentum. He would not stop until he filled it to the brim.


    With this image in mind, Julius started to spin the mana, imitating a vortex motion. It was extremely difficult. On top of trying to continue to compress his mana into liquid form, his brain was on fire, and his soul felt like it was being wrung like a dish towel. However, it started to work. Mana began to flood into him, wave after wave crashing against the mana already inside, condensing it even easier. Once the vortex was spinning at a ridiculous speed, he didn''t even need to focus on it anymore. It was sustaining itself without much input from him.


    Unfortunately, he started to run into a different problem. The walls of this internal room started to show signs of wear and small hairline cracks appeared. Understanding that the walls containing his mana could not endure the pressure he was generating by compressing it, he started to reinforce the walls themselves. He imagined his entire will infusing into the walls, smothering the mana inside, not allowing even a drop to get out.


    Eventually, he noticed a pool of mana¡ªa small pool of liquid mana in the center of the room, radiating a sense of power that was incomparable to its prior form. However, Julius was at his limit¡ªhell, he was way beyond his limits. Only sheer stubbornness kept him going. He didn''t even try to focus on anything other than keeping it contained.


    When Julius came to this world, he was given a chance, and he would not take it for granted. He had promised himself that he would never give up. He remembered what it felt like to give up, to fall to his death, to be okay with dying without a fight. Not again. He would fight for every inch, every second. He would fight.


    To that end, Julius didn''t let up, not even as his soul was screaming in pain and his mind was in complete delusion. However, not even he could keep it up forever, and the comforts of darkness soon welcomed him.


    Lukas POV


    Lukas Von Hyperius was speechless. His nephew, Julius, was an unexpected addition to his family. When his youngest brother came home bearing a baby boy in his arms, he didn''t know what to think. The others thought it was well beyond the point of return for his brother.


    Lukas didn''t necessarily disagree with them either. He loved his brother. Gregor was his youngest sibling and held a special part in his heart. With that being said, Lukas knew that he had been irrational when it came to his brother. Gregor was given every chance to show the family that he had changed for the better and failed to prove it.


    Despite that, he continued to act as an arrogant fool who flaunted his status at every turn. He had no sense of responsibility, rather spending his time out drinking and whoring around. It was an embarrassment as a member of a Marquis house. It was only by Lukas''s word that he had managed to stay attached to the house.


    However, when Lukas saw his brother bring home a child of his own, he thought it might be a sign that he would change. Except it didn''t. Gregor remained a boastful, conceited, self-important noble.


    Naturally, Lukas was curious about the circumstances of Julius''s birth. Thus, he investigated what had happened. Lukas wasn''t stupid; he knew that Gregor probably had dozens of spawns running around the empire. He just didn''t know what made him decide to bring Julius home instead.


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    According to everything Lukas had managed to find out, the mother was just some commoner who had caught his brother''s eye. However, with her passing, she requested that Gregor take care of their son. Lukas was surprised Gregor actually followed through, expecting him to drop the child off at some orphanage and forget about him.


    When Gregor brought young Julius back to the estate, many of the Elders wanted to expel him immediately. Elder Samuel, who had a particular dislike for Gregor was especially adamant. Fortunately for his brother and his child, Lukas managed to convince the others to allow them to remain in the family. However, Samuel put a stipulation in place, agreeing that they could as long as they were able to reevaluate the situation once Julius''s baptism had passed.


    Lukas was frustrated; he understood Samuel''s dislike for his brother, but he disagreed with taking it out on Julius. Who was by all accounts still his nephew and innocent. Lukas didn''t believe in punishing a child for his father''s crimes but the agreement was set nonetheless. Gregor had gotten worse over the years and the decision about him had already been made a while ago, and as the Patriarch he had prepared himself for what had to be done.


    As the years went by, Lukas always maintained an eye over Julius. Other than one freak accident that occurred when Julius was seven, he was a perfectly healthy young boy. Lukas found himself enjoying hearing about his young nephew''s antics and unusual behaviors. It was often a highlight of his day when Edwin came in to give a recent report.


    However, in Edwin''s opinion, he thought the boy had a developmental disorder. He backed it up by noting his antisocial behavior, above-average intelligence, obsessive habits, and overall odd behavior, which were all signs that it was true.


    While Lukas understood some of the truth behind Edwin''s claims, he couldn''t help but feel attached to Julius. Lukas wasn''t happy keeping his distance from his nephew all these years, but he had to maintain his neutrality to avoid angering other family members. Unlike many other of the kids running around, who were all spoiled rotten, Julius was seemingly a kind young man who treated everyone around him with respect and consideration. However, kindness and patience did not necessarily relate to talent, and if he wasn''t talented enough, he would be expelled from House Hyperius.


    As such, he had already decided that if the baptism didn''t go well, he would find him a loving home fit with anything he would need for his entire life. That was the least Lukas could do for Julius after being absent for many years.


    With that being said, he did not expect the current situation at all. Edwin had previously mentioned that the boy had a good possibility of failing the requirements to be considered a natural talent.


    When Julius first started absorbing the mana inside the orb, it was slow but predictable. So when Lukas noticed the rate of mana being absorbed slowing down, he was ready to end the test.


    Despite that, against all expectations, he felt the rate increase dramatically. Before, it was like raindrops accumulating, but now it felt like a faucet rapidly filling up a bucket. At this rate, he believed that Julius was going to pass the test. Lukas took a quick glance at Edwin standing in the crowd. Edwin wasn''t surprised. No, he had a shit-eating grin all over his face. Lukas was confused. Why would Edwin say he didn''t think Julius would pass but now was not even mildly shocked at the outcome?


    He pulled his attention back to Julius. The flow of mana was still large, however, Lukas ascertained that he would be slowing down any second.


    Sure enough, a few moments later, mana started to slow down. This was already an amount that exceeded the general average, which meant that the others arguing for his expulsion would find it difficult to do so.


    I guess this means tha¡ª


    Lukas''s thoughts were interrupted as he felt a massive surge of mana, dwarfing the previous amount, erupt from the pedestal. Just as he thought Julius was done, he once again figured out how to increase the rate of flow. Everyone present, except for Edwin, was in undisguised shock at this turn of events. Even Samuel had a sour look on his face.


    After several moments, the amount of mana being drained from the orb was enough to fill several average cores. However, he could sense a lot of it was being wasted, dissipating into the surroundings. Therefore, it was difficult to predict how much mana Julius was retaining. Regardless, he had already proven his talent enough.


    At this point, Lukas could see Julius''s face was screwed tight in pain and concentration. Grinding his teeth so hard, Lukas swore he heard some of them crack. After a bit of time, trickles of blood started to drip out of Julius''s nose and eyes. Alarmed, Lukas was just about to put a stop to it. However, just as he was about to interrupt, Julius passed out, spilling to the floor.


    The rapid flow of mana slowly dwindled and Lukas noticed that Edwin immediately tended to Julius while the others took time to process what had just occurred.


    The entire crowd was quiet for what seemed like an eternity. Not a single person spoke, in shock of what happened.


    Finally, Abigail, one of his cousins who was in charge of running the day-to-day operations of the house, such as scheduling and maintenance, spoke up.


    "What in the god''s name just happened?"


    Nobody answered her. They didn''t know themselves. However, after a bit, it seemed like Samuel had something he wanted to say.


    "It seemed like the child managed to drain mana out of the device with a surprising level of force. However, I found it odd that although the amount of mana being drained was massive, most of it was being wasted. If the child had indeed been successful in absorbing even a small amount of that mana, he would have easily formed his core several times over. Therefore, since he is evidently still an untiered, I believe that we can explain this away with it just being an anomaly. Maybe the device has malfunctioned in a way, releasing way too much mana for a child such as Julius to handle."


    The people around took time to digest this information. Everyone knew that Samuel was one of the only ones with a proper mana-sensing skill amongst them. Most of the people around the estate were not the most skilled users in the family, bottlenecking around Tier 2 or 3. Most of their remaining elites were off doing more important missions or tasks. But Samuel was a powerful Tier 5 who was almost two centuries old with an abundance of experience. Thus, his statement convinced many of them. In their view, what Samuel proposed was way more realistic than the option that a child just turned twelve could somehow manipulate such an incredible amount of mana. An amount that many of them could not do themselves.


    Lukas decided to speak up. "I agree. It is possible that it was a malfunction, and most of the mana towards the end was unabsorbed. With that being said, that doesn''t mean the child didn''t absorb any of it. By my accounts, young Julius was able to absorb much more than what most are capable of during their baptism. He has very likely almost filled up a major portion of his core. This means that by all standards, he is a talent we cannot afford to lose. Do you disagree, Samuel?" Lukas looked directly at Samuel.


    Samuel nodded in agreement; he knew very well that Lukas''s point was true. While his opinion was biased, he couldn''t ignore the facts. Samuel was extremely loyal to his house and wouldn''t deprive it of a potential talent just out of spite.


    Now that people got their composure back, several questions were thrown around at once, while the person of their inquiry laid passed out on the floor.


    However, there was something that surprised Lukas. He didn''t know if Samuel had managed to catch it, but he had. Lukas couldn''t quite tell what Julius was doing with the mana he absorbed. It was a weird technique that was similar to what you would do to condense your core, but it was different in some ways that made it very intriguing. He also didn''t miss the fact that this interesting technique wasn''t released even after Julius passed out.


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 Chapter 6: Unexpected Turn

    Julius found himself lying down on the cold stone floor of the chamber. His mind was hazy, and he was barely cognizant. With his eyes still closed he could recognize Edwin beside him. To his surprise, he could feel Edwin was channeling mana into him, rejuvenating him, something he wouldn''t have been able to sense before.Julius could immediately realize it was nothing like what Julius did during his baptism. Whereas Julius''s manipulation was a violent tantrum, Edwin''s manipulation of mana was elegant and beautiful, likely refined over many years of practice.


    Now that he had done his baptism, he could see what Edwin meant. Before, it was like feeling mana through several layers of clothes, now those layers were off, and he basked in the feeling of mana all around him. Using his perception ability, he tossed out a small pulse to get a bearing on his surroundings, wincing at the slight head pain that this action caused.


    He was still lying next to the pedestal, but the spectators were now discussing things with each other, talking animately. However, what caught his attention was the sound of ding going off inside his head, and he felt something inside him. Focusing on it, a notification popped into his head.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Sixth Sense]?


    Julius was completely taken aback. What was this? Nothing he had experienced in the world so far suggested something like this. Nevertheless, after thinking for a moment his curiosity got the better of him and mentally confirmed.


    Congratulations, skill [Sixth Sense] acquired.


    However, that wasn''t the end of the notifications.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Detect Life]?


    He hesitantly confirmed it as well.


    Congratulations, skill [Detect Life] acquired.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Awareness]?


    Congratulations, skill [Awareness] acquired.


    Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Sixth Sense], [Detect Life], and [Awareness] into a single skill? Notice: This will remove existing skills.


    Julius didn''t know the consequences of doing so, so he wanted to wait. To his relief, the second he decided to wait, the message disappeared. However, in the back of his mind, he knew that if he wanted to, it could reappear anytime.


    Julius, full of so many questions, opened his eyes to look at Edwin. Edwin must''ve felt him shift because his eyes, which were focused on the others'' discussions, turned and looked down at him.


    "I know you have many questions. I didn''t tell you because it is hard to explain unless you experience it for yourself. It is also why this ritual is so important. It doesn''t only awaken your mana, but it also opens you to the Words of the World. And I suspect you have a few notifications due to your perception ability. However, do not make any decisions yet. I will explain everything once we leave here and are alone." Edwin whispered quietly into Julius''s ear. "For now pretend to be unconscious. You don''t have anything to worry about. There is no way they are going to expel you after this"


    Edwin''s words calmed down Julius significantly. He was curious why Edwin didn''t want to let the others know he was awake, but he must have a reason for it, so Julius played along.


    Now that he was somewhat lucid he was able to listen in on the conversation. Someone had just asked a question. "Did the child truly not receive any training during these years, Patriarch? Because I find it difficult to see how a child his age was able to achieve such a result."


    Julius didn''t see who asked that but Edwin spoke up from Julius''s side and answered. "I can personally guarantee that I nor anyone else had taught Julius any techniques. There has been no violation of the conditions you and the others set. Every bit of his results are due to his own merit."


    Conditions? I didn''t know there were conditions. Just how much do I not know, about my own circumstances, or about this world? I have more questions now than when I first arrived.


    "I can confirm with Edwin that Julius has been isolated for these years without the possibility of learning outside what was available to him," Lukas added. "Therefore, I recommend that we do not expel him, rather, we should cultivate his talent so that he becomes a more valuable member of the family, not wasting his talent. Does everyone agree on that?" Lukas proposed to others.


    Everyone''s heads nodded in agreement and nobody offered any opposing opinion.


    That was easy! I thought there would be more pushback. If I were to guess, that was what they were discussing when I was asleep, Julius thought to himself.


    Unfortunately, his father decided at that moment to speak up.


    "Well, now that this has been settled, I will be on my way. I have some things I need to do," Gregor said while already quickly making his exit.


    Most of the people had forgotten that he was even there in the first place. Even Julius had completely forgotten that his father was present. He decided to take a quick peek around and based on what reactions Julius could perceive from the others, it might have been better to stay quiet.


    An older man with gray hair spoke up. "Gregor, I am afraid that while it has been decided that the child will not be removed from the house, I can''t say that goes the same for you." the man said.


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    "What do you mean? You all agreed that he is a valuable asset to the house," Gregor boasted.


    "It does not work that way. Twelve years ago, we decided to extend the vote about whether to expel Julius and yourself. Meaning, that just because we decided that Julius can stay, does not mean that we have decided that you get to stay alongside him." The older man explained.


    "You are not making any sense Samuel. I am still his father," Gregor insisted.


    "A father in name only. I would be surprised if you had even had a conversation with young Julius in the twelve years since he was born. Over the years you have come back to the estate a handful of times, and during these times I don''t recall you ever visiting young Julius." This man, evidently named Samuel scolded his father. "The house''s servants are closer to a father to the child than you have ever been. Now you dare try to use that relationship to justify remaining within this house? You have been a plague to this family''s resources, and reputation, and have been an overall pain in the ass to everyone here. You are a talentless wastrel that only fucks whores and drinks booze. The noble House Hyperius does not need leeches like you." Samuel viciously insulted Gregor.


    Julius, even as Gregor''s son, didn''t find any fault in what Samuel said. Sure it was harsh, but considering his father''s reputation, it was completely warranted. It wasn''t like Julius had any positive feelings towards this man anyway. To Samuel''s point, Julius had not spoken a word to his father in twelve long years.


    However, just because Julius didn''t take offense to Samuel''s words, didn''t mean his father didn''t.


    Gregor''s fists balled up in anger. He looked like he wanted to do something about it. However, in the end, he didn''t.


    Julius was curious about Samuel. While he might have been older with a full head of gray hair, his physical appearance spoke of another story. Samuel was still fit, with broad shoulders and biceps the size of Julius''s torso. Julius quickly saw that Samuel was not like the others there. He had a similar presence to the Patriarch. There was an intimidating aura emitting from his body like bloodlust smothering those in its wake.


    Julius didn''t know what tier or how powerful Gregor was, but he would bet every penny that he was much weaker than Samuel.


    Watching Gregor not saying a word, Samuel continued. "Today we were supposed to decide what we were going to do with both of you. The house has kept tabs on your activities these past twelve years. It has been quite enlightening to see what you have been doing."


    Julius''s father''s eyes widened and you could see the cogs turning inside his head, looking for a way out. Gregor inevitably looked over at his brother, Lukas. If there was someone who could save him from this situation it would be his brother. But the Patriarch of the Hyperius family could only look at his younger brother in disappointment, shaking his head slowly.


    Samuel wasn''t finished. "What you might not know, is that your fate had already been decided weeks ago. Everyone has received a detailed report of your doings over these past years. It was unanimous, not even your brother for as much as he loves you could overlook some of your egregious errors. Firstly, you threatened the son of Baron Astraeus, one of our few trusted remaining allies. Secondly, you decided to borrow two hundred thousand credits under the house''s name. Thirdly, you were caught blabbering about house secrets in a brothel for everyone around to hear. Need I to go on? I have over two dozen more offenses recorded." S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Desmond Astraeus was the one who started it, he has always been a self-righteous prick and you know it. Also, I needed the money, I had some¡­ important house business to settle." Gregor pleaded.


    "And the brothel?" Samuel asked.


    "The brothel doesn''t matter, nobody is going to believe a whore." Gregor said dismissively.


    Samuel could be seen sighing visibly in disappointment.


    "That brothel was owned by Duke Greyson."


    "Oh," Gregor said, looking like he swallowed a rock.


    "Yes, oh indeed. You should have never been privy to that information but still, thanks to you, Duke Greyson and everyone allied with him knows sensitive information about our house. House Hyperius has been trying to recover for a long time, but in one swoop you have ruined years of work." Samuel said angrily.


    "It was an honest mistake. I promise. It won''t ever happen again, I swear it." Gregor pleaded looking at his brother.


    Lukas did not even look at Gregor. He was resigned to his brother''s fate.


    "We did have to discuss what would happen to you, Gregor. After all, you have already proven that you are willing to betray house secrets. Therefore, we can''t take the chance of you running off to another house and selling out more secrets. There is only one option." Samuel explained.


    Julius while lying on the floor was speechless. He didn''t believe things would have escalated this far. He knew his father had a bad reputation, but this¡­


    Gregor began to freak out and beg for forgiveness, not even able to coherently say anything.


    "I am truly sorry that it has come to this Gregor," Samuel said softly. "I didn''t wish it to end this way."


    Julius could barely watch as his father begged desperately. So, Julius glanced at Lukas to see how he was reacting. Lukas was staring coldly at Gregor, making his intent of not helping his brother clear. It seemed like the time Lukas protected his brother, was no longer.


    Seeing nobody come to his aid. Gregor tried to run for it.


    Unfortunately for him, Samuel was prepared and had already wrapped him in mana. Completely immobilizing him.


    Julius watched as Gregor was helpless to do anything. Unable to speak or move due to what Samuel had done to him, he stared around frantically, tears pouring out of his eyes.


    In Julius''s opinion, the man''s fate was unsurprising. Gregor was already a deplorable man and now had betrayed his family. He knew most noble families would do even worse if someone like Gregor was one of their own. Furthermore, Julius found it difficult to feel any sympathy or remorse for a man whom he didn''t know, and what little he did know wasn''t pleasant.


    Julius knew what it was like to lose his family, after he had lost his family and gramps he had cried for days on end. He still felt the pain from their deaths. However, now that he was about to watch his new father get executed, he didn''t feel a thing. It made Julius question his own morality. Shouldn''t I feel more upset? Failed father or not, he was still technically family.


    Breaking his silence and Julius out of his thoughts, the Patriarch spoke. "Gregor Von Hyperius, as the Patriarch of House Hyperius, I Lukas Von Hyperius declare you a traitor to your house and therefore sentence you to death."


    Julius could feel an incredible amount of mana move. It made the amount of mana used during his baptism look pathetic in comparison. He could feel it congregating towards the Patriarch. Then in a split second, an aura of light appeared around his father''s frozen body and erupted with golden light. There was no heat or explosion of energy. Just silence and an empty spot where Gregor had stood.

 Chapter 7: Training Begins

    Afterward, Julius was in a bit of a daze. There was a lot to unpack. His father''s death didn''t have much impact on him as he would''ve thought, even after the shock of it. What had astounded Julius more, was the casual ease at which the Patriarch had vaporized his brother. It wasn''t like in movies, a big explosion. No. The calm effortlessness was what surprised Julius. It was the first time Julius had seen someone who was powerful seriously use magic and it was terrifying.In the days that followed his baptism, Edwin remained close by. It was unusual, Julius was used to seeing Edwin once a week for many years. However, recently he has been spending much more time with him. Julius enjoyed his company. As irritating as Edwin could be at times, he was a comforting presence to be around. He didn''t speak or ask unnecessary questions about how Julius was feeling, he would just sit there sipping his tea while reading a book.


    They did end up discussing the prompt that showed up after his baptism. In all the drama that occurred, Julius almost completely forgot about the notifications he received. He ended up going to Edwin to answer some of his questions.


    "Skills are considered a blessing from the Words of the World. It is the closest thing to a god that humanity knows of." Edwin described. "You will receive the opportunity to learn a skill through repeating an action over and over again. Skills are very important for many reasons, one of the most important ones is that by using a skill to say for example, light a fire, it would be more efficient mana-wise and faster to activate it than without a skill. However, there is a limit to how many skills you can learn at one time. Humans can learn ten skills before the capacity in their souls is reached. This means that it becomes incredibly important what skills you choose to learn. You will always have the choice to remove skills but that is an extremely painful process."


    "Once you told me about your ability, I already expected you to receive a notice about learning some sort of skill after your awakening. But what did you end up getting?" Edwin asked him.


    Julius thought about not telling Edwin, but in the end, Julius needed information more than he needed to keep secrets. It was an opportunity to learn something important and he couldn''t afford to be tight-lipped about it.


    "I got offered three separate skills. [Sixth Sense], [Life Detection], and [Awareness]. I didn''t know there was a limit to how many skills I could have but I learned all of them." Julius admitted.


    Edwin winced. "All three of those skills are useful, but honestly [Awareness] is probably the best out of the three. With time you could learn to do the effects of [Sixth Sense] and [Life Detection] with some time and practice. Luckily you have plenty of slots left. You will probably have to release them in time, but you can worry about that later."


    Julius almost forgot to mention the other notice he got. "I also got a prompt telling me there was a synergy between the three skills and that I could combine them. I didn''t say yes or no, but if I did, does this affect how many skills I can still hold?"


    Edwin''s eyes widened and his lips turned up into a grin. "No, you can hold nine more. Can you still pull up the notice?" Julian nodded. "Okay, I want you to read it to me word by word."


    Julius pulled it up again and repeated exactly what was said for Edwin.


    Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Sixth Sense], [Detect Life], and [Awareness] into a single skill? Notice: This will remove existing skills.


    "You are something else, Julius. Being able to combine synergistic skills is everyone''s goal. Being able to combine skills into a single one is a massive advantage at the later tiers." Edwin said in disbelief.


    "Really, why is that?" Julius asked.


    Edwin gave an example. "Imagine a fight between two fighters in the same tier, but one of them has a few combined skills while the other doesn''t. Who do you think will win?"


    "With the same experience, probably the one with the combined skills because he has effectively more skills than the other," Julian responded.


    "Correct, but there is more to it. To evolve a skill you must reach a certain threshold of understanding. Meaning, you can''t just learn a couple of skills and combine them. You would need to practice them extensively and then understand how these skills interact and synergize with each other on a fundamental level. It is not easy to achieve."


    "So I should evolve them?" Julius was sure this was a no-brainer, but he wanted to double-check.


    "Yes, the sooner the better," Edwin told him.


    Now that Julius had a better understanding of skills, he mentally focused on the message and selected yes.


    Skill evolution commencing¡­Congratulations, skill [Spatial Perception] (Rare) acquired.


    "It says, I gained the skill [Spatial Perception] but it says it is rare," Julius said.


    "Skills typically start at level one, and as you progress through use, you can evolve it down various paths. You could keep the same path and specialize, or combine skills with it, both have their advantages. This usually leads to a skill''s improved grade. Most are general ranked, but it goes up from there. Next is uncommon, then rare, then epic, then legendary. The fact you already have a rare ranked skill is very impressive." Edwin patiently explained.


    This was a familiar concept Julius had seen in video games. Which begged the question. Why was it so familiar? Even more questions.


    "So if I understand it correctly, unless you combine skills, the only way to rank up skills is by increasing their level?" Julius asked.


    "Level 10 is the minimum threshold one would need to get to, to qualify for a skill rank-up. It usually ends up being higher in reality." Edwin said.


    "What''s the best way to level up?" Julius was curious if there was a method that increased the rate of leveling up skills.


    "After many centuries, nobles have found a method that works the best by far," Edwin said with a grin.


    "Really?" Julius had an excited expression on his face. He was already fantasizing about all the things he would be able to do with the techniques of a noble family.


    "Practice," Edwin said.


    "Sorry?" Julius asked.


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


    "Practice," Edwin repeated with a big smile


    Shortly after his conversation with Edwin, the Patriarch summoned him to his study. After Edwin had shut the door, Julius realized it was just him and the man who had casually erased his father several days prior. Julius walked in with sweaty palms, anxiously thinking about what he wanted.


    Nobody spoke for a while, it was just the two of them sitting in their respective chairs in silence. Until the Patriarch finally decided to break it.


    "I first want to apologize for never coming to see you. As the family head, I have a responsibility and that responsibility made me unable to get close to you." Lukas explained. "I hope this doesn''t mean we can''t become closer, I lost my younger sister in the monster flood years ago and I never had children of my own."


    "Edwin already explained some of the situation to me, Lord Hyperius. I don''t hold much resentment towards you, I understand that my conditions could have been much worse. After all, I still had servants taking care of my needs. But I am curious about what will happen now." Julius said.


    Julius could see on Lukas''s face that he was having a difficult time accepting Julius''s ease in forgiving him. He probably thought it would be more difficult.


    "First off, you can call me uncle when we are in private. As for what happens now, it is to begin your formal training. Because of your circumstances, you have never been given the same opportunity as the other sons and daughters of House Hyperius. The original plan was to put you with the other children and to help you catch up. However, Edwin had another suggestion. He volunteered to be in charge of your training. Honestly, I was a bit surprised. In the many years I have known Edwin, he has never volunteered to train anybody." Lukas said.


    "So I will be his first?" Julius asked.


    "Yes, you will be. I am confident you won''t find a better teacher. Edwin is one of the best fighters at Tier 4 you can find in the Valorbury Region." Lukas explained. "He placed in the top 50 in the annual Inter-Academy Tournament as a commoner. A feat very few have achieved."


    "Inter-Academy Tournament?" Julius hadn''t heard anything about a tournament like this.


    "Yes, it is a tournament held within the capital, Luminous, every year. Every academy across the Empire is invited to participate to decide who is strongest. Each school sends their best and brightest to compete. There are also other competitions for enchanting, smithing, alchemy and other sections. But by far the most popular is the martial competition. You might even have the option to join this tournament in a few years."


    Julius wasn''t expecting that. He had been so focused on his training, that he had completely forgotten what he would have to do as a noble born. Most noble-born are sent to academies once they turn fifteen or sometimes earlier if they reach Tier 1 before that.


    This excited Julius. For years he had been stuck in the estate, not allowed to leave. The idea of exploring a new world and going to a school to learn magic sounded like a fantastic idea. Having to deal with school drama again was not so ideal, but it was worth it if it meant he could find some freedom. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After that, the two of them just talked. Like any plans or goals Julius had, or stories they had that they wanted to share. It was soon apparent that his uncle truly wanted to get to know him. Julius had to admit, that while it was awkward at first, it was nice that he was finally building a relationship with his new family.


    They also discussed what his future training would be like. According to his uncle, the main thing he would be focusing on is condensing his core. On top of that, he would be doing physical training with Edwin every day, as well as some mana exercises. However, he was told he needed to limit how much mana he used. This was because, without a core, Julius wouldn''t be able to regenerate mana on his own. He would have to absorb ambient mana and then use that to fuel his usage. However, that would also mean he would be taking mana away from his core, significantly increasing the time it would take to establish his core.


    The mana exercises he would be learning to use would center on him recycling whatever was left back into himself without wasting it. This is also the reason why most join a school or academy once they reach Tier 1. Otherwise, it was just a waste of time.


    However, now Julius had a goal set. For a while, he had been stuck training his perception skill with no real way forward.


    Julius''s first day of formal training arrived. He was told that Gwen would no longer be assigned to him, and Edwin would be taking up most of her duties on top of his training. Julius showed up at the training yard right after the sun rose. Edwin was already there waiting for him with his arms crossed.


    Edwin didn''t even take the time to greet Julius. He just stared at him and said, "Start running". Julius had a bad feeling about what was to come, but still started to run around the training yard regardless.


    "Faster!" Edwin yelled.


    Julius picked up his pace, but after a couple of minutes, started to flag. His pace started to slow down and Edwin didn''t seem to appreciate that. Julius felt a painful zap go right into his back. That on top of the exhaustion, caused him to trip over his feet and fall right onto his face, tearing up his hands and knees on the stone floor.


    "Where is all that bravado? Giving up already?" Edwin taunted him.


    Not in a million years, and definitely not to a sadistic wanna-be butler. I know if I give up you would hold it against me forever. Julius told himself. He crawled his way back to his feet and started back into a run.


    For what seemed like hours, Julius ran around the yard. The only thing that kept him going was sheer stubbornness and the fact that if he did stop, Edwin would zap him and then insult him while he was face down on the ground. Then would continue to zap him until he got back up.


    Julius was already aware that Edwin was a petty old bastard but during training, he became a ruthless taskmaster.


    "Why are you stopping? Did your legs fall off or are you just that pathetic? Stop breathing so hard, I can smell your nasty fumes from here." Edwin continually berated Julius.


    Julius knew that Edwin was trying to beat him up physically and mentally toughen him up. But just because Julius knew what Edwin was doing, didn''t mean he wasn''t getting angry.


    With that being said, he could see why militaries back in his old world used methods like this. It was very effective. The fact that Edwin was able to use healing magic on Julius whenever he could not physically move anymore, made the training even more brutal. Instead of getting a break to recover, he would be given a painful jolt of healing mana that would increase his recovery.


    Edwin claimed he wasn''t very good at healing magic, and that was why it was slightly painful. But Julius knew he was full of shit. He had already felt Edwin''s healing magic before, after his baptism. He was just doing it to hurt Julius, and because it seemed like he enjoyed it.


    This went all the way until lunchtime when he was given time to eat. After that, Julius was forced to sit down and meditate. The orb that was used to awaken him was only useful for children who had not accumulated any mana whatsoever. Once, someone goes through their baptism, it falls to the individual to independently absorb mana.


    That was where it got hard. Julius had to meditate and enter a trance-like state. Which was already hard enough as is, but Edwin decided to add an additional challenge on top of that. Julius was supposed to enter a trance while maintaining [Spatial Perception]. Edwin explained that any self-respecting practitioner should be able to cultivate his mana with distractions.


    This might have been easier for others, but with Julius''s skill, it was practically impossible. Since [Spatial Perception] had to process an insane amount of information while active, meditating when Julius was using it was like trying to ignore a child who was simultaneously screaming and slapping his face. It didn''t help that Edwin just stood by reading a book while occasionally throwing random things or zapping him.


    While Julius had no success in finding his inner peace. He was able to level up [Spatial Perception] quite nicely.


    [Spatial Perception] has reached threshold. [Spatial Perception lvl 1 -> Spatial Perception lvl 2]


    [Spatial Perception] has reached threshold. [Spatial Perception lvl 2 -> Spatial Perception lvl 3]


    [Spatial Perception] has reached threshold. [Spatial Perception lvl 3 -> Spatial Perception lvl 4]


    Edwin did mention that since he had prior experience with the skill, Julius would see a higher rate of leveling until he caught up. Afterward, it would slow down to normal.


    Regardless, it still felt nice seeing numbers go up.

 Chapter 8: Daily Grind

    Once Julius finished up his meditation attempts and his perception training, he would eat dinner and start on his mana manipulation training. The current goal was just for him to learn [Mana Manipulation]. Julius had considered the idea that he should learn how to manipulate mana without the skill. Edwin quickly dissuaded him from the thought.[Mana Manipulation] was too important of a skill to not have. It was the one skill that everyone had. The advantages it gave were too enormous to ignore, and only an idiot never gained the skill.


    Was it strange that Julius wanted to try it anyway?


    Edwin taught him mana manipulation techniques that had him pull a small amount of mana from himself and try various activities such as writing his name in the air with it or making general shapes. All the while, trying to not waste a single bit of it. If he lost control for even a second he would have to begin again.


    After several days of practicing every night for several hours, he finally got the prompt.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Mana Manipulation]?


    Congratulations, skill [Mana Manipulation] acquired.


    Edwin was right. The difference was substantial. It wasn''t like [Spatial Perception]. [Spatial Perception] didn''t feel like it became more effective after he received a skill for it, it mainly lightened the mental load it had on him. Julius could feel the skill activating and assisting him in manipulating the mana. The best thing he could compare it to was the difference between playing a video game with aim assist on versus having it off. It was slight and you still needed to do the majority of the work. But some of the smaller adjustments were taken care of thanks to the skill.


    It was an amazing skill.


    So obviously Julius decided to get rid of it. It was painful to remove a skill, but he finally managed after an hour of attempting.


    Would like to remove the skill [Mana Manipulation]? Notice: This action will remove [Mana Manipulation] from your current skills.


    [Mana Manipulation] has been removed from your current skills.


    Several months went by like this and during this time, Julius had finally gotten into good enough shape for Edwin to decide to teach him how to fight. They started with unarmed combat, an important skill that many nobles didn''t focus on. Julius didn''t blame them for not wanting to. Getting hit sucked.


    One moment you think you''re fine, then all of a sudden you overextend and take a fist to the face. Or sometimes you get tripped up and take a foot to the face. There are other times you are just too slow to react and take a spinning backhand to the face.


    What was Julius trying to get at? He got hit in the face a lot. However, the second he overprotected his face Edwin would punish him and land a shot in his gut.


    For those who had never been hit in the liver. You feel like you just died. You forget how to breathe and how to stand on your two feet. For several hours a day, Julius would get folded like a lawn chair in the training yard. Some of the other members of the house who wanted to train in the mornings often watched them off to the side.


    It became a game to bet and see how long Julius could last against Edwin.


    Julius knew in his head, that he was improving rapidly. His tolerance for abuse had certainly gotten better. The problem was that whenever Edwin thought he had as well, he would raise his strength and start hitting harder and faster. So, although Julius was incomparable to himself before, he somehow continued to get even harder beatings.


    Edwin was truly a sadistic teacher, he would make him run around until he was ragged. Heal him. Beat him senseless. Heal him. Beat him some more. Heal him. It was an endless cycle of beatdowns.


    With that being said, Julius had to admit, that Edwin''s training paid off. He looked at the most recent notice he got after the last spar.


    [Unarmed Combat] has reached threshold. [Unarmed Combat lvl 3 -> Unarmed Combat lvl 4]


    There was something undoubtedly satisfying about being able to see his progress quantitatively. Julius was getting a bit worried for himself. At the beginning of these sessions, he would actively avoid getting hurt. Now, he didn''t care about getting beat up, he became desensitized to the pain. All that mattered to him was managing to land a hit on Edwin.


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    Not that it ever happened of course. The only hits Julius ever got in on Edwin, were the ones that Edwin allowed him to. Edwin would purposefully leave an opening for Julius to exploit, but Julius had not managed to catch Edwin off guard on his own.


    Julius found himself eating lunch with his uncle, Lukas. This has become a daily occurrence for both of them. While both he and his uncle had busy schedules, they decided to make time to have lunch and dinner with each other every day, if possible. Edwin also ended up joining them, who took a brief respite from his trainer mindset and just relaxed with them.


    During this time, Julius had learned many things about each of them. He learned stories about how the two of them met during their travels. They met while doing an extermination mission the Adventurer Guild had posted. His uncle was still a Tier 4 at the time and Edwin was with a separate group who were all Tier 3''s. The extermination was for a colony of Stonegorging Ants, a threat that could vary from Tier 2 all the way to Tier 5. It was important to deal with any colonies before they grew to such dangers. Otherwise, the local environment and nearby towns would be in danger. Luckily for them, scouting put the ants at around a Tier 3 or low Tier 4 at most. As such, his uncle was one of the leaders of the extermination party, where he noticed Edwin''s talents.


    There weren''t many shadow affinity users in the Empire, but their usefulness was unanimously agreed upon. Not many were born with the affinity and those that were usually belonged to Clan Genshen. Clan Genshen did not hold any noble title, but they were known for their strength and abundance of shadow affinity users. They were elites who specialized in assassination, scouting, infiltration, and going into dangerous places alone. The clan recruited many commoners who found out they had the affinity, it was known that shadow was an extremely difficult affinity to train on your own. As such, most chose to join Clan Genshen.


    Edwin was different. He had learned his entire path practically on his own and had garnered a reputation for himself already. Coming in the top 50 of the Inter-Academy was quite an achievement, that on top of his affinity, had him receiving many offers by powerful groups before and after his graduation. However, Edwin didn''t choose any of them. Instead, he decided to become an adventurer with three of his friends. As fate would have it, when Lukas and Edwin met, two of his party members were going to have a baby and planned to settle down. Which meant that their party was going to be disbanded. Therefore, Lukas made Edwin a very generous offer to come and work for House Hyperius.


    After lunch, Julius started on the most challenging part of his day. While he had been able to enter into a trance on occasion, he couldn''t do it consistently or for very long. With [Spatial Perception] active, it had taken him months to be able to do this much. On the bright side, using his skill in this way had done wonders for its progress.


    Edwin also told Julius of a way to see his skill levels. Julius had taken to calling it his status. He mentally envisioned what he wanted to know and it popped up in his mind.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 0


    Skills:


    [Spatial Perception lvl 9] (Rare)


    [Unarmed Combat lvl 4]


    It wasn''t too helpful now but Julius expected that once he filled out his skills a bit more, he would be thankful for its existence.


    For the past months, Julius had been trying to meditate and reach a trance to start absorbing mana and condense his core. The few times he was able to succeed, he saw a space that was around a quarter filled with liquid and the rest of it occupied by a dense fog. It had slightly lowered over time as his attempts to manipulate mana failed and inevitably some of it dissipated. However, not by much to Julius''s estimations. While some of the fog had dispersed a little, the liquid remained untouched. This led him to believe that the amount concentrated within the liquid was vastly superior to the other mana, both in quantity and quality.


    Julius had been trying something different for the past week or so. Before, he had been attempting to meditate by clearing his thoughts and ignoring stimuli. However, he had an idea. Instead of clearing his thoughts, he wanted to find a balance. Just like a state he sometimes got into when he practiced mana manipulation, he would try the same for this.


    Julius sat down and started to focus. Not on his inner core, but outwards. He used his perception to focus on everything around him. Every pebble, every drop of water, every crack in the stone, he focused on everything. Once he reached a state of total concentration, he took a deep breath, imagining the vortex from his baptism, mana surged into him.


    To his surprise, it worked, which snapped him out of his trance. But Julius understood something now. For Edwin and others, clearing their mind was easier for them. For Julius, he almost needed to do the opposite. He needed to fill his mind with so much there wasn''t space for distracting thoughts.


    In that revelation, Julius heard a ding. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Focus]?


    Yes.


    Congratulations, skill [Focus] acquired.


    Julius immediately attempted to meditate again. To his shock, it baffled him how hard he found it just mere minutes ago. Now it was like second nature. [Focus] allowed him to reach this state without struggling and he could still think while in his trance. He should have gained a skill like this much earlier.


    He was going to have to remember to ask Edwin about this skill later and how common it was.


    For the first time since his baptism, he was able to cultivate mana. He would now be able to condense his core and reach Tier 1. This would allow him to practice more mana extensive techniques, without worrying about recycling it.


    Now that Julius was able to cultivate, he sat down and got to work. He maintained the same method he used during his baptism, the only difference being that he didn''t have an orb that directly provided him with mana. From now on, he would need to learn to absorb mana from the environment, which was much slower and tedious. But after an hour of meditating, he received another notice.


    [Focus] has reached threshold. [Focus lvl 1 -> Focus lvl 2]


    The past several months had been a difficult grind, but now Julius felt it was worth it. This feeling was what motivated Julius to train harder. The feeling of improving.

 Chapter 9: Seeing Results

    Edwin POVEdwin had volunteered to train Julius. The thought of training someone had never occurred to Edwin before, but for some reason, he wanted to with Julius. When he saw Julius training his [Spatial Perception] he knew there was something special. The fact that a child could acquire a rare skill like that was unfathomable to Edwin. Most people went their entire lives without earning a rare skill. Not to mention a skill that Edwin suspected was on the higher end of rare.


    Edwin could recognize a fellow training maniac when he saw one. At thirteen years old, Julius was unlike any other child his age. Most of his peers were content running around playing games with their friends, but Julius was different. Edwin had begun Julius''s training over a year ago and was surprised at how dedicated Julius was. Many would see Julius as a child who was getting pushed too hard by Edwin and was only doing this much because he was being pressured. However, Edwin realized that Julius really, and he meant really loved it. It was alarming how much Julius enjoyed getting beat up and doing boring mana exercises every day for countless hours.


    Even Edwin who was known as a training junkie in his younger days, wasn''t this obsessed. Edwin knew that Julius''s work ethic would bring him far. He knew exactly what hard work could do for advancement.


    The only thing that had stunted Edwin''s advancement was his poor foundation and his lack of knowledge. He was a hard worker but he didn''t know enough about his shadow affinity when he tiered up, thus some imperfections limited his ability to reach Tier 5. Combat ability-wise, he was the cream of the crop of Tier 4 but until he cleaned up his path, he would forever remain a Tier 4.


    That was one of the main reasons he accepted Lukas''s offer all those years ago. He already knew his foundation would be the thing that prevented him from advancing further. And Lukas had offered him the resources to fix it.


    Tier 5 was a barrier that separated the good from the great. Most talented individuals could reach Tier 4 with time as long as they survived. However, Edwin believed what separated the Tier 5''s from Tier 4''s was their ability to push themselves. Unless one goes beyond their limits, they won''t ever become Tier 5.


    That was why Edwin chose to train Julius. He truly believed Julius had what it took to cross this barrier. He certainly had the work ethic. But mostly, Julius enjoyed training.


    It surprised Edwin just how fast Julius adapted to his training. When they first started sparring, Julius was timid and unconfident in his approach. Now, Julius fought like a demon. Aggressive and decisive, were the best descriptors Edwin could think of. Julius''s style revolved around taking two hits for every one he gave. He didn''t mind taking a knee or two in the stomach if it meant he got to punch you in the face in return.


    Normally, Edwin would dissuade such an aggressive style of fighting. His own style was more about countering and avoiding direct conflicts. Julius was the opposite, he used every angle and every potential leverage point he could to gain an advantage over his opponent. It was gritty and violent. The young fighter also quickly learned to use his fighting style''s weakness as a weapon. Edwin began to notice Julius would wait for Edwin to capitalize on his aggression, and create himself an opening to strike.


    Julius''s instincts when it came to fighting were honestly frightening. But Edwin was certain those instincts were going to save his life many times over the years. Which was the whole point of this training.


    Julius swept his leg out towards Edwin''s left knee trying to smash his kneecap. When it missed he closed in on Edwin, not letting him have a chance to retaliate. He threw a flurry of punches looking for any openings. He took a couple of shots but maintained his aggression. He couldn''t allow Edwin to sit back and pick him apart.


    There. Edwin hadn''t quite predicted his feint and Julius launched a kick right at Edwin''s temple. Unfortunately, Edwin was quick and managed to step into Julius''s kick and grab him around the thigh. He then proceeded to smash his fist into Julius''s torso and simultaneously sweep out his other leg from underneath then tossed him like a sack of potatoes across the training yard.


    Edwin calmly stepped back and Julius stayed on the floor soaked in sweat and sore all over.


    [Focus] has reached threshold. [Focus lvl 6 -> Focus lvl 7]


    [Unarmed Combat] has reached threshold. [Unarmed Combat lvl 8 -> Unarmed Combat lvl 9]


    A double level-up was rare, but more than welcome at this point. He had now reached the bottleneck stage in [Unarmed Combat], which Edwin mentioned was a skill that usually upgraded at level 10. Each rank-up reset a skills level to 0, but it also meant the next level requirement would be 5 levels higher. For example, when [Unarmed Combat] reached level 10, he would receive an option to evolve the skill. Once he did, it would become an Uncommon skill at level 0. If he wanted to rank it up to Rare, he would have to get it to level 15, and so on.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 0


    Skills:


    [Spatial Perception lvl 16] (Rare)


    [Unarmed Combat lvl 9]


    [Focus lvl 7]


    His [Spatial Perception] skill had grown to level 15 before he finally felt its accelerated growth slow down. But it proved how much work he had put into the skill beforehand. He was going to miss the rapid level-ups, it seemed the higher the rank and level were, the more difficult it became to level up a skill. The single level from 15 to 16 took over a month to achieve. However, the effects increased in proportion to the skill''s rank and level too. Therefore, the one level up provided a significant boost to how far he could extend it and how long he was able to keep it active. He would estimate that he could now perceive twenty percent farther than before and could maintain the skill up for ten to thirty percent longer, depending on circumstances.


    Julius was also very close to condensing his core. He probably only had a few days left until his preparations were complete. Which meant Tier 1 was right around the corner. Not having a core really put a limit on how much mana he could use without regressing his progress. It also made it more difficult to gain more skills. Most active skills require some usage of mana to operate. He has been lucky in acquiring two active skills: [Spatial Perception] and [Focus], that didn''t require any mana, just mental energy.


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    He already had an idea for a skill once he condensed his core. It would cover a lot of his weaknesses in close combat.


    Julius had a lot of thoughts on his mind while he was walking to the kitchen. Although, his schedule was extremely packed already he couldn''t keep up with just fighting and training all day. He needed something to do that he could just relax and chill out. A hobby or project that didn''t have anything to do with getting better.


    The first thing he thought of was cooking. He and his gramps would spend a lot of time cooking together, and he missed the simple activity of just making food. Therefore, Julius had begun cooking meals for Edwin, his uncle, and himself, trying to do it at least once a day. It was oddly relaxing.


    Julius was almost fourteen years old and for the majority of the past two years, he had not done anything except for sparring, meditating, and exercising his mana control. By cooking he was able to remind himself that there was more to life than getting stronger.


    Tonight he was planning to make something for the three of them. He didn''t know what he wanted to make exactly but he was thinking something a little lighter. It has been a hot summer this year and maybe some fresh fish would be nice.


    Luckily, it seemed like much of the cuisine in this world was similar to what existed in his old one. There were still the same proteins like beef, pork, poultry, and fish, just with a lot more variations. For tonight he wanted to see what was already available in the pantry before he decided.


    This world didn''t have technology on the level of his previous one, but they still had some impressive inventions in their own right. Instead of refrigerators, they had coolers the size of a small chest that were enchanted with spatial expansion magic and could fit enough food to fill a small room. They were also enchanted with magic that preserved food for much longer durations than what was natural.


    Additionally, their water system was amazing. They didn''t need to pipe water in from anywhere. As long as you had a water affinity stone or crystal and had mana to supply it with. You are able to have clean water at any time. This world might not have the internet but it certainly has things that many in his old world would dream of.


    Julius finally made it to the kitchen and said hello to the workers who were still around. There usually weren''t many people in this particular kitchen because this wing of the mansion only housed a few members. The majority of the rest of the members lived on the other side of the mansion, which is why Julius rarely saw anyone else other than the workers.


    This also meant that he had most of the kitchen to himself. Which was also very nice.


    Julius checked the pantry for what was still left over from the day. He spotted several portions of white fish and a healthy selection of vegetables. Grabbing what he needed he began preparing dinner.


    Julius decided to make a quick marinade for the fish. He used some citrus-like fruit that reminded him of a lemon, it was yellow but about the size of a small melon. There were also these flower petals that tasted similar to chili but had this weirdly sweet component as well. He also added some herbs that were in pots on the window sill.


    As Julius let the fish marinate for a little bit, he started on the rice. It was surprising that they had rice in this world but it was also much more delicious than typical rice. It was soft and had an innate richness that paired well with almost everything.


    Afterward, he also prepped the medley of vegetables. He was going to grill them with the fish. There was something that he never expected, cooking with an open fire that was made by mana could influence the flavor. It was similar to how charcoal imparts a delicious smoky element but on another level. The best way to describe it was magical. It literally exploded with flavor on his palate.


    As such, it seemed that much of the food made in this world was cooked over an open flame. Julius couldn''t blame them. Even vegetables, depending on the variety, could end up tasting sweet, spicy, or citrusy just from the mana flame.


    Julius took the fish out of the marinade and placed it on the grill, alongside the vegetables. The fish hit the fire with a satisfying sizzle. The smell of citrus and chilies emanated from the fire, making his mouth water.


    Julius smiled. These moments reminded him of simpler days. Days where he and his gramps would be camping out in the middle of the wilderness, catching fish and grilling them on an open campfire. He missed those moments, and the more time that passed, the more he cherished those memories. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius was lying in bed just playing around with his mana. He learned that mana manipulation was like a muscle in a lot of ways. Only by constantly using and stressing it, could it become stronger. It also required a lot of creativity to find entertaining ways to practice, otherwise, it would be too much of a bore to repeat the same exercises over and over.


    Right now, Julius was trying to replicate one of Edwin''s tricks. Edwin had managed to wrap his mana around several objects at one time and then simultaneously move them in complete synchrony. Edwin didn''t share the particular method he used to do it, he just told Julius to figure it out himself.


    Wrapping mana around an object was much harder than Edwin made it out to be. The first attempts Julius made showed how much finesse was required. He couldn''t entirely wrap his mana around the ball he was using as practice, it was like he was trying to grab a wet bar of soap. The harder he tried the more slippery it reacted. It was much easier to shove the object in one direction or the other, but having absolute control of the object''s movements was another challenge entirely.


    Julius didn''t think he could create such a delicate shell of mana around the ball as Edwin managed, but he thought he could brute force it. If Edwin''s was like a layer of skin, his would be like an inflated sumo wrestler suit. It worked, kind of. Julius at least managed to control a single object with pure mana, but it was clunky and wasteful, and there was no way he could control more than one object with it. Therefore, the first thing he was going to practice was reducing how much mana he used to control an object. This is why he was holding the ball in the air above him, while slowly taking away layer by layer of mana until there was only a delicate shell like Edwin''s, or the shaping failed and he dropped it.


    Julius still hadn''t told Edwin about removing his [Mana Manipulation] skill. He was too scared of what Edwin might do to him if he found out. But it also became even more motivation for him to practice his mana. Every day without fail he would spend several hours finding creative ways to use mana while also still not wasting a single speck of it.


    Julius knew what kind of results challenging himself could have. Whenever he could, he was shaping mana into something. Even when he was getting beat down by Edwin in the yard he tried to maintain some mana.


    Due to his efforts, his ability to shape mana was coming along nicely. He could feel his control was even beyond the level of when he had been using the skill. Also, with being able to accumulate mana now, Julius got a little more greedy and controlled larger amounts at a time. This meant that it was more difficult and wasteful, but it also increased his rate of improvement. To Julius, his success proved his hypothesis that [Mana Manipulation] was a crutch and that he was better off not learning it.

 Chapter 10: Tier 1

    The day had finally arrived. Julius had spent countless hours accumulating as much mana as he could into himself. It was honestly the only slightly boring part of his training. There wasn''t much variety he could do with it. He could try different methods of gathering mana but most were less efficient than his usual technique. It didn''t make sense to constantly try new techniques if they took more than double the amount of time to absorb the same quantity.Julius did try to find ways to further compress his mana before he made his core. He didn''t figure anything out even after months of extensive testing and experimenting. He believed that liquid was the only state he was going to reach unless he wanted to spend another few years or decades trying to see if it was possible.


    At this point, liquid mana was filled throughout the entire space. He believed that he could''ve done it yesterday, but he wanted to see if he could pack any more in beforehand and go at it with a fresh mind.


    Edwin already shared with him the steps he was supposed to take to form his core. The most important was the intent. Julius needed to imagine all the mana merging with his body and soul. Right now, it was a mass of mana that was stored separately. What he wanted was for the mana to become a part of him, and so that he could generate mana of his own.


    Julius was used to compressing the mana itself that was already inside of him. The only difference now is that he needed to do the same to the shell surrounding the mana. The barrier that kept the mana contained needed to become smaller. Julius''s main concern was that he had already compressed the mana until he couldn''t anymore, so he didn''t know what was going to happen. Logic says that since he was compressing what held the mana, it would compress the mana inside of it as well.


    Despite that, Julius had a feeling that wasn''t how it worked. The mana inside of him wasn''t actually contained within a physical barrier, it was just the easiest way that he was able to comprehend it. Who knows, there might be an interesting result after he creates his core.


    Regardless, Julius sat down and began the process. He envisioned the barrier around his mana shrinking. He wanted it to change into a sphere. The reason for this is that the sphere is one of the strongest shapes in nature. He knew that a sphere distributed force along the arc, and it was the natural shape celestial objects like planets, moons, and stars took. Therefore, a sphere was the mental image he had in his head.


    For what seemed to be forever, Julius concentrated on compressing it into a smaller shape. He didn''t make any progress, no matter how hard he tried. Maybe, compressing the mana itself beforehand wasn''t a good idea, he thought to himself. Too late now, what''s done is done. He didn''t have the time or the focus to be worrying about what he should''ve done. He just needed to worry about the task in front of him.


    Even with his improved mana manipulation, he couldn''t generate enough force for it to compact together. Realizing that he was just wasting energy, he took a step back and thought about what he could do differently.


    For a long time, Julius just sat there, contemplating his options. Then he remembered Edwin saying intent was the most crucial aspect, so maybe his intent, or rather, his mental image of the process was wrong.


    There was something he had to change. There wasn''t enough force from the outside to compress it, that was the main issue.


    Wait, outside. There isn''t enough force from the outside, but what about the inside?


    Julius was thinking about whether or not he could use the same vortex method. He used a vortex to bring mana inside of him, but if he used it again, there would be nowhere for the mana to go. He didn''t want to remove the mana, he just wanted to compress it. So that idea was out.


    But maybe he was onto something. He needed an internal force that simultaneously pulled the barrier into itself while smashing it together from the outside to make it more dense. The first thing that popped into his head, was how gravity pulled various gases and particles into a star.


    Okay, he would use the image of gravity to act on the inside while he compressed it from the outside. Deciding on how he wanted to do it, he settled down and got to work.


    It was the same as before, just struggling to condense it but with nothing happening. However, after some time had passed he couldn''t keep it up anymore and had to take a break. Taking a step back again, he looked at his mana. It was a beautiful combination of every color, sparkling like a rainbow lantern in the middle of the night. It was¨C


    Wait a moment. It was smaller. Call me crazy but I think it is actually smaller.


    He had spent several hours each day meditating, observing it. So he had a good idea of what it normally looked like. But right now, he could swear it looked just a hair smaller than usual.


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    Julius didn''t care that he might be seeing things, this was the best opportunity yet. He immediately jumped back into it and continued. This time, he wasn''t going to stop until he formed his core. His entire soul struggled, it was like pushing a house-sized boulder up a hill. But with a supreme will, he commanded for it to condense. He wasn''t giving it an option anymore. He wasn''t stopping until he accomplished forming his core. Julius wouldn''t be denied.


    Suddenly, Julius felt the slightest give. Just the most subtle movement. Noticing it was ever so slowly condensing, he redoubled his effort. He was squeezing every ounce of strength from his will as possible. All he cared about was forming his core, there was nothing else distracting him.


    It steadily picked up pace. It was no longer crawling, it was walking. And it was continuing to increase in speed. The boulder no longer felt like he was pushing it uphill, it was as if he had gotten over the crest and now it was gaining momentum on the way down.


    It was scary, Julius could feel the force behind it. It was spreading throughout his body, suffusing his flesh with sheer power. He was becoming one with mana, but he didn''t know if his body could take this amount of energy.


    Julius felt like his bones were being ground down into dust, his skin ripped out in chunks, and his brain doused in burning gasoline.


    Then gone in an instant, the pain stopped. The force had culminated to a peak and finished increasing. Now his body was saturated by this force and it sat comfortably throughout him. Julius felt like a new person, humming with untamed energy, incomparable to before. And sitting right in the middle of his body was a sphere radiating power.


    He did it. For a second there he doubted whether or not he could succeed. But now Julius was officially Tier 1 and had taken the first step.


    Julius took a moment to inspect his newly formed core. It was a pure white orb surrounded by a glowing ring of soft white light. It was mesmerizing and comforting to feel. Similar to a heated blanket and hot cocoa on a cold winter morning.


    Julius didn''t have more time to investigate his core, because his door slammed open. Standing in his doorway were Edwin and Lukas, both of them with wide smiles across their faces. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Congratulations!" Lukas yelled with his hands in the air.


    Edwin didn''t say anything, but his smile was more than enough to show how proud he was.


    Julius laughed. It wasn''t often the two of them took off their stoic masks and relaxed. But it was nice whenever they did. It always felt like they genuinely cared about him.


    "Thanks! You better watch out old timers, at this rate, I am going to leave you two behind." Julius teased.


    Lukas laughed good-naturedly, and replied, "Maybe in a few centuries you will, don''t get cocky. You wouldn''t want to be like the other noble kids would ya?"


    Julius dramatically grimaced, "If I ever become like that, just put a sword in my stomach. It would be a more merciful end."


    They both laughed together. High off of Julius''s recent advancement.


    However, Edwin decided to step in. "I guess if you''re feeling so confident, we should test out your new strength huh?"


    Julius with a confident grin replied, "Bring it."


    Half an hour later Julius was lying face down in the dirt. I should not have said anything to him. Me and my big mouth, I got overconfident, he regretfully thought in his head.


    His overall strength had significantly increased. Everything from his speed, power, mental processing, and reflexes felt like they were on a whole other level. He ended up sparring with both of them, which was unusual because Lukas was normally very busy with house business and didn''t have time to train with him. Now that he was Tier 1, he noticed that the whole world seemed to slow down compared to before. The previous him was always feeling like he was in a rush, that he was always a second behind his opponent.


    When they first started, he blitzed right out the gate at Edwin, trying to create an opening through sheer aggression. However, now he noticed he had more control of his actions. Before, he was just like a maniac, trying his hardest to get a hit on Edwin. But after he formed his core, he could plan out his strikes more effectively. Julius was able to find a balance between aggression and anticipation. In that moment he understood that the changes to his mind were probably the most impactful changes.


    Julius was finally able to use [Spatial Perception] throughout the entire fight. He didn''t realize it, but the skill allowed him to get an unnaturally good feeling on judging distance within strikes. He was now dodging punches and kicks with centimeters to spare, and it allowed him to get into a better position to counter back. He knew exactly where he needed to be to punish their positioning.


    His uncle was much more fun to spar with than Edwin. Lukas spent time letting Julius get a feel for his new abilities and just casually defending while throwing some probing attacks. Generally, just allowing him to explore his new strength.


    Edwin on the other hand, was like his normal self. He let Julius get acclimated to his strength for a couple of minutes. However, once he felt he had a good grasp, he started to ramp up his own strength. Edwin pummeled Julius black and blue. He didn''t give Julius the chance to take the initiative, just bulldozing him. Edwin would even charge some mana into his strikes so that they either shocked or exploded with force on impact.


    Julius naturally tried to replicate him. While narrowly dodging for his life, he attempted to shape mana around his fist. Seeing an opportunity, Julius shifted his shoulder and ate a punch. However, this gave him a second to throw his mana-covered fist, glowing with a white aura. He managed to hit Edwin right in the stomach.


    To his and Edwin''s surprise, it did nothing. Apparently, his strike was nothing more than a colorful fist and a waste of mana. They both just paused. With Julius''s fist still in his stomach, Edwin just looked down at him with extreme disappointment and judgemental eyes.


    Sighing, Edwin shook his head and leaned slightly back. Then he Spartan kicked the embarrassed Julius twenty feet across the yard.

 Chapter 11: Affinity Ritual

    Julius didn''t know why he tried to copy Edwin. First off, he still didn''t know what affinities he had. Secondly, he didn''t understand the technique Edwin used in the first place. Julius had just wrapped his fist with mana, as he would if he was trying to levitate an object. Just this time, he was able to use far more mana than before, and so it visibly glowed. In all honesty, it would have been less humiliating if he had just missed his punch.However, that reminded Julius that he needed to still do the ritual that determined his affinities. He had gotten so wrapped up in sparring to test his newfound abilities, that he had forgotten that he needed to find out his affinities before he started to learn new techniques.


    As such, the three of them were walking to the basement where Julius had done his baptism. Lukas was still smiling and teasing Julius along the way, while Edwin was trailing behind them, just shaking his head and averting his gaze every time he looked at Julius as if he were ashamed of him. Julius already knew that he wasn''t going to live this one down for a very long time.


    Lukas had already coined a name for his technique. He was calling it Julius''s [Twinkle Strike], a very powerful skill that allowed its user to twinkle his fist before punching. Its primary function was to confuse the opponent into thinking it was actually going to do something, but in reality, it was just a glorified fist-shaped lantern.


    Julius took the teasing in stride, he knew it would eventually blow over and he had to admit it was funny. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Once they had reached the beautiful chamber Lukas immediately went to a cabinet in the corner of the room. Lukas reached into it and pulled out a large handful of glowing mana stones alongside a cube-like object. He then placed them around where the pedestal for his baptism had been. The pedestal was no longer there, but he noticed complex lines intersecting each other into a runic pattern.


    Julius wasn''t well-versed in runes. However, he knew they were known to be one of the more difficult fields of study in academies and any runemaster would have a bright future ahead of them, with plenty of opportunities. Julius was initially interested in learning runes, but it seems like runes were similar to language comprehension. That was something Julius wasn''t good at in his previous life nor this one either.


    It seemed like Julius was better at understanding things by hitting them or being hit by them. It made him realize that he was sort of a meathead in a way. If he hit a wall in learning something, he was more likely to just find a way to go through it, instead of around it. Solving most of his problems by just being stubborn. Which, when he thought about it, was a talent in itself. Feeling self-assured again, he paid attention to what his uncle was doing with the ritual.


    Lukas had placed the mana stones equally along the border of the circle. There seemed to be around a dozen marble-sized mana stones encircling the cube.


    "Hey Twinkles, come over here," Lukas said to Julius.


    Julius pretended to ignore his annoying uncle, looking away at the murals decorating the room.


    His uncle snickered at Julius''s antic, instead of waiting for him to come over voluntarily, he decided to bring Julius to him.


    Julius was snatched from where he was standing and carried over to the middle of the ritual. Julius barely felt any mana used to achieve this, there was another force he felt was being used. He couldn''t quite determine what it was, but he suspected it was some aura ability that his uncle and Edwin had hinted at before. Levitating objects with mana was easy, but something that had a will was much more difficult. The only way to levitate someone was to override their will with their own will.


    Julius didn''t quite get it, but it was impressive how easily his uncle managed it nonetheless. He guessed that was the power of a Tier 5.


    Now that Julius was placed within the center of the circle, sitting right in front of the cube, Lukas focused some mana to activate the runes of the ritual.


    "Place your hands around the cube," his uncle instructed.


    Julius complied and immediately felt himself getting bombarded with mana from all directions. It wasn''t absorbing mana, alternatively, it was flowing through him. There was a slight discomfort but not too bad. It was comparable to getting rinsed down by a very powerful hose.


    A couple of minutes passed before it ended. Julius had no idea what the purpose of that was, but Lukas plucked the cube from his grasp. Julius was curious about what had just happened.


    "What was that and how does it determine my affinities?" He asked the two of them.


    His uncle chose to answer him. "It takes a few days to prepare, but during this time, the runic circle absorbs mana from the atmosphere. The reason for this is that the ritual needs to have enough mana for each affinity to test. Most affinities are present in the natural world in ambient mana, so it only takes time to accumulate. It then distributes the mana throughout your body. Then that is where the cube comes in. The cube is a device that was created to measure how well you naturally respond to mana. Thus revealing your affinities."


    "So if I am understanding it correctly, the ritual is meant to pump me full of various mana like fire mana or water mana. Then the cube senses how I react to each one and then measures my affinity to it. Right?" Julius asked.


    "It is much more complex and there are thousands of interesting studies that describe it in a more detailed fashion, but yes," Lukas said.


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    "Wait, is that why controlling ambient mana is more difficult than your own?" Julius had another question.


    "Yes, there are many affinities that make up ambient mana and most people only have an affinity to a few, so if the ambient mana is comprised of only one percent of the mana of your affinity, it would obviously be harder to control," Lukas explained. "That is why it is important to find your affinity once you create your core. Because your core is now able to generate mana on its own, you should logically want to produce mana you have the most affinity for."


    That would mean that his core would produce only what he focused on. He knew people could have multiple affinities they used. But if he had a fire and a water affinity, would it be better for him to just choose one or the other?


    "Hypothetically, If I were to have two affinities, does that mean I would focus on one or could I balance each one out?" Julius asked.


    "You could, it has been a long-time debate of whether to diversify or specialize in affinities. Both have their pros and cons but in the end, it comes down to personal preference," Lukas said.


    That made sense to Julius. It was a decision he had to make, whether he wanted to be a jack of all trades or focus on a single aspect. If he focused on one, he would probably be able to practice it much more frequently, but it also left him open to bad matchups. What if someone had an affinity that had an advantage over his? But if he diversified, he would have to split his focus on two different affinities. It was a tough decision with no clear answer.


    "Wait a moment. Before I formed my core, I had to absorb ambient mana into myself to use it. So how did I manipulate easier than regular ambient mana?"


    Edwin who was still there with them decided to answer this question. "When you take in ambient mana, your Will automatically changes the mana into a suitable version for you. It is not efficient or better than mana of your affinity but it is easier than normal ambient mana."


    "Those things are the things you can learn when you leave to go to an academy." Lukas interrupted. "If you don''t have any more questions about the affinity ritual, let''s get our attention back to your results."


    Julius was excited, he didn''t have any clue what his affinities might be. He knew his uncle had the rarer sun affinity, which was a blend of light and fire mana, and Edwin had the shadow affinity, but he was curious about his own.


    Lukas inspected the cube and once he interpreted it, he spoke. "It seems like you have a high affinity to fire, life, and kinetic. You also have a medium affinity to water and air. As well as a low affinity for light."


    Julius was somewhat disappointed. Affinities were ranked as low, medium, high, excellent, and perfect. He was hoping for at least one affinity to be excellent, and praying for one to be perfect. With that being said, he couldn''t be too disappointed. It was better than average. Most people had one affinity at high and only a couple of lower-rated ones. He had a total of three at high, another two at medium, and one at low. He wasn''t surprised at his fire affinity, but life affinities were rare and kinetic even more so. High-affinity life users were usually healers or supporters within a party. While kinetic users were rarely seen in the empire. Most known users were from the northern countries, like the Kingdom of Valde, where some of their warriors had an affinity for kinetic.


    Even though having three high affinities was more than most people, in reality, the majority would choose only one or two of the three affinities to create their path. Furthermore, having an excellent or perfect affinity would have practically guaranteed he was a top talent of his generation. Only five percent of people got an excellent affinity and only one in a thousand got a perfect affinity. However, with a population of over a hundred million, that still meant over a hundred thousand individuals had a perfect affinity in the empire alone. So while it was an uncommon achievement, it wasn''t unheard of.


    With that being said, just because you have a perfect affinity, doesn''t mean you will rise to Tier 5 with certainty. Affinities are useful indicators of how fast you can progress your path, but there have been times in history when people with medium or low affinities have become absolute powerhouses. Affinities are also able to change over time with hard work or extreme circumstances.


    There was a famous story about William Prashe, a rice farmer born in the empire with a low affinity for water. William would go on to become one the strongest people on the entire continent. It was said that he had progressed his affinity all the way from low to perfect. It was never confirmed, but it gave rise to the idea that affinities weren''t the end all, be all. They were simply one''s starting point on their path.


    Having a high affinity wasn''t going to stop Julius from advancing. He might even be lucky for one of his affinities to become excellent over the years. If there was something that Julius was good at, it was that he always improved, no matter how small.


    Julius looked over at his uncle and Edwin, who were having their own discussion. He couldn''t make out exactly what they were saying, but based on the few things he overheard, they were talking about his progression plan.


    Finally, they seemed to be in agreement and both turned towards Julius.


    "First off, congratulations. You have successfully become a Tier 1 and now have identified your affinities. That means you have officially begun your path." Edwin said.


    "Also, don''t be too worried about your affinities. I know you were hoping for an excellent or perfect affinity, but high in three of them is a good result as well. Especially, kinetic, a particularly rare affinity and one that suits your fighting style quite nicely." Lukas added.


    They were both being supportive, even Edwin who usually wasn''t, was congratulating him. It would feel slightly more authentic, if his uncle didn''t have a perfect sun affinity himself, and Edwin had an excellent shadow affinity. But they were trying, and he had realized in his past life that sometimes trying was all that really mattered.


    On the bright side, he already had some early ideas about which affinities he would go with. He had pretty much decided that he wanted to have at least two. Julius''s core was much more intense than others at this stage. He didn''t quite know how much more, but based on how much he had to absorb and condense. Also from what the two of them told him about other people''s core formations. He could theorize he had a much larger capacity than average. The small investigative probes he sent to his core, felt like there wasn''t an end to it.


    Even the light show he tried with his fist had used a massive amount of mana, but it didn''t even make a dent in his reserves. Therefore, he was thinking that he should diversify his affinities. He wouldn''t have the issues of splitting up his meager resources if his assumption of his large capacity was correct. Hence, the main issue would be having enough time to practice possibly multiple affinities instead of one.


    However, Julius had a wonderful plan for that as well. It was a simple but genius plan.


    Practice. All he needed to do, was to practice more, practice harder, and practice smarter. Simple really.

 Chapter 12: Meeting New Faces

    All three of them were back at the training yard. It was one of many around the estate, which was why Edwin and Julius were left undisturbed most of the time. However, it seemed like between the time they were last out here and did the ritual, someone had decided to use it as well.There were two people training. One was a young teenager who looked a little older than Julius and another man who looked around his early twenties. The older man was carefully guiding the younger teen through some sword forms, correcting his feet and posture as needed.


    The two of them hadn''t noticed Julius and the others, but Julius took the time to observe the younger one. While Julius wasn''t an expert on sword fighting, he was still able to see gaps in the way the young teen moved around. The biggest thing that jumped out, was how robotic and stiff the teen moved. It seemed like there were a specific number of forms to the style he was learning, but since he seemed relatively new to it, he wasn''t able to smoothly transition between each position.


    Finally, the older man took notice of them and immediately looked at his uncle. He then stopped the young teen from practicing and bowed deeply at the waist.


    "Greetings, Patriarch. I wasn''t aware you would be using the training yard at this time. I apologize, we will continue elsewhere." The man said.


    Lukas smiled at the man and said, "Don''t worry about it, Frederick. There is plenty of room for all of us. I see that you are showing Tristan the Imperial Sword Art."


    The man, Frederick, smiled as he turned back to the teen. "Yes, I am teaching my son the forms before he sets out to Goldencrest Academy. I know he will be taught the style once he begins his learning there, but I wanted him to get some familiarity beforehand."


    Lukas directed his attention to the young teen. "Oh yes, I heard you managed to get into Goldencrest. Getting into one of the most prestigious academies is quite an achievement."


    Julius had heard of Goldencrest Academy. It was one of the most illustrious academies on the entire continent. There were also academies like Brightwood and Reyton that were talked about with the same reverence, but many agreed that Goldencrest trained the most powerful combatants on the continent.


    "So when are you two leaving?" Lukas asked them.


    "We are leaving tomorrow, the entrance ceremony takes place in several weeks, but I wanted to show Tristan around Heston beforehand," Frederick replied.


    Heston was a wonderful city that was placed in the southeastern regions of the empire right off the coast. Surrounded by gigantic stone cliffs that protected it from the sea and weather, it was a city that was famous for its beauty. Julius had read that the sunsets were what the academy was named after. It was said that when the sun crested over the horizon in the morning, it would hit the golden structure of the academy and illuminate the early dawn with a gorgeous light, able to be seen from miles away.


    Goldencrest was at the top of Julius''s list of academies that he had really wanted to go to. However, Goldencrest was infamous for its high standards. They only accepted a thousand or fewer students every year and every student had either perfect or excellent affinities. Even those with excellent affinities had to go through extensive examination before acceptance. Only those with perfect affinities were guaranteed a spot at their school. It was probably going to be difficult since he only had high affinities. It wasn''t that he thought he was weaker than the other students, but most schools place a heavy emphasis on affinity. Although William Prashe was an example of being able to overcome your affinity, in reality, there weren''t many William Prashe in the world.


    Suddenly, Julius was brought back to reality because someone was calling his name. He looked around and saw that his uncle was calling him over. His uncle probably wanted him to meet some of his family.


    Right then he just realized that this would possibly be the first time he meets someone in his family other than Lukas. He didn''t even get to say hello once to Gregor before Lukas erased him.


    "Julius, I want you to meet Frederick and his son, Tristan. Tristan is going to Goldencrest, so they are leaving tomorrow." Lukas explained to Julius.


    Julius had already decided to feed into his reputation as an odd boy beforehand. It was easier, people around the estate had already heard of his escapades so they had some expectations already and Julius wasn''t going to correct them on it. He was amazed at how differently people treated and talked to him when they thought he was a little "special". And based on how Tristan was looking at him like he would a cute pet, he had heard some rumors already. Plus, Julius found it amusing to mess with others like this. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Putting on his acting hat, Julius walked over with an expression of awe on his face and said with a higher-pitched voice than normal, "Wow! You must be really strong Dillion! I heard that only the best of the best make it in Goldencrest." Julius could see Edwin putting a hand to his face and shaking his head with [Spatial Perception].


    Tristan didn''t know how he should react. On one hand, his name wasn''t Dillion, but on the other hand, he was flattered because Julius was right, only the best went to Goldencrest. Tristan had heard things about the son of the Patriarch''s late brother. The workers and those who had been around him, all described him as a kind boy, just missing a few pieces upstairs. So Tristan couldn''t get upset if Julius didn''t get his name right on the first try.


    With a patient look, Tristan said to Julius, "My name is Triss-stan," emphasizing each syllable. "And, yes only the best go to Goldencrest. I have dual excellent affinities for sun and air." Tristan stated proudly.


    To be fair, that was something to be proud of. Dual excellent affinities were highly desirable and with sun being one of them, doubly so. Julius wasn''t jealous in the slightest.


    With that being said, Julius was slightly surprised to find out that Tristan didn''t seem that bad. His uncle had told him stories about some of the other children around the estate and how spoiled they acted. If Lukas was to be believed, some of them were downright terrors. But Tristan could have also been acting nice because the House''s Patriarch was a few feet away.


    "You are so cool! I want to go to Goldencrest too when I''m older." Julius said.


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    "Yeah? Well, I wish you luck, the examination was brutal." Tristan said.


    Frederick, who was off to the side next to Julius''s uncle asked Lukas, "It seems like Julius has reached Tier 1 already. Has he found out his affinities yet?"


    Lukas nodded his head and replied, "Yes, he has high affinities in fire, life, and kinetic."


    "Kinetic?" Frederick repeated with a surprised expression. "That is quite a unique affinity, hard to train, but very rare. No excellent affinities?"


    Julius looked over at Tristan and noticed Tristan''s face change the slightest upon hearing that. It was known that those from established families had better chances of awakening an excellent affinity, but Julius wasn''t considered a genius on that front. But he was curious why Tristan had that reaction. Maybe he was disappointed at hearing of Julius''s affinities.


    "No, unfortunately not," his uncle replied.


    "Yes quite unfortunate," Frederick said with regret. "But with his life affinity, he could have a future as a healer."


    The two of them continued to talk about small things and with Tristan paying attention to their conversation, Julius found an opening to leave quietly.


    He went over to Edwin who was off to the side and looked at him with pleading eyes. Edwin, being the smart man he was, knew what that look was for. Sighing dramatically, he took Julius over to the other side of the yard and sat him down.


    Julius wanted to learn how to generate his affinity attributed mana. He could feel multiple distinct mana signatures in his core, but he didn''t know what to do with them. Luckily, Edwin already predicted what he was going to ask.


    "The main thing you have to do is identify which mana is which. After that, it becomes a decision on what types you want to keep in your core." Edwin explained to Julius.


    "I was thinking about keeping fire, life, and kinetic. What do you think?" Julius asked Edwin for his opinion.


    "I wouldn''t keep kinetic. It is undoubtedly a versatile affinity, but House Hyperius doesn''t have the resources to help you. I also don''t know if the academies have much on it either. Take it from someone like me who chose shadow even though there wasn''t much on it."


    Julius had thought about that. There weren''t many places he could learn about kinetic, it would just be him blindly finding his way. However, he thought that maybe with his knowledge from his previous world, there was a better chance of understanding it. He also liked the idea of three mana types, instead of one or two. He always believed three was a lucky number.


    "I''m going to keep all three, I believe that I can find a way to make it work," Julius said with more confidence than he really felt.


    "Okay," Edwin said. Julius expected more of an attempt to convince him otherwise. "I don''t think it is a bad decision, if you find a way to do it, kinetic will fit you very well in the later stages of your path. Also, in the end, it is a personal preference, and I made the same decision." Edwin said.


    Julius nodded at Edwin, "Thank you for understanding."


    Julius then started to meditate, using [Focus] to concentrate on each mana signature. He noticed that each one had a distinct feeling, and some were much more noticeable than others. For example, his fire affinity was obvious, it was hot, almost burning him when he touched it with his senses. Another that stood out was a soothing light that exuded a vibrancy of life and hope. He could tell instantly tell it was his life affinity. Kinetic on the other hand was difficult. If he didn''t already know it was kinetic, he wasn''t sure he could guess it.


    The best way he could describe it was, forceful. He could feel it vibrating with energy, just waiting to be released. He also took the time to feel his other affinities. He checked on his water and air affinities and realized why the rating of your affinity mattered so much. Compared to his other high affinities, they both seemed dull. For his three high affinities, he could instinctually feel what they wanted to do and connect with them on a deep level. But for water and air, they just felt like a pane of glass separated them from him. Light was even worse. He could barely notice its presence, it was similar to a small grain of uncooked rice in a bowl of cooked rice. It took him a while to find it, and if he wasn''t looking for it, he wouldn''t have seen it.


    After getting a good sense of each of his affinities, he got to work on the easier part. Separating what he wanted to keep and what he didn''t. It was a simple process. His core worked in tandem with his intent, so if he wanted to get rid of affinity-attributed mana in his core, it would automatically remove it.


    He didn''t know how long he sat there, but by the end of it, he had three distinct kinds of mana in equal quantities in his core. Edwin had mentioned that once he decides which affinities to focus on, his core will generate mana on its own. He also had a notification awaiting him.


    [Focus] has reached threshold. [Focus lvl 7 -> Focus lvl 8]


    That was a nice surprise. He was looking forward to what kind of evolutions his skills would go through once he reached level 10.


    When Julius opened his eyes, he noticed Edwin sitting next to him reading a book on a chair he got from who knows where. Lukas on the other hand wasn''t anywhere to be seen, neither were Frederick and his son. They must have left while Julius was meditating.


    "How long was I out?" Julius asked Edwin.


    Edwin took a moment to finish whatever sentence he was at and looked at Julius. "Around an hour, give or take."


    "Not too bad, we still have time before dinner, wanna spar for a bit?" Julius asked with a smile.


    Edwin didn''t say anything in return, but he did stand up and touch the chair with his hand. The chair then disappeared into what was probably some sort of spatial storage device. Edwin then walked over to the center of the yard and waited for Julius.


    Julius didn''t waste much time and joined him. They started slow, like usual. Then they quickly picked up the pace. Julius was still amazed at how well his body felt and reacted now that he formed his core.


    It was still challenging to keep up with Edwin because he had adapted his strength to better match Julius. However, unlike their usual spars where neither talked except after an exchange, Edwin was advising Julius constantly, even while throwing punches or avoiding strikes.


    "Your kinetic affinity goes well with your current style of fighting, you just need to figure out how to infuse your strikes with it now," Edwin said while demonstrating how he infused his own fist with shadow mana before lashing out trying to hit Julius with it. "You have three affinities, which is going to be difficult to train. But I''m not worried about that, you have the work ethic to pull it off. The real struggle is going to be combining your use of the three of them." Edwin finished saying before using a tendril of shadow mana to trip Julius''s leg and land a hard kick to his side.


    Even as Julius landed on the hard ground Edwin continued his advice. "I would start with a basic idea for each of them. Fire can be your long to mid-range attack, kinetic can be your close-range, and life can be your utility. Eventually, you will learn to use all of them regardless of the situation. We can work on your fire later, right now let''s focus on the other two."


    Julius managed to find his way back to his feet with a grunt.


    "Grab ahold of your life mana, and try to infuse it into your body. Try concentrating on the thought of it rejuvenating and healing you." Edwin commanded Julius.


    Julius did as he was instructed. He controlled some life mana and directed it to permeate his entire body while thinking of each unit of mana healing his cells. It was easy to imagine. After all, Edwin had been healing him for years.


    Julius realized that Edwin when healing him wasn''t quite using life mana before. Julius''s life mana was much more invigorating than Edwin''s mana. It was like he was dunked in an ice bath. His body still hurt from the thrashing, but he didn''t feel as tired anymore. It was a small but noticeable difference.

 Chapter 13: Late Night Tribulations

    Learning how to use life mana on himself was much easier than learning to use kinetic mana. The most difficult part of it was timing the release of the mana with his strikes. It wasn''t like life mana, where he could just infuse every part of himself with it.No, kinetic mana needed to be accumulated and then released. Even after a couple of hours of practice, Julius hadn''t managed to successfully deliver a strike with kinetic mana. Frustrated, Julius chose to take a break for the day. Being stubborn could sometimes be a blessing but a curse at the same time. He needed to try again tomorrow with a fresh head.


    So after dinner, he found himself outside in the training yard by himself. He was going to try using fire mana this time and he didn''t want to risk setting his room on fire. At least here, not much to burn down, only stone and dirt,


    Julius sat down and began focusing on the task at hand. Fire magic was supposed to be relatively easy to use. It was an affinity that was highly desired for combat because of its offensive potential while being easy to learn. The hard part was being able to control the flames with any measure of success.


    He started to gather fire mana from his core with an obsessive single-mindedness. He wasn''t going to fail another time today. Once he accumulated enough mana he willed it to ignite. For a moment nothing happened, the mass of fire mana just sat there idle.


    Gritting his teeth, he pushed hard. Visualizing a spark that ignites the fire mana into an explosion of flame.


    Then there was a huge release and a pillar of fire blasted right in front of his face and up to the night sky.


    He flinched backward and dove out of the way. Julius had been inches away from burning his face off. He was so worried about just creating fire magic that he didn''t even think about where it was going to go.


    Getting back to his original position, he took a deep breath. Once he calmed himself, he tried again. This time he used about half the amount. It came much easier and immediately he felt he could ignite it whenever he wanted. However, unlike last time, he imagined a spike of flame constructed from the fire mana.


    What appeared was an uneven red stick that wobbled in the air. It was a start at least. He tried to fix the shape carefully. He didn''t want to accidentally release the volatile fire mana that it was made up of. At first, he tried to change the shape after putting a dozen feet between him and the stick-like mana construct. Unfortunately, it seemed that it became much harder to manipulate its shape the further away he got.


    At last, he got closer to the scary fire stick and began to change its shape. He handled it like a newborn baby, the last thing he wanted was for it to explode in his face again. With a tight grip around it, he could feel the fire mana slowly dissipating.


    Thinking for a bit, he started to feed more mana into it. He concentrated on making it more uniform across the length. Ever so slowly, the uneven stick turned into a red pencil-like object. It wasn''t pretty by any means, but at least now it looked like it could fly through the air.


    Excited, he quickly aimed the fire arrow at the nearest training dummy. The dummy was made of wood and reinforced steel. So it was a good target to see how it was. Julius focused on making it fly toward the target and then explode.


    The results were anti-climatic. He had imagined an arrow of fire launching through the air and exploding the dummy into pieces. Instead, the arrow of fire was still moving at the pace of a slow jog.


    It was a wonderful technique if his opponent was a turtle. Julius needed it to go faster.


    Once the arrow of fire landed on the target, an explosion erupted with a bang. It had scorched the dummy pretty badly, leaving some burn marks over the surface.


    Power-wise, it was far beyond what he thought should have been possible for his rank. It might have been the result of condensing his mana so much before he formed his core, but he didn''t have anything to compare it to. He certainly felt like his mana was potent and still hadn''t come close to emptying it, but he had no context.


    While the power was impressive, the speed was atrocious. It moved like a fat man waddling toward a salad bar. But he had an idea about what he could do to fix that.


    He believed that he was controlling the mana too tightly. It felt as if he was guiding the mana to the target, not releasing it. With a brand new idea in mind, he tried again.


    This time, he carefully formed a much smaller bullet size construct. It barely took any mana to form. Then he envisioned what he wanted it to do. He wanted to recreate a bullet firing out of a rifle. Hence, he wanted to create an explosion behind the actual projectile, that would generate enough force to shoot it towards his target.


    The only issue he could foresee would be the mana construct would not be able to handle the force of the explosion and would just blow up instantly.


    Therefore, Julius wanted to start slow. At first, he wanted to create an explosion that would shoot the fire bullet at a reasonable speed. Something he felt like he could control or at least that would keep the bullet together so that it wouldn''t blow up in his face.


    Julius held the bullet a foot away from him and focused on creating a small burst of energy behind the bullet.


    He immediately stopped what he was doing. Was he dumb or something? Why would he think setting off a small bomb in front of his face was any better? He had seen what that small deformed arrow had done to the target. If that was his face, he might have gotten seriously injured or even killed.


    He was so set on creating little fire bombs that he could shoot at enemies that he forgot that most fire users did not use fire mana in this way. The typical way fire mana was used, followed how he had used it the first time. Others would manifest streams of fire towards their enemy similar to a flamethrower. It wasn''t until they reached Tier 2 that they started to use more advanced techniques, like a fire bolt.


    He felt stupid. Here he was, late at night, practicing deadly techniques that could blow him up, without Edwin or anyone to look over him. He may have a life affinity now, but it wasn''t anywhere close to good enough to heal from 3rd-degree burns. He realized he had been impatient for so many years not being able to use magic, and he was getting way ahead of himself.


    Mentally reprimanding himself that magic wasn''t a toy, he slowed down and practiced just igniting fire like he did before. He started with small amounts that he would then release outwards, careful not to burn himself.


    He had to admit to himself, that while he wasn''t making firebombs, he was having a lot of fun. After a while, he was experimenting with how various shapes of fire mana would create different flames.


    He was so focused on playing with his fire that hours passed by without him realizing it. By now, he had become more familiar with the steps of gathering and igniting, and it had become more of a cohesive process. Julius was able to now summon fire over his palm without burning himself at will. He also could maneuver it with increasing precision.


    At the moment, he had split the fire into several strands of thin ribbons and was trying to recreate complex shapes like a double helix or even animating little stick figures. They weren''t pretty, but he thought if someone were to see it, they would have a good guess of what it was.


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    Julius didn''t quite comprehend it, but he started to see how far along his mana manipulation had come. He didn''t have the skill, so it was hard to measure his progress. Nevertheless, he still remembered how hard it was to form a simple triangle with mana when he first started.


    If his first attempts were like a toddler learning to write, the current him was incomparable. He was curious what his skill level would have been if he had the skill. He was confident it would have reached its first rank by now, getting a neat upgrade, and a small part of him regretted not going with [Mana Manipulation]. But he knew that in the long run, he would be better off not leaning off the crutch of the skill. He had felt what the skill was like, it was comparable to [Focus], and it practically did half the work by itself. With [Mana Manipulation], he might not have spent as much time challenging himself to find ways to improve. His creativity and connection with mana had been the main benefits of using it naturally.


    Julius didn''t know what time it was, but he checked how much mana he had left in his core. He was still full on his life and kinetic mana, but his fire mana was at just under fifty percent. Honestly way more than he would have thought after such extensive practice. With that being said, he wasn''t using large amounts at a time and whenever he could he would try to recycle as much as he could back into his core. So he could see why he still had so much left.


    In any case, Julius felt like it was a productive night and had improved by a large margin. He was very happy with himself, he didn''t know that playing around with fire could be so entertaining. But it was about time to head back in and go to sleep. He still had early training with Edwin after all.


    As he got up from his position in the training yard, he looked around, taking in the beautiful crisp night air. There weren''t any clouds obscuring the night sky and the dazzling stars.


    It was late at night, so many of the lights were turned off around the estate and it was hard to see where he was going. Therefore, he turned on [Spatial Perception] to find his way back to his room. Once he entered the wing where he, his uncle, and Edwin lived, Julius felt something.


    It was a tingling sensation that crept up his spine. The dark hallways that were only lit with the occasional glow of mana lamps were quite eerie when he noticed it. He shouldn''t be scared, he wasn''t actually a kid and knew there weren''t monsters hiding in the walls anymore.


    Despite that, he still activated [Spatial Perception] to the limit, just to make sure. He knew he was being paranoid but it was good practice anyway, he told himself.


    However, he picked up something at the edge of his senses. A mixture of nervousness and curiosity went through him. He intensified his ability and directed it toward where he detected something.


    It was a figure hiding in shadows down the hall. Julius froze in terror. His heart just stopped and his stomach felt like someone had just stabbed an icy dagger right into it.


    A worker? No, there are never any around this time of night. Even if they were, why are they hiding in the shadows? If I didn''t have [Spatial Perception] I would not have ever noticed them. An intruder? How did someone make it inside the mansion, even getting into the estate should be impossible.


    A thousand questions and no answers ran through his head. He didn''t know if the person was watching him or not. Should he pretend that nothing was wrong? Or should he confront him? No, confronting is a really bad idea. If the person was hostile there was nothing Julius could do. You don''t just break into House Hyperius''s property without some strength.


    Luckily, the person should not have been given any reason to notice Julius. To his knowledge, [Spatial Perception] didn''t let others know he could perceive them.


    Okay, so pretending I didn''t notice him is my first step. But what do I do after that?


    Julius started to walk again like nothing had happened, making his way to his room. He was so anxious and scared. What if the person thought Julius was suspicious anyway and decided to come out of hiding to silence him? Julius swore the person could hear his heart pounding in his chest from where he was. His legs were shaking from the fear and adrenaline coursing through him.


    Julius needed to figure out a plan quickly. There wasn''t much time left before he reached his room, and once he got there he wouldn''t have another chance. He couldn''t just go into his room and hide. If they were here to harm them, hiding inside his room would just guarantee his death, as well as Lukas''s and Edwin''s.


    The first thing that popped into his head, was trying to alert Edwin and Lukas of the danger. With panic-filled desperation he pushed [Spatial Perception] to its limits, trying to see what was happening in his uncle''s and Edwin''s rooms.


    He could make out both of their bodies sleeping in their beds. Unfortunately, he also noticed several more figures outside their hallways. They all seemed to be surrounded by some sort of shadow mana, hiding their presence.


    Julius wouldn''t be able to make it to their doors without being seen by the intruders. How was he going to wake them up without grabbing attention? He purposefully slowed his walk to give him more time to think about what he could do.


    Yet, Julius wasn''t able to come up with anything. The only plan he could come up with was to get as close as he could to their rooms and shout as loud as he could.


    It wasn''t much of a plan. Honestly, it was a shit plan. But he had nothing else.


    Julius took a slow breath and steeled himself. He needed to use [Spatial Perception] and pay attention to each of the intruder''s movements. It was essential to get as close as he could before they noticed something was up. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    If he could get to either Lukas or Edwin, he would have a much better chance of surviving. But Julius suspected that they would try to kill him before he could reach the door.


    Acting as casually as Julius could, he walked towards Edwin''s door. It was the closer of the two and was twenty paces down the hall from his room.


    At the moment, twenty paces felt like crossing the ocean. He could feel all the intruder''s gazes shift towards him as he passed the door to his room. Julius faked a yawn and stretched, trying to lower their guards even by a little.


    Fifteen paces away. They probably realized that Julius had just walked past his door and was walking toward the others.


    Keeping his focus on every inch of their movements, Julius was ready to act at the slightest indication they were going to stop him. [Spatial Perception] was the only thing going for him, they didn''t have reason to suspect him knowing they were there.


    Ten paces. Julius felt the one who was closest to Edwin''s door shift ever so slightly. Fortunately, they were the only person who seemed like they would make a move at the moment. The rest were still just tracking him from the shadows with their eyes.


    Five paces. The person seemed to get suspicious of Julius and removed a small knife from the inside of his clothing. Then he stood up and slowly walked towards Julius''s position.


    Julius finally arrived right in front of Edwin''s door. The person was now just a few steps behind him silently getting closer. If it wasn''t for his skill, he would have never known he was there. Julius was unable to fully control his breathing, and his hands were slick with his sweat.


    With a jolt of fear, he felt the person''s muscles tense. Julius was able to recognize the telltale signs of when someone was about to strike.


    Unbelievably fast, the intruder delivered a strike at his head that would have killed him, Julius already moving, threw himself down supporting his hands on the door, and launched a kick at the intruder''s face.


    Julius hadn''t managed to time a kinetic strike a single time today. However, when everything was on the line and he was on the edge of death, Julius delivered his first kinetic strike.


    Julius didn''t hold back on mana whatsoever, he loaded as much mana into his leg and blasted it into the intruder''s face. The force of the kick, knocked the intruder only a few feet back, surprising him more than actually hurting him.


    Julius on the other hand felt like he just kicked a steel wall. The recoil of the strike threw him head-first into the wooden door to Edwin''s room. The door was unable to take it and the hinges blew off the door.


    Julius was thrown into the middle of the room, dazed from breaking the door with his face. It was only by instincts that saved him from the follow-up from the intruder. He still had residual kinetic mana left in his leg and used it to literally throw himself away from the knife coming for his throat. Even though he moved before the man even struck, the knife still nicked him right under his chin.


    However, he was unbalanced now and in no position to evade the next attack. The extreme usage of kinetic mana had left his legs a painful mess and he couldn''t move. But he wouldn''t go out quietly. Not like before. While he would undoubtedly die again, he would go out fighting this time.


    In his final seconds, time slowed to a crawl. Julius didn''t have anything else on his mind except to compress as much fire and kinetic mana as possible. To the outside world, it seemed like in the blink of an eye a violet-colored orb of mana was created and shot out.


    Julius all the while, could only stare at the knife that was heading straight at his eye. Beyond the edge of the knife, he could see the surprise and fear in the assassin''s eyes behind their mask.


    I gave it my all. He thought to himself with a smile.

 Chapter 14: Survival

    Right when he thought he was done for, Julius was grabbed from behind and tossed out of the way of the knife.In the chaos, Julius had completely forgotten to wake Edwin up. Luckily, it seemed that breaking down his door was sufficient enough to wake Edwin from his slumber.


    Edwin, after getting Julius out of the way, quickly attacked the intruder. Julius couldn''t follow their movements. However, a split second later, Edwin had a blade of shadow mana rammed through the chest of his opponent. The assassin never had a chance.


    Seeing the commotion from Edwin''s room, Julius sensed the other assassins converging on it from their hiding places. The violet orb of mana didn''t make contact with his attacker, it was much faster than his previous constructs, but it was still too slow to hit a high-tiered opponent. Yet, it seemed that Lady Luck was on his side and the orb, missing his intended target, was heading directly towards the doorway, where the assassins were now running.


    The mass of violet mana hit the chest of the first assassin just as he was turning into the room and detonated. Unlike, his earlier kick on the first intruder this attack did much more damage.


    The combination of condensed fire and kinetic mana created a lethal explosion that ripped through the defenses of the assassin. The orb that Julius created wasn''t a technique that focused on elegance or efficiency. It was a construct that had one purpose, to destroy anything in its path.


    That being said, Julius was still only Tier 1, so to be able to hurt someone who was probably Tier 3 or 4 was next to impossible. It was already insanely difficult to fight up to Tier 2 as a Tier 1, and the disparity between ranks only increased as you advanced.


    That was why it was so surprising to see how effective his attack had been against a much superior opponent. The assassin was enveloped in the explosion and was blasted out of the doorway and through the walls of the building. Leaving a human-sized crater in its wake.


    The hallway didn''t remain unscathed either. The surroundings of the explosion destroyed everything around it and the wall connecting Edwin''s room to the hallway had turned to rubble.


    Julius could only hear ringing in his ears from the shockwave of the blast. The chaos that Julius had caused provided a few moments for Edwin to get his bearings.


    Edwin took a quick look around at the intruders still converging on them and immediately sent out a wave of shadow mana. It hit the group and they all swayed as if they were drunk. It seemed like the purpose was only to disorient the assassins because Edwin instantly turned to the wall that connected his room and Lukas''s and blew a large hole through it.


    Julius understood what Edwin was doing. He was trying to get to Lukas''s side, knowing that he was probably the intended target.


    The other room had a similar scene playing out. Apparently, Lukas had heard the noise as well and woke up. However, around ten attackers were in the process of trying to kill the Patriarch, compared to the four who were in Edwin''s room.


    It did seem that their true target was the Patriarch of House Hyperius. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Lukas was holding his own.


    His uncle had a thick golden barrier made of sun mana protecting him from the bombardment from the assassins. He also was simultaneously tossing out golden blasts whenever he could.


    Unfortunately, it seemed like the assassin knew about his uncle''s abilities and had prepared accordingly. Three attackers with pitch-black shields stood in front of the others. These shields were able to absorb Lukas''s blasts with ease. It was almost like they consuming the light out of the blasts.


    It seemed like they had come well-prepared. It was well-known that sun affinity users were much more powerful during the daytime. It was also why they probably tried to assassinate Lukas at night. Therefore, they thought they had the best chance of success if they attacked him when he was weakest and defenseless in bed.


    Still, the assassins weren''t making much headway into breaking Lukas''s defenses. To Julius''s surprise, Edwin grabbed him by the arm and whipped him over to Lukas''s feet. His uncle expanded his barrier a bit so Julius was safe from any stray shots.


    Edwin on the other hand, promptly disappeared and reappeared directly behind the attackers. Within a blink, he took out one shield user with a blade to the back of their throat and disappeared again before half a dozen strikes landed on his location. This time, he reappeared several steps to the side and launched the same wave of mana he used in the other room at all of them. Disoriented, the attackers didn''t focus on Lukas, who had swept a narrow disk of condensed mana at the distracted intruders. It managed to cut through four of them like they were clay.


    The other four from the other room had made their way over and now there were nine opponents against Edwin, Lukas, and Julius. They also didn''t leave any more gaps for Lukas to exploit. Every attack from him was blocked by those black shields.


    Julius just sat there behind the barrier and watched. He was aware he was more of a liability than anything else. Because he was there, Lukas was forced to continue protecting him within the barrier.


    He constantly pulsed [Spatial Perception], making sure nothing snuck up on them. But the intense usage of it was putting a large toll on his brain. His legs were still a mess, even with him sending as much life mana as he could down into them. The only thing he thought might help, was to try to replicate that violet mana orb again.


    He didn''t know exactly how he did it, but it was the only thing he had done that caused actual damage. Taking a deep breath, he tried to remember that feeling. Ever since he successfully delivered that kinetic empowered kick, a switch seemed to flick for Julius. Kinetic mana was now more responsive than before. It was as if once he had done it, his body wouldn''t let him forget it.


    Julius did seem to vaguely remember getting a notification during the chaos. So before he tried to recreate the orb he wanted to quickly check to see if there was a skill available. Any increase in strength would be useful right and might be the difference between life and death. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Spatial Perception] has reached threshold. [Spatial Perception lvl 16 -> Spatial Perception lvl 17]


    [Spatial Perception] has reached threshold. [Spatial Perception lvl 17 -> Spatial Perception lvl 18]


    [Focus] has reached threshold. [Focus lvl 8 -> Focus lvl 9]


    He got two consecutive level-ups in [Spatial Perception] and one in [Focus}. It must have been the pressure he was under with the threat of death. It was an open secret that skill levels correlated with how much stress your soul was received. But he didn''t think it would have been this drastic.


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    There were more notifications.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Kinetic Release]?


    Would you like to learn the skill [Thermal Compression] (Uncommon)?


    He was offered two skills, and one was even uncommon at that. Learning an uncommon skill without evolving an existing general skill was difficult, not many were able to achieve it. He had a feeling it was because of his prior experience with compressing his own mana for years.


    Julius had accepted both of them without a second thought. They might not be what he wanted in the long run, but if he survives the night, he could always remove them later.


    Congratulations, skill [Kinetic Release] acquired.


    Congratulations, skill [Thermal Compression] (Uncommon) acquired.


    While Julius was fooling around with his new skills, Edwin and Lukas were fighting the remaining assassins. Feeling bad for being dead weight, he focused on his task.


    [Thermal Compression] unsurprisingly was related to how Julius compressed his fire mana to its limit and [Kinetic Release] was similar to what he had done with his kick to the assassin''s face. While they weren''t new variations of his abilities, these skills made a large difference already. He could feel them starting to activate on their own, with just the thought of it.


    He began to load fire mana into another orb, while also trying to add kinetic mana on top of it. However, the way the kinetic mana was interacting with the fire mana did not feel the same as before. Earlier, the fire mana and kinetic mana seemed to swirl together inside, feeding off one another''s energy.


    Therefore, he started to spin the mana inside the orb, not worrying about controlling each mana type separately, just trying to mix them together like in a blender. While he was continuing to dump mana into the orb, it started to spin faster and as a result, compress even further, [Thermal Compression] making it practically automatic. He took much longer to form it compared to his previous one, but this time it felt stronger.


    After almost ten seconds, he finally held in front of him an orb of compressed fire and kinetic mana. It was still a violet color but was now rapidly swirling within its confines.


    The mental toll it took to control this much mana together, all while feeding it two separate mana types was massive. On top of his generous use of [Spatial Perception], his brain was just about to melt into a puddle.


    Julius didn''t know if Lukas''s barrier only stopped external attacks or if it allowed attacks from the inside to be sent out. It looked like Lukas''s own attacks had no problem going through, but it might just be because its his technique.


    So, Julius tapped his uncle''s side to gain his attention.


    Lukas had been observing Julius create the orb while he was defending and attacking the assassins. Truthfully, he was shocked at how much mana Julius had managed to fit inside the orb. Julius always seemed to have a talent for condensing mana. Furthermore, Lukas was also aware of the unnatural purity of Julius''s mana after his baptism. It was unknown to him why Julius had such rich mana at Tier 1 but it was only a benefit to Julius and subsequently, House Hyperius, so Lukas didn''t pry.


    These factors, combined with Julius''s high mana capacity, put Julius far above any Tier 1 Lukas had ever met. He would never tell Julius this, but just off of pure raw mana, Julius was at the level of a Tier 2 combatant.


    It seemed that Julius himself had no idea how far ahead he was compared to other children his age. His isolation left him without anyone to compare himself to, and with Edwin''s brutal training, Julius''s foundation was unbelievable. Lukas truly was convinced that Julius would reach Tier 6 maybe even Tier 7 someday, as long as he lived long enough.


    He needed to make sure Julius survived no matter what. If Julius reached his potential, House Hyperius''s success was assured.


    After getting Lukas''s attention, Julius didn''t even need to say anything. Lukas just opened a small gap in his barrier around the size of the orb and Julius quickly shot the orb right toward the attackers.


    It seemed like Edwin had taken care of one assailant in the meantime. Still, the two remaining with shields were the biggest threats. Those shields seemed to be specifically made to counter sun magic and they needed to be taken care of before anything else.


    Julius used [Kinetic Release] to use up some of the charge he built up on the outside of the orb. Unlike his prior attempts where he tried to use explosions to propel the construct, kinetic was much more delicate on the orb. The kinetic mana acted similar to a jet thruster, pushing force one way, and the orb speeding toward the other.


    This meant the orb was much faster than any other attempt so far. The shield-bearing figures noticed the projectile and braced themselves against the incoming orb. Edwin, once he saw what Julius was trying to do, teleported away from the group and shot another wave of shadow mana. It didn''t do as much as it did the first time, as they were prepared for it, but it still staggered them.


    The orb hit the shields with a monstrous force, detonating on impact. The shield users themselves stumbled backward. The shock was evident in their eyes. They weren''t expecting such a blow from a child. One of them even almost lost his grip on the shield.


    Edwin immediately capitalized on this opening and confusion. He teleported directly overhead and released a massive blast of shadow mana that shredded the one who almost dropped the shield and took the entire left arm from the other.


    With only one more shield user, who was half crippled, Lukas made his move. He surrounded the remaining assassins with golden light. The sole shield was trying to absorb as much of the mana as it could and the others were desperately flinging spells at Lukas, but it wasn''t enough. Lukas powered this move with enough mana that it had completely overpowered whatever effect it had. Once, the entire group was enveloped in the thick aura, Lukas released his technique on them.


    In a similar fashion to what happened to Gregor, a divine beam of light burst enveloped them, this time Julius could feel the heat and oppressive force it constrained. Every single one of them was vaporized. Nothing but ash and several pieces of equipment survived its wrath.


    Just like that it was over. Julius was exhausted. He had a lot of mana, but those two orbs took everything out of him and it would take several hours before he could regenerate his mana.


    Only that Edwin and Lukas didn''t look like they thought it was over. They were still on edge and prepared to fight more.


    Their instincts were proven correct as Julius could see through a hole in the wall to the outside and saw a layer of blue mana sealing off the entire section of the mansion they were in, like a dome. They were trapped.


    He heard Edwin, curse under his breath.


    Lukas let out a soft sigh as well, "They somehow activated the property''s wards and now we can''t leave. I wondered how they got in, but now it makes sense." Lukas said.


    "You think someone betrayed us?" Edwin asked Lukas.


    "Yes, they had to have someone on the inside let them in and then give them access to the wards. It probably took them a long time too, otherwise, I would have seen signs of tampering."


    "What does that mean for us?" Julius asked the two.


    Neither replied, but that was an answer itself. It didn''t look good for them.


    "The ones that attacked us were probably expecting to catch us off guard in our sleep. Honestly, they would have if you didn''t wake us up, Julius. Those shields were made to counter my skills and they would have eventually whittled me down. We are alive because of you." Lukas finally said to Julius, ruffling his hair.


    The realization of how close to their deaths hit Julius. One false step, and they could have died. Not that they were out of danger yet. It seemed like they were still in a bad situation.


    "I only noticed them because I felt something was off and [Spatial Perception] picked up on them hiding in the shadows." Julius paused for a moment. "Were they from the Genshen Clan?"


    Lukas nodded his head. "Yeah, I expect one of our enemies, maybe Duke Greyson, hired them for this job."


    Edwin spoke up, "We should head towards the emergency teleportation station. They shouldn''t know about it, and they might think we are trapped inside. The only worry is that the wards might interfere with any long-range teleportation. With that said, it is still our best chance."


    "Where will it send us?" Julius asked.


    "It is supposed to send us to a corresponding teleportation station in one of our safe houses. It should be the one in Celestia." Lukas said.


    Julius hadn''t heard much about Celestia, only that it was the nearest city to the estate and where House Hyperius held many of their holdings. But it seemed like that was their next destination, assuming they got to the teleportation station first.

 Chapter 15: Teleportation Formation

    The three of them quietly made their way to the station. Julius didn''t know what was happening outside of the ward, he didn''t see or hear anything. It was odd, nobody was coming to check on their Patriarch. Admittedly, there weren''t many combatants on the estate, but Julius still expected some like Samuel or others to investigate.However, there was no noticeable attempt to help the three of them out. The fact that someone who had access to the property''s wards had betrayed them plus that nobody was coming to help, was a troublesome sign. This was all looking very shady.


    That said, Julius didn''t understand enough about the political environment of the family to make any speculations.


    The way to the emergency teleportation was too quiet, there wasn''t a single sound except for the shuffling of their feet. The station was set up beneath the dining room, in a hidden underground chamber.


    Edwin moved a large shelf that covered up the entrance to the chamber. However, Julius got that feeling again, the one he got earlier when walking back to his room. Using [Spatial Perception] he tried to see beyond the door but due to his overuse of the skill or something else blocking it, he couldn''t see what was behind it. He quickly placed his hand on Edwin''s, who was about to open the door.


    "I can''t see what''s inside. Something feels off." Julius said.


    Surprisingly, Edwin looked at Julius and seriously contemplated what he just said. It seemed like Edwin trusted Julius''s judgment and took his words to heart.


    "We don''t have many other options." Edwin finally said.


    "I know that, but if it''s a trap, we don''t need to waltz right into it," Julius argued.


    "You''re right. Edwin, you should hide yourself, while Julius and I enter, you come in from behind. If someone is waiting for us, they might just think it is the two of us." Lukas said from behind Julius.


    Edwin thought about it and nodded his head, quickly disappearing from view. Lukas summoned his golden barrier again and put his hand on the door then opened it.


    Inside, was a dark space that had a glowing platform in the center of it. Julius nervously looked around and scanned the surroundings with [Spatial Perception]. It seemed like the skill worked again once he got inside.


    Before he could even react, a wall of blue flame smothered the golden barrier. Julius could feel the intense heat from inside, roasting him like a chicken in the oven. The barrier that had held against all the assassin''s attacks earlier was now showing signs of cracking at the edges.


    The wave of fire finally let up and Julius saw several figures standing in front of a platform. He didn''t immediately recognize any of them, except for one. The man standing directly in the middle was Samuel. The same man who was at his baptism and who was supposedly a loyal member of House Hyperius.


    It seemed he no longer felt that way.


    Lukas didn''t look that surprised, only angry and disappointed.


    "Samuel," Lukas said quietly while staring directly into his eyes.


    "I''m sorry, Lukas. We received an offer from Duke Greyson that guarantees House Hyperius''s safety. But it came with one condition" Samuel apologized.


    "What was it? To slit your own family''s throat in their bed?" Lukas needled at Samuel.


    Samuel shook his head. "Don''t be like that. You know that the house comes before everyone, even you."


    "Yes, but we don''t sell out each other," Lukas said.


    "What did you expect? We are stranded in the middle of the ocean and there''s blood in the water. Everyone is coming after us to get a piece of our flesh. If we don''t do something House Hyperius won''t survive. This was the only way." Samuel said heatedly.


    "No. It was just the easiest way." Lukas said disappointedly.


    A flash of guilt went across Samuel''s face. "You''re right. It was the easiest choice, but that doesn''t mean it isn''t the best one."


    As Lukas and Samuel went back and forth, Julius took a look at the other figures in the room with them. Now that he was looking closer, there were half a dozen of them. He spotted a man and a woman who he thought were present at his baptism as well. This meant that Samuel wasn''t just doing it alone, others in the house went along with this plan too.


    He also vaguely sensed Edwin. It was always hard to track Edwin when he hid, but Julius was so familiar with his presence that he could still feel a wispy aura sneaking its way to the platform.


    Lukas is distracting them so that Edwin has time to prepare the transport, Julius thought. It wasn''t a bad idea, so far it was their only chance out of this mess.


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    Julius could feel the pressure exuding from the other figures, they were all on par with Samuel. Furthermore, Samuel was a Tier 5, a strong one at that. So that must''ve meant that they were potentially facing six elite Tier 5''s.


    Lukas was their only Tier 5 combatant. Edwin was only a Tier 4, and Julius was a Tier 1 who was physically and mentally spent, as well as having practically no mana. Even though Lukas was renowned for his ability to fight beyond his tier, fighting six-on-one while protecting a child was too tall a task.


    It was looking bleak and Lukas seemed to understand this as well.


    His uncle looked at Julius with calm eyes. "Go," he said softly.


    Julius knew better than to argue and ran directly to the side of the room.


    They don''t know about Edwin yet, I just need to make it to the platform. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    All of a sudden, Julius felt a mountain crash over his back. Turning back, he saw his uncle shrouded in a golden aura, radiating immense heat and light. It was on a whole other level than when he was fighting the assassins. The pressure from his uncle physically affected Julius, and by the looks of it, the enemies were taking it even worse.


    Julis knew Lukas had been holding back for his sake, but it was astounding to see his uncle show his true strength. The strength that had protected House Hyperius for years. The might of a Tier 5 with a perfect sun affinity.


    This was the power of those at the top of the continent, the power that Julius sought.


    Lukas and three of his opponents were in the air trading attacks back and forth, while the others on the ground were sending their own techniques at Lukas. They were trying to corral him and box him in. But Lukas was too fast and too skilled.


    They were moving so fast to Julius''s eyes, that it looked like they were teleporting from place to place in a flash of light. Julius couldn''t even see their figures anymore just a zipper of light dancing across the chamber. He could only tell which one was Lukas based on the golden-colored light. Several attacks managed to get near, but whenever that happened a golden barrier would erupt around him, protecting Julius.


    Lukas was still protecting Julius, even as he was fighting six Tier 5 opponents. It was unbelievable.


    Taking one last glance at the fight going on, Julius took off toward the platform. His legs were barely functioning at this point, even with Julius constantly infusing his legs with life mana. He promised himself that if he survived this, his first priority would be to learn a proper healing skill.


    Edwin should have been close to finishing the preparations by now. And by the looks of things, his uncle was more than occupying his opponent''s attention. They were too busy trying to not die than to worry about a Tier 1 child.


    Julius ran in the direction he felt Edwin and felt the teleportation runes start to hum with mana. It seemed that Edwin had started it up. Julius stopped next to the still invisible Edwin and took the time to catch his breath, pumping his body with as much life mana as he could. It was the only mana he had left but it was too slow to heal his injuries, only staving off the worst of his exhaustion.


    Unfortunately, it seemed like that also got the attention of the enemies. A massive lance of blue ice crashed into the platform, shaking the intricate circuits being formed by the teleportation runes.


    Another lance followed directly after it. However, this time Edwin decided to reveal himself and intercept the ice lance.


    Shadow mana was not good for direct confrontations, it was for evading and misdirection. Regardless, Edwin used his body to deflect the lance away from the runes. He was unable to handle the force of the attack and was thrown off to the side.


    Still, that didn''t stop Edwin from getting back up and deflecting another lance of ice. The woman who was sending the lances was still busy fighting Lukas and her main focus was on his uncle, dodging thick pillars of light trying to spear her out of the air. It was the only reason, the teleportation circle wasn''t broken yet.


    Finally, Julius felt the mana settle down and realized it was ready to be activated. Samuel, while fighting Lukas seemed to sense this as well. Therefore, he took his attention away from the fight and launched a rotating spike of dark red mana at the platform.


    Taking advantage of his distraction, Lukas was able to land a hit on Samuel''s shoulder, severing his entire left arm.


    However, the damage was done. Edwin was busy blocking the ice lances with everything he had and the attack landed directly onto the runic formation, cracking and shattering some of the links.


    Yet, in a twist of fate, it was also the trigger to activate the circle.


    Julius saw the panicked look on Edwin''s face as he was trying desperately to get to Julius''s side. However, he was too late. The formation was activated and Julius felt the mana release in a massive explosion.


    In an instant, Julius was enveloped within the mana and was gone in the next.


    Whatever damage Samuel did to the transportation runes, must''ve caused the formation to malfunction. Julius felt the formation grab him, twist him into a tiny ball, and shove him into a blender.


    He felt his skin was ripped apart and his bones were crushed into dust. He was absolutely sure that being transported was not supposed to hurt this much. It wasn''t like he was instantaneously transported to another location either. He stayed stuck within a void for what seemed like an eternity, unable to see or hear anything. Even [Spatial Perception] said there was nothing around him. The only thing he had to keep him company, were sensations of pain and his thoughts.


    Julius didn''t know what happened to Lukas or Edwin. The worry he felt exceeded the pain he was in. The hopeful side of him believed that they would be alright, but the rational side of him spoke of a different outcome. As strong as Lukas was, the enemies would whittle him down like a pack of wolves until he ran out of mana or made a mistake.


    His thoughts turned into despair at the injustice of his situation. It seemed whenever he got close to people they were always taken away from him. It was always something that was outside his control.


    His mother, father, and sister were killed by a drunk driver. His grandfather had died of cancer. Now his new family was likely killed due to the machinations of a powerful ducal house. He never had the chance to save them, because he was powerless. He was always either unable to or too weak to save them.


    Never again. I will never be powerless to save another person I care about again.


    His old world didn''t have magic, but this one did.


    Julius swore that one day he would become powerful enough that he could control his fate. He wouldn''t let it steal any more of his loved ones away.


    That was his vow.


    He would transcend fate.

 Chapter 16: Lost in the Woods

    Julius woke up face down in the dirt. His body was in agony and the pain made him breathless.Gritting his teeth, he grasped some life mana from his core and sent it throughout his body. The small infusion took the edge off the pain and let him finally breathe again. He noticed something wet was pooling at his side, soaking his clothes.


    It smelled like rust and copper, and with a quick inspection, he confirmed it was his own blood. There was a gaping hole on his side and it was leaking out like a deflated water balloon. At this rate, he might die from bleeding out.


    He didn''t know where it came from but he needed to heal it fast or else he was going to die face down, ass up, in a pool of his own blood. If there were any time to create a skill for healing it would be now.


    First, he had to focus on stopping the bleeding. He didn''t have any tools or bandages to staunch it, but he checked his core and felt that he had some fire mana, it must''ve regenerated while he was unconscious.


    Rolling over, he concentrated on creating a jet of constant flame. It was hard to keep focused on it, his brain was muddled from either the blood loss or the pain. He couldn''t tell at this point. But eventually, he managed to create a soft red flame over his palm. Then gently lifting his shirt with the other hand, he pressed the fire directly onto his wound.


    Julius couldn''t even scream, choking on his tongue in silent agony. The smell of burning flesh wafted from his torso. Once he felt like he cauterized the wound and could no longer take the pain, he released the flame and started to gather life mana towards his side.


    Julius had understood something about life mana. It was different than fire and kinetic mana. Where fire and kinetic were like beasts that needed a firm hand to control, life mana was the opposite. It required a delicate touch and you needed to convince it to do what you wanted.


    That''s what Julius needed to do, he had to envision it healing him while he softly infused life mana into his injuries. As he was delicately leading life mana into the location of the wound, he desperately tried convincing it to heal him, to save his life.


    It wasn''t enough. The life mana was just floating around his wound, with no direction, just passively healing it. It was too slow. Julius tried to recall as much information as he had about healing. He wasn''t a doctor but he knew enough about biology to get by.


    He imagined the life mana visibly healing his tissue, taking oxygen in, and breathing life into his flesh. Rebuilding each cell of skin bit by bit.


    This caused a reaction, he started to feel his skin become itchy and feel his body requiring more mana to sustain this process.


    Julius let it have it all. But it wasn''t enough, he needed something more. Thus, he used the same method he used for all of his magic applications, he just condensed the hell out of it. Julius didn''t have the required knowledge to carefully finesse his mana to heal him. Therefore, he would just need to brute force it.


    Julius jammed as much compressed life mana into his wound as he possibly could. There was so much mana present, that his side started to glow a brilliant verdant green. Then, to his astonishment, his skin was seen visibly healing. Not very fast, but at this rate, his wound would be healed within ten minutes.


    Ten minutes later, and with practically no life mana left, his side was healed. Admittedly, it was a horrendous job that any proper healer would be ashamed of. His skin was left horribly disfigured with burn scarring all across its surface. It was a patchwork of ugly healing at best, but it got the job done.


    He also got a notification along with it.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Heal]?


    It seemed that Julius would finally get that healing skill he was desperately wanting. It would have been more useful ten minutes ago but better late than never. He accepted it quickly.


    Congratulations, skill [Heal] acquired. S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It also seemed like he had some notifications from the fight that he didn''t see.


    [Thermal Compression] has reached threshold. [Thermal Compression lvl1 -> Thermal Compression lvl 2]


    [Kinetic Release] has reached threshold. [Kinetic Release lvl1 -> Kinetic Release lvl 2]


    [Focus] has reached threshold. [Focus lvl 9 ->Focus lvl 10]


    [Focus] has advanced to level 10. Would you like to evolve the skill?


    Julius was surprised, he always thought that [Unarmed Combat] would be his first skill to level 10 but it seemed like he was wrong. He wasn''t upset, and couldn''t see any reason not to, so he mentally confirmed to evolve [Focus].


    Skill [Focus] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Enhanced Focus] and [Combat Trance]


    Julius learned about the possibility of choosing multiple skill evolutions when you rank them up. Most of the time, people get offered a general upgrade of the skill. Something that increases it across the board, but there could also be an option to specialize within a certain part of the skill depending on how you had used it.


    For Julius, it seemed like he got an option that specializes in combat.


    If it was before everything happened, the obvious choice would have been [Enhanced Focus] but now he was stranded in the middle of the wilderness with monsters lurking around. It was expected that he would be doing a lot of fighting. But he really liked how the general [Focus] worked. It was incredibly versatile and was able to be applied to everything that he wanted it to.


    While the effects weren''t as dramatic as say [Thermal Compression] it was still a useful skill that gave a small boost to many other applications. However, his instincts were telling him that [Combat Trance] was going to be vital in the future.


    In the end, he decided to follow his gut. It hadn''t steered him wrong yet.


    Congratulations, skill [Combat Trance] (Uncommon) acquired.


    He tried activating [Combat Trance] the moment he received it and it seemed like his suspicions were right. It no longer worked on everything, it took more manual effort to get to the same level of focus again.


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    Despite that, it wasn''t as big of a difference as he initially predicted either. It appeared that Julius had been getting better at focusing regardless of the skill. The skill had been giving him a little extra boost, but nothing so extreme that it was detrimental.


    However, his new skill appeared to only work while he was in combat. It was like the conditions weren''t right to activate it yet. Julius was sure that would change once he got into a fight.


    He remembered he also got [Heal], something he believed would be keeping him alive for the foreseeable future. Figuring that now would be a good time to test it out real quick, he channeled some mana using [Heal]. The difference was massive. It was faster, more efficient, and more potent now. Julius could feel the life mana thrumming through his entire body, healing small tears and scratches he had.


    Now that his life wasn''t in immediate danger, Julius took the time to look around and check his surroundings.


    He was in a forest of some kind. Massive trees were caging him in on all sides. It was beautiful to see. However, it was definitely not a city, and definitely not Celestia.


    This meant that whatever had happened to the teleportation, had landed Julius off course from his supposed location. He didn''t know where exactly he was. There were many forests within the empire and even more outside of it.


    He would need to find civilization if he wanted to determine where he was. Plan in mind, Julius got up and started walking. The hard part was choosing a direction to start walking toward. He chose to head east just out of simple randomness, he was hoping that there was some sort of vantage point he would find. If he was able to get a good look at the surrounding environment, it would be extremely helpful in dictating his travel route.


    The thing about walking alone in a forest with nothing to do is that Julius started to think too much. Julius''s head was filled with a hundred different scenarios in which he imagined what had happened to Lukas and Edwin after he was transported. Constantly worrying about whether they were safe, if they had died, or if something else happened.


    However, he knew from experience that obsessing over it would lead to more issues down the road. It would just build up until Julius couldn''t handle it. He needed to distract himself. It was better to focus on the current task, something he could do.


    Therefore, he didn''t just walk through the forest doing nothing. He was continuously training his skills while he made his way east. Julius constantly had [Spatial Perception] pulsing to check his surroundings.


    To the naked eye, Julius didn''t see any activity. But with [Spatial Perception] he could sense small rodents and critters scurrying around the foliage and forest floor. There were also larger creatures he sensed occasionally, but whenever he did, he would take a detour trying to avoid them. He also was storing and releasing small amounts of kinetic energy in his legs, increasing his speed by a little. It was good practice for getting familiar with [Kinetic Release] and using kinetic mana in general.


    Furthermore, he was training his fire manipulation, as well. Julius had witnessed Samuel''s last attack and noticed that Samuel added centrifugal force for additional penetration and flight stability. It reminded Julius of how the rifling of a gun barrel worked on a bullet.


    For a world that wasn''t as knowledgeable about physics and or other scientific fields, the people had a surprisingly good grasp on what was the best way to do something. Even if they didn''t fully understand why it worked.


    Julius had been walking in the same direction for several hours by now. The surroundings were still just large trees, and it didn''t seem like the forest was going to end soon.


    At the moment Julius was ultra-focused on keeping a spike made of fire mana spinning in front of him. It was a surprisingly difficult technique. When he initially tried it out, he was unable to keep the spike in place as he spun it. It would sometimes shoot out or spin out of his control. The amount of concentration he spent on the construct meant that he was unable to split his attention to his legs.


    This predictably led to him failing to sense a tree limb or releasing too much kinetic energy through his legs, resulting in him falling on his face several times. If anyone were watching him, they would see a boy obsessively playing with fire who frequently tripped over his feet, it was certainly an odd sight.


    But he kept at it. Eventually, he made an interesting discovery. It seemed like kinetic energy was the perfect complement to this spinning technique. The motion of spinning the spike generated kinetic energy on its own. This would mean he didn''t have to always use his kinetic mana to use kinetic energy. He would be able to capture natural kinetic energy in its place. There were so many applications he could use this discovery for, either to increase the strength of his attacks or to save kinetic mana, they were endless.


    The sun was getting low to the horizon and Julius was still in the forest. He must have been walking for at least 10 hours, but he still hadn''t seen any evidence of society.


    However, he realized that he needed to stop for the day and set up a camp. He had finally found a suitable place to sleep for the night. There was a creek nearby and there was a grouping of large boulders that would make for a secure place to sleep with a little work.


    First, he went to the creek and checked to see if it was safe to drink. It looked clear and there was a pretty strong current, so he expected it to be safe. He took a small sip to test it, and it was cold and crisp. It was remarkably fresh and he took a deep drink, dehydrated from all the walking from the day.


    He was also pretty hungry and wanted to get something to eat before it got too dark. Not that it really mattered with [Spatial Perception], but he didn''t want to be running around in the dark regardless.


    He sensed a small rabbit-like creature hiding underneath a log and slowly crept toward it while creating a small needle of fire mana. During his walk, he had seen many of these rabbit-like creatures running about and knew they were really quick.


    Once he felt he was at a comfortable distance, he stopped and aimed his needle at the rabbit. Spinning it gently, he took in the excess kinetic energy and concentrated on repurposing it to propel towards the needle faster.


    Prepared, Julius shot it, aiming at the center mass of the rabbit. However, his aim was slightly off, the extra kinetic energy he used to launch it, caused the release point to be slightly off. The needle missed by a few inches, right over the rabbit''s head and way off into the woods. Successfully missing his target and scaring off his dinner, Julius had to find another poor rabbit.


    Several minutes later, he found another one that was just sitting there eating some sort of vegetation. This time he had an idea.


    Before, when he was practicing spinning the spike, he had compared it to the rifling of a gun barrel. This time he wanted to create some sort of barrel that would keep the projectile from deviation from its course once he released the kinetic charge.


    He didn''t necessarily need to make a barrel with rifling in, because he was already doing that by spinning it manually. Thus, all he needed to do was create a mental image of a barrel, whose main priority was to direct the object initially, so that it was more accurate.


    Julius stalked the rabbit just like before and got himself ready. He recreated exactly what he did earlier, but now he was imagining a barrel extending out to his target.


    Lining up his aim, he released the kinetically enhanced fire needle. This time he hit his target right in the chest. The barrel idea worked perfectly.


    He even got another notification for his technique.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Firebolt] (Uncommon)?


    It was a good skill, that he could see having a lot of various uses. It was also uncommon, which was nice. However, he was approaching his ten-skill limit already. Initially, he thought that ten was plenty, but he had seven already and he was just in Tier 1. That on top of his triple affinities, it seemed like he was always going to require more skill slots.


    I will have to start thinking about combining skills earlier than I thought.


    It was still a great skill so he accepted it.


    Congratulations, skill [Firebolt] (Uncommon) acquired.


    Getting all of that settled, Julius shifted his attention back toward his dinner. While his technique had proven satisfactory, the results were less than ideal.


    Unfortunately, it seemed like shooting an explosive dart at extreme speeds was overkill. The needle shredded through the poor rabbit and exploded on impact. The rabbit with little meat to its bones, was reduced to a paste scattered across the forest.


    Julius had a feeling that getting dinner was going to be a more difficult challenge than he expected.

 Chapter 17: Rude Dinner Guest

    Six tries. It took Julius six tries to catch a rabbit.It would have been easier to catch it without magic. Not to mention way less humiliating. However, his pride was on the line, and he would''ve tried a hundred times more to achieve success, even if it meant he went hungry for the night.


    In the end, he concluded that he needed to use a less damaging method. Fire magic was too destructive, at least for him. Even creating a small [Firebolt] was overkill, it didn''t matter the size of the [Firebolt], it would detonate on impact, exploding its target. It was like using a broadsword to cut an onion.


    After his third failure, Julius decided to use just kinetic mana. He created a [Firebolt] like projectile with kinetic energy only, but it became apparent that kinetic energy wasn''t as easy to use this way as fire mana.


    Kinetic mana worked better in short bursts or if it was contained with a construct. But creating a construct made entirely of kinetic energy and controlling it like he did with fire mana was way too hard.


    What he came up with was unexpected. He learned that kinetic mana was a lot freer and easier to move around than other mana types. This meant that he could gather little bundles of kinetic mana from a distance and then discharge them around his target.


    In short, this created a sort of concussion bubble, where from multiple directions his enemy was bombarded with kinetic energy.


    This is what he ended up doing to the stupid rabbit. He found it and carefully started to collect as much kinetic energy as he could from the environment and then added some of his own to supplement it.


    Then he created loose bundles of kinetic energy that were floating by his target and were just a thought away from releasing their payload. Finally, Julius released three separate kinetic explosions from each angle around the rabbit. The shockwave that hit it from all three sides killed it before it knew what happened.


    Furthermore, while it broke bones, it left the meat almost entirely intact.


    It was ironic if he hadn''t failed, he wouldn''t have found such a unique way to use kinetic energy.


    It was way too slow at the moment, but eventually, Julius could see this ability being a useful weapon in the future. He was honestly surprised he wasn''t offered a skill for it.


    Prize in hand, he headed back to the campsite. The sun had just set and it was now almost completely dark except for the three moons illuminating the sky.


    Foraging some sticks he created a makeshift spilt just like his gramps showed him how. However, it seemed that there was another problem that Julius stupidly missed. He didn''t have anything to skin the rabbit with.


    He was so used to camping with his gramps, where they each had a couple of knives on hand at all times, that forgot he didn''t have one. Also, it wasn''t like his affinities were particularly great at delicate slicing or cutting through things.


    He tried to look for a sharp rock that might work but he ultimately decided to use his fire affinity to do the job. Julius imagined a scalpel made of fire, a fire that was razor-thin.


    It kind of worked. It was similar to what he did when he made the thin needles, condensing fire mana to the point where it had a physical hard shell. Despite that, Julius couldn''t create an edge that was thin enough to cut the flesh.


    It was much easier to make one single point of the object sharp, like a spike. However, keeping it sharp along the entire edge of something was more difficult. What he created, was a dull red knife as sharp as a spoon. Predictably, it didn''t work very well. So, Julius just decided to use his hands to get the job done. He used a pointy stick to create several holes within the skin and then jammed his fingers in the holes and ripped them open.


    It was messy and took a long time, but Julius ended up getting it done.


    He was just glad he could finally start cooking the damn thing. Once he got it situated on the spit, Julius created a soft fire to slowly cook the rabbit. It was going to be the first time he was cooking with his own fire magic and he was excited to see how it came out. The smell of the rendered fat falling into the flames was magical. It was a supreme effort of will to not grab the rabbit of the spit and just start eating right away. He patiently waited and salivated over his meal.


    Once it was done, he tore into it. There wasn''t any seasoning or even salt, but it tasted divine. He swiftly went in for another bite, but then time started to slow. He felt [Combat Trance] activate on its own and he got a cold feeling on the back of his neck. Julius was so absorbed with his meal, that he had forgotten to maintain vigilance of his surroundings.


    His instincts were telling him he didn''t have time to use [Spatial Perception] to look. He instantly let go of his rabbit and threw himself to the side. Right in his place, something swiped through the air.


    Julius tried to get as much distance as he could and activated [Spatial Perception]. Whatever it was had moved back to the edge of the clearing. It looked like a large black monster, resembling a wolf.


    With just his eyes Julius wouldn''t have been able to see it, the forest was too dark at night. But with his skill, he was able to sense it hiding behind a bush waiting for its next opportunity to strike.


    His heart was pounding in his chest from the close call. Julius didn''t know [Combat Trance] could activate on its own. He was lucky because if it hadn''t, Julius wouldn''t have come away from that ambush unscathed.


    Julius took the time to get a feel for the monster''s strength. Based on the pressure alone, he would put it around Tier 1. It didn''t feel particularly strong, but he knew that was deceptive. The speed at which it had attacked was faster than any Tier 1 could reach. If he had to guess, it was probably at least a Tier 2. He suspected that as an ambush predator, it was able to suppress some of its aura.


    Julius was able to track it as it patrolled around his campsite patiently. It shouldn''t be aware that Julius could sense it, but it seemed to be waiting for another opportunity.


    Stolen story; please report.


    He started to place large masses of kinetic energy all around the campsite. Three was his limit for the moment before it became too hard to control them. The monster wasn''t staying in place so it would be difficult to use his new kinetic technique, but he could wait until it passed right in front of one of them.


    He also created a [Firebolt] that hovered in front of him. The projectile that was created using the skill was much faster to form, but it wasn''t as compressed. Therefore, Julius added more mana and used [Thermal Compression] to condense the bolt of mana even further.


    The monster wasn''t making a move. Julius understood that he would need to take the initiative, and needed to attack it before it could ambush him again. Otherwise, he would have to stay awake for the entire night constantly having to be aware, and the second he let his guard down, it would strike.


    But he had a plan. Julius brought the three masses of kinetic toward a spot that the monster was on course to walk to. He consciously avoided looking in its direction, so that it still believed that he was unaware of its location. Monsters were intelligent and the higher tier, the more intelligent they were. Furthermore, it seemed like this particular monster was smart even for a Tier 2. Thus, Julius had to play this right or it might fail.


    The moment the monster was close enough to the trap Julius activated it. The unexpected blasts detonated by the clumps of kinetic energy stunned the creature. Quickly, Julius released the condensed [Firebolt], shooting it straight at the monster''s face.


    The blast of kinetic energy caused the monster to flail erratically, and the [Firebolt] missed, exploding the ground right beside it.


    Julius grimaced. The resulting explosion did lead to some burns and minor injuries but the monster soon got its bearings back and immediately sprinted directly at Julius.


    A burst of air mana propelled the beast forward. Julius only had enough time to shoot a single [Firebolt], hitting the monster''s chest, and leaving a fist-sized wound.


    Still, that didn''t stop the enraged monster. With [Combat Trance] active, Julius felt an unnatural wave of calmness wash over him and became more focused than he had ever been. Alongside [Unarmed Combat], Julius had precise control of his body. A burst of kinetic energy released from his legs, launching him to the side and he barely avoided the sharp claws trying to cut his stomach open.


    The wolf monster had overextended with that lunge, fully expecting that it would have landed. Julius took advantage of this opening and with another burst, closed in and hammered the monster in the back of the skull with a fully powered kinetic strike.


    He didn''t let up either. Julius landed a couple more flush shots to the thing''s head and back, before backing away, narrowly evading its swing.


    He vaguely heard a notification in the back of his mind as he just stared at the injured monster.


    Julius didn''t move in again, he just created another condensed [Firebolt] and sent it at the creature''s head. After the quick but brutal assault, the monster was staggering on its four limbs and unable to notice the attack, took the strike right to the side of the head.


    It was dead before it hit the ground.


    The unnatural calmness and extreme focus from [Combat Trance] faded away and he took a deep breath to collect himself.


    How rude. I always knew that I was likely to have to fight monsters, but I didn''t think I would be ambushed while eating my first meal. Julius thought to himself.


    He looked at the meal that he had worked so hard for. His beautiful and delicious rabbit was lying on the ground, covered in twigs and dirt. Gently, he picked it up and tried to dust off as much grime from it as he could.


    There wasn''t much he could do to bring it back. It was a goner.


    Julius looked over at the corpse that was sitting several paces away with clear resentment. He wasn''t necessarily upset that it had tried to kill him, he was more upset that it had ruined his dinner. Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He could understand that it was in its nature to hunt and eat, but why couldn''t it have waited until he was finished?


    He checked the notifications he received during and after the fight.


    [Kinetic Release lvl 2 -> lvl 4]


    [Thermal Compression lvl 2 -> lvl 3]


    [Combat Trance lvl 1 -> lvl 2]


    [Firebolt lvl 1 -> lvl 2]


    [Unarmed Combat lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    Skill [Unarmed Combat] has reached level 10. Would you like to evolve [Unarmed Combat]?


    Skill [Unarmed Combat] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Unarmed Combat Mastery], [Combat Reflexes], [Body Control], [Brutal Strike]


    There were a lot of level-ups. But Julius knew that it would slow down once he passed the "newbie" stage. Lower ranked skills were much easier to improve and many saw fast growth in the beginning ranks. So it didn''t come as a surprise.


    However, Julius was intrigued by the message of his [Unarmed Combat] skill. He had finally reached level 10 and he had an amazing four options to choose from.


    [Unarmed Combat Mastery] seems like it is the general upgrade to the skill, while [Combat Reflexes], [Body Control], and [Brutal Strike] were the specializations. Edwin told me that I should choose one of the specializations if possible. But which one?


    While Edwin was sparring with Julius he told him that [Unarmed Combat] was a useless skill at the General rank but it would shine once it ranked up.


    It seems this was what he was talking about.


    All options were enticing and he could see ways to utilize all four skills. He wished he was given a description of what the skills did but he wasn''t so fortunate. Julius chose to use the process of elimination. The first skill he discarded was [Unarmed Combat Mastery] just because Edwin told him not to choose the basic upgrade.


    The second skill he chose to discard would be a much more difficult choice, [Combat Reflexes] sounded like a passive skill that would allow him to react to situations faster. [Body Control] also sounded like it was a passive skill but would give him better control over his movements. [Brutal Strike] was the one that interested Julius the most.


    If Julius had to guess, it was a skill that increased his damage to a strike. It would go well with his kinetic energy usage.


    After some thought, he dismissed [Combat Reflexes], he felt like in the previous fight he was able to react more than fast enough with [Combat Trance] active. If anything, the skill had some sort of precognition that had saved him from the ambush.


    So it became a choice between [Body Control] and [Brutal Strike]. He liked both of them, but active skills were usually more potent because they weren''t used all the time.


    In the end, Julius thought that [Brutal Strike] would fit his needs better overall. It would work well with his aggressive fighting style and give him another offensive weapon. If he had the skill before he might have killed the monster with one punch to the back of the head.


    Congratulations, skill [Brutal Strike] (Uncommon) acquired.


    A flood of information went to his brain and he understood how to use the skill instantly. He understood why this skill had been offered. It was similar to his kinetic strike in that it delivered a resonating force that traveled through thick layers of hide or armor. However, it also let him know the location on the body where he could deal the most damage.


    Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Combat Trance] and [Brutal Strike] into a single skill?


    Already? I just got the skill, a few seconds ago. Not to mention, I was thinking [Brutal Strike] and [Kinetic Release] would combine. However, this sounds pretty good too.


    Julius''s lips pressed together in thought. His gut hasn''t led him astray so far, so he trusted his instincts and he made his decision.


    Skill evolution commencing¡­ Congratulations, skill [Savage Dance] (Rare) acquired.

 Chapter 18: Curiosity Killed the Cat

    It was an interesting-sounding skill. Based on the information he received after he evolved the skill, it seemed like it was a skill that utilized [Brutal Strike] and [Combat Trance] to augment his close combat ability. It was his second rare skill and if [Spatial Perception] was any indicator, it was going to be a very useful skill.However, as much as he wanted to at the moment, Julius couldn''t just experiment with his new skill. He had to find another location for the night. The scent of blood would attract who knows what. Furthermore, changing locations was easier than moving the entire carcass. After a little while, he found a spot a couple of miles away that seemed safe. It was a small alcove between the creek and some rocks. It was much more hidden than his last camp.


    Julius also brought with him the rabbit. It was still dirty but he managed to remove most of the dirt from it. Plus, he was still really hungry and a little grime wasn''t going to get in the way of it.


    He gave it another once over before he created a small flame to heat it and kill any bacteria that might be on it. Once it was nice and charred again, he bit into it.


    It was gritty and slightly earthy from the dirt marinating its surface. Sadly, it wasn''t the most pleasant of meals, especially compared to how it was before he got attacked, but it was still the first thing he ate today. Julius polished off the rabbit in quick order and then got ready for bed.


    The rest of the night was uneventful, except for the occasional distant loud roars and the sound of trees falling that woke him up periodically.


    When he woke up he went to the creek and washed himself up. He thought about going back to check on the corpse but was conflicted. On one hand, he was curious as to what that thing looked like in the daylight but also thought there might be other predators attracted to it. The mana core inside of it would be valuable normally, but with him being in the middle of nowhere it didn''t hold much value unless he found civilization.


    On second thought, he didn''t have any money on him. Nor did he have anything of value to trade for. Now that he was thinking about it, that core would be able to pay for information or supplies if he found a town.


    A couple miles later he arrived at his old campsite. The corpse was still where he left it much to his surprise. He had really thought the corpse would have been eaten by now, but it was pristine. Not even scavengers had touched it. It was very odd and made him wary.


    Quietly checking the surroundings, Julius stooped down and inspected the monster closer. He was correct in assuming it was similar to a wolf. Its features were distinctly canine. It had a beautiful coat of pure black that absorbed the light and was soft to the touch. Julius would estimate it to measure around six feet long from head to tail. The massive claws are what grabbed his attention.


    The claws were closer to small swords. He was very fortunate he wasn''t sliced by those things, it would not have taken much for them to bisect him.


    Julius bent down and searched for the monster''s mana core. The location was slightly different depending on the species, but it typically was found in the chest or head of most monsters.


    Monster cores were used in a variety of ways. The most common is ground down to make pure essence, which could be used to make items that increase skill progression and growth toward the next tier.


    Since Julius was a Tier 1 now, he needed to work towards his advancement to Tier 2. Tier 1 was about creating a mana core, but Tier 2 was about becoming one with that mana. This process would physically enhance individuals past mortal limits and once they were completely infused with their mana, they would undergo an evolution.


    Their bodies will adapt and change to better reflect their core''s mana. For example, those with earth affinities will often have bodies that are more robust and rigid. Also, those with water affinities become more flexible and adaptable.


    It was commonly seen by wealthy families to use cores with the same affinities to create potions or supplements that increased their advancement. With that being said, it was known that those who used cores as a way to progress were on average, weaker than their peers. Additionally, those who choose to go this route become bottlenecked at the next tiers. Therefore, this method is used for people who are non-combatants and those with crafting professions.


    Julius still didn''t have a knife so that forced him to take a step back and use a [Firebolt] to open the chest cavity more. Expectedly, it was a gruesome scene, blood and internal organs were scattered about. Luckily, due to it being at least a Tier 2, the mana had preserved its flesh still and it wasn''t starting to putrify. Unluckily, he still needed to jam his arm into its disgusting chest.


    After a bit of rummaging, he finally found what he was looking for. It was a small marble-sized sphere that contained pure air affinity essence. Julius did have a medium air affinity, but he didn''t choose to use any air mana in his core and had no other plans to do so.


    I already have enough on my plate, no need to get greedy, he told himself.


    At the last moment, he also ended up removing the claws from the monster. They weren''t exactly a knife, but they would do until he found or bought one himself. Then he left the scene, one core, and several claws richer.


    Julius made his way back to his second camp and decided to make himself a quick breakfast before he headed out. He was still pretty hungry and could also use another bath since he was covered in blood. He found another rabbit and dispatched it in the same manner as before. This time he was able to enjoy it and wasn''t interrupted by anything that was trying to eat him.


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    It wasn''t until several more hours of walking that Julius finally saw a change in scenery. The forest ahead had a massive clearing. Julius walked out of the forest and into the open field. About a few hundred paces later, he saw a small dip in the grass up ahead and got closer.


    What he saw astonished him. In front of him was a ginormous bowl, that looked like a crater you would see from a meteor or like he had seen in dormant volcanos. The inside of the hole was completely made up of dark-colored rock and slate. He would estimate the bowl was about a few hundred feet deep and at the bottom of it was a glowing light emanating a soft blue hue.


    Julius was naturally curious and decided to work his way down the slightly steep incline to get a closer look. He took his time climbing down and was careful where he stepped, some pieces of rock were loose and he could easily fall if he wasn''t paying attention.


    Once he got close to the bottom, he could see what was the source of the blue light. It was a swirling mass of energy, radiating a warm heat from its base.


    Julius was curious about what this object was and was very tempted to touch it but he knew it would be a stupid idea. However, something kept trying to convince him to get closer. It was like a small voice in the back of his head that was telling him to touch it. Feeling something was off about the situation, Julius immediately tried to back off and get as far away from it. Suddenly the energy lashed out with small tendrils and grasped him by the arms.


    Julius quickly attempted to pull away as hard as he could, but it was fruitless. Even with kinetic mana being discharged from his limbs, he wasn''t able to get free. It had him in a vice grip and was pulling him closer to its center. He tried everything he could think of to escape but it was pointless, it inevitably pulled him in.


    Julius landed on his face, feeling a grassy surface beneath him, he got up and scanned around him. What just happened? One moment he was being sucked into the glowing blue sphere and the next he was here on some sort of grassy plain. Unexpectantly, he received a notification.


    You have entered a Rift. Alert! Rift is reaching the overflow stage. You will not be able to leave until the Rift is cleared.


    Rift? That blue thing was a rift? I never thought rifts could forcibly bring in people, Julius thought.


    Rifts were created by the uninterrupted accumulation of mana, converging onto a location over a long period of time, which was why they were usually found in the wilderness or far away from large populations. Rifts were pocket dimensions that contained monsters and resources. It was the main responsibility of the Adventurer''s Guild to find and clear as many rifts as they could. Rifts were responsible for monster floods, which are caused when rifts aren''t regularly cleared in a specific timeframe. This can cause mana to start leaking out of the rifts and creating an escape point for the monsters contained. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Monster floods happen quite frequently, and it was the only time when everybody regardless of political affiliations or animosity put it aside, all to combat the horde of monsters.


    Julius had never heard of rifts sucking people in like it did with him. It also appeared that he wouldn''t be able to leave until he cleared the rift. That was going to be the big problem. Rifts were sometimes maintained for their useful resources and for training young practitioners. However, you would be able to leave whenever it got too dangerous.


    I don''t think that is going to be an option for me. Me and my stupid curiosity. I could have walked away without investigating, but no I wanted to see what the ominous blue light was, Julius mentally berated himself.


    Julius didn''t even know the Tier or details of the rift. The Adventurer''s Guild had a standardized procedure to analyze rifts to see what Tier they were and how dangerous amongst that Tier they estimated it.


    For all he knew, this was a Tier 5 A-rank rift. Unlikely, but still, Julius had no idea. On the bright side, he hasn''t been attacked by any monsters yet and he couldn''t sense any in his immediate vicinity.


    Nevertheless, it was still a very dangerous situation he found himself in. He needed to create some sort of plan or at least prioritize something like gathering as much information as he could before he got himself into any confrontations. If this rift was anything Tier 2 or above, which it most likely was, Julius would need to use everything he had at his disposal.


    First, he took a look at his status to get an idea of his own condition.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 1


    Skills:


    [Spatial Perception lvl 18] (Rare)


    [Savage Dance lvl 1] (Rare)


    [Thermal Compression lvl 3] (Uncommon)


    [Firebolt lvl 2] (Uncommon)


    [Kinetic Release lvl 4]


    [Heal lvl 1]


    Julius was happy with his current skills, especially considering he was still Tier 1. However, he wanted to create a defensive skill on top of improving his healing skill. One would help him avoid taking damage and the other would help him recover from damage. He was already expecting that he would be in this rift for a good while, as such having these types of skills would save his life at several moments.


    He already had some ideas for both of them. For the defensive skill he had thought that instead of releasing kinetic energy, he would absorb it. He would effectively, nullify the impact of an attack from an opponent. That being said, he didn''t think that would cancel out elemental effects such as heat.


    Wait¡­ or could I? Fire or rather heat is created by the intense movement of the molecules. So when I burn something, I should be hypothetically generating kinetic energy from the movement of the molecules. That could mean by removing kinetic energy I could remove heat, Julius realized after thinking about it.


    That was important because while Julius could control fire that occurred naturally as well as he did with natural kinetic energy, controlling fire created by another person was much more difficult. The addition of willpower came into play and taking control of someone else''s fire would require him to subvert their will before he could steal their flames.


    However, if he was able to steal or absorb the kinetic energy of the fire itself, that might work. It was an interesting theory that he would have to try when he met another fire user in the future. Moreover, a present application he could use this idea for would be to add kinetic energy to [Firebolt].


    If he increased the movement of the molecules of the fire, theoretically it should increase the heat being produced. Julius was already condensing it but what would happen if he made the fire itself hotter? Would it be an additive effect or a multiplicative effect?


    He knew he shouldn''t be this excited and should be more worried about what his plans were, instead of theorizing about skills considering his dire circumstances, but he truly loved magic and once ideas like this started he couldn''t stop them or himself. He became obsessed and there wasn''t anything else that mattered in these moments. It was like all his worries disappeared for a little bit.

 Chapter 19: Angry Troll

    Julius was still sitting in the same spot that he arrived at. Presently, he was holding a [Firebolt] over his palm and was slowly adding more kinetic energy to the flame. He was also trying to spin it as fast as he could, gaining more momentum that he could use to further empower the [Firebolt]. The skill already provided the projectile with a soft rotation when it was shot, but it was not enough to generate the amount of kinetic energy he needed.He didn''t know how long he sat there, all that mattered was trying out his new idea. He wasn''t completely reckless though, he was still checking his surroundings with [Spatial Perception]. However, the majority of his concentration was being used to experiment with this potentially useful application of kinetic energy and fire.


    Julius knew he was originally trying to think of a defensive skill, but his mind always gravitated to offensive techniques. In his mind, the best defense is a good offense. He hadn''t quite figured out how to use kinetic energy to make his flames hotter, but he felt he was on the right track. He even got some skill levels already for his experimentation.


    [Firebolt lvl 2 -> lvl 3]


    [Kinetic Release lvl 4 -> lvl 5]


    He believed that this was a sign that he was on the right track.


    At the edge of his senses, he felt something approaching. It was a very large humanoid creature, probably one of the rift''s residents if he had to guess. It was slowly heading in his direction and seemed like it knew exactly where Julius was, even though he was slightly hidden by the tall grass. S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Getting to his feet, Julius got ready for a fight. His [Firebolt] was still hovering over his palm, waiting to be released at the target. Normally, Julius would have had second thoughts, attacking a humanoid without saying a word to them, but a monster inside of a rift was a different story. He was going to have to shoot first and ask questions later.


    The monster got closer and Julius could make out some of its details more clearly. It was a massive creature with stone-gray skin and chiseled muscles he could make out from here. It was probably standing over seven feet tall and resembled what he imagined an orc would look like. Compared to his five-and-a-half-foot frame, it was quite intimidating.


    Julius had not seen any orcs in this world yet, but this one looked like what he would expect from one. Not waiting, for it to get any closer he released the condensed [Firebolt] and it was sent screaming toward the monster.


    The attack came as a total surprise and smashed into its chest, detonating with a loud boom. It staggered the monster and left a large burn across its torso but the creature otherwise appeared fine. Julius had sent that attack out as a tester to compare it to the wolf he fought last night. So far, he determined that this monster was much more resilient than the wolf but also was slower.


    It was still over fifty paces away and he couldn''t quite determine its aura from this distance, but it was at least at the level of strength as the wolf and most likely stronger based on the initial confrontation. Then to his astonishment, the wound on its chest was visibly going away even from far away. In mere seconds, the injury was nowhere to be seen.


    There was another creature from his world''s stories that matched this monster''s description, Trolls. Trolls were similar to orcs except they were known for their ridiculous ability to heal themselves.


    This thing''s physical resilience and regeneration might put it at a Tier 3. Julius anxiously thought.


    He would be able to tell for sure once it got closer, but Julius had no plans on letting this thing any closer to him. The troll now fully healed, roared, shaking Julius''s eardrums and sprinting directly at him.


    It does not seem happy, he thought as the enraged monster stampeded at him. He activated his new skill [Savage Dance] and his worldview narrowed to a fine edge. It was like his entire being was honed to a sharp blade and the only thought in his mind was destroying this monster.


    He immediately created another [Firebolt] but this time he crammed as much kinetic energy into it, changing its color to a violet hue, and then once it was ready he sent it with as much speed as he could. This time, the projectile actually screamed with a piercing whistle as it shot toward the troll. It hit the troll with immense force that blasted it off of its feet, leaving a gaping hole in its chest.


    However, that wasn''t enough to put it down it seemed. Julius started to create another kinetically enhanced [Firebolt] as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, by the time he finished it, the troll was back on its feet looking angrier than ever, its red eyes displaying its rage. The chest wound was deeper than the last, but it was still rapidly healing. Julius sent out his attack as soon as it was ready, but the troll stuck out its hand to block it. The resulting explosion mangled the thing''s arm, pieces of bone and flesh flayed out in every direction. Despite this, the troll was not knocked off its feet and charged Julius with its crippled arm visibly healing at its side.


    At this distance, Julius could tell it was definitely Tier 3. Two whole tiers above himself.


    The troll reached within arm''s length soon after. It swung at Julius''s head with surprising speed for something that size, and he just managed to duck beneath it, blasting himself away with a kinetic burst.


    [Savage Dance] was keeping him deadly calm in this chaos and was informing Julius of the most vulnerable spots on the troll. It was highlighting the troll''s head and its feet. The head was self-explanatory, but the feet were odd. The skill, wanted Julius to target the feet so that it was unable to move properly, giving him time to charge a strike to damage it as much as he could.


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    The troll''s strength was immense, he could feel the vibrations whenever its arm passed by him, and as he said, it was deceptively fast. Fortunately, it fought like an animal, there was no technique to its attacks, it was straight uncontrolled violence, and that made it easier to avoid its strikes.


    Julius would occasionally, land a kinetic strike, which did nothing except disrupt its momentum. But his main focus, other than dodging, was creating another kinetically enhanced [Firebolt]. It was the most powerful attack he could create.


    Creating the plain [Firebolt] was quick, it was condensing it while also adding kinetic energy that took time. This was why skills were so vital. A skill that did all these things would have been able to simultaneously combine all these separate aspects into a single moment. Whereas, Julius had to do it manually, much more slowly.


    After a few more dodges, he tried to get as much distance between himself and the troll as he could, sending a lot of mana into his legs to dash behind it. Then he sent the [Firebolt] at the troll''s left leg. It managed to hit it dead on the mark and butchered the troll''s entire leg from the knee down.


    The troll, missing its leg, collapsed to the ground. Then Julius, creating another enhanced [Firebolt], jumped toward it. He proceeded to land a kick right on the downed troll''s head, loading it with a large amount of kinetic force.


    The kick snapped the troll''s head back but it also managed to bring its arm around and nick Julius with its arm. Although it barely hit him, he was sent flying backward. He miraculously managed to keep his construct intact but his shoulder was definitely broken. [Savage Dance] allowed him to maintain focus, and numbed the pain he should be feeling to a dull throb, but it still hurt.


    If he had been hit directly, there was a chance that he would''ve had his chest crushed. Julius got up and saw that the troll''s leg was healing, but it seemed like healing bone took more time than just flesh. Therefore, it was still on the ground roaring in pain, not even paying attention to Julius anymore.


    His enhanced [Firebolt] was ready and he swiftly sent it at the back of the troll''s skull. The violet-colored attack ruptured an entire third of the monster''s head, creating a massive spray of blood and brains.


    To his horror, the troll was unmoving but he could see attempts to heal its brain, small bits of flesh were connecting via its regeneration skill. Julius promptly charged right where it was lying down


    He started to throw strike after strike at the exposed flesh trying to put down this monster for good. However, no matter what he did, it was continuing to regenerate.


    Whatever skill it had, must''ve been a higher rarity. Getting an idea, he continued to hit it and investigated how mana was interacting with this thing''s flesh.


    He was trying to see how its skill worked and if he could maybe replicate some of its abilities. He had [Heal] himself, but there was a large difference between his healing skill and this thing''s. The sheer speed of its regeneration was impressive but its mana efficiency was also incredible.


    Julius could have probably killed it with a couple more enhanced [Firebolts] but he didn''t want to give up this opportunity. So he continued to damage it enough so that it wouldn''t gain consciousness but also not too much, where he might kill it.


    Julius was very aware of the moral quandary he was committing. If it wasn''t that this monster had just tried to kill him and that it was unconscious throughout the entire time, he would have stopped.


    But if he could learn something from this monster''s skill, he might come out of this rift alive. There were undoubtedly more of these trolls roaming around and who knows what else. There might even be something stronger than this monster around.


    And so Julius stayed there for a long time, just keeping it in a coma while learning about its skill. After some time, he figured out something. The troll''s skill was much more aggressive than Julius''s own. For his own skill, he concentrated on handling the mana delicately and with gentleness. The troll''s skill was practically the opposite. It was violently twisting and rotating mana in a loop around the injury.


    It was fast and it somehow wasted practically no mana. It was completely wrong according to his earlier thoughts about how life mana worked. But it seemed that Julius still had much to learn about his own mana.


    Feeling like he finally understood enough of the technique, Julius put the troll to rest. He unleashed a powerful violet [Firebolt] at the monster''s face and he felt its mana stop pumping into its skill.


    The troll was finally dead¡­ hopefully. He kept an eye on it for a few minutes just to make sure.


    Once he was absolutely convinced, he let out a breath and felt [Savage Dance] deactivate. The skill''s effects started to wear off and he began to feel some of the emotions that were blocked rise up to the surface.


    At first, he felt relief that he survived a fight against an opponent two tiers above him, but then he felt guilt at his actions afterward. At the time, when the skill was running, he was able to rationally understand why it was the correct choice. Despite that, he still felt like he was cruelly experimenting on the creature for a gain of power.


    The skill was undoubtedly one of the strongest skills he currently had. It was able to hone his focus to a razor''s edge in a fight, control his body with uncanny precision, allow him to effectively break down his opponent''s weaknesses, and exponentially increase his proficiency with his skills when he was in combat. However, it seemed that he became a tad detached from reality and his humanity. It was a double-edged sword and something he was going to have to think twice about in the future.


    With that being said, Julius took a deep calming breath to center himself. He managed to accrue some improvement to his skills during that fight as well.


    [Firebolt lvl 3 -> lvl 5]


    [Thermal Compression lvl 3 -> lvl 4]


    [Savage Dance lvl 1 -> lvl 2]


    [Kinetic Release lvl 5 -> lvl 8]


    [Firebolt] had increased by two levels, [Savage Dance] by one, and [Kinetic Release] by a surprising three levels. However, these improvements made sense, he was using his skills in challenging ways while in life-threatening scenarios. It was why fighting monsters was the quickest way to advance one''s skills.


    A small shift had Julius groaning in pain. There had been so much going on, that he completely forgot about his broken shoulder. [Savage Dance] had been dulling the pain from the injury, but now it was slightly painful. It didn''t hurt that much, it was more like he couldn''t feel his entire arm, and it only hurt when he moved it.


    Still, this was a perfect time to try healing it using the methods he learned from the troll''s skill.

 Chapter 20: His Friends

    The main thing Julius noticed about the difference between his and the troll''s skill, was that his was flat in comparison, as if there was no dimension to it. His was like a line on a piece of paper, while his opponent''s was like an intricate woven rope.When he noticed it, he was surprised that he hadn''t come up with a similar idea. Weaving strands together would be similar to what he does with compressing mana, but doing it in a slightly different way. It was something that he could probably apply to all his mana manipulation uses. Especially, his fire mana and maybe his kinetic mana, but kinetic energy worked a bit differently than fire and life mana, so it was hard to predict.


    Julius began to condense several strands of life mana around his shoulder. Then he started to weave them together like he would a braid. Immediately he could feel the strands latching together creating a strong bond and giving off a stronger aura. His [Heal] skill was different from the troll''s skill, in that it tried to infuse his body with mana, gently suffusing each nook and cranny of the injury with life mana. The new method Julius was going to try would be similar to strangling his injury with a rope of life mana. He was going to wrap it around the injury, creating a noose, and tightening it.


    It was much more aggressive than what he expected out of a healing skill, but it definitely worked for the troll, so he was open-minded to trying it. If it didn''t work, then he wouldn''t lose anything but some time and energy.


    After a little while, it still hadn''t accomplished anything. The rope of life mana was still squeezing his shoulder but it wasn''t healing it. However, he belatedly realized that his intent was still the same as when he used [Heal]. He had already recognized that this new healing technique was more brutal and domineering, but he was still trying to gently caress it to work.


    Julius needed to become more ruthless and commanding if he wanted it to work. He no longer allowed his mana the option to not do exactly what he told it. It would listen to him, he didn''t give it another choice.


    Suddenly, there was a swift reaction from his shoulder. It began to hurt, even more than when he broke it. However, he could also see his flesh and bones weaving together at a rapid pace, it was still slower than the troll''s but it was very mana-efficient.


    The more aggressive nature of the technique allows for faster and more efficient healing, but in return, I experience more pain. This is probably because I am not gently infusing life mana anymore. That said, I will gladly take that trade-off. Julius observed.


    Julius would estimate this new technique was around five or ten times faster than [Heal]. It also would seem he received a new skill for his actions.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Regeneration]?


    Congratulations, skill [Regeneration] acquired.


    Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Regeneration] and [Heal] into a single skill?


    Congratulations, skill [Restoration] (Uncommon) acquired.


    It wasn''t entirely unexpected, but it was still a nice upgrade to his skills. Julius tried out this new skill right away. Activating [Restoration], his shoulder which was almost already healed, finished healing in a second. Then, some of the soreness that he was feeling after the fight was also healed. It seemed like [Restoration] was able to deal with his fatigue just as well as his wounds.


    He assumed that it would become more handy once he was fighting multiple opponents over a long duration. So far, most of his fights have been relatively short.


    Finally, he felt like he was a little less vulnerable. His defense was still non-existent and he had to find a way to remedy that, but having a much better healing skill would be crucial to improving his survivability.


    Julius found himself walking again. He had always imagined a day when he would be adventuring and fighting monsters, but he didn''t realize how much walking was involved. Nevertheless, it did give him time to practice some of his skills


    He was still attempting to create hotter flames by adding kinetic energy to the reaction, but improvements were slow. He also still wanted to create some sort of defensive technique. The idea of absorbing kinetic energy from an attack was still on top of his list, but so far he hadn''t been successful.


    It was weird because he was able to absorb kinetic energy from the environment already. He would have expected to be offered some sort of kinetic absorption skill by now. However, it might only become available after he raised [Kinetic Release] to level 10.


    [Kinetic Release lvl 8 -> lvl 9]


    Speak of the devil. As if it could hear Julius''s thoughts, [Kinetic Release] leveled up to level 9, just a single level away from ranking it up. Up ahead, he could finally see the large mountains looming in the distance. They were the only landmark miles around and the reason he chose to walk in this direction.


    Rifts varied in size quite a bit. However, the rule of thumb was that the higher the tier the larger the rift. And it certainly seemed like this rift was quite expansive. Luckily it seemed like there was some natural wildlife spread around the plains, so he wouldn''t go starving. But he hadn''t found any water yet and had hopes that the mountains in the distance had some.


    When he approached the base of the large mountain, he spotted a small group of trolls patrolling the area. He instantly lowered himself down into the tall grass and observed them.


    There were four trolls walking side by side coming down from the mountainside. Unlike the one he fought, these ones had some clothing and weapons on them.


    It looks like the troll from earlier had some friends, Julius commented to himself.


    The clothes at a glance seemed like they were made out of some plant-based materials, rustic and tribal looking. Their weapons were massive grey clubs that resembled stone, but the largest of them had a dull silver axe strung over its back. If he had to guess, he would think that this one was the leader of them.


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    Julius had no intention of fighting them. One of them was already hard enough, taking four of them on would be suicide. He should just allow them to walk on by and make his way up the mountain in the meantime.


    Except, there was something inside Julius that wasn''t allowing him to back away. As much as he wanted to ignore the group, something within him was fervently disagreeing with him. It wanted him to take on all four of them.


    Julius didn''t understand. Why was he so set on trying to get into a fight with them? Was it pride? Or was it stupidity?


    Maybe if they didn''t have such extreme regeneration abilities, he would have a chance.


    It''s because I need to do it, Julius realized. He couldn''t fool himself, there were most likely even larger groups of trolls ahead and he couldn''t afford to not use every opportunity to get stronger. If he couldn''t kill these four, how could he expect to kill the rest? He needed to be able to clear this rift if he wanted to escape, that meant he would need to kill these monsters regardless.


    Sighing to himself in resignation, Julius''s gaze narrowed and he started to create an enhanced [Firebolt]. He needed to take out at least one troll in the first attack. He felt like he could handle two of them if they were as strong as the other troll, it would be difficult, but possible. If he was able to kill one in the initial volley, then kill one more before they reached him, he might have a chance to take care of the other two.


    "This might be the most idiotic thing I have done in either life," Julius chuckled to himself. But he needed to get as strong as he could and he couldn''t achieve this by playing it safe. He needed to take risks and put his life on the line. Otherwise, he would be too weak to face future challenges.


    Julius didn''t just create one enhanced [Firebolt] but began forming another one after he finished the first. It was strenuous work, controlling two volatile projectiles. His mind was quickly becoming exhausted and he activated [Restoration] to heal his fatigue. The new skill was able to be activated with barely a thought and soon was releasing a refreshing burst of mana into his head, alleviating some of the stress.


    Holding two enhanced [Firebolts] Julius quickly approached the four trolls as quietly as he could. Once he got into a comfortable shooting position, he patiently stalked them for only a bit. He was waiting until the one in the back stopped moving so much.


    Julius wanted to go for the leader, but it was walking upfront and its back and flank were covered by the others. This meant he had to go for the one in the back.


    Readying both attacks, he waited for the right moment, struggling to maintain control of the constructs. [Savage Dance] was humming in the background, zeroing in his focus.


    Now! The moment the troll in the back stopped to scratch its head, Julius released both bolts right at the troll''s head.


    The troll did not stand a chance. A sharp whistle resounded through the empty plains, the first bolt gouged a huge chunk out of its head and the second one completely vaporized the rest in a fine red mist in an instant. Even its regeneration skill wouldn''t be able to save it.


    The other three, stopped in place, confused about what had just happened to their partner. Its headless corpse was lying at their feet. They didn''t seem to sense where the attack came from and that gave time for Julius to ready another barrage.


    He could see them sniffing the air, trying to figure out where Julius was. But after another few moments, he had another set of enhanced [Firebolts] up and ready. Each of them had taken a large chunk of mana, but Julius should have enough to finish the rest off. He waited until they were all turned in the wrong direction and launched the bolts at the closest troll.


    The first one he aimed at the chest since they were moving around, he didn''t want to risk missing entirely. However, he aimed the second one at the troll''s head, hoping that the first one would stun it, thus allowing the second bolt to hit flush.


    The first strike did stun it like Julius expected but the second didn''t quite hit the monster''s skull, it hit at the base of the thing''s throat. Leaving a gaping hole and blood flowing out like a river. It wasn''t down for the count. Although it had fallen to its side, Julius could see the wound on its chest and throat healing over. Shit.


    The remaining two, one of them being the leader, found Julius and charged right at his location. He didn''t run away from them, nope, instead, he met them head-on. Pumping too much kinetic energy through his legs he dashed straight at them. The kinetic energy ripped apart his muscles, as his body was unable to take that much power. However, thanks to [Restoration] he was already healing the damage. Julius was healing his legs just as fast as he was tearing them apart.


    As he got closer, the leader was in front with its axe unleashed from its back. This thing was much larger than the other troll he fought earlier and the one who was sprinting behind it. It was probably around eight to nine feet tall and it was much more muscular. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Once Julius and the leader got within reach of each other, the troll appeared to manipulate mana into its body. [Savage Dance] was instinctively letting Julius know that this monster was enhancing its body. Glowing a dim red light, the troll leader swung its axe downwards in a flash.


    Holy shit, that is fast! Julius was shocked.


    Even though he already expected the attack, it almost split him into two. He barely evaded it with a step to the side and proceeded to continue sprinting at the other troll.


    The other troll took a side swing at Julius with its stone club and Julius had to dive to the ground. After his roll, he was behind the troll and instead of attacking it, he got up and ran towards the troll he had downed. Its friends had completely abandoned it in the confusion and was just now stumbling its way back to its feet. Before it could fully recover, Julius jumped and launched a fully powered kinetic knee strike at the troll''s head. Then, he released the enhanced [Firebolt] he was preparing at the monster''s face point blank.


    The detonation obliterated the troll''s head. However, the close distance of the explosion left painful burns and tears over Julius''s body. [Savage Dance] saved his life again and threw him away from a decapitating strike from an axe while he was distracted.


    However, the other troll was already on top of him and landed a kick during his roll, punting him over a dozen feet, and crushing multiple bones in his body. [Restoration] was running at full power, trying to heal some of his ruptured organs.


    He somehow managed to get back to his feet before the remaining two made their way over. However, the entire time he was cursing at himself. What kind of arrogant moron thought taking all four on was a good idea? Oh yeah¡­ me.


    He didn''t have much time to express his annoyance at himself, he was too busy trying to survive the attacks from two very enraged trolls.


    He quickly sent out a barrage of [Firebolts] as fast as he could. Though he could release normal ones very rapidly, they did not have the punch his enhanced ones did.


    The standard [Firebolts] were enough to stop their charge momentarily more out of surprise than anything. But even when they landed on their faces, it only took out a small chunk of flesh. Which was almost instantaneously healed. They took a moment to stop and look at Julius with murderous gazes.


    Yep, just ended up pissing them off more, Julius chuckled nervously.

 Chapter 21: Pushing His Limits

    Julius tried to gain distance between them, but they closed the gap instantly. He was trying to survive as long as he could so that [Restoration] could heal his most critical injuries, but the trolls didn''t give him any space. They brutally attacked Julius with rage-filled swings, leaving him desperately dodging for his life. His movements were sloppy due to his injuries and took a couple of clips on his arms that fractured more bones. It was only due to his skill that he hadn''t taken another direct hit.All the while, Julius was creating an enhanced [Firebolt], compressing as much mana as he could into it. He couldn''t create a second one, not while he was healing and using kinetic mana to evade. But he needed to kill or disable one of them with a single strike. It was the only way.


    Julius needed to use kinetic energy to increase the intensity of [Firebolt]. He had been practicing relentlessly ever since he had the idea, but he hadn''t succeeded a single time. If there was ever a time it was now, because if he didn''t, he would soon be crushed into a nice paste. As he dodged, Julius focused everything on generating even more kinetic energy into the flame. He envisioned it bursting with a brilliant intensity.


    He could feel something shift. Not hesitating, he threw every ounce of will into it. Julius unleashed a primal roar of pure desperation and pushed the final key in place. Something snapped into place and the entire construct underwent a qualitative change. It twisted into itself and then expanded to become much thicker and longer. It now resembled a baseball bat in size and form.


    This [Firebolt] was much different than the enhanced version. Instead of a violet hue, it was a pale icy blue bolt of mana and released a terrifying pressure of its own. Then using the momentum of an incoming swing, along with a shit ton of mana, he blasted himself as far away as he could. Managing to give himself a good amount of distance, Julius sent the enhanced [Firebolt] at the larger troll. He could feel its weight pressing down on him as it shot toward the troll.


    It reached the troll so fast, that he could barely track it. One moment it was hovering over his shoulder and the next it was surging across the plains in a blue line.


    The icy blue [Firebolt] tore straight through the troll''s head. Leaving a perfect one-foot hole where its eyes and mouth were. The bolt continued flying even after it went through its target, detonating against the mountain in the distance. Leveling the mountainside in a violent explosion, creating a shockwave you could see from far away.


    It was so astonishing, that even the other troll had paused and looked toward the destruction Julius had caused. It looked at its leader''s corpse and then at the mountain, and then shifted its attention to Julius with wide eyes.


    The anger in its eyes had faded. Now there was only fear present in its gaze. It didn''t even try to fight anymore, it just turned away and ran. It took Julius some time to comprehend what had just happened but he got his bearings back before the troll could make it very far.


    He created another compound [Firebolt], this time with much less mana. And sent it screaming towards the retreating troll''s back. This one didn''t tear through his target, but it detonated on impact, annihilating half of the thing''s back in a single attack. It fell toward the grass, twitching in jerky motions. It still wasn''t dead, its ridiculous skill was keeping it alive and trying to heal it.


    These things were truly cockroaches. They don''t even die with half of their body blown apart, it was insane. However, he did not let it suffer for too much longer and put a [Firebolt] in the thing''s head. Julius had barely any mana left and most of it was life mana, which was still trying to heal him back to health.


    He dropped to his knees, the pain and exhaustion finally catching up to him now that it was over. [Restoration] had almost healed him, with just some minor fractures and fatigue remaining. Thus, he just laid down for a moment and waited for it to finish up.


    The new technique he created at the end still shocked Julius. He knew it would increase its power, but he didn''t expect it to increase by that much.


    When he had been practicing he had been trying to feed kinetic energy to the flames. In the end, he realized that wasn''t the correct line of thinking. Julius was already condensing a lot of kinetic energy and fire mana when he made an enhanced [Firebolt], but he never thought of them feeding off each other. Typically, they would interact separately, one was hot and the other had force.


    However, he figured out how to blend them so that they each amplified one another. It was more effective than he could hope for. However, the amount of mana it took for the [Firebolt] that took the leader out, cost over a quarter of his fire and kinetic mana. It wasn''t something he could use that often in a fight, but its firepower spoke for itself.


    Out of nowhere, his stomach started to grumble, making its displeasure known. Julius also noticed how thirsty he was. He almost forgot that his main reason for going to the mountain was to find a water source. For the first time, he was envious of those with a water affinity. However, he didn''t waste any time. He got up to his feet and before he made his way to the mountain, he went over to the bodies of the trolls. Rummaging through their chests, Julius found several cores with life affinities.


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    He didn''t know what he would do with them yet, but they might come in handy later on. While he was walking, he took a look at the massive mountain range in front of him. It was hard to estimate how tall it was, but there were many crevices, overhangs, and trees littered all across its surface. Now that he was closer, he could tell there were many towering peaks dusted with snow that were separated by large canyons. It almost felt a bit unnatural the way the rock formation was structured.


    As Julius was walking toward it, he checked his notifications.


    [Firebolt lvl 5 -> lvl 9]


    [Thermal Compression lvl 4 -> lvl 7]


    [Savage Dance lvl 2 -> lvl 4]


    [Kinetic Release lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    It might have been one of the largest increases he had seen yet. Though that made sense, it was the most dangerous situation he had been in. Fighting four opponents two tiers above him increased his skill gains by quite a bit. The attack at the mansion didn''t really count, Julius had been constantly protected by Lukas and Edwin.


    Lukas and Edwin¡­ Julius''s mind wandered to them. It hadn''t been long, only two days, but it had already seemed like more time had passed. Julius was so busy trying to stay alive that he didn''t have all that much time to worry about them. Almost getting eaten by monsters three times in less than two days would do that.


    On a bright note, it seemed like [Kinetic Release] had finally leveled up to level 10. He was heavily anticipating what kind of options he would have.


    Skill [Kinetic Release] has reached level 10. Would you like to evolve [Kinetic Release]?


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    Julius had four options available. All of them sound very useful and interesting. [Kinetic Burst] was most likely the direct upgrade. [Kinetic Trap] sounded interesting, it was probably offered because of the way he used clumps of kinetic mana to ambush the wolf. It would a be good skill for setting up traps and ambushes, which has been Julius''s main style so far. But it wasn''t what he wanted to become in the future. He was forced to rely on these tactics because he was of a lower tier than his opponents, but it didn''t fit into the style he envisioned for himself.


    [Kinetic Distribution] appeared to be what he had been expecting. It sounded like it added absorption to the skill, which could help with many applications. [Kinetic Reinforcement] was the one that appealed most to him. Right now, Julius was like a glass cannon. He could put out a lot of damage with enough time, but his physical abilities were far behind. [Kinetic Reinforcement] would balance him out nicely.


    With that being said, would being a balanced fighter keep him alive? If he was honest, the only reason he was alive was because of his offensive prowess. If his attacks were any less powerful, the trolls would have tanked his assault and healed without stopping. Julius would not have been able to kill even the first troll if his [Firebolt] was too weak.


    It came down to the decision of whether to improve what he was good at or to address some of his weaknesses.


    [Kinetic Reinforcement] sounded different than how Julius was using kinetic energy. Currently, he would send bursts of kinetic mana to his limbs to either increase his speed or deliver a kinetic strike to his opponents. However, he didn''t reinforce his body at all. It was constantly getting ripped apart by his violent applications of kinetic mana. With the sheer quality and quantity of his mana, he could be pumping much more kinetic energy through his body, but it was too weak to handle it. He would burst like a bubble if he tried to use any more.


    It was only due to [Restoration] that he was able to use kinetic energy in his legs earlier with so much force. Even then, he could feel his muscles being broken down and his skeleton cracking from the pressure.


    When it came down to it, he felt like he could reproduce the effects of [Kinetic Distribution] without the skill. He had already been using the absorption aspect without a skill, but how much would losing the release aspect affect his constructs? On the other hand, he didn''t feel as confident replicating the reinforcement ability.


    It was a difficult choice and he contemplated it while he was hiking his way up the mountain. He didn''t spot any more trolls but he realized that the mountain wasn''t as simple as he thought. Several trails led further up the mountain, but there were also several paths that led deeper into the heart of the mountain. He was expecting the trolls to come from one of the paths and that there was a population somewhere either further up or deeper in.


    It was impossible to know from where he was, but Julius expected a mountain like this to have some sort of runoff. It might be on the other side of the range, but he was also worried that was where the trolls or other monsters would settle near. Most species needed a consistent source of water, but right now Julius wanted to avoid any more trolls or monsters for the day. So instead of walking around the mountain to find a lake or other water source, he was hoping to find a small stream that ran down the cliffs.


    He took a path that took him deeper down into a ravine-like structure and hoped it led to some water. The walls of the ravine were quite wide and blocked out much of the sun, making it feel cold and moist. However, he had [Spatial Perception] on and was keeping an eye out for any creatures or signs of water.


    After only several minutes, he sensed moving water just up ahead. It was flowing down from a ravine''s walls and gathering in a pool of water at the base. Julius didn''t sense anything other than some small animals, and immediately dashed for the water, giving it a small test before gulping down mouthful after mouthful of the delicious icy cold water.


    Once he was satiated, he took a break on a small rocky shelf and just laid down. It had been a long day and he still needed to choose which skill he was going with.

 Chapter 22: Physical Transformation

    His gut was telling him to go with [Kinetic Reinforcement]. He didn''t like that he was relying on his instincts to guide his skill choices so far, but they hadn''t led him astray so far.Congratulations, skill [Kinetic Reinforcement] (Uncommon) acquired


    Biting the bullet he chose [Kinetic Reinforcement]. Typically, when he learned a skill the details of how to use it were ingrained into him. It made activation much quicker and easier. However, it seemed like [Kinetic Reinforcement] was not like normal skills. Julius had expected to learn how to apply kinetic mana to strengthen his body, but not this.


    It started as a warm flow of kinetic energy suffusing his body, it felt good. For about a few seconds at least. Then it felt like fire ants were crawling up and down his body. It didn''t hurt at first, just more uncomfortable than anything else. However, it soon felt like the ants started to eat him from the inside out. Molten lava was ripping through his veins and his entire skeletal structure felt like it was being broken down and rebuilt from the ground up.


    Julius tried his best not to scream out loud, but it was too much. He shoved his bloodied and dirty shirt into his mouth to muffle his cries. To any observer, it would look like Julius was having an exorcism being performed on him. His back was contorted and arching backward, as he clawed the rock writhing in pain. He tried to use [Restoration] but the pain magnified even more and quickly stopped. It was by far the worst pain he had experienced, his entire being was broken down and reconstructed before his very eyes.


    Despite that, Julius could feel his body becoming stronger, more flexible, and more dense. What was interesting, was during that slight moment when he activated [Restoration] he could feel his body respond to it. The pain increased, yes. But the process accelerated and used the energy being supplied by [Restoration] to make further improvements to his body. It swiftly returned to its prior pace, but Julius got the impression that [Kinetic Reinforcement] wanted more life mana. As if once it got a taste of it, it wanted more.


    He froze and began contemplating. He knew that this might be a pivotal point in his advancement. Would he continue to go with the standard process? Or would he take a gamble? He had no evidence to think that using [Restoration] would provide him with superior results. However, he did know it would for sure cause him significantly more pain.


    Julius didn''t even hesitate. In this world, power meant freedom. It became clear to Julius that he needed to become more powerful if he ever wanted to have a say. A moment of pain for even a small possibility of a lifetime of freedom? It was an easy choice. He immediately activated [Restoration], feeding [Kinetic Reinforcement] with as much life mana as he could.


    He was not the most talented, his affinities said as much. Most of his accomplishments were because of his previous memories. He knew that there were some options for gaining power that he could never have access to. But pain? If all it cost was a bit of physical pain, then he wasn''t willing to back down. Physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional torment of being too weak to save your loved ones. It was an opportunity he wasn''t willing to pass him by. So he gritted his teeth and let the pain in, welcoming it with open arms.


    The pain twisted throughout his body, mana molding it to its desires. [Restoration] was aiding it, providing it with additional life mana to infuse into his flesh and bones.


    After what seemed like an eternity, the pain started to subside and dial back. It was still there but compared to before it was bliss. Julius just laid there, not able to move a single finger, it was like he had just gotten run over by a cement paver. His only movements were slight twitches and spasms from the lingering pain. He couldn''t do anything but lay on his back panting in exertion, feeling immeasurable tiredness. The soreness on top of the exhaustion from the day''s events pushed him over the edge and lulled Julius to sleep.


    When he woke up he was still sore but could at least move. He thought about activating [Restoration] but the memory of the increased pain held him off. He hypothesized that [Restoration] would have positive benefits to whatever was being done by [Kinetic Reinforcement] but he didn''t know for certainty. It was a calculated risk he was willing to make.


    Steeling himself, he activated [Restoration]. The wave of life mana instantly shot through him. He could feel much of the soreness start to dissipate until all that was left was an uncomfortable itch under his skin. It was like wearing itchy underwear that was three sizes too small, but around his entire body.


    Suddenly, the smell hit him. Akin to rotten eggs and moldy cheese. It was all around him, suffocating him in its foul odor. Grabbing his nose to squeeze it shut, he felt something on his hands and face. He discovered that his skin was covered in a transparent film of black tar. It coated him from head to toe. It was definitely where the smell was coming from. And it was absolutely rank.


    He climbed down from the shelf and made his way toward the small pool of water below. Julius tried to remove the disgusting muck attached to his skin, but it wasn''t coming off easily. The water helped a bit, but after a couple of minutes, scrubbing it off with his fingers wasn''t working. He didn''t have anything to scrub himself, so he decided to use a flat rock he found lying around. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    I mean, it''s kind of like a pumice, if I think about it, Julius thought to himself.


    Julius viciously scoured his skin with his rock, making sure there wasn''t anything left on it. The pool was already becoming black, contaminated by the tar-like substance. It took almost half an hour until he was completely clean. Or at least as clean as he was going to get without a proper shower. The biggest problem was his clothes. His pants were soaked in the substance and even after scrubbing them for a good while, they still smelled like the back alley of a nightclub. He ditched his shirt, he could go without a shirt. But he didn''t want to go completely native, so he bore with it and put his nasty pants back on, praying he didn''t catch any unfortunate disease on his private parts.


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    Now that he was "clean", he noticed how different he felt. His skin was much stronger and more pliable than it was before. When he was scrubbing, he noted how aggressively he was able to exfoliate his skin without tearing or bruising it. He barely felt the rock on his skin even though he was going to town on it. He also felt more dense, like his bones became steel rods but at the same time he never felt so light in his life. It seemed like [Kinetic Reinforcement] had lived up to its name.


    He wanted to check out his status to see if the changes he felt were reflected in it. Surprisingly, there were a lot of notifications that he missed.


    [Restoration lvl 3 -> lvl 6]


    [Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 1 -> lvl 5]


    Julius was shocked. [Kinetic Reinforcement] had gained four levels although he just got the skill. He hadn''t even used the skill yet and it was a third of the way until the next rank up. [Restoration] had also gained three levels. It appeared that using [Restoration] in conjunction with [Kinetic Reinforcement] had done wonders for both skills.


    He also felt like there were other benefits from pushing himself that weren''t represented in his status. Through the intense pain, Julius could distinctly feel life mana augmenting the process as well. He believed that after some experimentation he would find out if it was worth it. He was praying that the pain was worth it.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 1


    Skills:


    [Spatial Perception lvl 18] (Rare)


    [Savage Dance lvl 4] (Rare)


    [Thermal Compression lvl 7] (Uncommon)


    [Firebolt lvl 9] (Uncommon)


    [Restoration lvl 6] (Uncommon)


    [Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 5] (Uncommon)


    His status was looking pretty nice, he had a total of six skills and had four more open spots for additional ones. He still wanted a defensive skill, like a barrier or shield. However, [Kinetic Reinforcement] gave him confidence in taking more damage, even though he hadn''t tested it out yet. Furthermore, he was seriously considering a movement-based skill.


    In the fight with the trolls, Julius would have seriously benefitted by being able to disengage from his opponents. Blasting himself back with kinetic energy worked, but it was very inefficient. First, he couldn''t dictate exactly where he would land, and second, his body couldn''t handle such violent uses of kinetic mana.


    However, now that he was thinking about it, [Kinetic Reinforcement] would most likely take care of the latter problem. Wanting to test it out, Julius walked from the pond to an open spot a couple dozen feet away. He started slow and gently fed a bit of mana into his legs. Except that instead of the slow steam of mana, his body sucked it up like a sand in the desert. He ended up putting way more in than he expected, but to his surprise, it felt fine.


    At this amount, it was similar to how much he was putting into his legs while fighting the trolls. Before, Julius needed to feed [Restoration] into his legs to counteract the damage the kinetic energy was doing to them. Now, it wasn''t tearing his muscles apart or putting an extreme load on his bones. It felt like his legs were humming with energy that was just waiting to be let loose. As if someone has hooked up a car battery to his feet.


    He took a quick dash forward, releasing the pent-up kinetic energy. Julius noticed that he wasn''t able to control the release of kinetic energy as well. However, that was to be expected, considering he no longer had [Kinetic Release]. With that being said, his legs felt fine afterward.


    He could probably repeat the same technique over and over now until he ran out of mana. Previously, his legs could only handle his burst step after [Restoration] healed them enough. Which took a few seconds of healing. Currently, his body felt like it could take much more mana and was reacting to it much more fluidly.


    There had always been a small delay when he used this technique, but it was instantaneous now. Despite the noticeable drop in his control over the release, he was quite happy with the results. It reminded him why he chose to forgo [Mana Manipulation]. It would be better in the long run if he didn''t rely on a skill for something that was integral to kinetic energy control.


    Julius usually forgot that he didn''t have [Mana Manipulation], but to be honest, he was thankful every day for it. He would be restricted by the skill parameters for most if not all his constructs. For example, [Firebolt] was his most offensively powerful skill, but there were some things he could not change about it. The activation sequence, the amount of mana it used, and the general construction of it were the same every time. If he wanted to change it, he needed to modify it after it had already been created.


    Most skills were like this, you sacrifice flexibility for reliability and speed. However, in his opinion for an integral ability like manipulating mana or kinetic energy, skills become a crutch. He believed that these skills would restrict him and he would lose a lot of adaptability in the long run.


    Julius hadn''t heard about any other person modifying [Firebolt] or other skills like it. But he also hadn''t heard of anyone not having [Mana Manipulation]. If someone wanted to change a skill, they did it during a skill advancement or evolution. He suspected that people''s overreliance on the [Mana Manipulation], or the skill itself had constraints in its usage that prevented them from being able to modify their skills like he had done.


    It was a lot harder to do without a skill and took a lot more practice, but he maintained his stance that it was worth it. If he hadn''t trained so hard, and practiced in creative and challenging ways, he wouldn''t have been able to create the compound [Firebolt]. He would be stuck using the normal [Firebolt] and he saw what they did to the troll. Or rather, what they didn''t do. The troll had taken four [Firebolts] to the face and didn''t even faze it.


    Without a better way to do damage, his corpse would be roasting over a campfire, filling the bellies of the group of trolls. Now, he would just need to practice using kinetic energy without the skill. He expected it to be easier than when he was learning mana manipulation manually because Julius still used kinetic-aspected mana to generate the majority of his kinetic energy. Only a small part of it was harnessed from the environment. In the meantime, he planned to stay in this particular ravine until he got a handle on his kinetic manipulation abilities, at least until they were back to his previous level. It was important to allocate some time to explore his new abilities because he had a feeling that things were going to get a lot tougher down the road.

 Chapter 23: Acclimating his Gains

    Julius was currently holding two condensed orbs of fire and kinetic mana in one hand, while he was also trying to create a third one in his other. During his fight, he realized that he wasn''t able to hold multiple compressed constructs at one time. If he was able to control four of his enhanced [Firebolts] he would have been able to take out two instantly, and then have plenty of time to prepare for the other two. He was able to create and control many weaker and non-condensed constructs, but he wasn''t able to do the same with condensed ones. It was something that he wanted to change.Admittedly, it was a little scary at first. He could barely control two condensed orbs at one time, and any mistakes would cause them to blow up in his face. Not to mention, the noise might alert other monsters in the area of his whereabouts. It was stressful but valuable training for Julius. His kinetic control had taken a noticeable dip, but he was already recovering to his previous level at a rapid pace. He also discovered that just as he was able to augment his flames with additional kinetic energy, he was able to weaken them as well. This meant he was able to create dangerous compressed orbs of fire and kinetic mana, and then slowly dissipate them.


    Originally, he thought he would need to hold them while practicing and then shoot them across the plains after he was done. So he was glad he didn''t have to resort to that. There had been another surprising benefit as well. While dissipating the orbs, he was able to recover some of the mana expended to make them. It allowed him to practice more, as he didn''t need to constantly wait and regenerate mana.


    It was incredibly taxing though, especially while holding multiple orbs that were practically bombs, but it was the perfect way to challenge himself. And if he was being honest with himself, the danger excited him.


    If he was able to create and control multiple powerful constructs he wouldn''t be restricted to shooting one or two powerful attacks at a time. Instead, he would be able to unleash a barrage in an instant.


    That''s my plan, I''m not sure how long it might take to accomplish it though, Julius told himself. However, if he got to that point he would finally need to start worrying about having enough mana to power his attacks. This was funny because he thought that out of everything, he wouldn''t be worrying about having enough mana. Now, with his new attack, he wasn''t quite sure he would have enough for more than a few constructs.


    Several days quickly went by like that. He would train like a madman for every second of the day. He had even given up sleep to practice longer. [Restoration] was able to take some of his mental exhaustion away, and he now only required about an hour of sleep a night. It was a game-changer when it came to training.


    He also began practicing using kinetic energy with his improved body for several hours each day. He tried out everything he could think of, though primarily, Julius was practicing his ability to quickly move in a single step. In a fight, the difference in being an inch from where you needed to be could be the difference in life or death. It was crucial to be able to properly gauge his position relative to his opponents, which was easy thanks to [Spatial Perception]. It would allow him to capitalize on small openings or timings that would make or break a fight. But he also needed to be physically capable of precisely positioning himself.


    It was much harder than one would expect. The amount of force he created when he released the kinetic load, launched him forward like a missile. It was fast and exactly what he was looking for in this technique, but it was too fast. At first, he was trying to stop himself with pure friction but the speed would be too much for him to stop in time. Instead, he would either trip over his legs or slide for several feet before coming to a stop.


    The only way he prevented this, was by going slower. However, that wasn''t ideal either. His whole reason for this ability was to move incredibly quickly, efficiently, and precisely. He didn''t want to sacrifice one of them for another. It was greedy, but in his opinion, necessary.


    So Julius came up with a new idea. Not only would he release kinetic energy to dash forward, but he would also absorb his kinetic energy to stop. Thanks to [Kinetic Reinforcement] his body could take the extreme force of stopping so abruptly. It was the technical aspect of it that made it hard. Much like when he was first learning how to properly unleash a kinetic strike, he was having a hard time with the timing.


    Julius placed several rocks as targeting points for his training. He would start at one, then burst as fast as he could to the other, attempting to kill his kinetic energy right in front of the rock, pretending it was a monster. He would continue these drills for hours on end, until he was no longer able to physically, or got bored with it. Honestly, it was usually boredom that ended his training, because [Restoration] took care of physical fatigue. He hadn''t even felt hungry yet, which he theorized was also because of his skill.


    With that being said, his build was coming together. He evaluated his strengths and weaknesses and decided on a path for himself. He wanted to have strong long-range capabilities, but also be capable in close range as well. He had given up the idea of creating an absolute defensive skill for now. Realizing that with his affinities, it would prove difficult. If he had an earth or metal affinity, then it would be a good idea to create an unbreakable defense skill, but that wasn''t the case for Julius.


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    He would focus on an elusive defensive style that relied on his speed to avoid attacks and [Restoration] to recover from any hits he took. It should work well, because [Spatial Perception] gave him an unnaturally good sense of his surroundings and incoming attacks.


    After he finished his physical training, he would start on his mana control exercises. At the moment, he was trying to increase how many condensed constructs he could manage at a time. He was able to comfortably hold three now, but there was a lot of room for improvement.


    There were other exercises he tried as well. One of them was weaving fire and kinetic mana together like how he did with life mana. He had mixed results. With fire mana, he was able to create small spikes of woven fire mana. By utilizing the weaving property, he had been able to create a hardened mana construct. Typically, fire mana was hard to create solid and tangible constructs but weaving mana seemed to change that. They were also stronger than his normal [Firebolt] but not quite as strong as his condensed [Firebolt]. However, it costs a lot less mana. They also took a lot more time to create compared to a regular [Firebolts] but that was to be expected considering he didn''t have a skill for it.


    Kinetic, on the other hand, was difficult. Kinetic mana didn''t behave like normal mana. Therefore, when he tried to weave strands of it together it didn''t work. They just slipped away, much like trying to balance several spheres on top of each other.


    He felt like it should be possible, but if it was, Julius hadn''t found a way to do it yet.


    It was hard to tell how long it had been since Julius started his secluded training. He thought it was around a week, but it was difficult to tell when he was in a dim ravine for almost the entirety of it. That being said, Julius made some nice improvements to his skills in that time.


    [Firebolt lvl 9 -> lvl 11]


    [Thermal Compression lvl 7 -> lvl 10]


    [Restoration lvl 6 -> lvl 7]


    [Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 5 -> lvl 7] sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius was very happy with his progress. [Thermal Compression] reached level 10 and was two-thirds of the way until its next advancement. Also, his control of kinetic energy was finally back to where it was before. It took less time than he originally thought. Although, it was worth it to mention that [Kinetic Release] only helped with the release function, and all his control over absorption was left untouched.


    He also made some huge strides when it came to how proficient he was able to burst step. It was starting to feel instinctive, he was using the technique so much that he caught himself utilizing it accidentally when he was walking normally. Once he started to get a handle on the timing, everything came together like pieces of a puzzle.


    It was also a wonderfully mana-efficient technique. Now that he was absorbing his kinetic energy to stop himself and kill his momentum, the excess would be stored and reused for later purposes. Previously, it was a mana-hungry technique that had him throwing kinetic mana by the barrels to move him a few paces. Now it felt like he was almost gaining a net positive when he used it.


    It was about time to leave the ravine. He felt like he had consolidated his gains properly and was ready to delve deeper into this rift. For the entire time he had been in the ravine, he hadn''t come across any more trolls or monsters of any kind. It had been a fortunate place to find, especially in a dangerous place like a rift.


    However, all good things must eventually end. Julius didn''t have anything on him except for the pair of grimy pants and the six cores he accumulated so far in his pocket. Thus, he didn''t have much to pack. He did regret not taking a chance to look at the troll''s weapons when he had the chance. He hadn''t even thought to use the axe or clubs, because they were obviously heavy and he wasn''t well-versed in fighting with weapons other than his fists anyways. But having something might be better than having nothing.


    Eh, doesn''t matter. I prefer to use my fists anyway. There is a distinct satisfaction you get from punching something in the face. I can see why Edwin did it to me so often, Julius reminisced with a somber smile.


    The deeper Julius went, the more cavern-like it became. Now the sun was no longer visible, it was just darkness. If it wasn''t for [Spatial Perception], he would have needed to create several lights with his fire constructs, but that might have drawn attention to him. There were a few monsters he spotted along the way. However, they seemed to be around Tier 1 or 2 at most. There was a big group of Tier 1 bats that were hanging out in the ceiling above. Julius was sure to be quiet and made sure not to disturb them, but the several who did notice him didn''t attack and seemed docile for the most part.


    On another note, there were some reptilian species that had some really good camouflage. Most were around Tier 1 but Julius noticed a couple of them hovering around Tier 2. But as long as he maintained his distance, they didn''t bother him.


    Whenever he didn''t sense any monsters, he would continue practicing. Along with his training to control multiple condensed constructs, Julius had been creating dozens of woven fire orbs that floated around in patterns and various manners that trained his ability to manipulate constructs independently from each other. It had done wonders for his mana control.


    After walking for a long time, Julius approached a large tunnel with sunlight coming at its end. It was the first sign of light in a while.


    He slowly walked up to it, the contrast in lighting made it very difficult to see past the light and to see beyond the end of the tunnel. However, once he walked through the exit his eyes adjusted quickly.


    What he saw blew his mind away. He had been prepared for a lot of things, but not this. What stood before him was an enormous lush valley. Large swaths of trees littered the entire landscape with patches of brilliantly colored flora decorating it. There was also a massive waterfall crashing down from a towering cliff in the center of the valley. The water was collected at the bottom to form a crystal blue lake that spanned beyond his sight and could be seen wrapping around the forest and hills. It was late afternoon by the looks of it and the sun overhead was shining brightly, shimmering against the water and the mist of the waterfall like little sapphires. It was absolutely breathtaking.

 Chapter 24: Thats a Lot of Trolls

    Julius stood there, just taking in the wondrous view for a long time. He had been fighting and training so hard that he almost forgot that he was in another world surrounded by magic. It was times like this that reminded him of his hopes to explore the continent and the world beyond.This was a rift that was in the middle of nowhere and it still contained indescribable beauty. Julius could not help but wonder what other places in the world might hold.


    He carefully made his way down the cliffside, walking around the outer rim of the valley to examine it. He was looking for any clues on how to clear this rift. Because until he did, he was effectively stuck in here. However, there were worse places to be trapped if he was being honest. He could have been stuck in a volcanic rift with nothing but heat and the smell of sulfur as a companion. Instead, he was in a scene straight from a fairytale.


    The one thing Julius was worried about, was that except for the weaker monsters he found in the caverns, he hadn''t seen any other monsters like the trolls. According to the notification, this rift was at risk of entering an overflow state. Which should mean there is an overabundance of mana and monsters.


    "I have no idea where they would be. If I didn''t know better I would think this was just a normal rift." Julius said to himself with furrowed eyebrows.


    "It''s not like I haven''t seen any trolls either. I know they are out there, I just need to¡ª." Julius paused. Right when he rounded the corner he spotted a large settlement camp next to the side of the lake, filled with a sea of figures. " ¨Cfind them," He finished.


    In front of him was a large campsite that was completely covered with trolls. There were several dozen beat-up-looking tents and campfires littering the encampment. Several large creatures were mounted onto some spits, being roasted over the flames, with most of the trolls just lazing around the camp. He hadn''t seen it from where he entered the valley because it was tucked behind several large hills and trees. However, it seemed he found where they were hiding.


    He could see why the rift was at risk of overflowing now. There were at least hundreds of trolls down there and there were probably even more scattered around. It would be any day now that the rift will overflow into the normal world. And Julius didn''t know what would happen to him if he didn''t clear it by then.


    He hadn''t read or heard about any accounts of people who were in his circumstances. For all he knew, he would be allowed to leave when the trolls were. In that case, he could just hide away until that happened. Or maybe the rift was locked down until he either cleared it or died.


    Looking down at an entire army of Tier 3 trolls with ridiculous regeneration abilities, Julius didn''t exactly like his odds. If it was any other monsters like orcs or hobgoblins, he wouldn''t be as nervous. When he first saw the trolls, he had been hoping they weren''t the main monster of the rift. However, trolls were notoriously hard to put down, and an entire horde of them even more so.


    It wasn''t like he had much of a choice though. The notification said he wouldn''t be able to leave without clearing it. And he doubted he would be able to leave if he just waited, that would not make any sense after that message.


    So he needed a plan. Julius needed to somehow come up with a strategy that would allow him to take down hundreds of trolls before they swarmed him and ripped him apart. It wasn''t an easy task for sure.


    The first thing was that he needed to get stronger before he even thought about taking them on. That was obvious. He was thinking that he would be able to pick small groups off at a time, simultaneously ranking up his skills. [Thermal Compression] and [Firebolt] were the closest to advancement, and he believed he would receive some good options for them. [Restoration] and [Kinetic Reinforcement] were not far behind either. Both were over a third of the way there. If Julius could get all his skills up to rare, he would have a much better chance.


    He also considered tiering up to Tier 2, but even after suffusing himself with fire, kinetic, and life mana by the barrels, he hadn''t made that much progress. He could feel there was much more he would need to do before he was ready.


    If only he had exceptional affinities. Affinities affected how fast skills ranked up but more importantly, the higher your affinity the faster your body was able to adapt to your mana. Which in turn, accelerated one''s advancement to Tier 2. With the amount of fighting and stress he had been experiencing for the past couple of weeks his progress was already really impressive. However, if he had higher affinities he would have probably doubled his gains, both in skills and in regards to achieving Tier 2.


    I am really envious of those with perfect affinities. I cannot even imagine how fast they can advance, even without having to fight for their lives, Julius brooded to himself. Yet, there wasn''t anything Julius could do about that and it wasn''t worth griping about. He could only focus on what he could do in the present with what he had available to him.


    Julius hid behind some cover and observed the settlement for a while. It seemed like some groups would come and go on a regular schedule. Those who came back usually had some sort of meal in their possession. Some had extremely large prey that took a couple of trolls to carry, while others had smaller but still quite large prey slung over their shoulders. He deduced that these parties were sent out to collect enough food for the rest of the settlement. The group of four he fought before probably were doing the same. On second thought, Julius wondered if the other trolls in the group had noticed their absence yet.


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    He observed that most of the groups were in parties of four to six. Most of them were carrying the same clubs he had seen before and only a small amount were carrying proper weapons like axes or the occasional hammer.


    It was getting close to dusk now and he was planning to stalk after one of the smaller parties if they went out. Just as he was going to head back to his ravine, Julius got lucky and spotted a group of four leaving. He quietly followed them as they made their way through an opening back into the mountains. Julius was aware of their sense of smell being better than most monsters so he kept a liberal distance from them. Thankfully, they didn''t move quietly. With [Spatial Perception] to help, it was easy to track their movements.


    Soon, they exited the cave which led to another valley. This one was much more bare than the first one he saw. It was a simple flat grassland with a large river splitting it in half. On the grassland were many large creatures that resembled buffalo. They were probably the large creatures Julius had seen being cooked on the fires back at the camp.


    They were similar to buffalo in their general shape, but their size was much larger than any buffalo Julius had ever heard about. They were the size of a small truck whose heads were about the size of his entire body.


    Julius saw the four approach a buffalo slowly and once they got close enough charged right at it with their stone clubs. The buffalo noticed their attack and tried to immediately flee. However, it seemed that as big as they were, speed was not their specialty. The trolls quickly caught up to it and started to lay into the beast. It was a brutal beatdown that displayed no technique, just pure violence and strength.


    The buffalo itself put up a valiant fight. It was slow and probably only a high Tier 1 or low Tier 2 at most but its size made for an impressive show of its endurance. It tried to kick or smash into the trolls, but whatever damage it did was immediately regenerated due to their skill.


    The result was inevitable. The buffalo fell, but not without giving a fight, something Julius respected. He had considered trying to intervene, but he thought better of it. While he could have saved the buffalo, it was still a rift monster, and he needed to clear the rift. Therefore, he allowed the buffalo to tire out the trolls as much as it could before he stepped in.


    At that moment, Julius could hear some loud grunts from the group of trolls standing over the carcass. Based on their body language and sounding like they were arguing. Julius suspected they were trying to decide on who was lugging the buffalo back.


    After some intense arguing and a small scuffle between them, two trolls were chosen to carry the buffalo back to camp. Julius waited by the entrance back into the cave. He was simultaneously creating four enhanced [Firebolts] in front of himself. The two who were carrying the buffalo were far behind the other two who were walking ahead. It was perfect.


    Julius managed to create the constructs within a couple of seconds, an impressive feat that spoke of his diligent practice. Then once they walked past his line of sight, he unloaded two of them into each troll''s face.


    The two trolls didn''t even have time to react. One moment they were walking, the next their heads were gone in a smokey ash. Julius was able to make the explosions less noisy than before by absorbing some of the excess kinetic energy from the blast. However, it still resounded with a solid boom, alerting the other two trolls.


    The other two just stood there for a bit, confused as to what had just happened. All they heard was an explosion and then they saw their friend''s headless bodies fall to the ground. They looked around to figure out who had done it.


    Julius could have just continued to hide and finish them off like the others, but he was out here to train his skills in real combat. So he came out of his hiding spot and walked directly at the trolls staring them dead in the eyes the entire time.


    As he walked towards them, he wove together a dozen of his new spikes out of fire mana compressing as much as he could within a short period. He wasn''t able to weave mana into his [Firebolts] so he had to create these without any skill aiding him. However, he wanted to try them out. Unlike [Firebolt] Julius had more control over the trajectory of these constructs. [Firebolt] was only able to go in a straight line, but he was able to curve and control the spikes like they were homing missiles. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    One of the trolls seemed to collect his composure before his friend and bellowed in rage as he charged at Julius. He just continued to walk calmly toward the enraged troll. [Savage Dance] was honing his mind to an extreme and he sent a dozen spikes spiraling toward the troll from multiple directions. The troll saw the spikes attacking it but chose to ignore them and continue to charge in a straight line.


    The spikes weren''t just constructs that were easier to maneuver, they were also harder, like an actual metal spike. Unlike [Firebolt] which was intended to detonate on impact, these were made for piercing. The spikes were shot out to surround the troll and then curved so that they were coming in to attack from all angles. About half of the spikes unfortunately missed due to Julius''s inexperience in shooting them at a moving target. However, the other half managed to lodge themselves halfway into the troll''s skull and neck.


    That still wasn''t enough to put down the troll. It had dropped its club but was still making its way toward Julius, albeit more slowly with several spikes impaled in its face and throat. It would seem nothing short of decapitation or destruction of their entire torso would kill them. However, just because the spikes didn''t explode on impact, didn''t mean they couldn''t explode at all.


    The spikes were still connected to Julius''s control and he sent a small burst of mana to destabilize the construct and a concentrated burst of kinetic mana to blow them up.


    While the piercing alone didn''t kill it, the subsequent blast certainly did. It took its entire head off in a fine mist of blood. The last troll was charging its way to Julius as well. However, Julius just smiled at it with cold eyes.

 Chapter 25: Experimenting

    Julius thought about just killing the troll quickly and being done with it, but he had a much dumber plan. He wanted to try out his new [Kinetic Reinforcement] skill. He wouldn''t have chosen to try it out with all four alive, but now that only one remained, he felt like it was his best chance to test it out.He didn''t let it come to him, instead, he charged straight at it. He empowered his body with kinetic mana and whatever leftover kinetic energy he absorbed from his earlier explosion. Right as the troll loaded up a double-handed swing from its right, Julius burst stepped into the left side of the troll, absorbing all his momentum and stopping on a dime. He then uncorked a kinetic strike to the troll''s ribcage.


    The difference between the power of the strike before, and now that it was enhanced with [Kinetic Reinforcement] showed. The troll''s skin was shredded apart, leaving a crater of missing flesh. The troll itself was blasted off its feet into the grass they were standing on.


    Julius was surprised at the dramatic difference [Kinetic Reinforcement] had on his physical capabilities. The skill was still rated as uncommon, not even rare, and yet he felt like the impact of it was on par or better than [Savage Dance] or [Spatial Perception]. He couldn''t help but wonder how much of a difference activating [Restoration] had on his transformation.


    There was a small part of Julius that wished that the trolls were better fighters. It might have meant that he would have a much harder time killing them, but on the other hand, he would be able to test his fighting abilities against a skilled opponent. However, fighting something two tiers above him was going to do a lot for his skill progression regardless, so he didn''t let it bother him too much.


    For the moment Julius was going to use the troll as a sparring partner. Julius decided to fight but did not use any of his fire mana techniques to do so. He wanted to have a good old-fashioned brawl with the eight-foot gray behemoth.


    It may not have been the safest or smartest decision, but he couldn''t think of a better way to level up [Restoration] and [Kinetic Reinforcement]. He didn''t know when it happened, but Julius had gotten comfortable endangering himself, all in the name of improvement. He had always been somewhat of a training nut, but his recent actions put the old him to shame. However, he could see that his new methods were working very well. In the years he spent practicing, he wasn''t subjected to any real life-or-death situations. Even with Edwin brutally beating him down every day for years on end, Julius knew that he was never in any real danger.


    Now, he could feel each fight had a risk associated with it, he couldn''t afford to lose. That also meant his skills increased by leaps and bounds as well. He had made more progress in these couple weeks than he had in years of training. Admittedly, those years of training had built a foundation that allowed him to make such large increases. If it wasn''t for that, he wouldn''t be able to progress so fast. However, it wasn''t until he was pushed to his limits that he saw such distinct growth.


    Not to mention, Julius was having the time of his life. He kept telling himself he shouldn''t be, with what happened to Lukas and Edwin. Yet, he couldn''t ignore the way he felt when he experienced the wind of a strike that could take his head off missing by inches. Or how the world seemed to simplify and became so much clearer whenever he fought or trained past his limit. It was like he was finally experiencing the world for the first time and it felt right.


    It appeared that Julius didn''t have any more time to contemplate his psychological stability, because a very incensed troll was charging straight at him even more angry than before. Julius prepared himself, ready to go toe to toe with the monster; no tricks, no traps, just pure fist versus fist. Well, more like club versus fist if I want to get technical, Julius thought to himself.


    He allowed the troll to attack him at its own pace. He didn''t attack it in return, he just focused on evading its wild strikes. [Spatial Perception], [Savage Dance], and [Kinetic Reinforcement] complimented each other very well. One was able to give him unparalleled awareness, another allowed him to have exceptional control over his movements and decision-making, while the other gave him the power to take advantage of the other skills.


    The troll was still vastly stronger than Julius, but his ability to use kinetic energy to accelerate and decelerate so quickly allowed him to keep up. Thanks to his other skills, he was practically dancing around the troll. Although, he still had taken a couple of small grazes from the club. Though he said small, the strength and brutality of the hits still meant he had to deal with several broken and fractured bones. Luckily [Restoration] was healing him with astonishing speed. It was much faster than before.


    All in all, Julius could noticeably feel himself getting better as the fight progressed. He hadn''t allowed himself to get hit in the past few minutes, transitioning each burst of kinetic energy to another movement better than the beginning of the fight. He was also using barely any mana. Though, he would have been close to exhaustion if not for [Restoration] taking care of it.


    So far he had just continued to dodge, not making any attacks toward it. Julius was impressed at the trolls'' tenacity. It was still going just as strong as when the fight first started. However, it made sense. If Julius was able to heal his fatigue, why wouldn''t the troll be able to as well? After all, Julius''s skill was heavily inspired off of the troll''s healing skill.


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    With that being said, he was curious why the trolls needed to hunt for food. He hadn''t felt the pangs of hunger in a while. It could be that his skill evolved differently from their own.


    He was getting distracted by his thoughts, and almost took a club in a chest for his inattention. Julius shook his head at his behavior and then grinned like a madman. I think I got a handle on evading, let''s see how I do with going on the offensive.


    The entire fight Julius had been the one on the receiving end of the assault, now it was the troll''s turn. Instead of stepping back, he slid closer to the troll''s chest. He unleashed a heavy kick to the troll''s kneecap, causing a loud crunch. The troll, on one knee, tried to sweep Julius off his feet with a wild backhand but he jumped over it and landed a clean punch right to the monster''s temple.


    He felt something crack underneath his knuckles and quickly delivered two more swift strikes to the troll. Unfortunately, it recovered very rapidly and Julius had to disengage. He continued this pattern for several more minutes, experimenting with new techniques. He was able to consistently get into a position to strike the thing''s head, but he was unable to kill it in a couple of hits.


    He was confident that if he was able to get it to stop moving for several seconds, he would be able to unleash enough strikes to put it down. However, it recovered way too fast for him to get such an opportunity.


    Still, Julius had an idea. He had been inspired by seeing how his hardened fire spikes were able to penetrate the troll''s skull and how much more effective an explosion was when it was released from inside the monster.


    Kinetic energy was really bad at creating a static construct, so he used fire mana. He wove a layer of mana around his right hand and compressed it into a sharp spike protruding from his knuckles, loading it with kinetic energy as well. The moment he saw an opening, he darted in and smashed the spike into the troll''s chest. The spike was able to make it several inches deep and Julius detonated it.


    It wasn''t his brightest moment. He had completely overlooked that he would be caught up in the explosion as well since it was still attached to this fist. It predictably exploded and flung Julius off to the side, his arm mangled and badly burned.


    It was healing, but so was the troll. The fist-sized hole in its chest was being regenerated faster than Julius''s own skill. If he hadn''t improved his physique, that move might have taken off his entire arm. He didn''t know if he could regrow limbs yet, but he didn''t want to find out anytime soon.


    He tried it again. This time, he was going to leave the spikes in the troll''s body before detonating them. The troll had become more wary over the course of the fight, but it was still a monster and continued to attack Julius with nothing held back.


    Julius evaded a wide swing and slid to the side of the overhead strike following it. Then he released a small burst of kinetic energy at the troll''s foot, tripping it. Instead of a single woven spike, Julius created two side-by-side on his fist. With the troll struggling to get back up in time, he slammed his fist down on the back of its head, breaking off the spikes into its skull. He swiftly used the troll''s body as a springboard and kicked off it with a burst of kinetic energy. As he was retreating, he released the payload inside the spikes.


    Two quick consecutive thumps later, the head was gone, and in its place was a red cloud of blood.


    That might be the way to kill them without using all my mana, Julius thought to himself.


    Kinetic energy was extremely mana efficient and reusable, and with [Restoration] keeping him fresh, he was able to fight for long periods. These new spikes were really good at killing the trolls. Compared to his enhanced [Firebolt], the spikes used a fraction of the mana. They were slower to create, but he could create a dozen of them at once and he would get faster with practice. The biggest advantage was that the spikes were able to penetrate deep into the flesh of the trolls and release a detonation, making the explosion much more potent than exploding on the outside.


    He would save [Firebolt], especially the very powerful blue one he made against the troll leader for opponents that called for it. Otherwise, it was way way overboard for regular trolls. That attack had taken out a small piece of a mountain and a third of his mana. It was going to be a strategic weapon, not his go-to attack for the average troll.


    Now that Julius was done with the fight, he left back toward his ravine. He took the time to collect the mana cores of the trolls but didn''t really want to. He had no plans of using them for himself. It was well known that core users were oftentimes much weaker than those who didn''t use them. But they might be valuable to others once he leaves and could sell them for good money. However, he had nowhere to put them at the moment and he already had to stash his others in a hidden spot in the ravine.


    He sneakily returned to the valley and entered his secret spot in the ravine. It was already almost dark by the time he made his way back. He wasn''t worried about the other trolls finding the bodies of their comrades, the rift should absorb their bodies by the time morning came.


    He had dismissed the many notifications he had gotten during the fight. But now seemed like a good time to see how well he did.


    [Spatial Perception lvl 18 -> lvl 19]


    [Savage Dance lvl 4 -> lvl 7]


    [Firebolt lvl 11 -> lvl 13]


    [Thermal Compression lvl 10 -> lvl 13]


    [Restoration lvl 7 -> lvl 10]


    [Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 7 -> lvl 10]


    The gains were better than he expected. Every single skill had leveled up, even [Spatial Perception] which was now a level away from advancing. He had a feeling that getting that one level was going to be really difficult. However, he already had an idea of what he was going to do if he got stuck, but he didn''t want to resort to that quite yet. That was the last resort.


    For now, he needed to concentrate on getting his uncommon skills up to rare. [Firebolt] and [Thermal Compression] were neck and neck. Julius wanted to get both of them up to rare by the end of the week if possible. His instincts were telling him that he was on a timer and he wouldn''t like what would happen if he didn''t clear the rift by then. So he didn''t have any time to waste. S~ea??h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 26: Oops

    Before bed, he practiced his mana control using some creative techniques. One involved using an enhanced [Firebolt] and trying to mold it into a different shape. At the moment he was trying to manipulate it into a thin string, but the skill was fighting him the entire time, constantly trying to revert back into a bolt. When he got tired of that he would play around with mana by making small human-like figures out of fire mana, reenacting a scene.His current favorite was made up of a couple of dozen really small stick figures trying to take down a giant dragon. The people look more like matchsticks and the dragon looks more like a worm with a tumor on its head, but the intent is what matters, Julius thought. It was great practice for training his ability to individually control each construct. He had tried to do the exercise with compressed mana constructs, but halfway through the entire thing destabilized. If it wasn''t for his quick reaction, he would have created a large explosion. Safe to say, he didn''t try that again.


    [Thermal Compression lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    "..."


    Huh, interesting.


    Once he started to feel tired he climbed his way up to his makeshift stone bed and passed out. He only required about an hour or two of sleep nowadays. So once he woke up, he began his day with some physical training without any kinetic energy. Kinetic energy amplified his fundamental capabilities, which would theoretically mean that if he increased his base he would be able to display more power. Furthermore, [Restoration] helped a lot with physical training. Whenever he would start to feel tired he would activate it and it would heal him back to his peak. It also had another benefit of hastening his muscle tissue regeneration.


    At first, Julius noticed that the skill was just healing him back to his original state and that wasn''t good for muscle growth. His goal was to tear his muscles and cause muscle hypertrophy, but the skill wasn''t allowing that. He made some adjustments to how the skill healed him. It wasn''t easy, all modifications had to come after the skill had been activated and he had to make all alterations manually. But eventually, he was able to modify the skill to allow for muscle growth.


    It allowed Julius to stress his muscles far beyond what was considered normal and healthy. But with [Restoration] he was able to push himself without worrying about lasting damage to his body.


    He was currently doing squats with a massive slab of stone slung over his back. With every rep he was repairing his muscle tissue with life mana, enabling him to continue ripping them apart without stopping. His face was crimson red from the blood flooding his face due to the exertion. He had even popped several blood vessels in his eyes and cracked several teeth in his struggle.


    After one last rep, he let the slab of rock slip off his back and he slumped to the ground in a lifeless heap, while healing his injuries. The physical fatigue and exhaustion weren''t much of a factor anymore due to [Restoration] but the mental fatigue was still there. Although the skill helped with lessening how much sleep he needed. The psychological trauma of struggling and enduring the pain still took its toll.


    Still, he could already tell some of the changes in his physiology in half a day''s work. He already had signs of building muscle, as if he had been working out for a couple of weeks instead of a day. Imagine what bodybuilders from my world would do if they had this ability. Julius laughed at the idea. They probably wouldn''t ever stop working out. S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Restoration lvl 10 -> lvl 12]


    [Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 10 -> lvl 11]


    His efforts were rewarded in the form of two level-ups in [Restoration] and one in [Kinetic Reinforcement] to his surprise.


    It was almost mid-afternoon at this point and Julius wanted to pick off another group by the end of the day. If he was feeling extra bold he would try for two groups. But it all depended on if he could isolate them. He didn''t want to be alerting the large group any more than he could help. It was still a possibility that they were already aware of something hunting them down.


    He spent the next few hours practicing his [Firebolt]. It was the main skill he wanted to upgrade or get rid of. It was useful before, but now Julius felt restricted by it. It used too much mana and it was only useful after he compressed a load of fire and kinetic mana into it. The main benefits the skill provided right now were its casting speed and its ability to contain a lot of compressed mana. More than his other constructs, but even that was slowly becoming obsolete. He was able to compress more and more mana every day and the skill seemed to have a hard limit, while his other constructs didn''t.


    In his upcoming fight with the trolls, he decided he was only going to use [Firebolt] in order to advance it. His spikes might have been the best way to go, but he needed to upgrade this skill as fast as he could.


    Once it was around late afternoon Julius got up and headed toward the valley. It was a quick trip with his generous usage of his burst step and he could already feel the difference his stronger legs made on the skill. He could send even more mana into them before they became unstable. Once he got back to the ridge overlooking the encampment of trolls he just observed for a while.


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    Based on what he saw, it didn''t seem like anything was different from yesterday. He didn''t see any trolls panicking or large parties being formed to hunt him down yet. So that was a good sign that they didn''t know about his actions yet or at least didn''t care about the other trolls going missing.


    Either way, it was good for Julius. Once it got late enough and he saw a party making their way out of the valley, he followed. There was another group of four leaving as well, but that one had a leader who was much larger and sporting a large axe. He didn''t want to entangle himself with another troll at that level until he had upgraded his skills more.


    He stealthily tracked the group of five trolls, maintaining a safe distance so that he didn''t get spotted or sniffed out. These trolls didn''t take him in the same direction the other trolls did yesterday. This time they walked through the valley until they got to a narrow canyon with a stream trickling through it. The trolls then walked on the edge of the canyon''s walls that eventually opened up.


    Up ahead was a flat grassland with a small lake to the right. Around the lake and grassland were large trees, towering over from all sides. Then surrounding the forest were large hills and mountainsides that sloped upward, containing the area in a bowl shape. It was quite the view.


    Julius couldn''t see or sense any other trolls in the area with [Spatial Perception], just the five who were making their way toward the edge of the forest. He didn''t allow them to make it there. He launched five normal [Firebolts], one for each troll.


    He already knew before he sent them, that they weren''t going to kill any of them. That wasn''t his goal today. His goal was to use [Firebolt] as much as he could before he ran out of mana.


    Each troll took a strike to the back of the head, staggering them, with two of them falling to the ground. Overcoming their surprise, they quickly got to their feet and looked around to find the perpetrator of the attack. When they turned around they saw Julius standing there with another five [Firebolts] in hand. In typical troll fashion, they didn''t even hesitate and attacked as soon as they saw him.


    Julius was watching the trolls sprinting at him with a calm expression on his face. The best way to push [Firebolt] past its limitations was to use it in ways it wasn''t intended to. That required him to think about its restrictions. For one, [Firebolt] was only able to shoot in a linear direction, there wasn''t much ability to change its trajectory once it was released. Secondly, there was a hard cap on how many [Firebolts] he could summon at one time, regardless of how much mana he put into each one. With compressed mana, he could only control around six before he was unable to create more.


    The third but most important problem was its extreme mana usage. After learning about weaving mana, Julius understood how much mana was being misused in [Firebolt]. For some reason, he wasn''t able to create the skill with woven mana. He was still able to modify it, but creating a [Firebolt] with woven mana would require him to completely disassemble it and would defeat the whole purpose of using the skill.


    That was why he had been trying to practice his ability to modify the shape of the [Firebolt] itself. It was a silly idea, but he thought if he couldn''t create a [Firebolt] with woven mana, then he might be able to change the shape of it into a strand and then weave the individual [Firebolts] together into a larger woven version.


    He had gotten close while he practiced at night but the last step had eluded him. He had hoped that the added pressure of combat with the help of [Savage Dance] would allow him the mental capabilities to pull it off.


    He sent three of the [Firebolts] toward the incoming trolls and started trying to weave the remaining two together. [Savage Dance] was already making it easier, the [Focus] aspect of the skill was making its presence known. Two strings of a modified [Firebolt] were created before the trolls had made it halfway to him. Then he gripped the two strings and began to twist them together. It was an ugly application of weaving and resembled a hundred-year piece of rotting twine more than anything, but they managed to stay together.


    The second he saw they had fused, he sent the construct at the trolls who were already pretty close. It gouged the troll in front across the chest. Leaving a much larger wound than what two normal [Firebolts] should be able to. It was almost on the same damage as an enhanced [Firebolt] but for a fraction of the cost.


    [Firebolt lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    Nice. Julius had an excited smile on his face. More.


    The other four trolls were quickly on top of him, swinging their clubs trying to smear him across the grass. Julius didn''t even try to engage, he just used several generous blasts of kinetic mana to rocket himself backward. All the while he was creating three more [Firebolts] within an instant.


    As he was evading the trolls he elongated the projectiles into strands and wove them together. This version had much more stability, it didn''t look like it would fall apart with a light breeze. Julius shot it at a random troll''s chest and it detonated with a resounding bang.


    It ripped the monster''s torso to ribbons. Leaving its upper half a complete mess and it dropped to the floor in a puff of dust, blood leaking out onto the ground. It was the first time that Julius had managed to kill a troll without having to remove its head. It said a lot about the improvements to his offensive power.


    No notification though, Julius thought to himself with a frown. He continued to duck and side-step the remaining troll''s attacks. It was easy to dance around the trolls with the open space and [Spatial Perception] letting him know every troll''s position at all times.


    While he was dodging he started to create another three strands of [Firebolt]. It was becoming easier and easier each time. After a moment he had another woven [Firebolt] ready. The trolls took notice of the attack that had killed their brethren so easily and became a little warier of him. However, Julius didn''t shoot it at them yet. This time he was using [Thermal Compression] to compress the finished construct.


    He didn''t add much additional mana to it, and he didn''t even add any kinetic energy. It was pure compression. It was like trying to squeeze a rock to make it harder. And just like a rock, the construct cracked from the pressure. He tried to wrestle back his control, but it was already too late. The construct crumbled apart and detonated in his face.

 Chapter 27: Dual Skill Evolution

    The resulting explosion blasted him backward and tore apart the arm he had put up to protect his face. [Savage Dance] protected him from the influx of pain and he was still able to function, frantically evading the trolls who had taken advantage of his mistake. However, he was injured pretty badly. He had lost his entire right hand and half of his arm from the explosion. Furthermore, he had severe internal bleeding from the concussive force, which had ruptured several of his organs. For the next several moments he was trying all he could do to survive the troll''s assault while running [Restoration] as hard as he could.The troll''s endurance showed and they didn''t give him even a little breathing room, he was stuck within their flurry of attacks. They kept up the assault and he could feel himself slowly falling behind. [Restoration] not able to keep up with his accruing injuries. Finally, Julius realized he needed to take a risk. He allowed the next swing of the troll to hit his already injured shoulder and used every ounce of kinetic energy from the strike and what he had collected to launch himself as far away as he could.


    He landed over a hundred paces away, and though he had tried to absorb as much kinetic energy from the attack as he could, the entire left side of his body was still crushed. Okay, no more playing around. Julius was preparing four condensed spikes to kill the rapidly approaching trolls. However, something stopped him.


    If he killed them with the spikes then that would mean he practically admitted defeat. He had told himself he would kill the trolls without using his new technique and would use [Firebolt] instead.


    Was it dumb that he still wanted to continue with his plan even if it meant he would die? Yes. Was it his arrogant pride that was driving him to make this decision? Absolutely.


    However, was this the limit to how much he was willing to risk to get stronger? Hell no.


    With a snarl, he immediately dissipated the spikes and summoned four [Firebolts], modifying them into strings. The last failure had Julius realize that he couldn''t compress the entire thing after it was finished. He needed to compress the strings before he started to weave them.


    Once he compressed them he began to weave four separate [Firebolts] together. However, it was like braiding four steel cables, they just wouldn''t bend. Julius was rapidly blasting himself as far backward as he could so that he had time to finish this construct. His frustration reached its limit, not even [Savage Dance] was able to control the flood of emotions. With his entire will, he started to smash the four strands together. Blood was dripping from his eyes and nose. Slowly, but surely he was braiding the condensed cords of mana together.


    Then they came together and created a beautiful construct of brilliant red. It was small, only the length of his hand and as wide as a finger, but it radiated power. Unfortunately, he didn''t have time to admire his work, as the trolls were almost on him. He launched it at the group and it triggered on impact. The resulting explosion tore through the two trolls in the front like they were wet toilet paper and the two in the back were blasted dozens of paces away.


    Julius didn''t give them the chance to get up, he had already started creating another woven [Firebolt]. This one was created using only three strands and compressed to a slightly lesser degree. He was sacrificing a little bit of power for a much faster creation. In mere moments he had another ready to go and sent it at the troll staggering to its feet. It didn''t even notice the attack before it was killed.


    The last troll had lost its legs from the first attack and was regenerating its limbs quickly. But Julius created another projectile and dispatched it before it had even regrew its feet. He immediately dropped to the ground, exhausted. He had come really close to dying this time around. And it would have been entirely his fault if he did.


    However, there were some nice rewards for his boneheaded risk.


    [Savage Dance lvl 7 -> lvl 10]


    [Thermal Compression lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    [Firebolt lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    [Restoration lvl 12 -> lvl 14]


    [Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 11 -> lvl 13]


    Julius had finally reached level 15 in both [Firebolt] and [Thermal Compression].


    [Firebolt] has advanced to level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill?


    Skill [Firebolt] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Scorching Lance], [Thermo-Kinetic Javelin], and [Arcane Construct]


    He was offered three paths the skill could take. [Scorching Lance] was the direct upgrade, while [Thermo-Kinetic Javelin] was an upgrade that included kinetic energy in it. However, [Arcane Construct] was an interesting one. The other two seemed to be limited to a projectile or a single shape. Yet, [Arcane Construct] sounded like it would allow him to have more freedom with the shape and manifestation of the construct.


    It probably came at the cost of offensive power, compared to the other two, which seemed more like direct damage skills. Did Julius want a stronger offensive tool or something that could give him more diversity in its usage?


    It was a hard decision. He didn''t make a choice yet and wanted to see what he was offered for [Thermal Compression].


    [Thermal Compression] has advanced to level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill?


    Skill [Thermal Compression] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Extreme-Thermal Compression], [Thermo-Kinetic Compression], [Mana Consolidation], and [Pure Compression]


    Julius was offered four choices for his next skill. He would happily choose any one of them. They all sounded good. [Extreme-Thermal Compression] was a general upgrade, but he compressed fire mana the most out of all his mana affinities so it would have a massive impact on his fire constructs.


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    [Thermo-Kinetic Compression] would probably allow him an easier time compressing kinetic energy, which was nice because it was much harder to compress than fire or life mana. [Mana Consolidation] sounded like it would let him compress all his mana affinities with the skill, or more correctly "consolidate" them. He didn''t know what might be the exact difference though. How was consolidating unique from compressing?


    [Pure Compression] was the one that interested him the most. Based on his previous experiences with skill evolutions, the last choice was the one he usually ended up choosing. In Julius''s experience, he believed the list of advancement options was generated in chronological order of when he had met the requirements for that particular evolution. So if he went by that logic, [Pure Compression] was the latest option he had met the requirements for. Moreover, he believed that it had to do with how he was able to compress the woven [Firebolts] together at the end.


    Julius also felt something else other than fire mana had been compressed alongside it. It felt like a part of himself was being condensed into that construct. It was a possibility that [Pure Compression] might be a skill that enabled him to compress other things, and not just be limited to mana compression.


    In the end, he felt like he had good enough control over his ability to compress fire mana even without the skill so he didn''t go with [Extreme-Thermal Compression] and eliminated [Thermo-Kinetic Compression] because if he wanted to generalize, he also had to consider his life mana. Therefore, it came down to [Mana Consolidation] and [Pure Compression].


    They were both similar sounding skills, but eventually, Julius chose [Pure Compression] due to its potential to compress things other than mana in nature.


    Congratulations, skill [Pure Compression] (Rare) acquired.


    Julius also didn''t wait any longer to choose the evolved skill for [Firebolt].


    Congratulations, skill [Arcane Construct] (Rare) acquired.


    He was not lacking when it came to offense. He could already one-shot most of his opponents when he put his mind to it. What he needed right now was an ability that allowed him some breathing room whenever he got hurt, so that [Restoration] had time to heal him. And he believed that [Arcane Construct] might finally allow him to create a defensive technique.


    However, he had finally ranked up two of his skills, leaving [Restoration] which was on the precipice of advancement already, and [Kinetic Reinforcement] to rank up as well. It left him in a good mood. It was nice to see the progression after putting in the work.


    As he walked back to the valley, Julius was quickly healed of every injury except for his hand. No matter how much life mana he jammed into it or what he did, it wasn''t growing back. It appeared like [Restoration] had a limit as well.


    So as he was making his way back, he attempted several ideas that he thought might work, but to no avail. It remained an ugly stump and had healed over creating a round nub where his fingers used to be.


    Although he had been concentrating on his hand, he maintained vigilance of his surroundings. Which was how he noticed a group of trolls dragging along a large creature back to the valley. They hadn''t noticed him and Julius was thinking about what he would do.


    Honestly, he was tired and wanted to get back to his ravine but he also wanted to test out his new skills. The only thing holding him back was the potential noise a fight might cause. They were close enough to the large camp that someone might hear the conflict. It wasn''t likely, but there was still a chance.


    However, he made up his mind, justifying that he would have to deal with them in the future anyway, and started to create five spikes. The process had become quite simple after constant repetition, but now with [Arcane Construct], it felt like it was faster than creating a [Firebolt]. He also could sense that he wasn''t restricted by the skill during the process. He could adjust and modify the construct on the fly. It was already providing much more freedom than [Firebolt] did.


    On the other hand, it wasn''t as simple as calling upon the skill and feeding it mana. To create a [Firebolt] like his old skill would require more input. However, at this point, he had become comfortable enough that those extra steps didn''t take that much more time, just effort. But [Arcane Construct] streamlined the process of every detail of his creating process. Even when he used [Pure Compression] on the spikes, he could feel [Arcane Construct] working in tandem with [Pure Compression] to expedite the process.


    In the blink of an eye, he managed to create five heavily condensed woven spikes of fire and kinetic mana. Something that might have taken him a few seconds before he evolved the skills. He didn''t shoot them at the unaware trolls just yet. He had just gotten an idea and wanted to try something.


    Julius took a spike and slowly started to change its shape. He flattened the construct out into a sheet of condensed mana and formed it into a thin disk about two feet wide. Then he focused on making the edges as thin as possible. Something like this was previously impossible, he had tried for a long time but still never was able to create a razor''s edge on anything he created. It wouldn''t take shape or it would be too brittle, but that wasn''t the case anymore. [Arcane Construct] was a rare skill for a reason and it made a massive difference. He could feel the skill helping align the construct along the edge, thinning it out without breaking it apart and enforcing the sharpened blades. It was quite a fascinating way to create a sharp edge on an object and Julius took note of it.


    Once he got a feel for it, it was quite easy to finish creating a wicked sharp edge on all sides of the red disk. Soon enough he had five crimson-red disks hovering in front of his nose. They were gently spinning and releasing a pleasant thrum of mana.


    Julius tracked the movements of the trolls and started to dump a lot of concentrated kinetic energy into the disks. [Pure Compression] made compressing kinetic energy a much easier task and it felt like he was compressing fire mana instead. They started to rapidly spin in place, releasing a humming noise from the speed they were gathering that quickly turned into a high-pitched whine. The disks were radiating mana around the edges in a dangerous gleam.


    Once he felt like an appropriate amount of force was collected, he slung the disks of compressed fire and kinetic mana at the group. To his astonishment, they shot toward the trolls like a railgun, it was almost impossible for him to track them. Luckily he still had control over them and could feel their trajectories with his mana sense.


    They reached the trolls within an instant and missed them, continuing to fly past them. Julius hurriedly controlled them to turn around before they ended up hitting the canyon walls and getting stuck.


    Julius looked at them to see their reactions to the attack. However, they were oddly still. They hadn''t moved an inch since the attack but Julius didn''t let that stop him from trying again.


    The flying sawblades were about to attack them again when Julius saw the entire group fall to the ground in a lifeless heap. Julius stopped his attack before he released them. Then he absorbed the excess kinetic energy from the disks and let them return to hover over his shoulders. Afterward, he walked over to where the trolls had fallen and inspected them.


    Julius hadn''t felt any resistance, that was why he thought he had initially missed. But it seemed like he was mistaken. Each troll had a perfect cut across its upper half, severing each of them into two distinct pieces. The disks had been so sharp and launched with such speed, that they had sliced right through their tough skin and hard bones like they were butter.


    It was a silent execution. For someone who had been using explosions as his offensive power all this time, killing something so cleanly was new to him. He just stood over their bodies for a moment taking in what he had just done.


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 Chapter 28: Evolving [Restoration]

    After dealing with the trolls, he quickly retreated to the ravine before any trolls spotted him. He was still a little shaken at what he had done and hadn''t even taken the time to collect their cores.Killing things with large explosions was normal for Julius, it made sense that big boom meant big damage. It was why most of the weapons in his old world were the exploding kind. Yet, for some reason, being able to slice through something so effortlessly had demonstrated how much power he had in his hands.


    I can''t recall any invention from my old world that could slice through something that cleanly. Maybe only a diamond-edged blade or something fictional like a lightsaber, Julius thought to himself.


    "Huh¡­ a lightsaber." He asked aloud with a contemplative look on his face.


    He wondered if it would be possible to recreate a lightsaber. He had a fire affinity and a lightsaber should be made out of plasma so it might be possible. However, he would need to somehow get his fire that hot. Even when he had accelerated the movement of molecules to create that scary powerful blue [Firebolt], he still didn''t think that was close to enough heat to replicate a lightsaber. Eh, it doesn''t matter, he thought to himself. He put the silly thought aside, bookmarking it for a potential experiment in the future.


    Going back to his original musings, Julius was still a Tier 1. Although he was able to reliably kill the Tier 3 trolls, he had to remind himself that he still had a long way to go. He also couldn''t let himself believe that he was able to take on any Tier 3 yet. The trolls were a good matchup against him. They didn''t have any long-range abilities and their movement speed was quite slow for their tier. The main thing that made them a real danger was their regenerative abilities. For most people, this would be extremely troublesome.


    However, Julius had an unbelievable advantage when it came to damage output. There was no way a Tier 1 should be able to have enough power to effectively kill the troll before it was even able to heal. With that being said, due to his combination of skills, affinities, core, and knowledge from his old world, he was able to achieve this.


    He couldn''t help but wonder how powerful a Tier 5 like his uncle was. He wasn''t able to appreciate or even sense the abilities they used during the assassination attempt at the mansion. But now that he had gotten a taste for real combat he couldn''t help but question how close he was to actually dying that night. The more he learned the larger the gap seemed to become.


    The reality was that all those worries shouldn''t matter to Julius. He had larger problems staring at him in the face. Like his missing hand for one. He still hadn''t thought of a way to heal it yet. He knew the trolls could regrow limbs, he had seen it firsthand. So how could he achieve it?


    The most promising options were either he advanced to Tier 2 and hope his Body Advancement fixed it on its own. Or he could evolve [Restoration] and hope there would be an option to regrow limbs similar to the troll''s own skill.


    However, until then, he would be stuck with a nub for the time being. It was annoying, but the pain no longer bothered him and he didn''t exactly need a hand to fight anyway.


    When I think about it, the nub is just a smaller closed fist with no knuckles, Julius thought to himself as he tried to make himself feel better.


    Julius was about over halfway to Tier 2 by now. He could feel the mana accumulating within his body strengthening his connection with it. The constant days of fighting and stress had hastened the process to an impressive level. But evolving [Restoration] seemed like it was the best choice at the moment.


    For now, he wanted to try to create a prosthetic. [Arcane Construct] should be able to create some sort of hand-like construct with practice. Sitting down, he focused on his missing hand. He used his remaining hand as a template to create the prosthetic.


    Unlike his attempts at creating realistic-looking constructs in the past, [Arcane Construct] was able to facilitate the task and helped adjust some of the finer details using his imagination as a base. His first attempt didn''t look that bad considering everything. It looked like a red smudge with five pointy sticks, resembling an eldritch horror''s hand from nightmares.


    His second attempt was slightly better. The smudge had turned into a sphere and the sharp pointy sticks became more rounded. Now it looked more like the Michelin Man''s hand.


    He kept on trying different versions, trying to get it to resemble his left hand as close as he could. After a while, he had lost count of the number of attempts and had finally created something that had the proper proportions and aesthetics of a hand. The main difficulty after he created it was the hand was a completely solid construct, which meant that while it looked like a hand, it wasn''t able to function like a hand. Julius couldn''t grab anything with the fingers, couldn''t bend them, or even make a fist.


    The only way around this was to keep the construct in a semi-complete state, which allowed it to maintain some flexibility but required constant focus to keep it together. Otherwise, it would fall apart with the slightest lapse in concentration.


    Julius kept experimenting with his construct throughout the night without stopping. By the time morning came around, he had decided on a construct that looked like a closed fist and was hardened so that it didn''t require any attention to keep it together. However, he also made sure whenever he wanted to grab something or maneuver the "fingers", he could soften the construct so it was malleable. Then he would use pure manipulation to create five digits to imitate the capabilities of real fingers. It was quite challenging to pull off, but he could already feel himself getting the hang of it.


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    He was still planning on healing his hand. Even if he managed to heal his hand entirely by tomorrow it was still great practice and he had learned a lot from the experience. He had even gained a level in [Arcane Construct] during the night.


    [Arcane Construct lvl 1 -> lvl 2]


    He was hoping that by either tomorrow or the next day he would evolve [Restoration]. It was at level 14 and he could feel it only needed a nudge to tip it over the edge.


    He had an idea of how he would evolve [Restoration] but he wasn''t sure it was a good idea. He didn''t think going out to fight trolls and purposefully getting hurt to heal over and over would do it. Julius had already felt that he was receiving diminishing returns on the skill progression by subjugating himself to the same injuries. It seemed like variety was essential for optimal progression. And he knew exactly what might do it.


    Before he continued to think about it anymore he went through his workout regime for the day. It was somewhat awkward trying to hold a rock with one and a half hands but he made it work.


    He pushed himself hard, trying to squeeze out every inch of growth as he could. [Restoration] was constantly active, healing himself over and over as he broke down his muscles throughout half a day of work. Unfortunately, [Restoration] didn''t level up. But [Kinetic Reinforcement] did.


    [Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    Now Julius had a single level left for both [Restoration] and [Kinetic Reinforcement] until they evolved.


    He was still thinking of his little idea. It was crazy, but Julius truly believed that it could work. It was dangerous, yes, but when has that stopped him before? S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He decided to get up and leave the ravine to clear his head. He headed toward the valley and found a small spot that overlooked the entire valley and just watched as the waterfall plummeted from the mountain spire. The sounds of crashing water relaxed him and he took a break from the pressure he had been putting himself under.


    He had been pushing himself so hard, that he could feel himself starting to fray at the seams. He needed a respite like this so that he didn''t unravel. He couldn''t forget that there was a beauty to life other than gaining power. Strength was just a means to an end. Power without ideals was empty. But ideals without strength were just fantasies. He would need to have a balance of both if he wanted to live a fulfilling life.


    For a while, he just sat on an overhang, feet dangling over the edge as he enjoyed the view, doing nothing. No mana manipulation, no training, he just enjoyed the tranquility. It was moments like this when he missed his old world. While it wasn''t as exciting as this new one, it was peaceful. He didn''t have to worry about a colossal grey monster trying to smash his face in or some sort of monster stalking him in his sleep. It was boring and predictable.


    Julius was just lazing around for a while but then when he looked up at the sky something caught his eye. He noticed black streaks spreading across it. It was almost as if the sky was fracturing like a glass pane. It was subtle, that was why he hadn''t noticed it before, but it was definitely spreading.


    Is this from the effects of the overflow? Was the entire rift going to collapse with everything inside of it? Julius had no idea.


    It seemed like the world wasn''t going to give him the option to not go through with his idea. He was much more aware that he was on a time crunch and couldn''t afford to waste any more time. He got up, dusted himself off, and headed back to the ravine.


    Once he got back, he sat himself down and created a flame above his left hand. Julius paused for a bit, thinking of what he was going to do. He was confident that he would be able to evolve [Restoration] without resorting to these kinds of methods. But how much time would be wasted while he did that? Too much, Julius decided.


    With a resigned sigh, he turned the flame over and pressed it against his right arm, searing his skin. Julius clenched his teeth and groaned from the pain. His skin was boiling from the heat, blisters already forming as [Restoration] was active at full speed.


    This was his not-so-good idea. Self-mutilation was not something he wanted to resort to but there weren''t many other ways he could pressure [Restoration]. When he fought trolls, most of his injuries were one-offs. He would break or fracture a bone, but he wasn''t subjected to a consistent source of damage like a fire. He was also able to activate [Savage Dance] more freely. The restrictions of the skill activation had lowered as he leveled it up. This helped a lot and allowed him to ignore the worst of the pain. That was why he had decided it was worth taking the risk, even though it had a chance of not working.


    He continued to burn himself but slowly ramped up the intensity as he got used to the pain. At this point, he had enshrouded his entire right arm with fire. [Restoration] was an amazing skill, he could feel his flesh being healed as it was being destroyed. He could also feel the skill was almost consuming the energy from the flames to increase its healing. It was fascinating.


    However, he still didn''t receive a notification even after several minutes of his self-inflicted torture. It would seem he needed to increase the intensity even more. This time he concentrated the fire, making it only as small as his fist but the strength increased exponentially.


    The pain was starting to become almost unbearable at this point. However, to his surprise, it was the other things that he would look back on this day with disgust. Like the smell of his fat dripping from his arm perfuming as it hit the flames, or the sound of his skin crackling before it turned into ash. It was revolting, to say the least.


    He tuned it all out. The pain and other sensations, he just hid inside of himself waiting for it to be over.


    He didn''t know how long it had been, but eventually, he was distantly aware of a notification.


    [Restoration lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    Julius immediately dissipated the flames and healed his arm completely, albeit still missing a hand. There weren''t any more burns, but the skin on his arm still showed scars from his intense treatment of it. Pale cracks winded around his entire forearm, looking like a spiderweb. However, he didn''t regret it. He might have if it didn''t work, but it did.


    In his years living in this world, he had come to learn that he would be rewarded for putting himself in danger. The more dangerous and stupid the risk was, the greater the reward.

 Chapter 29: Pseudo-Phoenix

    Julius took a moment to rest before he checked his notifications. He moved to the exit of the ravine to get away from the scent of his burnt flesh. He sat down and took the time to re-center himself until he was ready to check his options.[Restoration] has advanced to level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill?


    Skill [Restoration] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Superlative Restoration], [Extreme Rejuvenation], [Muscle Augmentation], and [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]


    Julius''s eyes widened in surprise. There were some very interesting advancements available. He almost chose [Superlative Restoration] without a second look at the others. [Restoration] had been such a great skill so far, the only limitation seemed to be its ability to heal crippling injuries and it was highly likely the advancement fixed that.


    However, he remained calm and checked out the three other options. [Extreme Rejuvenation] sounded like a skill that concentrated on healing aspects such as fatigue, hunger, and sleep. That was honestly a very useful ability, the ability to heal wounds was nice, but rejuvenation was an underappreciated function in his opinion. It had saved his life more than he could count. But he had been able to heal these aspects already with [Restoration], maybe less than this new skill offered, but enough for his current needs, so he eliminated [Extreme Rejuvenation].


    [Muscle Augmentation] was a funny advancement to Julius. He had been practicing how to modify [Restoration] to facilitate muscle growth and it seemed like it had paid off. The option definitely was only there due to his previous experiments. If he had another healing skill, he would consider this skill much more seriously than he currently was.


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was the most intriguing skill out of the lot. Just the name Phoenix was indicative enough of its power. Phoenixes were divine fire beasts who specialized in fire manipulation and were practically immortal due to their healing abilities. Even if it was called pseudo-phoenix, it was undeniably a powerful skill, but what if it didn''t cover what [Restoration] had?


    The option had most likely come from the phenomenon where Julius had felt [Restoration] using the flame''s excess energy to fuel his skill. So he could assume that the healing properties were much more intense, but would he still be able to heal from fatigue, hunger, and sleep? That was the real question.


    Restoration and renewal were similar words with similar connotations, which led Julius to believe that [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] at least covered some of the same aspects as [Restoration].


    In the end, Julius couldn''t give up a skill that had a divine beast''s name in it.


    Congratulations, skill [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] (Rare+) acquired.


    What the hell does (Rare+) mean? Is it an indicator that the skill is powerful even among other rare skills? Edwin had mentioned [Spatial Perception] was in the upper range of rare skills, but he never mentioned anything like this. Julius pressed his lips tightly together as he thought about the potential significance of this discovery.


    Instead of thinking about it anymore, he wanted to try the skill out. He still had a hand that was missing.


    Julius activated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and he could feel mana race through his body to his arm. Just that small amount of time had Julius feeling like he touched an electric fence. The intensity of life and fire mana was extreme. However, he couldn''t see his arm regrowing even when concentrating the skill on it. It was as if something was preventing it. Julius thought that it was possible that since it had been healed over already, it was unable to heal it.


    After a few moments of thought, Julius gathered some fire mana and created a scarlet red short blade. He tested the edge of the blade with his finger to make sure it was sharp and accidentally cut himself, surprising himself with its sharpness.


    Damn, that''s how I had cut those trolls apart so easily.


    He looked at the nub at the end of his right arm and then he looked at the sharp blade in his hand. He kept looking back and forth between the two with a pronounced frown on his face. Then he closed his eyes and groaned in defeat. It has to be done, he convinced himself.


    He activated [Savage Dance] once again and brutally sliced down on his right arm. The blade was so sharp that he didn''t even feel the pain for a few seconds, even as the offending nub was lying down on the ground in a puddle of blood.


    Julius quickly activated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal], focusing on healing his hand. This time there was a noticeable effect. A warm blaze of red and orange flame burst into reality around the bloody stump on his arm. A potent amount of life mana was suffusing throughout his arm and he visibly saw his hand knitting back together.


    The skeleton of his hand was formed first. Then the muscle and tissue began to coalesce around his palm and fingers. Within less than a minute, his whole hand had regrown, as if it was never lost in the first place.


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 1 -> lvl 2]


    It was slightly more pale than his left one, but other than that, it was an exact replica of the one he exploded. Julius flexed his hand, opening and closing it repeatedly just to make sure nothing felt off, but nothing did. It was a magnificent feat of magic.


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    After getting his hand back, Julius made his way to the troll encampment. He hadn''t forgotten the fracturing sky and knew he needed to do something soon before it was too late.


    He gave himself a day. One day to pick off as many groups as he could before he made a move on the entire group. It wouldn''t make that much of a difference but he could also try to evolve [Kinetic Reinforcement] during that time.


    With that being said, he wasn''t going to be sneaking around, taking them down here and there, from this point forward he was going to be hunting them down as quickly as he could.


    He arrived at the center of the valley, noticing the usual activities of the trolls. He saw one group return to camp and another one preparing to leave as well. Typically, Julius would wait until he had found a suitable party to go after, but this time he followed the first group he saw leaving.


    This group had six trolls and one of them was a leader. Julius hadn''t got the chance to fight another troll leader since he last fought the other one. He wondered how he would fare now that he had gotten stronger.


    Julius stalked them until they had made their way far enough from the valley and began his preparations. He created five rotating saw blades, using [Pure Compression] and [Arcane Construct] to make them as sharp and durable as he could. Then he poured kinetic energy into them, causing them to whistle as they spun as fast as he could make them.


    He waited until he lined up all five trolls, and then he released them. The four regular trolls didn''t even get a chance to respond, as their heads were decapitated in an instant. However, little to Julius''s surprise the leader troll didn''t go down quite as easily. The saw blade meant for it had managed to cut through half of its neck, but its spine had resisted the force of the blade, causing it to chip as it ricocheted off the bone.


    Julius was already bringing the other four constructs around for another attack. The troll was still on the ground, holding its bleeding neck as it healed rapidly. Yet, the troll had activated some sort of skill like the other leader Julius had faced. Its skin was enveloped in a red glow and the troll was looking around frantically trying to find its assailant.


    It had noticed the incoming blades of fire mana too late and could only brace itself. Two disks were aimed at its chest and the following two were aimed at its throat. Much to Julius''s disappointment, not a single saw blade had managed to kill the monster. The blades created several lacerations that were quite deep but failed to finish it off. The physical enhancement skill had hardened the thing''s flesh to the point where his constructs were no longer able to penetrate more than a few inches. That would still be considered a good result if the troll didn''t regenerate the wounds within a few seconds.


    As he had learned the hard way, he had to put the troll down with overwhelming power. Otherwise, it would just get back up, looking none the worse.


    Since it was apparent that his blades weren''t working on the thing, he went back to old reliable. A big pointy missile. He gathered the five cracked disks back to him and disassembled them, recycling their mana and kinetic energy. Recycling his own constructs was a much simpler task than trying to pilfer another''s.


    The troll was still a good distance away from him, so he wasn''t in a rush. Julius started to condense a spike made of fire and kinetic mana. The process of compressing was made exponentially easier thanks to the newly evolved [Pure Compression]. He was able to condense way more mana than before and at a faster rate as well. Then he honed the very point of the spike with [Arcane Construct] refining it and making it as dense and sharp as he possibly could.


    Once it was formed, he started to rotate it, generating an enormous amount of penetrative force. Much like the disks, the spike started to scream as it reached its peak rotational speed. He could see the atmosphere around it start to heat up, emitting heat waves around it.


    Finally, as the troll was still stampeding toward him, he released the spike. Julius was worried that even this much wouldn''t be enough to break through the thing''s defenses and had already started to form another one just in case. However, it seemed his worries were not warranted. The spike blasted the troll off of its feet and onto its back. With [Spatial Perception] Julius could see that the spike had pierced the troll''s navel. Only about a couple of inches of the backend of the spike had not made it through the troll, but the other foot or so had torn through its chest.


    The troll was unable to heal the wound with an object clogging up the hole and it was clawing at its chest trying to remove the spike. But Julius didn''t give it another chance and detonated the payload inside of it, killing it instantly.


    Julius didn''t give it a second look and charged a good amount of kinetic energy into his legs before he bolted toward a random direction, trying to hunt down another group. He didn''t bother with the cores, he wouldn''t have the time or the storage to carry them.


    He was able to run quite fast now, he felt like a cheetah as he raced across the grassy plains leaping across creeks and boulders with a single step. It was exhilarating. He had always enjoyed running when he was younger, but being able to run as fast as a speeding car was another level of fun.


    It was slightly rough on his body, even with [Kinetic Reinforcement,] but [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was passively running and was offsetting the fatigue. An odd characteristic though, was that his new healing skill produced a subtle fiery aura around him as it worked its magic.


    I better not use it if I want to stay hidden in the future, Julius reminded himself.


    He would be like a nightlight, letting anyone know where he was. It was something he was going to try to fix in the future. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    In the meantime, he had been sprinting around for almost ten minutes and still hadn''t found another group. [Spatial Perception] was scanning the entire area for any signs of trolls. He had found some weaker monsters but not what he was looking for.


    It wasn''t until another ten minutes went by and a good chunk of life mana was used to sustain his crazy pace that he found another group of trolls. There were six of them and they had trekked out pretty far, it was almost to the end of the mountains. There was another leader with them. Not that it mattered much.


    Julius knew how to take care of them. He created five spinning disks and a single condensed spike that he sent to the unaware group. He made sure he focused on killing the leader first, blowing it up before it could activate its enhancement skill, but ended up missing one of the trolls. His aim was slightly off and had only sliced through its chest partway.


    But Julius quickly controlled the blades and circled them back for another barrage, leaving the troll cut up into six separate pieces in the dirt. He didn''t even blink at the brutal execution of the monsters, he was already quite used to the violence by now. Standing there with calm and determined eyes he brought the disks back to him and absorbed them. Then he sent another rush of kinetic energy to his legs and dashed off, continuing his hunt.

 Chapter 30: The Hunt

    Julius managed to find and hunt down another three groups of trolls before the sun started to set. They were unexciting fights for the most part. Julius would launch his assault from a distance at a group of unaware trolls and every time he would kill them before they could even get close to him.There was only a single time when a leader had noticed the attack before it reached them. It had activated its enhancement skill before the spike landed, but it didn''t make much of a difference. Julius killed it all the same.


    He never felt any pressure or danger during these fights, so he didn''t receive many level-ups. However, his newly evolved skills were still low level so they naturally didn''t take much to rank up.


    [Arcane Construct lvl 2 -> lvl 3]


    [Pure Compression lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 2 -> lvl 3]


    [Kinetic Reinforcement] still hadn''t leveled up even after he had been using it the entire time during his hunt. However, he could feel it was close. It was right about to cross the threshold holding it back. All it needed was a little push.


    He had given himself a day to eliminate as many trolls as he could. He had done well on that front, taking down over two dozen trolls in a few hours. However, now that he was running out of daylight, he wouldn''t be able to hunt down many more without attacking the camp directly. Therefore, he permitted himself to play around for a little bit.


    With an excited smirk, he dashed off again to find one more group.


    The next group he found was making their way back to the encampment. It was a large group of six with a larger troll at the head of them.


    Perfect, Julius thought with a smile.


    He created five disks and sent them shooting toward the group. Like his past fights, they didn''t have time to react and were dead before they noticed the attack. The troll leader on the other hand was completely unharmed. Julius hadn''t sent any attacks at it.


    The remaining troll had gotten its bearings back quickly and immediately activated its skill, covering it from head to toe in a red gleam. Then it took the axe strapped across its back and bum-rushed Julius''s position.


    This troll seemed stronger than the other leaders he had fought earlier. Its red aura was more solid and released a pressure that the others hadn''t. Its higher physical prowess was made apparent as each step it took exploded the ground. It was faster than the other troll leaders and Julius estimated it was at least as fast as himself.


    Julius began to feel the normal sensations of fear, anxiety, and excitement course through him. The adrenaline started to make his heart race and he could feel [Savage Dance] activating, retraining the overflow of these emotions. He had learned that while [Savage Dance] could effectively mute these sensations, he couldn''t extinguish all of them. Finding a delicate balance of passion and rationale was imperative. Not enough passion and he found his attacks lacking in strength and creativity. Too much passion and he found himself getting lost in the moment with no control over himself.


    That was why he allowed himself to feel a small amount of each emotion, even negative ones like fear and pain. They kept him on his toes, honing his focus to heights beyond what he thought possible.


    The troll was almost on top of him, bringing its massive axe around it a crushing blow. Julius hadn''t released any of his techniques at it while it charged him. He wanted to put this thing down the old-fashioned way. With his two fists.


    He took a quick step back, avoiding the axe blade by a few inches, and then ducked under the ensuing backswipe. He got into the guard of the troll with a single burst step and uncorked a crippling blow to the thing''s chest, knocking it off its feet and breaking several ribs in the process.


    Julius tried to capitalize on the opening but had to avoid the kick from the downed troll. It had quickly regained its footing and the wound on its chest had already healed by the time it got back up.


    The troll looked at Julius with more caution than before. It wasn''t attacking recklessly anymore. It started to examine him and waited for him to make another move. This was the first time Julius had seen such intelligence from a troll and subconsciously upgraded the monster''s threat in his mind.


    The two of them just shuffled around each other for a few moments, getting a feel for one another. But it was Julius that made the first move. He created a large curtain of flames and sent them right at the troll''s face, taking away its line of sight. Julius couldn''t see the troll either, but he didn''t need his eyes to fight. [Spatial Perception] was keeping track of the troll better than his eyes ever could.


    With no vision, the troll wasn''t able to see Julius coming in from the right. Using [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression] he created brass knuckles around his fists. Then as the troll lost track of Julius, he delivered a crushing blow to its kneecap, blasting over half of it right off, dropping the troll to one knee. Julius took advantage of its limited mobility and released a combination of strikes at the troll''s skull.


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    Its skull was much harder than any other troll he had fought. It felt like he was punching a solid piece of steel. However, he wanted to try to do as much damage as possible, so he didn''t let up even as his arms started to hurt. Unfortunately, he got greedy and one of its frantic swings clipped him in the side and sent him flying away. It wasn''t following up on its successful strike, as it was still staggering to its feet in a drunken stupor. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ironically, that small hit had done more damage to Julius than what he had managed to do to the troll. It had broken several ribs, and his collarbone, as well as damaging some of his organs. [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] which was passively running throughout the fight, cranked up to maximum output. Flames weaved up and down his torso, healing him just as fast as, if not more so than the troll.


    He got back to his feet within a blink of an eye and charged right back at the troll. It was still slightly wobbly on its feet and was retrieving its axe which it had dropped. It was bent over and its back was turned to Julius, so he decided to run as fast as he could and leaped feet first at it. Both of his feet, supercharged with kinetic energy, smashed into the troll''s back. It was tossed right off its feet and tumbled a dozen or so paces away. Leaving a big puff of dust in its wake.


    It got back up to its feet and stared menacingly at Julius with its blood-red irises. For some reason, Julius got the impression that the troll was really pissed off. He couldn''t imagine what he had done to receive such a look. Then Julius directed a large toothy smile at the scary gray monster.


    It seemed like that pushed it over the top. The troll roared and dashed right toward him, all of its previous composure was gone.


    Taunt successful, Julius smirked.


    In its rage, its swings were much easier to predict and avoid. Julius allowed it to continue to attack, just dodging and occasionally absorbing any kinetic energy he could. Absorbing kinetic energy from an opponent while it was attacking up close was always hard, but it had slowly become more manageable with diligent practice.


    He wasn''t sending out many of his own attacks. He would counter with an occasional punch or kick, but that was more to get space. Instead, he was using this opportunity to train kinetic absorption in close combat.


    As Julius continued to evade and absorb the kinetic energy of its strikes, he was using that kinetic energy to charge his entire body. Charging his body with kinetic energy didn''t do much other than allow him to store more than his core''s capacity. Typically, when he used kinetic energy he would only use it for specific parts. If he needed to run fast he would send it to his legs. If he wanted to punch, he would send it to his fist. Rarely would he ever charge his entire body with kinetic energy, it was too wasteful otherwise.


    Wait, Julius paused for a second and almost got his head taken off in the process.


    When he threw a punch, he didn''t just use his fist. He used his entire body like the rotation of his hips or the contraction of his back. So why was he only sending a burst of mana at the point of impact?


    If he wasn''t busy avoiding a giant troll''s axe, he would have slapped his forehead in exasperation. He wanted to try it out immediately. He had more than enough kinetic energy from absorbing the troll''s attacks, if anything he didn''t know what to do with the excess.


    Julius released a burst of kinetic energy from his hips, then from his back, and finally released from his arm. Aiming at an opening the troll''s swing left for him. Unfortunately, it didn''t work like he expected and his timing was way off. He ended up looking like he was having a seizure instead. The troll hadn''t expected Julius to attack out of the blue as he had been playing defense for most of the fight, but it still managed to bring its axe back around for a quick swing.


    Julius didn''t have time to dodge this strike, so he formed a thick plate of mana as condensed as he could in such a short time using [Pure Compression] and [Arcane Construct]. The blow slammed into the impromptu barrier. The plate of mana held for a moment but quickly shattered under the force of a physically enhanced troll. Luckily, the strike wasn''t close to a full-powered swing and the slight resistance it was met with had deviated its path enough so that it only left a deep gash in his chest.


    His spontaneous experiment had almost killed him again. It was becoming a bad habit, one that he should probably fix.


    But that was his future self''s problem. For now, he decided to double down. He was going to try again. This time he wasn''t going to do the same thing. Releasing multiple bursts of mana like that was way too hard to time, and didn''t feel like it would work no matter how hard he practiced with it. It was too disconnected. What he needed was to seamlessly transition the burst of mana throughout his body in one strike.


    His body was already charged with too much kinetic energy and [Kinetic Reinforcement] was running as it supported his body from breaking down from the energy. What he needed was to release a single continuous surge of kinetic energy that flowed from the legs to the hips, to the back, and then funnel into his limb, where it would release into his target.


    Once he had envisioned the process and felt like he had a good idea of what he was going to do, he waited for an opportunity. The troll was still all over him, not slowing down for a second.


    There, he saw an opening where the troll had overextended and would not be able to protect itself. Julius released a burst step and found himself right in front of the troll''s chest. Then without hesitation unleashed a monstrous strike right into its ribcage.


    The force of his punch dwarfed his other attacks. If his previous strikes were like a toddler''s punch then his new one hit like a hydraulic press. It was fast but it wasn''t even the speed that made it so powerful. There was a titanic force behind his fist. As a result, it was too much for his brass knuckles and had completely shattered the constructs around his hands. It also nearly disintegrated every bone in his arm, which practically exploded from the force. There was also extreme tissue damage and hairline fractures running throughout his whole body.


    On the bright side, the troll had taken the worst of the exchange. Its entire chest had imploded leaving a massive hole in its chest. It wasn''t making any moves to get up, but it was still alive if the regenerating tissue was any indication.


    Julius hobbled his way over to the troll, [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] at full throttle healing his injuries. He focused on healing everything except for his mangled arm, planning to take care of it later, it would take too long to fix it anyway.


    He walked toward the still form of the troll and released another strong surge of kinetic energy through his entire body, stomping down on the troll''s head, and splitting it open like a watermelon.

 Chapter 31: Final Preparations

    Once he determined it was completely dead, he dropped to the ground. He immediately started the process of healing his arm, red and orange flames enveloping it. Funnily enough, for how much effort that fight took, he was still almost fully loaded on mana. The only one that was kind of depleted was his life mana. But he still had no problems healing himself back to full health.While he recovered, he took a look at his notifications.


    [Savage Dance lvl 10 -> lvl 11]


    [Arcane Construct lvl 3 -> lvl 5]


    [Pure Compression lvl 3 -> lvl 4]


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 3 -> lvl 5]


    [Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 14 -> lvl 15] S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius internally cheered, he had finally reached level 15 in [Kinetic Reinforcement]. It took putting himself in a lot of danger, but it paid off. He had accomplished his goal of evolving all his skills.


    [Kinetic Reinforcement] has advanced to level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill?


    Skill [Kinetic Reinforcement] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Advanced Kinetic Reinforcement], [Force Tempering], [Kinetic Augmentation], and [Kinetic Surge]


    He had four options available to him. However, three of them were similar sounding skills. [Advanced Kinetic Reinforcement], [Force Tempering], and [Kinetic Augmentation] all sounded like they were skills meant to increase the physical abilities of his body. Much like how [Kinetic Reinforcement] had changed it, just at a higher level.


    [Advanced Kinetic Reinforcement] was the usual direct upgrade, and a solid option if he didn''t want to choose another option. [Force Tempering] was pretty intriguing. It was the only one that wasn''t labeled as "Kinetic", which might mean it would temper his body against all forces, not just kinetic. If so, then Julius really liked that option. It might not be an offensive skill, but it could potentially be a reliable defensive upgrade.


    [Kinetic Augmentation] reminded Julius of an artificial enhancement. If [Kinetic Reinforcement] strengthened what was already there, then [Kinetic Augmentation] might elevate his body to a whole other level. It might take him beyond mortal capabilities, and into the realm of superhuman.


    Then there was [Kinetic Surge] to consider. It had to be an option because of how he had used kinetic energy to kill the last troll leader. If so, that was a potent weapon to have in his arsenal. His main worry was that the skill wouldn''t provide a way for him to handle the stress of the skill.


    If he didn''t have [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] he would have lost not just his hand, but his entire arm. Not to mention how much damage it had done to every part of his body. It was not a skill he could use until either he got a much more robust physique or he got a Tier 2 body. However, one of them would require him to choose a skill other than [Kinetic Surge]. While the other would require him to wait until he tiered up. Even at his current fast pace, he couldn''t see himself being able to advance before the rift collapsed or whatever was happening to it.


    He would also be able to use the technique without the skill, albeit without such ease that the skill would provide. A part of him wanted to choose it anyway, just so that he would have it when he reached Tier 2. But the more rational part of him thought better of it.


    He needed all the power he could get at this very moment. He could plan for the long-term all he wanted, but it meant nothing if he died tomorrow.


    Therefore, he disregarded [Kinetic Surge], though it pained him to do so. Then he also eliminated [Advanced Kinetic Reinforcement], because while [Kinetic Reinforcement] was nice for when he first got it. It slowly showed its limitations as Julius got stronger. [Kinetic Reinforcement] made his skin, bones, and entire body tougher, but it wasn''t even enough to endure even a single attack from the trolls. A halfhearted strike would shatter his body like a porcelain doll.


    So it came down to deciding between [Force Tempering] and [Kinetic Augmentation]. He really liked the sound of [Force Tempering] because he felt like it would provide him the largest defensive benefit. But if he was being honest with himself, [Kinetic Augmentation] fit him better. Kinetic was one of his main affinities and his physical abilities could use a little "augmentation". Decision made, Julius selected [Kinetic Augmentation].


    Congratulations, skill [Kinetic Augmentation] (Rare) acquired.


    Julius began to feel a tingling from his head to his toes.


    Oh come on, not this again, Julius prayed that the sensations would stop there. He forgot how painful receiving [Kinetic Reinforcement] was. The sensations started to dial-up and reached a point where they went from uncomfortable to outright painful. Thankfully, he was able to activate [Savage Dance] at will now and could offset a lot of the pain. But he still was not looking forward to what going to happen.


    Julius isolated himself as far away from the pain as was able to but still felt like fire ants were gnawing on his bones. He couldn''t imagine what it would feel like without numbing most of the pain.


    Then the greedy perfectionist side of him reared its ugly head and he remembered how he implemented his healing skill during the process last time. He vividly recalled how the pain had increased due to the addition, but he also didn''t forget how much more impressive the results ended up being.


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    Gritting his teeth, he slowly fed life mana into the skill, and boy did it hurt. It was almost as bad as the first time. However, he attempted to shut the pain out concentrating on anything but the agony he was experiencing.


    He could sense the effects of his stubbornness was working. His bones were taking in all the life and fire mana his healing skill provided, sucking them into his bones and flesh. Causing them to radiate with a luster that spoke of its potential power.


    After the skill had run its course and he could feel it start winding down, Julius released his hold of [Savage Dance]. His body had a soreness that even [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] could not completely heal. But it felt immensely different.


    He could immediately tell that his entire body had become much heavier and tougher than before. He also could feel that his body held a wellspring of power that was waiting to be unleashed. Every single molecule in his body was like it was supercharged with kinetic energy.


    It was similar to a stable version of [Kinetic Surge]. It didn''t have the explosiveness, but it was passively active and would continue to work without his attention and applied to every movement he made. He was very happy with the result. He didn''t know how he would compare to a Tier 2 with an Affinity Body, but he couldn''t imagine they were much stronger than his current self.


    After his skill evolution, he took a breather to relax and wait for the worst of the soreness to dissipate. However, he did want to check his status in the meantime.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 1


    Skills:


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 5] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Savage Dance lvl 11] (Rare)


    [Arcane Construct lvl 5] (Rare)


    [Pure Compression lvl 4] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 1] (Rare)


    It was a very satisfying sight. He had managed to upgrade every one of his skills to (Rare), and in the case of [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to (Rare+), which he was still very curious about. It was something he was going to look into in the future.


    Speaking of that, he hadn''t quite decided what he was going to do after the rift. His plan for years had always been to go to an academy to learn more about the world and advancing tiers in general. Lukas and Edwin had been really tight-lipped when it came to the details and requirements for advancement. They had only told him what he would need to do to reach Tier 2 and get his evolved body. However, they told him to wait until he reached the academy before he started to worry about the specifics of other tiers.


    Therefore, Julius didn''t know much about how the power structure worked in this world. He understood that tiers started at untiered and continued to go up until at least tier 6, but was that the limit? Or were there tiers beyond that? Furthermore, he didn''t understand how to reach Tier 3. He was getting close enough to Tier 2, that he would need to start worrying about that pretty soon.


    He still thought it was a good idea to go to an academy. Goldencrest was still his first choice, but even schools like Brightwood or Reyton would be a good option. But considering his situation, he had no idea where the nearest one would be.


    If he was in the Endless Forest like he suspected, then it would be hard to get to any. The Endless Forest was a notorious piece of land within the southern region of the continent. It was technically under the Luminous Empire''s rule, but no one really thought the Empire had any control of that territory. The Endless Forest took up a massive chunk of the Empire''s land, and only a small portion of it was used to collect resources. The forest was split into several layers. As you made your way deeper into the forest, so would the threat level. The outermost layers started around an E or D-rank threat, go past that and it would be C or B-rank. Then once you enter the core of the forest, which was by far the largest part, A and S-rank threats were everywhere. Dragons and other exceedingly dangerous mythological beasts made their home in the core of the forest.


    There haven''t been many excursions past the first few layers, it was too difficult to find enough people who were powerful enough to travel so deep into a dangerous territory for an extended period. So information was relatively sparse.


    The Luminous Empire had come to realize that it was not worth the risks to venture any deeper and anger its residents. They were satisfied with gathering materials from the outer layers and dealing with the occasional rift overflows every once in a while. Realizing that the rift overflows that occurred deep within the forest were taken care of by the very powerful denizens living there.


    Luckily for Julius, he would guess he was in one of the outer layers. He hadn''t seen any monsters other than the wolf, but many outer areas were quite barren of monsters from the years of gathering.


    Still, the rift was bothering him. There shouldn''t have been a Tier 3 rift where he was stranded. That on top of the fact that it had sucked him in was ringing the alarm bells in his head.


    However, the fact remained that he had to clear the rift, and soon by the looks of it. The cracks in the sky were spreading even wider and he would estimate it would cover the sky within a week. He could figure out his education plans at a later date. His next goal was to decide how he wanted to kill the other hundreds of trolls.


    The first idea he had was to use darkness to his advantage. He knew that the camp went to sleep at night and [Spatial Perception] would give him a large advantage. But he wouldn''t be able to use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] unless he doesn''t use any fire mana with it, which lowered its efficiency.


    But he thought he would place himself high on one of the mountain tops and rain down explosives. It''s not very sporting, but neither is fighting hundreds of trolls by his lonesome. However, he was worried that his barrage wouldn''t kill the trolls. He had only been able to kill them so far because of his accurate attacks. Relying on the subsequent explosions from the blast didn''t sound like a good plan. A grievous wound to a human was practically a papercut to a troll since it could heal within a few seconds. He would just waste his mana and give up the game.


    His other plan, which was the one he was leaning toward, was to just continue hunting them down. He could try to do it at night when they were unprepared, by sneaking into their camp and killing as many as he could before the other woke up. Then he would flee under the cover of darkness before they get organized.


    It was the best plan he could come up with, and he knew anything more complicated would just be counter-productive. Odds were that once the fighting started, he would need to improvise either way.


    Sneak in, do as much damage as he can, and run away. He liked simple plans and this one didn''t get any simpler.

 Chapter 32: Making his Move

    Julius found himself staring over the troll encampment. It was night and he could only make out the details because of the fires that were scattered around the camp. He wasn''t going to lie, he was really nervous. Taking down individual groups was fine, but taking on an entire horde of self-regenerating monsters was terrifying. Part of him still wanted to rain bombs from a safe distance, but he knew that it would most likely be a waste of mana. Even if he used half of his core for a single blast, he didn''t think he would kill more than a couple dozen, and worse, it would alert them against any future attacks.But Julius steeled his nerves and quietly made his way down to the camp. He had taken a couple of hours to prepare. He had observed the camp and watched as the trolls made their way back to their tents. There were no guards posted around the camp, which was expected considering they were probably the strongest monsters in the rift.


    His core was full and his body was completely charged with kinetic energy. He originally planned on having many constructs surround him like an arsenal, but he realized that having a dozen shining red disks of mana would kind of defeat the purpose of stealth.


    He approached the first tent, activating [Savage Dance] to settle some of his anxiety. He could hear loud snoring coming from the inside and based on what he had observed there were usually four to six trolls per tent. The same amount that were in a team.


    He quickly prepared several sharp wedges of hardened fire mana. Julius had tested them earlier on some rocks and while they weren''t as effective as the saw blades, they didn''t require any spinning, meaning they didn''t whistle. Which was going to be important if he wanted to do this quietly.


    He sensed five trolls within this tent, but no leader. According to what he was able to sense with [Spatial Perception], the groups with leaders all had tents more toward the center of the camp. The ones around the edges were apparently lower in the troll''s social hierarchy.


    He opened the tent, which was made of the same type of plant-based material that their clothes were made out of. It made a slight crinkling noise as it parted, but thankfully the trolls didn''t awake. Then five wedges of sharpened floated over the heads of the sleeping trolls. Once they were all directly over the necks of the snoring trolls, he slammed them down and added a boost of kinetic energy to make sure they went all the way through.


    It was anti-climatic, all wedges pierced through the monster''s necks, killing them swiftly. Honestly, Julius felt a little sick for the first since he''d been in this rift. It was the only time he had felt genuinely bad for killing a monster. Killing an opponent that was actively trying to kill you was different than slaughtering his opponents in their sleep. It just didn''t sit well with Julius and he swore to himself that this would be the last time he ever did something like this.


    However, he still had many other tents to visit and he couldn''t back out now. So Julius quietly made his way out of the tent and went to the next closest one, keeping the constructs as low to the ground so that their glowing wouldn''t alert any trolls still awake.


    The next tent had only four trolls and he just decided to send the wedges in alone. The constructs parted the tent and silently hovered above the trolls. He could sense every movement inside with his skill and with a pulse of kinetic energy killed all the trolls.


    The same happened with the next dozen or so tents. By this point, Julius was racking up quite a lot of kills. It was going very smoothly, at this rate he could take out the entire camp in less than an hour. It was extremely disturbing, assassinating trolls by the dozens like it was nothing.


    He even got a notification for his actions.


    Would you like to learn to learn the skill [Assassination] (Uncommon)?


    Julius hadn''t received any notifications for new skills in a while, even though he had been hoping for certain ones like some sort of burst step or movement skill. The fact that he was offered such a skill at this moment made his heart drop. He felt like his insides were curdling like sour milk.


    He didn''t like it. The depths of his soul were vehemently opposing what he was doing. He didn''t like that he was forced to do this.


    So why the hell am I? Julius asked himself.


    Was it because he had no other choice? Because he had other plans that he decided against. Or was it because it was the easiest choice?


    His mouth opened as if he wanted to refute that thought.


    But that''s exactly what it was. It was the easiest choice.


    It wasn''t that he was forced to kill the monsters like this, it was just the easiest way to clear the rift with the least amount of risk and using the least amount of mana.


    Julius gazed up into the fractured night sky like it held the answers to his problems. I got so tunnel-visioned on clearing the rift that I was willing to do anything to achieve it, even if it meant doing what was easy versus what was right, he realized.


    Julius didn''t consider himself a good guy. He wasn''t a hero. If it came down to choosing a single person he cared about or the entire world, he would let the world burn to ash. However, he still had morals, and cutting the throats of his opponents in their beds might very well be one of them. He was aiming for the pinnacle of this world, but if he turned into a broken shadow of himself while doing it, was that really considered a success?


    Was silently killing them when they were asleep any better than bombarding them from a mountaintop?


    No, either way, I would be killing them. But killing them in the same manner as the Genshen Clan bothers me in a way I cannot describe.


    Julius knew he shouldn''t have a problem with it. He had killed dozens of trolls by ambushing them. His style of fighting wasn''t exactly "honorable".


    Maybe, there is something about slitting someone''s throat when they are sleeping in their beds that doesn''t sit right with me.


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    It was like he had said before, power without ideals was empty, and maybe this would be one of his. He had no problem killing his opponents in their homes, but he would at least give them the common courtesy and knock on their front door before he did so.


    Julius smiled sardonically and shook his head in frustration.


    From the corner of his senses, he could feel that there were some trolls who were getting up and making some commotion. Perhaps they had smelled the thick scent of blood coming from the tents. Julius didn''t know and honestly, he didn''t really care. He had no more plans of continuing this tactic. And it seemed like the trolls were no longer going to allow him either.


    He felt more and more trolls start to awaken from the noise. Soon, Julius wouldn''t be surprised if they started to swarm him any moment. Time was up. The need for secrecy was no longer relevant. A part of Julius was glad the trolls had noticed, now he didn''t feel the pressuring need to continue this distasteful act.


    With a grim determination on his face, he began gathering fire mana, forming it into a compressed orb. His eyes were shining with a hint of madness while he did so.


    Over the camp, a large ball of fire formed, the heat emanating from it was intense and Julius could sense more of the trolls inside of the tents start to move around. He thought about replicating his blue flame technique but honestly thought the scary blue flame had a better chance of killing him than the trolls did. Also, he hadn''t tried since he evolved [Firebolt], it was way too volatile to casually practice it.


    Looking back, he didn''t know how he was able to keep the construct together before it destabilized. Maybe in the future, he could hopefully use that technique, but not until he felt like he could control it or no longer had a choice. For now, he just compressed as much kinetic and fire mana as he could.


    In hindsight he should have just bombarded the camp in the first place, it would have saved him the time. On the other hand, he was grateful that he had learned this about himself earlier than later. With a flick of his hand, Julius dropped the orb right in the center of camp.


    A deafening boom exploded throughout the otherwise quiet camp. He sensed every troll startled awake and couldn''t help but smile like a madman. He would be facing every troll within the horde at once. But at least he was doing it on his own terms. Also, it would provide a nice distraction to make his escape.


    Now that the jig was up, Julius didn''t hold back. He created as many constructs as he could handle at once and began tossing out sharp disks of mana and explosive spikes at the trolls with impunity. [Spatial Perception] helped him retain his accuracy in the darkness and chaos but it was becoming tough to kill a troll with each strike, especially, the leaders. They were just moving too erratically to precisely take them out.


    Julius didn''t stay within the confines of the camp for very long. He swiftly started to back away toward his fallback plan. He never had the intention of facing them on an open field like he was some one-man army. Nope, he had a plan that would allow him to funnel them into his attacks. Several hours ago, he found a nice cliffside where he could slowly retreat while he fended off the trolls. He just needed to make it there.


    It didn''t take very long for the initial confusion to die down and for the trolls to collect themselves. He had only made it about halfway to the cliff and they were already forming up in an organized group, chasing after him.


    He couldn''t afford to look back, and [Spatial Perception] couldn''t determine exactly what was happening, but there was probably some sort of chieftain or overall leader giving commands. There was a large central tent in the camp, and he suspected it was owned by the big boss of the horde.


    Julius continued sending precise strikes at whatever troll entered his perception, but he focused on running as fast as he could to his objective. He was faster than the regular trolls so he was easily outpacing them by now and had stopped sending out any more attacks. It would just be a waste otherwise, considering he could no longer land them with any accuracy.


    He was looking pretty good on his mana capacity. He had never been so glad for his ridiculous capacity than now. He was going to be in for a long fight even if he had the environmental advantage.


    Abruptly, Julius felt something latch onto him. Some sort of mana-like substance seeped into his skin. It felt dark and insidious, causing him to slow down as he felt extremely weary all of a sudden. Even with his healing skill passively running, it wasn''t completely alleviating the fatigue. Julius had to increase the amount he was putting into [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to get rid of it. However, that also meant he lit up like a bonfire in the middle of the dark. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was only after he did that he felt like the symptoms went away. When he thought that was the end of it, the same feeling came back, but with a more violent reaction. If he hadn''t put kinetic energy into his body, he might have fallen to his knees from the weakness he was experiencing.


    Julius had no idea what was happening to him and he didn''t have time to figure it out. He pumped mana into his healing skill, dealing with the weird effect, and continued making his way to the cliffside. Then, he sensed something. He was barely able to discern what it was, but it reassembled a black cloud racing toward him.


    He tried to avoid it, but it was too fast, and was able to track his movements. When it hit him in the back, his eyesight vanished and he could no longer hear anything.


    I''m being hit by some sort of curse or debuff ability, Julius realized with wide eyes.


    There was a curse mage somewhere in the horde of trolls, some sort of shaman, or maybe even their leader. The situation was getting worse and the cynical part of him was kicking himself for not taking the easy way out. He just had to go and make it harder on himself, didn''t he?


    Another sickly black vapor of mana was heading toward him. Now that he knew what he needed to look out for, it stood out like a lighthouse on a foggy night. He tried to block it with a barrier of mana, but it eroded straight through it like acid tearing through paper and hit him again.


    This curse was different, he could feel it latching onto his core, trying to drain his mana. Julius tried to act quickly, he activated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] but focused it on the mass of black mana on his core. He didn''t care about his blindness or deafness for the moment. He had [Spatial Perception] and it was dark out anyway, so he left it alone for now.


    The mass of curse energy was rapidly draining his mana. It had already taken a decent chunk away and he needed to prevent it from doing any more damage. Julius tried to surround the curse with fire and life mana, squeezing it, trying to rid himself of this parasite. However, it appeared that the curse not only drained mana but also restricted his mana usage.


    It took his entire attention to wrangle the mass off of his core. By the time he had, it had taken almost a third of his resources. Considering how much mana Julius had, that was a lot.


    Julius had never experienced an attack quite like that. He had heard about mages that specialized in debuffs and curses but he hadn''t thought he would meet one in a troll rift. There hadn''t been a single monster that could use magic beyond physical enhancements. He sensed behind him and noticed that the effort and time he had put into fighting against the unusual attack had let the other trolls split the distance between them.


    Julius was hyper-aware, trying to detect another attack like that before it could land. Moments later, he sensed it. It was the same attack, coming for his chest. He didn''t even bother trying to stop it with a construct, the last one didn''t do anything. This time, he manipulated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] so that it surrounded his core. Not leaving a single gap for the black mana to slip into.


    To his relief, his skill burned the black mana, purifying it before it could grab ahold of his core. He let out a sign, he was extremely lucky to find a way to defend against it so quickly. The problem was that the curse had already done its job. He had just over half his mana left, with less life mana than the other two. He had been planning to fight a war of attrition, using his high mana capacity to his advantage, but it hadn''t even gotten to the challenging part and he was down to fifty percent already. It was not looking good for Julius.

 Chapter 33: Consequences

    The curse mage didn''t send out any more mana-draining curses at him. They seemed to realize that they didn''t work anymore. But little did they know, it took Julius a lot of focus and mana to fend off the attack. Still, he was glad the enemy wasn''t just spamming it at him. Instead, they went back to their original attack.However, that was just as annoying too. The only way Julius could block the insidious black mana was to cover himself with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] before it hit. Although he was able to detect the attack before it reached him, the constant activation of the skill was taking a toll on his reserves. He was over half down on life and fire mana.


    Julius was so focused on detecting any more curses heading his way that he almost missed the gathering of earth mana around his feet. Fortunately, he noticed it just in time and jumped as the ground split open and sharp stakes made of stone almost impaled him.


    What?! Do they know earth magic as well?


    Julius was already taken by surprise that one of the trolls knew curse magic but now it was throwing out earth magic as well. It did not bode well for Julius.


    He needed to take out the mage. Julius was confident in fighting Tier 3 trolls, but he had zero confidence about taking on a Tier 3 mage on top of it. He just didn''t have enough experience or knowledge of magic. He had learned basic exercises but he hadn''t learned how mages fought, or how to defend against them. That was something he was hoping to learn at an academy. The other trolls were at least what he was used to, slow, strong, with extraordinary regeneration abilities.


    He would like nothing better than to stop and launch a massive missile at the troll mage, but he didn''t know exactly where this enemy was. Also, it would let the horde of regenerating rageful monsters catch up to him. He quickly healed himself again, curing his blindness and deafness, and then continued running.


    To his immense relief, he finally made it to the base of the mountain. He planned to use the steepness of the cliff to give him a better line of sight for shooting the trolls. Also, he was hoping that it would prevent them from dodging as easily and he could easily lodge a spike into their heads. He had scouted out a path earlier and quickly scurried up the route, trying to get as high up the cliff as he could. It was a path that was large enough for Julius to scale quickly, but narrow enough that it impeded the trolls. The incline was also quite steep, but not enough that it was vertical.


    Not long after, the first of the trolls had made it to the base of the mountain as well. Julius was praying that the trolls were lousy climbers. If they weren''t then he was screwed.


    Julius pulled himself over a particularly large boulder and made it to a large ledge then paused. He looked over the edge and could make out a wave of dark shapes at the base of the mountain all climbing their way up to Julius. Using [Spatial Perception] he estimated that there were still a hundred or so trolls left.


    Using as little mana as possible, he created explosive needles and had them hover over his shoulder. He took a deep breath to center himself and then began to fire down the needles on the unsuspecting trolls. Julius emphasized his accuracy over speed, he couldn''t afford to waste mana, especially when it was already too low for his comfort.


    The trolls weren''t exactly the smartest of opponents. When they saw their companion''s faces getting pierced by an explosive needle, they continued making their way up with no sign of hesitation. It was easy, almost too easy.


    Julius had not seen any of the troll leaders yet and only the regular trolls had been climbing. Even at the base of the mountain, he couldn''t detect any stronger trolls or their supposed chieftain. It worried Julius, but at the same time, he had to focus on dealing with the trolls climbing up and trying to eat him.


    Some time passed, and Julius was still laying down fire on incoming the trolls. He had taken down around several dozen but they were still coming and he still hadn''t seen any signs of the others.


    Suddenly, he felt movement above him and then a mass of earth mana behind his back. He reacted instinctually and quickly rolled out of the way. Right after he moved, he saw a pillar of stone jut out from directly where he was just a second ago. If he hadn''t been fast enough, he would have been knocked off the cliff and fallen over a hundred feet down back to the floor.


    At least he found his answer to where the other trolls had gone. It seemed like they had gone some other way and blocked off his route further up the mountain. It was his mistake to assume that they would not know their way around the mountains.


    There were over twenty of them standing at the nearest flat ledge, most of them leaders. At the front was a unique troll, it was a little bit taller than the others but instead of a soft red aura, there was a dense bloody aura surrounding it that suffocated Julius even from down here. Yet, what surprised Julius was the troll chief''s slimness. It was quite sleek around the shoulders and looked a lot more athletic than the other trolls. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Honestly, that made the troll seem much more dangerous. The other trolls were like beefed-up roid junkies, with too much muscle to move around quickly. This one reminded him of a nine-foot-tall Lebron James. He was quite confident that this was their chieftain


    He was so concentrated on the troll chieftain, that he had almost overlooked the other trolls. In the back of the group, he could barely sense a smaller troll holding a staff of some kind. Julius would have completely missed this troll if not for the dense waves of mana emanating from the creature. It was like the mana itself was interfering with the atmosphere. He could safely say that he had found his mage.


    It had only taken a second for Julius to observe the new group and immediately realize that he was trapped on the side of the mountain. The way back down was blocked by several dozen trolls and above him was a group entirely composed of elite trolls. Not to mention, he was stuck on the side of a mountain with an earth mage. Julius loved his luck.


    If that wasn''t bad enough, the trolls above began to grab large random stones and started to chuck them over the edge right at Julius. He was still firing needles at the trolls that were climbing up, so he had to decide what to focus on.


    A particularly large rock sped toward him faster than the others and smashed next to his feet several feet away, leaving a crater in its wake. He didn''t have much time left.


    So Julius did the only thing that he could think of. He began creating a bomb.


    Not worrying about the trolls climbing up anymore, Julius stopped shooting needles and hid beneath a small shelf, protecting himself from the raining rocks. Several spikes of stone shot out of the cliff randomly in Julius''s general location, luckily it seemed like the mage needed some sort of line of sight for his earth magic.


    Then he focused on gathering almost the rest of the fire mana he had in his core into a dense orb. Then he fed it his kinetic mana, which was still halfway full, into the core of the orb. He could feel the other mage doing something weird with its mana, it was trying to disrupt Julius''s mana control by sending out short bursts of its mana. Julius had no idea how it was doing it but it was like trying to build a piece of Ikea furniture while a cat was running away with all the screws. It was very frustrating.


    However, thanks to his highly-ranked skills and sheer will, he was able to fend off the mage''s interference and managed to form the first part of the construct. He barely had any fire mana left, only enough for a small construct or two. But he did have enough kinetic mana left in his core.


    Julius hadn''t been planning to use this technique again, for fear of it killing him by accident, but he didn''t have another option.


    Gently, he began on the second part of the construct. He stopped filling the core of the orb with kinetic energy and started to infuse the fire itself with kinetic energy. He could still feel the other mage''s attempts at disrupting what he was doing, but Julius was so in the zone that he barely felt the interference.


    The kinetic energy and fire mana were synergizing, creating a much hotter flame. He could feel the heat coming off the orb rapidly increasing as the color started to change into a gorgeous blue. It had become so hot that the heat was searing off his skin even though it was several feet away. He could feel it melting away, burning off his flesh. He didn''t have [Firebolt] to contain the energy this time. Only [Arcane Construct] was helping it not explode in his face. He loved his new skill, but the rigid structure of his old skill would have been greatly appreciated at the moment.


    Once, he had put a third of his kinetic mana into it the orb was done. However, Julius could feel the construct trying to rip away from his control. It was swiftly unraveling and was about to blow up in his face.


    No longer thinking, just acting on pure instinct, Julius blasted kinetic energy through his legs and jumped off the cliff into the open air. Then as he was falling he fired the pulsing blue orb at the ledge of the chieftain was standing on.


    Julius saw the mage panic and try to put up some sort of defensive measure. But the orb still slammed into the mountain and detonated with an enormous blast. The light from the explosion blinded Julius and the resulting shockwave shattered his eardrums, blowing him even further away from the mountainside.


    Discombobulated and disoriented, Julius was rapidly tumbling through the air and toward the ground at a ridiculous speed. He was frantically trying to absorb as much kinetic energy from his fall as he could, but it wasn''t going to be enough. So using the last of his fire mana and some of the kinetic energy he absorbed he created a construct with his feet. It was hard to tell which way was up and what way was down as he was spinning head over tail, but by some miracle, he was able to release the payload before he hit the ground. The counteracting explosion had just enough force to blow him upward and it slowed him down before he fell back to the surface with a hard crash.


    Julius broke both of his legs, but he lived, and [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was already working on his legs. He had managed to blow himself a lot further away from the mountain than he originally thought. However, he was glad because the result of him shooting that orb at the mountain had resulted in a landslide of epic proportions.


    The entire ground was rumbling as thousands and thousands of tons of rock fell away from the mountain. The entire side of the mountain was getting swept down. Boulders the size of cars were toppling down and collapsing on top of the trolls beneath it.


    He had no idea what became of the troll chief or the mage, the dust from the catastrophe was making it hard to see through and [Spatial Perception] couldn''t pick up anything from that far away. However, he wouldn''t be surprised if many trolls survived the landslide, nothing short of being completely crushed would kill them.


    Ironically, it seemed like the gods had heard his wishes because as he thought it, the very top of the mountain, whose support had eroded by the landslide, collapsed. The entire peak of the mountain tipped over and dropped directly on the rubble where the trolls had been buried.


    Huh¡­ that might work.

 Chapter 34: New Skill

    Julius had all four of the limbs splayed out as he used the dredges of his mana to heal himself and tried to recover as much mana as he could.Nothing went according to how he thought things might go. He had expected that he would have to fight the big bad troll chieftain in the end, but honestly, it was hard to believe that even it could survive that catastrophe.


    Julius stayed on the ground for over an hour. He had already completely healed by now and his mana had recovered a decent amount in that time as well. He had checked his notifications as waited.


    [Savage Dance lvl 11 -> lvl 14]


    [Arcane Construct lvl 5 -> lvl 8]


    [Pure Compression lvl 4 -> lvl 7]


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 5 -> lvl 9]


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 1 -> lvl 5]


    It was the greatest improvement he had seen while in the rift. Numbers-wise, it might have not been the largest increase, but considering that all of his skills were rare, the improvement was significant.


    He even got a new skill offered.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Fighter''s Will] (Uncommon)?


    Julius didn''t know what to expect from a skill like that. He didn''t even know why he got offered it. Was it from participating in so many dangerous fights? Or maybe it was because of his dumb stunt? He didn''t know. However, he didn''t see any reason not to accept it.


    He almost thought about not choosing it just because it would mean his status would no longer have all rare skills, but quickly whacked himself over the head.


    Congratulations, skill [Fighter''s Will] (Uncommon) acquired.


    Even after he acquired it, he still didn''t have any idea what the skill did. He guessed it would take some experimenting to find out. Julius had bigger problems to solve though. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    For one, he was expecting some sort of exit would appear. Most times when a rift was cleared, a portal appeared, taking the delvers back to the real world. However, Julius had not seen any signs of a portal yet.


    Could there still be other trolls in the valley? Or maybe the chieftain is still alive.


    Julius knew that some rifts were only considered completely cleared once the "boss" was killed. But looking at the mess of the aftermath, he could not even begin to guess how or where the boss might be.


    Getting back to his feet, Julius made his way to the destroyed remnants of the mountain. He had always planned to create some sort of landslide as a contingency but nothing on this scale. He thought it would be useful in getting away, but it was way more effective than he could have dared hoped for.


    He was lucky that the direction of the landslide wasn''t where he was blasted off. If it was, it was very possible that he would have been buried alongside the trolls.


    Once he made it to the base of the mountain, he used [Spatial Perception] to its limits, trying to sense anything living underneath. The skill was undoubtedly one of the most useful skills he had, but he was having a difficult time picking up anything through so much rock. It was hard to differentiate what was rock and what wasn''t.


    It was only when he was almost directly over a troll, that he could sense it. It was also very tricky navigating through the rubble. Julius had to climb over boulders and be careful not to slip on the uneven terrain. A twisted ankle was funnily enough, not a big issue for him anymore, but it still didn''t mean he could just run across the debris.


    Not surprisingly, he ended up finding some living trolls buried deep underneath the rock. He put them out of their misery with a wedge of mana or sent an additional blast of kinetic mana on the rock burying them, and smushing them for good. The trolls were persistent, he would give them that. But still had not found the chieftain or the mage.


    Julius spent several hours picking through the ruins but still had zero luck. At this point, he was almost certain the chieftain had made it out alive. He found that there were a lot more trolls who survived than what he originally thought. It really highlighted their impressive survivability abilities. However, there was still no chieftain or mage and it worried him.


    Even after constant searching, Julius came up empty-handed. But he at least was able to take care of the many stragglers stuck in the landslide, so that was a plus.


    It was getting close to early morning and Julius was tired from the stress of the day, so he headed back to the ravine.


    He was casually enhancing his body with [Kinetic Augmentation] jogging back as he thought about the day''s events. He still didn''t quite understand some of his actions. During the heat of the moment, he had decided to completely derail from his carefully made plans.


    With that being said, he did not regret it. He still believed that he did the right thing. It wasn''t like these monsters had done anything to Julius. If they were the assassins or some sort of slavers, then Julius wouldn''t have felt as bad cutting their throats in their bed. However, it was technically Julius who was intruding. They didn''t deserve such a brutal execution.


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


    No, what bothered him so much was his proclivities to self-destructive actions. He could rationalize putting himself in danger and taking unnecessary risks to improve his skills, but he realized that he would have still done it even without the skill improvement.


    He had always been a weird, some might even say crazy, person. He didn''t deny that. What type of person would willingly blindfold themselves for several years? A genuine weirdo, that''s who. But he had never been suicidal. However, his actions since he entered this rift had been pushing the limits of what was normal even for him.


    He was glad that he didn''t continue to slaughter the trolls in their bed, but why the fuck did he detonate a bomb instead? He could have easily slipped away unnoticed and figured out another plan. But rather than that, he decided to just break in, and snitch himself out to a bunch of monsters who he just killed. It made no sense.


    He needed to be better in the future. He knew better than anyone what death was like, and he also knew how valuable life was. He should not be so willing to throw his away.


    Maybe, what happened to Lukas and Edwin had been affecting him more than he wanted to admit. It was something that he had been avoiding up to this point. But his careless attitude up to now was similar to how he acted when he lost his other family.


    I should think ab¨C


    Out of nowhere [Spatial Perception] picked up a fast-moving object coming straight at his back. His body was already throwing itself into a dive, getting out of the way, feeling a gust of wind as the object passed over his head. However, when he got back to his feet, a leg was already heading straight at his chest. This time, he didn''t have time to dodge and tried to block it while enhancing his body to the limit with [Kinetic Augmentation]. It felt like getting hit by a speeding semi-truck.


    His arm was completely smashed to the side and the kick pummeled him in the shoulder, launching him off into the distance. If not for the recently evolved [Kinetic Augmentation], that kick would have shattered him like a piece of glass. Even with the skill, almost every rib was split in half, his organs ruptured, and his right shoulder turned into a paste.


    I think I found the chieftain, Julius thought to himself through clenched teeth.


    Julius got to his feet as quickly as he could, because the troll was already charging right at him, and unlike the other trolls, this one was way faster.


    The chieftain made the other trolls look like the fat kids in gym class. It was so fast Julius could barely track its movements with [Spatial Perception]. Julius flooded his body with kinetic energy and blasted himself as far away while simultaneously throwing out a condensed spike right at the troll. The troll ducked underneath it and proceeded to dash straight at Julius.


    It was the first time that a troll had been fast enough to dodge his attack. It wasn''t like the chieftain was Tier 4, by Julius''s estimates it was still a Tier 3, but it was on a whole other level than their other trolls. It was all over Julius, not giving him an inch to breathe. It was taking everything he had to continue to evade the rapid strikes.


    This chieftain didn''t even have a weapon, it was just using its fists. The red aura around its body was like a thick bubble surrounding its movements. Every action it made was supported by the aura so that its attacks were stronger and faster. Julius threw everything into [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and healed his injuries. When he finally found a tiny gap he released a handful of condensed spikes he had prepared while frantically dodging.


    The spikes were too close for the troll to avoid them, but it didn''t matter. The spikes got swallowed up by the aura, breaking down and exploding before they made contact with the troll. Julius''s eyes widened in shock and almost got punished for his lapse in concentration.


    The troll was relentless, it didn''t let up for a second. Julius started to get overwhelmed by the sheer violence and speed of his opponent.


    The fact that the troll''s aura was somehow breaking down his constructs was a problem. Julius didn''t know how it was doing it but he did notice that as he created constructs around his arms to deflect some of its strikes were not as affected by its aura. They were still getting interfered with, but he could easily keep them together.


    It appeared that he would have to try to get in close and land a blow. Which was going to be difficult considering that Julius had been on the back foot the entire time, and had not found an opening to counterattack. However, he still had some tricks up his sleeve. He activated a burst step while he created a wall of flame, blocking the troll''s vision. Then he sent an exploding orb to distract it while he shifted behind it.


    The troll still thought he was still in front and didn''t sense him priming a heavily condensed spike on his fist behind it. Then with a quick pulse of kinetic energy, he jumped toward the troll''s head and delivered a blow directly to the back of the troll''s head.


    The aura around this troll didn''t break down this attack and landed flush on its skull. Unfortunately, the spike barely managed to pierce an inch before it was stopped. Julius kicked off and got some distance before he detonated it.


    The explosion still took out a nice chunk of the troll''s skull, but it didn''t put it down for good. So Julius prepared another attack before it could recover. However, just as he was about to move in, he felt his muscles seize and a wave of fatigue hit him. Julius didn''t sense the curse mage around but he remembered what it felt like getting hit by those curses.


    It was somewhere, close enough to hit him, but he couldn''t sense it. He quickly removed the effects of the curse and blitzed over to the still-downed chieftain, spike in hand. Another black cloud of mana raced toward him. He blocked it with flex of [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] but it was all just a distraction. A large amount of earth mana activated around him and turned the ground into mud that swallowed his legs and stopped him in his tracks.


    He tried sending a burst of kinetic energy to force his way out, but it didn''t work. He could feel the earth trying to crush his legs as it trapped him. The chieftain was getting back up by this point and had completely healed its injury.


    It looked at trapped Julius with eyes of unrestrained fury and proceeded to bum-rush him. Julius thought fast, he created several exploding spikes and jammed them deep into the softened dirt. Then he detonated them.


    The resulting explosion freed him from the grasp of the earth while not blowing himself up, but it had also tossed him a dozen feet into the air leaving him no way to dodge the chieftain''s punch. He tried to block it with both of his arms overlaid with layers of mana, but it did little to stop the force. It blasted him head over toe, smashing him over a creek into the nearby forest and smashing his back against a tree.

 Chapter 35: Final Boss

    Julius was only still conscious due to [Savage Dance]. Fortunately, the chieftain wasn''t chasing after him. Its attention was shifted elsewhere.The troll mage had finally revealed itself from its hiding place. It appeared that it was hiding itself in the ground using earth magic and the chieftain was busy arguing with the troll mage with loud grunts and growls. It almost seemed like it was berating the mage for interfering in its fight.


    Julius did not mind this at all. He needed all the time to heal his injuries and the more time they wasted, the more time he had to figure out a plan. At the moment it seemed pretty hopeless. The chieftain was already a tough opponent, it was faster and stronger than Julius. Then if he included its aura ability that broke down his mana constructs it was even more challenging.


    However, when he added the mage to the situation, it became almost impossible. Julius would have to constantly keep an eye on the mage as he fended off the chieftain, he had to admit that they made a good team.


    He needed to take out the mage first. If he could do that, then he would have a chance. The problem was getting to it. The chieftain wasn''t going to just allow Julius to walk right up to the mage and cut its head off. Not to mention, the mage was able to hide in the ground.


    Julius never took his attention off them, but they still seemed like they were arguing between themselves. It felt like they had dismissed Julius as a real threat after the last exchange. It pissed him off at being so casually dismissed. But he would be able to use this to his advantage. A plan started to form in his head and he realized that it might be possible.


    They should have never allowed me this much space.


    Julius was fully healed by now and began creating as many explosive spikes as he could control. The mage''s gaze snapped toward him instantly, sending a mass of black mana at Julius and falling out of sight, hiding in the ground.


    Julius blocked the curse with an aggressive usage of life and fire mana, then finished forming a dozen spikes. Next, he cranked up [Pure Compression] as much as he could, condensing the fire and kinetic mana inside the spikes beyond any point he had ever reached before. Julius had come to understand that the more condensed his constructs were, the harder it was for the troll to break down the spikes with its aura. Additionally, he expected the mage to have a similar ability too considering that it had already attempted to disrupt his constructs earlier and he was hoping it would also find the extremely condensed constructs hard to disrupt.


    The chieftain was shockingly not charging at Julius. Instead, it was slowly stalking toward Julius with an arrogant smirk plastered to its face.


    This motherfucker, he doesn''t think I am a danger. Doesn''t he remember how close I was to jamming a spike in his forehead before he was saved by his friend? Or is he that delusional?


    It didn''t matter. He was going to take this ugly fucker down regardless.


    Julius felt [Fighter''s Will] activate for the first time. The skill sent out a rippling of energy throughout his body and mind, and the effects were added on top to [Savage Dance]. Julius never felt more wired in his life. It felt like everything was on a hair-trigger.


    He was able to push [Pure Compression] and [Arcane Construct] even further. His eyes started to bleed from the exertion, but he started smiling like an idiot because it was working. His constructs no longer had a red ethereal glow around them. They were changing visibly. Now they were solid violet, similar to what his enhanced [Firebolts] used to look like, except, way more powerful. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius saw the chieftain pause as it stopped to feel the mana radiating from the spikes and he smiled at its obvious discomfort. However, the chieftain noticed Julius''s smile and didn''t let that unspoken challenge go unpunished. It''s pride as a pack leader would not allow another being to defy it. The chieftain no longer took its time but roared and charged right at Julius.


    Julius was able to feel subtle movements of earth mana gather around his feet. He understood how he had not noticed it last time, but now that he was expecting it, it wouldn''t catch him off guard again. He immediately dashed to his full speed, avoiding the earth trap and heading towards the middle of the plains, getting more distance between him and the chieftain.


    Julius was throwing out his newly improved spikes at the chieftain. Each spike boomed every time it was released, ripping through the air with a large penetrative force. This time, the spikes weren''t broken apart by the aura. They were still slowed down, but they impacted against the troll''s skin, leaving large gouges in its flesh. The fact that he was now able to hurt the troll, enabled him to keep his distance easier.


    Julius kept regenerating as many spikes as he used, making sure to keep a total of at least ten at all times. As he was raining attacks on the chasing troll, he was looking out for any mana usage from the mage.


    The mage had laid out several clever traps that almost got Julius and many curses that he had to protect against, but Julius was getting close. Each time the mage used its mana, he was able to narrow down its location. That was another reason he was running around. He had learned while finishing off the remaining trolls under the landslide that [Spatial Perception] had a hard time perceiving through so much rock. However, it was still possible, he just had to be closer.


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    Julius doubted the chieftain noticed, but he wasn''t running around randomly. He was systematically clearing each piece of the land.


    Julius felt a tug from the direction the last curse had come from.


    There!


    He had managed to precisely sense the mage''s body several feet underground moving slowly. He mentally tracked its location but didn''t know how the mage was able to know his location yet, so he erred on the side of caution. He pretended that he had no idea where it was as he continued to keep the chieftain at a distance.


    Julius continued to dodge around the chieftain, waiting for his opportunity. It was close, but he couldn''t afford to mess it up because he was impatient.


    Finally, the perfect moment presented itself. The mage had just released another burst of mana and was directly behind the chieftain. Julius didn''t hesitate and sent half a dozen spikes rocketing toward the troll. The chieftain was about to evade when it saw the spikes curve around it, missing it entirely. A look of confusion flashed across its face and turned its head to see the spikes heading into the dirt behind him.


    The spikes smashed directly where the mage was hiding, the first three were meant to clear the surrounding dirt and rock, exposing the cowardly rat-like mage. The next three speared the mage like a shish kabob. One in its skull, one in its throat, and one in the chest. The mage didn''t even get a chance to avoid or disrupt the constructs before it was blown up to pieces.


    For a long moment, Julius and the chieftain just observed the mage''s scattered flesh. Then they met eyes and Julius could see something very satisfying deep behind those crimson-red eyes. Fear.


    Julius could practically smell the hesitance and fear emanating from the troll. Just a few minutes ago, the chieftain had been so sure of its victory, it had even allowed Julius time to recover. Now the tables had turned and it realized that it was all alone.


    Julius wasn''t going to make the same mistake, while it had been standing there doing nothing, Julius had been replenishing the spikes he had used. He estimated he had around a third of his mana left, but it would be more than enough. He knew the chieftain''s style now and knew how he would put it down.


    Julius formed an axe entirely made of compressed and hardened mana. It wasn''t practical, as the axe didn''t have that much weight to it, but it was symbolic in a way. It resembled the axes the troll leaders had used. Julius sent three spikes straight at the troll''s chest. However, he didn''t even let the troll dodge them as he preemptively exploded them, creating a wall of flame and obstructing its vision.


    The troll seemed to remember the trick from before and preemptively turned around, swinging its fist where it expected Julius to strike. Except it was wrong to assume that Julius would attack it from behind. Julius used the wall of flame as bait, hoping the chieftain would take it. In the meantime, he didn''t move from his place and wound up the axe to slash through the troll''s ankle, taking it off at the joint. Even though the axe didn''t have much weight behind it, Julius figured out that a shit load of kinetic energy could compensate for that.


    Then Julius sent another slash across the back of its neck. The chieftain''s spine was much harder than its joint and the axe splintered, getting stuck in its neck. Julius didn''t try to wrench it out, instead, he used the troll''s back as a springboard and launched himself away as he blew the axe up.


    The axe wasn''t like a spike, so it didn''t do much damage, but it did distract the troll and allow Julius to send the rest of the spikes at it. With its mobility crippled, the troll wasn''t able to dodge the spikes. Its aura prevented the worst of the damage, but they still blew up its back and neck, leaving a crater of missing flesh. It was enough damage to knock it out for just a moment, however it wasn''t dead yet. He could still see the thing''s skill regenerating the missing flesh at an outrageous speed. Julius didn''t give it any more time and sent one last spike at it. The chieftain''s aura skill was no longer active and the spike was able to pierce deeply into the troll''s skull and explode, blasting it apart in a mist of blood.


    Julius didn''t move for a long time, he just stood there frozen in place. It didn''t feel real. He half expected the chieftain to stand right back up and continue the fight. Honestly, he was surprised that his plan had worked. He thought the mage for sure had a final trick up its sleeve.


    However, in the end, it was only Julius left standing amongst them. He took a look around him, observing the area around him. The ground was littered with small craters caused by his constructs and several large spikes and pits of earth magic were scattered about. Other than that, it was silent except for the soft trickle of the creek nearby.


    The first thing Julius did was go check the mage''s body. He needed to see it in person himself. Looking back, Julius could appreciate the mage''s skill in a weird sort of way. Sure, it almost killed him multiple times, but it was also a great example of not needing superior firepower to win a fight.


    If Julius didn''t have [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] there was no way he would have lasted even a couple of minutes against it. Those curses were deadly and completely overpowered. Of course, he can''t be saying that with a healing skill like his, but against many others he could imagine the trouble they would face.


    That mana-stealing curse took a third of his mana before he could even react and he was lucky that he found a way to defend against it. Then there was the fact that the mage was also an earth mage who was able to hide in the ground from his senses. It made fighting that thing a real pain in the ass and Julius hoped he didn''t have to fight any more annoying opponents like that anytime soon.


    Julius found its body scattered around the large crater he created. He wanted to find its core. Not because he wanted to use it, but because he wanted to keep it for sentimental reasons. However, he wasn''t able to find one no matter how hard he searched. It was unfortunate but not that big of a deal.


    Finally, Julius walked back to the chieftain''s body, compared to the mage it was in much better shape. Before the spike had blown up its head, the troll''s regeneration skill had almost fully healed it. The only thing that was missing was a bloody stump where its head used to be. He cut open its chest and revealed the life core glowing inside its chest. It was much different than the other trolls, not to Julius''s surprise. The essence inside of it was pulsing with potent life energy. Julius was thinking about keeping it and maybe turning it into a nice accessory. It would be a nice reminder of his time in the rift.


    Speaking of which, Julius noticed an enormous mass of energy gathering dozens of feet away from him. He immediately went into full alert mode, creating several spikes ready to fire at a moment''s notice. However, he was worried for nothing, a portal much like the same one that sucked him in was being formed.

 Chapter 36: Exiting the Rift

    The rift forming was an amazing sight to see and Julius tried to memorize every detail of what was happening and imprint it on his brain. It was much too complicated for him to figure out at the moment, but he hoped it would one day prove useful.It only took a few moments and then a swirling blue mass was hovering a few feet above the ground. It took until it fully formed that Julius finally believed it was all over. The portal appearing was the ultimate confirmation that he had cleared the rift.


    He was tempted to immediately walk through the portal but he held himself back. During his time in this rift, Julius learned the importance of taking the time to recover while he had the chance. He didn''t think there would be trouble on the other side, but he did know there was little to no risk on this side for now.


    For the first time in weeks, Julius was able to take a deep breath and completely relax. He just laid there on his back observing the rising sun over the mountains. The fractures in the sky were slowly dissipating, indicating that the rift was no longer at risk of overflowing.


    He stayed there for close to an hour just lazing about and taking it in. When he first got trapped in here he didn''t have high hopes for his chances of success, but the fact he did succeed gave him an immense sense of satisfaction. He was able to completely clear a Tier 3 rift all on his own. It was a very impressive feat for a Tier 1.


    Once he felt like he basked in his glory for long enough, Julius sat up and opened up his notifications.


    [Savage Dance lvl 14 -> lvl 16]


    [Arcane Construct lvl 8 -> lvl 10]


    [Pure Compression lvl 7 -> lvl 11]


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 5 -> lvl 8]


    [Fighter''s Will lvl 1 -> lvl 6]


    All of his skills experienced nice growth, especially [Pure Compression] and [Fighter''s Will]. [Pure Compression] had gained a total of 4 levels during that relatively short fight. Julius believed that it was because of his improvements to his constructs, which were able to withstand that aura skill from the chieftain and actually injure it. No matter how much he had compressed mana or how he wove it in the past, his constructs, albeit gaining tangible properties, still felt brittle in a way. Don''t get him wrong, they were certainly capable of cutting through things with enough force behind them, but he realized that once the shell or structure was cracked, the entire construct fell apart quite easily.


    Now, he could feel his constructs had some mass underneath the shell. If they were to crack, the construct would hold for a bit longer. Also, he was confident that as time passed he would constantly get better at it.


    The thing that amazed Julius was his new skill [Fighter''s Will]. On the surface, it seemed like it was a similar skill to [Savage Dance]. Both of them enhanced his focus and heightened his abilities with an influx of energy.


    However, [Fighter''s Will] was different on a qualitative level. If [Savage Dance] felt like it utilized his mana, skills, body, and mind all at once. Then [Fighter''s Will] utilized his soul.


    Julius didn''t quite understand the properties of aura or how it works. He understood that every high-tiered individual ends up gaining an aura, but he assumed that was from the sheer power they accumulated as they got stronger. However, he believed that was a mistake on his part.


    His new skill felt very similar to the chieftain''s aura on a fundamental level. The best way he could describe it was by comparing them with a sword. Both skills felt and looked like a sword, but the difference was that Julius''s sword was made of paper while the troll''s was made of steel. However, they were still fundamentally a sword, just their effectiveness was completely different. Julius had an inkling that both made use of the soul, just that his skill was still too weak to do anything other than give him a nice little boost.


    It was almost like aura was an extension of one''s soul. Something not related to stamina or mana, but something integral to every living creature. The stronger the soul, the stronger the aura, which was usually why those with powerful auras were high-tiered.


    With that new perspective in mind, Julius could look back at the fight in a different light. The chieftain had used its soul to strengthen its attacks and break down the enemy''s magic. Initially, Julius didn''t think the mage had an aura, but he was wrong. The mage just used it in a much more subtle way.


    The mage was good at hiding things with its aura. There was a commonality between every attack the mage threw his way. Each attack was shrouded in a blurry cloak of aura, which made it more difficult to pick up on. In hindsight, Julius believed that was how it was able to shroud its attacks until it was almost too late to sense them. Without [Spatial Perception] and really good mana senses, Julius would have never been able to track its shrouded mana. That was also why it was hard to detect the mage as it hid underground, it had covered itself in aura.


    Aura. It wasn''t something that Julius originally believed to be important. However, after seeing the effects of it firsthand, he wanted to learn how to use it himself. There were endless possibilities.


    The soul huh? I can''t wait to see where that might lead me.


    Julius got a manic look in his eyes as he fantasized about where aura training might lead him. But before he could begin training he would need to leave this rift. He stared hard at the swirling blue portal, listening to the soft humming noise that resonated from it. Then he sat up and walked towards it, entering its sphere of influence. With a final moment of hesitance, he reached out his hand and put his hand directly in the portal. The portal latched onto his arm and pulled him through, into its depths.


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    When Julius opened his eyes he didn''t see anything. It was nothing, just pure void, surrounding him. He was half expecting to see where he had previously entered the rift, but not this.


    "Hello?" Julius asked to the void.


    Nothing replied, other than the sound of his own breathing, it was silent. He wasn''t even standing on anything, it was like he was floating in space. It was a surreal experience. He called out a few more times, seeing if there was any reaction but nothing changed.


    It didn''t feel like he was in danger and the void was honestly quite comforting. It was like being in a room with the perfect temperature. He had tried to call upon his mana, even if it was just to give him something to do, but nothing came out. He was able to still feel it within his core, but for some unexplainable reason, he wasn''t able to draw any of it out. For the first time in a long time, Julius was cut off from his mana.


    Realizing that there wasn''t much he could do he put his arms behind his head and waited. He stayed like that for a while, it was hard to tell in this environment. He was getting bored and restless as he waited. Then he thought about aura and if he could use it although he couldn''t use mana. He activated [Fighter''s Will] and he felt the skill flow through his body. Now that he was looking for it, he could tell that the energy was being supplied by something deep inside of him. Something integral to his existence¡­ his soul.


    Recognizing that this space he was stuck in restricted mana use but not the soul, Julius began testing out the skill. He used the skill as a way to draw this soul energy out and started to play around with it.


    It was similar to mana in some ways. It was malleable but was a bit more thick than mana. It didn''t follow the same natural tendencies of mana but had its own. Aura seemed to be manifested by soul energy. If soul energy was the fuel, then aura was the fire when it burned.


    [Fighter''s Will] internally used aura to amplify Julius''s mind, but he wanted to figure out how to manifest it externally like the chieftain had done. Julius tried to cover his arm with a layer of this aura, but [Fighter''s Will] was struggling against him the entire time.


    Julius understood that he was being too ambitious with his current attempts and forgot about creating a layer over his entire arm. Instead, he focused on covering just his pointer finger with aura.


    Julius stayed in that concentrated mentality for a long while. He was so focused on his task that he hadn''t even noticed the figure that was staring at him with inquisitive eyes.


    The figure just stayed there and continued to observe Julius, waiting for him to notice their appearance. Julius still hadn''t turned around, he was still completely dedicated to his task. Finally, the figure seemed to have exhausted its patience.


    "What''s your name?" The figure asked.


    Julius was startled out of his concentrated state and spun around, taking a look at who had spoken to him. They didn''t have any distinguishing features, just a black form that resembled a humanoid. However, its voice sounded distinctly masculine. It was deep, powerful, and reverberated throughout Julius''s bones.


    "What is this? Where am I?" Julius asked the mysterious man.


    The man tilted his head and while Julius couldn''t identify any eyes on them, he could feel their gaze pressing against him like a lead jacket.


    "We are both currently between two separate dimensions. The one where you are from and the one where the rift was located." The man explained. "You didn''t answer my original question. What''s your name?"


    "It''s Julius." He thought about not answering but the man had answered his own question, so he thought it was only fair.


    "Do you know why you are here?" The man asked.


    Julius had no idea why he was there. But it seemed like a rhetorical question so he just shook his head.


    "A few weeks ago, I felt a disturbance between the spatial boundaries of your dimension and went to investigate. Much to my surprise, I found you, floating between the chaotic waves of space. I want you to tell me how that happened."


    Julius immediately understood that the man was talking about the teleportation incident that happened as Lukas, Edwin and he were trying to escape. However, he didn''t exactly feel comfortable telling a stranger what had happened. On the other hand, he didn''t see much harm in sharing his experiences with the mysterious man. He might even find out some answers to his own questions.


    "We were trying to escape, hoping to use a teleportation circle to get to safety, but someone damaged the runes and interrupted the teleportation," Julius briefly explained.


    Julius didn''t feel any pressure from the man. It felt like he was looking at a normal low-tiered person. However, the fact that Julius and the man were literally talking between dimensions rang alarms in his head. It was very probable that this man was much more powerful than anyone he had ever met, including Lukas. That he could annihilate Julius with a blink of his eyes if wanted to. Yet, Julius didn''t feel afraid of the man. He didn''t feel like the man was there to hurt him.


    After hearing Julius''s answer, the man just stood there pondering what he had just heard.


    "So it was just an accident. An improbable accident that was led up by a series of random events." The man continued mutturing to himself but Julius couldn''t catch everything he said.


    Julius just observed the mysterious man talking to himself. He could vaguely remember being stuck in the void after the incident, but he didn''t remember how he ended up escaping. However, based on what the man had said, he had found Julius.


    "Sorry, but when you said you found me, does that mean you helped me escape?" Julius interrupted the muttering man.


    The man looked up at Julius. "Yes, somehow you were still alive and so I created a small entry point back into your dimension."


    Julius was right, this mysterious man had saved him. Without his assistance, Julius might have died or still be stranded wherever he was.


    "Thank you very much," Julius sincerely expressed his gratitude, lowering his head. But another question came up. "Why in the middle of the forest though?"


    The man''s head tilted again and paused for a moment. "I didn''t have the time to pinpoint exactly where you would come out, I was only worried about making sure you didn''t end up appearing in a mountain or the bottom of the ocean." The man explained.


    "And the reason why I am here now?" Julius asked. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I didn''t have time to ask you before, but I still needed to find out how you managed to get yourself stuck. It never should have happened, even if your teleportation circle got damaged. You would usually only be transported off course or ripped apart by the spacial folds before you even left your dimension." The man said casually.


    Only? He makes it sound like getting shredded apart by space isn''t so bad.


    However, something the man said stuck with Julius, he made it sound like he had purposefully brought Julius into this space to talk to him. That would mean the man knew about the rift. Suspicions were already being formed in Julius''s head but he had to make sure.


    "Wait. Does that mean you are the reason I got sucked into that rift?" Julius asked, a little heat creeping into his voice.

 Chapter 37: Kidnapper

    Julius had always wondered why the rift literally sucked him in. He had never heard about rifts kidnapping people to clear them. They usually were voluntary, until it got past the point and the rift overflowed. Most of the time, there were adventurers or other groups that focused on keeping rifts at healthy levels because they would be able to constantly collect the cores of the main monsters of the rift once they respawned. Once it overflowed, the rift would collapse and no longer be usable. However, Julius didn''t get a choice.His potential kidnapper didn''t answer right away. He took a moment to look at Julius before he spoke. "The only way I could safely transport you to this space was if you were leaving a rift and transferring back to your dimension," the man flung his arm in the air, waving off Julius''s concern away. "It is all very complicated and not worth explaining to you at your current tier."


    "So you kidnapped me," Julius pressed, still angry about it.


    "I needed to find out what happened," The man explained.


    "That''s still kidnapping," Julius retorted before he could catch himself, forgetting that he was talking to someone closer to a god than Julius was to him.


    The man didn''t respond and just stared at Julius with an intense gaze. It dragged on for long enough that Julius started to become anxious, worried that he might have offended this powerful figure. He was about to speak up and apologize for his rudeness when the man broke his silence with a sigh.


    "You''re right I did, I was wrong for doing so."


    Julius choked on his words, he was just about to apologize himself but ended up hearing the man take accountability for his actions. It felt weird because he expected someone as powerful as this man obviously was, would consider it beneath themselves to admit fault to a mere Tier 1. Julius''s respect for the unknown man went up a few notches.


    "Oh, um¡­ thanks." Julius couldn''t think of anything else to say.


    Neither spoke and another long awkward silence ensued. Finally, Julius broke it and asked the man another question.


    "So what now? Will I go back to the forest?"


    The man nodded. "Yes, the portal should take you right back where you entered."


    "There isn''t a way to go somewhere else?" Julius questioned with a hopeful look on his face.


    "It''s possible."


    Julius got excited hearing that. He was not looking forward to trying to find his way out of the Endless Forest when he left the rift. He didn''t even really know if he was in the Endless Forest, it was just the most likely location. So he had to ask.


    "Could you send me to a location of my choosing?"


    Julius saw the man take a moment to think about his request. He really hoped he would help him out. After what seemed like an eternity, the man answered.


    "Where did you want to go?"


    Julius hadn''t gotten that far. He was just hoping that the man would say yes, but he didn''t have any idea of where he would go if the man said yes. He took a moment to think about it. The first place that popped into his head was Celestia. But he quickly ruled that out. If House Hyperius had betrayed his uncle, then going to Celestia, where they held the most influence would not be a good idea.


    His next thought was going to the capital, Luminous. He would be able to blend into the large population but still could hire some independent contractors to find out what happened to Lukas and Edwin. The only issue was that Duke Greyson undoubtedly had agents within the capital. Julius did not think it was likely that Duke Greyson was searching for him, he didn''t even know if his identity was shared amongst others yet. Julius had been quite isolated and not many knew of his existence outside of House Hyperius. But if word got out that a young boy with Julius''s features was snooping around and investigating what happened at the manor, anyone could put two and two together.


    The last place he thought of was Heston. Heston was not only the city where Goldencrest Academy was located, but it was also far away from Duke Greyson''s domain. Another reason why he thought it might be a good idea, was that both Lukas and Edwin knew that Julius had been planning to go to Goldencrest if he got the chance, so if they were alive it was reasonable for them to search for Julius there.


    Julius wasn''t worried about his affinities that much, there was a practical exam he could take that might gain him acceptance. It was notoriously difficult, but he was brimming with confidence after this rift. He couldn''t imagine many Tier 1''s could match him.


    However, another important reason was that Julius was in dire need of an education. There was too much he didn''t know about this world still. He wanted to find out what happened with Lukas and Edwin, but he understood he was way too weak to do anything at the moment. He would need to get stronger before he could take revenge on Samuel and the others. That would mean he would need to learn how to advance properly and gain more experience.


    Julius made up his mind.


    "Can you take me to Heston?"


    The man didn''t respond to Julius, but Julius saw the man close his eyes and concentrate on something. Then he opened his eyes and told Julius, "I can''t take you directly into the city, I would shatter too many wards doing so, but I can send you just outside of the city if that''s okay."


    Honestly, it was better than Julius had expected. "That would be wonderful!"


    The man didn''t waste any time. In a blink, a new portal had appeared in front of Julius. It was still just as beautiful as the others he had seen. Julius had so many other questions he wanted to ask. But decided on his most important one.


    "Is there a way for you to know if my uncle or Edwin made it out okay?" Julius grimaced as he asked it, one part of him aware of how dumb it was to presume that this man knew who they were and the other part was scared to hear the answer.


    The man shook his head sympathetically, "No more questions, you have been here too long as is. It is time for you to leave." Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


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    Julius noted that the man didn''t say it was impossible but he didn''t try to argue with the man, he was already doing a lot for Julius and he didn''t want to come off as greedy or offend him. He just nodded his head in acceptance, disappointed but telling himself that he would just need to find the answers himself.


    Before Julius went through he made sure to genuinely thank the man for his help. He also had one last thing to wanted to know. He turned back toward the man, "I never got your name."


    For a second Julius didn''t think he was going to give him it. But then Julius got the sense that the man was smiling underneath his obscurement.


    "It''s Jasper"


    POV Jasper


    "Jasper" watched as Julius was sucked into the portal taking him to Heston. Truthfully, he wished the interaction had gone differently. It wasn''t the child''s fault, Julius was by all means a pleasant boy. After observing Julius in the rift, Jasper could confidently say that Julius was a kind-hearted kid, just a little¡­ eccentric.


    Jasper didn''t like lying to people, he had thought that once he became strong enough he no longer needed to lie, but every time he did, he always seemed to find a way to justify it. He had lied to Julius many times during their discussion, and he still believed that it was for good reason. Too much information right now would only create more potential problems for Julius in the future.


    He still felt bad though. Jasper wasn''t even his real name, it was just a name he had taken a liking to over the centuries whenever he wanted to avoid using his real name. Although he didn''t reveal his real name, Jasper still felt obliged to share something, which was why he chose to share the name, Jasper with Julius.


    At the same time, the conversation he had with the young boy was a welcome change of pace. Jasper hadn''t been talked to so casually in decades by anyone other than his closest friends. But he didn''t mind that, it was quite nice after so dealing with so many asskissers who schemed and planned every word they said to him.


    Jasper at least hadn''t been lying when he told Julius he had found him between the fabrics of space. However, what he didn''t mention was that Julius would have been perfectly fine even if he had done nothing. Julius would have maybe floated around until he died of old age, but he was in no danger from the chaotic ripples of space.


    That was why Jasper had been so interested in the first place. Someone, finding a way to break out of the spatial barrier containing their dimension was not unheard of, it was rare but happened on occasion. But for someone to be completely unaffected by the violent waves of space spoke of several things. You either had to be a powerful entity like Jasper himself, which was obviously not the case for the boy. Or you needed to fulfill some conditions. One of which was a superior affinity for space, another was that their soul must have already developed a resistance to it via exposure, and there were only a very few ways for that to happen.


    Jasper had a hard time believing that a normal Tier 1 had either. So he tried to peek inside of Julius''s mind. And much to his surprise, he found himself unable to. There was a block placed around his mind that didn''t allow Jasper to gain access to even a crumb. It was unfathomable, the only way was that someone more powerful than Jasper had given Julius that protection and was for the purpose of hiding something.


    All of that, on top of Julius''s outrageous mana capacity and the size of his soul for his age and tier, had led Jasper to believe that someone very powerful was playing a very dangerous game. Soul reincarnation was taboo for a good reason.


    Jasper had lied to Julius when he was asked if he placed him in that forest by random chance and the reason why Jasper had kidnapped him. Jasper said it was because he wanted to know how Julius got lost in between the spatial boundaries, but that was also a lie. Jasper placed Julius there on purpose and then led him directly to that rift as a sort of test. He wanted to see what kind of person Julius was and if needed, kill him. Jasper had found out that life-or-death situations usually brought out a person''s true nature.


    There had been reincarnations in the past that have brought unspeakable destruction, it was why soul reincarnation was heavily frowned upon. However, Jasper was worried that this unknown entity was watching over Julius, so to avoid their attention, he created a rift that was completely closed off from anyone except himself.


    Tier 3 was the lowest rift he could create with such strict parameters like forced completion and absolute isolation. A Tier 1 or 2 rift would not have been able to handle the complexities that Jasper required. That was why he had chosen trolls as the monsters. Trolls were Tier 3 due to their extreme regeneration powers but lacked in many other aspects as a result. Jasper thought that Julius with his large mana capacity and firepower would have a relatively good chance of clearing it.


    Afterward, Jasper would bring Julius into this space and either execute him if he deemed it necessary or let him live. Jasper had also lied when he said, he could only bring Julius into the void after he cleared a rift. He could have done it anytime he pleased. It was just that he didn''t want whoever was watching him to know. He would rather they believe that Julius had died within a rift.


    Unfortunately, he was wrong about Julius having a good chance of clearing the rift. The boy was quite talented when it came to fighting, not the best Jasper had seen, not even close, but he had a phenomenal work ethic that would take him much further than talent ever could. However, the boy was an idiot with a death wish. Jasper lost count of how many times he watched Julius purposefully make things harder on himself for idiotic reasons and then almost die because of it.


    Who in their right mind, decides to fight a troll barehanded at Tier 1? Close range is the most dangerous place to fight a troll, but Julius did it anyway. The worst part is that it happened over and over, time and time again. Julius would purposefully handicap himself when he was in a rift two tiers above him. Then he would get rewarded as his skills ranked up from the danger.


    Sometimes, it wasn''t even for skill gains, just for enjoyment or because it was on a whim. Like that camp attack. After seeing Julius handle the late-night camp ambush, Jasper didn''t even want to waste his time killing Julius anymore even if he turned out to be a complete psychopathic monster. It was just a matter of time before Julius did it himself.


    With that being said, Jasper had to admit that Julius''s methods, which didn''t make any sense to him, did show results.


    Not only did Julius have an array of skills far beyond what Tier 1 should be capable of, but he also got an aura skill while in Tier 1. It was still very weak but with Julius''s work ethic and above-average soul, it wouldn''t be too long until it was a powerful skill as it ranked up.


    Julius also gained a healing skill after experimenting on a troll for a few hours. It was an incredible feat that was made possible because Julius didn''t have a mana manipulation skill, which allowed him certain privileges.


    Who in their right mind doesn''t have a mana manipulation skill?


    Sure, you could use mana in more creative applications, such as copying a skill, but in a day and age where most skills can be taught at any school of magic, it was quite pointless. There were too many benefits of the skill and too many downsides of not having it. It was frustrating to see a person like Julius go about advancing this way, and even more frustrating to see him succeed.


    The boy even managed to evolve that healing skill into one that contained a fragmented Concept of Phoenix. Jasper knew countless pacifist healers who would wince at killing a cockroach. Most of them would without hesitation, slaughter thousands to gain a concept of Phoenix.


    Jasper took a deep breath, not that he needed oxygen anymore. Julius and this whole situation was an abnormality, someone was playing dangerous games and Jasper didn''t appreciate it. He almost hoped that Julius had done something that would justify Jasper executing him, it would''ve been simpler in the end. It was only his morals which he had proudly kept intact for centuries that prevented him from doing so.


    Ultimately, he chose to let Julius live and even sent him to Heston as an apology, because he still felt guilty about almost killing the kid due to his scheme. For someone who disliked scheming as much as Jasper, he found himself doing it more and more as the years passed and he didn''t like it.


    Jasper didn''t think Julius would turn into a raving psychopath anytime soon, but Jasper would keep an eye on him just in case.

 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. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.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.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    However, the most impressive thing was a colossal gold structure deep in the city, it was built right on top of a cliff that extended over the coast. The gold-covered spires and twisting architecture glimmered with the most incredible display of elegance and strength. It would have made King Midas envious.


    There was no doubt in Julius''s mind, that this was Goldencrest Academy, and that the city that surrounded it was Heston. The stories and descriptions Julius had read, didn''t do it justice, you had to experience it for yourself to understand the majesty of it.


    Julius hurriedly searched for the entrance into the city, there had to be a general gate that accepted visitors. Heston was a major trading hub, many merchants made their way here to trade their goods. Therefore, Heston must have some sort of entrance for the general public.


    After a quick search, Julius found a gate closest to him. It was just a couple of miles away, but he could see the line of carts that lined up in front of the gate. He quickly made his way down, practically sprinting with [Kinetic Augmentation] active. This meant he was able to reach the gate in a very short amount of time.


    Julius approached the well-maintained path that the carts were driving on. It honestly impressed him with its condition. The path was completely smooth, no cracks or broken stones were in sight, and many intricate decorations and light fixtures surrounded the path, making it look very pretty. There was no doubt that the path had been created with magic. There were no seams in the path, it was just one beautiful slab of perfectly even rock.


    There were a lot of carts waiting in line, stretching on for hundreds of yards. It must have been merchants or those who wanted to set up in the market before the day started. Fortunately, Julius spotted a separate line that appeared people without carts were able to wait in line. It was much shorter, with only several dozen people waiting to be let in.


    Julius quickly hustled over to get in line. Nervous and excited at the prospect of seeing a city for the first time since he came to this world. He had been isolated for his entire time here and couldn''t help but be excited at seeing a place bustling with people once again.


    He took his place at the end of the line, oblivious to the looks he was receiving. Julius got behind a man and a young child who appeared to be his son. Both were wearing plain brown breeches and beige linen shirts. The father had a sword sheath on his hip and a large pack over his shoulder. The son was holding onto a wooden doll that was bearing a sword and shield. It was a very impressive piece of woodwork. The facial features and joints were extremely detailed, speaking of the care whoever made it put into it.


    However, while Julius was admiring the son''s toy, the boy himself was trying to get as far away from Julius. His face was a mixture of disgust and fear, then retreated silently. The boy was pinching his nose, and hiding behind his father''s leg.


    Only then did Julius take a look at himself. He was still shirtless, his pants were barely hanging on by a thread, and he was covered in blood and mud. He must''ve become desensitized to smell but it didn''t take a good imagination to understand that he must have reeked like death and rotting corpses.


    The father was also wincing at the smell wafting from Julius, but had one arm around his son, protecting him from Julius. The man took in Julius''s appearance and apologetic demeanor, realizing that Julius wasn''t a threat he turned both himself and his son around, looking back toward the gate, ignoring Julius.


    Damn, I think I would have preferred him insulting me to my face over just straight ignoring me like that, Julius thought to himself.


    The father didn''t acknowledge Julius''s presence for the rest of the time, completely disregarding his existence. Luckily, the line was moving fast and Julius would be able to enter the city soon. Hopefully, he would be able to find somewhere to clean up and get some clothes on him once he entered. However, he quickly realized his next problem. Money. How was he going to pay for clothes without any coin?


    The only thing of value he had was the chieftain core and two other cores. He was lucky that he had that much. Before he left, he stuffed as many of the cores he had lazily scavenged in his pockets just in case he needed some money. But Julius lost most of them during the fight.


    He would need to find a place to exchange the cores for money. He was hoping the guards at the gate would be willing to point out a place for him to go to. However, he was beginning to have doubts about receiving any help in his current state. He didn''t imagine many people would want to help a half-naked teen covered in blood. It was even a possibility that the guards wouldn''t allow him into the city in his current state. He should have washed up before he came down. He just got so excited that he forgot that his appearance was quite disheveled.


    Another man had gotten in line after Julius, but he quickly made sure he kept a good distance away from Julius. Now that he was aware of it, he could sense a lot of people''s stares focused on him. Some were disgusted, some were pitying, and some just didn''t care.


    Finally, Julius made it to the gate. He stood in front of a pair of guards with his hands loosely by his side. The one guard in front was a large man and had a chiseled face with brown hair. He wore a set of silver and gold armor with elegant designs imprinted onto the chestpiece, and on his side hung a sword with a wolf head ornate on the pommel. It was quite the flashy outfit, but it was a clear message to any who entered the city that these weren''t just your average guards, they were elites.


    The other guard didn''t have metal armor but was equally impressive. Tall and lean, sporting a confident stance with stern eyes that took in every detail. He had an immaculate black and gold long coat that flared at the bottom.


    The man in the coat stared intensely at Julius over the shoulder of his armored comrade as Julius approached. Julius knew that his appearance was going to give him some problems, but he still tried to put on a pleasant demeanor. He placed a bright smile on his face, unfortunately, Julius felt that had the opposite effect he was going for. Instead of putting the guards at ease, he felt they got more suspicious.


    He couldn''t blame them either. A smiling fourteen-year-old, no shirt, barely any pants, and covered in gore was indeed a suspicious sight. The two guards took his appearance in and didn''t even blink at the stench that Julius knew he was assaulting them with. The gags he had heard from the crowd as he waited confirmed that he smelled rank.

 Chapter 39: Entering Heston

    The large man in armor was the first one to talk to Julius. "Who are you and what''s your business in Heston?" The man''s voice was quite warm and soothing despite his physical appearance.Julius didn''t bother hiding anything, "My name is Julius and I am planning to take the Goldencrest Academy entrance exam."


    As Julius was responding, his senses picked up something. It came from the man in the long coat. Julius''s eyes snapped over to the other guard and focused on what the man was doing. It appeared like an application of aura, Julius was only able to recognize this much because of his previous exposure to the troll mage''s aura. The man was similar in that it was incredibly subtle, but it was much more refined than the trolls.


    Julius saw the tall man''s eyes raise minutely, surprised that Julius managed to detect the subtle probe. Julius believed that the man was using his aura to somehow detect if Julius was being truthful or not. Having a way to determine the truth would make sense considering they were dictating who to let into the city.


    The guard in the back interrupted his friend who was about to ask another question, "What happened to you?" The guard asked him while waving his arm pointing out Julius''s choice of attire. The man''s voice was quite the contrast between the first guard. It was sharp and commanding, like the voice of someone who was used to giving orders.


    Now that Julius was pretty sure that there wasn''t a point to lying, he made sure to tell the truth, but also make sure not to divulge too many details. He thought about how he was going to answer for a second.


    "I got separated from my family and found myself alone in the wilderness fighting against monsters. Eventually, I made my way over there." Julius turned and pointed at the hill in the distance. "And now here I am."


    Julius felt the man''s aura wash over him, probing him and determining whether or not Julius was being truthful. The man''s sharp gaze also roved over Julius, and he felt like all his secrets were exposed to this man. Finally, the man seemed to be comfortable that Julius wasn''t lying to him and relaxed.


    Then the guard walked up close to Julius and got on one knee so that his head was only at Julius''s chest. Then he reached over and laid a hand on Julius''s grimy shoulder, giving Julius a small empathetic look.


    "I''m sorry to hear that. Do you know where you were when you lost contact with your family?" The guard asked Julius.


    Julius dropped his head and shook it, "I have no idea where they might be, I don''t even know if they are still alive."


    "It''s going to be okay, maybe they also found their way to Heston. What are their names I will check if we have noted anyone with them coming through."


    Julius paused, he didn''t expect the man to ask about their names. He would rather not have to give out their names, Lukas and Edwin weren''t uncommon names but he wanted to be careful.


    The guard seemed to notice the indecision on Julius''s face and understood that there was some sort of reason why he was hesitant to share their names. He turned to his partner and said, "Hey Orus, I''m going to take this young man back to the guardhouse. Keep watch for me in the meantime."


    Orus, the man in armor just nodded his head in response and started to check the next person in line. Then the other man looked back at Julius, "Come on, let''s get you cleaned up back at the guardhouse. There should be some spare clothes lying around as well."


    Julius was tentative about following this man back to the guardhouse. Still, the man had been quite kind to Julius so far, so he decided to give the man a chance. Julius followed the man past the main gate, walking through and seeing beautiful buildings placed around a very wide stone path that led to a large square. The square seemed to be some sort of intersection that had large signs and directions to where specific sections of the city were.


    The guard didn''t take Julius to the square. Instead, they approached one of the larger buildings off to the side of the path. A large gold and black banner was hanging from the front of the building, displaying a gold dragon in the middle of it.


    Another two guards were standing in front, both holding spears and backs straight as an arrow. As the front gate guard walked up to them, they stepped aside, giving a salute as Julius and the man passed them.


    When the two of them walked through the doors, Julius could make out a massive common room. It had many large mahogany-colored wood pillars stretching to the high ceiling and many tables scattered around the premises. Many guards who were off duty were either eating or just hanging out with each other, laughing and talking loudly. Most of them were wearing similar gold and black uniforms, but their top buttons were unsnapped and flared open. Several of the men who noticed their entrance stood up and saluted the guard escorting Julius.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Julius took note of the respect these men were showing to the guard who brought him in. This man must be a high-ranking officer or someone important, he thought to himself.


    Eventually, they made their way past the common area and up a set of stairs. Then they walked down a warmly lit hallway. The man randomly stopped at a door and turned the doorknob, stepping into the room. Julius had stopped in the hallway and the man was turning on some lights in the room.


    With his back still turned to Julius, he said, "Well don''t just stand out there, come on in"


    Julius slowly made his way into the room. He looked around and noticed that it was quite cozy. It didn''t have the opulence that some rooms within the Hyperius estate had, but there was a sort of warmth to it that they lacked. There were even some wooden pieces of art hanging off the wall. The bed was not very big, large enough for one person, but it looked soft and plush. Julius stared at it, fantasizing what it would be like to allow himself to fall within its soft embrace.


    The man had finished checking the room and turned to Julius, "You can use this room for however long you need. There is a bathroom behind that door." He pointed at a wooden door off to the side of the room. "You should go take a shower, there are towels and soap as well, so don''t be shy. In the meantime, I will go search for a set of clothes for you. I will be right back." The man turned around to leave.


    Julius didn''t even have time to stop and ask the man some of his questions before he was already gone. He had been expecting the man to take him to a private room to ask him some questions, not give him a room and a shower.


    However, Julius smiled at the man''s actions. At first glance, the man was a little intimidating and cold, but on the inside, he felt like the man was warmhearted. He could see why the other guards respected him.


    The other people waiting in line hadn''t offered any aid to Julius, they either just ignored him or looked at him with disgust. This man, however, didn''t hesitate to extend a helping hand. He took Julius in and even offered him a room and shower.


    Speaking of, Julius quickly headed to the bathroom. The bathroom wasn''t that big but it had everything a bathroom needed and more. There was a stall that held a shower, a toilet, and a sink with a mirror hanging above it. Julius quickly shucked off the remnants of his pants and turned on the shower.


    This world was similar to his old one, there was plumbing found in most houses, except that most of the waste got purified by individual magical units in a house before making its way to a general waste area. It was quite brilliant and knew that his old world could have used something like this.


    Julius stepped into the stall, letting the water from the shower head splash over him. It was honestly one of the best moments he had experienced in both lives. He thought he might''ve even moaned from the pleasure of hot water washing away the grime of his body. For several minutes, he just stood underneath the water enjoying it.


    On the side of the stall, he found a bottle of soap and a rough scrub that he could use to exfoliate his body. Julius used that scrub like he was trying to rub off his skin. He went to town, making sure that not a single crevice was left untouched. There was still grime from when he acquired [Kinetic Reiforcement] caked onto some spots.


    After a long time and many generous applications of [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal], his skin was shining like a baby''s bottom. For the first time in what felt like forever, he was completely clean. The same couldn''t be said for the shower. It was stained with his filth and Julius made sure to use the scrub to remove the stains. He was already so grateful for being able to take a shower, and he wouldn''t just leave the stains for someone else to clean.


    He finally got out of the shower and dried himself off with a towel folded on the countertop. He felt like a new man, it was the most satisfying shower in his life. He made sure to throw away the absolutely destroyed scrub in the trash placed in the corner, before walking out, wrapped in the towel. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    A pile of clothes was placed on the bed. They were simple articles, black pants, and a cream-colored shirt, however, they fit like a glove. Only a few moments after Julius pulled the shirt over his head there was a knock on the door, which was promptly opened, with the guard standing in the doorway.


    Julius smiled at the man and expressed his gratitude. "Thank you. You have no idea how much I needed that, Mr.---"


    "Declan," the man let a small smile grace his lips.


    "Nice to meet you Declan, I''m Julius," he said.


    "Very nice to meet you as well, Julius. You look completely different now you are cleaned up," Declan complimented him.


    "Thanks, I can''t remember the last time I had a nice shower."


    "I''m glad you enjoyed it. You must have had a hard time." Declan paused for a second, looking directly at Julius. "Back at the gate, I got the feeling that you didn''t want to share your family''s names. Is there a particular reason for that?"


    Julius didn''t respond immediately. He still didn''t know if he wanted to share everything quite yet. But a part of him wanted to ask Declan because he wanted to find out what happened to them and if there was any news about the condition of House Hyperius. His uncle was the patriarch of a Marquis family and if Samuel had killed them, Julius didn''t think they could hide Lukas''s disappearance forever. They would likely have to come up with some kind of believable explanation.


    As much as Julius wanted to be cautious, he would need to start trusting someone if he wanted to find out some answers and Declan might be one of his best options at this point. He had treated Julius far better than anyone was obligated to and was a highly respect officer within the guards. Maybe he had some contacts that would help Julius.


    Also, Declan was clearly strong. Julius didn''t know how strong, Declan''s aura was completely hidden and Julius couldn''t get a proper estimation. However, his instincts were telling him he was at least on Edwin''s level. If there was a time to share, there might not be a better chance.

 Patreon Information

    Hey everyone! I wanted to announce that I just started a Patreon. I am so grateful for all of you who are reading, never in my wildest dreams I thought this many people would read my story. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.The next logical step in this journey is to somehow make a living on this. This opportunity came at a weird time, I just graduated in finance and got a good-paying job, but out of the blue, I decided to write a story. To my immense surprise, I slowly gained readers as I went. I realized that this was what I wanted to do in life, growing up I loved reading but always told myself I wouldn''t be able to write a story. So I said "screw it" and ended up quitting my job, throwing all my stuff in this boat.


    It''s honestly scary but I will say that I have had more fun doing this than I have in a while. And I would love to do this full-time, which is why I started a Patreon. I don''t expect large numbers like those on more established stories, but anything would help.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    I have been uploading chapters as fast as I write them so there are only a handful of chapters ahead for early access. I am starting Tier 1 with 5 early chapters and have plans to backlog another 5 for the next tier. Eventually, I want to have 20 or 30 early chapters but for now, I will have to build my way up. I was tempted not to upload for a period of time while I built up a stash, but I didn''t want to leave you all hanging, because, at the end of the day, I want people to be able to enjoy my story without having to pay me. It just sucks that''s how life works, rent doesn''t pay for itself.


    Tier 1 starts at $3, Tier 2 will be around $5, and I am thinking $10 for the larger option. Honestly, this is a trial run to see how many people believe my story is worth supporting. I hope there are some of you out there who want to support me as I make this journey. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Thank you, seriously, even if you don''t ever pay a single cent, I love that you have read my story!


    Link: Patreon

 Chapter 40: Taking a Leap

    Julius just stood there conflicted, not sure what to do. Declan on the other hand just stood there patiently, waiting for him to make his decision. He didn''t put any pressure on Julius, he allowed Julius to make his own choice.That in itself was a sign that I can trust him, Julius thought to himself.


    "Okay. I want to tell you, but I have to make sure I can trust you." Julius told Declan. "There are some things that will cause things to get ugly if they get out. I want to trust you, but¡ª"


    "But you don''t know me." Declan finished Julius''s sentence, running a hand through his short hair.


    "Yeah."


    They both didn''t say anything for a minute or so until Declan spoke up "If you are worried about trusting me, I might have a solution to that."


    "Solution? What kind of solution?" Julius asked Declan.


    "At the gate earlier, I noticed that you were able to feel my aura probing right?"


    Julius nodded his head in confirmation.


    "It might be possible for you to feel my aura to see if I am being truthful," Declan explained. "You wouldn''t have to be able to use it like me, but being able to sense aura means you have some sort of aura skill already, which is the hardest part of this technique."


    "And it will allow me to sense if you''re being truthful?"


    "It would depend on how good you are at sensing aura. But basically, I will open up my aura and allow you to get a more in-depth feel for it."


    Julius was sort of able to follow what Declan was trying to get at. Instead of probing Declan''s aura with his own, Declan would open his up and allow Julius unfettered access, which would let him determine his intentions.


    "Okay, we could at least try, right?" Julius responded.


    Declan sat both of them down on the wooden planks of the floor, facing each other. Declan gave him a quick walkthrough of what he should be looking for in his aura. It was confusing and Julius didn''t quite grasp the concepts. Julius told that to Declan but he continued explaining regardless, and once he believed Julius understood enough, he started.


    Julius felt Declan''s aura surround him like a blanket. He could sense how gentle Declan was being with his aura, Julius instinctually understood that if Declan wanted to, he could crush Julius within his aura with little resistance. Julius shook those thoughts away and concentrated on Declan''s aura, attempting to feel his "intent".


    Julius and Declan sat there for close to half an hour, not making any progress. However, something began to click. It was similar to sensing mana and different affinities. There were flavors and textures associated with aura. He couldn''t determine it yet, but he had a feeling that each person would have different aspects based on their personalities. In Declan''s case, Julius was able to feel a hardness that surrounded it but also a softness and warmth on the inside just underneath it.


    Julius focused on digging deeper. It was made much easier because Declan was purposefully opening his metaphorical doors for Julius to explore. However, as he progressed, Julius began to realize how vulnerable it was to open up one''s aura to another. It was like getting naked in front of someone but on a spiritual level.


    Julius couldn''t even begin to understand why Declan was going through this much just to help him. Getting him a room, a shower and a change of clothes was already generous enough, but for some reason, Declan felt the need to go beyond that. Now he was literally baring his soul to Julius, just so Julius would be able to trust him.


    Why is he doing this? I don''t understand.


    Julius was able to feel the "intent" that Declan was talking about. He could feel Declan''s emotions and knew why Declan was confident that Julius would be able to trust him after this. At the moment the predominant emotions were empathy, justice, and sorrow interestingly enough. Was this what Declan felt every time he inspected someone with his aura?


    Julius opened his eyes to look at Declan now that he had established contact.


    "Why are you helping me so much?" Julius asked the question he had thinking about.


    He could immediately feel Declan''s aura tense at the question although his face hadn''t moved a muscle. Declan didn''t respond right away but Julius was patient and gave him time to answer. However, he had to know why Declan was doing this for him, it was important.


    Finally, he could feel Declan''s aura relax and a sad feeling of acceptance came through their connection.


    "I used to have a son right around your age, Isaac. Looked just like you too. Black hair, dark brown eyes, and similar facial features." Declan paused. "Several years ago, we took a camping trip with my wife and her family, just outside of Heston. It was a trip we had taken many times before and nothing ever went wrong. The location didn''t have any rifts or monsters around so it was safe for the kids. Then one day, my older son and I went off and did some hunting like usual, but when we were gone, a pack of monsters came out of nowhere and attacked the camp. My wife and her family were all raised as hunters so they were able to handle the monsters, but my son was off exploring on his own. He always enjoyed a good adventure." sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Declan eyes were misting up at this point but continued anyway. "I found his body torn apart several miles away from the camp. There was nothing I could do to save him. And when I saw you at the gate and then heard your story, I couldn''t help but compare you to Isaac."


    Julius was lost for words. He didn''t expect to hear something like that. Losing your child was tough. Julius remembered hearing his gramps cry every night on his mother''s birthday. Gramps had always told Julius that the worst thing a parent could go through was losing their child before they died themselves.


    Julius didn''t know what to say that might comfort Declan. He wasn''t good at comforting others in pain. The only thing he could think of was trying to send sympathy and support over their connection, letting Declan know that he understood his pain.


    Declan quickly pulled himself together and placed a calm look on his face like the conversation had never happened. "I''m sorry, I didn''t mean to go that far. I have been able to move past it little by little over the years. But seeing a child that resembled Isaac walk up to the gate covered in blood after getting separated from your family in the wilderness ripped open some old scars," Declan apologized to Julius.


    "No, it''s my fault I didn''t mean to bring up any more bad memories, I just wanted to know why a complete stranger was going so far to help me."


    Declan gave Julius a tiny grin, "I''m not going that far out of the way. We do sometimes find children or people in similar positions as you. These rooms were built for situations just like this. You will be able to stay here for as long as you need. I was just worried that someone was targeting your family, that was why I wanted you to feel that you could trust me."


    Declan wasn''t exactly wrong on that front. It was just that it was his family that was targeting him, Lukas, and Edwin. Declan must''ve felt Julius''s aura that was still attached to his own because he nodded his head as if Julius had confirmed his suspicions.


    "So someone is targeting your family."


    Julius nodded, he didn''t bother hiding it. At this point, he was in too deep, and if he couldn''t trust Declan then who else could he trust? He would need to take a leap of faith.


    He took a deep breath and told him the truth. "My full name is Julius Von Hyperius," he told Declan, and he saw Declan''s eyes raise in surprise, recognizing the name. Julius then went on to give an abridged version of what happened at the manor and how a teleportation mishap landed him in the middle of the wilderness. However, he didn''t mention the rift or that he had been transported again, closer to Heston.


    Julius knew Declan felt him hiding some details, but he didn''t press him on it.


    "So you want to know what happened to your uncle and Edwin but are afraid that if you went looking for answers, someone would find out it was you."


    "Pretty much," Julius said.


    Declan nodded at Julius, "I haven''t heard anything about House Hyperius. But it has only been a few weeks so it will take some time before any news reaches Heston. But I will keep an eye of anything regarding House Hyperius and will reach out to some of my old contacts and see if they might have heard anything. If that''s alright with you."


    "That''s fine, as long as you believe you can trust them, just be careful. Duke Greyson and Clan Genshen were involved as well." Julius reminded Declan.


    "Don''t worry, they are people who I would trust my family with," Declan reassured him.


    After that whole situation, Julius could feel that he and Declan formed a connection. They had shared their intent over aura and told each other personal secrets. They had only known each other for a couple of hours, but it felt like they had already become friends.


    It was nice. Julius hadn''t really made many friends during his time in this world, Lukas and Edwin were basically his only friends. Even in his old world, his gramps was his best friend and only had a handful of close friends.


    Declan took Julius back downstairs, but instead of heading to the common room, Declan navigated him toward the kitchens. Many people were bustling around getting food prepared. However, Declan directed Julius by the shoulder and led him to a stool where he sat him down.


    Then he called out to a worker, "Hey Rae, could you get this young boy something to eat?"


    The lady turned around, "Oh Vice-Captain, I thought you were doing gate duty this morning."


    "Yeah, I was but I found this young boy earlier with Orus, he was separated from his parents while they were traveling outside of Heston. Could you get him something to eat, he probably hasn''t had a real meal in a few weeks." Declan told the woman.


    "Of course sir!" She turned to Julius, "Weeks?! Poor thing, you must be starving," The lady had light brown shoulder-length hair and was slightly overweight but had a radiant smile that lit up the room. "Let''s get you some soup. If you haven''t eaten in a while, then something light would be best."


    Julius watched as the lady went off to get Julius a bowl of soup. He hadn''t eaten anything in weeks, because [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was able to satiate his appetite with mana. However, a warm bowl of soup sounded divine. Just because he didn''t need to eat anymore, didn''t mean he couldn''t appreciate food anymore.


    Food was a huge part of his life, he loved it and one of the things he was looking forward to was trying out the many restaurants around Heston in his spare time. The lady was back immediately, holding a piping hot bowl of soup in one hand and a large glass of water in the other. She set it down in front of him, "If you need anything else darling, just call for me, my name is Rae."


    Julius just nodded as he was already grabbing the bowl with both hands and sipping the broth, not even picking up a spoon. She laughed at his actions and went off.


    Julius felt like he just died and went to heaven, the broth was delicious. It was savory, herbaceous, and had subtle warmth from the spices. He didn''t know what kind of broth it was, but he loved it. After he put the bowl down, he finally picked up the spoon next to him. There was a medley of vegetables and some sort of sausage floating on the surface of the soup.


    Julius devoured the soup and Declan had to put a hand on his shoulder making him slow down. Still, in mere minutes the soup was gone and Julius had a satisfied smile on his face as he had his first meal in weeks.

 Chapter 41: Getting Some Coin and Food

    He was surprised that he had some notifications waiting for him to see. It seemed that practicing aura like that with Declan improved his aura skill.[Fighter''s Will lvl 9 -> lvl 11]


    Julius was tearing through the levels for [Fighter''s Will]. It wouldn''t be long until he was able to evolve it.


    Sadly, Declan had to get back to his duties, leaving Julius alone in the guardhouse. He told him he was free to explore and let him know where the market was. It seemed that Declan had even sensed the cores Julius was carrying and was kind enough to point him to a place where could sell them.


    That was where Julius was headed. He wanted to sell his cores to get some money. He was fortunate that he didn''t have to pay for room and board, but he would still like some coin. According to Declan the entrance exam for Goldencrest was in a few days. Julius was lucky, he had made it here just in time. He didn''t know if he could still take it if he missed it or if he would have to wait for next semester, but he was glad he didn''t need to find out. So while he might not have a lot of time before the exam, he still wanted to explore the city a little bit before then.


    Declan said he would sign Julius up for it and all he needed to do was show up. Julius didn''t know what would be on the exam, it was a secret that not even Lukas was privy to. Julius knew affinities played a large part but there have been cases where those without excellent or perfect affinities got in. He was hoping that he would also be one of those exceptions. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius finally made it to the market that Declan directed him to. There were many permanent shops set up in buildings but there was also a large square where many merchants set up their tents. Declan told him to find a shop named Albert''s Emporium, he said that the man was trustworthy and wouldn''t scam a child.


    It took him some time and asking a couple of people for directions, but eventually he found the shop. There was a large simple sign stating, "Albert''s Emporium" over the front door. Confident that he found the place, Julius walked through the door. There were several people inside shopping around. However, he walked up to the counter, where an older gentleman was sitting.


    "Hi, are you Albert?" Julius asked the man.


    "Yep, what can I do for you sonny?" The man said.


    "Declan told me you would buy cores for a good price," Julius said.


    "Well I don''t know about a good price, but I do buy them. Let''s see what you have," Albert waved his arm at the counter.


    Julius took the two normal troll cores out of his new pants, placing them down on the felt mat. The man picked one of them up with a pair of gloves and examined them.


    "Hmm, Tier 3 life core, not something you see often, especially on a kid. You selling it for someone?" Julius nodded in affirmation, nobody would have believed him if he said he hunted them himself. "This one doesn''t have any wood or nature aspects, so I assume it was from some sort of monster with a healing factor. At Tier 3, it is probably from a troll or something similar." Albert decided after a moment.


    Julius was impressed, the man got it spot on. "Yes, they are cores from trolls. How much would you buy them for?"


    Julius didn''t know much about currency or what the cost of normal things was in this world. He knew that ten coppers for a silver coin, ten silvers for a gold coin, and ten gold for a platinum coin. But other than that, he had no idea what the general market price for a Tier 3 life affinity core was. However, he did see a Tier 3 water core on the wall above the counter selling for two gold, so he expected something close to that.


    "I could take them off your hands for three gold and four silver," Albert offered Julius.


    "How much would you sell them for?" Julius decided to straight up ask the man.


    Albert paused, thinking about how he was going to answer. "I would probably sell them for two gold each."


    "Really? Even though that water core is selling for two gold, I thought life cores were less common than water cores." Julius pointed out with an innocent face.


    Julius could see the man try to hide a grimace. "Probably a silver or two more," he admitted.


    "You can have them for four gold," Julius told the man.


    "No way, four gold is too much, three and eight silver is the most I will do. Even for a friend of Declan." Albert refuted.


    "Nine silver and you got a deal," Julius said as he reached out a hand.


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    The man looked at his hand and gave him the first inkling of a smile since Julius came in. "Okay three gold and nine silver, you got a deal," he said as he shook Julius''s hand.


    "So how much would you really sell them for?" Julius asked Albert as he was counting out the coins.


    "I could probably get close to two and a half to three gold right now, but if I hold onto them until the price goes up then maybe four," Albert told him.


    "And what would be the most you would have given me?"


    "You did pretty well, I would have been willing to part with a couple extra silver, but not much," Albert said.


    Julius was glad, for his time it wasn''t a bad result, at least he didn''t get completely ripped off. Now he had some money to spend. He browsed through the man''s store to see if there was anything he wanted to buy. He did find a pack that he liked, it was small but it would be able to carry enough for Julius. It was only a silver and four copper for the thing and the man just let him have it without paying anything for it.


    He thanked the man and left his store, heading toward a place that sold food. Julius found a row of stalls that all served street food. They had everything, ranging from roasted meat on sticks to stuffed pastries. Over several hours Julius tried everything. By the time he was completely stuffed, he had managed to fit three separate skewers, two pastries, a few rolls, and something that looked like a corn dog but tasted like a caramel apple down his gullet. It was amazing and the best part, it cost him less than three silvers total.


    He didn''t realize how much a single gold coin could buy, he was quite ignorant considering his upbringing, but now he understood how much money he had in his pocket. It had him grabbing his pockets several times during his adventure, making sure nobody had snatched it away while he wasn''t paying attention.


    It was getting late by now and Julius started to head back, enjoying his little trip immensely. When he got back to the guardhouse, there were two different guards on duty, but Julius didn''t have to explain anything, they just stepped aside and let him through.


    Someone must''ve told them about me, was it the previous rotation or was it Declan? Julius wasn''t sure.


    Julius took the time to explore the building a little bit. The main floor had things like the common room, kitchen, and a library, Julius might check the latter out later. There were several more floors, but it appeared they were mainly for either storage or living spaces for the guards who didn''t have their own houses.


    He found himself in the outer courtyard behind the building. It looked like it was a training area for the guards. He could see equipment and groups of younger guards going through drills directed by an instructor.


    Julius was tempted to ask if he could join them. However, he didn''t want to interrupt them and he could ask Declan later.


    Declan came back around dinner time and ate with Julius in the common room. He introduced Julius to many of the guards, he even got to see Orus again, this time out of his armor. The man was still just as massive without it, but it turned out he was quite shy. Julius sat next to him and Declan throughout dinner. He didn''t forget to ask Declan about him joining in some of the guard''s drills.


    "Are you sure? I don''t disagree that it would be a good decision, but the entrance exam is in a few days," Declan said to Julius.


    "Yeah it would give me something to do in the meantime and I was thinking once I learn the drills I could still do them at the academy," Julius responded.


    Orus overheard their conversation and joined in, "You''ve mentioned Goldencrest a few times, you seem confident that you will be accepted. Do you have an excellent or perfect affinity?"


    "Nope, just a high, but I did hear from my uncle that although the academy puts a heavy emphasis on affinities, they also care a lot about practical abilities, it''s just that most children my age don''t have the experience yet to do that well on the practical," Julius turned to Orus.


    "I never went to Goldencrest, I went to Western Hills Academy when I was your age, but my fiance got a really nice job offer so we ended up moving across the entire empire to Heston. But Declan here did go to Goldencrest, and I believe he was a top graduate even." Orus pointed at Declan who was in the middle of swiping the remnants of his meal with a piece of buttered bread.


    Julius turned back to Declan with his mouth full of bread. "You didn''t mention that. What was the exam like?" Julius asked while spraying some crumbs over the table.


    Declan finished chewing his food before he answered. "We are forced to swear not to reveal any information on the entrance exam. If the proctors find out if an applicant had someone share the details then they are usually penalized. Not to mention the exam is slightly different every semester."


    "Do you think I have a good chance at least?" Julius asked him.


    "It''s hard to say. I can say that combat prowess is a significant factor but it is hard to tell when I have never seen you fight before." Declan answered Julius.


    "Why don''t you two find out after dinner then? Use the sparring area out back and you can see where Julius stands." Orus suggested to them.


    It wasn''t a bad idea, as Julius had been planning to sneak out there later tonight anyway. Having a little training session with Declan sounded exciting.


    "I''m down for that. What about you old man?" Julius teased Declan.


    Declan looked up from his empty plate, "Old man?" He asked.


    "Yeah, I mean unless you are too nervous, then we don''t need to do it." Julius further antagonized him. He really wanted to fight Declan and was hoping he would take the bait.


    Orus on the other hand was looking at Julius like he grew a second head, horrified to see him talking to his Vice-Captain like that.


    Declan on the other hand didn''t say anything and got up, taking his tray to the bin, and started to walk out. Maybe Julius pushed him too far.


    "What are doing? I thought we were going to spar. Unless you''re too nervous." Declan threw his words back at him and headed for the courtyard.


    Julius jumped up, cleaning up his tray and following Declan quickly. Orus also got up to follow but was mumbling something about "crazy kids" under his breath.

 Chapter 42: Sparring With Declan

    Julius watched Declan turn on some mana-powered lights that illuminated a section tucked away in the back of the courtyard. Declan waved over Julius to come toward the center of the sparring ring."Okay, we can start slow and then slowly increase the pace. Does that sound good to you?" Declan asked Julius.


    "Sounds good to me." Julius was a little excited, it felt like forever since he had the opportunity to fight another human. He was curious where he stood now that he had gotten stronger.


    He had already decided that he wasn''t going to use his life affinity. He had been feeling like he was becoming too reliant on his healing skill anyway. He felt like he was developing bad habits because there were fewer repercussions to his actions. If he mistimed a dodge and lost a hand in the process, it wasn''t a big deal because he could heal it. He didn''t want to use the skill as a crutch. He would rather rely on his other abilities and use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] as a trump card. He was also thinking about limiting how powerful his fire constructs would be in the future, especially at the academy. He was thinking that he could try to create some new constructs that would use as little mana as possible but also do enough damage.


    When he arrived at Goldencrest he didn''t want to stand out too much, otherwise, there would be too much attention on himself, which might lead to someone investigating who he really was. However, if he was too "weak" they might not even accept him in the first place. That was why this spar with Declan was important because he would get a better sense of how much he could limit himself while still being impressive enough to get in.


    From now on, he would primarily lean on his kinetic affinity, at least in public. He would still train his other skills, but he would keep them somewhat secret. He didn''t care if Declan or honestly, if Orus knew about them, but the better he was able to hide them the safer it would be.


    Julius had made his way into the center of the ring, with Declan confidently standing there watching him. Orus was also off to the side spectating.


    "Ready?" Declan asked him.


    Julius nodded in confirmation. Then without hesitation, Declan moved in, leaning in and throwing a casual punch at Julius. Julius activated [Savage Dance], [Fighter''s Will], and [Kinetic Augmentation] in quick succession as he evaded the simple strike.


    They danced around each other at the beginning, each getting a feel for the pace. As the minutes passed Declan decided to increase the pace slightly. Now Declan was moving at twice the speed as he was in the beginning. Even at a handicapped speed, Julius could tell Declan was skilled.


    Julius was still able to keep up easily. [Kinetic Augmentation] was still not even close to being fully activated. But he did find himself frequently having to increase the amount of kinetic energy he infused into his body to keep up.


    Declan was an impressive fighter. He had a similar style to Edwin, where he was speed-focused build, but instead of using deception and counterattacks, Declan was more aggressive in his approach. It wasn''t even that, while the lack of breathing room was becoming annoying, Julius was more impressed at how fluid Declan was transitioning his strikes. Each move and attack led to several additional attacks due to the placement of his body and the timing of the strikes. Julius was really good at not falling for feints or deceptive attacks because of [Spatial Perception] but he found himself getting caught up in the increasing pace and almost fell for several feints.


    Declan used his body so creatively, hiding a leg kick behind a swing or changing the speed of a punch just a hair so that it caught Julius off guard. Julius was getting completely out-skilled by Declan, it wasn''t even close.


    They had finally reached a point where Julius was almost going full out, pumping kinetic energy to keep up with Declan. Even Declan was taking it more seriously. In the beginning, Julius noticed that Declan was playing around with him, not considering him as a threat. However, that changed pretty quickly. Declan''s eyes narrowed in focus and his strikes were becoming sharper and more crisp, not leaving a single gap for Julius to exploit and Julius was starting to get beat on, his openings getting exploited by the much more experienced fighter.


    However, he wasn''t taking the beating without a fight. He made Declan work for every strike he landed and made sure to land attacks of his own even if it meant taking several hits in return. But Declan was able to read Julius like an open book, and he wondered if Declan was reading Julius''s aura to predict where he was going to attack. It would make sense considering Declan''s proficiency with aura. It was just that Julius had no idea how to obscure his aura, yet at least. He was going to make sure he got Declan to give him some tips.


    Julius was also making sure to take notes on Declan''s style, it was very similar to how he liked to fight up close and he was learning a lot already. However, he was getting worn down pretty fast, and with no [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to heal his fatigue, he realized that he wasted a lot of energy during a fight.


    Declan in contrast didn''t waste a single movement in his assault, everything was calculated and efficient. It was like Julius was running around like a chicken with its head cut off in comparison. So as he was trying to implement some of Declan''s attacking combos he also was trying to use his stamina more efficiently. Instead of diving to avoid a strike, he would use his momentum to evade but make sure he was in a good position to either continue to dodge or counter with his own attack.


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    At the start of the fight he had been planning to display some weaker applications of fire magic but as the fight intensified he was just enjoying having a straight-up brawl. Declan wasn''t using any of his active skills either, other than some physical enhancement with his aura and maybe a couple of his passive skills.


    He could feel himself improving as the fight went on. He made small adjustments that he would have never recognized without Declan''s help. It just sucked that his fatigue was going to be his downfall. He tried to keep going but at some point, his body was unable to keep up, his arms were not doing what he wanted them to and his legs were shaking from the exertion.


    It was only after Julius tripped over his feet and blocked a kick with his face that Declan called it off. Julius was on his face once again and Declan helped him up. "Why don''t you go clean up and then we can talk about it afterward."


    "Why¡­ not¡­ now?" Julius asked out of breath.


    "Because you can barely talk and trying to talk without someone who can''t even get enough air to speak is a pain. Now go get showered and meet us back out here once you''re done." Declan ordered Julius.


    Julius didn''t bother arguing any further. He could wait, and a shower did sound nice. He could take the time to use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] in the meantime. Not enough to completely heal, but just enough to take the edge off.


    He slowly made his way through the doors, passing by some guards who were hanging out in the common room, and struggled up the stairs as he was barely able to lift his legs to each step. Halfway up the stairs, he got frustrated at his predicament. He sent out a pulse of [Spatial Perception] to make sure nobody was watching and used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] at low power to heal some of the muscle fatigue in his legs. The relief was immediate and he was able to make it up the stairs with way fewer issues.


    He quickly got to his new room and jumped in the shower to wash off the sweat. It didn''t feel as good as his last shower but it still felt damn good. When he got out he looked in the mirror and noticed over a dozen large bruises scattered over his body.


    Julius was a little surprised at how Declan didn''t hold back. He half expected the man to use kid gloves on him and leave him practically unscathed during their spar. However, he was glad that the man decided to roughen Julius up a bit. Julius was able to learn so much more because of that. Kinetic Augmentation even leveled up.


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 8 -> lvl 9]


    After inspecting himself in the mirror he left the bathroom. There were several more sets of clothes on the bed. They were all the same as the ones he got earlier. Once he dressed himself he left his room and went back downstairs to the courtyard.


    POV Declan


    Declan watched as Julius staggered back inside, closing the door behind him. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He shares so much resemblance to Isaac but acts in a completely different manner. Declan thought to himself. His son, even when he was alive did not enjoy fighting, Julius on the other hand clearly loved fighting. Declan watched as Julius fought with a maniacal grin, loving every second of it.


    The second Julius was out of earshot Orus spoke up, "With all due respect sir, what the hell was that?"


    "That''s exactly what I want to know," Declan replied. He had just wanted to see where Julius stood and see if he was good enough to get into Goldencrest even without an excellent affinity. But he didn''t expect Julius to be such a good fighter.


    "And you''re absolutely sure he is Tier 1?" Orus asked him.


    "He''s pretty darn close to Tier 2, but yes, he is for certain a Tier 1. As for how? Your guess is as good as mine." Declan said.


    "I just don''t understand how he has a body that strong and one that is resilient enough to handle that much energy before getting his Affinity Body. His body should have exploded from that much energy. Did he mention if he had some kind of special bloodline that allows him to do that?" Orus was pacing around.


    "Calm down Orus," Declan ordered the man. "His aura had no indications of a bloodline. But you felt it right?" Declan asked Orus.


    "Felt it? How could I not feel it? Kinetic is a rare affinity in these parts, but in Valsi we have enough exposure to the northern warrior clans to see what a kinetic affinity can do. But I can safely say that I have not seen it used in such amounts in someone under Tier 2."


    "Me either¡­ So do you think he will get into Goldencrest?" Declan smiled as he asked Orus the question.


    "Get in? I will personally beat up whoever thinks that the boy isn''t qualified. Fighting up a tier is impressive as hell, even if it''s at Tier 1. There''s no way they would reject him," Orus said while shaking his head in disbelief. "You know I was going to intervene when I saw you going at him that hard. There are going to be some bruises later you know that right?"


    "Yeah, I wasn''t going to take it that far, but after a few minutes in the spar, I realized that he must have some sort of evolved combat focus skill that has elements of pain resistance. That and after experiencing some of his strength I felt less bad about beating him up." Declan explained.


    "He might even have some rare skills already. My guess is that he has some sort of rare body reinforcement skill and maybe even that focus skill is at the rare rank," Orus predicted.


    Declan didn''t disagree with Orus. He also didn''t say anything but Declan believed that Julius was still holding back. Based on his aura Declan was pretty confident that Julius had at least another affinity maybe even two more that he didn''t use in the fight. He got the feeling of explosiveness and vigor hiding in his aura.


    However, he didn''t mention it to Orus. While Declan trusted Orus, he didn''t want to share too much about Julius''s circumstances with him before he got permission from Julius. He sent Julius away so that he could get some time to unravel what he had just experienced and also to see Orus''s reaction. At that moment, Declan could feel mainly excitement and disbelief in Orus''s aura. Orus was much better at keeping a lid on his aura than Julius, but with Declan''s superior aura abilities, it was still possible to get a read of him.


    For now, Declan was going to wait until Julius came back out. He would bring up the topic of sharing information with Orus with Julius, but if Julius didn''t feel comfortable with it then he wouldn''t try to convince him otherwise. Orus would understand as well, he was a kind and considerate man. Declan was preparing Orus to take on more responsibilities within the guard for a good reason. In the end, it would come down to Julius''s decision.

 Chapter 43: Sharing Information

    Julius found Declan and Orus exactly where he left them. They were both sitting down on a bench watching Julius approach. Orus was looking at Julius with a large grin spread across his face while Declan was more reserved, a neutral expression on his face."Okay, I am all cleaned up now. What now?" Julius asked once he got within earshot of the other two.


    Julius observed as Declan glanced at Orus before talking, "I want to talk about some personal things. But if you are not comfortable talking around Orus, he will understand and give us some space."


    Julius must''ve had a confused expression plastered over his face because Declan continued explaining. "I want to talk about some of your skills and it might digress into some of the things that we talked about earlier. I won''t share them with Orus, but I do think that he is very trustworthy, I am preparing him to take over as Vice-Captain once I vacate the position. He also knows more than most about kinetic affinities, he is from the Valsi Region and they have more experience than anyone with the northern warrior clans. He might have some useful insights."


    Julius thought about what Declan said. Truthfully, as long as he didn''t mention some of the more secretive stuff like the details regarding his house, he didn''t mind Orus participating in the conversation. He didn''t necessarily think his skills needed to be kept absolutely secret, he needed to learn about too many things to expect total secrecy. He would need to share some details about his skills if he wanted to know how to progress them.


    Also, he knew that Orus went to Western Hills Academy, which now that he remembered, was near the Valsi Region and quite a renowned academy in the northwestern part of the Empire where many of its students were front liners and close combat fighters. The northern warrior clans were the same people Julius remembered Edwin discussing with him a while ago. He said that they were a brutal warrior culture that had many warriors with kinetic affinities.


    He agreed with Declan that Orus might be able to give Julius some pointers about how these warriors use kinetic energy that he might not have thought of. It just came down to how much he wanted to share, even with Declan, as much as Julius was finding himself respecting and liking the man.


    "I''m okay with Orus knowing some of my skills. I believe in your judgment and aura sense. I would just prefer if some of the more secretive things could be kept just between us," Julius told Declan. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Not a problem, Orus won''t press for anything you don''t feel comfortable talking about, he''s sometimes too timid for his own good," Declan responded. Orus was nodding his head in agreement before hearing that last statement and stopped before looking at Declan, offended.


    Julius smiled at that, before looking toward Declan with expectation, wanting to hear what he had to say.


    "Okay, the good news is that I do not think you will have any problems getting into Goldencrest," Declan told him.


    It was nice to hear it confirmed but not that surprising. "And the bad news?" Julius asked.


    "You might draw some unwanted attention along the way," Declan said.


    Just as Julius expected. "What sort of attention?"


    Declan paused and scratched his head, "Are you aware how much kinetic energy you were using throughout your body during our spar?"


    "Too much?" Julius asked.


    "Way too much for anyone below Tier 2. Anyone at Tier 3 or with good perception will immediately see the ridiculous amounts of energy you are using at Tier 1, this will lead them to assume you have some sort of bloodline ability, like Orus here, or think you are purposefully hiding your Tier with some sort of expensive device." Declan explained.


    Julius hadn''t thought about that, and he also hadn''t heard of bloodline abilities before. "Bloodline ability?" He asked.


    Orus was the one who answered. "Bloodline abilities are traits that are passed down from generation to generation, originating from a powerful ancestor. For example, the current Imperial Family has a unique bloodline ability that allows them to harness large amounts of light to increase their strength far beyond what their tier is. It is a trait that has been passed down for many generations."


    "So if people see me using kinetic energy like that they might assume I have some sort of bloodline and come from a prestigious lineage," Julius stated.


    Declan nodded, "Yes, they might think you have some sort of body-enhancing bloodline that allows your body to handle more energy than normal. There are a few bloodlines like that out there in the Empire but I am more worried that it will just draw unwanted attention to you."


    Julius thought that bloodline abilities sounded unfair. So if a child came from a family with a powerful ancestor thousands of years ago they could inherit a bloodline ability and will have a massive advantage over others.


    Not that he could say anything about unfair advantages, but he could at least complain on behalf of the common people. That sounded rigged.


    "So how much kinetic energy could I use and still stay under the radar?" Julius asked.


    "Radar?" Declan asked confusingly.


    "Sorry, I meant to say how much should I use to avoid that kind of attention," Julius said forgetting that common Earth sayings didn''t make sense here.


    "Around half of what you were pulling. You should still be able to pass the entrance exam but it won''t be as guaranteed. But there was another thing I wanted to ask you. Do you have other affinities?" Declan asked Julius.


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    Julius didn''t care that Declan knew, but he was more curious about how Declan knew that he had other affinities. Most likely using his aura ability knowing Declan. I really need to figure out how to control my aura better and figure out how to use it like Declan, it''s very useful.


    Still, Julius didn''t decide to hide his affinities from the two of them. "Yeah, I have a fire and life affinity as well."


    Orus was surprised to hear this. "Wait, you have three affinities? Why would you split your attention when you have so much of your core dedicated to kinetic mana?"


    "I have a lot of mana. Also, they were all affinities of similar quality and I didn''t want to give up any of them." Julius tried to explain.


    Declan wasn''t saying anything for the moment, he was just quietly thinking to himself. It was only after a minute that he spoke up. "Do you have a healing skill?" he directed at Julius.


    Julius just nodded his head in response. "What kind of healing skill? Is it [Heal], [Refresh], or maybe something like [Regeneration]?" Declan asked him. "You don''t need to answer if you don''t want to. Skills are supposed to be quite private and you usually don''t share them with anyone other than a close friend."


    Julius didn''t mind telling them that he had a healing skill but didn''t know if he wanted to share its exact name. On the other hand, he still didn''t know what (Rare+) meant and maybe Declan or Orus knew. Eventually, his curiosity took priority over his cautiousness.


    "I have an evolved healing skill and it is pretty good in my opinion but it has a plus sign next to its rank, do either of you know what that means?" Julius asked the two of them.


    He saw both men freeze and simultaneously look at him. Orus broke the silence first, "You have a superior skill? But that would mean your skill is at least of the rare rank." He said with enthusiasm.


    So the plus meant that the skill was a superior skill. It was nice to finally find out the name for it and it seemed that it only appeared in rare-ranked skills. Julius turned to Orus, "Yes, I evolved it to rare, but that also leads to some of my other questions. Like what is a superior skill and what is the difference between evolving a skill by leveling it up to the required threshold and evolving it by synergizing multiple skills."


    Declan decided to answer those questions for him. "A superior skill is a skill that has reached the pinnacle of that rank, they are always more powerful or more versatile than other skills of the same rank. As for the difference between evolving through leveling up and synergy, it comes down to what someone is trying to do with a specific skill. If you want to specialize and add a property to a skill then evolving the traditional way is best, you will receive many options that relate to how you have used that skill up to that point."


    Declan paused, letting Julius take in that information before continuing. "Synergy is a more complicated matter. There are many arguments about how it works but in short, synergy will grant you a skill combining multiple skills that resonate with each other and yourself. A common example is the [Weapon Mastery] skill, which takes several skills such as [Swordsmanship], [Unarmed Combat], and another weapon-based skill to create a generalized version of them. This skill may not be as powerful or as specialized as just a raw sword skill but it allows you to save two skill slots."


    That was a lot of information at once. But it made sense when he thought about how his skills evolved. [Spatial Perception], [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal], and [Savage Dance] were skills that came from synergy evolutions, which was why they had many various aspects attached to them. Then there were skills like [Pure Compression] and [Kinetic Augmentation] that were extremely focused on a single aspect.


    Julius had kind of pieced some of that together himself, but having someone explain it helped reaffirm many of his own deductions.


    He looked at both of the men, Declan was his stoic self but it was quite amusing to see Orus''s face at the moment. It appeared he was still in disbelief that Julius had a (Rare+) healing skill.


    "I would like to keep my healing affinity a secret at least while I am at the academy, I was thinking about portraying myself as a kinetic fighter with some fire affinity capabilities. Would you think that would work?" Julius asked Declan.


    "It should work out. Most test examiners are Tier 3 and won''t be able to investigate your aura like I can." Declan told him. "However, you might be losing out on potential healing classes you could learn from if you don''t share your life affinity."


    "That''s fine with me," Julius reassured him. Julius was planning on doing most of his life mana training on his own and would find some resources in the school library. He wasn''t planning to become a dedicated healer, it would primarily be for personal use.


    "What about your fire abilities? Do they supplement your close combat abilities or are they longer-range skills?" Orus asked Julius.


    "Right now they lean more toward range attacks, but I was thinking that I could focus more on constructs that would help me in close combat situations while I''m at Goldencrest," Julius responded.


    "I know kinetic is very difficult to create any constructs with, I have mainly seen only Tier 3 or 4''s with kinetic affinities who have been able to create physical constructs with kinetic mana. Fire mana on the other hand would be a solid path if you want to support close combat. It takes a lot of practice to make them sufficiently strong to hold up under attacks but you could definitely create some armor constructs in the future. If you have time you should research Justin Emberhold, he was a Tier 6 who dominated the battlefield with fire construct armor," Orus said with an excited look.


    "Yeah I have been able to harden them, but I have found that they shatter quite easily when subject to enough force. Do you know how I could fix that?" Julius curiously asked.


    Orus put a hand under his chin, thinking for a bit. "I know it has something to do with mana layering techniques. I have a blood affinity that I mainly use to increase my physical strength also blood is much easier to create physical constructs with than fire so I never learned it in much depth. But the academy should have plenty of courses or books that will go into detail about it better than either I or Declan could." Orus said.


    Julius hadn''t heard of mana layering before but by the name, it sounds a lot like what he needed. His constructs felt a bit like glass at the moment. He could harden and compress the shell as much as he could, but no matter how much he condensed it, it would still be just a thin layer that would shatter once the integrity was broken. Maybe the answer lay in creating several layers that reinforced each other, kinda like an onion in a way. Built layer upon layer until he had a solid construct. He wanted to test that out.


    As Julius was thinking about the possibilities Declan interrupted his thoughts. "I think that displaying your kinetic affinity with fire constructs to supplement you will be a good choice to enter the academy with. If your abilities with fire are anything close to your kinetic or life affinities then you should easily make it even when handicapping yourself. You will be able to maintain a subtle profile and then in your spare time train your other skill sets."


    Julius agreed with him and Orus. The idea of punching things with kinetic energy while covered in an armor of mana was enticing.


    "Oh and one more thing," Declan added. "If you haven''t already managed to evolve [Mana Manipulation] I would recommend you wait. Some amazing evolutions come once you reach rare rank."


    Julius froze as he heard Declan''s last words.

 Chapter 44: Everyone Makes Mistakes

    Julius awkwardly scratched his head. If he was being honest, he had a feeling that there were some pretty cool evolved skills for [Mana Manipulation]. For a while, he had stubbornly maintained his stance that [Mana Manipulation] was a crutch skill. However, as time went by and he was exposed to more skills he started to realize the fault in his thinking.If that was the case then he could argue every skill was a crutch. They might not be as integral to magic as [Mana Manipulation], but they would still be a standardized application of mana or ability. He didn''t let [Firebolt] stop him from changing its shape although the skill fought him the entire, so why did it have to be the same with [Mana Manipulation]?


    No doubt not having the skill enabled him to improve his mana control to this point. It forced him to put in thousands of hours experimenting with mana, time he might not have put into it if he had the skill to rely on. He was confident he had a better intrinsic feel for mana than most people his age.


    However, now that he had improved his control without the skill he could see how much having the skill would increase his fighting prowess. Even after getting stronger, manipulating mana was still a difficult task. It took considerable concentration to precisely use it during a fight and the skill would help him with that.


    He still believed that if he had the skill back then, it would have been a crutch. But he could confidently say that wasn''t the case now.


    Not having [Mana Manipulation] might have allowed Julius the freedom and opportunity to experiment with [Firebolt] and other skills in such unique ways and he believed that was the main reason why he was offered [Arcane Construct]. But he was seriously considering taking it now. He still had three open skill slots and could always remove it if it wasn''t worth it, but he wanted to at least see if it made a difference. Julius didn''t doubt Declan when he said there were some impressive evolutions at the rare rank.


    Declan just observed Julius as he was silent for a while and Orus was looking at Julius as well. Finally, Orus laughed and asked, "What? Did you already evolve it to rare as well?" At this point, Orus wouldn''t be surprised to hear that the boy had also gotten a rare [Mana Manipulation] skill.


    Julius shook his head, "I don''t have a rare [Mana Manipulation] skill."


    Smiling at him, Orus said reassuringly, "That''s okay, having even one is a mark of pride at Tier 1. So what''s the long face for?"


    Julius didn''t have to answer because Declan interrupted them. "No. You did not," Declan said in a disappointed and resigned tone.


    I think he knows. Julius winced to himself.


    "Maybe¡­" Julius said quietly.


    Julius saw Declan put his face into his hands as if he couldn''t believe he had heard something so dumb. Declan lifted his head out of his palms and asked a simple question, "Why?"


    "I thought it was a good idea at the time," Julius explained. "Also in hindsight, I would make the same choice again."


    Orus was looking between the two of them in confusion. "Would you two like to let me know what you guys are talking about?"


    "He doesn''t have a [Mana Manipulation] skill."


    "Say again?"


    "You heard me," Declan said.


    "I don''t think I did. I must have not cleaned my ears this morning, could you repeat that?" Orus stubbornly asked.


    "I don''t have [Mana Manipulation]," Julius finally said loudly.


    He was barely able to get out the last word when Orus slapped Julius across the back of the head. "You idiot," Orus insulted Julius.


    Julius rubbed the back of his head. He was sure Orus only hit him that hard because he knew Julius had a healing skill.


    "In my defense, it was a good decision at the time."


    "Do you know how many idiots forgo the skill thinking that they can either not be restricted by it or save themselves a slot by not choosing [Mana Manipulation]?" Orus asked Julius. "Too many and each time they just waste time practicing for many times longer for the same results than if they just took the damn skill. Most of them are idiots or fantasizing children. I didn''t think you were both."


    Julius turned red from embarrassment, Orus wasn''t exactly off the mark either. Orus didn''t stop scolding him, "How did any of the people raising or training you not tell you about this?" Julius thought Orus was a big softie, but it seemed that he also had a temper when it came to certain things.


    "It''s not that big of a deal. I am telling you the truth when I say I would make the same choice again. Currently, I am pretty good at controlling mana without the support of a skill and if I get one now I feel like it would benefit me a lot," Julius defended himself getting frustrated at their judgmental tones.


    Orus gently whacked him again, "No shit, it would benefit you a lot."


    "Stop that! It kinda hurts" Julius told Orus.


    "You know what hurts? Seeing such a talented kid like yourself literally cut your own hand off," Orus threw back at him. "You have such potential, you were able to keep up with Declan of all people even if he was holding back, but then I hear that you don''t even have [Mana Manipulation]."


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    Julius was getting annoyed, it didn''t seem like they understood where he was coming from. But if they wouldn''t listen then maybe he could show them.


    He tuned out Orus''s yapping and focused deeply, activating [Savage Dance] and [Fighter''s Will]. He wouldn''t create anything powerful or destructive, he wanted to display the sheer finesse he managed to achieve through his own efforts and without a skill.


    He took a handful of fire mana and wove it into a thin cord that was completely smooth and was the same thickness throughout the entire length. Then he took ahold of it and started to mold it quickly and precisely. He had tried to make something similar before he entered the rift but the current him was incomparable to the previous version of himself. Within a few seconds, he had managed to create a beautiful web of fire, looking like a red prismatic dreamcatcher hovering over his palm.


    Orus had stopped talking as Julius created the stunning construct, even Declan seemed surprised at how delicate and refined the mana construct was. Julius felt a wave of satisfaction as he watched their reactions. Any person who handled mana often should know how difficult it was to pull off what Julius just did, skill or not.


    Now they might understand.


    Declan was the first to respond, "How long did it take for you to become capable of doing that?" He asked with a somewhat awed expression.


    "It took me a long time, honestly too much time looking back. I spent thousands of hours since I went through my baptism practicing just mana control. You were correct in saying that someone would spend much more time learning how to do this than if they had [Mana Manipulation]. Time that you could use on other things. I''m not saying it would work for everyone, but it was how I ended up doing it," Julius told them.


    "So if you got [Mana Manipulation] now¡­" Orus started.


    "You would be able to create your constructs better and stronger, especially since you are already better than most without a skill." Declan finished for Orus.


    "That''s what I was thinking as well," Julius said.


    "Not only that, but you will probably rank up [Mana Manipulation] very quickly and reach uncommon in no time, maybe even rare if you are lucky," Orus exclaimed.


    Julius was hoping for the same thing. He also hoped that if he got [Mana Manipulation] that might strengthen his constructs and maybe, just maybe, he could get a nice evolved skill or use it to synergize with another skill. Furthermore, he wanted to be able to use his kinetically enhanced flame ability, he felt like with some additional help he would be able to use it safely one day.


    How would he go about getting [Mana Manipulation] back though? He didn''t know if it was possible to regain a skill he had removed in the past. He knew it wasn''t possible to regain the same version of the skill he used to evolve, but he barely had [Mana Manipulation] for a couple of hours before getting rid of it.


    Luckily, he had two knowledgeable people sitting in front of him and asked the two of them if they knew of a way.


    "You should be able to receive a notification asking if you want to learn the skill. I know for a fact that there have been other cases where someone regrets removing a skill but was able to learn it again." Declan informed Julius.


    That was relieving for Julius to hear. His biggest worry was that it was impossible but now he had to figure out how to actually do it.


    "So how do I go about it?" Julius asked.


    "Typically, the Words of the World works off of intent so if you didn''t want [Mana Manipulation] then it wouldn''t offer it to you, but now that you want the skill, I will make a guess and say that it will offer you one as long as you go through some mana exercises," Declan ventured.


    So after some more questions and discussion, Julius spent the next couple of hours going through all of the exercises he could think of, even the old ones he hadn''t done in years. Orus and Declan went back inside after their discussion, allowing Julius to focus on his task.


    He was glad he had opened up to them. He was able to receive answers to many of his questions. Deep inside, he was still nervous that they might both betray him but he didn''t think it was healthy to go about life constantly worried about someone backstabbing him. Also, he trusted Declan. That stunt with the aura had bonded the two of them within a very short period, and understanding the nature of Declan''s aura abilities he knew Declan wouldn''t just trust anyone he didn''t get a good vibe off of. He wondered what he did to deserve his luck. Any other day and he might not have run into them, it might have been some other guard that wasn''t as sympathetic as they were.


    He now had three days until he had to take the entrance exam and a small part of him was anxious. Although he knew he would most likely get in, he couldn''t help but let some doubts creep in.


    Julius shook the negative thoughts away and concentrated on learning [Mana Manipulation]. He tried to limit his use of any other skills other than [Savage Dance] and [Fighter''s Will]. He felt that using [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression] might hamper his ability to gain the skill.


    He did learn something very interesting along the way though. He found out that he could use aura to enhance his mana control just a little bit. He found a way to stabilize his manipulations with aura. He still wanted to find how to use it to strengthen his body like the chieftain and Declan did during their spar, but it was progress.


    Julius was many hours in and had been sitting out in the courtyard for the entire time, continuing to try. He used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to take away his exhaustion and also his bruises from before as well.


    His skill''s ability to let him go without sleep was a massive advantage. He was tempted to say it was the most powerful part of the skill. While it wouldn''t save him during a fight, the long-term implications were insane. With the skill he wouldn''t need to sleep, which meant that he would be able to train for hours when everyone else was asleep. It would add up over time and the longer it went on the more improvement he would see.


    It wasn''t until the sun was starting to rise that he finally succeeded.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Mana Manipulation]?


    He accepted immediately, feeling the skill ingrain itself into him.


    Congratulations, you have learned the skill [Mana Manipulation]


    He let out a sigh of relief. Several hours in he started to think he wouldn''t be able to do it. Hours of monotonous constant mana practice took a toll on a person mentally. He tried to spice it up and take breaks once in a while but those methods could only work so much.


    Julius wanted to test it out immediately. He created one of his spikes just like he usually did and instantly felt the difference. [Mana Manipulation] activated automatically and he felt each step of the process of making the spike become streamlined. He didn''t even have to consciously think about it anymore, with [Arcane Construct] active as well, the spike formed within half the time.


    It didn''t seem like a lot when it only took a second or two to form, but this was just a level 1 version of a general-ranked skill. He wondered how much it would improve when it got better. He was already glad he chose to get it. A prideful part of him had been reluctant to get the skill even though he understood why it would be smart.


    Now he would experiment with it and see if taking it was worth it. He wasn''t too worried, because if it seemed like it was restricting him then he could always just remove it again.


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 Chapter 45: Days Leading Up

    Julius spent another couple of hours playing around with his new skill and checked his notifications before he went back inside.[Arcane Construct lvl 10 -> lvl 11]


    [Pure Compression lvl 11 -> lvl 12]


    [Fighter''s Will lvl 11 -> lvl 13]


    [Mana Manipulation lvl 1 -> lvl 6]


    [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression] had leveled up surprisingly, but so had [Fighter''s Will]. It was almost at level 15 and would evolve pretty soon. But he wanted to figure out a way to enhance his body using aura before he chose to evolve it. He hoped that if he did that he might get an option that revolved around that aspect.


    [Mana Manipulation] was already over half the way there until it ranked up to uncommon. Orus was correct in thinking that the skill would increase very fast due to his already proficient control of mana.


    It was early but Julius stopped at the kitchen to grab something to eat. He saw Rae there along with some other staff. They were preparing breakfast for the guards. It wasn''t quite ready yet so Julius decided to help out the staff while he waited. Rae tried to prevent him from helping and told him to just relax and enjoy a hot chocolate but after a long argument, he was able to convince her that he enjoyed cooking.


    That was why he was currently taking a tray of freshly baked bread out of the oven. The smell hit Julius and he almost salivated all over the bread. As he was helping out he heard a soft ding ring throughout the kitchen and looked at the clock that it came from. It had just turned six and was time for the guards to make their way down for breakfast. Some didn''t have morning duty, but most still came down early to get at least a snack before training or maybe they were just hungry.


    Julius grabbed himself a nice plate of eggs, potatoes, bread, and sausage, before tucking in and eating. He was almost halfway done when he saw people start flooding in, grabbing plates or for some just a cup of coffee.


    He saw Orus walking toward him with nothing more than a simple plate of eggs and toast. Orus must''ve seen Julius looking at his plate and said, "I don''t like to eat too much before I train."


    That was understandable, no need to stuff yourself before you planned to push yourself, it might just be more to clean up later if you threw up.


    "So how did your first night go?" Orus asked him.


    "It was productive, I got [Mana Manipulation] a couple of hours ago," Julius answered him through a mouthful of potatoes. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "A couple of hours ago? Were you too excited to sleep or something?" Orus asked.


    "Yeah, something like that," Julius didn''t mind sharing that his skill allowed him to not sleep much, but he thought they might try to stop him from training all night long if they knew. Declan, he suspected would forcibly tie him down to a bed.


    After eating breakfast and some small talk with Orus, Julius found himself standing beside Orus in the courtyard along with many other guards. He had joined them for their daily training, he wanted to see their regime and learn it before he left for the academy. He got some looks from the other guards but didn''t pay them much attention. He was there to train, nothing else.


    It was pretty standard. They started with some stretching and then an intense run. Julius didn''t use any mana for this, using his pure body to do so. Still, he couldn''t believe how light his body felt thoughout. He was running as fast as an Olympic sprinter with ease.


    After the run, the guards split up into groups. Some went to lift weights, some practiced on some agility courses they had set up, and others sparred or trained with weapons. Julius followed Orus to the sparring area, where Orus taught some basic sword fighting to Julius. He was surprised that Julius had no experience with blades.


    Julius was used to fighting with his hands, but he realized it might be worth it to learn how to use a weapon. Kinetic energy was easier for him to use with his bare hands, but if he wanted to create constructs to fight up close, something with a little more reach might be useful down the line.


    Julius was able to pick up the basics pretty quickly. He already had a pretty solid foundation with his unarmed fighting so his footwork was already good. The only thing that was hard to get used to was using a weapon to create space between him and his opponent. Julius was used to staying within arms reach, but sword fighting was not like that. It was a game of distance control and anticipation. [Spatial Perception] helped a lot with that aspect.


    Julius found Orus to be a wonderful teacher. He was patient but strict enough that he pushed Julius to do his best. He also was able to teach Julius in a way where Julius could feel the specific way he needed to move.


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    He wondered if he even needed to go to Goldencrest or if he could learn from Orus. He even jokingly mentioned this to Orus, who laughed, "You will be able to find good teachers for certain disciplines anywhere, but there are not many places that have the best teachers for every discipline in one place. Not to mention the facilities are what you should be looking forward to."


    Orus was right on that part. Goldencrest had countless classes ranging from botany to spear lessons. They also had simulated combat arenas fueled by runic inscriptions. They only worked up to certain tiers but were one of the most important inventions in the world. They allowed young students to experience fighting without the risk of death.


    As Julius and Orus were training, Julius was only using about half of what he could use for [Kinetic Augmentation], he wanted to get used to fighting at this speed before the exam. However, the longer they sparred the more Julius realized how inefficient his kinetic usage was. It wasn''t that it was being wasted, he was still recycling most of it, but he felt like he should be getting a larger increase in strength for how much mana was going through him.


    Julius slowly got the hang of it. He realized that he was being too gentle with his kinetic energy. He had been gently flowing it through his body, he forgot that''s not how kinetic energy liked to be used. Explosiveness and dynamic is how he would describe it.


    So although he still used the same amount of mana, he made sure to increase the pace of how it cycled through his body. He could feel the effects immediately and so did Orus if the smile on his face said anything. Julius''s strikes were sharper and carried more force behind them. Even with a wooden sword the difference was clear.


    After a couple of hours of training, Orus had to leave, he had a patrol and then some paperwork afterward. Julius hadn''t seen Declan yet today, but he also lived in another city district with his family. Orus mentioned that Declan had a ten-year-old daughter and he liked to spend his meals with his family. Julius might see him once he finishes his duties, but as a vice-captain, Declan is quite busy.


    Orus had been very informative, he told Julius about Heston and how it was structured. There were ten districts, each had a captain assigned to each territory and Declan was the vice-captain for District 7. Julius hadn''t seen or heard about the captain, but he didn''t care that much.


    On the plus side, he also ranked up [Kinetic Augmentation] while sparring with Orus.


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    Julius spent the rest of the day walking around District 7, exploring while also trying to cover his arm with aura. He had been able to finally cover his fingers with aura, vastly increasing their strength but now wanted to do the same for his arm. Then eventually a whole body enhancement with aura.


    When he got bored, he would switch to using [Mana Manipulation]. The skill had gotten better even with a few levels and was still improving at a rapid rate.


    [Mana Manipulation lvl 6 -> lvl 7]


    He made sure to try more food stalls that he came across. Some weren''t that great but there were some amazing finds. He even found a stall that sold something that was similar to a New York-style pizza. The man was really nice and appreciated Julius''s enthusiasm so much that he gave him an extra free slice when he left.


    Heston was a beautiful city, there were still spots that Julius could tell were the seedier parts of the city but as long as you stayed away from those it was a wonderful city. There was such diversity here as well. He had heard about humanoid species existing but he hadn''t experienced it first hand. But seeing some roaming around was amazing to see. Many of them looked almost identical to a normal human with the exception of a few features.


    The most common were beastkin and half-elves. Julius had bought a skewer from a stall owned by a beastkin, she looked just like a human just with eyes similar to a cat, deep yellow and quite beautiful if he was being honest.


    He saw another beastkin with dark brown skin and large horns extending from his forehead walking down the street as well. Half-elves were harder to identify, they had sharper ears and more delicate features but all were very pretty. Half-elves were much more common in human-controlled territories like the Empire. Most of the pure elves were living within Alelion, a country far to the west of Corvus and situated between the Alliance of Morning Sun. It was on the other side of the continent.


    The reason why most half-elves did not live in Alelion is that half-elves have a lower life expectancy compared to pure elves, and experiencing discrimination was common in Alelion for anyone not a pure elf. It was quite unfortunate but luckily many other countries welcomed half-elves with open arms.


    Julius found himself thinking about half-elves because he had just walked into a store with a half-elf standing behind the counter. It was an alchemy shop that sold potions and other salves for various uses. The most common were healing potions and salves. They weren''t as good as a dedicated healer, but if you got hurt out in the wild, then they could save your life.


    Luckily, Julius didn''t have a need for them with his own healing skill, but he was looking for anything that caught his eye. He found several items that were made from monster cores. Most of them focused on enhancing skill progression and tier advancement but Julius ignored those.


    He also found some interesting ones as well. There was a smell-erasing potion that completely erased any odors and scents from your body. There was also a salve that healed old scars. Julius took a look at his arm, the one where he burned himself. There was still light scarring marring his skin that [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] couldn''t heal completely. He thought about buying the salve but quickly reconsidered once he saw the price.


    It was over seven gold for a small tub of it. He didn''t care about the scars enough to pay that much gold. That was like a couple hundred slices of pizza. Plus, he thought they were a nice reminder of his experiences.


    He was still browsing around when something caught his attention. On a shelf was a small container holding a small twig planted in some soil. Three small green leaves were dangling from the small branch. Even though it wasn''t that impressive visually, Julius was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. It radiated life mana and comforted him just by looking at it.

 Chapter 46: Spirit Seed

    Julius tried to check the tag but it didn''t say anything that would indicate a price. Curious, he brought it to the half-elf at the counter. The shopkeeper looked up from the book he was reading as Julius approached."How much for this? I didn''t see a price on it," Julius asked the man.


    "Oh? The price for it is two gold and three silver," the shopkeeper answered.


    That much? For a tree branch?


    "I''m sorry, but why is it so much? Is there something special about it?" Julius asked.


    "Yeah, most people don''t know what they are, but that," the man pointed at the branch, "is a life spirit seed."


    "Life spirit seed?" Julius had never heard of it before but it made sense considering the life affinity coming from it.


    "Life spirits are naturally occurring spirits that are very useful for most life mana practitioners. Most get life spirits as familiars to supplement their life mana, allowing them to heal more often as they can use the mana from the familiar instead of their own. That one is only a seed, so it would require a lot more life mana before a spirit is born. That''s why it is only that much, otherwise, a newly born life spirit can cost up to a couple of platinum." The man kindly informed Julius of this.


    "That seems like a large increase for something that only requires mana," Julius commented.


    "Mana is only one requirement, time and care also matter a lot when raising a life spirit. It is not guaranteed for a seed to spawn a spirit, if the conditions aren''t met, the spirit fails to form," the shopkeeper shrugged his shoulders.


    Julius didn''t really need a life spirit and it was quite expensive, but he was drawn to it for some reason. He asked the man, "Could you do two gold?"


    The shopkeeper thought about it for a second, looking at Julius and the seed with calculating eyes, "You can only grow it if you have life mana, you know."


    Julius nodded his head and gathered a small mass of life mana over his palm to show the shopkeeper he had the affinity.


    The man had a look of approval on his face and smiled at Julius. "Sure you can have it for two gold. It''s been waiting for a good home for a while now," he told Julius.


    Julius happily paid the man and walked out the proud owner of a life spirit seed and two gold poorer. He didn''t mind the money. Money was meant to be spent and he had really liked the idea of raising his own spirit.


    The shopkeeper had told Julius how he was supposed to take care of the seed. For one, he needed to feed it life mana twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. He also needed to make sure it was a comfortable environment, too much stress wasn''t good for the birth of a spirit.


    Julius could handle it, in his old world he had a small plant he kept next to his bed for years. It wasn''t a spirit but he took good care of it for many years, even sometimes taking it with him on trips if he was going to be gone for extended periods.


    He headed back to the guardhouse for the day, cradling the spirit seed with both hands. On his way back, he saw a stall that sold pretty-looking flowers and plants. He thought that the spirit might like being next to nature, so he bought several plants to put next to the seed.


    When he got back to his room, he set up the plants on the table next to the bed before nestling the seed in the middle. Once he thought it looked nice, he took the glass lid off the case and admired the little branch.


    It wasn''t quite night yet, but he thought a little life mana wouldn''t hurt the thing. So very gently he gathered some life mana and fed it to the branch. The seed instantly reacted to the influx of life mana and sucked it up through its leaves and branch. Julius observed as the seed pulsed softly with green mana. He kept feeding it mana until he felt it was no longer taking in any more.


    He tickled the seed''s leaves and said to it, "All full little fella? I will check on you tonight to see if you are hungry again."


    He didn''t know if the seed could hear him, but he thought it wouldn''t hurt to start getting close to it now. If the seed birthed a spirit he was planning on taking it on as a familiar so building some goodwill was a good idea.


    He left the room after making sure the seed was all comfy and well-fed. It was almost dinner time for him and he wanted to get a few hours of training before he ate.


    Julius was laying into a practice dummy as if it owed him lunch money. Sweat was pouring down his back as his fists slaughtered the wooden figure. He didn''t take any breaks or use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to offset the exhaustion he was feeling. He just concentrated on covering his forearms in aura as he punched the dummy. Loud thumps rang out throughout the courtyard and his knuckles were getting shredded apart from his relentless attack.


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    Aura was an amazing thing, it was able to give his punches a heaviness to them that was hard to describe. It was like having massive lead gloves covering his fists but without any of the weight. Each strike should have shattered the wood if not for the runic inscriptions protecting the dummy.


    However, he was approaching his limit. His form was becoming sloppy and his aura started to flicker around his forearms. He gave one last yell and uncorked a final punch that smashed into the dummy''s face.


    Julius was out of breath and his arms were heavy beyond belief. His knuckles stung as the cold air hit the split skin. Many other guards who were training at this time of day were staring at Julius with bewildered looks. They were surprised to see a young boy Julius''s age attacking the dummy so brutally and were also surprised to see aura covering over the boy''s hands.


    Julius noticed Declan was watching him from a window inside and Julius headed toward him.


    "What did that dummy do to you?" Was Declan''s first question when he saw Julius.


    "He owed me lunch money and I was showing him what happens when you don''t pay up," Julius joked to him.


    Declan just shook his head at Julius''s antics, "Remind me to never owe you money okay?"


    Julius smiled at Declan, he had a feeling that even if Declan stood there in place of the dummy Julius would not be able to leave a mark on him without resorting to some of his more explosive methods. Julius still didn''t know exactly what tier Declan was and he didn''t ask. He wanted to find out himself. But his current prediction was a high Tier 4.


    Orus was a Tier 3 on the cusp of Tier 4, so Julius was guessing that Declan was at least at Tier 4 if he was a vice-captain. Who knows, if Declan was high Tier 4 then maybe the captain of District 7 was Tier 5.


    Declan talked to Julius for a while, asking about his day and what he did. Julius told him about the places he visited and mentioned the life spirit seed to him as well. Declan was supportive of Julius''s decision, he said that life spirits were always very useful and good familiars because of how difficult they are to destroy.


    Apparently, some people stray away from familiars because of the risk of losing one in combat. However, spirits weren''t normal existences, part of them also existed within another plane, the Spiritual Plane. This made it hard for someone to completely destroy a spirit attached to someone as a familiar. It might take some time to reform and they have little to no direct combat power, but they were semi-immortal as a result. Julius didn''t know this when he bought the seed but was even more grateful for his spontaneous decision.


    Declan and Julius talked about each other''s day more until Orus showed up around when dinner was being served. Declan excused himself, heading back to his home where his family was waiting on him for dinner.


    After he left, Orus and Julius enjoyed a hearty meal together while talking about small things they did during the day. Orus was unexpectedly curious about the life spirit seed and wanted to see it after dinner. Orus hadn''t seen a life spirit up close before. Julius made sure to clarify that it wasn''t a spirit yet, that it was just a seed for now and would take some time before one would be born, but Orus wanted to see it nevertheless.


    Julius didn''t mind, he was excited about the little spirit seed too and it might be hungry again so he could show Orus how he fed it. After filling their bellies, they headed up to Julius''s room.


    When they opened his door Orus said to Julius, "You know there''s a lock and key to your door if you want some privacy at night or when you''re gone."


    Julius didn''t think that anyone would be dumb enough to steal at the city''s guardhouse but he did have the seed now and found himself already getting protective of it. Julius showed the little table where the seed was placed along with the extra plants he got on his way back home. Orus was more excited than Julius would expect, but it turned out that Orus wanted a blood spirit when he was younger but they were so rare that he never got the chance.


    Blood spirits were very sought after by all blood users, this was because, unlike most spirits, blood spirits can be absorbed within one''s body and used to improve the quality of one''s blood. Having better quality blood makes a big difference to blood users. Unfortunately, there have only been a few confirmed sightings over the years.


    Julius bent down to the table and gathered a small amount of life mana in front of the seed to find if it might be hungry again. It had only been a few hours, but who knows, maybe it had a big appetite.


    It seemed like it did have a large appetite because it devoured the small amount of mana and Julius felt like it stretched out on its own like it was asking for more. However, Julius had an idea he wanted to see before he fed it more. He manipulated the mana in a similar way to how [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] worked. He wove an intricate braid of life mana and condensed it down with [Pure Compression] and presented it to the seed. The seed didn''t take it immediately, it was almost probing the life mana like it was curious as to what it was.


    Finally, it seemed satisfied with its investigations and took in the mana. Unlike last time when he fed it, instead, the leaves were pulsing a brilliant green with more intensity. He could almost see the branch swaying back and forth. It was kind of cute in a way, like waving a hand. He knew the shopkeeper said the seed wouldn''t gain sentience until it was born, but Julius got the feeling that wasn''t the complete truth. The seed and the way it interacted with the mana, seemed intentional and alive.


    He would make sure he kept an eye on the seed''s progress and note down any observations that might be out of the norm. However, he still had some training to do tonight, so he and Orus went down to the courtyard and Orus spent some more time going through some sword forms with Julius.


    About an hour in Julius was offered a skill.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Swordsmanship]?


    He told Orus about the notice and he explained to Julius, "If you take the skill now, then you might not be offered any other skills relating to swords. That being said, [Sword Mastery] is a great skill and has many paths where it can branch out. It all depends on where you want to focus your fighting style."


    Julius liked the idea of learning how to use a weapon but he still wanted to primarily use his fists. He didn''t know what other skills might be offered instead later down the line, if any were offered at all. He also wondered what kind of skills he might be able to evolve [Swordsmanship] into in the future. He thought he might gain a skill similar to [Combat Trance] that had evolved from [Unarmed Combat], which eventually led to [Savage Dance] one of his most heavily used skills. Or maybe it would be specific to a sword. Something like a sword construct skill or something that used a blade as a medium to strike, like the more common skill [Mana Slash]. Though, he didn''t necessarily think he needed something like that.


    There were just so many choices and so many decisions he had to make.


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 Chapter 47: [Swordsmanship]

    After discussing it with Orus, Julius decided that there wasn''t much reason not to take it. Even if he wanted to wait and see if there was another version of the skill he could gain, it would most likely be even more specialized to sword fighting. He would rather have something that could synergize or maybe evolve into a broader skill. Furthermore, he could remove it if the advancement options weren''t what he was looking for. So he decided to wait at least until the first evolution before making a serious choice. He only had two more slots, but was hoping for some of his skills to combine in the future.Julius believed that [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression] had a good chance to combine, just because of how often he used them in tandem. He also thought that [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Savage Dance] could go well together, or even [Savage Dance] and [Fighter''s Will] might be nice. They were similar, but Julius didn''t necessarily want to merge his aura skill with something else yet. He wanted to at least see how it evolved down the line.


    He contemplated it for a moment and made up his mind. So with a quick thought, he accepted the new skill.


    Congratulations, you have learned the skill [Swordsmanship]


    Julius took a quick look at 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 11] (Rare)


    [Pure Compression lvl 12] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 10] (Rare)


    [Fighter''s Will lvl 13] (Uncommon)


    [Mana Manipulation lvl 7]


    [Swordsmanship lvl 1]


    It was getting pretty full and soon he would have no more open skill slots. Now he was beginning to understand how precious skill slots were. He had previously assumed that ten would be enough, but now that he had only one left, he couldn''t help but wish for more.


    With that being said, Orus did make an offhand comment about the possibility of getting more slots as you increase in tier. Julius tried to ask for more details, but Orus teased him and told him that he would learn it at the academy.


    Julius only had a little more time before the entrance exam and wanted to see if he could evolve [Fighter''s Will] before that. It was currently at level 13 and was close to 14, he could feel it. The real question was how hard it would be to overcome the uncommon threshold. Some skills were more difficult to push over the line than others. For example [Spatial Perception] had been stuck at level 19 for what seemed like forever.


    It wasn''t like he hadn''t been using it in dangerous situations. It was one of his most important skills when it came to combat. The ability to know where everything around him was at all times and be able to properly calculate distance even without looking was so important to his fighting style. Yet, [Spatial Perception] hadn''t evolved yet. It was as if there was something else that was needed to give it that final push.


    Leading up to the day of the exam, Julius trained all day and all night. He got used to using [Kinetic Augementation] at half power and was confident that he would pass the entrance exam. He also sparred with Orus once or twice a day, leveling up [Swordsmanship] as well.


    [Swordsmanship lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    Even when he went out to explore some of the city, he was training either his aura or his [Mana Manipulation]. His favorite exercise with aura had been trying to investigate random strangers'' auras on the street as he passed them. It was clumsy at the moment but it was good practice for more subtle uses of aura. Julius was getting more comfortable enveloping his body with aura, he was able to surround most of his upper body with it after many hours of practice.


    The more he got used to it, the easier it was to expand to his entire body. However, he did realize that the more delicate applications, like how Declan could use his aura, Julius was missing. That was why he took several hours a day, walking around and probing people''s aura.


    He didn''t try to intrude too deeply, but he wanted to observe them passively so that they had no idea he was doing it. A few people felt his probes, some of them having an aura skill of their own, but once they saw he was a young kid, they usually didn''t mind. He guessed that was a benefit of being a kid still.


    [Mana Manipulation lvl 7 -> lvl 9]


    [Fighter''s Will lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    He had reached the final levels of [Fighter''s Will] and [Mana Manipulation]. The entrance exam was tomorrow afternoon and he thought that if he pushed himself he could get both over the threshold by tonight or tomorrow morning.


    He felt more confident in upgrading [Mana Manipulation]. General ranked skills required less upgrading an uncommon skill, but he could hopefully evolve both.


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    After he got back from his aura training, he walked up to his room to feed the seed. For some reason, the little thing was always hungry. It ate more often than he did. The shopkeeper said it would only require feeding twice a day, but so far Julius had been feeding the little seed four or five times. He wondered if he had gotten a gluttonous spirit instead of a life one.


    The good news was that instead of three leaves, there were more small leaves growing out of the branch, also he could see small flowering buds beginning to blossom too. Julius made sure to continue talking to it, he had already decided in his own head that the spirit was already alive and found himself talking to it like one would talk to their dog. He liked to believe that the seed appreciated it.


    He even took it out with him sometimes and let it overwatch him as he trained in the courtyard. Julius wouldn''t enjoy being stuck in a room all day, so why would the seed?


    He had started to talk with some of the guards, at least some of the regulars who were training at the same time or eating when he was. They were nice, but they always kept him at arm''s length. He did notice he was starting to garner some weird glances as time went on. Orus said it was because some of the guards thought that he was an odd boy.


    Julius could see why they thought that. From their perspective, all Julius did was eat, train, carry around a plant, and hang out with Orus and their vice-captain. He didn''t play or hang out with other kids his age, he just spent his time either swinging a sword, punching a dummy, or sparring. He didn''t blame them.


    It reminded him of some of the looks he got when he was younger around the mansion. Most of the workers thought he was odd as well. Hell, some of them even thought he was mentally handicapped.


    Julius ate dinner with Orus, and Declan even decided to eat with them as well. He made sure to let his family know he wasn''t going to be home for dinner.


    "Are you nervous about tomorrow?" Declan asked him.


    "Not really, I feel pretty confident about my chances of getting in. Though I am feeling a little anxious about what school life might be like," Julius admitted to him.


    Julius attended a public school in his old life, so he didn''t know what to expect from a school where he would be living full-time. He knew that first years always had a roommate or two and he was curious how that dynamic might work.


    After dinner the three of them went outside for a late night training session. Both of them had quickly gotten used to how often Julius trained. They had originally been surprised at how much of a training maniac Julius was but started to understand how Julius had become so strong at his age.


    Julius started off by sparring with Orus. Julius was still only using half power for [Kinetic Augmentation] but he could feel himself improving rapidly over these past few days. Having skilled people to fight against was doing him a lot of good. He even felt like he could keep up with Orus if he went all out, but that would require him to use his more explosive constructs.


    Orus was a brilliant swordsman. Declan was quite good as well, but he mainly used a bow and sometimes small swords as a backup. Orus on the other hand was focused on the sword and very skilled. He understood why Declan was apprenticing Orus to become the next vice-captain.


    Sparring against Declan was different. While sparring against Orus was for Julius to get a better understanding of the sword, Declan helped Julius use his aura to supplement his close combat abilities.


    Declan was truly a genius when it came to aura, Julius was beginning to comprehend that as he became more knowledgeable about it. Aura was like another extension of his body for Declan, he was able to use it in every way imaginable.


    Declan was holding back his aura to keep it on the same level as Julius''s, but the skill gap was massive. Declan didn''t use any more aura than Julius but could smother Julius. Declan didn''t even need to use his hands, his aura alone could physically strike Julius from a distance. Even a slight nudge at the right time threw off a strike from Julius.


    He was trying to teach Julius to fight using it the same way. The problem wasn''t that Julius lacking power from aura, but how fast he could transition and react with it. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It didn''t move as quickly as mana, so he needed to predict his opponent''s strikes and already have aura in place. It was difficult but extremely rewarding. He didn''t get the last level in [Fighter''s Will] but he felt that he was close. However, he did gain levels in some of his other skills.


    [Swordsmanship lvl 3 -> lvl 4]


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 10 -> lvl 11]


    [Savage Dance lvl 16 -> lvl 17]


    Eventually, they finished for the night, Declan went back home and Orus had some paperwork he had to complete. Julius on the other hand went to the kitchen to see if he could grab a snack or some dessert.


    He was surprised to see Rae there as well. It was late, so he had expected her to already have left. However, she smiled at Julius as he walked in and offered him some cookies. Julius never would deny a warm cookie and she immediately got him a nice plate full of cookies and a cold glass of milk and joined him with her own cookies.


    Rae was a wonderful lady and Julius was going to miss her when he left for Goldencrest. He would make sure to see her whenever he came back though. He didn''t know exactly how the academy handled leaving campus during the semester, but he hoped he would have some time to do so.


    While they were eating their milk and cookies she asked Julius, "How are you feeling about tomorrow sweetie?"


    "I feel pretty good, I prepared as much as I could and now it is all about waiting. I am going to miss you though," Julius told her.


    Rae smiled as she heard Julius and said, "Well don''t be shy, you are always more than welcome anytime. There aren''t many people who appreciate my food as much as you do."


    "I still have to find out how often I will be allowed to leave, but I promise I will make sure to come visit every once in a while," Julius said while smiling at her.


    Julius had been blessed to meet such amazing people so quickly after coming to Heston. In the many years since he came to this world, he hadn''t made many friends outside of Lukas and Edwin. It felt nice.


    After finishing his cookies, Rae and he talked for a bit more before he excused himself. He said goodnight, but he was only going up to his room to practice some more.


    He made sure the little gluttonous seed got another serving of mana before he started on some mana exercises. He thought that it would be easier to evolve [Mana Manipulation] and then he might have time to get [Fighter''s Will] evolved as well.


    He had a feeling it was going to be a busy night.

 Chapter 48: [Mana Manipulation] Evolution

    The first thing Julius attempted was the mana layering Orus had talked about. It was a more mage-focused technique so neither Declan nor Orus were able to explain that much to him. But Julius got an idea from the name alone.The main issue for him was how to connect multiple layers in a construct. He had tried it before, but every time the construct would fall apart or turn into two instead of one. He needed to find a way to merge multiple layers into a single construct. He might not find a way tonight but he believed that the act of practicing might be enough of a challenge to evolve his skill.


    He tried and tried for hours, but didn''t make any progress. It was only after he unraveled two layers and tried to weave the separate layers together did it work. He had been trying to combine two completely finished layers seamlessly, while in reality, it would only work if both layers were incomplete.


    Julius needed to leave room in each layer so that the other one could intertwine with the other. It was a simple answer but it took him stepping back for a few minutes and backtracking his process to find it.


    It seemed that his skill had approved of his success as well because it finally reached level 10.


    [Mana Manipulation lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    It had only been a few days, but he was already able to evolve the skill. All of his hard work had paid off and he was very interested in what some of his choices might be.


    Skill [Mana Manipulation] has reached level 10. Would you like to evolve [Mana Manipulation]?


    He mentally accepted.


    Skill [Mana Manipulation] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Advanced Mana Manipulation], [Mana Hardening], [Mana Overload], [Mana Weaving], [Mana Absorption], [Mana Saturation], and [Mana Layering]


    Damn! That''s a lot of options, Julius thought to himself.


    Way more than any other skill. Was it because of his own various uses of mana, or do most people get a lot of options? He recognized and understood many of the options, they were skills that Julius had been able to do on his own for a while now.


    [Advanced Mana Manipulation] was the typical direct upgrade, but unlike other skills, he felt like it might be a good decision for him. He was already good at a lot of the options on the list, if he were someone else who got the skill early he probably wouldn''t have considered it. But a general enhancement on all of his manipulations was tempting.


    [Mana Hardening] was a nice-sounding skill. He assumed it was from when he first was able to harden mana and create a physical construct. Very useful, but he didn''t think he had a problem of hardness. His constructs were hard, but they were also brittle. So he eliminated that one.


    [Mana Overload] was interesting. From the name Julius assumed that the skill would allow him to use more mana than he could otherwise control. It sounded nice if he wanted to use techniques like the kinetically enhanced fire that used so much mana that he couldn''t control it. But was he going to get a skill for a single technique? He wasn''t exactly lacking in offense, he would rather have something that would help him comprehensively. But he was still tempted by the allure of bigger and more powerful explosions.


    [Mana Weaving] didn''t sound very powerful based on the name, but Julius understood how much weaving mana had helped him. If he hadn''t learned to weave mana, he would have never been able to replicate the troll''s healing skill. Weaving mana saved him a lot of mana, not requiring him to compress a massive amount of mana to do more damage. For that reason, that skill was high on his mental list.


    [Mana Absorption] sounded cool as hell too. He figured that recycling his mana like he did was what allowed him to get this option. It was honestly something that he did automatically at this point. Whenever he used a technique, he would subconsciously keep control of any excess mana to use for another technique. He wasn''t able to reabsorb into his core, but as long as he kept it under control he would still be able to use it. Maybe this skill would allow him to absorb mana into his core or something similar. It was tempting because he already had a huge capacity and wondered how his future opponents might feel when he was able to bombard them with mana and then quickly regenerate it and keep on doing it.


    [Mana Saturation] was probably similar to [Kinetic Augmentation] except for all mana types. He was guessing that he would be able to saturate mana into objects or his constructs to make them stronger. He was already thinking of the possibilities. Once he could create armor constructs he would be able to reinforce them with mana to make them even stronger. This was another top contender for sure.


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    [Mana Layering] was a weird one. He only just did it several minutes ago so he didn''t really know much about it. Also, he didn''t know if it was smart to get it because he hadn''t gotten good with it yet and wanted to at least be proficient before he relied on the skill to do it for him. Or if it would save him a lot of time down the road. It was a complicated process and he could see how it being done automatically be a useful tool. But he realized after practicing mana control without a skill for so long, how much more he was getting out of the skill because he was already able to do it without the skill.


    In the end, he didn''t make a decision yet. He thought it would be better to wait and see if Declan might have an opinion tomorrow when Julius asked him.


    In the meantime, he still had several more hours until morning and wanted to see if he could evolve [Fighter''s Will] as well. He quietly made his way downstairs and entered the courtyard. There wasn''t anyone else there but Julius tried to be as quiet as possible and didn''t turn on any lights, there were sound-dampening runes around the training yard, so nobody sleeping should get woken by the noise. But they might still be awoken by the lights. He would rather nobody come out here in the middle of the night and see him training, they might tell Orus or Declan and Julius didn''t want them to worry about him.


    It was dark out but with [Spatial Perception] Julius could still find his way around and set up the training dummy in the back corner. This spot had become Julius''s nightly training area and was tucked away from the other areas.


    Julius took a moment to focus himself and then got to work. He forgot about everything else other than training his aura and evolving [Fighter''s Will]. He was smashing the dummy, not with just punches this time but using every part of his body, using it to cover his sword strikes as well. He even started to cover his head in aura and headbutt the dummy. Not a single body part was left unused and unlike during the day, he liberally used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to heal his fatigue and minor bumps and scrapes.


    He tried so hard to get the skill over the edge to use aura in as flexible and challenging ways but to no avail. Even after the morning sun started to creep up, he didn''t see that level increase. He did see some other skills make some progress.


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 11 -> lvl 12]


    [Swordsmanship lvl 4 -> lvl 5]


    He was close, so close, he could taste it. He was tempted to keep on going, but he was running out of juice. [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewa] was an amazing skill but even it had limits, Julius had been going without sleep for too long already and he wanted to be in tip-top shape before his exam. He wanted to give himself at least an hour of rest before Declan took him.


    He was annoyed that he had failed and a little disappointed too. He had spent every second, for over six hours training and didn''t achieve his goal. He knew it was ambitious, but it still stung when he didn''t accomplish it.


    Shaking his head and beating himself up, he forced himself back up to his room. He took a quick shower and climbed into bed. A bed for that was seeing some use for the first time since he had been there. It was funny, he had been so eager to climb in when he first got here but had forgotten all about it when he got enraptured with his training.


    He felt the plush mattress contour around his body, snuggling him within its soft embrace, lulling him to sleep within seconds.


    When he awoke, it was to the sound of someone banging on his door. Then he heard Orus''s voice through the wooden door ask, "Hey Julius you up yet?"


    Julius was still a little groggy, but a quick application of [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and he was wide awake. "Yeah, I''m up. I will be right down Orus."


    Julius gave a big cat-like stretch and rolled out of bed. He must have slept much longer than he had planned. He didn''t mind that though. He felt like he needed it. Just because he didn''t technically didn''t need sleep anymore, didn''t mean it wasn''t good for his mental health. Sometimes a good rest could do a lot of good for someone psychologically.


    Before going to bed, he was feeling a bit stressed and disappointed. Now, while he was still bummed out about not evolving his skill, he was feeling much better and didn''t worry about it that much. He had time to evolve it after the exam after all.


    Julius met with Orus down in the common room after he fed his spirit seed and they had breakfast together. Orus seemed more worried about Julius''s exam than Julius was about it himself. Orus kept reassuring Julius that he would pass and they would be stupid not to accept him.


    Julius just smiled as Orus anxiously talked about what might be on the exam and how Julius might want to handle it. It made Julius feel cared for when Orus was so worried for his sake, it was a nice feeling. Afterward, they went to the courtyard to practice some, but they didn''t go as hard as usual. Orus wanted Julius to be fresh for his exam, Julius tried to argue that his healing skill would revitalize him before then but Orus wasn''t having any of it. If only he knew that Julius had been staying up all night to practice, he would be appalled. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Soon after Declan showed up to take Julius to the exam location. He had switched things around so that he had some time to take Julius himself. It was very considerate of him to do so for Julius, and he let Declan know he appreciated it.


    "Don''t even worry about it. Most of the time, it is pretty boring as vice-captain, more paperwork than anything else. It was the least I could do for you," Declan smiled as he reassured Julius.


    They were walking down the carefully maintained city streets, taking their time. Declan made sure they left early just in case there might be any large crowds and also for Julius to experience parts of the city that he hadn''t seen yet.


    District 7 where Julius had been staying was colorful, vibrant, and had a lot of character in each building. However, as they made their way deeper into the city, many of the buildings became more monolithic in structure. There were some impressive feats of architecture but instead of the warm welcoming atmosphere of District 7, District 4 was feeling more intimidating, it was still very beautiful, just different.

 Chapter 49: Start of the Entrance Exam

    There were still many people out and about, shopping at stores, Julius saw many other kids his age walking with their parents. He assumed that they were also applying to Goldencrest today.While they walked, Julius asked Declan about the options he got last night for [Mana Manipulation]. Declan was a little surprised that he had already got it to level 10. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "That was fast. I thought you were training your aura lately, I thought that maybe it would take you a couple of weeks to evolve your [Mana Manipulation]."


    "Yeah I made more progress faster than I thought I would," Julius said offhandedly.


    Julius felt Declan''s aura probe, it was much more subtle than the one he used at the gate when Julius first met him. If it wasn''t for his training and his really good perception he didn''t think he would have noticed this time.


    Declan knew Julius felt it, and looked at him his gaze asking for an explanation. He knew Julius was hiding something. But Julius knew Declan wouldn''t press unless he was really worried about Julius, he was fine with not knowing all of Julius''s secrets, which Julius respected immensely. Still, he felt bad for keeping it from Declan. Plus, he was leaving soon anyway and Declan wouldn''t be able to stop Julius from practicing at night anymore.


    Julius decided to come clean, it would keep his conscious clear in the long run.


    "I may have been practicing all night when everyone went to bed," he admitted to Declan.


    "All night? How late were you practicing?" Declan asked concerningly.


    "The entire night," Julius answered.


    Declan had stopped walking, Julius felt Declan enforce the barrier of aura that was already around them, protecting their conversation from people who might overhear it.


    "Okay, I''m confused, explain," Declan said.


    "You know my healing skill?" Julius asked and Declan nodded in return. "Well, it has a unique effect where it is able to heal fatigue, which also extends to how much sleep I require to function."


    Declan thought on Julius''s words before responding, "Most healing skills, even at rare specialize in one area. Regeneration or healing of injuries is one of them, the other is recovery, which includes fatigue and purification. I have not heard of a skill that allows you to do all of that at high levels and also mitigate sleep."


    "So most healing skills or recovery skills don''t let people go without sleep?" Julius asked him.


    "They can, but only for a day or two, and there are usually some bad side effects for doing so. I wonder if that is why your skill is rated as rare+." Declan added.


    "Should I be worried about long-term side effects if I continue to do it? I have been doing it for the past few weeks but I haven''t noticed anything," Julius informed Declan.


    "A few weeks with no sleep?" Declan asked worryingly.


    "I did take a couple of naps in between but essentially little to no sleep for weeks," Julius said.


    Declan thought for a while, they had moved off the main road and were standing by an empty alley. "Honestly, I would say yes in most cases. You won''t find many healing skills like that until epic rank, even then they are extremely uncommon. I can see if it was a single skill that focused on lower requirements of sleep, some skills exist like that and are used mainly by researchers but yours sounds very unique. I would be extremely worried if your aura was showing negative signs, but it seems healthy, exceedingly healthy even."


    Julius was relieved, but he was scared for a moment, he thought that he was hurting himself. Sleep deprivation was a real thing in his old world. Luckily Declan believed that Julius wasn''t killing himself so far.


    "Do you think it has to do with the fact it is a self-use healing only? Would that restriction impact how effective its healing is?" Julius wanted to know if that was possible.


    "I didn''t know you could only use it on yourself. But that would make more sense. Self-buff skills are always more powerful than skills that allow you to buff anyone. It''s as you said, more restrictions but higher potency," Declan agreed with Julius.


    Julius would be careful in the future, he wouldn''t stop completely but he would make sure he did take breaks every now and then. Like how he did last night.


    "I promise I will monitor it closely, if anything seems off I will stop using it," Julius promised Declan.


    "That''s all I can ask for, I can''t exactly tell you what to do, especially while you are at the academy but I do hope you will take care of yourself. You are sometimes too mature for your age, but don''t let training suck the enjoyment out of life," Declan advised him.


    Declan never did answer, what skill he should take that is. He said that he should wait until he has the time to research some of the available [Mana Manipulation] options at Goldencrest. Declan told him he would have the resources to get a better idea of what certain skills might do.


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    They eventually, made it to the gates of Goldencrest Academy, the gorgeous gold building looming behind the massive gates. There were a lot of kids his age with their parents entering the property. There were many Goldencrest staff members out in front making sure each person had what they needed and directing them to the testing areas.


    All students were required to go through the first screening process. It was an affinity test, to see each student''s affinities and then they were sent over to take an interview portion, where they would be asked a set of questions. Finally, they were taken to a training arena, where they would take a practical exam.


    It was supposed to be a test to see where students stand in actual combat or to see how well they have learned and utilized their skills.


    Julius was certain that most of the kids around him had an excellent affinity in at least one, maybe even there were some with a perfect affinity. He just hoped that wouldn''t prevent him from getting accepted. Declan had assured him that affinities only mattered to the test examiners if someone didn''t excel at the practical or interview portion. Most of the time they lauded hard work over talent.


    They waited in line for their turn, and after a while, a lady finally approached them. Declan showed the staff Julius''s paperwork and the lady ordered Julius to follow her. Declan had to stay behind, but he said he would come back in a couple of hours when the exam was over. Quickly saying his goodbyes, Julius followed the lady to the first area.


    The lady took him to a large building with many rooms where kids were leaving and entering alongside another staff member. Julius entered a room and looked around. It was a bare room except for a table set up with an orb that was supposed to gauge one''s affinity.


    It was similar to the one that was used in his affinity ritual, but just a little more simple in design. The one he had used was too expensive to use for the purpose of the exam, these ones were able to test specific affinities.


    On an application you would state your affinities, and then during the testing, they would only test your affinity on those types. It was much cheaper than testing every affinity. It was just to verify and to make sure nobody was lying. Julius had asked Declan to only put down fire and kinetic as his, omitting his life affinity. It was against the rules to lie on the application but it wasn''t against the rules to not state every affinity. There wouldn''t be any reason for most people to do that.


    The lady was very professional, she didn''t interact with Julius beyond telling him what to do. She looked at his profile and set up the affinity orb with a deft hand, speaking of her experience and how many times she must''ve done this. At her orders, he placed his hands on the orb.


    He stayed there with his hand attached to the glowing orb for a while until the lady told him when he was done and didn''t say anything else to Julius, she just wrote down the results and led him out of the room.


    It was feeling very clinical, he didn''t necessarily mind it, because he wasn''t getting treated rudely or anything, but admitted that he would have preferred some warmth or maybe even a smile if the lady was capable of it.


    Maybe every staff member was told to behave like that. Either way, he made sure to thank her every time she did something for him. His gramps had taught him that politeness barely cost anything so he should always try to be polite.


    The staff member finally led him down a hallway and into a room where three people were sitting at a table. There was another orb placed where he expected he would sit, but nothing else. The lady didn''t say another word and left him in the company of the three people in front of him.


    There were two men and a single woman sitting on the panel. The man to Julius''s left was older but had a kind smile across his face, while the other two were coldly looking at Julius. Julius just stood before them displaying a smile of his own at the examiners. He didn''t make any moves to sit in the chair in front of him, waiting for them to give him instructions.


    Finally, the man in the middle said, "You may take a seat," he looked down at the piece of paper he had in his hands, "Mr. Julius Snow."


    Julius nodded his head and took a seat. He didn''t put his real last name, for obvious reasons.


    "Okay, we have a list of questions we would like to ask you. All I ask is for you to keep your hands placed on the orb in front of you. It is a simple truth stone, if you don''t want to answer a question, just let us know and you won''t have to respond. Do you understand?" The man asked Julius.


    "Yes sir," Julius responded and placed his hands on the blue orb.


    "Let''s get started then. Why do you want to attend Goldencrest Academy?"


    Julius thought about his answer for a second before he replied. "I guess the main reason why I want to attend Goldencrest is that I lack knowledge and I wish to learn about magic and how to progress through the tiers."


    "There are many other schools that would be able to give you a thorough education, what specifically about Goldencrest makes you want to come here?" This time it was the sole lady who asked him the question. Julius took a moment to observe her in more detail. She was a pretty middle-aged woman, her blonde hair tied up in a bun, and she had a pair of glasses framing her soft features.


    "It is one of the best academies on the continent, ma''am. If I am getting an education I want it to be the best one I can get," Julius answered her while looking directly into her eyes.


    "No other reasons?" The old man with the kind smile interjected.


    Julius turned to him, "I also heard it was an absolutely stunning place in person, and everything I have seen so far has supported that."


    "Okay, next question, what did you think of the women who brought you in here?" The man in the middle asked.


    The question caught Julius off guard. Was that the reason why the woman had behaved like that? Was it done purposefully to find out which people would get insulted by that behavior? That was quite devious of the school to do that.


    "Honestly, I don''t have much of an opinion, sir. She wasn''t rude or anything, but she also didn''t treat me with any particular kindness. I thought she was professional and good at her job though," Julius answered truthfully, and the orb pulsed with blue supporting that as well.


    They didn''t ask any more questions that caught him off guard. Most of them were ones that he had predicted they would ask. Just simple questions about what he wanted to do and his aspirations. Or others about his family, which he either chose not to answer or felt he could be vague enough. It was all pretty simple, he had already thought of answers that wouldn''t tell the whole truth but also wouldn''t be judged as lies either.


    He just continued answering their questions as politely as he could.

 Chapter 50: Rude Woman

    All was going smoothly and everything was within Julius''s expectations. It wasn''t until toward the end that the woman asked Julius a question that definitely wasn''t a part of their script. "I''m assuming you know that most of the student population is made up of those with excellent or perfect affinities correct?"Julius nodded his head in confirmation.


    "So why would a slightly above average commoner with a mere pair of high affinities try to get into one the most prestigious institutions on the continent?" She asked unkindly.


    So that''s how it is huh? Julius thought to himself. Will his affinities be more of a factor than he had originally thought?


    "Sonia, that is highly inappropriate." The kindly gentleman scolded her, defending Julius. He mentally placed the man above the woman in his list regarding likable people.


    "It is a perfectly fine question, Harold," the woman refuted.


    "Mr. Silas, please tell Sonia that it is not appropriate for a professor of Goldencrest to talk to a child this way, affinities notwithstanding," Harold complained to the man in the middle.


    The man in the middle stared at Julius, trying to see his reaction. Julius felt a probe of aura extend from the man and tried to invade Julius''s aura, trying to get a read of how Julius was feeling at the moment. It was much less elegant than Declan''s and was quite a breach of common courtesy. Probing with aura wasn''t rude or anything, but using it in the way the man just did was.


    Now Julius was getting annoyed. The woman insults him and then the man tries to invade his privacy, while he is already attached to a truth stone. But he hid it underneath the smile he still had on his face, and simultaneously slapped away the tendril of aura before it could get close.


    The man sat up straighter in his chair as he felt Julius rebuff his probe. "Sonia," he called out to the woman.


    "Yes sir?" The woman asks, suddenly much more polite.


    "Harold is correct, that is not how a professor should speak to anyone, much less a student. It is a bad reflection on the academy and not what we represent," the man reprimanded the woman who in turn pressed her lips together as she took the rebuke.


    However, the man wasn''t done speaking. "On the other hand, while the question could have been asked more politely, I do think it is a good question to ask. Would you care to respond young Julius?"


    Julius didn''t know what to make of the man named Silas. He had tried to do something rude but also admonished his staff member for acting out of place.


    Julius just decided to keep it blunt since the woman hadn''t tried to sugarcoat anything. He stared right at the rude woman and said right to her face, "I don''t have an excellent affinity, you''re right. But I am confident in my skills, I see myself doing very well on the practical exam. I may not have the "talent" but I have worked very hard to get where I am today. It would be stupid to assume I am not worthy of attending here just because of the mere rank of my affinities, especially for a school that is lauded for its ability to produce the best in the empire."


    The orb pulsed blue, confirming that everything he said was true, even the part where he inferred that she was stupid. The woman didn''t like that and was about to say something in response. However, Silas cut her off with a wave of his hand before she could speak.


    "Confident huh?" He asked Julius.


    Julius turned to stare at him with deathly serious eyes, "Very."


    The man looked below at the pulsing blue orb below him. "Okay, Mr. Snow I think that is all the questions we have for you today. You are free to head to the next portion of the exam. It is down the hall, follow the arrows and they will lead you to the training arena where a teacher will be there to proctor your test."


    Julius stood up and bowed to the panel of examiners, before leaving. He could feel each one of their gazes digging into his back, each for different reasons. He knew he could have maintained his cool and not antagonized them, but he also didn''t want to go to a school where they punished him for sticking up for himself.


    He also didn''t know how much influence they would have in whether or not he would be accepted. Everyone except the old man had been rude. The Sonia woman didn''t like that someone with a lowly high affinity was applying to Goldencrest and Silas had tried to invade Julius''s privacy. It was only because he had been practicing with Declan so intensely that he had even felt it.


    Julius wondered how much that happened to Tier 1''s. According to Declan and Orus, aura skills for Tier 1''s were rare, so Julius couldn''t even imagine how many higher tiers were able to feel out someone''s aura without getting caught.


    Luckily, Julius was able to catch Silas in the direct act of doing it, but he didn''t know if that made Silas mad or not. Julius shook his head, he needed to put it out of his head for now. It would only serve to distract him and he would have his practical exam coming up. He still didn''t know what exactly was going to be tested or how it was going to go, but he relaxed and concentrated on it instead of the interview.


    Silas POV


    Interesting. The only other Tier 1 in this year''s batch with an aura skill was that Chris Patterson kid, but unlike this Julius kid, he flaunted it to everyone who could hear. Mentioning it several times during his interview. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


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    Silas wasn''t mad that Julius had thrown off his aura probe, on the contrary, he respected that. It was rude of Silas to even attempt it and had done it mostly out of habit. He treated most Tier 1''s like the children they were, which often led to him taking too many liberties with their privacy. He needed the reminder that even Tier 1''s deserved some respect for privacy.


    He also was going to have to remind himself to have a conversation with Sonia later, once the exam was finished. Talking to a prospective student like that was not okay, she should have known better.


    Silas was sure that Harold would make sure to bring it up whenever he could too, it was just another headache he didn''t need during this busy time of the year. Entrance exam time was always the busiest, everyone was running around making sure everything was taken care of. There were always more and more examinees each year, they were always stretched too thin. He wished the headmaster would allow them to start the application process in advance, like how some other schools have started doing. They had an early enrollment but that was for specific nobles only. Unfortunately, the old man was stuck in his traditions, making the staff cram the entire process within a couple of days.


    Even though it was a stressful time, Silas always liked this time of year. There were so many untapped talents, just waiting to be unlocked and he had a feeling that Julius might be one of them.


    An aura skill at his age meant one of two things, either he was really lucky and had rich parents, or he had already experienced enough combat or trauma for the Words of the World to grant him an aura skill. Chris Patterson was the first kind of person who got an aura skill, but Silas believed that Julius might be the second kind. Especially after he was so confident about the practical exam. It was the most rigorous part of the exam process and most dreaded it but Julius was completely self-assured of his success.


    Some, like Sonia, might believe it to be the arrogant bluster of a cocky kid, but Silas knew better. He had seen those eyes before. They were the eyes of someone who had absolute faith in their abilities.


    Silas grabbed the enchanted piece of paper that had all the examinee''s information collected within its runic inscriptions and more carefully inspected Julius''s information


    Name: Julius Snow


    Tier: 1


    Affinities: Fire (High) and Kinetic (High)


    Focus: Combat


    Sponsor(s): Declan Griffin


    Practical Exam Proctor: Emmanuel Sorth


    Only high affinities in both fire and surprisingly, kinetic. But, Silas knew better than to determine someone''s worth just based on their affinities. In his long years, he had seen those with perfect affinities fail miserably to become anyone worthy of respect and those with trivial medium affinities go on to become some of the most inspiring warriors he had ever had the honor of fighting with. He quickly found out when you are knees deep in shit and blood, monsters won''t bother asking how high your affinity was, the only thing that mattered was your ability to fight. And talent didn''t get you the grit needed to survive, but hard work did.


    Then he noticed the name underneath the sponsor section, Declan Griffin. It was a name he was familiar with. Silas was becoming more intrigued by the second. For Declan to sponsor the kid, there must be a good reason.


    Silas stared at the door where Julius just left out of and then turned his attention back to his desk. He didn''t know if it was the right thing or not. But he decided to trust his gut and make a small adjustment to the document.


    Name: Julius Snow


    Tier: 1


    Affinities: Fire (High) and Kinetic (High)


    Focus: Combat


    Sponsor(s): Declan Griffin


    Practical Exam Proctor: Emmanuel Sorth Gabriel Keller


    Silas sat back in his chair, ignoring Harold and Sonia going at it beside him. Alright, let''s see what happens now.


    Julius followed the last of the arrows to a large auditorium that was split up into dozens of smaller areas. There were already students going through their practical exams by the looks of it. There were large barriers of glowing white mana that separated each area from one another. Julius noticed each kid and proctor who was walking into an area was wearing silver bracelets that Julius assumed were the combat simulation bands he had heard about.


    When Julius saw the students sparring against other examiners he was relieved. For a moment he was worried that the test revolved around something silly that he would not do very well with. That would''ve sucked and Julius might have cried himself to sleep if that happened.


    Julius approached the table with staff members checking other examinees in. A man sitting down asked Julius for his name, Julius told him and then the man examined a piece of paper for a while, making an odd face before saying to Julius, "You will be taking your practical exam in section 13 in ten minutes, please wait over there until you are called."


    After the man instructed Julius, he moved on to another examinee to tell them similar instructions. He tried to observe some of the fights as he waited, unfortunately, it was hard to see the exact details from outside the barriers they set up. Julius could see that two people were fighting, but it was like looking through foggy glass. He couldn''t see their features or much of their fight other than seeing two blurs attacking one another.


    Julius thought it was for the best. He would rather there be some privacy than none at all. He did wonder why they didn''t just completely remove the ability to see through the barrier. But who knows? Maybe there was a good reason for that. Julius didn''t want to assume he knew better when he just got here.


    Julius waited under a sign that said "Section 13" and waited for his turn. He took a moment to relax himself and get in the zone. He may have been confident, but that didn''t mean he could get cocky, he would keep to his self-imposed limits however that didn''t mean he wouldn''t give it his all.


    The ten minutes seemed to be over within a blink and Julius saw a tall bald bulky man walk toward him, wearing the same white uniform the other proctors were wearing, but with a golden badge placed over the left part of his chest. He was practically a troll in his own right. The man saw Julius notice him and gave him a warm smile before introducing himself, "Hi, Julius right? My name is Gabriel Keller and I will be your proctor for today. We will be having a sparring match, but don''t worry we will be fighting under combat simulation protocols and no one will get permanently injured. The device does not take away pain though, it will be slightly lowered, but you will still feel the pain of getting hit. Understood?" The man''s voice boomed like a cannon.


    "Yes, sir," Julius replied to the man. For some reason, he didn''t think this man was like the other proctors. He could tell that the man was hiding his aura, unlike many of the other proctors. You only did that if you had something to hide or were really good at aura control. Both typically indicated a strong person.

 Chapter 51: Practical Exam

    Julius was a little suspicious, Declan had told Julius that most test proctors would be Tier 3, but he was almost certain that this man was not Tier 3. Gabriel felt similar to how Declan felt. It doesn''t matter, Tier 4 or not, it doesn''t change a thing.The two of them walked into the sectioned-off area and Gabriel handed Julius a pair of silver bracelets. They were intricate pieces of work, runes were inscribed all over their surface. He could feel the vast amount of mana powering these things as well. There was also a connection Julius could sense linking the bracelets to the field around them. He didn''t understand how they worked, he could barely follow the winding circuits of mana.


    Julius snapped them over his wrists, the bracelets shrinking as they tightly clung to his skin. They felt very light, he barely noticed they were there. Gabriel had also put on his bracelets and was waiting in the center of the ring.


    The man had a big smile across his face, and he yelled, "Don''t hold back, come at me with everything you got!"


    There was a selection of weapons that Julius passed as he was walking in, and he chose a bastard sword, one similar to the one he used with Orus. He gave it a few test swings to get a feeling of the balance and once he felt comfortable he approached Gabriel.


    Julius activated [Savage Dance], [Fighter''s Will], and [Kinetic Augmentation]. He could tell that Gabriel was not taking him seriously. Not that Julius could blame him. Even if Gabriel was a Tier 3, fighting against a Tier 1 should be a cakewalk. Julius allowed Gabriel to underestimate him, it would be his fault if he wasn''t prepared.


    Julius didn''t give up this opening, and blitzed Gabriel going half-power right off the bat. Even at half power, he was able to enhance his body to three-fourths of his previous max. He had gotten much more efficient over these past several days, sparring with Orus and Declan. He was now able to enhance himself more with less mana.


    That meant Julius was fast, as fast as he was when he was fighting against the trolls in the rift. Much faster than anyone would expect from a Tier 1. Julius saw Gabriel''s eyes widen and his smile grew as he saw Julius attacking. Although Gabriel was initially surprised he quickly recovered, very swiftly leaning back, avoiding the blade slashing over his head.


    Julius didn''t let Gabriel have the opportunity to counterattack, he relentlessly pushed Gabriel back, making sure to keep him off balance, going after his legs and making him dodge in the most awkward positions possible.


    Gabriel was obviously an experienced fighter, he didn''t make any mistakes and was allowing Julius to dictate the pace. Julius knew that Gabriel could change it whenever he wanted, but that would require him to use more power to do so, which wasn''t the purpose of the practical exam. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Eventually, Gabriel stopped evading and started to block Julius''s sword strikes with his bare arms. Julius could sense large amounts of aura and mana infused into Gabriel''s flesh, hardening it. Gabriel stopped evading and stood firm. He began to block every strike Julius threw at him, he was like an impenetrable fortress. Julius tried every trick he knew, but without using his other techniques, he would not be able to break Gabriel''s defenses.


    Understanding that, Julius stepped back and started to use some fire attacks. Julius recreated his old [Firebolt] skill using [Mana Manipulation] and [Arcane Construct], he made sure they didn''t have too much mana but did use [Pure Compression] to condense them into small bullets. He shot a dozen small fire constructs at Gabriel, but the man activated some sort of barrier skill.


    The barrier was able to deflect his attacks and Gabriel just stood there taking them like they were just flies. It was an interesting skill, it was similar to the chieftain''s aura ability that broke down his constructs. However, the chieftain''s barrier felt like a cushion, it was mainly there to slow down attacks, while Gabriels felt like a steel wall. Not a single attack got through.


    Julius was with this, he could stay like this for a long time, just launching attacks from a distance. But it seemed that Gabriel had other ideas. He seemed to have tested the strength of Julius''s attacks enough and charged at Julius.


    With a burst of mana, Julius felt Gabriel''s speed explode and he appeared right in front of Julius within the blink of an eye, throwing a punch right at Julius''s chest. Julius kept his composure and used several of the constructs hanging over his shoulder and reformed them into a shield that blocked the punch. It cracked a little, but it held up under the force.


    Gabriel didn''t stop there, but the shield had allowed Julius the time to step back and use his sword''s reach to his advantage. Gabriel was no longer passively defending, he was holding back, but he was actively trying to pry apart Julius''s defense.


    Finally, Gabriel tricked Julius by leaving a tiny opening. It wasn''t too obvious, Gabriel had learned that Julius wouldn''t fall for obvious baits but it was small enough to believe that it wasn''t on purpose but big enough that Julius couldn''t let the mistake go unpunished.


    When Julius extended with a quick thrust, Gabriel''s hand grabbed ahold of his sword latching onto it, and released a pulse of mana. The skill was some sort of vibrational skill that rattled the steel of the blade so much that it shattered immediately.


    Julius instantly released the useless sword and released a wave of flames at Gabriel''s face and tried to get some distance. However, Gabriel seemed to have another skill that allowed him to track Julius without eyesight, he dashed to his exact location and kicked Julius right in the shoulder, throwing him across the arena.


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    He already had gathered life mana and was about to instinctually heal it before he remembered that he wasn''t supposed to use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. He quickly released the mana and rolled with the attack, flipping up to his feet with a slide. Julius could feel the bracelet tighten his shoulder, making it feel like it was injured. He could tell that it wasn''t, but he wouldn''t be able to use his "fractured" shoulder at full capacity any longer.


    Gabriel hadn''t just stood back and let him breathe, he used that same ability that allowed him to flash in front of Julius again. Julius didn''t have a sword anymore, but that didn''t matter. In his opinion, he wasn''t that great with a sword yet. He was much better with his fists.


    Gabriel was sending attack after attack at Julius, he was doing everything he could do to avoid the attacks and deflect the ones he couldn''t dodge. Gabriel was like a professional kickboxer, throwing tight punches and occasional low kicks, boxing Julius in a corner. They were almost against the barrier by now, but Julius was surviving, and even more importantly, he was starting to see some patterns within the assault. Gabriel would occasionally, drop his right shoulder when loading up an uppercut, it was barely noticeable, but Julius could feel it with [Spatial Perception].


    He waited for his moment patiently. But it finally came, and when it did Julius was ready. He unleashed a simple burst of kinetic energy and fire at Gabriel''s chest, Gabriel stepped back and used his skill to block all the damage, but that was what Julius was waiting for. In his left hand, he had been hiding the construct he had been making. It was a glove with small hardened spikes across the knuckles. But he didn''t stop there, he manipulated his aura, something he hadn''t used in the fight so far, and wrapped his legs, hips, back, and arm with it. He couldn''t cover his whole body yet, but he could selectively choose specific parts of it, so he used to enhance everything he needed for a simple punch. He also released an explosive burst of kinetic energy directed at his arm.


    The resulting punch was stronger, heavier, faster, and much more dangerous than anything else he had thrown before, and it caught Gabriel off guard, landing flush against his skin. Gabriel was pushed backward, he had been able to harden his skin at the last moment but was still unprepared for the sheer force behind the attack and he got knocked to his knees.


    Julius didn''t mean to go that far, he hadn''t even planned to use aura in his fight. It wasn''t done purposefully, it was just something that happened because he was in the moment, it was all done within a second and it wasn''t until it had already happened that he realized what he had done.


    Gabriel POV


    Gabriel Keller was bewildered, he was called upon with no prior notice. Someone had made an adjustment and changed Emmanuel''s examinee to him. Gabriel took a look at who authorized it and saw Silas''s name underneath the change.


    Why would the Assistant Director make a change like this? Does Silas want me to personally test the kid out? Maybe Silas has some sort of relationship with him.


    A person had come looking for him not long ago. Gabriel had been busy, as a Senior Professor of the Combat Department, his responsibilities were to make sure the practical exams went smoothly for the next couple of days.


    However, he would never say no to a fight. He was a little let down that it was only against a Tier 1 examinee but it was better than going through mountains of paperwork. He headed toward Section 13, passing off his duties to another Professor.


    To his excitement, it seemed the boy wasn''t normal. He didn''t even hesitate to attack Gabriel right from the start. Gabriel tested his speed first, he wanted to see where the boy stood. To his immense surprise, the boy''s body-enhancing skill was phenomenal, his kinetic affinity showing its value. Gabriel would put the boy at Tier 2 with just his physical abilities alone. His sword skills were not that great, it didn''t seem like he had been training with them that much. His footwork and anticipation were great, but the sword seemed a little clunky in his hands.


    Gabriel then tested out the boy''s offensive abilities, letting him attack Gabriel, while he just stood there. It was certainly above average, but nothing on the level of his physical abilities. He should learn a skill like [Mana Slash] or some sort of fire skill that uses his sword as a medium.


    But then the boy started to use some sort of [Fireball] skill, and they were condensed a surprising amount. He assumed the boy was a close combat fighter, but he also had a ranged skill in his repertoire. Even with [Steel Fortress] active, Gabriel activated [Extreme Mana Resistance] just to be safe.


    There wasn''t a lot of mana in each attack, but there was an impressive amount of force compressed in each one. Gabriel determined that he must have at least some sort of highly-ranked uncommon fire skill. Once, Gabriel got a feel for some of his offensive abilities, he closed the distance using [Instantaneous Step], it was one of the more important epic-ranked skills he had for a reason. It allowed him to close the distance between him and his opponent in an instant.


    However, Julius''s reaction made him smile even wider. The boy didn''t panic, he didn''t even seem caught off guard, he calmly handled the change of pace with a composure Gabriel only saw in more experienced fighters. Throughout the fight, Gabriel was starting to feel weird about the whole situation. The boy obviously had a very good kinetic body enhancement skill, an impressive ranged fire attack, most likely a combat concentration skill, and Gabriel suspected a perception-based skill.


    Otherwise, there was no way for the boy to react to everything Gabriel threw at him, Gabriel had a feeling that the kid''s perception skill was even better than his [Mana Sense] skill. He didn''t fall for any feints or baits, no matter how good they were. Gabriel felt like the boy was reading him better than he was reading the boy. It was exciting and Gabriel was beginning to have a lot of fun.


    Finally, Gabriel stepped it up a little, catching the sword in his hand with [Vibrational Surge], shattering it. The boy tried to blind him with fire, but Gabriel was able to sense the boy due to [Mana Sense] and landed a kick, fracturing the kid''s shoulder.


    However, the kid didn''t show any signs of pain, his concentration skill took care of it. The kid''s cold eyes didn''t leave Gabriel, truthfully it was a little unnerving to be looked at like that by a young child.


    Although he no longer had a sword, Gabriel quickly realized the kid was a much better fighter with his bare hands, even while holding back, Gabriel felt himself almost get caught several times, it was an aggressive style that worked well for the boy.


    Finally, when Gabriel had Julius pressed against the barrier and thought it was over, the kid had a final surprise up his sleeve. He distracted Gabriel with some kinetic energy and fire and caught him by surprise with a fist covered in spikes, enhanced by a lot of kinetic energy and aura. Gabriel laughed, he couldn''t believe it. Julius had an aura skill the entire time but never used it. Gabriel protected himself as fast as he could, but he was still brought to one knee from the impact.


    Gabriel didn''t move to get up, however, Julius didn''t make any further moves either, they both stayed still and watched the other. Gabriel was beginning to see why Silas had assigned him to Julius.

 Chapter 52: After the Exam

    Julius watched as Gabriel stayed where he was and looked at him with jubilant eyes. He seemed more excited that Julius had managed to land a clean hit than Julius himself. Gabriel pressed something on his bracelet, and Julius felt the device no longer restrict his shoulder. It was an amazing piece of equipment.Gabriel walked up to Julius and placed an enormous hand on his shoulder giving him another large smile. "Good fight, Julius. I genuinely enjoyed it, you really got me there at the end."


    Julius was still worried about tipping his hand a bit too much, but Gabriel''s reaction put Julius at ease, it seemed that he just enjoyed a good fight, and honestly showing his aura abilities wasn''t that big of a deal. Julius had already partially revealed them to that Silas guy before.


    Julius turned to face the large man. "Thank you, I had fun as well. How did I do? Do you think I will pass?" Julius was curious about how the man would rate him.


    "Oh there''s no doubt, you passed halfway through the test when I saw your kinetic enhancement skill and that fire skill. You obviously have fought for real before, I just wanted to see how far I could push you for my own curiosity," Gabriel explained to Julius.


    Julius mentally kicked himself, he should have stopped or pretended to be defeated earlier. He could have passed without showing more of his cards. But what''s done is done, he did well, and as long as the interview didn''t screw him he had a good chance of getting in. He just hoped that this wouldn''t bring him too much attention to the wrong sort of people. Luckily, he didn''t think Gabriel was the scheming type anyway.


    Julius did have some questions he wanted to ask. "You felt, stronger than some of the other proctors that I saw, is there a reason for that?" Julius asked the man.


    "Yeah, most of the proctors are assistant professors, they have strict schedules they follow for the practical and are usually Tier 3 but I am a Tier 4 and a Senior Professor of the Combat Department." Gabriel openly told him.


    "Why would a Senior Professor handle my exam?"


    "I don''t know either, there was a last-minute change made by Silas Silvertone the Assistant Director of Enrollment, making me your test proctor," Gabriel informed Julius.


    Silas Silvertone? So he did do something, but what was the point of it, a test? Was he just curious after seeing my aura skill or was it my behavior?


    He hadn''t even started yet, but he was already causing issues for himself. He hoped that this wasn''t a precursor to what was to come.


    Gabriel was very kind to Julius, he stuck around and talked with him for a while. He asked about how Julius had trained and Julius was able to ask about how often he would be allowed to leave if he attended Goldencrest.


    "You will have most of the weekends off, so you should be able to leave campus then. Many of the older students choose to head to town for some fun," Gabriel told him.


    That was nice to know, he would be able to see Declan, Orus, and Rae pretty often at least.


    Gabriel was even nice enough to give him some tips and even offered to spar with him if he ended up coming to Goldencrest. Gabriel was a Senior Professor so that meant he typically taught the older students, while normal professors and their assistants were the ones who taught the basics to first and second years. Julius hurriedly accepted his generous offer. He was surprised because he thought that Gabriel must''ve been busy already and offering a first year to spar could not have been the norm. Julius must have impressed him enough.


    Gabriel couldn''t stick around forever and soon excused himself, getting back to his duties. "Don''t wait too long to come and see me!" Gabriel reminded him.


    Julius promised he wouldn''t and they both headed off their own ways. The practical was the last part of the exam and after he was done he went to a desk where he was told where he could find the exit and that his sponsor would be notified whether or not he would be accepted shortly.


    Julius made his way outside, into the sunny courtyard where many other kids who were also done with their exams were waiting around for their parents or talking to other kids their age.


    Julius spotted Declan waiting at the edge of the gate, wearing his black uniform. Julius headed toward him, trying to squeeze around the other kids as he did.


    "How did it go?" Declan asked when Julius got close enough.


    Julius made a face, "The affinity portion was expected, but the interview could have gone better."


    "Why? What happened?" Declan asked with concern.


    "It got pretty contentious between me and one of the examiners. She thought I shouldn''t even be trying to apply with my affinities. Also, the main examiner tried to invade my aura, but I caught him before he could," Julius explained to Declan.


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    "There are always people like that, they think that affinities ranks are everything, I wouldn''t let it bother you too much. As for the other thing, It''s not uncommon for higher-tiered individuals to do that to Tier 1''s or those without an aura. Did it seem like he would punish you for catching him?" Declan asked.


    "I don''t know. But my proctor for my practical exam was a Senior Professor named Gabriel Keller. He was strong, and nice enough to offer to spar with me during the school year. He told me the same man who did my interview changed who my proctor was at the last minute." Julius told Declan.


    "Did you catch his name?" Declan inquired.


    "Yeah, it was Silas Silver-something," Julius replied


    "Oh," Declan said while pausing to think.


    "What? Do you know him?" Julius asked.


    "Yeah, Silas Silvertone was one of my professors when I attended Goldencrest," Declan told Julius. "He was a great professor, harsh, but fair. I don''t think you will have much to worry about. He never stuck me as a petty man and appreciated hard work over everything else," Declan reassured him.


    That was good to hear. It would have sucked if Silas was vindictive enough to prevent Julius from attending Goldencrest. He probably had the power to do so as well, if he was the Assistant Director of Enrollment.


    Declan and Julius headed back to the guardhouse where he saw Orus and Rae. He told them what he had told Declan and what Declan had informed him about.


    It was funny to see Rae get all aggravated on his behalf. She was cursing the lady examiner and was saying how pathetic it was for a professor to talk to him like that. The lady didn''t bother Julius that much, he was aware that some people might feel that way. But it was nice to see Rae all heated up on his behalf. She was too kind.


    Orus on the other hand just called the lady examiner a stupid bitch and left it at that. Interestingly enough, while Declan hadn''t heard of Gabriel Keller, Orus had. According to Orus, Gabriel Keller was an accomplished Tier 4 on the cusp of Tier 5 who made a name for himself during the last monster flood several years ago. However, he wanted to start a family with his wife and ended up finding a position at Goldencrest, quickly making a name for himself and becoming a Senior Professor soon after he got there.


    Julius went up to his room and gave the spirit seed some mana.The little thing was hungry as ever, devouring the mana. It was developing rapidly, the buds were now fully blossomed and brilliant white flowers were running up and down the branches. There were many more leaves too, Julius was happy to see such progress in such a short amount of time. Admittedly it was taking in a lot of mana so it made sense that it would grow fast. He just hoped the seed would sprout a life spirit. Julius said goodbye to the little seed and went back downstairs to the courtyard. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Orus had to get back to work as did Rae, leaving Julius on his own. It was a couple of hours until dinner, so he used the time to train. He still hadn''t decided what [Mana Manipulation] skill he was going to choose and was planning to wait until he at least was able to use the library at the academy and see if any of his skills were cataloged there.


    He did, however, want to see if [Fighter''s Will] evolved. He was so close and was curious to see what kind of evolutions he might be offered.


    He spent the next couple of hours going through many different exercises for aura. He was almost able to fully cover his body with aura, but it seemed that his soul was the issue. He didn''t quite have enough soul energy to cover that much. He had a feeling that he would be able to once he reached Tier 2, but until then he might be stuck.


    Not that Tier 2 was far away. He could feel himself pressing against the wall to the next tier and it was only a matter of time before he would advance. Julius was curious about what changes an affinity body would have for him. He felt like [Kinetic Augmentation] did a lot of what a kinetic affinity body would do already, so he predicted that it would improve similar aspects. As for his fire and life affinities, he wasn''t quite as sure. He knew that an Affinity Body would allow your body to have a deeper connection with the mana of your affinity, but by how much, and would Julius see that much of a difference?


    Edwin had told Julius that Tier 1 and 2 were just to prepare someone for Tier 3. He didn''t say what he would need to do in order to reach Tier 3, but he did say that laying down a solid foundation was crucial. Julius wished that Lukas and Edwin had been more helpful in regard to advancement.


    Julius spent the entire time until dinner practicing his aura skill, it didn''t make any progress, still stuck even after so much effort. It might require something a little more challenging than what he had been doing.


    He did open his other notifications, the ones he missed after his spar with Gabriel.


    [Swordsmanship lvl 5 -> lvl 7]


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 11 -> lvl 12]


    The level-ups were welcome, but he would rather have leveled [Fighter''s Will].


    He was kind of wishing that he had another rift available he could throw himself into. It didn''t seem like any of his skills had a bottleneck when he was fighting for his life. Maybe, he would need to put himself in some danger to see some actual results.


    Sometimes it made Julius wonder why he even chose to go to an academy. Fighting monsters would be way faster to gain skill levels. But he had to remind himself that he needed to forge a stable base before he built a skyscraper on it. If he went too fast, he might ruin himself later on and the entire building might collapse on top of him. He would rather not sacrifice long-term power for short-term growth.


    For example, if he hadn''t spent all those years training his mana and other skills, he did not believe he would have progressed as fast in the rift. While he might not have seen the numbers going up, those years of hard work allowed him to improve so rapidly. Still, even if he understood it, he would love it if he could evolve his aura skill.


    Julius stopped moping and gave himself a good old slap across the face to jostle him. The path to improvement was a long one, and he couldn''t get down on himself. He would eventually evolve the skill, it might be today, tomorrow, or weeks from now, but he would.


    Julius went inside to eat dinner and resumed training afterward. Orus didn''t eat with him, his fiance usually worked late which was why they were able to eat dinner together at night, but it seemed that she had the night off and they had plans for a nice dinner.


    Julius wished Orus luck, made a trip upstairs to feed the little guy, and decided to bring them down to experience the late-night air. Julius didn''t train with any more aura for the day, he felt that he needed to take a step back and come at with a fresh head.

 Chapter 53: Getting His Results

    Instead of aura training, Julius decided to do work on his mana for now. He knew that he still hadn''t chosen an evolved path for it, but he hadn''t had the skill for years and wasn''t worried about not being able to receive levels on it.He went back to his roots. He remembered some of the fun little exercises he came up with in the past and tried to replicate them. He carefully created a dozen little orbs of fire mana and gently shaped them into human-like figurines. He recalled how they used to look like demented stick figures, but this was a different Julius. This Julius had improved a lot.


    He wasn''t quite able to make them life-like. He had better control, but that still didn''t turn him into an artist overnight. There were big improvements though. The faces and limbs were all the right proportions and they actually looked like people now. Then he tried to create a "dragon". He had a feeling that was going to be much more difficult even with his improvements.


    He created another orb of mana, this one a little bit larger to accommodate the larger construct, and began to mold it. He was able to get the proportions down but the hardest bit was the wings and scales. For some reason, it was annoyingly difficult to create multiple layers of texture.


    It was then that an epiphany hit him. Layers. Just like how [Mana Layering] worked, he could apply the same concept to his figurines. The scales were like layers, each one didn''t need to cover the entire body, but he could create many smaller ones that he could intertwine together, leaving just enough space to link them together.


    Renewed with excitement he began his testing. It was very delicate work, each scale had to be crafted individually, and on something around the size of his hand, it was a lot of scales. However, he learned a lot, he learned that he could use mana layering much like how the scales interacted with each other. He had been trying to create layers with the same shapes, but that wasn''t how it worked. Each scale might look the same, but they differed minutely depending on where on the body they were placed.


    Each layer had a purpose and he had to create each layer with that in mind. It was wonderful once he realized that. He almost chose [Mana Layering] the second he realized it. The dragon construct may not have looked the prettiest, but the scales gave it a substance and stability that his construct have been missing. It wasn''t even created with compressed mana, but it was one of the tougher constructs he had built so far.


    He got so into it that several hours passed by without him realizing it. He was so focused on improving his layering techniques, making each one better than the last.


    He even got a notification for his discovery.


    [Arcane Construct lvl 11 -> lvl 13]


    [Arcane Construct] had managed to level up twice because of his revelation. He created one of his spikes using the method he used for creating the scales. Layering many small plates of mana, each one feeding off another, using each other for support. It took a long time, much too long for combat, even with [Mana Manipulation] making things faster.


    What made this method particularly effective was that if one scale was to collapse then the others would equally take on a larger load to compensate. Before, a single crack in a construct destabilized and collapsed the entire thing. Now, it felt like a spike made out of real steel, swirling with red iridescent colors, he was curious how much more powerful this would be.


    There were so many more possibilities but he felt like he was on the right track now. Who knows, he might create himself a set of scale armor in the future.


    The next couple of days went like that. He had integrated [Pure Compression] along with this layering technique. It made it significantly more challenging but it also had much more amazing results.


    [Arcane Construct lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    [Pure Compression lvl 12 -> lvl 13]


    [Swordsmanship lvl 7 -> lvl 8]


    He mainly focused on his mana exercises but he also changed things frequently, sometimes sparring with Orus and Declan, or taking some time to train his aura.


    However, today was the day when he would find out if he was accepted or not. He wouldn''t lie and say that he wasn''t anxious, because he was. Declan tried to assure him that he was almost certain to get in, but doubt has a funny way of working its way into you.


    Finally, after what seemed like forever, Declan walked through the door holding an envelope in his hands. It was unopened, but had a gold "G" embossed on the seal. It didn''t take a genius to guess what might be in that letter. Julius rushed over to Declan and snatched the thing out of his hands before he could even say anything.


    Declan laughed at Julius''s actions, understanding his impatience. Orus and Rae took a break from their work to see the result and laughed along with Declan. Julius carefully removed the seal from the envelope and took out the sheet of paper from it. He diligently read the text printed onto its surface, before dropping it to the floor.


    The other three spotted the sad look on Julius''s face and immediately began consoling him. Telling him that it was okay. That there was always another school and other things that would cheer him up.


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    It wasn''t until Orus picked up the dropped letter and read it for himself that he wrestled Julius to the ground and gave him a good smack for good measure.


    "Orus! Stop that this instant! You should be comforting Julius at this time, not beating him up." Rae admonished Orus.


    Orus let Julius go but didn''t say anything and handed the letter over to Declan who was looking on confused. Declan read the letter and looked at Julius before also giving him a quick smack on the head.


    "Declan! Not you too!" Rae scolded the vice-captain.


    Declan passed over the letter to Rae as well, giving her the chance to read it. Julius observed Rae''s face turn from angry, to happy, back to angry within seconds. Then she turned around and also gave Julius a smack to the back of his head. Calling him an idiot multiple times.


    If it wasn''t clear, Julius got in, he just couldn''t help but play a little prank on them. He happily took the scolding Rae gave him about worrying them for no reason. He did it, he made it into Goldencrest Academy.


    Lukas and Edwin would have been proud.


    The semester''s start date wasn''t for another several days but he was given time to move in and settle in beforehand. He didn''t have much to pack, so he decided he might as well get acclimated before classes started. He would like to explore campus so that he had an idea of where things are. The letter had instructions on what to do when he arrived, making sure he checked in and got his room number for his dormitory.


    Declan told him that when he went there, they would use the interview portion to help determine which roommates might get along with each other and which ones might be good for one another''s development.


    He was curious about what kind of roommate he might get, but honestly, he didn''t care that much. He didn''t expect to be in his room all that often.


    He grabbed his small pack and put the clothes Declan had given him into it, as well as, carefully packing the plants in as well. They didn''t really fit and overflowed the pack a bit, but he thought that the little seed would enjoy them so he brought them anyway.


    He said goodbye to all three of them, it was a nice farewell, Rae even gave him some cookies he could enjoy until she next saw him. Julius would see all of them next week so he didn''t feel that sad, he would miss the guardhouse though. It was noisy, busy, and sometimes smelled like sweaty men, but it was comfortable. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It had also quickly become a second home to Julius, and would always have a place in his heart.


    Julius picked up little Drasil. That was what he had been calling the spirit seed lately. He believed that the seed was progressing fast and he wanted a name ready for when it was born.


    Drasil was short for Yggdrasil, the World Tree. It was an arrogant name for something so tiny to be named after the tree that supported the realms of the universe. But he wanted Drasil to have a grand name, one that they could be proud of, so he went with Drasil.


    Drasil appeared to like it too. When Julius asked if it liked that name, he could have sworn the tree swayed a bit in response.


    Julius arrived at the gates again, there weren''t that many students here, mainly older classmen who had gotten back from the break. Julius was guessing most of the first years would be trickling in for the next few days. That wasn''t to say he was the only first-year. There were others as well. However, Julius was surprised at how much luggage some of them were bringing.


    They had whole carriages full of their belongings. Julius knew, that most of the students would be of noble status, but he didn''t think they would still show up with half of their house on their backs.


    Julius walked to the building where the instructions had told him to go. Sitting at a desk was a handful of staff helping the occasional student out. He approached a lady who wasn''t helping anyone at the moment and introduced himself.


    "Hi, my name is Julius Snow and I am a first year. It said to come here to find out my dorm and to sign up for classes."


    "Yep, you are in the right place. Please give me a second¡­ Okay, you will be staying in the Crescent Dormitory, I have marked it on this map. Also, here is a list of available classes, please make sure to submit them before the semester starts. Also, some of them do fill up fast, so if there are certain classes you are hoping to join, I would make sure you get it in sooner rather than later," the lady carefully explained to Julius.


    After getting the map, his student badge, and the list of courses, he didn''t head exactly to his dorm, but walked around for a bit, exploring the campus. It was a wonderful place, the gold buildings were not as overbearing as he thought they would be, and they actually came off as more warm and cozy than anything else. There also were carefully maintained gardens sprawled all across campus.


    The map showed Julius where most of the first years would be spending their time. There were other parts of the campus, but most of them were restricted to older students. The first years were mainly kept separated from the others, except for a few facilities that everyone shared such as the library, cafeteria, and the main arena.


    Once he felt he explored enough, he headed to his dorm to drop off his things. The Crescent Dorm was an all-boys dorm, located right next to the underclassmen cafeteria and the first-year training area. First-years were given their own training area, but they had the choice to go to the main one, where there were more options and more abundant resources.


    There was a small common room in the entranceway, where kids would be able to hang out after class. Julius''s room was located on the first floor, and he used his key to open his door.


    The room was portioned into two halves, each a mirror image of the other. A bed, a small desk, a chair, a side table, and a closet where you could put your clothes. It was just like a college dorm. There was even a shared bathroom down the hall. Everything was nice at least, there were even polished brass finishings on the furniture.


    Julius set up Drasil, nestling it within the plants he had packed. Once, he finished that, he checked out the bathroom. It was really clean, the porcelain and stone were practically shining. There were also many stalls where showers were placed. It was a very nice bathroom, he just hoped that the other boys his age wouldn''t create too much chaos in it.


    Julius walked around the dormitory but didn''t see anything else of note, he didn''t see anyone else who had moved in yet. But with a quick look around he thought it would be a suitable place to live for the next year. He made sure he had his key and then he left to explore more of the campus.

 Chapter 54: Goldencrest Library

    Julius finally found the library. It was an entire massive building and reminded him of the Notre Dame Cathedral in many ways. Large, complex architecture and arches made up the structure, and gorgeous artwork was placed tastefully around the library, giving it just the right amount of elegance, sophistication, and coziness. There were multiple levels of bookshelves upon bookshelves. It was truly a library that deserved its renown.When Julius walked in, he had to show the badge he had gotten when he had gotten his room key to the librarian. Julius thanked the older woman, who let him know that she was there if he had any questions.


    "Do you know where I can find books on possible [Mana Manipulation] evolutions?" Julius thought to ask her.


    The librarian directed Julius to the section where he would find some books detailing some skill evolutions. She did let him know that skill evolutions were private to most people and therefore there were fewer books discussing skill progressions than other books. Most of them were biographies of people who died long ago.


    She also mentioned that not all skills were the same, even those with the same name. For example, someone with a [Mana Shield] may have a totally different version of another person also with [Mana Shield]. Names were just general descriptors, but skills varied from person to person, depending on how they used them and how they evolved. So she told him that he could find some useful information, but also take whatever he reads with an open mind.


    Fortunately, [Mana Manipulation] was the most popular skill in the world, so there was much more information about that skill than others. There were even entire dedicated books that talked about certain versions of [Advanced Mana Manipulation].


    Julius chose a few that seemed like they would fit his needs, and also a few that sounded interesting. Then he searched for a place where he could consume these books in peace. Luckily, there weren''t many people in the library. He did see several upperclassmen and even a girl his age, who he assumed was also a first year considering they both weren''t wearing a uniform. The lady who checked him in told him that first-years would receive theirs tomorrow morning.


    Julius ended up finding a very comfortable chair sequestered in a private nook on the third floor. It had a small table and some lamps placed for convenience. There was also a window that overlooked a lush garden and a small pond just outside of the library.


    It was as good a place as any other. So he dropped into the soft chair and picked a book at random. It was labeled Applications of Mana Layering by Richard Striker. For many hours Julius sat there as he read the book while munching on some of the cookies Rae had packed him. He was enjoying himself, it reminded him of the days back when he was young in his old world. After his parents died, he secluded himself from friends and found himself often alone reading a book. Reading became a place of solace, that helped him forget his own problems for that moment.


    Julius didn''t usually read anything this dense though. The book was honestly beyond Julius''s level, it was like reading a scientific article from Earth. Many of the finer details he completely missed and could only follow a fraction of what Richard Striker was talking about.


    However, what he did follow was that [Mana Layering] had many applications in combat and everyday magic use. It was like Orus said, [Mana Layering] skills that focused on combat were used to create more sturdy and powerful constructs. With that said, there was an entire field of study of how [Mana Layering] could be used for fields such as enchanting, blacksmithing, and other professions. There was so much that the skill could do, using it like Julius had been thinking about was only one part.


    He finished the book and made sure to bookmark it to take another look at it at a future date. He wanted to come back to it once he learned more. He checked the clock and it said it was only early afternoon, he should still have a couple of hours before the cafeteria served dinner.


    He thought he could get another book or at least be able to skim through it before then. He picked up another one, this time it was the one named Mana Manipulation Evolutions by Ghelisene Marks. It was the smallest book on his pile and he should be able to get through most of it before a couple of hours were up.


    While he was reading an upperclassman wearing a black and gold uniform, with three dashes across his shoulder walked into his nook where he was reading, however upon seeing Julius, he apologized and walked just around the corner to another nook. It seemed like Julius wasn''t the only one who was looking to do some research before the semester started. Also, he had noticed that many of the students with uniforms had lines on their shoulders. Julius was thinking that those lines indicated one''s year, which would mean that upperclassmen was a third-year.


    Julius forgot about the guy and focused back on his reading. The thin book was a fun read. It mentioned many of the skill evolutions of [Mana Manipulation], but it didn''t describe the ones he was offered in too much depth. He was hoping it would detail each skill and some of the potential pathing it might take down the line. He did learn of some funny skills though. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


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    There was a skill called [Mana Moisturizer] which was a skill that a famous actress had used to keep her skin looking perfect. It replaced lotion and had the unique ability to revitalize and improve one''s skin for optimal beauty.


    Another one he found was a skill called [Mana Chicken]. A weird skill that created a construct that looked exactly like a chicken down to its feathers in intricate and precise detail. The man who used it was a farmer who was having problems with animals eating his chickens and learned the skill to create illusionary chickens as bait to trap the predators.


    There were many other skills just as weird and unique. If you could think of it, it was there. Julius didn''t find much useful information, but he did find himself laughing at some of the skills and how they were used.


    Once it was around six he collected his stack of books and put away the two he read. Then he walked down to the front counter where the librarian was still there reading a book of her own. Julius cleared his throat to get her attention and she put her book down and asked him, "What can I do for you, hun?"


    "I wanted to know what your checkout procedure is like. Like how many books I can check out and so forth," Julius told her.


    "There is a limit of two books a person can check out at one time, you can request for more, but I or another library staff member has to authorize it," she explained to him.


    Julius looked down in his arms and counted four books. Two too many it seemed. He thought about which ones he would like to keep and which ones to leave here for another time. He chose to leave the ones on the bottom and take the ones on top. It wouldn''t matter too much, he could always come back once he was done anyway.


    The librarian took out a sheet of paper much like the one he saw used during his exam and wrote down the books he was checking out under his name.


    "You can keep them for two weeks, but after two weeks you either have to return them or extend your rental. Otherwise, a penalty will be enforced. Also, you may only keep them for a maximum of four weeks. This is to prevent students from hoarding books all year long. You would be surprised how many times that happened before we implemented that rule," the lady said to Julius.


    Julius did notice multiple copies of some books, but he also saw some with only one copy available, so he could see how that might be a problem, especially for a rare book.


    "Oh, and each book is enchanted just in case it is lost or damaged," she added.


    Julius thanked her and placed the books in his bag for safekeeping. Then he left, heading toward the cafeteria. There was a dedicated cafeteria for first-years and second-years but since it was early in the school year, it wasn''t open yet. So Julius had to head over to the main cafeteria where staff and upperclassmen ate.


    Technically, it was allowed for underclassmen to eat at the main cafeteria, as there was no rule stating that they could not. Underclassmen had a smaller but exclusive cafeteria built after some problems upperclassmen caused for the younger students. It became an unspoken tradition that the underclassmen would only eat in their dedicated area, at least that was what Declan told him.


    However, for now, he would have to eat in the main one regardless. He walked through the doors, following a group of upperclassmen who had arrived back to school early. They were talking loudly, asking about how their breaks went and what they did.


    Julius maintained some distance but followed them to the line where they each picked up a metal tray and started to choose their food. Julius was surprised at how good the food looked. He was used to awful cafeteria food back in his old world. Frozen pizza, overcooked chicken, and sad vegetables. He even once went to a school that had given him bagged milk, which was just milk in a sandwich baggie that you would punch a straw through.


    The food at Goldencrest was much better than that. Declan said the food was pretty good, but Declan also wasn''t a picky eater. Julius was pretty sure Declan could live off of dried rations, so Julius didn''t take his word for it.


    There was a wide array of food available. Everything from chicken and rice to fish and salads. They had it all. It was like a Las Vegas buffet. Julius was salivating as he waited for his turn.


    Some of the boys ahead of him noticed him following them but didn''t pay him any mind. Once it was Julius''s turn, he piled his tray with something that looked like steak, a nice pile of crispy potatoes covered in herbs, some vegetables, and a drink that looked like lemonade.


    He didn''t have to pay for anything. The one thing about Goldencrest was that other than the application fees, which Declan took care of for him, you didn''t need to pay any tuition. They were properly funded by former alumni, sponsors, donations, the city, and also events they held during the year, such as the Intra and Inter-School Tournaments.


    Those tournaments raised a lot of money for the school, as many people from Heston and all over came to watch the students fight it out.


    When Julius got his food he found himself an open cafeteria-style table away from some of the busier parts of the cafeteria. Although the year hadn''t started officially yet, there were still many students who wanted to come early.


    Maybe, they wanted to avoid all the traffic and move back in before all the first and second years came back, Julius thought to himself.


    The food tasted just as good as it looked. The steak was tender and perfectly seasoned, with a nice char all around. The potatoes were divine, he didn''t know how they kept them so crispy and fluffy even after sitting out for a while.


    The "lemonade" wasn''t lemonade. It was a sweet fruity drink that reminded him of the liquid of canned peaches, but better. It surprisingly went well with what he was eating.


    While he was enjoying his food, he was also observing the other students. Most of them were laughing and talking to each other, most likely describing their breaks and talking about what classes they were planning to take. Speaking of that, Julius still hadn''t taken a good look at the list.


    With a mouth full of potatoes, he opened his pack and took out the list they provided him of the available classes.

 Chapter 55: Meeting Other Students

    The list was quite extensive, offering classes ranging from practical combat to sculpting. There were four mandatory classes that he had to do, he just needed to pick out what times he would like to take them. He also got a choice of at least two electives.The mandatory classes, for combat-focused students, were: Physical Training, Applied Combat, Intro to Mana Control, and Tier Advancement. Everything except for Applied Combat was one hour long. Applied Combat was two hours a day, meaning that he would have at least five hours a day taken up by these classes. If he took two electives that would make it seven hours a day for school alone. That wasn''t taking into account breaks and eating.


    It was going to be a busy schedule from here on out. He was interested in what kind of electives they offered and checked the list over. However, just when he was reviewing the first few, he felt a group of students sit down at his table.


    Julius looked up to see the people who chose to sit at the secluded table he chose for a reason. There were half a dozen open tables between him and the busier part of the cafeteria. He wondered why they chose this particular table to sit at.


    He thought about getting up to sit at another open table, but he didn''t want to come off as rude, especially on his first day here. The group didn''t bother him in the beginning, they just sat down, ignored him, and started to eat. However, they soon began to talk very loudly with each other, making it difficult for Julius to think about what classes he was going to choose.


    There were three guys and two girls included in the group. The guys were wearing the men''s gold and black uniform and appeared to be fourth-years. All of them were tall, but the one on the right was lean-looking with pale, soft features, wearing a pair of glasses. The one on the left was the complete opposite, he was a scary-looking big boy with rugged features and light brown skin. Not quite as large as Gabriel but for a guy around eighteen years old he was massive, the poor guy was barely able to fit on the bench.


    The one in the middle looked like he was the leader of the group and was a perfect combination of his two friends. He had long blond hair swept back, and sharp features. He was fit, but not too bulky, just the right amount of muscle. He was incredibly handsome with an air of charisma about him. He seemed like a picturesque example of a noble scion.


    The other two girls were sitting across the table across from the boys. One was a tall beauty, with long brown hair that fell across her face, framing her model-like features. The other girl was also very pretty, just a different aesthetic. She was a few inches shorter than Julius''s average frame and had dark blonde hair curled in delicate waves, that bounced up and down every time she laughed or moved.


    The girls were laughing and having a conversation on one side of the table, the blonde girl was talking about her trip to Sevilm, a coastal city just up north from Heston. The other three boys were discussing the trip all three of them took together amongst each other.


    Julius didn''t get up and leave immediately, he forwent looking at the classes until he got back to his room. Instead, he just decided to finish the rest of his meal.


    However, the blonde noble seemed to finally notice that they were sitting with another person and got up from his seat and sat down next to Julius, wrapping an arm around Julius''s shoulder.


    "Hi there! My name is Derek, what''s yours?" The guy asked with a smile.


    Julius looked at Derek, then at the arm that was wrapped around him, and back at Derek. It seemed the guy realized he might''ve come across as too friendly and quickly released Julius.


    "It''s Julius," he finally answered Derek.


    "Nice to meet you Julius, I noticed you were a first-year and saw your class list over there. I just wanted to ask if you need any help or have any questions about which classes might be best for you, we are all fourth years so we know some things," the guy said.


    That was nice of him to say. Julius didn''t know what to expect when he sat down but he was glad the boy wasn''t awful so far.


    "Actually, yeah, I have a question. It said that we need to choose at least two electives, which ones do you think are most useful?" Julius asked him.


    The guy thought about that for a minute before saying, "I think that answer would depend on what you are looking for. What is your focus?"


    "Combat. I am specializing in close combat but would rather have something that would fit all ranges of combat."


    "If it is combat, I would take a weapons elective. Whatever weapon you use, as long as it''s not too uncommon, you can find an instructor." Derek helpfully informed Julius.


    That was a good idea, his [Swordsmanship] skill was his lowest-level skill so far and he wanted to see what kind of evolution he would be offered, maybe even try to get a specific one that he felt would fit his needs.


    "I usually use my fists, but have picked up the sword recently," Julius said.


    It appeared Derek''s group of friends were no longer talking amongst themselves and were listening in on their conversation, because the large guy interjected and said, "If you use bare hands, Professor Keller is one the best hand-to-hand combat experts in the school. I don''t know if he is doing an elective class though. He usually teaches Applied Combat to upperclassmen but sometimes decides to do both. If you want a swordsman, I would choose either Jerod Trench or Sarah Hashen. Professor Trench is more defensive and Professor Hashen teaches a more aggressive style so I would choose whatever would fit you better."


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    That was a very well-thought-out answer, Julius thought, impressed at the big guy''s knowledge.


    "Edgar said it better than I ever could. You can trust him, he is one of the best close-combat fighters in the school," Derek assured Julius.


    Julius looked through the list and found Sarah Hashen''s name listed under "Blade Instructor". He mentally added that elective as one of the top ones. He was surprised to find Gabriel''s name, or rather Professor Keller''s name under "Hand-to-Hand Combat". When they last talked Professor Keller didn''t mention him having an elective he could take, so it was unexpected.


    "Isn''t Professor Keller a Senior Professor? Wouldn''t that mean that only upperclassmen can take his class?" Julius directed his question toward Edgar.


    "Not if it''s an elective. For electives, it is first come first serve, which is why many of the older students get here early," Edgar told him.


    "You haven''t signed up?" Julius asked.


    "Oh, is his name written down for the elective?"


    "Yeah, I saw his name," Julius said while reaching over and showing Edgar the paper.


    Julius saw Edgar get up immediately, grabbing his tray. The tall girl spoke up, "Right now Ed? It is already pretty late, they might be closed for the day."


    "You never know, but I don''t want to wait for tomorrow, it might be all full by then." he turned to Julius, "If you''re interested I would recommend you come with me as well. I took Professor Keller''s elective in my second year and it was one of the best classes I have ever taken."


    Julius saw the guy''s eyes light up like it was Christmas morning. He must have really liked Gabriel''s class to be this excited.


    Julius decided that we rather not risk letting the class fill up before he made his choices, if Gabriel''s class was as popular as Edgar was saying, then it was better to be safe than sorry.


    Julius got up and cleaned up his tray too, he was already practically finished anyway. Edgar''s friends all said bye and Julius made sure to thank them for their help before leaving with Edgar.


    The two of them left the cafeteria, heading for the admission building at a brisk pace, hoping they made it there in time.


    Neither said anything for the first couple minutes, but Edgar finally broke the silence, "So what do you think of Goldencrest?"


    "I have been enjoying it. So far everything has been beautiful and you guys were certainly nice." Julius said to him.


    "Yeah, the four of them are some of the nicest people on campus. There are a lot of snobby nobles running around, I am sure you will meet plenty of them in your own classes, but those four are the exception." Edgar proudly said.


    "All of them are nobles?" Julius asked.


    "Yep or at least close enough. The other guy is Kyle Quincy, he is the second son of the head of the Quincy family."


    Julius had heard of the Quincy family, they were a renowned mage family, they only had the title of Baron but they were very powerful and very influential. They weren''t a house anyone wanted to mess with.


    "The tall girl is Aubrey Crysalia, daughter of Fiona Crysalia, a Tier 6 powerhouse. The other girl is Lily Violet, the granddaughter of Count Violet. And you met Derek already, he is the grandson of Duke Zenith," Edgar explained to Julius as they walked.


    Julius wasn''t familiar with Fiona Crysalia but being Tier 6, though not officially a noble gave one more influence than a lot of nobles. Count Violet Julius had heard about though. Edwin had told him that House Violet had built a trading empire that impacted the entire Empire as well as Corvus and The Alliance of Morning Sun.


    Duke Zenith was considered one of the strongest people in the Empire. There were rumors that he was over Tier 6, but Julius didn''t know if that was true. He was an old monster and Derek was his grandson. Julius made sure not to offend Derek in the future, otherwise his scary grandpa might drop a mountain on him.


    "And you? Are you not a noble?" Julius inquired.


    Edgar shook his head, "Nope. Just a commoner, those four had already known each other before coming to Goldencrest, but I made friends with them in my first year. If you are ever in trouble or just want to talk, don''t hesitate to ask any of us."


    Julius smiled, he had been having a lot of good luck lately. There was a point of time in his old life when he felt like everyone he met was an asshole or was having a bad day. Therefore, he was able to appreciate when he met kind people. So far, other than an occasional rude person he had met a lot of nice people, such as Declan, Orus, Rae, Gabriel, and now these five. It felt nice.


    They finally arrived at the building and walked through the doors, hoping they weren''t too late. Julius saw a group of staff members starting to put things away, and getting ready to leave. Edgar saw the same and quickly intercepted them.


    "Excuse me! Sorry!" Edgar ran up to them, getting their attention.


    "I''m sorry, but we are just about to head out." A lady apologized to them.


    Julius spoke up as well, "Please, we ran here from the cafeteria mid-meal. It won''t take long I promise."


    Another man off to the side said, "What do you need help with?"


    "We noticed that Professor Keller was teaching Hand-to-Hand Combat this year and wanted to fill in our schedules before there are no more spots," Edgar explained.


    The man smirked at that. "Ah, I understand your rush. There have been a lot of people already signed up¡­" He turned to the lady, "Jen, you can go, I will take care of these two okay?" Then he turned back to them, "How does that sound to you guys?"


    They both profusely thanked the man for his help. It didn''t take that long, Edgar already knew what he was going to take, and was just adding a third elective to his schedule instead of the two he had planned on.


    He also helped Julius with figuring out what times he wanted to do his mandatory classes. He advised Julius to do Physical Training first thing in the morning, then do Intro to Mana and Tier Advancement afterward, leaving Applied Combat for last. Then he chose his electives which were all after his mandatory ones. He went with Sarah Hashen''s and Gabriel''s electives. He also selected an aura control class. Julius didn''t want to openly tell people he could use aura, but it was too important of a skill not to take a class on. Plus, it wasn''t said he had to use aura to take it, so he could always lie and pretend he couldn''t use aura, then practice what he learned later at night. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Edgar approved of his choices, he was a little confused about his last class, but he didn''t say anything about it. Before they went their separate ways, Edgar told Julius to stop by their table whenever he felt like it. Julius told him he would and made sure to thank Edgar for his help.

 Chapter 56: Aura Skill Evolution

    When Julius got back to his room, the first thing he did was feed little Drasil some life mana. Like usual Drasil inhaled the mana, like a fat kid eating Oreos. Julius had to admit it was somewhat impressive to see. It wasn''t just a little bit of mana either. It was much more than he used for each usage of [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal].It was getting late, but Julius still wanted to check out the training areas. He locked his door and headed for the first-year training area. It wasn''t a far walk, so Julius got there in a couple of minutes.


    He had to scan his school badge to get in. When he walked through the doors of the facility, he was surprised to see other students there as well. The training area was huge, it was about the size of a gymnasium. Various activities were portioned off from each other, weight lifting, sparring, agility, meditation, you name it and they had a separate room for it.


    He walked past another first-year who was busy lifting weights and headed to a private room that had dummies installed. He wasn''t planning to do any hard training right now, he wanted to finish reading the books he got today. He didn''t think holding off on evolving his [Mana Manipulation] for too long was good. The two books he read already narrowed his choices down, but he wanted to read some more before he made a choice.


    Julius tested out the dummies, giving them a few strikes to see how well they held up. He was quite pleased to see that they were of much higher quality than the ones at the guardhouse. These even had an option that would allow them to attack you. They weren''t very graceful but it sure as hell beat hitting a stationary object.


    Once Julius felt comfortable, he started to crank up his power. The first thing he did was to use [Kinetic Augmentation] to the max. After some warming up, he was rocketing his fists and legs into the dummy at a blistering pace. Much faster than when he was fighting Gabriel the other day.


    Then Julius began to slowly add aura into his strikes, enforcing his attacks even further. Heavy punches and kicks smashed into the dummy, each strike compacted and neat, just like Gabriel. His style was different than Gabriel''s. Julius''s style revolved around using his speed, aggression, and perception to punish opponent''s openings, while Gabriel was a steel wall, not allowing anything through him. Both were effective strategies that relied on their strengths, but Julius wanted to take some of Gabriel''s methods for himself.


    The one thing that impressed Julius was how few openings Gabriel left open. Even the ones that seemed open were baits. Throughout their fight, Julius realized how that worked. It all played off of Gabriel''s striking. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Gabriel was able to use aura to compact his strikes and create a resonating force through his blows. This allowed him to keep his swings short and neat, not allowing any room for counterattacks and never overextending himself.


    Julius''s first thought was that he wouldn''t be able to generate enough speed or torque, but aura solved that. With a generous application of aura, he was able to replicate Gabriel''s aura strikes. It required Julius to expel it at the right moment, but he already had practice with something like that. Kinetic energy needed the same timing.


    Julius completely ended up forgetting about his plans to read the books tonight and got so absorbed with the new technique that he spent many hours practicing the same strikes over and over. He unleashed aura strike after aura strike at the poor dummy, he even had it start moving so that it was more challenging to time up his attacks.


    But he quickly got the hang of it. He was soon able to recreate the resonating force that Gabriel had demonstrated, he didn''t know how effective it was, but he felt like even if he punched someone wearing full plate armor, the resonating force would definitely transfer beneath to their bodies.


    It was only after this did [Fighter''s Will] finally tipped over that threshold.


    [Fighter''s Will lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    Skill [Fighter''s Will] has reached level 15. Would you like to evolve [Fighter''s Will]?


    It wasn''t even a question.


    Skill [Fighter''s Will] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Warrior''s Will], [Aura Strengthening], [Aura Sense], [Empathy], [Empowerment of Will], and [Aura Strike]


    Finally, after many sleepless nights, he was able to evolve the skill. He was getting worried that he might have needed to tier up before he was able to evolve it.


    He was glad he didn''t.


    Julius reviewed the possible advancements.


    [Warrior''s Will] was the direct upgrade, but also a good option. He liked how [Fighter''s Will] had overlapped with [Savage Dance] and let him focus even more.


    [Aura Strengthening] was predictable, it most likely would be a skill that focused on improving his physical abilities with aura from the inside. If he really wanted to go the close combat route, he should definitely consider it.


    [Aura Sense] must be like [Mana Sense] but for aura, he didn''t think he would need something like this. He already had [Spatial Perception] that allowed him an easier time to detect aura usage along with his improving ability using it. It might make it easier to do so, but he hadn''t been unable to detect an aura probe yet. Declan doesn''t count, because if Declan doesn''t want you to notice his probe, you won''t. He said that not many people, even some Tier 5''s could detect his aura.


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    Julius would rather choose another skill. Then there was [Empathy], which was one of the most interesting skills Julius had been offered. He suspected that his adventure through the market using aura was the reason for this option.


    It sounded like it was a skill that would allow Julius to know what people were feeling. It might not sound that impressive, but Julius could already imagine several uses for it. For example, if he got good enough he would be able to tell when people were lying to him. He might also be able to know how someone was going to attack. Emotions are powerful things, and being able to read them might be a useful ability.


    Julius looked at [Empowerment of Will]. It sounded similar to strengthening, but he had a feeling that it wouldn''t just empower his physical strength. It might be able to empower his spells as well. Much like how the troll mage had used aura to shroud his attacks, Julius might be able to do something similar.


    He had tried already, but the most he could do was stabilize it slightly. He often didn''t bother because the effort wasn''t worth the results. Even after training it for a while he still hadn''t made much progress. But he could see the value of empowering his spells and even constructs with aura. For that reason, he was leaning toward this skill.


    Then there was [Aura Strike] which he immediately dismissed. He felt like he would be able to do it comfortably on his own soon. It was so similar to how he used kinetic energy to punch something that he would rather use the slot for something more difficult and mentally draining.


    At the moment it was between [Warrior''s Will] and [Empowerment of Will]. He believed that [Empowerment of Will] was undoubtedly the better skill of the two, but he liked the focus element of [Fighter''s Will], maybe [Empowerment of Will] had a focus element, but it was unlikely.


    However, Julius thought of something. It was a crazy idea, but would he be able to empower his other skills with aura? If [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Arcane Construct] could be empowered like he expected they could, then it might be possible to empower a skill like [Savage Dance] or [Spatial Perception].


    He didn''t know if that would work, but Julius had made crazier ideas possible and really wanted to try this one.


    Congratulations, you have learned the skill [Empowerment of Will] (Rare+)


    Only time would tell if it was a good skill. Julius closed his notifications, almost overlooking something very important.


    A superior skill! Julius yelled to himself.


    Julius was ecstatic, he wasn''t expecting something like this. He already knew the power of a superior skill. [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was his most powerful skill. He had no idea what made this skill a superior skill though.


    There was only one way to find out he smiled to himself.


    Julius dropped back into the same stance he had been in for most of the night, he didn''t use [Kinetic Augmentation] or any kinetic energy, just pure body strength, and aura.


    He activated [Empowerment of Will] and felt his entire body get illuminated by a dense aura, it was exhilarating. Even without any kinetic energy, he was already exploding with power. Also, for the first time, he was able to cover his whole body with aura.


    Previously, he thought that he would need to get to the next tier, in order to improve his soul and get more soul energy, but nope. It seemed like he just sucked and wasn''t able to do it. He had plenty of aura to cover his body, but he had been using way too much on each body part before.


    With [Empowerment of Will] he was only covering himself in the thinnest sheet of aura, but it was dense and potent. He sent a punch at the dummy, and his fist moved so fast it was like he had [Kinetic Augmentation] active. It crashed into the dummy with a deafening boom.


    He barely had to focus on timing the aura anymore, it happened naturally, and the skill knew what he wanted and did it for him. The resonating force penetrated deep beneath the surface. Julius smiled widely, it was a fantastic skill.


    Then he activated [Kinetic Augmentation] as well, but that turned out to be a bad idea. The energy was too much and Julius literally felt his body bursting apart like a balloon filled with too much water. However, for some reason, he couldn''t turn them off immediately, the aura and kinetic energy were stuck in his body, with nowhere to go.


    Thinking fast, he dumped as much kinetic energy and aura into his fist as he could, and sent it ripping toward the enchanted wall on the other side of the room. A surge of invisible force smashed into the protective barrier with such an incredible force. The cobbled-together technique was almost as powerful as a fully condensed spike but covered far more space. Julius''s spikes were condensed fire and kinetic energy, which he caused to implode, creating an explosion. It required him to stick his target with it to do damage. It was an attack where precision was necessary.


    This attack was more like an expanding wave that caught everything in its path. It was a good AOE attack when he thought about it. He could use it against a horde of weaker enemies and use his spikes or disks for stronger individuals.


    The only downside was that the attack managed to mangle his arm pretty badly. He hadn''t been prepared for the technique and the force ripped apart his arm. [Savage Dance] was keeping the worst of the pain at bay, and he swiftly activated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal], bursting his arm into flames, and healing it rapidly.


    Within a few moments, his arm was as good as new, except for the burn scars that still remained there. At some point he had become used to getting injured and healing, not even blinking at debilitating injuries.


    Okay, no using both skills at full power. My body can''t handle the stress. Julius reminded himself.


    But he did want to find out how much he could use each skill before it became too much. So preparing to hurt himself again, he slowly activated both skills. [Empowerment of Will] and [Kinetic Augmentation] each building up at a snail''s pace.


    Julius was careful, he didn''t want a repeat of a minute ago. It was at around half that Julius felt his body was starting to fill up. His skin got tight and his flesh was breaking down from the energy. He tried to hold on for as long as he could, but eventually, he stopped supplying any more energy and focused on toning it down. But just like last time, he couldn''t seem to release the energy, without manually using the energy for an attack.


    This might become a problem.

 Chapter 57: Testing Out [Empowerment of Will]

    He didn''t know why he couldn''t seem to reabsorb his kinetic energy or his aura, it was almost like once they merged in his body, it became a chaotic mix. It was like a bunch of Skittles and gumballs had gotten mixed together in the same jar and he couldn''t separate them apart.He tried to do both at the same time, but they had different sources, so that didn''t work. It just made the energy in his body that was tearing him apart even more frantic. He had an idea though. In his mind, he envisioned one of those industrial machines that separate potatoes based on size, filtering kinetic energy to one end and aura to another.


    It took some time, but he could slowly feel it working. The energy in his body was becoming two separate sources again. Once, he was able to do that, releasing the energy became simple. He put both energies back where they came from and felt his body relax as it was no longer being torn apart. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to heal himself, piecing him back together bit by bit. Originally, he didn''t see much use in Tier 2, he thought that Tier 2 would barely give him a power boost, but now he was rethinking that.


    Now that he had [Empowerment of Will] on top of [Kinetic Augmentation] his body needed to get more resilient. He believed that he had finally reached the limits of his Tier 1 body. Only would getting to Tier 2 would solve that.


    Luckily, he was close to the next tier. He believed he had a decent chance of advancing right now, at this very moment. His mana felt like it had infused with his body enough, and all he needed was that last push. However, he decided to hold off for a little, at least attend some classes first.


    He wasn''t in that much of a rush. He felt like there was a lot more for him to do and now that he was relatively safe, he didn''t need to blindly rush into things, just to get a bit stronger.


    Now, that he found out how much kinetic energy and aura he could use at the same time, he went again. This time, making sure to stay below the limit he had restricted himself to. For hours he just practiced letting the energy flow through, empowering him, and then letting it go.


    He wanted to get used to filtering and releasing the energy. At the moment it was much too slow, and he definitely felt like it could be much faster. It was only a matter of getting used to it. Yes, it was boring, but he understood that it would be worth it in the end.


    As long as he started to put in the work now, future Julius would be grateful for the headstart later down the road.


    By the end, he had gotten much more comfortable with the process, it still took some time, much too long if he was fighting, but it was progress. He wasn''t having to think and dedicate so much of his mental capacity to handle it. His body was beginning to understand what he was trying to do and was helping him sort the different energy types.


    It wasn''t until early morning that Julius got up to his feet. He was going to have to practice it a lot more in the future, but he felt good about the possibilities of this new technique.


    Before he left though, he wanted to see if [Empowerment of Will] worked on his other skills, not just his body. The first one he wanted to experiment with was [Savage Dance]. His body might not be able to take more empowerment, but could he say the same for his mind?


    [Savage Dance] might not be his most powerful skill, that would probably have to go to [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and maybe [Empowerment of Will], but it was definitely a pillar of his strength. The skill didn''t have any fancy exploding spikes or enhance his physical body to superhuman levels, but it allowed his mind to keep up with everything. With [Savage Dance] and [Spatial Perception], he never felt like his mind wasn''t able to keep up. His body might not be able to react in time, but he was rarely caught completely off guard.


    Honestly, boosting those skills might be completely unnecessary but there wasn''t anything wrong with improving something that already works. Julius called upon [Savage Dance], making sure to feel every nuance of the skill, from how it activated to how it affected him.


    Once he felt he was ready, he began feeding the skill with [Empowerment of Will]. Nothing happened, it was like trying to find an opening in a completely sealed jar. [Empowerment of Will] could not find a way into [Savage Dance].


    Still, Julius kept trying, he had a feeling that it should be possible. Aura came from the soul energy generated by the soul, and skills were an intrinsic part of one''s soul. It should be possible to affect his skills with his soul, and thus, his aura.


    Julius lost track of time, but then something happened. Julius had been completely surrounding [Savage Dance] with his aura, smothering it like a mother swaddling her newborn baby and some aura slipped in.


    He didn''t know what happened after that, because he blacked out instantly. But he had felt an influx of energy enter [Savage Dance].


    When he awoke, he immediately started to run [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] but he didn''t feel the skill healing anything other than some fatigue and knots in his muscles from lying down in an awkward position.


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    [Empowerment of Will lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    Julius had already leveled up [Empowerment of Will] to level 3. It must have been during his experiments that he leveled it up. It was nice to see that he was already seeing progress with his new skill and wondered what else he could do with the skill.


    Okay, so it is possible. I for sure felt aura empower the skill, but the second it did I blacked out.


    Julius did not know why he passed out instantly, but a part of him wanted to try again. The only thing that was stopping him was the time. When he looked at the clock, it was almost time for the cafeteria to serve breakfast.


    He might not have needed to eat anymore, not with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] being able to sustain him with life mana, but he still could feel hungry. An empty stomach was not a pleasant thing, and after dealing with it during the rift, he didn''t want to go through it again. He promised himself that he would make sure he would eat whenever he could.


    He enjoyed food too much not to eat whenever he could. Julius went back to his room and grabbed little Drasil before leaving again. He wanted to bring the little fellow around campus, thinking that he would enjoy the scenery and would appreciate the fresh air.


    It was a little nippy, being so early in the morning and so close to the ocean, but a little application of fire magic, and Julius heated himself and Drasil up. Even after years of coming to this world, Julius was still amazed by magic. With a casual use of fire mana, he was able to create a portable heater, being cold was no longer a problem for him.


    He and Drasil found a bench by the garden and sat down. With Drasil in his lap, he opened up one of the other books he found in the library Practical Advancements of Mana Manipulation for Close Combatants by Michael Warring.


    Julius had been curious about what the author might say of warriors or those who weren''t mages and how they used [Mana Manipulation]. There seemed to be a number of paths that close combatants could take with [Mana Manipulation]. One of the more common ones was having a resistance skill for mana. Some choose to get a specific one such as [Lightning Mana Resistance] or [Fire Mana Resistance] but most of the time you would see a generalized version like [Advanced Mana Resistance] or [Extreme Mana Resistance], there was even an epic skill that was called [Mana Nullification], that pretty much made those invulnerable to regular mana attacks.


    Those were highly desirable skills in tanks or those who were front liners. They could soak up damage and mana attacks while their teammates could focus on killing the enemies.


    There were also other paths that focused on disrupting mana, instead of resisting it. Skills like [Disrupt Mana], [Breach], and [Mana Rupture], were commonly acquired skills that ripped apart mana. The path was somewhat similar to the resistance path as it could act as a good defensive skill, but it required a more manual application of skill.


    What made it a wonderful path, was the offensive implications. A warrior could grab hold of a construct and break it down or disrupt the attack. It wasn''t as effective defensively as a pure resistance skill but it did allow warriors to disrupt a mage''s own barriers when attacking. Mages were typically weak in close combat, but they always had some protective skills just in case a warrior got the drop on them.


    However, if they were up against a mana-disrupting warrior, they could find their barriers getting stripped away or at the very least, weakened enough for the warrior to break through. It was a popular route for those who were more offensive in nature. Many cowardly assassins used the skill to great effect, like those from Clan Genshen.


    Julius recalled how the chieftain troll was able to do something similar. Except it had used its aura as a replacement. It was a very annoying ability and one that Julius might have to learn in the future.


    However, there was already so much Julius had planned. He was starting to accumulate too many things he wanted to do already. He would need to create a list of what he wanted to achieve, otherwise he would get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things.


    The first thing was deciding on what advancement for [Mana Manipulation] he was going to get. He was leaning toward [Mana Layering], just because he was aware of how much effort it took to do it manually, and having a skill for it would be very helpful. He would have liked an option like [Disrupt Mana] but unfortunately, he didn''t get that choice.


    He would just need to learn how to do it without a skill or to learn how to do it with aura like the troll had.


    Julius and Drasil enjoyed the early morning, waiting for the cafeteria to open. Once he thought it was about time, he packed his stuff back into his bag and headed over to the cafeteria. He doubted the underclassmen cafeteria was open yet, and walked across campus to the main cafeteria.


    There was a good amount of students who were already up. Almost all of them were upperclassmen, but it made sense considering that they were probably all high Tier 2 or Tier 3. The higher the tier you were, the less sleep and food you required.


    Julius quickly got himself a hearty breakfast consisting of eggs, hash browns, toast, and an item that Julius was hoping to be chicken fried steak. He went over to the same spot he found yesterday, sitting down at the table.


    He placed Drasil right next to him on the table. The little spirit seed was becoming a little large to carry around. It was a small tree at this point, he either needed to start leaving Drasil in his room or find another solution.


    He was about halfway done with his tasty breakfast when he felt Edgar and the tall girl from yesterday approach him from behind.


    What was her name again? Audrey? No, it was Aubrey Crysalia, right? Julius tried to recall her name.


    Edgar sat down next to Julius, being careful not to bump into him with his beefy shoulders. Aubrey sat down in front of him on the other side of the table.


    They each had a simple plate of food, a pretty light fare compared to what Julius had decided to get. They each had a fruit, some sort of yogurt, and a glass of some sort of green drink. Edgar had told him to choose Physical Training for the morning session yesterday, he expected that he must''ve done the same and was eating light so that he wouldn''t be puking later.


    That would make sense, but classes hadn''t started yet. Maybe, they just used to eating light or didn''t like breakfast. Julius shrugged his shoulders, it didn''t matter that much he thought. He went back to his mission and continued to devour his meal with happy abandon.

 Chapter 58: First Morning

    Edgar nudged Julius with his very large shoulder and asked, "How was your first night?"Julius had to keep himself from being tossed off of the bench, and responded, "It was productive, I saw some of the facilities after we signed up for our classes. It''s impressive how much is available to students."


    "Yeah, just wait until classes start, then you will begin to wonder how the school manages to afford this," Edgar said to him.


    Edgar noticed Drasil sitting next to Julius and asked, "Hey, is that plant over there yours?"


    Julius looked up from his food, "Yep, that is Drasil. It is a life spirit seed that I got not too long ago."


    "Oh! Are you hoping for it to become your familiar?" Aubrey perked up at hearing it was a spirit.


    Julius was about to say yes, but he caught himself. He hadn''t thought about how he was going to explain getting a life spirit with no life affinity. If he said he was planning to have it as his familiar, it might be suspicious because people usually only got familiars that coincided with their affinity.


    He could just say that he was going to have it become his familiar because he liked the thought of having a cute spirit. It might come off as a weird reason, but it might be better than admitting that he had purposefully left off his life affinity on the exam. Or maybe he could just say he had a small affinity for life and wasn''t focusing on it while at Goldencrest, he didn''t quite know yet. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He also was planning to form a familiar bond once Drasil was born, and it would be obvious to most that it was his familiar. Therefore, lying and saying he wasn''t going to form a bond with it would be stupid. He decided to tell a partial truth.


    "Yep, I wanted a spirit as a familiar and found this little guy in a small shop when I got to Heston," Julius said.


    "I always wanted to get a spirit familiar. But there aren''t any crystal spirits, at least not that anyone has discovered." Aubrey told Julius.


    "You have a crystal affinity?" Julius asked.


    "Yep, inherited from my mother," she said.


    "Wow, that''s amazing."


    Julius should have guessed that because of her last name, but crystal affinities were practically unheard of. They were similar to earth affinity users but had some amazing advantages. If her mother was a Tier 6 as Edgar had said, then she must be someone very important and very wealthy.


    "I never asked what affinity you have yesterday," Edgar said next to Julius. "I have a dual affinity for earth and fire. What about you?"


    "Fire and kinetic," Julius replied.


    "Nice, I only have a high affinity for fire, but I have an exceptional earth affinity. I only use fire to give myself a little extra boost, but I can show you some tricks if you''re interested," Edgar offered to him.


    Julius took up Edgar on his offer, he would love to see what someone else could do with fire, especially another person who fights up close.


    While Julius was busy stuffing his face, trying to finish his plate, the other two were taking their time eating their light breakfast. They were talking about a professor for a class they were both taking this year. A new professor was teaching Mana Applications and they wanted to find out if he was any good.


    A few minutes later the other girl, Lily Violet showed up with tired eyes and her pretty hair tied up in a ponytail. "Morning guys," she noticed Julius sitting next to Edgar. "Oh hey, it''s the same firstie from last night. Julius right?"


    Julius nodded. "Yep, it''s Julius. You''re Lily right?"


    "Yeah, nice to officially meet you. I see that Edgar told you about us then," Julius smiled and looked at Edgar before nodding his head.


    "Well, I guess I will still introduce myself," she curtsied at Julius, "My name is Lily Violet, a pleasure to meet you."


    Julius got up as well, gracefully bowing toward her, "It is an honor to make your acquaintance as well Lady Violet."


    "You can call me Lily, none of that lady stuff, at least not while we are at school," she told him.


    Aubrey got up as well, remembering that she had not introduced herself as well. "Sorry, Edgar might have told you already, but I am Aubrey."


    "Yeah, he told me all four of your guy''s names. He''s been real helpful," Julius told the girls.


    "Edgar''s like that. He looks mean and unfriendly, but he''s a puppy on the inside, always trying to be accommodating," Lily explained.


    "Hey! I take offense to that," Edgar interjected.


    The girl ignored him and said to Julius, so why are you up so early? Most firsties don''t wake up this early."


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    "I have always been an early riser, I guess," Julius answered her.


    "That''s good, most first-years don''t learn that until halfway through the year or even their second year," Aubrey said.


    "This one didn''t start until she advanced to Tier 3," Edgar said while pointing at Lily.


    Julius laughed, as he saw Lily start trying to hit the other boy for outing her like that. However, he stopped when he saw someone else approach their table. It wasn''t Derek or the other guy, Kyle. He wasn''t familiar with this new guy and his buddies.


    But it seemed that Edgar and his friends certainly did. They immediately stopped fooling around and looked at the boy and his three friends walked up to them with guarded looks.


    "Hey guys! You have a good break?" The handsome guy in the middle asked the group. He was of average height, dark brown hair, but had a pair of icy blue eyes that sparkled as he talked.


    "What do you want Liam?" Aubrey asked coldly.


    "What? I can''t ask about how my favorite girl is doing?" He asked while looking at Aubrey with a bright innocent smile.


    "No you can''t," Aubrey said bluntly. "Now can you please leave us be? It''s early and I don''t want you to ruin my morning more than you already have."


    Julius watched the other boy, Liam, and noticed with [Spatial Perception], that while Liam still had a smile, he had tightened his fists together behind his back. Also, his friends behind him were openly looking at Edgar and the two girls with malice.


    However, Liam didn''t pause and bowed at the waist, "I am sorry for bothering you, I will take my leave then."


    Then he turned around and headed back to their table, not saying anything else. But he did feel Liam''s aura reach out to Julius. Fortunately, he didn''t need to do anything, because Lily''s aura stretched out and intercepted it before it could reach Julius.


    Though his back was turned to him, Julius could feel Liam grind his teeth together. It seemed like there was history between them.


    Lily let out a sigh of relief. "Sorry about that, Liam is an arrogant prick."


    "Yeah, don''t let his smile fool you, he seems nice but is a rotten snake that will stab you in the back in a second," Aubrey said angrily.


    Julius looked at Edgar who saw his gaze and said, "Liam has been making trouble for us for years. He has a crush on Aubrey, but won''t take no for an answer. It makes it hard because he is one of the top students in our year, and he is one of the few who are guaranteed a spot in the Inter-School Tournament. The fact that his father is Marquis Abrams doesn''t help either."


    Ah, school drama, Julius thought to himself.


    It was a pretty common trend for nobles to take the word "no" poorly. They are used to getting what they want, no matter the cost. Julius remembered hearing Lukas complaining about some of the other members of House Hyperius who were just like that.


    Julius made sure to make a note for himself to stay away from Liam and his goons in the future. He was hoping his time at Goldencrest would be relatively low-key. Others might think that if he wanted to remain anonymous he should have gone to an academy less known than Goldencrest.


    However, in his mind, he thought that he would just stand out more amongst normal students of average schools. Goldencrest on the other hand, had some of the brightest talents of his generation, which would take the spotlight, while he could hide in their shadows. Also, he wouldn''t accept anything less than stellar when it came to education.


    Julius finished his food and ended up leaving before Derek or Kyle joined the others. With Drasil in arms, he headed for the library to do some research. He had a few days before the term officially began, but he didn''t want to waste any time.


    He grabbed another stack of books and headed off to the same nook he was at yesterday. He settled down and placed Drasil so they could overlook the garden and pond outside. Then he began to read.


    Julius spent most of the day in the library in his little spot. The only break he took was to feed Drasil, but other than that he read. He finished Practical Advancements of Mana Manipulation for Close Combatants by Michael Warring in the afternoon. He learned a lot by the time he was finished with it.


    He was particularly interested in a section that mentioned the applications of [Mana Layering]. The author mentioned how [Mana Layering] was used by certain mages who focused on being more up close and personal. There was a famous mage named Cyrus Holten who began as a water mage who focused on raining spells from a distance, but eventually became a monster in close combat.


    He was a brilliant talent with a spear and wreaked destruction wherever he went. His most famous skill was an ability that allowed him to cover his body in water. He could harden it at will into ice and was almost impossible to break. Cyrus later explained that he had been using [Mana Layering] to strengthen his water armor into many layers.


    Julius didn''t have a water affinity, but he felt like he had similarities with this Cyrus person. He still wanted to keep some of his long-range capabilities, but he wanted to get stronger in close combat too. He didn''t want to have any weaknesses his enemies could exploit.


    Julius made sure to leave in time to get to dinner, where he met up with the others again. He didn''t talk all that much, but he listened to them laughing and fooling around with each other.


    He didn''t see Liam again, but he made sure to keep an eye on him. He still remembered how Liam''s aura tried to reach out to him. If Lily hadn''t stopped it, who knows what might have happened?


    Julius went back to the first-year training area, he saw some of the same students that he had seen before. He wasn''t the only one who was putting in the effort it seemed. The room he had used before was taken, so he chose another one right down the hall.


    He decided that tonight was going to be the night when he evolved [Mana Manipulation]. He had been thinking too much about what skill he was going to take and it was bothering him. Skills were personalized to an individual''s soul and it was way too hard to predict what he was going to get. Even [Mana Overload] had about six different versions he read about that acted in very different ways. One was a version that specifically crammed as much mana into a construct or runes, while another overloaded a person''s body with mana to give them a temporary increase in strength at the cost of hurting themselves.


    He needed to trust that he would make the right decision. All of his other skills have been chosen well, even without a library full of knowledge. Don''t get him wrong, the knowledge he had learned in the past couple of days had already been a blessing, but getting indecisive wasn''t his thing. He would trust his instinct at the end of the day.


    Trying to find a perfect skill or path might be possible for other people, but Julius hadn''t found any mention of people with similar skill sets to him. He would need to pave his own way to the top. He didn''t want to copy others, because he believed that would just limit him in the long run. He wasn''t aiming at Tier 6, he was looking far beyond it. He had seen Jasper control the dimensions between worlds, that was what he was shooting for.


    It might be harder and he might fail in the end, but at least he would be spearheading his own path.

 Chapter 59: [Mana Manipulation] Evolution

    Edgar POVEdgar and his friends were hanging out in Derek''s dorm together, just spending time with each other before the semester started. They wouldn''t have much time once it did. At the moment Lily was telling Kyle and Derek about their interaction with Liam earlier this morning.


    "Yeah, he tried to use his aura on Julius. Can you believe that ass? A tier 3 trying to pressure a first-year¡­unbelievable." Lily explained to them.


    "But you stopped it?" Derek asked.


    "Yep, batted it aside before it could reach Julius," Lily said.


    Edgar never liked Liam, he was the perfect example of a pompous noble brat. It just sucked that he had perfect ice affinity. Goldencrest wasn''t supposed to play favorites, but that wasn''t how it was in reality. There might not technically be "favorites" but it was a meritocracy and those who did well were rewarded. When it came to pure combat power Liam was on par with Edgar and Derek. The three of them were all likely to go to the Inters at the end of the year.


    Lily, Aubrey, and Kyle also had good chances, but Goldencrest could only bring sixteen people as their representatives. It was more than some of the other smaller schools were able to bring, but Goldencrest was also one of the top schools on the continent, which meant that almost every single fourth-year would be able to get a spot if they went to an average school. That was why they had more slots than others.


    The competition was insane at Goldencrest, and the rewards for succeeding were just as crazy. Edgar had done well enough that he had been taken into personalized rifts many times over his years at Goldencrest. There weren''t enough rifts to go around, but everyone fought for entry rights.


    Every student understood the value of these opportunities. There wouldn''t be many chances in the outside world to find rifts that were completely scouted down to the last pebble. There also wouldn''t be a professor who makes sure you don''t die watching your back.


    There were only several hundred students in each class at Goldencrest and those at the top half were able to have more access to rifts and resources than the lower half. That didn''t mean that the students at the bottom didn''t get anything. They just received fewer resources than others. It might not seem like a lot, just a few extra delves or resources over a month or so, but after a year, those opportunities start accumulating and adding up.


    Once you get into your third year, the gap widens significantly. Those who sat at the bottom for their first two years ended so far behind, that it was almost impossible to catch up. Hard work paid off at Goldencrest, as long as you were strong enough, the school treated you well, noble or not.


    Edgar thought about the young first year that the five of them met yesterday. It was odd, they all agreed to get there early to sign up for classes and avoid the rush of new students, so they were surprised to see Julius sitting at their table alone.


    Derek hadn''t cared and still sat down at their regular table, in typical Derek fashion. Edgar was surprised to find out that Julius was a close combat fighter, and quickly got friendly with the first year.


    Edgar liked him, he didn''t talk a lot but seemed genuine and Edgar had learned that sometimes that''s all that mattered. Julius was an odd boy though, he didn''t talk like a first-year, if he didn''t look so young, he would think he was older, he found himself forgetting that the boy was a first-year multiple times when they were talking.


    He also was planning to get a life spirit as a familiar, which was weird considering his affinities to kinetic and fire. Not unheard of, but it wasn''t optimal. Also, Edgar didn''t think the others knew, but he suspected Julius had an aura skill. He didn''t know for sure, but yesterday Julius signed up for an aura elective. That could have been easily explained by someone curious about aura, but today he saw Julius react to Liam''s aura. Edgar was next to him, so could feel Julius not only sense it but also flexed his own aura just barely. Someone without a skill would not be able to move their aura with purposeful intent like that.


    But he seemed to be keeping that a secret so Edgar wouldn''t say anything. Everyone was entitled to their secrets. He had bigger things to worry about. This year was his last and he wanted to make his presence known at the tournament.


    Everyone had already decided what they were doing after they graduated, Derek was apprenticing under his grandfather, Lily was taking over some of her family''s assets, Aubrey had already accepted an invite to a top-tier guild, and Kyle was staying at Goldencrest to research, and possibly teach later. Only Edgar hadn''t made a choice yet.


    He had gotten offers like the others had, but he hadn''t decided. He felt pressured that everyone else seemed to know what they wanted, but he didn''t.


    He felt someone lay a hand on his arm. It was Aubrey, her beautiful face showing concern, "Hey, you feeling okay?"


    Edgar smiled at her and placed a hand over hers, "Yeah, I was just thinking about some things."


    He didn''t have time to waste, he would need to get stronger if he wanted to win this year''s Inter-School Tournament.


    Julius made sure he was comfortable, he was sitting down and was about to choose his skill. He took a brief moment to look at the notification again.


    Skill [Mana Manipulation] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Advanced Mana Manipulation], [Mana Hardening], [Mana Overload], [Mana Weaving], [Mana Absorption], [Mana Saturation], and [Mana Layering]


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    Now that he had time to research some of the available skills he could confidently get rid of most of them. [Mana Hardening], [Mana Overload], [Mana Weaving], and [Mana Absorption] didn''t seem like the path he was trying to follow.


    [Mana Saturation] had sounded very tempting when he first saw it, and it still was. The only problem was that he now had [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Empowerment of Will], which already tore his body apart when used together. He didn''t think he would need another physical enhancement ability, which was what most versions ended up being. And looking back on his own experiences, was what he had been doing.


    He wanted to focus on close combat, at least for now, but he also still wanted to have the versatility to use magic at range like a mage. Most people might say that he was stupid, but most people also didn''t have several times more mana than a normal Tier 1. He felt like he could handle it.


    Julius was still thinking about just taking the general [Advanced Mana Manipulation], it was an overall good skill that covered everything. But in the end, [Mana Layering] was too enticing. He believed that if he chose it, it would make learning about mana layering much more efficient, and he would not have to waste a lot of time learning how to do it manually. He was sure he could eventually, but time wasn''t exactly on his side. Not to mention, just because he chose it didn''t mean the skill wouldn''t help other aspects of mana control. The books all said it would, just to a lesser degree of [Advanced Mana Manipulation].


    Congratulations, you have learned the skill [Mana Layering] (Uncommon)


    Julius had finally evolved it and it was a relief. Now he could decide on how he was going to train. But before he took a look at his status.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 1


    Skills:


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 12] (Rare+)


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 3] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Savage Dance lvl 17] (Rare)


    [Arcane Construct lvl 14] (Rare) S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Pure Compression lvl 13] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 13] (Rare)


    [Mana Layering lvl 1] (Uncommon)


    [Swordsmanship lvl 8]


    He was thinking about combining some skills soon. He only had one skill slot left and he would rather not get rid of any. The only one he could see himself not keeping was [Swordsmanship].


    He didn''t have more plans on getting new skills at the moment, so he wasn''t going to worry until he had another one. Looking at his status, he was hoping to narrow down what he was going to do for training in the future.


    [Empowerment of Will] was something he definitely wanted to try, but it might have to wait until he reached Tier 2. He had been thinking that the reason he had blacked out was because he couldn''t handle the mental load, just like his body couldn''t. While he wasn''t sure, he felt like advancing might help out.


    So in the mornings, he would have Physical Training, and then he would get breakfast before Intro to Mana and Tier Advancement and finally Applied Combat. After his mandatory classes were done, he could grab some lunch if he wanted, before heading off to Sarah Hashen''s class and hand-to-hand following that with Professor Keller. He would then have a couple of hours to himself before dinner and after dinner was his aura control class with Professor Rhyner.


    After that, he was free until the next morning. During that time he was planning to train his mana techniques and other projects that might take his fancy, maybe he would just read. It would be an extremely busy schedule, but Julius preferred it that way. Less time to give him to worry about Lukas and Edwin, who he still hadn''t heard anything about from Declan.


    It was frustrating just waiting for someone else to tell him the news. But he reminded himself that he couldn''t even do anything even if he knew what was wrong. He was still too weak to go against Duke Greyson and his allies.


    For the rest of the night, he was going to play around with [Mana Layering] and get himself acclimated to his new skill. He hadn''t tried it out yet, but he was excited to see if it made that much of a difference.


    Around ten hours later he stopped practicing. [Mana Layering] had gone up in levels, and he had gotten a good feeling for the skill


    [Mana Layering lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    Julius would estimate the skill took off around half of the mental load. As long as Julius had an idea and good enough visualization he was able to have the skill to do a good portion of the work. However, he could still feel that the skill could provide so much more, it was just too low-level for now.


    He was sure it would get much better after it reached the halfway point. But who knows how long that will be.


    Julius headed back to his room, he was going to get some sleep before they served breakfast. However, when he opened his door he was surprised to sense another person sleeping in the other bed. It was dark but [Spatial Perception] clearly showed another form lying in the bed opposite of Julius''s.


    It seemed his roommate had finally arrived. Julius made sure to be as quiet as he could and slowly crawled into bed. However, not before he fed Drasil a bunch of mana, more than usual since he hadn''t fed Drasil since dinner.


    After that Julius quickly snuggled into his bed for the first time and fell asleep.


    When he awoke, it had only been a couple of hours. However, Julius felt refreshed and ready to go. With a roll, he managed to untangle himself from his sheets.


    The other boy was still sleeping soundly. Julius had been tempted to just wait for the boy to wake up for breakfast, but he remembered what Aubrey said about most first years not getting up early until later on in the year or even their second year, then decided to introduce himself once both of them were properly awake.


    For now, he brought Drasil with him and headed off to breakfast. When he got there, all five of the group were already eating their light breakfast. Except for Kyle, who like Julius had a pile of pancakes and eggs.


    He had a feeling he was going to like Kyle. Lily seemed to notice him first, although her back was facing him. She turned around and waved with a brilliant smile. "Morning Julius!"


    He smiled back, her joy infectious. "Good morning Lady Violet," Julius teased her while giving her a bow with his plate of food in one hand.


    "I told you to call me Lily," she grumbled at him.


    "You sure you''re not a noble? You sometimes act like a pretty good one," Edgar spoke up.


    "Oh, you''re not a noble? I thought for sure you were one with how you bowed yesterday," Lily added.


    "Me too, it definitely seemed practiced," Aubrey piped up as well.


    Julius just shook his head and laughed to himself. These guys were always in sync it was frightening.

 Chapter 60: New Friends

    "Well, my father was a noble, but my mother was a commoner" Julius admitted to the groupJulius watched as the group all wore slightly uncomfortable faces, hearing the past tense he used to describe his parents. He didn''t mean to make them feel awkward and felt like he needed to put them at ease.


    "Don''t worry, I didn''t know either of them. You don''t have to feel bad," he reassured them.


    Lily was the one who spoke up, "Of course, we would feel bad. That you didn''t know then at all makes it even worse."


    "So how did you learn manners like that then?" Derek asked, trying to change the topic.


    "I had a teacher that taught me basic etiquette. He was a real sticker for things like manners," Julius admitted.


    Edwin was indeed a stickler for manners and rules alike. Especially when it came to his tea time. Julius remembered how Edwin would scold him for hours about how he wasn''t drinking tea properly. He also made sure Julius could brew a proper cup of tea, which led to many lessons about the intricacies of tea and the optimal way to brew leaves in order to maximize their aroma and flavor. It was silly at the time, but now that they might be gone, that was all he could remember about Edwin.


    "Anyway, what did you guys have planned for today," Julius shifted the conversation away from him and his family.


    "Since today is the last day before the term starts tomorrow we were thinking about going down to the ocean. It will be the last day we can relax in peace for a while once the term starts." Edgar said.


    "Hey, why don''t you join us? We can show you some of the secret spots." Lily offered Julius excitedly.


    Julius was about to decline, saying that he had to train and research, but he stopped himself. He had been thinking about his crazy training schedule for a while. He was already training from dawn to dusk, and he didn''t think that would be healthy. He was in a whole new world, and was he planning to sit inside a training room for his entire life here?


    He sure hoped not. He still had plans to explore many parts of this world. Training and getting stronger were simply means which would allow him more freedom. He had to constantly remind himself that it wouldn''t matter how strong he got if he couldn''t enjoy other aspects of life.


    "You know, I think I would really enjoy that," Julius said.


    "We were planning to meet up and go there in a couple of hours, once it warms up, and then have lunch down at the beach. Does that work for you?" Derek asked him.


    "Yeah, I have some stuff I wanted to do before I go," Julius said.


    With promises to meet back at the cafeteria, Julius left to head to the library. Now that he had evolved [Mana Manipulation] into [Mana Layering], he wanted to see if any more books specifically talked about training methods or applications he could get inspiration from.


    When he walked in, he saw the same librarian he always saw in the morning and waved to her while scanning his badge. He headed for one of the many aisles and began searching for anything that related to [Mana Layering] or something that caught his attention.


    He picked up whatever seemed interesting and took it to his nook. However, it was already taken by the third year he had seen on his first day here. It seemed that Julius was too slow and lost his spot.


    Sighing, he found himself a spot just down a little way, it was just as nice. He was still amazed at how beautiful a place the library was. He made sure he didn''t lose track of time, sometimes he could get so wrapped up in whatever he was reading that he forgot he needed to do something.


    Once it was getting close to ten o''clock he packed his bags up and returned his pile of books for another day. Then he walked out of the library, heading back to the cafeteria.


    When he got there he saw that Kyle was already there before him. Julius hadn''t talked with Kyle yet, the guy didn''t talk and Julius sometimes forgot he was even there.


    He walked up to Kyle and said, "Hey Kyle, you waiting for the others?"


    Kyle looked at Julius for a while and just nodded not saying anything to him.


    Julius didn''t mind, he didn''t feel that Kyle was being rude or anything. He thought that it was more because of shyness or that Kyle just didn''t like to talk.


    So Julius didn''t say another word and stood next to Kyle as they both waited for the others. Derek was the next one to show up. He had a large pack across his shoulders and a bag in another. Derek waved at the two of them and began telling Julius all about the spot they were taking him to.


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    "We found it in our second year, it is a little of a hike but there are usually very few people who go there. It is a place where only locals or other students hang out. I think you will enjoy it," he told Julius.


    Eventually, Edgar, Lily, and Aubrey all show up together afterward. Derek told him that fourth-years can get their own rooms, but also still choose to live with a friend if they want. Lily and Aubrey were roommates while the other boys all had their own rooms.


    Now that everyone had shown up, Julius followed them across campus to a garden that rested on the edge of campus. Deep in the garden, there was a path that led down to the ocean.


    Goldencrest was placed on top of a cliff that overlooked the ocean, but underneath the cliff were large stretches of beach and sand. Heston was always a popular place for tourism in the summer.


    The path was a steep decline covered with rocks that you had to be careful maneuvering around. It would have been a struggle if he was still a normal person, but with his improved physical capabilities, it was quite simple.


    The view was amazing though. He could see the sun above the horizon, shining down on the crystal blue waters of the ocean below. The rays of light hit the grains of sand, and they sparkled like diamonds.


    When they finally made it to the beach, Derek took the bag off his back and started to remove many items from its interior. He took out way more things than what a bag that size should have been able to fit.


    It was obviously a spatial bag, much like the one he saw Lukas and Edwin carry. They were ridiculously expensive, but Julius remembered that Derek was the grandson of Duke Zenith, so it wasn''t that surprising.


    Julius was glad too, because Derek managed to take out an entire campsite complete with chairs, tables, umbrellas, and plenty of food for all of them. It was an extravagant trip to the beach that Julius hadn''t been expecting. But one that was very welcome.


    "Do you have any goals for the year Julius?" Derek asked Julius as he was sitting right next to him enjoying an ice-cold drink on one of the chairs.


    "I have a few things that I want to improve, such as skills, but generally I just want to get stronger," Julius replied while also sipping on a drink of his own.


    "No plans for the Intra or Inter-School tournaments? I can tell you are right on the cusp of Tier 2, something not many first-years achieve before coming to Goldencrest," Derek said.


    Julius shook his head, "I don''t think I will be participating in any of the tournaments."


    Aubrey was off to the side with Edgar, talking with each other, but must''ve overheard what Julius said because she said, "What? Why would you not even try? There are many great rewards for doing well."


    Rewards? This was the first time Julius had heard about a reward for the tournament other than prestige. "What kind of rewards?" He asked Aubrey.


    "Goldencrest will reward anyone who does well. I got tenth place in my class last year in the Intra-School Tournament and I was given personal training and delver''s rights to a rift that was perfectly suited to me. I even leveled up many of my skills during that rift. It is very worth it," she explained.


    The Intra and Inter-School Tournament was separated into two different age groups. One for underclassmen and one for upperclassmen, most people want to watch the upperclassmen tournaments, but many also want to watch the younger students too.


    It was a good place to display your talent and was a good indicator of your potential. Julius didn''t know about the delver''s rights, but that would be a good reward if it got you exclusive rights to a rift fit for your needs. One of the reasons why it mattered what school you went to, was that the better schools had many more rifts available to them. Some of them were artificially created, and others were naturally formed that the academy cultivated over many years.


    Julius knew that he would be delving into rifts throughout his time in Goldencrest, but that would be with other students of his class. Exclusive rights were different, he would have free reign within a rift, allowing him to challenge himself and practice with more freedom. The only thing was that Julius doubted they would just allow him to into a rift alone. Although it might be exclusive to him, he would still probably have a professor who would watch over him, to make sure he didn''t die.


    If that was the case, then he wouldn''t be able to go all out either way. So the rewards didn''t matter as much.


    "You can also get resources that will increase your skills or advance your tier," Edgar added. "I got a special fruit that was able to upgrade my body and skill last year."


    Now, that was more tempting to Julius than exclusive delver''s rights. Resources that could upgrade someone''s physical body were extremely sought after and rarely available on the market because more people keep them for themselves.


    Something like that might lure Julius into participating. But he expected that the rewards for the underclassmen were not as good as those for upperclassmen. He asked the group this just to make sure though.


    "Yeah, last year the upperclassmen winner of the Intra-School Tournament last year got a soul-bound weapon that was personally crafted by a Tier 6 blacksmith. You won''t find anything like that for winning the underclassmen tournament, but that doesn''t mean the other rewards aren''t good. They are still better than almost any top reward from other schools," Derek told Julius.


    "You should totally try! Even if you don''t do that well it''s okay. I don''t do that well usually, Kyle and I aren''t specialized in combat, but we learn a lot from the experience." Lily encouraged him. She probably thought that Julius was nervous about not doing well and embarrassing himself.


    "Don''t downplay your success, Lily, you and Kyle both nearly made the top 50 in last year''s Intra-School Tournament, as third years. That is impressive." Aubrey said to Lily.


    "Well, it doesn''t feel that good when everyone else did so much better than us. You, Edgar, and Derek all made it top 50. Derek and Edgar even made it to the top 25." Lily stated.


    Julius heard that and was impressed. Even amongst other fourth years Derek and Edgar were among the best as third years. He wondered what that meant for this year. Were they favorites or were there more impressive third years?


    "What Lily is trying to so say is that it might be something to consider. I haven''t seen you fight yet, but I believe it would be a good experience. You don''t have to make a decision now, you can wait," Derek said to Julius. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After that, the conversation turned back to more normal things like how busy things were getting now that most of the students were returning today.

 Chapter 61: Meeting His New Roommate

    After the beach with the others, Julius went back to his room. He didn''t know if his roommate was still there but thought there was a good chance he was. Last night Julius had noticed a lot of bags and items that hadn''t been unpacked yet. So, there was a good chance the other boy was still moving in.Julius walked through the campus, observing how much more busy it was in just a matter of a day. Now, it seemed like the entire campus was alive with hundreds of students going back and forth. There were students of every kind.


    He even saw some beastkin and half-elves roaming around campus, trying to find their dorms. Julius tried to squeeze his way through the crowds, but it was hard without outright shoving people of the out way. No wonder the others chose to get back to school early, it was a madhouse.


    Finally, after double the amount of time it should have taken, he got back to the Crescent Dormitory. There were many staff around trying to direct students where they should go and trying to keep the chaos to a minimum. Julius barely got through the hallway to his room, where he found his roommate unpacking his stuff with the door open.


    Julius squeezed past a particularly large amount of luggage from another room and went into his room. The boy must have heard Julius, because he turned around.


    "Hello! You must be my roommate, I am Henry Bishop, of the Bishop Clan," he introduced himself and extended a hand.


    Julius reached over and shook the other boy''s hand. "Nice to meet you, Henry, I am Julius Snow."


    Julius saw Henry look him over like he was deciding whether or not Julius would be worth befriending. Julius didn''t like it. But he would at least give the other boy a chance. After all, they would be living under the same roof the year.


    "I don''t think I have had the pleasure of hearing about a family with the surname of Snow. Are you perhaps from another country? Maybe Corvus?" Henry asked him with a plastic smile.


    Julius knew what he was doing. It wasn''t that subtle, but he would play along for now. "No, I am from the Empire, just a commoner, not a noble."


    "Oh, that is a shame," Henry said. Then he turned around ignoring Julius, and continued unpacking.


    It does really sound like it is a shame. Julius thought to himself.


    He had been having a lot of good luck lately with nice people and he was praying that his roommate would be one too. However, that didn''t seem like it was the case.


    As long as they both could be somewhat respectful and courteous of each other''s space then Julius didn''t care. He wasn''t going to be spending a lot of time in his room anyway.


    Julius went over to his side of the room where he saw a pile of clothing on his bed. It appeared that someone had dropped off his uniform this morning. It was a very elegant uniform of soft black cloth and brilliant gold embellishments that fit the style without being gaudy.


    There were only two of them, as well as some other clothing he expected was for training. A note accompanied the uniform. It said that each uniform was enchanted with a self-cleaning feature and would completely disinfect the uniform with a small amount of mana. It was a good choice on the part of the school.


    He couldn''t even imagine how much it would cost and waste time washing every student''s uniform every day. It most likely saved them time, money, and energy with this one enchantment.


    Julius quickly stripped down and put his uniform on. He didn''t mind that Henry was still in the room, he would have to get used to changing in front of him if they were to be roommates. The uniform fit perfectly, it was sharp but also loose in all the right places. Whoever made them knew what they were doing.


    Julius made sure to feed Drasil before he left again. A part of Julius was worried about leaving Drasil in the same place as Henry, but decided it wasn''t a good decision at least for now. There were too many people moving back in today, and it was already hard enough to weasel his way through the crowd without a plant in his hands.


    Plus, while Henry might be an arrogant noble, he didn''t think he would waste his time beating up a plant. If he did, Julius would make sure he would smother Henry in his sleep. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He headed off to the library, which surprisingly wasn''t that busy. There were more people than yesterday and this morning, but nothing on the scale of the rest of the campus.


    Julius went off and found the book he had been reading earlier, The Creation of Mana Furniture. It was an entire book that caught his attention. It was about using mana of different affinities to create items such as chairs, beds, or other house furniture items.


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    It didn''t sound like it would be useful, but Julius remembered all the times he had spent in the ravine when he was in the rift, wishing he had something soft to sit on.


    The author had written the book for those at Tier 3 mainly. Apparently, this was because it was only at Tier 3 that one began to use ambient mana more freely. Julius could use it to very little effect and understood how difficult it was. It was like trying to write in a totally different language.


    He had read some hints of what Tier 3 meant, and from what he could decipher, it was a stage where your core and your body became one. At Tier 1 it was about creating a Core. At Tier 2, it was about saturating your body with mana, to make it adaptable and easier to use mana. Tier 3 was about combining your core with the Affinity Body you created at Tier 2. A fully-fledged Tier 3 should not have a core anymore, but their entire body should act like a core. Being able to store and generate mana with every inch of their body.


    It was a difficult process and one that was determined by how well you formed your Core and Affinity Body. It was a qualitative increase in power, one much higher than going from Tier 1 to Tier 2.


    However, that was pretty far off for Julius right now. He still needed to get to Tier 2, before he could think about that.


    As for this moment he wanted to learn how to create his own comfy chair. Not just a hard wooden chair, but a soft leather recliner. One where he could fall asleep. The author mentions that using ambient was better because it didn''t have any innate properties, which made it easier to change to suit your needs. On the other hand, if you had fire mana, as Julius did, then whatever you created with fire mana would have fire mana properties.


    In his case, that meant he would be sitting on a hot plate if he created a chair right now. That wasn''t the only issue, he didn''t know how to soften his constructs. He knew how to make them harder and more dense, but he didn''t know how to soften his fire constructs.


    That was why he had also grabbed a book detailing a common fire skill that some mages learned, [Fire Whip]. The problem wasn''t if Julius was able to twirl around fire mana like a rope, but his problem was making it physical. The second he wanted the construct to become tangible and not just a mass of glowing fire mana, he would need to harden it. Which led to it becoming firm and no longer malleable. Kind of like glass making in a way.


    [Fire Whip] was an interesting skill for that same reason. It allowed the user to create a tangible whip of fire that you could interact with and also manipulate more flexibly. If he learned how to do this, then creating a soft chair out of fire mana wasn''t out of the picture.


    So until dinner, he read about chairs made of mana and about the [Fire Whip] skill.


    Julius didn''t go to the main cafeteria today. This time for the first time, he went to the underclassmen cafeteria.


    It was chaos, students yelling at the top of their lungs, jostling for a position in line. He even saw multiple scuffles break out of nowhere and some of the staff had to intervene and discipline the students.


    He finally fought his way through the line of hungry students and made it out barely alive. He then tried to find somewhere to sit, but there was no empty table, there were some open seats but he would need to sit next to someone.


    Julius sighed and picked a table at random, that didn''t seem as rowdy as the others. It reminded him of a high school cafeteria. There were already cliques forming. One table had only nobles, eating with diligent manners and decked out in expensive jewelry, there was another table full of girls who were laughing and giggling annoyingly loud, a table that had a bunch of nerdy-looking kids with glasses not talking to each other, and everything in between.


    It was funny in a way. Even in a totally different world, human sociology remained the same.


    Julius just sat down and began eating his food. He was getting annoyed because his shoulder was constantly being jostled on both sides. Nobody had acknowledged his existence yet. The final straw was one he was trying to get some food into his mouth and one of the kids threw something from across the table, knocking into his plate, and making a mess.


    Julius had enough. He got with his messy plate and was about to find another table to eat at when he sensed something. [Spatial Perception] had picked up someone, someone he was familiar with. There were so many students that it was hard to differentiate between them, but finally, he narrowed it down.


    Off by the table of nobles, Julius noticed another first-year student with blonde hair and a radiant smile. Julius knew that face, he met him right before the incident at the mansion.


    What was his name? Dillion right? No, not Dillion. What is it? Ah! Tristan, it was Tristan. I had completely forgotten about him.


    Julius hadn''t cared at the time, the conversation between them hadn''t lasted more than a minute, but now he remembered. Tristan was his cousin and he had mentioned to Lukas that he was going to Goldencrest. How did Julius forget that?


    Now he was at the same school with someone who might be able to recognize him. Someone who knew who he was.


    The bright side was that Tristan barely met Julius and Julius had changed a lot over since then. He was much taller and had more muscle after his body transformation which was caused by [Kinetic Reinforcement]. Also, the last time Tristan saw Julius he had been wearing his signature blindfold, so Tristan wouldn''t have gotten a good look at his face.


    What Julius was more worried about was whether Tristan and his father were a part of the plan. They left at an awfully suspicious time, right before the attack happened. However, if Tristan didn''t know about it, then he might even be an ally who could help Julius find out what happened. It might even be a blessing.


    But what if it isn''t? What if Tristan and his father knew the entire time?


    Julius didn''t stand there staring for very long, he needed some space to think. This made his whole situation much more complex than he had been planning. He has already begun to accumulate too many secrets and he had a feeling that once one thread was unraveled then the whole thing would come crumbling apart.

 Chapter 62: Eating at the Big Boy Table

    Julius left the cafeteria and wandered about campus, occasionally bumping into another student on accident. The idea of leaving Heston crossed Julius''s mind, but that seemed like an overreaction. He needed to calm down and think it through. Odds are that Tristan wouldn''t recognize him and even if he did, did Julius believe Tristan would send someone to assassinate him at Goldencrest? Samuel and Duke Greyson might be bold but going that far that would be stupid.Goldencrest is one of the safest places on the continent. It was renowned for being untouchable even by nobles and their schemes. People have tried and failed throughout the years. Every time those who attempted to would be punished or killed as an example. It would be ridiculous to jeopardize that by sending assassins for one boy who nobody would believe anyway. Also, it would be a silent confession of the truth. Julius started to calm down and relax. It wasn''t ideal, but it could be worse.


    He would just need to stay aware and be careful, and he should be fine.


    Julius didn''t go back to the underclassmen cafeteria. Instead, he made his way toward the main cafeteria. For one, he wanted to limit how many interactions he might have with Tristan, two, it was much nicer there, and three, he was still hungry.


    Forging ahead, he walked into the cafeteria doors. It was much busier than the last time he was here but it didn''t have the chaos like the other cafeteria. It was still loud, but everyone was acting behaved and he didn''t see a single fight break out, unlike earlier in the other cafeteria.


    Julius noticed the weird looks he was getting. Some noticed the single dash over his uniform, indicating his first-year status, and were probably wondering why he was there.


    Julius got in line to get some food, it was short since dinner had already begun some time ago, but there were still stragglers like him. However, it was while he was waiting in line that someone seemed to finally want to speak up. A guy and a girl who were behind him in line took note of his uniform. The girl was surprisingly the one who spoke up. "Hey, newbie! Your cafeteria is on the other side of campus."


    Julius turned around to look at the girl who was causing trouble for him. She was tall and very pretty, too bad it was overshadowed by the nasty look on her face. The guy to his credit seemed embarrassed at her actions.


    "I''m sorry were you speaking to me?" Julius played dumb.


    "Yeah, you see another first year here?" The girl snapped at him.


    Julius made a show to look around, acting innocent, "I don''t know, maybe."


    The girl got even madder seeing his reaction, "First years are not allowed to eat in the main cafeteria. Now get out of here."


    Julius was about to respond again, telling the girl that there was no such rule, but someone beat him to the punch.


    "You know very well that there isn''t a rule like that Jessica. It is more like a tradition but there is nothing that prevents first-years from eating here. The only thing that does, is the bullying and harassment people like you subject them to."


    Julius recognized that voice. Lily must''ve seen him enter and was now protecting him from the mean girl named Jessica. It felt quite good that someone was sticking up for him.


    Jessica turned around and heard Lily contradict her. "It''s an unspoken rule, Lily, everyone knows it. They have their own cafeteria for a reason, make them stay there. Otherwise, this place would be crawling with the annoying shits."


    "Well Julius is different, he has been eating with us for a few days now and we like his company, so back off," Lily said menacingly, no longer sounding like her jubilant self. It was quite a change, and a little bit frightening if he was being honest.


    Finally, it was the guy who stopped Jessica from creating more of a scene. He grabbed her shoulder and told her something in her ear. Julius didn''t make out everything, but he did hear Derek and Edgar''s names mentioned.


    The girl listened and with a disdainful look, she stormed away. The guy gave Julius an apologetic look and followed after her.


    "Come on let''s get your food, we saved you a spot just in case." Lily was back to her bright self and hooked her arm through one of Julius''s.


    Julius did notice that once she spoke up for him he was starting to receive way less looks. It was like she had staked her claim on him and he was protected. Julius found this hilarious for some reason and was smiling like an idiot.


    "What''s so funny? She asked him.


    "Nothing, nothing. I just didn''t know you could be that scary." Julius told her.


    Lily blushed and smiled as if she enjoyed hearing that compliment from him. He didn''t think a person like Lily would take scary as a compliment.


    Make a note not to piss Lily off. Julius told himself.


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    Lily stayed with him until he grabbed his food, piling on plenty of food since he was still quite hungry and hadn''t eaten much before he left.


    When they walked over to their usual table, Julius saw that the group had saved him a seat.


    They all said hello to him, and even Kyle nodded toward him. Lily was telling Aubrey what had just happened to Julius with dramatic detail, it was funny. She made it seem like she had just saved Julius from an awful monster.


    "So I''m taking you didn''t like the other cafeteria?" Edgar asked him with a laugh.


    "What? Did you all predict that I would come back here?" Julius asked the entire group.


    "Kyle was actually the one who made the prediction, he said you enjoyed your food too much to want to eat in that hellhole," Derek said.


    Julius noticed a burst of mana emit from Kyle and slam onto Derek''s foot. Derek pretended like he didn''t even notice with a stoic face. Julius was surprised that Kyle was the one who made that observation. Julius looked over at Kyle who was ignoring his eyes, and smiled at him.


    "Yeah, it was so chaotic and hectic that I couldn''t eat my food in peace. I kept getting bumped every time I took a bite." Julius said.


    "Yep, I remember those days, everybody was yelling at each other and acting like little brats. Did you see any fights? There is at least one every year." Aubrey said.


    "Oh yeah, I saw at least three separate fights in the short time I was there," Julius said. He wasn''t lying either there might''ve even been more. There was so much going on it was hard to keep track.


    "Three? Man, you might be in for a whirl if you''re class had three already." Edgar said.


    "Yeah, I will probably be eating my meals here from now on. So I hope you don''t mind if I intrude," Julius said to them.


    Julius felt Edgar wrap an arm around his shoulder and tell him, "This is your table now too, if anyone has any problems just let me know and I will take care of it."


    "I think I would rather let Lily take care of it. She''s scary when she wants to be,"


    The group laughed and Lily turned red at his comment.


    Aubrey while still laughing, turned to Julius and said, "Yeah, I remember in our second year we had just gotten out of¡ª"


    She got interrupted because Lily reached out with purple mana and aura, and effectively smothered Aubrey with it. Aubrey was frozen as a statue and Lily''s eyes were glowing violet. Julius didn''t know what she was doing, but it immobilized Aubrey.


    After a few moments, Lily released whatever she did and Aubrey, finally free complained at Lily, "I hate when you do that! It feels so degrading!"


    "Well then don''t share embarrassing memories of me," Lily argued.


    "It wasn''t even that bad," Aubrey said.


    "Yes, it was. It definitely was." Lily vehemently stated.


    Julius bumped Edgar on the arm, "See? Scary."


    Lily must''ve heard him and she turned her angry gaze toward him. Julius held up his hands in surrender. "I''m sorry ma''am!" He was teasing her, but she didn''t seem to find it as funny. Lily looked like she was ready to do what she did to Aubrey to Julius.


    Luckily she didn''t and everyone laughed it off. For the rest of the dinner, they talked about anything new that happened since they last saw each other. Derek mentioned a funny run-in with a nervous first year and Julius told them about Henry, his new roommate.


    At the end of dinner, Julius had completely forgotten about his worries and was enjoying his time with his new friends.


    The next morning Julius got up pretty early. He got about a couple of hours of sleep, which was a lot for his standards. But he thought he could use a good night''s sleep before his first day.


    It was before six and he still had a couple of hours before his first class. The first thing he did was feed Drasil a morning meal of life mana. He had been channeling his skill while he did so for a while now but didn''t know if that had any effect on the little seed.


    Then he got up, ignoring the snoring Henry right beside him, and headed out. There was nobody else up, which wasn''t that surprising since the cafeteria hadn''t even opened up for breakfast yet.


    When he walked outside it was chilly like normal, so he warmed himself up with fire mana and he was all good. He found a bench and pulled out a book, reading until the cafeteria opened. Edgar and the others had insisted that if he really wanted to eat breakfast before his Physical Training class he eat a light meal like they did.


    They said he could go back after and have a bigger meal, but not to stuff himself like he usually did. Julius begrudgingly listened to their advice. He didn''t like it, but it was better than throwing up his entire breakfast during Physical Training.


    Julius was curious about what the professor would make them do during the class. It was obviously for conditioning and getting in shape, but he wondered how advanced their training methods were, especially compared to his old worlds.


    Julius remembered how intense certain bodybuilders would get about their training. He once had a friend, Noah, who was really into bodybuilding when he was in high school. Noah would watch YouTube videos all day about the physiological differences between humans and how the best way to build muscles and cut fat. Noah used to bring a literal quart of beans, a tub of rice, and several chicken breasts every day when he was bulking.


    He hadn''t seen anyone quite like that yet, but he wouldn''t be surprised if people like that existed in this world. More than likely, they might be even more extreme than Noah.


    That is a horrifying thing to imagine. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    What could someone accomplish with their physique if they had Noah''s drive in a world with magic and where anything was possible?


    Julius shook his head free of those terrifying thoughts and got up, shoving his book back into his pack. They should be serving food now, and Julius was hungry.


    When he got there, it was surprising to see how many upperclassmen were up compared to the underclassmen. The section of campus that held and housed the underclassmen was like a ghost town compared to the main area.


    Julius saw hundreds of students walking around, some were wearing their training suits and planning to go spar or train before their classes. Others were heading to the library and others like him wanted to get some food.


    When Julius walked into the cafeteria, he was able to smell the scent of freshly cooked bacon and pastries wafting from the back kitchen. It was a smell that few things could ever beat. Unfortunately, he was shaken out of his daydreaming by someone who was smiling at him from his spot in the food line, Liam Abrams.

 Chapter 63: First Day of Classes

    The entire group had repeatedly told Julius to stay away from Liam. They didn''t like the guy and were always on guard against him. So when Julius saw the guys staring at Julius from afar, Julius pretended like he hadn''t seen him. He scanned his gaze right by Liam and continued on his way to the back of the line.Julius made sure to keep an eye out for Liam with [Spatial Perception] as well as making sure to watch out for any aura attacks. He didn''t have Lily or any of the others with him today. They were doing some early morning training before their first class. Julius didn''t want to show Liam that he had the ability to use aura, not if he could help it at least.


    Julius was able to make it through the line without having a problem. Nobody bothered him or made trouble for the first year for eating in the wrong cafeteria. Lily''s claim of him must have done more than he thought.


    He was about halfway done with his meal when he got interrupted by the feeling of multiple people walking up behind him. Julius had made sure he tracked Liam''s position the entire time, so it didn''t come as a surprise when Julius felt him approaching with his buddies.


    Liam slid into the empty seat next to Julius and gave him a pat on the back.


    "Hey! Sorry we didn''t get properly introduced yesterday. My name is Liam, what''s yours?"


    Julius had already decided that he would play nice with Liam, at least for now. There was no reason for him to cause problems with the young Abram scion. The others might be able to get away with it because of their families and strength but Julius didn''t have the same luxury.


    He put on a kind smile and looked at Liam in the eyes, "It''s Julius. Aren''t you the guy who came up to the table the other day?"


    Liam narrowed his eyes and Julius felt aura drift off of Liam and reach out to Julius. It was actually a very impressive display of aura control. It clearly wasn''t the aura of someone who was untrained or inexperienced in it. There were no leaks or strays, the aura was well-contained and used purposefully.


    Julius had also decided beforehand that if Liam tried to pull the same stunt as before, then he wouldn''t slap the probe away. Julius had practiced with Declan before coming to Goldencrest. One thing he learned was how to defend yourself with aura without letting the other person know they were being thwarted. It wasn''t so much as an application of aura, but a control of your mind and emotions. He hadn''t got very good at it yet, so many emotions slipped through his grasp. But that made his aura feel more natural to anyone worth their salt and Liam was seemingly one of them.


    Before it made it to him, Julius made sure to control his breathing and activated [Savage Dance]. The skill would help Julius control his thoughts and his emotions. Usually, Julius didn''t crank up [Savage Dance] so much that it completely desensitized him anymore, but this time he muted many of his emotions.


    By the time Liam''s aura started to feel and probe around Julius, Liam would only be able to feel the calmness and serenity of Julius. It would be like a pond, with soft ripples dancing across its surface.


    Liam pressed even deeper, trying to dive into Julius''s aura, but he didn''t get very far. He was already pressing too hard for a Tier 1. Any more and he could start hurting Julius, therefore he stopped and pulled his aura back.


    This all happened within a few seconds, and during this time Liam had been looking directly at the smiling Julius. His friends off to the side were looking at each other. They must''ve felt Liam''s aura, especially the later half, as it was more than even they thought was appropriate.


    Finally, Liam smiled with the same smile Julius saw last time and replied to Julius, "Yeah, that was me." Then Liam bent down closer to Julius''s ear and whispered, "Between you and me, I have had a little crush on Aubrey for years, but I haven''t convinced her to give me a chance yet." Liam sat back up and sighed dramatically, looking like a puppy that had just been kicked.


    Julius watched as Liam put on his show. He had to admit that Liam was very good. If it wasn''t for the fact that the guy had just invaded Julius''s own aura just a few moments ago, he might have been convinced that he wasn''t a bad guy and just a normal guy pinning after a girl.


    "Well, when I saw you earlier, I just wanted to drop by and introduce myself properly this time. If you need anything, don''t be afraid to ask for me, okay?" Liam said to Julius with a kind hearted smile plastered on his face the entire time.


    Julius maintained his own smile throughout the interaction and said, "Thanks, I will remember that." The whole time he didn''t break his gaze with Liam''s ice-blue eyes.


    Julius was able to feel that Liam wasn''t appreciating that Julius was looking right into his eyes, and wasn''t acting nervous like maybe he was expecting. However, Liam didn''t show anything and got up, saying goodbye before leaving Julius to his own devices.


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    Julius still hadn''t dropped [Savage Dance] or his guard, he could still feel Liam''s aura lingering around feeling out Julius. It was only after a few minutes that Julius felt Liam''s aura recede and he took a deep breath in relief.


    He lowered [Savage Dance] slowly. Julius''s temper had been about to tip over, it was only due to the skill that he hadn''t lashed out in anger. Bit by bit, Julius was able to get a handle on himself, decreasing [Savage Dance]''s influence in increments.


    What was that arrogant prick''s problem?


    Julius had wanted nothing more than to punch that smug motherfucker right in the face and then shove a condensed spike up his ass. Even though the Silas guy in the interview had been rude, it was nowhere on the level of Liam''s attempt.


    Silas had been trying to get a general reading, nothing that intrusive just a bit impolite. Liam though, had fully pressed Julius''s aura. Even if Julius didn''t have an aura skill, he might have still been able to feel Liam''s unpleasant assault.


    The group was definitely not exaggerating when they said Liam was a presumptuous little turd. Julius made sure to remember this moment, he would get that prick back one day.


    For now, Julius had to keep his cool and remain patient. There was already so much on his plate, Liam was the least of his problems.


    It was finally time for Julius''s first official class. It was a bit exciting, although he had lived in this world for years by now, he still couldn''t believe he was going to a genuine magic academy. Granted his first class probably had no interaction with magic, it was supposedly a physical training class so it might just be training with their regular bodies with no mana or aura enhancement.


    Julius was walking across campus to where the class was going to be held. When he got there Julius saw around a dozen first-years who had gotten there before him. However, in front of him was quite impressive. The place where their class would be taking place was a huge field, much like a track and field facility. There was a big open beautifully manicured grass field with a big running track surrounding it. There was also equipment that resembled a barbell and dumbbells in a section off to the side.


    It looked like everything Julius would expect for training one''s physique. The professor hadn''t arrived yet, but Julius and the other dozen or so students were early, so it wasn''t unexpected. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Edgar had told him that most classes were grouped in bunches of around fifty for each class. That meant that there were still over thirty more kids that had to arrive.


    Since he was early, Julius found himself a nice spot in the grass and pulled out a book to read while he was waiting. It didn''t take long for more students to arrive, and as it got closer to the official start time, Julius saw that over three-fourths of the class had made it.


    He looked over at the large clock placed on a tall pedestal and saw that there were only a few more minutes before it started. However, just as he was wondering if the professor was going to be on time, he noticed a strong presence approaching the field.


    Julius turned around and saw a very muscular young man walk toward them. Julius didn''t know if he didn''t have good aura control or if he was doing it on purpose, but his presence was completely uncovered. It wasn''t like Liam''s earlier attempt, the aura wasn''t trying to intrude on their own. However, it did smother them in its intimidating embrace. Letting them all know that this professor was at least a Tier 3 and was stronger than them. Julius sensed around him to gauge the other student''s reactions, and he could safely say that it was working.


    When the professor finally got to them, his aura withdrew and he looked around and stared each of them down. Julius also took the time to observe the man. Their professor was muscular, but not to the point of being too muscular. Each part of his body was well-defined and he looked like he was cut from marble. On top of his chiseled face and well-groomed black beard, he was a good-looking man.


    Julius noticed some of the girls in the class looking a bit too attentive at the professor. Not that he could blame them. The man was good-looking.


    Their professor didn''t waste any time and introduced himself. "I am Professor Edwards and I will be your Physical Training professor for the rest of the year. Starting every day we will meet here and you will sign in with your badges at this station," he pointed at the device looking like the ones in the library and training facilities. "After you do that, we will start with cardio, before we move on to other things. We won''t do the same things every day, but you will quickly see that there is a pattern that we-"


    He was interrupted by the sound of laughter. Julius and everyone, including Professor Edwards, turned to see the commotion. There was a group of boys and girls entering the field late. Julius and the rest of the students saw their new professor''s face turn ugly as he watched the ignorant kids stroll their way to them.


    The idiots weren''t even paying attention and didn''t see the increasing annoyance on Professor Edward''s face. It was only when they stopped and sat down that they noticed the professor glaring at them.


    There were a few of them who looked properly ashamed of their late entrance, but most of them were still whispering to each other and laughing with one another.


    Julius watched as Professor Edwards walked up to them, his aura was restrained but anybody with two eyes and a brain could see he was pissed.


    "Is there something funny you guys would like the share? Maybe the reason why you all showed up late to your first class?" Professor Edwards asked sternly. His aura leaked out more and more with each word.


    One of the boys, whether out of bravery or stupidity spoke up. "I am sorry professor, we woke up late this morning." The boy didn''t sound sorry in the least and Julius was sure that Professor Edwards thought the same thing.


    However, surprisingly the professor didn''t reprimand the students any further and turned back to the rest of the class, "You guys get started running, no enhancements." He pointed at the track and the class quickly got up to their feet and started jogging around the track. The people who were late joined as well.

 Chapter 64: Physical Training

    Julius ran hard. A lot of the students were simply jogging at a pace they were comfortable with. But Julius was here to improve, and how would he improve his physique if he wasn''t pushing himself?He wasn''t the only one with that mindset.


    There were a dozen or more students who were with him the entire way. It had only been a minute or so but Julius could already see that there was a distinct divide in mindsets. In the front group, were students who were obviously Tier 2 already, based on their auras and their physical capabilities. Then there were the Tier 1 students who were pushing themselves, trying to do their best. Following them were the ones who jogged with reasonable urgency but fell behind. However, then there were the ones who were even further behind, running with no urgency and who didn''t care about the class.


    It was no surprise that Julius saw many of the kids who were late in the pack in the back. Most, if not all of them were nobles if their expensive jewelry, perfectly manicured appearances, and nonchalant attitude were any hints.


    There were several students who were way in front. One was a tall boy with a lean frame. Another was a cute brunette girl who was around Julius''s height, standing at about five foot nine. Then there was a big boy who looked like he could be Edgar''s younger brother running alongside them. After him, there was a young boy who looked average in every way, whether in height, looks, or frame. Finally, there was a girl with red hair who was tall and ran like a cheetah, outpacing the others.


    These people Julius suspected were some of the more talented close combat fighters in his year, just going off of their physical condition. They all felt like Tier 2''s and were miles above everyone else when it came to physical ability. Julius had gone through a body transformation already, but these people were much faster than him. Leaving him and the other Tier 1 students in the dust. It was impressive and reminded him that he wasn''t the only talented person there. Goldencrest was well known for a reason.


    However, Julius wanted to follow through with his plan of appearing to be an average or slightly above-average student. He clearly couldn''t try to keep up with the Tier 2''s but he also shouldn''t be keeping up with the other top Tier 1''s. That would give people the impression that he was on their level, at least physically.


    But Julius had an idea in mind. He pretended to flag a bit, as if he had used most of his energy at the start and now was getting tired. Ever so slowly, the other students put some distance between them and him.


    Professor Edwards said they couldn''t use any enhancements to help them. Still, Julius had seen some students try regardless.


    That didn''t mean Julius couldn''t use something that would actively hamper him. He was thinking about one of those weighted vests that many people used back on Earth. While he didn''t want to draw too much attention by overperforming he also didn''t want to waste his time here. He came to this school to get stronger, not to just act weak, acting weak was just a precaution.


    Julius did have an idea though. He was able to enhance how fast his body moved with kinetic energy and was able to somewhat absorb kinetic energy from enemies. So he thought that it might be possible to restrict his movement with kinetic energy. That way he could push himself but his "results" would not appear to be out of the ordinary.


    With a new idea in mind, he started to try to see if it worked. He slowly siphoned some of the kinetic energy while he was running, just like he would against a troll. He immediately felt his body become more difficult to move. It was like he was running straight into a headwind. It was perfect, Julius stopped pretending to run slow and started to go all out.


    He had to adjust and play around with it so that his maximum speed was just high enough to be above average but not enough to be exemplary. It took some time and maneuvering, but he got it down. Julius noticed Professor Edwards'' gaze was following him. The professor obviously could tell that Julius was using mana to do something. But he didn''t stop Julius. He must''ve determined that Julius wasn''t doing anything that increased his speed. So with one last look, the professor completely ignored him and went back to observing the other students.


    That was the main concern Julius had about doing something like this. The professor showed that he was able to detect students using enhancements, so Julius was worried that the professor would see him using kinetic energy to slow himself and come to the conclusion that he was enhancing his physical abilities.


    He was lucky that the professor didn''t call him out, Julius just hoped that he would keep it to himself and that the professor just thought of Julius as a weird child.


    Julius and the other students had to run for almost half an hour. Even after ten minutes in, Julius saw many students already exhausted. They were obviously not well-conditioned or used to running. The students in the front continued strong the entire time, showing that they were used to physical exertion like this. Even the slackers with their low efforts were showing signs of exhaustion and Julius saw some of them completely stop running. It was kind of sad in a way.


    Professor Edwards ordered those who completely stopped to at least keep on walking. Honestly, Julius was surprised at how relaxed the professor was with the slackers. Julius had half expected the man to yell at them like a drill instructor would. But he didn''t. Professor Edwards clearly saw a portion of the class not even trying, but stood by and let them. Julius couldn''t understand why.


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    After the thirty-minute run, Julius was exhausted. He hadn''t used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to heal himself. He had come to the realization that the skill wasn''t able to help his endurance. If he didn''t push his endurance to the limits and used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to recover, then he wouldn''t improve his endurance. He would only heal himself after the day had ended or after he had recovered sufficiently on his own.


    Professor Edwards had them sit down on the field and let them catch their breath. Even the others who had ended the run very far ahead of the others were worn out.


    After, the professor had them follow him to the section where the gym equipment was placed and explained how each piece worked and what he expected out of them.


    Julius already had a good guess of what most of the equipment was meant to do, but some of the others were shocked at hearing Professor Edwards describe the things they were going to use. Then Professor Edwards explained that he already had rotations set up. The class was divided into five groups of ten each. Each ten-person group would go to a certain section, that would focus on a specific muscle group. One group would do legs, while another did chest and arms. They would work out for the remaining time of class. Then on the next day, they would switch stations.


    Not every group did weightlifting. There was a special station that had the group run full sprints, something that would soon become the most dreaded rotation for every one of them.


    Julius was surprised at how self-directed the class was. If you didn''t want to put in the work, then you didn''t need to, but you also wouldn''t improve. It was very similar to PE or workout classes he took in high school.


    After class was done, the professor told them they were free to go and just left, without another word. Julius didn''t know what to think about Professor Edwards. On one hand, Julius enjoyed the independence he gave the students and allowed them to push themselves at their own pace. But on the other hand, he felt like the professor could have scolded some of the slackers. Julius didn''t really care about them, if they wanted to mess around then they could mess around. Still, it might negatively affect some of the other students who might see them and believe that it''s okay to slack off as well.


    Julius put those thoughts to the side for now. It was around nine and the cafeteria was still serving breakfast. He had only eaten some oatmeal and fruit before coming to class but now was hungry for something with a little more sustenance.


    The cafeteria wasn''t that busy and Julius was able to get his food and eat pretty quickly. He didn''t see the others, but he also didn''t see Liam either, so that was nice. He stuffed himself full of hash browns, eggs, toast, and bacon before he had to head off to his other class.


    His next class was Intro to Mana, with Professor Stewart. Derek said that they had her when they were first years and that she was a strict but good professor.


    When he walked into the classroom he saw a center stage with a large desk and multiple boards behind it. The room was organized into a half-circle shape with each row of desks getting higher and higher the further back you were. That way each person had an unobstructed view of the lesson.


    The professor was already there, talking with some students who were congregated around her desk. Julius let them be and found himself a seat in the middle of the room. It wasn''t in the front where he expected many of the more studious students would be and it wasn''t in the back where he knew more of the troublemakers would be.


    When it was almost time for the lesson to begin, the professor told the students around her desk to go back to their seats. She faced the students who were all sitting down. Her uniform was crisp and sharp even compared to other professors, she had a pair of glasses and looked middle-age, but it was hard to tell once you got higher up in tiers. Julius was pretty confident that she was around Tier 4, so she could have been almost a hundred and still looked like she did.


    "Welcome everyone to Introduction to Mana. This class will focus on practical and theoretical uses of mana. You might already believe that you know a lot of what we are going to cover throughout the year. However, you will be surprised by how many people think they understand the basics and then find out how wrong they are. Most people often overlook the importance of the basics, and when they get to the higher tiers, they aren''t able to keep up or fail to properly understand certain aspects of it."


    The professor went on about the importance of having a firm grasp on understanding the basics of mana. Julius didn''t disagree, but he also thought that she was coming off as a little rigid in her thinking. She made mana sound like a structured thing with strict rules and applications. While she wasn''t necessarily wrong, Julius believed that she had neglected to touch upon the importance of creativity.


    Julius was a firm believer that creativity does as much or more for learning mana than anything else. Creativity is how you have fun, and without having fun or having passion, practicing mana would become boring and repetitive. It was amazing how much more time you spent training when you actually enjoyed it.


    The exercises she was showing the class were efficient exercises that used every part of mana manipulation you would need. They were similar to many of the exercises that Edwin had shown Julius years ago. Such as controlling the shape and color of an orb of mana. However, found that doing those exercises over and over was a mental chore. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    When Julius was starting off with mana exercises, he slowly found himself making up excuses to not practice, one day he would say that he was too tired, or that he was too busy, but the truth was that he wasn''t having any fun. That was the reason he started to create his own tasks or challenges. It was the reason why he was trying to find a way to create a soft mana construct. He didn''t really need to, but he thought making a soft comfortable chair out of fire mana sounded cool as hell. That was why he was going to learn how [Fire Whip] worked as well as other mana-softening techniques.


    The fact that it might be useful later in his life was also a nice reason. But he was primarily doing it out of a sense of passion.


    You could have all the talent in the world, but if you don''t have the passion to use it, then what good is it?


    Julius gave himself a mental slap. He was in the middle of his first mana-controlling class but here he was not listening to the professor. He reminded himself not to discount what the professor said, just because he disagreed with her methodology. She might have something to say that might spark an idea for Julius. Or maybe something that he had previously thought was right, but had been wrong the entire time. He would have to keep an open mind and so he concentrated on listening to Professor Stewart.

 Chapter 65: Attending His Mandatory Classes

    He tried to keep an open mind, he really did, but he didn''t like the class at all. She taught the exact opposite of how he used mana. Where he was more intuitive with his use, she was structured and inflexible.The best way he could describe it was by comparing it to throwing a baseball at a target on the wall. For example, when Julius threw a baseball, he didn''t have to calculate exactly how far something was and what was the optimal angle to throw it so it landed in the center of the target.


    Instead, he was able to intuitively know how hard and how much he would need to arc his throw so it would hit the target. It came from the experience of throwing a ball many times at various distances over his life. Professor Stewart was teaching the class how to find the exact distance of the target, and how much power you need to throw it with a specific angle to achieve the same thing. It felt convoluted and unnecessary for something simple. If he had to do that in his battle with the troll, the troll would have smashed him into a paste before he even started to form a construct. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Sure, her way might technically be the most accurate, but Julius didn''t believe it was that practical. You might be able to use a certain amount of spells with a high level of proficiency, but you would find it difficult or next to impossible to change a spell on the fly.


    Maybe Julius was being unfair and too harsh. It was only the first lesson after all. He should give her a chance.


    On another note, he did see Tristan in that class. He was toward the back with the other nobles and he didn''t even look his way once. Julius would make sure to be careful, but he wasn''t as worried as he was when he first saw Tristan.


    Julius''s next class was Tier Advancement. One could probably guess from the name, but if it wasn''t obvious, it was a class that discussed how advancing through the tiers worked.


    That one was more interesting. It was taught by Professor Youma and he was a very kind man. He explained to the class that they would be mainly meditating and trying to advance during this class period.


    When Julius initially walked in, he was surprised to see the class organized on one half with desks and a traditional classroom, and on the other side, there were soft cushions and chairs for meditation.


    Professor Youma was sitting on top of his desk with his legs crossed over each other. He was an older gentleman, even for someone who was high-tiered. He watched from his desk as students started to pile in and find themselves a seat. It was only when the last student had sat down that he got off of his desk and started to walk around the room.


    While he was old, Julius watched him move with a grace that spoke of someone who had been an experienced fighter in his younger days. His feet were light, almost gliding across the wooden panels of the floor, each turn was precise and diligent. It was hard to explain, but it gave off a different type of presence.


    Professor Edwards had been the more intimidating type who had let his aura go a little wild to pressure his students. Professor Stewart had been the type who was strict and her aura came off as restrained, but cold and firm. Professor Youma on the other hand, had an aura that was gentle like water. It was strong, Julius believed that this man was at least Tier 4, but it was so controlled, much like Declan''s.


    His presence whenever it bumped against another student felt like a ray of sunshine, warm and relaxing. It didn''t force the students to fear or respect him. However, it was his movements and the way he spoke that captured the student''s attention. There was a poise that Professor Youma carried himself with that was missing from the other professors. It made the other professors look like they were trying to impress the students, whereas Professor Youma didn''t come across that way. The students wanted to respect him all on their own.


    Even the way he talked to the students was more casual and personal like one would hear from their grandfather. For the first half of the class, he talked about what they could expect to do during the year, much like the other professors. But Julius used [Spatial Perception] to sense around him, to gauge other student''s reactions, and was surprised that every one of them, even the nobles were hanging onto his every word.


    Professor Youma said that this class was a class that focused on getting them to Tier 2. That meant that most of the time, they would be meditating or asking questions about their future advancements.


    Professor Youma talked about the advancement to Tier 2 for a little bit, but even he said there wasn''t much to talk about. Tier 2 was a very simple Tier to achieve. All it took was some time and effort to advance.


    As long as you were able to suffuse your body with the mana from your Core, you would be able to advance easily. Julius remembered Edwin and Lukas had said the same thing. It was only at Tier 3 that more requirements were needed to be met.


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    Professor Youma also touched on some of the aspects of advancing to Tier 3. He mentioned that skills were an important factor for advancement. Advancement increased the size of one''s soul, but in order to advance to Tier 3, one needed to improve the quality of their soul, and evolving skills was apparently a good way to do so.


    It was a general consensus that you needed to have at least three rare skills to advance to Tier 3. Without that, most find themselves unable to progress to Tier 3 or they might become stuck at Tier 3 for the rest of their lives.


    At Goldencrest, students were taught to get all or most of their skills up to rare rank before trying to advance. The higher the quality of your soul, the better your advancement will be.


    That wasn''t to say that skill evolutions were the only way to improve the quality of your soul. Things such as impactful experiences could also increase the quality of your soul. There were even treasures that were highly sought after that could significantly improve a soul.


    Professor Youma explained to Julius more about advancing in half an hour than Julius could have if he spent every day for a week looking in the library by himself. He might have found some books that went over it, but Professor Youma was able to describe it so simply, that Julius and the whole class were able to understand it easily.


    The rest of the class Professor Youma had them try to begin focusing on suffusing mana from their cores throughout their bodies, showing them techniques that would hasten the progress. Afterward, when class was over Professor Youma had a group of students stay behind, Julius was included in this group.


    Once all the other students had shuffled out, he took a seat on top of his desk and spoke to the remaining students, "I asked you sixteen to stay behind because you either have already advanced to Tier 2 or because you are at the last step. For those of you who have already achieved Tier 2, congratulations it is a big accomplishment. Not much will change for you guys, this class will remain a class where you focus on advancing, just now on Tier 3. For those of you who are close, you are free to advance whenever you are ready. Getting to Tier 2 and attaining an Affinity Body can be quite messy though, so if you want to break through, I recommend telling me or another staff member and they will show you to a room that is solely dedicated to advancing to Tier 2."


    Julius recalled his experience in the ravine when he acquired [Kinetic Reinforcement]. If advancement to Tier 2 was anything like that, he could see why people thought it was messy. He still had remnants in his private crevices weeks afterward, it was only after his first shower in Heston that he was finally able to scrub it off of him.


    After that quick talk, Julius made his way to his final mandatory class of the day. Applied Combat was the last one before he had his electives. It was different from the others, instead of an hour-long class, it lasted for two hours. It was also the class where he expected to learn the most.


    Edgar said Applied Combat was almost always everyone''s favorite class, especially the combat-focused students. It was in that class that they would learn combat-specific tactics and techniques, as well as opportunities to fight for real.


    The class for Applied Combat was located in a large building much like the one where he took his practical entrance exam. It was a large gymnasium with sections divided off. Professor Rowe was the professor for the class and he was a surprisingly short man. He couldn''t have been more than five and a half feet. He didn''t look like a fighter or very dangerous at all. However, Julius didn''t let that fool him. Out of every professor he had met so far, only Gabriel and Professor Youma felt similar to this man''s aura in terms of power.


    Julius suspected that Professor Edwards had been high Tier 3, Professor Stewart low to middle Tier 4, and Gabriel and Professor Youma toward the top of Tier 4. That would mean this short non-threatening man was much more than what he appeared to be.


    However, Julius was only able to get a sense of the man''s aura because of his skill. [Empowerment of Will] he was learning was a fantastic skill. It didn''t just allow him to empower himself physically, but it worked very well when he was also using [Spatial Perception]. Julius had become much more sensitive to aura when he activated both skills at a time. It didn''t mean it enhanced his perception skill, no, that wasn''t possible yet. But it gave him another way to extend his perception.


    For example, earlier with Professor Youma, Julius didn''t think he should have been able to even catch a whiff of his aura. It was as controlled as Declan''s.


    It was only thanks to his new skill that he was able to tell that Professor Youma was that strong. It was like the skill had empowered his aura-sensing abilities as if he was looking through a crystal clear telescope rather than a dirty broken pair of binoculars.


    That wasn''t the only thing either. This morning with his run-in with Liam, he was surprised how well his emotions were kept hidden by Liam''s probe. Even with his practice with Declan, there should have been no way that he could have kept Liam away. The only reasonable explanation was that [Empowerment of Will] had helped him fortify his aura and mind from the intrusion.


    Professor Rowe had similar control of his aura, but for Julius, it was like seeing a grizzly bear trying to hide under a blanket. Julius might not see them exactly, but he could make out the general size and shape, which made it easy to guess how strong they were.


    That didn''t mean that the other students had his ability. Unlike Professor Youma, Professor Rowe didn''t have the poise and calmness that captivated his students. Instead, Professor Rowe seemed like a goofy guy, running around frantically before the lesson, and smiling like a young boy. Nothing that would demand respect from a bunch of teenagers.


    That was why Julius was not surprised to see many of the nobles start misbehaving immediately. It had only been a few minutes into Professor Rowe''s introduction when a rowdy group of students started to talk rather loudly between themselves.


    Julius could start to see that many of the other students were getting annoyed at the group''s rudeness. They were becoming louder and louder and were even starting to giggle like little girls amongst themselves.


    Julius watched as Professor Rowe seemed to reach the limit of his patience.

 Chapter 66: Removing the Distractions

    Professor Rowe had stopped talking, his smile was wiped off of his face like it had never been there. His posture was no longer slouched and relaxed. His eyes were deadly still, as he observed the still-talking students. It was a dramatic change that caught the attention of many students who were watching.Julius just sat back and waited to witness what happened next. Finally, one of the students in the group noticed that nobody was talking except for them and nudged his friend who was still joking around with his group.


    The guy had long blonde hair lying over his shoulders and according the Julius''s senses was one of the students who were already Tier 2. The blonde guy looked around and saw that everyone else was looking at their group, some with annoyance and some like Julius with anticipation. They wanted to see what Professor Rowe was going to do.


    Julius was glad to say that Professor Rowe didn''t let them get away with it, unlike Professor Edwards.


    "You there, the one who doesn''t want to stop talking, what''s your name?" Professor Rowe demanded.


    The guy to his credit, calmly responded, "Jacob Rolands sir."


    "And why are you interrupting my lecture? You guys were laughing pretty loudly, so it must''ve been funny. What was it?" Professor Rowe said with a stern tone.


    "I''m sorry Professor Rowe, it won''t happen again." This time it was a different girl in the group who apologized.


    "I wasn''t talking to you Ms. Abernath. I was talking to Mr. Rolands." Professor Rowe admonished her.


    The girl acted like she had just gotten slapped, and quickly backed away. Julius was more surprised that the professor knew her name in the first place.


    "It was just something stupid professor, I am sorry." Jacob also apologized.


    "So it wasn''t even important? The reason why you thought it was appropriate to interrupt the entire class with your giggling and chatter was for something stupid?" Professor Rowe asked them.


    The guy didn''t seem to know to answer to that. He just nodded his head while looking at the floor under his feet.


    "You and your friends are free to leave." Professor Rowe told him while pointing at the door.


    "What but we weren''t doing anything," another guy from the group protested.


    "Mr. Collins you can forget about coming to tomorrow''s class as well." Professor Rowe told the guy.


    The guy who spoke up didn''t say another word, but you could see the anger burning in his eyes as he stared down the shorter professor. The blonde guy, Jacob took his friend by the shoulders before he did anything he would regret and left alongside his entire group that was being disruptive.


    Once they had all left, Professor Rowe went back to his jubilant self. "Okay! Now that we don''t have any more disruptors, we can get back to business!"


    For the first hour, Professor Rowe explained the general gist of the class and answered many of the student''s questions regarding what they would be doing throughout the year. According to the professor, the class would be doing basic combat training for the first couple of months, it was only after that they would start doing more advanced combat training such as rift delves or full contact sparring with simulated combat devices.


    During the last hour, Professor Rowe took them around and showed them some of the facilities, before taking them to a large area where he had them change into their training uniforms. For the rest of the time, the professor had them go through some basic footwork drills before he let them go for the day.


    Not much happened throughout any of his classes except for some drama with some students, but it was a very similar experience to schools in his old world. The main difference was that his last school didn''t have magic.


    His next class was his swordsmanship elective with Sarah Hashen. Unlike mandatory classes, electives could be taken by every year of students. Professor Hashen''s class was apparently quite popular because Julius saw many underclassmen and upperclassmen all funneling into the training yard where the session was held.


    Julius checked his status for a minute and was surprised that he had some notifications that he had missed.


    [Mana Layering lvl 3 -> lvl 4]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 3 -> lvl 4]


    He had been practicing [Mana Layering] last night, but Julius must''ve forgotten to check if it leveled up afterward. He was more interested to see that [Empowerment of Will] had leveled up throughout the day. He didn''t know if it was because of the incident with Liam, or the fact that Julius had been trying to sense a lot of people''s aura, but something must have worked because it was now level 4.


    Julius let himself get distracted for a moment before he remembered why he was checking his status in the first place. He wanted to know what his [Swordsmanship] was at and how close it was to evolving to uncommon.


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    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 1


    Skills:


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 12] (Rare+)


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 3] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Savage Dance lvl 17] (Rare)


    [Arcane Construct lvl 14] (Rare)


    [Pure Compression lvl 13] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 13] (Rare)


    [Mana Layering lvl 4] (Uncommon)


    [Swordsmanship lvl 8]


    Level 8 wasn''t bad, especially considering how little time he spent using a sword. The main thing that had helped a lot was his experience fighting bare-handed. There were many similarities between fighting with his fists and with a sword.


    Both relied heavily on footwork, parrying, and distance control. The primary thing that was giving him trouble was that he wasn''t used to the feeling of brandishing a sword yet.


    However, he knew that would come with experience and time.


    Another reason why Julius was looking forward to this class was that it was a class about technique and control, which meant that physical ability wasn''t as important. He was planning to learn the sword using either no enhancement like in Physical Training or he would use about half power, as he did with Orus.


    He would prefer that he didn''t start relying on his superior enhanced strength to win him fights. He would much rather win a fight using superior technique and skill. He believed that only when he had the proper skill, he would be able to take advantage of [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Empowerment of Will].


    Julius was waiting with the rest of the students in the training yard when Professor Hashen and several other people following her showed up. By the looks of them, Julius was guessing these people were her assistants.


    Some of the other professors mentioned that they would have assistants as well once they started to pick things up during the year, but Professor Hashen was the only one who brought them to their first class. She walked up to everyone in the yard, and told them, "Everyone is to separate yourselves by years. First years start on the left and then make your way to fourth years. Hurry up!"


    Professor Hashen was much more pretty than Julius had pictured in his head. He had been imagining a large muscular woman, but instead what he saw was a woman around Lily''s stature. Her voice was light but carried easily over the training yard.


    Second years and up all formed lines quickly and with efficiency. The first years though, were struggling to place themselves in an orderly manner. There were even a few of them who ended up in the fourth-year group and had to be escorted back to the first years. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius recognized a couple of first-years from his classes today. He saw the cute brunette and the guy who looked like he could have been Edgar''s brother, both of whom led the pack of his Physical Training class standing next to each other. Then he saw several other students that he recognized from either his Intro to Mana or Tier Advancement classes. He didn''t know their names yet, but apparently, they used swords too.


    Professor Hashen didn''t waste any time going over what they were going to do like most of the other teachers today. Instead, she instructed the students that they were going to split off into their year groups and each group would have an assistant or two helping them out.


    She made sure to remind them it was a temporary situation. As the year progressed she would change the groups around based on where she thought they stood in rankings of skill. She said that many students were taking this class in the second or third year, but had little to no experience with swords.


    She didn''t embarrass them or make these older students feel bad though. She made sure that everyone knew that one of her only rules was that everybody worried about their own progress and to not mock other students for their skills.


    Professor Hashen would primarily be teaching the fourth years, or the advanced group, but would often make rounds throughout the entire class during the hour they were there. The fourth-year group didn''t waste any time with drills or whatnot. All of them had already had experience with sword fighting. The three younger groups on the other hand had to go through some standard drills and forms.


    One of them was the Imperial Sword Art, the one that Frederick, Tristan''s father was showing him before he met Julius. It was a comprehensive set of sword forms that established many basic techniques that one will build off of as one grows as a swordsman.


    Julius hadn''t been learning the Imperial Sword Art from Orus or Declan before he came to Goldencrest, but he did learn many forms that were very close if not identical to the ones in the Imperial Sword Art.


    As they went through them, the assistants went by and examined each student to see where they stood relative to other students. If they thought a student was ahead of their year, they would send them into the next group. If they thought the opposite they would send them down.


    The day was about finding out where most students stood so that each student was placed in the appropriate group where they would find the most value.


    Julius saw many second and third years get dropped down into a lower group. The assistants didn''t care if they were Tier 2 or Tier 3, they only focused on if their technique was solid or if it was lacking somewhere.


    He noticed that many of the ones who were new to swordsmanship were either mages or non-combat students who thought learning sword skills would be of beneficial use to them. Julius respected that they showed up to learn something they knew they weren''t good at. Most of them, with the exception of a few embarrassed students, understood the reasons why they were moved down and took it with grace.


    Julius had no expectations of being brought up into another group. He noticed that most of the students were much better than him in technique. That didn''t mean they would beat him with a sword in combat, but their strikes were typically more clean and their movements were more precise.


    The boy and girl from his Physical Training class were brought up immediately to a higher group. Julius observed them for a moment and was very impressed by their skill. They definitely had a sword skill that was either an uncommon skill that was in the upper half of the rank, or even a rare ranked sword skill.


    They both had different styles though. The girl was more fluid and used her footwork to dance around her target, while the boy was straight-aggressive. Not even aggression like Julius, but like smashing his own head into a wall type of aggression. It reminded him of a Viking and how they would have fought.


    It was honestly quite impressive how much endurance the guy had. He had a massive broadsword that he used to great effect. He had been swinging that thing nonstop and he was still going strong. It was a simple style, but those usually had fewer weaknesses than others. Julius had a sneaking suspicion that this guy was going to be a monster once he got to the higher tiers.

 Chapter 67: Hand-to-Hand Combat

    After Julius finished Professor Hashen''s class, he was tired. He hadn''t used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] all day, he wanted to see how far he could push himself before he wore out. He was starting to feel the soreness from his Physical Training class and the last ten minutes of his sword-fighting class had been a struggle.Now that he had stopped using [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] Julius realized that he had quite poor conditioning. It had only been due to [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and his prior healing skill that he was able to keep up with the trolls, otherwise he might have collapsed from exhaustion within the first few days. It was something that he definitely wanted to work on. That was the reason why he hadn''t healed himself back to full health.


    However, now that he had reached close to his limit, he felt like he could heal himself. He took a deep breath and found himself in a secluded area where nobody was around and activated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. Julius released a loud sigh of relief as he felt the life and fire mana flow through his body.


    His skin was covered in a warm fiery glow as the skill healed his muscles, fatigue, and mental exhaustion from the day. Within a few seconds, he was already feeling completely better. He no longer had the stiffness and heaviness in his limbs that had made swinging a sword difficult. It made him appreciate his skill.


    It was such a good skill, it was probably his most powerful one. However, that was also the reason why he wanted to stop over-relying on it. He felt himself building bad habits because he had an overpowered healing skill to fall back on. He would sometimes be careless or stupid because he knew if he lost an arm or got critically injured he could heal himself back to perfect health.


    His poor conditioning was a perfect example of a weakness caused by his skill. He never had to push himself to the brink of exhaustion unless he didn''t have any more life mana, and if it ever reached that point, he was already practically dead.


    Even against the trolls, no matter how hard it had been at times, he didn''t remember feeling too exhausted to continue. So he decided that he would need to work on his conditioning. Because he believed that the more endurance he had, the less life mana he would have to use to keep himself in fighting shape. He would be able to use that mana to heal himself of injuries or to save his own life. He had a lot of mana, so sometimes he didn''t pay attention to how much he used. But looking back, he had been extraordinarily wasteful. Close to half of his life mana had been used to keep him from getting tired. Something that he could easily work on with just some time and patience.


    Now that he was no longer dead tired, he was ready for his next class. Hand-to-hand with Gabriel might be the most anticipated class for him. He had already gotten a good idea of what Gabriel had to offer firsthand. Julius felt like he would be able to learn many crucial things from him.


    Sword fighting was nice and all, but Julius didn''t really use a sword. He might in the future, that was why he had training with one, but at the end of the day, Julius really liked the feeling of hitting something with his own two fists.


    There was something very satisfying about smashing his knuckles into a monster''s face or getting up close and personal, knowing that a single misstep could kill you. When you fought barehanded, there wasn''t a sword or spear you could hide behind. There was no weapon that gave you a reach advantage, just you and your opponent.


    The class would take place in the main training facility that most upperclassmen used. It was also where most of the larger classes took place. Julius didn''t know how many spots were available for this class, but he wouldn''t be surprised if there were more people in this one than any other of his classes.


    When he entered the facility he was amazed at how different it looked than the other buildings he had gone to today. Everything was just bigger, the rooms, the space, the equipment, and even the doors were larger.


    Julius noticed there were already close to fifty students there and it was still a good ten to fifteen minutes before class even started. Most of the students were older classmates. He only saw a handful of first-years standing in the large open room.


    He did see the red-headed girl and tall guy who were in his Physical Training class. They stood out with their first-year uniform and Tier 2 aura. However, Julius also saw Edgar''s large figure standing off the side. Next to him were Aubrey and surprisingly Lily. He knew that Aubrey had gone to sign up in the morning after Edgar and he did, but he didn''t remember Lily mentioning signing up too.


    He knew from some clues that Lily had a mental affinity but he didn''t know she was interested in fighting barehanded. It hadn''t just been Julius who noticed him, Lily also saw him and tapped the others on their shoulders, letting them know he was there.


    Julius made his way to them, maneuvering around the crowd of students.


    Edgar smiled while reaching over and giving Julius a heavy pat on his back when he got to them.


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    "So how was your first day?" Lily asked excitedly.


    Julius smiled at her enthusiasm. "It was a lot less eventful than I thought it would be."


    "Yeah, most first day of classes consist of the professors talking for most of it. It can be really boring at times," Aubrey said to him.


    "It was definitely not the kind of excitement I was expecting. Though I did like Professor Youma, Professor Rowe, and Professor Hashen," Julius informed them


    "Not Professor Stewart and¡­ who was your Physical Training professor again?" Aubrey asked.


    "I think he said it was Professor Edwards, if I remember correctly he was an assistant professor last year," Edgar added.


    "Yeah, that was it, Professor Edwards. Why didn''t you like them?" Aubrey asked.


    "Professor Edwards wasn''t bad, but he didn''t strike me as a professor who wanted to be there. Professor Stewart wasn''t bad either, but I just didn''t agree with her philosophy." Julius answered.


    "What didn''t you agree with?" Lily asked him.


    "I didn''t like how rigid and structured she explained mana control and I thought the exercises that she wanted the class to do were slightly boring," Julius told her.


    "Oh, I thought you might have liked her. She helped me a lot with my own mana control. I don''t have a lot of talent for [Mana Manipulation], but she helped me figure out a way how to consistently use it as long as I practiced." Edgar said.


    "Yeah, I didn''t think her methods were wrong or anything, but for someone like me who is more freeform, it doesn''t seem like a good fit," Julius explained.


    Julius understood that her methods had merit, but it felt so different than his own methods. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Anyway, you said you have Professor Youma?" Edgar asked him.


    "Yeah, you guys know him?" Julius inquired.


    Lily jumped in all excited, "Of course! He is one of the longest-teaching professors at Goldencrest. He is also a really strong Tier 4, and the only reason why he hadn''t gotten to Tier 5 decades ago was because he sustained an injury that prevented him from advancing. But most of everyone on campus agrees that he is one of the best professors. He almost exclusively teaches first years, but every year he teaches something different." Lily informed him.


    "He is also very good at aura control and might be the one teaching your aura control class," Edgar told him.


    Julius still hadn''t found out who his aura control professor was, unlike his other classes, they only gave him a room location but not the person who taught it.


    "I hope so," Julius said and then turned to Lily. "I expected the other two to be here, but I was surprised to see you here as well."


    Lily looked down at that, "Yeah, Aubrey and I signed up together after she spent hours trying to convince me. I signed up but told her I hadn''t decided if I was going to attend or not. It was only after the others told me that it would be a good idea to learn how to defend myself if someone gets close that finally convinced me."


    It was a good idea in Julius''s opinion. Mental affinity users were typically used in more of a support role or in rare cases, became offensive mind mages. That meant that they were usually weak in close combat but learning how to defend yourself might save Lily''s life one day. She might not be able to defeat her enemies with her bare hands, but she might be able to survive long enough until someone saves her.


    "Well if it means anything, I also think it is a great idea," Julius told her.


    "I know right? Lily is really strong as long as she keeps her space, but once someone closes the distance she is more vulnerable than a cake left out in the common room," Aubrey said.


    Edgar was about to add something else, but before he could Julius saw Gabriel or Professor Keller show up with a large group of assistant professors following him like little ducklings.


    Julius hadn''t been paying attention to how many students had come in after him because he had been busy talking with the others, but now that he had taken a look he was shocked to see close to a hundred students crammed into the large gymnasium.


    Professor Keller looked just like Julius remembered. His large and imposing frame strode into the gym, looking around at the students. His gaze came across Julius''s for a second, and Julius could have sworn the man had grinned his way, but it was hard to tell.


    Professor Keller stood in front of the students, looming over them. "I want you guys to separate into three groups, the first group is for people who have little to no experience with hand-to-hand combat. The second group is for people who have some experience but are of the intermediate level. Then the final group is for those who think they are at an advanced level. Make your choices, wisely, we will be coming around to check and will change your group if we determine so."


    His voice was just as deep and resounding as Julius remembered. It had a way of commanding people to do exactly what he said. This was why Julius was unsurprised to see every student hustle into the group they thought they should be in.


    Edgar and Aubrey went over to the advanced group not shocking Lily or him. Lily and Julius on the other hand went over to the introduction group. Julius didn''t think he actually belonged in this group, but he had several reasons for doing so.


    The main one was that he wanted to stay with Lily. She was clearly uncomfortable being here and trying out barehanded fighting, she had done a lot for Julius already, so he believed that this was the least he could do for her.


    Once everyone got into their groups, the assistants passed out silver bracelets to everyone. They would be sparring right off the bat. His other classes talked about slowly getting into a rhythm before they started sparring, but it wasn''t that way with Professor Keller. He threw everyone, newbie or not, into the deep end.


    Those who didn''t have a partner had one chosen for them. The assistants were just going around making observations and writing things down on a piece of paper. They also helped the students who were openly having issues. Luckily, Lily and Julius were each other''s partners and for the first few minutes just tested each other carefully, warming up.

 Chapter 68: Gabriel Keller

    Lily was Tier 3, so her physical attributes were better than Julius''s, but she made sure to limit herself the best she could. To be honest, Julius didn''t think it would have mattered if she did. Maybe Lily thought she was being helpful, but after a few minutes, it became obvious that Julius was a much better fighter than her. She even started to notice and began using more of her actual physical abilities.Her raw speed and strength were impressive but they didn''t matter if she didn''t know how to use them properly. Julius used a little kinetic energy to keep up with her speed, but Julius didn''t capitalize on her openings and punch her in the face. They were all wearing the simulated combat devices, so while no one would get hurt, they could still feel the pain of a fist crunching their nose.


    Lily was clearly nervous about fighting with her fists, and he helped her out whenever he saw something wrong. Although it was a class where he was supposed to be learning, he found himself acting in a teaching role.


    He didn''t mind at all. He had all year to practice but he considered Lily and others his friends and wanted to help them out whenever he could. They might not have realized it, but they made his transition much easier and he was extremely grateful.


    So for a while, he patiently showed Lily basic things like how to throw a punch and how to avoid a strike while not getting off balance. After Julius told her a little trick about placing her feet she stopped for a minute.


    "You are good at this," Lily complimented to Julius only a little out of breath.


    Julius was glad to see that her endurance was quite good for someone who didn''t focus on the physical combat side. Throwing punches for the first time was more exhausting than most people would think.


    "I am focusing on close combat after all," Julius replied.


    "I''m serious, you are only Tier 1 and while I can feel some sort of enhancement skill running, it is on low intensity. You are keeping up with me easily, and I don''t know if I should be embarrassed or impressed," she told him.


    "It''s only your first time, trust me you will get much better with practice. Come on, enough dillydallying, let''s go again," Julius insisted.


    Julius was going another round with Lily when he felt someone at his back, watching him. Julius used [Spatial Perception] and was able to determine that it was Professor Keller. He didn''t seem like he was happy either if the way he was looking at Julius was any indicator.


    Lily seemed to sense Professor Keller''s attention as well because she took a step back and bowed. "Professor Keller, it is good to see you again."


    Professor Keller turned to look at her, "Ah, Ms. Violet, I must admit I was quite pleasantly shocked to see your name among my roster this year. I always thought that learning some sort of close-quarter combat skill would do you some good."


    "My friends finally convinced me," Lily said with a small grin.


    "Yes, it would appear they did. Is this one of these so-called friends?" Professor Keller asked while looking at Julius again.


    Lily smiled wider and said, "Yes, this is Julius and he is new to Goldencrest this year, he was excited to be taking your class."


    "I''m sure he was." Professor Keller said. "But I have assistants for a reason. I understand that he is helping you, but he is supposed to be focusing on his own training."


    Then the professor turned to him and said, "Stay behind after class." Then he just walked away, leaving Julius feeling confused at the interaction. He was sure that he hadn''t done anything to piss Professor Keller off unless he was actually mad that he had been helping Lily, but he doubted that. There were plenty of students who were helping their sparring partners.


    After the class ended, Lily made sure to thank Julius for his help. Edgar and Aubrey made their way toward them and asked if Julius wanted to come with the three of them to the library. They were going to do some studying and thought he might want to come as well.


    Julius shook his head. "I have to stay after class, Professor Keller wanted to talk with me after class but I can meet you guys there afterward," he told them.


    "Why would he want to see you after class?" Edgar asked with a confused face.


    Lily answered for Julius. "He rebuked Julius since he was teaching me more than prioritizing his own training."


    Edgar put a hand under his chin. "That shouldn''t make him upset, he has always been fine with students helping out with other students."


    "You think he has something against Julius?" Aubrey questioned.


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    Julius didn''t want them to continue to think that something was wrong, so he interrupted them. "I don''t think he was that upset. I met him when he proctored my practical exam and he was very nice."


    The three of them paused, taking in what Julius said.


    "Why was he like that then?" Lily asked.


    "I don''t know, but I guess I will find out in a moment. I''ll tell you guys when I see you at the library," Julius said.


    They were still confused, but they said their goodbyes to Julius and told him where they usually hang out in the library before leaving.


    Julius watched them and the other students funnel out of the gym until it was just Julius, the remaining assistants, and Professor Keller.


    Professor Keller saw him standing off to the side and told something to the assistants. Then Julius saw the assistants all walk out together, leaving just Julius and Professor Keller. Unlike the cold stare he got earlier today, Julius watched as Professor Keller smiled wide at Julius and walked up to him, slapping Julius on the shoulder and almost dropping him to his knees.


    "Hey Julius! Sorry about that earlier, but I wanted to talk to you and didn''t want to let the other students who were listening in know why. I hope you didn''t think I was just being rude." Professor Keller had an apologetic expression on his face.


    "I was curious and a little taken aback but that makes sense. So what did you want to talk about professor?" Julius asked.


    "Just call me Gabriel, at least when it is just the two of us. I wanted to talk about why you didn''t reach out to me?" Gabriel said with a hurt look on his face. sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius was confused, was he supposed to have reached out? Julius didn''t even know how to get a hold of Gabriel.


    "I''m sorry, but I didn''t know I was supposed to and even if I did, I don''t have a way of contacting you," Julius tried to explain.


    "I thought we agreed to spar with each other if you decided to attend," Gabriel said to Julius.


    Julius did remember them agreeing to that. "We did, but I didn''t think you meant before the semester started. But even if I did, I still don''t have a way of contacting you or scheduling a spar."


    "Oh¡­ You have a point. You don''t have a communication stone?" Gabriel inquired.


    Julius shook his head. He had thought about buying one, but they were ridiculously expensive, costing at least half a platinum for the cheapest one. He also didn''t have much use for it, all the people he could use it for were Orus, Rae, and Declan. Maybe the other five now, but that was it.


    "Well, I will get you one, there''s no reason why you shouldn''t have one. That way you can reach out whenever you want and we can spar," Gabriel insisted.


    Julius tried to protest, but Gabriel wasn''t having any of it. He said that the cost didn''t matter to someone like him with more money than he knew what to do with. Eventually, Julius just agreed with Gabriel, seeing that he was not going to budge on this.


    "So you want to spar?" Gabriel asked with an excited look.


    "Right now?" Julius said bewildered. Gabriel must love fighting, whenever he talks about fighting his eyes sparkle. Julius didn''t even know why Gabriel wanted to fight Julius so badly, he was sure there were plenty of stronger people who would love to fight him.


    "Yes right now, there is nobody around, I made sure of that. I had a feeling that you didn''t want everyone to know how strong you were." Julius''s eyes widened. "But you wouldn''t be the only person who does that at Goldencrest, many keep their abilities secret for end-of-year tournaments," Gabriel casually said.


    Huh, so I wasn''t alone. I can see why people would do that though. Sparring in class with the same people you are going to fight against would let them know your whole style.


    "And you want to fight me without holding back?" Julius asked him.


    Gabriel laughed. "Yep, during your practical exam, I felt you were holding back, even after that last punch. That was why I insisted we spar. You might be able to fool many of the students and other staff, but someone with any real experience will be able to tell."


    Julius didn''t respond. He didn''t know what to make of this situation. He knew that Gabriel got the sense that he was holding back, but if what he said was true then what was the point of hiding from him anymore?


    "How strong do you think I am?" Julius looked right at Gabriel when he asked that.


    He saw Gabriel''s lips press together and tilt his big bald head to the side, deep in thought. Finally, he said, "I don''t know, that is partially why I am so curious. But I expect you could put up a good fight against weaker Tier 3''s. Your aura is clearly a new addition, but your control is already pretty good. Also, you have a lot of mana that you aren''t using, so I predict you could enhance your body as much as you want. It would just come down to how much your body could take."


    Julius laughed to himself, Gabriel hit the nail on the head. Maybe this was a good thing though, he did tell Declan most of the truth already. However, could he trust Gabriel the same way? The short answer was no. But how many people could connect their auras like he and Declan did? Not many, and it was important to note that Julius had trusted Orus with his skills as well.


    "Also, how much do you really expect you will improve here if you are constantly handicapping yourself?" Gabriel asked in a teasing tone.


    Gabriel knows exactly what he is doing. This smug baldie was trying to lure me in and it''s working. God dammit.


    Julius didn''t see a good reason why he wouldn''t spar with Gabriel not holding back. He was right, Julius''s little plan to hide his strength didn''t make sense if he sacrificed his chances of improvement. Plus, Gabriel already figured out some of Julius''s abilities.


    "You want to spar with me that badly?" Julius questioned the man.


    "Yep."


    "Why?" Julius pressed.


    "It''s not complicated, I just like fighting strong people, and I feel like you are strong at least for your tier." Gabriel honestly answered.


    "How do I know I can trust you not to tell anyone?" Julius anxiously asked.


    Julius saw Gabriel''s face turn from smiling and teasing to a more serious one.


    "I promise I won''t say a word," Gabriel said solemnly and for some reason, Julius believed him. He didn''t want to, but he wanted to believe that Gabriel wouldn''t betray his trust. He took a leap of faith with Declan and Orus, but could he do the same with Gabriel?

 Chapter 69: Fighting a Tier 4

    It wasn''t like Julius had much of a choice. Gabriel might have been teasing him, but he was right. Learning techniques and sparring while handicapped was good and all, but he would need to push himself and go all out if he wanted to see actual results.Julius didn''t say anything to Gabriel, he just walked over to a bench where a pile of silver bracelets was lying in a container and grabbed two pairs of them. He snapped a pair over his own wrists, feeling them resize and activate the enchantments inscribed on them. Then he tossed a pair to Gabriel, who also didn''t say anything but smiled like a maniac seeing Julius''s actions.


    Julius walked a couple dozen paces away and turned around, staring at Gabriel with a smile of his own.


    "Why are you so far away? Getting nervous?" Gabriel taunted.


    "I thought you wanted to see me go all out?" Julius asked.


    "And you need to be far away do that? You act like you''re a mage."


    "Who said I wasn''t?" He said.


    Gabriel''s face was confused for a moment, wondering why Julius would say that.


    Julius''s smile got much wider as he saw the realization on Gabriel''s face. He hadn''t gone all out since the rift. It hadn''t even been a couple of weeks yet, but to Julius, it felt like an eternity and his blood was on fire at the thought of it.


    Julius didn''t even go all out with Declan, he was too afraid of the collateral damage he might cause in the courtyard if he did. However, now that he was in a training facility that was able to handle Tier 4''s he wasn''t as nervous. If Gabriel wanted a fight, Julius would give him one.


    Julius watched as a barrier much like the one during his practical exam dropped down, surrounding the area.


    "On my count," Gabriel said. "Three."


    Julius activated [Savage Dance].


    "Two."


    Then he activated [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Empowerment of Will], letting the surge of energy rush through him.


    "One."


    Finally, Julius grabbed ahold of a fuck ton of mana, getting ready to bombard Gabriel.


    "Go!"


    Gabriel didn''t allow Julius any time to create his constructs and tried to close the distance using his movement skill. Julius discharged a pulse of kinetic energy beneath his feet the second Gabriel said go, knowing that the man was going to bumrush him.


    As he blasted himself across the gym, he used [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], and [Mana Layering] to create a dozen condensed spikes of fire and kinetic energy. They formed within a blink, his new skill making the process unbelievably quick. [Mana Layering] wasn''t that high-level yet, but Julius was able to create several hard layers of woven mana within the spikes. They were much stronger than the ones he had used to kill the trolls.


    Gabriel was chasing after him and was right on top of Julius. His speed was ridiculous for a man his size. But he was still unable to close the gap in time before Julius slung half of the spikes right at Gabriel''s face and chest.


    Julius saw the same mana defensive skill from last time activate. Gabriel didn''t try to even dodge, completely eating his constructs, thinking they were similar to last time, just a bit bigger. It was a mistake on his part.


    The spikes didn''t penetrate through Gabriel''s defense, but they did crash into him with a ferocious bang, and then they exploded and blasted him off of his feet.


    Julius was impressed that his new and improved spikes didn''t even leave a mark. If he had shot them at the chieftain, Julius suspected they would have skewered the troll even through its aura ability.


    Tier 4''s were on a whole other level and Julius expected that Gabriel was still taking it easy on him.


    Gabriel had already gotten back up and was wearing a toothy smile. "Damn! Those things pack a punch! Also, the speed of forming them was impressive. You might have one of the best offensive power in your year."


    "One of the best?" Julius asked with an interested expression. That would mean that there were students who could match his firepower and that was after Gabriel just saw one of his usual attacks.


    "Yeah, don''t be too surprised. This is Goldencrest for a reason. I know for a fact there are several students with perfect affinities in your year who can throw around powerful attacks like that. They don''t have your close combat skills though." Gabriel informed him.


    Julius had really thought there wouldn''t be anyone who could stand with him when it came to sheer firepower, but it seemed that he was wrong.


    "But you should work on creating a layer of disrupting mana so that they can break through my [Extreme Mana Resistance] and [Steel Fortress]."


    "[Extreme Mana Resistance] and [Steel Fortress]?" Julius asked, forgetting about their fight for a moment S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Yeah, some of the better mages learn how to cover their attacks with disruptive mana or use other techniques that have the same result. People like me with defensive skills would otherwise easily handle your attacks. Don''t worry though, it is usually a Tier 3 technique when you can control ambient mana better," Gabriel explained to him.


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    That was something to consider. He knew about the [Disrupt Mana] skill, so it would make sense that there was a skill or technique for disrupting someone''s defenses.


    "How does that work?" Julius curiously asked him.


    "No idea, I''m not a mage," Gabriel straight up told Julius.


    At least he''s honest. But I guess I know what I am going to research in the library later, Julius thought to himself.


    Gabriel interrupted his thoughts, "Okay, no more talking, more fighting."


    Julius answered Gabriel in the most polite way he could. He sent the remaining spikes at Gabriel''s face.


    This time, Gabriel took the time to avoid or at least deflect the constructs. They may not have done any significant damage, but the knockback was a problem.


    Julius knew that the spikes wouldn''t work, but they were just a distraction to give him time to form half a dozen discs or glowing red mana. The same ones that had cut apart the trolls, just much sharper and durable.


    However, Julius was also attempting a new idea he had. It reminded him of the masses of kinetic energy he used to harm the wolf in the forest. He hadn''t felt the need to use them in a while, but now he thought of a good use for them. Gabriel might be able to shrug off most of the damage, but he was shown that he was still able to be knocked back by a big enough blast.


    So what Julius did was send a wave of kinetic energy at Gabriel. It didn''t do much except for stumbling him for a second, but that wasn''t why he did it. Julius didn''t let the kinetic energy dissipate. He grabbed the energy and created small invisible masses of dense kinetic energy using [Pure Compression].


    Gabriel was clearly able to see them because Julius saw him looking at the masses warily. Gabriel tried to swing a fist at one of them but missed due to Julius moving it out of the way at the last second.


    Then Julius released the saw blades of mana right at Gabriel, planning to cut him in half. Gabriel tried to dodge, but Julius detonated the masses of kinetic energy right by Gabriel''s thigh, throwing him slightly off balance. Most discs missed, but two of them crashed right into Gabriel''s chest.


    However, they still didn''t break through. The saw blades ricocheted off of his skin and went flying behind him. His defensive skills were too difficult to get through, even going all out, Julius was unable to leave a scratch.


    Still, Julius had expected that, but a small part had hoped he would be able to damage a Tier 4. He quickly learned how delusional that hope was.


    Gabriel must have felt that he had given Julius enough time to show some of his skills because Julius felt a huge surge of mana coming from the man, much more than he used for his enhancement skills. Then Gabriel''s aura was unleashed, pulsing with extreme power as it infused with his body.


    The next thing Julius saw was the fist of Gabriel already crushing into his chest. He tried to siphon as much kinetic energy from the blow, but Gabriel''s fist was way too fast for it to matter. The punch obliterated Julius''s ribcage, luckily the bracelets were still active, so while Julius felt his ribcage and organs rupture, his body was completely fine.


    Julius was sent flying either way. Crashing against the barrier, with an earthshaking boom.


    I wasn''t even able to react, he thought to himself.


    Julius didn''t get up right away and just laid on his back as the bracelets completely restricted his movements, determining that the damage broke his spine. He reflexively tried to heal himself but remembered that it wouldn''t work. The bracelets were quite an amazing feat of magic and runic engineering but they didn''t respond to healing magic. It was because there wasn''t any actual damage, therefore, for someone like Julius who had a self-healing skill, these bracelets wouldn''t allow him to use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal].


    Gabriel appeared next to his body and laughed at Julius''s prone form before deactivating the simulated combat. Gabriel extended a hand to Julius who was no longer stuck in a paralysis state. Julius took it and used it to lift himself back to his feet.


    He wouldn''t even admit it, but getting humbled like that frustrated him more than he wanted to admit. Julius was really competitive and hated to lose, even if it was a fight he knew he would never win. However, he was taught to take a loss with dignity, and not to be a sore loser.


    Gabriel must''ve understood what Julius was feeling though, because he laid a soft comforting hand on his shoulders. He didn''t say anything, but that did more than any words could.


    "How did you move so fast? I didn''t even sense you move from your spot," Julius finally asked aloud.


    "I have a spatial movement skill called [Instantaenous Step]. It is one of the more commonly seen ones for users like me. It allows me to teleport across a distance with a single step." Gabriel explained to Julius.


    Julius knew that Gabriel didn''t need to tell Julius all about his skills, but he did anyway. Maybe it was his way of extending his own trust. Julius appreciated it nonetheless.


    "How does a mage even stop something like that?" Julius asked.


    "Well, typically, I would be fighting against another Tier 4. So in that case, they would''ve learned about Authority. That would make my teleportation less effective, but against anyone without Authority, it is almost impossible to predict. However, you are pretty close." Gabriel said.


    "Close? How am I close?" Julius was confused. He didn''t even have a chance to notice it before it was too late.


    "During your practical exam, I noticed you had a really good perception skill. You were even able to follow [Instantaneous Step] even though it was at a much lower intensity. With some practice or with an evolution it might be able to." Gabriel clarified to Julius.


    Julius recalled their last fight during the practical and remembered what he was talking about. However, at that time, Julius didn''t feel like it was teleportation, it just felt like it was a really fast movement.


    "You mentioned Authority. What is that?" Julius heard Gabriel say it earlier, and it sounded like it was important.


    "Authority is something that you need to learn before you advance to Tier 4. It is one of the requirements. You don''t need to worry about it now, knowing too much can hurt your progress. But just know that the stronger your soul and aura are, the more likely you will develop Authority," Gabriel told him.


    That might explain why it is advised to advance to Tier 3 with as many powerful skills and a strong soul. If this "Authority" was related to having a strong soul, then it made sense why people who advance to Tier 3 with a few rare skills can''t make it to Tier 4 or higher.


    It was something that Julius would keep in mind for the future. He had a feeling that it would be important.


    Julius had been thinking to himself for a while and noticed Gabriel was fidgeting at Julius''s side. Like he was anxiously waiting to open his presents on Christmas morning. Finally, Julius turned to look at the bald professor and asked him, "What is it?"


    Gabriel looked at Julius with a big grin. It was a look that didn''t fit the man''s stature, it was more fitting for a little boy, not a massive muscular man. It was honestly a little freaky. People always said Julius was a weird one, but he might have found someone who was even weirder.


    "Are you ready to go again?" Gabriel asked Julius with excitement.


    Julius just shook his head and activated his bracelets again, ready for round two.

 Chapter 70: The Difference Between Them

    Round two didn''t go so well either. Neither did rounds three, four, or five. No matter what Julius tried, he wasn''t able to penetrate Gabriel''s defenses with his constructs. [Extreme Mana Resistance] was according to Gabriel, an epic-ranked skill that almost completely protected one from mana-based attacks. Furthermore, Gabriel had another epic-ranked skill called [Steel Fortress] that literally made his body a living fortress. Julius thought that since mana-based attacks didn''t work, he could use physical attacks.While he did land a couple of shots, once Gabriel fully activated [Steel Fortress], it was like punching the Empire State Building. Even if he got through a single layer of defense, there were dozens more layered on top of each other behind it.


    The only thing he didn''t try was his kinetically enhanced blue fire. Julius didn''t go that far, but he suspected that even if he did use it on Gabriel, it still wouldn''t work.


    The biggest issue that Julius faced was Gabriel''s Authority. He didn''t keep it active the entire time, otherwise it wouldn''t even be a fight, but Gabriel showed it off at Julius''s request. Authority to Julius''s senses was like an advanced application of aura and mana, but also something else as well.


    Julius''s constructs couldn''t even make it past a single inch of it. It wasn''t like the troll''s aura that had slowed down his constructs and gradually broke them down. Gabriel''s authority recognized the instant the constructs entered its sphere of influence, and then they just ceased to exist. Gabriel tried to explain it to Julius, but he was awful at it. All Julius got was that once his constructs entered the space Gabriel had complete control or "Authority" of the construct. This means that Julius could no longer control it, which is why it ceased to exist.


    After Julius tested his constructs on it, he tried to see if getting up close was any better.


    It wasn''t.


    Julius found himself unable to even take a single step when he entered. Gabriel''s authority surrounded him and pressed him on all sides, immobilizing him completely. Gabriel told Julius that if he had created his constructs or infused his body with his own authority, he wouldn''t have been affected so drastically. It was why Tier 3 to Tier 4 was such a large increase in power.


    Gabriel and Julius only sparred for an hour, Gabriel still had other duties he had to take care of, but he said they could resume sparring the day after tomorrow.


    Although the sparring had only lasted an hour, Julius was happy to see that he had made more progress in the short time than the entire night he spent training.


    [Arcane Construct lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    [Pure Compression lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 13 -> lvl 14] Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 4 -> lvl 6]


    [Mana Layering lvl 4 -> lvl 7]


    It was the largest increase in levels he had seen in a while. Fighting against someone who was much stronger than him and challenging himself worked. He was very glad he had taken Gabriel up on his offer.


    After Julius and Gabriel finished, Julius hurried to the library. He knew he had stayed behind much longer than he or the others expected, but he hoped that they didn''t think he had forgotten about them.


    He got to the library in record time, quickly scanning his badge at the entrance and waving at the librarian who smiled at him. Julius still hadn''t gotten her name yet but reminded himself to find it out sooner rather than later.


    Julius went up to the second floor to the section where they told him they would be studying. There were several groups of students also sitting at the larger tables, quietly discussing things with each other. However, Julius hadn''t seen them yet.


    It was only when he made his way to the back he sensed them. All five of them were still there, Kyle was in the middle of explaining something to Edgar. Talking more than Julius had seen the entire time he had been around them.


    Julius quietly walked up to their table, not surprised to see that Lily had already noticed him. She must have an amazing perception skill or aura sense because she always knew when he was around.


    Julius didn''t see an open chair, so he grabbed an extra chair from another table and brought it next to their table. The group had all finally noticed Julius''s arrival and looked at him. "Sorry, I was late, it took it much longer than I thought it would," he apologized.


    "Yeah, you took a really long time. Did you have to go do something beforehand?" Aubrey inquired.


    "No, I was with Professor Keller the entire time," Julius told her.


    "Professor Keller needed to talk to you for an hour?" Derek asked, breaking his attention from the book in his hands.


    Julius had been thinking about telling them the truth. It had been almost a week since he had known them, and he felt like he had a good idea of what kind of people they were. They had welcomed him into their group and he didn''t want to lie to them. So, he didn''t.


    "He wanted to spar with me," Julius admitted to them.


    Julius observed the reactions of each of them. Derek acted like he didn''t quite hear what Julius had said. Aubrey thought he was joking. Edgar was looking at him with a very intense gaze. Kyle was looking at him with a blank expression. Then Lily was outright looking at him with an astonished look.


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    "Haha. That''s very funny Julius," Aubrey said.


    "I''m serious," he said.


    She still didn''t look like she believed him and just shook her head with a smile.


    "He''s not lying, Lily told her friend seriously. It wasn''t until Lily said that Aubrey took Julius''s word seriously.


    "You''re telling me that Professor Gabriel Keller, one of the strongest Tier 4''s at Goldencrest and someone who is practically guaranteed to advance to Tier 5, wanted to spar with a first-year?" She asked skeptically.


    "One of the strongest?" Julius was curious about how Gabriel stood up against other Tier 4''s.


    Edgar was the one who answered him. He still had an intense look on his face as he looked at Julius, scrutinizing him. "Professor Keller is a Senior Professor of the Combat Department for a reason. He is an absolute beast. If he is the second strongest, I don''t think there would be many people willing to say they are first."


    "Hey don''t change the subject. Answer the question." Aubrey said a little too loudly. It was surprisingly Kyle who gave her a slap across her shoulder, reminding her that they were in a library. Then looked at Lily with a pointed glare and Julius felt Lily''s aura and mana work together to create a bubble that surrounded the table completely.


    It was a very elegant and skilled use of aura and mana. Julius had amazing control himself, but Lily''s control was different than Julius''s. He would describe his control as quick, firm, and, explosive. He would describe Lily''s control as soft, gentle, and subtle.


    It was the same principles that he had been trying to learn with [Fire Whip], but he hadn''t quite managed it. He might have to ask Lily for some advice later.


    The barrier she created was most likely a barrier that contained sound so that they could talk more freely without disturbing anyone or having anyone listen in. It was a very nifty technique and Julius tried to examine it as closely as he could. He wanted to see if he could do it as well.


    However, it was not the time for stuff like that and Julius thought about how he wanted to answer Aubrey. What was he supposed to say? Professor Keller wanted to spar with him because he wanted a good fight. Why would they believe that? Julius was just a Tier 1 first-year.


    "Remember that I told you guys that I met Professor Keller?"


    Lily, Edgar, and Aubrey nodded, but the other two looked confused since they weren''t taking Hand-to-Hand Combat.


    "Yeah, you mentioned that you met him when he was proctoring your practical exam. But that confused me, because why would Professor Keller be proctoring your exam? He is a Senior Professor, and his assistants are supposed to take care of the practical exam testing. At least that''s how our year was tested," Aubrey said.


    "That is how it''s supposed to go," Derek said. "Why was your''s different?"


    Julius told them the truth. "According to Professor Keller, Assistant Director Silvertone changed it himself."


    "Silas Silvertone?" Lily asked.


    Julius nodded his head. "You know him?"


    "My father is friends with him. They went to Goldencrest together and they keep in touch frequently. He even showed up to a couple of my birthday celebrations over the years. He was always nice to me. Why would he change your proctor out of the blue?"


    "I had my interview with him and two other professors. The woman professor had some choice words concerning my interest in Goldencrest, so she and I got into it a little bit," Julius said.


    "Why would she do that?" Aubrey asked curiously.


    "She didn''t think that someone with only high affinities should be attending Goldencrest?" Julius answered.


    "That''s stupid," Aubrey said.


    Julius agreed with her, the woman had been stupid. He was lucky that she hadn''t been in charge of whether or not he got into Goldencrest.


    "You only have high affinities?" Derek asked, sounding surprised.


    "Yes, is that so surprising?" Julius looked at Derek.


    "A little, there aren''t many students who get in with just high affinities. It is almost predominantly excellent or perfect affinities," he admitted.


    "We''re getting off-topic again. Why would Silas do something like that?" Lily wanted to find out the reason why.


    Julius realized that he would have to share that Silas tried to invade his aura and that Julius smacked it away. Though, Julius didn''t care at this point. There were already plenty of people who knew about it, and as long as they didn''t go shouting about it from the nearest rooftop, then Julius would be fine.


    "During my interview, Silas tried to invade my aura. He noticed that I was able to deflect his probe, and that must''ve caught his attention. I don''t know what other reasons he had, but that was the most significant thing that happened," Julius explained.


    "So you do have an aura skill," Edgar said.


    Julius turned to Edgar curious to see that the guy wasn''t surprised at Julius''s reveal.


    Did he already suspect? When would he have found out?


    "You knew?" Julius asked Edgar.


    "I thought it was odd that you were taking an aura class, but plenty of first years do, so it''s not uncommon, but the incident with Liam was what convinced me. I was right next to you so I was able to see you take control of your aura for a moment, it was too purposeful to be the aura of someone without an aura skill." Edgar admitted.


    Huh. Julius didn''t realize Edgar had already an idea that he did as well. Did that also mean Lily knew too? Just going off of what Julius had seen from her, she must have phenomenal aura control, which might have allowed her to sense Julius''s control over his.


    "That''s so cool! An aura skill at Tier 1 is quite impressive, usually only rich nobles get one at Tier 1, and it still takes an incredible amount of luck," Aubrey told him.


    "Yeah, my family tried to feed me some soul elixirs, hoping that I would get one, but it never happened. That with the fact that Julius isn''t a noble and got it naturally is very rare indeed," Derek said.


    Technically Julius was a noble, but he still managed to get it without any outside help. As long as angry trolls aren''t considered "help".


    "I would like to keep my aura ability secret though," Julius asked of them.


    "Of course, no one will share any of your secrets. You''re a part of the group now." Lily said while patting him on the back.


    Julius smiled upon hearing that. He knew that they had kind of adopted him into their close-knit group but it was nice to hear it said out loud.


    "So you think Assistant Director Silvertone purposefully switched your proctor because he found out you had a naturally acquired aura skill?" Edgar asked him.


    "No, I think there had to have been other reasons too, but I have no idea what they might be," Julius told him.


    Julius had been thinking about what could have made Silas choose to give him Gabriel as a proctor. Did Silas know that Gabriel would take an interest in Julius or was it pure chance that Gabriel wanted to spar with Julius afterward?


    Julius felt like every day he had more questions and not enough answers.

 Chapter 71: They Dont Believe Him

    Edgar had a hand under his chin, "I still don''t get why Professor Keller would want to spar with you. Even if he knew that you had an aura skill, it wouldn''t make him that interested in you. No offense."Julius didn''t take any offense to that. It was true, an aura skill wouldn''t explain why Professor Keller wanted to spar with him.


    "He said that he liked to fight strong people," Julius said.


    Aubrey straight-up laughed at that but she saw that Julius was being serious and quickly stopped. "Sorry, what do you mean by that?"


    "Obviously, not tier-wise, but he said he liked to fight people who were strong for their tier," Julius clarified.


    "How strong exactly?" Kyle asked from behind Edgar. Julius was taken aback, this was the first time that Kyle had chosen to talk to him directly before.


    Julius thought about how he wanted to answer. To be fair, he might have to start telling them the truth. It wasn''t like he was trying to hide everything about himself like his life depended on it, but he thought that the more he shared the higher the likelihood that someone from Duke Greyson''s camp or connected to the plan would take notice of Julius. He still didn''t know if his details were shared amongst themselves.


    The only person who knew most of the truth was Declan. Everyone else only knew small parts of his story and secrets. He had originally wanted to hide so much because he was worried about attracting the wrong sort of attention, but it was already becoming a nuisance. The constant need to focus on holding himself back was frustrating.


    He has a life spirit on the way as well, so even if he didn''t come out with a life affinity, he was sure that many people would just assume he had a life affinity. The only thing that he felt was the most important secret was about who he was, and what happened at the mansion.


    Julius realized that after his spar with Gabriel. The feeling of being able to go all out, even though he got his ass kicked, was liberating. It made him understand how much he disliked having all of his secrets, he would much rather just be able to display his strength openly, but he wasn''t strong enough yet.


    He wanted to share his secrets with these new friends of his. Julius wanted to get closer to these amazing people and didn''t think that keeping so many secrets was a good start to a healthy relationship.


    He had even seriously considered asking them if they knew anything about the circumstances of House Hyperius. Derek was the grandson of Duke Zenith, Lily was the granddaughter of Count Violet, and Kyle was a Quincy. Between the three of them, the chances that they knew what happened to his family were pretty high.


    Declan hadn''t heard about anything regarding House Hyperius in the time he had gotten to Heston and Julius was getting impatient. Not knowing what happened to his family was killing him.


    "Hello? You still there?" Aubrey bumped Julius on the shoulder, bringing him out of his own thoughts.


    He nodded at her and turned to Lily, "How good is your barrier at sealing in sounds?"


    "Oh, you can sense it? It''s pretty good for my tier. I don''t think anyone under Tier 4 could get through, and if they did, I would be able to notice that the barrier had been compromised."


    Julius made up his mind. He would at least share some of his secrets.


    So he did, he explained a lot, only leaving out the rift and his family. However, he told them about his real strength, that he was able to fight against weaker Tier 3''s and his life affinity.


    His reveal about his affinity didn''t come as that much of a surprise, they were more confused about why he hid it and why he had chosen three affinities in the first place. Telling him that it would just split his attention too much, giving many of the same reasons that Edwin had told Julius after his affinity ritual. However, they had a much harder time accepting his claims of his strength.


    They were kind about it and didn''t outright call him out, but Julius felt their skepticism. He didn''t blame them either, a Tier 1 fighting not just one tier up, but two was a bold claim. Fighting a Tier 3 was different than having firepower or defensive skills on par with a Tier 3.


    Just like Gabriel had told Julius earlier, there were students in his own year who had unique talents when it came to pure firepower, rivaling his own. However, how many of those students also had the defensive skills, movement abilities, or general combat proficiency to hold up against a Tier 3? Probably not many, if any at all.


    He didn''t try to convince them, the only way to show them would be to fight them. The only person who didn''t seem as skeptical was Lily. She appeared to have some sort of truthtelling ability and was able to tell that Julius was telling the truth. Or at least, she could see that Julius believed that he could fight a Tier 3.


    Julius saw her look around at her group of friends, understanding that they wouldn''t believe Julius unless they saw it for themselves.


    "Why don''t we see it for ourselves then?" She finally said loudly over the others who were talking amongst themselves. That got the attention of the others, interested that Lily was the one who recommended it.


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    "That''s a great idea. I want to see it myself. I don''t doubt you are strong, but I admit I don''t quite believe you can fight Tier 3''s," Aubrey said enthusiastically.


    "Are you okay with that Julius?" Lily asked him.


    "Yeah, I don''t blame you guys for being skeptical," he told them.


    He didn''t mind going for another spar even though he had just fought with Gabriel. However, Derek must''ve realized the same thing because he said, "Right now? Julius just sparred not that long ago. We can do it tomorrow or later tonight."


    Julius was quick to reassure Derek, "I am good as new, I healed myself after my spar with Gabriel so I am completely fresh."


    "You have a rejuvenation skill?" Edgar asked excitedly, looking right into Julius''s eyes.


    "Yeah, why?" He asked a little wary.


    "They are great for training, you can train for longer and harder without worrying about soreness or wearing yourself out. There are healers at the academy who offer their services, but you are limited to how many times you can use them. There are too many students who want to use them, but not enough healers," Edgar explained.


    "Mine is a self-healing skill, but I could try to adapt it to use on others if you''re interested," Julius offered.


    "I will gladly take you up on that," Edgar said happily.


    "Hey, what about me?" Aubrey interjected from the side.


    "Sorry, but Julius said he could only heal me," Edgar told her in mock sincerity.


    She whacked Edgar across the head. "He did not say that. I was literally sitting right here. He never mentioned it was just for you. Right, Julius?"


    "Will you hit me too if I say no?" Julius asked, pretending to be scared.


    "Yes," Aubrey said with a completely serious face that actually made Julius start believing that she might really hit him if he didn''t share with her too.


    "I will heal you," he assured her quickly.


    "Thanks!" She told him with a big smile of her own.


    "Okay, so you wanna head out now?" Edgar asked them all.


    Everyone agreed and made their way back to the main training facility. There were plenty of rooms meant for individual and group training. Edgar said that certain times of the day were always really busy, so he recommended reserving a spot if he needed to. Luckily, they found an open room when they got there.


    It was similar to the gymnasium they had used for Hand-to-Hand Combat earlier but smaller. However, there were sets of simulated combat devices hanging from a wall that students could use.


    "So who wants to go first?" Derek asked everyone.


    "Me!" Aubrey immediately.


    Julius wasn''t surprised, he had expected that either her or Edgar would be the ones who tested him. He saw glimpses of their spar during their class earlier and knew both were great fighters. Aubrey had a style similar to Edwin''s. She avoided a head-to-head brawl while waiting for an opening to counterattack and when she did it was full of tricks of misdirection. Honestly, it was quite an annoying fighting style to fight against. However, Julius had fought with Edwin for years, which meant that it was a style he was very familiar with.


    He knew that he didn''t have great chances against a talented Tier 3 like Aubrey, but he knew he had a better chance than fighting against Gabriel. After the thrashing he got earlier, he was hoping for a win, or at least put up a good fight.


    Julius walked to the other side of the room and activated his bracelets. He hadn''t told them about his long-range abilities yet. But he hoped he could catch Aubrey off guard with it.


    Derek was on one side of the room activating the barrier that was installed in the room before he asked, "Are you both ready?"


    Both Julius and Aubrey nodded at him, letting him know that they were. Aubrey wasn''t quite taking it seriously, her stance was loose and casual. Whereas Julius


    "Okay on my mark. Three, two, one¡­ fight."


    Julius didn''t waste any time. He immediately unleashed a wave of fire that blinded Aubrey''s vision and dashed to the side while creating a dozen spikes to his side. Aubrey must''ve had some sort of perception skill, but it wasn''t that precise, because while she could track his general direction, she didn''t look exactly where Julius was.


    Once Julius finished his preparations, he activated [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Empowerment of Will] as much as he could safely do. He left behind half of the spikes as he dashed to the other side of the room. There was still a good amount of coverage from the fire, as Julius was still controlling it, but Aubrey still tracked him.


    With his other spikes, he shot them right at Aubrey''s chest. He saw her face widen in surprise and barely activated her own skill in time. Julius saw her body shimmy and then split into three separate copies. Each one was shining like a prismatic version of her. Julius quickly controlled two spikes to attack each copy. But all the spikes went straight through them. It appeared that all three were not real.


    It was only due to [Spatial Perception] and his aura sense that he barely felt a presence barreling toward his back. Julius released a wall of flame that surrounded himself. However, he felt Aubrey continue to attack through the flames.


    He waited for the last moment, trying to not tip her off that he knew where she was. It was only when she was committing to her strike that Julius pivoted and threw a leg that was full of kinetic energy.


    It took Aubrey completely by surprise and Julius tried to capitalize on the opening. He blasted her from the back leg with a kinetic burst and slammed his leg into her arms that she put up to block.


    However, it felt like he just shattered his own leg. Gabriel had felt like no matter how hard Julius hit him, Julius didn''t feel like he ever did any damage. It was like hitting an indestructible pillow. Aubrey was not like that. Her skin was layered in a sparkling material, that felt like it was made of diamond, which would make sense considering she was a crystal affinity user. But it still hurt like a motherfucker, kind of like stubbing your toe but way worse.


    The force behind the kick still blew her several dozen paces away, sending her toppling head over toe, so that made him feel better. Still, Julius felt his leg get locked as the bracelet must''ve determined that he had a broken leg.


    Julius didn''t let Aubrey get back to her feet though. As she was still rolling away he created several more spikes and sent them right at her face at a breakneck speed. They slammed into her, but her skill was still active and didn''t penetrate through her skin and exploded in her face.


    She was blasted even further away, smacking against the barrier with a loud thunk. She got up quickly, still raring to go. However, unlike Gabriel who didn''t show any damage, she had large dents and chips where the spikes landed.

 Chapter 72: Seeing What Hes Made Of

    Lily POVLily didn''t quite know what to make of Julius. When she first saw him sitting in the upperclassmen cafeteria she only saw a small first year with black hair alone far away from any other table.


    He''s here awfully early. First years don''t show up for another couple of days.


    Lily was reminded of the first day the four of them had met Edgar. They had seen a muscular boy sitting alone at a cafeteria table. Little did they know that they would befriend the boy and he would become one of their closest friends. It was all because of a spontaneous decision to sit down with a lonely boy.


    That was the reason why Lily was walking toward the table the boy was sitting at. The others didn''t know where she was heading but they followed along without saying a word. However, when they saw the boy Lily thought they noticed what she was doing.


    When they all approached the table, Lily didn''t even see the boy look up from his plate. They all sat down but even then, the boy didn''t even look up at them. He didn''t even seem to be aware of their presence.


    The boy was too focused on his food, mowing through it like no tomorrow.


    Lily thought that the poor boy might not have been fed properly for his entire life. The poverty disparity between nobles and commoners was becoming wider every year. The poor got poorer. It was only because of recent innovations in runic engineering that allowed almost every man and woman to have clean water and their basic needs met. But it was something she was hoping to change in the coming years.


    Manners notwithstanding, Lily noticed something about the kid that made her almost die laughing. It was important to note that Lily was a very talented psychic, when it came to telekinesis, or mind arts she was a prodigy. Her perfect affinity allowed her such a deep connection that she had been moving psychic energy around since she was a couple of years old. So she knew what skills that affected the mind looked like when they were activated.


    The first year had a concentration skill that he had been using. It wasn''t dialed that high, but it was significant enough that Lily could notice. The skill looked advanced too. It wasn''t a simple [Meditation] or [Focus] skill but it was a rare skill, and she suspected leveled pretty high.


    So imagine her surprise when she saw the young boy using it to focus on devouring his plate of food while simultaneously looking over at a piece of paper. She was starting to feel bad for assuming that the boy was lonely because now that she had gotten close, it was clear that he was enjoying himself. There was a big grin on his face and his eyes lit up every time he tried a different food item. Not that she could blame him, the food at Goldencrest was fantastic even to noble standards.


    Instead, of doing him a favor by joining him, she was starting to think that they might have been more of a nuisance than anything. She even thought about leaving the boy alone, but if they left now, it would just be rude.


    So they sat and enjoyed their first dinner back with all of each other in a while. They didn''t disturb the focused boy, not that they thought that anything they said would bring him out of his concentrated state. It was only when the boy had put down his fork and picked up the piece of paper that Derek took the opportunity to introduce himself, asking if the boy needed any help picking out classes.


    After that, it seemed like Julius was able to fit seamlessly into their close group. All five of them liked him, even Kyle had interestingly enjoyed the boy''s company. So it came as a completely unexpected surprise that the boy slammed Aubrey against the barrier surrounding the training room.


    The four of them watching the match were all very taken aback. When Julius had told them he could fight on par with weaker Tier 3''s they didn''t believe him. They thought he was just a young boy who didn''t know what he was claiming. Sure he might have been a prodigy from where he came from, but this was Goldencrest, who attended here that wasn''t a top-tier talent? Plus, he didn''t have a perfect affinity, he said the highest one he had was high.


    Lily knew Julius believed what he said, but her truth ability only determined what the person thought was true, it didn''t necessarily mean that it was true. Though, it was important to note that Lily felt something off with his aura. It had a distinctive note that Lily only sensed in Tier 2 or 3 individuals, she didn''t know exactly what it was, but it stuck out to her.


    But now she believed him, they all did. Each of the spikes he shot out were insanely condensed and she knew that Kyle and Derek could both feel the many woven layers of mana they were created with. It wasn''t something a Tier 1 should be capable of. Yet, here Julius was, rapidly slinging them like they were general ranked [Fireballs]. He must have a lot of mana too, because he wasn''t slowing down.


    However, it was the way he fought that Lily paid attention to. He was always aware of the environment, he had to have some type of perception skill and a damn good one since he had even detected Aubrey''s [Prism Stealth]. He had real experience fighting, and she could see why he had an aura skill already. Most students took some time to get used to simulated combat.


    First years had a hard time understanding that although it felt real and they could still feel pain, they wouldn''t get hurt or injure their opponents. So it was inevitable that they would show hesitation when they fought other students. Not Julius though. He was absolutely relentless and didn''t let Aubrey have any breathing room. It was a stark contrast to the innocent-looking child she had seen at the cafeteria sitting alone. He was vicious, when he fought, he turned into a completely different person. It was no longer smiles and laughs, Julius had the cold eyes of someone who wanted to slaughter his opponent and it scared her a little bit.


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    Lily watched as Aubrey peeled herself off of the barrier and tried to close the distance again. Julius''s leg appeared to be broken, as he didn''t seem like he could move on it. Aubrey wasn''t looking that great either, her [Diamond Skin] was chipped and she was breathing hard. Aubrey used her [Mirage Phantoms] to distract Julius, switching places from clone to clone, trying to keep him guessing. But he knew exactly which one was the real Aubrey, completely negating one of her strongest abilities.


    It was just unfortunate for Julius that Aubrey''s defense was considered one of the best in their year. She took half a dozen spikes to her chest before she caught up to Julius who still had a broken leg. He tried to blast himself away with kinetic energy but Aubrey was able to keep up, using her superior speed to catch him.


    However, even after she got close Lily thought it was a done deal. Julius defended very well. Lily understood from their time in Professor Keller''s class that Julius was good, but good was an understatement. He was a demon.


    Julius was slower and weaker than Aubrey but he fought like a desperate animal. He had one good leg but he clawed and scratched every step of the way. He would take several strikes just to get one in. He was getting beat up by Aubrey, but he still kept fighting. Breaking both of his fists trying to break through Aubrey''s [Diamond Skin].


    Lily looked over at Edgar who was watching Julius fight with unmistakable respect sparkling in his eyes. She felt like Edgar might even be rooting for Julius to win. But Lily wouldn''t ever tell Aubrey that, she might kill Edgar if she knew.


    With both hands broken and on one leg, Julius had resorted to headbutts and throwing kicks with his broken leg at Aubrey, as well as the occasional construct he landed. They weren''t weak attacks either, each strike was backed with a lot of mana and kinetic energy, so Aubrey had to take them seriously. Lily just didn''t know how Julius was dealing with the pain. Even with the advanced focus skill, the pain must have still been overwhelming.


    Finally, Aubrey found her opening. After Julius crashed another headbutt into her, she wrapped him up and got him into a choke hold, squeezing the air out of him. Julius struggled for a long while, but he couldn''t break her hold and she activated the automatic defenses of the simulated combat devices, quickly ending the fight.


    Aubrey immediately deactivated all of her skills and looked exhausted. Julius on the other hand was still on the ground breathing rapidly through his mouth. However, Lily felt a pulse of mana course through him and she saw all the exhaustion fade away in a second, like it wasn''t ever there.


    She saw Aubrey toss an astonished look at Julius, seeing how fast he recovered. They were both thinking the same thing.


    What if they hadn''t had the devices on? Would Julius have been able to heal his injuries during the fight?


    Lily could see Aubrey''s confidence take a hit. Aubrey was one of the best of her year, but she barely beat a Tier 1. That would bother her for sure.


    Julius POV


    He was so close. He caught Aubrey off guard and didn''t let her get comfortable. But her defense was insane, it rivaled Gabriel''s and she was just a Tier 3, whatever skill she had, Julius was envious and wished he had a similar one.


    He used everything he could think of, but it didn''t matter, in the end, he still lost. He used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] quickly to alleviate his exhaustion. He didn''t actually take any injuries but he was still tired from the fight.


    He looked over at the others and saw various reactions from each of them. Edgar was smiling at him, Derek was looking at him with an indecipherable look, Kyle had a sort of look of excitement, but Julius didn''t quite know why, and Lily was openly surprised and worried. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Phenomenal fight! That might have been one of the better fights I had seen," Edgar said to both of them.


    "Yeah, you have way too much mana for a Tier 1. I don''t know how you didn''t go dry within the first minute. Also, I want to know how you were able to know which clone was the real me," Aubrey came up to him out of breath.


    Julius could see that she was frustrated and he could understand why. It must not have felt good almost getting beat by someone two tiers below you. So he was honest with her.


    "I have a perception ability that allows me to know where everything around me is. The first time you used it I was tricked, but I quickly understood that your clones don''t have the mass or substance that you do," Julius shared with her.


    He didn''t need to, considering she might be able to fix it before their next spar, but that defeated the whole point of sparring. You were supposed to refine your skills and fix any potential weaknesses. He considered Aubrey his friend, so he wanted to help her, and maybe if she meets someone with a skill like Julius''s in the future she won''t be caught off guard.


    "Your skill can differentiate between masses of people and objects?" Lily asked him.


    Julius nodded, he knew that Edwin had said to him that his skill was unusual but it was only now that he was beginning to realize how unusual the skill really was.


    Julius watched as Aubrey was off to the side silently thinking about what he had just said. Maybe she was thinking about how she could fix it. Julius didn''t know enough about her skill, but he was guessing that it would be difficult for her to make her clones have the same physical presence as a human. Julius noticed that the aura of the clones had the same feeling as the real Aubrey, so for anyone who was trying to determine which clone was fake or not based on the aura, then it would be hard if not impossible.


    Julius walked toward her, she didn''t acknowledge his approach, as she was too busy thinking. He had never tried to use life mana on another person before, but he was curious. Grabbing a small amount of life mana he manually woven it together, much like his old [Restoration] skill. He focused on his intent, envisioning the technique rejuvenating her.


    It all came together surprisingly easily. It was like his soul remembered how [Restoration] worked, and slowly he formed something that resembled a healing spell. He didn''t try with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] it seemed safer to try using a simpler skill. Aubrey still hadn''t noticed him, but he reached out and let the completed technique permeate into her body. Then he sat back and watched what happened.

 Chapter 73: Opening Up

    Julius honestly thought it wouldn''t work. However, much to his surprise, the life mana easily slipped into her and started to heal her fatigue. At the time, when he had acquired [Restoration], Julius didn''t get to check if the skill was a self-healing skill or if it was a healing skill that could be used on others as well. The troll''s skill certainly seemed like it was a self-healing skill, especially considering how effective it was. That being said, Julius also synergized the technique he learned from the troll with [Heal], which he knew was a healing skill that could work on others.His technique wasn''t as effective as [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and it wasn''t even as effective as when he had [Restoration], but it still worked quite well. Julius could feel the life mana working on Aubrey''s tired muscles and lungs, bringing them back to peak condition.


    Aubrey had finally noticed his presence next to her, coming out of her contemplation. She was a little startled to feel him feeding her life mana. At first, he had gone slow, just to make sure that if anything went wrong, he could easily stop it before it got worse. However, as he saw his technique start to work, he slowly fed more life mana into the technique.


    In less than a minute, Julius had rejuvenated Aubrey, and she looked ready for another round.


    She turned to Julius, "That''s your healing skill?"


    Julius looked at her and responded, "No, my healing skill is a self-healing one, so I had to create a technique that resembled my old skill and a few other additions to make it work."


    She looked at him like he wasn''t making sense. However, it wasn''t her that said anything. It was surprisingly Kyle who spoke up.


    "You''re saying that you manually constructed a spell matrix on the fly using a previous skill as a reference?" His voice had a mixture of equal parts awe and skepticism.


    "Yeah, is that not normal?" Julius asked genuinely curious.


    Kyle shook his head, "Many warriors or mages who fight can adapt their skills on the fly, using them in flexible ways for specific situations. But for healing skills, you don''t usually do that. Healing skills are always more complex than say [Mana Strike], so for you to do it is impressive and interesting."


    Julius hadn''t thought about that before. He knew that his healing skills had always been more complicated, but he hadn''t really thought of the reasons why. He had mainly only been able to figure out a healing skill thanks to his experimentation with the troll.


    "How did you learn your healing skill? I know most commoners don''t have access to healing techniques before they go to an academy unless they join a guild or other type of association." Derek was the one who asked him that.


    "Derek, you should know better," Lily admonished him and then turned to Julius. "You don''t have to answer that, you don''t have to answer anything that you don''t feel comfortable with sharing."


    Julius didn''t mind telling them, maybe Kyle or someone would be able to share with him some information that might be useful if he did.


    He smiled at her, "Thanks, Lily, but I don''t mind sharing. It isn''t a big secret anyways." Then he turned to Derek, "I actually learned it from a monster who had a healing skill themselves," Julius told Derek.


    "From a monster?" Derek looked like he hadn''t been expecting that answer.


    "Yep. Well at first I had [Heal] which took me a while to figure out on my own. However, after that, I learned a healing skill from a monster. I examined how its healing skill worked and then I made a technique based on it and then combined it with [Heal]."


    "How does that even work? What''s your life affinity rating?" Derek asked. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "It''s the same as my others," Julius told him.


    Julius saw Derek and the others look baffled at his admission. He didn''t know why though. He had expected it to be slightly unusual but he didn''t think it would be enough for this type of reaction.


    "What''s wrong?" He inquired.


    "You don''t understand how crazy that sounds?" Lily asked Julius


    "No, why would that be crazy, I was able to observe how the monster used its life mana to heal itself and then copied it," Julius said confused.


    "Can you tell us what kind of monster it was?" Derek asked him.


    "It was a troll, it had a very good healing skill so I wanted to see if I could learn it," Julius explained.


    Julius noticed they all of them were surprised at that.


    "Where the hell did you encounter a troll?" Aubrey exclaimed loudly.


    Julius didn''t know how to answer that. If he said he encountered it in a rift, then they would ask how he managed to find himself in a rift. If he lied and said he found it in the woods, then they might be suspicious about why he was alone in the woods. He didn''t see a way to explain it without having to explain other things that he wasn''t quite sure he wanted to share yet.


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    Lily must''ve seen the hesitation on his face or in his aura because she intervened and patted his shoulder. "It''s okay, you don''t have to answer."


    "What?" Why not? He is saying that he encountered a Tier 3 monster, and somehow was able to not only get close but close enough to examine its healing skill. That is kind of an important explanation," Aubrey stated.


    Edgar laid a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from escalating the situation. "Everyone is entitled to their secrets, he has already shared more than enough as is. Leave him be, he can tell us when he wants."


    Julius still didn''t know if he wanted to share the entire truth yet, but he felt like he could compromise a little bit.


    "It''s not that I don''t want to share, but I do have some secrets that I don''t know if I should tell you guys about. I want to trust you guys, but we have only known each other for a week," Julius truthfully explained to them.


    Luckily, it seemed they all seemed to understand where Julius was coming from. Even Aubrey was now quietly thinking to herself.


    However, it was Lily who spoke up first. "If you are worried about us sharing your secrets, I might have a solution to that."


    Solution? What kind of solution?


    "What do you mean?" Julius was intrigued.


    "There a ritual that I know of that places a geas on both parties. But it is honestly, quite painful," Lily said after a moment of thought.


    "I didn''t know you could do a contractual vow ritual," Derek commented to Lily from the side.


    She turned to him with a smile. "I learned it over the break. My father thought it would be a good idea to be able to use it once I graduate and take over more business responsibilities," Lily told Derek.


    Julius thought upon hearing that. He had heard of a geas from stories in his old world. From what he understood, they were a form of a magical vow that was protected by some sort of magic that ensured nobody violated the terms of the agreement.


    However, he wanted to make sure that it was a similar concept here. "What is a geas?" Julius asked Lily.


    "It is a form of magical contract that prevents the parties from reneging on the deal. In this case, we could use it so that we can''t speak of your secrets," Lily carefully explained.


    "That sounds pretty useful, why haven''t I heard it being used before?" Julius thought that having a ritual in place that prevented lying or backstabbing would be a very important and useful tool to have.


    It was Derek who answered him. "Geas rituals are notoriously dangerous to create and perform. Only select mind mages have the required skill and ability to do so. Anyone who can, is usually contracted with a powerful house or is very expensive to hire."


    Julius turned back to Lily, "And you can perform this ritual, safely?"


    "I have only done it several times before, but all of the times went smoothly. The participants went through extreme pain though," Lily admitted with a wince.


    Julius didn''t mind the pain. The peace of mind, knowing that his secrets were protected was definitely worth it. However, he couldn''t ask the others to go through that just so he could share his secrets. It wasn''t like they were getting anything out of it.


    "Let''s do it," Aubrey said confidently. "I don''t mind a little pain. But it better be worth it Julius. If we go through this and your "secret" was something dumb like you''re a noble then I will stab you."


    Huh. Maybe I shouldn''t share. Julius winced to himself.


    Aubrey saw his reaction and threw her hands up. "Really?"


    "So you are a noble?" Lily asked him.


    Julius nodded.


    "I knew it. That bow was too practiced, even as a joke," Lily sounded pleased with herself.


    "What''s your house''s name?" Derek asked.


    "If we can get a geas or this ritual thing set up I will tell you guys everything. But until then you will just have to wait," Julius told them.


    Aubrey looked at Lily, "How long will it take you to set everything up?"


    Lily thought about it for a bit, "I should be able to get it all prepared before dinner. It might take longer the more people who are taking part, but there should be plenty of time."


    "Okay, what should we do in the meantime?"


    "You guys might as well spar with each other while I do this, we have the room and I will just be off in the corner getting it ready," Lily said.


    Aubrey then looked over at Julius and poked him in the shoulder. "Hey, do you want to go again?"


    Julius looked at her. Aubrey had a competitive look on her face and was ready for another round. Julius then looked at Lily who was already manipulating mana off to the side preparing the ritual. He also wanted to fight her again, just to see if there was a better way to break through her defenses.


    Julius quickly smiled at her and they began to spar once more.


    They didn''t go as hard as they did before. This time they both practiced several things they wanted to try. Aubrey wanted to see if she could make her clones more convincing. She continually asked Julius what he thought and if he could notice a difference. He was still able to precisely tell which one was the real her, but he did notice that the clones were slightly more convincing. He didn''t know what she did, but the clones felt less like particles of light and mana, and more like actual figures.


    There were still some noticeable differences, like the physical mass of the clones, but it was amazing progress for such a short amount of time.


    Julius also wanted to try out something new. He had taken [Mana Layering] to create his own construct armor that he could use in fights. There hasn''t been much progress with that yet, but he was able to make smaller pieces of equipment.


    At the moment, he was trying to create pieces that lay over his arms and legs. In their last fight, he had broken his leg and fists trying to break through her diamond-like skin. Since he was going to be using the simulated combat devices more often, he would need to find a way to hit her without crippling himself.


    That was why he had formed a pair of bracers and gauntlets over his arms, as well as a pair of knee guards. He had created as many layers of compact woven fire mana as he could, but he still didn''t think it would hold up against Aubrey.


    They were certainly stronger than anything else he had created, but they were still lacking something. Aubrey allowed Julius to test them out on her, just staying still like a punching bag, but it only resulted in Julius breaking his constructs instead.


    They also made it harder to transfer kinetic energy to his target. It wasn''t much but Julius could barely notice it. However, he kept it up, continually refining the process and his skills. He would figure out how to break her defenses even if it meant having to fail over and over again. He had to admit, he was having fun though.

 Chapter 74: Contractual Vow Ritual

    For close to an hour, Julius and Aubrey took turns trying out their new techniques. Aubrey had made an interesting discovery herself. She found out that the same way she was able to infuse her clones with her aura could be used in another way as well. It took a lot more aura and concentration but she was able to give the clones a more realistic feeling to them.Julius could still tell the difference thanks to [Spatial Perception], but it wasn''t as easy as before.


    Julius on the other hand had been trying to find a way to make his constructs more tough. [Mana Layering] had helped a lot, but he still had trouble making them sturdy enough. It didn''t matter how many layers he had if each layer was easily broken apart. He felt like his layers were made of dried pasta when he smashed them into her arms.


    He did see some progress with leveling his skills though.


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 6 -> lvl 7]


    [Mana Layering lvl 7 -> lvl 9]


    However, seeing Aubrey use her aura to give her clones a weighty presence gave him an idea. His new skill [Empowerment of Will] had kind of worked on [Savage Dance] but he hadn''t had the time to try it on his other skills yet. He wondered how the skill would affect [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression].


    "Hey Aubrey, I want to try something else if that''s alright," Julius let her know beforehand.


    Aubrey dissipated her clones and asked, "What are you thinking about?"


    "I want to see if I can use my aura skill to enhance my constructs," Julius said.


    "I don''t know why you are trying to create constructs for close combat. Your long-range attacks are deadly enough, and fire mana is not known for its defensive properties. You might be better off focusing on mage skills. You certainly have the mana capacity and control for it," Aubrey told him.


    "You don''t think that I should be learning how to fight up close and instead specialize as a mage?"


    "No, you should definitely learn how to fight in close combat. I have been trying to convince Lily for years and Derek is a perfect example of being a mage but not being limited to long-range combat." Aubrey pointed to the other side of the room where Derek, Kyle, and Edgar were all training together. "He has a perfect lightning affinity that he uses primarily at range but he is also one of the better spear users in the school. However, stretching yourself too thin is not realistic."


    "What do you suggest?" Julius asked her.


    "I think you need to figure out a better way to defend yourself. I would recommend a movement skill that doesn''t allow your opponent to hit you. Fire, kinetic, or life are not known for their defensive specialties," Aubrey put out there.


    "I usually use my healing skill, which kind of acts as a defensive skill. But it''s not as useful if I am wearing these bracelets," Julius said.


    "It doesn''t matter, having a movement skill is still very important, especially in the later stages," she explained.


    Julius didn''t know how he would go about learning a movement skill like she said. Aubrey could switch places with her clones and had a monstrous defense. Julius didn''t have either and would like to learn a skill like [Instantaneous Step] or something similar.


    "Professor Keller said that he had a spatial movement skill called [Instantaneous Step], he said it was a popular skill. How would I go about getting a spatial skill like that?" Julius asked.


    "It would require specialized training. It is an evolved form of the skill [Quick Step] but I am not sure what the requirements are after that. I would ask Professor Keller if you are interested."


    Julius would make sure that when he saw him next or the next time they sparred he would ask Gabriel for more details. He thought that a skill like that would be very useful because Aubrey was right, Julius needed to have a better movement skill. Blasting kinetic energy through his feet was only going to get him so far.


    However, he still wanted to try out his idea with [Empowerment of Will], but before he could, Lily called out that she was finished with her preparations. Both of them dropped what they were doing and headed over to Lily. The other guys also must''ve heard Lily because they were also making their way over.


    The ritual Lily had set up was a complicated design of runes and threads of mana, as well as something else. He didn''t know exactly what it was, but it was the same violet energy that Lily had used before at the cafeteria to prevent Aubrey from blabbering her secrets.


    Julius was very impressed with how fast Lily was able to set it all up. When Derek said it was a complex ritual, Julius didn''t know what to expect. Now that he could see it, he was appreciating and realizing how difficult it really was. He was very glad Lily was able to do something like this because otherwise, Julius didn''t think he would share his secrets.


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    However, he was also getting impatient. Declan hadn''t found anything about House Hyperius but he was hoping one of them knew something.


    Lily had them all gathered around. "I need to connect everyone who is going to go through with the ritual. I installed an option that allows one party to have as many individuals as needed, and another party, which would be Julius."


    "What do you need us to do?" Edgar asked.


    "Those who want to participate, stand in that circle," she pointed at a runic circle off the side. "Then, just hold still for a few moments."


    Much to Julius''s surprise every one of them without hesitation went over to the circle. He didn''t think that they were so eager to go through with this.


    Once Lily was all finished making sure they were keyed into the ritual she had Julius stand on one end and the rest of them on the other. She had all of them say a vow out loud. It was a generic vow that basically stated that they would not divulge any of Julius''s secrets to anyone or anywhere.


    After that was done, Lily activated the runes making up the ritual.


    It was a wonderful piece of magic. The runes were softly humming with white and violet energy, gently pulsing in a rhythmic pattern. Julius felt something attached to his mind and soul, but also felt a connection between the five of them.


    Then all of a sudden, a sharp pain ripped through his head. Lily had warned them multiple times about the pain, but Julius didn''t quite believe her. He thought she might have been exaggerating. He wished she had been because the pain was excruciating.


    It was a totally different pain than what he was used to. He had accumulated many injuries in his time in this world and believed that he had a good tolerance for pain. But this pain was felt in his mind and soul. He felt like he was learning [Spatial Perception] all over again but many times worse. His soul felt like it was getting engraved with a rusted butter knife. If it wasn''t for [Savage Dance] he didn''t know what he would have done.


    He took a look across from him at the others. All five of them were screwing their faces in agony. Julius only saw Edgar and Kyle taking the pain better than the others. The rest were groaning in pain and Julius was starting to feel awful about doing this to them.


    Why did they feel like they needed to go through all of this just for him? It wasn''t like they knew him for very long. But they cared enough to want to know his secrets and understood that he couldn''t just tell them without any reassurance.


    It touched his heart, it really did. He already believed that these five were good people but now he was convinced of it.


    After what seemed like forever, the pain finally subsided and Julius could breathe normally again. The other five were also coming down from the pain, Lily dropping down to a knee, blood dripping out of her nose.


    Julius wanted to go directly to her and see if she was alright, but he still felt the ritual finishing the last steps. As the energy from the ritual began to dwindle, he felt a little snap throughout his body, like a rubber band snapping against his wrist. Then it was all over.


    The second Julius was confident that the ritual was finished he ran over to Lily. She was gasping for breath and was leaking blood from her orifices. Julius grabbed ahold of a bunch of mana and wove it into the same technique he used on Aubrey, this time though he focused on healing her entirely. Not just fatigue, but also any injuries she might have. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius could immediately see the color come back to her pale skin and she started to breathe normally again. Julius let out a sigh of relief. He didn''t know enough about rituals but he knew how challenging what Lily had done. She had made it look easy, but he had sensed how complex and how many different kinds of energy and moving pieces it took to achieve.


    Once he made sure she was okay, he went around to all the others and gave them a little jolt of healing magic, making sure they were all in tip-top shape.


    Everyone thanked him and sat down, trying to relax after their experience.


    "Lily, I know you said it would hurt. But next time make sure you don''t under-exaggerate it. I thought I was dying," Aubrey complained to Lily while she was lying on the ground with her hands over her face.


    "I''m so sorry. I don''t have that much experience with it yet. I''m sure my father or grandfather would have been able to do it without causing a fraction of the pain," Lily apologized to everyone.


    "No, it''s my fault. If it wasn''t for the fact that I was so paranoid, you guys wouldn''t have to have gone through that," Julius said guiltily.


    Edgar had gotten up and placed a hand on Julius''s shoulder. "We all made the decision. We all consented, nobody forced us, it was our choice." Edgar made sure that he knew that it wasn''t his fault.


    Julius appreciated it, but he still felt bad.


    Aubrey had sat up now. "Well, your secret better be worth it. Or else I am going to punch you so hard," she said.


    Julius saw Derek who was also on the ground, reach over and release a small shock of lightning at her. Aubrey jumped from the unexpected attack, "Hey what was that for?"


    "Weren''t you the one who said you didn''t mind a little pain?" Derek teased her.


    "Yeah, emphasis on little. I haven''t felt that kind of pain since my advancement to Tier 3," Aubrey insisted.


    "Yeah, I know. That certainly didn''t feel good. At least Kyle and Edgar have really good concentration skills that focus on pain resistance. I felt like a cattle getting branded on my soul," Derek added.


    "Forget branded, I felt like someone stole my soul, shoved it into their mouths, chewed it all up, and then spit it back out into my chest," Aubrey said.


    Julius listened as they all shared their collective misery with each other. It was funny, it was like they were trying to compete to see who felt the most pain. Then he took a moment to look at what the ritual had done. He could feel the geas connecting all of them. It was like small threads were attached to each of them to him.


    After they were done complaining to each other, he all looked at Julius with expectant eyes.


    "Well, I don''t know exactly where I should begin," Julius admitted to them.


    He hadn''t figured out how he wanted to explain it to them. How much did he want to share and how much was actually relevant?


    He gave himself a few moments to think about how he wanted to explain everything to them. He did some mental organization and figured out what he wanted to say.


    He looked at every one of them in the eyes, "How much do you guys know about House Hyperius?"

 Chapter 75: Dwindling Hope

    Lily had a confused expression. "House Hyperius? The Marquis house?""Yeah, that same one. What do you guys know about it?" Julius asked them.


    Derek was the one who answered. "My father told me that House Hyperius lost many of its powerful members in the last monster flood. Unfortunately, that led many other houses to take advantage of it and start poaching many of their assets over the last decade. They retained most of their core holdings because of their Patriarch the Golden Sun, who is regarded as one of the most dangerous Tier 5s in the empire and has a really good chance of reaching Tier 6 in the next several years."


    "I heard the same thing. My father had some deals with House Hyperius over the years but they have slowly dwindled," Lily added.


    "What does House Hyperius have to do with your secrets?" Aubrey asked him.


    Julius took a deep breath. "My real name is Julius Von Hyperius," Julius revealed to them.


    Julius expected surprise, but instead, he was met with confusion.


    "You''re a son of House Hyperius?" Derek asked.


    Julius nodded.


    Derek turned to Kyle and Lily, "Did you guys know about House Hyperius having a boy around Julius''s age with his features?"


    Kyle spoke up, "There is a boy named Tristan, he is the son of Frederick Von Hyperius, but he goes to Goldencrest. There are also a few other boys and girls but I don''t recall anyone of them having black hair, or being named Julius for that matter."


    Lily asked Julius, "You mentioned that you didn''t have a father anymore, was that true?"


    "Yeah, both parents are dead," Julius assured her.


    "Then who was your father if you don''t me asking?"


    Julius had to think about it for a little bit. It wasn''t like he had ever known the guy, so his name kind of slipped out of his memory.


    "Gregor, the brother of the Patriarch," Julius finally remembered.


    "Gregor Von Hyperius was your father?" Aubrey asked in a disgusted tone.


    "Technically yes, but I can''t recall a single conversation I ever had with him. So I don''t really consider him family. Why, do you know him?" Julius asked. Aubrey sounded like she knew of his father if her disgusted tone was any indicator.


    "I know of him, I met him with my mother at a fancy get-together with a bunch of other nobles. He was not someone who I expected to be your father. You have my sympathy," Aubrey said.


    Julius was not surprised that his father had quite a negative reputation in the noble circles. From what he could find out his father was a no-good drunk who slept with anyone who had two legs and could breathe.


    "So that would mean you are Lukas Hyperius''s nephew and a part of the main line. How did we not know about you?" Derek was perplexed.


    Julius told them all about his weird circumstances. About his birth to his commoner mother who died when he was born. To his isolated upbringing and not even meeting his family for most of his life, until he was twelve.


    They were all saddened to hear his story. "That is deplorable. Nobles can be awful, greedy people, I freely admit that. But this is totally different. If you were the nephew of the Patriarch why would you be treated like that?" Lily asked.


    "Apparently it was all because of my father. When he brought me back to the family the elders were very upset with him and wanted to kill or banish both of us. However, my uncle was able to convince them to let me stay. However, they had a stipulation that included no contact with me until my awakening and seeing if I had any talent," Julius explained to them.


    "And your uncle just went along with it? He allowed them to alienate you for years?" Lily sounded offended on his behalf.


    "To be fair, it wasn''t like I was living in squalor. I was living very luxuriously and had anything I wanted other than family. Also, I was an independent kid so it wasn''t as bad as it could have been."


    Lily and the others weren''t convinced. They still thought that it was an awful thing to do to a child.


    Julius continued on with his story. Telling them about the night of the attack and what had happened. He tried to include everything he thought was important. He mentioned how it was a plan concocted by some of the elders, Duke Greyson, and Clan Genshen. He was confident that most of them would know who he was talking about.


    He finished his story with the incident with the teleportation circle. For a while, they didn''t say anything. They were thinking about what he told them. They knew if what he was saying was true then that would have enormous repercussions.


    Julius didn''t quite understand the full consequences himself, but he expected Derek, Lily, and Kyle to understand more than he did.


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    "And they don''t know you''re alive?" Edgar wanted to make sure Julius wasn''t being targeted.


    "No, I don''t think they would have any reasons to think I would have survived the accident, but I don''t know. I''m in the dark. You guys haven''t heard any recent developments about House Hyperius?"


    Lily and Derek both said they hadn''t. However, Kyle had something to say. "There have been some weird movements regarding Duke Greyson and his allies. My family has many contacts and they all said that Duke Greyson was making a lot of moves in the Valorbury Region where House Hyperius has holdings. I haven''t heard anything from the Hyperius family specifically, but if Patriarch Lukas hasn''t come out and said anything or done anything about Duke Greyson''s movements after the attack, then I don''t think it''s a good sign."


    Whack!


    Lily smacked Kyle hard. "Don''t say something like that. Have some empathy for Julius."


    Kyle held his head where he was hit. "I wanted to be honest with him. There''s nothing worse than false hope," Kyle defended himself.


    Lily was about to continue arguing with him, but Julius stopped her, putting a hand on her arm.


    "He''s right and I appreciate your honesty, Kyle. I admit I have been thinking the same thing for a while now. If my uncle had been able to survive all of the Tier 5s then there would be more noise, or at least Duke Greyson would be more wary of making moves on House Hyperius."


    Julius had known in his mind that it was unlikely that they survived, but Kyle''s words hit home. They were blunt, but something he needed to hear from someone else. He still didn''t know if his uncle and Edwin for sure died that night, but he felt the remaining vestiges of his hope begin to die away.


    He had been trying to keep a hold of the possibility that they were alive but it might be time for him to accept the reality. It hurt to think about it. He didn''t have much time with either of them, in the grand scheme of things. Only a few years really. But those years were pretty amazing.


    He remembered everything, even all the times when Edwin would force him to practice his manners, beat him up in the training yard, or when Julius would make dinner for the three of them to enjoy. You didn''t really appreciate something until it was gone.


    The group must have felt his mood plummet because they quickly gave him some space. They let him know that they would be waiting at the cafeteria for him and to take his time. They would be there to talk about whatever he needed to talk about.


    When they all left, Julius slowly released [Savage Dance]. It had been cranked up high in order for him to keep his composure around the others. But now that he was alone he was dialing back.


    He thought about keeping it active until the brunt of the pain went away. But he understood from his previous experiences of losing the family that bottling it up would only hurt him later down the road. If he didn''t confront it now then it would continue to haunt him like a ghost, constantly lurking in the back of his mind, growing and just waiting for the worst moment to burst open.


    Julius realized as [Savage Dance] was lowering down, that sadness wasn''t his main emotion. He felt something rise in him that he thought he had gotten rid of when his parents and sister died in his last life. A dark ugly piece of him. Rage. Uncontrollable rage.


    He stopped lowering [Savage Dance] for a second, making sure that he maintained a grip over his emotions. It was hard because he didn''t want to keep them locked up and controlled. He wanted to unleash them onto the world. Onto the people who attacked him and his family.


    Julius walked over to the control panel where the controls for the barrier were and activated them. The barrier was supposed to handle even some Tier 5 attacks.


    Once he knew it was safe, then he dropped [Savage Dance] and his emotions roared from the depths.


    Julius didn''t even think of his next actions, his anger tried to take over and he gladly let it. He created a small orb of fire mana. It was less mana than even his usual spikes, but he carefully created dense layers of fire mana, intertwining with one another, just like the scales he practiced with.


    He used [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], and [Mana Layering]. He didn''t even use [Savage Dance] to aid his focus. His rage was doing a better job than the skill could ever hope to manage.


    Once he created a perfectly round sphere the size of a golf ball he used [Empowerment of Will]. He still hadn''t tried empowering another skill yet, but he was attempting it now. It might be a stupid idea that could kill him but for some inexplicable reason, he was confident he could make it work.


    At first [Empowerment of Will] didn''t seem to want to interact with his other skills or the orb. But he wasn''t going to be denied.


    Slowly, Julius felt [Empowerment of Will] latch onto the sphere and combine with it. The secret was his emotions. When he fed his anger and rage into the sphere, it swallowed it up like a droplet of water getting absorbed into the desert sand. His aura became one with the orb and he could feel each layer and the little imperfections on its surface.


    He felt the orb change on a qualitative level. If it was a crumbling stone before it was a sphere of solid ruby now. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    As he stared at it, he started to feed kinetic energy into it. He increased the movement of the molecules, fueling the fire to get hotter and brighter. It was no longer red, it was turning blue as it intensified.


    It was still only the size of a golf ball, but Julius could feel the energy building up in it and start to press against its container. Then it began to violently thrash, trying to break free. However, Julius''s anger and [Empowerment of Will] worked together and kept it in.


    Once he felt like it could handle no more, he shot it at the barrier. It wasn''t that fast but somehow that made it look a lot more menacing. It slowly hit the side of the barrier and detonated.


    The flash of light blinded him, and the explosion rocked the entire room even through the barrier. The barrier held, but everything inside of the barrier was affected by the orb''s explosion and shockwave. Julius was slammed off of his feet and face-first into the barrier. He hadn''t worn the bracelet, so he got injured pretty badly. Large third-degree burns all across his chest and arms, and shattered bones throughout his whole body from the impact.


    They might have left someone else in critical condition, but Julius had a really good healing skill. However, he didn''t use it for a moment, just allowing himself to feel the pain of his injuries without [Savage Dance] taking the brunt of it. He wanted to punish himself, he knew it was stupid but he was emotional so he gave himself an excuse. Oddly enough, he didn''t even feel the pain in his body.


    Finally, he let [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] heal him up completely and re-activated [Savage Dance] bringing himself back under control. His emotions felt less raw and he wrestled his control back. He felt a lot more empty after his outburst, he released as much anger as he could, and most of what remained was just sadness.


    However, he didn''t let himself mope around. That would be the worst thing he could possibly do now and he slapped both of his cheeks with his hands, wiping the wet spots on his face. Then he got up and headed to the cafeteria.


    He could really use a good meal to get his spirits up.

 Chapter 76: Aura Lessons

    Julius was walking toward the cafeteria. He didn''t know what he could do. He tried to remind himself that Kyle didn''t say they were dead for sure, he had just implied that it was very likely. With that being said, it was still difficult to keep believing that they were alive though.He was so wrapped up in his own head that he failed to notice Liam and his buddies walking toward him. It wasn''t until Liam put an arm around his shoulder that Julius paid attention to him. Julius inwardly groaned, he wasn''t in the mood for games and didn''t have the patience for it.


    He smoothly removed Liam''s arm from him and continued on his way, not even acknowledging him or his friends.


    Liam didn''t seem to take that very well and said, "Hey what''s the rush?" sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius on any other occasion would have said something that would have appeased the guy and then made an excuse to leave, but with his current mindset, he just decided to ignore him. He didn''t trust himself to speak to the arrogant ass right now.


    One of his friends didn''t take well to Julius''s behavior and the fact that he didn''t acknowledge any of them. He grabbed Julius, this time much more roughly, and said, "Hey, he is talking to you."


    Julius finally stopped walking. He felt the man''s aura was trying to intrude on his own. It didn''t have any of the practice or finesse that Liam had, it felt rugged and sloppy in comparison. At least Liam had the skills to back up his arrogance.


    Julius used the same technique that he had used the last time he encountered Liam. Activating [Savage Dance] and closing his aura onto itself. However, unlike Liam who had carefully controlled his aura, this guy was like a bull in a china shop. Just causing wanton chaos and aggressively lashing out with his aura. With Julius''s mood, he was about to lash out on the asshole.


    Instead of doing that Julius took a calming breath and pushed [Savage Dance] harder, keeping himself calm. Then he took a look at the door to the cafeteria, it wasn''t that far away. So with a quick burst of kinetic energy, he ripped through the guy''s grip and quickly bolted to the door. He got away cleanly and luckily Liam and his friends didn''t chase after him once they saw him enter inside, but he could tell that neither of them was pleased with how the interaction went.


    They are becoming a problem for me, I just hope it doesn''t escalate more.


    Julius spotted the group sitting in their usual spot and Lily quickly noticed him as well to no surprise, waving to him as he walked through the doors. Julius waved back and quickly got in line to get some food before making his way over to them.


    Lily made some space next to her and ushered Julius to sit. "How are you feeling?" She asked concerningly.


    "I just need some time, but I will be okay," Julius assured her.


    She just nodded. Julius didn''t know the extent of her psychic powers, but he wouldn''t be surprised to know that she could feel his pain since she was a psychic. She had always been really empathetic in the time he''d known her.


    Julius told them about his run-in with Liam this morning and the one he just had a few minutes ago. He kind of forgot about the earlier interaction, so he didn''t mention it before. It had been a busy day and Julius lost track of everything that had happened. It was obvious, but everyone was outraged on his behalf.


    "Why does that prick think he can do whatever he wants?" Aubrey complained loudly.


    "You know why Aubrey. The guy has been an ass since his first year and has only gotten worse as we got older," Edgar said.


    "It doesn''t help that he is at the top of the class," Derek mentioned.


    "No, it doesn''t. It only spurs him on and strokes his already inflated ego," Aubrey commented.


    Julius enjoyed seeing them insult Liam. Normally, he didn''t like when people talked badly about someone, but Julius could see why. Even after three interactions with the guy, Julius was already beginning to hate the dude. These five have had to deal with the arrogant prick for three years already, he could only begin to imagine their annoyance at him. It was oddly therapeutic to listen to as well.


    For dinner, Julius had gotten himself a mountain of steak, potatoes, and a vegetable that was quickly becoming one of his favorites. He didn''t know what it was called but it was a vegetable that resembled a piece of asparagus but had a wonderful balance of sweet and spicy.


    He also stacked many desserts on his plate. Cake, cookies, ice cream, you name it and he probably had it on his plate. He deserved it. So he sat back and enjoyed their insults toward Liam while stuffing his face.


    He also took the time to look over the many notifications he had received from his little tantrum.


    [Mana Layering lvl 9 -> lvl 12]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 7 -> lvl 9]


    [Arcane Construct lvl 15 -> lvl 16]


    [Pure Compression lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


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    [Savage Dance lvl 17 -> lvl 18]


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 12 -> lvl 13]


    Six skills had leveled up and some of them more than once. It left Julius stunned seeing how much progress his skills had made in a period of a few minutes.


    Wow, maybe I need to get mad more often. He joked to himself.


    After he ate he said goodbye to the others. They were going to go study in the library some more because the session ended earlier than planned. After all, they had gone to the training room with Julius.


    He, on the other hand, had to go to his aura class. He thought it was weird that he had to go to a late-night class, but it actually worked out well for him. He still didn''t know what professor he got, but he would find out pretty soon.


    Julius made his way to the same building where he had Intro to Mana and Tier Advancement this morning. When he walked into the classroom, he was surprised to see many students already there.


    There were almost as many students here now as how many were in Professor Keller''s elective. Edgar was right when he said Professor Youma might be his professor because he saw the older man sitting right on his desk.


    Honestly, Julius was glad that he was his professor. Everything he had seen from the man had Julius believe that Professor Youma was good at aura control, but he still couldn''t feel a single thing coming from the man. If he didn''t know better, he would have thought Professor Youma wasn''t even there.


    There were a good number of first-years attending as well. Julius could make out at least over a dozen first-years scattered around the class. It made his presence here less weird since he was sure that the other first years didn''t have an aura skill.


    There wasn''t any long introduction. Professor Youma just explained the first task he wanted to teach the students. Unlike the other professors, he didn''t separate the class into groups. Instead, he had them all practice the same exercise.


    According to Professor Youma, it wasn''t impossible to control one''s aura without a skill. It was several multitudes more difficult than having one, but it was possible. He said that specifically to the first years because he knew that most didn''t have one. However, he did say that these exercises would build great habits and familiarity with aura control.


    He also said that many of the upperclassmen with better aura control had taken this class when they were first years too. It was hard to see immediate results but the time they put in would be evident later down the road when they got their own aura skill. It had reminded Julius a little bit about his own mana control training.


    The first thing he had them do was to practice how to suppress their aura. According to the professor, knowing how to properly suppress and hide your aura is a true sign of aura mastery. It didn''t matter what year the students were in, Professor Youma had all of them try the exercise out.


    Julius had been touching on aspects like this previously. He had just been trying to do something similar with Liam and his goons. However, Professor Youma described the technique a little more clearly.


    He explained aura in terms of how heat worked. He mentioned that aura was the byproduct of one''s soul, the stronger the soul, the stronger the aura¡ªkind of like thermal radiation.


    He then went on to explain that you could insulate it. A common way most civilians used was to just build a thick layer that prevented the majority of it from leaking out. However, this was not a skilled way to do so, and had some downsides. For one, it used a lot of soul and mental energy. Secondly, any person who had an okay aura sense would be able to sense the thick layer just as easily as the aura leakage itself.


    Another way was to control the aura itself. This was the method most used by more experienced users. The way Julius understood it, you would grab ahold of your aura and carefully control it so that your aura doesn''t go past your influence. Once it did, anyone with half a decent aura sense would see your aura. It also didn''t last forever, it was kind of like holding your breath. This made it more difficult but more practical if you were trying to completely hide your aura for stealth purposes or so it didn''t affect bystanders.


    The technique that Professor Youma was showing the class was a hybrid method that included the second option along with an additional step that utilized the aura you were controlling. Most of the time the aura that you would sense from someone was the excess energy being emitted, and it could be used for other purposes if you controlled it.


    Keeping it contained or under control was doable for a short period, but at some point, you would need to release some of the aura or else it would overflow and break your control because of the pressure building up.


    Professor Youma''s method would mean they would control the excess aura to empower themselves passively. Warriors could use it to strengthen their bodies. Or mages could use it to enhance their constructs or minds. However, the biggest advantage was that it would be difficult for someone to detect any aura, as long as you maintained control of it.


    This would solve the leakage problem and repurpose it to strengthen yourself. Killing two birds with one stone. Julius didn''t quite fully understand it yet, but from what he could make out, he thought it was a good idea. He used a similar strategy with his kinetic energy.


    Whenever he would siphon off some of kinetic energy he would keep ahold of it and repurpose it for other applications. It took more mental focus, but after time it became a habit and Julius sometimes didn''t even notice when he was doing it.


    He sat in his chair and completely focused on his aura. He wasn''t worried about someone being able to sense his aura because there were so many students using their aura, which made it hard to discern even the aura of the person next to you.


    Julius began trying out what Professor Youma described. He realized that the method he was using earlier with Liam was like the smothering layer method that Professor Youma mentioned. It didn''t sound like a good method if what the professor said was true, so Julius tried to avoid that.


    He closed his eyes and focused on feeling the aura that was radiating from his body. It was like heat in a way, the way it emitted from his body before disappearing into the atmosphere reminded Julius of thermal energy.


    He grabbed his entire aura and tried to not let a smidge of it leave his control, but it was more difficult than the professor had explained it. It felt like trying to take out an oversized load of laundry out of the dryer and carrying it across the house without dropping a single item. However, no matter how hard he tried, he always ended up losing a sock on the ground. It was mildly frustrating.


    He kept on trying for the rest of the period. He didn''t manage to completely suppress his aura, but he also hadn''t been expecting to. However, he did notice that the longer he tried, the easier it was to maintain his grip. Eventually, a little leakage always fell through, but he could see that he was making progress. He learned it was actually better to find a good balance between soft and firm. He had to be gentle but also firm enough that he could still control it.


    Eventually, the class ended and the students started to filter out. However, Professor Youma had pulled Julius aside and asked him to stay behind for a moment.

 Chapter 77: Tips and Tricks From an Old Man

    Julius didn''t know why Professor Youma had asked him to stay behind. Did he do something wrong?Professor Youma had assistants helping out with the class like the other professors. So he waited for everyone to leave before he paid attention to Julius. The older man stood up from his place on his desk and started to roam around the room. He didn''t say anything to Julius, but he just paced around the room.


    Julius started to feel a bit weirded out by the situation and was about to walk out on his own. However, Professor Youma finally turned to look at Julius, "How did you get your aura skill?"


    Julius was not expecting that question. He had been predicting the man would ask him why he was taking this class or something along those lines, but not that.


    "Pardon?" He acted confused.


    "It''s clearly already past the uncommon stage, and it''s a high-grade one also. Gabriel had told me about you earlier, he was so excited. In the many years I have known him, I haven''t seen him quite like that," Professor Youma said offhandedly.


    Julius was taken aback. It seemed that Gabriel had told Professor Youma about Julius. He had promised Julius that he would not share any of his secrets. Julius shook his head in annoyance, he really thought he could trust that Gabriel wouldn''t share his stuff with anyone.


    Professor Youma interrupted his thoughts and reassured him. "Don''t worry, I know what you are thinking. He didn''t even tell me your name or year. He didn''t really tell me anything, he was surprisingly tight-lipped about it. The only reason why he told as much as he did was because I have known Gabriel since he was your age."


    "So how did you know it was me?" Julius asked.


    "It wasn''t hard to figure it out. He told me that the person was very strong for their tier, but the fact that he hadn''t mentioned them before made me believe that they were a new student. That meant the list was narrowed down significantly. I counted only four people in your class who had an aura skill. So I paid attention to you four first. Two of you were artificially given an aura skill, so I discounted them, Gabriel wouldn''t be that interested in people with their types of personality either. So that just left two of you. The other student is a mage, so I also eliminated her. That just left you, a combat student. To be honest, I didn''t know for sure, but your reaction just now confirmed that it was you," the old man explained like it was obvious.


    So if I had continued to play dumb he might not have known. Did I just get played by this wrinkly old fossil? Julius felt like he had just been taken advantage of.


    "What if it wasn''t me? What would you have done afterward?" Julius asked annoyed.


    The old man had sat back down on his desk, swinging his legs back and forth. "I was pretty confident. I noticed you when you walked into my class this morning. If you are trying to hide your strength you might want to do something about your aura."


    Julius must''ve made a confused face, because Professor Youma continued on, "Your aura has a unique mana signature, which is something that occurs with people who have large amounts of mana. It gets mixed in with your aura, but if anyone with good senses investigates closely enough they would be able to see that you have more mana than most Tier 2s."


    Julius frowned upon hearing that and was worried about what that would mean. All of his other thoughts were put on hold. "And there are ways to hide it?" Julius asked concerningly.


    "Of course, it is actually a very similar process to what we had done today in class," he said.


    Julius hadn''t heard of a mana signature before, but from what Professor Youma was saying, it was like he could tell how much mana Julius had based on it alone. He had only been at the academy for several days, but he had to wonder how many people had already noticed his large mana capacity. He hadn''t had many run-ins with that many Tier 4''s yet, but that might change soon.


    Also by the sound of it, it would be a good skill to learn either way.


    "Can you show me?" Julius asked the man.


    The old man smiled at Julius, he didn''t say anything, but he got up and walked over to a set of chairs a few paces away. He ushered Julius over, having him sit down.


    "Okay, the first thing I am going to do is give you a general feeling of containing your aura. Don''t move or react to what I am going to do. It is going to feel weird but I want you to get used to it," Professor Youma instructed him. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius took a deep breath and let the old man do his thing. He felt the old man''s aura, begin to squeeze his aura. Julius didn''t even feel the man''s aura move. One moment he felt nothing, the next he felt an enormous pressure containing his aura.


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    The best way Julius could describe it was that it felt like he was being shoved underneath a pool of water and suffocated. Professor Youma definitely downplayed how weird it was going to feel. It was slightly terrifying, and he instinctually lashed out with his own aura.


    However, Professor Youma''s aura was light years stronger than Julius''s. It didn''t even budge, as Julius smashed his aura against his. It just continued to squeeze the life out of Julius.


    It got worse and worse the longer it went on. He could feel the excess aura emitting from his soul and filling up the bubble Professor Youma had him trapped in. Julius recalled what Professor Youma said about containing his aura and using the excess to fuel other techniques.


    So he tried to use some of his aura to empower his body. He felt his aura infuse into his muscles and bones, strengthening them. The pressure was still there, but it had alleviated by a bit.


    "That''s the right idea, but I can sense your aura still. You need to hide the fact that you are using it better. You are letting some aura slip out of control, which is why I can still sense it," Professor Youma told him.


    Julius kept on trying, using his excess aura to enhance both his body and his constructs. It was difficult to get used to feeling like he was drowning in his own aura. Professor Youma had Julius attempt to even enhance his mind, which Julius hadn''t attempted before.


    He had tried to empower his [Savage Dance] skill before with [Empowerment of Will] but that had sent him straight to dreamland. So he hadn''t thought of directly enhancing his mind with aura. It was a silly oversight, but it was better late than never.


    Honestly, he didn''t see much of an effect though. It certainly helped stabilize his mind and focus, but it was still not as effective as [Savage Dance]. He didn''t feel like his mind needed a boost either, but it was a good thing to practice just in case he needed to use it in the future.


    Around thirty minutes after Julius started, Professor Youma had him stop. He needed to get going, but he wanted Julius to keep practicing the technique later.


    "How am I going to practice using the excess aura properly if I cannot even hide my aura normally yet?" Julius questioned.


    Professor Youma thought about his words. "Well, you better learn how to suppress your aura fast," he said while shrugging his shoulders.


    Julius knew he was right, but practicing the passive enhancement technique wasn''t his only concern.


    "What about when I meet someone who can figure out my strength through my mana signature?" Julius asked worriedly.


    "You don''t have to worry that much. The only people who would be able to sense it are a very select few fourth years and senior staff members," Professor Youma told him.


    "So why did you make it sound like my aura was a huge deal?" Julius asked him.


    "I just wanted to see your reaction," the old man said while chuckling to himself. "It was quite funny seeing you get all worried."


    Julius didn''t know whether to thank the man or to punch him. He wanted to do both but ended up deciding on just thanking him. He still needed the old man''s help after all.


    "So I don''t have anything to worry about?" Julius wanted to make sure.


    "I never said that."


    Julius looked up to the ceiling and groaned inwardly.


    The man must''ve seen his stress, and said, "Okay, take this." He handed Julius a small ring out of nowhere. Julius assumed it came out of a spatial storage device, but he didn''t see him activate it. "This ring will help suppress your aura just enough to hide your abnormal mana signature from anyone with a good aura sense but it will also allow enough through so that nobody should notice anything wrong."


    Julius took a good look at the ring. It was a simple silver band of metal. At first glance, it was a plain ring of insignificant value. However, with a closer look, Julius was able to detect the intricate enchantments on the ring. They were so small and delicate, that Julius knew that this ring wasn''t as simple as he thought. Julius had zero doubt that this ring was expensive and Professor Youma had just given it to him.


    Julius looked at Professor Youma and back at the ring, lost for words.


    "It wasn''t getting any use from me anyway. I used to wear it when I was still practicing how to camouflage my aura," he said casually.


    "Camouflage?"


    "Yeah, it is a more advanced technique that makes others believe your aura belongs to a person of a lower tier. Sometimes completely suppressing your aura is an indicator in itself. There are times when it is more beneficial to hide within the crowd," Professor Youma explained to him.


    That made sense to Julius. The act of blending in was a familiar concept he had seen in old spy movies his grandfather liked to watch.


    "Anyway, I gotta get going. Once a week we can discuss your progress, but for the rest of the time, make sure you practice. It will take a while so stay patient," he instructed Julius.


    Julius promised to do that and was about to say goodbye, but he remembered he still had a question and stopped the professor.


    "You said there were three first-year students who have aura skills other than me?" Julius was curious.


    "At least three, there are always a few every year. Most of them always try to hide it, because it is a good thing to keep up your sleeve. However, some like that Patterson kid like to shout it from the rooftops," Professor Youma said exasperatedly.


    "And why did you assume I didn''t have an uncommon aura skill?" Julius wanted to know how this man figured out his aura skill so easily.


    "When you get to my level, it is as obvious as you dancing on a cafeteria table naked." Professor Youma chuckled to himself.


    It was that obvious?


    Julius noticed that Professor Youma evaded his question though. Julius was still curious but left it be.


    He said goodbye as he watched the professor leave off to wherever he needed to be. Julius on the other hand, wanted to continue his aura training. He believed it was something important and wanted to focus on it for the moment. His other skills were hitting a wall, and he thought that he should try to shore up some of his weaknesses before anything else. So he headed toward his dorm to feed Drasil and then planned to go to a meditation room for some training.

 Chapter 78: Birth of a Life Spirit

    When Julius got back to his dorm, he saw his roommate, Henry there as well. Ever since their first conversation, they hadn''t said a word to each other. Not that Julius minded that. His first impression of Henry was not the best.Henry was sitting at his desk, scribbling away on a piece of paper. He didn''t even acknowledge Julius''s entrance, he only looked back upon hearing the door open and then proceeded to turn back to whatever he was doing without a word.


    Julius didn''t let it bother him and headed over to Drasil. He was going to feed the little guy but he decided to bring him along with him to his night training session. He didn''t want to leave the poor fellow alone with the noble all night. So with a quick scoop, he picked up the spirit seed and walked back out of the dorm, not saying goodbye to Henry.


    The first-year side of campus was still quite empty, except for several students who were walking back to their dorms, and several groups of friends who were having fun exploring their new school.


    Julius watched as the group of friends were fooling around with each other, gently shoving and laughing with one another. It was a heartwarming scene.


    When he got to the first-year training facility, he was surprised to see much more activity than usual. There was a game of some sort that a large group of students were playing. It reminded Julius of soccer but instead of using their feet, they used their hands.


    It was set up in the main room of the facility and Julius could see that it was getting really competitive. Most of the students were probably warriors or close combat builds if their physical abilities were any indicator.


    He saw a couple of the students in his class earlier participating as well. Julius himself was tempted to join in with them. He had really missed recreational sports activities in the time he had been in this world. He had always loved playing sports growing up.


    But he denied the temptation and proceeded to head toward one of the smaller meditation rooms. However, as he was walking by the game, Julius noticed several pairs of eyes watching him as he passed them. He thought they would have paid more attention to the miniature tree he was carrying, but they seemed to not even recognize it. Instead, they were focused on him. The most prominent one was from a large boy with wolf-like ears. Julius hadn''t seen him in any of his classes, but the beastkin boy followed Julius''s movements until he entered the room and closed the door.


    Once he got inside, he settled down on the mat that was provided and turned on the isolation enchantments. Then he began training his aura suppression, he would need to figure out how to do that before he could focus on the passive enhancement element.


    For several hours Julius practiced his aura. It was a difficult thing to get down. It wasn''t hard to control most of his aura, the hard part was that the more he controlled the more challenging it was to handle any additional amount.


    Every once in a while, he would take a break from it and focus on [Mana Layering] or [Swordsmanship]. After some time, the students had finished up their game and went back to their dorms, leaving Julius alone with a couple of other students training who were isolated in rooms of their own. He knew that they were there because the doors of the other training rooms had red lights that indicated that they were occupied.


    He had just finished another round with the training dummy and put his sword down, healing himself with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. It was the first time he had used it all night, he was still trying to wear himself as far as his body could take before he healed himself.


    It was showing results too. He had noticed that he wasn''t as out of breath as usual. Even in the past couple of days, he had already seen some improvement.


    He was surprised to see he had some notifications that he must have missed after his stress relief training.


    [Mana Layering lvl 12 -> lvl 13]


    [Swordsmanship lvl 8 -> lvl 9] S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Mana Layering] had gotten all the way to level 13 and was getting close to the final threshold. [Swordsmanship] had also gotten to level 9. Just one away from evolving into an uncommon skill. He was looking forward to what he might get. He hoped that it would be a good skill that would synergize well with his other skills.


    He had done a little research about the potential skills after [Swordsmanship]. There were a lot of options that didn''t specialize in purely swordsmanship. There were some that totally deviated from sword fighting. Julius had read about a skill called [Pointy Tip], which wasn''t about a sharper sword at all. It was a skill that hardened one''s "sword", and not the one used for fighting. There was also another skill he saw, it was called [Plant Dismemberment]. It was a skill meant for gardeners and those who cultivate plants. Supposedly, it increases the effectiveness of the herb or plant when harvested using the skill.


    Julius was hoping for one that would go well with some of his other skills. He wanted to organize some space for any other skills he might want in the future. The next skill he wanted to get, was the [Quick Step] skill that Aubrey had talked about more in-depth at dinner.


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    It was apparently an uncommon skill that was only acquired by learning how to use ambient or pure mana and using it to enhance one''s movements. However, once you learned it, the skill automatically controlled the ambient mana for you, so it wasn''t that bad, or so Aubrey said. She said the hardest part was learning it in the first place.


    He was tempted to try to begin learning it over the night but decided that he would wait for Gabriel to show him and give him some tips beforehand. He wasn''t in that much of a rush to learn it, the skill at least in the beginning stages wouldn''t be extremely useful for Julius. He would have to wait to evolve it before he would see any real benefit. In the meantime, he had a lot of other things he needed to do.


    Julius practiced for a couple of more hours before he prepared to go back to his dorm. He had made some strides in his aura training. It would just take some time and energy before he got it down.


    He picked up little Drasil and gave him a healthy early morning meal of life mana. However, the second he started to feed the little guy, Julius noticed something off right away. The spirit seed was no longer just sucking in the life mana, now it was pulsing in energy.


    Is it ready? He thought excitedly to himself.


    Julius didn''t want to jump the gun, but it definitely looked like something was happening. He continued to feed Drasil with his mana. He crossed both of his fingers and even his toes, praying that it would work out.


    The spirit seed was glowing a verdant green, gently humming with life energy. Julius could feel the seed undergoing some sort of metamorphosis. There was energy swirling in wildly complex patterns, like leaves in a tornado.


    Then suddenly it just stopped. All the energy was no longer moving, it had gone away like it was never there. Minutes went by with nothing happening and the longer it went on, the more worried Julius became.


    He was completely still, his eyes not leaving the spirit seed the entire time. Julius couldn''t help it, but doubts started to creep into his subconscious.


    What if it had failed? What if I had used too much life mana?


    Thankfully, Julius noticed the spirit seed begin to glow again. This time it was a blinding green light, and then above it, a small orb the size of a ping-pong ball started to form. It was quite magical.


    After the orb formed, Julius saw the branches, leaves, and flowers of the spirit seed start to slowly dissolve. In the places where it had dissolved, small particles of green light were all that remained. Next, the green particles floated up to the orb and were absorbed by it.


    It was slow at the beginning but picked up speed as time went on. A few minutes later the orb was like a vortex. The branch was almost completely gone and the orb was a thick, dense green sphere of life mana.


    Then suddenly, it just burst apart, and in its place was a light green human-like figure the size of his thumb. It was ridiculously cute. The spirit''s eyes were still closed like it was sleeping and its body was covered by something that looked like a miniature leaf.


    Julius gently took the spirit in his hands like he would with a newborn baby. This was his spirit, his new familiar. Julius smiled wide and cradled little Drasil to his chest. As soon as he did that though, Drasil rubbed its head into Julius''s chest, trying to nestle even deeper.


    Julius laughed softly to himself as he watched it. He still didn''t know what gender Drasil was. The only book he read about it, said that spirits don''t really have genders in the same way humans do, but they often lean toward one side more than the other. Julius had always kind of thought that Drasil was more of a boy, but he would have to wait until the spirit grew up a little bit.


    As Julius was thinking, he felt something pressing against his chest. He looked down and saw the spirit pressing against it, and then abruptly sunk right into his chest. Julius panicked for a moment until he felt something enter his core.


    He took a second to take a look at his core and right where his life mana was, Drasil was floating there.


    Julius didn''t know how that was possible. He hadn''t started the familiar bond to his knowledge, but something must''ve happened that allowed Drasil to enter his core. It wasn''t a big deal though, Julius had always been planning for Drasil to remain primarily in his core, but it was still a surprise for Drasil to do it all on his own.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. He didn''t know what happened but he was happy with the result so he wasn''t going to complain. He was extremely happy that he now had a familiar of his own.


    Welcome to the team buddy. He said internally to the spirit lying in his core.


    Julius left the training facility at around five o''clock. He went back to his dorm, making sure to be extra quiet on his way in. Luckily, he was able to get in and grab a new change of clothes before heading off to the bathroom to clean up.


    Once he was done with that, he climbed down to the same beach he and the others had visited a couple of days ago. As he sat down in the soft sand, he relaxed and watched the waves rock back and forth. Then he took out a book out of his pack and began reading.


    The sun hadn''t risen yet, so he had to create small orbs of light using fire mana to see the pages. He did that for about an hour and waited for the sun to rise.


    And was a beautiful sight when it finally did. Julius observed as the golden sun softly rose from the horizon, illuminating the ocean and the beach around him. He just took it in, while enjoying his book. It was moments like these that gave him pleasure.


    He stayed there for a bit longer, even eating a blueberry muffin he had saved from the day before and talking to Drasil who was still residing inside his core. He didn''t know if he could hear Julius, but now that he was born he wanted to keep on talking with the spirit.


    When it was about time for his first class, he stood up and got ready to go. But there was a lot of sand that managed to get into his pants, so he had to spend a couple of minutes shaking his clothes and jumping up and down, to get it out of his pants.


    Once he had gotten as much out as he could, he headed back up the cliff and back to campus. He had a big grin on his face and was ready for his second day of classes to begin.

 Chapter 79: Balls to the Face

    Julius''s classes went very similar to the day before. Physical Training just involved him pushing himself hard, using kinetic energy liberally to make it more difficult on himself. Julius, however, did notice that some of the nobles who were causing trouble the day before had not shown up. They must have thought that they had better things to do instead.The next two classes he had weren''t that different. Intro to Mana was another lecture on the principles and general usage of mana. There was nothing Professor Stewart talked about that had been that illuminating for Julius.


    Tier Advancement was much the same. Julius was already at the peak of Tier 1, so all that was left for him was to advance. Which he was planning to do within the next several days or so. Until then, he wouldn''t be able to make that much progress in the class. Instead, he used the time to practice his aura some more. Professor Youma had noticed Julius doing so, but he didn''t stop him. He actually looked at Julius with a look of approval.


    Julius had been wearing the ring that Professor Youma gave him last night for the entire day so far. He was fascinated to see how well it lowered the intensity of his aura even to his own senses. If he didn''t know better, even he would completely fall for it. It was a very generous gift, one that Julius wouldn''t forget.


    On the other hand, Applied Combat was more interactive than yesterday. The day before, half of the time had been used as Professor Rowe had done introductions. However, today they got right into training and practical combat exercises.


    There were also many more assistants today than yesterday. Professor Rowe had split the class into two main groups. One was for mages and another was for warriors. Julius was placed into the warrior group, alongside the others.


    Julius didn''t know if he hadn''t seen him or if he just overlooked him yesterday, but Julius saw the beastkin student in his group as well. There was also the redhead girl from his Physical Training class in there too. The redhead girl didn''t even pay Julius any mind, but he wished he could say the same for the beastkin guy. Just like last night, the guy was staring at Julius with a frightening intensity.


    Did I do something to him? Do I know him from somewhere? Julius asked himself.


    Julius was pretty confident that he had never seen the guy except for last night at the first-year training facilities. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    So why is he looking at me like I just stole his last cookie?


    Eventually, the guy stopped staring at Julius and put his attention back on the assistant who was telling them what they were going to be doing. Julius was thankful for that. It wasn''t like the look from the guy was hostile, but it was certainly uncomfortable.


    The first thing they were going to be working on in the class was dodging. The assistants would launch projectiles at the group and the student''s task was to avoid them. Julius thought it was a good idea. Dodging can be more complicated than most people unacquainted with fighting would presume. Being able to dodge is a vital skill that would save their life one day.


    It takes practice and experience to determine when you should dodge and when you shouldn''t. There are times when dodging is actually more detrimental than taking the hit in the first place.


    The projectiles the assistants were throwing were just softened balls of mana. The assistants assured the students that they would not leave more than a bruise. Julius took this opportunity to not use any enhancements and used his pure physical ability to dodge. He believed that he was already pretty good at dodging attacks, but there was always room for improvement.


    The projectiles started off slow in the beginning, allowing the students to acclimate to the exercise. Most of the warriors were doing very well, only the other group of mages were the ones who were getting hit.


    However, it soon began to increase in speed and he began to see many of the students who weren''t used to this type of training begin to panic slightly. They were still at a speed that they should be able to handle, but if they didn''t use the correct technique then they were punished quickly. Even Julius was a little surprised at how fast the balls of mana were coming in.


    Although the balls were softened, with the speed they were getting shot at, it would still not feel good if they hit you. With that being said, Julius thought that might have been the point. If it hurt enough, it would give the students enough urgency to dodge. Avoiding pain was a good motivator at times.


    Pretty soon the group had naturally split into two sections. On one side there were the students who were already used to dodging or who picked it up easier and then on the other side were those who weren''t so great.


    The other side students got absolutely demolished once it sped up. They were able to handle the slower balls, but as soon as it got faster, students were eating balls to the face like no tomorrow.


    If he had to make an estimate, around a quarter of the students in his section were still able to keep up with the increased speed, with the rest getting smashed. It wasn''t like the assistants were allowing the students who couldn''t keep up to sit out either. If they got hit a few times they could take a breather but the assistants sent them back out there immediately.


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    Julius wasn''t going to lie, it was a little bit funny. He saw one guy get thrashed by several balls of mana, go and take a break, only to get forced back in a minute later, and then proceeded to eat another five balls in the face within the next ten seconds.


    The assistants were having more fun than anyone else. They were laughing with one another as they hurled balls of mana at the poor students. Even Professor Rowe who was helping the mage students was hiding a smile off to the side.


    The mage students were going through the same exercise, just at a lower intensity. They were still going at the same speed the warrior group had started at, with the assistants helping the mages out. Julius noticed some of the warrior students who were getting pummeled look over at the mages with an envious look. They were getting thrown in the deep end, while the mages were getting their hands held the entire time.


    The other students in the warrior group had some sort of enhancement skill active, all except for the redheaded girl and the beastkin guy. Julius could tell they were both Tier 2, they weren''t the only ones in the group but they were definitely the most outstanding ones. It seemed effortless, the speed and precision with which they were dodging them was inspiring.


    Even Julius shamelessly attempted to copy them. He didn''t have their raw physical ability and wasn''t enhanced with kinetic energy but he thought he could learn from their technique.


    [Spatial Perception], once again was a lifesaver. The skill allowed Julius to track objects with amazing accuracy. He used to have a harder time tracking multiple objects, but over time he had gotten much better at that. There was still a lot to focus on with so many projectiles flying through the air, but the advantages were evident.


    However, what made the game really interesting was when the assistants started to curve the balls. Before, they were all shot in a straight trajectory. Now, they were coming from various angles, making them much harder to predict and track.


    Julius found himself having a lot of fun. A twist of his hips here, a duck there, it was like he was playing dodgeball all over again. Except he wasn''t able to retaliate, he just had to focus on avoiding getting hit.


    However, because he hadn''t been using enhancements he had found himself getting hit frequently. It was still good practice though, he could see himself improving. Instead, of dodging one of two balls, he was planning ahead and trying to place himself in the most optimal position.


    Toward the end of the exercise, he was still getting hit. But he was only getting hit when he chose to. He was consciously selecting which balls were avoidable and which ones he could tank. He thought that if he could take one hit and end up avoiding three others, then it was a good trade-off.


    At the end of class, Julius was breathing very heavily. He had made some real progress in his opinion. He didn''t see any skill levels but he reminded himself that not everything was about skill levels.


    He had a small break before he had to go to Professor Hashen''s class. He was hoping he would be able to evolve [Swordsmanship] today or tomorrow. Once he was able to see what options were available to him for his skill advancement, he would be able to decide whether or not to keep the skill.


    Last night he had been trying out some attacks with [Swordsmanship] and his other skills or applications of mana and aura to provide more choices for evolved skills. However, there was a type of skill he was hoping for.


    It was called [Aura Slash], and the skill was a commonly acquired skill that utilized aura to unleash a powerful attack. It was a cousin to [Mana Slash] and was an aura skill that led to many other interesting aura skills down the line.


    The requirements to unlock it are not that hard, just a pre-existing aura skill, a general combat skill, and releasing aura in a burst from a medium. Julius''s idea was to synergize the evolved form of [Aura Slash] with some of his skills to create his first epic skill.


    He had thought that the evolved form of [Spatial Perception] would have been his first epic skill, but the skill hadn''t budged an inch. He wondered if there was some sort of requirement he didn''t know about that he needed to meet before he could evolve it.


    On the other hand, [Aura Slash], like [Mana Slash] was a skill that was frequently acquired because of its high compatibility with most skills. It was a really good skill in you want to combine skills into an evolved combat skill.


    Professor Hashen''s class was not that special, they just went through the same forms as yesterday and then moved on to training on dummies. Honestly, it was a little disappointing because it was something he had been doing on and off again the entire night, but remained patient.


    After that, he headed to Gabriel''s class. Julius found Lily, Aubrey, and Edgar at the same place he saw them yesterday. He quickly made his way over and heard them talking about some sort of altercation between some fourth years.


    Lily like usual was the first to notice him and she stopped their conversation to acknowledge him. "Hey, how has your day been?" She asked with a big grin.


    "It''s been pretty good. Yourselves?"


    Lily rolled her eyes and said, "In our Applied Combat today we started sparring and a couple of students got into a big fight during it. It was over something stupid that happened before the semester started. Professor Keller had to intervene and is probably going to be late because he had to deal with it."


    "Do you know what happened that caused it?" Julius asked.


    Lily shook her head, but Edgar interjected, "Apparently, one of the group members did something with the other''s girlfriend and it all went sideways from there."


    The two girls stared at Edgar surprised. "How did you know that? And why didn''t you say anything to us earlier?" Aubrey asked him with a frown.


    Edgar shrugged his shoulders. "It just slipped my mind. I wasn''t really listening to you guys before, but I remember hearing some guys talking about it the other day."


    "Oh yeah! That reminds me, I want to show you guys something. Wait¡­ maybe I should wait until once everyone else is around," Julius restrained himself. He really wanted to tell them about Drasil and maybe see if they had any tips on how to take care of a spirit, but didn''t want to exclude Kyle and Derek.


    "What is it?" Aubrey asked him curiously.


    "Don''t worry, I will show you all after Hand-to-Hand," Julius promised her.


    She didn''t like that and had a pouting expression on her face. She was about to say something to Julius in response, but luckily an assistant started to give instructions to the students and gave Julius a chance to ignore Aubrey for now.


    He chuckled to himself as she went the entire rest of the class looking over at him, her eyes pleading for him to tell her.

 Chapter 80: Introducing the Others to Drasil

    The four of them were on their way to the library, to meet up with Kyle and Derek. Professor Keller had shown up, but it was toward the end of class when it was almost already over.Aubrey had kept prodding Julius about what he wanted to show them. He must have told her no a dozen times, but she was persistent. When they walked into the library, he waved at the librarian who smiled at him over the book she was reading.


    He left some books in the return area, before following them upstairs to where Kyle and Derek were already sitting, waiting for them.


    "Okay, we are all here now, so what is it?" Aubrey demanded.


    Kyle and Derek both had confused expressions on their faces.


    "What is what exactly?" Derek asked Edgar quietly.


    Edgar leaned over to Derek, "Julius said he had something to show us but Aubrey is upset because he said that he should wait until all of us are together."


    Derek laughed upon hearing that, Julius saw that even Kyle had a tiny smile on his face. Derek turned to Julius. "Sorry about her, she has always been the impatient one."


    "No, I am not!" Aubrey vehemently denied.


    Lily had already put up her barrier so Julius didn''t worry about the yelling bothering the other students.


    "Yes you are," Edgar nudged Aubrey gently and smiled at her. Aubrey felt miffed and crossed her arms to let her displeasure be known.


    "I think it''s very considerate and sweet," Lily commented.


    "Well, he should never have brought it up if he wasn''t going to share it right away. It is just a tease at this point, like dangling a shiny ruby in my face but telling me I can''t touch it," Aubrey complained.


    Julius smiled at their antics and focused on his core. He had tried to get Drasil out earlier today, but nothing had worked. It wasn''t until he had lured the spirit out with a handful of life mana that Drasil came out.


    So Julius created a small orb of life mana as he gently awoke the sleeping spirit lying in his core. He felt the little guy slowly blink his eyes open and look around confused. Then he must have felt the life mana Julius was holding in his hands and quickly that was all he was focused on.


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    Julius could practically sense the little guy salivating and Drasil swiftly left the comforts of his core and appeared on his palm that was holding the mana.


    Lily and Aubrey gasped in shock and cooed at the appearance of the cute little spirit. Their eyes sparkled with joy as they watched Drasil press his entire tiny body against the orb of life mana with a face of contentment.


    Aubrey was the first to speak. "Is that the spirit seed we saw that one morning?" She asked excitedly.


    "Yep."


    "What spirit seed?" Lily asked.


    Julius slapped his forehead, he forgot that half of them didn''t know he had a spirit seed. He had only told Edgar and Aubrey, the others hadn''t been there at breakfast and Lily had gotten there after he told them about it.


    Aubrey turned to Lily, "You remember that plant he had at breakfast?" S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Lily thought for a moment, and then had a look of realization, remembering that morning. "That was a spirit seed?" She asked.


    "What are you guys talking about?" Derek was feeling completely left out.


    Julius felt that he should explain to the rest of them. "Sorry, I forgot that I didn''t tell some of you guys yet. But I bought this life spirit seed at a store in Heston not that long ago and was planning to get a life spirit to contract as my familiar. He just manifested last night so I wanted to show you guys. I don''t know its gender but I have been calling him Drasil."


    Julius noticed that Kyle was much more interested than he expected him to be. He had gotten pretty close to Drasil now and was observing the life spirit munching away at the orb of life mana with no care for his surroundings. Julius had to admit that Drasil was a really cute spirit, he could see why rich nobles got them as pets.


    Julius had been thinking about his situation a bit more. He had concluded that he didn''t believe he needed to hide his life affinity, at least not to the extent that he had been doing. With Drasil now a factor to think about, he thought it might be easier to explain it by saying he had a life affinity, but it wasn''t that good. As for why he didn''t state it on his entrance exam, he didn''t think that would be such a big issue, considering he wasn''t focusing on it in school.


    He was brought out of his thoughts by Aubrey who was trying to tickle the little spirit whose body was hugging the orb of life mana. The little spirit didn''t pay her that much attention, much to Aubrey''s disappointment.


    He is still just as much a glutton as he was when he was just a spirit seed. Julius chuckled to himself.


    Drasil was completely focused on eating as much life mana as he could and Julius kept feeding the orb more mana. Aubrey and Lily were talking about how cute Drasil was. They were sharing stories about when they were younger and wanted a spirit of their own. Kyle, on the other hand, had taken out a notebook and was observing Drasil with a delighted look, while writing occasional notes down.


    Julius just sat back and watched the three of them enjoy Drasil''s presence. He smiled to himself. He was very fortunate to have found these people. If he didn''t have them around he truly thought he might have been punching a training dummy all day and night, or spent every waking moment training to get stronger. This was much healthier for him, he couldn''t forget why he was getting stronger, it was to protect moments like these.

 Chapter 81: Preparations for Advancement

    Julius was sitting on the bench next to Aubrey, both of them out of breath from their sparring. Aubrey had improved her clone technique very fast, it took Julius much more mental focus to decide which one was real and which one wasn''t now. Aubrey was still frustrated about how much mana and aura it cost to use it, but Julius could already see how she was becoming more efficient.However, he believed that no matter how much practice she had, the technique would always be a big mana eater. The technique was based on using large amounts of mana and aura to simulate an actual person''s presence.


    Julius on the other hand, had gotten much better at using [Mana Layering] with his constructs. At the moment he was still using flat and simple layers for most of his spikes or other constructs, but if he took the time, he could create a construct with his scaled layers. Those constructs were much stronger and even Aubrey had to concentrate on deflecting them, instead of taking them directly.


    Julius still hadn''t broken through her defenses yet, but he felt like it was possible now. If he used his kinetically enhanced fire technique he thought he would be able to do some damage. He was tempted to ask Aubrey to be his testing dummy, but he wanted to get better control over it first. He still wasn''t comfortable using it under regular conditions, but he was getting there.


    Another thing was his skill, [Empowerment of Will]. It was quickly becoming one of the most useful and powerful skills in his arsenal. The downside was that just like [Savage Dance], it was difficult for his mind and soul to take the load of the skill. It was a rare+ skill for a good reason, but he suspected that the skill would become much easier to control once he advanced.


    He was able to empower his constructs to a certain degree with [Empowerment of Will], it wasn''t that much yet, but he could feel its potential just waiting to be unlocked.


    Julius felt Aubrey poke him from the side.


    "Hey, when are you planning to advance to Tier 2?" She asked him before taking a sip of water.


    Julius thought about that. He had been planning to advance, but he kept on getting sidetracked. There was so much on his plate right now, that he was getting overwhelmed. He was already thinking about not going to certain classes. It wasn''t like there was a requirement to go to any of the classes. The only thing that was really stopping him was that there were assessments every once in a while, and if the material tested was only stuff discussed in class then he would need to still go.


    "I don''t know. I was thinking soon, but with everything going on, I just haven''t had the chance," Julius truthfully told her.


    "Do you feel like you are prepared? Like do you believe you could do it right now?" Aubrey asked.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I could probably do it this very second, but I don''t know how long it would take or what I need to really prepare for."


    Julius watched as Aubrey placed her hand underneath her chin, deep in thought. Then she spoke, "How about this? Tonight, after your aura class you meet me here. There are several chambers specifically meant for advancement, I will be able to set you up and give you any advice you need. Not that you have much to worry about, Tier 2 is relatively simple, just a little messy."


    "How long does advancing usually take?" Julius was curious.


    Aubrey had to think about that one. "Eh¡­ there''s not a specific or average time. Some can take a few minutes, while others can take hours. It just depends on the person. For you, I think you will be relatively quick. You have a solid foundation, so there will be fewer changes needed to be done."


    Julius was happy to hear that. "Okay, so I should meet you, right after my aura class? You''re okay with it being that late?" Julius made sure it was fine with her.


    "Yeah, I don''t need as much sleep as a Tier 3, so I will be fine," Aubrey assured him.


    Julius smiled at her. "Thank you, I appreciate it," he was grateful that she was helping him.


    "No worries. You have no idea how much you have helped me out with my [Mirage Phantom] and [Prism Stealth] skills. I have made so many improvements in just a couple of days. This is the least I can do. Trust me, we are not even yet, not even close," Aubrey said seriously.


    "What''s not even close?" Edgar had walked up to them, wiping the sweat from his face with his shirt.


    "Nothing, I just promised Julius that I would help him advance tonight," Aubrey told Edgar.


    "Oh! You''re going to advance?" Edgar turned to Julius with excitement.


    Julius nodded his head. "Yeah, I might as well, I don''t think there is any reason to not at this point," he said.


    "Do you mind if I come as well?" Edgar asked a little timidly, something that wasn''t like the big man at all.


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    Julius laughed. "Of course, you are more than welcome."


    Edgar smiled widely and clapped Julius on the shoulder. "What time are you planning to do it?"


    "After my aura class so probably around 8," Julius said.


    "Okay, I''ll meet you guys there. I shouldn''t have anything planned then," Edgar said.


    "What''s happening? Are you guys leaving me out of something?" Lily had overheard Edgar and came walking over to them.


    Aubrey answered her. "Yeah, Julius is advancing to Tier 2, so Edgar and I are going to meet here to help him tonight."


    "Yay! That''s amazing Julius, congratulations! Do you mind if I come along as well?" Lily asked with an excited grin.


    Julius smiled and shook his head with exasperation. He might as well just invite Derek and Kyle along at this rate or they will feel like they were getting left out.


    "Yes, Lily you can come too. We will be meeting here at 8," Julius told her.


    "Awesome! This is so exciting!" Lily exclaimed.


    "What''s exciting?" Julius heard Derek ask from behind.


    "Oh, Julius is going to advance to Tier 2 tonight!" Lily told him excitedly.


    Derek turned to Julius with a smile. "Congratulations Julius, can I-"


    "Yes, you can come as well," Julius cut him off with a smile.


    "-come too?" Derek finished quietly and paused. "Wait, what did I miss?" He asked the others with a confused face.


    Aubrey whispered to him, "You are the third person within the last minute to ask if you can come."


    "Everyone is welcome, we will be meeting here at 8 after my last class," Julius told the five of them while chuckling to himself.


    After they ate dinner together, Julius headed off to his aura class with Professor Youma. He had been practicing his aura control, specifically suppressing his aura all day whenever he could. He was making slow, but very consistent progress. The hardest part was concentrating on suppressing his aura while also being able to function normally.


    Things like walking, talking, and even standing were much more difficult when his entire focus was on his aura. But it was good practice, training his aura through his day-to-day routine.


    When Julius had walked into class, Professor Youma hadn''t looked at Julius. However, Julius did feel the professor reach out with his aura and give Julius a metaphorical tap on his shoulder. Julius responded by slapping the finger away and tried to do the same thing to Professor Youma. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Sadly, Julius''s aura couldn''t even reach within arm''s length to the professor before it dissipated like mist in an inferno.


    Throughout the entire class, Julius practiced the same thing he had been doing all day. He was able to concentrate very deeply and keep his aura mostly suppressed much to his pride. Of course, a little slipped out every now and then, but compared to yesterday it was a major improvement.


    About halfway through the class when everyone was focused on their own aura exercises, Julius felt something. He felt an aura intrude into his own and began picking it apart.


    It was very sneaky and very subtle, so Julius didn''t know who it came from, but he was pretty certain it was Professor Youma if the grin on his face was any indicator. Every time Julius grabbed ahold of his aura, the professor was there to pull a single thread and everything went crashing to the ground.


    It was like Julius was playing Jenga and each time he was about to add another piece, Professor Youma was there to take away the single wooden log holding it together. It was very annoying but also impressive, especially considering the professor was still walking around helping students who needed advice.


    Professor Youma was able to find the weakest link in Julius''s aura within a second and use that little piece of leverage to rip away Julius''s control. It was something he realized he could learn a lot from.


    Julius noticed that the professor wouldn''t just rip the link away as fast as he could, but he would allow Julius to sense what he was pulling, and give him a chance to respond.


    The one thing that Julius noticed was the piece was almost always the one part of his aura that he was paying the least amount of attention to. Once Professor Youma felt like he had given enough time to Julius to prepare, he ripped the aura away and scattered it into many pieces.


    He would do it again and again, testing Julius''s control. And Julius realized what he needed to do. He couldn''t leave any of his aura unattended. If he did, then Professor Youma had an easy target.


    Therefore, even though he was much slower in gathering his aura together, he made sure that he didn''t leave any openings for the old professor. It was very challenging and meticulous. It felt like trying to search through a wooly carpet after you had just dropped a box of tiny screws and had to find each one.


    However, he had a brilliant idea. What if he had a vacuum? What if he didn''t need to be on his hands and knees picking through the carpet to find each individual one? What if he used his aura like a suction device?


    Now that was an idea. It was very similar to how he had created his core and felt like it could very well work.


    Julius released all his aura back to its normal position. He noticed that Professor Youma had stopped walking around and had turned to face Julius. He must have felt Julius''s aura completely drop and was curious about what he was doing.


    Julius took a couple of deep breaths and activated [Savage Dance] close to as high as he felt comfortable going. The whole world seemed to narrow into a very thin tunnel, there was only him and his goal at the end.


    Once he felt prepared, he began gathering his aura again. However, this time he wasn''t trying to hold it anymore, he was sucking it in and imagining the centripetal force pulling the aura close to him. The only thing he concentrated on was creating a vortex of aura.


    Julius would like to say that he got it down on the first try, but he didn''t. He didn''t get it on his second or third try either. Truthfully, he wasn''t even close. The aura was just splashing out everywhere. He was just creating a big mess, and he saw several students around him look up and try to figure out what the disturbance was about.


    Julius was going to stop and give up on the idea, but he caught a hint of a proud smile on Professor Youma''s face. So while he did stop for the moment, he promised himself he was going to try it again once he wasn''t around many other students. He felt like he was on to something.

 Chapter 82: Tier 2 Advancement

    Stephen Youma POVStephen Youma was old. He had been stuck at Tier 4 for most of his life, a debilitating injury to his soul when he was younger had left him bottlenecked. He wasn''t able to find a way forward, no matter how many expensive elixirs or healing services he paid for, none of them worked. For a while, he had been devastated, he knew he had the talent to reach Tier 6, but it seemed like fate had other plans for him.


    It took him many years to come to terms with his future, but he did. Time had a way of healing wounds and scars. However, he found his calling, teaching others, so he threw himself into teaching the next generations.


    He had seen many students come and go from the halls of Goldencrest over the many years he had been teaching here. From the people who went on to become Tier 6 powerhouses, to high-ranking nobility, and even those who went on to become some of the most depraved criminals in the Empire, he had seen them all.


    Which was why he was very interested in this "Julius Snow". Stephen had heard about him from Gabriel during one of their late-night chats over dinner. He had rarely seen Gabriel so excited about a new person he met. He had been so busy with his wife and newborn daughter that Gabriel had few opportunities to meet new people outside of Goldencrest.


    But Stephen had listened to Gabriel gush about this person and this unknown person began to pique his own interest. He had done his own investigation and quickly found the most probable student within a couple of days. He wasn''t quite sure, but Julius''s reaction cemented it for him.


    After the second day of classes, many of the staff met up late at night to discuss some of the students and some of their expectations for the year. They might decide to change a few things they had already planned or keep them the same, it all depended on what kind of first impressions they had.


    At the moment, Jerod Trench, Senior Professor of the Combat Department was speaking to the others. He was talking about some of the progress some of the upperclassmen had made during the break. Jerod had commented that a particular third-year, Samuel Drogan, had made some incredible improvements since the end of his second year.


    Stephen remembered Samuel. He had him in his first-year Tier Advancement class. According to his memory, the boy didn''t have many outstanding qualities or talents. He only had a single excellent water affinity, average fighting instincts, and wasn''t that hard of a worker. This led Samuel to sit in the bottom half of the students of his year.


    However, if what Jerod was saying had any merit, then Samuel had turned himself completely around and was now sitting in the upper half of his year. It wasn''t something that was done often, such a dramatic change, but it did and was always impressive to watch.


    The other professors each said a word or two of their own about certain new students who they thought had some potential and who might be good contenders for the end-of-year tournaments.


    Stephen had noticed many of the students the others had mentioned in his own class. He was able to determine based on their aura, who was the most outstanding of the bunch.


    He had to admit, there were some very impressive students in this year''s class. He was certain that the Intra-School Tournament would be very interesting this year.


    However, his mind kept going back to Julius. He had just seen the boy in his night aura class and he was astonished to see how much better the boy had gotten in just a day. Aura training was not easy, it was boring and repetitive, and there weren''t any shortcuts.


    If Stephen didn''t know better he would have thought the boy had stayed up all night practicing. But that would be insane, the boy was quite alert the entire class, not showing a single sign of sleep deprivation.


    Toward the end of class, he had even noticed the boy attempting to cycle his aura, something that not many choose to do because the effort sometimes wasn''t worth the result. Some of the other students might have been more impressive due to being already deep into Tier 2, but Stephen knew that this child was the one to look out for, especially if even half of what Gabriel had alluded to was true.


    So as he listened to the other professors talk about the other impressive first years, he just sat back and let them discuss amongst themselves. He met eyes with Gabriel across the room and they both smiled at each other. Neither of them would talk about Julius, the boy obviously had his secrets and they didn''t want to spoil his fun.


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    Julius was not going to lie, he was a little nervous. Everyone who had talked to him about advancing to Tier 2 had told him that it was the most simplistic advancement. It was just a matter of your body acclimating to mana and forcing a transformation. However, he couldn''t help himself.


    So as he stared at the main training facility building from just outside, he tried to convince himself that it would be all fine. The others would be there as well to support him so he should not have anything to worry about.


    He felt someone approaching from behind him. He wasn''t able to sense who it was based on their aura alone, it was too well hidden and controlled to do that. But he was able to use [Spatial Perception] to get a feel of them.


    Based on their general shape and presence he had already concluded that it was Lily. He noticed that she was trying to be sneaky, so he pretended that he hadn''t noticed her yet. It was funny to see her try so hard to be stealthy. Her aura was completely tucked away and she wasn''t emitting any mana. He would have never noticed her if Julius didn''t have [Spatial Perception].


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    Unfortunately, for her, he did. So right before she was about to lunge at Julius, trying to scare him, he deftly stepped to the side and let her miss him completely.


    Julius laughed loudly at the sight of Lily whiffing at her target and almost falling on her face.


    "Darn it! I thought I got you that time!" She said with a good-natured grin.


    Julius had hidden his anxiety as best as he could before she noticed it. Then he looked at her with an arrogant expression and teased her, "Maybe once you get a little older and more experienced you will have a chance."


    She punched him lightly in the shoulder, "Shut up. You have that stupid perception skill. I thought it worked off of mana or aura detection, but obviously not. So what is it? An evolved form of [Danger Sense] or [Detection]?"


    "Are you asking me to divulge my highly personal skills, Lily?" Julius asked, feigning to be offended.


    She rolled her eyes. "Fine, keep your secrets. I will figure it out one day with or without your help."


    They started to walk together to the entrance of the building, passing several upperclassmen on their way in. After a moment, Lily spoke up again, however, this time she was more serious. "You will be okay. Stop worrying so much."


    Julius laughed to himself. He should have known better than trying to hide his feelings from a psychic like her. She had most likely known he was feeling nervous the entire time. She was just trying to make him feel better, by making jokes and getting his mind off of his advancement.


    When the two of them entered, the others were already waiting for them. It was late, but Julius was amazed at how many upperclassmen were training at this time of night. He could sense close to a hundred students spread around the facility.


    There were so many rooms in the main training facility, so they didn''t have to wait for one to open, but Julius could see when that could become an issue. This specific room was for people advancing. There was a large stone section that had large showerheads and things to wash himself down once he was done.


    There were also sets of clothes laid out for people to change into beforehand. The transition to Tier 2 was always a bit messy, so it was advised to change into a cheap pair of clothes.


    The others were trying their best to raise his confidence, making small talk and joking around the entire time. But Julius was focused on his advancement so he wasn''t really paying attention to them.


    He quickly changed into a pair of white slacks, foregoing the shirt. He was just going to get it dirty anyway.


    Julius sat down on the mat the room provided for him and quietly began preparing himself. The others had stopped talking as well and were standing off to the side patiently. He barely noticed their presence.


    For the past week or so, Julius had felt a door cracking open ever so slightly. Based off of what everyone else had told him, that was the door to Tier 2. All he needed to do was to open it and allow the mana to transform his body.


    Once he felt he was ready, Julius began nudging the door open little by little. The others were right, it was incredibly simple once he had made up his mind. It was like his body had been waiting for him all this time and was asking him what had taken him so long.


    Julius felt an incredible rush of fire, kinetic, and life mana rush through his entire body. From his head to his toes, he could feel a tingly sensation, like electricity charging through him. It was euphoric.


    However, that feeling of euphoria didn''t last long. The sensations turned uncomfortable real quick. It was like little needles were getting stabbed into his skin and injecting it with mana. His skin was the first to change, it became more resilient and flexible. Julius could see layers of skin peeling away to reveal new skin underneath.


    After that, it was his muscles that underwent a change. His mana ripped through his muscles, tearing them apart while simultaneously building them back up. Life mana was fortifying his body, infusing it with a sense of enormous vitality. Julius tried to use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and see if it would help out his transition, but it didn''t.


    The technique would just fade away. He had a feeling that it wasted more mana than anything else, so he stopped attempting it.


    The real pain didn''t start until his bones were the ones that were transforming. The mana shattered his bones into dust. It was excruciating. It was almost as bad as his transformation when he acquired [Kinetic Reinforcement]. It might have been worse, but [Savage Dance] was much better than it was before, so it was much more bearable.


    Once his bones were rebuilt, Julius felt the mana rush to his brain. It was a weird mix of pleasure and pain. On one hand, he could feel his mind opening up and becoming more. However, on the other hand, it felt like someone was putting his mind into a blender and making a smoothie out of it.


    He had an inkling that his really dense and large pool of mana had a bit of an effect on his advancement. The extreme nature of how his mana fortified his body would most likely not be possible if he had less dense mana and a lower capacity.


    He screwed his eyes tight and dealt with the pain, he had been through much worse than this. Even after most of the pain passed, he still maintained his sitting position. He could still feel his mana making small adjustments to his body and mind, making sure everything was all finished.


    Finally, he felt it was over. It was like a switch was flicked and everything stopped. From the pain to the bodily changes, it felt like he had gotten over the crest of a massive wave and was floating on the surface of the calm water just behind it.


    There was no more mana flowing through him and his body was completely transformed. He let out a huge sigh of relief, then smiled widely. He had officially reached Tier 2.


    He knew that it hadn''t technically been that long, but for him, it had felt like something that was a long time coming. A small piece of him, the more childish and hopeful side of him, had been hoping for something really exciting to happen. Perhaps a special evolution or change that would make him really overpowered, but sadly he didn''t feel anything like that happening.


    Admittedly it was a little disappointing, but then again he was already really strong for his Tier. He couldn''t be hoping for many more explosive increases in power. Especially at a Tier that wasn''t known for that.


    He also didn''t have anything to compare it to. It wasn''t like he could transfer himself into another person''s body and be able to tell the difference between his advancement and theirs. The biggest advantage he felt was that his body was maybe a little more robust and could handle more intense usages of mana than the typical Tier 2¡ªhowever, anything else he would have to test out for himself in the upcoming days.

 Chapter 83: Post Advancement

    Julius stood up from the mat, feeling a little off while doing so. He felt stronger, but not just in a physical sense either, he instinctually understood that his body could handle mana much better than before.He could already feel his mana enforcing his body without activating any skills. He didn''t realize it previously, but his body was like a clogged drain. Now though, it was sparkling clean, his pipes were free from any obstruction and mana could flow through him much more efficiently. It felt like he had just undergone the world''s best detox and was feeling amazing.


    He looked down at his body, fully expecting it to be covered with black sludge, but much to his pleasant surprise, there was only a fine layer of black substance. Maybe, his body transformation with [Kinetic Reinforcement] had expelled the worst of it. The smell wasn''t that bad either, it was slightly off-putting, but nothing compared to the absolutely filthy stuff he had been covered in before.


    Julius still went over to the cleaning station and scrubbed the fine layer of black stuff from his body, but it only took a couple of minutes until he was sparkling clean. He did notice a few things about his physical changes. He was slightly taller now, he was probably still under six feet, but he was getting close to it. He also noticed that his muscles had slimmed out. He thought he would have looked bigger, but his muscles had compressed down instead. So while he was leaner than before, he was certain he was stronger by a good twenty percent.


    The others were still patiently waiting for him to finish cleaning up. Surprisingly, even Aubrey was silent throughout the entire time, not telling Julius to hurry up or anything.


    Finally, when he was finished and put on his uniform again, he walked over to the others. He saw that everyone had large grins on their face. Even Kyle was wearing a nice smile directed at Julius.


    Edgar was the first one to break the silence. "See? That wasn''t so bad wasn''t it?"


    Julius shook his head in amusement. "How long did I take?" He asked them.


    "It was only around ten minutes," Derek said.


    "Only that long?" Julius thought he had taken much longer than ten minutes. He felt like it had been almost an hour.


    "Yep, you didn''t have a lot of impurities to expel either. You are lucky, mine was absolutely vile," Edgar said enviously.


    "Yeah, I was also surprised how little impurities there were. Did you go through any treatments or rituals when you were younger?" Aubrey asked him.


    "Nope, not anything that I can think of. I did go through something similar already when I acquired a body reinforcement skill that counts," he answered.


    Julius watched as the others thought about that. Surprisingly it was Derek who looked more concerned.


    "You already went through a body skill metamorphosis?" Derek asked worriedly.


    "Body skill metamorphosis?" Julius asked confusingly. He hadn''t heard of something like that before. Was that what he had gone through? Or did he go through something else?


    This time it was Edgar who answered him. "Typically, it happens when certain body enhancement skills reach a certain rank or evolution requirements. I have one but I got it when I reached Tier 2, not Tier 1."


    "Is there a difference?" Julius asked him.


    "I don''t know, Derek might know more, but I couldn''t say." Edgar honestly told him.


    Julius turned to Derek and looked to see if he had anything else to say.


    Derek frowned and took his time thinking before he answered. "I don''t know if there is any real difference. There are so many factors that play into it, that it is hard to say even with research. I will say that it is supposedly much more painful at Tier 1. But it is also probably why you managed your Tier 2 advancement so well since you had already evolved some aspects of your body."


    He was right. When Julius looked back on his previous experience. It was much more painful than what he had just experienced. He also remembered it lasting much longer than his advancement to Tier 2.


    "Well, what are you sitting around for? Don''t you want to test it out?" Aubrey came up to him very excited.


    He did want to try out his skills with his new body. Julius had heard that after Tier 2 his body would be much better adapted to mana and his skills would see great improvements. So he couldn''t wait to see how it would change.


    Julius and the others found themselves standing outside another room, this one was more like the one they had used yesterday. Unlike the advancement room, they had to wait a little bit for this room, before it opened up.


    When it was finally their turn, they saw a group of third-years walk out of the room. There were two girls and two guys, all were sweating heavily and still out of breath from their training. However, when they saw Derek, Edgar, Lily, Aubrey, and Kyle, they all froze like deer in headlights.


    The four of them stared at their group for longer than was comfortable, before Derek finally said, "Excuse us," and tried to squeeze by them. Eventually, one of the guys seemed to have found his nerve, because he bowed toward Derek and introduced himself.


    "It''s an honor to meet you, Mr. Derek, my name is Zachary Desmond. I am a huge fan of you, I followed all of your fights last year, it really inspired me and the others." A blind man could see that while the guy was behaving respectfully, he was practically screaming with excitement. Julius was not going to lie, it was a little alarming to see such contained enthusiasm.


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    Derek much to Julius''s surprise, took the much too formal introduction in stride, almost like he was used to it. "Ah yes, you''re the oldest son of Lord Desmond correct?"


    While Derek was addressing the guy, Julius had taken the time to look at the other people who were in his group. The other girls were also looking at Lily and Aubrey with similar looks of admiration. The last guy was looking at Edgar like Julius looked at a chocolate cake for dessert


    Julius turned back to Derek. The guy nodded his head very aggressively to Derek''s question. "You know who I am?" He asked clearly happy that Derek knew of him already. He paused for a bit, "Uhh¡­I know this is very sudden, but would it be possible to train with you sometime? I know I must be very underwhelming for you, but I would be eternally grateful if you could give me some tips." The guy winced after he asked, already regretting it.


    Julius could tell that Derek didn''t want to but he also didn''t want to hurt the guy''s feelings either. He shook his head and said, "I''m sorry, but I am already really busy, so I can''t promise anything," Derek rejected the guy''s offer with a practiced grace. Julius had to respect the guy for trying though, who knows, maybe Derek might have said yes. At least he shot his shot.


    The guy took the rejection well. He probably felt like it was a long shot anyway, so he wasn''t too devastated. Zachary and his friends quickly made their leave, but not before they finally noticed that there was another person with the group of fourth-years. Their reactions ranged from surprise to curiosity as to the reason why a first-year was with them. Zachary in particular was looking at Julius with an intense gaze.


    As they walked by, Julius made sure to give each of them a nice smile before following the others into the now-vacant room.


    When the door shut, Julius finally spoke. "So are you guys famous or something?"


    Going off of the third-year''s reactions, you would think that they had just met their favorite rock stars. Julius hadn''t thought about it before, but the five of them were all probably well-known across the school. Lily had told him that Derek and Edgar were two of the strongest in their class, but he almost forgot that Derek was a part of House Zenith, a terrifyingly strong ducal house with a lot of political clout. Aubrey had a mother who was Tier 6. Kyle was a Quincy. Lily was the granddaughter of one of the most wealthy families in the empire, and then there was little old Julius.


    What would the other students who saw them together think of him? If he was being honest with himself, they probably thought he was the group''s charity case. Which hurt his feelings a little bit but overall that was fine with him. He would much rather be known as that than someone of interest because of his own strength. At least this way he might be protected from anyone who wanted to cause him problems. Well¡­ maybe except for Liam.


    "No, we''re not famous," Derek told him unconvincingly. It didn''t even sound like Derek believed that himself.


    Aubrey scoffed to the side, "Yeah, keep telling yourself that."


    Lily let out a small giggle at that and said to Julius. "There''s a lot of eyes on Derek and Edgar this year. They might even have a good chance of placing high in the Inter-School Tournament."


    They left it at that and headed into the training room.


    Julius and Aubrey have been training together lately so that was why it was her that Julius wanted to test his newly acquired tier on.


    They activated their simulated combat devices and put up the barrier. Then Aubrey immediately used [Mirage Phantom] and [Prism Stealth] in conjunction with one another. She knew that it didn''t really work that well on Julius, but she was still doing some training herself.


    Julius on the other hand slowly cranked up his physical enhancements. First was [Kinetic Augementation], then he activated [Empowerment of Will]. He soon reached his previous limit, when he had combined the two. This time, he could already feel that he could push for more.


    The last time he had used the two skills this much, he had almost torn apart his body. His new body could handle it easily though. It was fantastic. Mana control had never felt as fluid and his body had never felt so receptive to mana. He could see what the others were saying about Tier 2.


    Julius felt confident that his body could go even further and he stopped holding back. Before, he could handle around fifty percent but now he was using one hundred percent of both skills with ease. He was literally surging with raw energy.


    Aubrey had been waiting patiently for Julius to give the signal that he was ready, so when he put his thumb up, telling her he was good, she blitzed right out of the gate.


    Unlike most of their fights, Julius didn''t use any long-range constructs. He wanted to get a feel for his close combat effectiveness before he started to complicate things. Julius observed Aubrey as she closed the distance between them, rapidly switching between her four clones, keeping Julius on his toes.


    The changes to his body were nice, but he was surprised by how much his mind had improved. [Savage Dance] wasn''t even turned on that high, but he was still able to track Aubrey''s movements and switches with a much higher precision than before.


    This time, Julius allowed Aubrey to be on the offensive. He wanted to see if his body had become that much more robust along with the other improvements. Thus, Julius didn''t even try to avoid Aubrey''s attack. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This is a stupid move that I would never try in a real fight¡ª no, I definitely would. Actually, I think I may have already done something similar before. He chuckled to himself.


    Julius created thick constructs, layered with mana around his arms and braced for impact. As he saw Aubrey cover her fist with her [Diamond Skin] skill, he almost had second thoughts about it. However, it was too late, her fist crashed into him like an eighteen-wheeler. There was a little part of him that hoped that Aubrey would hold back just a touch.


    She didn''t.


    She smashed her fist right into his arms without holding back. He got launched across the room and slammed against the barrier on the other side.


    He groaned in pain and tried to get back to his feet, but struggled a little bit since the device''s restrictions were already in place.


    The good news was that he wasn''t considered dead, according to the bracelets. The bad news was that it thought the attack had broken or fractured some of the bones in his back.


    With that being said, his injuries were more from the impact against the barrier than anything else. The actual punch hadn''t done that much damage, but the force behind it had tossed him like a ragdoll. Funnily enough, his arms were still in pretty good shape. They were fractured, but still usable according to the bracelets.


    Julius deactivated his bracelets and then reactivated them within seconds, and jumped back up to his feet. He looked at Aubrey with a crazy smile and said, "Let''s go again."


    She smiled at him with the same crazy eyes and got ready for round two. Julius had gotten a feel for how much punishment his new body could take. It wasn''t anything that surprising, but taking a direct hit like that last one would have most likely killed him a few days ago. It appeared that his advancement had already shown its benefits and he grinned at that thought.

 Chapter 84: Testing Out His New Body

    Julius and Aubrey were facing each other once more. This time, he wasn''t just going to allow her to hit him again.Aubrey kicked off just like last time and headed right at him. Julius created several spikes in quick succession and threw them at Aubrey. He was happy to notice that the spikes were created much more effortlessly than before. Each step of the process that went into making his constructs was easier and more natural than before.


    The mana flowed right into the constructs. It was like his body was starting to get used to using mana like this and was now doing it instinctually.


    Aubrey dodged the spikes using her clones and teleported between them in order to avoid the attack. She had also gotten an idea of Julius''s style and was no longer caught off guard by his long-range attacks.


    Julius knew that the spikes had little to no chance of hitting her, but that wasn''t the point of them. He was only delaying her for as long as he could. In the time he had distracted her with his constructs, he was able to create layers of hardened mana over his skin.


    It wasn''t quite armor yet, but the layers of mana were quite strong and were compacted with a lot of mana. Then he used [Empowerment of Will] to enhance [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression], making the layers even stronger.


    Aubrey was on top of him at this point. He dodged the flurry of strikes she blitzed out, with an ease that he wouldn''t have been capable of yesterday. She had always been faster and stronger than him by a noticeable amount.


    The only thing that had allowed him to keep up was his perception skill and [Savage Dance]. Now, he could track her punches and kicks with much more clarity. This allowed him to predict her strikes more easily and gave himself the space to capitalize on her mistakes, not that there were many of them.


    If anyone had paid close attention to their previous spars, they would notice that he wasn''t dodging as much as usual. He was dancing in and out of her reach, much more confident now that he was stronger and faster than before.


    For a few minutes, both of them were brawling it out. Julius deflected a strike that was set up by a particularly nasty usage of [Mirage Phantom] and tried to back away. She didn''t let him do that and continued with her aggression, pressing Julius further back and closer to the barrier.


    However, unlike most times, he was controlling the pace of the fight much better. The way he retreated wasn''t as panicked or frantic. He was much more calm and steady. He was just waiting for his opportunity to strike.


    Finally, he got his chance.


    There!


    Aubrey pulled her eyes away for a quick second and lowered her guard just a little. But in that short period of time, Julius sent an overloaded mana spike right at her, forcing her to protect herself with her [Diamond Skin] because she didn''t have enough time to teleport to one of her clones. He then created small balls of kinetic energy all around her and started to bombard her to oblivion, not giving her a chance to recover.


    While he was doing that, he was bum-rushing her, clearing the distance within a blink. His speed was much faster than when he was Tier 1 since his body could take much more stress, and he made sure he took advantage of that. He flooded his body with so much kinetic energy and aura, that his body felt the toll even though he had already advanced to Tier 2, then he pushed it even further, creating small explosions at his feet.


    The rush of power was exhilarating and addictive. He couldn''t even begin imagining what Tier 3 or 4 would feel like.


    He appeared right in front of Aubrey''s face and unleashed a brutal punch, full of kinetic energy, aura, and pure raw strength, everything he could possibly use, straining his new body to its limit. She had been so distracted by his bombardment that she failed to react in time and took the shot right in the chest.


    Julius felt his constructs shatter upon impact and his fist made direct contact with her, crushing into her sternum with a powerful boom. He broke his hand, his feet were burned, and the energy that flowed through him created tears throughout his body while doing so, but he had also finally broken through her defenses. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    At the very end, he had felt her [Diamond Skin] crack. It was unable to withstand the force of his punch and he felt something inside of her break upon contact. Aubrey went flying away much like Julius had not too long ago, but somehow she managed to control her flight and land on her feet.


    She was wincing in pain while grabbing her chest. There weren''t any actual injuries, but Julius knew from experience that it still felt like there were.


    "God damn! You hit like a Tier 3 that''s for sure," Aubrey complained loudly, still rubbing her sternum.


    "What, I didn''t before?" Julius asked her.


    "That was different, your constructs hit like a Tier 3, but your physical attacks weren''t even close. Now, that is no longer the same case," she grumbled.


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    Edgar had been off to the side watching their fight unfold and decided to say something too. "I agree. That last attack was powerful, not to mention the speed you showed to split the distance was ridiculous for a newly advanced Tier 2."


    "Yeah, I almost didn''t see you move. I thought you didn''t have a movement skill yet?" Aubrey asked him.


    "I don''t," he told her.


    "Bullshit."


    "I promise I don''t," he said seriously.


    "Then how did you move so fast?" She pressed.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t know, I just used as much kinetic energy as I could."


    Edgar turned to him. "You were able to gather that much kinetic energy in such a short period?"


    He shook his head. It seemed like they had misunderstood something. They might have thought he had taken kinetic mana from his core to go to his legs.


    "I used the kinetic energy that I had been siphoning from the fight to power the technique, that was why it activated so quickly. I didn''t have to gather anything, I had control over it the entire time, I just needed to detonate it at the right moment," Julius explained to them.


    Aubrey looked confused. "So you''re saying you can absorb the kinetic energy from my attacks to fuel your own techniques? Doesn''t that mean you barely need to use any kinetic mana of your own?"


    Julius shrugged his shoulders again and gave her a smug grin.


    Aubrey threw her hands in the air, exasperated. "How is that fair? How is any of this fair? You already have such massive mana reserves, you hit like a Tier 3, you move like a Tier 3, and now you are saying you don''t even need to expend your own mana? Will I even have a chance if you were Tier 3?"


    Julius knew she was just venting like usual, but he did feel bad because he did sense that she was genuinely frustrated.


    Edgar must have seen it too because he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and said, "You are still one of the best Tier 3s among the fourth years. Julius just counters your [Mirage Phantom] and [Prism Stealth] very well. Against any other Tier 2 and most Tier 3s, they would not even be able to tell where you are attacking from. Also, that movement technique can only be used once after he built up a reserve, it''s not like he can move that fast all the time. Don''t beat yourself up too much, just focus on what you could do better."


    Edgar was right. Julius was a very good counter for Aubrey, even then they were well-matched. He still thought that he would beat her most of the time if he was using [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] or if he could use that kind of movement technique often, but without them, she still had a good chance against him, even if her main skills were limited by his [Spatial Perception].


    Julius didn''t have the same confidence if he was fighting against the others. Derek and Edgar were very strong. If what he had seen during their spars said anything, it was that Julius would find it a much more difficult task taking either of them down. They didn''t rely on deception like Aubrey, they focused on raw strength.


    Derek had a perfect lightning affinity that brutalized anyone from range. His attacks were extremely fast and Julius didn''t think he would be able to dodge them in time. His defense was also quite poor, without [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] he was a bit of a glass cannon. Even if he had the skill, Julius suspected Derek could just stun him with lightning until he found a way to put him down for good. If Julius was a good counter to Aubrey, then Derek was his counter.


    Not to mention Edgar was a totally different problem. He was like Gabriel in many ways. He had an impenetrable defense and was extremely strong. However, he differed in the way he dealt with magical attacks.


    He had a fire skill that specialized in blowing up mage''s constructs or other spells. Julius didn''t know how it worked exactly yet, but there was a good reason why Derek chose to fight Edgar with his spear most of the time. The best way one could take Edgar out was to fight him up close and personal, the area where he excelled.


    Julius had confidence in his close combat ability but against someone like Edgar, he didn''t think he would last that long. It would probably end up very similar to how his sparring with Gabriel ended. The only thing he wasn''t worried about was dealing with Edgar''s fire affinity.


    He hadn''t seen Kyle fight that much other than the occasional spar, and when he helped out the others, but he was apparently a good fighter too. The scariest one, at least to Julius, was Lily.


    She had used her psychic abilities against him once, and he had not been able to do anything. She told him that it would change once he got to Tier 3. She didn''t go into too much detail about why that mattered so much, but at the moment, he was completely at her mercy.


    Even if he managed to fend off her mental attacks, she would probably just throw a blast of telekinesis at him. Maybe, it would be slightly different now that he was Tier 2, but he still believed that psychics like her were scary people.


    Edgar and Aubrey were off to the side still discussing the fight, talking about what Aubrey could have done better or what she had observed in general. It was clear that she believed that she had lost that fight. Julius disagreed though, he would not consider that a win for him. Even if he came out on top of that last exchange, it wasn''t like they were fighting as desperately as a real battle. Their first fight was the only time they fought with such intensity, since then it had been much more about learning from each other.


    After they were done talking, Edgar came on over to him. He had a suspiciously large smile on his face, which put Julius on edge. He forgot to mention another thing about Edgar that reminded Julius of Gabriel. Both Edgar and Gabriel loved a good fight.


    Before the large fourth year had the chance to speak, Julius already had a good guess about what he was planning to say or ask him.


    "Hey, Julius, how about the two of us give it a go?" Edgar asked him, barely reigning in his enthusiasm.


    Julius chuckled to himself. Called it. He thought to himself.


    He didn''t even bother answering the big guy and headed right over to the center of the room, activating a pair of silver bracelets. Edgar watched Julius''s silent challenge and his smile got even larger, swiftly following behind Julius.


    Before Julius began their fight, he wanted to heal the remnants of his fatigue. If he was going to fight Edgar he wanted to make sure he was in peak condition. So he activated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] with a quick burst of mana.


    However, that was when he noticed something was off.

 Chapter 85: Changes to [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]

    Julius was surprised. The skill didn''t feel bad or anything of the like, but it did feel different. He could sense that some of the life mana was taking a detour of a sort. It wasn''t like it was taking longer to heal or making it more inefficient, if anything this change was making the skill better overall. However, he could feel the mana going through a cycle within his core before distributing it through his body.His immediate assumption was that Drasil was doing something to his skill. The cute little life spirit was still lying quietly in his core, sleeping or doing whatever spirits do. But Julius suspected the little glutton was doing something or had something to do with how [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was behaving. Perhaps, there was some effect of advancing with Drasil in his core or maybe it was just the byproduct of getting to Tier 2, but he couldn''t tell for sure.


    Julius concentrated on using the skill again and focused on how it was different. He took his time, gradually introducing more mana into the skill, little wisps of fire mana were also joining it as well. Funnily enough, the fire mana wasn''t getting siphoned off, it was only his life mana, which further led him to believe that it was mainly due to Drasil.


    After observing the skill and how it was interacting with his body, he was becoming more convinced that Drasil was doing something. Julius didn''t know exactly what he was doing, but all he was able to find out was that the skill seemed¡­ more sparkly?


    He didn''t know exactly how to explain it, but describing it as sparkly was the most accurate way he could do it.


    He actually got a notification for his actions as well.


    [Psuedo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    He also missed some notifications he must have gotten during his fight with Aubrey, so he checked out those as well.


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    He wasn''t quite sure what was happening, but it was certainly not hurting him at the moment. For now, he would just let it be and keep an eye on it.


    Edgar had been watching him from the side, confused as to why Julius wasn''t moving. The large fourth-year felt that he was doing something with his healing skill, but he didn''t know what was going on. He was about to say something to Julius or ask if he was okay when he saw Julius stop whatever he was doing and put his attention back on Edgar.


    Julius felt fresh, actually more fresh than he had ever felt from the skill before. [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] had always been such an amazing skill, but the change somehow made it even better. He didn''t feel like it had gotten that much stronger, but there was a distinctive sensation of invigorating vitality that wasn''t there before.


    He smiled at Edgar who was looking at him concerned, assuring him that he was alright. Then motioned Edgar to activate the barrier and start the fight.


    They didn''t have a countdown, but they were both keenly aware that the fight had already started once the barrier went up.


    Neither of them made any moves in the first several moments, both were just gauging one another from a distance. Julius watched Edgar pace around him like a predator tracked its prey. There was still a small smile on the large man''s face and Julius had to admit that it was a little intimidating.


    Facing off against Gabriel was different. Gabriel was a grown man with a family, the guy in front of him was just a student, albeit an older and much larger student, but he was still technically a "kid". So it was slightly unnerving to see such a young person with such a massive stature.


    Julius could feel Edgar internally running fire mana through his body and using earth mana to protect it from the outside. Julius had previously thought about doing the same thing with his own fire mana. He believed that if he could use both kinetic and fire mana to enhance his body it would be a good thing to learn and something that would increase his fighting power.


    He experimented with it and even talked about it with Edgar from time to time. If anyone knew about enhancing their body with fire mana it would be Edgar. After discussing it with Edgar, Julius decided against it. First off, there was only so much mana one''s body could hold, that was the main problem. Secondly, not all mana types work well together when mixed in a single body, or enchantment. Luckily, kinetic and fire, go pretty well together, but that didn''t solve the first problem.


    Julius''s issue was that if he wanted to include fire mana in his body, he would need to use less kinetic energy to balance it out. There was also the case of him already having a dedicated kinetic energy body enhancement skill, so fire mana would be less powerful.


    However, even if he didn''t have [Kinetic Augementation] or had a fire enhancement skill on par with it, Julius would have still chosen kinetic energy as his body enhancement energy.


    The biggest reason why he liked kinetic energy was its cost-effectiveness. He had so many ways to repurpose other sources of kinetic energy, or to reuse his own, that it didn''t make sense from a cost-benefit point of view. He would much rather use his fire mana for his big flashy explosions or constructs.


    Still, when he saw the sheer power emanating from Edgar''s fire enhancement skill, he was having second thoughts. Julius could feel the heat from here and could feel the explosive strength hidden below the skin. Edgar''s fire was different than Julius''s. It wasn''t "hotter" per se, but it held something that made it much more potent than his own. He would have to ask about that later.


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    Eventually, Julius was the one who made the first move. He quickly created a dozen orbs of heavy and compacted mana. He didn''t bother with spikes, much like Aubrey he had a feeling that Edgar''s defenses were going to be very hard to break through.


    Therefore, he wanted to see if blunt trauma had a better effect on him. Kind of like how fighters in the Medieval Ages used maces and hammers to damage their opponents who were wearing plate armor.


    Another unexpected benefit of using orbs was that they were easier to form. He didn''t have to worry about honing the tip or the edge to make it razor sharp, all he needed to worry about was squeezing the mana together.


    Once the orbs were all set, he used [Empowerment of Will] to further strengthen the constructs. In a matter of the blink of an eye, he was surrounded by small orbs that more closely resembled steel ball bearings.


    Edgar, the entire time just patiently waited for Julius to finish his preparations. Whether it was from feeling confident that anything Julius did he could handle it or from the mere fact that he wanted to have a more interesting fight, Julius didn''t know.


    With a surge of kinetic energy, he shot the balls of mana right toward Edgar. The orbs whistled in the air as they flew at him.


    Edgar didn''t move or make any attempt at evading the attack. A dozen of the orbs smashed right into his chest. Edgar released a small grunt of pain, but other than that, he was fine. He didn''t even get knocked back a foot.


    Julius expected the sheer force of the impact to at least make him stagger back, but Edgar had used some sort of skill that planted his body in place, making him practically immovable.


    Okay, if you''re not going to dodge, then let''s see how you handle this.


    Julius controlled the orbs and brought them back to him, while also forming a dozen more orbs and sending them to surround Edgar. Julius had them hover around Edgar, just outside of his reach. Then he created half a dozen compressed spikes made of fire and kinetic energy and launched them at Edgar. Half of them went for his face and the other half went toward his feet.


    At the same time, Julius had been charging as much kinetic energy into his orbs, before sending them crashing into Edgar from all sides. It was much more kinetic energy than the last salvo. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius felt Edgar activate a skill this time. He could tell that the skill was honing onto his orbs, trying to sneak his own mana and aura into them. However, Julius could see Edgar''s surprise when he wasn''t able to break down the constructs in time. Julius felt [Empowerment of Will] and the sheer amount of compressed mana layers from [Pure Compression] as well as [Mana Layering] fighting against Edgar''s attempt to enter the construct. Edgar must have realized that he would not be in time if he continued his attempt and instead detonated a mass of fire mana right next to the orbs, trying to destroy them.


    That didn''t do much though, they all survived the explosion, they were knocked off course a little bit, but with a mental flex, Julius was able to correct their flight path and they continued on their way shooting at Edgar.


    Edgar was taken aback by his ineffective skill, but he still didn''t move from his place, trusting his earth affinity and defensive skills to protect him from the worst of it. The first thing to land were the explosive spikes, blowing up in his face and legs. Much to Julius''s surprise, Edgar actually flinched way more than he was expecting, taking a step back to regain his balance. However, then the orbs of mana smashed into him from all sides. Whether he was hit in the chest, the back, the legs, or his arms, nothing was safe.


    Edgar might have thought the attacks a few moments ago were as strong as Julius could make them, but he must have miscalculated how much more kinetic energy Julius could put into them with a little more time and effort.


    They hit him like a sledgehammer. Edgar''s body was contorting from the heavy blows, eventually knocking him right off of his feet and onto his face. Julius wasn''t going to lie, it felt very satisfying doing that to him.


    It wasn''t like it was out of malice or anything, but he wanted Edgar to take him more seriously. Julius wanted to show Edgar that he was a real threat to him and he was proud to say that he succeeded.


    Edgar was no longer looking at him the same way. He was taking it much more seriously. Julius could see the change in his expression immediately. His smile was still there, but Edgar''s eyes were now honed in on every single movement that Julius made. They were deadly calm, analyzing each step, each twitch, and each breath Julius took.


    Julius grabbed ahold of the orbs of mana that had maintained their structural integrity and brought them back to himself. There were only about half that were still in good enough shape, the other ones had cracked down the middle and he decisively broke them down and recycled their mana, saving it for other uses. He could have repaired them, but that would have taken more time than just creating new ones.


    When Julius was about to launch another attack, he saw Edgar prepare, a surge of mana ripping through his body. Before the orbs of mana had moved, Edgar was already dashing right in.


    Julius laughed to himself. It doesn''t seem like he is just going to sit back and let me smash him apart, a pity.


    Edgar was fast, much faster than Aubrey and much faster than Julius. Aubrey didn''t focus on speed as much as Edgar because she had [Mirage Phantom] and [Stealth Prism]. That wasn''t to say she didn''t have a body enhancement skill, but hers was more focused on working with her other skills and her elusiveness.


    Edgar on the other hand, was a much more simple fighter. He focused on raw speed, no tricks or deceptions needed. So although Edgar wasn''t teleporting around as Aubrey had been, Julius actually had a much more difficult time tracking his position than he did with Aubrey.


    He wasn''t as quick as Gabriel with his [Instantaneous Step], but to Julius''s senses, it was pretty darn close. Massive bursts of heat and fire were emitted from Edgar as he closed the distance. Julius was caught on the back foot when Edgar was already in his face, too close for him to use the orbs to attack the big guy.


    Julius was only able to see a fat fist aiming right at his ribcage and used the recycled mana to create several layers of thick mana around his chest. He also made sure to siphon off as much kinetic energy from Edgar as he could, not that it would make that much of a difference with how fast he was.


    Julius smiled and did everything he could to avoid the strike, but he was just too slow, even with his advancement to Tier 2. He still took a glancing hit to the shoulder that sent him careening a dozen feet across the room.


    Julius met Edgar''s eyes from the floor, seeing the challenge within them. He didn''t back down from a challenge and got to his feet again, waving his hand at Edgar, as if he was telling him "Well, come on then". Edgar nodded at him with an excited grin and came crashing toward Julius once more.

 Chapter 86: Fighting Edgar

    Julius could understand why Edgar was considered one of the best fighters at Goldencrest. Strength, speed, skill, he had it all in spades. He had a perfect balance of offense and defense. His fire affinity did an amazing job of giving him the necessary explosiveness and intensity, while his earth affinity gave him the stability and fortitude to withstand any attack.It wasn''t like Edgar''s use of aura was that amazing. For the most part, Julius thought that he himself had better control in certain aspects of aura manipulation. He had to admit though, that seeing Edgar fight and fighting him were two totally different things.


    Julius didn''t quite fully grasp how fast Edgar was until he was on the receiving end of it. The only thing that gave Julius the advantage was how condensed he could make his constructs and how [Empowerment of Will] protected them from any outside influence.


    He had seen how one of Edgar''s skills had blown apart the other''s constructs and had felt him try to do the same thing to Julius''s. If Julius didn''t have that thing going for him, he would have lasted much shorter than he did. However, once Edgar got close enough, it was always over with a quick exchange of strikes. Even with his improved physique and how much more mana he could charge into his body, he still fell short. He had really thought that Tier 2 would allow him to fight on his level, but there was much more he could learn.


    Edgar was a much better hand-to-hand fighter than Julius, and it showed. Julius also quickly realized that he was not fully leveraging his newfound strength and Tier 2 body as he should have been. Just because Julius had been able to push so much more mana and aura through his body, didn''t mean that he was doing it correctly or the most efficiently.


    He felt like a lot of it was going to waste. He believed that with how much power he was cycling through his body, he should have been able to keep up better with Edgar. Edgar thought the same thing as well.


    So as Julius was backpedaling, avoiding a sweeping leg, he focused on lowering his output but trying to maintain better control over it. It was still more than he could previously flow through his body, but he worked on slowly integrating precision over his enhancements.


    He was attempting to get more space between him and Edgar, but [Spatial Perception] picked up on a subtle use of earth mana behind him.


    A thick pillar of stone launched itself out of the ground and tried to smash into Julius''s back. It missed, thanks to Julius noticing it before it was too late, but it still did its job. Just that slight opening and time Julius had to allocate to dodging it was enough for Edgar to send a rippling burst of fire mana out of his fist and catch Julius in the gut with it.


    Julius found himself getting burned by the fire mana much to his surprise. He thought that he would have a good chance of siphoning the fire because of his affinity, but Edgar''s fire had a touch of his aura inside of it which made it difficult to take control of it before the attack hit.


    It was painful almost like he was really getting burned, only the simulated combat bracelets saved him from receiving any actual injuries. Edgar didn''t let up either, he understood that if Julius got enough space and had enough time to prepare something, he could actually hurt Edgar, so the big guy blitzed Julius with a ferocious stream of strikes.


    Unlike, Aubrey''s more graceful onslaught, this was pure savagery. It wasn''t like it was out of control, the opposite in fact. However, it did mean that every strike, every attack was aimed to do the most amount of damage as it could.


    No matter what Julius did and how hard he tried to fend Edgar off, it didn''t end well. He always found himself lying on his back, beaten thoroughly.


    I did say I wanted him to take me seriously. So I can''t be complaining, because he is definitely not taking it easy on me. Julius thought to himself.


    They had fought several times at this point and each time Julius managed to do a little better. Lasting a little longer and learning a little more. However, losing this often was not doing his confidence any good. He had to keep reminding himself that he was facing someone who was a whole tier and a bit above him.


    Not only that, but he wasn''t fighting someone who was an average or weak Tier 3 either. Edgar was one of the best at Goldencrest and expecting to best someone like him was not achievable at the moment. The best thing he could do was learn from him.


    Thinking about it, he didn''t even think he could defeat Aubrey if it came down to it. He didn''t think she would be able to consistently defeat him either, but her skills made it really hard for Julius to put her down if she wanted to play cat and mouse with him.


    Aubrey did have a few ranged attack options that she had rarely used during their spars, but against Julius, she found them pretty useless. So she hadn''t been using them that often. Her reason was she had been trying to learn how to fight better up close for the better part of a couple of years now and she only used her range attacks in conjunction with her clone and stealth skills when she was ambushing someone.


    She didn''t think that they would have been all that effective against Julius anyway, with his perception skill and mana senses, so she didn''t really use them all that often. But if she decided to sit behind a bunch of trees or use hit-and-run tactics against him, he didn''t think he would be able to catch her without bombarding every inch of the surroundings.


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    Edgar walked over to where Julius was lying on the floor and sat down beside him. To Julius''s credit, Edgar was out of breath as well, Julius made him work for his win.


    Julius reached over to Edgar, pressing a hand on his shoulder, and used a little bit of life mana on him, healing him of his fatigue. Then he did the same to himself, bringing him back to normal. Julius did notice that the changes he felt from his life mana weren''t transferred over to Edgar.


    So far, the extra boost only affected him. This might mean it only worked that way because Drasil was residing in his core. Lily did say that if Drasil was already occupying his core, then it would mean that he was already Julius''s familiar. He thought he would have to go through with a ritual or some sort, but Lily said that familiar bonds were based on intent, especially for spirits. As long as both parties agreed and wanted it, then it was very easy to accomplish.


    Maybe that made a difference or was the reason why his life mana was working differently. Julius hadn''t heard about anything quite like what he was experiencing but he wasn''t going to complain. So far, it seemed more of a benefit than anything else.


    Edgar grunted his thanks to Julius for the healing but remained lying next to him. Julius could hear the others working on other things in the distance but remained focused on reviewing what he could have done better. He felt like he was close to something.


    Tier 2 had released him from the shackles and constraints that he had been feeling when he was Tier 1, but there was still a lot for him to do and work on. He asked Edgar for his opinion.


    Edgar took a minute to catch his breath and think about it. "I would say you need to work on combining your close combat skills with your long-range skills. Right now it feels a little disjointed. Like it is either you''re a warrior who fights with his fists one moment and then you''re a spell-flinging mage the next. If you can somehow merge the two, you would become very challenging to fight."


    Julius agreed with Edgar. It had been something he had been thinking about for a while now. The most troubling problem was that he wasn''t able to completely focus on both aspects and not sacrifice something in return. If he wanted to fight up close using [Kinetic Augmentation], [Savage Dance], [Empowerment of Will], and [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal], it took a lot of mental processing, so if he wanted to add his other skills, it becomes very difficult. He would have to try to empower [Savage Dance] with [Empowerment of Will] again pretty soon. He had attempted it during the fights, but it took too much focus for him to make any actual progress during a fight, so it seemed that his nightly practice would consist of that.


    On the other hand, combining both close and long-range aspects was one of the reasons he had been trying to create mana armor for himself. He wanted to take advantage of his large mana pool, but sometimes it felt wasted. He found himself having a hard time using large amounts of mana at once.


    The best way he could describe it was that he wanted to fill up a bucket and at the moment he only had a faucet. His skill was the bucket and how much mana he could use in a single second is how much water the faucet could dispense. Unfortunately, that means if it is a big bucket, it takes too much time to fill it up, especially in a fight.


    What he wanted was a fire hose. If he could expend that much more mana in a fight, then he would see a large increase in his strength. He suspected that it would naturally occur in Tier 3 though. After observing Edgar for a good while, Julius was able to sense that Edgar, while not having a large amount of mana, was able to call upon it at a much faster rate than Julius was. He was jealous, watching Edgar effortlessly use mana like he did.


    It''s like I have McDonald''s internet, while Edgar has fiber optic internet, Julius grumbled to himself.


    He was going to have to search in the library to see if there was a way to hasten his mana flow rate. Or maybe, one of the others knew about a way, he would have to ask them. Advancing to Tier 2 had helped, but it was not as a huge improvement as he was expecting. It was more of a boost of how much mana and how more evenly mana could flow through his body.


    Edgar didn''t mention it, but another thing that Julius wanted to work on was a movement skill. He was already on his way to constructing a defensive skill with his mana armor idea, but speed was what really limited him in his fights so far.


    Even Aubrey was faster than him, even after he reached Tier 2 because she had her teleporting clones. For someone with a kinetic affinity, he felt like he should be even faster than what he has been displaying. There weren''t that many books he found in the library that discussed kinetic mana or affinities. The ones that did, didn''t specifically talk about skills or usages of it. They more so described the general history of the affinity and what applications it was used for.


    The most interesting thing that he had learned from his quick research was that there were runic enchantments that absorbed kinetic energy. They were commonly used in large buildings for structural integrity. Not very useful for his current dilemma but interesting nonetheless. However, that was really all there was available about kinetic energy. At least that was all he had found so far. He would most likely have to ask the librarian later, to see if she had any ideas or recommendations.


    It was pretty late when the six of them were finally done. With that being said, they weren''t the last ones there. Not even close. It appeared that a good portion of the upperclassmen spent their night''s training late. Considering that many of them were Tier 3s, it didn''t come as a surprise to him.


    What did surprise him, was how many recreational games he found many of the upperclassmen playing. They were still games that were technically considered "training", but they were definitely for fun.


    The one Julius found the most fun looking was the one where he saw a single student blindfolded with the others all around them. The objective was simple, the person blindfolded would have to hit the other students with a ball of mana within a certain time frame. Whoever survives until then would win, or if everyone gets hit then the blindfolded student would win.


    However, what made it interesting was the people not blindfolded would have to wear a ribbon that emitted mana pulses in quick succession, this way the blindfolded person would have an idea of where the others were at all times. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It seemed like a fun game, everybody was enjoying it if the laughing and fooling around were any indicators.


    Julius thought he would be pretty good at it. Though he didn''t know if his [Spatial Perception] would be considered cheating or not. He suspected that it would not be looked upon with favorable eyes. He would most likely have to refrain from using it if he decided to play.


    He shrugged his shoulders and kept the game in mind for the future, maybe he would try out some of the other games as well.


    He put those thoughts out of the way for now and headed toward the first-year training facility for his usual late-night training. He still had some things he wanted to test.

 Chapter 87: Anyone Want an Arm?

    Julius didn''t advocate self-mutilation. If any normal person did it, he would make sure they were mentally alright, and maybe see if they needed to check themselves in somewhere. But he wasn''t normal, so in his case, he believed it was acceptable.How many people had a healing skill that could regenerate limbs at will? It was not like he was permanently damaging himself or anything of the like. However, he was just a little curious, you know?


    He had questions regarding how his advancement to Tier 2 would affect his healing. He might have already known that Drasil had some sort of effect on his healing, but there was much more he wanted to test.


    Since he was Tier 2, that technically meant he had a Fire, Kinetic, and Life Affinity Body. Therefore, because Affinity Bodies made mana flow through one''s body more easily, it was possible that life mana would be able to heal his body more effectively. He didn''t try to get his hopes too high, but a man can dream.


    He would like to say that he had hesitated as if it had been a hard decision¡­ but nope. He had cut off his arm so swiftly it had surprised even himself. It was at that moment did he began to seriously contemplate his mental health. He was pretty sure that sane people didn''t lop off their own limbs so eagerly.


    That was what was alarming. How eager he was to do it. All in the name of science and experimentation.


    He had chosen to do this in a room much like the one he used for his advancement, so there was a shower and everything to clean up the mess he was already causing. No one could call him inconsiderate.


    There was so much blood already gushing out of his arm, spraying around the floor. It looked like a scene straight out of a Quentin Tarantino movie. He made sure to strip naked as well, he didn''t see a reason to dirty his clothes. Although the uniform was supposedly self-cleaning, he didn''t know if there was a limit on how much it could clean and he didn''t want to test it today.


    Julius waited for a second, just observing his arm splatter blood around and his former limb limply lying on the ground. It was quite weird seeing his arm just sitting there, knowing it was his.


    However, he decided he had waited long enough and sent a nice thick stream of life and fire mana into [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. He felt the skill activate in a fury and quickly spread to his arm, or where his arm used to be.


    The very end of where he had cut it was engulfed in soft red flames. He was very taken by surprise by how fast he saw his flesh being repaired. It was almost twice as fast as it had been before and it was already very quick.


    In a matter of several seconds, he could already see the bone to his elbow being reformed, and the tissue around it regenerating with a frightening intensity. In less than half a minute, he had completely regrown his arm back to what it had looked like a few minutes ago. Even the scars from his previous burn were there. He had thought that they would have been removed if he took off the entire arm, but it seemed he was wrong.


    There was something that he wasn''t quite understanding about his healing skill.


    An interesting detail that he almost missed was how after the last time he had lost his hand and it had regrown back, he felt like there was a sort of stiffness that he had to get used to. However, now his hand felt like it had never left.


    If there weren''t a pint of blood and a lone limb lying on the floor next to him, he would have never guessed what had happened. His advancement to Tier 2 did make the healing process much more smooth. The skill seamlessly flowed through his body and to the injury, much more efficiently than when he was Tier 1. Also, the "sparkly" mana he sensed from Drasil did a lot for him.


    Julius still had zero clue about what might have happened with Drasil, but he could tell that his life mana, at least the one that was used on himself with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was of a higher quality than the one before. So he kept on doing it, trying to see if he spotted anything.


    Julius looked at this newly healed arm and back to the dozen limbs that were leaking blood on the ground. He was still curious and tried to see why his mana was acting like that, so he repeated the experiment a couple of times to observe the process.


    He tried many things, varying from different limbs, to changing the way he used the skill, anything he could think of he attempted.


    He even tried to use the skill with Drasil no longer inside of his core, but the effects remained the same. Which was nice, but also disproved his theory that Drasil was the one that was making the change inside of his core. It was still probably likely that Drasil had something to do with it, but as for how, well that was the million-dollar question.


    Julius only took a couple of hours testing out his various experiments so he still had plenty of time for other training. He took off his ring, and promptly began practicing his aura control. Tier 2 had made some massive improvements to the strength of his aura. He could feel the distinctive power that allowed him to identify other Tier 2s.


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    As he trained his aura control, he realized that he hadn''t been utilizing his newly acquired aura strength in the most optimal way. With the increase in power, [Empowerment of Will] should have been more effective. Julius had not been able to bring out the full measure of his new aura. If his previous aura was like a branch of a tree, his new one was like a carefully crafted wooden spear.


    It actually made controlling his aura much more challenging than just half a day ago. He thought that he had been getting a good grasp on his control, but with the change, he was back to square one. He had been getting used to using a Tier 1''s aura, but now that it had gotten stronger it was like using a broadsword after he had been practicing with a wooden training blade.


    If this was how difficult it was suppressing his aura at Tier 2, he could understand why Tier 3s and Tier 4s cannot completely suppress their aura. A little leakage made sense and was already admirable as is.


    That made Declan and Professor Youma even more impressive. Those two people Julius had never even sensed a whiff of aura unless they wanted him to. Their control must be absolutely insane.


    The rest of the time Julius spent trying to get a handle on his aura. He had even tried the vortex technique he had come across in Professor Youma''s class, but it was a complete fail. He almost drowned himself in his own aura when he attempted in with his new aura. It was already really hard before, but now he wasn''t even able to get it started before it turned on him.


    By the end of it, he could see why those Tier 2s he had seen around the campus hadn''t reigned in their auras, even if they had an aura skill. If they didn''t take the time to practice their aura control, then they would have to deal with their aura splashing around or use items like the ring he was wearing to prevent it.


    On another note, he did end up taking a quick nap at least. It wasn''t on a bed or anything, he just used a mat meant for meditation exercises but it wasn''t that bad, he had slept on worse. He hadn''t gotten any sleep for the past couple of days, and he remembered the conversation that he and Declan had. The newly improved healing skill had actually made his need for sleep even less than before, and now he found it hard to fall asleep. Most times, sleep came really easy to him, this was the only time that he had to really make a conscious attempt to relax himself and let sleep take him.


    When he woke up, it was already almost time for breakfast, so he washed his face with some water and headed on over to the cafeteria for some breakfast. However, he spotted the pile of detached limbs from the night before that he had forgotten about. With a swift burst of fire, he burned the limbs to ash. Julius wiped the imaginary sweat from his brow. He could hardly imagine how a maintenance person might react if they were to come in and see a mound of cut-off arms and other limbs shoved off in the corner.


    Unsurprisingly, his mandatory classes weren''t that exciting. The only thing of note was that during his Tier Advancement class, Professor Youma had noticed that Julius had advanced. Julius didn''t think anybody could notice with the ring on, but Professor Youma had definitely been able to tell. He even gave Julius a nod of approval.


    It wasn''t until his sword training elective with Professor Hashen that something interesting happened.


    [Swordsmanship lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    It hadn''t been that long since he got the skill, but it still felt like it had been forever. He had been practicing the skill every night for hours.


    Skill [Swordsmanship] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Sword Mastery], [Blade Mastery], [Penetrative Thrust], [Sharp Edge], [Wide Slash], [Mana Slash], and [Aura Slash].


    There were many skills that he expected to show up. The books he had read told him that [Sword Mastery] and [Blade Mastery] were almost always an option when evolving the skill. There were apparently some good rare skills that evolved from them later down the road. Some people chose the general upgrades for skills like [Sword Dance] and [Sword Instincts], two very good rare skills that were core skills for any swordsman.


    However, in Julius''s case, he didn''t want to focus on swords, he may use them occasionally, but he was already getting spread too thin, and adding a sword specialization on top of everything would be foolhardy.


    [Penetrative Thrust] was a funny one. He wondered if there were any other ways one could use that skill in a manner that didn''t revolve around swords and how effective it would be if used in that way. Would the skill recognize anything as a sword and then add the effect to it? If so that was a horrifying thought.


    [Sharp Edge] was a skill that he had actually been interested in. It was a plain-sounding skill at the uncommon stage but there were so many skill evolutions that he could see being useful. He had been looking at the [Razor Edge] skill in particular.


    Actually, when he thought about it, both [Penetrative Thrust] and [Sharp Edge] would be great additions to his constructs. They would add another layer of offensive power to his constructs. He kept that idea in mind, he didn''t mind grinding another general weapon skill to get one of them and see if they could synergize with his other skills. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Wide Slash] on the other hand, wasn''t a skill that he had recognized from any other readings. It sounded like a name that would show up in most skill evolutions, but maybe he just overlooked it. It did sound like a good skill if he was focusing on swords, but he wasn''t so he quickly forgot about it and focused on the skills he had been looking forward to.


    [Mana Slash] and [Aura Slash] were what he had been anticipating. They were some of the most commonly acquired skills because of their compatibility with such a wide variety of other skills. Julius was hoping that one of them would be able to synergize with his other skills, but it was a toss-up between the two.


    He had been leaning toward [Aura Slash] but [Mana Slash] was also a very good fit for his mage-focused skills. Plus he felt like [Empowerment of Will] could do many of the same aspects if not better than [Aura Slash].


    To be honest, he could also do many of the same things as [Mana Slash] even without a single skill, so that wasn''t a fair comparison. But he also didn''t want to synergize or evolve [Empowerment of Will] with his other skills, at least not yet. It was already rare+, which indicated how good it was on its own, and he didn''t want to take the risk of losing it for something that was worse.


    So many choices, and so many different paths he could take.


    A little frustrated at now knowing what he should do, Julius walked around the campus grounds, trying to sort through his options.

 Chapter 88: What Does the Future Hold

    Only a few students were roaming the grounds at this time other than Julius. He didn''t see any first years yet, other than the couple of second years he spotted, all the people who were already up were upperclassmen.It was a beautiful morning. The ocean created a soft mist in the morning, that paired very nicely with the sunrise cresting over the horizon. It made for a perfect time to just sit down and think.


    Both [Mana Slash] and [Aura Slash] were two skills that could evolve in so many ways, that the main decision rested on where he wanted to specialize. He had seen Declan and Professor Youma, they were both great examples of people who had specialized in aura.


    Julius found himself a nice bench in one of the little gardens and sat down on one. He also made sure to bring out little Drasil, cradling the little glutton while holding out a ball of life mana for him to suck on.


    It was an adorable sight, the spirit was the size of his finger and acted like the cutest thing. Julius spent several minutes just relaxing with Drasil, watching as the spirit drained the orb of mana pretty quickly. For such a little guy, he could pound down life mana like no other.


    I''m getting distracted, he gently reminded himself.


    As Julius laid back and thought about his options, he opened his status sheet.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 2


    Skills:


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 14] (Rare+)


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 10] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Savage Dance lvl 18] (Rare)


    [Arcane Construct lvl 16] (Rare)


    [Pure Compression lvl 15] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 15] (Rare)


    [Mana Layering lvl 13] (Uncommon)


    [Swordsmanship lvl 10]


    The change to his tier was a nice thing to see. If he was being honest with himself, he had expected a little more when he had reached Tier 2. He was hoping that with the power increase, he could easily beat Aubrey and maybe even Edgar, but that wasn''t possible, at least yet.


    The more he fought them, the more he began to understand the value of skill levels and their rank. He knew he had a warped view of how power worked in this world due to his upbringing, but he was starting to get a better picture.


    They never told him, but as he fought Aubrey and Edgar, he was confident that they each had at least one epic-ranked skill. For Edgar, Julius suspected it was some sort of physical enhancement skill.


    In all honesty, Tier 2 wasn''t a tier that he would see a huge increase. It was simply a Tier that changed your body to better use mana, nothing too crazy. It was at Tier 3 that you saw a big difference.


    However, there were still many things he could work on. He wasn''t using his advancement to its full potential. He wasn''t worried about the requirements for rare skills for Tier 3, he had almost every skill at or very close to rare rank. [Mana Layering] was very close to rare and he was hoping that once it was, he would see if some of his skills combined together. At least that was his plan.


    If he went with [Aura Slash] he was thinking that he could acquire [Aura Strike] or something along the lines of it. He had been offered [Aura Strike] before but had chosen [Empowerment of Will].


    Julius believed that [Empowerment of Will] would have good synergy with his other skills, but he didn''t want to risk it. He liked it as is, and still felt like there was much more he could explore with it. He believed that it was a skill that had more potential if he didn''t try to combine other skills with it. Still, who knew what might change in the future.


    He was leaning toward [Mana Slash] because he thought it would have the best chance of combining with [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], and [Mana Layering]. The research he had done had shown that the skill made for some good combinations for mana-specific skills.


    However, there was also a part of his head, that wanted both skills. He wondered what would happen if he got both of them. Would they combine together? Or would both of them work with his other skills?


    He kind of liked the idea of having both skills, but he only had a single slot left and was planning to take [Quick Step] or something like it in the future.


    He wanted something that would help him with his speed. That was something he felt like he was lacking the most. This was funny because he had not felt that way with the trolls, but against Edgar, he felt like he was moving through molasses.


    After some thought, he decided not to rush it and take his time. He wanted to see the next evolution of [Mana Layering] when it made it to rare. If he combined with some of the other skills, he would have plenty of space for other skills.


    That would also give him plenty of time to research other variations of skills in the library.


    Julius picked up a small breakfast before heading off to his first class of the day. Where everyone had already gotten into their own routine. Professor Edwards wasn''t interacting with the students much at all. He would address the class for a few minutes at the beginning but then let the students go about their training by themselves.


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    Julius did notice that he wasn''t the only student who had advanced to Tier 2 in the past couple of days. There were now almost a dozen students who were way ahead of the other students. Going off of their newfound physical abilities and the feeling of their aura, Julius felt like it was a safe bet to think that they were Tier 2.


    Julius didn''t join them quite yet. He did think about it, but he wanted to wait until more students advanced. In the meantime, he was cranking up the pressure he was putting on himself with kinetic energy.


    It was a good way to push himself. He was getting in a good workout while also practicing his kinetic absorption techniques. He did find that his advancement to Tier 2 had improved his body to the point where he had to really crank up how much he was restricting himself with kinetic energy.


    Against Edgar and Aubrey, he didn''t feel that much of a difference. But now that he was running around the track with the other Tier 2s, he could get a better gauge of his actual physical strength. Julius wasn''t saying that the other students weren''t impressive, but he could feel that once he released his restrictions he would be running circles around them.


    Even though the redheaded girl was still up in front, leading the pack, Julius was confident he could outpace her current speed. He had just been saying that he wished that he was faster, but that had been against a really good Tier 3. So, while he still wanted a movement skill like [Quick Step], he reminded himself that he was still far ahead of the others his age and tier.


    His biggest advantage was how advanced most of his skills were, how much mana he had, and how dense his mana was as well. The main reason why he had superior physical abilities compared to the others was that he had already gone through a body skill metamorphosis, which Derek and the others had said was only normal for Tier 2s.


    With that being said, Julius suspected that the redheaded girl and the tall guy from his swordsman class might have already gone through one as well. Now that he was paying closer attention to them, he noticed that those two were always in front, but he also noticed that they both had more in the tank.


    While the others in the leading pack were sweating aggressively and pushing themselves hard, these two appeared to be much more relaxed. The redheaded girl didn''t even seem to be breathing out of place at all. Julius couldn''t sense any enhancement skills, but they were definitely on another level than the other Tier 2s. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He might have to edit his statement from earlier, he was still confident that he was faster than the redhead''s current speed, but he didn''t know how much faster she could go. For all he knew, she could be much quicker than him. He didn''t want to get cocky.


    His Applied Combat class was interesting. Professor Rowe didn''t have them do anything other than sit at their desks, but he used the entire class to talk about various challenges when it came to rift delving.


    He explained the danger rating system in better detail. E and F-ranked rifts were primarily used by non-combatants to harvest either materials or specific items. Professor Rowe mentioned that the E and F-ranked rifts that were owned by the Academy were used for general supplies for the students. Many of the students who weren''t on a combat focus took turns using these rifts. They didn''t get to keep any of the materials but they were good for skill levels, especially for certain builds.


    Professor Rowe also talked about a few special low-danger rifts that had very valuable resources such as life-attributed herbs and Pure Mana Water. Which they would give to their alchemists or healers to either use for the school or to sell to consumers. This was a significant method of gaining money for the school.


    The D and C-ranked rifts that the school owned were used for their combat students. These kinds of rifts were the most common at Goldencrest, ranging from Tier 1 to a select number of Tier 4 rifts that some of the staff used.


    Julius was curious about how Goldencrest was able to have so many rifts available for use. He understood that Goldencrest Academy had existed for centuries, but the number of rifts that the school had control of could not have been all-natural.


    He would not be surprised to find out that many of them were artificially created by someone or a group.


    Professor Rowe said that there were Rifts for special scenarios that taught students how to handle niche situations. For example, he had just been explaining a rift that they would be delving into later on in the year, which was a D-ranked Tier 2 rift. It was a standard goblin rift that many first years went through.


    It was apparently a great rift that allowed students who had never had the opportunity to enter a rift, to experience it in a controlled manner. Goblins were humanoid monsters, so many of their tendencies were predictable as long as you were careful and didn''t act stupid.


    However, Professor Rowe warned them about a more dangerous C-rank rift that held swarm-type monsters controlled by a Queen. He said it was more dangerous because the monsters didn''t act in a way that many students would think. They were unintelligent monsters that threw themselves at students with such single-minded focus and ferocity, that many panicked during their first run, even after being warned of the dangers.


    A rift that Julius was interested in was a labyrinth-type rift. It was rated as a B-rank rift, not because of the dangerous monsters, but because of the deadly traps that were scattered across the dungeon. It was one of the more deadly rifts and had the most injuries each year.


    The way Professor Rowe talked about it, reminded Julius of the labyrinth from Greek mythology. He wondered if his [Spatial Perception] skill would be able to sense the hidden traps or if it would be fooled.


    Unfortunately, the first years wouldn''t go into a rift for quite some time. They would have to train a bit more until they would finally be let into one.


    Julius was curious if there was a way to get access to a rift any earlier. He was seeing many of his higher-ranked skills starting to plateau and believed that rift delving would do a lot of good for him.


    Julius was tempted to drop Professor Hashen''s class. He had only taken it because he wanted to learn to use a sword, but honestly, he wasn''t learning that much from the assistants. Most of their attention was on the older or more talented students, and he wasn''t considered a "talented" student. He was sure that if he didn''t hold back anymore, he would get more one-on-one attention, but he would rather not have to resort to that.


    Also, in the weeks that he had been learning the sword, he realized that it probably wasn''t his calling. He didn''t feel the same connection to it, as he did with [Unarmed Combat] or his other skills. Plus he was ready to evolve [Swordsmanship] and wasn''t planning to take on another sword skill at any time in the future, so he was seriously considering saving his time for something else.


    He could even use that time to train his aura control, or on practically anything else. An hour was a long time, every day for five times a week. Over a year that would build up. It was something he would have to earnestly think about.

 Chapter 89: Not the Pastries!

    A couple of days went by, and the weekend was there before Julius even noticed. Goldencrest gave their students the entire weekend off and allowed them to go wherever they wanted. In Julius''s case, that meant heading back to see Declan, Orus, and Rae.He probably wouldn''t always go see them on the weekend, that seemed like like too much time to take each week. He was sure that they would understand but he would still like to see them more often than not.


    He had already said his goodbyes to the others and took off. Julius had informed the five of them where he was going and let them know he would be back later today or tomorrow. They understood and said that they might be in town as well. They usually took a day or two off to relax and hang out over the weekend. A day without any training whatsoever.


    As Julius walked through the gates of Goldencrest Academy, he looked back and inspected the school. It was hard to appreciate its massive size while he was attending classes and living there, but it was an enormous campus. Its soft golden walls were glowing in the early morning light, illuminating Julius''s back as he walked away from it.


    Declan didn''t work today, but they had made plans prior so that Julius would meet him at the guardhouse early in the morning. Orus would most likely be on duty, but he would be able to see him later, once he was done. Julius was excited to see them all again. He wanted to share some of the things that had happened to him.


    It had only been a short period of time, but a lot had happened since Declan and the others saw him off. He had made some new friends, got a new spirit, acquired some new skills, and had just advanced to Tier 2. They probably wouldn''t be that surprised by that last one, but it would still be nice to tell them.


    There were already a good amount of people bustling about, many shop owners were getting ready for the day, and he saw many merchants doing some early trading or purchases. Julius was walking down a nice little road when he smelled the scent of toasted wheat and freshly baked pastries.


    He hadn''t eaten anything yet, he was planning to wait until he got to the guardhouse and eat breakfast with Declan and Rae if she was available. However, the alluring smell of the nearby bakery was too tempting and Julius found himself subconsciously shuffling over to the origin of the scent.


    It was a small little shop, tucked in between two large stores. Large glass windows, with loaves of bread and other goodies sitting on wooden shelves, proudly displayed. Julius could still see steam wafting from their surface, showing that they were fresh out of the oven.


    They were quite busy although it was so early in the morning. He saw many mothers waiting in line as well as many rugged men, who looked like they were on their way to work and had just wanted a nice bite to eat beforehand.


    It seems pretty popular, might be a good sign. He told himself.


    He opened the soft powder blue door and walked through. The little bell hanging above the door rang softly, alerting everyone that someone new had entered. A couple of people turned to look, but seeing it was just a young boy, quickly turned their attention back to whatever they were doing before.


    The first thing Julius noticed was the smell. It had smelled good from the outside, by now that he had walked in, it was divine. The interior was also very nicely done as well. Soft warm lighting lit up the entire room. Dark blue wooden tables lined up on the walls of the bakery and at the center was a large circular countertop with glass display cases all around it.


    There were so many baked goods available to choose from, ranging from hearty loaves of bread to flaky croissants, and even delicious-looking cakes. They had everything you could want from a bakery.


    Off to the side, were several employees who made coffee and other breakfast items, such as omelets and sandwiches that people had ordered. It was quite a wonderful little spot that Julius had found.


    He waited in line, behind a middle-aged woman who was carrying an empty basket in her right arm. Once it was her turn, Julius saw the woman order several loaves of bread and various other items and put them into her basket.


    Now that it was Julius''s turn, he excitedly shuffled up to the countertop where a young woman was standing there with a smile, waiting for his order.


    "What can I do for you?" She asked him sweetly


    Julius ended up ordering more than what he needed for himself. He wanted to get extra for the others but got himself a chocolate croissant and a hot chocolate. It didn''t take that long for his order to come out.


    They were nice enough to package the extra pastries and loaf of bread into a sack for him. Julius walked out with one arm full of pastries and the other sipping on his hot chocolate.


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    It was honestly a really good cup of hot chocolate. It was everything he wanted in from a hot chocolate. Rich, creamy, and the perfect balance of sweetness and the bitterness of chocolate. It reminded Julius more of a warm chocolate shake in a way and it went amazingly well with the croissant.


    If there was one thing about this world, it was that their food was amazing. His old world had some amazing food, places he and his gramps had visited over the years, but ever since he came here he has not had a bad meal.


    When it came to technique and variety of food, his old world might be on top. At least so far. Julius hadn''t been able to explore as much as he wanted to, so he didn''t want to jump the gun. But the quality of ingredients was far superior here. He suspected it had to do with the presence of mana, but that was something he wanted to research more in-depth in the future.


    The training was fun and all, but sometimes he wanted to learn something for the fun of it, while it might not translate to an increase in power, sometimes he just wanted to learn out of pure curiosity.


    He was currently attempting to dip his croissant into his hot chocolate when he felt someone with [Spatial Perception] about to bump into him from behind. It was only due to his recent advancement that he had the reflexes to dodge in time.


    Something that Julius had only realized after Lily had pointed it out, was that he had a bad habit of using [Savage Dance] to focus on a task too much, usually, it was food-related, and failed to keep his attention on his surroundings. If Julius had been focused so much on enjoying his food, he would have noticed the guy much earlier than he had.


    Still, Julius was able to save his croissant and hot chocolate barely. He neatly stepped around the guy who had been about to crash into him, but the guy seemed determined to do everything he could do to bump into Julius, and stumbled again, this time backward.


    The guy must have been at least Tier 3 if his movements were any indicator. While obviously inebriated, Julius saw the guy stumble at a speed that no normal person could. Almost every person reached Tier 2 a few decades into their life, so it was normal to see people move at a slightly faster speed than people would from his old world. However, this guy, even as clumsy as he seemed, was too fast for Julius to dodge him a second time.


    Julius got knocked in the shoulder, spilling his hot chocolate all over the floor and knocking his pastries out of his hand.


    Definitely, Tier 3, that bump had way too much force to it. Julius thought to himself as he caught his balance.


    He extended his aura to confirm his suspicions and was surprised to observe that the man had decent control of his aura for how out of control he was. He didn''t sense any leaks of aura from him.


    Or he might have an item on him, like the ring I have, Julius mused.


    "Watch where you are going!" The man slurred. He had scrunched up his nose and furrowed his brows as he looked Julius up and down. It was like he was disgusted with Julius''s mere existence. The man was wearing a very luxurious outfit, a crimson red jacket with shiny golden trims along the edges. If Julius had to bet, it was likely that this man was a noble or some sort of wealthy aristocrat. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius was annoyed. This man was the one who bumped into Julius, even after he had already made an attempt to avoid him. Now he was yelling at Julius? A part of Julius wanted to punch the man right in his face. The worst part? All of his food was now on the ground, wasted.


    Julius ignored the man for now and quickly tried to recover as much of it as possible. The hot chocolate was done for, there was only a small amount left sitting in the sideway cup, but the pack they had given him had thankfully saved most of the pastries. They were a little smushed but they were still edible. He let out a sigh of relief, the major crisis was avoided.


    Julius could make out the man''s continued yelling in the background, he had been more focused on the pastries than the words of a pathetic man like him. He shifted the bag of pastries in his arms and began to walk away from the irate man.


    Julius was still paying close attention to the angry man, so it was no surprise when he had to shift his shoulder to the side to avoid the hand that had tried to shove him. The man tripped over his two feet, almost falling to the ground again after his hand had not found his intended target.


    Keep calm, no need to cause a scene. Hopefully, he is still lucid enough to realize he shouldn''t be trying to assault a young boy in broad daylight. Julius optimistically thought to himself.


    Several people were already spectating them, and he even noticed that one of them had gone running for help. However, just to be safe, Julius put a little kinetic energy into his body and began to make haste trying to get as much distance from the crazy man as fast as he could.


    He was able to put a good amount of distance between the two of them in an instant, and for a moment thought that it was all over, but he had to pump a good deal of kinetic energy to throw himself forward so that the rock that had been careening to the back of his head missed him. The man had been enraged and smashed his fist into the ground, creating several broken stones. He then proceeded to grab one and launch one at the back of Julius''s head.


    Fortunately, Julius had been aware of the man''s movements, but the force he used to throw the rock had surprised him. If it had made contact, Julius might have sustained a serious injury, not to mention that most boys his age weren''t that strong. If he was a regular kid, that stone would have killed him.


    The rock sailed over his head and crashed into the side of a random building, leaving a dent, and scaring the shit out of the woman who was walking by it. By this time, the man had generated a good amount of attention. There were now over a dozen people watching the altercation. However, nobody intervened much to Julius''s astonishment. He would have thought that someone would have stepped in to protect a young boy like him, but he was wrong.


    The man was looking absolutely livid. Julius realized at this moment that this man wouldn''t stop until he hurt him. There wasn''t any reasoning with the man and Julius wouldn''t just let the man kick the shit out of him. So, he began to activate his skills, preparing for the worst.


    Why is it always me? He asked himself with a sigh.

 Chapter 90: How to Deal with Rude People

    Julius didn''t stay where he was and fight the man. Nope, instead he swiftly ran to an alley where he didn''t sense anyone. If he was going to fight, he wasn''t going to do it with so many people watching him. He was still trying to maintain a low profile, not that he was sure that was working so far if he was being honest.Julius sensed that the guy was fast on his heels with [Spatial Perception], but was stumbling frequently, trying to keep up. The man was fast, Julius gave him that, but his gracefulness was something left to be desired.


    He finally reached a small opening where he didn''t sense anyone else in the vicinity. There were still a few people who were in the buildings around, but he couldn''t sense them moving around. They were most likely still asleep.


    Julius purposefully slowed down, allowing the man to catch up with him. The distance between him and the man was a straight shot now, so the man had a much easier time chasing after Julius.


    He sensed the man gather mana in his right hand and cock back his fist. Julius''s back was still turned to the man, so he probably thought that he could take Julius by surprise. However, Julius at the last second, dropped down avoiding the swinging arm, pivoted, and blasted a fist of his own right into the man''s gut.


    Julius had not been just running. He had been using that time to gather as much kinetic energy and create as many intricate layers of mana surrounding his skin, especially around his arm.


    One thing Julius had realized after sparring with Aubrey and Edgar, was that even though he could use much more mana and more efficiently, he couldn''t just use it all for offense. The more energy he put aside for it, the more he had to use to reinforce his own body so that it wouldn''t fall apart when the backlash of the strike came.


    With that being said, he also had [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal], thus he was much more lackadaisical with how much mana he dedicated to protecting himself. So as he uncorked his punch, he could distinctively feel his arm barely managing the force of the blow.


    In hindsight, he could have used less energy in his attack, but the man was Tier 3 and Julius wasn''t taking any chances.


    Still, Julius was surprised when his punch completely folded the man and rocketed him over a couple of dozen feet down the alley, eventually smashing into the wall of a nearby building. Julius was able to sense some of the building''s enchantments activate, protecting it from most of the impact.


    He quickly activated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and healed his arm, the speed of the healing was astonishing. He walked over to the man who still had not moved an inch and bent down, taking a look at him. For a second, Julius thought he might have killed the noble drunkard, but after he got closer he poked the man with his toe repeatedly, and he realized that the guy was just knocked unconscious.


    That was anti-climatic, I know he was drunk but that seemed too easy. Julius almost felt bad for how hard he hit him.


    There was blood trickling out of the man''s mouth and he was breathing a little funny, but he was alive. Julius made sure to kick the guy so that he was lying on his side. Julius didn''t want the man to swallow his own tongue on accident. Afterward, he stood back up and started to leave. However, as he was doing so, he was able to sense someone quickly approaching his location.


    The person was fast, faster than Julius, so either a guard or someone else who was at an advanced tier. Julius hadn''t let go of any of his skills yet and was paying attention to every movement the unknown made as he made his way to Julius. It wasn''t until Julius could practically see him, that he let out a sigh of relief.


    The face he saw was a very familiar one, it was actually the person he had been on his way to meet this morning. Julius wore a smile as he saw Declan approach. He didn''t know if Declan was aware it was him, his ring did a good job suppressing his aura, so he wasn''t sure.


    However, it seemed that Declan did recognize Julius since he had a smile of his own on his face and had slowed down once he saw Julius standing over the body of the man.


    Declan ignored the prone figure on the ground and gave Julius a big hug, before saying, "I had a sneaking suspicion that it was you. We got a report from someone saying that a noble was causing trouble for some young boy with black hair. Someone else was going to respond, but since I was around I decided to check instead." Declan had finally taken the time to look over at the unconscious body.


    He used his foot to turn the man completely on his back. He had a weird look of recognition on his face and sighed. "I know who this is."


    "You do?" Julius was curious as to the identity of the unknown man who had just assaulted him.


    "Yep, Geoffrey Lagos. Certainly not the first time he has had an incident like this. His father is Lord Lagos, a very wealthy and powerful businessman in Heston. He has a company that engineers and constructs large shipping vessels for trade." Declan shook his head. "Lord Lagos himself is quite a pleasant man to work with, however, some of his sons have been spoiled rotten, which is unfortunately common with nobles."


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    Julius could understand that. In his old world, it was also common to see wealthy parents end up being too busy to raise their children or the fact that they had so much money, that the children ended up becoming spoiled brats. Some things never change, even in another world.


    Julius stood next to Declan and joined him in staring at the young Lagos with disdainful eyes. "What happens next?" He asked Declan.


    "There are two options the way I see it. Option one is for you to press charges and we bring young Geoffrey back to the guardhouse and put him in jail. There would a be trial and his father would pay too much money and do everything in his power to prevent any harsh punishment, so he would probably be let go within a month or two. Or we could go to his father directly, figure out a punishment that we all agree upon and you get a favor or more from a powerful lord. I know you could use it." Declan explained nonchalantly.


    Julius was a little surprised that Declan had offered the second option. He had thought that Declan was more of a stickler for the rules. However, the way Declan had described his options, he made it sound like he had gone through this before.


    "And you''re sure that this Geoffrey guy will get off lightly, even though he could have killed me earlier?" Julius felt a little frustrated at the circumstances, he would have expected a little more justice.


    Declan looked apologetic but nodded his head. "Power and money mean a lot in this world. And his father has a lot of both. I would love to see a world where there is more accountability, but money and power are everything. At least this way, you will get something out of it, other than just gaining an enemy."


    Power is everything in this world. Might is right or so they say. He reminded himself.


    Julius wished that wasn''t the case, but he was mature enough to understand that this was the way it worked. It was why he had been pushing himself so hard to get stronger. He had already come to the realization that he wouldn''t get any freedom by staying weak, he would need to fight for it.


    Julius didn''t say anything in response. Just because he understood it, didn''t mean he liked it. The man would have most likely killed him if he wasn''t strong enough to defend himself. Declan didn''t say anything, he just left Julius alone. He knew that this situation wasn''t fair for Julius but gave him the chance to decide on the man''s fate.


    After a few minutes, Julius made his decision. He would much rather see the guy rot in a cell for the rest of his life, but if that wasn''t going to happen, then the best thing he could do was to look after himself. If he could come out of this situation with something of value then he wouldn''t complain. It''s not like he particularly cared about this man either way, before Declan showed up he was going to leave the man unconscious in his own drool.


    He looked at Declan and said, "Okay, so how do we go about contacting his father," while pointing at the prone body.


    "First we need to get this guy back to the guardhouse in the meantime, once we get him there I have a way to contact Lord Lagos. However, is there anything you would want from him? Anything that might be hard to get a hold of? Lord Lagos would be willing to do a lot so that this situation goes away as quickly as possible. It will not be a good look on his business if word gets out."


    Julius didn''t really need anything, at least not that he could think of. Having a favor from a powerful lord would be nice to have in his back pocket, but other than that he couldn''t of another one. He took a look at Geoffrey still passed out and wheezing from the ground. For some reason, Julius was really tempted to kick him. Just continuing to look at the drunk douchebag made Julius want to do it more and more. However, he held himself back, ramping up [Savage Dance] and reigning in his urges.


    Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a simple gold band wrapped around Geoffrey''s middle finger. It was different than the other flashy and very shiny rings on the man''s hand, this one looked it was practical. It was most likely a spatial ring, something that he had been wanting for a while now.


    Julius looked at Declan and said, "Maybe, a spatial ring."


    Declan did a double look at Julius, "Sorry, what was that?"


    "You said if there was anything I wanted from Lord Lagos, so I said that I would like a spatial ring," Julius repeated a little more loudly.


    Declan chuckled loudly as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. He didn''t say anything to Julius and bent down to Geoffrey''s hand, taking off the spatial ring and tossing it at Julius.


    Julius caught the ring with a confused look on his face. He didn''t mean that he wanted to steal the guy''s ring, he was just trying to say that he wanted Lord Lagos to give him one. He knew that they were expensive after all.


    Declan must have understood what Julius was feeling so he reassured him. "A spatial ring might be expensive for normal people, but for some like Lord Lagos, it means nothing. Even if you took everything inside that ring, it would still be much less than what he would be spending on getting his son out of this mess, the favors in themselves he would have to pull would be extraordinary. I''ll let Lord Lagos know you decided to keep it, but just know that he will still feel obligated to repay you in another way."


    "So I can just keep it? What if there is actually something of enormous value inside?" Julius was nervous, he didn''t want to get Declan or himself in trouble for stealing from someone. Declan was a part of the city guards after all. If a police officer from his old world was caught doing something like this, they would be fired immediately.


    "Trust me, there is no way Lord Lagos is entrusting anything of value to his son. He might spoil them, but he isn''t stupid. There is probably some money and other personal items. Can you open it?" Declan asked him.


    Julius tried to but something was preventing him.


    Declan nodded to himself, "Eh, I should have known that it was protected with an aura-bound enchantment. Can you hand it to me?"


    Julius handed the ring back over without hesitation. He watched as Declan opened up his aura and reached out to the ring. Julius was able to sense that Declan was doing something complex if the delicate and complicated aura manipulation was any sign. Then with a huge flex of power, Declan''s aura obliterated something around the ring, Julius could feel some sort of enchantment fall apart like breaking glass, and then Declan handed it back to Julius. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius handled the ring and tried to enter it again. This time, whatever had been stopping him last time was no longer there. His consciousness was able to enter the ring and he was able to get a good sense of the items stored within.


    What he saw surprised him.

 Chapter 91: Like a Sack of Potatoes

    When Julius opened the ring, he felt a mixture of both awe and disgust. It was like a box the size of a large cabinet, filled to the brim with copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins, neatly organized into distinct piles. Julius thought the several gold coins he earned were a lot. But he was now looking at probably dozens of platinum coins alone. It was more money than Julius had seen so far in his life.However, there was also a pile of handcuffs, whips, and other sexual items off to the side. It was kind of alarming to see how many of them there were. He had to wonder just how much time this Lagos person spent doing things like that.


    There were several boxes of pills and other alchemical products, some of which Julius would not be surprised to learn were for more perverse activities. One specific red box was right next to a pile of handcuffs seemed awfully suspicious.


    There was also a small area where miscellaneous items were kept, things like cores and jewelry. As well as a couple large chests with some sort of enchanted lock around them.


    Once he thought he had an idea of what was inside, he willed himself to leave the spatial device. When he came out of the ring, the first thing he did was tell Declan, "I don''t think it is alright that I keep this."


    "Why''s that?" Declan asked confused.


    Julius threw his hands up in the air and had an exasperated expression on his face. "There''s way too much money and then on top of it, there''s a bunch of stuff that I don''t feel comfortable holding on to," Julius replied.


    Declan held out his hand, asking for Julius''s permission to look through it. He passed it over to Declan without a second thought, allowing him to see for himself. To be fair, Julius was not that surprised by the contents of the ring. The money was the most surprising, but the other stuff was kind of expected.


    He imagined that Geoffrey was not the only noble son who liked to play those types of games in his free time. He did wonder how Lord Lagos would take this. Declan made it sound like it was a normal thing for nobles in this world. As if bribery was the lesser evil or something.


    Declan took some time to search through the ring. He probably saw all the money, because he said to Julius, "Oh, that''s not that much. It is mostly just platinum. A fortune to most normal people, but anyone Tier 4 or above like his father doesn''t worry much about regular currency. This is nothing to Lord Lagos."


    Regular currency, what does that mean? I thought several gold coins were nice after selling those cores, but he makes it sound like dozens of platinum is nothing. Declan is Tier 4 as well, does that mean he is also filthy rich?


    Julius was thinking about what kind of currency higher-tiered individuals used when he observed Declan''s face flinch and turn to disgust, probably seeing all the special items that the young Lagos had on his person. However, Declan all of a sudden turned incredibly still and serious.


    He must have found something.


    Declan''s consciousness returned from the ring, and he took a deep breath, calming himself. Julius was curious as to what he might have found that caused that type of reaction.


    Was it one of the cases of pills or something? Or was it something else?


    Julius didn''t go through everything, but that was mostly because he had no idea what most of the items were in the first place. He could tell that some of the pills or elixirs were for healing or were some sort of life-attributed products. But other than that, he wasn''t knowledgeable enough to analyze the items within the spatial ring.


    He was very interested in how the ring worked though. He knew that there were specialized enchanters and mages who worked primarily in spatial enchantments, but he had no idea how they worked. It was something that he wanted to eventually learn about. He thought it would be very insightful and practical to know how they worked.


    I mean what person doesn''t want the ability to teleport at will?


    There were many practical applications for spatial enchantments. For example, spatial teleportation circles were unbelievably useful for emergency travel. They were extraordinarily expensive and restricted to a very limited amount of licensed people, but the ability to travel instantly had immense value. Some companies have tried to use spatial teleportation to transport goods and materials. However, the cost of the travel was sometimes more than the goods themselves.


    What was the point of having the materials and products there days or weeks earlier if you lost money in the end? That was why most merchant companies used traditional methods for supply chain management. You could fit many thousands of tons of materials on a ship, like the ones that Lord Lagos makes. On the other hand, teleporting that much weight would cost more than building a couple of ships combined.


    Julius watched as Declan paced around the empty square where he had lured Geoffrey. Declan didn''t seem like he was in a good mood either, whatever he had found inside that ring must have been something bad or important.


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    Julius''s patience eventually ran out and he asked, "What happened?"


    Declan paused his pacing and looked at Julius as if he had remembered that he wasn''t alone. "Things might have gotten a bit more complicated than I initially thought they were," Declan somberly said.


    "What does that mean? What did you find inside of that ring?" Julius wanted to know what was going on.


    "I found some things that this man should not have and could suggest several very bad things," Declan replied vaguely.


    "Well, what is it?" Julius asked impatiently. He didn''t like not being kept in the loop.


    "It isn''t something you should know. No matter how much you have already gone through and how mature you are for your age, it is better for you not to know the details. Trust me, you will thank me later," Declan said very convincingly, almost begging Julius to not ask any more questions about it.


    Julius didn''t like it, but he respected that Declan was doing it for his own benefit. His curiosity was yelling at him to try to pry the truth out of Declan, but he wasn''t a child, not really. He might appear to be a young boy, but he was already an adult mentally. He knew that someone like Declan was looking out for him. Also, Julius already had a tingling suspicion about what it might be about, considering the other items within the ring that he was able to identify.


    "If it is that bad, why don''t we just forget about the whole negotiating with Lord Lagos, and just send off this douchebag off to the deepest prison in the middle of nowhere and throw away the keys?" He asked Declan.


    Declan shook his head. "First off, we don''t have any substantial evidence that he has done anything that I suspect he has. Second off, I don''t think that would stop Lord Lagos from doing what he has to in order to prevent his son from rotting in a dark hole for the rest of his life."


    "I thought you said that Lord Lagos was a pleasant man?" Julius was confused, if Lord Lagos was a good man to work with, then why was Declan making him out to be like an Italian mob boss?


    "He is, under normal circumstances, he is a good man with integrity, something that is hard to find nowadays. However, he is somewhat irrational when it comes to his family. They could burn down an orphanage and he would still try to protect them," Declan said disappointingly Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "What if¡­ you know¡­ Geoffrey goes missing?" Julius threw out the suggestion that he wouldn''t be surprised if Declan hadn''t already thought of it. Julius didn''t like the idea of cold-blooded murder but if the things inside the ring and Declan''s disgusted reaction were any indicator, Julius did not mind for someone like that to get sent off to the cycle of life early. Rape, sex trafficking, and anything to do with children was a big no-no for Julius and most people, even the worst of criminals. And Julius suspected that whatever Geoffrey had done was on that type of level.


    Julius remembered hearing stories from his old world about rapists and child molesters getting slaughtered in prison and many had to be kept in solitary confinement for their own protection. Even the most brutal murderers had a line they didn''t cross.


    "We don''t really know if he has actually done any of it," Declan said, but Julius could see that Declan didn''t really believe that. "If he really has done it, then I would normally have no problem cutting off his head. But it is not my job to act as an executioner. Negotiating with Lord Lagos is already pushing the boundaries far enough. But the main reason is that there were witnesses who saw the entire thing, so it would just cause Lord Lagos to go after you first."


    "So our best option is to just hand over this scumbag over to his father and then forget about it?" Julius was discontent with the whole situation and the idea of just killing the guy was becoming more and more tempting as he looked at him.


    "To be honest, other than killing him, the best way to ensure Geoffrey is punished would be to hand him over to his father. Lord Lagos, as biased as he is to family will not stand by and allow his son to continue to act in such a manner. I would not be surprised if he put Geoffrey under house arrest for the rest of his life if I showed him the things I found."


    Yeah, house arrest in a mansion with everything he could possibly want. That seems like a real punishment. Is there really not a better way? Forget about the money or favor I might have from Lord Lagos. What if something happens to another person because we chose not to kill him here and now?


    "How do we guarantee that something like this doesn''t happen again?" He asked Declan.


    "That will be my main concern and requirement. I will have Lord Lagos sign a contract that requires him to place appropriate restrictions on his son," Declan said.


    As much as Julius thought that killing him was the simplest answer, he understood that it would not be the wisest course of action. As Declan had said, people had already witnessed Julius involvement, not to mention he didn''t want to make any more enemies of powerful people. He already had Duke Greyson as an enemy, no need to make more of them. He needed to stay alive so that he could get stronger and take revenge on his own. Not to worry about some low-life noble.


    Julius nodded at Declan, giving his consent for him to take the scumbag away and give him back to his father. Declan walked over to the unconscious noble and was able to grab him when the guy suddenly woke up, flailing about. When he noticed Declan in his uniform standing over him, he didn''t even try to talk his way out of it and tried to run away immediately. It was like he knew he was busted.


    However, Declan didn''t allow him to get further than several feet before he unleashed his aura.


    Julius always knew that Declan''s aura strength was amazing, but he didn''t know how frightening it could be as well. It was always restrained and controlled, but not this time. It was not even being used on Julius but he could feel the absolutely enormous power of his aura. It was so oppressive he could barely breathe. He was able to sense the bulk of Declan''s aura focus in on the retreating back of the noble and smother him, drowning him in the dense aura. Geoffrey never had a chance, his entire body seized up, frozen like a statue and his knees hit the ground so hard that they cracked the stone beneath him. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and passed out immediately.


    After that, as if nothing had happened, Declan retrieved his aura and tucked it away nonchalantly like he was putting away the groceries. Then slung the once again unconscious body of the noble''s son over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes and brought him toward the direction of the guardhouse, with a casual stroll.

 Chapter 92: Introduced to Declans Family

    Julius didn''t end up having to do anything else regarding the Geoffrey incident. Declan had taken care of everything and had told Julius to not worry about it. At the moment Geoffrey was sitting in a cell beneath the guardhouse and Declan had already notified Lord Lagos about the general situation.There were still a couple of things Declan still needed to do but in the meantime, he told Julius to go and see Rae. She should have finished with the preparation of breakfast and was expecting him.


    When Julius walked through the doors to the kitchen he was welcomed with a big hug that smothered him. He couldn''t see anything and all he could smell was the scent of toasted wheat and bacon. But he knew that it was Rae.


    He just stood there and let the woman take her time. When she was finally done he handed her the slightly rumpled sack of pastries he had saved for her. They were a little crushed, but it was the thought that counted.


    "Ohh!" Rae exclaimed excitedly. "You stopped by Maria''s place?"


    It appeared that Rae had recognized the sack that the cafe had given him and was even aware of the person who owned it. Julius should not have been surprised that Rae knew of the lady, it seemed like a very Rae thing.


    "The cafe with the glass windows and blue door?" He asked.


    "Yep, that is the one! Maria and I are old friends, but I haven''t been able to go over there for a while. I am glad you stopped by and picked some stuff up," Rae told him.


    "Yeah, it was surprisingly busy for how early it was. It seemed to be pretty popular with the locals," Julius commented.


    "Oh yeah, Maria''s place is one of the better bakeries in Heston. I always try to stop by whenever I am in that part of the city."


    Julius and Rae spent the next while just chatting about what they had done since they had last seen each other. She told him about some drama and stuff that had been happening among the guards while he talked about some of the stuff that had happened at Goldencrest.


    She fixed him a small plate of food along with some of the bread and pastries that he had grabbed from the cafe and continued to ask him about what the school was like and if he was enjoying it. He told her the truth that he was enjoying his time there.


    He also told her about some of the others who he had met pretty soon after getting there and how amazing they were. While they were talking, Declan must have finished up whatever he was doing and joined them in the kitchen.


    He grabbed himself a small fruit and was munching on it, sitting on a stool, and just listening to Rae and Julius talk. However, when he mentioned Professor Youma he interjected and asked, "How is he doing?"


    Julius turned around on his stool to face Declan, "Was he one of your professors when you went there?"


    "Yeah, I am surprised that he is still teaching first-years, or teaching at all that is. He was old when I was there." Declan chuckled as he said that.


    "He''s doing good, he looks old but he moves around like someone half his age. He is also one of the better professors I have in my opinion. I have him for Tier Advancement and Aura Control," Julius said.


    "Oh yeah, by the way, how is your aura control going?" Declan asked him. "I noticed the ring but it is hard to get a feel of how much control you have when you wear it."


    Julius forgot that he was wearing the ring and quickly took it off. Letting his aura naturally emit outward. He saw Declan''s eyebrows lift in surprise.


    "You reached Tier 2?" Declan asked excitedly.


    "Yep. Though I half expected you to already sense it even through the ring''s suppressive effects."


    "I felt something was off, but that ring does a very nice job of naturally emitting aura. That, on top of your already strong aura, and it is hard to gauge where you stand," Declan explained.


    Rae clapped her hands in joy, "Congratulations Julius!"


    "Thanks, Rae. I was already really close to it anyway. I just broke through recently."


    Declan stood up from his stool, and walked up to Julius, clapping him on the shoulder. "Well, you know what this means right?"


    Julius shook his head. He didn''t know what it meant. Was there some sort of tradition he wasn''t aware of?


    Declan was about to say something but held himself back. "Eh, I won''t ruin the surprise then." sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


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    "What surprise?" Julius asked curiously.


    "Never mind about that. Are you ready to go?"


    "Uh¡­ go where?" Julius was confused.


    "Oh, I thought I told you earlier. My family is going out shopping today and I wanted to introduce you to them, so I thought we could join them," Declan offered.


    Julius liked the sound of that. He had always wanted to meet Declan''s family. He had heard him talk about them many times already and they sounded like great people.


    "Yeah that sounds like fun," Julius said excitedly. "Are we leaving right now?"


    "I was thinking we go over to my place and head off with them. Is that alright with you?" Declan asked.


    Julius nodded his head. He was fine with that, although he did wish he could have seen Orus before he left. He wasn''t expecting to come back later and would like to be back on campus before it was too late. However, there was always next time.


    Julius found himself following Declan down the street further into town. By the looks of it, this part of town was more residential. There weren''t as many shops around and he could see some kids playing around in the morning air.


    The streets were all very nicely maintained, with no cracks or large gouges in the stone. There was also a nice variety of colorful flora decorated around the building walls. Most of the buildings were two stories with the occasional third-story building here and there. It seemed like a very nice place to raise a family and he could see why Declan had chosen this location.


    They found themselves in front of an off-white colored two-story house, with steps leading up to the porch. There was a nice big red door and several chairs laid out on the porch. There was a massive gorgeous wooden table with an elegant golden lamp illuminated on it.


    Everything was very nicely decorated by someone with good taste. Julius suspected that Declan''s wife was the person who was responsible for it.


    Declan walked up the steps and to the front door, opening it for Julius. It was very nice on the inside just as nice as the outside, if not more. It had a very warm and welcoming atmosphere as well. It was clean, but there were obvious signs of people living there. Random toys and items were strewn across the floor.


    Once Declan closed the door behind him, Julius heard a noise come from deeper inside the house. Out came a young girl with light blonde hair around ten years old steamrolling right at Declan. She didn''t even seem to notice that Julius was in her way and ran past him like he was nothing. She was only focused on hugging her dad.


    Declan squatted down and picked her up, hugging her to his chest. He was all smiles and saying hello to her in the same soft tone that all dads used.


    While that was happening, Julius sensed another person coming from what he assumed was the kitchen with [Spatial Perception]. The woman looked like an older copy of the young girl. Light blonde hair and tall, taller than Julius at least.


    She was very pretty as well, with soft features and a smattering of freckles over her nose, Declan was a lucky guy.


    "Hey!" She welcomed them with a large pearly white smile. She looked over at him, "Is this Julius?"


    Declan shifted the girl in his arms over to one side and said, "Yeah, this is Julius." Then he turned to Julius. "This is my wife, Abby and this is my daughter Gabriela, but we call her Gabby. My son is upstairs, probably still sleeping, but his name is Ben."


    As if he had heard them talking about him, Julius heard a door upstairs open and a young man walked down. If Gabriela was a copy of Abby, then Ben was a copy of Declan. He was tall and had the same stern features as Declan, but he had a big smile on his face as he made his way down the stairs.


    "Speak of the devil, here he comes now," Declan said.


    Ben walked right up to Julius with a smile and offered a hand, "It is very nice to meet you, my name is Ben. You must be Julius, my dad has said a lot about you."


    Julius shook the guy''s hand. "Likewise, it is nice to finally meet all of you guys. Declan and everyone else say the nicest things about you all."


    They made small talk for a little before Abby clapped her hands together. "Okay, let''s get on going before the city gets too busy."


    Julius watched as the mother of two professionally ushered everyone out within a minute, something he found very impressive. He was well aware that it was a skill many mothers wished they had.


    They brought Julius to a part of town that he hadn''t visited yet. It was the same area where Ben worked. Julius found out that he was working for a well-known crafter and made some very nice items himself. Most of them were more practical purposes such as household appliances and the like, but he did mention that they did certain custom orders.


    Before they went inside the first shop, Declan pulled Julius to the side and palmed him the same ring that Geoffrey had been wearing. Julius gave Declan a questioning look, silently asking what he was doing by giving it to him. Julius didn''t want to hold anything that was inside of the ring.


    However, Declan forced Julius to take it and said, "Don''t worry I already took everything out except for the money, it''s yours. The money is only a fraction of the value of what was inside before anyway. After what you went through you deserve it, I already let Lord Lagos know and he was fine with it."


    Hearing that Lord Lagos himself was fine with Julius keeping the ring and money, made him much more willing to take it. Now it didn''t feel like he was stealing, more like he was getting bribed. If that was any better somehow.


    The first shop they ended up going to was a toy shop for little Gabby. Inside was an entire store with every toy you could imagine. From dolls that could move around on their own, to complex board games, and everything in between. Julius watched as Gabby ran over to a specific section of the store, heading right toward a section that had a small kitchen setup. It reminded Julius of the toy kitchens from his old world.


    This one was really nice though. The clerk was showing off how there were real flames that you could use to cook food, but there was no danger of kids burning themselves. He didn''t know how they achieved something like that but it was very intriguing to see.


    After that, they strolled up to a store just right down the street. They stopped in front of it, where Julius observed the very minimalist design compared to the other stores. Most of the shops had bright and welcoming colors that enticed people to enter. However, this store was different. It was made entirely of dark grey stone and had a more serious atmosphere to it. He looked up and saw that there was a simple sign above the doorframe, "Arnold''s Armaments".

 Chapter 93: [Swordsmanship] Evolution

    Arnold''s Armaments was a wonderful little shop. It didn''t look like much from the outside, by all appearances it was a very plain storefront. But the inside was a different story altogether. It was immaculate. The entire store had gorgeous glass displays with various accessories and weapons.On the wall were blades of all kinds. From rapiers to broadswords, Julius could see pristine weapons of all kinds on show. Julius''s gramps used to take him to knife shops frequently when he was younger, and this store reminded him a lot of it.


    Declan and his family seemed to know the man as well. The second they walked through, little Gabby ran up to the counter where the man was already smiling seeing the little girl approach. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius noticed that Abby was walking up behind him with [Spatial Perception]. He turned his head to look over his shoulder and met her eyes as she approached him. Then he turned back to watch the interaction between the older man and the young girl.


    Abby stopped as she reached next to him. "Arnold and his wife have been good friends to my family and me for years. He and my father used to adventure together. Then one day he found himself settling down with his wife and opened this little shop."


    Julius fully turned his body around as she explained that to him. "He makes everything here?" He asked her. He was curious, not many adventurers had the skills to take on crafting after they were done. There were only so many skills slots one had and using some for crafting was never a good idea.


    Abby laughed lightly. "Oh no. No, his wife is the daughter of a blacksmith and he taught her everything he knew about the craft. Arnold did end up removing some of his more specific skills to take up some new ones but his wife makes most of the items here. Her father has some things he sells as well, but the majority is her''s."


    "So why not name the shop after her then? Why Arnold''s Armaments?" Julius asked confused. He would expect that a store called "Arnold Armaments" would sell armaments made from Arnold. Otherwise, they should have called it "Arnold''s Wife''s Armaments".


    She laughed again. "My daughter had the same exact question. ''Why is it called Arnold Armaments if you don''t make anything'', she asked." Abby shook her head in amusement. "Apparently, Arnold''s wife really liked the alliteration of the name. She is also very superstitious and said the numbers were lucky or something. I don''t fully understand what she means, but it works so I can''t say anything."


    Julius had met some people who had similar beliefs. There was a girl he knew who really believed in numerology and used it to decide everything. She was a nice girl, just a little odd, always counting anything she saw and commenting on whether or not it was a good sign or not. However, it was interesting to see that there were similar beliefs in this world as well.


    The rest of the day was very nice. Julius got to know each of Declan''s family members and got to know some of the shop owners as well. Declan and his family were quite renowned around Heston it seemed.


    Even with his newfound wealth, Julius did not end up buying anything. Truthfully, the fact that he was now the owner of such a vast amount of wealth was still not quite hitting him yet. He understood when Declan had told him that powerful people would consider the amount he had as a paltry sum, but to a person who had only the limited experience that Julius did, it was hard to comprehend.


    There was an interesting development though. At the end of their shopping trip, Julius had wanted to go back to Arnold''s Armaments and see if he could get the chieftain troll''s core made into an accessory. However, when Julius was bringing out the core to hand over to Arnold, Drasil decided to make an appearance.


    The little life spirit, who was usually sleeping in his core came zooming out and wrapped his arms around the core like it was a treasured item. Julius looked on as the cute green spirit bear-hugged the core with a content smile on his face.


    Julius did not know quite why Drasil was acting like that, but he suspected it had to do with the fact that the core was life-attributed. With Drasil taking such a liking to it, Julius could not find it in himself to take away the core from Drasil or to make it into an accessory. He would allow Drasil to cherish it for a bit more. After all, Julius was surprised that the little glutton wasn''t even trying to suck any of the life essence out of the core.


    Drasil was acting like the core was some sort of heated blanket or stuffed animal. He didn''t even try to go back into Julius''s core once he got his arms around it. He just draped himself over it, while Julius carried the little spirit with both hands.


    Realizing that the spirit had no intention of going back into his core, at least for now, Julius tucked him away gently into one of his jacket pockets. The little guy quickly fell asleep and maintained a firm and possessive grip over the core.


    I guess no accessory for me. He joked to himself.


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    A small part of Julius was a little sad that he wasn''t able to make an item out of it. After all, he had been planning to make one almost immediately after he had extracted the core. But seeing Drasil enjoying so much was better in every way.


    Arnold had been observing the entire interaction but said nothing. Julius just saw the older man gently chuckle to himself and didn''t try to bring it up again, just forgetting anything happened.


    There was a temptation for him to buy himself some sort of weapon. But Declan told him before that he didn''t think he should get one. His reason was that most weapons you found on display were for Tier 1 or Tier 2 individuals. Most of the weapons for Tier 3 were custom made or in a backroom.


    However, since Julius was not an average Tier 2, he didn''t think most weapons would bring him that much advantage. He believed that most Tier 2 gloves wouldn''t be as strong as the constructs Julius could make around his fist.


    The only things Declan recommended was for Julius to buy some general survival gear, like a water canteen with a water enchantment, some sort of tent, detection rods, and anything else he might need if he were to be alone in the wilderness again. He also wanted Julius to get a communications device so that he could stay in contact with them.


    He was supposed to get one from Gabriel the other day, but the big professor must had forgotten. But now that Julius had come into some money, he didn''t need Gabriel to do that for him. So before he left the shopping area he picked up some survival gear that Declan recommended as well as a simple communication device.


    He could connect with several other devices and as long as he was within distance he would be able to communicate with them. It was similar to a walkie talkie. He got Declan''s contact information as well as his wife''s, just in case.


    It was already later in the afternoon and Julius was about to head back to campus. He still had some things he wanted to get done. He still needed to decide which version of [Swordsmanship] he would get.


    He really wanted to see if there was a certain skill that he could get if he got both [Mana Slash] and [Aura Slash]. If so then that would be a skill he would be very interested in getting. Otherwise, he would probably choose [Mana Slash] at this time. He knew that the general evolved rare version of [Mana Slash] was [Mana Strike] and that [Mana Strike] would most likely go very well with [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], and maybe the evolved form of [Mana Layering].


    When he got back, Julius went straight to the library. The others had plans already and wouldn''t be back until after dinner, so he would be alone for the time being. Which felt weird considering that he had been spending so much time with them lately. The only time when he wasn''t with one of them was during one of his first-year classes, or if it was late at night during one of his practice sessions.


    He finally found out that the librarian''s name was Beth and also learned that she had been working as a Goldencrest librarian for the past two decades. He asked Beth where he could find something that talked about evolved skills for [Mana Slash] and [Aura Slash]. She didn''t know of an exact reference for that particular combination, but she did have him looking in a section where it was most likely he could find what he was looking for.


    After several hours, he finally found a journal written by a Tier 3 warrior who had gotten both [Mana Slash] and [Aura Slash]. The good news was that he did get an evolved skill out it, the bad news was that he went on to say that the skill wasn''t that impressive.


    The skill was called [Essence Slash] and was basically an attack skill that had the properties of both mana and aura. It was a rare-ranked skill, so it was pretty powerful on its own, but he found that it wasn''t necessarily more powerful just because it used both mana and aura.


    If anything it was sometimes weaker than just specializing in one or the other. The main advantage of the skill was that it allowed him to be more effective against someone who had really good mana-based defenses or the opposite and had really good aura-based defensive skills.


    After reading the Tier 3''s account, Julius didn''t feel like he wanted to go down that route. It was important to note that even though the man had gotten [Essence Slash] didn''t mean that Julius would as well. Skills weren''t so straightforward after all.


    He could just as easily get a skill called [Mana-Aura Slash] or some other name. However, what did disinterest him was that the skill itself seemed more like a jack-of-all-trades type of skill. Maybe if he wanted to save himself some skill slots and have a way to break down mana and aura-based defenses he might go in that direction, but for now, he wanted something that would synergize well with some of his other skills.


    Julius didn''t even end up going to dinner. For one, he was too submerged in his own research that he lost track of time, but even after he realized that he was going to miss dinner, he still didn''t go. Without the others around, the odds of some other upperclassmen causing trouble for him were much higher. Also, if he could avoid Liam, that was just an additional benefit.


    Something that he found very annoying was that epic-ranked skills were much harder to find written accounts about. General and uncommon skills were written about plenty, but when it came to finding things about rare-ranked or epic skills it became a much more difficult endeavor.


    Everything he was able to find was making him believe that [Mana Slash] was the best option. There were many great evolutions after it and if it didn''t work out then he would just find another skill that would work. He still had one more skill slot, and if he needed to delay getting a movement skill like [Quick Step] then he could wait.


    He wanted to prioritize getting his first epic skill first. Not only would it give him some slots to use more freely, but he heavily suspected he would see an amazing improvement once he did. The more he read about higher-ranked skills, the more Julius understood that there was a large gap between those with an epic-ranked skill and those without.


    He didn''t waste any more time and concentrated on his skill and willed it to evolve. There was always a period of anxiety before he evolved a skill. He never was a hundred percent confident that he chose the right one, but he trusted his intuition and the research he had done.


    Congratulations, skill [Mana Slash] (Uncommon) acquired.

 Chapter 94: Back on the Grind

    It was fascinating how single-minded Julius could become. For the next couple of weeks, he did nothing other than train four primary skills: [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], [Mana Layering], and [Mana Slash]. He completely ignored everything else and stuck himself in a training room.However, Julius was a little surprised and frustrated that [Mana Layering] hadn''t already evolved. It had been stuck on level 14 for a while, and Julius didn''t know what else he could do. There were only so many ways one could layer mana. He was at a blockade of some sort. He felt like he needed to use the skill in a new and exciting way, but nothing he had tried worked yet.


    [Mana Slash] was coming along wonderfully though. It was a really easy skill to level up. There were so many uses you could use for it, Julius could see why it was such a highly desirable skill and why it was able to synergize with so many skills.


    Julius had previously thought he was able to do exactly what [Mana Slash] was able to, but he quickly realized that he had been naive and ignorant. His version was a poor replication of the actual skill. When he closely compared the two, he was able to see the differences. Julius''s technique had uneven thicknesses of mana in specific pieces along the edge, and worked much less effectively, even if he used fire mana to bolster it.


    Whereas, the skill version had a perfect edge of sharpened and honed unattributed mana. It was a beautiful application of mana that Julius had been trying very hard to replicate on his own without the skill. If he were to compare them to something, he would say his technique was like an iron blade made from the Middle Ages, whereas the skill was like a Japanese Katana made from the sharpest steel by the best smith in the world.


    He knew he would never be able to achieve exactly the same thing on his own for a while longer. But it was good practice for his mana manipulation skills. During the past couple of weeks, he has made a few improvements.


    [Mana Layering lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    [Arcane Construct lvl 16 -> lvl 17]


    [Pure Compression lvl 15 -> lvl 17]


    [Mana Slash lvl 1 -> lvl 10]


    He had done everything he could think of to use those four skills in conjunction with each other so that they would have the highest chance of synergizing together.


    Ordinarily, [Mana Slash] was only used on bladed weapons or things that had a functional edge. So Julius first used it on a sword, to test out the skill and how effective it was. He was pleased to find out that the skill did a very good job of sharpening the blade and slicing through the target.


    It felt artificial in many ways. Julius could not detect or notice how the skill was applying mana in such a way that it tore open into things with such ease. It was unattributed mana too, the skill was converting ambient mana and some of his own to activate it. There had to be a reason why, but Julius wasn''t able to pinpoint it.


    He didn''t stop at just using [Mana Slash] with a sword, he tried to use it with anything he could get his hands on. There had been nights where all he did for over ten hours straight was swing a tree branch trying to use [Mana Slash] with it.


    At first, it was a miserable failure, hours went by before he made even a smidge of progress. But it did happen, slowly but surely.


    He had been so focused on accomplishing it that he had almost missed when the branch had flickered ever so slightly with mana, running up and down its side. However, that little flicker, proved to Julius that it worked. So with a renewed sense of purpose, he continued to swing that branch for days.


    He even missed his classes because he was so focused. It had worried the others because he had not told them until a couple of days later with his newly bought communication stone, but funnily enough they seemed to understand much to his astonishment. He would have thought they might be more upset with him, but then again they were all hard workers in their own right, so if anyone would understand it would be them.


    He wasn''t just mindlessly swinging the branch either. Each swing was made with careful effort and intent. Being able to do it with a branch meant that he would have to be able to do some if not most of the skills job all on his own. So it was very difficult. He got close to having a complete [Mana Slash] but had only gotten a partially activated version.


    He did it though. After all that time spent, he finally got it down. The mana flowed through the uneven surface of the branch and gently spun around its rough bark, creating a sharp-honed edge right along its length.


    He received some notifications once he brought himself out of his concentrated state.


    [Mana Slash lvl 10 -> lvl 13]


    It appeared that keeping up such a concentrated state for almost a week had finally pushed [Mana Slash] enough that it leveled straight up to level 13. [Mana Slash] had almost caught up to [Mana Layering] at this point and was close to its own evolution.


    The one thing that he had noticed during his obsessive training, was that [Mana Slash] had the capability to remember and adapt to what he had accomplished. This meant that while it was difficult to initially achieve, Julius could feel innately that he could replicate the same results now with more ease.


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    He reached down and picked up the stick from the floor. He had dropped it because of his excitement of joy of finally doing it, but now he wanted to see if he could do it again on the first try.


    He looked down at the stick in his hands. It was just a regular tree branch the length of his arm that he had found in the middle of the night in one of the many school gardens. He had spent longer than one would expect finding a branch that fit his needs, but it had served its purpose well. Though, it was barely holding together he observed.


    The mana and repetitive use had almost destroyed the branch. Honestly, he was surprised that it had lasted as long as it did. Now that he was paying attention to it, he could feel the grains in the wood cracking with every movement he made with it. But he believed that it could take a little more before it was finally done.


    With a quick reactivation of [Savage Dance], he tried to use [Mana Slash] around the stick again. Focusing on making the skill create an edge of mana that was so sharp that it sheered through anything in its path. He had been envisioning the process of a knife peeling apart the atoms of his target.


    He had been a knife enthusiast in his old life, so he understood how to sharpen a knife and polish its edge. So that was what he imagined and it came easy to him.


    This time it was like the skill was completely taking over, it didn''t require much, if any manual input by himself before it activated. A pale blue shining edge of mana formed around the branch.


    Julius walked over to one of the training dummies and slashed at it. The branch sliced right into the wooden material of the dummy with a resounding thud. When he removed the branch, the enchantments regenerated the scarred wood of the dummy, but suddenly the branch practically disintegrated in his hands. It just crumpled apart like sand. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It worked though. He was able to use [Mana Slash] beyond the restrictions the skill placed on its usage. The next step was to use it on his constructs. He had already tried but it was surprisingly harder than using the skill on a tree branch. Even if he created a sword-like construct out of fire mana, he wasn''t able to use [Mana Slash] on it. There was some weird interference, something he had not been expecting.


    He really thought that if he made a sword-like construct the skill would work seamlessly with it. However, he found out pretty quickly that it didn''t work like that. That was part of the reason why he had been so focused on using [Mana Slash] with a stick. He thought if he could use it on a stick, then he could use it on his own constructs.


    It was time to put that to the test.


    With a quick use of mana, he carefully created a disc of rotating mana. It was just a simple disc, he didn''t try to compress it or use an aura to enhance it and just simply used [Mana Slash] on it.


    Within an instant the entire disc had a soft blue glow around the whole edge, gently humming as it floated in front of him. It was so easy now. Previously, it didn''t even feel like it would be possible, but all those attempts made it feel easy in comparison to the branch.


    He slowly let the skill dissipate and tried something else. This time he wanted to see how far he could push it. How strong would one of his constructs be if he used it all the way to its full potential?


    This time he used [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression] to create the most sturdy and sharp disc he could possibly manage. The practice with [Mana Slash] helped out a lot, Julius could already feel that the disc was much more elegant and was almost perfectly even on every side. A massive improvement compared to his normal constructs.


    He also used [Mana Layering] to build intricate layers of condensed mana, reinforcing his constructs to his current capability''s limit. Then he made sure to use just a little touch of [Empowerment of Will] to stabilize his constructs. Just this alone made the construct better than anything he had done before. It was only after he had done everything else, that he began to activate [Mana Slash].


    That was when he started to feel his mind and soul start to crack from the pressure he was putting on it. He was using so many skills right now, that it was becoming too difficult to keep track of everything.


    But he had an idea. In the past, he had wanted to try and see if he could use [Empowerment of Will] on [Savage Dance]. However, when he tried it he passed out immediately, and ever since then, he has not tried it out, forgetting about it.


    Now that he was Tier 2, he was hoping that it would be possible. He stopped for a moment, letting [Mana Slash] fall away, and focused on using [Empowerment of Will] and [Savage Dance] in conjunction.


    Since both skills were already active, it did not cause his mind any more pressure, but it was an unusual sensation to get used to. He created a gentle thread connecting [Empowerment of Will] to [Savage Dance] and fed his concentration skill a little aura.


    His mind opened up like he hadn''t felt before. The world felt as if it had stopped and he was in the middle of nothing except for him and the disc floating above his hands.


    Without pausing for a second, he immediately began using [Mana Slash] alongside his other skills. This time it didn''t even feel difficult, he could not imagine why he had been having such a hard time before this. It was laughable how simple it now seemed.


    The disc radiated with mana along its edges and Julius began to make it spin rapidly with a surge of kinetic energy. Even after that, he was still able to keep everything together, albeit with a little more effort. There was so much power in the disc, that his will was having a hard time holding it still.


    Of course, that meant that Julius wasn''t finished yet. He was on a roll and there was still more he wanted to do and add to it. He had been thinking about it recently and really wanted to give it a try. [Mana Layering] was already a very useful skill, but he was curious if it could work with [Mana Slash] more than just reinforcing the construct. So he pushed the skill beyond its normal abilities and tried to force it to create another layer of [Mana Slash] on top of the pre-existing one.


    To his amazement, it worked, barely and it was outrageously unstable, even with [Empowerment of Will] holding everything together. But it did work.


    So before it could blow up in his face, he let out a burst of intent and sent the absurdly dangerous disc of mana right at the wooden dummy. He watched as it sheered completely through it like a hot knife through butter. The dummy was made to take hits and regenerate, but at its core was some sort of enchanted alloy that Julius was never able to damage no matter how much he threw at it. Until now.


    The disc tore through the alloy and straight into the nearest wall, smashing into the heavily enchanted surface. He saw the entire room flicker as runes flashed quickly all over the room and the disc got jammed right into the stone walls of the training room.


    The only sound left in the room was the sound of Julius''s harsh breathing and the sound of blood droplets hitting the floor.

 Chapter 95: I Wonder Who That Could Be

    The second it was over Julius released all his skills immediately and dropped to his knees. He hadn''t realized it as he was doing it, but his brain was literally burning away during that last test. He was bleeding profusely from every orifice and could barely even remember his name.It was only because of his instincts that [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] activated. His brain felt like melted ice cream and it was almost as if someone had just taken a big old bite of his brain. He didn''t know if it was because he used [Empowerment of Will] on [Savage Dance] or if it was because he was doing so much.


    It wasn''t just his mind that was injured, it was also his soul that was damaged. That might be why [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was struggling to heal him. It had already been close to a minute since he began healing himself, but he still wasn''t fully healed. His head was still fuzzy but he was luckily getting better, he could feel it.


    An entire arm took less than half a minute, but it seemed that healing his brain or soul was much more difficult to heal. There was a soft red glow from his skill, enveloping his entire body. It was the first time in a while that he had been worried for his own health. Ever since he had gotten [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] he had been very willy-nilly about his health.


    But seeing the amazing skill struggle to heal him, was an eye-opener. He had to pay close attention to injuries that weren''t physical in nature. Maybe he would need to be a little more careful in the future


    After what seemed like forever, the cloud in his head was starting to abate. He could finally take a deep breath again without feeling like he was swallowing his own tongue.


    The only silver lining in his misery and pain was the fact that it wasn''t in vain.


    [Savage Dance lvl 18 -> lvl 19]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 10 -> lvl 11]


    [Mana Slash lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    [Mana Layering lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    The last several levels of rare-ranked skills were very very difficult to achieve. So it felt very rewarding. However, he felt like he deserved it after putting himself through something like that.


    He was still kind of out of it and he almost overlooked the notification of [Mana Layering]. It took him longer than it should have, but he eventually recognized that he had finally reached the end of uncommon. After all the time he had spent cooped up in here, he was finally done.


    [Mana Layering] has reached level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill [Mana Layering]?


    A part of his was a little nervous. He had been taking a chance when he chose [Mana Layering] over [Advanced Mana Manipulation]. He had been looking for a skill that would evolve well with his others, and also thought that [Mana Layering] was the better skill for him.


    He would like to say that he hadn''t regretted choosing the skill so far. In fact, he was glad he made that choice. [Mana Layering] was an extremely good skill. There was no way Julius could incorporate so many complex and robust mana layers into his constructs without the skill. He had also learned much about the process via the skill.


    He mentally selected yes, and waited for which options he would have.


    Skill [Mana Layering] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Complex Mana Layering], [Multi-Layer], [Compound Barrier], [Composite Mana], and [Compound Strike].


    Julius was happy to see more options than he had been expecting. The books he had read about [Mana Layering] said that there were many evolutions documented. However, most people only received a couple of choices at most. The author hypothesized that the skill only offered advancements that fit the user well.


    For example, a shield-using warrior would get a skill like [Compound Barrier] or other known variations such as [Multi-Barrier], [Layered Mana Shield], and other defensive-focused abilities. There were also people who had gotten some sort of mana resistance skill out of it.


    Julius had seen firsthand how potent a good mana resistance skill was. Gabriel used his to great effect.


    He did the usual thing and went down the list. First, there was [Complex Mana Layering]. Like normal, it was most likely the general upgrade path and did everything that [Mana Layering] did, just with some extra oomph to it. He definitely didn''t mind that option. After all, the skill was great and he would love to keep many aspects of it.


    With that being said, he felt like he was reaching a plateau of how much he was able to learn from the skill. Before he got the skill, layering mana was not an easy task. It took way too much mental focus and time to prepare and was not always done effectively. However, now that he had been using it so much, he was much more comfortable with those aspects of mana manipulation.


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    If he were to have the same choice of choosing a skill evolution for [Mana Manipulation], then he would not choose [Mana Layering] again, no matter how much he enjoyed the skill. He would most likely decide to choose [Mana Saturation] or [Mana Absorption]. That was because he would like to learn those skills in order to get a better grasp on those specific usages. He was beginning to comprehend that skills were not just great power boosts, but they were great teaching aids as well. Especially the mana-specific ones.


    Even [Mana Slash] had shown Julius many aspects of mana manipulation that he would not have seen if not for the skill. That might be the reason why [Advanced Mana Manipulation] was not the best option.


    The generalized version of the skill was seemingly more of a jack-of-all-trades type of skill. You become proficient in many aspects of mana manipulation, but end up not being great in any of them. At least, not without some sort of specialized training, and mana skills were in his opinion, some of the best training aids you could find.


    He was even thinking about learning all those skills if he was able to clear enough skills slots. He wondered how far his mana manipulation skills would go if he tried to get all the skills he was offered after [Mana Manipulation]. Skills like [Mana Hardening], [Mana Overload], [Mana Weaving], [Mana Absorption], and [Mana Saturation].


    Would they combine into an even more powerful skill, or would they just be great ways to refine his mana control? Okay, enough distraction, back to the skills, he reminded himself.


    The next skill was [Multi-Layer], which was an odd skill in his opinion. Based on what he had read and heard about the skill, it was very versatile. Although many people throughout the years had gotten the skill, the way their version was meant to be used differed drastically.


    There was a blacksmith who had the skill, who was able to use the skill to layer multiple layers of metal over one another easier. Another was a chef who was able to use the skill to layer flavor for their dishes. This didn''t mean that each skill was easily able to do that, only that the functions of the skill varied based on the individual. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    In Julius''s case, he wasn''t expecting anything like that. He thought he was being offered more of a common variation for mana layers, which would allow him to create many layers with much more ease. He had a feeling that it would also extend not only to just mana but also to other sources like aura. It was definitely an option to consider.


    The next skill was [Compound Barrier], which was for sure a defensive option he got because of his usage of mana layers to protect himself. He didn''t really look that much into the skill. He had been more focused on [Composite Mana] when he had done his research but it sounded like a good skill.


    To be honest, he kind of needed a better defensive skill. He had been relying on his constructs and [Kinetic Augmentation] for his defense most of the time, but it was something he was realizing was an area that could use some improvement. Everyone else he had fought so far, had some sort of really hard defensive protection, or some sort of failsafe skill like Aubrey''s teleportation skill. So a skill like this one would serve many purposes. He did have [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] though, so there was that.


    Continuing to go through the list, there was [Composite Mana]. This was one of the skills that he had seen when he had been looking through the evolutions of [Mana Manipulation]. There were a few reasons why he was really interested in a skill like this. For one, it was a skill with strict requirements to get, the person who wrote about had only gotten it after much trial and error. He didn''t say how exactly, but he was very generous with his praise of the skill and how it was able to synergize with some of his other skills.


    Another reason was the fact that composite meant something made up of several elements or parts. This seemed like a perfect skill that would encapsulate the various skills he used to create his constructs as well as the affinities he used as well.


    A part of him was still trying to use the kinetically enhanced flame and believed that [Composite Mana] would enable him to more freely combine two separate affinities. His whole goal for many of his constructs was based on combining many things into a single powerful construct, so the skill was high on his preferred list.


    If he had [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], [Composite Mana], and maybe something else, he believed that they would have a really good chance of working off one another. He didn''t want to discount the other skills so quickly, but this one definitely one of the skills he had been looking out for specifically.


    The other skill came more as a surprise. He was thinking that [Compound Strike] came because of what he had just done with [Mana Slash]. He had overloaded two separate edges of blue mana over one another before he shot out the disc. To be fair, he didn''t know if that even had any effect on the overall power of the technique, but it seemed like it was enough to get him another option to choose from.


    Just going off the name alone, he was assuming that it was a similar skill to [Compound Barrier], but with an offensive specialization instead. He did wonder if one or the other was better, or if they were of similar quality.


    It did sound very nice for a damage skill. But he had a feeling that he did not need another amplifier to his damage capabilities. Even without using some of his more explosive constructs, he was able to fold that pathetic noble the other week like a camping chair. He knew that the man wasn''t exactly the golden standard for a fighter, but he was still Tier 3 and was stronger than most of the population.


    Not to mention, he already had [Mana Slash], which he was now able to use on his constructs. It had taken a lot of mental effort, but he had seen with his own two eyes, that it was possible. It would take more practice until he felt like it was a viable option for combat, but there was potential for sure.


    Furthermore, [Mana Slash] was almost at the point of evolution as well. Who knew what type of options he would get? But he was pretty confident that they would mainly be offensive skills.


    He was still pretty confident that [Composite Mana] was the skill he wanted, but just in case he wanted to see if there was any more research he could do regarding the other options. Taking several hours out of his day wouldn''t hurt him.


    He got back to his feet and was getting ready to leave when someone knocked on the door of the training room.


    I wonder who that could be. Julius asked himself.

 Chapter 96: Covered in Blood

    Gabriel POVGabriel hadn''t seen Julius for a couple of weeks at this point and was a little worried. He did end up talking to the young granddaughter of Count Violet a few days after Julius hadn''t shown up to any classes. Gabriel had seen the two of them talking often in his class. She had let him know that Julius was alright, just busy doing something else and wouldn''t be in class for a little while.


    That wasn''t unusual, many students took time off to make breakthroughs or other advancements. However, two weeks was a long time for a first-year. In that period, Julius had not come to any classes or even their own sparring session. Using his administrative privileges, Gabriel was able to find out that Julius had last used his student identification card to access a training room a couple of weeks ago. Yet, there had been no other activity after that.


    The room was still occupied and had no other records of anyone else entering. So Gabriel knew that Julius was still most likely inside that training room. The problem was that Gabriel didn''t even see the boy come out to eat or sleep. And he was beginning to worry if the young boy was still alive inside of there.


    It wasn''t uncommon to see people go into extended meditation or training sessions, but that was reserved for higher-tiered individuals who were trying to understand a Concept. Julius was still just Tier 1¡­ well actually Tier 2 now. But that still didn''t make much of a difference. The gap between Tier 2 and Tier 1 was the smallest among all the tiers.


    Therefore, Gabriel couldn''t imagine why Julius was taking such a long time. Not to mention, how he was surviving in there. There wasn''t any food, only water inside those rooms.


    That was the reason Gabriel was making his way to the first-year training facility. It was mid-day so some students were already getting in some practice or training in between their classes. But many more students were just hanging around with their friends.


    Gabriel had to be honest, he was a little disappointed in the state of the school in recent years. For the better part of the last decade, there has been a serious decline in the overall standards of the school. When he had attended Goldencrest many years ago, it was during a time when many monster floods were threatening the region. So, it made sense that there was more urgency to learn how to fight.


    Looking at this generation, he did not see that same urgency. There were some admittedly who were doing everything they could do in order to get stronger. But for the most part, most of the students, even among upperclassmen, did not have that drive.


    In his class at Goldencrest, almost every student, regardless if they were a commoner or noble, had someone they knew die from the attacks. That had lit a fire under every last one of them, nobody in his class had taken it easy. Each day had been spent preparing themselves to fight a war against a horde of monsters.


    On one hand, the Empire had never seen such a peaceful era in a hundred years. Which, was a good thing for him and his family. He didn''t want his newborn daughter to grow up in an era of death and war like he did. It was the reason why he and his comrades had fought so desperately.


    On the other hand, this meant that this generation didn''t have that same resolve. They didn''t know what it felt like to see entire villages and towns razed to the ground by swarms of monsters. But he did.


    So it wasn''t fair to blame these children for not training like maniacs. However, that was what drew Gabriel to Julius. There was a look in the boy''s eyes that came out when he fought him. Gabriel had only seen that look from a handful of people, all of whom went on to become some of the strongest people in the world or died alone in a Rift somewhere, forgotten. It was a look of pure desperation and madness. A look of fear that he wouldn''t become strong enough in time to make a difference.


    That was why Gabriel had high hopes for Julius. Even over geniuses like Melody Maxine, Derek Zenith, Liam Abrams, Edgar Crow, and even that first-year, Helen Cromwell.


    They worked hard, he wouldn''t take that away from them. But they were missing something. The spark, or rather the chip on their shoulder''s that made them throw caution to the wind and not relent until they got what they wanted or died trying. But Gabriel was able to see that Julius had it, and Stephen agreed with him if the man''s interest in Julius was any indication.


    The students recognized his staff uniform and it distinguished him as a Senior Professor and gave him space to pass them. For many, they hadn''t had many classes other than their mandatory classes. Not every student chooses to pick an elective. There was only so much time in a day and so much time to train. Not to say that everyone who doesn''t choose an elective uses that free time to train, but some do.


    He arrived at the room where Julius was supposedly still training in. It was a room far away from the others, Gabriel would guess that Julius had chosen this room for that very reason.


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    He thought about not knocking and just using his card to open the door, but he didn''t want to come off as rude so rapped his knuckles over the enchanted stone door. He couldn''t sense or hear anything from the inside and waited for Julius to respond.


    Just when his patience was running thin and was about to open the door on his own, he heard the door unlatch and begin to open. He stood there as a young boy with medium-length hair draped over his manic eyes stared back at him. Julius was covered in blood, both fresh and old. The old blood had dried into brown crusts around his face and arms. But the new blood was still recent enough that it was still flowing down his neck.


    Julius didn''t seem to acknowledge it or if he did, it didn''t bother him.


    "What''s up?" Julius casually asked him as if he was seeing him for breakfast.


    "What''s up? That''s all you have to say?" He asked the boy, taken aback by his casualness.


    "Um, yes. Why? Should I know something or did something happen?"


    Gabriel ran his large hand over his smooth bald head in frustration. "You haven''t been seen in almost two weeks, and that is all you have to say?"


    He watched as Julius winced and looked apologetic before saying, "I''m sorry. I had something I wanted to work on."


    "Something that required two weeks of isolated training? Did you even leave the room? The room''s enchantments certainly believe that you haven''t left that room since you entered," he scolded the boy.


    Gabriel noticed that Julius didn''t refute that. Which must have meant that he hadn''t left, which also meant that he hadn''t been eating properly for two weeks.


    "What have you been eating these past couple of weeks?" He asked him.


    "I packed some snacks and things to eat before I came in here," Julius said unconvincingly. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "And where have you been sleeping?" Gabriel didn''t see any bedding or mats laid out. "On the floor?" Gabriel appreciated hard work, but he also knew how important it was to take care of one''s body during and after training.


    He looked around the room behind Julius and all he saw were some blood stains strewn over the room, a pile of what looked like wood chips, and a disc made out of mana sticking out of a wall that oozed power even as the mana it was made of dissipated slowly. Not a sign of any food or places where someone would sleep. It definitely didn''t look like a training room that had been occupied for two weeks straight.


    Before he turned back to Julius, Gabriel snapped his head back to the disc of mana that was stuck in one of the walls. He almost missed it but quickly realized what had felt off. The disc was stuck in one of the walls. Walls that were made of extremely durable materials and had multiple layers of enchantments placed on them. From what he had seen personally from Julius, there was no way for him to pierce the material and the enchantments necessary to do that.


    What in the hell''s name has he been working on? He asked himself. Now that he was paying attention, the enchantments seemed to be working very hard to repair themselves from whatever damage this young boy had done to them.


    He ignored the weird look that Julius was giving him and walked over to the disc of mana. It was for sure one of Julius''s constructs. There were signs that Gabriel recognized after seeing Julius''s constructs up close. The disc was created by some sort of mana object creation skill and was condensed very tightly with another skill. However, he was able to press his Authority around the disc and tried to see what else there was to it.


    What he saw almost made him laugh out loud. On top of the two skills he initially identified, he was able to detect three other skills that worked in harmony with each other. One was for stability and helped hold the construct together even with the immense amount of mana that was pushed through it with the use of aura. The second one was some sort of version of [Mana Slash] covering the entire edge of the disc.


    The third was harder to decipher. He could see that it was used to create multiple layers of mana but it was also used to enhance the [Mana Slash] skill. He would guess that the skill was [Mana Layering], based on what he had seen previously from Julius, but this application stumped him.


    However, what really got his attention was the presence of something lingering around the disc. He couldn''t believe it but there were remnants of a Concept drifting away as the construct slowly broke apart. From his senses, it felt like something very very close to a complete Sharpness Concept.


    He turned to look at the origin of the construct. The boy was still looking at Gabriel like he was a weirdo. Gabriel didn''t even think Julius understood what he had just done. The disc of mana was already an enormous feat. Using up to five skills within a single construct was practically unheard of for a Tier 2. Gabriel was also pretty sure that Julius had used his concentration skill, so that would technically make it six different skills used for a single strike.


    There shouldn''t be a way for a Tier 2''s brain or soul to handle that type of load. Gabriel had seen many others die or go into a coma from the consequences of something similar. Yet, here Julius stood before him, completely unfazed.


    Well, not completely unfazed. It was most likely the reason for all of the blood. He wouldn''t be surprised to learn that the blood was the result of this disc of mana. He was glad that Julius had a healing skill of his own. If he didn''t, then Gabriel assumed that he would have entered to find the boy''s body face down in a pool of his own blood.


    It must have been some healing skill though, maybe even more than one if he was being honest. The boy felt perfectly healthy to his senses. Were the healing skills the reason why Julius didn''t need to eat? There were some healing skills that Gabriel had come across over the years that did some amazing things. Some healed at an unbelievable rate, while others completely changed the anatomy of the person, to the point where they didn''t even need to eat or sleep anymore.


    He looked over at the bloodied boy with an inquisitive gaze. Gabriel was becoming more and more interested in him the longer he knew Julius. How many more surprises did this young boy have in store?

 Chapter 97: Concepts

    Julius looked at the big bald man who was staring at him with frightening intensity. He knew that he should not have gone missing for two weeks, but it was for a good reason. Still, that didn''t mean he didn''t understand where Gabriel was coming from. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.Julius knew that the big guy was just concerned for him. At least in the beginning anyway. Once he was sure that Julius was okay, he looked over the room and saw the big disc that was still stuck in the wall. Julius saw him do a double take, acting like it was a very big deal.


    These rooms were meant to take a significant amount of damage. Not to the extreme as the training rooms in the main training facility, but still should have been enough to handle most damage. So seeing Julius puncture the defenses must''ve come as a surprise to Gabriel.


    Finally, Gabriel broke his intense stare and silence. "What have you been doing in here?"


    Julius didn''t mind answering. It wasn''t a big secret or anything.


    "I was trying to evolve a couple of my skills so that I can combine them with some of my other skills."


    "You are telling me that you were trying to evolve some of your skills within a couple of weeks?" Gabriel asked a little skeptically.


    Julius just shrugged his shoulders and nodded. He was telling the truth, if Gabriel didn''t want to believe him then it wasn''t his fault.


    "Okay, I have never asked you to tell me your skills. I know that you have several very good rare-ranked skills, but would you be willing to tell me about some of your other skills?" Gabriel asked.


    Now that, Julius found it a little more difficult to answer. That would require him to tell him more of his skills than he had with anyone else. He hadn''t even told the other five about his skills. He told them about what kind of skills he had, but he hadn''t told them the specifics. They hadn''t told him the specifics of their skills either. They all just explained their builds and that had been enough so far.


    "What would you want to know?" Julius asked him.


    "That." Gabriel pointed at the disc protruding from the wall. "I''m guessing you want to create a skill that relates to that construct that is sticking out of the walls and that has damaged the training room."


    Julius had the grace to look a little sheepish. However, he didn''t mind sharing the details about that. He had been thinking that Gabriel had been asking to see his status sheet. But if anything, telling Gabriel about his idea might help him a lot.


    So he explained to Gabriel what he was looking for and even told him some of the skills he was planning to combine.


    "You are trying to make an epic skill already? I thought you were trying to create another rare skill, but epic is a totally different beast," Gabriel said taken aback by Julius''s plan.


    "What? You don''t think it will work?" Julius was curious as to Gabriel''s opinion on the matter.


    "I haven''t heard of [Arcane Construct] before but the idea is solid. The process of creating an epic skill is very different than the previous ranks. It is why people get to Tier 3 before trying to create one. With that being said, you almost have the most difficult part of creating an epic skill already done."


    Julius turned to look directly at Gabriel with a confused look. What most difficult part? Having multiple skills at rare?


    Gabriel gave a big-bellied laugh when he saw the look on his face. "You don''t know do you?"


    "Know what?" Julius asked with a frown.


    "I am not surprised that nobody has told you yet. Epic-ranked skills are typically not acquired until Tier 3, so I''m guessing no one has thought fit to tell you yet." Gabriel laughed again.


    "Why is it so amusing then?" Julius asked a little annoyed.


    Gabriel had stopped laughing long enough for him to explain himself, but he was sporting a massive grin. "Because do you know how many people fail at learning a Concept? Do you know how many people are stuck at Tier 3 or are unable to learn an epic skill because they fail to do so? If they knew you have accidentally come across one, they would try to stab you in the face out of envy."


    "What the hell do you mean?"


    "Look." Gabriel walked over and stood next to the disc that was still in the process of breaking down. "This here is one hell of an impressive construct on its own. But what caught my attention was the hints of a Sharpness Concept emanating from it."


    Gabriel must''ve seen the bewildered look on Julius''s face because he continued. "Okay, so there are a few things a person must do to progress further along the path. Some mistakenly believe that it takes an epic skill to reach Tier 4, but they are misinterpreting something. They don''t need an epic skill but instead, they need to comprehend a Concept. An epic skill is created by a Concept, but some don''t understand that a Concept is necessary to develop one''s Authority."


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    "A Concept?" Julius pressed for more details.


    "A Concept is a phenomenon birthed by natural occurrences in the world. Such as a Fire or Water Concept, or in your case a Sharpness Concept," Gabriel explained.


    Julius had never heard of that before. He had heard mentions of Concepts in the past and in some texts, but he hadn''t understood that they were significant beyond what he had assumed they were. He had thought Concepts were just that, Concepts and ideas, he had no idea that they were tangible requirements for advancement.


    Another thing that caught his attention was how much more clear and concise Gabriel''s explanation was. Before, when Julius had asked him about Authority, Gabriel had made it sound like a totally different language, but now Julius suspected that it was done on purpose.


    "So you are saying that I have touched upon one of these Concepts?" Julius asked.


    "Yeah, though I am surprised that it was sharpness. Most of the time, people''s first Concept is related to their affinities. In your case, I suspected that you would learn fire, kinetic, or life-related Concepts before anything else."


    Honestly, Julius thought the same thing. He would have expected for him to learn the Concept of Fire before anything else. It was his most used affinity for his constructs after all. But then again, he didn''t so much use the properties of fire or heat in his constructs, unless he made them explode. However, now that he knew about it, maybe he should seriously consider doing so.


    "If I were to combine my skills into an epic skill with the Concept of Sharpness, what kind of effect would I get? Would it be better to just wait until I have as many Concepts as I can before I evolve it?" Julius wanted to know the effects of a Concept and if there were any repercussions of combining them with certain Concepts.


    Gabriel was smart enough to know what he was asking for. "As I mentioned before, epic skills work a little differently than rare skills. They require a Concept in order to make that leap forward to the next rank, but that doesn''t mean they aren''t allowed to grow anymore. Yes, if you were to use multiple Concepts for one skill, that skill would be stronger in the beginning, but that doesn''t mean that you can''t add another Concept to a skill once it has evolved to epic. Having a single Concept is just a qualitative requirement."


    If Julius was understanding it correctly then that would mean that he didn''t need to worry about creating the perfect skill with the perfect set of Concepts. It sounded like he would be able to adapt the skills with Concepts he learns later on.


    So if he wanted to add a Fire Concept to his skill later on he could. That meant that he didn''t need to wait until he had all of his Concepts ready to go.


    "You said I almost have a Concept. How do I know when I do learn one?"''


    "Oh you will know, trust me," Gabriel said vaguely.


    "What do you mean I will know?" Julius asked.


    "I''m not saying anything, you are doing great all on your own. And when you finally get a Concept, you will know exactly when," Gabriel told him with a shit-eating grin.


    "Thanks, very helpful you are," Julius sarcastically complimented the bald man. "Any other brilliant suggestions?"


    "Um¡­" Gabriel looked up to the ceiling with a pondering look. Then he turned back to Julius and shrugged his shoulders "I don''t know, eat better and sleep good, I guess."


    "Nothing about creating an epic skill or what skill I should choose for my evolution of [Mana Layering]?" Julius asked him with a deadpan stare.


    "Nope," Gabriel said happily. "You have your own path, I don''t want to influence you or your choices too much. You have been doing fine. More than fine, since you almost have a Concept and you only just became a Tier 2. Sometimes having a unique path that fits you better is more important than having the most optimal path."


    Gabriel walked over and gave Julius a hard pat on his shoulder. "You are going to be just fine." He wiped some of the blood that was still dripping down Julius''s neck and wiped it on his uniform. "More than fine."


    The first thing that Julius ended up doing when he left was head over to the nearest garden. He had been cooped up for two weeks straight and wanted some fresh air. The training room wasn''t exactly the coziest place to stay for an extended period, and he was sure that they were not made with that in mind.


    He sat down on the trunk of a tree and coaxed Drasil out of his core. The small spirit still spent most of his time sleeping in his core, feeding off of Julius''s life mana. However, he did enjoy coming out and being in nature.


    Julius did sense other people in the garden as well. [Spatial Perception] picked up on some students hiding behind the foliage. To his embarrassment, he saw that there were a few couples that were having "fun" away from prying eyes. He made sure to keep his focus away from them and give them some privacy. He felt kind of creepy, observing their private interaction, it wasn''t his fault that his skill was too good.


    He felt Drasil rummaging around in one of his pockets, searching for the life core he loved so much. Julius smiled at the cute spirit and took out the core from his storage ring. Drasil chirped in joy and frantically climbed over Julius''s lap to rush toward the core.


    Drasil jumped on top of the core, hugging it with all four of his limbs. Julius smiled as the adorable green spirit cooed in happiness and rubbed his face all over the core.


    Julius just sat down and watched Drasil play around with the core as he thought about what he wanted to do regarding Concepts. The fact that Gabriel had told him that Concepts were a thing was a revelation that changed how he was going to approach things.


    He was a little upset that he hadn''t known about this even after spending so much time trying to find information about epic skills and higher tiers in the library. He wished he had known about it earlier. But at least he knew about it now. If Gabriel hadn''t come and searched for him, Julius might not have known about Concepts until much later, so he should be grateful for what he got.


    He was confused as to why the others hadn''t talked about Concepts to him. He was pretty certain that they had epic skills of their own. While they didn''t know exactly how close Julius was to creating his own epic skill, he would have thought that they had a good idea that it was the next logical step for him.


    He didn''t think they were purposefully hiding things from him, but it seemed like a big thing not to talk about. He would have to ask them the next time he saw them.

 Chapter 98: Odd Man Out

    Julius technically still had some classes for the day, but he decided to wait until tomorrow to go back. After all, what was a day extra going to do? He had already missed two weeks. The good news was that Gabriel assured him that it wasn''t unusual for students to not attend class for a while because of their focus on their own advancement. Some had to take extended breaks in order to break through a Tier or gain enlightenment on a Concept.With that being said, it was more for older students, but on rare occasions, younger students had to do so as well. Therefore, Julius should not have to worry about anyone causing any problems for him. Gabriel told him that he would talk to the other professors for him just in case.


    Back to the subject of Concepts, Julius thought that Sharpness was a Concept that he would gladly take and use for his skills. But he wondered what would happen if he learned a Fire Concept, a Life Concept, and maybe a Kinetic Concept. What would that mean for his skills?


    Did skills need an appropriate Concept to evolve to epic or did any Concept qualify? It would seem a little weird if you could evolve a fire skill with something like an Ice Concept. Perhaps that was the reason why [Spatial Perception] hadn''t evolved yet, even though it had been at level 19 for a long time.


    It was an interesting idea. If that''s true, what kind of Concept would [Spatial Perception] need? Would it require a Space Concept if that even existed? Or could he use any Concept? He probably should have asked more questions before he left Gabriel. But in his defense, he hadn''t thought of that until now.


    He didn''t want to think about that for now. He had looked in the library about the other options he had been offered earlier. The only two that had him reconsidering [Composite Mana] were [Compound Barrier] and [Compound Strike]. After looking at what little the library had to offer about those skills, Julius was able to at least find out that those two skills were quite highly rated when it came to rare skills. He didn''t know if they were rare+, but then again, he had seen almost nothing regarding rare+ skills in his time in the library.


    The interesting thing about those two skills that tempted Julius was the fact that both skills were regarded as very good amplifiers for either defense or offense. The thing that Julius didn''t really know about was if he were to choose [Composite Mana] would three of his skills synergize or would it take more?


    Most of the time, skill synergies happened in groups of three, but there were definitely cases when that wasn''t required. There were evolved skills that required two like [Savage Dance] and sometimes even four skills.


    Would it be better to choose [Compound Strike] and hope that the skill alone would be enough to combine with [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression]? Or would it be better to choose [Composite Mana] and still plan on combining the evolved version of [Mana Slash]?


    At this point, he wanted to wait and see what he would get from [Mana Slash]. It was practically guaranteed that he would get offered [Mana Strike], but he was also curious what other skills would be offered if they would be better fits for what he had in mind.


    Julius packed up his stuff and headed over to the cafeteria. He was excited to finally eat a real meal and see the others as well. Two weeks was a long time considering that they had only known each other for a short while. He hoped that they weren''t mad or treated him differently because of it.


    Whenever he entered the cafeteria he found himself keeping a close eye on anyone that might cause him problems. There were particular people he always kept an eye on. Liam and his buddies were one of them. But there were also some upperclassmen who Julius caught looking at him a little too intently.


    He didn''t know the exact reasons why they did, but he kept an eye on them just to be safe. If they headed in his direction, he would purposefully make sure to head off in the opposite direction to avoid them.


    Luckily, his first day back was met with no troubles. No Liam or his cronies bothered him and he was able to get himself a plate of food without issues. He saw the others at their regular table and Lily like always was the first to spot him.


    Her waving got the attention of the others and they all turned to look at him approaching the table. He saw Edgar scooch over a smidge, to allow Julius a space to sit next to him. He gratefully took it, placing his tray down on the table before sitting down.


    He noticed that all of their eyes were focused on him intensely. Even Kyle was staring at him like he was trying to burn a hole through his forehead. It was funny in a way. They were so obviously curious but were also trying their best not to come off as too eager and give him some space.


    Lily was pretending to focus on her food, but Julius could sense her reaching out trying to probe him subtly, it wasn''t something he would have been able to manage before, but seeing the way she used her psychic abilities so often had helped on that front.


    Derek wasn''t using any of his aura or mana, but he was still frequently looking up at Julius, waiting for him to explain the situation to them. Edgar was just Edgar. He was the most unbothered out of all of them. He had given a friendly bump to him when Julius sat down and proceeded to finish his meal.


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    It wasn''t to anyone''s surprise that Aubrey was the one who couldn''t hold her tongue.


    "Are we just not going to talk about it?" She asked impatiently.


    "Talk about what?" Julius asked innocently with a smile.


    "Oh don''t you even start you little brat," she stood up and wagged her finger at Julius.


    Julius dramatically clutched his heart and gasped in shock. "After all this time we haven''t seen each other and you treat me like this?"


    He felt Lily give him a mental shock with one of her skills. "Ouch!"


    He looked at Lily in surprise. She almost never did that, only when she was really annoyed with him.


    She glared at Julius from across the table. "I want to know too. I have been plenty patient these last couple of weeks, but now it''s time for you to start talking mister."


    Julius looked over at Edgar who was spectating while chewing his food with a smile. He gave the big softy a pleading look, but Julius was shocked to see Edgar shake his head and look down at his plate, avoiding eye contact. To be fair, he didn''t blame him either, Lily was scary when she was mad.


    Then he turned to the two other males at the table. However, coincidentally both Kyle and Derek had also found the grains of the table awfully interesting. It seems that I will not be getting any help from these guys, Julius thought to himself.


    He would remember this though. If any of them needed assistance from the two girls, Julius wouldn''t lift a finger.


    Once he understood that he wasn''t going to be receiving any assistance and that he had to placate the girls on his own, he put his hands up like he was surrendering.


    "Wait, before you guys get any more angry, I just wanted to say how grateful I am that you guys were so understanding," he said gently, trying to butter them up a little bit.


    "Stop that, we know what you are trying to do," Aubrey said testily.


    Damn it.


    "I''m being serious. Two weeks is a long time and I didn''t even keep in touch so I understand why you guys are upset. But I wanted to let you know that I got a lot done if that has any merit."


    "It depends, are you going to tell us what took you an entire two weeks to do?" Aubrey asked him.


    "I was working on some skills. I have been wanting to get an epic skill for a while now and wanted to take some time to focus on a few skills I think would synergize nicely into one," Julius explained carefully.


    Lily and Aubrey looked at him with frowns.


    "An epic skill? Already? Why are you focusing on that? You should be focusing on slowly making your way to Tier 3 and getting the rest of your skill slots filled out and up to rare. Then level those up," Lily said.


    Do they not know that I have almost all of my skill slots filled up and that most of my skills are already at the high end of rare? I would have sworn that they would have realized that by now. How else would I have been able to keep up with them?


    He was far away from getting to Tier 3 anytime soon if he was being honest. Unless he found another Rift or some sort of life-threatening situation, he didn''t see himself getting to Tier 3 for quite a while.


    Getting to Tier 3 required insights into one''s self, Professor Youma discussed the importance of "enlightenment". Stating that the process would begin when one''s core, body, and soul all merged into one. It was necessary to put pressure on oneself to ignite the advancement.


    He looked at the two of them and scratched his head awkwardly. "Yeah, about that."


    "Wait, how many skills do you have?" This time it was Derek who had interrupted. It appeared that he no longer found any interest in the table and was finally looking at Julius.


    Julius felt Lily put up her isolation barrier before the conversation even started, so he wasn''t worried about other students listening in.


    "I currently have nine, but am hoping once I get it done, that I will have many more open slots."


    "Hold up. You have nine already?" Aubrey asked him.


    "What you guys don''t?" Julius was surprised. He would think that all of them would have most if not their entire skill slot filled up by now.


    Aubrey shook her head emphatically. "Not when we were just entering Tier 2. My parents had me focus on a handful of skills before I ended up getting more. They wanted me to concentrate on a particular style, and then build around that. It was only when I was about to enter Tier 3 that I had to focus on filling out more of my skill slots and get them to rare."


    Huh, that sounds actually very reasonable. Julius thought to himself.


    "The same thing for me as well. My father had me learn [Mana Manipulation], [Object Control], [Meditation], and [Mind Manipulation]. Then he had me only focus on those skills for years before I acquired any other branches of skills," Lily added from the side.


    Julius never did have a traditional upbringing, so it was interesting to hear how the others were brought up.


    "You guys never were curious and got a skill even though your parents told you not to?" He asked them.


    "No, why would you do that? You have only so many skill slots and one of the first things we were made to understand was how important each one was," Aubrey stated. "Wait, did you?" She asked, making a face that one gives to someone who has done something stupid.


    "Eh¡­ Not really. Either way, couldn''t you just remove a skill if you don''t like it?" Julius asked casually.


    Aubrey, Lily, and Derek chuckled upon hearing that. The only ones who weren''t laughing were Edgar and Kyle. The two of them were looking at Julius with weird expressions on their faces. Eventually, the others stopped laughing when they saw that Julius and the others weren''t.


    Aubrey froze and said, "Holy shit, you were being serious." Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius was confused. "Yeah, why wouldn''t I be? Am I missing something?"


    The others all looked at each other and back at Julius. He felt like he was the odd man out and wasn''t understanding the joke. Julius had the inkling that he was missing something important.

 Chapter 99: Try Not to Ravage Your Soul

    Julius wanted someone to explain to him why the others were staring at him like that. All he had mentioned was removing skills from one of the skill slots. He didn''t see why they would be reacting like this."Can someone please explain why you are all looking at me like that?" Julius asked pleadingly.


    Edgar gently placed an arm on Julius''s shoulder. "You really don''t know?"


    "Know what?"


    Edgar looked at Julius seriously. "Removing skills is a very dangerous thing to do. There have been times when someone was removing one of their skills and their soul literally collapsed from the trauma."


    Huh? What are they talking about? I removed a skill before and I was just fine.


    "I''ve removed a skill in the past though and I was fine," he openly confessed.


    Aubrey slapped her forehead in disbelief, then closed her eyes and shook her head. "Of course you did."


    The others had similar reactions. "Why the hell would you take a risk like that? Do you know what could have happened to you?" Lily angrily asked.


    "I''m sorry! I didn''t know at the time. No one explained that part to me," Julius tried to explain to the irate woman.


    Honestly, nobody had told Julius about that part. He thought that Edwin or Lukas would have told him, it seemed awfully important. Edwin had only mentioned that there would be extreme pain, not the debilitating injury like the others were making it out to be.


    "I was told that skill removal was painful not something that dangerous," he told the others.


    "It is painful, but it is also a very stupid thing to do," Aubrey reprimanded him.


    "How many times?" Kyle asked quietly.


    "Sorry?"


    "How many times did you remove a skill?" He repeated.


    "Only once, and it was years ago," Julius answered.


    The others sighed in relief. "Okay, you will be fine but do not remove any of your skills that you have had for a long time or if they are at rare," Kyle calmly explained to him.


    "Okay, I won''t. But why is that?" Julius asked curiously.


    "Skills become an intrinsic part of your soul, and after a while of using them and progressing them, they get tied together so tightly with your soul, that they practically become one. Hence, if you remove one, it is similar to tearing out a piece of your soul," Kyle told him.


    Okay, so no more skill removal. I am very glad that I found that out before I tried to remove a skill that I didn''t like.


    He was very grateful that he had dodged that bullet.


    "Okay, okay, I won''t remove any more skills. I promise," he swore to them.


    He looked around at the others and every one of them was skeptical. It was like they didn''t believe him and thought that he would most definitely try to remove a skill in the future regardless. To be fair, they had a point. Julius had a habit of doing stupid things, and they didn''t even know how bad it sometimes gets.


    "Okay, we got taken off track. We were talking about you trying to acquire an epic skill right?" Aubrey asked.


    Julius nodded his head.


    "Right, so why do you want one so bad?"


    "Isn''t that obvious? I want to get stronger," he said.


    Edgar interrupted. "There are easier ways to get stronger than gaining an epic-rank skill you know."


    "I don''t know about that. I just reached Tier 2 and to be honest I was a little disappointed at the increase in power I got. Sure I can use mana more efficiently and everything got a slight increase, but I am looking for something a little more drastic," Julius explained.


    "How many rare skills do you have currently?" Derek asked from the side.


    Julius turned to him. "I have seven and a half."


    "Seven?" Aubrey exclaimed.


    "Seven and a half?" Derek had a very confused look on his face. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Yeah, what do you mean by half?" Edgar asked him.


    "I have one skill that I haven''t chosen the evolution to yet. So technically it is still an uncommon skill¡­"


    "What kind of- "


    Aubrey cut off Derek just as he was going to ask another question. "Wait, are we just going to ignore that he just said he had seven rare skills already?"


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    "Well what did you expect, he did beat you that time. Wouldn''t you be more angry if he didn''t have at least that?" Edgar asked her.


    She stood up and slapped Edgar hard on the shoulder. "First off, that wasn''t a real match. Second, I still think he has some kind of bloodline, especially after he said he was from House Hyperius."


    Julius looked at her. "You think I have a bloodline?" He genuinely asked her.


    "Yeah, there''s no other way you have that much mana to throw around," Aubrey stubbornly said.


    "Well, just for the record, I don''t have a bloodline."


    "Sure you don''t."


    "I don''t!"


    "Okay."


    "I think I would know if I had a bloodline," he insisted.


    "Yeah, just like you should have known that removing skills from your skill slot was dangerous," she pointed out.


    Julius was silent for a moment. She did have a point on that end. And to be fair, she wasn''t exactly wrong either. Since he was reincarnated, he was pretty confident that he had a larger soul than most people his age. He also was only able to form his core that specific way because he had the mental maturity of an adult. Both would contribute to how much mana he had access to.


    So while it wasn''t a "bloodline", it was definitely an advantage that no one else had. It was technically more unfair than just a bloodline in his opinion. He didn''t bother arguing anymore, he didn''t feel right saying that he didn''t, because while true, didn''t paint the whole picture. Also, he didn''t have any plans to ever share anything about his reincarnation. That was one secret he was fine with taking to the grave with him.


    They never really got back to the topic at hand. There were some questions he had wanted to ask them, but some of their questions turned more personal in nature, so he decided to drop them for now and change the subject. He could always ask tomorrow when they would be more¡­ generous with their answers.


    Aubrey still insisted that he had some sort of bloodline ability that he wasn''t telling them about. Though, even Derek and Kyle admitted that they thought the same thing. Only Edgar really believed him and Lily seemed unsure.


    It wasn''t that they didn''t believe him, they just thought that he had one but didn''t know about it. Which was completely valid and a reasonable justification, he had proven that he wasn''t the most knowledgeable person in the world.


    It was a shame though. Julius had wanted to ask them for any tips they might have for him regarding getting a skill to epic. But he could always wait for another day.


    I am quite a patient person after all. The second he realized what was thinking about he backtracked immediately, stunned by his own misrepresentation. Okay, maybe not patient. But I can still wait for another day, he corrected himself.


    Changing directions, he was thinking about going to his aura class. Even though he hadn''t gone to any other classes, he kind of wanted to go to that particular one. Professor Youma was a great professor and he always had something great to say.


    He thought about it for a few minutes before deciding not to. Eh, I will go tomorrow. Julius promised himself.


    Some of the others had asked if he wanted to come with them to the library, but he said no. For one reason, he didn''t know if he wanted to go to aura class or if he wanted to work on [Mana Slash]. But he also needed to take some time by himself.


    Which was ironic, considering he had been locked up in a training room for the past couple of weeks. So if anything one would expect that he had enough alone time and would want to socialize a bit. But in reality, that time spent in the training room wasn''t proper alone time. His mind was in a complete haze the entire time. He had been so focused on working on his skills that his mind didn''t have the opportunity to decompress and relax.


    He still needed to calm down and get settled. This was why for the moment he was walking down the path down to the beach while holding a dessert that resembled fried bread in his hand. It was very delicious, it was like a powdered donut and churro wrapped in one pastry. He made sure to grab extra at dinner and stored some in his spatial ring for later enjoyment.


    It was dark out so the path was slightly ominous, thankfully he had [Spatial Perception] to sense the way down. However, it was still taking a long time. Julius peeked over the edge he was standing on and estimated that he was only a hundred feet away from the bottom.


    With barely a hint of hesitation and a shrug, he launched himself right over the edge and was hurtling down to the ground. He siphoned as much kinetic energy from his fall as he could, slowing down his descent by a significant amount. He was still falling pretty hard though, so he sent a small burst of kinetic energy at the ground below his feet right as he was about to hit the ground, trying to offset the amount of force he was coming in with.


    It didn''t really work as he was expecting and ended up just blowing himself off of his feet. Most importantly, he made sure to take every care to protect his pastry and wrapped it in many layers of mana. So although he was on his knees and chest sprawled across the sand, he was able to safely retrieve his dessert from where it had fallen out of his hands.


    The layers of mana had done their job and ensured that the pastry was in perfect condition and that no sand got over its crusty and buttery exterior.


    There was another amazing benefit of surrounding the pastry in layers of mana created primarily out of fire mana, it had warmed up the slowly cooling fried treat. It was like the perfect application to reheat fried food. It was kind of like an air fryer from his old world.


    I wonder if there are any fire mages who become chefs? And how much does having fire-related skills help out?


    As Julius was thinking about random little things, he found a little spot right off of the coastline and sat down in the sand. He noticed a small gathering of young people nearby. They had a fire going and were all having fun, he suspected they were all students of Goldencrest. He ignored them and kept to himself, pulling out another piece of tasty fried bread.


    He also tried to create a soft blanket-like construct underneath him. But it didn''t turn out all that great. His usage of the more delicate aspects of mana manipulation could use some work. Although he had gotten much better in the few weeks he had been practicing.


    Before, the blanket would have been just a hard sheet of mana that resembled a plate of steel rather than a soft blanket. Now at least, the blanket was kind of squishy in some places. It felt more similar to a crusty old blanket with a few soft sections, but there was clearly progress on his end.


    He concentrated on smoothing out the wrinkles and hard pieces of the blanket as he enjoyed his treat. He calmly listened to the soft sounds of the water splashing into the shore and receding. It was very relaxing and peaceful.


    So when he felt a group of students approach him from behind he wasn''t very very stoked. There were four of them. Two girls and two guys, all wearing a Goldencrest Academy uniform, and based on their single dash across their shoulders, they were also first-years. Which was slightly surprising, considering that he didn''t think that many first-years knew about this spot.


    He didn''t turn around, he was still holding onto the hope that they were just heading in his direction out of coincidence and not because they wanted to talk to him. However, that hope died very quickly, because they walked up to him and one of the guys opened up his mouth and said. "Hey, I''ve seen you before."

 Chapter 100: Ive Seen You Before

    "Hey, I''ve seen you before." the guy said to Julius.Julius finally turned to look at who these individuals were. The guy who was speaking was actually familiar to him as well. He was the tall guy from his Physical Training class and Professor Hashen''s Swordsmanship elective. He had never talked to the guy before or even heard him speak, so it was quite a surprise that he had approached Julius like this. He had dark hair and was also very handsome, with angular features and a chiseled jawline.


    The other three looked like they were this guy''s friends. The other guy was also tall, but he had more plain features, nothing ugly but nothing outstanding either. Julius was able to see the curiosity on the guy''s face though. It seemed like he too was surprised that his friend had decided to stop and talk to Julius.


    The two other girls both had brown hair and were very pretty in their own right. They didn''t seem to care as much as the other guy did about Tall Guy''s decision to stop and were quietly whispering amongst themselves about something about something.


    He finally looked back at Tall Guy''s eyes and said, "Yeah, I have seen you around as well. So what do you need?"


    If his cold reply offended the guy, then he didn''t show it. "Oh, nothing. I just wanted to say hi. I have seen you around and I never got the chance to talk to you."


    Julius wasn''t going to lie, the guy had a very kind smile and came off as a nice guy. Which made him feel bad for being so cold off the bat, so he decided to tone it back and be a little more nice himself. "Oh, well it''s nice to meet you. I''m Julius by the way." He extended his hand to the tall first-year who took it in stride and gave a nice firm shake.


    "Nice to meet you Julius, my name''s Joshua. I admit I am a little surprised to see another first-year who knows about this spot," he waved his arm around at the beach. "I only know of it because of my older cousin who is a third year. She invited us tonight along with some of her friends. Were you invited by someone else too?"


    "No, some others showed me this spot a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was just very peaceful out here," Julius truthfully told him. "I had no idea about all of that," he waved his hand at the crowd of students off in the distance.


    "Yeah, we found it a little too much for us. That was why we decided to take a walk down the beach and came across you," Joshua said while staring off at the softly crashing waves.


    One of the girls gave him a poke and said, "Hey Josh, stop bothering him. Let''s go before it gets too late."


    Joshua looked over at her and his other friends before looking back at Julius with a chuckle. "Sorry, I guess I was bothering you. Anyway, I will take my leave and let you enjoy your night. It was very nice to meet you though." Then he walked away with him and his other friends.


    Julius watched him leave and went back to watching to rippling waters of the ocean. The moonlight illuminated the crests and shone brilliantly over the dark sky.


    He went back to working on smoothing out the hard rigid sections of his blanket. Slowly, but surely, he was able to create a small area that was very similar to the texture and softness of a real blanket. It took way too long, but he was confident that he would get better with practice.


    The hardest part of doing it was keeping the other parts of the construct soft as he made changes to other sections. If he didn''t maintain focus on what he had made soft, then sometimes he would catch the construct reverting back to its rigid structure.


    While he was doing that, he was also attempting another thing. He wanted to figure out how to use [Empowerment of Will] to boost [Savage Dance]. It was for a specific goal he had in mind. The mindset he was able to achieve was on a completely different level than when he used [Savage Dance] normally.


    Most of the time [Savage Dance] was used as a concentration skill, Julius sometimes forgot that the skill wasn''t originally meant to be used just for that purpose. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was a combination of two skills, [Brutal Strike] and [Combat Trance]. However, it felt like he had been using the skill mainly as an evolved [Combat Trance] skill instead. The part of the skill that gave him hints of where he needed to strike had become instinctually engraved into Julius''s fighting style and didn''t have as much of a purpose anymore. At least that was what he felt, who knew, perhaps the reason it was so ingrained in him that he didn''t notice it.


    However, did that mean that he wasn''t using [Savage Dance] to its full potential? It certainly didn''t feel any weaker than his other rare skills. What if the skill had slowly transitioned from its original parameters and had taken a new direction? He had always thought that skills were more flexible than what others made them out to be, but how far did that extend?


    That was also another reason why he was experimenting with [Empowerment of Will] and [Savage Dance]. He was looking for a way to get into a deep meditative state where understanding Concepts was more natural.


    The only problem was that using the two skills in conjunction only worked for a short period before he felt the drawbacks. It was better than before when he had immediately lost consciousness. At least now, he was even able to use both in conjunction for a short period. But he wanted more, or at least something a little more gentle and longer lasting.


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


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was such a blessing as he tried out his ideas. Even active for only a couple of seconds, his brain and soul felt stretched, and he had to use the skill to heal the damage. At the moment, he was trying to use less aura to enhance [Savage Dance]. He was literally trying to use only a trickle of aura and it was much harder than it seemed.


    It was ironic in a way. He had been frustrated at his inability to use large amounts of mana or aura in a single instant, but now he was getting frustrated at his inability to use fewer amounts at will. It was shockingly hard to keep a low-intensity amount of aura flowing consistently through a skill.


    Right now, when [Empowerment of Will] connected with [Savage Dance] there was a pre-determined valve where aura would flow through. But Julius didn''t want that. That valve used too much aura for his current needs. That mental state he had reached when he created that disc of mana was overkill for what he wanted.


    He just wanted a slight boost to [Savage Dance] that could last for several minutes or even longer. Gabriel had told him how close he was to getting a Sharpness Concept, but he also mentioned how that last step was always the hardest part.


    Julius thought that if he could make this work, then getting a Sharpness Concept and even future Concepts would be far easier. Then again, this was all a guess, so who knew if it would work? For all he knew, this plan would just be a waste of time and give him massive headaches.


    It was actually very similar to what he had been doing with the blanket. He had a hard time with the softer applications of mana and aura. It was clearly something that he needed to work on. On the bright side, using [Empowerment of Will] like this was actually very good training for his aura. The strict control requirements would benefit him immensely in the future.


    He was able to activate [Savage Dance] with [Empowerment of Will] enhancing the skill slightly a couple of times. It was never longer than a few seconds, but he definitely knew it was possible. Those few seconds were exactly what he wanted. During those fleeting moments, his mind expanded gently and everything seemed to just slow down. It was oddly peaceful and relaxing. But then the skill would cut off and he would find himself back to normal.


    He spent several more hours slowly getting better and better. It never lasted more than a few seconds but his consistency in getting to that point was improving. The other students had long ago left and it was just him on the beach, enjoying the crisp ocean breeze.


    Joshua POV


    He and his friends were walking back to campus. It was Friday, so there wasn''t class the next day, but he wanted to get up early and practice some skills he had some ideas about. However, the entire time his mind was distracted by his interaction with Julius. Joshua had seen Julius in a couple of his classes. He didn''t seem all that outstanding at first glance. He would estimate he was right around the middle of the pack when it came to who was the strongest.


    There were a few people who he had noticed among his classmates who were obviously on a different level than the others. The first and most obvious one was Helen Cromweld. She was without a doubt the strongest first-year. He wouldn''t be surprised to learn that she was the strongest even amongst the second-years. She was just that good.


    Below her were people like Joshua. Geniuses in their right, but not quite on her level. First-years like Dexter, Jennifer, Polux, Wendall, and even Christopher were all on that list. He focused on these people more because these were the people he would be competing against in the coming years.


    So why was he still thinking about Julius? It had been a coincidence coming across the fellow first year, but for some reason, Joshua''s gut was telling him that there was something off about the boy. That and the fact that Joshua hadn''t seen Julius in any of his classes for the past couple of weeks had him extremely curious about his fellow student.


    He was actually going to ask him about where he had been before Ashley interrupted, but maybe that was for the best. It was most likely a personal reason, and Julius had no reason to share. But the fact that he had been gone for a while wasn''t lost upon Joshua.


    Julius had been sitting all alone on the shore, looking out at the ocean. Some people like his friends Ashley and Kyla thought that he was just lonely. But Joshua didn''t get that same feeling when he talked to him. It seemed like he was genuinely enjoying himself by the ocean and not only that, but Joshua noticed Julius working on a thin sheet of mana underneath him. It looked like some sort of blanket, but he didn''t really know. What he did know was that the entire time Julius had been working on it, even while talking to him.


    Joshua wasn''t a mage type or anything like that, but he had good enough mana control to understand that what Julius was doing wasn''t normal. It was rough by all standards, but the fact he was practicing it so casually out in the middle of a beach at night was a sign in itself.


    Not to mention how calm Julius had acted. There was a certain mature air around him as if he was completely unfazed by their presence. The fact that he knew about the special spot was curious to Joshua as well. His cousin had firmly told him about how secretive the spot was. Only upperclassmen were supposed to know about it, so when she invited him, she made him and his friends swear to not tell anyone else.


    So how had he known about it? From what he had seen of the other first-year, he didn''t have any other friends among his classmates. He was a bit of a lone wolf, but that wasn''t unusual at a place like Goldencrest. However, he mentioned that someone had shown him the spot. So who could it be?


    He didn''t know why he was spending so much time thinking about it either. It wasn''t like it had any impact on Joshua or his friends if Julius knew about the spot. Still, something was bothering him about Julius. But nothing he had seen should support his suspicions.


    He trusted his intuition though and mentally created a new category of students who weren''t ranked for their strength but who were interesting people. Then he added Julius to this list and made sure to remind himself to keep an eye on him.


    Kyla''s bump shook him out of his thoughts. "What are you thinking about?" Her pretty blue eyes had signs of concern in them.


    He shook his head, "Nothing. Just lost in thought," he reassured her.


    She didn''t quite believe him, but she dropped it. He was glad she did because he didn''t know how to explain how he was feeling. It was an odd feeling but he probably just needed a good night''s sleep to get it off his mind.


    With one last glance toward the direction of the beach, he shook whatever thoughts he had left away and jogged to catch up with the others.

 Chapter 101: A Surprise Opportunity to Get Stronger

    Julius was embarrassed. He had lost track of the day and didn''t know that it was the weekend. So when he showed up to the field where his Physical Training Class was and nobody was there it was a forehead-slapping realization. It took him way longer than it should have and he left with his face completely red.He had to make the walk of shame back to the cafeteria, hoping that nobody had just seen him waiting for class to start in the middle of the field. He did see Edgar and Aubrey at breakfast though. Lily was still probably sleeping and the other''s whereabouts were unknown.


    After breakfast though, he got some interesting news. Declan had messaged him on his communication stone and told him that he had something to give to Julius. He wanted him to come and see him at the guardhouse whenever he was free.


    He had gotten this message as Edgar, Aubrey, and himself were walking toward the training facilities. They had all wanted to throw in some practice before their day got started. He had to apologize and explain what was going on. Luckily they were both understanding and told him to let them know if he wanted to do something later.


    He promised them that he would contact them when he was on his way back. There were still some things he wanted to try with them.


    And so he was on his way back to the city. This time he didn''t stop at any cafes or shops, he headed straight toward the guardhouse. It was surprisingly busy out though. He didn''t know if there was something that was going on this weekend, but it was way more crowded than usual.


    He ended up having to wait behind several large groups to get where he needed to be. Every step seemed to result in him bumping shoulders with another person. He was tempted to just hire a carriage to take him. He had the money and it would probably be much faster at this rate, but he held off. There was no real rush and he could use the fresh air.


    When he finally arrived though, he felt like he had just gone ten rounds with Gabriel. He was not even physically exhausted, he was mentally beaten. He even used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to try and help his exhaustion and was let down that it didn''t help that much. It seemed like the skill didn''t help emotional trauma as much as physical ones.


    On the bright side, he did see someone he hadn''t seen for a while in the common area when he walked through the doors. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Silently, Julius crept forward and got as close as he could before poking the large man in the back. Orus turned around confused and looked around for the person who poked him.


    All he saw was Julius''s big goofy smile staring at him from below. At first, Orus didn''t seem to know what to do, not saying anything but just staring right back at Julius. But he quickly recovered as the realization hit him and threw his arms around Julius, bringing him closer for a long hug.


    Some of the other guards had taken notice and stopped to see the spectacle. They smiled at the interaction, most of them recognized Julius from when he had stayed here. One guy even patted Julius on the back as he was walking by.


    Orus finally let him go but still kept him at arm''s length.


    "Rae and Declan told me some stuff but I want to hear it from you," he told Julius with a big grin.


    Julius and Orus found themselves a table away from most of the noise. There Julius gave a brief overview of his time at Goldencrest. He talked about his first few days and what it was like, as well as how he met the others. He told Orus about his classes and some of his teachers, and how he liked them.


    They were in the middle of their conversation when Declan came in. Julius had let him know when he was getting close to the guardhouse, so he had been expecting Julius. He was still the vice-captain though and had other things to attend to before he could see Julius.


    Declan walked up and ruffled Julius''s hair, before sitting down next to him. "You got here pretty fast," he commented to Julius.


    "You think so? I thought I was slow. By the way, what is up with all the crowds?" Julius had almost forgotten about it until Declan had brought it up.


    "You don''t know?" Declan asked him confusingly.


    "No idea. Should I?" Julius asked.


    Declan shook his head. "No, I just thought that it would be a big deal at the academy," he told Julius.


    Julius looked between the two of them before asking, "So what''s the big deal then?"


    "Princess Reinera is transferring to Goldencrest and many people want to get a chance to see her," Orus said.


    "Yeah, it has been quite a nightmare security-wise. Luckily we are on the outskirts of Heston so we won''t see as much traffic, but some of the other districts are having a hard time containing all the people. I had to send many of our own guards to help out," Declan explained.


    "Why would they care about a princess that much?" Julius didn''t get why so many people were clamoring to see just a glance at this girl. Maybe it was like having Taylor Swift come to your town. He wasn''t sure though, he didn''t know enough about this princess to have a good idea.


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    "Reinera Luminous is the direct daughter of the Emperor and his wife, she has a perfect light affinity, as well as inherited their Bloodline ability. I am shocked that you haven''t heard about this before. It has been news for the past week," Orus said to him.


    Yeah, about that¡­


    He hadn''t told them that he had skipped two weeks of classes to evolve a skill. Actually, he still hadn''t evolved it yet to be fair. But he did make a lot of progress. However, he didn''t think they would see his explanation as an acceptable justification.


    "I have just been busy I guess," he lamely gave an excuse. But he tried to quickly change to subject before they could ask for any more details. "I didn''t know you could transfer in the middle of the school year like that."


    Declan looked at him funny as if he could tell that Julius was hiding something. Not that he would be surprised if he had, Declan was one of the most perceptive people Julius had ever met. "Typically you can''t, but considering she is royalty, there are always exceptions."


    "Why would she transfer though? Isn''t there the Royal Academy in the capital?" Julius asked the two of them.


    Declan shrugged his shoulders. "There is, which is why it is weird. There have been rumors about assassination attempts and other events that were the reason behind this decision. I don''t know what is true or if anything is substantial, but maybe the Emperor thinks that she will be safer since it is so far away from the Capital. Heston is a safe city after all and doesn''t have the political drama like the Capital or other territories."


    It was an odd thing at an odd time, but something that ultimately didn''t affect Julius or his plans. He didn''t really care about some sort of princess or the political repercussions of her decision to come to Goldencrest. Who knows, maybe it wasn''t her decision in the first place.


    It might even be a boon to Julius. The more eyes on her, the less eyes would be on Julius if he did something that attracted too much attention.


    "So what was it that you asked me to come and see you?" He questioned Declan. It was nice to catch up with them, but he didn''t forget that he was here because Declan asked him to come.


    Declan''s eyes widen slightly as if he just remembered why Julius was here in the first place. "Oh yeah, about that. I finally got the whole situation with Lord Lagos all settled. His son is magically imprisoned in Lord Lago''s estate and can''t leave under threat of crippling pain if he ever leaves the boundary. Lord Lagos did his own investigation about the actions of his son and to put it simply, he was not happy at all. Though he was very grateful for your interference no matter what your intentions were and he wanted me to convey that gratitude to you."


    "That''s it? He just wanted you to tell me that he was thankful?" Julius asked with a frown. He was confused, he felt like that was something he could tell Julius over the communication stone and not have him make all of his way here.


    Declan had way too big of a smile on his face. "I know you didn''t want anything or at least couldn''t think of anything you would want from Lord Lagos. But for the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to think of something that you might find useful and I think I finally got something that I believe you will enjoy."


    Something that I would enjoy? Did he ask something from Lord Lagos for me? Julius tried to rack his brain and think of what he could have gotten him. Honestly, he had completely forgotten about the whole Lord Lagos thing already. The spatial ring and the large sum of money were more than enough in his mind.


    He waited for Declan to continue, but the man was looking at Julius with an excited smirk. He probably wanted Julius to ask what it was before he told him. It felt like he just wanted to tease Julius.


    However, he still took the bait. "Okay, I''ll bite. What is it?"


    Julius saw Declan raise his arm and reach into his pocket with an overly dramatic slowness. Then he watched as he removed his hand from the pocket holding what seemed to be a thin rectangular sheet the size of a credit card and presented it to Julius.


    "What''s this?" Julius asked as he took the card from Declan, turning it over in his hands and inspecting it.


    "Oh, this? Nothing too special. Just an access pass to some of the Rifts that Lord Lagos uses to train his retainers," Declan had a smug look on his face.


    An access pass? Does this mean what I think it means?


    Declan must have seen the look on Julius''s face. "Yep, an all-exclusive pass to a generous amount of Rifts." A folded piece of paper appeared in his hands as he took it out of his spatial device. However, it was only then did Julius realized that Declan had only taken the card out of his pocket for the dramatic effect. For something as valuable as the pass sounded, Julius would think that he would keep it within his protected storage.


    Julius shook his head in disbelief at the dramatic actions of Declan. As he was busy doing that, Declan told him what the paper was. "This here is the locations of the Rifts that the pass has access to as well as their general information."


    Julius opened up the paper and saw a map with the locations and details of the Rifts. There were at least a dozen, mostly Tier 2 and 3, but he saw that two of them were Tier 4. He looked up at Declan, "How did you convince Lord Lagos to give you access to these Rifts?"


    Tier 2 or maybe even Tier 3, Julius could understand. But Tier 4 Rifts were much much more valuable. As far as Julius knew, Declan hadn''t told Lord Lagos about Julius''s identity, other than a few necessary details.


    "It was surprisingly easy to explain. Since I am Tier 4 I asked him to throw in some additional Rifts as well, implying that I would be using it too."


    "And he just accepted that?" Julius was skeptical.


    "I told you, he was very grateful and he knows how to repay his debts. It''s why people like to do business with him. He doesn''t care about how much he has to spend, he just wants to make it right. Also, it isn''t like I was asking for materials, so even if the Rift has one less person from his side able to use it, it''s not like it''s a big loss for him. In fact, he might even believe he got a good deal out of it, so it''s a win-win," Declan explained in detail.


    It must be nice being that rich that you can literally throw Tier 4 Rift passes around like they were Halloween candy.


    Julius certainly wasn''t going to complain though. He was actually very excited, this might be the best thing he could have gotten out of the whole situation. He was immensely grateful that Declan had the foresight and understood Julius enough to know what he would want the most¡­ the opportunity to get stronger.

 Chapter 102: Venting

    Julius was holding onto the card with one hand as he made his way back to campus. The card itself was made entirely on some sort of metal alloy and weighed way more than one would expect it to. It reminded Julius of one of those Amex Black cards that were made of metal. It was oddly satisfying holding it in his hands, he could see why people in his old world loved showing them off.Before he left Declan and Orus, he made sure to see Rae since he was there. It was always nice to see her and it certainly didn''t hurt that she liked to send Julius off with a basket full of goodies that she made earlier that day. In fact, while he was playing with the card in one hand, he was snacking on a pastry she made for him in the other.


    Julius also got some good news from Declan. He was assured by him that whenever he decided to use the Rifts he would have all the privacy he wanted. Nobody who was supervising the Rifts would question him and would allow him right through as long as he showed them the card. The retainers at these sites were magically bound as well, so their loyalty was secure.


    He wasn''t going to lie, it was very tempting for him to just head right toward the nearest Rift on the map. He could do with some stretching of his legs.


    It was funny. When he had been stuck inside that Tier 3 Rift, he wanted nothing more than to leave. But now, there wasn''t anything he wanted except to head right into another Rift. Was he crazy for that? Perhaps, but he also reminded himself that he wasn''t even close to being strong enough to take revenge and needed to get stronger.


    The only thing that was preventing him from going into one of the many Rifts was his promise to Declan. Julius had promised Declan that he would wait to enter a Rift with Declan''s oversight. To be fair, Julius hadn''t mentioned the entire troll Rift incident with Declan. He was certain that Declan had some suspicions already, but he hadn''t told him everything.


    That was why Julius had readily agreed to wait for Declan. He also appreciated that Declan took such obvious care of him, he knew that the vice-captain was just looking out for him.


    He wouldn''t have to wait long either. In fact, Declan told him that he would have much more time tomorrow to take Julius to the first Rift. Once the princess had made it to Goldencrest tonight, the crowds would disperse swiftly, or so Declan said.


    Speaking of crowds, there were even more people than before when he had been walking from campus. It was a madhouse, people were clamoring to see a single glimpse of the royal princess. If that wasn''t bad enough, there were countless merchants and other people who were taking advantage of the crowds, selling their products and services.


    Whether they were dolls of the princess, decorative banners, or even food for the people waiting along the roads, it was more lively than Julius had ever seen on a street.


    It got so bad that he decided to take a large detour. Luckily, the towers of Goldencrest were so large that orienting himself to campus wasn''t that hard. He had already made his way far away from his normal route and found that once he left the mass of the crowds the rest of the city was surprisingly empty.


    Probably because most of the people were lining the streets of the other districts but he wasn''t going to complain. It made traveling seem like a breeze in comparison.


    He reached the edge of the city, where the ocean met the walls and cliffs. He followed the path to the school gates, where he saw thousands upon thousands of people shoulder to shoulder with each other waiting around the massive courtyard in front. It was so loud, that the sounds of laughter and talking boomed throughout the courtyard and practically shook the surrounding buildings.


    Fortunately, the school ensured that nobody was allowed within a certain distance of the gates so there was enough space for people who were students, staff, or other members of Goldencrest to enter. Numerous guards were placed all around the campus and Julius could sense an immense amount of mana coming from the ridiculous number of enchantments active.


    He quickly shoved his way through the crowd and squeezed his way through before walking up to the gates. Several guards stopped him. "Halt."


    Julius stopped where he was standing and took out his student identification, passing it over to the guards without them prompting him to do so. One of them walked forward and took it from Julius before placing it on top of a black cube. He heard a distinctive beep and a blue light shine from the top of the cube. The guard then passed the card back to him and stepped to the side, the other guards following suit.


    Once he entered the enchantments of the academy, he was unable to hear any more noise coming from the crowd. It appeared that the campus itself was completely isolated from the sound, much like Lily''s technique.


    He got back in time to see the others. He had messaged Edgar when he was on his way back, letting him and the others know that he would be there in a little bit. Julius was supposed to meet them at the training facility. They hadn''t gone out and Julius had experienced the reason why first hand.


    When he arrived, the others were already inside of a room so he had to make his way through the facility. He did receive some looks from the upperclassmen, but at this point, they already knew he spent time with the others and they didn''t bother him.


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    He knocked on the door and Lily let him in. Edgar and Aubrey were going at it inside. Kyle and Derek were nowhere to be seen. Julius hadn''t seen them at breakfast either, he wondered what they were doing. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius watched Edgar and Aubrey spar, the two of them were good matchups for the other. Unlike Julius, Edgar had a much tougher time determining Aubrey''s position, especially after the changes she made to her skill. So while Edgar was faster and stronger than her, Aubrey''s unpredictability was showing its value.


    Whenever Edgar had her caged in, she was able to escape using her clones and the few times she was caught out, her [Diamond Skin] held up against Edgar''s attacks. However, she wasn''t able to do any damage to Edgar either.


    When she had fought Julius, she hadn''t used her long-range skill that much. It honestly wasn''t that useful when her opponent knew her position, it took too long to use and left her quite vulnerable. However, against Edgar, she used it to great effect, the rainbow-colored beam scorched the defenses of Edgar.


    She didn''t even try to get into a direct conflict with Edgar. She wasn''t Derek, who could go toe to toe with Edgar with his superior speed. This left her always on the run, using hit-and-run tactics, peppering him with damage. Eventually, the main issue made itself known. Her rapidly draining resources.


    Compared to Edgar who had barely used any stamina or mana, Aubrey had been using a lot, by running around and switching places with her clones. However, just when Julius thought Aubrey had all but been tapped out, she was able to launch one final attack.


    When Edgar had closed in, Aubrey didn''t switch out with one of her clones. Instead, she faced Edgar up close, and to her credit, she did an admirable job against a close combat monster like Edgar. Right when he was about to deliver a punishing blow, Aubrey wrapped herself around Edgar and switched.


    However, unlike her usual clones, this one had a trick. It was like a crystal statue, it didn''t look anything like Aubrey and it wasn''t for that purpose anyway. Its purpose was to contain Edgar long enough for Aubrey to unleash her attack. This one wasn''t like the others. Not only was the prism of light much stronger than before, but the clone started to sparkle as well.


    Edgar being the decisive fighter he was, quickly got an idea of what Aubrey was attempting to do and immediately put everything he had into breaking through the crystal surrounding him. With a burst of fire, like a volcano erupting, Edgar blew himself out of the crystal''s grasp. He ended up doing more damage to himself than anything, but it also gave him the space to avoid the massive lance of prismatic light torching where he was just standing.


    In a flash, he appeared right in front of Aubrey. She had no more stamina and no more mana, so she was unable to get out of the way in time. Edgar put his fist into her chest, cracking her [Diamond Skin] and smashing her against the barrier. Decisively ending the fight.


    Julius knew how much Aubrey hated to lose, but she was never a sore loser. She would gripe and moan about losing but she got over it quickly and never held a grudge against the other person. She understood that both of them wanted to win equally as much. It was something that Julius respected about her immensely.


    Edgar went over and helped Aubrey get back to her two feet. Julius could hear Aubrey''s cursing from where he was standing with Lily and smiled as he listened to her vent. Edgar was also smiling, he had known Aubrey even longer than Julius so he knew what to expect. He allowed her to get everything out of her system and for them to take a well-deserved break. Julius saw that she and Edgar both took out the small stone that radiated mana which the two of them often used to hasten their recovery of their mana.


    It was only after they had recovered to a satisfactory level that he started talking with her about the fight itself.


    Honestly, Julius was surprised by how much improvements she had made to her [Prism Stealth] skill and her [Mirage Phantom] skill. He already had his suspicions that her [Mirage Phantom] skill was epic, it was just that good of a skill. But the amount of adaptations and upgrades she made were astounding.


    Just a few weeks ago, Julius would have never guessed that she would be able to make her clone into a crystal statue, giving it real substance and shape. While it didn''t look like a human, for occasions like the one she just used, it proved to be a potent new tool she could use. Not to mention how fast and seamless her switches were becoming.


    Even with [Spatial Perception], Julius found himself having to push his aura and mana senses to the limit to not lose track of her. Previously, just [Spatial Perception] would have been enough.


    She really has improved. Julius thought to himself.


    Edgar thought the same as well. He was by her side praising her and her newfound abilities, telling her how much more difficult it was to fight her compared to before.


    Aubrey just shook her head depreciating, "It''s all because of Julius."


    Edgar gave her a jostle with his arm and said, "No, it was because of your own efforts and drive."


    She smiled at his words but Julius could see that she didn''t believe them. "You know better than that," she said softly. "If I didn''t get my ass kicked by a kid three years my junior, I wouldn''t have pushed myself that hard." Her hands were clenched so tightly that Julius could almost hear her bones cracking. Her face was contorted with frustration and hints of anger.


    Edgar dropped his hands from her shoulder and didn''t say anything following that. He knew why she was pushing herself. Hell, they all knew why.


    Julius watched as Aubrey went over to a nearby bench and sat down with her elbows on her knees and her head down before talking to nobody in particular. "... You know, I have always been considered a genius. My mother and all of my friends told me so for my entire life. And I believed it. Why wouldn''t I? I have a perfect crystal affinity and my own mother is a Tier 6. I may not be as strong in a direct fight as Edgar or Derek, but I have my own unique skill set. It wasn''t until you showed up that things changed," she turned to look at Julius. "There are times when I wish I never met you. The ugly envious part of me thinks that if I never met you, I would have never fought you, and I would have never felt so weak and useless," she said in a whisper.


    An awkward silence followed her venting. Nobody quite knew what to say or do after they heard her.

 Chapter 103: No Holding Back

    Julius didn''t know what to say. He wasn''t a person who was good at comforting others. And at the moment, he didn''t want to say the wrong thing and make things worse. He understood where Aubrey was coming from though. How couldn''t he?Personal strength has a big influence in this world. Power is everything. Julius got annoyed and frustrated every time he lost against someone else. It didn''t matter if they were one or even two tiers above him. He didn''t like losing.


    So for a person like Aubrey who is touted as a genius to lose to a person many years her junior, it must sting. He knew that. He knew that from the second they had their first match together. Yet, he never knew how much it was truly bothering her until now.


    It was dead silence after Aubrey''s words. Julius could only hear the slight humming of the still-active barrier surrounding the room.


    Finally Lily was the one who broke the silence. "You know that''s not fair Aubrey," she said gently.


    Aubrey gave a little self-deprecating chuckle. "I know very well that it isn''t fair." She turned to look at Julius again. "I wasn''t saying that I don''t like you. I do, I can speak for everyone when I say that we all enjoy your company and are glad you are our friend."


    "But¡­?" Julius asked softly.


    "But, you make me feel inferior like what I do isn''t enough," she finished.


    "I''m sorry," Julius apologized. He didn''t know what else he could say. He certainly didn''t mean to make her feel that way.


    She shook her head at him. "Don''t you dare say that. You have nothing to be sorry for. I''m feeling this way because of my own insecurities and need to find a way to get over them myself. It''s not your fault and you should never be sorry for being better than someone else. You worked hard for your strength." She waved her hand at Edgar and Lily. "We all know it."


    "You work just as hard too," Julius said.


    Aubrey laughed, a real laugh this time. "No, I don''t."


    "Yes, you do. Otherwise, you wouldn''t have been able to improve your skills so much in such a short amount of time," Julius reminded her. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She gave a short laugh again. "You don''t think I know what you do every night?"


    "What do you mean?" He feigned ignorance. Though, Julius had a suspicion he knew exactly where she was going with it.


    "Don''t think that I don''t know what you do every night. I spar with you the most out of all of us, so I have a good idea of what you are capable of. And there is no way someone makes that many improvements overnight in their sleep. Every day when we pick up where we left off you are already two steps ahead from the day before. That doesn''t happen unless you train in the meantime," she said while looking at him in the eyes.


    "You train afterward too, I know you do," Julius pointed out.


    "Of course I do!" Aubrey exclaimed. "There is no other way to keep up with you. But no matter how long I stay up and train in the middle of the night, I can barely keep you within sight. I can tell when you are holding back when we fight."


    She paused and sighed defeatedly. "I know how hard you train. Gods know I do, but how am I supposed to keep up with someone who barely sleeps and spends all of their time in a training room," she half-laughed.


    Julius was about to oppose that when she cut him off. "Don''t even try to deny it. I went looking for your roommate the other week and talked to him. He said that he hasn''t even seen you sleep in your bed at night."


    "Why did you go and talk with him?" Julius was shocked to hear that Aubrey went out of her way to look for Henry. Julius hadn''t even talked to the guy other than the first day they met. He had been doing his best to avoid the noble brat since then.


    "I was worried, we all were, and I remembered you said your roommate''s name was Henry. It wasn''t hard to find him after that. There are only so many first-years named Henry after all," she explained. "Tell me I''m wrong. Tell me that you don''t go off to god knows where at night and train. I know Edgar has the same suspicions, he was the first one who mentioned to me how much training you must be doing at night."


    Julius didn''t say anything in response to that for a moment. He looked over at Edgar who was looking right back at him with an awkward expression and shrugged his shoulders at Julius.


    He groaned inwardly. He hadn''t told any of them about his nightly routine because he thought that it would just needlessly worry them and he didn''t think it was a big deal. However, it seemed he was wrong because Aubrey was making it sound like it was.


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    "Where do you go at night?" Aubrey asked him directly.


    "To the training facilities," he admitted.


    She nodded as if she expected that answer. "What about sleep? Do you just sleep on the floor?"


    Julius just shrugged, "You know I have a skill that helps fatigue."


    "Fatigue is different than the need for sleep Julius. You need to take better care of yourself. Otherwise, you might collapse from the stress you are putting yourself under." This time it was Lily who interrupted with a slightly judgemental tone.


    He turned to her. "I don''t know what you want me to say. I have a skill that helps me train for longer and I take advantage of it. Is that so wrong?" He was getting a little annoyed. He knew that they were just concerned for him, but he didn''t need five other parents telling him what he could and could not do. However, he also knew that from their perspective he was several years their junior.


    "Yeah, it is, especially if your health is worse because of it," she argued.


    He looked Lily right in the eyes. "I promise you," he emphasized, "I don''t feel any side effects from it, and ever since I got to Tier 2, it has been even easier." He felt Lily''s mental magic being used on him and he didn''t give any resistance. He wanted her to know he was telling the truth.


    After a few moments, she looked at him determining if he was telling her the truth before nodding her head in acceptance.


    Julius sighed heavily. "Look. I appreciate the concern, but I have been taking care of myself for years. I might not make the best decisions all the time, but I don''t have any plans to ruin my future or health for no reason. I need you guys to trust me that I will look out for myself, okay?"


    He looked at all of them in the eyes, he wanted to let them know how serious he was being with this request. He was going to do his thing, getting stronger and pushing himself and he wasn''t going to waste time sleeping if he didn''t need to. There was too much he needed to do.


    Thankfully, the three of them seemed to understand how serious he was being and accepted it.


    He didn''t know how it had digressed into this. It was originally about Aubrey feeling insecure about her abilities. He didn''t understand how it had flipped to Julius so quickly. On the bright side, at least he had made his boundaries clear. He told them and now it was up to them to respect them.


    He didn''t feel like staying around anymore. The air was a bit awkward now and he thought the best thing would be for them to sleep on it and talk about it again later. He believed it would be fine. If they were friends then they would get over this whole situation and it would be normal the next day.


    No healthy relationship was built upon sunshine and rainbows. There needs to be times when things get a little uncomfortable. There was something his gramps used to say to him. "A true friend isn''t only around when it''s convenient, a true friend stays around even when it isn''t."


    He didn''t really understand it for a long time. To be fair, it was something his gramps had told him when he was twelve but only after some years later did he finally understand what he meant. He had been "friends" with many people, people who Julius thought were real friends.


    But whenever their friendship hit a speed bump, many of his so-called "friends" jumped ship and only a few stayed around. However, the ones that stuck around were the ones that Julius remembered with fondness and truly thought of them as friends.


    As he was leaving he felt something being lobbed through the air at him. He turned around and used his kinetic energy to hold the item in place before it hit him. They were a pair of silver bracelets.


    Really? Right now? He thought to himself incredulously.


    However, Aubrey''s face looked determined. Her eyes were directly following him, the challenge within them was clear. She wanted it. No, maybe she needed it. When Julius thought about it, it wasn''t a bad idea.


    So he clicked them onto his wrists and walked right to the center of the room, more exasperated than anything else. Who knows, this might let off some steam between them. He didn''t have any grudges against her or the others, just a bit annoyed, but that would fade away in a couple of hours. However, this might be a good thing for her.


    Aubrey followed him, activating bracelets of her own. They got into position and Edgar activated the rest of the enchantments. "No holding back either," she reminded him.


    Julius jerked his head up and looked directly at her, a little in disbelief.


    No holding back huh? He gave himself a little chuckle at that. Maybe she''s right. Maybe I shouldn''t hold back.


    He casually removed his bracelets and dropped them onto the ground with a menacing thump. "Okay, no holding back," he told her.


    She held her hands up a little nervously, "Wait, I didn''t mean that we need to take off our devices. I just don''t want you to take it easy on me this time. Win or lose, I just want it to be real."


    Julius waved his hands and assured her. "You can keep yours on." He hadn''t meant for her to interpret his actions as he was challenging her to reciprocate. It was merely that the bracelets limited him. He had [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] unlike her and could risk taking injuries. However, since she wanted him to take her seriously, he would oblige her request. That meant he would have to remove the bracelets since he couldn''t heal with them on, or rather the bracelets didn''t actually let him get injured for his skill to heal.


    "But if you want me to fight you with no holding back, then I can''t be wearing them," Julius told her.


    She eventually nodded her head at him and began preparing herself.


    He took a calming breath and firmed his resolve. He wouldn''t hold back, not right now. She would get everything he had been working on.


    It seemed like she was more insulted that he had taken it easier on her than anything else, so he wouldn''t do that this time. She had his entire attention and if she regretted it, then that was on her.


    He took one long look at her, intensifying [Savage Dance]. To his eyes, Aubrey seemed a little worried, but she still got back into her position and waited for Edgar''s signal to start.

 Chapter 104: Aubrey vs. Julius

    Aubrey POVAubrey wanted to hit herself over the head with a sledgehammer. She didn''t know why she said all those things to Julius. She wasn''t usually like that, but her stupid insecurities got in the way. She was frustrated after her recent loss against Edgar and took it out on Julius. It wasn''t right and certainly wasn''t fair to him.


    It was clear that she had made him both uncomfortable and annoyed with her outburst. She regretted it and wanted to apologize to him immediately, but somehow instead of doing that, all she ended up doing was challenging him to a fight.


    Some apology Aubrey, she mocked herself.


    She even had the audacity to tell him not to hold back. Which by the way, might have not been the smartest move, because after she said that she watched as Julius''s expression completely changed. His eyes went cold and he began tracking her every movement like she was his prey. She knew that he didn''t need to do that, his perception skill was most likely already tracking every twitch she made. But it was still slightly intimidating.


    He had dropped his bracelets with such a stone face and confidence that it had her worried. For a moment, she thought that he was asking her to do so as well. That was a more terrifying thought. For all of her combat experience, she knew very well how unprepared she was for a fight like that. She didn''t think she could go into a fight with such fearlessness. All of her fights and battles have been in strictly controlled environments.


    Even when she fought with no simulated combat device inside of a rift, there were still professors and carefully planned out procedures, ensuring that no student was ever in real harm''s way. In a way, this made many of the students, including her, inexperienced in real combat.


    Even when her mom had taken her out to some local rifts, she had never been in any real danger. It was hard to feel unsafe when your parent was one of the strongest people on the continent.


    Yet, when she saw Julius step into the ring, she was envious. It wasn''t just his prodigious strength as a first-year or even his relationship with Professor Keller that made her feel as such. It was his demeanor. He acted beyond his age, with a maturity that she didn''t see from other younger students. Not to mention that he fought with zero hesitation. It was something that she wished she could do.


    Sure, she could put on a brave face, a habit learned because of her exposure to so many nobles. But inside she was always a little nervous or scared whenever she fought. She never had his type of confidence. She knew it was partly due to a specific type of focus skill, but she had a good concentration type skill as well. [Crystal Thought] was a great skill, one that her mother had when she was at Tier 3 and had proved its worth a thousand times over, but it still wasn''t enough and it didn''t explain how Julius was like that.


    She knew from their very first spar that he was different. He had fought like someone fighting for their life, clawing for every inch. Even with broken limbs and experiencing unimaginable pain, he fought on. Not giving up until the very end.


    She wanted that. She wanted to emulate that. She wouldn''t ever tell him that, but that was why she had pushed herself so hard these past few weeks.


    And yet¡­ it wasn''t enough. She felt him pass her before she could even notice. It wasn''t enough that she stayed up till two o''clock training. She couldn''t even excuse it by saying he was more talented either. His highest affinity was merely high, meaning that her skill progression should have been much faster than his.


    She just had to finally admit to herself that he worked harder for it. She still couldn''t believe that he spent entire nights in a training facility practicing. Also, trying to acquire an epic skill after just entering Tier 2 was an unbelievable goal, and yet, she didn''t doubt that he was almost there.


    It took her years of concentrated training and meditation to learn the Crystal Concept of Prismatic Light. Not to mention she had her mother teaching her every step of the way. Even with an epic skill of her own, she had lost to him. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Two weeks, that was how long he had been in isolated training. Perhaps, that was the reason why she wanted to fight him right now. She wanted to see with her own two eyes how far he had gotten within the past couple of weeks.


    She could barely hear Edgar begin counting down over the sound of her own heartbeat. She was nervous, she freely admitted that to herself. But she quickly reminded herself of her plan. Julius was like Derek in a way, he had both long-range and close combat proficiencies but she needed to get him to fight her up close. That way she could use her defenses and barely superior physical abilities to beat him up. Furthermore, she thought that he was being too arrogant. Sure, she knew he had a good healing skill, but in her opinion, he was just being reckless.


    She distantly heard Edgar beginning the fight and activated [Crystal Thought] and [Diamond Skin], focusing on Julius''s movements. She predicted he would begin the fight by blasting himself backward and getting some distance for him to use his constructs. So when he slowly walked toward her, it took her by surprise.


    There wasn''t any urgency in his steps, he was just walking toward her menacingly with a cold expression. She watched as layers of mana surrounded his limbs and chest. Intricate and beautifully woven layers of hot fire mana wrapped around him, she could feel the heat from where she stood.


    She activated her epic skill [Mirage Phantom], placing several clones all around the field, waiting for her to activate them. It wasn''t like it was with Edgar, Aubrey knew that she wouldn''t be able to fool Julius. So her strategy was to use them as escape options or as distractions.


    He was still walking toward her, no rush or hurry, just calmly approaching her. I don''t know what he is planning but if he wants to be an easy target, then I won''t complain, she thought to herself.


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    She readied a [Piercing Light], a skill she had improved a lot over these last couple of weeks. However, just as she was about to shoot it at him, she remembered that he didn''t have his bracelets on and hesitated. She could actually injure for real him if she attacked. She slightly lowered her arm, not attacking.


    Julius stopped his walking and looked at her with still cold eyes, but now he also had a teasing smile. "Don''t forget you were the one who wanted this," he gave a little pause, "Oh¡­ and don''t worry about hurting me, I don''t think you could even if you wanted to," he taunted her. She knew it was on purpose, but his arrogance still angered her a little bit and that was enough to stop her from hesitating any longer.


    She sent a beam of devastating light at his chest and watched in surprise as it got sheared in half the moment it hit his layers of mana. A light blue glow radiated from the construct before flickering off.


    What the hell was that? Was that what he had been working on? She asked herself. She had no idea what just happened, but it felt like something cut apart her light before it could even hit the construct as if a knife slashed away her attack.


    He had resumed walking toward her and she sent out another beam of light, this time with a lot more power behind it. However, the results were pretty much the same, something reduced her attack to almost nothing and hit his layers of mana with as much force as a slap.


    Realizing that it wasn''t going to work, Aubrey created several clones around Julius and charged at him, switching multiple times as she closed in. If long-range wasn''t going to work, then she would just beat him up like she had originally planned.


    Julius had a couple dozen spikes floating around him. Usually, his spikes were already scary, filled with more mana than any Tier 2 should be casually throwing around, but now they felt downright terrifying. They had the same light blue that his defenses did. He shot them at her and her clones, shooting at least two spikes at every clone, regardless if he knew they weren''t the real her.


    She already knew that he was tracking her, even with her improvements, he knew exactly where she was, and she could see his eyes following her whenever she switched.


    Her clones were destroyed as the spikes released a deadly explosion, dispersing them. She could have hardened them, and tested if they could survive the attack, but it took a lot of mana to do that and she didn''t want to waste it. She knew what he was doing, he was draining her of mana, knowing that her skill used a lot of it.


    She had to switch to a clone further out and dodge out of the way of the spikes. The rest of her clones that were near him were destroyed. Normally, she might have taken the strikes head-on with [Diamond Skin], but she was wary of whatever he had done to his constructs. She felt like they might have a chance of doing some damage.


    They continued that game of cat and mouse for a little bit. She wasn''t able to get close and he wasn''t allowing any of her clones to enter within a certain distance. If they did, he would immediately destroy them. He must be using an extreme amount of mana, so she continued to let him. However, as a couple of minutes went by, she didn''t see him slow down at all.


    Finally, she got a little impatient and made her move. She created a complex swarm of clones almost right on top of Julius. He quickly dealt with the clones, as there were little more than images of light. However, she had sneakily hardened some of them and he hadn''t used enough power in his attacks to destroy them, allowing Aubrey to switch in and get on top of him.


    Now that she was up close she wouldn''t let him free. She summoned another group of clones and surrounded him, constantly switching between them and trying to land an attack of her own. Unfortunately, his defenses were much better than they had been just a couple of weeks ago, and was able to fend her off. She wasn''t able to get in a good hit no matter what she did.


    However, whatever that blue light was didn''t seem to work as well on her skin. She could feel something trying to cut her skin apart, but her defensive skill was too robust. She felt him trying to pummel her with his kinetic energy and he was now focusing on using his constructs as gauntlets of pure destructive force.


    She was taken aback. He was hitting so much harder than he used to. Also, if that wasn''t bad enough, it was annoying how he kept draining her momentum using kinetic energy. Still, it only helped him so much, he might not know but she had also gotten much stronger.


    She pushed herself to the absolute limit, not giving him a second to breathe. Her onslaught was slowly overwhelming him, and then she saw it, an opening. And she didn''t let the chance close, all thoughts of not hurting him had gone away, she was so absorbed in the fight that she forgot that he didn''t have his bracelets on.


    She landed her fist on his chest and felt that her strike shatter his ribcage. But to her shock, it was all just a fake and he had been planning on luring her in and having her overcommit herself. She found herself with no way to protect her chest as he rammed his fist into her sternum with more energy and mana than she had seen him use the entire fight.


    Her chest felt like it had collapsed and she could barely suck in any air to breathe. Her only solace was that she knew that he had taken a much worse hit in return. She had also felt his arm get brutalized as he launched that last attack, it should have been nothing but a wrung-out towel.


    She quickly got back to her feet only to be astonished to see a perfectly healthy Julius standing in front of her. His chest didn''t show a single sign of damage and his arm was covered in a red fire, spirals of flame wrapped around his arm, visibly healing his flesh at an unbelievable rate. Before she could regain her composure Julius delivered a devastating front kick to her face, breaking something in her face and sending her flying into the barrier.


    She was panicking and immediately switched with one of her clones to escape but Julius quickly found her and she was bombarded with over a dozen spikes of compressed mana before she could recover. These spikes were even stronger than the ones from before if that was even possible. She didn''t have a chance.


    The moment they impacted her body the simulated combat device''s protection enchantments swiftly activated, signally the end of the fight. However, the massive explosion still rocked the barrier, shaking the entire room in its aftermath.


    Aubrey laid on her back. The pain in her chest and face was no longer there, but she was still tired from the fight so she was taking time to get her breath back. She looked over at Julius who was walking toward her, looking fresh and perfectly healthy. It didn''t even look like he had just fought, nevertheless, injured while not wearing his bracelets.


    She was still taken aback at the sheer speed he had healed during their fight. His injuries were something even skilled healers would take some time to heal. However, he was somehow able to completely heal himself within a blink, before she had even gotten back up to her feet.


    It was mindboggling. If he could heal himself like that, then he hadn''t been exaggerating when he said that the bracelets were holding him back. Because of the bracelets, he had not been able to use one of his best tools at his disposal.


    Aubrey didn''t know how to feel. A part of her was frustrated at her loss. She had tried her best and still came up short. But another part was glad that she lost. She knew in her heart that at least she had been beaten fair and square.

 Chapter 105: Its All Good

    Julius took a deep breath and let out a small groan. That was a tough one.[Arcane Construct lvl 17 -> lvl 18]


    [Pure Compression lvl 17 -> lvl 18]


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 15 -> lvl 16]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 11 -> lvl 12]


    Four skills leveled up which was nice, but many of them had been on the cusp for a while. He was a bit disappointed that [Mana Slash] hadn''t gotten there yet. He really thought that this new way of using it would give it that extra lift.


    Using [Mana Slash] with his constructs such as his defensive layers of mana was not as easy as using them for his spikes. The only way he found it could work, was if he made himself believe that the constructs were attacking the incoming attack. It appeared that the way he interpreted the construct played a role in how he could use the skill. He had to envision the [Mana Slash] tearing apart whatever was going up against him. In a way, it was more akin to an offensive weapon than a shield or barrier, but either way, it served its purpose well.


    However, that led to another question. How far could he take that interpretation? Could he eventually believe something absurd such as imagining that the air was attacking him and then the skill would be able to activate all around his body, slicing through the air? He didn''t believe so, he believed that there were certain limits to what the skill could extend to, even with a creative mind.


    Then again, using [Mana Slash] with his own body wasn''t a bad idea necessarily. He probably could create an edge of mana around his hand that could cut through something if he tried. But why would he when he could just create a strong construct around his hand and then use [Mana Slash] around that?


    Anyway, the fight wasn''t as easy as onlookers might have perceived it. Julius was really pushing himself as he used his new technique for the first time in a fight. He was certain it would get easier with practice and time, but for now, he was happy with his results. However, he imagined that once he got a skill revolving around this new technique, it would become much simpler and more seamless. Right now, it was a cobbled-together mess and he had to rely on too many steps to achieve it.


    The main thing that helped him use that many skills in conjunction was his use of [Empowerment of Will] with [Savage Dance]. He was only able to use it in small irregular spurts, but that alone had enabled him to have to mental capacity to handle that many steps and skills.


    Although, it was very difficult to do anything other than that when he was using it. He couldn''t really use kinetic energy or other techniques because he was so focused on it. He was really enjoying [Mana Slash] though. It was a skill that was a very nice addition to his repertoire.


    After he had launched that last barrage of explosive spikes at Aubrey, the fight was over. She hadn''t moved from the spot but her eyes were open at least. He walked over to her and sat down next to her.


    To her credit, she had gotten much stronger. Every ability was stronger than the first day he fought her. Even her [Diamond Skin] skill was almost twice as hard to get through. He had to sacrifice his arm to deliver a strong enough payload.


    Not to mention that her switching was so much faster and more fluid. Julius had been unable to touch her as she darted in and started to lay into him. Every time he thought he got her with a punch or kick, she would switch with one of her many clones. It was frustrating, to say the least. If he didn''t have [Spatial Perception] he would find it very difficult to even last a minute.


    She had calmed down at least. He could already tell that she wasn''t as stressed out as before. He wasn''t surprised by her words earlier, it was consistent with what Julius had seen from her so far. She was a stubborn and rash person, but at the core, she was kind and caring. He could tell that she had wanted to apologize to him, but her stubbornness hadn''t allowed her to and she ended up challenging him to a fight instead.


    Julius leaned over to the still-prone figure next to him and injected her with a small dose of life mana, healing her exhaustion and fatigue. He heard her sigh in relief and her breathing was more calm.


    "I''m sorry," she apologized to him out of the blue. "I''m such an idiot. I hope you don''t hate me."


    He laughed lightly, "Hate you? Never."


    "You sure? Because I certainly hate myself right now," she said morosely.


    He looked down at her and gently shook his head before lying down beside her. He looked up at the ceiling. "You know, you weren''t exactly wrong about me not sleeping. I know it was partly a joke, but I don''t sleep. I spend most of my nights training from dusk to dawn. You''ve seen my healing skill, I figured out a while ago that I don''t need sleep like normal people."


    He heard Aubrey''s clothes rustle as she slowly shifted her head to look at Julius, who was still looking up at the ceiling. He imagined she had a disbelieving look on her face. He still didn''t look at her but continued on talking. "I don''t have your or the other''s talents or affinities, so I have to take advantage of what I do have. And that is how much time I can use to train. Look at you, you most likely spent less than half of the amount of time that I did training your skills, but look at your improvements. They were as good or really close to as good as mine were."


    There was a brief pause before Aubrey finally decided to speak. "You don''t sleep at all? Not even a couple of hours?"


    Julius shook his head. "No. Though I admit that I do miss it sometimes. I miss the feeling of relaxation and serenity from sleeping," he confessed to her. And it was true. Just like the pleasures of eating food, he didn''t need to eat anymore either as long as he had life mana. Similarly, there was a certain pleasure in sleeping that he missed.


    "Why don''t you then? Even if it''s just a few times a week?" She asked curiously.


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    "I would be wasting too much time and chances to train. Time I can''t afford to lose," he said solemnly.


    "Why''s that? What''s pushing you to get stronger this fast? I don''t get it."


    Julius sighed softly. "A lot of reasons. Revenge, freedom, the thrill of getting better, you name it. There are many reasons for me to get stronger."


    She didn''t say anything after that. She stopped looking at him and was looking at the ceiling just like he was. Julius knew that she understood, after all, she was very similar, and she wanted to get stronger as well.


    "How did you heal that fast?" She asked suddenly.


    Julius just shrugged his shoulders. "I told you guys that I had a really good healing skill."


    "Yeah, but I don''t think you quite explained how freakishly fast you were able to heal yourself," Aubrey commented.


    "It''s how it''s always been, at least ever since it hit rare. It''s also primarily a self-healing skill, that''s why it''s much more potent. If I wanted to use it for healing other people, I have to manually control my life mana to do so," he explained to her.


    Aubrey just chuckled incredulously. "You make it sound like something like that is easy."


    Julius didn''t say anything in response. It wasn''t easy and she knew it better than anyone else. It was only because he had such a firm grasp on his mana control that he could do something like that.


    They lay there for what seemed like forever. They didn''t say anything else but were just content to be in each other''s presence. To Julius''s amusement, he felt both Lily and Edgar also make their way toward them.


    They didn''t know what to do after the fight ended. Neither said a word as Julius and Aubrey laid down and talked to one another, but now that the two of them hadn''t said anything or done anything for a while, they came walking over.


    Their steps were slightly trepidous and unsure of themselves. It felt like the two of them were slowly approaching a wild animal who at any moment could lash out and attack them.


    Julius cranked his head to look at them and smiled, gesturing for them to come on over. That seemed to alleviate their concerns and they no longer were so hesitant to approach them. They didn''t say anything, but they also laid down next to Julius and Aubrey.


    He felt Aubrey shift, she must have noticed their presence finally and said, "I''m fine now. We''re good."


    Lily turned to her side to look at her friend. "You sure?" She asked with concern.


    Aubrey nodded her head. "Honestly, just more embarrassed than anything else."


    The four of them stayed like that for a while longer. Julius even passed around some snacks and drinks he had lying around in his storage ring. Honestly, he was really enjoying this spatial device. He was sure that he wasn''t even using it for how it was probably intended. Storage devices were highly sought after because of their ability for people to hold onto their valuables and large items on their person and not in some warehouse.


    However, Julius found himself using his spatial ring kind of like a vending machine. He was finding the most use out of it for holding his snacks and other tasty foods. Additionally, because of its properties, the storage devices kept food in a nearly perfect and identical state to the one they were in when they were initially put in it. This meant that bread didn''t get stale and food didn''t spoil. By all accounts, it was a perfect food storage.


    Soon the whole incident was forgotten like it had never happened. Aubrey and Lily were both enjoying a sweet pie-like pastry along with some tea Julius had stored. Edgar on the other hand was enjoying some thin shoelace potato strings that were deep-fried. They were very similar to french fries and Julius had seen Edgar getting them very often for his meals, which was why he had some stored away. You never knew when having someone''s favorite food would come in handy.


    They all sat down together and were enjoying their snacks and drinks. All of them quickly forgot about the day''s earlier events.


    However, Julius had something he wanted to ask them about. "So what is this whole thing regarding Princess¡­ " His question tailed off. He actually forgot the name of the princess.


    Luckily, Lily knew what he was asking about. "The Imperial Princess Reinera-," she stressed. "-is a delicate situation. According to my father, many groups believe that she is a threat to the tentative balance that is being maintained in the Empire. Which is the reason why she was sent all the way to Heston."


    "Why would a young girl threaten the balance?" Julius asked curiously. He could understand if she was a Tier 6, but she was just a young girl around his age.


    Lily shook her head, "It''s exactly because of her age that presents such an issue. The Royal Family had been hiding the Imperial Princess''s affinity and Bloodline for a while now. Yet, somehow or someone leaked the information to the other noble circles causing a ruckus."


    "Is her affinity and Bloodline that important? I know perfect affinities are rare but there are probably many at Goldencrest alone. As for Bloodlines, I admit I don''t know practically anything about them but they can''t be that rare, I know that many houses have members with Bloodlines," Julius commented.


    "You''re right," Lily said. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    See, I''m not that uninformed, Julius proudly complimented himself.


    "But-"


    Oh, never mind. He sadly uncomplimented himself.


    "-the fact that it is a Royal Family member is what makes it difficult. The light affinity and Luminous Bloodline are distinct markers of the Empire. The Royal Family will want the princess to sire as many lines as she can, hoping that she will have many talented children. This means that an arranged marriage is completely expected in the future and whoever marries within the Royal Family will gain significant influence."


    "So what? Her family is just going to sell her like some broodmare?"


    "A what?" Lily asked confused.


    "A broodmare is a female horse that is sold for specifically breeding purposes," Edgar helpfully added from the side. Edgar himself knew what that was because he had grown up on a farm with many horses.


    "Oh," Lily seemed to understand now. "Yes, but you shouldn''t call the Imperial Princess such a vulgar thing. You could get in real trouble if someone else were to hear you," she scolded Julius.


    "Got it, I won''t compare the princess to a horse. So what''s the big deal then? She gets married and then has some kids. Why is everyone freaking out?"


    "At the moment, there are only a few Houses that she might be married to, and the other Houses don''t exactly like that and want her dead," Lily explained to him.


    "So the rumors that she was almost killed are true?"


    "Yeah, there have been multiple attempts on her life in the past year. Unlike other many academies, Goldencrest and Heston do an admirable job of keeping politics out of the school and the region. Perhaps that is the reason why she is being sent here. I can''t really say though, I fully expect that there will be other attempts during the year. So it would be best to keep on guard, otherwise, you might find yourself stuck in the crossfire," Lily advised him.


    Julius took a moment to absorb all of that information. He spent several seconds praying to whatever god or whatever entity that had sent him to this world to leave him out of this drama. He had his own things to worry about and adding cliche princess politics to his life was not on his list of desirable things.

 Chapter 106: Heading off to a Rift

    The next morning came with a lot of excitement for Julius. He was supposed to meet Declan right outside of town where one of the rifts was. Declan had specifically chosen this rift for Julius. It was only Tier 2, which was slightly disappointing to Julius, he had tried to argue with Declan that he could handle more. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.However, Declan didn''t budge and insisted that Julius take it easy at first and that there wasn''t any rush. Julius eventually agreed, he had to remind himself that Declan knew more than him and had to remind himself that as long as he proved that he could handle himself, he would be allowed more leeway.


    The rift itself was quite simple. It was a generic goblin one where one had to survive a small horde of them alongside their chief. It was actually very similar to the one he had done with the trolls, except it wasn''t as dangerous and the goblins didn''t have any ridiculous regeneration skills.


    This particular rift''s main value was that it was a relatively straightforward rift with many monsters with cores. Goblins didn''t have any extraordinary abilities or intelligence, which made them usually a C-rating or lower on the difficulty side of things.


    The rift was used as a place for Lord Lagos and the others with rights to the rift to send in their less experienced fighters. It was good practice and there were enough Tier 2s in the rift to make the effort worthwhile. While Tier 2 cores were not very valuable by themselves, when you add hundreds of them it can be quite profitable, especially for alchemists or other crafting professions. It was also important to note that many of the goblin cores had no affinity which made them great for almost every general usage.


    Thankfully, the streets today weren''t that busy. They were actually quite empty, even compared to normal standards. If he hadn''t seen the massive crowds of people the day before, he would have never believed that there were thousands of people waiting outside of the school''s gates.


    The thing that most impressed him though was how clean the streets were. He had seen the states of places after festivals in his old world. There was always trash and other random items that got left behind after the wave of people left. However, this wasn''t the case for Heston.


    It shocked Julius how spotless the paved stones were. Even the alleys were squeaky clean. If he was being honest, it was more clean after the parade than it was before. He thought he could lick the street with his own tongue and it would still be cleaner than the table at a random restaurant. The roads were literally sparkling as he walked down the street.


    The rift was located on the other side of the city from where Julius had first entered. It was actually closer than the guardhouse was to Goldencrest. This meant Julius got there with plenty of time to spare.


    When he had exited the city gates the guards on duty had given him a weird look. Perhaps they were wondering why a boy like him was leaving the city so early in the morning. He wasn''t wearing his uniform. He had changed into a regular pair of black pants and a black shirt. He was also wearing a scarf that was covering his face. It didn''t look that out of place either, some might have assumed that covering one''s face was suspicious but that was not the case in Heston.


    The morning air by the ocean meant that it was always quite chilly in the early hours of the day. Many people chose to wear some sort of face covering when they went out at this time, so seeing someone wearing a scarf like him didn''t warrant any extra attention. They were most likely more curious about where he was going.


    The reason why he was taking the time to hide his features was that he didn''t want anyone to know that he was a student and would rather that his face remain mostly unseen. He didn''t know if it really mattered if he took these kinds of precautions. But he thought that it wouldn''t hurt if he did.


    He remembered that Declan had told him that Lord Lagos promised that he and his retainers would keep a tight lip about their comings and goings, but Julius didn''t know the man at all. For all he knew, the man was lying.


    It did come across Julius''s mind that Lord Lagos was lying about the whole thing and was trying to get rid of Julius quietly. However, Declan assured him that the man had signed a pretty restrictive contract. Also, Declan had personally used his aura skills on Lord Lagos and promised Julius that it was safe.


    That was the only reason why Julius felt comfortable enough to come all the way out here alone. Declan had wanted Julius to wait for him to arrive so that the two of them could head off together, but Julius decided otherwise.


    Declan obviously didn''t like that, but Julius wanted to check out the area by himself beforehand. He didn''t think anything would happen to him, but he still made sure to activate [Spatial Perception] to cover his surroundings.


    It was worth mentioning that he had tried to use [Empowerment of Will] on [Spatial Perception] in the past. He had hoped that the skill would see an increase in potency if he were to empower it, but unfortunately, it hadn''t worked. He didn''t know what made it different than his other skills that he was able to use [Empowerment of Will] with, but he wanted to find out.


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    For the moment, he was stuck with his usual skill. Which was more than enough to make Julius feel more secure. The distance he could reach out already was too wide as is and he didn''t even see how [Empowerment of Will] would affect the perception skill beyond how far and how detailed he could sense.


    Perhaps that was a reason why his aura skill didn''t work on [Spatial Perception], he might need to do some brainstorming later and test some of them out. He made a mental note to test out different ideas after he was done with the rift.


    He had almost arrived at the location the map had described. It was still well within walking distance of Heston and unlike the route he had taken entering the city for the first time a month ago, there were many buildings and infrastructure around.


    While it wasn''t technically within the city, Julius could see plenty of establishments along the well-kept path. It was a little town on its own. There were a lot of places for travelers on the main road. He spotted a shop where you could buy general traveling supplies and goods. It was a quaint little store with a number of people shopping in there even though it was early.


    There was also a place where you could purchase a ride that would take you either into the city or to a place outside the city. The closer he looked the more he noticed that this place was more homey compared to Heston. Julius was surprised by how many people he could feel living in homes off in the distance. The roads weren''t as clean or as shiny, but it felt more real in a way if that made any sense.


    He predicted that many people who chose to live out here could not afford to live within the city or would rather have a place outside the city for cheaper.


    It was funny. When he first arrived at Heston, he had naively thought that the city was a good representation of the rest of the world. It was only after he had spent some time there and learned about other people''s experiences and where they came from did he rethink his initial assumptions. If he had to compare Heston to somewhere from his old world, he would compare it to a city like Geneva.


    Most of its citizens were wealthy and better off than the general populace. The seemingly neutral political landscape was another similarity. It certainly wasn''t a good thing to compare the rest of the world too. He wondered how bad some of the other cities might be and how lucky he was to find one like Heston.


    If the rest of the world was like chaotic cities such as Chicago or Paris, he could see why the Emperor decided to send his daughter to Heston. The city was shaping up to be a bipartisan territory of some sort and perhaps he thought that would prevent most of the other parties from taking action if she attended school at Goldencrest.


    Julius hoped that was true, he would rather not have to deal with royal assassination attempts all year long. That would be a miserable way to spend his year.


    The map took him to a small field just outside the small little town. It reminded him of a cemetery and there were two large pillars standing in front of a metal gate. He almost missed it, he didn''t know how he did, but it took him three times of walking back and forth to see it.


    He couldn''t detect anything, but he speculated that there were some sort of enchantments that made it more difficult to find. If he didn''t have the map and was actively searching for it, he most likely would have walked right by it, none the wiser.


    In front of the gate were two men sitting in chairs. One was an older man reading a book while drinking something hot out of a mug, while the other one was younger and whittling away at a piece of wood with a very nice-looking knife.


    Julius didn''t approach them yet, he would wait for Declan to arrive first. For now, he wanted to explore some of the other parts of the town now that he had found where he was supposed to go.


    He stayed by the main road where he had walked through, but he also headed into some of the shops while he waited for Declan. He ended up getting himself a "couple" spare changes of clothes and shoes just in case. He had the money now, more than enough to pay for anything he would really want.


    He remembered the days when he was stuck in the troll rift with nothing but disgusting gunked-up pants and no shirt. He didn''t want to ever have to deal with something like that again. That was a totally different type of pain.


    I would have gladly traded a limb for a clean pair of clothes while I was in there.


    He wasn''t joking either. To him, losing a hand was not a significant thing to him anymore. But having clean clothes was now a higher priority. The others might think he was crazy for thinking that, but they also haven''t been subjected to something that awful.


    He bought much more than he needed and he was sure that the lady who owned the store thought he was a weirdo for buying so many of the same clothes. He also threw in a plain-looking black face covering she had on a random shelf as well. It was a soft and velvety bandana type of cloth that covered two-thirds of his face, only leaving the eyes open. He didn''t think it would be a bad thing to hide his face when he approached the guards at the rift.


    It had nothing to do with the fact that he thought it looked cool or that it was the most comfortable thing he had put on his face ever.


    Okay, maybe a little bit, Julius admitted to himself.


    He could sense some enchantments placed onto the item itself. He didn''t know what they did, but it felt like someone was permanently placing a hot towel over his face after a bath. It was luxurious and almost cost as much as all of the clothes.


    He also got a few other items from various stores. He got a really cool item that expanded into a miniature shower. There wasn''t a tub or anything and it was just a tall rod that shot out water, but it was just what Julius was looking for. If he was ever stuck alone in the wilderness, having a shower on hand would be a lifesaver.


    He also got a complete cooking kit with a stove that he fit inside of his storage ring. He was sure he paid too much money for all of it, but then again. He was rich.


    Haha! The pleasures of being wealthy. I''m starting to see why nobles flaunt their money around so often, it is addicting. Also, the feeling of being able to buy anything is strangely liberating. Julius thought to himself.


    He had a brilliant smile on his face as he explored the little town and went around on a spending spree.

 Chapter 107: I Told You It Was Comfortable

    Declan eventually arrived. It took him longer than Julius expected, but to be fair, Julius had gotten there much earlier than planned. Declan had told him that he had to take care of a couple of things before making his way over, but Julius wanted to see the area beforehand.Julius was at a small cafe having a delicious breakfast sandwich and latte when he sensed Declan with [Spatial Perception]. He had chosen the nearest cafe to the main street that he knew Declan would arrive from. He was also very lucky that the cafe was a place that sold tasty food.


    He sent a small probe of aura in Declan''s direction. It wasn''t that big or noticeable, but he knew it was enough to catch the man''s attention. Declan''s aura abilities were very good and as expected caught onto Julius''s probe with ease.


    The vice-captain immediately turned and headed right toward Julius''s direction, spotting him right away. When he walked up to Julius''s table he pulled a chair out and sat next to him. Declan noticed there was a latte and muffin on a plate in front of him and looked at Julius with questioning eyes.


    "Yeah, I got you a latte and a muffin just in case you wanted something before we go," he told Declan. Julius wasn''t inconsiderate, he had gotten something for Declan as well. He had a feeling that Declan would show up soon and had been prepared for his arrival. It was the least he could do for the man since he was coming all the way out here and cleared his very busy schedule to help Julius.


    Declan reached over for the mug, attempting to pick it up, but Julius stopped him before he could. With a quick application of fire mana, Julius warmed the latte and muffin up. The previously lukewarm beverage now had steam emitting from its surface.


    Declan observed as Julius did that little work of mana. He tentatively picked up his mug and gave it a soft sip, testing the temperature of the drink. Declan let out a satisfied sigh and raised his eyebrows in the realization of what Julius had just done.


    Truthfully, it was gratifying to see that Declan had appreciated the gesture as well as the deeper implication of the mana control it required. Declan was skilled enough to understand that what Julius had accomplished was more difficult than he had made it seem.


    Most people wouldn''t think twice upon seeing what Julius had done. They would more than likely believe it to be a simple feat of magic. However, they would be wrong. Heating up a liquid wasn''t that difficult on its own. However, regulating the amount of fire mana and heat to be the perfect drinking temperature was not easy.


    It required a delicate touch and strict control over one''s mana. Not enough heat and the drink wouldn''t get hot enough. Too much heat and the drink would become a scalding mess that would be too hot, even for a Tier 4 like Declan to drink comfortably.


    Just because Tier 4s had more robust bodies didn''t mean that they couldn''t perceive temperature like regular people. It didn''t damage them like it would a Tier 1, but it still didn''t feel good for something really hot to touch their delicate tongues. Declan knew of this and tilted his head in recognition of Julius''s efforts. Julius just smiled at the man, mentally patting himself on the back on a job well done.


    As the two of them were finishing up their drinks and food, they talked about the rift and how Declan believed Julius''s strategy should be.


    "It says the rift is a forest-related environment, this could pose several issues with other people, but I think it fits you well. Your perception skill should be able to pick up any lifeform in the vicinity, so the trees and foliage should not be a big issue unlike for other parties. Unless there is some sort of stealth variant you won''t have to worry much about ambushes. Still, keep an eye out just in case. You never know what can happen in a rift. Most people die not from a powerful enemy, but because they were caught off guard." Declan took the time to remind Julius of the rift''s details and ensure that he wasn''t going in with too much confidence.


    Julius promised that he wouldn''t take any unnecessary risks while he was there. This wasn''t the troll rift and he wasn''t going to make so many reckless choices this time. This rift was about showing Declan that Julius could be trusted with delving alone. After all, Declan couldn''t always be with Julius.


    As much as the man wanted to watch Julius like a hawk, he realized that he needed to trust Julius to take care of himself. That wasn''t to say that he couldn''t prepare him the best that he could before then.


    Declan understood that Julius was much stronger than his Tier 2 status would indicate. He also knew that Julius had a really good healing skill. These were the main reasons why he had even considered getting the rift pass for Julius.


    After they left the cafe and were about to get to the rift location, Julius took out the black mask he had just bought. His actions grabbed the attention of Declan who was walking next to him.


    "What is that?" Declan stopped and watched as Julius put on the face covering.


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    "Hmm?" Julius asked as he shifted the mask around his face so that it sat comfortably on his face, just over the bridge of his nose, leaving only his eyes exposed.


    "Why are you wearing something so ridiculous? You look like you are about to rob someone," Declan said in an exasperated tone.


    Julius gave himself a quick lookover and couldn''t blame Declan for saying that. He was already wearing all black and the black mask made it even more over the top. He indeed looked like a robber.


    "If you are trying to be inconspicuous then you are failing miserably," Declan told him.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders at Declan. "I''m not going for inconspicuous. I am going for nobody to see my face. I don''t care if I look weird while doing it," he told Declan.


    Declan just stared at him with a face of disbelief.


    "Plus, this thing is really comfortable. Like seriously comfortable. Here try it." Julius took it off and handed it over to Declan, urging him to try it on for himself. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Declan just held the thing in his hands and looked at Julius with a deadpan stare.


    "Go on, try it. I promise you will understand when you put it on," Julius promised.


    Declan released a big sigh and defeatedly put on the mask. Julius watched as Declan let out a sound of surprise.


    "See? I told you it was comfortable," Julius said to Declan.


    Declan took off the mask and held it between his hands, using his senses to get a closer look at the piece of black cloth. "This thing is a high-quality item," he said in admiration. "Each woven fiber has multiple layers of enchantments. All perfectly in harmony with each other. Whoever made this is a true craftsman. Where did you get this?"


    "From a store in the little town while I was waiting for you. Is it that impressive?" Julius knew it was a nice item but based on Declan''s reaction he was starting to think even he misunderstood its value.


    "Yes, whoever made this is a masterful crafter. After this rift I want you to show me the store where you bought this. Perhaps I can make a deal with the crafter and see if he wants to make some items for the guards or for my son, he could learn many things from just examining this man''s work," Declan said excitedly.


    That seemed like a big deal to Julius. He would think that the City Guards would have their pick from the best craftsmen to choose from. If Declan was this excited about a random crafter then he must have been really impressed by the mask.


    "So I can still wear it?" Julius asked tentatively.


    "Of course. It would be a shame for something of that quality not to be used." Declan''s whole demeanor did a one-eighty. Julius suspected that Declan would actually yell at him for not wearing the mask now.


    Julius took the mask back from Declan and put it back on, savoring the luxurious feeling. It was really a good mask. He didn''t know enough about crafting and enchantments, but he could appreciate how comfortable it was.


    The two of them approached the guards who were still sitting down. Julius saw that the older man was still reading his book and the younger one was still whittling away with his knife.


    It was only when they got close enough that the two guards stopped what they were doing and looked at them.


    "I''m sorry, but this is private property. I am going to have to ask you to leave," the older man said as he put down his book and stood up.


    Julius allowed Declan to take the lead. Declan immediately took out the rift access card from his storage device and presented it to the guard. Julius watched as the guard''s defensive attitude dropped as soon as he saw the card. He looked back at the younger guard who had also stood up in the middle of taking his sword out and nodded at him.


    The younger man relaxed but kept a hand on his sword anyway. The older man approached the two of them. Julius could barely detect any aura coming from either of them, but the little he could sense reminded Julius of Edgar and the others. He couldn''t say for sure, but he suspected that these guards were either strong Tier 2s or Tier 3s.


    The older guard took the card from Declan and heavily inspected it, using a device he took out to scan the card and handed it back promptly.


    "Apologies sirs," he bowed at Declan and Julius. "I didn''t see anything on schedule. But please come this way."


    The older man escorted the two of them inside the boundary. The second they stepped through Julius could feel the many enchantments that were set up wash over him. The previously empty cemetery-looking field now had a large stone building standing in the middle of it.


    When they entered the doors Julius saw several other guards who were inside sitting around all turn and looked at him and Declan with curious gazes. Behind them was a large open room with massive ceilings and pillars surrounding it. In the middle sat a softly pulsing blue portal, much like the troll rift.


    The older guard turned to explain to the two of them, "You are free to enter whenever you want to. Typically, the fee is ten to forty percent of all retrieved cores and materials depending on your access privilege. However, you will not have to pay any of the fees. All of them have already been covered by Lord Lagos. However, the only requirement is that you don''t permanently close the rift and leave within a reasonable time. Is that understood?"


    Declan and Julius both nodded at the man.


    "Of course, we shouldn''t be that long. But thank you for your help Mr¡­?" Declan asked.


    "Martin, sir," the guard responded


    "Thank you, Martin." Declan smiled at the man.


    Martin nodded his head and left the two of them, walking back to the gate. Declan looked at Julius and nodded his head at the rift, indicating that he would follow him. Julius slowly made his way over to the blue light and felt a little weird.


    It was a weird mixture of anxiousness and excitement. While it wasn''t anything like the troll rift, he was a little excited to finally get to delve into a rift again. He looked back at Declan who gave him an encouraging nod and took a deep breath before reaching out to the portal. The moment he touched it, he got a notification.


    Notice: Would you like to enter the rift?

 Chapter 108: Quick and Efficient

    Notice: Would you like to enter the rift?Julius was a little surprised at the notification. In his previous rift experience he didn''t have a choice, the troll rift had sucked him in like it was a Dyson vacuum and he was some sad cookie crumb on the floor. So now it felt weird that he could choose to enter it or not.


    He was obviously going to say yes, but the opportunity to choose was more satisfying than he expected it to be. It kind of made him happy in a way, having the power to choose whether or not to enter.


    He looked over at Declan who was also touching the rift and waiting for Julius''s decision. Declan gave him a reassuring nod and smile. Julius let out the breath he was holding and mentally selected yes.


    The moment he made that decision, he felt his entire body get wrapped up in whatever energy the portal was made of and was transported to an open grass field. It was a little disorienting, but he soon got a grip on himself. Declan soon appeared right next to him and gave Julius a hearty pat on the shoulder, as if congratulating him.


    The grass field wasn''t large, it was only a few dozen feet from one side to the other. At the end of the open space was a large tangle of trees and forestry. It was just like the information had said. If he was being honest, it was quite beautiful. Colorful flora and lush greenery were everywhere.


    If Julius didn''t know that he was in a rift, he would have thought that this was a nice peaceful forest. He could hear the soft rustle of the leaves and branches of the trees as the wind grazed them and he could distantly hear the subtle sounds of a stream of water nearby.


    However, he knew that it was just a facade. This rift was supposedly filled to the brim with goblins who lived in the forest itching to rip you apart and eat your flesh. Julius immediately sent out a wide-casting pulse with [Spatial Perception] but didn''t come up with anything. For the moment there were no goblins nearby. Or at least no goblins that he could sense. Who knew? Declan joked about a rare stealth variant, but Julius wouldn''t put it past fate to give him a special goblin surprise in this rift.


    He turned to Declan who was as relaxed as a cucumber. He didn''t seem worried at all. That honestly made sense when considering that even if every single goblin were to attack Declan, they wouldn''t be able to leave a scratch. The goblins were probably as scary to Declan as a bunch of beetles were to Julius.


    "So what now?" He asked Declan.


    Julius didn''t really know what he needed to do in a rift. His only experience was the troll one and he didn''t think that was a standard rift, so he didn''t want to draw too many comparisons from that.


    Declan shrugged his shoulders at Julius. "To be truthful, you don''t have to do much. This rift is more of an elimination rift. The goblins will eventually find you and your job is to stay alive and kill as many goblins. However, you don''t want to kill every goblin either. That is one of the rift-clearing conditions and you will get in trouble if you do something like that."


    "So how will I know if I am getting close to killing the last one?" Julius asked.


    "Trust me, you will know," Declan vaguely responded to him. "Also, we won''t be getting anywhere close to that point today. It is good etiquette to not push a rift to the limit and to leave some breathing room."


    Julius nodded his head at Declan in acknowledgment. He understood where Declan was coming from. This rift''s value wasn''t just how many goblin cores one could retrieve in one delve, but how many they could retrieve over a very long period. It was like a farming system. You have to leave enough to plant the next year''s crops.


    Julius already had an idea of how he wanted to deal with the goblins. While he didn''t want to come off as too arrogant to Declan, he did still want to use this opportunity to train some of his skills. But if he were to just start blasting explosive spikes at anything that moved, he didn''t think that would get him very good results training-wise.


    He wanted to upgrade some of his skills, specifically [Mana Slash]. He could feel how close it was and if he could level it up to level 15 by the end of today, he would consider everything a great success.


    "So¡­ should I wait here or should I go and hunt?" He asked Declan after neither moved from the spot for a while.


    "Up to you. They will eventually find you on their own, but it would go faster if you just decided to hunt them."


    Julius thought about it for a minute. Honestly, it sounded simpler to just wait for the goblins to come and find him. He wasn''t worried about being overwhelmed but he also didn''t think that would impress Declan enough.


    He expected that Declan would judge him on how he used and leveraged his skills. Therefore, since he had a skill that was really good for scouting a dense forest, he might be expecting Julius to go and hunt on his own.


    So Julius spun himself in a circle and when he stopped he went in that direction. Declan didn''t say a word and just followed behind him. Though, Julius did notice that Declan had completely shrouded his presence, even with [Spatial Perception] he almost didn''t notice him. It was like whatever Declan was doing it was like his aura was trying to convince him that Declan wasn''t there. It was a very interesting technique. Perhaps, Julius would ask him how he did it after the rift was over.


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    Fortunately, it didn''t take that long for Julius to find a goblin. He spotted a group of five of them walking together through the forest. Julius had only read about goblins but seeing them in person was a bit of a surprise. They were much more human-like than what he had been expecting. They were a little shorter than the average height of a normal person and had the general body and facial structure of a person as well. The main standouts were the light green skin, the long-fanged teeth, and the sickly yellow eyes. But if you put a bag over their head and into a room with low lighting, Julius could see himself mistaking a goblin for a human.


    They all had wooden spears in their hands as well. Julius spotted one of them swinging his spear at every piece of foliage he could reach, pretending it was some enemy. He kept observing them for a little longer, he wanted to see if there was any other information he could gain from them.


    However, after a few minutes of following them, he decided that it was about time to take them out. Julius activated his skills and concentrated.


    He used [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], and [Mana Layering] to create very thin needle-like projectiles. He thought that exploding spikes would be overkill so he went with the more subtle approach.


    In his mind, he was tempted to set off a big explosion hoping that it would lure the other goblins to his location, but he suspected that Declan wouldn''t approve of that so he held off.


    Once he had five needles hovering over his shoulder he focused on shaving the points of the needles down to as thin and narrow as he could. Then he used [Mana Slash] and covered the constructs in the sharpened mana.


    Julius focused on envisioning the idea of what sharpness was the entire time. He thought about the process of the thin needle point splitting apart the atoms on the goblin''s skin.


    Once he felt like he had a good visual and mental image in his head, he sent them tearing through the air at the goblins with a burst of kinetic energy. The needles released a thin hissing sound as they crossed the hundred or so feet to their targets.


    The other benefit of using such small projectiles was that Julius was able to maintain much higher control over their flight. Sometimes when he shot a larger construct it was too difficult to change its trajectory at the speed it was traveling at.


    However, these needles he had such fine control over them that it would be almost impossible for him to miss the goblins.


    And he did not miss. The needles pierced right through the brains of all five goblins, not slowing down for a single moment. The goblins didn''t even know what had happened to them. One moment they were walking and the other they were dead on the forest floor.


    He was conscious of the fact that he didn''t feel as bad about killing another living thing, unlike his first time. Perhaps, he was getting used to it.


    Julius quickly controlled the needles to fly back to his position. Admittingly, he didn''t need to do that. The mana used to create these constructs was quite negligible, especially for someone with as much mana as he did. Still, he thought it was good practice and would build healthy habits to not waste any mana.


    He went over to the dead corpses and began the process of opening up their chests and removing their cores. He didn''t need the money and the price of Tier 2 cores wasn''t that great but he thought that Declan would appreciate the gesture.


    Declan POV


    Declan was genuinely curious about how Julius would go about taking down these goblins. He had chosen this particular rift because it was the perfect first rift for adventurers and other fighters.


    A big reason was that goblins were humanoid-looking enough creatures that it gave pause to many people. He had seen numerous individuals over the years hesitate when fighting a goblin because they resembled humans. Those same people usually didn''t have as much of a problem killing a bear or other monsters that didn''t look human. However, not all monsters looked like monsters.


    It was a good teaching practice to show adventures and younger people early that just because something looks like a human doesn''t mean they are friendly.


    That wasn''t to say that all goblins were bad either. There were many enlightened monster species that were quite benevolent and had good relationships with humans.


    With that being said, Declan was interested to see how Julius dealt with killing a humanoid creature like goblins. Would he hesitate or would something else happen? He also wanted to see how Julius would use his skills. Would he properly utilize them or would his overconfidence put him in danger? S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Declan had to admit that the last option was what he was hoping for. He wasn''t saying that he wanted Julius to get hurt, but he would rather be around now if Julius''s overconfidence put him in a tight spot. Because then Declan would at least be around to help out while Julius would also learn his lesson.


    But for now, Declan would just be a silent observer.


    In the beginning, when Julius first found the goblins, Declan thought that maybe Julius was hesitant. He took his time stalking them, patiently waiting for something. However, he was proven wrong when Julius suddenly created breathtakingly strong but thin needles of mana, sending them at the goblins with a blistering pace.


    It was a silent execution, with barely any noise and the littlest amount of mana possible. It was a cold-blooded killing and Declan grudgingly approved. It was clinical and precise. The goblins didn''t get a single chance to attack or opportunity to prepare themselves. It was exactly what he wanted to see from an ambush. Furthermore, Julius''s aura hadn''t shown the slightest sign of lapse in concentration. If he was grading him like he would a normal recruit, he would give him full marks.


    It was a little surprising to see how composed Julius was. If Declan didn''t know better he would have thought that Julius was some sort of experienced delver.


    He observed as the boy crouched down and used a sharpened knife made of mana to split open the chests of the goblins and remove their stones. As he watched over Julius he nodded his head in appreciation and acknowledgment of the boy''s skills.


    Declan didn''t think he would have to worry about him as much as he thought he would.

 Chapter 109: Not Even A Challenge

    Honestly, there wasn''t anything that exciting about fighting the goblins.The next group Julius found was much of the same. There were six goblins this time around, but not that made much of a difference. They all died just as quickly as the last group. It was a bit anti-climactic. Then the next group came along and Julius hunted them down the identical way.


    Julius knew before going into it that he wasn''t going to be having some thrilling fight. But he still thought it would have a little more excitement. So far he has hidden behind bushes and trees from a far distance and sniped the poor goblins before they even got a sniff of him.


    His perception skill made it practically impossible for the goblins to get the drop on him. It would take Julius getting his face bashed in and knocked unconscious for him to not be aware of the goblin''s movements.


    On the bright side, he could say that Declan was definitely approving of Julius''s success so far. However, Julius also knew that Declan was an archer and used similar methods to hunt monsters. It wasn''t that Julius didn''t appreciate that way of fighting. It was actually a little bit satisfying in many aspects. Being able to one-shot every target was more gratifying than Julius would have expected.


    The ease with which he was clearing this rift was an indication of how much work he had been putting in lately. Although he didn''t think the old Julius would have failed to clear the rift, he did not think would have been able to take out so many goblins with such casual ease. It was proof that he was getting stronger. Strong enough that Tier 2 opponents were nothing more than targets to shoot at. But was he getting stronger fast enough, that was the question.


    There was a part of him that wanted to go right into the middle of the goblins and use his hands to beat them up. Unfortunately, Julius didn''t think that Declan would approve of such a needless risk. As such, Julius had to keep on reminding himself that today was about convincing Declan to let him delve alone.


    Not long after, Julius spotted another patrol of goblins. This time it was a large group of a dozen goblins. There was also a goblin who stood out from the others at the helm of the pack. This goblin was taller, broader, and had nice equipment on him. His spear actually seemed sharp and he had some metal armor pieces protecting his vitals.


    He wondered if this was some sort of theme to monster species or rifts. Was there always some sort of hierarchy where there were the grunts, then there were the pack leaders, and then there were the big bosses?


    He didn''t take too much time to think about it any further. He created another four needles of razor-sharp mana. He already had eight by his side from his previous attacks that he was reusing, so he only needed several more. After he was done creating them, he sent them whistling at the pack, carefully controlling them, and speared the goblins right through their skulls.


    They didn''t stand a chance and neither did their pack leader. A soft slick was all that was heard before the sound of their bodies hitting the ground came after. Even that was softened. Julius had siphoned some kinetic energy from their falling bodies to reduce the noise they made upon dropping to the ground. He was sure he could have made it almost inaudible if he was closer, but at this distance, it was already admirable that he could even have the effect.


    The worst part about hunting monsters was undoubtedly the removal of the cores. It was a gory and smelled like shit. It didn''t help that he didn''t really need these cores and was only removing them because of Declan and because he thought it was a good habit to get used to.


    He tried his best to avoid using his bare hands to retrieve the cores but it was inevitable that he would need to get his hands dirty. He ended up using way too much fire mana to burn away any goblin remnants he had on his body. Previously, when he had read about adventurers having designated skills for monster core and material retrieval he thought it was an absolute waste of a precious skill slot. He had even inwardly insulted the people who had chosen to acquire such skills.


    However, he would like to take the time to apologize to all those people. He now understood why many adventures chose to have a looting skill of some kind. He was seriously considering how beneficial a skill like that would be or at least having someone around with such a skill. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius and Declan eventually ran across several other large groups the further they went into the forest. Julius dealt with all of them with casual ease. The goblins were only Tier 2 and weren''t even able to activate the limited amount of skills they had. Perhaps if they had more time to prepare they would put up more of a fight, but at the moment they weren''t even able to retaliate.


    The most challenging part was just creating the needles of mana. They were constructed of several skills and required a good amount of concentration. Not as much as they might have a few days ago, but still enough to force Julius not to lose focus.


    Several hours passed by without any big occurrences. Most of the time was spent as the two of them walked around the forest, searching for goblins to hunt down. Well, at least Julius was. Declan was more of a passive observer and was following Julius around.


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    Declan hadn''t even talked that much, he said that he wanted Julius to pretend that he wasn''t even there. It wasn''t until it was getting pretty late that Declan finally spoke to Julius.


    "Maybe one more group and then we should pack it up for the day. How does that sound?" Declan asked Julius.


    Julius didn''t turn back to look at Declan who was walking behind him, but he still shrugged and said, "Yeah, that sounds good to me."


    Julius was fine with that result. He was getting a bit bored by now and he felt like he had succeeded in the original goal of this outing. He could tell after the first group that Declan wasn''t as worried about him delving as he initially had been.


    "Is this how it usually goes? Delving that is?" Julius asked Declan after a few moments.


    "Yes and no. Most of the time when someone explores a new rift the main objective is to map it out and get as much information as possible. There are actually specific roles within the Adventurer''s Guild and other groups that specialize in that sort of thing. It is important to know that just because the rift is one way today, doesn''t mean it will stay that way tomorrow, rifts are dangerous because of how unpredictable they are," Declan explained.


    "So what about the groups who regularly delve this rift?" Julius questioned him.


    Declan stretched his arms and let out a big yawn. "If a group is familiar with the rift then they would be able to head directly into the area where they know the most goblins like to congregate. Since rift environments like to change, the boss area isn''t always predicted but there are consistent signs that experienced delvers know to look out for. For example, the large groups always signify that the base camp is somewhere pretty close."


    Julius finally turned back to Declan. "Will we come back to this rift anytime soon? Do you think I should?" He was curious as to Declan''s answer. He eventually wanted to delve on his own, but he wanted Declan''s opinion. Someone with as much experience as Declan would have invaluable advice.


    Declan took the time to think about that. He was scratching his head in thought. "Truthfully, no I don''t think either of us will be returning to this rift. It has become quite clear that this has not been even remotely dangerous or challenging to you. This was the easiest rift on this list and with your perception skill the dense environment isn''t dangerous to you. I wanted to take you here because I wanted to get your toes wet more than anything else. Three other Tier 2 rifts on the list will suit your needs much better. I am thinking we go to one of the other rifts next week to see how you do there."


    Julius nodded his head in understanding. "And after that? Will I be able to delve by myself?"


    Declan shook his head. "If you do well I will allow you to delve into Tier 2 rifts by yourself, but Tier 3 is a big jump and I want to see how you do in one while I am there with you. If you can prove that you handle a Tier 3 with me by your side and I don''t have to offer any assistance then yes."


    Julius was a little tempted to just come out and tell Declan that he has already cleared a Tier 3 rift as a Tier 1. He just really wanted to go delving on his own without a babysitter. If Julius thought that might have persuaded him by mentioning that then he would have. But he genuinely believed that Declan would just be even less willing to let him once he squeezed out all of the details from Julius.


    Julius came across one last small group of goblins on their way back to the rift entrance. He quickly despatched them with precision and collected their cores with a practiced ease. It was funny how good he got at removing goblin cores after the first couple of dozen attempts.


    After that, he and Declan went straight back. Julius had been careful to remember where the entrance was. He used the sun in the sky to direct himself and had placed regular markings on trees they had passed to know when he was on the right path.


    Speaking of the sun, he was still curious about the nature of it. Was it real or was it some artificial version created by mana? Luckily he had someone who might know right next to him. "Hey, Declan."


    The man turned to face Julius. "Hm?"


    "Are suns in rifts real? And if not what are they?" Julius asked curiously.


    Declan smiled at him for the first time since they entered the rift. "That''s a good question. Nobody really knows. It acts and behaves much like our sun but there is no way to find out. There is a spatial barrier of some sort that encapsulates a rift, past a certain point no matter how far you travel, the objects in the distance won''t get any closer."


    "What so if I were to fly all the way into the sky and at the sun, I would never be able to reach it no matter how fast or long I go?" Julius asked a little confused.


    "Nope, some famous Tier 6 scholar tried hundreds of years ago but reported that no matter what he did, he wasn''t able to reach past a certain point," Declan explained to him.


    That was interesting. Did that have any relation to the spatial barrier that Jasper had talked about with him? Is that how worlds are isolated from each other? That would be something Julius would be interested in finding out the answers to.


    After they reached the portal it was pretty uneventful. There were some other guards on duty but they must''ve been told about their circumstances because nobody bothered them and they were able to leave easily. His "first" rift delve was wrapped up with no issues. It was both good and a little disappointing. He felt like he had proven himself to Declan but he also would have enjoyed a little more excitement.


    It was only around mid-afternoon, but Declan still wanted Julius to show him the store where he had bought the mask. Funnily enough, the mask was so comfortable that Julius had forgotten that he was even wearing the thing.


    The little town was much busier than it had been in the morning. Many people were out either shopping, eating, or just socializing with each other. It was quite lively and Julius enjoyed the atmosphere. He might have even enjoyed it more than the plazas in Heston.


    Julius had Declan follow him as he retraced his steps back to the quaint little shop where he had bought all the clothes and the black mask. With a soft tingle, the bell of the door rang when they entered and the same younger woman he had seen earlier came out to greet them. She was a cute woman with black hair and soft features. She seemed to recognize Julius from earlier and smiled at him as she approached the two of them.

 Chapter 110: Searching For The Crafter

    "Back so soon?" She asked Julius. "I didn''t think you would need anything else after you got so much."Julius put up his hands and laughed good-naturedly. "No no, nothing for me this time. But my friend saw some of the things I got and was interested in taking a look at your shop."


    "Oh?" She turned to look at Declan who was smiling at her with an uncharacteristically charming smile, a totally different look from the normally stern-looking man. "What can I do for you?" She asked him with a bright smile.


    Declan turned to Julius and gestured at him. Julius knew what Declan wanted him to do and pulled out the black face mask from his ring. He had taken it off before they entered back into town and stored it away in his storage device. But now he took it back out and presented it to the shopowner.


    Declan pointed at the piece of black cloth in Julius''s hands and said, "I was wondering about this piece of clothing Julius bought from you. I wanted to know if there was some sort of possibility that I could get into contact with the creator of such a brilliant piece of craftsmanship."


    The woman seemed to know right away what Declan was asking and nodded her head in understanding. "I see you know your stuff. I would love to say that I made it personally, but unfortunately, I did not."


    If Declan was let down by this admission he didn''t show it. "Do you happen to know who did or remember where you got it?"


    "I do, but I don''t know if it''s appropriate if I share the details." She made an apologetic face. "Don''t get me wrong, but I don''t know the two of you and the person who made this is a private person. They don''t make things for the purpose of profiting off of them."


    Declan looked at the woman with sincere eyes. "I promise you that I only have the best intentions for meeting this person."


    The lady seemed to believe his sincerity but she eventually shook her head. "I''m sorry. I want to believe you but again I don''t know you well enough."


    Julius watched as Declan looked disappointed but he also appeared to understand her position and didn''t seem to blame her for her choice. He chose not to pursue the matter any further. Declan politely bowed his head and told her, "I understand, but thank you anyway. I appreciate your time and I hope you have a wonderful day."


    Declan looked put out but he still turned around to leave the woman''s shop. Julius made to follow him and was about to leave without another word when he abruptly turned around.


    "There''s really no way you can''t help us out?" He put on his biggest sad and depressed face. He was even quivering his lower lip, trying to sway the woman. He made sure to sound as sincere and desperate as possible.


    He could see that it was working too, because when she looked at his face he could tell by her expression that her resistance was crumbling. Thus, he went in for the kill.


    "Please! He won''t say it himself but this means so much to him. I don''t get it myself, but he rarely gets this excited about something. I promise you he is a trustworthy person. Please just help him out." Julius pleaded.


    Still, the woman didn''t break. He could feel she was so close, but she still shook her head. "I''m seriously sorry, I wish I could help you and your father out, but I can''t."


    It was Julius''s turn to shake his head. "He''s not my father."


    She put her hand on her chest. "Oh, I''m sorry I just assumed¡­"


    He waved his hands at her brushing it off. "No, I get why it can be misunderstood."


    He turned from the lady to face the door. "He actually is the first person I met when I arrived at Heston." He sighed morosely. "When I got here I had nothing, not even a shirt on my back. No parents or family. I was in a completely new and scary place. I was covered in shit and smelled so bad that nobody wanted to get near me. I even made children cry at my stench. The only person who extended their hand was Declan. He took me back to the guardhouse where he bathed, fed, and clothed me."


    He looked back and looked at the woman who had her eyes wide in surprise. "He is the only one in a city of countless people who gave me a chance, who gave me a little piece of hope." He smiled somberly. "If there is one person you could place your trust in, then it would be him."


    Julius didn''t stay to hear her reply and quickly strode his way to the door where Declan was standing, who had an undecipherable look on his face. The two of them walked out of the shop and onto the street that was bustling with people.


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    However, they didn''t get very far before Julius sensed the lady with [Spatial Perception], who was swiftly making her way to the door of the shop. He smiled to himself. Gotcha.


    "Okay!" She yelled from the entrance. "Maybe I can help you guys out."


    Declan just gave him a side-eye look that had an equal mixture of being impressed and exasperated.


    She brought them to the back and sat them down in some chairs around a table. She then brought out some tea and some snacks. Julius found the tea and the little shortbreads surprisingly delicious. The tea was the perfect blend of floral, bitter, and fruity. The shortbread was buttery and flaky, a good pair for the tea.


    He found himself completely absorbed in the food. He had a big smile as he gorged himself on the tea and snacks. Almost forgetting about the reason why they were there in the first place. The shopowner thankfully didn''t seem to mind and actually seemed happy that he was enjoying it so much.


    She gave one last smile at Julius before talking. "Okay, first off my name is Liz. I don''t think I introduced myself yet. The person who you looking for is an old family friend. His name is Dante and lives just outside of town. He really doesn''t like visitors, which is why I was hesitant to help you, but I am going to take a leap of faith and trust the two of you."


    Declan made sure that his appreciation was known. "Thank you for reconsidering. I promise you I just want to speak with the creator of such a wonderful piece."


    She laughed and said, "Don''t thank me, thank your young friend. He was the one who convinced me."


    Julius looked up from eating and looked innocently at the two of them with crumbs around his mouth. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I have to warn you though. Dante is a strong individual, he has been alive for many years. He used to be close friends with my grandfather. My mother and father believe him to be around Tier 4. So do your best not to anger him," she advised them.


    It was a nice forewarning. She was only Tier 2 herself so she couldn''t tell that Declan was a Tier 4 himself, but it was the thought that counted. Angering a Tier 4 could be very dangerous to normal people. Only a small number of people got to that level and usually only those who fought monsters. This Dante if he was Tier 4 was most likely a very strong and experienced former adventurer, who was just living out his life in peace.


    "He''s a crafter who makes clothes?" Julius asked through a small mouthful of shortbread.


    "No, he doesn''t usually make clothing items. The black face mask was just something he made randomly one day. At least that was what he told me when he gave me it. He said that I could keep it or sell it at the store. I didn''t see the need for it and decided to sell it," she explained.


    Liz then went on and told them where Dante lived. She also told them to let Dante know that she had sent them over, that would make him more receptive to whatever they had to say.


    The two of them left after finishing their tea and shortbread. Julius himself had several servings and Declan apologized for his behavior, embarrassed that Julius was stuffing himself. Liz laughed it off and said that she was glad that someone enjoyed her food so much.


    As they left the shop and headed toward where Liz had directed them, Declan turned to Julius and patted him on the shoulder.


    "Thank you for doing that. I don''t think she would have helped us without you. But you didn''t have to go so far and even lie to her."


    Julius turned to face Declan and gave him a gentle smile. "Who said I lied about anything?" He walked away before Declan could say anything else, but he still caught the smile on the stern man''s face.


    The two of them arrived right outside of town and were close to where Liz had said Dante lived. It was on the other side from where they had gone for the rift and there were way few people around. Julius spotted the occasional cabin or house, but there was a lot more dense forest in this area.


    He could even hear the flowing water of a nearby creek off in the distance. It was quite a peaceful little piece of land. He could see why this Dante person lived out here.


    They eventually arrived at the front of a dark reddish-brown wooden cabin. The cabin itself was very beautiful and was built with a surprising quality. Every log was cut perfectly and was lacquered with clear care. The cabin was also surrounded by intricate metal and glass lamps that lit the entire property with a warm golden glow.


    Julius didn''t want to make any assumptions, but he was sure that they had found their crafter. However, Julius wasn''t able to sense anyone within the house with [Spatial Perception]. He thought it was weird because Liz had also said that Dante seldom left his house, only going out to get groceries or materials for one of his projects.


    Furthermore, the lights were on within the house. He was about to tell Declan what he was sensing with his skill but the man was already on the doorstep of the cabin and was in the process of knocking on the door.


    Julius didn''t know when Declan had moved so quickly, but the man must have been even more excited than Julius thought.


    "Hey Declan, I don''t think-"


    He cut himself off when he saw the front door open. A broad-shouldered older man with graying hair by his temples opened the door.


    "What do you want?" The man demanded in a deep growl.


    Julius took a better look at the older man. He was tall, around Declan''s height. He had muscular arms that were thicker than Julius''s legs, but what caught his attention were all the scars the man had. He was only wearing pants and a short-sleeved shirt but he could see dozens of scars spiralling around his forearms up to his face. There was one particularly large slash across the man''s nose going down his cheek and all the way to his neck.


    However, what really shocked Julius was the fact that he could not sense the man with [Spatial Perception] at all. For the first time since he got the skill, he felt nothing that would indicate that the man was standing not a dozen paces away from him. All he felt was an emptiness where space would have otherwise else occupied. It was like he was a ghost, an empty void.

 Chapter 111: Favor Merchant

    Julius couldn''t explain why, but his gut was screaming at him that this man was not Tier 4 like Liz had told them. While there were no signs of aura leaking out or any other evidence supporting his claim, Julius knew deep in his heart that this man was one of the most powerful people he had ever met.Julius could barely breathe. He didn''t perceive any external influence affecting him, but for some reason, his chest was awfully tight. He looked over at Declan, wanting to see if he had sensed what Julius had. However, Declan didn''t look stressed or worried. He was behaving like normal and for a second it had Julius doubting his own instincts.


    He paused for a second and took a deep calming breath. Perhaps he had been jumping to conclusions. There was always the possibility that the man in front of him had some other skill that hid him from Julius''s [Spatial Perception].


    Julius watched as Dante scrutinized Declan and himself with impassive eyes. Declan had a large smile on his face again and bowed to the man in greeting. "Hello, Mr. Dante. My name is Declan and this here is Julius. Liz was kind enough to give up directions to where you lived, I hope we aren''t intruding."


    The man didn''t say anything right away. He just kept glaring at the two of them while standing in the doorway of the cabin. Finally, he spoke, "I know. She let me know you two were coming." His voice was a deep baritone and was a voice that sounded like that often gave orders. It actually reminded Julius of the voice of a military commander.


    If the man''s unfriendly attitude dissuaded Declan, he didn''t let it show. "Oh, she did? That''s perfect. Did she also happen to mention why we wanted to meet you?"


    "She did and the answer is no," Dante straight up denied Declan before he could even make his request.


    "Oh," Declan said crestfallen. "You won''t even consider it? Please, your work is one of the finest I have come across. Even if it is just a few pieces, I would love to buy anything you have on hand."


    "Why do you want my items so badly?" The man asked Declan bluntly.


    Declan nodded his head. "They are masterful pieces."


    "Let me clarify. Who do you want them for? Do you want them for yourself or for me to outfit your guards?" The older man asked.


    Julius was immediately put back on guard. Neither one of them had mentioned that Declan was a vice-captain, not to Liz and certainly not this man. Yet, Dante appeared to know about it. He wouldn''t have made that comment otherwise. Julius noticed that Declan also seemed to understand the implications on the man''s words, but he still maintained a friendly expression on his face.


    "I admit, I would love to have my entire unit outfitted with equipment made by you. But I realize how unreasonable that would be. However, I have a son who is a crafter and he would be able to learn a lot just by seeing your work."


    Julius saw Dante look at Declan quietly for a moment before he let out a sigh and without a word, went back inside. Declan and Julius both looked at each other, wondering where he was going. A few moments later the man came back holding two items in his hands.


    One was a metal cube the size of a closed fist with inscriptions all over its surface. The other was a wooden figurine that resembled a young boy with angel-like wings extending from his back. Both items were clearly well-made. The details of each one were refined and delicate. The figurine was particularly impressive. The feathers of the wings were so intricate and beautiful.


    Julius could also sense that each item had many layers of enchantments. He would not be surprised to learn that both objects had functions beyond the purpose of just looking pretty.


    The man handed over the objects to Declan before saying, "Give these to your son. Tell him he should practice recreating both of them. The cube is a puzzle that will help him with learning how to layer enchantments more efficiently. The wooden boy will help him with creating more creative and intricate enchantments."


    Declan held the two objects with reverence and thanked the man profusely. "What can I give you for these items," he asked the old crafter.


    Dante shook his head. "I don''t have a need for money."


    Declan also vehemently shook his head. "I can''t just take these for free. Tell me what I can do in return," he insisted


    The older man frowned at Declan''s obstinance. "I told you, I don''t have a need for money. The only reason why I gave you these was because Liz asked me to help you guys out."


    "There must be something I can do."


    The man nodded his head. "I do have something that I would like¡­"


    "Name it," Declan smiled at him.


    "Just an answer to a question," the man said vaguely.


    "I can hear out the question, but I can''t promise that I will be able to give you an answer that will satisfy you," Declan tentatively said.


    "That''s okay. Because the question isn''t for you." Dante turned to look directly at Julius who had been standing in the background for the past several minutes. "It''s for him."


    "Him?"


    "Me?" Julius pointed at himself. Both of them asked surprised.


    The older man stone cold face pressed on Julius''s body. Julius started to feel that same feeling that he got when he first saw the man. It was a creeping feeling of dread.


    It was Declan who interjected. "What do you want to ask him?" he asked confused.


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    Finally, the man''s lip upturned a hair. However, it didn''t reassure Julius at all. No, if anything it made him feel like he had just gotten into a cage with a starving polar bear and he was its next meal. "Nothing much, I just wanted to ask him how he knew."


    Declan was still confused. "Knew? Knew what?" At this point, Julius didn''t know how Declan wasn''t picking up the weird feeling that Julius was.


    The man ignored Declan and only had eyes for Julius. The man''s stare was intense. Almost as if he was challenging Julius to dare look at him. "Tell me, how did you know?"


    Julius beat down the rising fear and looked back at the man, staring directly into his eyes. Showing that he wouldn''t be cowed. "I don''t know what you mean."


    The man started to actually grin now and slowly walked from the doorway and down the steps of the cabin porch, approaching Julius with intense focus. Julius could feel the pressure getting greater and greater the closer the man got to him. The ground vibrated with every step, almost as if the man weighed as much as a mountain.


    Finally, Declan seemed to sense that something was off and attempted to grab the man''s shoulder before he could reach Julius. However, Declan was barely able to make it a foot before something stopped him in his tracks.


    It was like someone had frozen the air around him and he was completely unable to move his body. Declan''s face turned ashen as he realized what was happening. Though he was shocked, it didn''t stop him from trying to break free. Julius observed as Declan released his Authority in a large burst, but still wasn''t able to free himself. He struggled with all of his might, but it was futile, nothing he did had any effect. Soon, all resistance crumbled and he was frozen like a statue.


    Julius''s eyes widened to saucers as the man approached Julius leisurely. My gut wasn''t wrong. Julius berated himself. He knew better than to ignore his instincts.


    The man finally stopped right in front of Julius. There was a part of Julius that wanted him to run, but in his heart, he knew that there was no outrunning this monster. He was certain that this man wasn''t Tier 4, most likely he was Tier 5 or stronger if he was able to take care of Declan so easily.


    The man bent down slightly and got nose-to-nose with Julius. "So¡­ are you going to tell me?"


    Julius swallowed the saliva that was accumulating in his throat nervously.


    "I know you noticed something when you saw me. I heard your heartbeat and felt your aura. They both practically screamed the second you saw me. There should be no reason why you would react that way. You should have reacted to my aura much like your friend did."


    Julius knew he was trapped. He gritted his teeth and glared at the old man.


    Though, to be fair, the man had given Declan those items and all he wanted in return was an answer to his question. It wasn''t an unreasonable request, so Julius gave him his answer. "A skill," he said plainly. He didn''t elaborate or anything.


    "A skill? What skill is it?" The man asked demandingly.


    Julius steeled himself and shook his head. He wouldn''t be bullied by this man, no matter how powerful he might be. "You asked me to answer your question and I have. I do not need to tell you about my personal skills."


    Julius knew it wasn''t smart to antagonize someone as strong as this man. But there were a couple of reasons for his behavior. For one, the man was being plain rude and Julius didn''t appreciate someone treating him like that. Secondly, Julius didn''t feel like the man was being hostile. Sure, he was being pressured by the strength of the man''s sheer presence and Tier but there wasn''t anything directly threatening about his actions. The same feeling in his gut that said he was dangerous, told Julius that that the man wasn''t malicious to him. Julius believed that the man''s face and presence were just really scary.


    The man glared right back at Julius. For a moment Julius thought he was wrong and the man would actually evaporate him where he stood. So it was a relief when the man took a step back and chuckled, the scars on his face shimmered in the light. "Ah, such impudence in the face of death. You know how much stronger I am, yet you still are brave enough to act like this."


    "I''m not sure if you can call it bravery," Julius quietly mumbled and gave a nervous chuckle of his own. He was happy that he wasn''t wiped off the face of the planet.


    "Oh? If it''s not bravery then what would you call it?" The scary old man asked in a sarcastic tone. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius outwardly winced. He looked up at the man who appeared to be waiting for his answer so he thought about it for a second. After a moment, he finally said, "Arrogance? Foolishness perhaps?"


    The man didn''t say anything to that, but Julius saw him nod his head. Then Dante looked at him and said casually, "At least you are aware of it. I can''t say everyone would have such self-awareness. Just be careful, next time someone might actually take offense to your attitude."


    Julius nodded awkwardly, he didn''t know exactly what else he could have said in response.


    "Okay, Julius. What do you want in return for telling me what that skill is?" Dante asked him with a smile that was an attempt at being comforting. It wasn''t. The scars on the man''s face made it seem more threatening and menacing than anything else.


    "Sorry?" Julius was so distracted by the man''s scary face that he didn''t catch the entirety of his question.


    "What do you want in return for you telling me your skill?" The man repeated patiently still wearing the frightening smile.


    Julius took in his words and was a bit taken aback. He was a bit surprised that the man wasn''t just squeezing it out of him, it would certainly be easier than exchanging something.


    "Uh¡­ I don''t know," he finally said. He really didn''t know what to ask for and was caught off guard by Dante''s offer.


    "You don''t want anything?" Dante asked confused and almost disappointed in Julius.


    "I can''t just think of something on the spot like this," Julius defended himself.


    "Okay, just think of something. It doesn''t matter what it is," The older man told him.


    Julius took another moment and thought hard. Eventually, he came up with a brilliant request. "Can you kill someone for me?" Julius asked hopefully.


    "Kill someone for you?" Dante took a step back and took a closer look at Julius as if he suspected that there was something seriously wrong with him. "You didn''t strike me as a particularly bloodthirsty child."


    "Trust me, he deserves it," Julius assured him.


    "No. If you want to kill someone, you can do it yourself. I don''t care if he and the rest of his family deserve it," Dante flat-out denied Julius.


    "I thought you said it didn''t matter what it was," Julius pointed out. At some point, he was no longer feeling that same pressure that scared him earlier which is why he was being more casual with the scarred old man. He could also sense that the man was very interested in knowing what skill Julius had. Which meant he was in a position of power in this negotiation.


    The man closed his eyes and had a frustrated look. He turned up to the sky and prayed like some god would come down and help him. "I meant something reasonable, not murder. Also, I am only asking about a skill. In what world is that an equivalent exchange?"


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, no deal."


    The man pinched the bridge of his nose. "For Hell''s sake. Okay, I will owe you a favor or request as long as it''s within reason. This way you can take some time to think of one. Is that alright with you?" His deep voice was laden with frustration.


    Julius pretended to think about it and eventually just reached out his hand. Dante sighed again and begrudgingly took it, giving it a firm shake, and almost crushing Julius''s fingers within their grasp.


    They had a deal. Julius smiled on the inside, knowing he had just swindled another favor from a stronger person for practically nothing.

 Chapter 112: Because I Told You To

    The two of them stood in front of each other with neither of them talking for a few moments, an awkward silence filled the air. Eventually, Dante looked at Julius expectantly. "Can you tell me what the skill is now?" He asked, more exasperated than anything else.Julius leaned in close and whispered into Dante''s ear. "The skill is called [Spatial Perception]."


    The man leaned back and looked at Julius with an odd look. He didn''t know what was going through the scarred man''s mind, but it didn''t seem like he had expected that answer.


    "Perception, not awareness?" He asked Julius for clarification.


    Julius nodded. "Why? Is that weird?"


    "Yeah. I have only heard of [Spatial Awareness]. It is an evolved skill for people who have some sort of general ranked perception skill and also have a spatial affinity," Dante explained to him.


    "So how is it different?" Julius asked excitedly.


    The man looked at him with a baffled expression. "How am I supposed to know? It''s not my skill. I don''t know what kind of skills you evolved it from or combined it with."


    Oh. That makes sense.


    "What if I hypothetically combined several skills?" Julius shared with the man. It was all hypothetical of course. He could neither confirm nor deny how accurate his information was. Still, Julius watched as the man got another interested look on his face.


    Suddenly the man disappeared and reappeared to the side of Julius with no warning. Julius whipped himself to turn and look at the man who was staring intently at him. Then Dante disappeared again and reappeared back where he was before. This time though Julius thought that he felt something.


    Interesting, he thought to himself.


    He had a feeling that it wasn''t just sheer speed the man was using. He might be actually teleporting. The man was doing something very similar to what Julius had seen Gabriel do with his [Instantaneous Step]. Julius paid close attention as the man started to teleport frequently around Julius. Never in the same position and always changing the distance and timing.


    What is he doing? Is he testing my skill? He asked himself.


    He still couldn''t feel the man''s presence with [Spatial Perception] even though he was standing right in front of Julius. It was just an empty void where the man was supposed to be. However, that in itself was a sign. Just like with aura suppressing, sometimes displaying nothing was just as alerting as shining a bright light in a dark room. Now that he knew what to look for, the empty space was more peculiar than what a normal person would feel like.


    It took a while for him to get used to it. He even got lost in the moment and forgot about the time. Completely forgetting that Declan was still frozen in place not far away. The man tested out Julius''s skill as if Julius was his personal guinea pig. However, Julius didn''t mind in the least. He was a willing participant and even went as far as to close his eyes to focus fully on the skill.


    With his eyes closed and [Savage Dance] activated to its limit with [Empowement of Will] occasionally boosting his focus skill, he concentrated on finding Dante''s new location. He started to get used to it at an unprecedented speed. Whenever he would notice a new void in the space of his skill, he would immediately lock onto Dante.


    Furthermore, Julius noticed that the man grinned devilishly the moment Julius started to lock on to him. It was like he knew exactly when Julius noticed him, which was new to Julius. In the past whenever he had been using the skill, nobody had been able to detect him using it on them. Yet, Dante definitely did.


    Every time Julius would catch a whiff and zero in on Dante, the man disappeared again. However, it wasn''t only Julius who was improving. He could sense the void that man left every time started to get smaller and more blurry. He was no longer like a spotlight in the middle of the dark. He was a light bug flying around in the backyard of a house. He started to feel another thing on top of it. It was almost as if every time Dante teleported, he could feel the warping of space. It was like space was folding over itself. Still, he couldn''t quite be confident, the teleportation was much too fast for him to catch a good look.


    Unfortunately, Dante stopped teleporting around once the two of them stopped making as much progress. He wasn''t exactly smiling, but his eyes were lit up excitedly. From Julius''s perspective, this was the most genuine joy he had seen from the man.


    "Who would have thought." The man mused quietly to himself.


    "Pardon?" Julius asked.


    "Who would have thought that some snot-nosed Tier 2 was able to help me level up a skill I haven''t increased in many years."


    "Hey, I take offense to that," Julius complained.


    The man ignored his protest. "What level is your perception skill? I don''t sense any Concepts on you, but I assume that the skill is at the precipice or really close to level 20 correct?"


    "..." Julius didn''t answer. But it seemed that he didn''t have to because the man just nodded his head as if that had answered his question. He teleported again and Julius was able to sense space distorting again before the man showed up next to him. Dante patted his shoulder like they were best buds. A far cry from how he initially treated him.


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    "This is what you are going to do. In two months, I want you to come back here. I will have something for you then."


    "Huh?" Julius gave Dante a disbelieving look.


    "You heard me, I''m not going to repeat myself."


    "Why would I do that?" Julius asked defiantly. He wasn''t appreciating the tone of the man''s voice. Dante made it sound as if Julius didn''t have a choice in the matter.


    "Because I told you to do so. That''s why. If you don''t I will personally kidnap you and bring you here after I beat you unconscious," the man leaked out some of his aura to pressure him. Julius felt as if an elephant was sitting on his chest with a bazooka pointed at his forehead. He quickly nodded his head at the man, agreeing that he would be here in two months.


    Dante let go of Julius and pretended as if nothing had just happened.


    Julius gasped for air. Jeez, there was no need to get violent, he thought to himself.


    "It''s good that you understand," the man said to him.


    Not that I had any choice, crazy old shit. Julius glared at the man offended at his treatment.


    The man patted him on the back really hard, almost knocking him right off of his feet and onto the ground. "Oh don''t be like that. You will thank me later."


    Julius stared daggers at the man. "Somehow I seriously doubt that."


    The man just shrugged in return and walked back to his house, passing the still-frozen Declan. "Remember two months! Don''t forget!" He yelled out with his back to Julius and entered his home, closing the door behind him.


    Julius threw his hands up in the air in defeat. That was it? No other explanation? He felt like the man could have explained what had just happened a little more clearly. He turned to Declan to complain. But quickly saw that he was still frozen with his hand outstretched.


    Oops, I completely forgot about him. Julius inwardly winced.


    He didn''t see any sign of whatever Dante did to him wearing off anytime soon. He walked up to Declan and tried to move him. Surprisingly, he wasn''t even able to do that. He was stuck in place like he was glued there. At least Declan seemed like he was still conscious, he didn''t know if he was aware of his surroundings though.


    Seeing that nothing Julius was doing, was able to free him, he yelled out to the cabin.


    "Hey, old man! You forgot to let him go!"


    A second later, whatever that was holding Declan was released, and the man dropped to the ground.


    "You couldn''t have done that earlier before you went back inside!?" He berated the older man, knowing that he could hear exactly what he was saying. There was no way the man hadn''t done that on purpose.


    He was going to say more, but Declan with frantic eyes quickly put his hand over Julius''s mouth. "Stop it," he told Julius. "That man is exceptionally dangerous. Do not anger him."


    Declan was extremely nervous and scared. More than Julius had ever seen from him before. It was like he had just seen the devil himself.


    Julius smiled at Declan and tried to reassure him. "Don''t worry. He''s mostly harmless. Just more old than anything else." Julius was saying this out loud on purpose. Dante hadn''t explained anything else other than his demand to come back in two months. This was Julius''s way of getting one back on the old man.


    Was it petty? Absolutely, but against someone as strong as him, there weren''t many other options for retribution. Teasing was really his only option.


    Clearly, Declan didn''t feel the same way that Julius did and froze still again as he heard Julius talk about the man like that. He waited as if he was expecting something to happen to Julius at any moment. Yet, nothing came his way and Julius was perfectly fine.


    Julius spread his arms out. "See? He won''t do anything. I just think he is a bit lonely and not very good with people." He laughed at that and the next thing he knew he felt something wrap around him and squeeze him like a tub of toothpaste.


    One moment he was standing there and the next he was chin-deep in the ground. His entire body was now stuck in the hard-packed dirt with only his face above the surface.


    Ah, that''s his limit I guess. Good to know. Julius thought to himself. While he wanted to tease Dante and get one back on the man, Julius also wanted to see how far Dante''s patience ran. He wanted to see how far he could push Dante before the old monster got annoyed.


    And well¡­ I think I found it.


    Declan just looked at Julius who had in less than a blink of an eye seemingly teleported into the ground with a weird look. Julius got the sense that the man didn''t know whether to be scared of Dante or grateful for putting Julius in his place for his rude behavior. Maybe it was a little bit of both.


    Declan didn''t make any moves to help Julius either. He just observed him as Julius tried to wiggle out of the ground. To his annoyance, the ground was much more solid than Julius would have thought. No matter what he did, he wasn''t able to move a single inch. He had a feeling that Dante was doing something that prevented him from escaping.


    It was annoying.


    Though he could understand that he kind of deserved it. He had been purposefully pushing the man''s buttons, especially at the end. He just wanted to see what the man would do. Julius was sure that he wouldn''t kill him, otherwise telling him to meet him in two months wouldn''t have made sense.


    Julius tried everything he could to escape. He used large amounts of kinetic energy to try to blast himself out. He tried to create thin layers of mana over his skin and push them out. He even tried more drastic methods.


    He used a lot of fire mana to practically liquify the earth, creating superheated molten rock. He stopped that pretty quickly after realizing he was just going to cook himself alive if he continued. His innate fire resistance was good but it wasn''t good enough for him to take a swim in molten lava. At least not yet anyway.


    He quickly used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to heal whatever burn damage he took. Then after some thought, he created a construct that basically resembled a big-ass excavator. Using the same skills he used for his newly improved spikes he molded mana into a sharp bucket and dug the dirt around him out of the ground.


    To his surprise, it worked wonderfully. He was able to get a perfect scoop. [Mana Slash] was able to sharpen the edges enough that it was like scooping half-melted ice cream. However, he still wasn''t able to escape. Instead, he was stuck rolling around in a big ball of dirt on his side with only his little head poking out.


    Though, there was some good news at least. Ironically he had finally managed to push [Mana Slash] over the edge because of his efforts.


    [Mana Slash lvl 14 -> lvl 15] S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 113: Almost Certain

    It took him way longer than it should have to escape. After his many attempts, he finally realized that it wasn''t the dirt that was holding him in place, but it was as if space itself was locking down on him. Eventually, Dante must have gotten tired or felt as if Julius had been properly punished and had released him.The moment he was free Declan grabbed him by the neck like a kitten and quickly ran away from the property. The entire time Declan didn''t say anything to Julius, he was focused on escaping.


    It wasn''t until they had made it back into the gates of the city that Declan dumped him to the ground. Not even the guards had the courage to stop Declan and ask him what he was doing. They had only seen a vice-captain wrangle a young boy by the neck, but seeing Declan''s face must have made them think twice before intervening.


    Some guards they were, Julius grumbled internally.


    Julius picked himself up and dusted himself off. "What was that for?" He asked Declan.


    Declan gave him a whack across the back of the head in response. "What was that for? You should be thanking me."


    Julius rubbed his head. "Why are you freaking out so much?"


    Declan reached out as if he wanted to give Julius another swat but Julius quickly stepped back and out of the way.


    "Do you have any idea who you were just insulting?" Declan asked Julius seriously.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "Not really, but he didn''t seem to mind it that much," he pointed out.


    Declan sighed loudly. "That was a Tier 6 you were just disrespecting. A monster who is more powerful than you could even begin to comprehend. Do you have a death wish?"


    "He seemed nice though. He was a bit pushy and sensitive, but I think that''s just because he doesn''t get out a lot," Julius said with a smile. He had suspected that Dante was Tier 6, but he didn''t want to jump to conclusions. So it was nice that Declan confirmed it for him.


    Declan turned to look at him with a deadly serious gaze. "You could have died today. He could have killed both of us and there would not be a damn thing anyone could do about it. Not the Lord of Heston, not the Headmaster, and not even the most powerful noble houses."


    Declan took a deep breath before he continued. "I don''t think you quite understand how lucky you were just now. I have seen powerful people like that man kill people over less. I saw a Tier 5 kill a soldier because he was snoring too loud. Nothing happened and there were no repercussions because the value of the Tier 5 was more important than a thousand soldiers."


    Julius knew that it was time to stop joking around. He put his hands up and reassured Declan. "He wasn''t going to kill me or you. I was almost a hundred percent certain."


    "How could you be sure?" Declan asked him.


    "I''m guessing you didn''t hear what the two of us were talking about or doing when you were frozen," Julius said with a frown.


    "No, I have no idea. The man''s domain crushed my Authority before I could even take a step. There wasn''t anything I could do. What happened between the two that made you so sure that he wouldn''t be a threat?" Declan pressed him for details.


    "Well, he wanted to know the name of my skill. I told him after I was able to negotiate a favor from him in the future¡­" S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Declan interrupted him. "You got him to owe you a favor?" He asked skeptically as if the thought was unbelievable.


    "Yeah, it has to be something reasonable, but I got him to promise a favor in return for telling him the name of my skill," Julius said proudly. "Pretty good deal right?"


    Declan just looked at him blankly. "A Tier 6 exchanged a favor for you telling him the name of your skill? Why would he do that?"


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t know. He really wanted to know how I was able to sense that he was much stronger than he was trying to come off as."


    "You were able to sense that he was Tier 6? What kind of skill allowed you to do that?" Declan asked in surprise.


    Julius shook his head. "No, I couldn''t tell for sure that he was Tier 6. But there were a lot of signs that pointed to that. My skill wasn''t able to detect his presence at all which was the first big warning, but also I got a very dangerous feeling from him," Julius explained carefully.


    "And you still antagonized him?" Declan asked.


    "No, that was after we trained some of our skills against each other. He even said he managed to gain a level in his own skill. Then he told me to meet him back here in two months. He said that he had something he needed to give or show me. I''m not quite sure, he wasn''t very forthcoming in that regard."


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    "I know I have never asked, but what is your perception skill? I''m guessing that was the skill that allowed you to sense the man." Declan asked calmly.


    Julius thought about telling him. He hadn''t told Declan yet, but honestly, he believed that Declan deserved to know, especially after this whole fiasco. "It is called [Spatial Perception]," Julius finally said.


    "[Spatial Perception]?" Declan repeated.


    Julius wasn''t worried about people overhearing them even though they were still around others. He had sensed Declan put up some sort of aura barrier much like the one Lily used. It was more focused on pure aura, but Julius could tell that it served a similar purpose.


    "Yeah, Dante seemed to be very interested in it. We did some testing and I found out that I could sense Dante after some getting used to it. However, that was when Dante was able to improve his own skill, making it almost impossible to detect him again. I''m guessing his skill level came after he made that change to his skill," Julius added.


    "What did he want? Why would a Tier 6 show that much restraint to you?" Declan asked genuinely confused.


    "I have no idea. But I was pretty confident that he wouldn''t hurt either one of us. He was too interested, the teasing at the end was more to test out how interested he really was and how far I could push him," Julius admitted to Declan.


    Declan looked at Julius like he had a hole in his skull. "Why would you even take that risk? That was far beyond stupid that it was suicidal."


    Julius looked at Declan with deadly serious eyes. "Aren''t you curious as to why someone that powerful was that intrigued by my skill?"


    Declan didn''t answer right away but Julius forged ahead. "Well, I was. I don''t know why he said to come back in two months. It was awfully specific and he gave no elaboration. And it''s not like I have a choice, he explicitly said that he would beat me up and drag my unconscious body back if I didn''t show up."


    Declan looked concerned and was lost in thought. It seemed like Declan was finally understanding the oddness of the Tier 6''s request. Julius looked away from Declan and off in the distance. For all of Julius''s joking and teasing of the powerful man, he was slightly worried about what would happen in two months.


    When he got back to campus, it was already after their dinner time. The others had already eaten, but the cafeteria would still be serving food for a little bit longer.


    Julius decided to not go to the upperclassmen cafeteria this time. It was late so he was thinking that the underclassmen cafeteria would be less busy and noisy. There was also the fact that he tried to limit how often he went to the main cafeteria without the others. It wasn''t like any of the older students caused him any trouble but he would like to limit the chances of running into people like Liam and his buddies.


    Fortunately, the underclassmen cafeteria was still open as well. As he had predicted, there were barely any students still eating there. Julius was able to get his food without any wait or trouble, sitting himself down at an empty table.


    While he ate, he pulled up his latest notifications.


    [Mana Slash lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    [Mana Slash] has reached level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill [Mana Slash]?


    Julius mentally selected yes and waited with bated breath at what kind of choices he would receive. He didn''t even think he would choose something other than [Mana Strike], but seeing his options was still nice.


    Skill [Mana Slash] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Mana Strike], [Razor Edge], [Rippling Slice], [Rendering Slash], and [Barrier of Severance].


    He had more options than he would have expected for a skill that he hadn''t had for all that long. [Mana Strike] was expected and still a very likely choice.


    [Razor Edge] was a nice option to see. He knew that not all skills had the same progression and paths but it was nice to see a skill that he had been interested in previously show up on his list. If he was going for just straight for sharpness, this skill might be a good choice.


    [Rippling Slice] was a skill that he hadn''t heard of. But to be honest, he didn''t like the sound of it as much. Ripple made it sound like the slice wasn''t clean or even. He had a feeling it was more like a serrated cut. An attack that had some of those aspects might be a good thing though. A slice that tore apart flesh more ruggedly could do more damage and make it harder to heal. In his old world, the hardest cuts to deal with were those made with serrated blades. But if he wanted to learn a Concept of Sharpness, he wasn''t sure if that was the best skill to use it with.


    The next skill, [Rendering Slash] was a very interesting sounding skill. He didn''t know how different it was from [Razor Edge], but it sounded more impressive. He would have to take a look and see if there was anything he could find about that skill before he made his decision.


    The last option was not that much of a surprise. [Barrier of Severance] was a unique-sounding skill. It was most likely offered because of how Julius used [Mana Slash] as a defensive option. Julius had to admit that the skill sounded a little silly. He had never heard of a slashing barrier.


    Seeing his options was nice. He had been waiting to see what options he got before he decided on [Composite Mana]. Just going off of the names alone, there clearly wasn''t a skill that could fill the requirements of [Composite Mana] and what Julius was hoping to get out of the skill.


    [Compound Strike] could have been a good skill, but the skill focused more on combining mana, aura, and other energies into one strike. Julius was trying to get an epic skill that mainly used mana itself and [Composite Mana] was a better fit. He didn''t want to muddy his mana construct. Furthermore, he could always add aura and other energies to the skill later on, but for now, he wanted to go strictly with mana.


    So with a mental selection, he chose to upgrade [Mana Layering] right away.


    Congratulations, skill [Composite Mana] (Rare) acquired.


    Julius smiled to himself, crumbs of food fell off of the corners of his mouth, and he took a look at his status.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 2


    Skills:


    Skills:


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 15] (Rare+)


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 12] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Savage Dance lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Arcane Construct lvl 18] (Rare)


    [Pure Compression lvl 18] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 15] (Rare)


    [Composite Mana lvl 1] (Rare)


    [Mana Slash lvl 15] (Uncommon)

 Chapter 114: Cleaning Up After Him

    The first thing he wanted to do was try out his new skill. He quickly finished up his meal before leaving for the first-year training facilities. He saw some familiar faces on his way through the building. Some were playing games with each other and some were doing things on their own to the side.He found himself in an open room and got himself settled in. Once he got himself comfortable he started slow. First, he started off with [Arcane Construct], creating a round ball of fire mana. Then he started to introduce [Pure Compression], pressing together mana into itself.


    Julius distractedly admired how much of a change his skills had gone through. These two skills now felt as natural as breathing. It barely took any effort to use the two in conjunction. Within a second he was holding a perfectly round sphere of red mana. The power contained in the ball of mana was already impressive, but this wasn''t all he had, he could still do much more.


    Then he introduced [Mana Slash] to the construct. The ball glowed with blue mana around the surface, sharp as a razor. Using [Mana Slash] on a spherical object was much harder than a spike or a sword, but all of his effort to use the skill in different ways was showing dividends.


    He had to use [Savage Dance] and [Empowerment of Will] to hold everything together, but it was holding. Finally, he started to use his new skill, [Composite Mana].


    As usual, the skill was instinctually engraved into his mind and soul, allowing him to know how to use it without much effort. At first, Julius was nervous that the skill wouldn''t work as well as [Mana Layering] did. However, he had never been so grateful to be swiftly proven wrong.


    Not only was Julius still able to use the properties of layering mana on his constructs, but it was better than ever before. He had been attempting to meld and integrate layers of mana seamlessly for a while now. He had been using a structure similar to the scales of an animal, overlapping each other and feeding off of one another.


    However, he no longer had to put in as much effort to accomplish the same thing. [Composite Mana] had a brilliant effect of combining mana layers together as if it were one singular layer. Thus, instead of having several layers of mana, the skill had basically heated up the layers and forged them into one super strong and complex layer.


    That had several repercussions. Firstly, it was now much faster to create a construct than before. Building layers of mana took time and in a fight, time mattered a lot. A single second could be the difference between life and death. So now that he only had to worry about one layer, that was admittingly more complex, he could create a construct with more speed.


    Secondly, the layer itself was more than a sum of its parts. Now the layer had the best of all of the layers, without the weaknesses. If Julius could compare it to something, he would compare it to making a shield out of flimsy materials. If one were to use hundreds of layers of aluminum foil, cardboard, and paper, one would eventually create a thick and somewhat useful shield. Just the sheer amount of layers would make it work.


    Yet, [Composite Mana] had changed Julius''s constructs completely. Instead of having to need many layers for structural integrity he only needed one. The aluminum foil, cardboard, and paper had all been changed into a new material that had all the strength of the old ones but none of the weaknesses. It had the durability, flexibility, and mana conductivity of a far superior material. If his old shield was a cobbled-together wall, his new one was made out of a foot-thick layer of pure tungsten alloy.


    That wasn''t even the end of the skill''s benefits. It also managed to support the sharp mana from [Mana Slash] better than Julius could do on his own. The previously difficult task of maintaining the sharp unattributed mana around the sphere was no longer as taxing. It was as if Julius was using one of his other affinities on the construct. He didn''t even need to use an empowered [Savage Dance] to keep the skill up.


    He laughed loudly at the realization of how good this skill was. While it wasn''t a rare+ skill, it was a really good fit for his current set of skills. This also meant that for his purpose of combining his skills into an epic-ranked skill, it was a perfect fit.


    He quickly dissipated his ball of mana and started to create another construct, but this time on a spike, his go-to attack option. Furthermore, he used [Composite Mana] right off the bat this time.


    Taking a deep breath, Julius focused and used [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression] to create a spike out of fire and kinetic mana. [Composite Mana] grabbed ahold of the different types of mana and molded them together, packing fire and kinetic mana into the spike with staggering power.


    Previously, Julius had to add a separate core of kinetic energy inside of the spike that would detonate when he chose to or on impact with his target. He would also have to use kinetic energy to increase the speed of the construct as well as add centripetal force to the construct. It took a lot of mental effort, to use two different types of mana like that.


    Sometimes, he chose not to go through all that effort, not having enough time or focus to do it. Now, he didn''t think he would have that problem. Above his shoulder floated a deadly drill of concentrated kinetic energy and fire mana, spinning like a superheated drill and releasing a piercing whistle as it tore through the air.


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    Julius could see the tip of the spike literally igniting the air. He didn''t even feel like he needed to add [Mana Slash] to it now. Just the potential power barely being contained in the construct was enough to scare Julius a little bit.


    Without further ado, he sent the spike of mana screaming at the nearest target against the wall. The spike smashed into the target with a loud explosion, the shockwave almost tossing Julius off of his own feet. The rings in his ears took a moment to go away and he had to shake his head to recover from the blast.


    Holy shit, he stepped back a few steps more surprised than anyone else. That wasn''t even as much as I could throw at it.


    Julius smiled at the thought that he could create something even bigger and more explosive. So without another thought, he created another spike over his shoulder. It took less time than it had before. Without having to painstakingly and build several layers of intricate mana the speed that created a spike was almost twice as fast as before. It was oddly freeing, now he could just infuse his mana and his skill would take care of the rest.


    He made a mental note not to rely too much on the skill though. Knowing how to use a skill manually continued to prove a very obvious advantage as he progressed, something he would need to keep on top of as he continued on his path.


    Once he had another dangerously spinning spike of death over his shoulder, he concentrated and gently added [Mana Slash] to his construct. If he thought before that the spike was igniting the air with the friction it was creating on its tip, then this time he was practically drilling through space. The sharpened mana infused into the construct and the whistling sound as it tore through the air faded away.


    Another interesting detail was that he could no longer hear the sharp piercing whine of the construct. It was now just silently spinning in place. He found that was much more scary than hearing the whistle. It just floated there ominously, like the hand of death.


    This time, with so much more mana and power, Julius had to use an empowered [Savage Dance] with [Empowerment of Will] to keep ahold of the construct. He admired it for a moment, the spinning spike of red and blue. It was a far cry from what he had first considered a deadly spike in the troll rift.


    If he were to throw this at the chieftain troll he would expect this thing to vaporize it. Who knew, perhaps it would be so strong that it would just go straight through the troll without exploding.


    With no further waiting, he launched the spike at another target. This time, the target didn''t survive. The big block of metal was pierced by the spike-like it was going through softened butter and exploded, metal fragments tore through the room.


    Julius tried to put up a defense of a hardened mana shield in front of him, but it wasn''t enough. Shards of metal stabbed into his legs and chest like he was a pincushion. Immediately, [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] activated and started to heal him. The red flame covered his entire body, pushing small and large shards of metal out of his body, and hitting the ground with a sharp ding.


    [Composite Mana lvl 1 -> lvl 2]


    At least he got a level out of it for his troubles.


    Julius got back to his feet in time to see the enchantments of the room work in overdrive to constrain the damage. He could see runes flashing frequently all around the room and little sparks of mana coming off of the walls.


    Oops, Julius winced after looking at the damage.


    Gabriel POV


    Gabriel was in the middle of meditation when he heard someone knock on his private training room.


    He pressed a little button that was linked with a corresponding object outside of the room. "Come in," he told Soran. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The door opened quickly and his personal assistant Soran came strolling in. Gabriel took the time to look at the young man. He had just graduated a couple of years ago and had been offered a staffing position at Goldencrest. Soran had caught Gabriel''s interest last year and had taken him on as his personal assistant. The young man was talented, like all Goldencrest graduates, but what the man excelled at was teaching others and administrative duties. Something Gabriel hated with a passion. Thus, he ended up pushing a lot of his duties onto the young man in front of him.


    It wasn''t like Soran was doing it against his will though. He was happily doing much of the grunt work. After all, he was getting personal lessons from Gabriel as he worked his way to Tier 4. Anybody would joyfully trade in some paperwork for that kind of chance.


    Soran spoke once he felt like Gabriel was paying attention. "Sir, I did as you told me and I kept an eye on Julius''s student card activities. He just used his to enter into a first-year training room, but¡­" he trailed off looking more confused than anything.


    "But what?" Gabriel urged the young man.


    "But that same room just received a report that the enchantments were damaged and are in need of maintenance," Soran finally said. "I only noticed because you told me to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary and I wanted to let you know."


    Gabriel smiled and shook his head in exasperation. "Remove any history of Julius''s access to the room and then schedule a group of enchanters there tomorrow afternoon, okay?"


    Soran paused for a moment, probably thinking about asking what the reason was, but in the end, the young man just nodded his head, walking out to do just that.


    That was another reason why Gabriel liked to keep Soran around. Sure he was talented and useful, but more importantly, he was trustworthy and knew when not to ask questions. Something Gabriel greatly appreciated.


    After Soran left, Gabriel leaned back on the mat he was meditating on and smiled widely. Not even halfway through a semester and he is already causing this many problems. If he wants to keep his head down, he needs to do better, he laughed to himself.

 Chapter 115: Getting a Lunch Invite

    Julius quickly left the room before anyone could see him. He hoped that he didn''t get in too much trouble for damaging the room. Gabriel had told him that it was something that occasionally happened, and sometimes depending on the damage, enchanters had to come on out to make some adjustments. However, sometimes the damage was too extensive and they would have to redo the entire room. Julius just hoped that this wasn''t the case this time.He actually made a choice that would surprise anyone who might know about his nightly routine. It was a choice that even surprised him for thinking of it. But he quickly realized that the idea had many merits in itself and he decided to do it.


    He was going to get a good night''s sleep.


    That was the reason why he found himself tiptoeing through the quiet hallways of his dormitory. It wasn''t that late, but it was late enough that most of the students were already asleep. He was careful to make as little noise as possible. He didn''t want to be rude and wake up the others.


    He quickly went into the bathroom and washed off, before getting ready for bed. After the shower, he felt like a new man. He smelled good and was wearing a comfortable pair of pajamas. So with a pep in his step, he quietly made his way to his room.


    He was able to sense his roommate Henry sleeping in his room with [Spatial Perception]. Julius was glad for that, he was still planning to spend as little time as he could around his rude noble of a roommate for the foreseeable future.


    He silently opened the door and crawled into his bed. He almost groaned in pleasure as he felt the soft plush feeling of his mattress swallowing him up in its embrace. Although he wasn''t tired and feeling sleepy, he was surprised to find that sleep came to him almost immediately.


    When he woke up, it was still early in the morning. The sun was barely peaking over the horizon. His roommate was still passed out on the other side of the room, snoring softly in his sleep.


    However, what surprised him was what he felt draped across his forehead. He cracked open his eyes just a little bit and was shocked to see two little green limbs dangling on the bridge of his nose. Drasil it seemed had come out on his own in the middle of the night and taken residence right on top of Julius''s forehead, using it as his mattress. With all four of his limbs splayed out like a starfish, Drasil was dead to the world. Julius could barely hear the sound of rustling leaves coming out of Drasil.


    Huh, I didn''t know spirits could snore, Julius chuckled to himself.


    Julius stayed like that for a while, just allowing Drasil to sleep. The little spirit seemed like he was happy in his position and Julius didn''t want to wake him.


    Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and Drasil slowly came out of his sleep, stretching his limbs out and yawning while still draped over Julius''s face. The little guy quickly realized that Julius was awake and made a happy whistling noise before hugging Julius''s entire face. Julius smiled warmly at the spirit and gave him a gentle hug with one hand in return.


    The two got up without disturbing Henry and left the room without any issues.


    The first day back to class was a bit of a weird one. Julius found himself more anxious than he had on his first day. After all, he had been missing from class for the past two weeks. It was longer than he had ever attended class in the first place, not exactly the best way to start the semester.


    Physical Training was at least not a class that had much interaction with the professor or the other students. Most ended up doing their own thing. Only the other slackers and of the like chose to hang out and talk for most of the class. Julius was curious as to why these students chose to take this class although they had no intention of actually doing anything in it. He felt like they could have chosen another class for their morning class or even chosen not to have one this early in the first place.


    Julius looked off to the side where their professor sat on a bench. As usual, Professor Edwards didn''t seem to mind that these students weren''t participating. Though Julius did observe that the man took notice of Julius''s arrival. Professor Edwards took an extra moment or two to watch Julius run around the track.


    As Julius ran, he noticed that a lot of students who regularly participated in their morning activities improved dramatically from their first day. He also noticed that a good number of students have already advanced to Tier 2.


    A quick check of their aura showed signs of advancement, but even if they were able to hide their aura, their physical abilities were even larger indicators. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was probably a good time for Julius to reveal his own advancement. He wanted to keep up with his original plan and it would make his absence more believable as well. Two weeks was a long time to advance to Tier 2, but he could easily explain it off as something that happened during his tier-up and leave it at that. He wouldn''t have to go into details because of the expectation of privacy when it came to personal advancement.


    Luckily only a few students seemed to recognize Julius''s return to class. For the most part, the ones who did didn''t seem to care all that much. They looked at Julius but quickly went back to whatever they were doing.


    The only ones who were paying him any real attention were Joshua and a guy next to him. Julius immediately recognized the tall guy, he had gotten a good impression from Joshua. By all means, Joshua had come off as a polite person. Julius looked over at Joshua''s friend who had also been staring at Julius occasionally throughout the class.


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    Julius didn''t want to make any rash assumptions, but he was pretty sure that the guy was the same one who was at the beach with Joshua that same night.


    Julius tried to ignore their gazes and went about the rest of the class. He was no longer trying to hide his Tier 2 physical capabilities, but ironically he didn''t think a single person other than Joshua and his friend noticed. The other students just didn''t care enough about Julius to be interested in his activities.


    He finished his workout, breathing a little rough, still choosing not to use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to help his fatigue. Even after around a month of focusing on improving his endurance, he could see the difference. He wasn''t getting as tired as easily and he was able to last a little longer each time.


    After class, he took a seat on a bench and took out some refreshments from his storage ring. He downed a sweet fruity drink along with some snacks that he snuck out of the cafeteria. His back was slick with sweat and he was trying to get his heartbeat from jumping out of his chest.


    Not surprisingly, he noticed a pair of students break off the rest of the students who were leaving and head toward his direction. Joshua and his friend approached him with a smile on their faces.


    Joshua waved at him, "Hey Julius, good to see you back."


    Julius smiled back at the friendly first-year. "It''s nice to be back." He looked at the other guy. "Aren''t you the same guy from the beach? I don''t think I got your name last time."


    "It''s James. Nice to see you again," James replied in a surprisingly smooth voice. Julius thought that he could have made a living as a radio host in his old world.


    "James huh? Well, it is nice to officially meet you," Julius nodded at James. "So what can I do for you guys?" Julius was curious as to why they had decided to come over to him.


    Joshua chuckled and rubbed his head. "We just wanted to come over and say hi. We also wanted to know if you wanted to eat lunch with us later this afternoon after Applied Combat."


    Julius looked at them surprised. "You guys have Professor Rowe before lunch too?" Julius didn''t know that the two of them were in that class. Then again, he didn''t really pay attention to who was in his classes. The only person he really cared about was Tristan, and that was just to avoid him. Thankfully, Julius had barely seen his cousin.


    Joshua laughed. "Yeah, we sit a couple of rows behind you. You don''t really look behind you but yeah."


    Julius thought for a second about their offer. He usually grabbed food with the others but perhaps it would not be such a bad idea to get more familiar with students in his own year. The others wouldn''t always be around and ostracizing himself from his fellow students wouldn''t be the smartest choice.


    Joshua seemed to notice that Julius was hesitating and hurriedly said, "You don''t need to say yes if you don''t want to. We just wanted to offer, if you want to think about it, you can let us know later after Applied Combat."


    Julius shook his head at him. "No that''s not it. I just normally eat with other friends so if I do I will have to let them know beforehand."


    "You eat with other friends? I don''t think I have ever seen you eat in the cafeteria." James asked almost accusingly.


    Julius looked at James and Joshua with a curious gaze. Joshua seemed to also want the answer to that question but looked away with what seemed to be pity in his eyes. "Sorry about James, he sometimes has no tact," Joshua apologized on behalf of his friend.


    Do they think I am lying or something? Perhaps they think because I don''t eat in the normal first-year cafeteria that I eat alone and I am lying about eating with other friends. Julius didn''t know how he felt about that.


    Julius smiled at them. "I don''t usually eat at the underclassmen cafeteria. I typically eat at the main cafeteria with the older students," he truthfully told them.


    "Why do you do that? I thought it wasn''t allowed for underclassmen to eat with the upperclassmen," Joshua said.


    "It''s not technically not allowed. It''s just a tradition that almost everyone follows," Julius explained to him.


    "But not you?" James asked bluntly again. Julius paused. He didn''t think the guy was being rude, he just didn''t get that feeling from him. He thought that it was possible that James was just an upfront person.


    "I got here early for the school year and met some older students on my first night. We became friends and I somehow ended up eating at the main cafeteria regularly," Julius said.


    Joshua''s eyes lit up in realization. "Oh, are these the same people who told you about the beach spot?"


    "Yep, the exact ones. They showed me before the semester started and I find myself going back there for some alone time every now and then."


    "What''s different about the main cafeteria and the underclassmen one?" James asked more curious than anything else.


    Julius thought about that for a moment. "It is larger for one thing. But the main advantage is that it is much more peaceful there than where the first-years eat, not as much noise and fights going on," he explained.


    "That sounds nice," Joshua groaned. "I swear every day there is at least one argument or fight. It''s hard to enjoy your food when people are throwing things around and yelling at each other."


    James who was standing next to him nodded his head in agreement. "I''m more surprised that the staff haven''t done anything about it."


    Joshua turned and looked at his friend "Right? I would think that someone would have stepped in by now and put an end to it."


    Julius sat down on his bench eating his food as the two of them complained about the horrid environment of the cafeteria. Sharing their grievances and woes. It was a little humorous listening to all of their complaints, Julius had to admit.


    Eventually, Joshua remembered that Julius was still right next to them. "Sorry about that," he apologized. "We got got carried away."


    Julius smiled and waved his hand at him, letting him know it was fine.


    "Well, if you want to join us, just let us know after Applied Combat. We will wait for you after class," Joshua told him.


    Julius nodded at him. "Sounds good, I''ll let you know then."


    "Great!" Joshua and James got up to leave. "Okay, we got to get to class, but it was nice talking to you. I hope you decide to eat with us later."


    Julius just nodded his head and watched the two of them leave for their next class. A little perplexed by the interaction before getting up and making his way to his next class.

 Chapter 116: Food Fight

    Julius was glad to say that the rest of his mandatory classes went by without issue. Thankfully he didn''t have a single professor call him out for missing class. He also didn''t think any students other than Joshua were aware of his presence or lack of during his absence. This meant he was able to tuck into his seat and pay attention to classes without a problem.However, there was something serious that he overlooked. Homework.


    His first week of classes didn''t assign anything and so he had mistakenly believed that Goldencrest didn''t have homework like normal schools. He was immediately proven wrong when Professor Stewart, Professor Youma, and Professor Rowe all asked for the students to turn in their assignments when they entered the class.


    He didn''t know exactly what to do except sit in his seat awkwardly. Apparently, it was common for professors to assign work over the weekends when there were no classes.


    Speaking of Professor Youma, he was the only one who really took notice of Julius''s reappearance. He didn''t necessarily look or talk to Julius, but Julius felt the professor''s aura poke around his aura as he was talking to the rest of the class. It was a greeting in a way.


    Even though Julius had been working on many of his other skills he had been constantly working on his aura in the background. He felt like he had almost gotten a handle on his newly acquired Tier 2 aura strength and could start practicing other more advanced techniques.


    After Professor Youma browsed through his aura like it was a public library the professor gave Julius a pat on his head with his aura. Julius annoyed with the nosy professor tried to tear apart the man''s aura in retaliation. Yet, all that accomplished was the man blowing away Julius''s attempt like it was a piece of lint.


    Damn, competent professor. Julius inwardly griped to himself.


    He stopped himself from thinking about the day''s events and paid attention to the final minutes of the lecture Professor Rowe was giving them.


    "The nature of swarm-type monster floods can be particularly dangerous to those with skills that do not cover large areas of damage or multiple targets. Many duelists and fighters who excel in one-on-one combat have found themselves in exceptionally dangerous situations and even on occasion get completely overrun by the sheer number of monsters. So in monster floods with swarm-types, you will find that the composition of fighters differs greatly from typical floods. Compatibility and type match-ups are essential variables for choosing your opponent."


    A guy raised his hand in front of the class. "What if you specialize in single combat but there isn''t any other choice but to fight a swarm?"


    Professor Rowe nodded his head sagely. "Good point Mr. Abbelton. You won''t always be able to choose what fights come to you. And it''s not a matter of if, it''s a matter of when. Every fighter eventually finds themselves in a position where their backs are pressed up against the wall and they have nothing else to do except to fight. Our job as professors is to prepare you for that." He looked at the rest of the class intently.


    "This is why throughout the year, you will be tested rigorously on various aspects of fighting that will test your strengths and most importantly your weaknesses."


    There was a pause in the classroom as the students took in what Professor Rowe explained.


    That was until a single person presented a question. "Does this mean that we will be tested against monsters in rifts that specifically counter us?" This time a question was asked by a young girl with brilliant white hair and rainbow eyes that shimmered with every color. At once, the entire class went quiet, the soft rustling of paper and hushed whispers went silent.


    The person who asked the question was Princess Reinera. The same person who everyone in the school had their attention on. The entire day Julius had to overhear dozens of conversations that all revolved around the newly attending princess. It was his good fortune that he only had her in his class for Applied Combat.


    Julius admittedly saw why people were going crazy over this girl. She was breathtakingly beautiful. The way the ambient light shrouded her figure made her glow wherever she walked gave her the appearance of an angel descending from the heavens. Julius had a guess that the reason for this was because of her bloodline. And he wasn''t going to lie, it made her look very cool.


    For how well-known the Imperial Bloodline was, not many people knew exactly how it worked. All they knew was that those with the Bloodline were able to harness the energy of light to enhance and empower themselves to ridiculous heights.


    Even though Julius was a little annoyed with how much chaos the princess had caused over the past couple of days. He was also looking forward to the answer to her question. He looked at Professor Rowe expectantly.


    Professor Rowe nodded his head at her. "You are correct, princess. While it won''t be any time soon, you guys will eventually be prepared and taken into rifts that are both optimal and poor match-ups for you."


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    Many of the students broke into excited discussions after hearing this. They like all kids their age, wanted to use their skills to fight monsters.


    Julius on the other hand leaned back and thought to himself about his own weaknesses. He wondered what kind of rift would be a perfect counter to him. What type of monster species would he find the most difficult to take on?


    He kept thinking about it even after Professor Rowe dismissed the class and told them that their homework was researching specific examples of swarm-type monster floods in the last hundred years.


    Julius quickly left the room. Many of the students had left their seats and were approaching the princess when the second class was over. He thought this was the best time to leave. As he was exiting the classroom, Joshua and his friend James hurried after him.


    "Hey, so you still want to eat lunch with us today?" Joshua asked after he caught up with Julius.


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    Julius thought about it and he couldn''t find any reasons why joining them would be a bad thing. It certainly wouldn''t hurt to try at least. So he nodded his head. "Sure, let''s hurry before the rest of these guys get to the cafeteria." Julius pointed his hand at the crowd that was surrounding the poor princess.


    Joshua looked back and chuckled. "Yeah, I don''t envy that kind of attention."


    The three of them found themselves sitting at a table together. Joshua asked all the normal questions. Such as where Julius was from and what kind of affinities did he have. Julius remained noncommittal with his answers. He didn''t give any details and when Joshua tried to press for more, it was surprisingly James who was the one who scolded Joshua.


    "Stop being so nosy. Not everyone feels comfortable sharing their entire life story with people they just met."


    Joshua was a considerate person and immediately realized his rudeness, apologizing right away. Even went as far as to offer his last piece of bread to Julius as an apology gift.


    While Julius didn''t really explain who he was that well, Joshua took the initiative to introduce himself to Julius. Joshua was the son of a Count Rollins and James was the son of a Lord underneath the count. The two of them had known each other for years and had grown up with the same people.


    Julius found out that the two girls they were with the other night were named Kyla and Ashley. They didn''t have the same schedules so they ate lunch earlier, but they usually ate with the two of them for dinner and had met them last year before any of them came to Goldencrest.


    Julius and the two of them broke off from their conversation when they heard a loud commotion come from the entrance. He already had a pretty good guess about who was the cause of such a scene. Therefore, he wasn''t shocked when Princess Reinera walked through the cafeteria along with a line of people following her like little ducklings.


    The rest of the students who were in her path quickly made way for her. Each of them smiled and said hello to their fellow royal resident. Although she had a pleasant smile on her face. Julius could tell that she was getting annoyed by all the attention. Julius was starting to feel a bit bad for the girl. That didn''t mean he was going to intervene and help her, but he could at least empathize with her.


    While most of the students parted ways for her, Julius saw a first-year boy walk up to the princess with an overly dramatic swagger. He looked like a noble too. The boy had so much gold on his outfit that Julius was curious as to whether or not the boy got tired from the sheer weight of the metal on his body.


    Julius observed as the boy gave a flourished bow and introduced himself. Julius didn''t quite hear what the boy said, but he assumed that it wasn''t that impressive if the princess''s face was any indicator. The boy also had his own posse who had followed him as he approached the princess.


    By now, almost everyone''s attention was on the interaction. The princess was still being polite, but whatever the boy was offering she didn''t seem interested. The others in her posse let out an audible gasp as if they were insulted on her behalf.


    Suddenly, there was a commotion between the two other members of each group. Julius wasn''t paying attention to how it happened, but somehow two guys were getting into it. Then out of nowhere, punches started getting thrown and it became absolute chaos. One moment it was calm and peaceful and the next was absolute pandemonium.


    Food went flying off of trays, tables were flipped, and people went crashing into each other. The princess was doing her best to settle down her group, but after the first punch was thrown it was like a tsunami. There was nothing she could do to stop it.


    Julius had to admit that it was all very entertaining. He and the other two were further back so they weren''t in the thick of it, but the occasional food came their way. Even some fights that had spread out ended up knocking into their table.


    Julius was smart and took precautions. He had already gotten up with his tray and moved further back to the end of the cafeteria, with Joshua and James wisely following him.


    Julius ended up sitting on top of a table snacking on the piece of bread that Joshua had given him as he enjoyed the festivities.


    I should really come here more often whenever I am bored. This is better than any movie. He happily thought to himself.


    He used a bit of kinetic energy to divert a flying chicken bone that had somehow made its way all the way to this end of the cafeteria. It was impressive when he thought about it. Someone must have just yeeted the thing across the large room.


    Eventually, the staff members had to intervene, quickly putting an end to the chaos. Usually, they let the students work it out themselves, but this time must have been too far even for their standards. They used their auras and skills to settle down the crowd. On occasion using more forceful methods on the ones who were really wound up.


    Some students had gotten more hurt than what was acceptable, which meant that the staff had to call healers over for help. It was a big mess that required more clean-up than anything else. Healers showed up and had to heal broken bones and busted-up faces. Luckily, people weren''t just throwing out dangerous techniques and had held themselves to just throwing punches.


    He didn''t know the etiquette or general rules of food fights in the cafeteria, but not using dangerous techniques must have been one of them.


    It was a good thing to remember if he ever found himself in the middle of one.

 Chapter 117: Where Are They?

    Julius spent the next week splitting his time between his classes, sparring with Gabriel and the others, as well as his own nighttime training. The addition of homework didn''t really affect him all that much. The assignments didn''t take that long and mostly relied on students doing the work on their own time. If they didn''t do it then the only repercussions were not knowing the topic for future exams or in the worst-case scenario, not knowing the answer when the professor called on you. Which might honestly be the biggest reason for most of the students.After the first couple of days, the craze of the princess''s attendance had settled down. Students quickly got used to the fact that she would be attending class with them. Not to anyone''s surprise, there were still some groups of students who were always looking to gain favor with her. Without fail, people tried to squeeze their way into her friend circle or be extra nice to her. It must''ve been exhausting for both her and them.


    Julius stayed out of the way of the chaos, minding his own business. He didn''t care much about all of that drama. He had a lot on his plate that he needed to focus on. Most of his training had been Concept training and getting used to his [Composite Mana] skill.


    Which he was able to get several skill levels in, as well as some levels in [Kinetic Augmentation] from the sparring with Gabriel.


    [Composite Mana lvl 2 -> lvl 5]


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 15 -> lvl 16]


    Gabriel and the others tried to give him tips about how to learn a Concept of Sharpness, but since they didn''t have one themselves, it made it kind of difficult to give him any substantial advice.


    They gave him meditation methods and other advice such as what aspects of sharpness he should be focusing on. They recommended that he pay closer attention to each individual step of how sharpness worked as well as its meaning to him.


    He had been seriously considering whether or not to learn a Fire Concept instead. Ever since he had learned about Concepts and the fact that they were necessary to learn an epic skill, he had been thinking about getting a Fire Concept to fill that requirement.


    The only thing that held him back was the fact that he felt like he was close to learning a Sharpness Concept. He spent hours meditating and thinking about what sharpness was. Hours upon hours of sitting on the mat deliberating on the Concept of Sharpness.


    Luckily today was the weekend. Which meant that Julius would be going out with Declan again to a Tier 2 rift. He was still slightly disappointed with the fact that it still was a Tier 2 rift, but he played along. Declan had promised him that he would be free to delve on his own as long as Julius showed him he could handle it.


    That was why Julius was on his way to meet Declan this morning. He made sure to stop at a cafe and got him and Declan a coffee and a selection of pastries. He promptly stored the still-hot items and quickly made his way to the location of the rift.


    This rift was a bit different than their last one. This rift was populated with golem-like monsters. Golems were monsters made up of solid materials such as stone, metal, or even wood at times. These creatures were also very interesting because they spawned naturally like many other monsters, but they were also able to be artificially created through the efforts of people.


    There were mages out there that focused directly on the creation and utilization of golems. There was a particularly infamous and nasty golem user who had also specialized in necromancy in the years past. This person was able to fuse the properties of necromancy and golem creation into a single magic.


    This eventually led to this person to raising a golem army under their direct control. The main downside of golem creation is that the user has to manually direct and control the golem to some extent. This meant that they would only be able to control so many golems before they were overwhelmed.


    That wasn''t the case for the necromancer. Through vile means of magic, he was able to offset the mental load that normally came with golems to the souls of his victims. Often placing soul constructs within the golem that resembled the functions of an operating system.


    They had caused untold damage to an entire region before being taken care of by a large group of adventurers. A good number of them were Tier 5. However, that tragedy demonstrated one thing. Golems were uniquely hard to deal with.


    Their hardened exteriors and lack of normal vital spots made them a much more difficult endeavor to take down.


    Perhaps that was the reason why Declan had chosen this rift for Julius. He might be looking to test Julius on how he will deal with something that has a much harder defense than the goblins.


    If the goblin rift had a danger level of around a D or C rank, then golem rifts were usually around B rank or sometimes higher depending on the type of golem and what materials they were made of.


    Julius didn''t think that this rift would be any higher than B rank. Golem rifts that were A rank would also mean that the materials that the golems were made of would be of a much higher quality. This meant a much more valuable rift. Julius didn''t think for all of Lord Lagos''s generosity, he would allow Julius and Declan access to one of his most valuable rifts. Additionally, the rift was only Tier 2. Not Tier 3 or 4, where more valuable materials pop up.


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    Unlike last time, the rift this time was located within the city limits of Heston. It was still on the outskirts, but Julius didn''t have to leave through the gates.


    Julius walked up to the building that was supposedly where the rift was held. He looked around with [Spatial Perception], but he didn''t sense Declan anywhere nearby. Julius had come pretty early again, so he wasn''t surprised that he was the first one here.


    However, that meant he had time to eat his food while he waited for Declan. He spotted a water fountain placed in the middle of a nearby square and walked toward it. There were a good number of people out and about already, but that wasn''t unusual for Heston.


    Julius sat his rear down on the marble stone of the fountain and took out the things he bought from the cafe earlier. The smell of cinnamon and freshly baked wheat radiated from his items. He smiled as his mouth salivated at delicious-looking pastries.


    He created a small layer of softened mana behind his back to lean against and as he enjoyed his breakfast on a brisk morning, he waited for Declan to arrive.


    Turns out he didn''t have to wait for long. Declan showed up just as Julius was polishing off his food. Like always, Julius offered Declan what he had gotten him. To which Declan gratefully took with a smile from Julius.


    "Have you been waiting long?" Declan asked through a mouthful of pastry.


    Julius shook his head. "No, it was perfect timing really. I just finished my food before you arrived." sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Perfect. You ready to go?" Declan asked.


    Julius pointed at the food and coffee that was in Declan''s hands. "You don''t want to wait until you finish?"


    "I''ll be fine. I don''t plan on fighting anyway," Declan said casually.


    "I mean if it''s fine with you," he said while shrugging his shoulders.


    The two of them walked up to the building. Julius had put the same black cloth over his face again before opening the doors. Inside looked like the entrance to an office building. There were chairs and couches spread out, while people dressed in nice suits and dresses talked with each other. It was a little weird seeing how similar it was to his old world.


    There was a front desk where a young woman was sitting behind. Julius and Declan both approached her.


    "Hi! Can I help you with anything?" She asked Declan. She also gave Julius a look, briefly noting his face covering, looking a bit confused.


    "Hello, we are here for this," Declan responded, holding up the rift access card in one hand.


    The woman looked back at him and opened up her hand expectantly. Declan placed the card in it. She then proceeded to verify it with another black cube. Once she made sure that it was the real thing, she smiled at the two of them and handed the card back to Declan before saying, "If you will follow me please."


    She got up and led them down the hallway and took them downstairs to a sublevel floor before leaving them. Julius was a bit surprised to see something very similar to what he had seen at the goblin rift. There were large pillars surrounding the portal situated in the center of the room. Large ceilings and large lamps of soft yellow light shone throughout the spacious opening.


    Julius spotted several guards who were all standing around the room. Two of them noticed their entrance and approached Declan and Julius. They went through the same procedures that the guards at the goblin rift had gone through, before letting Julius and Declan enter the rift.


    When they entered the rift, Julius was a bit taken aback by the different environment. The rifts he had been to so far, had all been open-field environments. However, this time they were placed within a cave of some sort.


    A massive cave at that. The ceilings were dozens of feet tall and at least that wide apart. Though not the same type of magical aesthetic as the goblin or troll rift, it had its own allure. The cave was lit up by a soft blue glow that was emitted by the countless blue crystals that decorated the walls.


    The light from them made it possible to see enough. He couldn''t even begin to imagine how hard it would have been if someone without a skill to see in the dark were to enter this rift and there wasn''t any source of lighting.


    Once they had entered Julius watched as Declan pulled out the remainder of his pastry and the coffee from his spatial device, nonchalantly taking a bite and then sipping on his drink.


    Julius chose to ignore the man and focused on the rift. He couldn''t sense anything yet, but they had just entered so it would be weird if he did. It didn''t appear like there was another direction he could head toward. Behind him was the portal and a big wall. It seemed like the rift was telling him that he only had a single direction he could choose from.


    On the bright side, that made his job much easier. Since there was only a single direction, that meant he only had to make his way down the cave and not think about the route as cautiously.


    Ever since he had found out what type of rift Declan was taking him to, he had some ideas about how he wanted to deal with the golems. It was common knowledge that using bladed weapons was not the most optimal choice for fighting such an opponent.


    Most weapons would chip and shatter before much use. People have found that brute force attacks or weapons such as hammers or other things that did concussive damage did a very nice job dealing with golems. He was thinking about creating large constructs that would smash the golem apart. Maybe some liberal usage of kinetic energy and some explosions might help. It would certainly help expose the core of the golem.


    To take down a golem, it was imperative to find the core. That was typically the most difficult thing about hunting golems. Their cores were never in the same place, but most people were able to find them after several attempts. Most of the time cores resided around the chest or head, those were the safest bets and the most well-defended parts of the golem''s body.


    A good mana-sensing skill would be helpful to anyone who is trying to locate a core. The immense source of energy would be a good hint to people about the whereabouts of the core.


    In Julius''s case, he didn''t know if [Spatial Perception] would be helpful in this matter. Although he didn''t have the [Mana Sense] skill, he did have a good grasp on sensing mana especially through [Spatial Perception]. That didn''t mean that he would be able to sense the golem''s core though. He would have to wait until he found one first to see if it was possible.


    Now where are they? Julius thought excitedly to himself. He couldn''t wait to begin.

 Chapter 118: Dead Mans Skill

    It took a bit of walking before Julius and Declan encountered a golem. Julius was able to pick it up before it was in sight. The golem was a big mound of rock that looked vaguely humanoid in shape. It had two legs and two arms, but that was where the similarities ended.It was around ten feet tall and the surface of its exterior had a rough and pebbly texture. Though there were no obvious seams other than some of the joints as far as Julius could tell. However, the most noticeable thing was the large concentration of mana, just to the right side of the golem''s chest.


    Julius would bet all of the food in his storage ring that this was where the core was located.


    He looked on excitedly at his next opponent. He had heard a lot of things about the defensive properties of these creatures. He was expecting that they would prove to be more challenging than the goblins had been.


    He gathered mana into a spike with familiar ease. [Composite Mana] had made his life so much easier. The speed at which he was able to create a spike was very satisfying. The added power caused by the interaction and synergy behind the various energies was welcome too.


    With a mental command, the spike was sent blasting toward the unsuspecting golem, aimed directly at the spot where he spotted the core. Much to his disappointment the spike absolutely shredded through the stone defenses of the golem. The core didn''t stand a chance. The spike didn''t even have to explode, it just sheered right through its chest and blasted against the back wall.


    Julius just froze for a minute. He hadn''t been expecting something like that. Perhaps he should have, but with all the talk about the golem''s defensive abilities, he would have thought that it would be able to take at least a couple of attacks. Even at Tier 2.


    He turned back to look at Declan who was equally as surprised. However for very different reasons. While Julius was disappointed at how easy it was, Declan was surprised at how easily Julius dispatched it.


    Declan knew how powerful Julius was for his Tier and how powerful his constructs were in particular, but he didn''t think that they were quite on this level. They certainly weren''t at this level when Declan first met the boy.


    It was fair to mention that Declan didn''t specialize in the same areas as Julius. This meant that he didn''t really have a comprehensive understanding of Julius''s constructs and their destructive capabilities. But he knew what his eyes told him.


    He had seen how well Julius had fared against goblins. Julius had a really good perception skill and was able to ambush the goblins without them fighting back. Also, the goblins had very weak defenses. Their biggest advantage was their numbers and aggression. Something that Julius was able to neutralize. He could understand why Julius had such an easy time with the rift. It was a good fit.


    But this rift was the opposite in many aspects. It had singular large and powerful enemies versus many weak ones.


    It was also worth mentioning that the constructs he used against them were much weaker than what he was showing now. The spike he used on the golem was brutal. Declan didn''t know how he was able to create such a devastating attack, but it wasn''t something he should have been capable of.


    Julius continued to look at Declan. Neither of them knew what to do. Both hadn''t expected Julius to just one-shot the golem.


    "What now?" Julius finally asked aloud.


    "I don''t know. I thought that this rift would be a little more difficult for you," Declan confessed.


    "Yeah, so did I. You and other sources told me that golems were really hard to put down."


    "They are. Almost every single variant has some sort of [Mana Resistance] and other various resistance skills. If you add that on top of their natural physical defenses, it is normally very difficult to one-shot them. Even a Tier 3 would have to put in a lot of effort to one-shot a golem," Declan said slowly.


    "So what does this mean? Do we continue or do we change something?" Julius asked.


    Declan put a hand underneath his chin. "How many more of those spikes can you create before running out of mana?"


    Julius shrugged his shoulders and placed his palms face up in the air. "I don''t know. You know that of all things I am not lacking in mana. I could most likely create dozens more without issue."


    Declan''s mouth widened and hung open. "Dozens? Like a couple dozen or several dozen?"


    "Yeah, depends on how much I use on each one."


    Declan didn''t say anything, he just turned away from Julius and took some time to think. While he was doing that, Julius felt another golem approach them. It must have felt the blast from his spike and came to investigate. Golems weren''t very smart but they knew how to sense mana among other things, such as a big explosion.


    Julius quickly created another spike, but this time he didn''t create an explosive version. It was just a pointy spike. Much more boring but also much quieter.


    He shot it at the approaching golem and it tore through the thing''s chest where the core resided. He used less mana and force this time, but the sharpened mana still tore through the rock like butter.


    Declan was still quiet but he took in Julius''s actions.


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    Finally, Julius spoke up. "You see why I want to test myself in Tier 3 rifts?"


    Declan nodded. "Yeah, I''m starting to see where your confidence is coming from. When you told me you wanted to enter Tier 3 rifts I thought you were just exaggerating your abilities. I know you are strong, but Tier 3 is very different from Tier 2."


    "And now?" Julius asked.


    "You certainly have the power to punch through a Tier 3 defense."


    "So does that mean we can head to a Tier 3 rift instead?" Julius asked hopefully.


    "No, we might as well get some use out of this one. Next time I will take you to a Tier 3 rift. But they are a little more busy than Tier 2 rifts so I will have to schedule it beforehand."


    Well, that was a bust, Julius sadly thought to himself. He had been looking forward to testing his new skill on actual monsters.


    "Do you have an idea what I can still get out of this rift then?" Julius asked Declan.


    "Do you have something you want to work on? Any skills that you might want to level up?"


    "Not really. However, I have been working on my Concept lately. I haven''t had much luck and I was hoping to find a solution here," Julius admitted to Declan. He hadn''t told Declan about his plans for this epic skill and his intentions of learning a Sharpness Concept, it just hadn''t come up until now.


    Declan chuckled and shook his head. "Of course you are." He didn''t know why he was still getting surprised by the boy. "What Concept are you working on?"


    "Sharpness and maybe fire."


    Declan smiled. "Sharpness huh? I might be able to help you there," Declan said to Julius''s surprise.


    "Why''s that?" Julius curiously asked.


    Declan looked at his fingernails casually. "I have a Concept of Penetration and I might be able to share some advice." Julius watched as the man seemed awfully smug about it. But he didn''t elaborate any further.


    Julius waited for the man to say something after but he didn''t. "Well don''t feel pressured to say anything," Julius sarcastically told him.


    Declan just laughed and bent down and picked up a handful of random pebbles. Then he turned and placed them in Julius''s hand.


    "What do you want me to do with these?" Julius asked.


    "I want you to use them to take down a golem," Declan explained.


    That shouldn''t be too hard, Julius thought to himself. He took one random pebble and begin to create a layer of mana around the rock. He compressed the mana and constructed it so that the pebble was harder than a piece of steel.


    Declan put his hand on Julius''s shoulders and shook his head. "No skills other than the [Mana Slash] skill you have.


    Julius looked up at the man. "How did you know I have [Mana Slash]?


    "It''s kind of obvious. It is one of the more common skills for a reason, though your usage of it is not something I have quite seen. You must have spent a lot of time adapting it."


    "Oh yeah, way too much time," Julius said while shaking his head. "So what''s the purpose of using only [Mana Slash]?" Julius asked.


    "There are a couple of reasons. One is that I want you to focus on using sharpened mana. Only using the single skill will allow you to focus primarily on the Sharpness Concept. Another reason is that it will serve as a good opportunity to level up your skill to rare," Declan explained.


    Declan must have seen the weird look on Julius''s face because he asked Julius, "What''s wrong?"


    "I actually finished leveling up [Mana Slash] to level 15 not too long ago. I just hadn''t chosen what skill I wanted to go with," Julius told Declan about his circumstances.


    "Do you have any skills that you are leaning toward?"


    "I was going to go with [Mana Strike] because I think there is a good chance that it will fit well with my other skills," he told Declan.


    "What other skills did you get offered?"


    Julius thought about telling him and thought that it was worth it if he somehow got some good advice. "I got offered [Mana Strike], [Razor Edge], [Rippling Slice], [Rendering Slash], and [Barrier of Severance]," he told Declan.


    "You said you want to combine several skills into an epic skill correct?" Declan asked.


    "That''s the plan at least. Why?" Declan made it sound as if he had something in mind.


    "How many exactly?"


    "Four," Julius said hesitantly. He was getting more and more confused.


    "You should be able to create an epic skill without using [Mana Slash] or without the evolved skill of [Mana Slash]. Three should be enough to have a good mana construct skill," Declan said eagerly.


    "Why? You make it sound like it would be better not to," Julius looked at Declan with inquisitive eyes.


    "I think you should change your mind about adding [Mana Strike] to the skill and instead get the [Barrier of Severance] skill," Declan said with a grin.


    "The reason being?"


    Declan paused to get his thoughts together. "I have not heard of the skill [Barrier of Severance] before. However, I have heard of the skill [Barrier of Disruption]. It was used by an anti-mage fighter by the name of Riley, better known as the Ghostblade. He was brutally effective in taking down mages and those who relied on activated skills. While the name is similar to a more common skill, [Disruption Barrier] the effects were much more extreme than it. It was never recorded what his epic evolved skill was, but it was without a doubt the most impressive skill in his arsenal. He was able to disrupt not just mana, but everything," Declan said excitedly.


    Julius looked at Declan with a serious expression. "And you think that this [Barrier of Severance] skill will be just as good? I appreciate your advice, but I have been set on combining these skills for a while. I don''t really see the value in having a defensive skill like that rather than a potent addition to an offensive technique."


    Declan chuckled. "He didn''t just use it as a defensive technique, its real value was how he was able to apply it to practically anything. Even his aura."


    "His aura?" Julius asked amazed.


    "Yeah, that was the real danger of that technique. Anybody who got within the influence of his aura was effectively handicapped and was able to use their mana or any other active skills. Mages couldn''t manipulate mana and couldn''t teleport away to protect themselves. They were sitting ducks for him."


    "Where is he now?" Julius asked. He was impressed, this man sounded very skilled and very powerful.


    "Yeah about that¡­" Declan trailed off.


    "What?" Julius pressed.


    "Well¡­ he was hunted down and killed a while ago," Declan said while scratching his head awkwardly.


    Julius froze and gave Declan a deadpan stare. Really?


    "You want me to take a skill that belonged to a person who got himself killed?" Julius asked disbelievingly. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 119: Typical Julius

    Declan put his hands out to calm Julius down. "I did say he was an anti-mage fighter. But I didn''t mention that he was a paid assassin."Julius threw his hands in the air. "Oh, that''s even better. You want me to acquire a skill from a dead assassin. A person who failed at his job?"


    Julius did not like assassins. After the night at the manor, he found himself having an intense dislike for anything that involved them.


    Declan tilted his head and squinted his eyes. "Technically, he didn''t fail his job. If anything he got killed because he succeeded at his job."


    "How does that make any sense?" Julius asked the man.


    "As you might expect, being a paid killer has some downsides. One of them is that people don''t take kindly to them in general, especially the ones who were on the receiving end of their work."


    "Yeah, that is quite expected," Julius said like it was obvious. "How did he get killed?" He asked.


    Declan gave a little frown. "As far as I know. The Ghostblade took a job to kill a young man. He succeeded, but what the people who hired him failed to tell him, was that the man''s parents were both Tier 6." Declan looked at Julius expectantly. "As you can guess, they weren''t too pleased when they found out."


    Yeah, Julius could only imagine the shit the assassin was in after they found out. "I''m guessing they hunted him down."


    Declan nodded. "Oh yeah. Hunted down to the little hole they found him hiding in. To the Ghostblade''s credit, he survived much longer than anyone expected and put up a remarkable fight against the two powerhouses as a Tier 5."


    "Still, you want me to get an assassin''s skill?" Julius asked.


    Declan walked up to Julius and put his hand on his shoulder. "The skill was used by an assassin, but that doesn''t make it an assassin''s skill," he said seriously.


    When he saw that Julius didn''t look convinced he continued.


    "Hypothetically, a raging monster kills thousands of people with [Mana Strike]. Does that make [Mana Strike] a murderer''s skill?" Julius shook his head. "No, of course not. The skill is merely a tool. How you use it and the type of person you are when you use, depend entirely on your choices and the person you are."


    He has a point, Julius admitted to himself.


    He couldn''t discount a skill just because it was used by a person of dubious character. He couldn''t afford not to take all the opportunities to get stronger. Not yet. He still needed to get much stronger.


    Julius turned to look at Declan. "So you really think I should get his [Barrier of Severance] skill?"


    "Yes, I think the likelihood that it''s a rare+ skill is high. You might regret not getting it now while you can. Who knows if you will have the chance to learn it again. [Mana Strike], while a very good skill, is still a common skill. I am sure that you will be able to learn it another way with another evolution if you still want to get it."


    Julius nodded in understanding. Declan had a point. [Mana Strike] could be learned by a large number of mana attack skills. Going with that same reasoning, why would he not take the opportunity to learn a potentially amazing skill? If [Barrier of Severance] had half of the potential that Declan told him, then Julius should take the skill.


    "What about my epic skill then? Will not having the [Mana Strike] skill make it weaker?"


    "Not necessarily. You might not have the extra damage in the initial stages, but take a step back and look at how much damage you are already putting out. I don''t think you are in any need of extra damage right now. One-shotting golems at the same Tier is unheard of. Even if you are, there are always ways to add skills later down the path. Not to mention that you can always use [Barrier of Severance] or a similar skill to boost it," Declan told him.


    Declan was making more and more sense. Julius felt himself being convinced of the time that passed. He did have a question for Declan that he still wanted to know.


    "What about the Concept of Sharpness?" He asked.


    "What about it?" Declan asked confused.


    "Will I need to learn another Concept that fits the epic skill better if I am not adding [Mana Strike]?" Julius explained.


    Declan chuckled and said, "No, the Sharpness Concept will still be a good Concept for an attack-based skill. Whatever epic skill you might be offered should be able to use the Concept easily."


    "And having Sharpness as the first Concept added to a skill won''t influence negatively in the long run?" Julius questioned further.


    "In the long run no. In the short term, the skill will be more focused on being sharp and cutting through things. But epic skills are more fluid than rare skills are. They change with time and are affected by new Concepts that are added later on."


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    Julius took time to contemplate. He stared around at the large cavern that they were standing in. He was half surprised that no golems had come over and disrupted them.


    Then he turned back to Declan."You really think that this skill will be as good as this Ghostblade''s skill?"


    Declan smiled at him. "No. I don''t think your skill will be just as good." Declan gave a dramatic pause. "I think it will be even better."


    Julius looked at Declan with a glint in his eyes and made up his mind. Declan was right, he didn''t need [Mana Strike] for his epic skill, [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], and [Composite Mana] were more than enough. If he was being honest with himself, the three of the skills fit better together than [Mana Strike] would have. [Mana Strike] might have been the odd skill out in the group if he were to combine it.


    He bit the bullet and chose the skill.


    Congratulations, the skill [Barrier of Severance] (Rare+) acquired.


    Well, he was right about it being rare+, Julius laughed to himself.


    He smiled and turned to look at Declan who was looking at him with a questioning look.


    "What?" Declan asked him.


    Julius didn''t say anything but just gave him a grin.


    "Don''t tell me you just chose the skill right away," Declan said in disbelief.


    "What can I say, you can be mighty convincing at times," Julius said.


    "Yeah, but I didn''t mean for you to choose it right now. I meant for you to think about it tonight or until next week," he said in a deadpan tone.


    Julius just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, too late now." He turned to head off deeper into the cave. "Come on, aren''t you curious about what the skill can do?" He asked Declan over his shoulder.


    Julius heard Declan sigh loudly but he was barely able to hear him grumble, "Of course I am," and proceeded to follow Julius deeper into the rift.


    Within a couple of minutes, they found another golem, one much like the last. Julius took a pebble from the pile that Declan had handed him previously and focused his new skill on it. [Barrier of Severance] was surprisingly similar to [Mana Slash], at least similar to how Julius had been using it when he had fought with Aubrey.


    The most prominent difference was the color of the mana emitting from it. It was a distinct pale white light instead of a light blue. As the pebble was surrounded by the pale light, Julius could already feel the sharpened mana trying to cut through his hand, even though he was merely holding the thing.


    He knew instinctually from acquiring the skill that he could choose what the skill targeted. So with a quick thought, he stopped the pebble from continuing to try to saw through his hand. With a little application of [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal], he was able to heal his palm.


    Julius inspected the pebble closely and could feel that it was much sharper than [Mana Slash] had been. He was interested at what the specific differences might be. He cocked back his hand that held the rock and sent it flying at the golem with nothing more than his pure physical strength.


    To his surprise, it did more than he would have thought. The rock hit the golem right in the chest, but instead of bouncing off, the pebble lodged itself into the hardened chest of the golem like it was stuck in a piece of clay.


    The golem paused as if confused by the attack. It looked at Julius and back to where Julius had hit it.


    Finally, after a long pause, it seemed to come to the conclusion that Julius was the one responsible for the attack and charged at him.


    When it started to charge, Julius could see why golems were considered Tier 2 monsters. Although its defenses were some of the best for its Tier, its speed was quite¡­ sad.


    Julius guessed the sheer weight of the golem made it hard for it to move around, but he would have expected that it had some type of skill that made it easier to maneuver around. At this speed he was surprised anyone got killed by this thing. He could have probably out ran this thing when he was unawakened.


    Julius took his time to take another pebble and use [Barrier of Severance] around it before throwing it at the incoming golem. He noticed that this new skill used quite a lot of mana. It wasn''t enough to bother him, but if he had mana capacity like normal Tier 2s he expected he would find it difficult to use this skill more than a couple dozen times before he had to conserve his mana.


    He kept going at it. Infusing stones with [Barrier of Severance] and throwing them at the golem. Each of them lodged itself into the golem''s chest or other limbs with a satisfying plunk. Julius barely had to focus on dodging the golem''s attacks. The only techniques that posed any real danger were the occasional surprise stone construct that the golem created to attack Julius from a distance and the frequent blasts of energy that came out of its face.


    Still, Julius was able to feel the constructs being created with [Spatial Perception] and the energy blasts because he has eyes of his own. It wasn''t very difficult to predict that the glowing face of the golem was an indicator of it attacking. He just had to make sure to not keep still in the same spot for too long and he was in no danger.


    Thus, he kept on throwing pebbles at the thing, getting a feel for the skill and trying to connect with the Concept of Sharpness. Declan insisted that this way would help him learn a Concept easier.


    To anyone who was observing the fight, it would look quite hilarious. They would see a young boy running around and throwing rocks at a giant made of stone. To be fair, Julius was doing some damage. His new skill didn''t seem to have any issue penetrating the exterior of the golem. But it did seem like the size of the pebbles as well as him only using his physical strength was preventing him from doing any more damage.


    Yet, that was kind of the purpose of this exercise. He was only going to use [Barrier of Severance] to take down this golem, no matter how long it would take. He did learn something very interesting though. The stones that were lodged into the golem''s body were still surrounded with [Barrier of Severance]. This meant that Julius could still influence the barrier to some extent.


    Since the pebbles were surrounded by the barrier, Julius could remotely control said pebbles. It didn''t mean he could slingshot them toward the target, otherwise he wouldn''t be using his arm to throw them. However, he could try to drill the pebbles deeper into the golem. And that was exactly what he was attempting at the moment.


    The pebbles that were lodged into the golem''s chest all started to vibrate and move as Julius tried to drill the stones into the golem. He was disappointed to say that it didn''t work out that well. He was sure that if he were to add some kinetic energy to them he could generate enough force to do some damage, but since he was limiting himself, he wasn''t able to.


    He tried a lot of things with the embedded pebbles and wasn''t able to find something that would work.


    That is until in typical Julius fashion, he accidentally exploded something.

 Chapter 120: Severing Will

    It didn''t take a genius to figure out that Julius had a proclivity for explosions. Whatever may happen, you could count on Julius to find a way to blow something up.The whole explosion thing happened entirely by accident. But he was proud to say it was a happy accident. The explosion was way more effective than he could have possibly hoped for. It was like a hand grenade but all of the fragments cut through the stone of the golem with ease. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    There was no fire, blast of air, or big boom. But the damage was undeniable. The sharpened mana that the barrier was made up of was a potent weapon regardless of the form it took.


    Therefore, Julius forgot about the rest of the pebbles in his hands for now. He quickly dropped them back to the ground and focused on the pebbles that were already lodged inside the golem''s body. He tried to control the barrier of a pebble that had found its way inside one of the golem''s arms.


    While he was doing that the golem wasn''t just standing by and letting Julius attack it. The big chunk of rock was continuously staggering toward him while throwing beams of mana and big stones at him. Some did get pretty close, but Julius was able to avoid any real damage so far.


    He did spot Declan off to the side who was looking on with a very excited expression. The man had a big grin on his face that didn''t seem close to coming off of his face. Julius felt like he was some entertainment match in the gladiator days in ancient Rome and Declan was like the spectators who happily watched.


    Julius didn''t know if Declan was more amused to see Julius trying to take down a golem with only small pebbles or if he was more amused to see that the skill was showing some use already.


    The first explosion had been an accident and he didn''t know exactly how to recreate it. However, he had plenty of time to experiment with different methods.


    It took longer than he had expected, but he finally managed to recreate the explosion after ruining over a dozen barrier-covered pebbles. Sometimes instead of an explosion, he ended up with an ineffective barrier that just dissipated like steam. Other times he ended up with a barrier that shattered like glass.


    The trick was to simultaneously hold together the barrier with his will for as long as he could, while also adding more sharpened mana to the pebble. Then once it was about to blow, he just needed to concentrate on making sure the sharpened mana was as explosive as he could possibly manage, shredding everything in its path.


    The first purposeful explosion of the [Barrier of Severance] was much more effective than the last one. Instead of taking out a small chunk of stone, Julius managed to tear out almost the thing''s entire limb.


    He got a notification for his troubles.


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    Not only that but he managed to feel something. It was different from his usual mana manipulations. This was something different. It was more ethereal. More like catching a whiff of something in the air but not quite putting a finger on it.


    He swiftly paused from what he was doing and sat down to meditate. He tried to chase down what he had perceived and see if he could grab ahold of it in order to decipher its purpose.


    It took some fumbling around in the dark, but he thought he felt something.


    This might be it, Julius thought excitedly.


    Away from Julius''s daydreaming, the golem didn''t seem to understand that Julius was no longer interested in it and continued its assault on him. Julius looked on as the big lump of rock ran at him. He took a brief second away from his focus, concentrated on the pebbles that were nearest to the golem''s core, and ignited them. Using them as mediums to send rippling explosions of sharp mana. The golem was torn apart and destroyed within the blink of an eye.


    Don''t interrupt me. I''m busy, Julius said, a little annoyed at the disruption, and gave one last glance at the now falling mundane mound of rock.


    After that was taken care of, he got back to his revelation. He was deep in concentration, using an empowered [Savage Dance] to get deeper and deeper. Until all that was before him was sharpness.


    What is sharpness?


    No, that''s not quite it. What is sharpness to me? What do I want out of it? Julius thought to himself.


    He had been going on about sharpness from the wrong angle. He had been so focused on the logical side of things and the science behind sharpness that he could remember from his old world that he had forgotten that he was in a world of magic.


    Science didn''t hold as much importance as it did back in his old world. The most important part he realized the longer he lived here, was that intent often mattered more than simple science. One''s emotions, hopes, dreams, and intent play a significant factor in magic.


    Learning a Concept didn''t just revolve around how sharpness worked.


    Sure, knowing about cells getting cut apart and scientific principles of sharpness was good to know. But what he really needed to do was to realize what he wanted to use the Concept for. What was the purpose of learning the Concept and what was his intent in acquiring it?


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    Once he understood that difference. It all became crystal clear.


    That was all he needed, it felt so simple. After hours on hours of constant meditation, it all seemed so easy. He felt the world spin around him and then stop, before flooding him with energy and power he hadn''t quite felt before. He felt connected to a deeper plane and realization than ever before.


    He wanted sharpness to cut through all of his enemies who would dare to harm him or the ones he cared about. He wanted sharpness to tear through the chains that would attempt to bind him and restrict his freedom. He wanted sharpness to sever the binds of his mortality.


    Congratulations. You have acquired the Concept of Sharpness: Severing Will.


    Julius opened his eyes and gasped as new information flooded into his brain and energy flowed through his body. It was a lot, the new connection he had to the world was staggering. And he didn''t know if his body could handle it.


    As he came apart at the seams, he held his body together by sheer will and determination. Julius had to pump [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to heal himself and keep him in one piece. Additionally, [Empowerment of Will] worked in overdrive to empower his body.


    He grunted and yelled in exertion, digging deeper than he had ever before.


    He didn''t know how long it lasted, but when he was done, he was more tired than he had ever felt before. It was a weariness that went deep in his soul. [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] seemed to help a little bit, but the effects were negligible.


    It wasn''t until he felt Drasil start to get restless within his core that something changed. Julius didn''t know what the little spirit was doing, but he could feel Drasil start to glow within his core with a brilliant verdant green. Julius could feel a warm energy suffuse into his soul, and start to heal it.


    He sighed at the relaxing and soothing nature of the energy. It cooled down the pain that had been inflicted on his soul. Whatever Drasil was doing, it was healing his soul and nourishing it.


    Once it was over, Julius noticed that Drasil looked much more pale than he did before. The soft luminous green is now just a pale shade of green. The little spirit looked exhausted and proceeded to curl up into a tiny little ball and fall asleep in the confines of Julius''s core.


    Seeing his familiar in such a state worried Julius greatly. Although whatever Drasil did had helped Julius immensely, he didn''t wish to see the little life spirit hurt because of it. He tried to feed even more life mana to Drasil who was already absorbing Julius''s life mana like a black hole.


    Julius could only wait and see if Drasil would be okay in time. He would make sure to keep a close eye on his familiar''s activities.


    When he came back to the real world he noticed that Declan was standing over him. He also noticed that there were a couple more bodies of golems that weren''t there previously.


    Declan saw that Julius was awake right away and crouched down next to Julius with a smile. "Did you get it?" He asked very animated, even by the standards of the normally stern man.


    Julius nodded with a grin of his own. "I got it."


    "Atta boy. Congratulations. It was more rough than I expected from your first Concept, but you came out of it alive, so there''s that. On the bright side, you are pretty much guaranteed to advance to Tier 4 now."


    "So¡­ what''s it called?" Declan asked very interested after a small pause.


    "It''s a Concept of Sharpness called Severing Will," Julius told him. In all honesty, Julius was very curious about what that meant and if there were any ramifications.


    "Severing Will?" Declan asked as his eyes widened perceptively.


    "Yeah, ever heard of it?" Julius asked.


    Declan shook his head. "No. But I am not surprised. Most people''s Concepts are unique to them. The names themselves are more descriptors, but the kind of Concept is typically more important."


    Julius thought about what Severing Will might mean. Did it allude to the possibility of severing other''s skills? Or perhaps the potential to cut through one''s aura or will?


    He got excited when he thought about the different and various ways he could use this new ability. Not to mention, that he would be finally able to learn an epic skill now.


    First, he wanted to test out what the Concept could do. Specifically, with what it could do with his recently acquired skill. Luckily, he was in a rift where monsters were abundant. Therefore, he went off searching for the nearest golem who would become his next victim.


    He grabbed a few extra pebbles along the way. He wanted to use the same method to have a better comparison and since he had been using pebbles before, it made sense to use them again.


    Julius looked at the pebble that he was rolling in between his fingers. It wasn''t anything special but with a slight thought, he was able to activate [Barrier of Severance] and surround the pebble in a white glow.


    The most interesting thing that he noticed right away was the amount of mana he used was a fraction of what he had been using before. The skill before was a bit of a mana-hungry technique, but now it used as much mana as one of his needle constructs did, maybe even less than that.


    Another thing that he noticed was how much more connected he felt to the skill and how much he could manipulate it. He could feel that he didn''t even need a medium to activate the barrier anymore. He could tell that he could create a barrier around something that wasn''t touching him.


    He was getting too far ahead of himself. He still wanted to test out how much sharper the skill had gotten first. [Spatial Perception] picked up a golem that was trudging along and Julius shouted at it, hoping to gain its attention. It worked and the golem soon turned around to look at Julius before running in his direction.


    Julius tossed the pebble in his hand in the air as he waited for the golem to get closer. He sensed that the core of this golem was in its head, something he hadn''t seen yet. He took time to aim and once he felt comfortable he threw the tiny rock at the golem''s head.


    Unfortunately, the golem decided to tilt its head to the side right as it was about to hit and the pebble nicked the side of its temple. Julius frowned, reloaded another pebble, and fired it promptly. This time he controlled the flight of the pebble using the barrier as a sort of steering wheel.


    This time when the golem decided to tilt its head again, Julius made sure to track it. The golem didn''t stand a chance. Much to Julius''s surprise, the pebble didn''t just lodge itself into the golem''s head. It completely burrowed deep into the head and out the back. A second later the entire head crumbled apart, core included.


    Julius froze in shock at seeing the dramatic difference in power. Was this the difference in having a Concept? No wonder the power difference between Tiers and having an epic skill is so large.

 Chapter 121: More Testing Subjects

    Julius turned and looked at Declan who was also surprised at the difference the Concept had on his damage output. Declan had been around when Julius was throwing the pebbles before. He saw with his own eyes how Julius was unable to do much more than give the golem some ornaments on its body.[Barrier of Severance lvl 3 -> lvl 4]


    His new skill gained another level. For a skill he only had for less than a couple of hours, he gained quite a few levels in it so far. He wondered if that had something to do with learning a Concept and if learning one accelerates the rate at which he would gain levels in the skill.


    Julius was curious about another thing as well. However, it would require him to find another golem to test it out on. He looked at Declan who was deep in thought off to the side. Julius was going to let Declan know that he was going to head off to find more golems, but he decided not to disturb Declan''s musings. He was confident that Declan would realize that Julius was going to hunt some more golems on his own.


    One thing he did notice as he made his way deeper into the cavern was that the blue crystals that lit up the otherwise dark cave started to appear more often. Not only that, but they were much larger than the ones Julius had seen in the beginning.


    With the increase in crystals came an increase in the brightness of the cave. It became bright enough that there weren''t any dark or unlit corners within the cavern anymore. It was also very magical in a wonderful sort of way. Although he was in a cave with a bunch of monsters made of stone, he couldn''t help but marvel at the sight. There was no doubt that he wouldn''t be able to find another place like this in his old world no matter how hard he searched.


    He eventually came across another golem. He did observe that he hadn''t seen any large groups of golems yet. Every golem that he had come across had been alone, very different than the other rifts he had done so far.


    I''m making it sound like I am some experienced adventurer who has delved dozens of rifts, Julius laughed to himself.


    He took time to watch the golem as he approached it. This one seemed to be a little larger than the other ones that he had come across so far. It was pretty likely that the further the cave went, the more difficult it would become and the more challenging fights he would come across.


    Another thing that he noticed that was interesting, was that it was no longer a single cavern anymore. Up ahead he could see and sense several branches of caves opening up. For a little bit, Julius was beginning to think that the entire rift was just a single cave that he had to explore, taking down golems as he went.


    Julius turned his focus back to the walking stone monster in front of him. Unlike the past few attempts, he didn''t bother to use the pebbles. Once he had gotten his Concept, he knew that he didn''t need the pebbles anymore.


    It was like the Concept was able to influence ambient mana and turn it into sharpened mana, it was quite amazing.


    That was the reason why he was confident in what he was attempting to do. He tried to choose the golem as his target for [Barrier of Severance], it took a bit of time, but eventually, he felt the skill latch onto the golem. It was like a key sliding into place. Shockingly, [Spatial Perception] made it very easy to target the golem and know where to place the barrier. It was like the skill allowed Julius to lock onto his target with ease.


    The good news was that it worked and a pale white barrier of mana appeared around the golem. The bad news was that the second Julius was able to create the barrier, he felt like someone just punched him in the soul.


    For a person who had just gotten healed by his familiar for soul damage, it didn''t make him feel comfortable to take more damage to his soul. It honestly didn''t hurt all that much, it was more of a surprise than anything else. Still, he had to wonder why something like that happened. He was thinking that his soul was still in recovery from his recent advancements.


    He shook his head and got rid of those thoughts before putting his attention back on the golem. His barrier was a surprise to the golem as well. Julius watched as the golem tried to scrub off the barrier from its arms and chest like it was covered in grime.


    While it was distracted by that, Julius was trying to figure out a way to use this to his advantage. He had an inkling that he could create a barrier around something that wasn''t touching him or close to him. However, he didn''t know what he would do with this knowledge.


    If he had to protect someone Julius could see why this application would be useful. Or if he wanted to create a barrier on a construct of his that was already created but didn''t have the time to touch beforehand.


    So at the moment, he stood there with both hands crossed as he thought about what he could do with this barrier. Specifically with the barrier that surrounded the golem he was looking at. Because currently, all the barrier achieved was to give the golem another layer of protection.


    Julius wasn''t always the smartest person, but even he knew that a skill that helped your enemy more than it helped you was not a good skill.


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    The thought that he could explode it like he had done with the pebbles crossed his mind. The only thing was that the pebbles had come out of the explosion pretty well considering how close they were to the explosion of sharpened mana.


    Knowing what he did about the defenses of the golems, he didn''t think that it would have any better results on the golem. The idea of trying it anyway was pretty alluring to Julius. Just seeing how it turned out would be an interesting test.


    However, he had another idea that he wanted to test beforehand. It was an idea that Julius thought might actually work in theory.


    Instead of releasing all of the sharpened mana outward, he could focus on compressing it inward. He was imagining something like a garbage compactor mixed with a blender. He thought the idea had merit.


    Technically, a barrier can act as both to keep things out and to keep things in. When he first used [Mana Slash] to protect himself from Aubrey''s attacks, he had been focusing on using it for defensive purposes and to keep her attacks from hitting him directly. The goal had been to cut them apart before they reached him.


    Now, he just needed to flip it around. He needed to try to tear apart anything that was within the barrier. It just required a change in mindset. What he was actually doing wasn''t that much different in practice.


    Julius took a deep calming breath before beginning. The golem was still trying to remove the barrier from its skin. It had even gone as far as to shoot a blast of mana at its own arm. To Julius''s amusement, the blast of mana got torn apart by the barrier. It was weird to see the golem getting protected from its own attacks because of Julius''s skill. Julius was sure that this wasn''t how delving into rifts was supposed to go.


    He was the one who should be trying to hurt the golem and the golem should be the one who is trying to protect itself, not the other way around.


    It was especially humorous to see that once the golem found out that it couldn''t hurt itself, it went on to slam repeated blasts of mana and stones into itself with increasing fury. It was a bit obsessive and displayed a single-minded determination that was impressive even for a monster.


    All the while, Julius was playing around with the barrier. His newly earned Concept made it much easier than before. It was like he had a new affinity but for sharpened mana. It just felt that natural and easy.


    Finally, he thought he found a method that might work. It piggybacked off of his prior experience with compression. Just like he had compressed his core all that time ago, he could compress the barrier around the golem until it imploded.


    He didn''t use [Pure Compression] though. He didn''t want to mix up the skill while he was still looking to combine it with [Arcane Construct] and [Composite Mana]. However, he had enough experience with compressing things, that it was quite simple to compress the barrier created by [Barrier of Severance].


    So he squeezed. He squeezed as hard as he could, using his entire will to compress the barrier around the golem and dig its sharpened mana into its hardened shell.


    And it was working.


    Julius could hear the awful sound of something like a sword scaping down the rocks bit by bit. The entire golem was frozen in place, the barrier preventing it from moving a muscle.


    Not that it has muscles, Julius thought to himself. S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It wasn''t quite like what Dante did to Declan and Julius, but it was similar.


    However, no matter how hard he pushed and squeezed, he wasn''t able to implode the golem. It wasn''t until he added [Empowerment of Will] to the mix that he noticed something. [Empowerment of Will] worked well with [Barrier of Severance] and strengthened the barrier quite nicely. The combination of both skills finally allowed Julius to crack the entire surface of the golem and once that happened it snowballed. The entire golem broke down at an exponential pace until it got shredded into practically nothing. All that remained was fine rocks and dust. Nothing, not even the core had survived.


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 4 -> lvl 6]


    Hah! I even got two levels out of that! Julius happily thought.


    Damn," a voice said softly from behind him.


    Julius turned around to look at Declan. "What?" He asked confused at the man''s reaction.


    Declan looked at him like he was insane, before looking at the ceiling of the cave and laughed heartily. "Did you just crush that golem with your new barrier?"


    "Yeah, I had to use a couple of other skills to help, but yes." Julius shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal, but his shit-eating grin gave him away.


    Declan just smiled and shook his head in disbelief. "I doubt that many people would find a way to use their barrier skill as a giant pair of sharp hands packing in a snowball. It actually reminds me of Clan Skyda and their own users."


    "Clan Skyda?" Julius asked.


    "A clan of barrier users. They have found many ways to use barriers as offensive weapons and to great effect too. They are often employed as hired protectors by influential houses or other groups," Declan explained.


    Julius shook his head. "It looked cool. But I don''t think it would be worth it or very practical in a fight, at least for me yet. It used a lot of effort and energy. This Concept thing seems to require some expenditure of my soul energy to properly use."


    Declan nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Concepts can be quite draining on the soul and mind. But if you can use yours like this right now, I don''t think you will have an issue once you reach Tier 3. Just make sure you practice using it. Willpower training can be the most boring and stressful kind of training of all."


    "You have any tips for training methods?" Julius asked him.


    "Honestly, for you, just using your Concept will be better training than any other exercise. Make sure to implement it as much as you can and only stop once you feel your soul start to get drained."


    That was good to know for Julius. If that was all he needed, then he believed that he would find it relatively easy to train his willpower. He had already planned to experiment with his new skill and Concept of Sharpness in the future.


    With one last look at the pile of fragmented rocks that used to be a golem, Julius went on his way. I need to find another testing subje¡ª I mean golem, he corrected himself. There was much more he wanted to try out before he left this rift.

 Chapter 122: Soul Stress Test

    The Concept of Severing Will was a very nice addition to Julius''s toolbox of powers. It wasn''t like it was an end-all-be-all type of power, but it was certainly like adding wings to a wolf. Or something like that¡­ he forgot what the actual saying was.Admittedly, there was still much practice that Julius had to do. Declan warned him that working on his Concept would take a lot of time and require diligent practice. The process of training it would be similar to aura control and other related abilities.


    Julius smiled as he heard that. To others that might be bothersome and take up a lot of time. But for Julius, that was what he had in abundance. He was already planning to spend many boring hours training his willpower alongside his aura at night.


    After testing his new skill and Concept on a few golems he managed to find, he was able to use this new remote barrier creation with a little more finesse.


    Instead of using it to cover the entire golem, which used an extraordinary amount of soul energy and to some extent, mana, he was able to surround just the core of the golem. It was a much more efficient way of taking down a golem. But, it was only possible because he had [Spatial Perception] that allowed him to know exactly where the core was placed.


    It wasn''t like a [Mana Sense] skill would work either. Since [Spatial Perception] gave him the ability to distinctly feel where objects were within his sphere, it was as if he was feeling the core with his hands. He doubted he could have accomplished the same thing with another perception skill. His perception skill kept on giving him more pleasant surprises.


    The other benefit of using [Barrier of Severance] around the golem''s core was that it was much simpler to destroy than trying to destroy the entire golem''s body. Who would have thought that tearing apart a core the size of an apple was easier than tearing apart a stone monster the size of a truck?


    The next thing he ended up testing was the defensive ability of the skill. Although he had been using the skill for offensive purposes, [Barrier of Severance] was still supposed to be a barrier at the end of the day. It had "barrier" in its name after all. Therefore, Julius would have been pretty let down if it didn''t perform well as a barrier.


    Oh, how ironic it would be if his "barrier" skill worked better as a sword than a shield.


    Julius found another golem pretty quickly. He also found that the further he went into the cave, the more populous it was with golems. Actually, it would be more correct to say that the more crystals he found, the more golems he found with them.


    He walked up to the golem, not hiding his presence from the monster at all. When the golem finally noticed him, it went straight into attack mode. Running at him while sending blasts of orange mana from its face plate.


    To someone who wasn''t used to fighting, Julius would expect seeing a ten-foot stone giant chasing them down while sending blasts of energy would send them running in the other direction. However, he was somewhat proud to say that he wasn''t exactly normal and didn''t have enough self-preserving instincts to do just that.


    Instead, he found himself running headfirst into the beam of mana. He actually noticed that he had a smile on his face as if the dangerous blast of mana was a hug from an old friend. He really had to consider whether or not he was all the way put together in the head department.


    Perhaps mana and magic had changed him. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that mana and magic accentuated the more volatile aspects of his personality. When he was younger in his old world, he would often throw himself down flights of stairs or off the playsets just to experience what falling felt like.


    It seemed like that part of him hadn''t been left behind, as much as simply hidden away deep inside of him. He noticed it a little during the troll rift, but he had mostly blamed the emotional turmoil of losing Lukas and Edwin. Now that he had some time to look back, it wasn''t that clear what the real reason was.


    And now it was rearing its head and showing its presence again. Such as this need to put his face in the direct path of a dangerous blast of mana. Which wasn''t necessarily a bad thing in a world where overcoming challenges gave him strength.


    At least he wasn''t dumb enough not to have [Barrier of Severance] activated around him, which had been the whole point of this exercise in the first place.


    As the mana blast reached the barrier, he could feel the barrier tear into the mana blast, ripping it apart into harmless light.


    It was very similar to how Aubrey''s attack had been affected by Julius''s [Mana Slash] shield. The main difference was how much more effective it was and how it didn''t just split the attack into two, but that it destroyed the entire attack.


    The golem seemed very shocked that Julius was able to deal with its attack so easily. Well, as shocked as a golem without emotions could be at least.


    Julius paused for a moment. Did they have emotions? He had seen them behave in ways that would indicate that they weren''t just simple drones with cores. Curious.


    He was brought out of his internal thoughts because a big stone the size of his chest was hurling at him. Now this he was a little more worried about. He had seen how well [Mana Slash] handled a more hard and rigid object before. The effect the skill had on Aubrey''s [Diamond Skin] was negligible. Thus, he had learned that sharpened mana had a more difficult time taking apart things with a little more robustness to them.


    However, he held his ground. If he ended up taking a big rock to the face, he just needed to trust his healing skill to take care of him afterward. It wasn''t a very pleasant thought, but he needed to see how well his barrier handled physical attacks. There was still the possibility that his new skill was good for mana-based attacks and sucked at dealing with attacks that had more material substance behind them.


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    And what better way to test it than live in the field?


    Julius braced himself as best as he could. He closed his eyes and prayed for a positive outcome.


    When the massive rock hit his barrier, he waited for it to just go through the barrier like it wasn''t even there and bash his face in. Hence, he was very grateful that it was stopped instead of continuing forth and smashing his face open like an egg. He had gotten used to losing limbs and dealing with pain, but getting hit by a boulder that weighed close to a ton was still not an enjoyable activity.


    [Barrier of Severance] actually surprised Julius with how effective it was. The pale white layer of sharpened mana did a very nice job of protecting him. It didn''t completely destroy the rock into dust, but there was enough power behind the barrier to prevent it from reaching Julius.


    Compared to his mana constructs that he often used to cover himself and use as armor, [Barrier of Severance] had this emanating force that was released from its surface. It was mainly made up of sharpened mana, but it was enough to halt the rock''s force and protect Julius from eating a stone in the face.


    For his armor constructs that he layered over himself, he had to add a kinetic energy component that absorbed some of the force. However, for [Barrier of Severance], it was almost like the barrier cut apart any force that approached it.


    It was an interesting application of sharpened mana. He wondered how far did this extend to his other abilities. Would he eventually be able to cut off mana from his opponent''s skills, rendering them useless? Was this what Declan had in mind when he mentioned that Ghostblade guy?


    He had a feeling that there were a lot of uses he could find and use with this new skill and Julius was pretty confident that his newly acquired Severing Will Concept had a lot to thank for that as well as the barrier''s effectiveness.


    He had a feeling that if he hadn''t gotten the Concept, the barrier''s defensive properties wouldn''t be as well suited for physical attacks. Julius could feel a noticeable difference in how substantial his skill and the sharpened mana became once he acquired the Concept of Severing Will. It felt more real and tangible than before. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    For the next while, he focused on letting the golem try its best to pummel him with stones and mana blasts. After the first few attacks, Julius started to feel more confident in his ability to block the attacks with ease. He was no longer stressed about accidentally taking a boulder to the face.


    The only thing that he hadn''t tried yet, was the skill''s ability to take actual strikes from the golem''s fists and legs. Which is exactly the reason why Julius was dashing at the golem. He could have let the lumbering thing come to him, but the big stone monster was much too slow so he went to it.


    For something that was made of stone, he would have expected something a little more dangerous in close combat. However, the slow attacks made it a relatively bad close-combat fighter. Perhaps if the golem had been able to land its slow heavy strike, it would be more dangerous to the average fighter. But as long as the person wasn''t as slow as a snail and had a brain on their head, they wouldn''t get hit by it.


    Ironically, Julius realized how contradictory that was to his current actions. Not only was he fast enough to dodge, but he also had a head with a brain on his shoulders, yet here he was jumping at the golem''s approaching fist.


    He had been totally expecting the thing to send him flying across the cave. Julius hadn''t thought that the golem would do any real damage, at least if its punch were around the same threat as its stone attack. However, he had been sure that the difference in mass would be too great to counteract, especially once he left his feet.


    So when he was barely pushed back midair he was left pleasantly surprised. The barrier had not only carved up the golem''s fist like a windstorm of blades, but it also cut up the force behind the blow.


    Julius was thinking about how well this would synergize with his kinetic affinity. If he were to use kinetic energy on top of [Barrier of Severance], then he would most likely not be pushed back at all.


    He had found that one of the most annoying things about fighting larger and stronger opponents was the effect of getting knocked back. However, with this new development, he didn''t think it would be as much of an issue as before.


    Julius smiled at the golem who had let him come to this realization.


    I am really enjoying this rift so far. Not only have I gotten a new amazing skill, but I also learned a Concept and can finally evolve my skills into an epic one. The golems are also a pretty good training partner to test out these new abilities. I might have just found my new favorite monster. Julius internally thanked the monster and its siblings who had helped him so far.


    Julius kept letting the golem "beat" on him without moving from the spot where he had planted himself. The golem was doing everything to take Julius down. It was alternating between heavy strikes with its limbs, blasts of orange mana, and smashing stones on Julius''s body. The golem''s fists which were torn to the shreds by his barrier were regenerating with rock at a rapid pace as it continued its assault.


    None of which worked very well.


    Unfortunately, Julius realized that his new Concept could only work out so well for so long. After several minutes of constant beating, Julius started to feel the weariness of using his Concept for too long without rest.


    However, he quickly realized that this was also a good form of training for his Concept and willpower. Therefore, he pushed himself. He pushed himself hard to maintain a grip on his Concept as the golem tried to flatten him to the ground like a pancake.


    He felt his soul start to warp from the stress he was putting it under. He could feel blood trickling down his nose and ears. His teeth cracked from the force of grinding his jaw together. He held out for as long as he could.


    He was holding it together with sheer willpower.


    Eventually, after much longer than any normal person should have been capable of, Julius was unable to keep up his barrier and felt it shatter underneath the pressure. The golem''s fist that had broken through smashed into Julius''s chest and sent him flying across the cavern floor.


    Julius was completely out of it, but he felt himself roll and roll until he felt his back slam against a large protruding crystal.


    He didn''t have any energy left to use his new Concept. Fortunately, he still had an almost entirely full mana pool to use. He created a spike of hardened mana and sent it screaming at the golem who was taking advantage of Julius''s precarious state, waddling over to his prone figure to beat him some more.


    Julius had to be honest with himself, the spike wasn''t pretty. If he had to grade its construction, he would give it a D minus at best. Still, he gave himself some slack, his mind was completely addled and only pure instincts left him able enough to defend himself.


    However, just because the spike wasn''t his best, didn''t mean it wasn''t more than enough to completely obliterate the golem''s shoulder. He hadn''t been accurate enough to hit its core, but half of the golem went missing with a single strike.


    He quickly followed up with an additional spike that was more carefully aimed and tore apart its core.


    Once he was sure that the golem was finished for good, he laid down and took deep gasping breaths.


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 6 -> lvl 9]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 12 -> lvl 14]

 Chapter 123: Forgetful Mind

    There was still plenty of the rift that Julius hadn''t explored but since he was so worn out, he wasn''t able to continue. There was still a part of him that wanted to try to get his epic skill while he was in the rift as well, but unfortunately, he didn''t think it would be a good idea.Even Declan agreed with him that waiting until he was a hundred percent would be a smarter option. The skill wasn''t going anywhere and Julius could wait a day or two before he acquired it. After all, the hardest part of getting an epic skill was already done.


    Julius and Declan both promptly left the rift once Julius recovered enough to head back to the portal. Julius was pleasantly surprised when Declan hadn''t really berated him for the dangerous testing of his skill. Perhaps, it was because Julius had a healing skill along with Declan watching him the entire time.


    In fact, Declan had told Julius that what he had done, was a good way to train his willpower for his Concept. He did remind Julius not to push it, but it was definitely something Julius should use with reason in the future.


    During the rift, Julius hadn''t been that worried about looting the golems. The reason behind that was that the most valuable part about hunting golems was not only their cores but the material of their bodies.


    Sadly, Julius hadn''t been able to take them without completely annihilating their cores. It took a specialist and a group of experienced delvers to take down a golem with its core entirely intact. Special skills that were tailored for that type of scenario.


    As for the stone of their bodies, it was also very valuable. Tier 2 stone and rock that has been infused with mana as the golems naturally did, is extremely valuable. Many artisans and craftsmen pay a lot for materials like it.


    According to Declan, the stone from golems makes enchanting much more effective and simple. The nature of the stone absorbs the inscriptions unlike regular stone or even some other Tier 2 material.


    However, Julius wasn''t able to store such large quantities of material in his storage ring. The ring he was currently wearing was only enough to store a closet''s worth of stuff. There were other spatial devices that focused purely on space and how much could fit inside of it.


    His ring had other bells and whistles that organized the things he added without needing input. Additionally, there were other enchantments such as stability, durability, and aura-bound inscriptions were added to it. Whereas the devices the other delvers who used this rift most likely carried ones that just stuffed the materials on top of each other without much care or thought.


    However, he wasn''t that upset about leaving potential money behind. He had enough for his needs for now and once he was able to delve into Tier 3 rifts, he would have already forgotten about this rift.


    Once he and Declan left the lobby of the building that held the rift, they had to part ways. The guardhouse and Goldencrest were both in opposite directions. Declan still had some things he had to do today. He put a lot of things to the side in order to chaperone Julius throughout the rift.


    While Julius wasn''t ecstatic about having a babysitter, he knew when to be appreciative of Declan''s actions. He didn''t have any need to help Julius like this. He had only been doing it as a favor to Julius and because he cared for him. Therefore, it was something that Julius was immensely grateful for.


    However, before they went their separate ways, Declan reached into his spatial device and took out the access card.


    The golden edges of the card glimmered in the sunlight and Julius''s eyes latched onto it like it was a solid brick of gold. He then turned to look at Declan who was smiling softly at him. "Does this mean I have permission to delve on my own?" He had excited eyes of his own and could barely restrain himself from jumping across the distance and stealing the card out of Declan''s hand.


    Declan nodded defeatedly. "Yes. But for Tier 2 rifts only."


    Declan put up his finger before Julius could say anything. "Only for Tier 2. I know you want to delve into Tier 3s right away but please wait until I come with you. I understand that you believe that you can handle one, and I have half a mind to agree with you now that you have a Concept. But please wait for me," Declan asked sincerely. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius had prepared a whole speech that might convince Declan to allow him to attempt a single rift on his own, but the seriousness of Declan''s request prevented him. He could wait. It was the least Julius could do for a man who had done a lot for him.


    Julius looked at Declan directly in the eyes. "I''ll wait."


    Declan bowed his head at Julius. "Thank you. I know how much you want to."


    Julius chuckled at him. He wasn''t wrong, Julius really wanted to go tomorrow if possible. "Just don''t expect me to wait too long. I don''t know how long I can be patient."


    Declan had already told Julius that he wouldn''t be able to take next weekend off. There was some sort of group of influential people coming to Heston and the city needed everyone on hand just in case. That meant that next week Julius could either delve another Tier 2 or wait for Declan to take on a Tier 3.


    Both of them knew that Tier 2 rifts weren''t providing enough challenge for Julius. The only reason why the golem rift showed such dramatic results was because of Julius''s own self-imposed handicap and acquirement of Severing Will.


    "Just don''t blow anything up in the meantime," Declan told Julius.


    Julius laughed like it was a joke. But quickly stopped when he didn''t see Declan smiling.


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    "I''m serious," he told Julius with a meaningful look.


    "Can you believe the shopowner wanted that much for that dress? I love good quality clothing as much as any other girl, but that was outrageous," Lily complained to Aubrey.


    Julius got back in time to join the others at dinner. What Lily was talking about was the day that she and Aubrey took around Heston. They had spent most of the day shopping around and just relaxing for the most part.


    "Lily," Aubrey said exasperatedly her hands in the air. "I don''t know why you just didn''t get the dress."


    "It was too much that''s why! It was practically criminal." Lily angrily stated.


    Aubrey pinched her nose. "I don''t know why you are so cheap. You have more money than the entire table combined. And it isn''t like you are surrounded by a bunch of poor commoners." She looked over at the entire group.


    Derek grinned. "Yeah, I am the grandson of Duke Zenith and my wealth pales in comparison to you. I don''t think you should be worried about the cost of a dress at a random store."


    "It''s not the cost that is the problem. It is the principle of the matter. A single dress for the cost of a Tier 3 cloud core or something comparable is unacceptable. The price of a single Tier 3 core is already outrageous, to ask for something as rare as a cloud core is just robbery!" Lily insisted.


    "Is a cloud core so rare? I would expect that Heston would have many rifts with monsters that have cloud cores," Julius asked the group trying to derail the topic. He had seen how Lily got about things like this before. He had learned that changing the topic was his best bet.


    However, that didn''t mean he wasn''t genuinely curious. He had learned from Professor Rowe that the natural environment of a place had significant influences on what monsters a rift spawned. So a place like Heston, which had plenty of moisture and water, Julius would have expected that cloud cores were more commonplace than anywhere else.


    Kyle quickly answered him, he was perceptive as always and took advantage of the opportunity to prevent Lily from talking about the dress any further. Julius had also noticed that as time passed, Kyle was more frequently speaking up with him around. It was like he was finally getting comfortable with Julius around. Additionally, he found that Kyle was more likely to speak up when something academic in nature was asked.


    "Although Heston is next to the ocean, cloud cores are still quite rare. You would be surprised at how few cores are actually available in this area or in other areas by the ocean. Cloud cores or cloud affinity monsters require a much more delicate balance of mana to spawn. In Heston''s case, there is too much unpredictable weather. This leads to potential cloud-aspected rifts turning into storm-aspected rifts or other water-related rifts."


    Huh, interesting. Julius thought to himself.


    "So where would you find a rift with cloud-aspected monsters?" He asked Kyle.


    Kyle shrugged his shoulders. "Anywhere that has a nearby body of water as well as relatively stable weather patterns have a better chance of spawning such a rift."


    "And they are much more valuable than a core such as a water core?" Julius asked.


    This time it was Lily who answered, all thoughts about the dress seemed to have been forgotten. "Yeah, their rarity has a lot to do with it. But the main thing is that some amazing items can be made with a Tier 3 cloud core. Many of these things are related to flying or extreme comfort, not to anyone''s shock."


    Aubrey also nodded from the side. "Yeah, they are quite desirable and very expensive. Depending on where you are, it can be dozens of times more valuable than a standard water core."


    "I know! Which is why charging one for a single dress is absolutely insane," Lily grumbled.


    I guess I spoke too soon, Julius lamely thought to himself. It was a good attempt at least, he tried to cheer himself up.


    Aubrey seemed to see that the conversation was derailing back to the dress and quickly changed the subject. She looked at Julius and asked him, "So how was your day? I know you told us that you were with that city guard vice-captain."


    "I told you several times. His name is Declan," Julius said exasperated.


    "Yeah, yeah. So what did the two of you do?" She asked while completely ignoring Julius''s exasperation.


    "I picked up some food from a bakery and then we ended up delving at a Tier 2 rift," he told them. He had told them about the goblin rift before and while they were surprised that he had found a way to get access to some of the rifts, the fact that he had a Tier 4 chaperone alleviated all of their concerns.


    "Another rift? You just went to the other one last week," Derek commented.


    "Yeah, you shouldn''t be pushing yourself too hard," Aubrey told him while looking at him seriously. She told him that she hadn''t let the others know that Julius had literally not slept for entire nights. While the others knew he trained longer normally, he was pretty sure that Aubrey was the only one who really truly knew how long he spent in the training rooms.


    She had said that if he wanted to tell them, it was his decision. It wasn''t her secret or skill to share the details about. However, that made her concern a little more earnest than the others.


    He nodded at her. "I know, but it was only Tier 2 and Declan-," he made to stress Declan''s name for Aubrey''s sake. "-was there the entire time. I wasn''t in any actual danger."


    It was true. Declan was very good about letting Julius do his own thing, even at his own consequence. It did help that Declan knew about Julius''s very good healing skill, but he still let Julius have the freedom to make mistakes and decide how he wanted to approach the rift his own way.


    Lily scooched closer to him and hugged him. Julius had quickly gotten used to the fact that Lily was a very affectionate person and that she liked hugs. It certainly didn''t hurt that she was an amazing hugger as well.


    "Still, you should take more opportunities to relax. It might help you in ways you might not expect," she said while looking at him with warm purple eyes and a laugh. "Who knows? You might even learn a Concept that way."


    Yeah¡­ about that¡­ Julius winced at that. He had kind of forgotten to tell them about his new Concept yet.


    Julius didn''t say anything, but she must''ve picked up on his guilt or something because her hug quickly turned into something that resembled a headlock really quickly. His eyes widened in surprise at the sudden change.


    He should have thought better of hiding things from one of the most talented young psychics on the continent.


    Lily''s previous warm purple eyes, were now a scary cold violet. "What are you hiding from us again?" She asked Julius in a very menacing tone.


    "Again?" He repeated in an offended tone, not happy at the implication.


    She didn''t say anything and just squeezed him harder.


    Julius didn''t answer right away. He just swallowed his saliva and frantically tried to come up with an explanation that wouldn''t result in him getting choked out.

 Chapter 124: Coming Clean

    "Um¡­ I might have forgotten to mention that I ended up acquiring my first Concept today¡­" Julius slowly said.Julius felt Lily loosen her grip on his head just a smidge and look down at him with a surprised look. For someone who wasn''t a physically inclined fighter, he was often surprised by how strong Lily was at times. She had the grip strength of a juiced-up gorilla.


    Not that he would ever tell her that. He suspected that if he were to say that to her face he would get his mind shredded apart and wake up the next day not knowing his own name or remembering how to wipe his own ass.


    "Say that again," she said slowly.


    Julius swallowed his saliva again before repeating himself. "I got a Concept today."


    "You got a Concept?" She asked skeptically.


    "Hmhm."


    She looked at him sternly. "And you didn''t think that was important to tell us earlier? When were you going to tell us that? Next month?"


    "I forgot! I promise!" Julius argued.


    Lily squeezed him a little tighter. "You don''t just forget something that important. Learning a Concept is something that is celebrated by all Houses. It is a very important step on one''s journey."


    Derek grunted in agreement from the side. "I agree. Learning your first Concept is somewhat of a big deal. My family threw an entire celebratory ball when I learned a Concept of Lightning. It''s not something that one would normally just ''forget''."


    "I''m more offended that he made learning a Concept sound like he was learning how to knit a sweater. It''s been what? A week or two?" Aubrey asked while rolling her eyes.


    "I know, it almost feels like he''s rubbing it in. Hell, it took me months of dedicated training. And that was with my grandfather tying me up and throwing me in an artificial lightning storm for several hours a day," Derek said sourly.


    Julius winced at hearing that. That didn''t seem like a fun way to learn a Concept.


    Lily loosened her grip again and continued to look down at Julius who was still in between the small petite girl''s armpit. "So what kind of Concept did you learn?"


    Before Julius could answer, Aubrey mumbled, "I wouldn''t shocked if he learned two of them."


    Julius looked between the five of them before finally answering. "A Concept of Sharpness."


    "Oh, so you actually ended up learning a Sharpness Concept first? I know that was what you were pursuing, but I was pretty sure that you would actually learn a Fire Concept first," Edgar said a little surprised. Edgar hadn''t said anything up to this point as he didn''t care much about fancy clothing, but this seemed to bring back his interest.


    Julius nodded as best as he could through the headlock he was still captured in. "I thought about it. But I ended up learning a new skill and that seemed to help the process a lot more than I was expecting. I almost learned the Concept right after I got the new skill."


    Edgar scratched his cheek, deep in thought. "You evolved that [Mana Slash] skill?"


    "Yep."


    "Didn''t you mention that you were going with [Mana Strike]? I don''t see how that would help you learn a Concept," Aubrey said to him.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders, bumping against Lily''s stomach as he did. "Declan actually advised me to take another skill instead. I was pretty set on taking [Mana Strike] but he was really convincing. He also made a point that [Mana Strike] was a pretty easy skill to learn anyway, so I could always learn it later."


    Derek nodded his head in agreement. "He''s not wrong. It''s a good skill, but if you had a better option available I would have chosen it as well."


    "So what skill did you end up choosing instead?" Aubrey asked him.


    Julius finally was able to squeeze his way out of Lily''s straggle. Before, he answered he made sure that Lily''s isolation barrier was still up. "I got a skill called [Barrier of Severance]"


    Julius watched as all of them got either confused or interested expressions.


    "[Barrier of Severance]?" Edgar asked surprised.


    "Severance?" Aubrey asked confused.


    "Barrier?" Lily had a perplexed crinkle in her eyes.


    "I know. I thought it was a weird-sounding skill, so that was why I discounted it at first. But Declan made it sound like it was a skill with high potential."


    "Yeah, what the hell does severance mean?" Aubrey exclaimed loudly.


    Derek turned to her. "That''s what you were confused about?"


    "Okay, so I don''t have your extensive vocabulary, bite me," she shot back at Derek. S~ea??h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "It means to sever or cut something," Kyle said with a sigh to Aubrey.


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    "Oh, okay that makes sense. Thanks, Kyle!" Aubrey said happily while sticking her tongue out at Derek.


    Lily ignored the two of them. "I''m more confused about how you got a barrier skill from [Mana Slash]. It doesn''t seem to fit the skill''s natural progression at all," Lily stated more to herself than anyone.


    "Oh, that''s easy. I think that was how he used the skill when he fought me that time," Aubrey stated confidently. "I was pretty sure that whatever he did to block my [Piercing Light] looked like a similar skill to [Mana Slash]."


    Julius chuckled lightly. It was funny, while Aubrey might not have known what severance meant, she didn''t seem to think twice about the reason why he got the skill option in the first place.


    Lily turned to look at Julius to see if what Aubrey said was correct. Julius nodded his head and said, "Yeah, I''m pretty sure that''s the reason why I got offered the skill."


    Aubrey puffed out her chest and had a proud look on her face.


    "I can''t say I have ever heard of the skill before," Edgar said.


    "Me either. But I have heard of similar skills before," Derek said.


    "You have?" Lily asked.


    "Yeah, there is a skill that some members of my family have gotten. It is called [Barrier of Lightning] it is a similar skill to [Lightning Barrier], but much more potent. I suspect that Julius''s skill might be a better version of [Slashing Barrier] or something close to it." Derek looked over at Kyle. "Have you ever heard of [Barrier of Severance]?"


    Kyle shook his head. "No, but I have heard of a skill called [Barrier of Disruption]. If Julius''s skill is anything like that then I am pretty confident it is a very very good skill, most likely rare+ as well."


    Julius smiled at Kyle and nodded his head. Leave it to Kyle to know exactly what Declan had mentioned. "It''s funny. Declan mentioned the same skill to me before I took [Barrier of Severance]. He said someone by the name of Ghostblade or something used it."


    Kyle''s lips upturned a hair. "Yes. [Barrier of Disruption] was Ghostblade''s famous or rather infamous skill. He slaughtered his way through the ranks with it. It made him one of the most feared fighters at his Tier."


    "You sound like you admire this Ghostblade," Edgar commented.


    "He was skilled and often fought above his Tier. He is someone worth admiring," Kyle stated.


    "I think I remember my father telling me about him. Wasn''t he an assassin?" Lily pointed out.


    Kyle nodded his head. "Yeah, but that doesn''t mean he wasn''t someone to admire."


    "I think being an assassin is a pretty good reason why you shouldn''t admire him," Lily argued.


    Kyle shrugged his shoulders. "His actions and deeds weren''t the most honorable, but his results spoke of his skill. It took the combined efforts of the Sky Queen and the Storm Hammer to take him down."


    "He still was a paid killer," Lily said.


    While Lily and Kyle were arguing about the Ghostblade and whether or not he should be admired, Aubrey leaned over to Julius. "So are you going to tell us?"


    "Tell you what?"


    "About whether or not your skill is any good obviously," she said.


    Edgar was the one who answered instead. "I think the fact that he was able to learn a Concept of Sharpness right after getting says more than enough don''t you think?"


    "Yeah, but that doesn''t necessarily mean that it''s a good skill for Julius''s style," she pointed out.


    She has a point, Julius thought to himself.


    "So?" Aubrey repeated.


    "To be fair, I have only done limited testing so far. But from what I have seen, I think it is a very fitting skill for me," Julius told them.


    "I think we are forgetting the most important thing," Lily said. She and Kyle were no longer arguing.


    "What, that Julius can now create an epic skill of his own?" Aubrey asked.


    "Exactly! This is a big deal, we should celebrate!" Lily exclaimed.


    Julius perked his ears up at that. He liked celebrations. Not because of the people, but because celebrations often included delicious food. Most of the time it was free as well, especially if you were the one getting celebrated.


    "I second that!" Aubrey interjected loudly.


    "As do I," Derek added.


    "Is there food involved?" Julius asked hopefully.


    "Is there food involved?" Derek repeated what Julius asked and had an offended expression on his face. "Of course there is. What kind of celebration doesn''t have food?"


    Julius looked at the others. "I think we should have a celebration," he stated matter of factly.


    Edgar slapped him across the back. "It''s rude to ask for a celebration for yourself."


    Julius rubbed his spine which felt like it got bruised by the large man''s slap. Julius and Edgar had been sparring often, which meant that Edgar had become more forgetful about pulling back his strength when dealing with Julius. Unfortunately, that also meant he tended to use his full strength on Julius, whether it was a punch or a friendly slap on the back.


    It''s not rude to ask for a little party for myself, is it? He inwardly asked himself.


    "What should we do then? Any ideas?" Aubrey asked.


    "There aren''t many options if we stay on campus. However, if we wait until next weekend there are a lot more choices," Lily commented.


    "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Let''s do something next weekend," Aubrey readily agreed.


    "Next weekend?" Julius asked.


    "What you have something planned?" Edgar asked.


    "Yeah, I had a few things that I might have wanted to do."


    He was being honest too. Although Declan couldn''t come with him to a rift next week due to work, Julius still wanted to go and explore some rifts on his own. He wanted to play around with his new epic skill.


    That is if he was able to get it in the meantime. It wasn''t set in stone that just because he had a Concept now he would get an epic skill right away. Though, the others certainly thought he would, so that was promising.


    "Come on, you can take a weekend off to relax and celebrate," Aubrey needled him. "You have all of the rest of the year to run yourself into the ground."


    "I agree. If you are so determined to kill yourself with your training, you might as well die as a happy man with a full belly. There is this amazing restaurant in Heston that you will absolutely love," Derek told him. "Even cheapskate Lily over here loves it."


    "Hey! I am not cheap! I am just smart with money and don''t like getting swindled just because people think I am wealthy," Lily refuted.


    They all turned and looked at her like she was crazy.


    "Your family is one of the richest Houses in the entire Empire. My mother is a Tier 6 and you make us look poor in comparison," Aubrey said with a deadpan face.


    Lily had the grace to look embarrassed and turned to look at Julius with her face red. "The Golden Wheel is a very good restaurant," she admitted to him quietly.


    Aubrey clapped her hands. "Okay, so it''s decided then! Next Saturday we will spend the day celebrating Julius''s achievement around town and eat dinner."


    Julius raised his hand. "Um¡­ don''t I get a say in this?"


    Aubrey just turned and looked at him like he was stupid. "No. No, you don''t."

 Chapter 125: Getting Used to His Concept

    Julius found himself alone in one of the main training facility''s rooms. After the mishap the last time he went to the first-year training room, he wasn''t going to take any more chances. The enchantments of the first-year facilities, weren''t enough to hold up against his current strength.It made sense as well. There was a reason why they were designated for first-year students. The school had installed these rooms with the expectations of a Tier 2 student in mind. And while Julius was a Tier 2, he had the offensive power of a Tier 3.


    He didn''t want to get in trouble for wrecking the facilities, more than what he had already done. There was still a part of him that was nervous about someone from the school tracking him down and demanding an explanation from him.


    The others didn''t end up sparring with him. They had a rift when they were preparing for this week for their Applied Combat class. Unlike first-years, the upperclassmen were allowed to delve into rifts even though the school year started not too long ago.


    Edgar had explained to Julius that the rift they were going into was a Tier 3 rift that focused heavily on evasive species of bird monsters. Apparently, rifts like them were always a big pain to deal with.


    Their homework was to study the details of the rift beforehand. The professors and assistants would still keep an eye on the students while they were in the rift. But the general plan and execution of their strategy would be their responsibility.


    As students got older and into their third and fourth years, most have already established groups that they have been working with. There were still solo students or small pairs, but most of the time, it was groups of four or five. The five of them had been the top group of their class for the past couple of years at this point.


    It certainly helped that they had two of the strongest fighters in the school in their group. Not to mention that Lily, Aubrey, and Kyle were no slouches either. All of them had their role and did them well.


    According to Edgar, these specific bird monsters had skill sets similar to Air Elementals. They had small evasive bodies with speed that was on par with the best that Tier 3 had to offer. While their defensive skills lacked in comparison, they also had a very tricky ability.


    It was an ability that allowed the birds to turn intangible for a set period of time, allowing them to become untouchable for that moment. The most worrisome part of that skill, is just because you couldn''t touch them, didn''t mean they couldn''t deal damage in that state to you. They used this ability along with another one of theirs to attack adventurers while in their intangible state, mimicking a divebomb strike. It made for a dangerous and potent combo.


    A monster who is extraordinarily fast and who can turn themselves into an intangible bullet was not something very easy to handle.


    Luckily for them, Lily''s psychic attacks and Derek''s lightning were quite effective against them. Or at least that was what the group had told Julius. They hadn''t quite tested it yet, but they were confident that based on their research the birds shouldn''t pose that much of a problem.


    The more pressing issue in Kyle''s opinion was the fact that the rift was in a foggy environment. The fog had properties that made perception skills such as [Mana Sense] and [Detection] based skills more difficult to use. That was the reason why they headed off to the library after dinner.


    They wanted to see if there was something they could find that might help them later. Whether that was an item or an application of mana.


    Julius on the other hand was working on his epic skill acquisition. The others were very much not helpful.


    He had asked them for some tips, but they didn''t share many. They had just told him that combining skills and a Concept to create an epic skill relied heavily on oneself. There wasn''t a set way or established method unless you were following a predetermined path created by another user.


    Even in that case, since Concepts were related to the person''s own revelations, that also meant that they would need to find a way to combine them on their own.


    In Julius''s circumstances, combining three separate skills was already difficult. However, he also needed to combine the Concept along with them. That was the way he would be able to create an epic skill.


    So he got to work. For the entire night and all the way until morning, he worked on creating his epic skill.


    He made sure to exclusively use [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], and [Composite Mana]. He didn''t even use [Spatial Perception] or [Savage Dance] beyond the normal passive effects they had. Julius wanted to feel comfortable that whatever epic skill he got, would not be influenced or heavily influenced by those two skills.


    The problem that he ended up running into was using his Severing Will Concept without using [Barrier of Severance]. It was ironic. Julius had been so set on using the evolved version of [Mana Slash] to combine with his other skills. However, now he fervently attempted to prevent the new skill from combining with the others.


    That also meant he couldn''t have the skill to facilitate his Concept usage. And Julius had to be honest. That made using his new Concept multitudes harder. It was like he was trying to drive a car without a steering wheel.


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    He knew in his heart that if he wanted to combine [Barrier of Severance] with the other three skills, it would go pretty well. However, he didn''t want that. Not only was his new skill a rare+ skill, but it also had so much potential that Julius felt would be lost by combining them.


    So he spent the entire night until morning learning how to leverage his Concept without a skill as a medium. It was frustrating work. It was like knowing how to ride a bike your entire life and then suddenly one day you find yourself unable to even place your feet on the pedals.


    It didn''t just take him the entire night and early morning to learn how to finally do it either. It took him days of diligent and obsessive practice. Whenever he wasn''t in a training room, he was practicing in other aspects.


    In class, he found himself creating random constructs of mana instead of focusing on the lecture. Though, to be fair, that was mostly in his Intro to Mana class where Professor Stewart went off on her boring structured magic lecture. The other classes weren''t so bad, he actually learned a few interesting tidbits from them.


    Still, that didn''t stop him from creating things such as a pencil, a book with pages made of thin layers of mana, and even simple objects like a ball. After he would do that, he would try to connect with his Concept and infuse his constructs with the Sharpness Concept.


    The one thing he noticed right away was that unlike when he used [Barrier of Severance], he wasn''t able to cover objects that didn''t have innate sharpness of their own as easily. However, things such as knives or other objects with an edge were more straightforward to infuse with Severing Will.


    Which is the exact reason why he was focused on doing the opposite. He put most of his energy into using his Concept on things that directly opposed the obvious definition of sharpness. Things such as a soft and smooth ball.


    That didn''t mean that he didn''t use it on sharp things. He found himself using it on non-standard things such as the paper of his mana-constructed book. Something that would give a nasty mana-paper cut to whoever was unfortunate enough to slice their finger on it.


    It was Thursday already and Julius found himself so close to achieving his new skill. Originally, he had thought the process of learning an epic skill would be much simpler once he had a Concept, but he was wrong. Perhaps if he had learned a Fire Concept instead of a Sharpness Concept it would be simpler.


    His nights have been spent completely focused on creating as many various constructs as he could. He mainly concentrated on constructs that acted as armor or weapons but he wanted to practice creating other things as well. He didn''t want his entire skill set to revolve around violence. He would like it if his epic skill also allowed him to create things such as comfortable chairs as well.


    The only problem he had with that, was that chairs weren''t supposed to be sharp. So when he added Severing Will to his chair or other furniture constructs, he had to use the Concept in flexible and creative ways. Ways that wouldn''t cut his butt cheeks apart when he sat down on them.


    On the bright side, all of the unorthodox training paid off and it showed. He was now able to infuse his constructs with much more ease than several days ago. He could even replicate [Barrier of Severance] to a very admirable degree.


    An unexpected benefit from his obsessive practice was the fact that it served as amazing willpower training. Having to use his Concept for hours on hours every day without a break pushed his willpower to the limit.


    He even found himself taking a couple of naps throughout the week, in order to recover more easily. A proof of his dedication.


    He was so close though. He could practically taste it.


    It was like a sharp coppery taste covered his tongue¡­


    ¡­Wait a second. That''s blood. I''m tasting blood, Julius realized.


    Julius licked his upper lip and sure enough, it was his. He shook himself out of the daze he was stuck in and saw a hand waving in front of his face.


    It was Joshua''s hand and he had a worried look on his face. "Julius, are you alright?" he asked again for the fifth time.


    Oh, I remember. Joshua, James, and I were sparring in Professor Rowe''s class. One of us is supposed to be on offense and the other is strictly on defense. I must have started daydreaming during it. Did Joshua punch me in the face, is that why I''m bleeding? Julius thought to himself.


    "Are you alright? You just stopped moving." Joshua said frantically.


    Julius shook the cobwebs out of his head and wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand. "Yeah, sorry about that. I got distracted," he assured Joshua with a smile.


    Joshua sighed in relief. "Okay, good. You have been spacing out a lot this week. Is everything okay?"


    "Yeah, the entire week you have been completely out of it," James added from the side as he waited his turn to switch in. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius shook his head with a grin. "Sorry about that. I got some things I am working on and it''s taking longer than expected."


    Both of them had items that hid their aura, but Julius could tell from their faces that they thought he was hiding something from them.


    To be fair, he was, but he didn''t feel comfortable talking about his skills with them quite yet. He had been spending more time with them and while they weren''t as close as the others, Julius enjoyed their company. They were kind people with good hearts.


    "So what are you planning to do this weekend?" James asked Julius, switching the topic.


    Julius took the olive branch. "Me and the others have some plans to head to the city this weekend. They wanted to take me to some fancy pants restaurant."


    "Oh? What''s it called? Maybe I have heard of it," Joshua said.


    "Golden something. I don''t remember the exact name but Derek recommended it," Julius said with a shrug.


    "Golden Wheel?" Joshua asked, amazed.


    Yeah, that might have been it, Julius thought to himself. He nodded at the tall first-year. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Why? Have you been there?"


    Joshua chuckled and shook his head. "No, sadly I haven''t. But I heard amazing things. The only thing is that it is practically impossible to get reservations. How did you manage to get a seat?"


    "I don''t know. I let the others handle it," Julius confessed.


    "Speaking of the others, you still haven''t told me about these other friends of yours. Will we ever get to meet them?" Joshua asked interestingly.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t know. I can''t see why you wouldn''t see them eventually, but also they are always busy doing something, so I can''t say for certain. They are fourth years after all."


    Joshua nodded his head in understanding. "Well, I hope I get to meet them soon, they sound great."

 Chapter 126: Celebratory Cake

    It was the middle of the night. Tomorrow was their planned day and the six of them had already decided to leave earlier in the day to walk around the city before dinner. Therefore, Julius wanted to get his skill tonight by any means necessary.He should be able to as well. He could feel it. For the past couple of days, he had been so close, it was teetering on the edge. All it needed was a little push and he would be able to learn an epic skill.


    His ability to use his Severing Will Concept was leaps and bounds better than when he first got it. It was starting to feel as natural as using his mana and he could see why people who had a Concept were considered more powerful than those who didn''t.


    The main advantage that Julius found out was the Concept''s ability to be used in conjunction with all of Julius''s abilities, not just his skills. Even his aura took on some aspects of Severing Will. It felt sharper and from some perspectives, more harsh. When he cranked up his aura, it felt like someone was holding a giant broadsword over another person''s head.


    There was an undeniable feeling of intimidation looming over whoever was subjugated to it. Julius could see how it could be a good deterrent in the future.


    At the current moment, Julius was concentrating on covering his entire body with constructs. He had always had a troubling time creating an armor-like construct that covered his entire body while still maintaining flexibility.


    However, the time that he spent practicing making chairs and other furniture helped him focus on the softer applications of mana. He was then able to transfer this ability and apply it to his armor construct.


    He looked down at his hands which were covered in dark red hardened mana. They resembled something closer to gloves. There was barely any additional thickness around his fingers and they looked too delicate to be of practical use.


    However, that was exactly what Julius had been practicing to make. His old gauntlets were more like big pistons attached to his hands. They were mainly meant for punching things and delivering a payload of energy.


    To his pride, he was now able to create something a little more elegant and a little more practical for various other uses. He made sure to create softened sections of mana, specifically around the joints and where his fingers would curl. Thanks to [Composite Mana], there weren''t any cracks or separate layers either. It was one single piece of mana that was reinforced with [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression].


    These gloves were strong. They hummed with the power that was held within them. Not to mention they literally vibrated from the sharpened mana Julius was able to add due to getting better with his Concept.


    The gloves were the hard part. The follow-up parts of the armor were much easier. The chest plate was shockingly the simplest to create. It was pretty much just a really dense and strong layer of mana. The most difficult was creating a mechanism for him to absorb and store kinetic energy from impacts from his opponents.


    Slowly but surely Julius was able to wrap his entire upper body with rippling red mana. Woven fibers of mana wrapped around his limbs. He was able to create the lower half of the armor without any issues as well. The armor around his feet took a little longer to find a comfortable configuration, but with the generous application of softened mana, his feet were soon surrounded by little mana clouds. They became one of the most comfortable shoes he ever had.


    That just left the helmet. The helmet was a little more complicated than what he had been expecting. It wasn''t like he needed more complex or intricate control, but he did need to work on the aesthetics. The rest of his armor had a rugged edge to it. It had sharp but tasteful angles around the chest plate, greaves, and shoulders, but the joints were flawless and smooth.


    The faceplate took him longer to decide on the look he wanted to go for. Finally, he decided on a helmet that had sharp spikes adorned all across the top, making it look like a crown of thorns. The helm looked vicious and way over the top.


    It''s perfect, Julius smiled to himself.


    It was intimidating and completely dark crimson red. He looked more like a villain than anything else.


    Just like his gloves, the entire suit of armor was thrumming with a pale white light of sharpened mana. The light felt like it was cutting apart everything that got even remotely close to its vicinity, even the air.


    It was everything he could have hoped for when he first got the idea of a suit of construction armor. It took a lot of mana, even for his standards, but he didn''t feel like it was a waste.


    It wasn''t easy to hold together though. It took a lot of concentration and willpower to keep it up. He felt as if any second he could lose control of it and the construct would slowly start to fall apart. It would most likely take a while, but it would crumble away eventually if he allowed it.


    Once he had the entire construct armor up and going he didn''t stop there. Julius pulled as much mana as he could and began creating a spike of mana.


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    However, this spike wasn''t like his usual constructs. This time he was going to use the blue fire that he had been wary of since the day he first used it.


    A big part of why he wanted to create a mana construct epic skill was to use this dangerous kinetically enhanced fire. He never felt like he had been able to control it in the past. It had only been due to extreme circumstances and luck that he hadn''t killed himself when using it.


    However, he truly believed that once he had an epic skill, he would be able to handle it with more confidence.


    He used [Arcane Construct] to create the framework of the skill. Then he used [Pure Compression] to pack in as much mana and his Concept of Severing Will. Once he had that all set, he used [Composite Mana] to intertwine the various energies together into one homogeneous mass.


    Once he had that all set, he got to work on using the kinetic energy to feed fuel into the existing fire mana. Like normal, he felt himself barely keeping it from blowing up in his face. It was only due to his increased skills, experience, and willpower that held it together.


    However, Julius was happily surprised to observe that [Composite Mana] helped out the process by a significant margin. The way the skill helped facilitate the two different mana types into a singular one made a massive difference in how well it went.


    Previously, it felt like he was trying to balance on a wire a thousand feet in the air while also trying to wrangle a cat that didn''t want to be held. Now, it felt like he was just balancing on a wire. It was much less stressful.


    Which is why he was glad that he was able to create a glowing spike of deep blue mana. It was blistering hot, even from his perspective with his innate resistance.


    He took the time to observe this new construct. It was different than the ones he had made before. This time he had created something that he believed would actually pose a threat to Gabriel.


    The two of them whenever they sparred, focused on hand-to-hand combat. Julius tended to not use his constructs other than as a gauntlet or other physical enhancement. This led to Julius becoming much more proficient in close combat. But he had also not been able to cause Gabriel any real damage yet. His resistance skills and durable body were one thing. But then if you added Gabriel''s Authority, it became next to impossible for Julius to hurt him.


    With that being said, Julius might be able to leave a bruise now. If he were to shoot this spike at Gabriel''s forehead, he had some confidence that it would at least tickle the bald monster.


    Then again, he would have to wait and see it for himself when he got the opportunity to test it out on Gabriel.


    He started to feel a little strained holding the mass of energy together and so he launched it at the furthest target against the wall. Much like his other attempt with sharpened mana, the spike didn''t create a single sound as it pierced the air.


    One second it was blistering through the air and the next it was smashing into the stone target with a deafening boom. A huge vortex of fire spiraled out of the point of explosion and left a man-sized crater in the stone target.


    Thankfully, he had been practicing in the more advanced facilities where the enchantments were made for stronger students. Because he had a feeling that if he had done the same thing in the first-year training rooms, he might have blown a hole into the next room.


    Julius released the deep breath he was holding and admired his work with an excited smile. It was certainly more potent than anything else he could use at the moment. It was kind of satisfying to blow things up and he had become a little addicted to it.


    As he was patting himself on the back, he became aware of the pending notifications in the back of his mind and he smiled even wider, before laughing manically.


    Synergy detected¡­


    Appraising requirements¡­


    Congratulations. Skills requirement met.


    Congratulations. Concept requirement met.


    Congratulations. Soul requirement met.


    Would you like to evolve [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], and [Composite Mana] into a single skill?


    Soul requirement? I didn''t know that there was a soul requirement, nobody mentioned that, Julius contemplatively thought to himself. He put it aside for later to think about and focused back on his skill evolution.


    He didn''t have to wait or think about this decision like some of his other skills and immediately accepted the prompt. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Skill evolution commencing¡­


    Congratulations, skill [Armaments of the Arcane] (Epic) acquired.


    [Armaments of the Arcane] huh? Sounds fancy, Julius joked to himself.


    He was excited, truly excited. After all that training and time he spent, he finally had an epic skill of his own. It was a monumental achievement for any person. Most people went their entire lives without touching upon a Concept, nevertheless an epic skill.


    He took out a specialty cake that he had been saving for this exact moment. It was a chocolate espresso cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting and a glazed chocolate ganache on top. It was a delicious cake that he had been keeping in his spatial ring for the past week.


    He took out a plate and silverware as well, before pouring himself an ice-cold glass of milk and cutting himself a thick slice of the cake. He warmed up the cake just a bit, just so the cake was slightly steaming, but made sure to keep the frosting nice and cold.


    Julius got so excited that he forgot that he was wearing an entire helmet with a faceplate and when he tried to put the fork in his mouth, he ended up clanging the fork against the helm.


    He quickly dissipated his entire armor with a thought. Once he did that, he dug in and moaned from the sensation that hit his tongue. He didn''t know what tasted better. The taste of succeeding after so much effort or the bliss of a perfectly moist cake that was both sweet and a little bitter from the espresso.


    After his bite, he took a large sip of the cold milk to wash everything down, letting out a satisfied sigh of happiness. He couldn''t help but want to use his new skill, so he activated [Armaments of the Arcane] and attempted to create a reclining chair.


    Much to his surprise, the skill worked seamlessly. Not only was the skill able to create a chair similar to one he had been creating for the past several weeks, but it was more comfortable and easier to make.


    He barely had to concentrate, he only needed to focus on imagining what he wanted and the skill did the rest, filling in the gaps on its own.


    He sat down in the chair with a big smile and continued eating his cake.


    But as he did, another notification popped up in his head.

 Chapter 127: Soul Evolution

    Julius did a double take. He had just evolved his skills into [Armaments of the Arcane] and he certainly wasn''t expecting anything else. Therefore, he was taken by surprise when he got another one so soon.He took a deep breath to calm and center himself, before taking a look at the notification.


    Notice: Soul threshold has been met.


    Soul Evolution commencing¡­


    You are qualified to select one of the following rewards¡­


    Free Upgrade of Any Rare Skill to Epic


    Lesser Soul-Nourishing Enhancement


    Concept Enlightenment Assistance


    One Additional Skill Slot


    Notice: You have five minutes to decide on your reward. If no reward is selected after time has elapsed, one will be randomly decided for you.


    Julius stared at the notification for longer than he should have. He was just that surprised. Nothing to this point had indicated that something like this was possible. So far the Words of the World hadn''t offered any rewards to him. It had only been notifications of his actions in the form of skills.


    Actually, when he thought about it. He had gotten notifications when he entered rifts. Perhaps that was a clue that the Words of the World weren''t exclusively for skills.


    The problem with this was that he only had five minutes. Less than five minutes since he had wasted some of it standing there like an idiot, but still time was running short.


    He didn''t know exactly what this meant, but at least it seemed like the options were more or less straightforward. The first option was a free upgrade of any rare skill to epic.


    If Julius was understanding it correctly, that meant that any rare skill would immediately jump to epic, it didn''t say anything about whether or not they were level 20 or level 1. That was alluring because he had a few rare+ skills that were much more difficult to level up. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Say for example he chose [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal], undeniably one of his most vital skills, it would supposedly become epic and even more effective. However, a part of him was curious about whether he did this and what that meant for the Concept requirement for epic skills.


    Did that mean Severing Will would be used to evolve the healing skill? Because in that case, he didn''t think he would want to do that. He had been hoping to learn a Life Concept or a Fire Concept, preferably both. The skill had phoenix in its name and he wanted to try to see if there was some sort of Concept related to it before trying to use a Sharpness Concept.


    The only skill he would be tempted to use it on would be [Barrier of Severance]. His current and only Concept would fit very well with the skill. However, what did that mean for the dozen-plus levels he would be missing out on?


    Would that cause him to lose any progress he could make from those skill levels or would he receive whatever he would from those dozen-plus levels after he evolved it? That was kind of an important question he would like answers to. Because if it was the first option, he would not even consider the free skill upgrade.


    He didn''t worry about putting in the hard work and grinding out the skill levels. Since he already had the Severing Will Concept the hardest part was done anyway. He most likely was only offered this reward because he already had a Concept.


    He put the first option on the back burner and thought about the second option.


    This option was a bit more mysterious than the other three. A lesser soul-nourishing enhancement wasn''t something that Julius was aware of. Going off the name alone, he would expect that it nourished the soul.


    However, he didn''t know exactly what that entailed. Would it strengthen his overall soul? Would it heal it from damage? Or would something else happen?


    The two main things that pushed him away from this option were the fact it was described as lesser. Julius didn''t like the sound of lesser. While it might not really mean that it was of subpar quality he didn''t like the implications.


    However, did that also mean that there were minor, major, and maybe even peak soul-nourishing enhancements? Perhaps in the future, if he were to get this same notification it would be for a better soul-nourishing enhancement.


    An increase to his soul was a captivating thought, but he recalled what the notification had said. It had said that he had met the soul threshold, just like a skill increase would describe it. He was pretty confident that this meant Julius''s soul had gotten to a standard or rather a threshold which led him to receiving these options.


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    It was very likely that when he had gained his new epic skill, the acquisition had been enough to bump Julius''s soul to that next rank. After all, there was a reason why elites were supposed to gain as many high-level and high-ranked skills before they tier up. Acquiring and improving skills was a good way to improve one''s soul.


    He was well aware that he had a stronger soul than a normal person. It was a reason why he had more mana and a stronger aura than others at his Tier. He had always assumed that it was because he was technically two souls in one body.


    When he had reincarnated or transferred to Julius''s body, he believed that their souls had meshed into the person he was today. Therefore, having a stronger soul was not out of the realm of possibilities.


    As such, did Julius really need an additional boost to his soul? Would it be nice? Yes, of course it would. However, he wasn''t thinking it was the best option out of the four choices he was presented with.


    Not to mention again that it was called "lesser".


    Julius left this option and moved on to the next. One that really interested him.


    Concept Enlightenment Assistance. He knew from experience how difficult and esoteric learning a concept could be. Hence, having something to help him learn another Concept was a very attractive reward.


    It maybe even possible to learn a Concept that went well with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. That would be pretty great, especially if there was a Phoenix Concept or some sort of related concept that would pair wonderfully with the healing skill.


    He just wasn''t sure how certain it was. For all he knew, it was just a little nudge and could only help him so much. Much like the lesser soul nourishment.


    Also he was curious about how much control he had over the process. Would it only help him if he was close to a specific Concept or maybe it would come down to pure chance and he ended up receiving a Water Concept instead.


    He didn''t even want to think about the possibility that whatever Concept he got from this reward being less powerful than a Concept that he learned on his own. After all, a Concept is a deeply personal thing to a person. That might lead to whatever Concept Julius would learn from the reward to be tainted by whatever the Words of the World used to assist him.


    He didn''t have enough information and it was frustrating. For all of his research and time in the library, he didn''t seem to be prepared for this moment. He just wished that there wasn''t a time limit. Which by the way was ticking down fast and he was running out of time.


    He reviewed the final and in his opinion the most alluring option as well as potentially the strongest one. On paper it seemed like it was as impressive as the other ones, but he knew better.


    He learned how valuable a skill slot was and how important each one was. Therefore, having an additional one could be a game changer.


    The potential power of having an additional epic skill or even higher ranked skill was enormous. It would give him an advantage over someone with only ten skill slots. He could also have more skill slots to combine skills with each other. Something he learned how impactful it could be when he combined [Arcane Construct], [Pure Compression], and [Composite Mana].


    Another major benefit that he was thinking about was something that was in line with his prior thoughts on the free upgrade and soul-nourishment options. If he were to have an additional skill to evolve through the ranks, he would be able to strengthen his soul in a natural way.


    Notice: You have one minute to decide on your choice before one is randomly chosen for you.


    Why does it only give me five minutes? I could have ten times that and it would still not be enough, Julius inwardly complained.


    For the next thirty seconds, he went back and forth about which option he was going with.


    Notice: You have thirty seconds to decide on your choice before one is randomly chosen for you.


    Shut up, Julius scolded the notification. I''m trying to think here and you only gave me five minutes.


    He was able to narrow it down to two options. Concept assistance and the additional skill slot. The free upgrade, as nice as it would be, wasn''t something Julius was in need of. He had full confidence in leveling his skills through his own efforts and then ranking them up to epic afterward.


    He also didn''t want to take the chance that he would lose out on the improvements and power boosts that came with the leftover skill levels.


    As for the lesser soul nourishing enhancement, he wasn''t very intrigued by it in the first place. He felt like out of all the options this one was the one he didn''t feel he needed. There were other ways to strengthen his soul and two of the other options indirectly helped with that.


    Perhaps, if he had some sort of soul injury, like the one that Professor Youma had, he would be more interested. However, it wasn''t meant to be and so he eliminated it from the running.


    Notice: You have ten seconds remaining to decide on your choice before one is randomly chosen for you.


    Julius looked up in the air and sighed loudly. He hoped he wasn''t making a mistake and if he was, then he would just have to live with it. He took another deep breath and with more confidence than he really felt, mentally selected his choice.


    He had confidence that he could learn another Concept without outside help. He didn''t care how long it took, he would accomplish it one way or another.


    You have selected the Additional Skill Slot as your reward. Are you sure you want to choose this option?


    He confirmed his choice with an anxious heart.


    Congratulations. You have been rewarded an Additional Skill Slot.


    Current Skill Slots: 10 -> 11

 Chapter 128: Cake Solicitation

    Julius reread the message a couple of times before he stopped. He just had to make sure that he was reading it correctly. Apparently, he now had eleven skill slots instead of the normal ten, which he was very excited about.He had always suspected that there were ways to increase one''s skill slots. He remembered that he had asked Edwin a while ago, and of course, in typical Edwin fashion, he hadn''t answered Julius''s question.


    Julius distinctly recalled that the only answer Julius got was a smack across the back of the head and a stern reminder to not be focused on things that didn''t matter.


    However, It made sense considering that skills were an integral piece of one''s soul. Still, he hadn''t been expecting to get another one until Tier 3 at least. After all, Tier 3 was the stage when soul strength became more important. But it was also the stage when one''s body and soul started to merge.


    Julius pulled up his status to see if anything would be reflected in these changes.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 2


    Skills:


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 1] (Epic)


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 15] (Rare+) S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 14] (Rare+)


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 9] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Savage Dance lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 16] (Rare)


    Current Skill Slots: 7/11


    Concepts:


    [Concept of Sharpness]


    [Severing Will]


    The first thing he noticed was his new epic skill right on top of his skill list. He was going to be honest, seeing it up there gave him more satisfaction than he had been expecting.


    The next thing he noticed was that there were some additions to his status. It now had how many skill slots he had in total as well as the amount that he was currently using. At the moment it showed that he was using seven out of eleven slots. That meant he had four more to fill in with whatever skills he wanted.


    Even without the additional skill slot, being able to combine three separate skills into one singular one had been a huge help. With the extra room and the two extra skill slots to play with, Julius felt less bad about taking another skill.


    He could now get that [Quick Step] skill that he had been looking at for a while. Gabriel had been waiting to teach him until he was ready. However, now that Julius had more space for skills, he felt prepared.


    The final thing that stuck out was the section that showed Julius his Concepts he currently had. At the moment, it only displayed his Concept of Sharpness: Severing Will. He would imagine that in the future it would show the rest of his Concepts. Also, if he were to get another Concept of Sharpness, it seemed logical that it would show up underneath Severing Will.


    However, that begged the question of the possibility and possible repercussions of learning a second Concept of Sharpness.


    He was very intrigued about what it would mean for his current Concept. Perhaps, it might even combine with Severing Will if there were property synergy between them. He would try to remember to ask Declan or someone else about it. It would be good to know.


    After a big stretch of his arms, he got back to what he was doing before he was interrupted. His partly eaten cake was still in his lap as he lay down in his chair.


    However, now that he was done with the skill upgrade and the spontaneous reward selection, he didn''t feel like staying in the training room for much longer. He was thinking that some fresh air would be a nice change of pace.


    As he left the training facilities, he immediately noticed how nice of a night it was. The moon was illuminating the campus just enough to see the general silhouettes of the buildings and trees. The air was crisp and refreshing. Maybe it would have been cold to someone who was untiered, but to Julius, it was the perfect temperature.


    Julius walked around campus, looking for a spot where he could enjoy his cake. He came across a good number of students much to his surprise. It was pretty late, but it must not have been late enough for everyone to be in bed. There was also the fact that tomorrow was the weekend, so students didn''t need to get up early in the morning. It was one of the few days they got a chance to sleep in.


    Julius thought about heading down to the beach, but he stopped himself. For one, if there were enough people around campus, he was sure that there was a party or get-together of some sort down at the beach like usual.


    Secondly, he didn''t enjoy the thought of eating his cake while around the sand. Nothing would ruin such a delicacy faster than it becoming a gritty mess.


    Therefore, he headed off in search of an empty garden or area where he could enjoy his cake in peace. He finally found a spot toward the edge of campus, it was much quieter than the rest of the grounds. He could only sense a couple of people around him. Though, they were far enough away that he didn''t worry about it.


    He got himself nice and situated, creating another chair using his new skill, [Armaments of the Arcane]. This time he also included a table for him to eat off of as well. It was completely unnecessary but it was a perfect opportunity to try out his new skill.


    The one thing that he really noticed, was how much of his Concept was present in the skill''s constructs without him really needing to do anything. It didn''t make the chair or table sharp, but they were infused with his Severing Will Concept.


    Once he got settled in, he brought out his cake and glass of milk. However, he felt something tug on his core and Drasil came out on his own as well. The little life spirit appeared to want to enjoy the night with Julius as well.


    Unfortunately, the cute little green spirit had no interest in delicious desserts. Hence, Julius had to create a little ball of dense life mana for the spirit to enjoy alongside him. He even created a little plate for the spirit to eat on, just like Julius was.


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    Drasil seemed to really enjoy the thought and happily whistled at Julius while leaping at the ball of life mana, eagerly absorbing it. Julius smiled at the little guy and went back to shoveling his own cake into his mouth.


    He was on his third piece of cake when he felt two individuals approach his general direction. He could tell that they were both female based on their general shapes. One was practicing with her mana while walking the other was following her from behind.


    Once he checked them out, he ignored them and went back to devouring his cake. He looked over at Drasil who was almost done with his little ball and created another one, placing in on the plate in front of him.


    Drasil looked up at Julius and gave a whistle of appreciation, before continuing to enjoy the life mana.


    He felt the girls get pretty close to him, heading almost directly to where he was sitting.


    Please don''t come over, please don''t come over, Julius prayed silently.


    "Is that cake?" he heard from behind his back. She sounded incredulous as if the idea of someone eating cake was absurd. Or maybe it was more of the fact that he was eating cake with a small green spirit in the dark that surprised her.


    He turned around to see who had disturbed his night. It was hard to see her exact features, but she had black hair and was cute even in this low lighting. She wasn''t stunning like he had seen many of the girls in his year, but she had a nice face and a warm smile. He turned to look at the other girl he had sensed walking with her, but to his surprise, he didn''t see anything.


    He blinked a few times before taking another look, but it was the same. There was nobody there.


    Correction. There was someone there, he just couldn''t see them with his eyes. However, [Spatial Perception] was quite confident that she was there. It was possible that she using magic to make herself invisible or something.


    It wasn''t his problem either way. As long as she wasn''t doing it for malicious purposes, he would overlook it and pretend that he didn''t know she was there. Who knew, maybe the girl was doing training of her own right now. Who was Julius to judge other people''s training methods? He had to remind himself that he had worn a blindfold for several years as a child for that very same reason.


    Julius looked back at the girl who had asked him the question. "Sorry, what was that?"


    "I asked if that was a cake you were eating," she said with an amused glint in her eyes.


    Julius nodded his head proudly. "Yep. Chocolate espresso cake from a little shop I found in town."


    She tilted her head and gave him a curious look in return. "Why are you eating cake all the way out here alone?"


    "I''m not alone," he pointed out. He had seen her already take notice of Drasil, it was too late to hide him and he didn''t feel like it was worth the trouble. Most people surprisingly didn''t pay that much attention to other''s familiars, they were more common than Julius expected.


    Plus, Drasil was having a grand old time and he didn''t want to ruin his fun. In fact, Drasil hadn''t even noticed the girls'' approach and was still enjoying his meal with joyful ignorance.


    She took another glance at the gluttonous life spirit with a small laugh. "Apologies, not alone. But my question still stands."


    He shrugged his shoulders. "Why not? Everyone loves cake. Plus, it''s a beautiful night out and it is quite peaceful don''t you think?"


    The girl gave a rueful grin and a conceding nod. "Very true."


    Julius observed the girl intently looking at the half-eaten piece that was on his plate. He had an inclining that she had come over more than just to say hello. In fact, based on how she was staring at his cake so attentively he had a good guess why.


    "Do you want a piece?" Julius offered her in a regretful tone as if he was wishing that she would decline.


    Julius saw her give the brightest smile yet and furiously nodded her head in confirmation.


    He gave her a small knowing grin and she had the grace to look slightly embarrassed at how obvious and shameless her staring had been. He took out the rest of the cake and gave her a nice generous slice along with a plate of her own and a glass of milk.


    She took it with a happy grin, "Thanks, I love cake."


    "I couldn''t tell," he said with a grin of his own.


    She sat down beside him on the ground as she took her first bite. Julius knew that he should be offering his chair to her like a good gentleman would. However, he rationalized to himself that he had already given away a precious piece of his cake.


    Not to mention he had been out here to avoid people. So it made him feel less bad about not giving up his seat.


    While he could have created another chair, he didn''t want to show his new epic-ranked skill to them in action. He would rather they believed it was some sort of enchanted item he had.


    However, it seemed that the invisible girl who was with her didn''t feel the same way. Julius could literally feel the girl staring daggers into his forehead. He didn''t need eyes to feel her judgemental gaze.


    He got distracted when he heard a soft moan of appreciation from the girl who savored her first bite.


    "This is a very good cake," she commented.


    "Right? Not bad at all," Julius agreed enthusiastically.


    Unlike her friend, the girl didn''t seem to mind that Julius wasn''t giving up his seat. If anything, she was too distracted with her own dessert to care that much.


    They didn''t talk at all, both of them were content with the silence and their cake. Once she polished off the cake in record time, she took a nice long sip of the milk, before getting to her feet and sweeping the crumbs from her uniform.


    "That was fast," he commented while also a little bit impressed.


    He could see her turn her head down and blush in embarrassment in the low light again. "Sorry about that. I interrupted you, took your cake, then gorged myself on it in front of you like some uncultured barbarian."


    "No, no. Don''t be embarrassed, I was more in awe about how fast you ate it."


    She still had her head down. "Well, it''s not my fault that is was it so delicious," she said bitterly.


    "...Thank you for sharing with me. I know you didn''t have to," she thanked him after a momentary pause.


    "Are you kidding me? The way you were looking at it, I had a feeling that if I didn''t you would have beaten me up and taken it from me by force."


    She looked back up at him with an affronted expression. "I would not!" She refuted fervently.


    "I would most likely just have asked you repeatedly until you said yes," she confessed after a brief second of silence.


    Julius noticed the invisible girl next to her tap her shoulder once. Then, without looking at the invisible girl, the cake girl bowed at Julius. "I have to get going, but I appreciate you sharing your cake with me. If I ever come across a cake in need of sharing, I will try to return the favor," she joked.


    "Only if it''s a good one. If it tastes like dirt, you have my permission to forget about me," Julius said. He was dead serious too. He loved cake, but that didn''t mean he wanted a shit cake.


    "Okay, only the best cake, I promise," she said with a hint of amusement before turning around and leaving in the other direction without another word.


    Julius still felt the other invisible girl''s gaze intensely staring at him even as she left alongside her friend.


    What a weird pair of girls, Julius mused to himself. They just came in and ate my cake. Not to mention that I didn''t even get any of their names.

 Chapter 129: Such Insolence!

    Amelia POVThe insolence of that boy! She angrily thought to herself.


    Amelia had wanted nothing else than to absolutely brutalize that disrespectful brat. How dare he treat Reinera in that manner.


    The only thing that had prevented her from smashing his face into a pulp was that she was supposed to be hidden and Princess Reinera wouldn''t appreciate her coming out of hiding to beat on the boy.


    Amelia had been by Princess Reinera''s side for most of her life and had dutifully protected her from many dangers along the way. The past few years have been exceptionally difficult, there have been no less than a dozen attempts on her life.


    Thankfully, the Houses and groups that have been after the princess have only sent people under Tier 5 so far. Granted, most Tier 5 and 6 individuals didn''t care about Princess Reinera, they had more important things to care about. Still, that left a lot of greedy individuals looking to take advantage of Princess Reinera for their own ambitions.


    Though, Amelia was very wary of the boy for some reason. His aura was only Tier 2 and he had some sort of item that shrouded his aura, which often denoted a lack of practice and control. So he shouldn''t be a threat, especially considering she was a Tier 4 herself. All it would take was a single poke and she could pop him like a mosquito.


    So why did she have such a reaction when she looked at him?


    A main thing that caused her suspicion was the fact that he had looked directly at her, even though she had been using [Mist of the Ethereal] to shroud her presence. A skill that other Tier 4s who had an epic-ranked perception skill would find challenging to see through.


    It was only just a second, and could easily be ignored as a coincidence. However, she knew what she saw. Was it a coincidence? Or perhaps was it something that she should be wary of? He hadn''t acted like she was there, but there was always the chance that he had, but had chosen to ignore her instead.


    Another thing that sparked her caution was the conjured furniture that was around the boy. They were made entirely of mana, very high quality, and dense mana at that. Not only that but there was something else infused within them. It was very difficult to sense even with her abilities, but it spoke of something beyond what a Tier 2 could create.


    Amelia had seen some amazing and breathtaking items created by masterful craftsmen. Many of them had been contracted to build things for the royal family. And an item that was able to create furniture constructs of that quality was undoubtedly very expensive. Not to mention, the contacts needed to find such a crafter would be just as difficult.


    That wasn''t in itself very surprising. After all, this was Goldencrest at the end of the day. Many influential Houses and Families sent their scions here to study and learn to fight. Amelia was aware that there were the young prodigies of the Abrams and Zenith households here as well.


    No, what bothered her more than all of that, was his treatment of the Imperial Princess. They had disguised her in order to allow her to walk around freely and enjoy some peace and quiet Goldencrest had to offer. Still, it was appalling that anyone would let her sit on the dirt like some average commoner.


    He didn''t even offer her a chair. A chair that she had no doubt was within his item''s capability. Even if he didn''t know Reinera was a princess, he should have the chivalry and offered it to any woman, regardless of status.


    Yet, Princess Reinera didn''t take any offense. She had taken up the dirt without complaint. Amelia knew that the princess had a weakness for sweets and other food-related delicacies. So she wasn''t that surprised that she had been drawn into the cake. It did look pretty tasty if Amelia was being honest.


    She would have to look into where the boy had found it so that she could get one for the princess to enjoy later. It definitely seemed like the princess had enjoyed it very much.


    Amelia hadn''t been worried about the cake being poisoned either. For one, they had gone to him, not the other way around. Maybe if he had invited her over for cake, Amelia would have been more wary of a possible poisoning.


    Also, Princess Reinera had many enchanted items on her person that specifically tested for poisons in her vicinity. It wasn''t a failsafe method, but it helped dramatically when it came to assuring her food was safe. Furthermore, she had many medicines that would have helped her once she showed signs of being affected by a substance.


    "You should have tried it, Amelia."


    Amelia broke out of her thoughts and turned to Reinera. "That wouldn''t be possible, I am supposed to be invisible, princess."


    "It would have been worth it. Seriously, I can''t believe I forgot to ask him where he got it," Reinera said frustrated at her failure.


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    Amelia removed her invisibility and appeared next to the princess. Unlike the princess''s disguise, she had golden blonde hair and a lithe figure. "He did mention that he had found it in town. Perhaps, I could send someone out to find it if you are interested."


    "No, that would defeat the challenge of finding it on my own," she argued. "I was thinking we could go and search for it tomorrow if there''s time."


    "I don''t think that would be safe, princess," Amelia respectfully pointed out.


    "Argh, what''s the point of getting sent all the way out here to Heston if I am even more confined than I would have been in the Capital? I also have this disguise thanks to Uncle, so I should be pretty safe," Reinera said.


    "I don''t see why there''s a need to take a chance," Amelia refuted.


    "I agreed to come all the way out here because I thought I would finally have a chance to be a little more free. Not to just be further away from my family while still in chains," Reinera stated.


    "You came out here because it is safer for you," Amelia corrected her. "Only the most desperate parties will come and try to kill you in a place like Heston. The others will be too worried about the possible consequences of breaking the long-standing peace here."


    "So you are telling me I still need to be locked up like a little bird in a cage?" The princess asked sarcastically.


    "Don''t try and play that card. You have more privileges from your so-called ''cage'' than ninety-nine percent of the people in the Empire," Amelia chastised the princess. For a member of the royal family, Reinera was quite well-mannered and kind. However, she had the unfortunate problem of not having the proper perspective of her position and took some of her liberties for granted. She had no idea how bad some of the people had it. Or just how many people were oppressed by those who controlled their region.


    "Also, this weekend is not the best time to go exploring. Apparently, several high-ranking dignitaries and other influential people are coming to Heston for negotiations. It will already be quite a stressful couple of days," Amelia added. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Reinera grumbled unhappily and tried once more to convince Amelia. "Please? If there is so much attention on the other parties, then would our actions go unnoticed?"


    Amelia paused at that. It was difficult to admit, but Reinera made a good point. With all of the noise, they could easily slip around Heston without anybody the wiser. It would most likely be the best time to explore the city.


    Reinera must have seen the unwilling admittance on her face because she pressed forward. "We can even go disguised like we are now. I don''t mind having escorts and a few other guards around either. But can we please do it? I didn''t get to see the rest of the city because there was such a crowd of people before."


    Amelia watched as Reinera gave her best puppy eyes.


    She sighed defeatedly. "Okay. But there will be strict conditions. And I expect you to follow them without question, understood?"


    Princess Reinera squealed in joy and jumped up in down in excitement, hugging Amelia tightly. "Thank you, thank you!"


    Amelia just shook her head. She had a very busy day she had to plan out before tomorrow. She would have to figure out the layout of the city, and which part they would be traveling to. She would have to schedule duties to the other retainers and guards. It would seem that she wouldn''t be getting much sleep tonight.


    "Huh, I just realized it. But I never caught that boy''s name," the princess said more to herself than anyone else.


    Amelia got interrupted as she was already planning the next day''s events. "What was that?"


    "Oh, nothing. I was just thinking that I never got that nice boy''s name."


    "You mean the boy who didn''t even lend you his chair to sit on and made you eat in the dirt?" Amelia said annoyed.


    "We did interrupt him during his dessert. Not to mention that he did share with me and that it was an amazing cake. I can''t expect him to give up his only seat. Maybe if the cake ''tasted like dirt'' I would have been more upset," Reinera defended him.


    "It doesn''t excuse his rudeness," Amelia commented.


    "I''m not going to hold it against him. Furthermore, he might have not been able to create another chair for me. It was already a pretty impressive work of mana construction, so I wouldn''t blame him if he couldn''t create another."


    Amelia swiftly turned her complete attention to her. "You think he created the chair and table himself?"


    Princess Reinera shrugged her shoulders. "That''s what it felt like to me. You thought differently?"


    Amelia nodded her head. "I thought it was an item."


    Reinera frowned. "I don''t think it was an item. I felt like he had more of a personal connection with it than something conjured with the help of an item. A connection that is more consistent from a skill in use. That was actually what made me go over in the first place. The cake was just a happy coincidence."


    Amelia went deep into thought. She knew very well that Princess Reinera had generational talent which included incredible mana senses ever since she was a babe. Amelia''s own talents didn''t revolve around mana manipulation and other mana constructs. She was good very good by normal standards, but nothing compared to Reinera.


    Therefore, she trusted her opinion more than her own. If Reinera believed that the boy created the constructs through one of his own skills, Amelia was positioned to believe her.


    "How did he manage to create something so dense and intricate on his own?" She asked the princess.


    "I don''t know. The constructs had multiple complex arrangements. When I was eating I was eagerly trying to figure out how he did it. He somehow was able to condense a bunch of fire mana enough to give it complete physical form and then on top of it, add elements of softened mana to it. There was some other stuff that I couldn''t make out, but it was certainly impressive. Most likely it was the use of several very good mana skills, " she said appreciatively.


    That changed a lot of how Amelia viewed the boy now. She placed him higher on the list of people she would have to keep an eye on. She hadn''t heard of anyone with his description yet, so he couldn''t be a known scion from a powerful family, but he was someone with at least some level of skill if he impressed Reinera.


    The princess wasn''t easily impressed by anything. Especially anything revolving around mana.

 Chapter 130: Ate His Family To Poverty

    As a little gift to himself, Julius decided to get some proper sleep in his dorm like a normal student. No more mats or hard stone floors for him. He had moved up in the world and had finally decided to sleep on an actual bed that was soft and plush.Funnily enough, he didn''t sense his roommate Henry when he arrived. Which was weird considering it was past midnight at this point and from what Julius had observed in these past several weeks, his roommate was always in bed when Julius decided to drop by.


    He didn''t pay it that much mind. He focused on getting himself nice and clean before jumping into the fluffy bed. Within a few moments, he was passed out face first in his pillows.


    When he awoke, he felt the familiar presence of Drasil lying across his head. His face was still pressed into the pillowcase, but the life spirit had decided that the back of the skull made for a comfortable place to rest.


    It was becoming a bit of a habit for the spirit to come out of his core to join Julius in his naps or when he was sleeping in bed. It was actually a little bit endearing.


    However, it was time to get up for the day. So he gently removed Drasil from his head and got out of bed. The adorable green spirit gave a precious little whistle of frustration at the loss of his personal mattress. Julius tucked the tiny spirit into the collar of his uniform, keeping him in place through the use of mana.


    It was later than he normally slept, so he wasn''t surprised to see that the rest of the group had arrived at breakfast before him.


    "Look who''s the last one here," Aubrey said the moment she saw him trudge to their table.


    Julius placed down his tray at his usual spot next to Lily and Edgar, ignoring her. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You know you make a good point," Derek said to Aubrey before turning to look at Julius. "I don''t think you have ever gotten here this late."


    "Yeah, did our resident golem sleep in or something?" Aubrey teased.


    "I thought it was my celebration today? Shouldn''t you be treating me nicer?" He responded to her.


    "That''s not until later. For now, you are fair game," Aubrey reasoned.


    "I''m not sure that''s how it works," Julius argued with a frown.


    Aubrey had a wide smile in comparison. "I wouldn''t know. I just made that up," she said proudly.


    Julius just groaned and ignored the girl by eating his breakfast.


    "So what time are we thinking about leaving?" Kyle asked.


    "I was thinking pretty soon after breakfast. We have all day, so we might as well use it," Lily said to everyone.


    "Do we even have specific plans? I know we are going to the Golden Wheel for dinner but other than that did we talk about doing anything else?" Edgar asked her.


    Lily had a small grin on her face. "I do have something in mind before dinner, but anything before that is up to the group. We can just roam around checking out shops and stalls until then."


    "What''s before dinner?" Aubrey asked.


    Lily wagged her finger at the other girl. "It''s a secret."


    "Screw secrets. What is it?" Aubrey demanded.


    Lily shook her head firmly. "I''m not telling you."


    "Why not? Is it something we will hate? Like that time you took us to that awful play?" Aubrey asked with a scrunched-up nose as if remembering something very unpleasant.


    "It was not that bad!" Lily defended.


    "Yeah, no offense Lily, but that play was pretty bad," Derek agreed with Aubrey.


    "You guys just have no taste in the finer aspects of the theatrical arts," Lily argued.


    "If that was the finer aspects of theater then I shiver at what you would consider bad," Aubrey said while fake trembling.


    "Shut up," Lily said morosely with her head down.


    Edgar turned and gave Aubrey a stern look. "See what you did now? You have gone and upset her."


    Julius watched as Lily perk up a little bit as she heard Edgar defend her.


    "How are we supposed to get her to tell us what we are doing? For all we know it is another terrible play we have to be subjected to for several hours. I almost tore off my face by the halfway point of that last one she brought us to," Edgar said while grabbing his face with both hands as if vividly remembering the experience.


    Julius watched Lily''s face just as quickly go back to being depressed after she heard Edgar''s words.


    Derek intervened before Lily dug herself a small hole to bury herself in. "Okay, enough teasing. I for one still want to know what we are doing. What did you have planned Lily?"


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    She looked up from she had shoved her head into her arms with an affronted look. "You think I am going to tell you now? I wish that I was taking you to another ''awful'' play just so you guys can suffer through it."


    "Now that''s just mean," Aubrey said under her breath.


    "What was that?" Lily asked aggressively no longer sad but more angry. And angry Lily is not a Lily you want to mess with.


    "Nothing," Aubrey quickly stated. She also knew what that tone meant and knew better than to say anything else.


    After a long pause where the rest of the group didn''t say anything and Julius could only hear the sounds of food being chewed, he looked at Lily from the side tentatively.


    He gave her a soft poke on her shoulder. "You okay?" He asked gently.


    She looked over at him the fierce look on her face mellowing out when she noticed it was him. "I''m fine. Sorry about that. As you can tell the others don''t like some of the things I have planned in the past."


    "I''d be happy with anything you had planned, even if it was one of the plays they were talking about. I''m not very picky when it comes to that stuff, I have seen some truly horrifying stuff," he told her seriously.


    "Kiss ass," Aubrey muttered quietly.


    Lily went from a smile to a cold stare as she turned to Aubrey. "You have something to say?" She asked irked.


    Aubrey didn''t say anything and just put her head down, shoving more eggs into her stomach.


    Julius wasn''t lying about that either. His old world had some amazing means of entertainment; movies, TV shows, and books, there was more than one could imagine. Compared to this world, where there wasn''t much in the form of entertainment, it was a stark difference.


    However, just as there were masterpieces like the first seven seasons of Game of Thrones, there were just as many awful creations. Julius had the misfortune of watching a parody film of the Fast and Furious movie, called Superfast.


    He needed bleach to scrub out his eyes and ears after that experience.


    It was his grandfather''s fault in the first place. He was bad with technology and had accidentally rented it, thinking that it was the actual Fast and Furious movie. It was to both of their shock when the first few minutes of the catastrophic movie played.


    Yet, for unknown reasons, they had decided to sit on the couch and watch the entire film. They spent an hour and a half of their lives, watching a movie about Vin Serento and his family. An hour and a half that they wasted.


    At least that was what Julius had thought of it at the time. Now, looking back. It was one of the more precious ninety minutes of his life.


    He had to stop himself before he could dwell on the past. He had long learned that it wasn''t healthy to think about things like that for too long.


    After she put Aubrey in check, Lily turned back to look at Julius with a smile. "I didn''t plan for us to see a play today, but maybe next time we can if you want."


    Julius could see Aubrey and Edgar both flinch as they heard Lily''s proposition. Aubrey was even about to say something, but Kyle managed to grab her shoulder and keep her quiet before she could say something to trigger Lily again.


    "Sure, that sounds like fun. Let''s do something like that on another weekend," Julius offered. He could do with some entertainment, books only did so much for him. There was something else about being able to watch a performance live.


    "Sure! I will see what events are going on and we can decide!" Lily said joyfully. She seemed very excited to have someone interested to see something with her.


    "Perfect! Does that mean you will tell me what the secret thing we are doing later?" Julius asked with a hopeful smile.


    "Of course not!" Lily said with a smug grin. "Nice try though."


    "It was worth a shot," he grumbled.


    They ended up leaving quite soon after breakfast. It wasn''t like they had anything else to do for the day.


    The first stop they made was at a large shopping district just outside of the school campus. Unlike the one Julius had visited with Declan and his family, this shopping district was very different. This one was definitely more tailored for tourists and interesting items. The one he went to with Declan had been a place for locals and people who needed to get essentials and other products that were more practical in use.


    He was surprised to see that Kyle was the one who was more interested in buying things than anyone else. According to Edgar, Kyle enjoyed buying unique items that were constructed with innovative magic and methods. He would then often take time to experiment with them and use them as inspiration for his own creations.


    Julius watched as Kyle was discussing a certain metal water bottle with a vendor who made them animatedly. Julius wasn''t able to hear everything the men were saying, but he was able to catch that Kyle was asking the man how he managed to create the insulation and spatial enchantments within the small inscription.


    The vendor was trying his best to explain to Kyle that he couldn''t share his methods of how he created them. However, Kyle was persistent.


    He managed to pry information from the guy a little at a time. Julius, who was standing next to Edgar was very impressed with Kyle''s passion for magic and enchanting. It was rare to see someone with such devotion to a field of study.


    Off to the side was Aubrey, who had taken the exact opposite approach to Kyle''s. It wasn''t that she wasn''t buying anything, no, far from it. In fact she was buying anything that she thought looked "cute" or "cool". Those were her only parameters.


    Julius watched as she spent countless gold before they even made it partly through the shopping district.


    The remaining four of them spent a lot of their time trying out different food stalls. Edgar in particular managed to eat enough for a family of five. He could see why the large fourth-year had gotten so big. Julius was starting to empathize with his parents, it must have practically bankrupted them to keep their beast of a son fed.


    Julius gave one last consoling look at Edgar before heading to the next stall. Edgar, who had several items from various shops in both hands saw Julius''s look.


    "What? What is it?" He asked through a mouthful of food.


    Julius shook his head and gave the much larger student a reassuring pat on the back. "Nothing, don''t worry about it," he told Edgar before walking off again.


    Edgar frowned and pulled Julius back to him with a hand covered in sticky sauce from one of the skewers in his hand. "You just looked at me like I was just diagnosed with the Stygian Rot. What is it?"


    Julius sighed and rubbed off the sauce from his black long-sleeved shirt. "I was just thinking that you had a healthy appetite."


    Lily giggled from the side, as well as a snicker from Derek. "I know right? We used to make jokes about his parents having to go hungry just to keep him fed."


    Julius''s eyes lit up and he laughed joyfully. "I was just thinking to myself the same thing! His parents must have gone dirt-broke just to feed him!"


    "You guys are real funny," Edgar grumbled.


    Lily, Derek, and Julius all laughed together. The only one who didn''t find it as amusing was Edgar. However, when he turned his back to them, Julius was able to barely catch a small grin on the big man''s face.

 Chapter 131: Social Gathering

    Eventually, the six of them finished up and got everything they needed from the shopping district. It was also perfect timing because whatever Lily had planned was about to start and they had to leave in order to make it.Lily brought them to a very nice part of town. Julius started to notice that everyone around them wore very fancy clothing and expensive jewelry. In comparison, Julius and the others felt out of place.


    That wasn''t to say that the five of them weren''t dressed up nicely. Derek, Lily, Kyle, and Aubrey all wore clothing that anyone with a discerning eye could see was of very high quality. It was only Edgar and Julius who were wearing more simple clothing.


    "Why didn''t you say we were going someplace with a dress code?" Julius asked Lily quietly.


    Lily looked over at Julius and at his choice of outfit. "There isn''t. You can wear whatever you want, they aren''t going to turn us away because you aren''t wearing the newest selection from Alessio."


    "Well, I could have at least worn something more appropriate. I feel like a sitting duck out here," Julius told her.


    "Sitting duck?" Lily asked confused.


    "Yeah, you know, like very vulnerable and out of place," Julius clarified, sometimes his analogies didn''t make sense to the others but they knew better by now.


    "You''ll be fine. If anyone makes trouble for you, I will handle them," Lily laughed lightly while patting her chest.


    Not too long after, the group approached a large hall-like structure in the middle of a square. It was Carnegie Hall but on magic steroids. Brilliant gold inlaid stonework decorated the entire exterior of the building. He spotted scores of nobles and other rich folk entering the large imposing doors in front.


    "Oh come on. I thought you said we weren''t going to a play," Aubrey complained.


    "It''s not a play," Lily promised her.


    "Looks like one. What else would all these nobles be here for?" Aubrey asked rhetorically.


    Lily just smiled and continued to the check-in station. "You''ll see in a moment."


    Julius spotted Derek off to the side who had a look of realization on his face. Julius made his way over to the older student. "It seems like you know why we are here. Want to share the secret with me?" Julius asked in a whisper.


    Derek looked over to Julius with a grin of his own. "You''ll find out in a couple of minutes. I''d rather not spoil Lily''s surprise and get on her bad side."


    Julius didn''t like that answer, but he understood Derek''s reasoning. There was no need to risk receiving Lily''s ire when he would find out on his own pretty soon. Though, he did start to brainstorm what it could be.


    Lily promised that it wasn''t a play, but it could still be something music-related. Like some sort of orchestra or performance. It would certainly suit the venue they were entering.


    When they got in line to check in, Julius noticed that their group was receiving many looks. Not only were they the most underdressed of everyone, but they were also the youngest attendees other than some children who the adults brought with them. They stood out like sore thumbs. Luckily, most of the gazes seemed to be stuck on Derek and Lily.


    Based on the whispers that Julius could hear, some of the people had recognized the scions of the Zenith and Violet families. There was even a good number who recognized Kyle, Aubrey, and surprisingly Edgar.


    From the murmurs that Julius could pick up, they had recognized the large fourth-year from the year''s previous tournament. Edgar must have left an impression on the people who watched if they were able to recognize him like he was a celebrity.


    It actually felt like Julius was surrounded by a bunch of celebrities. And then there was him. While the others got attention and looks of admiration, all he got were looks of confusion and indifference.


    They didn''t seem to care who the hell Julius was. In fact, most of the people who even took the time to look at him, probably thought he was some servant or the group''s mascot. It wasn''t just a feeling either. He heard some of them say it very clearly, they weren''t even hiding it.


    It was a little bit rude in his opinion and he wanted to go punch them, but he held himself back when he saw Aubrey''s amused smile on her face. Like she wanted to see for herself what he would do. Julius wouldn''t give her that satisfaction, not yet at least. He could control himself from this much. After all, he had heard much worse over the years he stayed at the Hyperius Estate.


    At least these nobles didn''t think he was mentally retarded.


    Eventually, it became their turn and Lily spoke to the lady who was standing there with a list of names. "Lily Violet, and five guests please."


    Julius watched as the lady didn''t even look at the list of names, before bowing at Lily with a graceful nod. She called over a young man from the corner. "Please escort Miss Violet and her guests to room 14," she instructed the young man.


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    The man young man nodded, and the lady turned back to the group. "If you need anything else, please don''t hesitate to ask Gerald. He will be your personal assistant for the night." She bowed once more. "Please enjoy the auction."


    After they left the lady and followed young Gerald. Aubrey spoke up excitedly. "Auction? Really?"


    "What? Were you still expecting a play?" Lily teased.


    "Yes," Aubrey said absolutely serious. "It wouldn''t be the first time you tricked us into seeing one."


    Edgar nodded his head from his spot next to Aubrey. Julius looked over at Lily who met Julius''s judgemental gaze with an embarrassed smile.


    "It was only once," she quickly explained to Julius.


    "Twice," Kyle said off-handedly from the back.


    Lily jerked her head back to give Kyle a stern glare before turning back to Julius with a meek smile. "Okay, maybe twice. But the second time didn''t count. It was technically a musical," she reasoned.


    "I would have rather watched a play instead," Aubrey murmured.


    Lily didn''t say anything, but Aubrey flinched and rubbed her head. Julius smiled to himself. Lily most likely just gave Aubrey a little scramble of the brain for her comment.


    Julius slowed down so that Derek and him were walking side by side. "So what kind of auction is this?"


    Derek smiled. "This particular auction is one that the local branch of the Merchant''s Association and the city put together every so often. It is actually more of an excuse for a social get-together and acts as a fundraiser for many of the city''s charities."


    "Oh, so it''s just a function where nobles spend a lot of their money," Julius said amused.


    Derek and Kyle, who was standing behind them chuckled. "Pretty much. But that doesn''t mean that there aren''t some very nice items auctioned off. I expect for there to be some very good items on the menu, considering this weekend has a lot of visitors coming to Heston," Derek explained.


    "Like what kind of items?" Julius asked very interested in what kind of things might be sold tonight. He knew that he didn''t have that much money compared to most higher-tiered individuals. In fact, he was probably the poorest person here. But that didn''t mean he couldn''t be excited to see some cool magical things. sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Derek scratched his head in thought. "I would not be surprised to see many Tier 5 items being auctioned off, along with a couple of Tier 6 treasures. Those will most likely be the prized slots for the auction house, but there will be a good number of Tier 3 and 4 items also being sold. The majority of the people here only focus on the Tier 5 and 6 items, so sometimes you can get a Tier 3 or 4 item for a good price."


    "How much would a typical Tier 3 item sell for?" Julius asked. He was wondering if he had enough money to buy something nice for himself.


    "I''m not sure. It all depends. Sometimes things sell only for a few gold even things that should sell for more. It''s hard to predict. But if you want something, just let me know and I will get you it," Derek told Julius.


    Julius waved his hand at him. "I don''t plan on getting anything that I can''t afford myself."


    Derek patted his shoulder with a laugh. "No, seriously. If you want something just ask, I have more money than I know what to do with. Consider this a present for your achievement." He bent down a little to whisper in Julius''s ear. "I already expect Lily is going to get you something. Knowing her, she already knows exactly what it is and is going to get it for you as a gift."


    Julius shook his head. "I don''t need anything. Honestly, I can''t even think of something I would want."


    Derek shrugged his shoulders. "Well, if you do see something, don''t feel shy, okay?"


    Julius nodded just as a way to appease Derek. He wasn''t planning to, but he appreciated the thought. Derek saw him nod and didn''t push him any further.


    When they got to their room, Julius almost gasped in surprise. It wasn''t a mere room, it was an entire suite. The entire suite was furnished with the most extravagant items and had a lavish spread of food on display. The most impressive thing though, was the spatial enchantments placed on the room.


    From the outside, it looked like it was only a room that was ten by ten feet wide, but whatever spatial enchantments they had installed made the room several times larger on the inside.


    Kyle, who saw Julius''s expression came up to him. "It was probably made by a Tier 5 craftsman who specializes in spatial enchantments. And whoever it was, did a very good job. I detect zero fluctuations or weak points. I expect it was very expensive to create so many rooms like this."


    "How much do you think it cost?" Julius asked still in awe.


    "At this level, it is no longer about money. It is about favors and resources. The auction house must have spared no expense," Kyle said knowingly.


    Julius just nodded his head and found a seat that was reserved for him. It was right next to Lily and Edgar, just like how they ate at the cafeteria. They were placed right in front of the window and he could see the mass of people making their way into their seats below.


    The stage in front already had a few items covered in silk tarps placed on it. Julius watched as one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen walked up to the stage, her curves bouncing tantalizingly through her tight dress. She had soft pink hair, a matching pair of eyes, and a sultry look to her. Julius could see why they would have her presenting the items.


    Once everyone had finally funneled into their seats. The stunning woman spoke. "Welcome to this evening''s auction." Her voice sounded like honey to ears but also had an alluring rasp to it, bringing everyone who heard it closer in.


    Julius had to activate [Savage Dance] to not be affected by it. He suspected that it was some sort of skill set that played on people''s emotions and baser urges. He wouldn''t be surprised if many people were already smitten with her.


    "Unlike usual, there will be several very unique items that are being presented today. Most of them will be toward the tail end of the auction, so please be patient¡­"


    Julius drowned out her introduction a little bit. He didn''t like the feeling of whatever skills she was using on the audience. It didn''t feel unpleasant, but once he noticed it, he couldn''t help but get drawn in. So he kept himself distracted with his other thoughts.


    Derek was right. It seems that there will be some interesting items being sold, I wonder what they will be and who will buy them. Maybe there will be some interesting powerful individuals in the audience.


    "And now for our very first item." She removed the silk covering of the first pedestal. "A Tier 4 ice core that came from a mutated variant of an ice elemental. While it is technically an ice-attributed core, make no mistake, it is more valuable than a mere normal ice core. The elemental where it came from had some interesting conditions that imbued properties of the metal affinity to this ice core, making the mana inside of it multitudes more resilient than normal."


    She paused as the audience took it in with interested whispers. "Yes, I can see that many of you already realized what that could mean. The bid starts at a single platinum. Are there any takers?" She asked with a knowing smile.

 Chapter 132: Auction

    Julius looked over at Lily and gave her a soft poke to get her attention. "What does she mean? What kind of effects does having metal affinity properties mean for the core?"Lily looked at Julius with an understanding grin. "My best guess, is that ice elemental somehow consumed a natural treasure of the metal-attribute variety. This would make it possible for the elemental to develop certain skills and abilities that would influence its core. Normally ice cores are used for cold enchantments and sometimes even stability or other structural enchantments. However, if what she is saying is true, then one could expect a talented enchanter to be able to use this particular core for stability enchantments to a higher degree than what the Tier should indicate."


    "Why wouldn''t they just use a Tier 5 ice core then? Wouldn''t that just be an easier solution instead of finding such a rare core?" Julius pointed out.


    Lily nodded. "You are kind of correct, but you also have to consider the fact that if one were to use a Tier 5 core, the energy requirements to fuel the enchantment would be prohibitively more expensive."


    "So if someone were to create something with this core, they could create something that has the strength and resilience of a Tier 5 item without the cost?" Julius asked.


    "Not exactly, you won''t be able to perfectly replicate a Tier 5s power, but it does get awfully close," Lily corrected him.


    "Probably some rich noble will get it for their kid or someone they care about," Aubrey said in disappointment.


    Kyle shook his head from his spot and made a sound of disgust. "What a waste of a unique core. Imagine the research potential that would be just thrown away."


    Lily must have seen Julius''s look of confusion. "Some noble will use the core to create a weapon or life-saving item for someone. And since it is only a Tier 4 core, a Tier 3 should be able to at least activate under the right conditions. However, the power of the item would have enough to injure a Tier 4 and maybe even a Tier 5 if they''re unlucky."


    "That sounds pretty nice," Julius said more to himself than anyone else.


    "Yeah, nice if you are a coward you can''t fight for yourself," Aubrey muttered.


    Julius nodded his head at her. "Yeah, but what if a craftsman who isn''t specialized in combat gets attacked? It might save their life from someone. I don''t expect someone who spends most of their day crafting to be able to handle themselves like us."


    Aubrey frowned at that. "I doubt it will go to a craftsman. Most likely, it will go to a spoiled noble''s brat."


    Julius just shrugged his shoulders at her. I can''t deny that. Odds are pretty high that it will go to some rich noble''s son, after all, Julius thought to himself.


    He took a look at the stage where the price of the core had already exceeded several dozen platinum at this point, quickly exceeding the low price of its initial bidding price.


    In the end, it was sold for almost a hundred platinum. Julius laughed to himself. The first item had already sold for more than he had in the entire storage ring that he had gotten from Geoffrey.


    He had at most a few dozen platinum in his ring all put together. He had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn''t be buying anything from here tonight.


    Many items went and passed over the course of the auction. Julius saw some amazing things being sold off for extraordinary prices. One thing that caught his eye was an unhatched egg from a Tier 4 Infernal Drake. A species that is well known for its possibility for evolving into a dragon at Tier 5 if they ever reached that point.


    That one sold for well over three hundred platinum.


    Luckily, the auction made the bids completely anonymous, so whoever bought it wouldn''t have to worry about someone stealing it later on. All bids were made from a device that each person was given when they entered the auction.


    The only ones who bought anything were Kyle and Aubrey. Kyle ended up spotting an elegant engraving tool. It looked like a black and gold fountain pen, costing Kyle a pricey fifty-three platinum.


    Aubrey had her eyes on a rare gemstone. It was a Tier 3 Blood Crystal and according to her, could enhance her physical strength if she used it. Fortunately for her, not many people could use it and she ended up getting such an item for a mere thirty-two platinum, a very good bargain according to her.


    The others didn''t feel interested in buying anything, most of them, specifically Edgar were content snacking on the buffet they were offered and talking about interesting items that popped up.


    It wasn''t until the most recent item came up that Julius paid really close attention. The rest of the audience didn''t seem to pay it that much mind, it was nothing that spectacular by the auction''s standards.


    But to Julius, it was something that was very intriguing to him. The item was a Tier 3 life-attributed treasure called a Sylvan Petal. It was grown in some of the most dense life-attributed environments. Many of its uses were alchemy-related and could produce some amazing items for healing as well as many other life affinity products.


    This so far was the only thing that Julius might be buying the entire night. If he could get it for under twenty platinum he would buy it. Who knew, maybe Drasil could find a use for it. He really liked the life-affinity troll core, maybe consuming a potion from this Sylvan Petal would help him.


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    The pretty lady with pink hair on stage began the process without delay. "Okay, the starting bid is one platinum is there-" Julius watched as the lady for the first time seems taken out of her rhythm.


    She quickly got herself back together. "Sorry, that was fast. We already have a current bid of a hundred platinum. Are there any takers for one hundred and one platinum?"


    A hundred platinum? Right off the bat? He heard the crowd murmur through the glass pane of their room. There hadn''t been such an extreme initial bid all night and it took many people by surprise.


    The hundred platinum must have been too much for anyone else interested or maybe they were scared off by the fast overpriced bid. Whoever it was, clearly wanted it and while the bidding was anonymous, maybe they didn''t want to take the chance of offending someone with such wealth. The person who offered such a large sum won within moments of the item being introduced. It was the fastest-sold item of the entire night by a long shot.


    Julius on the other hand was disappointed. He had been excited to enter his bid and participate in the auction. He didn''t think he would win with his low budget but he wanted to experience it and have some fun. He had his own device sitting in his own hands, eagerly awaiting his turn. Now he just felt sad. He didn''t even get to bid a single amount.


    He was so caught up in his self-pity, that he didn''t even notice that the other four were looking at each other with weird looks.


    Eventually, the auction moved on and they started to present some of the more prestigious items. They started off with a Tier 5 explosion core. A rare variant of a normal fire core that was unsurprisingly used for items that blew things up.


    Another Tier 5 item that caught his eye was a life-attributed healing treasure. It specifically healed injuries caused to the soul and other permanent wounds that were unable to be healed by traditional healing skills. It was supposedly heads and shoulders more effective than anything found at a lower Tier.


    Many of the Tier 5 items were highly sought after, and the Tier 6 items that were shown after, even more so.


    One of the Tier 6 items that were being sold was a core from a monster called a Stellar Storm Tiger. Julius watched mesmerized as the core sparkled and radiated a power, unlike anything else that had been on stage.


    He could practically smell the thick scent of burning ozone and felt faint strands of electricity running through his limbs.


    It created quite a craze from the audience when they saw it on display. Bid after bid was made, rocketing the price of the item to over ten thousand platinum.


    The others informed him that platinum was only used to quantify the price for the auction house but many times the person who bought it could negotiate with the seller of the product with other things they might want of similar value. If nothing could be agreed upon then the final price was what the buyer had to pay.


    Julius couldn''t believe how much wealth he saw on display. He was starting to see why Declan said not to worry about a couple of dozen platinum, and compared it to a paltry sum. Because it was. These people were throwing hundreds and sometimes even thousands of times more money than that on a singular item.


    It was enlightening and humbling, to say the least.


    It was also safe to say that nobody from their group chose to buy any of the Tier 5 or 6 items. They had no need for them, they were only Tier 2 and 3 after all. It was a little bit anti-climatic but the auction ended without much fanfare or anything of note.


    Since Kyle and Aubrey had both bought items, a member of the auction house came to their room. It was a young woman, much like the one from the check-in area, but this one felt different. Julius couldn''t make out the aura of her, but the way she held herself spoke of extreme confidence.


    He had no doubts that this woman was at least Tier 4 and maybe even Tier 5. Which would make sense considering she was delivering such valuable items to influential individuals.


    Once Aubrey and Kyle paid for their items and they stored them away in their own personal storage devices, Julius was surprised that the young woman didn''t leave. Instead, she went over to Lily and took out a box much like the one that held the other''s items.


    Lily without missing a beat, took out a hundred platinum coins and handed them to the woman, who gave a polite bow and left them alone.


    Julius was about to ask about what time their dinner reservation was, considering it was probably around six o''clock, but something stuck out to him.


    Wait, a hundred platinum coins? Julius asked himself.


    He looked over at Lily, who wouldn''t meet his eyes for some reason. So Julius walked over to her with hurried steps. He was slightly taller, so he had to look down on her, but she still wouldn''t look at him.


    "It was you?" He asked confused.


    She just nodded her head softly and held out the box to him. "Congratulations," she said gently.


    Julius didn''t take the box. "I can''t accept such an expensive gift," he said seriously. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She looked him in the eyes and gave him the most tragic-looking gaze. "You won''t?" She asked in a depressed tone.


    He felt like someone had just stabbed him in the back of the heart. Now he felt like a piece of shit. Which if he knew her, was exactly her plan. She would try to guilt him into taking it.


    Instead of answering her, he turned to the others who were wearing knowing smiles. "I thought you said she was cheap," he accused them.


    "Oh, she is," Aubrey stated emphatically. "But that usually extends only to herself and not her friends."


    Julius wore a frown. "Wait, did you guys know?"


    Derek chuckled. "Not many nobles would throw around a hundred platinum for a mere Tier 3 life-attributed treasure, no matter how rich they were. Plus, we told you how wealthy she was. Did you think we were exaggerating?"


    "Yeah, just take it. She could have probably bought all the items at the auction easily. A hundred platinum to her is literally a couple of coppers to someone like you," Aubrey said casually while simultaneously insulting Julius''s own financial status.


    Damn, Julius knew she was wealthy, but being able to spend tens of thousands of platinum like that was on a completely different level.


    He looked back at Lily and carefully took the box from her still-extended arms with a genuine smile. "Thank you, it''s a great gift."


    Lily''s previous tragic expression was wiped off like it was never there. "I know right?! I went through their catalogue of what they were selling tonight and I came across that. I thought it would be a perfect fit for you and Drasil."


    "So I can use this for Drasil?" Julius asked curiously.


    "Of course, and even better, Drasil can take it without any processing. It will actually work better for him that way. A Sylvan Petal is a great treasure for any blooming life spirit. A hundred platinum is actually not a bad price for one," Lily said with a smug smile.


    Julius just shook his in disbelief as Lily turned into an excited girl over a new shiny object in a matter of seconds. It was a very nice gift though, he would make sure to remember it.

 Chapter 133: Golden Wheel

    Julius tucked away the Sylvan Petal for later use. However, he had to promise to let everyone know when he would be using it so that they could participate or at least observe what happens.After the group left the auction house, the six of them headed toward their dinner reservation at the Golden Wheel. A place that Julius was very excited to see for himself. The others had talked it up so much, that he was expected many great things.


    He''d even prevented himself from stuffing his face at the buffet as Edgar had done. He didn''t have an endless gaping pit of a stomach that Edgar seemed to have. In some ways, Julius was envious of the big muscular man''s appetite.


    To Julius''s surprise, they didn''t walk to the restaurant. Derek had the bright foresight to hire a carriage to take them there. Carriages were very expensive in Heston, especially considering the city didn''t allow any carriages that were drawn by horses or other creatures.


    Apparently, there was an issue with too much fecal matter from them being left behind on the roads.


    All of the carriages seen on the street were fueled by mana. Perhaps if Julius didn''t have memories from his old world he would have been more taken away by the innovative carriages. Unfortunately, even the carriage, as nice as it was, didn''t have the same allure as some of the nicer cars from his old world. It was one of the few parts of this new world that fell short of his old.


    When they arrived at the restaurant, Julius looked upon the entrance in awe. The restaurant was practically half the size of the auction house they were just at. It was that massive, and in some ways, much nicer than it. It certainly lived up to its name.


    The entire restaurant revolved around the golden wheel theme. The entrance had a fifty-foot wheel hanging from above, softly spinning in motion. The entire place was covered in gold decorations and art. And surprisingly, was still very tasteful and not over the top. Julius didn''t know how the designers managed that.


    There were colorful mana constructs dancing around the air, dazzling the guests and even bringing them warm enchanted towels for them to wash their hands on until a staff member took them to their seats.


    There were multiple floors of the Golden Wheel. The lower levels were for most of the customers, the upper floors were designated for special occasions and VIPs.


    He leaned over to Lily as they were following the staff member. "I''m surprised you didn''t get us a floor on the upper floors," he whispered in her ear.


    She looked over her shoulder and shook her head amusingly. "Funnily enough, the bottom level is the most enjoyable to eat at. At least for us. Upstairs can feel a little lonely and stuffy. It''s full of people with an inflated opinion of themselves who don''t actually enjoy the food, but enjoy the status of eating here. We think that being surrounded by people who are enjoying the food aspect of the restaurant is more pleasant to be around."


    Ah, I can see how that might happen.


    The menu for dinner was a thirteen-course menu, and diners were allowed to choose between a couple of options for each course. It must have been absolute chaos to keep track of everything. Julius had no doubts that most of the staff were Tier 2 or 3 just to keep up.


    "Thirteen courses sound like a lot. Are the servings small or something?" he asked Derek who was sitting across from him.


    Julius could see no other way someone could eat so much food without falling into a food-induced coma.


    "That''s the magic of the restaurant," Derek replied with a smile. "The chefs in this place have a special set of skills that imbue the food with effects that will always keep you hungry."


    "But surely there would still be a point where it is physically impossible to put any more food in one''s body right?" Julius pointed out.


    Aubrey jumped in excitedly. "That''s the best part! I don''t know how they do it, but they managed to perfectly balance alchemy practices with their food. The food dissipates much like a potion or other mana-based consumable would."


    "So you never get full?" Julius asked confused. Wasn''t that the whole point of going to a restaurant? To get one''s tummy full?


    Aubrey chuckled at him. "Nope, by the end of the night, you are in the perfect state of hungry but not comatose."


    Julius still didn''t quite know what she was talking about. He would have to wait and see what she was talking about for himself.


    While they were waiting for their food and making idle small talk, Julius took the time to look around. Unsurprisingly, he noticed that a lot of the people dining here were nobles if their attire was any indicator. But he was also pleasantly surprised to see many commoners as well.


    He could tell that they were commoners based on their clothing. It wasn''t a dig on them, but it was just an observation. Their outfits were nice, with buttons and everything. But it was also made of more practical and rugged materials. Their attitudes were different too, they were more down to earth than the nobles.


    Julius almost laughed when he spotted some a family who were holding the silverware like one would hold two swords. He also noticed that the fare was much more rustic than what he had been expecting from such a fancy place.


    "What''s with all the commoners? I heard that this place was really hard to get into, even for nobles." Julius noted.


    Lily smiled brightly. "It''s actually a touching reason. The owner and chef of the restaurant are husband and wife. They were both born as commoners and they wanted to create a place where commoners are welcome as well. So at any time half of the restaurant is dedicated to commoners only. It is also the reason why the prices are really reasonable considering how high quality the meal is. They still offer higher tiered food items for nobles and such, but most commoners are only Tier 2 or 3, so normal fare is fine with them."


    "Don''t some of the nobles cause problems because of that?" Julius asked.


    "Most know better than to start something here. After all, Headmaster Keiron himself helped the couple open the restaurant," Lily said.


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    The Headmaster? Julius wouldn''t have expected the restaurant to have such influential backers. Just as Julius was about to respond, their waiter brought over their first course.


    He could smell the nutty scent of toasted wheat before it even reached them. Each of them was presented with a small dish of their very own freshly baked bread, along with a healthy serving of butter on the side.


    It wasn''t quite the first course he expected for a restaurant of its reputation, but he wasn''t complaining. The bread looked absolutely divine. It was more akin to a croissant with how flaky it was. Also who didn''t love fresh bread with their dinner?


    The first bite was all he needed to forget about anything else. The taste was even better than the smell and looks. Julius caught himself actually moaning in appreciation at how delicious the bread was. It was by far the best bite of bread that he had ever had in either life. The perfect balance between flaky and soft was impeccable. It was also deeply nutty and had a touch of sweetness.


    Then just when Julius didn''t think it could get better, he put a good smear of butter all over his next bit and he thought he died and went to heaven. He had a whole Ratatouille moment in the middle of his meal, remembering the first time he and his mother had made homemade bread when he was younger.


    It tasted just as good, if not better.


    He looked over at the others to see how they were reacting and he laughed loudly at what he saw. Every one of them was shoving their entire loaves down their throat with eagerness. Even the normally refined Derek, Kyle, and Lily were eating as fast as decorum would allow them.


    Not a single one of them looked up from their plates. Aubrey and Edgar were shockingly already done with their loaves, polishing them up in record time. However, what shocked Julius more, was that the waiter was already there placing brand-new loaves of bread in front of the two of them.


    Julius met eyes with the male waiter and the man smiled at him. "It''s not my first time serving them. They go through multiple loaves every time throughout the night, so I make sure to keep many on hand."


    Julius just shook his head and chuckled. Apparently, the two of them were such gluttons that the staff at the restaurant remembered. No wonder the two of them got along so well with Drasil. They were three peas in a pod.


    However, Julius quickly realized that he had no moral high ground to make fun of them. Just like them, he had already finished his loaf before he knew it and the waiter was right there in a second placing another loaf in front of him with a knowing smile.


    The best part was that Aubrey wasn''t exaggerating. He didn''t feel the slightest bit full yet. Even though he was well into his second loaf before his second course, he didn''t even feel like he ate anything. Normally he would be upset. But this time it was a blessing. More hungry meant more food he could eat.


    The second and third courses that followed were just as good. Unfortunately, the bread was the only thing that you could get unlimited amounts of. He would have loved to have that deep-fried soft-shelled crab a hundred more times. He didn''t think a crustacean could be so juicy and taste so heavenly. And the sauce, don''t get him started on that spicy, tangy, sweet succulent sauce.


    He was so absorbed in his food that he missed the entrance of someone he knew. Well, not really know, but who he had recently seen.


    It was the cake girl. The cake girl had just sat down next to a tall slim blonde woman at a table a couple dozen paces away. Julius knew right away that the blonde woman was the same woman who had been invisible. Julius noticed that the woman was older than the cake girl. The cake girl was probably around his age. But the woman looked slightly older and had a maturity to her that her appearance didn''t show.


    While the cake girl was talking animately as she devoured the same bread Julius had gotten four orders of, the blond woman was sitting poised, constantly looking around. It was almost like the woman was keeping an eye on their surroundings at all times.


    She must''ve felt his face on them because soon after he looked over, she jerked her head to look right at him in the eyes. He saw multiple emotions fly across the woman''s face before she decided on a neutral one.


    Julius didn''t avert his gaze and instead smiled at her and nodded in her direction.


    However, he wasn''t the only one to notice where Julius was staring. Aubrey had just finished off her crab, licking her fingers clean, and immediately going for another piece of bread. However, as she did, she also caught him staring at the two girls.


    "You know them?" She mumbled to Julius over a mouthful of bread.


    He shook his head slightly. "Not really, the black-haired girl ate my cake."


    Aubrey scrunched his nose. "Cake?"


    "Yeah, I was enjoying some cake in the gardens at night and she came up and practically demanded some," Julius explained.


    "You want to invite her over?" Aubrey asked him.


    Julius laughed at Aubrey''s teasing, but slowly stopped as he realized that she wasn''t joking. She had her serious face on, the same face she had when she had asked him what color of dress she should wear when they left school.


    Julius frantically shook his head. "No! I don''t even know her name," he told her.


    "Well, you can ask once I invite her over," Aubrey said with a grin.


    Julius looked at her seriously. "Don''t you dare."


    "What? You need to get to befriend some other kids your own age. Once we are gone next year, you won''t have us around. You need to extend your wings a little bit," she told him.


    "She''s a girl, befriending girls can be complicated," Julius pointed out.


    "Even better! A girlfriend would be good for you," Aubrey said excited about the idea.


    "I don''t need a girlfriend," Julius said exasperated. This wasn''t the first time the topic came up either.


    "Bullshit. A girlfriend would keep you from-."


    "Running myself into the ground," Julius finished for her. "I know you''ve brought this up multiple times."


    "Only because I am right. Tell him, Lily!" Aubrey pulled Lily in, getting back up. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "What?" Lily asked airily. She had been too focused on finishing her crab to listen to their conversation.


    "Tell Julius that he should get a girlfriend," Aubrey commanded her.


    Lily to her credit didn''t miss a beat. "You should get a girlfriend," she told him plainly.


    Julius threw up his arms. "Not you too. What do you think I need to get one to slow me down too?"


    Lily shook her head. "No, I just think it would be cute to see you running around with a girlfriend."


    "I agree," Aubrey said while pushing back her chair.


    Julius immediately absorbed all the kinetic energy from her, preventing her from moving. However, she must have expected him to do that because she already had her aura up and running, fighting against his will and technique.


    However, to her surprise, she found that his will wasn''t like it was just a week ago.


    Something he realized during his willpower training for his Concept, was that willpower influenced a lot of other things not just his Concept. For example, his kinetic absorption technique didn''t work well on humans because they had naturally strong wills. A golem or troll not so much.


    That was why he had always struggled with using his kinetic affinity to siphon her kinetic energy before. However, it was different now. With his increase in willpower alongside his newly ranked up soul from his Soul Evolution, he was able to influence Aubrey more than he had in the past.


    He saw her eyebrows raise in concern and she had to put a lot more energy into fighting him off. Unfortunately, defending with willpower was much easier than attacking with it and Aubrey wasn''t any slouch in that department. So no matter how hard he tried to stop her, he couldn''t.


    The only way he could was to leap across the table and tackle her, but he didn''t like that option. That would be even more embarrassing and bring too much attention.


    As such he had to watch with defeated eyes as she walked directly to the table where the cake girl was sitting at.

 Chapter 134: Secret Bakery

    Amelia POVAmelia had to admit, the princess was right about this place. The food so far had been incredible. It was actually hard to maintain vigilance while still trying to blend in and eat like the rest of the customers because she just wanted to eat the entire time.


    Of course, she still had her duty. She had made sure to research every location they had visited that day. She didn''t like surprises, boring was best. Boring is what kept her charge alive.


    At the moment, Princess Reinera was disguised as Grace, a first-year enrolled at Goldencrest and Amelia was officially there as a teaching assistant. All at the behest of the headmaster who did it out of respect for the princess''s privacy and protection. At least that was what they told everyone who asked.


    Thankfully, this restaurant was famously known for being backed by some of the most powerful people in the entire region. It arguably, might have been the safest location to eat at in all of Heston.


    Of course, she had to jinx it. Because soon after they arrived at the Golden Wheel and started to eat their first course, Amelia spotted an unexpected surprise.


    It was the same boy from last night. At first, she thought she was seeing things, but then she noticed that the boy had noticed them as well. They locked eyes for a moment, that seemed to stretch longer than it really was. She saw the matching confusion and surprise coming off of his face, and it seemed genuine as well.


    Probably not on purpose that he''s here then, she assured herself. Most likely, it was just a coincidence.


    She took a quick look at the people he was eating with. There were five others, all older than the boy, whose name she still hadn''t found out. She normally would have investigated last night after their interaction, but she had to deal with planning this last-minute excursion to the city.


    The five of his friends were all busy stuffing their faces full, much like the princess next to her. She didn''t blame any of them either. The bread was mouthwatering good, it was better than many of the things the palace chefs made.


    However, just as she was about to return to looking at the black-haired boy, who was now talking to the older girl across from him, she recognized one of the other boys. Tall, blonde hair, and electric blue eyes that almost danced with lightning. There was no doubt, that that was Derek Zenith.


    Derek Zenith was the prize jewel of Duke Zenith''s household. A perfect lightning affinity, was intelligent, poised, and according to all rumors, a very nice young man. A rarity from someone with his pedigree and talent.


    Once she recognized Derek she put together who the rest of the table was. Their group was well-known to people who paid attention. Next to the Zenith prodigy, was a pale lean young man. That was most likely Kyle Quincy, a person who was said to become one of the youngest Grand Scholars in the Empire.


    On the other side was the girl who the black-haired younger boy was now arguing with. Aubrey Crysalia, the sole daughter of Fiona Crysalia, better known as the Crystal Tyrant. Very talented in her own right, having the perfect crystal affinity inherited from her mother.


    Next to her was someone who was in contention, along with Derek to win the entire Intra-School Tournament. Edgar Crow was born a commoner but quickly proved his worth and power within the first year of his enrollment. He didn''t have a perfect affinity, but he did have something that was more terrifying.


    Raw skill and instinct. When it came to hand-to-hand combat, there weren''t many other students his age in the entire Empire that could touch him. She knew that Derek was technically stronger according to rumors, but if she had to choose someone to bring into battle with her, someone like Edgar Crow would be her choice without a doubt.


    Then on the other side of the younger boy, sat someone Amelia was very aware of by pure reputation. Lily Violet was the next head of House Violet, there was no doubt to anyone who paid attention. Even her father knew and encouraged it. Just this last summer, Amelia had heard the news of the young psychic negotiating several new deals with many powerful groups, vastly expanding their already large holdings all by herself.


    Putting aside that she was the inheritor of one of the most wealthy families on the continent, she was a prodigy in her own right. While not suited for direct combat, Amelia would say that she was potentially the most dangerous out of their entire group. Everyone knew how scary a decent psychic was, but one of the best in her generation? That was downright horrifying.


    And then there was the insolent cake boy. Who the hell was the cake boy to be hanging around with the group who would grow up to become some of the most influential people in the entire Empire? It didn''t make sense.


    It almost made her angry in some ways. Many people have tried to join their close-knit group, but have all failed. Where did he go right where others went wrong, to be sitting next to them eating and even arguing with them like they were old friends?


    She was lost in her own head when she spotted Aubrey Crysalia get up from her seat and head in their direction. Amelia immediately went on guard, wondering what the girl could want with them.


    The tall brunette walked up to their table with a friendly smile and looked at Reinera who was still eating her bread with great enthusiasm. "Heya! I''m Aubrey and I came over because Julius mentioned that he shared some cake with you the other night."


    Reinera ripped her head away from her bread and took in the tall girl who had approached them. She was clearly taken aback and didn''t know what to do. "Pardon?"


    "Julius said that he shared some cake with you last night and I was wondering if you wanted to join us at our table," the girl asked with a smile.


    Reinera looked around and spotted the same young black-haired boy from last night sitting at a distant table with both hands on his face, clearly embarrassed. However, she could recognize his hair as well as the fact that the girl mentioned cake. There was only one person who she ate cake with last night.


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    After a moment, she finally turned to look at the older girl. "You want me to sit with you guys?" She asked, confused at the offer.


    "Yeah, why not? You guys seem to just be getting started, we can wait until you guys catch up. It''s not like we are going to get full anytime soon," she said with a chuckle.


    Princess Reinera took a few moments to mull it over and then turned to Amelia with a pleading look. "Can we?"


    Amelia frowned, she didn''t know why Reinera had wanted to join them so badly. Amelia was pretty sure that she had no idea who the group was and who the person she was talking to was. Reinera made a conscious effort to not pay attention to who the important people were.


    It was a tricky situation. If it was anyone else she would have denied them right out of the gate. However, she was very hesitant to decline this group. Offending the future scions of several great houses was not a smart idea.


    It was also potentially very beneficial for the princess. Becoming friends with this group could garner more political clout than she could hope for. It was a big reason why Amelia had supported her coming to Heston.


    Finally, Amelia looked at Reinera and reluctantly nodded her head.


    Julius POV


    He couldn''t believe that she really just did that. However, what was more unbelievable was that the two girls said yes. Why would they say yes?


    However, a more scary factor came to mind. Did she think he had more cake? Was she there to ask for more?


    Admittedly, he did have another cake stored away in his ring, but that was beside the point. He didn''t understand why they were coming over. He wanted nothing more than to have Aubrey all alone in a training room, just so he could give her a much-deserved thrashing. He was furious, but tried to hide it well. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Hey guys, I invited these two over if that''s okay," Aubrey said with a smug smile directed at Julius.


    He just glared at her, promising retribution at some point.


    The young girl with black hair gave a very elegant bow. "Hello, my name is Grace," she introduced herself before turning to her friend. "This here is Amelia. I know that your friend Aubrey said it was okay for us to join you guys, but if it''s not, then I completely understand." She was clearly nervous, fidgeting with both of her hands on the hem of her dress.


    Lily was the first one from their group to respond. "I don''t mind, I don''t know about the others though." She looked over at the rest of them and all of them except for Julius nodded or shrugged their shoulders. They didn''t care, they were too focused on their meal. She turned to look at Julius with a sympathetic smile. He knew that she could feel his frustration with her abilities.


    Grace had a grateful smile on her face. "Thank you," said said sincerely.


    The waiter who had been constantly keeping an eye over them for the entirety of the meal, was already taking another two chairs out of his storage device and placed them right next to Aubrey. Julius was realizing that this man was annoyingly good at his job.


    The first few minutes were awkward, to say the least. Julius realized that there was no stopping it now since it had already happened. He would just need to go with the flow.


    That was the reason why he put his full attention back to his fifth serving of delicious bread. Since they were going to eat with the two newcomers, they were going to have to put their next course on hold until the other two caught up with them. Just another reason why Julius hadn''t wanted them to join them.


    Thankfully, it didn''t bother him too much. He was having a great time just shoving food down his mouth and didn''t feel like socializing with the girls who ate his cake last night.


    So in the meantime, he would just have to be satisfied with his unlimited bread.


    "So Grace I heard that you stole Julius''s cake last night," Aubrey said to the girl next to her in a conspiratory tone.


    The girl, Grace, whipped her head to look at Julius with surprise. "He said that?"


    "Yep, he even said you practically threatened to beat him up for it," Aubrey said accusingly.


    "I did not!" Grace denied it wholeheartedly.


    "Stop it, Aubrey," Edgar said disapprovingly from the side. "You already invited her, no need to tease the both of them."


    What he left unsaid was that she shouldn''t push it after she had invited them over against Julius''s wishes. However, she knew Edgar enough to know what he was talking about.


    Julius made sure to give Edgar a grateful nod, he could always count on the big man. Well, almost all the time. If it involved an angry Lily, Edgar usually was nowhere to be seen.


    "Sorry," Aubrey said with a giggle. "I just wanted to lighten the mood."


    Grace seemed to understand that Aubrey was just lying to rile her up and she got a little red in the face. Julius spotted her invisible friend Amelia''s lips turn down in disapproval.


    "That is actually a big reason why I accepted your invitation," Grace said abruptly to Aubrey, before turning to Julius. "We went all around town today, stopping in every bakery we found but we weren''t able to find the place where you got the cake," she said dissapointedly.


    Julius took the time to chew the bread in his mouth before responding. "And you want me to tell you where I got it, yeah?"


    She nodded her head vigorously.


    "What do I get in return?" He asked her.


    "Pardon?" She questioned.


    Julius sensed the Amelia girl gripping her leg hard underneath the table with [Spatial Perception]. He had a feeling that she didn''t like him very much or the way he was talking to Grace. However, the girl herself didn''t seem to mind, so he didn''t care too much about it.


    "Well you still owe me for the cake, and now you want me to give up my secret cake supplier?" He asked in mock offense.


    She seemed to contemplate his words seriously for a few moments. "What do you have in mind for exchange?"


    "I don''t know, I was thinking about a favor I could cash in at a later time. How does that sound?" Julius asked. He saw her think about his offer with an amused grin on her face.


    "A favor of equal exchange?" She asked for clarification.


    "Of course. I won''t be asking you to beat up a bunch of annoying nobles or anything like that if that''s what you''re asking."


    She instantly relaxed. "Oh, that''s fine then. Okay, a favor in exchange for the knowledge of the bakery." She reached over the table, offering her hand. Julius smiled and stood up, reaching across and giving it a nice firm shake.


    "That might be why you couldn''t find it," he told her once he sat back down.


    "What do you mean?" She asked confused.


    "It''s not technically a bakery," Julius chuckled at the face she made when she heard that. He then told her the location of the shop. It was actually a small clothing shop that Julius had gone to with Declan and his family that one weekend. The owner of the shop just so happened to bake some of the best cakes he''s ever had. Julius had made sure to go back there afterward to buy some cakes from her.


    He had to admit, he enjoyed the frustrated look on both of the women''s faces after he told them. It seemed like the two of them had really spent a lot of time searching for the place where he bought the cake.

 Chapter 135: Unraveling

    After they had negotiated for information about the location of his cake supplier, the dinner was much less awkward. They made small talk, learning that Grace was a fellow first year and that Amelia was a newly hired teaching assistant.While it was going well, Julius did note that Amelia had made several snide comments to him throughout the night, but being the bigger man, he had pretended not to notice. However, he knew that Lily and Derek picked up on it as well.


    At least Grace was pleasant to be around. She didn''t say much, as she was too focused on eating. It was just like how she had devoured his cake. Julius was amused to see that she managed to put away just as much bread as Aubrey did in half the time. It was nice to have a meal with someone who enjoyed their food as much as he did. He knew that the others felt the same way.


    It was something Julius could appreciate from the young girl. A healthy stomach spoke of a healthy soul. The rest of the meal was just as delicious, he was sad when the end of their night came to an end. However, just like Derek and Aubrey had promised, he left the restaurant with a full belly. It was the perfect balance of full but not stuffed.


    However, as they were leaving they noticed a commotion in the lobby of the restaurant. A large group of people in luxurious clothes were coming down the stairs and two groups were arguing quite loudly.


    Julius was just about to ignore them like the others were, but then he saw something attached to the chest of one group. It was an emblem of a wolf with two spears crossing behind it. It was exactly the emblem of Duke Greyson''s House.


    It was like a switch flipped. The moment Julius saw it, he felt an incredible surge of rage bubble to the surface. Rage that he had been keeping tightly sealed away in the depths of his soul.


    He found himself slowly inching toward them menacingly, mana pulsing through his veins without him even noticing he was doing so.


    The only reason he stopped was because he felt Lily grab his shoulder before he could get any closer. She must have felt his swing in emotions and was worried about what he would do.


    He looked down at her and she was looking at him with concerned eyes. She knew better than anyone why he would be feeling this way. He told her about Duke Greyson and what they did at the estate. So she had a good guess that he wasn''t heading over to them with intentions of giving them a hug.


    He was so angry that even a fully empowered [Savage Dance] wasn''t able to control his emotions. The pit of anger just kept getting bigger and bigger, it took everything Julius had to keep the lid on it. He knew that if he let go for even a single second, he wouldn''t be able to wrangle control again.


    Just when he thought his anger was about to get out of hand, he felt a soothing sensation flow through him, cooling even the fiery rage that bubbled in his chest. He turned to look at who was responsible. Lily was still holding his shoulder, but he could feel her pushing some type of skill into him.


    It was like a soothing balm for his soul.


    If it was anyone else he wouldn''t have allowed them to mess with his emotions. But this was Lily. Julius allowed her to keep on feeding him the relaxing feeling of whatever technique she was using.


    However, even with her help, Julius still had to keep [Savage Dance] active. But the worst had passed and he felt like he had enough control to turn and give Lily a grateful squeeze on her shoulder.


    He took another glance at the group that was still arguing with the other one just in front of him. Now that he was looking closer he could see that the group consisted of three main individuals. It was difficult to tell which one of them was the person in charge, but he would guess the person in the middle. Everyone else in his group appeared to be retainers of some type or servants.


    Around half a dozen men and women were spread around the group. With just as many on the other group''s side. However, they weren''t doing the arguing. That was done by the three people of the Greyson group as well as the two leaders of the other group.


    There were also two large looming men who were clearly there for protection if their strong auras were any indicator. Their auras were decently well controlled, but the small amount that leaked out screamed Tier 4. They also had Greyson crests but theirs were over a sleek piece of armor that stood out in the restaurant where everyone was dressed normally.


    The three Greyson guys were all young and around Tier 3, maybe even Tier 4 if they were weak. It was hard to tell because they wore multiple devices that hid their aura.


    The one in the middle was tall, handsome, and had long ash-grey hair put up in a ponytail. The other two had dark brown hair but were equally as handsome. However, it was their expressions that made their good looks go to waste. Their faces were screwed with anger and sneers as they yelled at the other party, creating a commotion.


    Just looking at their faces made Julius want to launch a fully empowered spike of mana at them with no regard for what might happen as a consequence. This was the same House what had caused the attack at the estate. The attack had taken Lukas and Edwin away from him.


    In his mind, he knew that these men were unlikely to be directly responsible. That was the only reason why they were still alive and that Julius hadn''t wasted them the second he saw them. But that didn''t mean that they weren''t still connected with the House that caused it to happen. No, in Julius''s mind, they were partly guilty just by association. They were even wearing House Greyson''s crests over their chests like like proud badges of honor.


    Julius gently removed Lily''s hand from his shoulder and before he could do anything stupid, he immediately stormed out of the restaurant, ignoring his group''s worried looks.


    However, Julius also spotted something else mixed into their expressions. Distaste, they carefully hid hints of distaste when they looked at the members of House Greyson, even Grace had a similar look on her face.


    When he stepped out into the cool crisp breeze of the city, he took a deep ragged breath. No matter how much his anger wanted to be let free, he couldn''t allow it to do what it wanted. He was in charge, he wouldn''t allow his rage to ruin everything.


    If he attacked them in the middle of the restaurant, he would be captured and killed by their Tier 4 bodyguards. While the rest of the group had seemed like weak users, who mostly advanced through supplemental means, those two were genuine Tier 4 elites.


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    They didn''t give off the same vibe as Gabriel or Declan, but it was close. He wasn''t quite on that level yet. He just needed more time. He was getting stronger by the day and now that he had a Concept and acquired an epic-rank skill, he felt himself reaching the required strength to have a fighting chance. He just needed to be patient.


    He distantly heard the others follow him outside and approach him cautiously.


    "Are you alright?" Grace asked concerned.


    Julius didn''t say anything or even acknowledge her.


    The others knew better than to talk to him right now. They understood why he had stormed out and gave him some space to calm down.


    "What happened? Why did you leave in such a rush?" Grace asked again.


    Julius had to take another deep breath to not snap at her for asking too many questions. It''s not like she knows, he reminded himself. She is just being curious, which is natural. But his posture seemed to scare the girl regardless.


    However, unlike Grace who sounded genuinely concerned. Amelia didn''t have the same approach. Her tone was confrontational. "Aren''t you going to answer her question?" She said offended, as if scolding him like a child.


    Julius felt a lance of irritation spear him right through the chest and ever so slowly turned his head to look at Amelia with a furious gaze. His eyes contained all of the restrained rage he had been holding in.


    The entire dinner, Amelia had been nothing but dismissive, if not outright rude to him. Making those exact same type of snide remarks. Not to the others, no, only to him. He had a feeling that she knew who they were and wouldn''t risk offending them.


    Normally, he would have ignored it but after he had just gone to such extreme lengths to control his anger, this tipped him right over the edge. It was her tone, the tone as if Julius was an insignificant ant who should be gratefully bowing at her feet for allowing him in her presence.


    With a scoff he let the last threads of his control unravel.


    Amelia POV


    Amelia had enough of the insolent boy. He showed no respect to her lady or herself. He held himself with so much arrogance and pride. The gall he had to scam a favor out of Reinera. First, he made her sit on the ground, then he talked to her with no respect, and now this?


    She would not take such a slight from an ignorant and weak Tier 2 child. He should be grateful that he could even talk in the presence of anyone at the table. Every single one of them held status far above him, she didn''t even care to mention the power gap between them. Even Reinera was far above the young idiot. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She excused how he talked with the others somewhat because it seemed like they were somewhat friendly. But there was only so much she could take from a Tier 2. Especially, when he blatantly ignored her lady''s questions.


    "Aren''t you going to answer her question?" she said reproachingly.


    However, to her surprise, she noticed that Derek Zenith, Lily Violet, Aubrey Crysalia, Kyle Quincy, and Edgar Crow all simultaneously winced and shook their heads the moment she opened her mouth.


    What? What did I do wrong? She was confused. All she did was put an arrogant Tier 2 in his place. She had hoped that if anything, they would appreciate her efforts.


    She was about to ask Aubrey who was closest to her what the look was for, but she didn''t have time.


    A looming dread filled the air that filled her with unease. A few seconds of stark silence later she watched as the Tier 2 with an inflated sense of self-importance slowly turned his head around to look right at her.


    "What did you say?" He asked very softly. Although his tone was gentle, she couldn''t help but feel goosebumps run up and down her body.


    His eyes were blazing with anger. It was almost scary if not for the fact that he was a Tier 2. It was as terrifying as a kitten baring its fangs at her.


    She finally confronted the young brash child, something she had wanted to do the entire night, but had stopped herself. "You have been a proud and haughty brat for the entire short time that I have known you. You should be grateful that such esteemed people would put up with your arrogant attitude. You must''ve forgotten that you are nothing more than a weak Tier 2. Perhaps being accepted in Goldencrest inflated your ego, but remember that just because you are a little talented, doesn''t mean you are on the same level as us. You better keep your attitude in check," she reminded him.


    He laughed. "I better keep my attitude in check, huh," he mocked her with a chuckle, but there was no humor in it. No, it was thinly veiled rage.


    "And what will you do if I don''t?" He asked her daringly.


    It seems like he still doesn''t understand, she thought to herself amusingly.


    "If you don''t, then I will do it for you," she promised him.


    "Oh, is that so?" He asked. This time she did hear a little bit of humor, almost like he genuinely found that funny.


    He might believe she was just posturing, but she really would. He better not push her.


    "Yes, yes I would," she told him while staring directly into his eyes which had now calmed down but were somehow more unnerving.


    "I would like to see you try," he goaded her with a smug smirk.


    Okay, that''s it.


    She didn''t want to be the person who bullied someone two full tiers below her, but he was asking for it. However, she also had to consider her status and the current role she was pretending to be. That meant she couldn''t show her full power. Even the powerful aura-hiding artifact the royal family had given her wouldn''t be able to hide her Tier if she went all out.


    Not that it mattered, she wouldn''t need to even use a fraction of her power. He was most likely a recently advanced Tier 2 with a bloated sense of his own power. It would just take a small flick to humble him.


    She slowly wrapped her aura around Julius with a smooth application of mana and squeezed. Imagining that she was constricting him like a snake. Was it perhaps too much, maybe? But he needed someone to teach him a lesson in humility.


    However, she got increasingly alarmed when her aura got nowhere. It was like her aura was turned to dust the second it got near the boy. He must have a pretty good aura skill, she thought. Okay, so you do have some strength to back up your mouth, she admitted to herself.


    She ramped up her aura and put the entire force of a newly advanced Tier 3''s aura onto him. However, she was shocked when nothing happened either. Just like the previous time, he was completely unaffected and unfazed.


    He just stood there with that same smug smile and there was a challenging glint in his eyes. As if saying, is that all you got?


    She was dumbfounded by the turn of events. How the hell is he holding up to my aura? His aura is unmistakably Tier 2, but the strength of it is not unlike the power of a Tier 3 soul, it doesn''t make sense, she thought to herself.


    So she cranked it up even further, taking it to the level of an established Tier 3 user. It was only then did she gained even a single foothold against him. Still, her aura was torn apart by something.


    It was probably some sort of item he must have had on his person. There was no other way for him to hold out against a full-powered Tier 3 aura.


    She was very tempted to use her Authority on the still smug boy. He was using an item to hold her back and he had the shamelessness to act like it was his own achievement. However, she wouldn''t go that far. While the boy infuriated her to no end, she knew what her priorities were. She couldn''t easily unveil her identity just to bully a Tier 2.


    Thankfully, it didn''t come to that as the young granddaughter of Count Violet intervened. "That is enough!"

 Chapter 136: Conflict with Amelia

    "What do you think you are doing?" Lily angrily asked.Julius watched as the Amelia girl crossed her arms and looked at him self-satisfied. Then he turned to look at Lily with an abashed grin. "I''m s-"


    She cut him off, "Not you Julius." She turned to give Amelia a fierce look. "I''m talking to you."


    "Me?" Amelia asked in disbelief while pointing at herself.


    "Yes, you," Lily said firmly. S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "What did I do?" She asked.


    "You don''t think we didn''t sense what you were doing with your aura to Julius?" Lily said angrily. Her eyes were glowing dangerously violet and Julius could feel the genuine anger in her aura.


    Julius observed a flash of regret pass over Amelia''s eyes, but it was gone just as quickly. "I did what someone of my status would do to another Tier 2 who would act in such a disrespectful manner," Amelia defended herself.


    What? I have barely said two words to you the entire dinner, Julius thought to himself not believing the words coming out of Amelia''s mouth.


    "Disrespectful to whom? You? Because the only one who has a problem with him is you," Lily pointed out.


    Yeah, you tell her Lily! He cheered silently.


    "No, to Grace as well," Amelia shot back.


    Lily chuckled at that. "No, she hasn''t taken offense a single time. You are the one who got offended on her behalf. Then used that as a reason to try and push Julius around."


    "I did not. The boy has been acting like some high-tiered arrogant noble to even important people like you guys the entire time."


    Lily paused at that. "So you do know exactly who we are then?"


    "Of course I do," Amelia said with a scoff. "How could I not know who you guys are?"


    Julius watched as Lily shook her head in disbelief. "If you know who we are, then what gives you the impression that you can decide how our friend speaks to us? You think people of our standing would allow someone to speak to us like that?"


    Amelia pressed her lips together and stately calmly, "He doesn''t act as one of his Tier should act. He treats you guys like-"


    "-Like we''re equals," Lily finished for her. "He treats us like friends would. He doesn''t bow at our feet or bathes our toes with his tongue like the other disgraceful Houses do. Is that what bothers you so much? That a first-year like him can be friends with people like us?"


    "There are traditions and rules of how someone of his status should speak to someone like us," Amelia argued.


    "Traditions and rules," Lily scoffed. "What a load of crap."


    "It''s not crap," Amelia shook her head. "It''s how society stays together and how the power gap between individuals stays balanced."


    Lily shook her head. "It''s how people with power stay in power. That''s why the so-called traditions are in place. Do you really think nobles want people to show respect for one another because someone is a single tier higher than them? No, it''s for the rich and powerful to feel good about bossing people beneath them around like they''re slaves."


    Amelia bit her lip before replying. "You''re the granddaughter of Count Violet, doesn''t that mean it applies to you as well?" She argued.


    "That''s exactly how I know it happens. All children born from powerful families know how people outside of their family treat them. How even the people from their own House treat them," Lily said softly.


    "They treat them with respect. That is how peace is maintained."


    Lily gave a mocking laugh. "No, people treat people like us with fear, not respect. It just comes off as respect because if they don''t then they and their families will be killed and nothing will be done about it."


    Amelia didn''t say anything to argue that point. She just stood there silently fuming. "That doesn''t change the fact that Julius has been acting disrespectful all night to Grace," Amelia finally said.


    Lily had a face of disgust on her face. "You keep on saying that he has been disrespectful this and disrespectful that. Nobody except you thinks that way."


    "He speaks to her with too much familiarity and casualness for someone of his status," Amelia told her while looking at Julius who was still observing silently from the side.


    "Oh? Grace is the same Tier as him, which by your reasoning means that it shouldn''t be a problem for him to talk to her in such a manner. Not that she minds by the way," Lily said sarcastically.


    "He ignored her."


    "So he ignored someone? And for that reason, you want to press your aura down on him like he is some monster? You know what I think? I think you have a personal problem with him, but you are using Grace as an excuse to go after him."


    Julius saw Amelia finally take the time to turn and look over at Grace. Grace had her mouth and eyes wide open in shock. It was as if she couldn''t believe that her friend would behave in such a manner.


    He smiled at the look of shame that started to bloom on Amelia''s face as she began to realize how her actions might look to onlookers.


    "He provoked me. You all saw it yourselves," Amelia argued weakly, even to his ears.


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    "No, we saw him provoking you after you were rude to him the entire night. Don''t think we haven''t been noticing."


    Julius saw all of his friends nod in agreement and stare at Amelia with very unfriendly gazes. He felt touched, there was a part of him that loved the fact that they had noticed her jabs as well and had his back.


    He had calmed down a lot by now. Seeing the house that killed Lukas and Edwin a few feet away from him had shaken him, but he managed to get back a semblance of control.


    He also belatedly realized that he could have handled that whole situation better. If he hadn''t had to deal with that surprise with the Greyson douchebags, he wouldn''t have lost his cool as easily. He had to be better in the future. He wouldn''t always have Lily there to cool him down.


    That being said, he still didn''t like the rude woman. At least Grace had been nothing but nice. However, Amelia had contributed nothing to their night. And to top it off, she had even tried to oppress him with her aura in a humiliating way.


    She tried to strangle him with her aura. The only reason why Julius wasn''t being pressed into the cold stone bricks below them was that he had several advantages.


    For one, he had a much stronger soul than someone of his Tier should have. His recent reward for his soul evolution was proof of that. Another reason was that [Empowerment of Will] was a very good aura skill that didn''t just work well at empowering his skills, but it was an amplifier for his aura abilities.


    The skill made it easier to manipulate his aura and gave it a sturdiness that he didn''t think many other Tier 2s would have.


    However, the thing that did surprise him was how effective his Concept had been at thwarting Amelia''s attempts. The Concept of Severing Will had been able to sever the girl''s aura like it was nothing but paper in the wind.


    He barely had to do anything either. His recent practice with using his Concept without the use of [Barrier of Severance] had really come in handy here. It was almost like it was instinct, one moment he was being attacked by a Tier 3 aura and the next he was infusing his aura with his Concept like it was another Thursday for him.


    He even got a level out of it.


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    He almost wanted to thank the woman if he didn''t still have the slight urge to punch her in the face.


    He got a little distracted and lost focus on what the two girls were talking about.


    "I don''t have any reason to show deference to a Tier 2 child nor do I think he is deserving of it," Amelia said while pointing at Julius again.


    Stop pointing at me, Julius thought to himself. I don''t want anything to do with you anymore.


    Before Lily could defend him again, Julius walked up to her, and just like how she did for him just a few minutes ago, he grabbed her shoulder and stopped her. She tilted her head up and looked at him with a surprised expression as if asking why he was preventing her from defending him.


    "It doesn''t matter," he said calmly. He turned to look at the still-mad Amelia just a few feet away. "Her opinion doesn''t matter to us. She doesn''t matter to us. Nothing she says or does will change that."


    Julius heard some chuckles from others after he said that. Aubrey even said, "Damn right," proudly from the side.


    Lily looked between him and the others with a slight smile on her face. "You''re right," she said to him. Then she stared intensely at Amelia, "She doesn''t matter to us at all."


    Julius watched as Amelia clenched her fists tightly upon hearing that. However, that reaction made up for everything. If she was hoping to get closer to the others, she failed miserably, and this ostracization from the others would be a far more devastating punishment than his scolding of her.


    Julius pulled Lily in the other direction. "Let''s go. We still have some time to fool around before we need to get back," he said to her.


    Lily let herself get pulled away easily before she stopped and said, "Wait. What about her assaulting you with her aura?"


    He let loose a hearty laugh. "What? That aura attack? Please, it was so weak I didn''t even feel anything. Ask her yourself, she wasn''t even able to pressure me a single bit," he mocked her, not bothering to look in her direction.


    He had a feeling that calling her weak and not even looking at her when doing so would piss her off more than anything else he could say to her. And he was correct, [Spatial Perception] was able to pick up her tense muscles and extremely furious posture. However, he knew that she wouldn''t do anything. Not when the others had his back.


    While he didn''t need to be that petty, he still believed that he had every right to. She should be lucky that''s all he was willing to do.


    Lily smiled at Julius''s insult of Amelia''s aura strength and giggled before letting Julius lead her away again in the other direction.


    However, when they were several feet away, he heard, "You were only able to withstand my aura because of your items. Don''t be so smug about relying on external power," she said bitterly.


    Julius gave a real genuine laugh at that. "Sure, doesn''t matter either way¡­ Weak is weak," he said mockingly before turning away for good, not even listening to her next words. He didn''t deny her accusations, if anything that helped him out. He didn''t have to explain why he had such a strong aura as a Tier 2 this way.


    After they had walked away from the drama-riddled girls. Aubrey finally spoke up. "Well, I for one am glad that''s over," she said with a relieved sigh.


    Julius stopped and turned to look at her with a look of utter disbelief. "You are the one who invited them over to our table, to my celebration, nonetheless," he said in an irritated tone. "Don''t think you are going to get away with this. You have some apologizing to do."


    "What? What did I do?" Aubrey asked in genuine shock.


    "What did you do? Did you not just listen to me? The only reason why we had to go through that was because you wanted to tease me," he pointed out angrily.


    "That wasn''t the only reason!" She argued.


    He sarcastically tilted his head and crossed his arms. "Oh? What was the other reason?"


    "You need some friends," she said matter-of-factly.


    "I need some friends?" He asked incredulously.


    She shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, I thought it would be nice for you to make friends with the Grace girl," Aubrey said lamely.


    "And now? Do you still think I should be friends with her now?" Julius asked with a scoff.


    "Hey, in Grace''s defense. She wasn''t that bad. It was her bodyguard that was acting like a bitch," she said while putting her hands in the air.


    "Bodyguard?" Julius asked confused. "I thought she said she was a teaching assistant."


    Aubrey just shook her head. "Yeah, that was probably just some lame excuse. I''ve never seen her and I know for a fact that other important scions have bodyguards protecting them while they go off into the city. She was too worried about keeping attention on the surroundings to not be worried about protecting the girl."


    "I agree. She was definitely making it sound as if Grace was someone important," Lily commented as well.


    He frowned and scratched his chin. "Even when they are on campus?" He asked.


    "You saw her on campus?" Derek asked from the side. "I thought you said you only met the girl last night." Somehow the conversation had derailed again.


    "I only officially met Grace but Amelia was with her too. She was just invisible, I didn''t say anything, but she was following her around like she was her friend. I thought she was just training her stealth skill and pretended to ignore her," Julius said with a shrug. "I thought bodyguards weren''t allowed on campus, so her being a teaching assistant made sense."


    Derek looked at Julius seriously. "No, you''re right. Bodyguards aren''t allowed on campus. It would be a nightmare if every noble born wanted their bodyguards on campus. Not even I can have bodyguards with me, not that I would want them."


    "So what are you saying?" He asked Derek.


    "I don''t know. Perhaps, she really is an assistant but also keeps an eye out for her. It''s not uncommon for family friends to be staff at Goldencrest," Derek said with a contemplative tone.

 Chapter 137: Concept and Aura

    "What do you mean?" Julius asked.However, before Derek could answer, Kyle interrupted. "Wait. How did you know she was invisible?" He asked curiously.


    "What do you mean ''how did he know''?" Aubrey said to Kyle confused. She pointed to Julius. "He has that stupid perception ability of his," she said like it was the most obvious thing.


    Kyle put his hands up defensively. "Yes, I understand he has that frightening perception ability. But I was able to sense that Amelia had something close to a mist or vapor affinity and those are notoriously good for stealth. Arguably on par or better than shadow affinity users depending on the conditions," he explained carefully. "I just want to know if Julius was able to actually sense her or if it was just a general gut feeling."


    "I was able to feel her entire general shape. That was how I was able to recognize her tonight," Julius told Kyle.


    "Interesting," Kyle said softly before turning away and talking to himself like how he usually did when he found something that got him curious.


    "What I find more interesting is how well you held off her aura," Lily commented as she walked next to Julius, ignoring Kyle.


    He turned to look over at Lily who was glancing at the beautiful storefronts they were passing. They were in a district that focused on nightlife. The entire street was illuminated in bright lights, and there were a good number of people still out and about.


    "Yeah, I was too. When I said that her aura was weak, I was mostly just playing it up. To be honest, it was quite good. Not to mention, that I don''t think she used everything she could. It felt like she was still holding back quite a bit," Julius said to Lily.


    "I didn''t like her, I got to give her credit. She wasn''t weak if her control said anything about her. How did you fend her off?" Lily asked.


    "I would like to know how you did as well," Derek said.


    Julius looked around and gave Lily a knowing look. She just shook her head and smiled before deploying a small isolation barrier of aura and psychic energy around them.


    "It was my Concept and my aura skill that did a lot of the work," Julius told them.


    "So, that''s why your aura practically cut through hers without a problem. I thought that might be the reason. I just didn''t think you were quite on that level yet to use your Concept in such a way," Lily said.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "I didn''t know either," he freely admitted. "It sort of just happened on its own. I have been using my Concept this past week nonstop though, and without the use of my sharpness-based skill. I think that''s a big reason why I could do it."


    "Do you mind if I see for myself?" Lily asked him curiously.


    "What? Like seeing how my aura defended against Amelia?" Julius questioned.


    Lily nodded her head. "Yes, I want to experience it for myself."


    Julius didn''t see a reason why he wouldn''t. Perhaps she would be able to give him some information as well. "Sure, go right ahead."


    Julius felt Lily''s aura extend from her and start to approach Julius''s. Unlike Amelia''s aura, Lily was much more gentle. It was slow and prodded the edges of his aura like one would an interesting object.


    Julius didn''t do anything and let her play around with his aura to her content. He did notice that his aura wasn''t defending itself like it had earlier. It was surprisingly docile.


    It wasn''t until Lily started to get closer and bury itself deeper that her aura elicited a reaction from his. The moment it got too close, his aura started to defend itself. It was like it was waving a long sword at Lily''s aura, preventing it from getting any closer.


    Then suddenly, Lily''s aura increased in intensity by a lot. It was full-on pressing onto him, much like Amelia''s had done. Whatever natural defenses his aura had deployed wasn''t enough to stop her this time. She blew through it like it was nothing and it felt like he was getting bumrushed by a golem again.


    Julius knew that if he wanted to defend himself, he would need to start actively controlling his aura, otherwise he would be quickly smothered. So with a quick focus, he manipulated his aura to condense down and start tearing apart Lily''s aura with his Concept.


    He saw Lily grin widely as she felt him fending her off. Then he felt another increase in intensity, this time it was less of a brute force method like she had been using and more of a subtle sneaky manipulation. Her aura snuck through his gaps and slithered its way deeper into his aura, slowly breaking it down from the inside.


    It was very different than Amelia''s tactic. She had just tried to strangle him with aura. Lily''s aura felt like she was trying to seep into his pores and take control of him like a puppet. It was much more terrifying and much more challenging to fight against.


    However, he wouldn''t go down easily. If she was trying to sneak her way through the cracks in his aura, he just needed to make sure there weren''t any cracks to sneak into.


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    He compressed his aura deep into himself, making sure that there were no gaps. Then he infused his Severing Will Concept throughout the entire aura, with the intent of severing anything that wasn''t his own aura.


    And it worked. Julius felt Lily''s attempts to sneak in being repelled with much more ease.


    It was ironic. He had been wearing Professor Youma''s aura-suppressing ring for so long, that he hadn''t realized that he no longer needed it. At some point in his training, he had been able to suppress his aura with practiced ease.


    He had gotten used to the increased power in his aura from his Tier advancement. Even the boost he got from his soul evolution wasn''t anything he couldn''t handle. It was more power, yes, but he didn''t find himself flailing around trying to contain it like he had been. The many long nights and endless aura training sessions were showing their worth.


    Julius found himself having a lot of fun as he kept trying to keep Lily away from his aura. She was really good. He knew that already, but until now he didn''t understand quite how good she was. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He had the advantage of using his Severing Will Concept to help him, but his ability to manipulate aura still fell short of hers by a lot. If he didn''t have Severing Will, he suspected she would have already had him dozens of times. Now that he was paying attention to her aura really closely, he had an inkling that she also had a Concept of her own that she was using to help her. However, instead of making her aura like a sharpened blade, it acted like his aura skill, [Empowerment of Will]. It just made her aura overall stronger in every way.


    Eventually, no matter how hard he tried to keep her out, she was better. She slowly ground him down in a battle of attrition and had been using large spikes of aura to spear his compressed aura. The opening she would then exploit by prying it apart and invading his aura.


    She had his aura in a vice grip and it felt like she was choking his soul. He gave the spiritual equivalent of a tap of conceding and she let him go right after.


    Julius was sweating like crazy and he turned to look at Lily with a wild grin on his face. He had a blast, fighting with aura like that was a very entertaining way of practicing aura. And by the similar maniacal grin on her face, he would say that she agreed.


    The others were looking at them expectantly.


    "Well¡­?" Aubrey said to them.


    Lily looked at Julius with an incredulous grin. "That Concept of yours works great with aura. What did you say its name was?"


    "It''s called Severing Will, why?" Julius answered.


    "I can see why it''s called that. It certainly severs aura like nothing I have quite seen," she said in awe.


    Aubrey got in between them with an impatient frown as she hopped on both feet. "I don''t know if you guys know. But we weren''t privy to whatever happened with your guy''s auras. What happened?"


    Edgar spoke up as well. "I agree. Normally, I would tell Aubrey to calm down, but I find myself impatient to know as well."


    Lily looked over at Julius as if asking for his permission to share what she had learned about him. He scanned over the other''s faces quickly. He saw everyone, even Kyle who had taken a break from whatever he was thinking about regarding Julius''s perception skill looking on very intently.


    He gave a small nod to Lily, letting her know that he was okay with it.


    "Julius has a very interesting set of skills and abilities that give his aura a considerable boost. His Concept in particular allows him to cut apart my aura far more easily than someone should be able to. He also has an admirable amount of control over his aura, something one wouldn''t expect from someone of his Tier. However, I am curious about one thing," she said while turning to look at Julius.


    "Why does your soul feel like a Tier 3?" She asked in wonder.


    Julius had an awkward look on his face. He hadn''t had the time to tell the others about his newly acquired epic skill yet, nor was he able to tell them about the soul evolution he went through.


    With a hesitant expression, he came clean. "I actually had something I wanted to tell you guys."


    "Again?" Aubrey asked exasperated. "What did you do this time?"


    "Well, you know how I just learned my Concept right? I wanted to use that to acquire an epic skill for the past week right?" He told them.


    He saw them all nod, following along patiently.


    "Well, I was able to achieve it last night."


    He was barely able to finish before Aubrey said, "And let me guess, you forgot to mention it again."


    "That''s why you had the cake last night¡­" Lily softly commented more to herself than anyone else.


    "No, I just didn''t really find the right time with everything that went on today," he explained. "And yes, that''s why I had the cake."


    "While that was faster than many acquire their epic skills after learning a Concept, I can''t say I am that surprised considering what we know of you. But what does this have to do with your aura?" Edgar asked.


    Julius scratched his head. "I don''t really know for myself. But I got a notification telling me about a reward for a soul evolution."


    They all simultaneously turned to look at him. "Already?" Lily asked excitedly.


    He tilted his head and looked at them curiously. "You know what happened to me?" Julius asked.


    "Of course. It happened to all of us immediately after we advanced to Tier 3," Lily explained to him.


    "Yeah, it is sort of a thing that almost every single elite Tier 3 will go through once they advance. If you don''t go through it, it often means you didn''t have a solid enough foundation and enough skills at rare," Aubrey added.


    "Do you think that I was able to do it early because I got an epic ranked skill?" Julius asked them. He watched as they all thought about that for a moment before he got a mixture of headshakes and shrugs.


    "Honestly, there are many factors when it comes to soul strength. It''s a combination of skills, natural-born talent, the kinds of tribulations, what tier you are at, and many other things. Some nobles even feed expensive soul-strengthening treasures to their children, even though they are wasted on someone at that Tier. For you to go through it already, even with an epic skill, means that you must have had an increase from one of these other factors. An epic skill is not enough alone to get you past that threshold," Derek explained.


    "So what happens when I advance again?" Julius asked them.


    Derek looked up in the sky in thought. "I don''t know," he honestly told Julius. "I doubt you are the only person who has ever achieved it. But I don''t know what happened to those people. They probably kept it a secret."


    "You did choose the additional skill slot option though right?" Aubrey asked worryingly.


    "What? Was I supposed to?" Julius asked, pretending to be worried, and smiled internally when he saw the horror bloom on Aubrey''s face.

 Chapter 138: Why Is She Staring?

    Aubrey walked up to Julius and grabbed his shoulders forcefully. "What did you choose? Please don''t tell me you chose the skill evolution option," Aubrey started to panic."What? That''s not the best option?" Julius tried his best to sound genuinely ignorant.


    "You fucking idiot. In what world does that sound like the best option," Aubrey reprimanded him while vigorously shaking him like a rag doll.


    He looked over to see the other''s reactions. Derek and Edgar both looked equally upset and slightly disappointed. Kyle and Lily on the other hand didn''t seem particularly worried at all.


    Lily even had a slight smirk on her face as she watched Aubrey shake him apart in frustration. She was most likely picking up on his emotions at the moment, so she probably knew that he was teasing them.


    Kyle on the other hand had always been a good predictor of Julius''s behaviors. He was the most perceptive person outside of Lily when it came to Julius''s actions. It would be of no surprise that Kyle had guessed that Julius was messing with Aubrey as revenge. He even gave Julius a little amused nod when they met eyes for a moment.


    Eventually, Derek seemed to pick up that Lily wasn''t worrying like she would have if she thought Julius was telling the truth and released his tense shoulders. He walked over to Aubrey who was still shaking Julius and scolding him. "Calm down, Aubrey," Derek told the irate girl trying to pry her fingers from Julius but ultimately failing.


    "Calm down? I can''t believe he would be this stupid. I know nobody had probably explained it to him yet, but still, I would like to think that he would be smart enough to know that out of all of the options, that one was the worst. Literally, any other reward would have been better," Aubrey exclaimed loudly.


    Julius turned to Lily with curious eyes. "How many options did you guys have? And how many is normal?" He asked her casually.


    Lily just gave him a half-chastening look but answered him regardless. "We got four options. The skill evolution option, the soul-nourishing option, the Concept enlightenment option, and the skill slot option. Most people usually get all of these options. They are pretty standard."


    "The first and last options are self-explanatory, but what about the other two? What does the soul-nourishing and Concept option do?" Julius asked still ignoring Aubrey''s shaking.


    "The lesser soul-nourishing option is really ever used for those with particularly weak or injured souls. Still most of the time you can find an expensive soul treasure to consume instead, so it''s rarely worth it. The Concept enlightenment option is quite interesting. Some people find it very difficult to connect with a Concept and this reward allows them to get one without much issue. However, a lot of the time the Concepts acquired are much weaker than a Concept you developed naturally," Lily explained to him, also ignoring Aubrey.


    "What are you guys talking about? That''s not important right now," Aubrey said, still frantic. She turned back to Julius. "I don''t know if there''s a way to reverse it, but I will ask my mother. She might know of some treasure or method that might be able to fix it."


    Finally, Edgar also seemed to observe that Lily, Derek, and Kyle were surprisingly calm about it. He frowned and squinted his eyes a little before he stood up straight and realization lit up in his eyes. He didn''t say anything yet, but he just turned to look at Julius with a slight grin.


    Julius saw him look at Aubrey who was still freaking out and then back at Julius. Edgar thought for a moment. Then he shrugged and decided to stay silent, but now he was sporting a smile of his own as he enjoyed the show.


    Eventually, it was Lily who felt bad for Aubrey. "Aubrey, stop. He is teasing you," she said with a sigh to the wild-eyed woman.


    "Huh?" Aubrey stopped shaking Julius.


    "He was lying. He didn''t choose the skill evolution option," Lily told her.


    Aubrey turned back to Julius and began shaking him again but for a different reason this time. "You little shit. Why would you play games like that? You actually worried me." sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Eh, to be fair you kind of deserved it," Edgar said from the side.


    Aubrey whipped her head to him. "Why? What did I do?"


    Edgar shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t know, the usual things. Being too pushy, not taking into account someone else''s feelings, and like when you invited those girls over just to make Julius uncomfortable."


    Aubrey at least had the self-awareness to take the reprimand on the chin. "Yeah, I guess I deserved it," she said with her head down.


    ***


    Julius spent the next Sunday working on his newly found ability with his aura and his Concept. It was something he believed would be very important to him down the road. Luckily, he had someone who was very good in their own right with aura control willing to practice with him.


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    Lily was a very good instructor when it came to aura. She taught him all types of exercises to help improve his control. Apparently, her family had taught her methods that weren''t that boring. Julius had been just sitting by himself on a mat in the dark whenever he practiced his aura.


    However, Lily showed him games the two of them played that trained their aura and certain aspects of it. She had even shown him a game that resembled an aura version of hide and seek that was more tricky for him than the other games she showed him. He was good at the tug-of-war game she showed him, but for anything that needed finesse, she obliterated him.


    Everyone had a general tendency for how their aura was used. For Julius, it was destroying other auras and being overall strong. However, just like how his mana control had been, he was lacking the finer and more subtle arts of aura control.


    His aura at the moment was like a big warhammer. It was strong enough to just smash into things, but he didn''t want that. He didn''t like the thought of being an uncontrolled barbarian with his aura. His pride demanded that he had some proficiency with it.


    That was why she was helping him with things like detecting and feeling with aura.


    To be fair, he had [Spatial Perception] to handle all of that so far. However, she told him that he would come to regret overlooking these aspects of aura control. So he followed her lead.


    The one thing that she showed him that helped his aura control was that he was able to physically affect reality now with his aura. It had gotten strong enough that with enough focus he was able to pick up small objects and use them as flexibility and complex manipulation training.


    In a manner that was very similar to his own training when he was learning [Spatial Perception], she made him perceive his surroundings with aura alone. He couldn''t use [Spatial Perception] or his other senses to know where objects were.


    He even used his old methods of depriving himself of his other senses. He pulled out pieces of clay and shoved them into his nose and ears. Then he took out his comfortable black face covering and wrapped it around his eyes.


    It all felt very nostalgic. The only thing that was different was that he needed to also completely turn off [Spatial Perception], which was harder than he expected.


    He was sure she was laughing at him when she watched him pull out his old training equipment. After all, she had broken out into hysterics when he had told her how he got his perception skill in the first place.


    But even if he looked silly, he couldn''t deny that it was very effective. Though he was flailing around with his aura, trying to feel around for Lily''s aura hints and small objects that she placed around the training room, he felt himself improving at a noticeable rate.


    The only thing he changed halfway through was changing out the clay for perfectly fitted constructs made of [Armaments of the Arcane]. Funnily enough, he even got his first skill level the moment he made them.


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 1 -> lvl 2]


    He knew he wouldn''t become an aura expert overnight, but with Lily helping him, he felt like it wouldn''t take him as long. At least that was what he was hoping for. Either way, he was enjoying his time with her. Whether or not he made giant leaps in improvement seemed to matter less than the fact that he was just having plain old fun.


    ***


    His first day back to class from the weekend was quite the experience. Although many of his normal classes were boring as usual. His Applied Combat class was a breath of fresh air.


    According to Professor Rowe, they were going to be doing some practical training this week. They still weren''t going to be doing rift delving yet, but they would be fighting against monsters at least.


    As far as Julius understood the professor, the students would be wearing simulated combat bracelets while fighting against captured monsters.


    This way, they weren''t actually able to get hurt if they made any mistakes. Unlike if they were in a real rift. Julius disagreed with this type of training. In his opinion, it was the equivalent of putting bubble wrap around students before letting them play.


    Then again, he had a healing skill that could grow back an entire arm, so who was he to judge. However, that didn''t mean, he didn''t have a point. Trial by fire was a good way to desensitize the students to pain and fear of death.


    With that being said, that was how the students found themselves standing in a large arena, split into several groups. Julius found himself in a group separate from Joshua and James. They were off in their own different group. He was with a bunch of students that he didn''t recognize.


    The professor''s assistants passed out bracelets to all of the students and showed them how to activate them. They all had some familiarity with them, considering they were used during their practical exams. Once, they made sure that everybody''s bracelets were working, the professor stood in front of the class.


    "Everyone please pay attention," he instructed sternly, a very different tone compared to his usual relaxed one. "I don''t want to have to repeat myself. If I see any of you fooling around. You will be immediately pulled from this training exercise and punished accordingly."


    Professor Rowe was normally the nicest professor they had, so whenever he got serious the students all paid attention, even the ones who fooled around in class.


    "In a moment you will all be split up into your respective groups. During this time each of you will have a turn fighting a monster that we have captured for you to fight. These monsters are not real rift or naturally spawned monsters. They are monsters created by our school''s summoners. While they are technically under the control of the summoner, these monsters are commanded to try and hurt you," he took a quick pause to look around at all the students.


    "I want you to pretend as if you don''t have the simulated combat devices on. This for all other purposes is a real fight. Your goal is to either kill the monsters or survive for ten minutes. Either one will be considered a passing grade. Are there any questions before we begin?"


    Julius spotted several hands shoot into the air. Professor Rowe called on one random girl.


    "What kind of monsters will we be fighting against?" she asked nervously.


    "They will all be monsters at the same tier as you. As for the species, that will vary," Professor Rowe answered.


    More students had questions and Julius was somewhat interested to hear what they had to ask, but he was distracted because he felt someone''s gaze frequently looking over his way the entire time.


    He didn''t turn around but he already knew who the person was. He didn''t know why the princess was staring at him so intently, but it was making him feel very uncomfortable.

 Chapter 139: Applied Combat

    The first thought that came to his head when he spotted the princess shooting him looks was whether or not he had done something wrong. However, he quickly assured himself that he hadn''t done anything to attract any notice. If he had, then more people would have been staring at him.The next thing he thought of was if the princess was secretly the Grace girl he had seen the other night. It was in the realm of possibilities that she was someone very important. Especially with how protective Amelia had been.


    However, he quickly eliminated that possibility as well. Her entire form was different. Grace had black hair, was a little bit taller, and had a totally different body shape. Even if she was covered in some type of illusion magic, he was confident that he would have been able to see through it with [Spatial Perception].


    Not to mention that their entire demeanor was different. The princess was always calm, collected, and poised. The very way she walked demanded respect. In comparison, Grace was shy and a little bit awkward.


    He had been able to see through Aubrey''s skills easily enough. Also, he was able to sense Amelia as well. Which gave him some measure of confidence in the skill''s ability to detect what was really there and what really wasn''t.


    Still, that didn''t leave him with much. The only thing he could really think of was if the princess had been around the restaurant the other night. Or if she spotted him when the six of them were going around town last Saturday.


    It was very confusing and he would like to find out what had gotten her attention. The last thing he wanted was some spoiled princess''s attention on him. He was trying to avoid standing out for a reason. Admittedly, he hadn''t been the best at it so far, but he was doing his best.


    Julius shifted his thoughts away from the princess. There wasn''t anything he could do about it for now, but he would keep an eye on her in the future.


    Because he had been too focused on the princess, he ended up missing what kind of questions the professor had answered from other students. Now they were being placed in their groups, spread out all around the arena.


    The person who was their main supervisor for this exercise was a young man who looked around Edgar''s age. However, he was also Tier 3, so that could mean he was twice his age and Julius would have no idea.


    He was high Tier 3 though. That much Julius could sense through whatever aura lingered around the guy.


    There were seven people in their group and once they got in line as they were instructed the professor''s assistant spoke to them.


    "Okay. This is how it is going to go. One of you at a time will enter that ring over there," he pointed at a decently sized sectioned-off part of the arena. "After that, you will activate your bracelets. Once they are activated, I will send the signal for the summoner to send in a monster. At that point, the fight has already begun. You are free to attack it whenever you wish. You will be assessed on how well you deal with it and how well you handle yourself. Is that clear?"


    Julius along with the other six students all nodded their heads. He noticed that a couple of students were more anxious than others. One boy in their group had a confident look on his face.


    As for Julius, he remained impassive. He wasn''t worried about losing to some Tier 2 monster. The only thing he was thinking about was how much he was going to use to put it down.


    While he was tempted to use his new skill, he held off on that idea. He had a feeling that it wouldn''t be a good idea for him to show his fancy new skill to everyone yet.


    The reasonable thing to do would be to work on his [Kinetic Augmentation] skill. He was still technically a physical fighter at first glance. He rarely used mana during the spars held in class.


    He heard the male assistant ask if anyone wanted to volunteer to go first. Unsurprisingly, it was the confident boy who raised his hand. When there was nobody else who raised their hand, their supervisor beckoned the volunteer over to the sectioned-off arena.


    As Julius was still standing there thinking about how he was going to approach this exercise, he finally had an idea of what he was going to do.


    After he and Lily were done with aura training, Julius spent the rest of his night trying to acquire [Quick Step]. Gabriel showed him the general steps he needed to do. He was even helpful enough to demonstrate specific activities Julius could do in order to hasten the acquirement of the skill.


    The only thing that had been holding Julius back, was just how much time he had. Each day there seemed to be more and more things he wanted or needed to get done. Despite not sleeping for days at a time, he still found himself taking more time than he should have to get the skill.


    It has been many weeks at this point since he learned of the skill''s existence, and he still hasn''t gotten it yet.


    He was close though. He felt like all it would take was a push to take it over the edge.


    Maybe today would be the day for that. He wouldn''t be showing off his new skill to everyone. He still didn''t want to cause too much commotion.


    With a decisive nod. He made a decision. I will get [Quick Step] today, he resolved to himself.


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    He looked up in time to see that the boy who had volunteered was already inside of the enchanted area.


    A bright circle of complex runic symbols etched its way into the floor on the other end of the area. Soft white light with a bluish hue lit up the entire arena from every other area where various groups were.


    He was able to feel just how much mana was being released by all of these works of magic. There were the summoning circles, the enchantments that protected and separated the students, and then the bracelets, all being powered by mana.


    He didn''t even think he would be able to power a single student group area by himself with his entire mana pool. And he knew how ridiculous his mana capacity was for his tier. However, that was also just what it was. For his tier.


    When it came to true Tier 4s, he couldn''t compare.


    He imagined that Gabriel, even with his pitiful reserves for a Tier 4 would be able to handle a few enchantment areas himself.


    At the center of light appeared a deer-like monster. It just stood there still as a statue as it took in its surroundings. There were small antlers nested on top of its head, like a small tiara of branches. All things considered, it was admittedly a very cute monster.


    Julius would barely call it a monster in the first place either.


    Even Julius''s swift observation could see that there was more intelligence in these so-called summons than what the professor or the assistants had mentioned. If anything they had downplayed it and made it seem like the monsters would be feral.


    It was only after a couple of fast seconds, that the deer immediately zeroed in on the only target in the room and took off at the boy.


    The boy to his credit wasn''t shaken from this sudden attack. While his grip around a dagger was a touch too firm, he wasn''t panicking. The deer was Tier 2 just like the boy and had activated some sort of physical enhancement skill.


    Nothing appeared around its body, but Julius could sense a good amount of mana pumping through the deer''s body.


    The boy lifted his dagger toward the incoming deer. Julius could feel a flow flowing into the dagger from the boy. Julius was interested in it immediately. It was the first thing he had seen that resembled a conduit of some sort in action.


    The boy was able to just push mana through the dagger and use that as a kind of battery to store and control any excess mana.


    He would also be able to expel it all at once as well. It was the solution to Julius''s biggest problem when it came to mana manipulation in the earliest days. He still had that problem but it wasn''t so bad as he continued to improve.


    He was still learning how to grab larger amounts of mana at one time. It was slow, but bit by bit, he was able to use larger amounts at a time compared to a few months ago.


    However, this little dagger that wasn''t really a dagger had the capability to do exactly what Julius had been learning. He knew that conduits existed, but he hadn''t really seen one up close yet. The only people who used conduits in his friend group were Lily and Kyle. There was also Derek, who used his spear as a conduit but he was still primarily a spear user.


    Julius observed as five dark blue spears of ice mana appeared around the boy.


    However, Julius was being honest. They resembled more closely to rugged icicles than spears, but he was being picky.


    The creation of them was crude, but he felt that it was due to whatever skill that boy had. Julius could barely feel the boy attempt to control the mana himself. Each process of the creation of the spears was robotic.


    It was like the difference between an artist and a printer machine creating the exact same picture. The printer would have a constant speed, with little to zero fluctuation. However, the artist would take his time on it. There might be a couple of sections that he took more care of or other sections that were easier for him. There was a certain rhythm to their creation.


    While the printer could replicate the artist''s picture perfectly, it wasn''t able to replicate the creative journey of the artwork. The rhythm of the song was off. That was how Julius was able to tell that the boy was simply feeding his skill the mana, then sending it through his magic dagger. There was no variation or change in the speed of mana. He didn''t fumble any parts, but it felt artificial. As if there was no life in his ice spears.


    The boy sent all five lifeless spears flying at the deer, blocking off any angles for it to dodge. Some shattered, but two spears stuck into the deer and went a couple of inches deep before falling out as it continued its run at him.


    If there was anything very useful about that dagger of his and relying on the skill, it was the sheer speed he formed the spikes.


    It was comparable speed to Julius''s own construct creation time. By the time the spears had made it halfway, there were more spears replacing them in front of the boy.


    Just as the first volley hit, he released the next batch of spears. Also since the deer had been staggered by the first attack, the second attack was much more effective.


    Four spears hit the deer. One of them even managed to pierce the right shoulder deeply, causing the deer to stumble and fall to the ground.


    Julius was expecting another volley to come raining down and end the fight, but he was let down when nothing happened. He looked over at the boy, wondering why he was waiting.


    However, to Julius''s surprise, the boy was slightly out of breath already. It wasn''t a lot, but there were minor signs of exertion. It wasn''t only him that was slightly tired either. The dagger in his hands felt almost fragile now.


    Perhaps, there was only so much of it the boy could use before it had to reset or use again.


    Whatever it was, it was still a shame that the boy didn''t launch another attack while he could. Just because the dagger wasn''t in use didn''t mean that he could launch some spears of his own.


    He at least used an enhancement skill on himself and ran closer to the deer. He tucked the mana conduit away into his spatial device and removed a longer blade from it instead. It was closer to a one-and-a-half-hand sword.


    His enhancement skill was quite good. It was certainly better than the deer''s. He closed in on the deer quickly and swung his sword down on the deer. However, the deer had enough time to get back to its feet and was able to evade just enough that it only got a long slice down its side.


    Blood ran down its side as it tried to headbut the boy with its head. That was reinforced with now glowing mana.


    The boy quickly backed away, avoiding the ram. And swept his blade down again, this time cutting much deeper into the left shoulder of the deer. Sending it crashing into the ground as two of its legs were crippled.


    It tried to kick out with its feet as the boy got closer, trying to finish it off, but the boy just stayed his distance and chopped at the flailing legs. He even took one of them clean off with a solid strike.


    After that, it wasn''t long until the boy was able to put down the deer. Once he put one last brutal swing into its neck, Julius watched as the deer turned to particles of mana and floated back to the magic circle.

 Chapter 140: Sneaking Suspicion

    The boy was breathing much more roughly than he had in the beginning, but he was able to take down the monster without getting injured, so that was a notable accomplishment. There were definitely some reasons for the boy''s initial confidence.Of course, there were still things that he could work on. But his swordsmanship and physical enhancement skills were pretty good. He had completely outclassed the deer in sheer physical prowess. Also, he didn''t need to use his mana conduit to activate his enhancement skill.


    Despite still relying on the skill for the majority of the work, Julius could feel that the boy was making some adjustments on his own. Manually empowering a leg or an arm when delivering a certain strike was a good sign of familiarity with the skill.


    The boy wasn''t the only one to make a decent showing either. Some of the other students in his group showed some very nice skills and abilities. It was surprising to see that not a single student failed to defeat their monster. A part of him had been expecting some kids not to be able to handle a monster, but while some weren''t as good as others, at least nobody failed.


    One of the more interesting students was a girl who had some sort of off-branch life affinity. It wasn''t like Julius''s own life affinity. Her affinity focused more on living flora. He suspected that she had a plant affinity or something very close, like a wood affinity.


    However, she showed remarkable control of the intricate branches and vines that managed to ensnare her opponent. It wasn''t the most flashy performance, but it was the one that impressed him the most.


    Her monster had been a larger bovine monster, also around Tier 2. Where the deer had agility and speed, the bovine was sturdy and strong. Yet, the branches still managed to hold the bovine in place even as the girl''s other skills activated, using the branches as mediums.


    There was one skill that empowered the branches and vines to strangle the monster. Another one that poisoned it. And then there was one that seemingly drained whatever life energy and mana to bolster the girl and the plants themselves.


    Although she was noticeably nervous, her control and power of her skills were undeniable. Sure, she had a bracelet that Julius felt acted as a conduit, but she didn''t rely on it like the other boy had. She used it as Julius would have. It was basically just an extra battery and a way to channel more mana than she could comfortably control.


    He wasn''t the only one to appreciate the girl''s performance. The male assistant had given her a nod of appreciation. "Well done, Tia. That was a good showing."


    Julius noticed that the first boy who volunteered looked over at Tia with envious eyes. He hadn''t received any praise after his turn.


    Eventually, it was Julius''s turn. He confidently strode into the sectioned-off area and activated his bracelet. The familiar light blue runes activated and with a flash of brilliant light stood a monster that looked like a mixture between a cat and a reptile. However, what stood out the most was its size.


    It was quite small. At least in comparison to the other student''s monsters. The smallest monster that had been summoned so far was still almost twice the size of this creature. This cat-reptile thing only sat around the height of his waist. It was probably six feet long, from head to tail. But the tail was a third of that length.


    The scales wrapped around its body were slightly iridescent and glimmered in the light beautifully. Its sparkling eyes were glinting with some hints of intelligence as well. He didn''t know what kind of monster it was, but a part of him kind of wanted one.


    Unfortunately, he didn''t have the time to appreciate its beauty for very long. Almost immediately the creature launched itself at Julius with no warning.


    He was slightly surprised to see how fast it was. Whatever enhancement skill it had was tailored for speed, that much was certain. It was by far the fastest creature that had been summoned today. However, that was kind of perfect for his own plans.


    [Quick Step] required him to focus on cramming as much mana into his legs and using that mana to propel him across a short distance. So having a fast opponent would put more pressure on him to succeed and hopefully let him learn the skill.


    He took control of some ambient mana and controlled it so it infused into his legs. Once he felt like he had enough mana, he released it in an explosive burst while lunging to the side. The scaly cat missed him by a hair, he could feel its claws swiping the air by his chest.


    It truly was fast for a Tier 2. He would estimate it to be on par with many other Tier 3s when it came to pure speed. He could also sense a collection of mana around its sharp claws. He assumed that it had something similar to [Mana Slash] that could really hurt him if he let it cut him. He didn''t have any constructs or [Barrier of Severance] to protect him after all.


    However, just as quickly as it missed, it was already in the middle of attacking him again. He had to send another burst of mana through his legs to avoid its slashing claws.


    For the next couple of minutes, he played a game of keep away with the monster, not even attempting to attack it or punish it.


    It was fast, it was ferocious, and it was perfect for training [Quick Step]. He made more progress in a couple of minutes than he had in a couple of hours in the training room. The added pressure of not getting hit gave him a nice incentive for his progress.


    He made sure not to accidentally use any fire mana or kinetic energy. He had already made that mistake last night.


    Funnily enough, it was much easier getting a movement skill that was based on his affinities. When he had used fire mana, it had been called [Fire Dash]. Then when he had used kinetic energy instead, he got offered the [Charged Rush] skill. Both weren''t what he had been looking for.


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    While they each had very similar functions, Julius had been told by Gabriel that [Quick Step] is an overall better skill for Julius.


    If he were to choose either [Fire Dash] or [Charged Rush] he would have been limiting the options for his potential evolutions. Also for someone who used three different types of mana, he was potentially losing out on some interesting skills.


    Not to mention that the advanced rare and epic ranked movement skills for fire and kinetic didn''t always touch on the aspects of spatial movement. However, [Quick Step] did, at least that was how Gabriel had learned [Instantaneous Step]. It was the general progression skill for the [Quick Step] skill and used spatial aspects within the skill.


    Julius could appreciate being able to move fast. But being able to teleport was every kid''s dream. That was why even if getting one of the other skills would be easier, he was still trying to get [Quick Step]. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He launched himself out of the way of the persistent cat-reptile monster once more. However, this time he didn''t allow it to come to him. No, what he had realized was that [Quick Step] wasn''t just for avoiding attacks, it was also to close the distance between his opponents.


    So with a jerk of mana, he burst toward the monster. It wasn''t ideal. His application of mana wasn''t as efficient or effective as using kinetic energy would have been. Which was the reason he missed the creature by a good amount.


    But it worked. That was the only thing that mattered to him. He finally got the skill that he had been eyeing for a while.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Quick Step]?


    He was so elated at his success that he almost failed to realize that the monster was no longer attacking him. It was in the process of breaking down into particles and returning to the runes across the battle area.


    He hadn''t defeated the monster, which meant that he must have already used the ten minutes that Professor Rowe had allotted them to defeat the monster. If Julius remembered correctly the professor said that they would have to either defeat the monster or survive ten minutes in order to pass.


    While he had technically passed, he was somewhat embarrassed that he was the only person who had not defeated his monster in his small group. And if the looks on some of their faces were any indication, they weren''t that impressed with his performance.


    He saw several of them quietly talking amongst each other, he didn''t hear what they said, but he assumed it was about him.


    The confident boy, who Julius found out was named Reynold, was looking at him with a clear expression of disdain. It was as if Reynold was wondering what a person with Julius''s talent was doing at Goldencrest.


    The only person who didn''t look at Julius with pity, disdain, or dismissiveness, was the plant girl and the professor''s assistant. The girl was curiously looking at Julius and the guy was looking at him with his brows scrunched up in confusion.


    Julius didn''t pay too much mind the looks he was getting. He was still inwardly celebrating acquiring his new skill.


    Actually, he still hadn''t accepted the prompt and he made sure to do that before anything else.


    Congratulations, skill [Quick Step] (Uncommon) acquired.


    Perfect, he thought to himself with a large goofy grin.


    ***


    Troy POV


    Troy found himself enjoying being a professor''s assistant more than he expected. He got access to as many rifts and resources as he needed to advance to Tier 4. He also had many Tier 4s available to ask questions about his advancement whenever he felt stuck.


    Having to teach some younger students wasn''t a bad price to pay for those privileges.


    At the moment they were just finishing up the first day of real monster fighting. Despite the fact that the students were still wearing simulated combat devices, they still had to deal with the monsters by themselves.


    And Troy was glad to see that every student ended up defeating their monster with zero or minimal damage taken. Almost every student that is.


    The last student had ruined that streak. The boy''s name was Julius Snow and according to his profile, a commoner. Troy didn''t blame the boy though. Unlike many of the others who very likely had some experience given to them by their parents or teachers, Troy would not be surprised to learn that this was the first time the boy was fighting a monster.


    While Julius had technically passed the exercise because he had survived over ten minutes, it wasn''t a pretty performance. However, that was why Troy was confused about why the boy had such a silly grin on his face. If you were to only look at the boy''s face, you would think he had demonstrated the best performance out of all the students.


    Yet, that was far from what actually happened.


    The black-haired boy didn''t even attempt to attack the monster. He was too busy trying to dodge and evade the admittedly fast monster. To be fair, the Tier 2 Rainbow Scaled Malken was likely the toughest monster summoned during the entire exercise. Its sheer speed was something that was very difficult to deal with for someone who wasn''t specialized in speed or area control techniques like Tia Wellence.


    He would have to ask what made Jeremy summon that particular creature to the boy once they were finished with the class.


    There was one thing that confused Troy though. It was the boy''s apparent calmness. While to most onlookers the boy was frantically dodging the small-scaled cat. Troy noticed that there wasn''t a single hint of panic across the boy''s aura or face.


    If anything his face was astonishingly calm and focused on the creature in front of the boy. Troy had to watch the boy continue to use the same awful movement skill to dodge the Malken. It wasn''t pretty to see even to his warrior-specialized mana senses.


    Yet, each time he used the skill it got a little better. A little more refined and powerful. It was almost as if¡­


    It was almost as if the boy was trying to learn a skill, he realized belatedly.


    Everything made sense to Troy now. The boy had been using the exercise as a practical training session to learn a new movement skill. Most likely [Quick Step] if Troy correctly identified the last few attempts of the skill''s usage.


    That was why the boy had the silliest grin on his face afterward. He had most likely gotten the notification. Troy stifled the laugh that almost came out on its own at the realization of the boy''s actions.


    That changed everything about how Troy viewed Julius. The boy was only Tier 2, but that was exactly the sort of attitude and dedication that would take him to the top. It took most students a couple of years to understand the value of hard work. But they always did. It took Troy until the beginning of his third year to realize that many of the students he had been better than in his first year were already way past him. By the time he started to change his habits, it was too late. He wasn''t able to catch up before graduation.


    The other students might think poorly of the kid, but Troy made a self-note to keep an eye on his performance in the future. He had a sneaking suspicion that Julius would be at the top of his class given enough time and dedication.

 Chapter 141: Intrigue

    Reinera POVHow did it all end up that way? She thought to herself bitterly as she stared across the field at Julius. She hadn''t even known he was in her Applied Combat class until just now. She would have never spotted the black-haired boy if she wasn''t actively replaying that entire night in her head. His face was constantly in the corner of her mind.


    He wasn''t outrageously handsome nor did he stand out in any way. He was around average height and had a slightly tanned complexion that went well with his fairer features. But his presence was very forgettable. He slipped into the crowd of faces and if not for her subconsciously trying to look for him around every corner she would never have even noticed him.


    It was just too bad the memory of that night made her want to throw her face into her pillow and scream.


    She had truly been enjoying her time at the Golden Wheel. Her older cousin Tina had told her all about it from her time in Heston a few years back. Reinera didn''t quite believe her, after all her cousin wasn''t always to best person to listen to.


    Shockingly, it had been as amazing as Tina described and more. Truthfully, it was better than anything she had ever had. The royal chefs had nothing on the Golden Wheel, in Reinera''s opinion they could not even compare.


    As much as she loved Richard and the palace chefs she had to admit that there was a special spark of magic in the kitchens of that Golden Wheel restaurant. In fact, she already had ideas about asking her mother about somehow having some of the palace chefs learn underneath this restaurant so that they could bring it back to the capital.


    It was an utter shame that the night ended like it had. There weren''t many times in her life that she felt so comfortable around people who weren''t her family.


    Reinera found it difficult to find true friends among her peers. Sure, many were friendly, but she learned the hard way that most of them had their own agenda.


    She rarely found people who connected with the true version of herself. Not the acted-out version with the pretty dresses and royal attitude. But the version that enjoyed food, that enjoyed reading, or that enjoyed learning magic.


    That was why she was so happy to be eating with a bunch of other people her age who weren''t clamoring for her attention. Granted, she had been wearing a disguise and she expected that if she showed her true identity, it wouldn''t have gone the same way.


    Still, she had tried to enjoy it while it lasted. It wasn''t often that she could enjoy a meal without someone engaging her in conversation just to make a connection with her. In fact, everyone at the table had treated her like an equal. There were times when not a single person talked and shoveled food into their mouths.


    The girl, Aubrey, who had invited them over, and the man next to her certainly were devouring their food at an impressive rate. Even the black-haired boy that she found out was named Julius, was similarly destroying his food with enthusiasm.


    Though, it wasn''t that surprising. She already knew that he had a formidable appetite for good food if the cake was any hint.


    Another thing that stuck with her and resonated deep in her bones, was something that Lily had talked about. It was true that most of the people treated her and her family with fear, and not respect. When your father is one of the most powerful men on the entire continent, people tend to you differently. It was just something every member of the royal family learned to deal with.


    Thus, she found herself appreciating the moments when it didn''t happen all the more dearly.


    Then Amelia had to go and ruin it. She knew that Amelia hadn''t liked how Julius treated her the night before, but she didn''t think it extended that far. She didn''t know that Julius bothered Amelia so much.


    She still remembered the conversation she had with Amelia that night after the six of them left.


    ***


    "Why would you do that?" Reinera asked angrily as she swiveled to look at Amelia. Her frustration and disappointment were clear on her face. "I finally get to enjoy a night out without people ''cleaning my toes with their mouth'' as she would put it. And what do you do? You go ahead and you start a fight with them." She spat out venomously while pacing back and forth, frequently glancing at the direction they left in.


    Amelia had the self-awareness to look ashamed and bowed her head at her. "I am sorry my princess. I lost my composure."


    "I¡­" Reinera cut herself off before she could say something again. She was about to continue berating Amelia, Gods knows how much she wanted to, but the look on Amelia''s face seemed sincere. She was most likely kicking herself more than Reinera would ever be able to.


    If there was one thing that Reinera knew about Amelia, it was that nobody put more pressure on her than herself.


    She took a moment to calm herself down using the meditative aura techniques her uncle had shown her. And once she centered herself, she asked Amelia, "What made you do that?"


    "It was his attitude. I couldn''t help but get angry over the arrogant way he was speaking to you," Amelia answered.


    She pinched her nose in irritation. "First, you have to remember that when I am in disguise, I am no longer a princess. If you treat me like a princess it ruins the whole disguise. We talked about this in-depth before. Second, you know that I have dealt with arrogant nobles much worse than that. And you were still fine after they talked to me with such disrespect. I want to know the real reason." Reinera demanded, using some of her princess voice to let Amelia know she was serious.


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    Amelia didn''t answer right away and a wave of silence enveloped them for a minute.


    If she was being honest with herself, she had part of the blame as well. She should have stopped it before it went any further. She could have said anything, it would have been better than saying nothing.


    She looked around at the street around them before she heard Amelia take a breath to speak. "I think he noticed me," Amelia finally said after some time. Reinera watched as Amelia crinkled her brow and bit her lip.


    "Pardon?"


    Amelia looked at her with eyes of uncertainty. "When we met him that night, I think he knew I was there. I swear I watched his eyes scan right over me and stop for a second."


    She looked at Amelia with much more seriousness, momentarily forgetting her annoyance. "That''s what''s bothering you? You''re saying that he broke through your stealth skill?" That was indeed alarming. Amelia''s [Ghost of the Mist] skill was one of the best stealth skills in the entire Empire. It was a huge reason why she had been chosen to watch over Amelia in the first place.


    The skill was able to completely turn her invisible, shroud her aura, prevent any of her mana from leaking out, and also had various ways that blocked fate detection skills like [Premonition] or [Danger Sense].


    Therefore someone who was able to detect her through that skill would need to be either a very strong Tier 4 with excellent perception abilities or someone with [Spatial Awareness]. However, that skill was usually earned after one established the first stage of their Domains, so that was even more unlikely.


    There could possibly be another skill that could see right through it, but what were to odds that it would be the skill of the person who had given her one of the most delicious cakes she had ever had the honor of eating?


    Funnily enough, she wasn''t really worried about whether or not he could use that skill to harm her. Her [Radiant Intent] skill was able to sense no malice from Julius when she met him. The only thing that she could sense, was his unwillingness to share his cake. Yet, he still did, despite that he didn''t have to.


    So even if he was able to see through her skill because of his own unique perception skill, it didn''t matter. She didn''t believe he was a threat and if anything, Reinera enjoyed his company.


    The arrogant attitude that Amelia mentioned hadn''t bothered her in the slightest. It was more playful than anything else. She suspected that Amelia was subconsciously disliking him because he possibly saw through her prized skill.


    Although, it didn''t matter that much anyway. It was just a shame that it all had to end like that.


    "Who were they?" She suddenly asked. She had heard Amelia and Lily talking as if the group of them were important and naturally that made her curious. She had to wonder what type of people she had potentially just offended.


    Amelia winced noticeably when she heard the question but answered regardless. "The girl was Lily Violet. The blonde boy, Derek, is the grandson of Duke Zenith. The tall skinny boy was Kyle Quincy. The girl who invited us over was Aubrey Crysalia, you might know her mother who is the Crystal Tyrant. And the tall muscular one was Edgar Crow."


    "Ah," she tsked and inwardly groaned.


    Reinera knew exactly who most of them were. She didn''t like to pay attention to all of the children of powerful houses, but she recognized the names of their families.


    The Violet Heiress had quite a reputation around noble circles for her ability to do business. She was very familiar with the other''s families. Duke Zenith was widely considered one of the most powerful people in the Empire. The Quincy''s had a lot of the Empire''s foremost experts in studies of magic, not to mention a couple of powerhouses of their own. She had even met Fiona Crysalia when she was younger. The woman was a terrifying force of power, worthy of her title the Crystal Tyrant.


    Unfortunately, it seemed that Amelia had chosen quite the crowd of students to piss off. She tried not to allow that to annoy her even further. She did another cycle of meditative exercises before she calmed down.


    The only ones who she wasn''t aware of were Edgar and Julius.


    "I recognize most of them. However, tell me more about Edgar and Julius," she told Amelia. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I don''t know anything about Julius. I didn''t have any time to investigate him with the sudden trip to the city, but I do know about Edgar," Amelia said.


    Reinera waved her hand, welcoming her to explain.


    "He''s a commoner who rose to the top of his class through hard work. Apparently, he is one of the favorites to win the entire Intra-School Tournament along with Derek Zenith. His talent for close combat is one of the best in his entire generation," Amelia explained.


    "And you knew all of this when we sat down with them?"


    Amelia nodded her head cautiously.


    She pinched the bridge of her nose again. "I don''t get it. I don''t know why you would decide to do something like that. Disregarding you thinking he was being rude, what made you decide to offend someone who was friends with people like that? You know I don''t care for political maneuvering like you do, but even I know that sounds like a bad idea."


    "I know, it was stupid of me. I made a mistake," Amelia said regretfully.


    Reinera just shook her head in disappointment. She would have to find an opportunity to apologize the next time she saw him. She wanted to make it right. Luckily, they went to the same school and the odds of her running into him again weren''t zero.


    ***


    She had been looking for him ever since. But never would she have guessed that he was right in front of her the entire time. She wanted nothing more than to walk over and apologize, but he didn''t know that she was actually a princess. To him, Grace was a different person.


    However, now that she knew who he was and that he attended the same class as her, she might be able to orchestrate a run-in with him. It might give her a chance to apologize for Amelia''s behavior.


    She continued to look at him. Despite him being in another group of students, she found herself glancing over constantly. She even watched his turn at the exercise.


    That was interesting to watch. She knew that he focused on mana, his constructs that night showed a phenomenal level of finesse that you rarely saw even among mages. Yet, he was using a physical enhancement skill along with a really ugly version of a movement skill.


    Perhaps, he was training up some of his weaknesses, that was the only reason that she could come up with.


    She couldn''t help but feel even more intrigued by Julius. His love for delicious cake notwithstanding, he was a very interesting person so far. She had to wonder what kind of person did he have to be in order to befriend such influential fourth years. It was a mystery that she wanted to solve. It had nothing to do with the fact that he seemed to have a really good taste for food or baked goods. Nothing to do with it at all.

 Chapter 142: Getting His Face Punched In

    Julius had already dropped his Swordsmanship class with Professor Hashen at the end of last week. He wasn''t finding enough benefit in continuing with it.His talent with a sword wasn''t that great. That was one thing that he learned pretty quickly. In comparison to some of the other students, Julius felt like he was a toddler swinging a stick at times.


    Almost every person who was taking that class was talented in some form or the other. Even the ones who started off with zero experience were already quite skilled swordsmen. Julius didn''t have that same itch to specialize in the sword.


    He rather liked his close combat style of punching people in the face. Edwin had drilled that into him pretty well.


    Since he had so much he wanted to work on already, giving up a class that he wasn''t interested in was a good trade-off. He was now able to use that hour of class to practice with his aura, Concepts, or other skills.


    He still kept hand-to-hand with Gabriel and his aura class with Professor Youma though. In fact, his class with the bald professor had just ended.


    They had just finished with a class that had focused on strikes made with one''s knee or elbows. It was quite the brutal class since they weren''t using any bracelets to protect them. The people who sparred together ended up getting pretty beat up at the end of it.


    Luckily, there were a couple of healers on the side who helped everyone after class. Gabriel must have expected this particular class to be more challenging than others.


    Julius didn''t usually spar with the others during this particular class. Gabriel made a note for everyone to spar with as many random opponents as they could within their group. Julius was stuck in the larger groups of Tier 2s, which let him trade knees and elbows with many other students. Some of them are even in their second or third years.


    Thankfully, nobody was trying to hurt someone else. Gabriel made that very clear that was one of the only rules.


    Julius stayed behind after the others left like he did often. While he and Gabriel hadn''t been sparring all that much, not as much as they initially agreed on, they still got together a couple of times a week.


    This time though, Julius had a surprise for the big bald professor.


    They didn''t waste any time once the rest of the students left. Both of them headed into the middle of a training area and stood in front of one another. Gabriel had the same cocky smirk on his face as looked on at Julius.


    In all of their sparring, Julius had not been able to beat the baldie even a single time. Despite not using any Authority, Gabriel handled Julius very easily.


    However, today Julius was hoping that his new improvements would change that. He hadn''t shown Gabriel any of his Concept-based abilities yet. He also had [Quick Step] now. The skill might not be that helpful, considering that he hadn''t even tested it yet. But it was at least more than he had a day ago.


    Julius took off his uniform, leaving himself with only a pair of pants. He noticed that Gabriel eyed the burn scars on his arms which were almost always covered up by his long sleeves with a glance.


    Julius didn''t give any countdown or warning, he just immediately pumped kinetic energy into his legs and burst forward while simultaneously activating [Quick Step] for the first time. The new skill didn''t magically double his speed, but it did give him a nice boost.


    Gabriel''s eyes widened slightly in surprise at Julius''s increased speed and got into position to defend himself. Just like normal, he would allow Julius to make contact with him, using his skills to prevent most if not all the damage.


    That was what was annoying about fighting against Gabriel. He fought like an immovable fortress. He was more than capable and fast enough to dodge, but the bald professor made a point to take everything Julius threw at him directly.


    However, what he didn''t know was that Julius had a surprise in store.


    Just as Gabriel put up his protected forearm to block Julius''s punch, his eyes crinkled in confusion as Julius surrounded his arm in mana.


    Julius activated [Armaments of the Arcane] for the first time in a fight. And it was glorious. The speed and strength of the mana that rushed around his arm was exhilarating. The small gauntlet he made around his arm was beautiful.


    It was comprised of a delicate but deceptively strong thin layer of mana woven with his new Concept of Severing Will. That wasn''t all there was to it either. [Barrier of Severance] was activated and laid over top of the gauntlet, in a pale white light.


    He could feel the razor-sharp mana radiating from its surface.


    Gabriel barely managed to put more mana and his own Concept into his arm, before the blow slammed against him. Julius watched as Gabriel''s arm was blasted out of the way, leaving the man''s chest completely open.


    He didn''t let the opportunity go. The second he created the gauntlet, he had already been in the middle of creating a full body armor around himself. His armored left arm came underneath Gabriel''s other arm, right in the man''s blind spot, and shot to his chin.


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    The professor hadn''t been able to defend himself in time and took the entire payload of fire and kinetic energy to the chin. The sharpened mana tore across the man''s skin in a frenzy.


    Julius went in for another attack but was disappointed to see that Gabriel had already recovered and was wearing an acknowledging smile on his face. Before Julius''s next strike could land, the big bald man quickly stepped to the side and delivered a brutal punch to Julius''s side.


    It was so fast, that Julius didn''t even get a chance to avoid it. However, his armor around his midsection managed to hold up, albeit with a dent. He wasn''t able to siphon all of the force behind it, even with the help of the construct, so he still felt like a horse kicked him in the stomach.


    He stepped back using [Quick Step] and tried to escape Gabriel''s advance, but the man grappled Julius with both arms and demonstrated exactly what they had learned in today''s class. He sent two quick knees straight into his stomach and chest, before throwing an elbow into his helm.


    Julius felt more mana than the professor had ever used in any of their spars flowing through his body in this short moment. That meant that the knees were much stronger than the punch and shattered the armor around his chest, cracking it like an eggshell.


    The elbow was just mean and had smashed the helm, tearing off a section from his face. For a brief moment, Julius blacked out.


    But before he could even think about it, [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] flared up all by itself. Clearing the fog in his head in a blink. Then went on to heal the broken ribs and fractured jaw right after.


    Julius didn''t hesitate for a moment. He pushed all of his mana to the remaining part of his helm, created an explosive spike, and headbutted the still-grappled Gabriel in the chest. He was unfortunately too short compared to the massive man, so that was the best he was going to get.


    The second the spike dug into the chest of Gabriel, it exploded and threw both of them away from each other. It was probably not the best decision to explode a spike that was attached to his face. The explosion, even with him focused on pushing it outward still tore apart his face. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Almost half of his face was a riddled mess of disfigured flesh. However, [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was already healing the wounds at a phenomenal rate.


    Julius didn''t get back to his feet but sat on his butt as he watched Gabriel calmly get back up. The man didn''t come out unscathed either.


    His arm had several small cuts from where he had blocked Julius''s initial surprise attack. His chin had a nice laceration across the length of it, and his chest was riddled with small cuts and wounds from the explosion.


    It was the first time that Julius had actually managed to damage Gabriel. The first time he made the man actually bleed.


    Julius had a massive grin on his face and released a loud whoop before falling to his back laughing in joy.


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 2 -> lvl 3]


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 16 -> lvl 17]


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 15 -> lvl 16]


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    [Quick Step lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    He received a bunch of level increases all across the board. [Quick Step] even gained two levels surprisingly.


    He sensed Gabriel walk over to Julius and stand over him with a smirk on his face.


    "So you finally got a Concept and an epic skill huh?" The bald man asked with amusement.


    "Don''t forget [Quick Step]," Julius joked.


    "Ah yes, how could I forget about that? When did all of this happen?" He asked Julius.


    Julius sat up a little to look at the man who was standing over him. "I guess it happened about a week ago for my Concept. The skills are quite new though," he told him.


    "That armor construct you made was only possible because of the skill?" Gabriel asked interested.


    "Yeah, I haven''t been able to do it until recently. It was when I finally got it down that I evolved the skill. What do you think? Pretty good right?" He asked proudly.


    Gabriel just shook his head and had a smile on his face. "I was worried about you not having any defense other than that healing skill of yours. At least now you aren''t so soft and squishy."


    Julius took that as praise. Gabriel was like a steel vault when it came to approval, he had some ridiculous standards. Calling Julius less squishy was Gabriel''s way of saying he was like a brick wall.


    He did have a question he wanted to ask the big baldie though. "How did you break through my construct? I felt you use a lot of mana, but I also felt you do something that I haven''t quite seen before. Was it a skill?" Julius asked with curious eyes.


    Gabriel smirked. "Good catch. Yeah, I had to use my [Vibrational Surge] to get through your construct. Since you had infused it with your Concept of Sharpness, unless I used absurd amounts of force, I wasn''t going to break through that without something to help me."


    "[Vibrational Surge]? Wasn''t that the skill you used on me during my practical exam? It felt way different now," Julius commented.


    "It should be. I used much more mana just then. It''s a pretty good skill for penetrating physical defenses," Gabriel said to him. "I even had to use my Body Concept as well. You should be proud."


    Julius nodded at the man in gratitude for his compliment. He also saw that the small cuts on Gabriel''s face were almost completely closed up and healed. Tier 4s had an unbelievable natural regeneration. It was practically a minor healing skill on its own.


    Julius also knew that Gabriel had an aura-based recovery skill that healed him and his fatigue by small amounts. Gabriel had told him as much. He had also explained that while the skill''s effects were not as extreme as Julius''s own healing skill, the passive recovery required zero mana and enhanced all other healing effects. Even the ones from potions.


    This meant that his evidence of victory was short-lived. In a couple of seconds, the proof of his accomplishment was replaced with fresh unblemished skin.


    Gabriel saw the look on his face and laughed. He knew exactly what Julius was thinking and found it hilarious. He patted Julius on the head roughly and dragged him to his feet.


    They still had time left before Gabriel needed to leave. With a sigh, Julius prepared himself for another round of sparring. However, this time he knew that Gabriel wasn''t going to let him injure him again. He would be fighting Julius with a little more seriousness.


    However, that also demonstrated that Julius was improving quickly. So while he knew the next few rounds would involve him getting his face punched in, he tried to encourage himself that he was at least making progress.

 Chapter 143: Henry Bishop

    He was still rubbing his face from the phantom pain he still felt from Gabriel''s fists as he sat down in his aura class. The bald man was relentless, once he knew that Julius had improved, it was like a totally new animal came out. He punished Julius and his armor with absolute tyranny.At least Professor Youma''s aura class didn''t involve him getting his head punched in. In fact, it had become a modified meditation session where the students spent most of their time working on their aura. There wasn''t much lecturing or assignments. It was a class that relied on the student''s own ability to focus and dedicate their time to training their aura.


    Julius found himself appreciating this system that the professor had in place. While the students weren''t lectured on the principles of aura manipulation all class, the professor was always there for any student who had a question of their own or if he noticed someone having a hard time with a specific application they were attempting.


    He couldn''t even begin to estimate how difficult it was for Professor Youma to simultaneously monitor up to several dozen auras at one time. While he seemed casual when he sat on his desk and stared off into space, not a single student believed their professor wasn''t fully engaged with them.


    His aura was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The professor''s aura maintained a soft balance of extending out his aura to monitor the students and withholding just enough to not affect anyone''s aura.


    It was only now that Julius realized it. His aura control had simply not been good enough before to understand or sense the complex control that Professor Youma had.


    Even now, Professor Youma had noticed that Julius''s control of his aura had slipped slightly and he gave Julius a nudge as a reminder.


    Julius shook his head humorously and grinned to himself before concentrating back on his task of controlling the small stones he picked up from the gardens with sheer aura.


    At this point, he wasn''t afraid of showing his aura skill to the rest of the students. Most first-year students were already at Tier 2 by now and the ones who had chosen this class had already gained an aura skill once they had advanced. The idea of Julius having one wasn''t that standout-worthy.


    Having an aura skill at Tier 1 before he entered the academy was unusual, but having an aura skill at Tier 2 was not. It was actually expected.


    However, some of the more observational students had noticed that he showed more control than someone of his experience should. A handful of first-years and older students often threw glances at whatever Julius was working on.


    They tried to play it cool, but Julius was able to see whenever they were looking in his direction with [Spatial Perception]. He didn''t want to stand out too much, but he didn''t think that being known as a person with good aura control would stand out in particular.


    It wasn''t like delicate aura control gave a massive power boost. It was more for day-to-day applications and also to show off one''s skill.


    It only stood out to these few students because they themselves were interested in aura control. Otherwise, they wouldn''t be spending their nights in a dimly lit classroom with a bunch of other meditating students.


    Still, he felt a little surprised when he noticed a specific girl who was a third year and already Tier 3 started to mimic Julius''s exercises.


    She didn''t have any stones like he did, but she used several small miscellaneous items from her storage device instead. Since she was Tier 3 and had a powerful enough soul, she was able to influence the stones with her aura like Julius was, but she lacked the finer touch that Julius was currently showing.


    He wasn''t an expert by any means, but compared to someone who just started, he was a tad better. However, he quickly felt her get the hang of it. The flight of each item stabilized and by the end of the class, she was getting close to Julius''s own control.


    Before class was over she gave one last glance toward Julius, but was surprised when he was looking back at her with a smile and a thumbs up.


    He chuckled to himself at the face she made when he did that. She hadn''t been expecting him to notice and was startled when he clearly was. Julius saw a flush run up her neck as she hurriedly made her exit from the classroom the second the class ended.


    He was still smiling to himself when he walked out of the building where Aura Control was held. However, that smile was quickly put on pause when he saw Henry, his roommate walking around with a couple of his friends heading in his direction.


    Henry hadn''t noticed Julius yet. He was busy talking and joking with his friends. But when they started to get close to each other, Henry looked up to see who the person in front of them was. A flash of recognition went past his face and then his face quickly turned pale.


    It was almost like he had seen a ghost. His pallid face screamed fear and nervousness. Julius could see that the boy tried to quickly hide it, but it was too late. Julius had already noticed and left him feeling very wary.


    He didn''t understand why the previously arrogant and pretentious noble would suddenly be scared of him. It wasn''t like they had seen each other for a long time. The last time Julius had seen Henry was before Aubrey had gone to look for him.


    Ah¡­ That might be it, Julius realized.


    He remembered that Aubrey told him that she had gone looking for him when he had gone on that extended training session. She had also told him that she had met his roommate and that she didn''t like him.


    There was a good chance that Henry might have said a few things about Julius and Aubrey took exception to them. Knowing her and her track record, she might have intimidated or convinced the first year to tell her where Julius might have been.


    Unfortunately, his other friends seemed to notice Henry''s unusual behavior.


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    "Hey, what''s wrong?" Julius heard one of them ask Henry.


    "It''s nothing, Chris. Just forget about it," Henry told his friend.


    "Yeah, why are you so pale? It''s like you''ve just seen Chris''s aunt walk into your room," another boy joked.


    "Shut it, Garrett," Henry said aggressively under his breath while throwing looks at the incoming Julius.


    Perhaps, he was hoping that he had said it quietly enough that Julius didn''t hear it, but Julius had really good hearing ever since he had blindfolded himself as a child and could hear exactly what they said clear as day.


    Julius noticed that the boy named Chris spotted Henry''s brief look and turned to look at Julius for himself.


    "You know him, Henry?" Chris asked while staring at Julius intently.


    "Please Chris, just drop it," Henry begged his friend.


    "Wait, is this your commoner roommate that you were complaining about?" Garrett asked Henry with wide eyes. Henry paused before he meekly nodded his head in response.


    By now, Julius and they were almost directly in front of each other. Henry and his friends had completely stopped and were staring at Julius intensely.


    "Hey, you there," the boy named Garrett called out to Julius.


    Julius acted ignorant and pretended like he hadn''t heard a single word that the boys had just said to each other. "Huh," he looked around seeing if he was talking to someone else before looking back at the boy. "Me?"


    "Yes, you. You''re Henry''s roommate aren''t you?" Garrett asked him demandingly.


    Julius just nodded his head in confirmation. "Yeah, why?"


    "I heard that you sent someone to threaten Henry the other week. What is all that about?" Garrett asked aggressively.


    What happened? Julius was taken aback.


    Julius quickly put his hands up placatingly. "I think there''s been a misunderstanding. I didn''t send anyone."


    "You''re saying that you don''t know who the girl who threatened our friend?"


    Oof, it probably was Aubrey, Julius winced internally. He tried to calmly deal with the situation. "I think she was just trying to find me. How did she threaten him?" He asked genuinely curious.


    "What did she do?" Garrett asked angrily. "She pinned our friend against the wall and threatened to kill him," he spat out.


    What? Did she really do that? Because I can kind of imagine her doing that, Julius admitted to himself.


    "I''m so sorry. But I don''t understand why she would do something like that for no reason," Julius told Garrett as calmly as he could. "You''re sure that she didn''t do it for no reason?" he asked while slowly turning to look at Henry expectantly.


    He understood that Aubrey was rash and domineering, but she always had a reason for why she acted the way she did. Now, that didn''t mean Julius agreed with those reasons, but there was always some merit to them. That was why he had a hard time believing that Henry was telling the complete truth.


    Henry was still toward the back and was trying his best to avoid eye contact with Julius, but looked guilty. Seeing that he was on the right path, he pushed forward.


    "What did you say? What did you manage to do that made her do that?" He asked Henry directly.


    "Hey, I''m talking to you, you filthy commoner!" Garrett made a move to grab Julius, but Julius neatly sidestepped it before walking closer to Henry.


    "She''s rash, I admit that. But I know she wouldn''t do anything without cause. Did you tell your friends here the entire story?" Julius asked with an exasperated chuckle.


    Henry still didn''t answer, but Julius saw him flinch and had an embarrassed look on his face. And he wasn''t the only one to notice either. Both of his friends also seemed to notice the look on Henry''s face. Garrett even paused his second attempt to grab Julius.


    "That''s what I thought," he said with a scoff to Henry. "Now I would appreciate it if you tell your friends the whole story before they try to start a fight with me for something I didn''t even do."


    When Julius didn''t see Henry say anything in response, he didn''t stick around for a second longer, turning on his heels and walking away.


    ***


    Henry POV


    Henry didn''t think that a small lie would have led to something like this. Several weeks ago when his roommate''s friend came looking for him. Henry had taken it as an opportunity to mouth off about Julius.


    He didn''t expect the girl to pin him against the wall and threatened that if he were to say another bad word about Julius, she would rip off his arm and ram it up his ass.


    Henry had never been treated like that in his entire life. As a member of the prestigious Bishop Clan, he had been treated with the utmost respect his whole childhood. Not a single person would have dared to lift a finger at him. So when an older student, one so much more powerful than him had him pinned against the wall like he was a maggot, squeezing the life out of him, he felt true terror for the first time in his privileged life.


    She was so powerful and angry that he really believed she would follow through on her threat. It wasn''t like he could report her or anything to the school either. He wasn''t stupid enough to know that he started it in the first place.


    Afterward, when his friends asked him what was wrong with him. He told them an abridged version of the actual event. He didn''t think it would matter. It was just a story he told them.


    However, when he saw Julius walking alone down the pathway between buildings, he froze in fear, vividly remembering that same day again.


    However, in an ironic twist, his friends Chris and Garrett stood up for him, still mistakenly believing that Henry was the victim. Garrett confronted Julius and it somehow ended up with Julius walking away and his friends looking at him with expectant looks.


    "What did he mean?" Garrett asked him confusingly.


    Henry decided to be truthful. "I may have not been entirely forthcoming about what caused the situation that day," he admitted with a wince.


    "Explain," Chris demanded calmly.


    Henry gulped. While both of them were good friends. Garrett was just the fifth son of a relatively powerful Lord. However, Christopher was a different story altogether. Christopher Salich was the talented second son of Marquis Salich. House Salich controlled Garrett''s family and Clan Bishop.


    So while they were friends, Chris was technically the one in charge of their group. Hence, when he demanded Henry to explain, that was exactly what Henry did. He spilled everything that he hadn''t told them before.


    When he was done, Henry tentatively looked at both of them. Garrett seemed more upset that Henry lied to him and that he tried to start a fight with someone who was innocent. However, Chris had an annoyed look on his face.


    "What is it?" Henry asked his friend carefully.


    Chris turned to look at him with a frown. "Did you catch the name of the girl who came to your room that day?"


    "No, she didn''t mention it."


    "And you are sure that she was a fourth-year?"


    "Yeah, I noticed that she had four stripes over her shoulder as she was leaving," he assured him. "What? Do you know who it was?" Henry asked.


    Chris just shook his head. "No, but I have some ideas," he said vaguely while looking at the direction where Julius had walked away.


    Henry wanted to press for more, but he could tell that Chris wasn''t in the mood to be pushed. So he dropped it, but the rest of the night his thoughts were completely taken up by the terrifying woman who had gripped him by the throat and pinned him to the wall.


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 Chapter 144: Matter of How Long

    Julius soon forgot all about the confrontation with his roommate. He had bigger and more important things to worry about. Things such as playing with his new [Quick Step] skill.During the next several rounds with Gabriel, Julius focused a lot on incorporating the skill into his fighting style. If he was being honest, it wasn''t that hard. It fit his style quite well and the main thing that he needed to get used to was the increased speed.


    Something that was very nice now that he had the official skill, was that the skill activated much more smoothly and much more effectively. The conversion of unattributed mana to his legs was now seamless. There was no lag in gathering the ambient mana. It was one fluid step. Now it didn''t feel like he was a toddler learning to walk.


    Unfortunately, the quick movement skill wasn''t that powerful yet. When used with his kinetic energy it fell kind of flat in comparison. [Kinetic Augmentation] enabled him to empower his entire body with kinetic energy and while it wasn''t as explosive as [Quick Step], the fact that it was almost at the end of rare, meant that it was much more powerful than [Quick Step].


    However, that was why he wanted to level up his movement skill. The general upgrade of [Quick Step] was [Flash Step] at the rare rank. After that, he would be offered [Instaneous Step] once he evolved it to epic.


    According to Gabriel, once he got to that point, he would need a suitable Concept to evolve with the skill. Hypothetically, Julius would be able to evolve it with his Sharpness Concept. However, it was hard to say what that would do for his skill and what he would be offered.


    He would still likely be offered [Instantaneous Step], but Gabriel mentioned that there was a possibility that it would not be the same skill as his own version. Gabriel''s version used his Body Concept, Brutal Surge to evolve with the skill.


    Julius would eventually want a similar Concept if he could manage it. Then again, there were many other things he needed to do before that. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The good news was that he had improved [Quick Step] by a respectable amount for an hour''s worth of work. Gabriel knew the skill well enough that he knew exactly where he needed to push it.


    The biggest downside of the skill was the long time between activations. On paper, it didn''t seem like it was very long. The reactivation time was around a couple of seconds, however fighting against someone like Gabriel, a couple of seconds would be more than enough time for him to put several fists into Julius''s gut before he could use it again.


    That was the reason why the two of them had focused on Julius''s ability to activate it in quicker succession.


    Which was exactly what Julius ended up doing for most of the night. He still took breaks in between of course. In those breaks, he would work on his aura and the next Concept he was attempting to get.


    After much decision paralysis, he had finally decided on a Fire Concept. He believed that a Fire Concept would have some very nice implications for his new epic skill.


    A part of him wanted to see if he could get a Space Concept, but he had zero clue where he would even start. He was hoping that in just over a month when he went back to Dante''s place, he would find some sort of answer there.


    While the grumpy Tier 6 didn''t elaborate on his plans for Julius, it was a logical step to reason that it had something to do with [Spatial Perception] and thus spatial abilities, and hopefully a Space Concept as well.


    For now, though, he wanted to focus on three main things. One was [Quick Step], he had a feeling that he would see more progress in an uncommon skill than anywhere else, so he wanted to work on that. Then there was his aura, which he always made sure to set aside time to practice. Finally, there was his Fire Concept he was planning on getting soon.


    He was already making really good progress on his [Quick Step] skill. It had leveled up a couple of times after the first round between him and Gabriel.


    [Quick Step lvl 3 -> lvl 5]


    Also, as a little cherry to top it off, during that time he had also leveled up [Barrier of Severance] again.


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    [Barrier of Severance lvl 10 -> lvl 11]


    It was one of his most beneficial sessions with Gabriel yet. Which is why he had been running suicides with [Quick Step] for the past several hours. He wanted to see just how much he could level [Quick Step]. Whenever he got too tired, he would just give himself a little jump with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and he was good to go again.


    It wasn''t fighting but the intensity that he was pushing the skill showed its worth. Not only was he trying to activate it almost immediately after its use, but he was manually loading more mana than the skill automatically supplies. This made it take longer to activate, but the power difference was very noticeable. He was able to cross longer distances within the same amount of time.


    It was only when he managed to squeeze out one last level that he took another break.


    [Quick Step lvl 5 -> lvl 7]


    It was the second one of the nightly training session, and probably the last one of the night. He could feel the skill slowing down significantly. It wouldn''t be long until it took an entire night to get a single level.


    He sat himself down on a mat and got to work on his Concept training.


    He didn''t want to sound too full of himself, but he felt like his second Concept would come to him much easier than the first one.


    He had already connected to that deeper plane before and was still kind of connected to it in some ways. Whenever he used his Concept he could sense it reaching out and connecting with that other place.


    He knew the basics of how fire worked already, but like he found out last time, knowing how fire worked wasn''t the most important part of it. A larger part of it was understanding how fire connected with his own path.


    He didn''t really know that yet. Perhaps, he needed to feel it in order to understand it.


    So with a quick application of fire mana, he created a soft red flame just over his palm. He tried to get a sense of how the fire made him feel. He controlled it so it was like a bucket of water that was rolling down his skin.


    However, that wasn''t enough. The flame wasn''t hot enough for him to feel its heat. He would need something more.


    And he had something exactly in mind.


    He had been so careful about using it. He still didn''t know how he had controlled that blue fire back when he was a Tier 1. There should have been no way for Julius to maintain control over such a dangerous power. The only reason he could come up with was the fact that he had been so desperate to survive that he had reached deeper than he should have been able to.


    However, he was different now. He had skills and practice that the old Julius didn''t. He even had an epic-ranked skill that might be able to hold it now.


    Before he could start to doubt himself, he began driving kinetic energy into his fire. Immediately he felt the strain of holding it together. The small flickering red flame quickly started to pale and turn colors.


    Realizing that he couldn''t do it without the aid of [Armaments of the Arcane] he created a sphere construct with rapidly changing mana. [Savage Dance] and [Empowerment of Will] were both fully activated.


    There wasn''t any room for error. He couldn''t lose focus for even a second. And he was loving every second of it. A huge crazed smile was on his face the entire time.


    Luckily, [Armaments of the Arcane] ended up being the perfect vessel for his dangerous flame. Unlike previous attempts, he felt the construct was able to withstand the power and volatility of the flame even as he pumped more and more mana into it.


    The orb of fire mana slowly turned in an azure hue, the heat brimming from its surface even though the fire was being contained with the construct and densely packed layer of mana.


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 3 -> lvl 4]


    This isn''t enough, he thought to himself.


    He still wasn''t experiencing the true feeling of its heat. It just wouldn''t be possible with his construct containing it. He would have to feel its flame directly.


    He knew it was stupid, even for him, but he still wanted to try. With a calming breath, he slowly molded the construct into a different shape. The orb slowly flattened and warped into a long cylindrical pole.


    He was funnily enough using a lightsaber as his reference and inspiration. Once he felt he had the shape down and well controlled, he slowly released the magical valve he created within the construct. It was more of a metaphorical valve that symbolized his control of the flame than anything else, but it worked well for his purpose.


    Almost immediately he felt the power of the flame smash through the valve and roar out of the top of the pole. The brilliant blue flame that burned out of the top was hotter than any fire that Julius had ever felt.


    Even with him controlling the construct from almost a dozen feet away, he could feel its heat searing the skin on his face.


    The fire almost seemed alive in some ways. He understood then and there, that he would never be able to fully control fire. It was like people. You could never control every action of people without taking away what made them people.


    He needed to guide and convince the fire to work with him. It was a symbiotic relationship between him and the fire.


    Knowing he was getting near to what he was looking for, he sat down and closed his eyes, searching for the answers. He knew he was close to figuring out a Fire Concept. It was all a matter of how long it would really take him.

 Chapter 145: Drasils Transformation

    Unfortunately, he wasn''t able to learn a Fire Concept that night. He was disappointed, he really thought that he had a chance of doing so.He also knew that if anyone else was listening to his expectations and thoughts, they would punch him in the face for thinking that learning another Concept was that easy.


    On another note, his Applied Combat class went a lot better than yesterday. This time he had a real [Quick Step] skill that he was able to use. He also was put up against a much weaker opponent than that scaly cat thing.


    This time he had been pitted against a four-legged fat beaver-like monster. It had two massive teeth and used some sort of wood affinity skills to shoot shards of wood at Julius from a distance from its pinecone-looking tail.


    It was definitely one of the more unique monsters he had come across yet. The good news was that it had the aim of a ninety-year-old blind grandma. He didn''t know how its skill worked, but the shards of wood went everywhere. There was no challenge in dealing with them.


    While there were admittedly a lot of them, he only needed to worry about the larger shards of wood. The smaller ones only left small scratches and cuts, so there wasn''t anything to worry about. Also, since they were still wearing simulated combat devices, they didn''t really leave any scratches. They only made him feel like they did, so it was even easier.


    He didn''t play around with it like he had done with the last monster, he put it down swiftly. He didn''t use any kinetic energy in his legs, relying only on [Quick Step] to move around. However, that was all he needed.


    He blasted an overcharged [Quick Step] like the ones he had been practicing last night and closed in on the beaver monster. The beaver still tried to take a nibble out of Julius when he got too close, but he calmly avoided the large teeth and smashed a kinetically enhanced fist into the temple of the monster.


    It didn''t take it down in one hit, as he was holding back a little, but the next three quick punches had it soon dissipating into particles of mana.


    ***


    It was the next day and the six of them were walking with Julius after they were all done with lunch. After all, he had promised them that he would let all of them watch as he gave Drasil the Sylvan Petal Lily had bought him.


    When they entered the main training facility and got a room, Julius quickly summoned Drasil from his core.


    The little green spirit had been napping in his core and didn''t seem to appreciate being woken. He let out a frustrated whistle and tried to curl up in a little ball right on the hand that Julius summoned him on.


    Julius let him do whatever he wanted. He knew that the second he took out the Sylvan Petal, Drasil would notice it. His life spirit was a predictable glutton.


    Thus, it wasn''t surprising to him when Drasil flailed around on his palm the moment it was taken from his storage ring. The little life spirit all of a sudden was completely awake and was frantically trying to find out where the life mana he was sensing was coming from.


    Drasil spotted it in Julius''s other hand and without even thinking about it, he jumped from Julius''s palm and tried to cover the vast space between the two hands. To nobody''s, but Drasil''s shock, the spirit wasn''t even able to get halfway there. Julius had to grab the spirit by the waist to prevent him from hitting the ground.


    Julius, realizing that Drasil wasn''t going to stop until he got his tiny hands on the life treasure, put the spirit down on the ground gently.


    He looked back to the others who were eagerly watching with bated breaths.


    "Well, come on then. Stop teasing the little guy," Aubrey exclaimed impatiently.


    As if he could understand her, Drasil let out another chime that sounded like he was agreeing with her.


    Julius let out a soft chuckle and bent down to the ground, placing the Sylvan Petal by his feet. Drasil instantly dashed toward the life treasure as fast as his two little feet could carry him with both hands extended out.


    It was soul crushingly adorable.


    The Sylvan Petal was a tad larger than Drasil''s couple of inches, so when the spirit latched onto the treasure, it looked more like the spirit was hugging a tree. It was cute enough, that Lily and Aubrey involuntarily let out a gasp of excitement and joy.


    The moment the petal made contact with Drasil it started to glow. Drasil then latched his mouth onto the stem and began sucking on it.


    The life treasure was being broken down slowly by the spirit. The green and white petal was peeling away in layers of mana, but none of it was going to waste. Drasil made sure that not a single grain of mana was uneaten.


    A few minutes later Julius observed Drasil polishing off the last remnants of the petal.


    Just like that a hundred platinum was eaten by a spirit two inches tall.


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    He didn''t know if the plant had mass or was entirely made of mana, but Julius laughed when he saw the bulging stomach of Drasil after he was done. The adorable green spirit seemed absolutely stuffed. Which was a very impressive achievement. The glutton never seemed to be full.


    Drasil was slumped on his back and had fallen asleep immediately after he was done, needing a nap to digest his meal. Julius shook his head in exasperation and bent down to pick him up with both hands.


    The spirit then nestled into his palms and let out a satisfied groan.


    Aubrey, Lily, and Kyle all quietly came closer to observe what was happening with curiosity. Aubrey and Lily most likely just wanted to see something cute, but Kyle was most likely more interested in noting down the process of the life spirit consuming the treasure.


    However, pretty soon after Drasil had fallen asleep something happened. A strong pulsing glow began emitting from his small body.


    It was surprisingly potent, the mana coming from him was of a quality Julius had only seen from the others that usually came with the advancement to Tier 3.


    Not even Julius, with his higher-than-normal quality mana, was at that stage. He was close but he was missing the substance that was present in the other mana. It was something that happened when one''s core, soul, and body merged at Tier 3. He wasn''t quite sure how it worked, he just knew that it happened.


    A part of him was hoping that his mana would be of a higher quality than the others when he advanced, after all his was already pretty close to theirs it would make sense. Still magic could be unpredictable at times, so it really just a hopeful wish at this stage.


    As for the mana Drasil was releasing, now that was mana from a bonafide Tier 3 source. It was most likely from the Sylvan Petal, but it also had the feeling that it was Drasil''s mana as well. That''s what was giving Julius a hard time. It was like the petal and Drasil had merged in a way.


    It wasn''t like Drasil had simply consumed the treasure, but it was like he had subsumed it and made it a part of him. Perhaps, this was how spirits used natural treasures. It could also be the reason why Drasil hadn''t needed anyone to process the treasure before he consumed it.


    The six of them were eagerly awaiting the results of transformation. Julius didn''t blink a single eye as he watched Drasil from a crouched stance with the spirit still in his hands.


    Eventually, the pulsing stopped and Julius observed as a violent surge of life mana rushed through Drasil. The bulging stomach of the spirit was gently deflating as more mana was released.


    The body of Drasil was becoming more dense and material. Before, it was like he was a green wisp in the shape of a tiny boy. However, now he actually had some weight as Julius held him in his palms.


    The simple robe of verdant green leaves that covered Drasil began to darken and elongate. That wasn''t all either. Julius spotted lines of lighter green mana spiraling around the torso and limbs of Drasil.


    It looked like tattoos of glowing green mana were wrapping around his body. Each breath of the still-sleeping Drasil sent soft and gentle pulses through these lines of mana. It was quite mesmerizing and beautiful.


    The final change to Drasil was what looked to be a small set of green vines that twisted above his head. It was almost like a representation of hair or a hat. Julius wasn''t quite sure what it was supposed to be, but it made Drasil even more cute, that he was certain of.


    "Does that mean it''s done?" Aubrey asked loudly.


    "I don''t know. I''ve never witnessed a life spirit consume a treasure before," Lily said while softly poking at Drasil''s still slightly protruding stomach. "Do you know anything, Kyle?" She asked.


    Kyle bent down and looked really close at Drasil. Julius noticed that Kyle''s eyes were illuminated by some sort of glowing blue ring, he was probably using some sort of eye-based examination skill to see if there was anything else going on.


    "I sense some dregs of life mana still infusing with Drasil, but it seems that the process is mostly done. He most likely just needs some rest and some more time to absorb the last remnants."


    "That''s it? You can''t tell us what happened during that transformation?" Aubrey asked disappointed at his lack of explanation.


    Kyle just shrugged his shoulders. "It''s hard to say. We know that spirits don''t advance like us humans or even other monsters do. They have their own path of progression. Not to mention, that it gets much more complicated when a spirit becomes a familiar. How much Drasil has been affected by being connected to Julius is unknown at this point. I can say that whatever happened, will likely enable Drasil to noticeably help supplement Julius''s mana now."


    Julius grinned at that prospect. While he had rarely ever needed to worry about someone supplementing his already massive pool of mana, knowing that Drasil was on his way to becoming a very useful familiar was nice to hear.


    He looked down at the still-sleeping spirit as Lily continued to rub the puffed-out tummy of the green life spirit. "You hear that? You are this much closer to becoming a juggernaut that everybody will one day come to fear," he whispered to the sleeping Drasil.


    Lily looked at Julius with disgust. "You want this cute little fella to become a juggernaut of destruction? That sounds like a waste of his talents."


    Julius gave her a side-eye. "Oh yeah? Then what would you use him for?"


    Aubrey huffed from the other side of him. "That''s easy. Enter the little guy into a mana-eating contest. I can honestly say that I have not seen a more mana-hungry spirit. I was expecting him to only be able to eat half of the treasure. I certainly wasn''t expecting him to finish the entire thing in a few minutes. It is still a Tier 3 life treasure at the end of the day."


    "There''s nothing wrong with a healthy appetite," Edgar said strangely defensive of Drasil from his spot a few feet away. Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Of course you would say that," Aubrey shot back.


    "What is that supposed to mean?" Edgar asked offendedly.


    "I wouldn''t expect someone who ate their family into poverty to understand," Aubrey said in casual aloofness while looking off into the distance.


    "I did not eat my family into poverty!" Edgar said angrily.


    "That''s what your mother said the first time we met them," Aubrey pointed out.


    "She was joking," Edgar argued before looking around at the others for backup. "Tell her, guys."


    However, nobody dared to look Edgar in the eyes. Derek and Kyle were looking at the floorboards like they were the most interesting things. The only person who did was Julius.


    "You do eat a lot," Julius told him with an apologetic look on his face.


    Edgar didn''t have anything to refute that and accepted his defeat with a sigh and a downtrodden head.

 Chapter 146: Human Torch

    If there was one thing that Julius wished he could go back in time to fix. It would be the exact moment he arrogantly stated that learning a Fire Concept would be easier than learning the Sharpness Concept.He quickly found out how very wrong he was about that. He initially believed that since he had already touched upon the realm of Concepts it would make his next one that much easier.


    It was a claim only a person like him with little experience would have been able to make. He was glad that nobody had heard him say that out loud. If the others had heard it, he would not have heard the end of it for the rest of his days.


    Though to be honest, he did feel like he was genuinely close to learning it. It was kind of like trying to thread a tiny piece of string into an even tinier needle and every time he was just about to get it through, he did something to fuck it up.


    Without fail he would flinch or drop the string, ruining everything and making him go back to the start.


    The first couple of days that he was unable to learn the Concept were frustrating, but he assured himself that it would just take some time and dedication. However, when over a week crept around, he started to feel like something wasn''t working.


    While he hadn''t spent his entire time on his Concept training like he had done with other things in the past, he still spent a lot of time. Whenever he wasn''t going to class, eating, practicing his aura with Lily, or training his other skills, specifically [Quick Step], he was meditating like some monastery monk.


    Yet, nothing.


    The only good news was that during the past week or so, he had almost gotten [Quick Step] to level 15.


    [Quick Step lvl 7 -> lvl 14]


    That wasn''t all though. Some other skills made some impressive progress as well.


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 17 -> lvl 18]


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 11 -> lvl 12]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 15 -> lvl 16]


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 16 -> lvl 17]


    He managed to level up [Barrier of Severance], [Empowerment of Will], [Kinetic Augmentation], and surprisingly [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. The first three were given, considering that he had been spending a lot of time using those three skills alongside his [Quick Step] training.


    [Empowement of Will] had seen some great improvements from his practice sessions with Lily whenever they had a chance. He always enjoyed it when they trained together. He was actually surprised that the skill only leveled once. He felt like his aura had made way more improvements than a single level might indicate.


    [Barrier of Severance] was the newest rare skill in his arsenal and he had found himself making excuses to use the skill whenever he could. Even if it was just for layering a barrier of sharpened mana over his utensils to cut through his food easier, he made sure he used it as much as he could. Thus, it was not a surprise that it leveled up during the past week.


    Plus, it also worked well as willpower training if he infused it with his Concept of Severing Will.


    Getting another level in [Kinetic Augmentation] wasn''t a surprise either. He had been using that skill the most with his [Quick Step] skill. The two of them worked well together. The kinetic body skill was able to reinforce his body well enough that he was able to push more mana through [Quick Step] than he normally would have without it.


    One thing that he had learned about the difference between using kinetic energy and using [Quick Step] to move, was the fluidity of his movements. [Quick Step] was quite an impressive skill because of its ability to maintain a certain level of control of his movements while still being explosive. Whereas, blasting kinetic energy from his feet was just plain explosive and sheer acceleration.


    The real interesting thing though, was when he used both in conjunction. This, by the way, was more difficult than one might think, using both manual applications of kinetic energy alongside [Quick Step] was challenging. They both functioned fundamentally the same, yet there were unique tendencies for each ability that made it not so easy to use together.


    However, the final result was pretty funny. Not only was his movement faster once he used both of them, but they also produced an interesting byproduct. Whenever he would stop, a blast of mana and kinetic energy would explode from him, creating a loud boom and shockwave.


    He didn''t see any practical reason for this technique yet, but he did think it would provide a very nice surprise to anyone he was looking to scare. He was going to keep it in mind for whenever Aubrey or someone else annoyed him.


    His healing skill came as the most surprising level increase. However, when he thought about it, it wasn''t as if he hadn''t been using the skill often. In fact, it was the opposite. He had been using it almost constantly to heal his fatigue whenever he got tired from using [Quick Step] so many times in a row.


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    Perhaps just the sheer amount of times it was used in succession caused it to level up. Usually, it required a more unique application of the skill to gain levels, so gaining a level from simple grinding was not expected, but very appreciated nonetheless.


    Still, not getting a Fire Concept was a bit of a sore spot for him. He had been really hoping that he had some talent with Concepts. He had accepted that his affinities weren''t the best, but his large mana pool and his ability to train for endless hours were more important in his personal opinion.


    That''s what was on his mind as he walked toward the training facilities with a purposeful gait.


    He had just eaten dinner with the others like usual. They talked about their days and anything exciting that may have happened. Aubrey mentioned a little run-in she and Edgar had with Liam, but nothing too dramatic.


    Julius didn''t have much to share either. The only thing that happened in his classes that stood out was Applied Combat. He was beginning to see why it was the most student''s favorite class they took.


    Today they had continued the same monster-fighting exercises, but this time Professor Rowe had introduced some small environmental factors. Nothing too drastic but they were things like uneven terrain and other objects that forced students to pay attention to where they placed their feet.


    It was even good practice for Julius and his [Quick Step]. The loose gravel and protruding rocks were a great way to focus on the more delicate and precise applications of the skill. He noticed that many of the other students, specifically noble-born ones, had a difficult time adjusting to the new conditions.


    He suspected that much of their training had taken place on flat stone surfaces. They simply weren''t used to fighting and moving around on rugged surfaces. It was a very good idea and a wise exercise to implement early on.


    Edwin had drilled that into Julius quite often. He made sure that Julius was aware of where his feet were at all times. Edwin told him that he had seen many people take a sword to the face because of an unexpected slip on some mud or a loose stone.


    It was better to learn now than later when they were fighting monsters for real. The worst thing that could happen would be a monster digging its claws into your chest because you tripped over your feet. They wouldn''t have simulated combat devices to help them in a rift.


    However, that was all that stood out. The monsters weren''t difficult to defeat. He had only needed to use [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Quick Step] so far. Perhaps, that was why he was doing this. Maybe, he felt like he needed something more exciting to help him learn a Fire Concept.


    He hadn''t told the others at dinner about his plans. They most likely believed that he was still going to his aura class. He had a slight feeling that they would disapprove of his idea. And they wouldn''t be wrong, Julius would agree with them that what he was about to do wasn''t something anyone else should attempt.


    With that being said, he had his ridiculous healing skill that he loved to take advantage of. Which is the sole reason why he was even contemplating what he was about to do. But at the very least he felt pretty confident that he wouldn''t die, which was comforting in a weird sense.


    He didn''t know if he was psychologically disturbed when he thought of these ideas. It was like someone was whispering in his ear about all the questionable things he could do all the time. Most of the time he has learned to ignore it, but sometimes he caved in to its alluring promises.


    He was still shaking his head to himself as he passed several other older students who also were using the facilities and entered a room, closing it behind him.


    He made sure all of the enchantments were activated before he took off all of his clothing, even his underwear. He then sat down in the middle of the floor and started to pull fire mana from his core.


    He quickly controlled it so that it gathered about all around him, not allowing it to leave several feet from his body. He pumped a good amount, enough that it made a dent in his reserves.


    Once he felt like he was all set, he closed his eyes and calmed himself. As soon as he calmed down, he ignited all of the fire mana around him. Like a spark in a chamber of gas, the fire mana soon became a raging inferno that surrounded his entire body.


    There weren''t any explosions, thankfully. He had been intent on creating a fiery flame, not trying to explode himself into a million pieces. That wouldn''t be smart. For obvious reasons.


    He didn''t want to test if [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] would be able to heal that much. He wasn''t that confident yet.


    The first thing he noticed wasn''t the heat. No, in fact the heat wasn''t all that bad. Although he was practically barbecuing himself alive, his skin only got seared a little bit. The pain was very manageable, especially with [Savage Dance].


    No, the first thing that he realized was the fact that he could barely breathe. The fire was using all of the oxygen in the air to fuel itself, not leaving enough for Julius to breathe. It wasn''t something he was accounting for, but he quickly learned that it was a real issue.


    He was able to go without air for much longer than a normal person, but since he was still Tier 2, he still had the biological requirements, such as necessity to breathe.


    He immediately began pushing life mana into his healing skill. He didn''t know if life mana would save him from asphyxiation but if it could regrow his limb completely, he thought his chances were pretty good. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    With that being said, he was very glad when the pressure to breathe began to alleviate. He didn''t know how life magic worked exactly, but he was very grateful that it did. Otherwise, he would have needed to stop this test or find another way.


    Now that he had fixed that issue, he got back to the main problem at hand. He wanted to completely immerse himself in flames. His little test with blue fire wasn''t enough to get him a Concept, but he was hoping that something a little more extreme would give him that extra push.


    He had actually gotten this idea from Derek, ironically enough. He had mentioned how his grandfather had put him inside of an artificial storm with lightning to help him learn a Lightning Concept.


    That was sort of the idea that Julius was going with. He was hoping that enough exposure to fire would allow him a deeper connection with it.


    Therefore, he settled his naked body down and let the flames engulf him like a human torch.

 Chapter 147: Resolve

    Ten minutes in and a lot of mana later, Julius still hadn''t gotten anything. Once he got used to the weird sensation of not breathing, he was quite comfortable.The heat was barely noticeable at this point. It was kind of like how the first dip into a hot tub was really hot, but after you got used to the temperature it started to feel really nice. That was exactly what Julius was going through at the moment.


    It was like he was going through a spa experience. Sort of like a bonfire sauna type of deal. It probably wouldn''t look like that to any onlookers, but Julius was enjoying himself.


    It was a shame that he was running out of fire mana. He did his best to reuse whatever leftover remnants he could from it, but unlike his constructs where the fire mana was in its "inert" state, igniting fire mana made it much more difficult to get it back. A lot of it dissipated before he could recycle it.


    He would like to experiment on the reason why that happened in the future. It would be nice to figure out a way to recycle expended flames like he did with some of his other mana techniques.


    For now, he would have to make do. It wasn''t that bad either, the efficiency wasn''t atrocious or anything, it was just that Julius didn''t like running low on mana. He had so much of it that it felt weird not to have any in the tank.


    He sat down while he waited for his natural regeneration to work, he worked on his aura. He took out the set of balls that he carried around and floated them around with his aura in the most complicated patterns that he could currently handle.


    Which at this point, only resulted in several looping orbits that revolved all around a single ball. He threw in some balls that went through the center of these orbits, but the current Julius was only able to do this much.


    It was still nowhere on the level of Lily who was able to move them around and make them dance like Julius would be able to do with mana manipulation, but it was a start. Lily had told him that she had gotten an aura skill when she was just twelve years old and that she had been practicing with it for many years under the supervision of her mother and grandmother.


    She assured him that given his work ethic he would very quickly get to her level in time. She knew better than almost anyone about how much work Julius put in. He didn''t know if Aubrey told her about his sleeping habits yet, but she knew that he didn''t get a lot of sleep. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Still, her opinion mattered a lot to him.


    Once, his mana was almost filled entirely back up, he packed away the balls into his storage ring. Then he began the repeat the same process as before, but, he did something else on top of it.


    This time around he used [Armaments of the Arcane] to create a pseudo barrier construct around himself. He thought of it as an armor construct that wasn''t pressed against his skin. It was much easier to create than his normal armor.


    He didn''t need to have any complex curves or joints, it was basically a dome that covered his entire body. He didn''t need to move around in it, he just needed to contain the fire within.


    As soon as the flames were ignited and he felt the fire scorching against his skin, he immediately sensed the difference. This time around, he wasn''t having to continuously pump as much fire mana to keep the fire running.


    Although the amount of oxygen within the shell was quickly burned up as fuel, the fire didn''t go out. While he might have thought the fire would have gone out as a result, it didn''t. The fire mana present within and the mana in his core was enough to keep it fueled. Not only that but since the heat wasn''t escaping, Julius was able to keep ahold of the fire better.


    He didn''t have to actively control and recycle the ignited fire mana, but the shell did most of that for him luckily.


    Still, the fire wasn''t enough to feel more than a warm bath. There was another reason why he used [Armaments of the Arcane]. The skill was the only way that Julius was able to confidently use his blue fire.


    While setting himself on fire hadn''t bothered him as much as it probably should have, cooking himself with his enhanced fire was something else entirely.


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    He knew that this was really pushing the boundaries of what is considered appropriate even with a healing skill like his. He didn''t think that his skill could bring him back when his entire body was burned to ash.


    However, that just meant that he just had to control it so that it didn''t do that.


    Before he could start to doubt his idea, he began the process. Something that he learned when he had been playing around with his blue fire was that he didn''t necessarily need kinetic energy to create it.


    Kinetic energy made it much easier, but it was something he could handle just using pure mana manipulation. It wasn''t as strong or potent as when he used kinetic energy, but that was kind of the point.


    He didn''t need the most powerful and intense flame at the present moment. He needed something that would push his fire resistance to the edge so that he could feel the heat enough to learn a Concept. There was no need to vaporize himself to oblivion just yet.


    The trouble was that it was going to be hard to find that balance. This is where his practice of heating up beverages came in clutch. He already had some experience regulating temperatures with precise control the only difference is that this time he was playing with much more extreme temperatures and not a cup of coffee.


    How much harder could it really be? He laughed to himself.


    A soft violet hue started to take shape in the center of the flames that were engulfing Julius. It was only then did he began to feel the heat on his skin.


    The heat before was a soft stinging sensation that could be described as somewhat pleasant. However, this new stinging was anything but pleasant.


    It hurt and his skin agreed with him. Instead of the slight redness it displayed previously, his skin was actively burning to a crisp. The acrid stench and smoke of scorching flesh was now floating in his shell. Thankfully, he didn''t have to worry about breathing it in or smelling it, as he was holding his breath as he pumped mana through [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal].


    The thing that was soon becoming another issue was the fact that he was stuck in a container with ash from the remnants of his own skin. Not only that but since [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was active, that meant that he was constantly growing more skin for it to constantly burn.


    And soon enough, his entire shell was filled with blackened soot from his burning flesh. He had to create a small vent on top that let the smoke escape. He even had to manipulate mana to create a vortex that sucked the air like a ventilation hood.


    He had to use more mana but it was worth it to save himself from the inconvenience of the acrid smoke billowing in his face.


    The flames were now hot enough that his natural resistance wasn''t able to withstand the heat, which also meant he had to endure being burned alive by his own choosing.


    The pain was pretty bad, even to his standards. His nerve endings were literally on fire and screaming in pain. Only [Savage Dance] being empowered by [Empowerment of Will] prevented him from screaming out in pain.


    A small part of him wanted to end this experiment and try a new way. A less painful way if possible.


    The same part of him started to wonder why he was willing to push himself so far for just a scrap of power. He had no doubts that if he took his time and continued to train like normal he would eventually improve. It wouldn''t be as rapid, but it would be stable and safe.


    More importantly, he wouldn''t need to burn himself alive anymore. That was a big plus. If he just let go, all the pain would just go away.


    However, just as quickly as that thought came into mind, he crushed it with an iron fist. He wouldn''t give up just because it got a little difficult. He needed to get stronger and this was a way that he could do that.


    He firmed his determination. Nothing would stop him, especially not himself. He gritted his teeth and bore the pain. All the while, reminding himself that he had gone through much worse.


    What would he rather choose? Several minutes of momentary pain or the pain of knowing that he was too weak to do anything for the rest of his life?


    That was an easy decision to make. And as soon as he put it in that perspective, it was like it somehow magically made everything better. It was like a wave of resoluteness washed over him.


    His boiling flesh didn''t hurt as much. His mind balanced on a razor''s edge, the perfect harmony of frenzied and calm. He reached a state that transcended normal consciousness.


    Nothing would stop him. He would learn a Fire Concept or die trying. That was his promise. That was his resolve.


    And just like that, after all this time he managed to touch that esoteric realm of Concepts he had been searching for. It was only then did he realized how ignorant his claim of learning a Fire Concept would be easier since he already had one.


    It was a naive presumption that he could only make because of his lack of experience. Saying he would learn a Fire Concept because he had a Sharpness Concept was like saying he would be able to make a chicken curry because he knew how to bake a roll.


    It was a humbling moment, but one that he would remember for the rest of his days.


    Just as the final piece of the puzzle slotted in perfectly, Julius felt a Concept birthed right in the middle of his soul. Completing a piece of himself that he didn''t know he was missing.


    Congratulations. You have acquired the Concept of Will: Inexorable Resolve.

 Chapter 148: Not What He Expected

    Congratulations. You have acquired the Concept of Will: Inexorable Resolve.The first feeling that Julius felt was overwhelming joy. It was the joy of achieving something after putting in so much effort. The culmination of his dedication.


    However, the next immediate feeling he felt was confusion.


    What the hell?! After all of that, it still didn''t work? He didn''t understand.


    He hadn''t actually gotten a Fire Concept. He had gotten a Concept of Will instead, which was equal parts interesting and annoying. After all, he had been going for a Fire Concept and still didn''t get one in the end.


    Although, he did wonder about what his new Concept was all about.


    Inexorable Resolve sounded pretty cool and seemed like it would fit a couple of his skills well for when he upgraded them to epic. He was thinking about [Savage Dance] and [Empowerment of Will] specifically. Those two skills would probably be good selections for skills that could benefit from the new Concept.


    A piece of him was still disappointed that he didn''t have a Fire Concept, but the other more rational part of him reassured himself that learning a single Concept was better than nothing. In fact, a Will Concept might have been a better Concept to learn anyway. A Fire Concept wouldn''t have gone well with some of his other skills that still needed to evolve to epic.


    At least this way, he had at the minimum two possible skills that should easily advance with the Concept of Inexorable Resolve.


    He hadn''t realized it until now, but he had already been setting himself on fire for a while at this point. He must have been so concentrated that he lost track of time.


    While he hadn''t gotten exactly what he had been trying to get, he got something very nice instead. He thought that was a good way to leave things. He stood up and dusted off the remaining ashes from his skin, using aura to help cleanse all of the small flakes of it from his body.


    It was actually a good way of training his aura. It required him to encapsulate his entire body. He would have to remember that for the next time, he got covered in grime.


    Once he got cleaned up, he stood up and put on his clothing before he left the room. He didn''t need to scar some random student for life because he forgot to put on a set of clothes.


    However, as he was just about to place his hand on the door, something stopped him. He looked over his shoulder to where he had been sitting on the floor. Small scorch marks still lightly singed the spot where he was setting himself on fire.


    "..."


    With a frustrated groan, Julius rubbed his face with both hands. He looked back and forth from the door to the spot on the ground with a conflicted expression.


    He sighed in defeat and found himself walking away from the door and trudgin back to the exact spot where he had been torturing himself. He shrugged off the clothing that he had just put on and sat back down.


    Sometimes he hated how stubborn he could be.


    His plan had been for him to leave the room and go find a nice spot to eat the other cake he saved for himself. He had purposefully not eaten the cake and wanted to wait until he had learned a Fire Concept.


    And while he had learned a Concept, it still wasn''t a Fire Concept. He felt like if he were to stop now after going so far as burning himself alive, it would be incomplete.


    He still had several more hours until sunrise and he tried to convince himself that it was still possible that he could still get a Fire Concept. And the least he could do was try.


    Before he could pull out or somehow dissuade himself, putting it off for another night. He ignited the fire mana and engulfed himself in violet flames.


    The searing pain was familiar and after the brief respite, it felt way more intense. He was no longer in that state of mind where the pain faded in the background. He was no longer as desensitized to the pain. It was as if the break had made the pain worse.


    He choked on his own tongue as he tried to prevent himself from screaming in agony. He was hating himself for being so hardheaded.


    Stupid, stupid, stupid, Julius repeatedly and angrily insulted himself.


    [Savage Dance] was running on full power. He was pumping as much as he could to the skill. However, it wasn''t enough and he instinctually reached out to his new Concept.


    It wasn''t that hard to get a grasp of. While the process wasn''t as similar as his Sharpness Concept, the way he could use it was.


    His newly learned Concept of Will: Inexorable Resolve, flowed through Julius''s soul and gave it a jolt of energy. The power of the Concept surged throughout his soul, body, and mind. It was almost instantly that the pain went down a few tones.


    Just touching upon his Concept of Inexorable Will tuned the sensation of burning flesh and nerve endings down a notch. It wasn''t enough to magically make the pain go away but when you were in as much pain as Julius was in, every bit helped.


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    [Savage Dance] was working overtime, keeping his focus razor-sharp. However, Julius was able to sense that the skill latched onto something inside of Julius''s soul. It was almost like steel marble being drawn to a magnet.


    Suddenly, [Savage Dance] grabbed ahold of his Concept of Inexorable Will and infused it within its structure. The effect was much more dramatic than just touching upon his Concept of Will. It wasn''t like the skill had evolved yet, but it was almost there. Julius could feel that it only needed a small push.


    On the other hand, his concentration skill had suddenly elevated to a point beyond its normal strength. It changed enough that not even [Empowerment of Will] was able to keep up with it. It was as if the aura skill was no longer on the same level as [Savage Dance]. It still managed to help a bit, but there was a chasm between the two skills that hadn''t existed before.


    It was like his mind and soul had been fortified and nothing could prevent him from his goals. And his goal at the moment was to try to get a Fire Concept before the night was over.


    He didn''t know if it would happen, but he did know that it wouldn''t be because he gave up and chose to eat cake on a bench instead.


    There was nothing else in his mind other than feeling the way the flames interacted with his body. He paid attention to how each inch of flame turned his skin to ash and also noticed how [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] reworked his flesh.


    He could distinctly feel the life and fire mana within him weave into complex matrixes and regenerate his flesh. He got into another state of focus that rivaled the one he had just entered not too long ago when he learned the Concept of Inexorable Will.


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 17 -> lvl 18]


    [Savage Dance lvl 19 -> lvl 20]


    He was so in the zone that he didn''t even realize that he had leveled [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] or that he had finally gotten [Savage Dance] to level 20. He distantly sensed that he got a notification but he knew that it wasn''t what he was going for. His mind was entirely focused on something else. He was still trying to reach a Fire Concept and he was damn close to it.


    He knew that something was missing though. He went through everything he experienced with the last two Concepts he acquired and tried to find similar commonalities.


    He racked his brain and still couldn''t quite find what he was looking for.


    Come on you son of a bitch! He yelled inwardly.


    Julius knew why he wanted a Fire Concept. To him, a Fire Concept represented a big piece of himself. It was like the raging flame that was buried deep in his soul. A flame that was hungry for more power. A flame that would destroy and burn down everything in his path. A flame that would turn his foes to ash before they could take what was his.


    However, something in him told him that wasn''t quite right. There was more to fire than just that.


    Julius couldn''t explain why he did what he did next. There wasn''t a reason or thought in it. It was just pure instinct and going with the flow.


    He released the shell he had created around himself. Fire wasn''t meant to be contained. It was meant to be free. Whether it was to burn everything down in its path or whether it was to warm the heart of the soul on one''s darkest day.


    The shell he created to contain his fire was the antithesis of what Julius wanted his life to be.


    The second he released his construct, the flames exploded outward, swallowing the entire room in violet flames. The heat was intense and the stone floors were turning red from the heat. Luckily, the enchantments in the room managed to withstand the power of his fire. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    However, as soon as released the fire, it was like he had released the congestion that had been stuck in his soul. It was simultaneously relieving and exhilarating. An overwhelming sense of clarity hit him.


    He knew exactly what had to be done, he just needed to reach out and take it.


    The flames that billowed around the room were snuffed out and he took back as much fire mana that he had pushed as he could. He realized that he had been silly.


    He hadn''t needed to burn himself alive like some idiotic animal. He just needed to come to a simple realization. He was the fire, his soul was the flame of life that would illuminate his way down the path to transcendence.


    Congratulations. You have acquired the Concept of Fire: Blazing Ember.


    Julius released a huge blast of fire that roared loudly throughout the room. His eyes were literally glittering with flames and excitement as he finally felt the final piece slide into place. He released an audible sigh and laid on his back.


    Honestly, a small part of him had doubted his ability to gain a Fire Concept. Ironically, despite his Concept that was called Inexorable Resolve, he wasn''t one hundred percent confident.


    However, it all worked out in the end and that was all that mattered. He was still a little frustrated that he hadn''t needed to set himself on fire, but on the other hand, setting himself on fire had enabled him to gain his Concept of Will, which directly led to him gaining his Concept of Fire.


    So, he guessed it all worked out anyway.


    He got up once more and put on his clothes again. This time for good.


    He looked up at the time and noticed that a couple of hours had passed since he got Concept of Will. He hadn''t even realized how long he had been at it. Looking back on it, it felt more like a fever dream than anything else.


    When he left the training facilities, he did see a few students wandering around. It wasn''t that surprising, many of the students were already Tier 3 and required much less sleep than Tier 1 or Tier 2s. Therefore, it wasn''t uncommon to see some people either stay up late or wake up early before the sun rose.


    Julius navigated his way toward the edge of campus, to a spot that he had noticed the other week. It was a large cliff that overlooked the entire ocean. He created himself a small chair that he placed on the very edge of the cliff and sat down, enjoying the chilly breeze.


    He was tired. More tired than he had felt in a long time. It was that same soul weariness that came from the last time he gained a Concept.


    He felt Drasil slowly release a gentle trickle of energy to Julius''s soul from his spot in his core. It was much more potent than last time, but so was Julius''s soul. The effect lessened the soreness, but it was still clearly there.


    He turned his attention back to the view. The moon was glowing brilliantly and illuminated the entire horizon, casting shadows on the waves down below. It was the perfect place to enjoy a piece of cake.


    He brought out a slice of the cake he had been saving out of his spatial ring along with a plate and utensils to eat it with. This cake was different from the last cake. This one was a simple vanilla cream and strawberry cake. Admittedly, he didn''t really know if these particular fruits were strawberries, they only looked like them. Still, so far this world has shared some strikingly similar food items with his old one, so he wouldn''t be surprised if they were indeed strawberries.


    As he was enjoying his well-deserved cake, he noticed that he had another notification waiting for him to see. One that he must have missed when he otherwise occupied.


    [Savage Dance lvl 19 -> lvl 20]

 Chapter 149: Im a Sage?

    [Savage Dance] has reached level 20.Appraising requirements¡­


    Congratulations. Skills requirement met.


    Congratulations. Concept requirement met.


    Congratulations. Soul requirement met.


    Would you like to evolve the skill [Savage Dance]?


    Julius wore a satisfied grin on his face. It had felt like he had this skill for the longest time, but now that he was about to evolve it, he couldn''t be happier.


    It had routinely been a cornerstone skill for him during his fights and training. The skill had originally come from a combination of [Brutal Strike] and [Battle Trance]. The synergy between the two skills created a stronger skill that was mainly a combat concentration skill that had a weak point detection component.


    However, Julius very quickly realized that there was much more potential to this skill than just that. It started off with him practicing to use it outside of battle and then fully embracing the weak points aspect of it into his own fighting style, not needing to rely on the skill to do so.


    He had adapted the skill and now it was basically a very potent general focus skill. It was also one of the skills that he felt would benefit the most from evolving. The skill itself wasn''t as useful as it once was. Julius found that he improved at a faster pace than what the skill could handle.


    He gave the notification one last glance before accepting it.


    Skill evolution commencing¡­


    Skill [Savage Dance] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Savage Storm], [Raging Sage], and [Sage of Savagery].


    To be honest, Julius was a bit surprised to only see three options. [Savage Dance] had been a skill he had for the longest other than [Spatial Perception]. He would have thought that various applications that would have gotten him offered a wider variety of skills.


    Then again, everyone had told him that epic skills worked differently than the ranks before it. Perhaps, this was one of the effects they were talking about.


    However, he wouldn''t be surprised to learn that as he progressed skills, they more specialized, and fewer options he would have to choose from. It was even possible that when he evolved it again to legendary, he would have only one or two to pick from.


    Putting that aside, he did what he always did, he went through each skill.


    The first one, [Savage Storm] was a bit of an odd one. Since it was the first skill on the list, he assumed it was the general upgrade of [Savage Dance]. The only word that was different was replacing the word "dance" with "storm".


    He could see the connection between the two, but the idea of [Savage Storm] as a concentration skill was weird. It sounds more like a skill Derek would have for a large area of effect attack.


    Julius assumed it was just a skill that specialized in punishing the enemy''s weak spots. Very similar to [Savage Dance] but just on a large scale.


    The second one was more interesting to him. It was called [Raging Sage] and Julius had an idea about why he was offered it.


    He had been using [Savage Dance] as a skill that helped him control his emotions, specifically rage. It was very likely that he was offered it because of that very reason.


    However, it was the sage part that really intrigued him. Sages were known for being extremely wise and knowledgeable.


    Julius was confident that he could barely qualify for those two characteristics. He knew certain things that many of this world didn''t, but that had more to do with his memories from his past life. It didn''t really make him smarter


    As for being wise¡­ well he laughed aloud at that. Smart? Maybe. Cunning? Sometimes. Wise? Uh uh.


    That wasn''t him. He was a person who was willing to cut off his arms and burn himself alive. Julius believed that one of the prerequisites of being wise was also being sane. He was self-aware enough to understand that he wasn''t quite the traditional definition of sane.


    Still, the word sage was very cool. And made him want to get it just because of that.


    However, it wasn''t only one skill that had sage in its name. [Sage of Savagery] was also available for him to choose from.


    It seemed like the Words of the World was trying to tell him something. Whether or not it was trying to tell him to be more wise or something else, he wasn''t quite sure.


    Nevertheless, being a sage of any kind was very tempting. Even though he wasn''t a sage now, that didn''t mean he couldn''t aspire to become one later on. Perhaps, taking one of the sage skills would help him become one. Maybe it would even get him to start making more wise decisions.


    They were also the only two skills that really had any interest to him. [Savage Storm] didn''t have him jumping up and down in anticipation to get. Thus, the last two skills were what he had to decide between.


    The one thing that Julius noticed right away was the difference between [Raging Sage] and [Sage of Savagery]. It was a small difference, but one that he already had experience in. The difference was exactly two letters.


    There seemed to be a large contrast between skills with the "of" descriptor. Derek had mentioned a skill that many of his family with lightning affinities got. It was called [Lightning Barrier] and then there was the much more rare and powerful one, called [Barrier of Lightning].


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Now, Julius didn''t know if that held true for every skill, but it was something to keep in mind. However, there was also the fact that Julius enjoyed the word "savagery" more than "raging". One had a closer connotation to being fierce and the other had implications of being out of control. While the "sage" part of the skill made it sound like it would provide some balance, Julius didn''t like the idea of being out of control.


    The good news was that this skill selection was one of the easiest choices he had made so far. He felt pretty confident in his selection.


    Congratulations, skill [Sage of Savagery] (Epic) acquired.


    He exclaimed enthusiastically, spewing crumbs of cake from his mouth that was still eating cake even as he was doing something as important as choosing his advancement skill.


    This night had been very lucrative. He had not only gotten a Concept of Will, he had also gotten a Concept of Fire. Then to top it all off, he was able to use that Concept of Will to evolve a skill that he had been wanting to evolve for a long time.


    He was now the proud holder of two epic skills. Julius was so pleased with himself that he gave himself another piece of cake.


    He also took a moment to look at his status sheet.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 2


    Skills:


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 4] (Epic)


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 1] (Epic)


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 18] (Rare+)


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 16] (Rare+)


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 12] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 18] (Rare)


    [Quick Step lvl 14] (Uncommon)


    Current Skill Slots: 8/11


    Concepts:


    [Concept of Sharpness]


    [Severing Will]


    [Concept of Will]


    [Inexorable Resolve]


    [Concept of Fire]


    [Blazing Ember]


    His status was starting to fill up. He also had two more Concepts that he would be able to add to his other skills. For example, his new Fire Concept would be a good fit for [Armaments of the Arcane] and possibly [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. He wasn''t quite sure how that would work out, but he definitely used fire properties in his healing skill, so it should be possible.


    Furthermore, his new Concept of Will sounded like a good fit for [Empowerment of Will]. He was anticipating to see what would happen when he finally reached level 20 in one of his superior skills. Would the process of evolving change and if so, how much?


    Would the skill immediately connect with a Concept or would the epic skill also be a superior skill just like it was at the rare rank?


    He shook his head. There was no need to worry about that right now. He had other things that were more important to think about. Things such as finishing his delicious cake.


    The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon and Julius quickly polished off his cake before getting up, brushing any crumbs from his uniform as he did.


    He was thinking about heading over to the library before breakfast. He could do with a couple of hours of just reading to relax. His soul was sore, but his mind was shockingly alert. So with a merry step, he hopped along to the library, still feeling the high of his recent achievements. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    When he entered the library, he noticed that there were quite a lot of older students there. There had to have been at least a couple dozen students spread across the library. Some of them were fast asleep with their heads tucked in their arms, which might be indications that they stayed the entire night.


    Some were still awake and completely immersed in their books. He watched as the older students constantly flipped between their reading to their notebooks, scribbling down notes periodically.


    He didn''t understand what they were doing, but if he had to guess, he would say that there was some sort of assignment for the older students that some people either didn''t get done in time and/or were procrastinating.


    Julius gave an amused grin as he watched them. It seems like regardless of which world he was in, there would always be students who procrastinated.


    Then again, it wasn''t like he was in any position to judge these students. At least they were doing it, although a little late. There were some assignments of his own that Julius barely bothered to do. In his defense, most of the assignments that he ended up not caring about were the ones from Intro to Mana.


    Professor Stewart was still by far his least-liked professor. He couldn''t bear to listen to her lectures. She reminded him of a certain English professor from his old life. Constantly, talking down to other students who asked "dumb" questions and being a real stickler for everything.


    That same rigidity also extended to the mana exercises she had them practice and demonstrate.


    There was a time when she had the entire class do a simple exercise along with her. The exercise was gathering a thread of mana and manipulating it so that it formed a perfect circle.


    It was an exercise that a surprising number of students had a hard time with. A part of him had expected since Goldencrest was one of the best schools most students had this level of control already.


    To be fair, most of these students were considered the "most talented" because of their affinities and other abilities. Not everyone needed to practice such a nuanced application of mana unless they were a mage.


    Most of the students who were having a hard time were mainly melee fighters or other roles. There were plenty of mages who did the exercise to perfection.


    Julius, like normal, played it safe and did just well enough that his control appeared average. He was supposed to be a close combat fighter and showing off such his mana manipulation skills would stand out.


    It was ironically, good practice to pretend to be a novice in mana manipulation. It took more effort to act like he was naturally bumbling around then actually doing the exercise. It was very funny in a very backward way.


    However, even though he was doing better than many of the close combat students he was approached by Professor Stewart.


    The old grouchy lady came up to his desk and stared at him with impassive eyes, watching him manipulate the thread of mana into a circle. She clicked her tongue once he was done. "Perhaps, if you paid more attention and did the assignments, you would do a bit better Mr. Snow," she said contemptuously before stalking off.


    Julius had looked at the wrinkly old lady''s back with disdain in his eyes but had held his tongue.


    And that was just last week. Julius was beginning to have serious doubts about that class''s usefulness.


    He tucked those thoughts away for later and made his way to their group''s usual spot when he passed a nook with two very familiar people.


    [Spatial Perception] was able to sense Grace and Amelia sitting at a small table. Grace was completely absorbed in her book and Amelia was just sitting there doing nothing but looking around.


    The area they chose had a complete view of everyone who walked up the stairs, so Julius doubted he would be able to avoid Amelia''s gaze. In fact, he believed that she had already spotted him and his head before he reached the top of the stairs.


    He had two choices, one he could just blatantly avoid her and walk back down the stairs, or he could pretend he didn''t see her and walk by like nothing''s wrong. The first option kind of felt like an admission of defeat, so within a split second, he decided on option two.


    He walked right by the nook where Grace and Amelia were sitting and continued on to his spot without even looking their way. However, as he did, he sensed that Amelia who was once again invisible, leaned over and whispered something to Grace.

 Chapter 150: Not Quite Even

    Julius pulled out a book from his storage ring, it was called Elven Wars: Blood Era. The book was a fictional story about a real war that occurred thousands of years ago with another continent where the elves primarily resided.It was actually quite an interesting story. He found himself enjoying a good book whenever he wanted a break from his manic training regime.


    And people accuse me of not relaxing enough, Julius chuckled to himself.


    He took breaks occasionally, that was what helped him keep focus on his goals better. It didn''t have to be long, but sometimes, an hour of doing something that didn''t revolve around stretching him to his limits helped more than many would think.


    Unfortunately, he wasn''t able to enjoy his book. Just as he was beginning to read, he sensed the two of them walking toward his little corner of the library.


    When Grace approached him, he pretended to be absorbed in his book. It wasn''t until she sat down in front of him that he looked up at her with feigned surprise on his face.


    He observed as Grace licked her lips anxiously before speaking. "Hello," she said tentatively.


    He closed his book and smiled at her. "Hey, Grace. Fancy seeing you here this early."


    His friendly attitude seemingly put her more at ease and her shoulders relaxed a hair. "Yeah, I like to come here in the mornings to read. It clears my head before the day begins. But I could say the same to you," she said with a smirk.


    He shrugged his shoulders. "I guess my reason is pretty similar to you. It''s a nice way to relax before I have to head to class."


    She nodded her head, agreeing with the sentiment before opening her mouth to say something else but hesitated. She looked down at the table between them, closed her mouth, and furrowed her brows before opening her mouth again. "I want to apologize for what happened the other week. Amelia has always been overly protective of me, but she went too far."


    Julius took the time to look directly into her eyes before shaking his head with a chuckle. "I don''t think you need to apologize to me. You didn''t do anything wrong."


    This time it was her that shook her head at him. "No, I should stopped it before it got to that point. I wasn''t paying attention, I was too busy with¡­" she trailed off.


    "With eating delicious food? I noticed," he said with a teasing smirk.


    He saw her blush a little bit at that comment but smiled knowingly. "Yeah, I guess you did," she said.


    Julius turned his attention from her to look around the room again. "The others and I don''t hold any hard feelings for you," he assured her.


    She bit her lip worryingly. "And Amelia?" She asked hesitantly.


    "Eh, I couldn''t care less about seeing her again. I find myself not making time for rude people," Julius truthfully told Grace.


    Grace nodded her head and nervously picked at the hem of her uniform. "Does that mean we can''t be friends?" She asked quietly.


    It was quiet enough that Julius was certain that if not for his enhanced hearing, he wouldn''t have been able to hear what she said. Still, he was able to fully catch her question.


    He didn''t answer right away and waited until she looked up at him. He then gave her a soft smile of his own and said, "I don''t see why not. You still owe me a cake after all. If we weren''t friends then I wouldn''t be able to exchange that offer."


    He saw her eyes water around the edges before she looked away again, but this time with a smile of her own. "What about Amelia?" She asked him.


    "What about her?"


    "She won''t affect our friendship?" She asked.


    Julius just shrugged. "I mean that depends a lot on you and her. What kind of relationship do the two of you share?"


    Grace tilted her head in thought. "She''s someone who keeps an eye on me while I am at Goldencrest. But more importantly, she''s my friend. Probably, my only friend," she admitted sadly.


    "Well not anymore," he told her with a smile. "And I don''t know about the others, but I can tell you that they liked you. I know for sure that they enjoyed your appetite, especially Edgar. But he''s biased."


    She looked up at him with a brilliant smile upon hearing his kind words. But then frowned. "Biased?" She asked confused.


    Julius waved his hand. "Eh, it''s not really important. He just likes anyone who eats a lot because it makes him feel less guilty about him eating his family into poverty."


    She visibly flinched "What?"


    "I know, sad business," he shook his head morosely. "Anyway, I don''t see why she would affect our friendship, I just wouldn''t want to hang out with her," he said switching back to the original topic, leaving Grace slightly confused and off-kilter.


    However, she quickly got back her bearings. "What if she apologized to you directly?" She asked curiously.


    Julius paused and put a hand on his chin. "That would certainly help," he admitted.


    An apology would go a long way. It wasn''t like he wasn''t unaware of where Amelia was coming from. He had teased Grace a little bit and he could see how someone who was very protective of a person would perceive that in a negative way.


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    Additionally, he wouldn''t have lost his own composure that night if he hadn''t seen House Greyson just a few minutes before. If it was any other time, he would have brushed it off like no big deal.


    Grace smiled at that. "I will have her apologize immediately," she promised.


    "Thanks, I would appreciate that," he told her, feeling good about resolving that issue.


    There was just one single thing that was bothering him now.


    It was that Amelia was currently breathing down Julius''s neck. And he meant literally breathing down his neck. She was so close to him that he could reach behind him and touch her.


    She had maneuvered around him the second Grace entered the room. The only thing that made him okay with it, was that she wasn''t doing anything that would alert him.


    Her body was oddly non-threatening. The main thing she had been doing, was staring at him. But there were times that Julius suspected she was testing him and whether or not he could sense her.


    He almost laughed out loud when he sensed her fake lunging at him. He remained his act though. He was pretty confident that Amelia wouldn''t blindside him in front of Grace. That was what he was hoping for at least.


    He looked at Grace who was also looking at him with an awkward look on her face. However, after too much time passed to be comfortable, she sighed loudly.


    "I meant now," she said in a surprisingly stern and commanding tone.


    Julius calmly watched with his two eyes as Amelia suddenly appeared in front of him.


    He saw her looking at him with extremely focused eyes. Then she smiled and laughed, turning to Grace. "I told you," she said proudly.


    Julius looked confusingly at Grace who then smacked Amelia on the shoulder. "Not the time," she scolded her.


    "What do you mean? Are we just going to ignore the fact that he didn''t even seem remotely surprised to see me?" Amelia asked in disbelief.


    "That''s not the point. We already suspected that he could. But I asked you to appear to apologize, not to talk about his perception skill," Grace said.


    "You''re not a little bit curious?" Amelia asked knowingly.


    Grace paused and conceded her point with a nod. She turned to Julius with an intrigued look. "So you can perceive her," she said matter of factly and with a knowing grin.


    Shit, I forgot to act surprised. Julius literally slapped his own forehead in frustration. It was such a simple mistake. Though, he hadn''t been prepared for Amelia to just appear out of thin air. He had been expecting them to continue to hide it since that was kind of the point of staying invisible.


    He thought about denying it, but he had also just said that he and Grace were friends. Lying about whether or not he could perceive her wouldn''t be a good start to their friendship. Especially, not a lie that was easy to see through like this one.


    They both seemed pretty confident in their deductions. It was actually likely that the only reason why Grace had told Amelia to show herself.


    Julius just nodded. "Yeah, I can," he admitted.


    "So that night when we first met¡­"


    "Mm-hmm."


    Amelia jumped in, the attitude she showed that night was no longer on display. If anything she was very interested. "So how can you sense me?"


    Julius just looked at her with a deadpan expression. "You want me to tell you?"


    Amelia nodded her head vigorously.


    Julius looked at her like she was dumb. "You want me to tell you about an ability of mine even though you were just insulting me last week and then tried to strangle me with your aura? You still haven''t apologized for that by the way," he said sarcastically.


    Julius watched as Amelia got an annoyed look on her face and was about to say something, but stopped when Grace, who was now next to her, smashed her with an elbow to the ribs. Amelia''s face went through the five stages of grief in the blink of an eye.


    First, there was denial, then there was anger, which quickly changed to contemplation, then to sadness, and finally after she glanced over at Grace her face demonstrated acceptance of her fate.


    He observed as Amelia bowed toward him. "I am deeply sorry for my behavior the other night. I misunderstood your intentions and lost my composure. I sincerely hope that my actions do not affect how you view Grace. My actions were my own and I will accept any reprisal you have for me," she said solemnly.


    In all honesty, Julius was a bit surprised at how sincere her apology was. He was half-expecting some bullshit apology that was mostly thinly veiled insults wrapped in pretty paper. However, as far as apologies went, her apology was a pretty damn good one. He wasn''t able to find any fault in it, which was annoying.


    Although he was still a little bit displeased with her, he grudgingly appreciated her sincerity. She had been able to swallow her pride, something Julius could immediately tell she didn''t do too often in order to say sorry.


    That in itself said a lot about how Amelia felt about Grace and the importance she placed on her happiness. It also said a lot about the type of person she was.


    After she said her piece, she didn''t lift his head, apparently waiting for him to accept it or at the very least say something in response.


    Julius brushed a hand through his hair and sighed dramatically. "Why couldn''t you have just given a shit apology? It would have made it so much easier," he said to her.


    She looked up at him finally with confusion evident on her face. "You would rather me give you an awful apology than a genuine one?"


    He put his hands up and shrugged his shoulders. "No, but it would have made it much simpler to continue to dislike you. Having a good apology makes me want to sympathize with you and that just feels wrong," he said more to himself than to her.


    She was about to respond but she instead chose to stay silent. Electing to look at him a befuddled look on her face.


    He then had a wandering thought and turned to look at Grace. "Did you write that apology for her?" He asked. For some reason, the apology seemed a little too genuine. Almost like someone had told her how to.


    He spotted a flash of amusement across her face. "I don''t know what you mean," she denied with a smirk. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius pressed his lips together disappointedly. "How long did it take for you to convince her to memorize it?"


    At that Grace did chuckle. "It actually didn''t take that long. I think she was sincerely sorry about how that night went. It barely took much convincing."


    He looked over at Amelia who was becoming a little red in the face, whether that was from embarrassment or anger, or perhaps a mixture of both.


    "Are we good?" Amelia finally asked Julius.


    "Nope," he said offhandedly while scratching his chin and looking off in the distance.


    "Perfect, that''s¡­ wait, what?"


    "I said that doesn''t make us even," Julius said casually, ignoring the growing ire on Amelia''s face.


    "What the hell does that mean?"


    "You said that you would accept any reprisal from me, correct?" Julius asked.


    He could sense Amelia grinding her teeth together hard. "I did," she acknowledged unhappily.


    Julius clapped his hands together elatedly and looked directly at Amelia. "Well, that''s wonderful! Now, I can''t think of something at the moment, but I will let you know once I think of it," he told her with a smile.


    If looks could kill, Julius would be buried ten feet in concrete. However, Grace gave Amelia another elbow to the chest, and Amelia showed Julius a hideous smile while nodding her head. "Of course, just let me know when you decide," she managed to grunt out through her gritted teeth.


    Julius didn''t let her angry look bother him. He just continued to smile at her with a toothy grin. "Oh, I will."

 Chapter 151: Figuring Things Out

    Reinera POVReinera couldn''t remember the last time when she had enjoyed herself this much. The closest thing that she could think of was when she and her uncle ran around the palace pranking their family. But that was also a couple of years ago.


    This time around, she was enjoying herself with someone who wasn''t her family. Which was new and exciting.


    It had been around a week since she had met Julius in the library and apologized to him. During that time, they met daily at the library before their classes. It became sort of their routine and unspoken commitment.


    They wouldn''t even talk with each other for a long time. But they were both content as they silently enjoyed the other''s presence. Most of the time it was the two of them reading their own books while Amelia stood by watching with suspicious eyes.


    She still was bothered by not knowing what his skill was. She had tried to pry the secrets out of Julius''s perception skill every day they were there. She was very perturbed by the fact that a boy like Julius was able to completely see through her stealth ability.


    No matter what kind of changes she made, it had no effect. She made sure to vocalize her frustrations to Reinera at night as well.


    That created some slight issues. For Amelia that is, it wasn''t an issue for Reinera. In fact, it was a blessing in disguise.


    The problem was that since Julius was able to sense Amelia no matter what she tried, that led to the unavoidable dilemma of Amelia following her around everywhere she went as Princess Reinera. If he was somehow able to sense Amelia following her around like a little duckling, then it wouldn''t take a genius to guess the relationship between Grace and Reinera.


    That was why Amelia had started to give her more space, at least when she knew that Julius might be in the vicinity. She wasn''t going to lie, she was savoring those moments. Just knowing that she didn''t have someone watching over her shoulder made her feel more free. It was also funny to see Amelia upset about not knowing what to do about Julius''s unique skill.


    On another note, she started to learn about Julius. It was slow, but she learned that just like her, he loved food with a passion, which she already knew, but was still nice to confirm. She also found out that he had a small little life spirit named Drasil as a familiar.


    One day when he arrived at the library, he brought out the adorable green little spirit. Drasil was quite unique even to some of the other life spirits she had seen in the past. This one seemed very aware for a spirit at its stage.


    Many of the other spirit familiars she had seen were just simple little blobs of mana when they were that young. Drasil, on the other hand, acted very intelligent. He was also quite the glutton to her immense amusement.


    She was pretty confident that the spirit had inherited that particular trait from his contractor.


    Amelia was curious as to why Julius would pick a life spirit as a familiar instead of a fire spirit and asked him why. He responded that he had a small affinity for life and chose it because he thought a life spirit would be cute.


    Amelia didn''t quite agree with that logic, but then again it wasn''t abnormal to choose familiars based on appearances. And to be fair, fire spirits were infamous for being little balls of destruction and mischief.


    There was just one major thing that continued to bother her.


    It was the fact that she had been lying to her newfound friend. And the pessimistic side of her wondered if he would still be her friend if she told him the truth.


    Sadly, she definitely could see him feeling betrayed by her secret and feeling like she had been lying to him since day one. Then not want to be friends anymore. Even worse, she couldn''t blame him for feeling that way. sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    That was what scared her the most. The possibility that he wouldn''t want to be her friend once he knew who she was and she wouldn''t be able to do anything about it.


    So far she had been able to make excuses about what classes she was in. But every time she saw him in Applied Combat, she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. She had talked about telling him with Amelia a few nights ago, but she had been adamant she should not tell him.


    It wasn''t that Reinera didn''t agree with her either. Amelia made some valid points. She hadn''t known Julius for very long. It had only been a week since they had been meeting up in the mornings.


    But it felt like it had been much longer.


    Today was the first time they had agreed to meet with each other outside of the library. He had invited her to eat dinner with him along with the others. To which she readily said yes.


    She hadn''t been able to apologize to the rest of them. That was kind of her plan for today.


    She stood out in front of the cafeteria waiting where Julius told her to. Amelia wasn''t with her at the moment, there were some things she needed to take care of.


    While she waited, she tried to rehearse her apology to the others. Julius had already told her that he mentioned their meet-ups in the library and notified them that she apologized to him, but she still wanted to apologize to them directly.


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    Not too long after, she saw Julius along with Lily, Edgar, and Aubrey approach the cafeteria. Three of them were seemingly cheering up a downtrodden Lily, who looked quite weary.


    Julius was the first to see her and waved his hand at her as he headed toward her. She gave a tentative wave back at him with a small grin.


    "I see you came," he commented when he got within earshot.


    "Of course I did. I said I would, didn''t I?" She said in mock offense.


    He shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t know. I wouldn''t be surprised if Amelia told you not to."


    She playfully swatted him on the shoulder. "She has been much better. You got to admit that," she told him.


    She saw him reluctantly grumble out an agreement. She then turned to the others who had also made their way over. They all were wearing friendly smiles, a more welcoming greeting than she had been expecting.


    She took a deep breath and looked at each one of them. "I want to¡­"


    Before she could even get more than a few words out of her mouth, Aubrey interrupted her with a slash of her hand. "It''s okay. Julius already said that you apologized to him as did Amelia. If he said he''s fine with it, then that''s enough for me," she said offhandedly.


    She saw Edgar nudge the tall brunette with his shoulder. "You shouldn''t keep cutting people off like that," he lightly rebuked.


    Aubrey looked around confused. "Why? We already knew what she was going to say. I just saved us some time and awkward moments," she justified.


    The other three all sighed in unison. While she felt a little unsure of what to do.


    In the end, they entered the cafeteria together without her being able to properly apologize to them. Which meant that all of her practicing felt like it was for naught.


    On another note, when she did enter the upperclassmen cafeteria, she noticed that she garnered quite a bit of attention. One guy and his friends in particular seemed to be really interested in her entrance.


    Yet, the others didn''t even seem to acknowledge the stares they got, it was almost like they were used to it. Even Julius got his fair share of stares.


    As they ate dinner together, she started to understand why Julius was able to fit in with such an esteemed group of people. Just like how he didn''t treat her any differently than a normal person, he didn''t try to do the same with the others. He made jokes, he teased, and was teased in return.


    As a matter of fact, he was getting teased at the very moment.


    "I''m glad you finally found yourself a girlfriend to settle down with," Aubrey said to Julius with a big smirk on her face.


    Reinera immediately felt a flush in her face as she realized what Aubrey was implicating.


    "Maybe, it will get you to stop training like a maniac and appreciate the finer parts of life," Aubrey laughed loudly at her own joke. "Ouch!" she flinched, holding her head in pain and looking over at Lily with surprise.


    Lily pretended to ignore her and continued eating her meal, but there was a smug grin on her face as she did.


    Reinera giggled and looked over at Julius who was shaking his head exasperated at her teasing.


    Overall, she found herself a lot of fun with them and hoped that she would have the chance to do so again.


    ***


    Julius POV


    Julius finally made the choice to invite Grace with him to dinner with the others. And it went surprisingly well, she wasn''t talkative, but she was a good listener and was always paying attention to whatever stories the others told.


    It helped that Amelia wasn''t there as well. While she had been admittedly better ever since her apology, Julius still thought she was too uptight. She was also very annoyingly persistent in finding out what kind of perception skill he had.


    He kind of wished he hadn''t revealed that to them, but oh well. It was just another thing he had to deal with.


    To be honest, the introduction of Grace in his daily routine was a nice change of pace. The past week had involved a lot of time for him just becoming more comfortable with his new Concepts as well as his new skill. He also experienced a wave of soul fatigue after he acquired them. That meant that he wasn''t able to make it to the Tier 3 delve he and Declan had planned. Which made him sad.


    On the bright side, he learned some valuable things about his new Concepts. His Concept of Will: Inexorable Resolve was the easiest to figure out. It was a simple Concept, that acted much differently than his Severing Will Concept.


    There weren''t any offensively powerful applications he was able to figure out yet, but it was very effective at what the name described. His resolve and dedication seemed to strengthen considerably whenever he let the Concept infused throughout himself and [Sage of Savagery].


    It seemed more like a passive Concept, whereas his Sharpness Concept was powerfully destructive. One thing that he did notice, was that whenever he and Lily practiced with aura, his aura was much denser than before. It made Lily''s attempts to move it around and suppress it very difficult for her. While he hadn''t found a way to use it for offensive aura combat, it was a very good defensive measure against aura attacks that worked very well with Severing Will.


    His newly acquired Fire Concept was a different story altogether. Adding it to his [Armaments of the Arcane] was easy, like really easy. It took less than a few minutes to connect his skill with it. However, he felt like something was different about the Concept. It wasn''t quite the same as the other two Concepts.


    He kept on playing around with it, trying to figure out the reason. But he wasn''t able to see what was the issue.


    He even asked the others for help. Edgar, he found out had a Fire Concept, along with an Earth Concept. That made him a perfect person to ask for help.


    At first, Edgar had been surprised to learn that Julius already had another Concept. However, the big fourth-year appeared to give up on putting any expectations on Julius. It was also prudent to mention that Julius hasn''t shared anything about his other Concept or his newly evolved skill just yet.


    The big teenager gave him some useful pointers, but at the end of the day, Edgar used his Concept with his physical enhancement skills, not with a mana construct skill. So the amount of information that he could offer was limited.


    He did say that he shouldn''t worry too much. Edgar''s own Fire Concept took a long time before it became what it is today. Concepts went through growth just as skills did, so he assured Julius that just because his Concept felt like this today, didn''t mean it would necessarily feel the same next week.


    It made him feel a lot better about his Concept. For a little while, he was worried that he had rushed it and somehow gotten a faulty Fire Concept. It was good to know that there were opportunities to improve it. Though, he didn''t know exactly how he was going to go about that.

 Chapter 152: Tier 3 Rift with Declan

    Julius slipped Edgar''s jab with a jerk of the head. Then he used [Quick Step] to dash closer and threw a left hook into Edgar''s gut, but the large boy dropped his right hand, blocking his strike easily.He made sure to detonate whatever kinetic energy he was able to build up into Edgar''s arm. He already knew that it wouldn''t do any damage to the fourth year, still, he needed to force Edgar to use up as much mana as he could.


    Something that Julius had learned throughout their many spars, was that Edgar used two different physical enhancement skills. One was for his fire affinity and the other was for his earth affinity.


    It was a large reason why Edgar had some outstanding physical defense and offense for a Tier 3. Julius was pretty certain that both of the skills were epic ranked, however, that left one weakness in the skill''s function.


    It used up a lot of mana.


    Well¡­ A lot of mana for a physical enhancement skill if he was being completely transparent. It still didn''t mean that he was in any real danger of running out of mana. Not unless he fought for an extended duration.


    Which was exactly what Julius was planning. However, there was a problem with that as well. Edgar had the stamina of an ox. Without Julius''s healing skill recovering his fatigue, he would have been totally worn out.


    At first, Julius didn''t want to use his healing skill at all when he sparred with Edgar, but Edgar made some really good points. For one, the more often he could heal his fatigue, the more often he would be able to fight and improve.


    The other reason was that since Julius had already chosen to forgo using his mana constructs, he needed something to balance the scales. Otherwise, it wouldn''t be a fight.


    Still, he didn''t want to rely on it too much, hence he only used the healing skill whenever he absolutely needed it.


    Additionally, it wasn''t just Julius who wasn''t wearing his bracelets. Edgar had also chosen not to wear them. He told Julius that it was good practice to fight without such limiters and aids. The others didn''t necessarily agree with him, but Julius did.


    He also believed that was the main reason why Edgar was so different from the others. The way he fought was more brutalistic. He was strong, fast, perceptive, and had zero hesitation in his movements.


    He could see why he was considered one of the strongest students at Goldencrest. Although Julius wasn''t using mana-based constructs, he didn''t have any illusion that he would win in a fight against Edgar even if he was.


    If anything, the best shot he had of beating Edgar was like this. Fist against fist.


    Edgar just had too many potent defensive skills that worked effectively against anything mana-based. That was mainly the reason why Julius had taken this opportunity to learn firsthand from one of the best hand-to-hand combat prodigies at Goldencrest.


    Gabriel''s class only did so much. He learned techniques and striking forms, but it was only with Edgar that he was able to put them to the test.


    Julius had recently been trying a new tactic against Edgar. This plan relied on using his smaller size and explosiveness, a benefit from his kinetic energy, to get in close and cause chaos.


    He sent a surge of power through [Sage of Savagery] and felt his entire focus narrow down until it was just the two of them. His new epic skill was quite good in his personal opinion. It didn''t have the flashiness as [Armaments of the Arcane], but it was very effective.


    Immediately, Edgar''s movements were noticeably slower than before. It was as if Julius''s perception of time was affected. A previously lightning-fast punch was now just merely fast.


    Unfortunately, it seemed that it was no longer possible to enhance his concentration skill with [Empowerment of Will]. That was one downside of upgrading the skill to epic. Still, it wasn''t that big of a loss when compared to what he had gained.


    Although he had to take a step or two backward, he also was able to progress by three or four steps. It was a net positive and it was also nice that he no longer needed to use so much mental focus on empowering [Savage Dance].


    Another unexpected benefit of the skill was its ability to tame the chaotic style of Julius''s fighting. It was as if the skill had been made for it.


    Edgar was still undoubtedly more skilled when it came to pure technical prowess. However, Julius was an unrelenting beast. He reveled in the chaos and it was like he was a fish in water. He blitzed Edgar with everything he had. Throwing in as many strikes and feints as he could safely manage, trying to overload Edgar''s ability to manage the flow of the fight.


    And it was working. He felt like he was a Sage of Savagery. He didn''t care about taking a brutal strike to the stomach, not if he was able to land a single strike in return. He instinctually understood which attacks he could take and which ones he needed to avoid. He had a healing skill, and while he didn''t overuse it, he still made sure to use it effectively and during the right moments.


    Unfortunately, Edgar was a fighter with unbelievable physical strength. Julius suspected that he was already well into the level of Tier 4 when it came to sheer physical abilities. Which made it very difficult for Julius to handle him, despite having a skill that helped slow his perception of time. While he knew what he had to do, his body simply wasn''t able to keep up with his mind. Likely an effect of having an epic-ranked concentration skill at Tier 2.


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    Eventually, even with the untold aggression from Julius, Edgar was able to take advantage of his superior physicality and end the fight. He managed to wrap Julius up in a clinch and began to brutalize him with elbows and even a headbutt.


    Julius tried his best to escape the hold, but Edgar was like a steel clamp. There was no escaping his grasp. Therefore, Julius made the best of it and began trading elbows and headbutts of his own.


    He could confidently say that he came out worse of the exchange, but he was proud that he got Edgar with a few good shots in at the end. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The large boy was sporting several large bruises over his face as well. Granted, it took Julius practically fracturing his brain to do so, but he still considered it a win.


    After he healed himself, he went over to Edgar and healed the boy''s bruises as well, getting an appreciative nod in return.


    Julius and Edgar both left the training facilities and headed off in different directions. Julius was going to go relax for a little bit before his nightly training, while Edgar had promised Aubrey that they would hang out.


    While he was walking he checked out his notifications.


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 1 -> lvl 2]


    Julius was pretty excited for tomorrow. It was the weekend and he had plans to meet up with Declan. Last week they were supposed to go to the rift, but after Julius''s Concept session, he was a little burned out in the soul department.


    It wasn''t anything too bad. His soul evolution helped offset the potential damage he might have gotten if it was before. Still, he understood that he needed a small break. However, tomorrow would be the day when he would finally delve into another Tier 3 rift.


    A part of him was very excited and another part was very anxious. He was curious as to how he would do in a real Tier 3 rift. As far as he was able to find out, the troll rift wasn''t exactly a normal rift experience.


    I guess, I will find out pretty soon, Julius thought to himself.


    ***


    He met Declan at the location of the Tier 3 rift. Unlike the Tier 2 rifts, the Tier 3 rift was located in an isolated area on the edge of the city. Julius could barely sense any people in the area.


    The guards who were on duty were also very different than the ones from before. The one who approached them was high Tier 3. The one''s from the Tier 2 rifts, felt a little empty in comparison.


    "Authorization," the guard demanded.


    Julius calmly passed over the access card to the guard who looked at Declan and Julius with calculating eyes. His gaze lingered on Julius for a moment longer than he did with Declan but quickly passed back the card when he confirmed its authenticity.


    "Go on through," the guard told them, stepping to the side to allow them to pass.


    When Julius walked into the building that held the rift, he noticed that the overall aesthetic was very similar to the ones from before. Large pillars supported the room around the swirling blue portal at the center of the room. However, one thing stood out.


    Massive amounts of mana were being emitted by the enchantments that were active around the room. But what was interesting about it, was that Julius could somewhat sense the enchantments using the leaking mana from the rift to power the inscriptions.


    It was quite a brilliant idea in his opinion. The Tier 3 rift had much more energy coming from it than a Tier 2 rift and the enchanters made sure that this structure took advantage of it.


    Tier 3 rifts, unlike Tier 2 rifts, were more busy. That was the reason why Julius had to make a reservation, claiming the time for their delve. If he hadn''t done that, they would have had to wait until there was an opening like the group of people he saw on the other side of the room were probably doing.


    He gave them a quick glance and spotted that almost every one of them was wearing full gear. There was a large man, almost as large as Gabriel who was standing in front with his arms crossed over his thick armored chest. His gaze followed Julius''s and Declan''s movements across the room, it wasn''t a threatening look but simply just observational.


    The other members of his group included a tall man in sleek silver armor, carrying two swords on his waist. A pretty woman who wore light leather armor and a large black bow slung over her back stood next to him. Then there was a handsome shorter young man who carried a staff and wore a slim-fitting robe that was still practical to run. Finally, there was a man who only wore a black jacket and grey pants.


    The man in the jacket piqued Julius''s interest. While he wasn''t directly looking at them like the larger man in thick armor was, Julius felt the man''s aura calmly extending outward toward them, poking and prodding their aura.


    He was sure that Declan managed to sense it, but it was only due to Lily''s training that Julius had been able to catch it. He nodded his head to himself in acknowledgment. It was a skilled display of aura.


    They all seemed very curious as to what a person Julius''s age was doing at a Tier 3 rift. While Julius was wearing the black cloth that Dante made, his younger features couldn''t be completely hidden with a piece of fabric.


    The tall man with two swords, the lady in leathers, and the young man in robes were looking at Julius with frowns and looks of disgust. They most likely believed that Julius was some sort of noble son who was getting help from Declan. It was common enough that it wasn''t surprising though.


    The only people who didn''t seem to look at Julius with looks of derision were the large man and the man with the jacket. The two of them had undecipherable looks on their faces, but it was more of curiosity than disdain.


    Julius and Declan ignored their gazes and sat down on the bench in front of the rift, waiting for one group to leave the portal.


    Declan had explained to Julius that this particular rift had several separate areas, which allowed multiple groups to delve without interfering with the other groups. However, they still needed to wait until another group left before they headed in.


    Luckily, they didn''t have to wait for long. In less than ten minutes, Julius spotted a group emerge from the portal. There were four of them. Two of them were young. One was a boy and the other was a girl. They couldn''t have been much older than Julius. He wouldn''t be surprised if he learned that they actually went to Goldencrest.


    The other two were middle-aged and both Tier 4. Their auras were suppressed, but what leaked out was undeniable.


    They had an Authority of their own. Julius subconsciously swallowed his saliva as he felt the heavy presence of these two people. While, they weren''t as strong as Gabriel''s or even Declan''s, the two men did not hold their presence back nearly as well.

 Chapter 153: Seeing How He Does

    He stood up and wiped off the crumbs from the pastry he had been munching on from his clothes. The black cloth made it more difficult to eat, and he ended up with buttery flakes all over it, but it was worth it. It would have been a crime to waste such a delicious treat.Julius activated [Sage of Savagery] just a little so that he wasn''t affected by their presence. There was an immediate difference. The weight that he felt sitting on his chest was no more and he felt completely comfortable as they walked by him.


    They didn''t give him a second look, but their eyes did land on Declan for a long while. One guy in particular seemed to recognize Declan.


    After they exited the portal, he and Declan were free to enter whenever they wished. He saw some envious glances from the group on the other side of the room, but he didn''t pay them much care.


    He didn''t say anything when he walked by but Julius noticed the two men instantly went more on guard when they strode past them, toward a section where another guard was waiting for them.


    He walked over and touched the rift with his palm.


    Notice: Would you like to enter the rift?


    He mentally selected yes, and was dragged through the rift along with Declan.


    In a bright flash of blue light, he found himself standing on a craggy rock surface. However, what really caught his attention was the large breezes of wind that smashed into him. Since he wasn''t expecting such a welcome, he almost was tossed right off his feet.


    He looked around and saw that he was somewhere with large canyon walls. The rocky material was sleek gray and had a lot of flora growing out of the rock.


    Off in the distance, he could see a waterfall crashing down the side of the canyon, where it opened up to a large field.


    According to the information about the rift, the natural environment changed a lot depending on which area you entered. It also mentioned that, unlike the rifts that Julius had done already, this rift doesn''t only have one monster species.


    Many varieties of species came together to form an actual ecosystem. Whether that came to be because of the amount of time that this rift had been cultivated or whether it was just random chance, he didn''t know.


    He did know, however, that there would be a snake-like creature that used camouflage to hide in the gray slate rock. In fact, he had already spotted one hiding a hundred paces ahead.


    However, he ignored it for now and turned to Declan who was standing next to him with a questioning look.


    "So what''s the plan?" He asked.


    ***


    Declan POV


    Declan scratched his chin and gave Julius an assessing look. To be honest, he didn''t really know what he was going to do. The logical side of him wanted to safely test Julius one monster at a time, making sure that the boy had a good grasp on vigilance.


    However, there was nothing logical about Julius. The boy was a walking contradiction. Proof of a person who went against all norms.


    Otherwise, what kind of person would be as powerful as Julius was as a Tier 2? Not only that, but Declan was able to sense a subtle weight to Julius''s soul that hadn''t been there when he last saw him. It almost felt like the weight of a Tier 3 soul. If he didn''t know better, he would have guessed that Julius had gone through his soul evolution already.


    However, that was ridiculous, he knew that Julius was working toward an epic skill, but even if he were to achieve that, there was no way that would have been enough. Despite the plethora of rare skills Julius undoubtedly had, the only way he should have been able to go through a soul evolution, was if he already had a powerful soul.


    Declan paused at that thought. Ah, that''s it, he realized.


    It was then that he remembered that he had made that same observation when he first met Julius.


    Now that he was beginning to put together the pieces, he was pretty confident that Julius had already gone through his soul evolution.


    That changed things a lot. He admittedly already had a plan, but that plan was for the Julius he believed he was going to see. This Julius was different. More powerful, despite it only being a couple of weeks since he last saw him.


    On top of that, he picked up on something that stood out to him. He felt a sense of resoluteness and perseverance come off of Julius which was dense and unyielding.


    Was it another Concept? Perhaps, a Concept of Will? I wouldn''t be surprised, the boy''s seemingly endless drive to improve is the perfect catalyst to acquire a Concept of Will, Declan thought to himself. His own Concept of Will seemingly resonated with something inside of Julius.


    "Earth to Declan?" Julius asked while waving his hand in front of Declan''s face.


    He looked down at the short crazy boy. "I''m still thinking. Don''t be so impatient," he told him.


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    He heard a humph from Julius, but the boy remained silent.


    Finally, Declan made some adjustments to how they would proceed. He would try to see how well Julius could handle this rift all on his own. At first, he had been planning to help out in the initial stages and step in when he thought it was getting dicey.


    But now that Julius was stronger than a few weeks ago, he wanted to see where the boy was at.


    He turned to Julius who was still staring at him with expectant eyes. "Do what you want. I will just follow behind. Your overall goal is to take down as many monsters as safely as possible." Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He saw a really excited grin emerge on Julius''s face, but it was quickly hidden with a thought. "So my only rules are to be to take down as many monsters while remaining safe?" He asked carefully.


    Declan nodded his head at him.


    "And I can start whenever?"


    "Yes, whenever you are ready, go ahead," Declan said.


    Julius turned around and with a lot more life in his step, began to walk down the canyon, softly humming to himself.


    Declan almost caught himself about to scold Julius about his carelessness and remind him that he needed to keep an eye on his surroundings. But he also knew that the boy was likely more aware of what was around them than Declan was.


    He had never seen the boy caught off guard yet. He wouldn''t be surprised if Julius already noticed the snake that was hiding on the rocky surface just up ahead.


    And he was quickly proven right. Declan watched as Julius created a mana construct over his shoulder with casual ease. It was almost terrifying seeing the process of the construct''s creation. That was undoubtedly the epic skill that Julius had been working on.


    There was so much power within the finger-sized spike. It wasn''t even that, but unlike previously, the construct wasn''t red, it was a soft violet-blue hue. He could immediately tell that the heat was much hotter than Julius''s typical fire.


    Without even looking at the snake camouflage on the wall, he sent the attack tearing through the air at the snake.


    It wasn''t fair to the snake. It was exploded into two pieces before it even knew what hit it. The remaining top half of its body flailed around, trying to see who had attacked it. The vitality of a Tier 3 monster was on a completely different level though. Although it had been blasted into two pieces, it was still alive.


    However, that didn''t last for long when Julius sent another similar small spike that exploded the rest of it.


    As they were walking by the corpse of the snake, Declan felt Julius use a bit of aura to grab ahold of it, bringing it over to him. Then he watched as Julius proceeded to cover his hand with a thin layer of mana and reach into the split skull of the snake, pulling out its core.


    Julius calmly pocketed the core into his pocket and resumed his walk down the canyon as if nothing happened. Like he hadn''t just eviscerated a monster an entire Tier above him without a care.


    Damn, I knew after the golem dungeon that Julius had the power to back his confidence up, but seeing it on actual Tier 3s was a lot different, Declan told himself.


    At the very end of the canyon, they ran into another snake that was hidden away. This one was a little smaller than the last one, but it was more aware as well.


    It was able to sense Julius''s attack before it reached it and moved out of the way with a burst of speed. Declan looked over to Julius who was frowning at his missed attack.


    The snake wasn''t trying to attack Julius right away but was slithering across the canyon''s wall. Not staying still for a single second. It was pretty fast, which on top of its smaller size, made it difficult to shoot from a distance.


    However, that didn''t deter Julius. Declan watched as Julius created dozens of small needles of mana around. He could see where Julius was going with it. He was planning to use weaker but a larger number of needles to pin down the snake.


    Declan watched as over two dozen needles flew from Julius''s shoulder and rained down on the snake. Only three of the needles managed to hit the snake, but that was enough.


    He sensed an influx of mana and the needles detonated while still lodged in the snake. It wasn''t as potent as the spike had been, but the needles still put nice-sized holes into the snake''s scales.


    It slowed it down just enough for Julius to hit it again with a dozen more needles. This time almost all of the needles stuck into their target. Two of them even lodged themselves into the back of the snake''s neck and blew off its head.


    Julius retrieved the core just like last time and exited the canyon with a look around at his surroundings.


    Declan joined him and looked around as well. They were in a field of tall grass and rolling hills. There were a couple of grouped-up trees scattered around, but the most noticeable thing to Declan was the large group of monsters he sensed in the distance.


    With his [Eyes of the Hunter] skill, he was able to see that the monsters were a wolf variant that was common in this rift. They were wind-attributed wolves that used their superior speed and smell to hunt in the tall grass.


    Declan wasn''t worried about the sneaking-up part. Julius would be able to sense them long before they could ambush. However, he was worried about the sheer number of the group of wolves. He had only seen Julius handle a group of goblins so far. And that wasn''t exactly a good test of skill for fighting against a larger number of opponents. Yet, there were well over a dozen wolves in this group.


    He wanted to see how Julius would react when he was pressured by a large number of opponents who closed the distance before he could use his constructs.


    And he wasn''t disappointed.


    The moment the wolves started to dash toward Julius, the boy already created over a dozen spikes and sent them hurdling at the wolves. The wolves'' superior senses were able to recognize the attack before it reached them. They tried to dodge them, but since Julius had smartly layered the spikes in an all-encompassing attack, a few wolves still got clipped by the exploding spikes.


    Julius tried to blast himself away to give him more time to create more constructs. He also controlled the spikes that missed to shoot around and do another volley along with his newly created spikes.


    Still, the wolves were fast. Their skill gave them so much speed that they must have looked like a blur of motion to Julius''s vision.


    Declan watched as Julius recognized he wouldn''t be able to ignore close combat with a frown. I guess it was too much to expect a Tier 2 to take on so many Tier 3 wolves who specialized in speed.


    However, just as he was about to step in, he froze when he saw the completely calm look on the boy''s face. There wasn''t even an ounce of panic. Suddenly, mana swirled around Julius in a complicated weave. In a matter of a second, Julius was completely covered in a set of constructed armor. From head to toe, he wore an elegant armor of hardened red mana.


    Before the wolves reached Julius, the boy shockingly dashed forward with a swift step that had him appear in the mix of them with a loud bang. Then Julius''s armored fist crashed into the lead wolve with an earth-shattering crack.


    Declan watched on stunned as the boy took apart the wolves with alarming brutality. However, he then started to become a little concerned when he heard the boy laugh maniacally.

 Chapter 154: Passion

    Julius crashed his fist against the nimble wolf. He could practically see the surprise from the wolf as his knuckle covered in spikes obliterated the wolf''s jaw.It was blasted away with a high-pitched whine and Julius was quickly swarmed by the rest of the wolves. There were too many to block each attack, so he focused on the ones within his reach while ignoring the rest.


    He had [Barrier of Severance] active along with his armor which protected him from most of the damage that he took. It probably did more damage to the wolves than they were doing to him.


    The vicious snarling of the wolves didn''t bother him, he had [Sage of Savagery] active and he was deadly calm. However, the skill also touched on some of the more primal aspects of himself. There was a hint of savagery behind his eyes and he felt a little more invigorated than he did under the influence of [Savage Dance].


    He matched the wolves ferocity and more. He was a never-ending storm of offense, using liberal pulses of fire and kinetic energy to blast and burn the wolves around him. Whenever they tried to pin him down, he would direct the flying spikes he was still controlling to ram into the wolves.


    It was very effective, the wolves who were so distracted by the close combat brawl didn''t notice the flying spikes of death until they were too late. While Julius got caught up in the explosion a little bit, his ability to control kinetic energy and fire helped him absorb much of the force and even reuse the mana to keep his armor fueled.


    After a minute, he had injured many of the wolves, but the rest were in a frenzy and were even faster than before. Luckily, they had no technique. Their speed almost rivaled Edgar''s and would have been an issue if they knew how to actually fight. But they were just going off of pure animalistic instinct.


    However, it was fun. He was having a blast. For the first time in a while, he felt the pressure of a real fight. It made him grin widely. Thankfully, nobody could see it underneath his helm. If they had, they would have suspected Julius of being mentally deranged for smiling as a pack of powerful wolves assaulted him.


    Still, he allowed himself to enjoy this moment. Sparring was fun and all, but there wasn''t any danger to it, not for Julius. He knew that the person he was fighting didn''t want to hurt him.


    But these wolves were very much set on killing Julius. He was pretty confident of that.


    Every move he made resulted in him striking a wolf. It felt like there were endless amounts of wolves, although he knew that there were only around eighteen of them.


    They didn''t care that his barrier was cutting apart their limbs and mouths. Either way, they just tried their best to maul his skin from his face.


    He would rather avoid that if possible. He liked his face. It wasn''t the most handsome face, but it was his face and he would protect it.


    That was also a good reason why any wolf that lunged toward his face got some special attention. He made sure to give whatever wolf was daring enough to try to bite off his face a strike with a little more care.


    It was chaos and he loved every second of it.


    He felt one of the wolves latch onto the joint around his knee with its jaw, using some sort of aura-based skill to crush his leg. The joint was a little more weak than the other sections of his armor. It was a concession he had to make if he wanted something that was flexible.


    He did the first thing that came to mind. He exploded it.


    He made sure to direct all of the energy outward so that the wolf that was latched on took an explosion that was on the same level as his spikes right down its throat.


    Safe to say that their mouths had much less protection than their bodies. The wolf''s entire head popped like an overfed mosquito. It was simultaneously cool and disgusting.


    He had made sure to create another thinner layer underneath before he exploded it, so when the dust cleared, the armor was replaced like nothing happened.


    Then he continued tearing apart the wolves with his two hands and two feet.


    While the wolves were still monsters, they had some intelligence. Eventually, there was an opening that Julius left open. It was unavoidable when it came to fighting.


    The wolves'' instincts jumped on it the moment it showed itself. Three of their members sacrificed themselves to fully distract him. They knew that leaving themselves would mean their deaths, but to them, it was worth it if their pack survived. He felt their resolve echo outward with his Concept.


    It would have been a touching emotion if not for them trying to eat him. He pushed down any pity he had for them out of the way. He wouldn''t get distracted by stuff like that anymore. He had a better understanding of his goals and what he would need to do to accomplish it. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


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    Julius sensed Declan off to the side looking on worriedly, he could practically feel the man''s feet twitching to run and save him from the suicide attack.


    He appreciated the thought, but he wanted to show that Declan didn''t have anything to worry about. He heard himself subconsciously let loose a loud laugh in excitement and realized that he had been laughing the entire time.


    He blushed in embarrassment under his helm. I probably sound like a crazed person, Julius thought to himself.


    He didn''t let himself get too distracted though.


    The wolves who had left themselves open got a spike right through their throat as a reprisal. And their friends who didn''t allow their sacrifice go in vain, crunched down on his armor. He felt his armor cut apart their mouths, but they didn''t care. All they cared about was tearing him into pieces.


    Two particularly large wolves managed to get their jaws around the joint on his elbow and using a lot of wind mana, they overloaded their strike and broke through his armor. It caused the two wolves to sustain a lot of damage in their own mouths, but it was worth it to them. They did their jobs.


    They backed off, nursing their wounds, and two new ones leaped toward his exposed flesh. But he allowed them to. While they were doing that he was putting down three other wolves who were harassing him for good. A brutal smash with his spiked gauntlets eviscerated the wolves'' faces and the pistons he created on his feet crushed the chests of the others.


    Afterward, he put his attention back to his arm. The wolves who latched onto his arm ripped it apart. The durability of his skin wasn''t even close to the level of his construct armor and was torn apart like wet paper.


    However, he didn''t care. The pain was present, but he knew that he didn''t need to be worried. The wolves were wasting their time. He maneuvered the construct around the rest of his arm to slither down and wrap around the distracted wolves.


    Once they realized what was happening, it was too late. Julius manipulated the mana and compressed the construct around the wolves like a python. But instead of just constricting them, he deployed sharpened spikes and pierced the wolves.


    Then with a quick mental command, the construct compacted them like garbage, the spikes spearing into them and tearing them apart in a splatter of blood.


    He sent a big blast of kinetic energy that he had been accumulating and blasted the wolves nearest to him in a spray of blood, giving him a second to reset.


    He sent a burst of mana through his healing skill and his arm was regenerated within a second. It was like new, other than the old burn scars that still hadn''t healed, his skin was flawless. Then just as quickly a new layer of armor covered his exposed flesh with a surge of mana.


    The other wolves who were still alive looked on at Julius who just healed before their very eyes. They weren''t the smartest creatures, but seeing their opponent heal with a blink was not a good sign, even they could realize that.


    He saw it within their eyes. These wolves were beginning to feel scared, he could practically smell the fear that emanated from their aura. It was palpable.


    Still, they weren''t cowards and after a brief pause, the rest of the pack swarmed him again.


    However, during this time Julius had been creating more spikes around him. By the time they reached him, he had created well over a dozen very strong and very deadly violet-colored spikes that were floating above him.


    He then tried out something new. He jumped as high as he could, using as much kinetic energy as he could. The force blasted him straight into the air. Once he was over several dozen feet in the air, he sent the entire bombardment of spikes raining down on the wolves.


    There was a bright flash and a deafening boom. The entire ground within fifty paces exploded into flames. After the shockwave was finished, there was an eerie silence that enveloped the field.


    He fell from the sky and when he landed, turned to look at Declan who was staring at the destruction with a look of awe.


    ***


    Declan POV


    He looked at the field of tall grass and then at the large crater that stood at the center of it. Then he turned to look at the softly falling boy who was responsible for it.


    As the boy touched upon the scorched dirt, his intimidating armor swirled and the mana that made it up was sucked into a single point over his shoulders as an orb. The orb itself was positively pulsing with barely restrained power.


    Julius was no longer laughing like a madman, but he did wear a satisfied smile on his face. It was like he was injected with a thousand days worth of sleep. He calmly walked around the scorched bodies of the wolves and occasionally sent a small dart of mana from the orb to the few remaining wolves who were alive. Not that it mattered, the wolves wouldn''t live to see another minute, it was a mercy killing and he was sure that Julius understood that as well.


    Then suddenly, the violet flames that were softly flickering around the grass, burning the surrounding area, were pulled back to Julius. Declan felt another prickling with his Authority. It was the feeling of another Concept.


    It wasn''t the Sharpness Concept or the Will Concept that he had felt before. But it was different. This one was a Fire Concept.


    He laughed out loud. This boy not only had two Concepts, but even a third one.


    It wasn''t just that either. If that was all the boy had, then Declan would think of him as an immensely talented boy, but that would be it. He had heard of scions and geniuses found in the gutters who also had similar talents for comprehending Concepts. In fact, he knew a boy who had learned a Concept of Water just by seeing a lake for the first time.


    There were many unknown geniuses in the world. But it was rare for this level of comprehension talent to be paired with Julius''s other talents. The boy was dangerous, in a good way though.


    The way he fought was what set him apart from the other geniuses in his opinion. Declan didn''t sense a hint of panic or fear from the boy''s aura the entire fight. Not when they swarmed him and not even when they tore apart his arm. He was composed and most importantly, he clearly enjoyed it.


    There were many strong people in the Empire, but the ones who stood above the rest always had one thing that the others didn''t.


    Passion.


    Some would rather call it craziness but at the end of the day, it was their dedication and passion that got them to the top.


    And when he looked at Julius and his big blinding smile, something told him that wasn''t a thing the boy was lacking. He just hoped his own passion wasn''t the thing that broke him.

 Chapter 155: Unknown Assailant

    Julius was all pumped up. While each wolf wasn''t that much of a challenging opponent on their own, the sheer number of them gave that adrenaline rush that he had been craving for a while.They were also much more intelligent than he had been expecting. The way they worked together as a pack was admirable and would have forced many other people into dire straights.


    In fact, now that he could look back on it, the strength of each wolf was stronger than each troll. The only memorable thing about the trolls was their insane regeneration. Everything else was below average for a Tier 3 monster.


    The speed of the wolves completely outclassed the trolls, it wasn''t even funny. If he had to deal with these wolves when he was Tier 1, he would have been ripped apart before he could even react.


    Furthermore, the strength of each wolf was shockingly high, the force he felt from their jaws was crazy strong. Then when added to the skill they used to empower their attacks, it made the trolls seem like toddlers who swung their club in comparison.


    Though, to be fair, those toddlers were pseudo-immortal self-regenerating monsters, so they were still scary.


    However, he was thanking his lucky stars that trolls had been his opponent in that rift and not something like those wolves.


    He made sure to look over the notifications he got during the fight.


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 18 -> lvl 19]


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 4 -> lvl 5]


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 2 -> lvl 3]


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 12 -> lvl 13]


    He was a bit surprised at how many level-ups he got, but he wasn''t going to complain. Though it was nice to see that [Kinetic Augmentation] was at that final step of level 20. However, he also knew that the final level was the hardest one to get.


    Although he was a little bit concerned at the sting of pain he felt in his soul.


    "You need a break?" Julius heard suddenly from behind.


    He turned around to look at Declan who still looking at him like he was some unknown creature found in the woods. "What''s up?" He asked Declan.


    "Do you need to take some time to relax?" The older man repeated.


    Julius shook his head. "Nope, I''m good. Probably used more mana at the end than I needed to, but I still have plenty."


    While he still had more than enough mana to spare, he did realize that he had gone overboard with that last attack. He had been trying to be better about wasting mana and being more efficient, but sometimes it was just so much fun to let loose and not care about expenditure.


    He heard Declan sigh and say something to himself under his breath but continued to walk behind Julius, following him deeper into the rift.


    They didn''t spot another group of monsters for a while and so Julius took that time to ask Declan a question he had thought about earlier.


    "Hey Declan, can I ask you something?" He asked over his shoulder.


    "Of course. What''s the question?"


    "Can you fly?" Julius asked curiously. But he felt Declan stop walking for a moment as he heard the question.


    "Can I fly?" The man asked amused.


    "Yeah, I was wondering if that was something you could start to learn at Tier 4," Julius commented.


    "Technically, yes. But I wouldn''t call it real flying. It''s closer to levitating or floating than flying," Declan told him.


    "What do you mean?" Julius asked.


    "It would probably be easier to show you," Declan said from behind him. Julius turned around and stopped walking to look at Declan.


    He saw the man wrap himself in a blanket of aura and a mixture of something else, that Julius assumed was his Authority. It was powerful, he could feel the pressure coming off of Declan from where he was standing.


    Then slowly Declan''s feet lifted off the ground and glided over to Julius.


    "You see what I mean?" Declan asked him.


    "Yeah, I can definitely see why you consider it levitating and not flying. Is that how high you can go?"


    "No, I can go as high as I want but it takes way too much time to get to that point. In a fight, it is pretty useless, so I don''t find myself using it all that often," the older man explained.


    "It''s still pretty cool though," Julius added.


    Declan chuckled. "Yeah, that''s what my daughter said. She loves it when I float around with her."


    Julius smiled at that imagery. Gabriela was a sweetheart and he could totally see her loving it.


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    "Do you think I would be able to fly?" He asked after a brief moment.


    Declan scratched his head and took a moment to think.


    "Probably," he admitted after a bit.


    "Really!? You think so?" Julius asked excitedly.


    He hadn''t really thought about it all that often, but learning to fly sounded like it would be amazing. Not for combat applications either just for sheer enjoyment.


    Declan smirked at him. "You already have the acceleration down with your kinetic affinity, that''s something that I am lacking. So that just leaves you with being able to sustain the flight."


    Julius was about to say something in response but was rudely interrupted when a very small object entered his perception at an extremely fast speed. It was almost like it was a bullet fired from a rifle.


    It was only because he was completely aware of his surroundings that was able to avoid the attack in time. The small bullet-like object missed him as he turned his body to the side.


    The bullet struck the ground with a soft puff of dirt. It didn''t explode like his spikes did, but there was something surrounding it. It was something very similar to his [Barrier of Severace] skill, something that allowed the object to pierce deeper than it should have been able to. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The problem was that he didn''t know where it came from, which was alarming for him. He almost never not knew where an attack came from.


    However, that meant that the attack likely came from a distance outside of his skill''s influence. He looked at the direction that the attack came from again. Unfortunately, even when he strained his eyes and his aura senses, he wasn''t able to spot anything.


    He immediately became much more serious. He activated all of his skills as the orb that was sitting over his shoulders melted down and formed his set of armor.


    He started to logically think things through. The main hint he had going for him was that he knew the trajectory of the object. From that, he was able to be confident in the fact that it was most likely some sort of flying-type monster. That or a monster that was several dozen feet tall.


    There was nothing in that general area except for the sky.


    Then another strike came at him from behind. Fortunately, this time he was ready for it and he was able to avoid it with plenty of space to spare.


    Still, he didn''t know where it came from. His eyes were able to see where it came from. For the first time in a long time, he was completely blind to his enemy''s attack.


    It was a frustrating experience for him. That was one of his major advantages when it came to fighting, he was always aware of the dangers to himself. Not being able to detect the long-range attack made him feel uneasy.


    However, he continued on his way deeper into the rift where the tall grass was replaced with shorter grass but also more varied terrain. There were a couple of streams of water and more foliage littered across the landscape. It was like a greener and more lush version of a plain.


    Interestingly enough, no other attacks came after the first two attempts, but he still maintained his wariness. He had a feeling that whatever was out there was just looking for a chance to attack him again.


    He turned to look at Declan to ask what the monster was but he stopped himself. Declan was here to watch and ensure nothing bad happened to him. Julius told himself that he wouldn''t go to Declan for help, he would prove that he could handle anything this rift could throw at him.


    Even if it''s something that Julius literally couldn''t see.


    However, he didn''t miss the amused grin on Declan''s face. It was as if the man was glad that something was stumping Julius.


    He made sure to give Declan a small dirty look before concentrating back on his task.


    Eventually, Julius ran across another pack of monsters. These monsters were some sort of version of a jackal. They were all smaller than the wolves he fought before and there weren''t as many of them.


    But something stood out about them. The jackel-like monsters had a sickly aura surrounding them. They had ink-black fur that looked like it would smell putrid. They also had dark green eyes that stared at Julius even across the field of grass, with matching glowing green ichor dripping down their jaws.


    How much do you want to bet that they are venomous? Julius rhetorically asked himself.


    Fortunately, he didn''t have to wait for long in order to see his answer. The jackals soon gave out a high-pitched squeal and rushed toward Julius.


    He had already created dozens of smaller violet spikes and had them lazily hovering over his shoulder. The moment they started to run at him, he sent all of them with a quick mental release.


    The tiny spikes of condensed mana screamed as they tore through the air.


    Julius watched as the jackals created a thin plate of sickly green mana in front of them. The barrier of green mana tried to eat through the spikes he created, but his epic skill was clearly stronger and withstood the effects of their skill.


    Unfortunately, it still allowed the jackals enough time to dodge the majority of the spikes and they allowed them to pass by them with a quick dash of mana-empowered legs.


    However, Julius was smiling. He had done something else to these spikes than usual. He repurposed the kinetic energy he normally stuffed into them for a different reason.


    The moment the spikes missed the jackals, he used every bit of control he had to slow down the flights of the constructs. Then he used the payload of kinetic energy inside of the spikes to blast the spikes backward at the jackals.


    Normally, he would have to let the spikes fly past and then take some time to redirect them for another pass, but instead, he just killed the momentum and used the kinetic energy stored to send the spikes screaming back almost immediately.


    And it worked wonderfully. The jackals never saw the spikes coming. The barriers they had activated in front of them didn''t protect them from attacks from behind. An attack that they weren''t expecting. The spikes that were covered in sharpened mana tore through the pack of monsters.


    They didn''t explode like they normally did, but having several finger-sized spikes drilling through your body was damaging enough. Julius was about to attack again when he had to sidestep and avoid the whistling bullet fly by his head.


    Motherfucker! He cursed his unknown assailant, mentally shaking his fist at it.


    He looked toward the direction of the attack with annoyance but quickly remembered his other foes. He turned back to the jackals and sent out the additional constructs he made soaring to the downed jackals, nailing them into the ground like pincussions.


    Only two of them were able to defend themselves with another shield, but Julius diverted several more spikes to hit them from the side where their shields weren''t protecting them.


    They let out yelps of pain as they were staked into the ground. But their yelps were quickly drowned out by the sounds of explosions of these new spikes. He didn''t put too much into them, he used just enough to kill them.


    Putrid black blood and green ichor exploded from them. He was glad that he didn''t let these monsters any closer. He could practically smell their odor from where he was standing.


    Still, he put on a brave face and surged forward. Their bodies were quite a mess, but at least some of their cores survived, unlike the other wolves.


    The smell was indeed putrid. He learned that whatever they were made up of didn''t smell very nice when mixed with fire.


    As he was digging out the cores he felt another attack enter his perception but this time he didn''t dodge or avoid it. No, he had enough of this annoying little shit. He simply allowed it to hit him right in the chest.

 Chapter 156: Fat Owls

    The bullet from his unknown assailant pierced into his armor with surprising ease. More ease than he had expected from it. However, it further proved his suspicions. Whatever this monster was, it had an epic skill of its own or something involving a Concept.While his armor was completely infused with his Sharpness or Fire Concept, it was still a skill that utilized both Concepts. That also meant that being able to break through it meant one of two things usually. One, overwhelming force. Or two, a Concept of its own.


    And considering the smallish mass of the object, he was leaning toward the second one.


    His armor did slow it down enough that it didn''t completely puncture him, the bullet-like object got stuck inside of him. However, a quick investigation of the object that was lodged in his chest showed that it was made of some sort of metal material.


    It was shockingly dense and heavy for its size. It also had a really good ability to conduct mana, he was able to feel how seamless the flow of mana was able to flow through the small object.


    He noticed that Declan had taken a worried step toward him when he saw Julius get hit by the ambush, but his calm attitude must have assured Declan that he was alright. He also removed his helm from his face and gave Declan a meaningful look.


    It was a look that told Declan not to intervene no matter what. He could see that Declan was more confused than anything else, but the older man gave him a short nod in return.


    Julius smirked to himself as he saw this. He had a plan that was a little bit risky, but one that he thought had a pretty good chance. It might be one of his only chances to lure this unknown monster to him.


    He got as far away from Declan as he could. He didn''t want the Tier 4 old man to scare off this monster.


    Then he pushed a small amount of mana through [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and he felt as the skill pushed out the bullet from the opening and healed him. But he didn''t allow it to completely heal him. He let it keep bleeding just a little bit.


    He pretended to hold his chest where he got hit and acted in pain.


    Come on, take the bait, he prayed.


    Fortunately, he didn''t have to wait long as the next strike came from his back. This time he also didn''t try to completely avoid it, he moved just enough that it struck him in the lower back.


    He dropped to one knee and grabbed the spot in pain, making sure to heal it just enough that it didn''t inhibit his movements, but also keep it bleeding.


    It was a little funny in some ways. He didn''t expect that there would be a day that he fight his healing skill not to heal him. [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was trying to heal him with or without his consent. It was only due to his will that it didn''t.


    While he wasn''t the best actor in the world, he tried his best to pretend as if the attacks were really hurting him. Though, to be honest, it wasn''t very hard to act like it.


    He was still literally getting shot by this stupid sniper monster.


    Fortunately, after ten or so shots the monster seemed to think that it was enough. Julius was crawling on the ground with blood pouring out of him like a punctured bag of blood. He looked the part of a person on the edge of death.


    Finally, he felt the monster enter his perception. It was indeed a bird-like monster. But it was unlike any bird he had seen before. It was much chunkier and slower than he would have thought it to be. It looked more like a fat owl mixed with a swan.


    It flew down very cautiously and landed a few feet away from Julius. He still pretended that he hadn''t noticed the creature and was dragging himself with one hand while using the other to stifle the blood.


    He sensed that the monster was more at ease the moment it saw Julius''s sorry state. It waddled over to him and he was able to feel it gather more mana around its mouth. The amount of compression it was able to accomplish was ridiculous. It was at a higher stage than his own ability to compress things.


    He could see why those bullets were so strong. Still, it wouldn''t be enough.


    The entire time, Julius had been waiting for the perfect moment. He had lulled it into a false sense of security and patiently let it make a mistake. While it was gathering mana and creating another bullet, he used all of the mana and kinetic energy to swivel around and launch himself at the chunky bird.


    He used [Quick Step] with more force than he had ever used it before. It was almost as if he teleported in front of it that was how fast he was.


    [Quick Step lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    He tried to hide the grin from his face as he recognized the notification. He was busy wrapping his hands around this stupid bird''s ugly neck. He saw the shock in the creature''s eyes and when it felt his hands grip its neck like a steel vice, he saw that shock turn into fear.


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    It tried its best to get away and free itself from its position, but Julius wasn''t going to allow this bird to escape him. Panicking, it shot the incomplete bullet at Julius from point-blank range.


    While Julius had seen what it was about to do, he didn''t dodge it. He wanted to send a message to this annoying shit before he killed it. He allowed the bullet that shot at his face to tear through his lower jaw and shoot out the back of his head.


    All the while he still had it in an iron grip and was giving the scared bird the most menacing smile he could. And it was pretty menacing. The gaping hole in his face really sold it if he said so himself.


    He let the bird watch as he healed the rest of his wounds. Then it stopped struggling as fiercely as it watched the hole in Julius''s face seal over within a second. It finally seemed to realize its mistake.


    It was only then that Julius squeezed his fist with a good amount of kinetic energy, crushing the throat of the bird easily. It was almost so much force that he practically decapitated it.


    He was a little surprised at how weak it was. Its physical abilities were even worse than many of the Tier 2 students. Yet, its ability to shoot compressed and dangerous bullets from such a far distance with precision made it a real threat to him.


    It was an opponent that specialized in singular long-ranged attacks. He admitted he didn''t see how he would have been able to attack it back if he hadn''t lured it to him like he had. The monster had some sort of camouflage skill that Julius was unable to see through because it was outside his range of [Spatial Perception].


    That meant it could have just stayed out of his range for as long as it wanted and rained down shot after shot until it ran out of mana. And in an open field like he was in, that was the perfect environment for it.


    He reminded himself to keep an eye out on long-range ambushes from now on. That could have been dangerous.


    After he retrieved the body of the bird and put it inside his storage ring, he went back to Declan, who was waiting for him. The man was lying on the ground with a couple of dead monsters littered around him.


    "You have company when I was gone?" Julius joked as he approached.


    Declan looked up at him and grinned. "Yeah, I did. Though they weren''t the most polite of guests, so I had to deal with them appropriately."


    "Eh, that''s too bad," he said in mock sympathy.


    "What about you? Did you manage to handle that bird?"


    "You knew what it was?" Julius asked curiously.


    "Yeah, it''s a monster called the Piercing Avius. Very annoying monster. I''m a little surprised to see one in this rift," Declan told him.


    "How did you manage to spot it from that far away?"


    Declan smiled and pointed at his eyes. "I got a very good vision skill that I evolved from [Farsight]. It''s able to see through their camouflage as well."


    Julius grumbled to himself about the unfairness of it. But Declan swiftly swatted him on the back of the head. "Ouch, what was that for?" Julius asked.


    "Don''t gripe about unfair skills. Your perception skill is already freakishly good. If it didn''t have any weaknesses even I would put you in a cage until you told me how you learned it," Declan told him with a chuckle.


    Julius smiled back at him, but he also slowly backed away from the older man with wary eyes. Declan didn''t miss that though and gave Julius a disbelieving look of betrayal. "I didn''t mean I would actually do it," he said, offended at the thought that Julius would believe he would.


    Julius gave an amused smirk and stopped backpedaling before he asked him another question. "How would you have taken out that fat owl?" Julius was curious as to how someone like Declan would have handled the monster.


    It wasn''t like Declan could have done the exact same as Julius. Playing dead only worked because Julius actually looked like it. He didn''t expect everyone to allow the monster to shoot them full of holes to lure them in.


    Declan grinned at Julius''s question. "Well, as you might have noticed, that ''fat owl'' had some pretty big weaknesses. One of them is the fact that it is indeed fat. For a Tier 3 bird monster, it is laughably slow and physically weak. The only advantages it has is its ability to maintain a distance and how strong its attack is. But as long as you can spot where it is and then have an attack that can reach it, it becomes much simpler."


    "How would you have taken it down?" Julius asked Declan curiously. S~ea??h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Declan just smiled at him with a confident grin. "I would have shot it out of the sky," he said simply.


    "Out of the sky? From that distance?" Julius asked skeptically.


    Instead of responding to him with words, Declan decided that actions spoke louder. A large longbow appeared in Declan''s hand and with a smooth motion, casually pulled back its string. He didn''t have an arrow in his hand, but it didn''t seem he needed one as an arrow made of mana appeared on the bow string.


    The construction of the shaft and arrow tip felt outrageously dense with mana. Within a second of him pulling out his bow, he released a piercing bolt of light from the weapon at a distant tree.


    One moment the tree was there, and the next it had disappeared in a puff of smoke. It was ridiculously fast, there was no way Julius would have been able to dodge that in time. He doubted the fat bird would have either.


    Julius chuckled and nodded his head. Point taken.


    "Okay, I get it," he said with a smile. "But how would you have dealt with it if you were in my shoes?" Julius asked.


    Declan put away his bow like nothing happened and placed his hand on his chin as he thought about it. "Honestly, I would choose a similar method as you did. Making it come to you was a good plan. Allowing yourself to be shot so much was a bit overkill, but it worked so I can''t complain about the results," Declan grudgingly admitted.


    "It was just something that I thought of in the heat of the moment," Julius said while shrugging his shoulders.


    Declan didn''t have anything to say after that and the two moved onwards. Julius continued his delve while Declan made sure to keep an eye out on him.


    The rest of the rift went smoothly. He fought a few more groups of monsters, but he had no issues with them. He was able to take care of them with ease.


    However, Julius made sure to keep an eye out for any more annoying fat owls that showed up. The second he saw one, destroying it would become his first priority over anything else.

 Chapter 157: Toxic

    After he left the rift with Declan, Julius immediately headed back to campus. He would have liked to stop and see Rae and Orus, but he could always do that another time. He already had plans to delve again, this time on his own. He would visit them after that.At the moment he was feeling very happy. Declan had finally given him permission to delve solo. The older man had assessed that Julius could handle himself in a rift and accepted the fact that he couldn''t always be there to hold his hand.


    Julius would certainly miss the company that Declan provided, but he would also enjoy the freedom he would now have. Just knowing someone as strong as Declan had his back didn''t make the delving experience feel like there were as many repercussions.


    If he were to really get into a bad spot, he knew that Declan would have stepped in immediately.


    That kind of ruined the thrill of the whole point of delving though. He didn''t like that.


    What he did like, was the fact that [Quick Step] had reached level 15. That he liked very much.


    In fact, that was a huge reason why he was promptly returning to campus. He wanted to get back as soon as he could so that he could see his options.


    Although, it kind of soured the fun out of choosing when he already pretty much decided on the next skill. Still, it didn''t hurt to look and enjoy the process at least.


    When he arrived, the campus was pretty bustling with people. He expected that since it was the weekend many of the students would have been out in town enjoying their time off. Instead, he saw more students than usual traveling around.


    He had planned to get a training room, but since it was so busy, he knew he would have to wait in line. Not wanting to do that, he chose to head to the ledge spot at the back of the garden he had found recently.


    When he got there, he was surprised to see someone who he recognized. It was the plant girl from his Applied Combat class. He was eighty percent confident that her name was Tia. She was a little bit away from his spot and was doing some sort of exercise with some plants.


    They were swirling around her like snakes coiling around their prey. He felt some very delicate mana manipulations though, it was pretty impressive to watch.


    He gave his cheek a pinch and reminded himself that he was there for a specific reason, not to observe other students, no matter how pretty what they were doing was.


    He went over to his usual area and sat down comfortably. He took out some crackers and started to munch on them as he brought up his notifications.


    [Quick Step] has reached level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill [Quick Step]?


    He quickly selected yes and waited.


    Skill evolution commencing¡­


    Skill [Quick Step] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Flash Step], [Burst Step], [Kinetic Dash], [Blasting Charge], and [Kinetic Leap]


    He carefully looked over his options while chewing his crackers with a loud crunch. He wasn''t that surprised by the list. [Burst Step] was predictable, [Kinetic Dash] was almost the same option he got during his last evolution, just this time kinetic instead of fire.


    [Blasting Charge] sounded like a fun one. He enjoyed imagining what kind of havoc he could create with a skill like that.


    He had a feeling that this option was here from his little experiment with kinetic energy and [Quick Step] that resulted in a big boom. It most likely had a similar effect, but was even more explosive.


    [Kinetic Leap] was probably from his most recent moon jump when he was fighting the wolves. It was possible that it could be a skill that would eventually evolve toward a flight skill. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    That almost had him choosing [Kinetic Leap] before he could think about it.


    But he was a different man now. He was a man of focus and resolve. His own Concept affirmed it. He wouldn''t let himself get distracted fr-


    Shit, I dropped my crackers!


    He hurriedly tried to save his bag of snacks that had dropped from his hand. There was a little bit of dirt on some of the ones he saved, but luckily he saved a majority of them.


    What was I saying?


    Anyway, he didn''t hesitate to choose [Flash Step], no matter how alluring the possibility of flight was, he had a plan with Gabriel already. If he wanted any one of them later, he would just have to find another skill that he could evolve that might give him those same options.


    Congratulations, skill [Flash Step] (Rare) acquired.


    Julius dropped the cracker he was moving toward his mouth to the ground. A spark of pain dug its way into his soul and agitated the soreness he had been feeling for a while now.


    He tried his best to ignore it, but his soul had been acting up for a while now. He didn''t know the exact reason, but ever since he had gotten those two Concepts at the same time, his soul hasn''t been the same.


    There was a deep fatigue that permeated throughout his entire soul. It especially came out whenever he made any increases to his skills.


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    He took a deep breath and the worst of the pain tucked away. He then bent down and picked up his dropped cracker, plopping it into his mouth after wiping off the excess dirt.


    There would be no wasting of any food on his watch.


    He also took out a glass of refreshing juice to wash down the slightly thirst-provoking crackers and was about to taste a nice long gulp when he paused. Off to the side, he saw the plant girl, Tia finish with her exercise and look over at him with a weird look.


    Or rather, it wasn''t directed at him, but it was directed at his food.


    They met gazes briefly and Julius saw her blush lightly as she realized he noticed her staring. He just smiled at her reaction. So when she turned away from him, he took out another parcel of crackers from his storage along with the same beverage he had gotten himself and got up to his feet.


    He walked toward her direction and placed both items onto the bench that was a few feet away from her. He didn''t say anything or even look at her, he just left the gift there for her to grab when he was gone.


    She didn''t say anything either, but he did see that the second he rounded the corner of a tree, she lunged at the snacks with a big smile.


    ***


    He found himself back in the same Tier 3 rift the next day. Since he now had the freedom to go whenever he wanted to, he was going to take advantage of it.


    Unlike yesterday, he got transported to a different part of the rift. This particular section was much more densely compacted with trees, some sort of forest environment.


    That wasn''t the only difference either. The main one that he noticed straightaway was how many more monsters he was able to sense nearby. There were at least half a dozen separate monsters that were hiding in trees or bushes within a hundred paces of him.


    Fortunately, almost all of them except for two of them felt really weak just by going off of their auras. Of the two he paid attention to, one was a similar species to the snake he encountered in the ravine. This one though was much larger and thicker than the previous snake.


    The other monster was a bird of some type. It was sitting at the very top of a tree and didn''t seem like it was that hostile surprisingly. It had noticed Julius right away but for some reason, it was content with just sitting atop the branch looking out toward the forest.


    The snake, on the other hand, was most definitely hostile. It was slowly creeping toward him from tree to tree, using the dense foliage to mask its movements.


    Julius didn''t let the thing get any closer. He sent a small spike and nailed its head into the bark of the tree it was slithering on. It didn''t kill it right away, so he sent a disk of sharpened mana and split its head and upper body from the rest of it.


    He collected the core and moved on his way. The other monsters didn''t bother him and he didn''t feel like bothering them in return.


    This Tier 3 rift was much different than the other rifts he had delved into, even compared to the Tier 3 troll rift. This rift was almost a complete ecosystem that he wouldn''t be shocked to find in the real world.


    By his limited experience so far, he suspected that there were certain species that were more aggressive than others. Much like how a proper forest full of monsters would be. Therefore the big Tier 2 squirrel-looking monster with large teeth didn''t attack him on sight. It was probably because it could sense that Julius was stronger than it or maybe it was just an herbivore.


    As Julius made his way deeper into the forest, he encountered several more monsters. None of them were particularly strong or unique, but they did attack him first, so he dealt with them swiftly.


    It was honestly, a bit disappointing.


    That was why he had made the decision to not use [Armaments of the Arcane] and focus on using [Flash Step] to fight these monsters.


    He knew Declan wouldn''t have approved of it before, but luckily he wasn''t here right now. But he was feeling a bit bored and decided he wanted a bit of a challenge. Hence, his new strategy.


    The strategy was quite simple. Sense his enemy and then let them get close enough for Julius to use his new skill to take them out.


    He found his first vict- volunteer quite quickly. It was a smallish monster compared to many that he had fought, it was about the size of a medium-sized dog but looked like a raccoon. However, based on its preliminary movements as it stalked him, he suspected that it was very fast.


    And he was very right.


    The thing came in like a bolt of lightning. Its black fur glows with mana from its skill usage. Black mana extended out from its claws into long blades, surprising Julius. He was a little late in activating his new skill and got nicked by the blades.


    The creature disappeared into the dense brush and prepared for another attack. Julius on the other hand was healing the cut right away. The monster must have had some sort of insidious skill covering the blades.


    He could feel a bunch of nasty mana seeping into his muscles and even into his soul. It might have even been two distinct skills. One was for debilitating his physical abilities while the second one almost felt like it was eating away at his mana.


    Luckily for him, he had [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] which overwhelmed the toxic mana and got rid of it before it ate too much of his mana.


    It was quite the impressive skill considering that his healing had more trouble handling it than he expected.


    He knew that he should have covered his body with his armor, but he chose not to against his better judgment.


    He wanted to test himself and his new skill. [Flash Step] was already proving to be a vast improvement over its previous version. It took less time to activate and the distance he was able to cross felt he wasn''t even traveling across it.


    It almost felt like the distance was cut in half if that made any sense.


    He didn''t have any time to think about it anymore as the toxic raccoon thingy came at him again. This time though, he was much better prepared for its speed and skills. He tilted his head to the side and allowed its outstretched claws to brush past his face.


    However, he had already prepared a fist and smashed the lower back of the raccoon in mid-air.


    To his surprise, the raccoon took the fist much better than he thought it would. There was some sort of bubble that covered its flesh and dissipated much of the blow''s force.


    Still, it was quite lightweight and so his punch tossed it across the forest''s clearing. He didn''t allow it to get back to its feet though. He activated [Flash Step] and dashed to its location.


    He overshot it by a little bit and so he had to activate it again, but that extra moment had allowed the monster to get back to its feet. It was a little wobbly on its feet but it still tried to escape.


    He exploded a small orb of kinetic energy he had created at the beginning of the fight to knock the monster off balance and it tripped over its feet before it could go hiding again. This time he didn''t overshoot his [Flash Step]. He landed right on top of it and crashed a fist full of kinetic energy straight onto the raccoon''s chest.


    This time with the ground underneath its body, the force had nowhere else to go. And the monster exploded like a balloon. It was quite gross and got him covered in a bunch of black goop.


    He tried to get as much as it off of him, but it was futile. He had to pull out the impromptu shower item from his storage ring and give himself a rinse. It didn''t do much for the smell but it was better than nothing.


    Once he was done, he packed it away, collected its core, and continued on exploring the rift. All the while ignoring the painful sting he felt in his soul.

 Chapter 158: Health is Important

    The rest of the rift was not very exciting. In fact, the raccoon was the most interesting opponent he faced.Some other monsters tickled his interest, but they were all very slow in comparison to the black raccoon. And while they could handle some more punishment, they didn''t really have any way to harm Julius on their own.


    All it really accomplished was making his hands hurt. It was safe to say that punching metal things with fleshy fists was not the brightest idea.


    Although he didn''t have trouble with them it didn''t mean he enjoyed tearing his fists apart. Luckily, he had the perfect monsters to vent his frustration on.


    Furthermore, even with him not having his constructed armor on. It made him realize that the monsters by the ravine and tall grass were stronger than the ones he faced in the forest.


    The wolves and fat owl had been quite the worthy foes. Even the jackal like monsters were better than most of the other ones he fought today. Only the raccoon monster provided a fun challenge.


    However, there was something bigger that had been bugging him the entire time.


    He was only able to level [Flash Step] once. Just once. Additionally, none of his other skills made any improvements either.


    [Flash Step lvl 1 -> lvl 2]


    The first few levels of a skill were always easy to level up, so he was confused why it wasn''t already level 3 or 4. It''s not like he wasn''t using his skill well enough or often enough. He was practically spamming [Flash Step] at the end of it and only then did he get that elusive level.


    It was weird, he felt like he had been pushing himself enough to gain some levels or something at least, but nothing really happened. No matter how hard and how many times he used [Flash Step] or any other skills for that matter, he only got a single level and an annoying throbbing pain in his soul. That seemed to increase once he got [Flash Step] to level 2.


    However, he tried his best to ignore it and use [Sage of Savagery] to dull the pain. Which worked pretty well.


    He left the rift soon after, feeling a bit weirded out by the experience and immediately went to the training rooms to see if he could figure out what was going on.


    ***


    The next couple of weeks went by in a hazy blur. And soon enough the two-month timeline he had with Dante was upon him.


    During those weeks, he had gone back to that same Tier 3 rift a few times. To his immense concern, he didn''t experience any growth during that period other than his new [Flash Step] skill.


    [Flash Step lvl 2 -> lvl 5]


    However, even that was outrageously slow. For how much he was using it, he expected more for a low level skill.


    It was the same for all of his other skills as well. Skills like [Barrier of Severance] and others that weren''t at the level 20 barrier weren''t growing at all.


    One couldn''t imagine his frustration with his current situation. No matter how many nights he spent or how hard he pushed himself in the rifts or training, he wasn''t able to do anything.


    It was like he had hit a brick wall and couldn''t move past it. No matter what he did, it was like it didn''t even matter. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It wasn''t only that, but every level he gained with [Flash Step] didn''t come with the usual satisfaction but came with a stinging pain that raced throughout his soul. Each one worse the last.


    For someone like him, who had experienced such rapid growth during these past several months, it was a source of irritation. Every day he had pushed himself harder, but nothing seemed to make a difference.


    In reality, it actually seemed to hurt him more than help. His soul felt like a dirty old rag. It was as if someone had beat him up, rolled him into a ball, and dragged him through shit-covered spikes.


    The others noticed something wrong as well. They realized that he was looking more tired than usual. All of them, even Edgar, his fellow training fanatic had been more vocal than usual about him taking a break.


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    In the past, Julius would have told them not to worry, but even he had enough self-awareness to realize that something was wrong.


    He was fraying at the seams and understood that he wouldn''t be able to keep it up.


    That was why he had decided a few days ago to stop training altogether. It was something that he was very reluctant to do, but it was something he truly believed to be necessary.


    Previously, he thought that he needed some normal time to heal his soul fatigue. That''s how it had always been. He was always still able to train, it was just a little sore for a bit.


    However, even with the frequent doses of essence from Drasil, he wasn''t getting any better. In fact, the fatigue had gotten worse. And each level seemed to enlarge the crack in his soul.


    Therefore, putting a halt to all of his training was the most obvious but most agonizing thing he could do. He decided to not do anything that revolved around him using his soul. No skill increases, no Concept training, or pretty much any training.


    Why would he continue pushing himself harder and harder if he wasn''t getting any results? At least that was his mindset when he made the decision to cut himself off.


    He was proud to say that was exactly what he did.


    It had only been a few days, but he was already grateful for his decision. The pain and fatigue didn''t go away completely, but it wasn''t as severe as it had been. During times like now, when he was reading a book in the gardens, he felt pretty good. The pain hid away as a dull throb, instead of a needling torture.


    The others were utterly shocked to see him actually taking a break. Aubrey had even asked him if he was the same person, thinking that someone had somehow taken his place and stolen his identity.


    He was only slightly offended by that implication. It also didn''t help that the others had similar thoughts. He had even caught Lily snooping around in his head on a couple of occasions, making sure that Julius was indeed Julius.


    He had just given her an ''are you serious'' look when he caught her. She at least had the grace to look embarrassed.


    They were happy for him though, for taking the initiative to give himself a break.


    Still, a part of him still hated it because he knew he wasn''t making any progress. But the other part of him understood why it was essential for him, not only for his soul but for his mind. His training had begun to take a desperate tone. It was no longer about him enjoying the process, it was more about him being obsessed with getting more levels.


    Only when he had stopped training so hard and had some time to think these past few days, did he realize how addicted he was to training. He was like a crack addict who couldn''t go a few days without feeling the joy and getting a new notification or skill level.


    It was a humbling reality check for him. He hadn''t realized just how manic he was behaving until he took a step back and really reviewed his actions these past weeks.


    Training before had felt natural. It felt like it was integral to his day. Twelve hours spent training was an easy day for him. But now he understood his folly.


    He had been pushing himself too hard. The others had been right. It was difficult to admit the truth, but they were right. He wouldn''t ever tell them that. Aubrey would not ever let him live it down if he did. But he knew deep inside that it was true.


    The Concepts acquisition and his new epic skill had just been the final straw that broke the camel''s back. Something went wrong during that process. Something pushed him over his limit and cracked something in his soul. Something that couldn''t be healed with his healing skill or even with Drasil''s improved abilities.


    It was something that was preventing him from making any improvements to his skills.


    In fact, if Lily hadn''t gifted him that Sylvan Petal, he believed he would be in a much worse place at this point. If Drasil hadn''t been constantly feeding Julius some of his life essence, he might have been in some serious trouble.


    It wasn''t like his healing skill was able to heal his soul. So far only Drasil''s essence has been able to achieve that.


    He was just thanking his lucky stars that he decided to raise the cute little guy.


    The little guy in question was actually sitting on Julius''s chest as they both laid down on the grass by their new spot. The adorable green spirit was sucking on a life mana orb that Julius had created for him, while Julius was reading a book and snacking on some cookies.


    That had been their normal routine for these past few days. They went to class, ate food, and spent the rest of the time lazing about. He had even been getting much more sleep, which to his immense amusement made Henry very uncomfortable whenever he spotted Julius in their dorm.


    It was a guilty pleasure he had partaken in.


    On another note, he just needed to take a week or two in order to get his head back on straight and everything would be alright again. In the meantime, a break was good for him.


    It honestly felt really nice. Too nice. He could see how people enjoyed spending their days lazing around and not doing training twenty-four-seven like he had been. He could see himself getting used to this kind of life. Eating delicious food and hanging out with his friends wasn''t a bad way to enjoy life.


    A silver lining to this break was that it was a good lesson that demonstrated to him that there was more to life than getting stronger. It was actually a lesson he already knew beforehand, but somewhere down the road, he had forgotten about it.


    At some point, all that mattered was to get stronger.


    And so as he enjoyed his book with the rising light of the sun, he made himself a promise that he would pay closer attention to his health. Or at the very least, make a better attempt than he had been.


    He ignored the doubtful glance he got from Drasil who was staring at him from his spot on Julius''s chest. It wasn''t like the little guy could read his mind¡­ right?


    Anyway, he would be fine. Everything would work out in the end, his soul was just a little tired. Once he recovered he would be back to his usual shenanigans.

 Chapter 159: Secret Weapon

    Eventually, the two of them had to get up. It was the weekend and also the day that he had promised Dante that he would go back to visit him. He didn''t want to see if the man was serious about beating up and kidnapping him if he didn''t show up.He actually thought it was pretty likely considering the little time he had interacted with the Tier 6 monster.


    As he walked toward the small town just outside of Heston, he stopped at a bakery to get himself some pastries and a coffee. He made sure to get extras, it was always a good idea to have food on hand just in case he needed to appease someone.


    Pastries he learned, were very effective at this. Normally, he used them against Aubrey and Edgar, but recently he learned that Grace had a similar weakness. Not surprising, considering her love for sweets and anything food-related.


    He just wished Amelia had that same weakness. It would have made the woman much more pleasing to be around.


    He shouldn''t bash her too much. To her credit, she had been surprisingly civil to him. Other than the annoying questions about his skill, she stayed out of his hair and hadn''t said anything mean to him.


    When he was walking away from the gates of Heston toward the town, he enjoyed the nice weather. He did his best not to think about what Dante had in store for him. He believed that worrying about it would just waste his time and energy.


    Either way, he would find out pretty soon.


    He saw the little town outside of Heston appear in his vision as he crested over a hill. He turned back to look at the city and the coastline to admire the view. However, his view was obstructed because there was a woman who was standing right behind him.


    At first, he didn''t think anything of it. His instinctual reaction was to assume that this person was just traveling to the town just like he was. It wasn''t until he turned back around and thought for a second that he realized what was wrong.


    He hadn''t sensed this person with [Spatial Perception] at all. There was nobody else in their vicinity but this woman. Except this woman didn''t show up to his senses.


    It made his blood run cold.


    It wasn''t like what Dante did either. It wasn''t some sort of void or anomaly that stuck out. It was as if she wasn''t there at all and blended into the surroundings. If not for him seeing her with his own two eyes, he would not have believed it.


    To be honest, it took way too long for him to react. However, when he did, he didn''t freak out. He immediately came to the understanding that if she had wanted to hurt Julius, she had more than enough chances to do so.


    The fact that he was still alive meant she wasn''t hostile. At least, that was what he wanted to believe.


    He slowly continued to walk forward, but he ended up activating [Sage of Savagery] to a higher degree, which allowed him to keep his composure more than he would otherwise be able to. The first thing that Julius thought about was whether or not this woman was the thing that Dante wanted to show him.


    Otherwise, what kind of timing was this? A person who was undoubtedly stronger than him managed to sneak up on him as he walked to see Dante? That seemed weirdly suspicious to him.


    He didn''t hear any footsteps or signs that she was following him, but he knew that she was. The fact that he couldn''t sense her made him very uncomfortable. However, he maintained his composure and didn''t acknowledge her. That is until his curiosity finally ran out. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "So how did you know who I was?" He asked loudly over his shoulder.


    When he didn''t get an answer after several seconds, he turned back to look at the woman. However, to his shock, she wasn''t there. He looked around as if straining his eyes would magically find the woman. Still, he didn''t see a sign of her.


    So feeling more confused than anything, he turned back around and flinched when the woman was literally inches away from his face.


    The first thing he noticed was how pretty she was. Her features were perfectly symmetrical and her skin was flawless. She was of medium height and had long brown hair that laid down her back. However, it was her eyes that caught his attention.


    Her gray eyes had literal bursts of light blooming in her irises. It was like every color in the rainbow was popping little fireworks in her eyes.


    "Wow¡­" he said breathlessly. "How do I get eyes like that?"


    He saw her lips curl upward and her eyes sparkle even brighter, before pulling away from him.


    "You don''t seem that surprised to see me," she finally said softly.


    "Trust me, I almost pooped myself when I finally saw you. But honestly, it kind of makes sense to see you. That old man did say he had a surprise in store for me," he admitted to her.


    "Hmm¡­" she examined him from up close. Almost like she was observing a hospital patient. "You are quite an interesting little boy," she finally commented with a frown.


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    "Huh? Little?" He asked, taken aback by her tone.


    "You also have quite the powerful focus skill it seems," she said casually.


    Julius frowned. "What makes you say that?" He asked her, not wanting to confirm if she was right or not. Though, he was pretty sure she didn''t need him to confirm anything for him.


    She smirked at him knowingly like one would at a silly child. "It''s obvious for anyone who is looking," she said vaguely.


    "I see," he said just as vaguely, pretending that he understood.


    He didn''t see or understand at all, but he didn''t need to tell her that. Yet, her smile said that she saw through his shenanigans regardless.


    "So¡­ how did you know it was me?" He asked, repeating his earlier question.


    "What do you mean?" She tilted her head and asked him, playing ignorant.


    "I''m assuming that Dante told you about me, but even if he told you that I was coming today, how did you know that it was me? Did he give you a picture of my face? Because I don''t feel like Dante was the type to take pictures. Not to mention that I don''t think he took one of me, at least to my knowledge," Julius blabbered.


    There were cameras in this world. They actually worked pretty similar to how cameras worked in his old world. The only difference was that the devices used light magic instead. The picture quality was pretty amazing too. Better than modern-day cameras in fact.


    "No, he didn''t give me a picture of you, he didn''t even give me much of a description of what you looked like. He just told me that he met some interesting black-haired brat that he wanted me to take a look at," she said with a shrug.


    "So how did you know it was me?" Julius asked for the third time.


    The lady just smiled and shrugged her shoulders at him. "That''s for you to find out for yourself," she told him.


    "That''s not any fun," he said, a little put out at her refusal.


    She didn''t say anything in response but just continued to give him that same knowing smile. It was actually almost condescending in a way. If he didn''t believe that she was much stronger than himself, he would have been more offended. But realistically this woman could have been hundreds of years old so he gave her the benefit of the doubt.


    Still, he sighed in annoyance. Of course, she would be the type of person who liked others finding out answers on their own. He wished she had just told him. As much as he enjoyed a good mystery, he really wanted to know how she knew who he was. And more importantly how she was able to avoid his detection.


    They continued to head toward Dante''s cabin and the entire time Julius tried to get some answers out of her. However, she remained evasive and didn''t answer any of his questions.


    Fortunately, he still had his secret weapon. It was an effective strategy that had a high success rate.


    He pulled out a flaky pastry that he had just bought earlier from that bakery he went to. He made sure to heat it up with some fire mana until a little puff of steam emitted from its surface. The aroma of fresh dough and butter wafted from his hand.


    He turned to the woman who had decided to stop following him from behind and walk next to him. He saw her look over at him with suspicion clear on her face. Her brows furrowed in thought as her head went through all the possibilities of why he was offering her it.


    Finally, the scent of freshly baked flaky goodness overwhelmed her, and she reached out and took it tentatively.


    He smiled to himself. Success! He inwardly cheered. He knew that nobody could resist a good pastry. Not even someone as strong as she was.


    Though to be honest, he had zero clue about her true strength. In fact, her aura said that she was a Tier 2, just like he was. However, he wasn''t that stupid. There was no way that this woman was Tier 2.


    Just the way she walked proved otherwise. She walked with such confidence and poise, that it was fascinating to watch. Not to mention that she somehow evaded his detection skill. He doubted many Tier 2s in the world could do that.


    Then there was the fact that she knew Dante and she had already kind of admitted that she was the surprise that Dante had waiting for him.


    If she was Tier 2, then he was a monkey dressed as a dragon.


    To his pleasure, the pastry did a lot when it came to her opening up and helping her answer some of his questions. Of course, he didn''t ask any important questions to her. Not if you considered questions about whether she preferred coffee or tea as important questions.


    "I''ve never been much of a tea person," she said casually as she enjoyed her pastry.


    "Why not?" He asked as he also chewed his own pastry he brought out for himself.


    "Eh, my aunt loved it so much when I was growing up, she would always make it for us whenever we went over to her place. Just never had a taste for it, always preferred something sweeter," she admitted.


    Julius smiled at that and reached into his storage ring again, pulling out a mug of hot chocolate. He made sure to heat it up before he passed it over to her without a word. He also handed her another pastry when he noticed that she was in the middle of finishing her last bite.


    See if you can resist this! He thought to himself while wickedly cackling inwardly.


    This time she didn''t even blink twice about taking either of them. She did give him an acknowledging grin though. She knew exactly what he was doing, but didn''t seem to mind.


    She let out a surprised noise after she tasted the hot chocolate. "What?! This is delicious, where did you get it?" She asked him, much more serious than before.


    "It''s my own creation," Julius told her proudly.


    He had bought way too many bars of chocolate from a vendor the other week. Once he had tasted a piece, he immediately bought several dozen bars from the guy. It was by far the best chocolate he had ever had. He literally had a seizure when he first ate it. They were pretty cheap as well, he felt like he got a smoking deal on them.


    He used some of them to make his own chocolate syrup which he then used to make several pre-prepared servings of hot chocolate for brisk mornings just like this one. He could indeed confirm with her that they were delicious. He also knew that the others along with Grace agreed with that sentiment.


    He could see that when he told her that he made it himself, she looked at him differently than before. It was almost the barest hint of respect, funnily enough.


    "How did you make it," she asked very nonchalantly. Almost too nonchalantly in his opinion. He got a sneaking feeling that she wanted to know the answer more than she was letting on.


    "Sorry, what did you ask?" Julius pretended as if he hadn''t heard her.


    "How did you make it?" She asked again, but this time she was definitely showing more interest.


    He gave her a sorrowful look. "Sorry, that''s for you to find out for yourself," he said throwing the same words back at her.


    She just slowly swiveled her head toward him with a smile. But it wasn''t a smile of happiness, no it was a much more menacing smile that didn''t fit her beautiful face.


    Ah shit¡­

 Chapter 160: Soul Issues

    Julius was currently rubbing his head. It was still sore from where she whacked him after he threw her exact words back at her. The most annoying part was that he hadn''t even seen or sensed her move. One moment he was fine and the next his head was getting walloped.The mean lady didn''t ask again, but he could tell that she was a little annoyed that he wouldn''t tell her.


    She did however ask, or rather demanded another mug of it, to which he gladly passed over to her. Thankfully, that seemed to appease her a little bit and her glare was a little less painful to be subjected to.


    When they arrived in front of Dante''s cabin, she had already finished the second mug. Julius stifled the smirk that tried to appear on his face. He could tell that she was tempted to ask for a third one but held off because she didn''t want to ask for another.


    They didn''t have to walk up to the door to knock. Dante was already out in front with his arms crossed in front of his large chest. The old man had the same scowl as he did the last time Julius saw him. It weirdly felt a little comforting to see that expression on his face.


    In truth, he might have felt more uneasy if the man had a smile on his scary face.


    However, Julius did catch a small grin trying to appear on Dante''s face as he looked at the woman. The woman who he still didn''t know her name, he realized. He had forgotten to ask her among all of his other very important questions.


    Dante turned to look at Julius with his dark eyes. "I see you have met Alice already," he commented.


    Ah, so her name is Alice, Julius thought to himself.


    "It''s more like she stalked me, but yeah," Julius replied to Dante when he got closer.


    Dante just nodded his head as if that made perfect sense and acted as if it was completely reasonable. "If you haven''t realized it by now, but she is the thing I had in store for you."


    Julius had indeed been expecting that, so it wasn''t a surprise. "Yeah, I figured that was the case. But what is she supposed to do?" He asked interested in hearing how Dante would explain why this mystery person stalked him.


    "She''s going to be your¡­ supervisor for the time being," Dante told him.


    "So like a mentor?" Julius asked.


    "No, not like a mentor. You do not deserve her to be your mentor," Dante simultaneously told him he was wrong and insulted him at the same time.


    "What is that supposed to mean?" Julius asked, just a tad bit offended at the implication.


    Dante sighed and looked at him like he was stupid. Then he turned to look over at Alice who was standing there silently and then back to Julius. "Being someone''s apprentice or disciple is significant. The relationship between the two is quite close. The mentor usually shares many of their skills and techniques that their disciple will incorporate into their own path."


    "So if I am not a disciple, then what am I?" He asked.


    Dante had to think about that one for a moment. "You are more like a pet or an interest that we have taken to," he explained.


    "A pet?" Julius asked incredulously.


    "Yeah, like when someone finds an interesting or injured animal and decides to keep it as a pet," Alice finally added from the side, seemingly very happy with that comparison.


    Injured? He thought to himself.


    Julius wanted to argue but immediately realized that he wouldn''t be getting anywhere with that. Not to mention, that both of these people were some, if not the strongest people he had met in person.


    So in a way, he could see how they saw him about as interesting or dangerous as a pet. He didn''t like the comparison, but he could kind of see things from their perspective.


    There was also the possibility that he was just trying to convince himself of some weird logic to make himself feel better.


    "Okay, so what would a pet like me do under your supervision?" Julius asked the two of them.


    "She''s gonna show you some tricks for you to do," Dante said a little too quickly and with a little too much mirth.


    Julius bit his retort that came to mind and instead asked for some clarification. "What kind of tricks?" He asked with as much genuine curiosity as he could muster.


    However, before Dante could answer, Alice intervened.


    "Actually, I don''t think I will be doing much showing," she told Dante.


    For the first time, Dante actually seemed quite caught off guard. He looked at Alice with a confused expression. "What do you mean? I thought we both talked about a while ago?"


    Alice held both hands up in a pleading gesture. "That''s not what I mean," she promised to Dante.


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    "Then what is it?"


    Alice frowned and looked at Dante with a judgemental look. "Are you really getting that old? Have you really not noticed?" She asked the older man.


    Dante flinched a little bit at her reprimand. "I don''t understand," he said slowly.


    Alice pressed her lips together and sighed in disappointment. "Look at his soul, you old bag of bones."


    Me? My soul? Why would they do that? Does it have something to do with why it''s been sore lately? Julius frantically thought to himself.


    Dante turned to give Julius his entire attention. For the first time since Julius last saw the man, he felt the older man''s overwhelming presence lock onto Julius. It felt like someone had kidnapped him in a sack and then put him underneath a microscope to study him.


    It was very uncomfortable, to say the least and much less subtle than Alice''s own observation. He even chucked a mana-constructed pebble at Dante to get him to stop looking at him like that.


    Of course, the pebble dissolved into nothing before it even got close to the man, but it seemed to do its job. Dante retracted his intrusive gaze and looked at Julius with a disbelieving look on his face. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Dante then turned to look at Alice with the same look on his face. She just nodded her head as if she was telling him ''I told you so''.


    However, Julius didn''t like feeling like he was being left out of something. Not to mention something that was obviously pertaining to him and very important.


    "What just happened?" He asked anxiously. He had a bad feeling growing in his stomach.


    Dante turned to look back at him. The same look was still there but toned down. "How the hell did you manage to do that to your soul in a matter of a couple of months?"


    What is he talking about?


    He suddenly felt Alice holding his arms to the side and inspecting him. He still wasn''t able to sense her approach at all. It was annoying.


    She chuckled but there was no humor in it. "It''s amazing that he''s still alive," she said to Dante. "I have seen people die from half as bad soul damage."


    "I don''t get it," Dante said.


    "Me either. Are you sure he wasn''t this bad when you last saw him?" Alice asked the old man skeptically.


    "Absolutely not. He had some signs of soul stress, but nothing even close to this level," Dante said concerningly.


    Alice didn''t say anything in response but she had stopped probing Julius and was now just staring at him with those beautiful eyes with more interest than before.


    Dante rubbed his beard before asking her, "What do you think the reason for it is? You know I am not good with soul stuff."


    Alice didn''t answer him right away, she just continued to stare at Julius with intensity. And surprisingly, Dante didn''t try to force an answer out of her. He just remained silent as Alice took her time.


    ***


    Alice POV


    Alice could safely say that she had not seen such a situation like the one in front of her before. This boy had severe damage to his soul. There were several scars showing that this wasn''t the only time it had happened either.


    She had mostly seen this type of damage from survivors of trauma and extremely dangerous battles. It was usually from overexertion of the soul, from pushing many skills and other abilities too far. She had also seen similar cases from some meatheads or from families who forced their children through brutal training. They trained so hard that their souls couldn''t keep up.


    Yet, this was a Tier 2 boy who couldn''t have been older than sixteen or seventeen years old. It made her wonder what the boy had done and been through in order to accomplish such a thing. His soul was like someone had taken a whip covered in thorns to it and lashed it. Thankfully, there were spots where she could see some type of healing ability partly fixed some of the worse parts.


    She had originally come at Dante''s request because he told her that he found an interesting boy with a unique perception skill that had heavy connections to spatial aspects.


    However, she wasn''t expecting this.


    If she was being honest, it was bad. Like really bad. She wasn''t the most knowledgeable about the soul, but she had a good grasp on it, more than most at least.


    Still, she didn''t know how the boy was still alive. He should by all means have already been comatose or in the grave by now.


    He was only hanging on due to a couple of reasons. One was that he had some sort of life spirit familiar that was shockingly able to heal soul damage to some extent. There was also the fact that the boy had a freakishly strong soul for his tier. That helped a lot.


    And lastly, she felt some sort of Concept that was holding his soul together. She didn''t even think he understood what he was doing with it.


    He was literally holding his soul together with pure willpower.


    If she wasn''t so disgusted to see how a soul managed to get to this point, she might have even been impressed by his willpower.


    She finally looked back to Dante with a frown.


    "My best guess is that it''s a mixture of several issues. One is that he has been pushing his skills really hard. I am sensing at least two epic skills and many rare skills. Some of them even superior skills."


    Dante interrupted her. "He didn''t have any epic skills the last time I saw him. He didn''t even have a Concept at that point."


    She nodded her head. That made more sense now. "That is another reason I wanted to mention. He has three different Concepts, which isn''t a problem by itself, but if you are sure that he didn''t have even one two months ago, then that would explain the issue more clearly. Rapid acquisition of Concepts without time to assimilate them properly is dangerous and stressful to the soul."


    "Three Concepts in two months?" Dante sounded worried but also had hints of being impressed.


    "Yes. But if that was all there was, odds are he would be fine. His soul is strong, so it would have probably been able to take it. But I also sense signs that are common in sleep deprivation. He is most likely using some sort of skill to go without sleep." She sighed deeply. "All of that, plus other factors that I can''t determine, are the reasons that his soul is in that condition. He quite literally pushed his soul to the breaking point."


    There was a broken pause. Not a single person spoke for a while.


    "What does that mean for me?" The boy asked quietly after a minute.


    "You should be grateful that you are alive. Make sure that you reward your familiar later. Without it, you would be dead," she told him sternly and turned away from him.


    What a stupid kid. What forced him to push himself to this point? Is he some sort of masochist? It''s not like he wouldn''t have been able to tell that his soul was breaking, the severe pain should have been a good enough indicator. To be fair, his focus skill might be doing a lot to hide the pain, that''s one potent focus skill and I haven''t seen the boy deactivate it the entire time he''s been with me.


    She didn''t understand it. Perhaps the only person who could, would be the boy himself.

 Chapter 161: Proposal

    Julius was feeling really worried at this point. The two of them both made it sound like he had some sort of terminal illness. They were even ignoring him like he was already dead.He initially didn''t think it was that bad. Sure, his soul was sore, but hadn''t thought it was anything on the level of what they were talking about. He had believed that a little bit of R&R would do him a lot of good.


    It made him regret not going to the others or Declan for help earlier. Once again it was his goddamn pride that got in his way. That and maybe his focus skill. In hindsight, his focus skill allowed him to put aside pain and concentrate on his goals maybe a bit too well.


    He would have to do better to handle that particular aspect of the skill in the future.


    Regardless, he still couldn''t help but be skeptical of their analysis of his soul. With that being said, he was very aware that this skepticism mainly came from the fact that he didn''t want to believe them.


    Because what if they were right? What if he did have something wrong with his soul? Something that would severely hamper his ability to continue improving?


    That was what truly scared him. It was the thought of stagnating because of his own bullheadedness. He had rushed through these past several months without any care for his health. He had forgone sleep and single-mindedly pushed forward.


    It wasn''t like he had torn apart his body, this was his soul that he was talking about. It wasn''t something that he could just regenerate like he could with one of his limbs. Even with Drasil''s help, the rejuvenation of his soul had been slow over these past few days.


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] wasn''t able to heal his soul, at least not at its current stage. It was definitely possible for it to gain that ability once he ranked it up to epic. However, that led to another problem.


    If what Alice said was correct and the rapid acquisition and growth of skills were causing some of the damage, what would it mean if he gained another epic skill?


    He turned to look at Alice right into her radiant eyes. "Is there anything I can do to fix it?" He tried to hide the nervousness out of his voice, but he only semi-succeeded.


    She looked at him with pity, like he was some poor animal that she found on the side of the road. "The important thing is that you are alive. That means you have a chance to recover from this. However, in order to heal your soul, it''s going to take some time."


    "How much time?" Julius asked.


    "Depends. Your familiar might be able to help out with the process. But soul healing is always a weird thing to predict. You have already gone through your soul evolution so that means it will be a little more difficult to heal your soul. Luckily, you haven''t actually advanced to Tier 3, that would have made it close to impossible to fix, so be grateful for that," she told him.


    "What do you mean by that?" Julius frowned and chewed his lip anxiously.


    "Well, once a person advances to Tier 3 their soul, core, and body all meld together. That also means that healing the soul becomes a much more complicated endeavor," she explained.


    "So how long?" Julius asked again.


    "I''m telling you I don''t know. It could be a few months or it could be several decades. I don''t know enough about you and your abilities to gauge it properly." Before Julius could respond she cut him off. "I know you have some type of life-based healing skill, but it won''t be able to heal your soul."


    "How did you know I have a healing skill?"


    "It''s obvious to anyone with a domain. You''re constantly pumping a little bit of mana into it at every moment. I could sense it the moment I got near to you," she told him like it was obvious.


    He paused at that. He quickly checked it out and almost immediately noticed what she was talking about. It had been such a natural thing that he didn''t realize he was even doing it. "Are there any healing skills that you know of that heal the soul?" He asked curiously.


    "Of course there are, but they are also some of the hardest healing skills to get, just the base requirement is epic rank," she explained.


    That''s not good news.


    "Are there any people in Heston who could heal my soul for me? Or any other ways to get better quickly?"


    Even if the shortest amount of time that it would take to heal his soul was a few months, that was still too long. He couldn''t stagnate for that long. However, if he could find someone who had a soul-healing skill, perhaps he could hire them to heal him.


    Alice laughed loudly. "I''m starting to understand how you got yourself into this position." She shook her head. "Most soul-healing skills are limited to healing surface-level soul damage, nothing that would be able to heal a soul with your extensive damage. The only people who would be able to heal your soul are the best Tier 5 healers who specialize in soul damage. Good luck trying to afford one of them to heal you."


    "How much are they?" Julius asked, a little afraid of hearing the price.


    "Way more than you could afford. At that point, you are better off just waiting for it to heal naturally," she said casually with a chuckle.


    Julius frowned and didn''t say anything for a moment.


    "What if I can''t wait?" He finally asked softly.


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    Alice stopped chuckling and looked at him with an odd look. "You do know that your impatience is what caused this whole incident right?"


    Julius calmly nodded his head. He knew better than anyone that this situation only happened because of his own actions. He could have taken it slower. He could have chosen not to try to get a Fire Concept after he got the Will Concept. There were a lot of things he could have done.


    His mind was trying to process this bad news as quickly as he could and thankfully [Sage of Savagery] was helping him control the influx of emotions. But he also knew that there wasn''t any taking back those decisions at this point.


    Alice saw his solemn expression and realized that he might actually understand his situation. He saw her reevaluate her opinion of him slightly.


    "Why do you believe you can''t wait?" She asked him.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders at her. "I need to get stronger," he said simply. He didn''t want to fully explain his reasons to her.


    "Everyone wants to get stronger. But not everyone trains so hard that they cripple their souls," she retorted with a scoff.


    "I have my reasons," he assured her.


    Alice shook her head in exasperation. "It doesn''t matter. Either way, It is absolutely important that you don''t train during this time."


    "No training at all?" Julius asked with wide eyes. That would be a problem for him. He had been planning to stop all Concept training and put a halt to evolving any more skills to epic, but no training at all would be an issue. That he couldn''t accept so easily.


    He heard a gruff rumble from Dante, who had been silent until now. "You really want to die that bad boy?"


    Julius turned to look at Dante. "It''s not about wanting to die. It''s about how much time I will be wasting as I have to wait for who knows how long to heal."


    Alice turned to look at him with sympathetic eyes. "You really want to train that much huh?"


    "Yes," he nodded at her immediately.


    "Who do you want revenge on?" She asked suddenly out of the blue.


    How did she know?


    "What do you mean by that?" He asked her, not confirming nor denying her question.


    "There are only a small number of reasons why someone like yourself would want to get stronger so fast. One of the most common ones is revenge. So I will ask again, who do you want to get revenge on?" This time Julius felt a little pressure from her.


    In the short time that he had met this woman, he had not gotten any real sense of power from her. He knew instinctively that she was strong, but she did a phenomenal job at hiding her strength. It was only because she neatly avoided his perception skill that he suspected there was more to her than meets the eye. Otherwise, he would have thought she was some random Tier 2. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This was different though. It was like she had released her control over her aura and was using something to pressure Julius. It felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest. And he subconsciously wanted to spill his secrets to this unknown woman.


    However, he luckily had [Sage of Savagery] still active and it was able to prevent him from being influenced by whatever skill or ability she was using against him. Unluckily, his defiance just made her crank up the strength of what she was doing.


    It was as if he was getting pulled into a whirlpool and he was hanging on to a single rope. That rope being his focus skill.


    He fought tooth and nail, preventing the ability from prying open his secrets. It was only when he finally felt the woman pull back her control and pack it away again, that he relaxed. It was as if nothing happened, she displayed that Tier 2 aura again like it was no big deal.


    She looked at him with a disgruntled expression. As if she couldn''t believe he actually defied her.


    "And you called me old. Looks like you also lost a step," Dante laughed after he witnessed what had just happened.


    "Shut up, Dante. I can''t risk pushing him any further without putting his soul under any more stress," Alice snapped back.


    Dante chuckled again, he clearly enjoyed seeing her struggle against someone much much weaker than her.


    "Still, it must be some skill and willpower that held you off," he said still snickering.


    Alice gave Dante the evil eye and turned back to Julius with a calculating gaze. "Indeed. It''s a really good Concept you have there," she commented to Julius.


    He preened at the compliment. He didn''t always need someone to acknowledge his achievements, but he still liked when people did. It made him feel good inside and gave himself a mental pat on the back.


    "Too bad it''s wasted on a masochist like you," she added.


    He quickly retracted his pat on the back with a dejected pout.


    She turned away from Julius and started to pace around the front yard of Dante''s cabin. She ignored the confused stares from both Dante and Julius. She had a thoughtful look as she walked back and forth.


    Finally, she turned to look at Julius with a curious look. "Do you know why I am here?"


    Julius gave her a confused look. "I don''t follow," he said slowly.


    "I came here on behalf of Dante. He told me that you had a perception skill that I would find very intriguing. That''s the reason why I am here. And for some reason, it has developed into this," she said frustratingly while giving Dante an angry glare.


    Julius didn''t think she was looking for a response for him at this point. It just sounded like she was venting. He turned to give Dante an anxious look. The older man also had an awkward look on him. His eyes met Julius''s and the two of them shared a look only two people who were stuck in similar situations could share.


    Eventually, she turned back to Julius and Dante with an annoyed look on her face. "You are absolutely sure that you don''t want to wait for your soul to heal on its own?"


    Julius had another look of confusion on his face. He looked behind him and at Dante, then back at Alice while pointing a questioning finger at himself.


    She sighed loudly. "Yes, you!"


    He shrugged his shoulders. "Is there a way?"


    "There might," she begrudgingly admitted.


    Julius didn''t need to hear anymore after that, he just aggressively nodded his head at her.


    "Yeah, I thought so," she said in a defeated tone before continuing. "You are a unique case so there might be a potential way that could hasten it, but I will require several things from you. One of which is for you to give me all of the answers that I ask of you. Is that understood?" She asked him seriously.


    He paused at that. "All of the answers? No matter if they are relevant or not?"


    "Yes. Otherwise, you can either fork over a fortune to the nearest Tier 5 soul healer, that is if you can even find one to work for you considering that most of them are under contract for other organizations, so that''s very unlikely. Or you can die because I have no doubt that you will eventually attempt to improve some of your skills at one point," she said matter of factly.


    "Why do you make it sound like those are my only options?" He asked her a little offended.


    "What? You''re going to tell me that you are going to wait for your soul to heal naturally?" She asked sarcastically.


    He was about to say he would, but he bit his tongue when he saw the expectant look on her face. Instead, he just looked down with a sulking expression and nodded his head conceding her point.


    She scoffed. "That''s what I thought. Now, do we have an agreement?"

 Chapter 162: I Know a Person

    Honestly, Julius didn''t really have any other choice. She was right. He hated to admit it but she was. He would most likely try to evolve his healing skill, hoping that it would solve his soul crisis. He would be too impatient to wait for his soul to heal "naturally", as she put it.While he still couldn''t know for sure that what she was telling him about his soul was true, he didn''t see a reason for her to lie to him.


    "I don''t think I can do that," he answered her truthfully.


    She must have sensed his genuine indecision because she relaxed a touch and walked up to him.


    "The only way this can work is for me to know exactly what you are capable of. I already know most of your skillset but need to know every detail, your strengths, your weaknesses, and anything else that might help me assess you''re condition more accurately," she explained to him, sounding very sincere.


    He nodded his head at her, letting her know that he understood the reasons. Still, he didn''t want to share all of his secrets with someone he had just met less than an hour ago. However, an idea bloomed into his head.


    "Would you be willing to make a contractual vow with me?" He asked her.


    She turned to look at him with an offended look. "You, want me to make a contractual vow with you?"


    He didn''t know what he did to offend her so he just softly nodded his head at her.


    She frowned at him. "Why would I connect my soul to a Tier 2? I am the one who is offering their help if you didn''t realize it."


    He was about to respond but bit his tongue. She had a point, she was the one holding all of the cards.


    "Why don''t you just do it, Alice? It''s not like he is planning to use it against you," Dante interjected.


    Alice gave Dante a hard glare, warning him to be quiet or else. The man in question put his hands up in a mock surrender and kept his mouth shut.


    Finally, the woman turned to Julius. "Okay, I am willing to do that. But it will cost you something extra."


    "What was it going to cost me before?"


    "I was going to have you tell me how you were able to learn that perception skill. I wanted every detail of how you ended up getting it," she told him.


    "That''s it?" Julius asked, surprised. He had been expecting something more than that. Something more along the lines of selling his soul to the devil type of thing. He would have likely told her all about it if she had been originally here to teach him some stuff.


    "That''s it, you say?" She chuckled in disbelief. "You don''t know how valuable a skill like that is do you?"


    Julius just shrugged his shoulders. Of course, he knew it was a valuable skill, but it was hard to believe that nobody in the many years of this world hadn''t learned the same skill before.


    "I''m fine with telling you exactly how I ended up with that skill. I can''t promise you will be able to recreate it, but I won''t hold anything back from you. Now, what are the other conditions you have for agreeing to a vow?" He asked her.


    She just smiled at him. "I want the recipe."


    What? She wants the recipe? Julius thought to himself, totally not expecting that request.


    "You want the recipe?" He asked, making sure he had heard her right. He of course knew exactly what recipe she was asking about, but he couldn''t believe his ears. He put his fingers into his ears and gave them a cleaning, making sure there wasn''t anything inside of them.


    "Yes, my condition for doing a contract is that you give me that hot chocolate recipe," she said with an excited grin.


    Dante gave a disgusted grunt from the side. "Seriously?!"


    She whipped her head back at him. "What? You have a problem with my request?"


    The old man stood his ground this time. He crossed his arms and looked at her like she had brain damage. "Yeah, I do. You make it sound like it''s a big deal to go along with a soul-bound contract and then all it takes is some hot chocolate for you to give in? What kind of Tier 6 are you? You are a disgrace to all of us."


    "Don''t judge me for my personal request. You didn''t even try it, so you can''t say anything. And don''t forget that time when you gave a Tier 5 core to some noodle shop owner!" She angrily pointed out to Dante.


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    Come on, are you serious? Julius thought to himself as he observed the two of them bicker like an old married couple. Also, who the hell pays a Tier 5 core for some noodles? Maybe I am in the wrong business.


    "How many times are you going to bring that up?! I told you, I didn''t have anything else I could use for payment. I wasn''t just going to not pay the man," Dante argued.


    "You could have given him your dirty sock and he would have been happy. It would have still been a hundred times more expensive than the cost of the bowl," Alice shot back.


    "Who do you think I am? You think I would give a person my dirty sock for such a tasty meal?" Dante asked offendedly as if the mere thought disgusted him.


    "Hey¡­" Julius tried to interject. However, the two of them ignored him and continued bickering back and forth.


    "Hello?"


    They still ignored him.


    Finally, he had enough of being ignored and created two blunted orbs made of softened mana. He then shot them right at the two arguing people. Unlike the mana construct he had created before, these two constructs actually made it several feet further before they were dissipated into harmless mana particles.


    However, this seemed to be enough to get their attention.


    "Huh, so that''s your other epic skill," Alice said in a laid-back tone as if the two of them hadn''t been arguing in the first place.


    "Pretty good, it has two Concepts. Though, the Fire Concept seems a bit lackluster compared to the other one," Dante added just as casually.


    "Hey! Don''t make fun of it!" Julius defended his Concept. It was trying its hardest and didn''t deserve someone like some old man demeaning its strength.


    Dante just shrugged his shoulders. "Don''t blame me for having a lackluster Concept."


    However, Alice seemed to become very interested all of a sudden. "You''re right. It does seem ''lackluster''."


    Julius had a depressed look on his face. "Not you too."


    Dante just gave a boisterous laugh.


    Alice ignored the two of them and continued. "I had originally thought it was a weaker Concept, but I think there''s something else to it."


    Dante stopped laughing suddenly when he heard her tone. "What do you mean?" He asked interested.


    She ignored him again much to Dante''s annoyance and turned to Julius. "Do you have a superior skill with fire aspects?"


    How did she know?


    He didn''t answer her. "I am willing to tell you all about my skills once you take the oath," he reminded her.


    She clicked her tongue and nodded in understanding. "Okay, let''s not waste any more time then." She turned to Dante. "You know anyone who is willing to set up the ritual?"


    Dante shook his head. "Not here. You know I am not involved with that sort of thing anymore."


    Alice sighed. "I guess I can just go grab someone I know to do it for us. They might be busy though."


    "Wait," Julius interjected. The two of them turned to him. "I know someone who could set it up for us."


    She looked at him skeptically. "You know someone who can do it? Are you sure, it''s pretty advanced stuff."


    He nodded his head confidently. "Yeah, she has done one for me before. And more importantly, I can trust her."


    Alice gave him an assessing look before shrugging. "Sure, if you''re certain. Where is this person?"


    "At Goldencrest."


    "Okay, let''s go get them."


    "What? The two of us?" Julius asked.


    "Of course, it will be faster to take you there," she said like it was obvious.


    Before he could say anything else, Alice had grabbed him by the shoulder and he felt himself get enveloped in a layer of mana. Then suddenly, it was like he was being squeezed out of a tube as if he were some toothpaste.


    He looked around at his surroundings and was surprised by what he saw. He was in front of the school gates. She had teleported them directly to the school within a blink. He gave an excited look and his eyes were asking a thousand questions.


    She didn''t say anything but she saw his look and just smiled at him smugly. Knowing that he wanted nothing more than to know how she did it.


    "You must have a pretty good affinity, most people hurl their first time," she commented.


    "Affinity?" He asked, confused.


    She didn''t answer him but gestured him toward the gates with an impatient wave.


    He wanted to know what she meant but held himself back and resolved himself to ask her again later. He had more important things to do, such as find Lily.


    While he was hustling toward her dorm he took out his communication stone from his ring and sent Lily a message. He knew that it was likely that the girl was still sleeping, but he had hoped she wasn''t. It would save him a trip to her dorm.


    However, when she didn''t answer it wasn''t a surprise. The girl loved to sleep in on the weekends after all.


    He made his way across campus weaving in and out of the crowds of students. It was pretty busy since it was the weekend, most students were on their way to enjoy their days off. But eventually, he made it to Lily''s dorm. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was a building that was specifically for fourth years. Julius had only been there once before but vividly recalled that it was much nicer than the dorms that the first years like himself stayed in. He was a little bit envious of them.


    He passed a couple of older students as he entered the building. They all gave him curious looks but didn''t stop him or prevent him from entering. He noticed that some of them recognized him from the time he spent with the others.


    When he reached the door that belonged to Lily and Aubrey, he gave it a firm knock. Surprisingly, it opened pretty quickly. It only took a minute or so. When the door opened, a groggy Lily appeared. Her blonde hair was tousled and her violet eyes were half asleep still.


    However, when she saw who it was she immediately jolted awake. She must have felt some of the anxious emotions boiling throughout his chest because she looked at him worriedly. Ever since he had gotten [Sage of Savagery] it became harder for her to peer into his emotions, but she could still see them if he didn''t actively hide them. Which he wasn''t at the moment.


    "What''s wrong?" She asked quickly.


    "I need your help," Julius said and then explained to her what he needed from her as swiftly as he could.

 Chapter 163: Get Your Own

    He told Lily everything. From his meeting with Dante a couple of months ago. All the way to his meeting with Alice and what she had told him.To say that Lily was upset was an understatement. He didn''t know what she was more angry about. At first, she was worried about the condition of his soul and wanted to know all the details about its circumstances.


    However, when he began to tell her about his nonstop training at night and recent Concept acquisitions, she got furious.


    He had a feeling that if he wasn''t "injured" at the moment, she would have given him an ass whooping or his mind a good blending. And honestly, he wouldn''t have blamed her. He had been stupid. It was his own fault that his soul was even in this condition in the first place.


    He should just be thankful that Alice said there might be a way to fix it. While he didn''t know how she was going to go about it yet, she seemed confident that it was at least a possibility.


    "I told you that it was important for you to get some actual rest," Lily scolded him for the tenth time within several minutes. She was currently following Julius back to where Alice had dropped him off in front of the gates but was giving him a tongue lashing as she did.


    "I can''t believe you weren''t getting any sleep whatsoever! We all know that you trained like a freak, but I didn''t know you were that stupid. You should have told us!" Lily continued to vent at him.


    Julius tried to calm her down. "I technically did tell Aubrey about my sleep schedule," he reasoned.


    However, that didn''t calm the irate blonde in any capacity. If anything he just made it worse. He saw her purple eyes glow dangerously for a moment and felt her aura go slightly out of control, which was completely out of the norm for her. Lily had some of the best aura control he had seen outside of Declan and Professor Youma.


    She calmly turned to face Julius. "You''re saying that Aubrey knew about your training?"


    He winced. "Not everything," he backtracked his previous statement.


    "But she knew that you were forgoing sleep?" Lily asked very softly.


    He didn''t have the courage to reply with words, so he just slowly nodded his head.


    She saw his answer and nodded her head as well. "I see," she said vaguely.


    I''m sorry Aubrey! Julius apologized to Aubrey, wherever she might be. He had just unleashed an angry Lily and pointed her toward the other girl. It almost made him feel bad, but then he remembered all of Aubrey''s teasing and he felt a little less guilty about it.


    Eh, could be worse, he told himself.


    "Are you sure you''re okay with doing this?" Julius asked her, trying to change to subject slightly.


    He had told Lily what he needed of her already but wasn''t really able to explain the complete reason for it. He himself didn''t know the exact reasons either. He just knew that Alice wanted to him to share all of his skills and that he didn''t feel comfortable unless there was some sort of protection.


    She turned to look at him with a frown. "Of course I am. If you think that I am not going to help you out just because I am mad at you, then you are dumber than I thought."


    Julius looked down and hid the smile that inched to his face.


    ***


    When they finally got to the front gates, Alice was there standing at the same place Julius had left her. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He still couldn''t sense her with [Spatial Perception] much to his frustration. He hated that he had to rely on his eyes.


    Is this how normal people have to see the world? I kind of feel bad for them now.


    However, it was surprising when he saw Lily start walking a little bit faster toward Alice. There was a smile on the young girl''s face. Which was reciprocated by Alice.


    The two women met together in a big friendly hug. When he got to them, he heard them talking animately to each other.


    Huh, odd.


    "Alice! What are you doing here?" Lily asked enthusiastically.


    "Lily!? You''re the person that boy was bringing?" Alice asked at the same time.


    "Yeah, he came to my dorm asking me for help setting up a ritual for him. Are you the person he was talking about?" Lily asked Alice.


    "You guys know each other?" Julius interrupted the two of them when he got there.


    Lily turned to him. "Of course! Alice is one of my family''s good friends. I''ve known her for most of my life!" she happily said to Julius. "You should have told me it was her that was helping you."


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "I had no idea that you two knew each other," Julius commented. It actually made him feel a lot better about sharing his "secrets" even under a vow to Alice. Lily was in his opinion, an excellent judge of character.


    "Yep, Alice here is the spatial magic consultant my family relies on for some of our projects. She is one of the foremost experts in her field," Lily announced proudly.


    "Hush, you are going to make this old lady blush. There are many other people who are much more knowledgeable about spatial theory than me. I would hardly call myself an expert," Alice added with a grin.


    "Old?" Julius muttered out loud confused. He was surprised that she would refer to herself as old.


    Alice snapped her head to him and gave him a glare that stopped him from saying anything more. He put his hands up in mock surrender.


    "Stop it, Alice. My grandfather wouldn''t rely on you if you weren''t the best," Lily praised the woman.


    "Oh, you little minx!" Alice said joyfully while tugging Lily in for another hug. "How''s your mother doing?"


    "She doing well, there''s been a few issues popping up lately, so she''s a bit more busy than normal. You should go and see her though, she deserves a break," Lily told the older woman.


    Julius watched as the two of them caught up like two old friends. He had no idea that it would end up like this. He just awkwardly stood there, not knowing what he should do.


    ***


    "It''s that bad?" Lily asked worriedly.


    "Yes. It''s one of the more severe cases I have seen in a Tier 2. Luckily, he has a couple of advantages that might make it possible to help him. However, I will need to know his abilities before I move forward. And he didn''t feel comfortable without having a contract in place," Alice explained a little exasperated, giving him an annoyed side eye.


    The three of them were back at Dante''s. This time they were sitting out on the porch. Dante thoughtfully brought out some refreshments and snacks for them to enjoy as well. The old man went back inside to work on some projects while the three of them discussed the particulars.


    As he had said before, he wasn''t very knowledgeable about soul-related abilities or cared very much about them either. However, he surprisingly did offer to go through with a vow himself. He said that it wouldn''t be a big deal and played it off very cool.


    But Julius had a feeling that the grumpy old man was more interested in knowing some of Julius''s skills than he let on.


    The tea was good, but Alice was giving Julius an expectant look. He sighed and nodded his head at her. He brought out three mugs of hot chocolate, one for each of them.


    Lily gave an excited cheer as he did so, she had been the recipient of the beverage many times before and loved it. She was also finishing up the final steps of the ritual as well. She had found herself a section of the porch that would work out perfectly for it and quickly got to work on it.


    It actually didn''t take that long for her to complete it either. And when she was done, Dante came out and the four of them all gathered within the circle. However, unlike Julius''s last experience, this ritual had much more power to it.


    Large brilliant lines of pulsing mana funneled into the magic circle with a dangerous surge of mana. He didn''t know how Lily was able to create something that was able to withstand that much energy, but she did, much to his astonishment.


    Furthermore, since it involved two Tier 6s, it meant that it also required a higher source of energy to run it.


    Luckily, Dante had offered a Tier 5 core that was able to fulfill the conditions easily. It was kind of surreal to see such an expensive item handed over with such casual ease. Then again, Alice had mentioned that the man had given a Tier 5 core away for a bowl of noodles before, so he shouldn''t be that surprised.


    Fortunately, the ritual itself didn''t put that much pressure on Julius''s soul, otherwise, it would not have been possible to do it. It did, however, attach another strand of his soul to the three of them, just like how it had been the first time he went through this ritual.


    Once, it was over, Alice gave a disgusted grunt. "Gah! I hate those rituals!" She yelled out.


    "Stop being such a whiner. It''s not that bad," Dante told her.


    "Says you! You don''t have dozens of vows attached to your soul. Each one makes it a little bit it a bit more uncomfortable," she pointed out.


    Dante shrugged in response, not arguing her point.


    "It''s that bad?" Julius asked. As far as he knew there weren''t too many downsides of using the ritual.


    Alice dropped her shoulders. "No, it''s not that bad. It''s more annoying than anything. The more connections you make the more apparent they become. It''s like having sand in your pants. A few grains you won''t notice, but once you start getting dozens of them, you start to feel itchy down there.


    "Huh. That does sound annoying," Julius commented.


    "I know right!? It sucks!" Alice said upsettingly.


    He gave her an understanding nod and pulled something out of his pocket. "Here this might make it feel better," he said to her. He passed the piece of paper to her along with a few jars of dark brown liquid.


    Alice looked at him confused but took the piece of paper from him gently. She unfolded the paper and read the contents before smiling very widely. "And this is the exact recipe that you used to make it?" She asked excitedly.


    He nodded confidently. "Yep, I even added the exact place where I bought the chocolate. I don''t know if he''s still there, but you can always check it out. I gave you the rest of my stock just in case he isn''t there," he said.


    "Thank you," she said softly.


    He just nodded his head at her with a smile of his own. Truthfully, he was a bit shocked to see someone who was one of the most powerful people in the Empire look at a jar of chocolate syrup as if it were some Tier 6 treasure.


    Then again, powerful or not, it was just a reminder that these people were still human. They still loved things, regardless of their monetary value. It was a good reminder for him that not everything in the world was about power. Sometimes, a jar of chocolate could be more effective than all the power in the world.


    "What was that?" He heard Lily ask shocked at what had just transpired.


    "I promised to give the recipe to my hot chocolate in exchange for her doing the ritual," he explained to the confused girl.


    Lily turned to Alice with wide eyes. "He really gave it to you? I haven''t been able to get it from him for so long!" Then she turned to look at Julius with betrayal clear in her eyes.


    He gave her an apologetic shrug. "That was her only condition," he told her.


    Lily just gave him a frown and turned back to Alice. "You better plan on sharing that recipe," she said demandingly.


    "Huh!? No way! Get your own!" Alice said petulantly.


    Julius just laughed at the two women fighting over the chocolate.

 Chapter 164: Treated Like a Troublesome Toddler

    Lily POV"First off, I need to know what Concepts you have acquired so far," Alice said to Julius.


    Lily watched as Julius paused for a moment, probably thinking about sharing his Concepts. He finally seemed to come to a decision and answered Alice. "I have three. I have a Sharpness Concept, a Will Concept, and a Fire Concept," he told them. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Say again¡­? Lily couldn''t have heard that correctly. She distinctly remembered that he had only gotten his first one not that long ago. The fact that he already had two more was equally impressive and alarming.


    Alice however, didn''t seem to miss a beat. It was like she had already expected a similar answer.


    She could probably already sense his Concepts with her Domain, Lily reasoned to herself.


    Lily still couldn''t believe that Alice was here at the moment. The normally recluse and secretive woman was someone Lily had known for most of her life. Alice was a person that Lily had seen at home on occasions for celebrations or when she was doing a job for her grandfather.


    Since her family was pretty much a mercantile family, they always had a use for a powerful space mage like Alice. It just so happened that her family liked Alice and were good friends with her.


    But what were the odds that Julius would meet her?


    However, Lily was just grateful that he did. Without Alice, who knew how long it would have taken Julius to talk with her or the others. He could have gone through so much worse if nobody intervened.


    She was still very angry with the younger boy. She could not believe how badly Alice had described the condition of his soul. She knew that Julius could be single-minded and sometimes stupid, but she never would have thought that he would literally train until his soul couldn''t take it.


    She had heard stories of scions being forced to train since they could walk. It never ended well. The pressure on a soul that young from acquiring many skills would normally kill the child. Not to mention the children who got a Concept before Tier 2 always died. Their souls couldn''t handle the strain.


    Noble families quickly stopped this cruel practice and it became common sense to wait until your child became Tier 1 until they could really train.


    And yet, Julius didn''t seem to fit that same mold. Not only did he have an astonishing three Concepts, but she knew that he had several very high-ranked skills if her and Aubrey''s estimate was correct.


    Ironically, that was another one of Alice''s questions.


    "How many skills do you have and where are they at in terms of rank"


    Julius put a hand on his chin in thought. His cute boyish features frowning in concentration. "I have eight skills. Two at Epic and the rest at rare," he told them.


    Lily tried not to feel that surprised by that admission. She had already suspected it, but it was still surprising to hear that he didn''t have a single uncommon skill. Even Lily herself had two skills still at uncommon. Granted both of them weren''t staple skills but nonetheless, it was already impressive for Lily to only have two uncommon skills at her age.


    Alice continued to question Julius and each time he answered her questions, Lily felt less surprised and more confused. She was starting to see how Julius''s soul was falling apart. How strong was his soul in the first place to handle this level of improvement? There was no way he had made all of this progress after he got to Tier 2, she remembered that he was already strong before he reached it.


    It just seemed like she didn''t really understand how strong Julius was. It was no wonder why he was able to beat Aubrey, even with his advantage over the other girl''s skills. Three Concepts, two epic skills, three superior skills all at the later stage of rare, and three more rare skills that all except for one, were at their final level.


    It was becoming abundantly clear that the boy was holding back against Edgar during their spars. Just like Edgar had told Lily and Aubrey one day after Julius had left their session.


    Her large friend seemed to understand Julius''s real ability more than they did. Lily didn''t believe Edgar at the time, she thought he was just excited for Julius, but now she was seriously reconsidering the validity of his opinion.


    She wasn''t going to lie, a part of her was jealous. She was jealous of Julius''s talent. While she didn''t care about combat strength like some of the others did, she understood that she was the cream of the crop when it came to people her age. But hearing Julius explain all of the details of his abilities to Alice, made her feel a little bit envious of him. He was a Tier 2, yet there was no doubt that in a straight-up fight, Julius would win nine times out of ten.


    It kind of stung, to realize that that someone a full tier below her was that much stronger. But her envy was overwhelmed by her concern for the person she had quickly come to treat as one of her closest friends.


    ***


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    Julius POV


    When he was done answering all of Alice''s questions, he had to take a deep breath. The lady was thorough. However, she had been particularly interested in his healing skill and his Concept of Will. When he had mentioned the name of his healing skill, she had gotten a brilliant gleam in her eyes.


    "I think I have an idea about how I am going to help you," Alice finally said.


    "Really?" He asked with a smile.


    "Yep, but I am still worried about how well your soul is going to hold up," she said a little uncertain.


    "Why? Does it involve me learning another skill or Concept?"


    "Yes, it will revolve around you learning another skill. You won''t necessarily need to learn another Concept, but you will have to evolve your Fire Concept as well," she said tentatively.


    "Well let''s do it!" Julius said excitedly.


    Alice gave him a disapproving look. "It''s not as simple as that," she said to him, dowsing his excitement.


    "What do you mean?" He asked with sad puppy eyes.


    "Do you not understand how precarious of a position your soul is in right now?" Alice asked him slowly.


    He sighed and stopped pretending to be so childish, giving her a calm and serious look. "Of course I do."


    She chewed on her lip. "And do you understand that the only reason your soul hasn''t imploded is because of your Concept?"


    He paused at that. That he hadn''t realized. However, it weirdly made sense.


    Alice nodded her head. "See what I mean? If you aren''t able to hold your soul together with the introduction of additional stress, then even with my assistance, your soul with shatter and you will die."


    He chuckled with genuine mirth. He saw Alice and Lily give him an odd look like he was insane.


    When he stopped laughing he looked at Alice with absolutely confident eyes. "So that just means I have to keep it together with pure willpower?"


    "Yes¡­" Alice said slowly, unsure of what he found so amusing.


    "Well, that''s simple then. I just can''t fail," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Julius loved this solution. It didn''t revolve around luck or chance, it was a solution that purely relied on his own effort. The only way he would die is if his will wasn''t up to the task and if there was anything he was confident about it was his Inexorable Resolve.


    Lily looked at him like he had officially lost his mind. But Alice was looking at him with an amused look. She chuckled lightly at him, "You''re right. It''s that simple," she agreed with him.


    "What?!" Lily interrupted, baffled at the two of them. "How is that simple? You will die if you fail Julius. Why can''t you just wait? Considering Drasil''s ability, I do not doubt that in a year or two you will be up and running like new."


    Julius smiled at the young girl, appreciating her concern. However, Alice laid her hand on Lily''s shoulder, preventing her from saying any more.


    "You''re sure about this?" She asked Julius.


    He just nodded at her with a grin.


    She gave him a matching grin in return. "Okay. You''re going to need that confidence. I wouldn''t have allowed you to if you didn''t have at least that much confidence," she admitted to him with a shrug.


    "The first step you are going to have to do is to learn a specific skill. The skill is called [Soul Resistance]. Honestly, considering your soul''s condition, you would have learned it in a year or so as your soul naturally healed. However, that just means we have to accelerate the progress."


    "Is that all?" Julius asked, expecting more.


    Alice smirked at him. "That''s just the first step, and it will also probably be the most annoying. You are going to have to go through a cycle of lightly damaging your soul and healing it afterward. While this would normally be simple, your soul is quite damaged, so this light damage will be quite painful. If you can''t keep your soul together during this process, you will die," she said casually as if it wasn''t a big deal.


    "Why can''t I just heal the damage that is already there to heal my soul and get the skill that way?"


    "Because you have already damaged your soul, scarring a good portion of it. The skill requires you to put your soul under frequent but low-intensity stress. What you have done is similar to ripping a stretchy piece of dough in an instant. What we want is to slowly stretch out the dough, while healing the soul so it can continue to extend without breaking apart," Alice explained in terms he would understand, impressively already knowing that food examples were the best way to do so.


    "Okay, that makes sense. But how will we do that?" He asked curiously.


    "Dante is going to make you an item that works similar to a suppression device. The device should put enough stress on your soul that it will stretch out your soul, while your familiar along with a soul nourishing potion I give you, will handle the healing. It is also important for you to get enough sleep, your soul heals faster during sleep," she explained.


    Dante who had been pretending to ignore everyone else as he tinkered with a bracelet he was making, looked up when he heard his name mentioned. "Hold up! Who said I agreed to make something for the brat?"


    Alice looked at him with a knowing smirk. "You did when you offered to take the vow alongside me. You would only do that if you were interested, don''t play coy, it doesn''t suit an old man like you."


    "You make it sound like you are that much younger than me," Dante grumbled softly.


    "Well, I look significantly younger than you," Alice pointed out haughtily.


    "Only because you advanced younger than me!" he argued.


    "Which just means you are less talented than me," she laughed, making the older man glare at her and grumble something about Alice being from a wealthy family, under his breath. But it was loud enough that Julius could hear, which meant that Alice definitely heard it as well.


    She didn''t say anything in response and turned back to Julius. "So as I was saying Dante will create an item for you, and your job is to use it throughout the day for as long as you think you can handle it," she said with a twinkle in her eyes. Which was an actual twinkle, her magical eyes literally sparkled at him.


    "That''s stupid. You already know he is going to use it too much," Lily said from the side.


    Hey! That''s hurtful coming from you Lily. I mean, it''s probably true, but still hurtful.


    "I know, that''s why you are going to monitor him to make sure he is getting enough sleep," Alice said to her. "There will be a backup device that can shut off the device at your discretion."


    Lily nodded at that, somewhat appeased by that addition.


    Why do I feel like I am being treated like some troublemaking toddler? I have my own nanny and baby monitor now, he thought to himself, a little embarrassed.

 Chapter 165: How Far Can He Go?

    Although the old man grumbled the entire time, he did in fact create the device Alice wanted from him. Julius learned from Alice that Dante wanted to know more about his skill in order to create an object that mimicked many of its functions.The ability to track spatial movements within a certain area was a very valuable supportive enchantment to have for many purposes and the normal spatial detection skills were too advanced for many applications.


    Alice on the other hand wanted to learn his skill for herself. She had plans to incorporate the skill into her existing perception skill, [Spatial Awareness] or rather the evolved version of it. Alice unfortunately didn''t give him the details of her actual skill. She said it was a legendary skill and that [Spatial Awareness] was an epic skill, but that was all about what she shared with him.


    Her reason was that he was a long way off from acquiring a legendary skill and if he knew the requirements for one, he would just try to get one as soon as he could.


    To be fair, it was a good reason. Because in all honesty, he would absolutely try to get a legendary skill as soon as he was able to, damaged soul or not. He couldn''t blame the woman for telling the truth.


    Am I really that predictable?


    Even with half of his time spent griping about being forced to create an item like some servant, Dante made the item in record time.


    It quite literally might have taken Dante about ten minutes to create a device that satisfied Alice''s requirements. The man was an absolute genius. Julius couldn''t even follow along with the intricate enchanting and mana manipulation the older man was showing off so casually.


    It made him appreciate the little piece of black cloth he had even more than he already did. Not that he would tell Dante that.


    The device was supposedly meant to act as a sort of weight or shackles around his soul. Normally, this wasn''t that big of a deal. It would just restrict skills, mana, and aura abilities by a small amount. However, Alice made sure that Dante tinkered with the effects of the device so that it perfectly fit Julius''s needs.


    The woman personally oversaw the delicate adjustments that Dante had to make, much to the annoyance of the crafter.


    When it came time to try it on, Julius became a little nervous. The device was a small bracelet that was attached to his arm. However, he could feel an ominous aura coming from it.


    Alice assured him that it should be safe even for Julius with his unique condition. Still, that didn''t exactly make him feel confident when the woman had an excited and restless expression on her face. Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Very slowly he attached the bracelet to himself and tentatively pushed a little bit of his aura through the skill, activating it. Immediately he started to feel its effects. It felt like the device managed to weave into his soul like lead wire and make his entire soul feel like it was being crushed by the pressure of the deep sea.


    The pain was excruciating. It was as if all of the wounds in his soul were being torn apart again but times a hundred. He couldn''t even breathe for the first thirty seconds. He just dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes and smashed his face into the wood floor of Dante''s cabin, drooling all over the wood panels.


    It took another ten minutes for him to get acclimated to the pain and get to the point where he could even crawl to his knees. He subconsciously felt Lily right by his side, prepared to help him whenever he needed, but otherwise left him alone.


    He heard Dante, the grumpy old man, chuckling at Julius''s misfortune. "It''s working perfectly!" He announced proudly, not caring for a moment that his creation was torturing Julius.


    The only thing that saved him was his [Sage of Savagery] skill alongside his Concept of Inexorable Will.


    After about half an hour, which felt more like half a year under the effects of pain-induced trauma, he was able to get to his two feet. The first thing he noticed was Lily by his side, just barely touching him, making sure he didn''t fall back on his face.


    Alice on the other hand had a very impressed look on her face. However, Julius didn''t care about that. All he did was give her the most menacing glare he could muster under his pain.


    She just smiled even more widely despite that.


    "I¡­ I don''t t-think that you ex-explained the pain well e-enough," he stammered out.


    Alice just shrugged at him apologetically. "I thought it would be better for you to feel it for yourself. I didn''t want to scare you away from the pain before you even started."


    Julius gritted his teeth at her. "Next t-time, just tell me," he angrily stated.


    She gave another aggravating shrug. "I''m doing this because you asked me to, remember that. Don''t be mad at me for helping you," she rebuked him.


    She made a really good point. She didn''t really have any need to help him. Other than his perception skill that she wanted to know how he obtained it, she had no other benefits of helping him. She was a Tier 6, a level of strength Julius couldn''t even begin to understand the full grasp of.


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    He swallowed his pride and the irritation he felt from the pain. "You''re right, thank you," he managed to squeeze out without stuttering.


    "You can thank me by telling me how you got your perception skill," Alice told him with a gentle smile, clearly appreciating his apology.


    Julius attempted to reciprocate a smile of his own, but it came out more like a constipated toothy snarl. "I will," he promised. "As soon as my brain starts to work again, I will tell you all of the details."


    Alice held up another device and pressed a button. Immediately, it felt like Julius could breathe again. His soul was no longer being pressed together by a hydraulic press. He almost cried for joy at the relief.


    "This here, is the device that controls the one you are going to wear. Lily will have control over it and she will manage your usage of it," Alice explained to him while handing over the device to Lily.


    Then the woman walked over to Julius where he was now splayed out like a starfish, just appreciating the pain free moment he was experiencing. She dropped to one knee and placed a bottle of something next to his head.


    "This is a concoction that a friend of mine made. She originally made it for Tier 5 and Tier 6s, and it is technically a failed product. However, it will suit you perfectly. The healing effects are quite gentle and slow, but unlike many other potions or soul healing, it will fix deeper soul tissue damage," she described the item to him.


    "How is this method not worse than me just trying to evolve my healing skill?" He asked breathlessly. He understood the basics of what Alice explained to him, but considering the pain he was experiencing, he would think that his soul would experience more stress than just learning a new skill or Concept.


    She calmly spoke to him. "The pain is only so bad because of the damage that has already been done to your soul. Damage by the way that has been done by your own reckless actions. I am pretty certain that this method won''t result in you dying, not at this stage of the process at least."


    Pretty sure? What does that mean?


    "The worst-case scenario is that you are unable to bear the pain and have to stop. If it comes to that point, you can always still heal the natural and much slower way," Alice told him.


    Julius made an ugly face at the thought of him giving up because of a little pain.


    Alice just smirked at him. "Yeah¡­ That''s what I thought."


    He was able to see Lily looking at the two of them with a disgusted expression as if she couldn''t understand why the two of them had so easily accepted that this was the best path forward. Dante was yet again, pretending not to acknowledge them and went back to the project he was working on.


    Alice stood up and dusted off the imaginary dirt that got on her hands. "Take one bottle cap dose per night before bed and let your familiar heal you as much as it can. Get at least eight hours of sleep, and please for the love of the Gods, don''t train your skills like before. While you will find that leveling any of your skills to be next to impossible with the device, which will make most training pointless, don''t try, please," she pleaded with him.


    She sounds like a physical therapist, he thought to himself.


    "If you''re lucky, you will be fully healed before the year ends and much better prepared for the next tier. And if you''re not¡­ Well, that probably means you are either dead or have a much weaker will than I gave you credit for," she said harshly.


    Harsh but fair. If he failed, he understood it would be because of his own failure of willpower. He could deal with the pain. While this was a pretty large setback for him, he understood he would come out of this for the better. He remembered the many years he spent training without the fancy level increases or the tier advancements. He had simply gotten used to large and frequent increases. He could bear several months of this.


    He also didn''t miss the hint of a challenge within her words which unsurprisingly lit a little fire under his feet.


    He would get this [Soul Resistance] skill and upgrade his Concept of Fire to whatever Alice had in store for him. He would trust the process and bear with the pain. After all, the pain was only temporary.


    ***


    Alice POV


    Julius and Lily had left a little bit ago, leaving her and Dante sitting around together.


    "Why didn''t you tell him?" Dante asked her as he stopped pretending to work on his project.


    "What good would that have done?" She responded with a sigh.


    "Don''t you feel like he has a right to understand what you are putting him through?" He asked.


    She turned to look at the older man. He still looked strong even with wispy silver hair, but he didn''t have the edge that he used to have. He felt like a typical cranky old man.


    One wouldn''t suspect that the man in front of her was once one of the most vicious people on the continent. The blood he spilled during his younger days gave birth to countless Blood Horrors.


    The number of associations, nobles, and various other people who wished to see him dead was numerous.


    It was only after he lost his entire family that he changed. It was like he finally gained a conscience and turned his life around for the better.


    He spent many years desperately trying to make things right and absolve himself of guilt by doing the right things. It was admirable and something that Alice truly respected about the man. Not many people were able to become such a different person within a span of a hundred years.


    Ironically, it was Dante''s perseverance and ability to find his true self that allowed him to finally cross the vast threshold of Tier 5 and become a Tier 6.


    It was funny to see a person who had been drowning in despair at his failure to reach Tier 6, so much so that he killed countless people, finally reaching it only when he no longer cared about it. Only when it was meaningless to him.


    "If he were to know, he would just try to push himself harder. I know that you can see the same thing," she explained to Dante.


    "Yeah, he reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger," Dante said solemnly.


    Alice didn''t say anything, but she nodded her head in agreement. She wasn''t going to say it, but she noticed the same thing. That desperate hunger to get stronger was frightening. It was a trait that would either get him to the pinnacle or would ultimately kill him, or even worse, would turn him into a monster.


    "You think he can do it?" Dante asked.


    "I don''t know," she freely admitted. "But I think he has a chance."


    "I do too," Dante said softly. "Maybe if he does he will be able to tell two failures like us, what''s on the other side," he said with a soft chuckle.


    She smiled self-deprecating. He wasn''t wrong about that. The two of them in the grand scheme of things were considered failures. Their paths had no future. They would be stuck at Tier 6 for the rest of their lives and they both accepted it.


    However, she wanted to see how far a person like Julius could go.

 Chapter 166: Getting Used To It

    He was wrong. Again. Admittedly, that should no longer be a surprise to him or anyone anymore.The pain was definitely not temporary. The pain was very much so constant and painful. Did he mention painful?


    The first couple of days were the worst. He was coming to dread the mornings whenever he woke up. It also didn''t help that the actual sleep he was getting felt amazing and refreshing.


    It was kind of like taking a shower after an exhausting day, only to quickly find yourself getting a face full of mud right after you get out of the shower.


    It wasn''t only the pain that was the difficult part of his new situation. The most emotionally challenging thing he had to do was to explain his new circumstances to the people he knew. While Lily already knew, he still had to tell the others the bad news.


    He didn''t share with them everything, like he had with Lily but he told them enough that they understood the general gist of his problem. He gave an abridged version about how his soul had been damaged and he would have to go through some treatment for it.


    Derek, Edgar, and Kyle were all very sympathetic to his issue. They made sure Julius felt supported by them, Derek even offered to ask his grandfather for help. Julius declined, of course, they didn''t know that he already had the help of two Tier 6s.


    Aubrey on the other hand, was not as gracious as they were. She made sure she took the opportunity to say "I told you so" multiple times to him whenever she could. But that was expected.


    Declan was a bit more problematic to explain his situation to. Julius had gone over to the guardhouse after he left Dante''s and told him the same version he ended up telling his friends. The issue is that Declan was more angry at himself than he was at Julius.


    Rae and Orus were there, so it was nice to catch up with him. They also helped keep Declan from overreacting. The vice-captain kept beating himself up about not keeping a better eye on Julius. No matter what Julius said to try and appease the man, Declan wasn''t listening.


    He took the entire responsibility for Julius''s soul damage on himself. It showed that Declan really cared for Julius and made Julius appreciate the man even more than he already did. The problem though, was that the man was back to babysitter duty, but dialed to eleven.


    The first thing Declan did was take back the rift access card. While it didn''t really affect Julius that much considering that he wasn''t even going to use it for the foreseeable future, it still hurt for his privileges to be taken away like a parent taking away a gameboy from the child who wasn''t doing well in school.


    ***


    He had just woken up, blinking out the sleep from his eyes. He peeled Drasil off of his face, the arm of the spirit had somehow gotten lodged in Julius''s mouth in the middle of the night, and then got out of bed. It was early so Henry was still fast asleep in the bed on the other side of the room.


    Julius checked the time and it was only around six in the morning. Which meant that he had gotten almost exactly eight hours of sleep. He had found out pretty quickly that the combination of excruciating pain throughout the entire day and the soul potion Alice gave him worked pretty well to knock him out for some proper sleep.


    He took a calming breath to prepare himself and activated the torture device on his wrists with a soft grunt. The pain was still just as bad, but thankfully, constantly using it got him acclimated to the pain quickly.


    The familiar pressure and crushing force on his soul was becoming part of his routine. It was funny how fast he was adapting to the new pace. If he wasn''t in so much pain, he would have laughed at the irony.


    Once he changed into his uniform he made his bed and left for the library for his daily morning meet-up with Grace. He hadn''t told her about his condition like he had with the others. He told her that he wasn''t doing very well when she noticed his pained expression the first morning back, but that was all. It wasn''t like he had known her for all that long.


    He did enjoy her company though, so if it ever came down to it, he wouldn''t mind sharing with her about some of it. He just didn''t see the need to unload his issues on her yet. He mainly did it for others because it would affect their schedules and what they would do with Julius as a result. Whereas with Grace, the main thing they did was eat and read together, and his condition wouldn''t affect their routine that much.


    He made sure to warm himself up with some fire mana as he entered the library. The mornings had been a little more chilly than normal as it got closer to winter.


    That was another thing he noticed about the suppression device that Dante made for him. Since it restricted his soul, it also meant that using his skills or mana had become much more challenging. That of course meant that even heating himself up took more effort than it should have. Not only that but the amount of mana he had available to him was significantly lower.


    It wasn''t like his mana capacity was permanently lowered, but being able to access it was close to impossible. He could only use a fraction of what he was normally capable of. For a person like him, who was so used to having such a vast amount of mana, having this handicap affected him more than he would have originally thought.


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    But on the bright side, it would probably help him appreciate his larger pool once he was done.


    ***


    After he met up with Grace he had to go to the rest of his classes. Grace had constantly given him worrying looks the entire time, but she didn''t pry. It was nice, the two of them pretended like nothing was wrong and continued hanging out like normal.


    It was the rest of the day that was difficult. In particular, it was Applied Combat that was the most affected class from his new condition.


    Physical Training was the most normal. Other than the pain from moving around too much, he was able to complete the class without much issue. Intro to Mana and Tier Advancement went surprisingly well also. Neither required much from him, he found himself behaving like many of the students he originally scoffed at. Even caught himself napping on a couple of occasions.


    It was only when he got to Applied Combat that things got hard. They were still fighting against monsters this week, but this time Julius didn''t have to pretend to be weak. This time it took everything he had to just keep up with the monsters.


    Speaking of monsters, he stumbled back from an overhead swipe from this mutant gorilla he was facing. It wasn''t that fast, but neither was he, he was moving like cold molasses. Even with him using [Kinetic Augmentation] as hard as he could, he was only able to pump enough kinetic energy to barely dodge it.


    He had a nasty snarl on his face as he went on the offensive. He didn''t want to prolong the fight for much longer. The longer it went on, the more exhausted he was going to feel and the worse his chances to win would be.


    A part of him felt so lame as he had a hard time dealing with this fat monkey. But another part of him was immensely enjoying it. Despite the crippling pain his soul was going through, he never felt more alive as the gorilla with long nails almost took his face off.


    It felt like he was before he had gotten all of his fancy skills and advanced. It actually felt like a fight, a real fight where he was outmatched. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He had been so used to fighting monsters when he had superior physical strength and mana, that he had forgotten what it felt like to be the underdog again. The spars against the others and Gabriel didn''t count.


    So as much as he was embarrassed to be struggling against a lowly Tier 2 monster, it was overridden by the thrill he was getting as he felt the wind from the monster''s claws miss his face by a hair.


    He didn''t even look at his classmates who had judging looks on their faces as he barely held on He also didn''t notice that he had a frenzied smile on his face as he desperately fought off the beast.


    It''s not like he had a lot of time to give it much thought, he was too busy looking for any advantage he could find.


    His heart was racing through his chest, not because of fear, no, [Sage of Savagery] didn''t let fear affect him like that, it was the exhilaration that was coming through. Because at that very moment, he found his opening.


    The dumb gorilla had made another huge sweeping slash, but it had already done the exact same thing twice in the fight. Julius knew what would follow it. He decided that if he couldn''t overpower it, he would outsmart it.


    He neatly slid closer to the gorilla as it launched itself from its feet in the same leap from before, barely avoiding its claws.


    Then with all of the kinetic energy he had been saving throughout the fight, he delivered a brutal strike to the side of the monster''s head. He felt something crack under his fist, but he didn''t let up just yet. The dazed monster was quickly swarmed by him and he didn''t allow it a second to get back to its feet. He unloaded everything he had.


    Every strike was intended for a vulnerable place. He felt bones cracking and flesh being pummeled by his assault until eventually, he ran out of everything. He fell to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. There was nothing left in the tank.


    The most embarrassing thing was that still wasn''t enough to kill the stupid monkey. It was close to its limits too but it was still able to crawl to its feet and with a hilariously slow and weak fist, it dropped a hammer strike on his back.


    Luckily, the bracelet''s automatic defense activated and protected him from any real harm. Quickly after, the monster disappeared into particles of mana and back to the circle.


    The loss was bitter for sure. He didn''t like losing, he hated it. But it was also a fun fight, so he couldn''t be too upset. He would just have to do better next time.


    Surprisingly, his soul never hurt that badly after these hard fights. It was as if once the fight ended, it felt almost refreshed to his genuine confusion. He wasn''t leveling up his skills or Concepts, so it kind of made sense. But he would have thought that pushing himself that hard would hurt more.


    He ignored the odd looks he got from his classmates and walked out of the arena before collapsing on the nearby bench. He felt Drasil infuse some of his essence into him. Then he grunted and pushed a little life mana into [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] which was also much harder to use.


    Originally, he had been planning not to use the soul suppression device as much as he had been. Alice had told him that he would have to use it for at least a couple hours a day in order for it to work as expected, but she also mentioned that there shouldn''t be many downsides to using it more as long as he could take it. The only big one was that he had to deal with the pain for longer.


    She specifically said that as long as he didn''t use it when he was sleeping and allowed himself to recover from it, she didn''t have any problems with how he decided to use it. However, in typical Julius fashion, he took that as a challenge.


    Why wouldn''t he use it as much as he could safely handle? The more he used it during the day, the sooner he would get the [Soul Resistance] skill and the less overall time he would have to wear this awful thing. Though, Lily did make sure to deactivate the device every night so he wouldn''t be tempted to use it instead of sleeping.


    He definitely didn''t wear it when he was fighting because he thought the fights with it were more exciting. No, that would be crazy. He wasn''t that insane.


    Lily kept a close eye on him too. Whenever he looked too worn out she had deactivated it with the device Alice had given her. But after some long arguing with her about how the pain feels worse after reactivating it following a break, Lily had let him use it for longer durations.


    Funnily enough, having to explain his recent performance in class to people like Joshua and James was more annoying than the device itself. They were obviously worried about him, but Julius didn''t feel comfortable about sharing the details with them yet. Of course, that just made them more curious and pressed him for more details.


    He tried his best to deflect, but he had a feeling that eventually, he would have to tell them something and he wasn''t really looking forward to that.

 Chapter 167: Yeah, Hell Be Fine

    Time honestly flew by in the blink of an eye. He honestly expected since he wasn''t training like he had, that time would pass by very slowly.He thought he would have been more bored and restless by now. However, in the weeks since he started wearing the suppression device he had enjoyed his little break.


    Additionally, it wasn''t like he had completely forgotten training. While he hadn''t gained any skill levels in this period of time, he did improve on many things unrelated to pure numbers and levels. For one, his control of mana had improved by leaps and bounds.


    Who would have thought that handicapping his mana capacity and control would help him this much?


    Even his kinetic energy made some nice improvements during this time. His performance in Applied Combat certainly showed his new proficiency with the affinity. He wasn''t at least struggling as much as he had been. Which was simultaneously encouraging and disappointing.


    Alice was fine with him training at this level as well. She actually actively supported him when he told her about his activities. She said that it was a good thing as long as he didn''t train like he had been or gain any skill levels. The device would suppress any skill gains within reason, but if he pushed it, he would still gain more levels. She also ensured that he got proper rest.


    Speaking of her. Julius made sure to get frequent check-ups with her. She would monitor his health and he would in return show her how he got his perception skill.


    It was quite amusing to see her reaction when he explained how he got the skill. She was baffled that such a method worked for him. She couldn''t even begin to comprehend why a child who could barely talk would willingly blindfold himself for most of his childhood.


    In the end, she swallowed her pride and asked him to show her the exercises he had done to accomplish it.


    They spent hours as Julius had Alice jam pieces of clay into her orifices and cover her eyes. It was hilarious to see and he did his best not to make fun of the woman considering that he had done the same thing years earlier. He could start to see why people thought he was "special" when he was younger.


    Eventually, they had to ask Dante to create something with a little more soundproofing. The natural sense of smell and hearing of a Tier 6 wasn''t something to underestimate.


    She could still hear and smell pretty well through the clay, despite her best efforts. She attempted to dampen her own senses with her domain but apparently keeping the domain active ensured that she was always somewhat aware of her surroundings. Julius didn''t know how that quite worked, but instead of that Dante created a helmet that prevented any sensation from reaching the woman.


    After she had that, everything went a lot smoother. Julius had her start with simple exercises while she wore the helmet and they slowly progressed to him throwing things at her.


    Dante found it especially amusing when small pebbles smacked into her chest and face. The old man even begged Julius to allow him to try along with him. Alice, unsurprisingly adamantly refused his request. Much to Dante''s disappointment.


    She also gave Julius more of the soul-healing concoction. The first time he drank it, he almost died from shock. What Alice had not told him, was that the concoction quite literally packed a punch. It felt like he hooked up his tongue to a car battery and got electrocuted by it.


    This version she said was a newer version that her friend had made after Alice had gone to her immediately after giving Julius the first bottle. This new one was much better. It still didn''t taste very good, but at least it didn''t almost kill him when he drank it, which was a huge improvement.


    He only looked forward to Drasil''s healing essence. His trusty little healer familiar was working himself to the bone. Drasil spent every possible minute either giving Julius more essence or cultivating more to heal Julius with.


    Julius would make sure that the little guy was well rewarded after this. The little glutton deserved it. He just didn''t know what he would get him yet. Perhaps another treasure would be a good idea. Though, he wasn''t sure he would be able to afford something that nice yet.


    He did have some leftover cores from the Tier 3 but he didn''t know how much he would get for him. He would have to do some brainstorming.


    On another note, during these past couple of weeks, Julius also had to find some sort of activity to fill his time.


    That inevitably led him to hang out with the others much more often. Which he had to admit, was very nice. It almost made him feel bad for not hanging out with them more often.


    Most of the time it was him, Lily, and Aubrey. The guys were constantly busy with something but would frequently tag along with them, depending on what the activity was.


    For example, Aubrey and Kyle had introduced him to shopping at second-hand stores and he learned that Kyle would always try to come along whenever he could, always on the hunt for something interesting.


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    The items sold at these shops were simple items, one of his favorite items he found was a crystal decoration that activated whenever moonlight hit it. He had placed it in the window of his room and loved how it emitted a soft, comforting aura throughout the night.


    He knew that Henry also loved the item as well. The other boy had tried to ignore it, but Julius had caught his smiling at the crystal in the window more than once.


    The best part? It cost less than two silvers.


    He also picked up other hobbies. The most recent one was gardening. Aubrey and Lily didn''t enjoy it, but surprisingly Edgar joined him. The big fourth-year had a green thumb and helped Julius set up a small patch for their own projects.


    The gardens at Goldencrest didn''t have any owners or really any rules, so it should be fine that they were doing it. Edgar didn''t seem worried either.


    Edgar had his own selection of plants that he wanted to grow. While Julius chose some unique looking flowers and a couple of various plants that grew berries, the other boy chose to go with tubulars.


    He planted at least a dozen varieties of potatoes and other closely related plants. Julius should have honestly expected something like that. Even though Edgar denied it, he knew that the older boy just wanted to try the various potatoes for himself.


    ***


    Reinera POV


    She was worried about Julius. He had been noticeably more sluggish and acted differently. Even his mana control had been disturbingly lacking as of late, which was very odd for a person she admired for his impressive control.


    She had also caught him wincing at times. He gave her some excuses about him not feeling that good and that he must have caught something. But it had been many weeks and he hadn''t gotten any better.


    That was the beginning of her suspicions that something else was up with him. She had asked Amelia if she had noticed something.


    "He has some sort of enchanted item activated at all times. I''m not sure what it is supposed to do, but it almost feels like a suppression shackle in some ways. The device is wrapped around his soul like one normally does," Amelia said with a frown.


    "You think he knows what he''s wearing?" She asked the other woman.


    "I can''t imagine he doesn''t," Amelia replied.


    "Why not?"


    "You have never worn one, so it makes sense you don''t know, but something like that doesn''t work without some permission granted by the wearer," Amelia explained.


    She paused for a moment to think. Honestly, a suppression device would make sense for his behavior in recent weeks.


    She was honestly a bit disturbed to see him fight during their Applied Combat class. There were moments when he got pretty ruffled. Every fight was a struggle. And it wasn''t like his normal holding back either. It was a genuine struggle that alarmed her the first several times it happened.


    She wasn''t the only one either. Many students were watching the boy fight tooth and nail to beat the monster assigned to him. It wasn''t like he was gaining as much attention as people like herself or other talented students like Helen Cromweld, Polux, Tia Wellence, or Joshua Rollins. But it was still something many students were aware of.


    It wasn''t as if no other student lost to the monster. Many students not specializing in combat lost their fights, but not a single student fought as fiercely as Julius did and still lost. Some classmates laughed at Julius''s struggles, which wasn''t exactly surprising. Children would be children after all.


    Most of the nobles didn''t see anything else other than some poor commoner struggling to beat a Tier 2 monster.


    However, there were some who also thought similarly to Reinera. The Rollins scion in particular seemed worried just like her, she had seen Julius and Joshua talking from time to time after class, so she knew that they were somewhat on friendly terms.


    Additionally, Tia and Polux both had differing reactions. Tia seemed more sympathetic, while Polux had an exasperated smile on his face.


    The beastkin boy was a curious one. Reinera didn''t see Polux interact with Julius, but she always caught his eye focused on the other boy. Not to mention that the beastkin boy was strong in his own right.


    She suspected that other than herself and Helen Cromweld, he was the strongest student in their year. His physical ability was terrifying and his use of aura for attacks was phenomenal.


    Speaking of Helen Cromweld, she didn''t care about Julius. Which wasn''t surprising. She hadn''t noticed anyone other than herself the entire time Reinera had been at the school. It was like the redhead focused solely on herself and didn''t care about anyone else.


    She focused her attention back on Julius who was fighting an Armored Koven. An Armored Koven was a large bulky four legged monster that had three horns on its head that it liked to spear its opponents with.


    At Tier 2 they weren''t that much of a threat. Their armor wasn''t that strong yet and their speed was quite lacking. It was only when they reached Tier 3 that they became threats. Those few that made it to Tier 4 were able to shrug off attacks from Tier 4s and smash through town defenses like they were eggshells.


    They were quite the challenging monsters to deal with whenever a monster flood happened.


    Fortunately, Julius was facing one at Tier 2 and he was taking advantage of the monster''s weaknesses. The black-haired boy always remained off to the side of the monster, making sure he wasn''t in line with its horns. He also made sure to hit the softened plates of armor that resided just behind the back of the Koven''s ears.


    It was still a hard-fought battle, but Julius eventually came out on top. He was breathing slightly heavily and looked a little ragged, but it was a much better showing than several weeks ago. She still remembered him getting pummeled into the dirt.


    Perhaps he is getting better, she admitted to herself.


    Then she saw the boy hobble off to a nearby bench and practically fall down on it. She winced as he took large gulps of water out of a canteen that he summoned out of his spatial device, spilling some on his face and down to his uniform.


    Maybe I spoke too soon, she said internally with a grimace.


    However, when she saw him take out a cookie and start munching on it with a tired grin, she chuckled to herself.


    Actually, I think he''ll be fine, she stated to herself confidently.


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 Chapter 168: Soul Tempering

    "Can you stop throwing them so hard?" The woman asked indignantly."It won''t work unless you feel pressured to actually dodge them," he argued calmly.


    "Yes, and that would be a justifiable reason if not for one thing."


    He paused, his arm frozen in mid-air. "And what would that be?" he asked genuinely curious. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You are enjoying this far¡­ ouch¡­ too much," Alice complained to him as another pebble knocked into her head.


    "Why are you saying ''ouch'', like it is actually causing you pain?" He asked the much stronger lady while winding up another pebble to chuck at her.


    "Habit, I guess," she replied with a shrug.


    The fact that Julius was using every bit of his power to throw these pebbles as hard as he could wasn''t lost on either of them. He used all of the tricks he learned recently about kinetic energy to help him charge the pebbles with something extra, but still, he didn''t even leave a crease in her skin.


    At the moment, Alice wasn''t wearing the device that Dante had made her. The old man had to make some adjustments today and so the two of them were hanging out on Dante''s patio with Julius throwing rocks at her to pass the time.


    Julius was already sweating a bit from the exertion but Alice looked like she had just like she did when they first arrived. It was quite annoying, to be honest. Julius had really tried to at least do something to the woman with his attempts, but no matter how strong he threw it, she acted like it was a gust of wind.


    It wasn''t only that, but the woman had gotten very good at sensing about half the throws with no detection skills other than her spatial senses.


    It had only been around a month since they met and they had developed a weird but nice relationship. It was also of note that Alice had already gotten to a point that took Julius many years to get to. It probably helped that she had familiarity with a similar skill.


    He expected that she would be offered the skill or something very similar pretty soon.


    At first, he had proposed the idea for her to get the same set of skills that he used to combine, but she said that wouldn''t be possible for her. The skills he used were [Sixth Sense], [Detect Life], and [Awareness]. The problem with that was that Alice had already evolved the [Awareness] skill into her other perception skill a long time ago.


    However, it was also important to mention that combining these three skills wasn''t a guaranteed method to gain his skills. As he had learned, not all skills were the same and just because someone combined the same skills didn''t mean they would get the same result.


    The method and way they used the skills or rather what their intent was, was more vital to the acquisition of the skill. In [Spatial Perception]''s case, they were trying to replicate his training regime from when he was younger, with the intention of getting [Spatial Perception].


    Apparently, a perception skill with spatial aspects was not heard of at the rare rank, that was why Alice and Dante had been so curious and interested with his skill.


    [Spatial Awareness] and its other variants were all epic ranked skills. But if it was possible to gain such a perception skill at Tier 1 as Julius had done, it would provide an immeasurable value to anyone who got the skill.


    Not that Alice really had any intentions of sharing the skill with anyone else. It also wouldn''t do much good for many other people. At least according to her opinion. She believed that one of the requisites of the skill was an amazing affinity to space.


    This confused Julius because that would mean he had a good affinity for space. But he didn''t remember getting an affinity for space when he was tested by his uncle and Edwin. And so he had asked her to clear up his bewilderment.


    "Space affinities are not like normal elemental affinities. There''s not really space mana to test for it. It''s kind of like how there aren''t any time affinities either. They simply exist and those with a higher affinity for them can interact with these forces much easier than others. People like you and me," she had explained to him.


    Her explanation left him with more questions than before. He had always wondered how he had been able to get such a skill like [Spatial Perception] like he had. He was hoping it was a unique skill to have, but he had expected that at least a few people would have a similar skill.


    But now it was starting to make sense.


    He suddenly felt a tightness in his soul. It came out of nowhere, and it wasn''t from the suppression device. He had been wearing the device for a while by now and he was very familiar with the types of sensations that came from it.


    This was different. The device was a crushing and weighty kind of pain. This pain was like when he ate too much food at a buffet but a hundred times worse. His soul felt like it was about to burst.


    However, Alice was next to him and immediately took off her blindfold. He felt her domain surround him with a warming and comforting presence. Almost immediately after, the pressure paused.


    He turned to look at the woman who had a confused look on her face. "What the hell was that?"


    He felt her inspecting his soul with her own soul. He had gotten used to her little probes at this point that he recognized her movements within his soul. And this time her inspection of him was more frantic and thorough than normal.


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    Finally, she let his soul go and gave him a questioning glare. "You''ve really been using it that much?" She asked skeptically.


    "Using what?"


    She ignored his avoidance of the question and continued talking. "I had plans for you to be done in a month or so."


    "Is that still not true?" He asked worriedly. He was afraid that he might''ve done something wrong again.


    "No, it''s not," she said simply.


    Shit! What did I do this time?


    "Is there anything I can do to fix it?" He asked nervously.


    His mind started to race in a thousand directions about how he had managed to mess his soul up again. He was already inwardly berating himself for his carelessness. He thought he was doing well, all things considered.


    "What do you mean fix it?" Alice asked, bewildered at his panicking.


    "You know, my soul. Is there a way to fix whatever I ended up messing up this time?"


    She didn''t say anything for a moment and just stared at him like he wasn''t making any sense. However, she soon must''ve come to a realization because she laughed out loud. Which didn''t make him feel at ease, in fact, it made him feel more worried.


    "I think you are misunderstanding something," she told him after she stopped chuckling.


    He looked at her with wide eyes. "Huh?"


    "Your soul is fine. As a matter of fact, your soul is doing quite well, better than I expected it to be at this stage. You must have been using the device religiously, I''m impressed. That feeling you got in your soul is a new skill trying to form," Alice explained to him with a smirk.


    "A new skill? You mean the [Soul Resistance] skill?" Julius asked excitedly.


    "Yes, or at least some version of it. That''s what I am hoping at least. You haven''t been trying to learn another skill during this time right?" Alice asked him with a knowing look.


    "Of course not," he promised.


    "Good, then you should be able to learn the skill."


    "Right now?!" He asked surprised.


    "I don''t see why not. I was hoping I would be around to help you assimilate it into your soul. It would be safer if I can help you hold your soul together while you do," she told him.


    He just nodded his head rapidly up and down at her. She smiled at him and had him sit down in front of her.


    "You are going to feel that same sensation again, but this time I want you to let it happen. It''s not going to feel natural, but you have to let it pop," Alice explained.


    He gave her a skeptical look. But he listened to her, she hadn''t misguided him yet so she deserved some faith from him.


    Slowly he felt Alice release her hold of his soul and the same expanding feeling rolled over him. It was uncomfortable and she was right, he was holding it back subconsciously. His will was working to fight against this foreign feeling.


    However, he trusted her and tentatively let go. He allowed that expanding feeling to continue unimpeded.


    At first it just hurt more and he was doubting Alice''s advice as it ramped up in increments. Still, he held on and restrained himself from fighting against the sensation.


    Finally, with a culminating burst of energy, the bubble burst and all he felt was extreme satisfaction. It was like eventually going to the bathroom after holding it in for way too long.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Soul Tempering]?


    He let out a loud laugh and smiled widely at Alice who was giving a similar smirk on her own.


    "Did you get it?" She asked him.


    It''s not [Soul Resistance], he realized.


    "I didn''t get offered [Soul Resistance]," he said quietly.


    "What?" She asked, confused.


    "I got offered a different skill," he admitted.


    "What is it?" Alice pressed him impatiently.


    "It''s called [Soul Tempering]," he told her.


    Alice didn''t say anything to him in response, but she called out to the cabin where Dante was at. "Hey! You owe me a silver!"


    "What!? He didn''t get [Soul Resistance]?" Julius heard to gruff voice of Dante ask Alice questioningly.


    "Nope, he got a skill called [Soul Tempering]."


    Dante opened the door and came out to the porch. "You got the [Soul Tempering] skill?" He asked Julius directly.


    "I haven''t accepted it yet, but yeah, I got offered it," he said.


    "Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and take it," Dante commanded him sternly.


    "What''s the skill?" He asked the both of them.


    "[Soul Tempering] is a more advanced version of [Soul Resistance]. It''s hard to say if it''s necessarily better, but I believe it is a much more valuable skill for your current needs. It''s the skill I was kind of hoping for," Alice explained.


    "So you weren''t betting that he wouldn''t get a soul resistance skill, you were betting that he wouldn''t get the standard version of it," Dante accused Alice.


    "Yep."


    "That''s a cheap way to make a bet and you know it," he pointed out.


    "Yeah, but you still lost, so pay up," Alice said uncaringly.


    Dante grumbled something about scammers but still passed over a shiny platinum coin to her. To which Alice pocketed with a smug smile.


    That''s not a silver coin.


    "No point in waiting," she said to him.


    He shrugged his shoulders and accepted the prompt.


    Congratulations, you have learned the skill [Soul Tempering] (Rare+)


    It was even a superior skill. That part surprised him. The other part was the feeling he got the moment he gained the skill.


    The first sensation was more pain, but that was quickly replaced with joy. The skill was already going to work. He could feel his soul getting revitalized by the skill. It was as if a lot of the weight and pressure that had been burying his soul was getting thrown out of his soul.


    It was such a relief that he practically moaned at the relief he felt. It was by no means totally fixed, but a significant amount of the pain was gone.


    Compared to how he felt just this morning, the difference was night and day. He felt his eyes start to sparkle with unshed tears as he looked at both of them.


    "Thank you," he said to them. "Thank you so much for your guy''s help."


    He had been through a lot during these past weeks. He tried to put up as tough of an act, but he could honestly say it was one of the most enduring and painful experiences of his life.


    It was Dante who surprisingly placed a hand on his shoulder.


    "You did well boy. You did really well," Dante said to him with a genuinely proud smile.

 Chapter 169: Questionable Methods

    "So what now?" Julius asked after wiping the wetness from his face, purposefully ignoring Alice''s and Dante''s smirks."Now you should have some room for you to evolve your Fire Concept without your soul collapsing in on itself even with my assistance," Alice told him.


    "Yeah, you never explained that part. I was always a bit confused about that part of the plan."


    "I didn''t want you to be thinking too far ahead. I wanted you to focus on the present. You have the habit of jumping ahead," Alice reminded him.


    He gave an acknowledging smile. "And now?"


    "Remember how Dante mentioned that your Fire Concept was a bit ''lackluster''?"


    "Of course, it was very rude of him," he said while giving Dante a meaningful glance.


    "But true," Julius heard Dante mutter.


    Alice gave both of them reproaching looks. "Anyway, he wasn''t necessarily wrong. Your Concept of Fire probably came from your superior skill. However, since your soul was already overloaded and worn down, you probably could not get the actual Concept you would have under ideal conditions."


    I would have gotten a different Concept? He asked himself.


    "What do you mean?" He asked deliberately slow.


    "You''re saying that you don''t have any ideas?" Alice asked him knowingly.


    "A few," he admitted.


    "And¡­?"


    He had honestly been thinking about it for a long time at this point. The idea was in the name of his skill [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was a telling indicator. A Phoenix was a mythical bird representing life, fire, and rebirth.


    The fact that his skill had the word Phoenix in its name had him hoping that the skill would be related to what a Phoenix represented. However, pseudo meant it was an incomplete version of a Phoenix. This made it seem like the evolved version was a completed Phoenix or something closer to the real deal.


    Still, he didn''t want to get his hopes up too high. He would rather not be disappointed if he didn''t get the skill he was hoping to acquire at epic.


    That being said, Alice was making it seem like the idea had some merit after all.


    "A Phoenix Concept is a real thing?" He asked carefully.


    "Oh, it sure is. Very rare and very desirable. I myself do not know anybody personally with that Concept. You on the other hand seem to have a fragmented Concept of Phoenix intertwined with your skill going off of the Fire Concept you acquired as well as the nature of the skill itself. This is also a big reason why it is a superior skill and so potent at its rank. Do you really think someone at Tier 2 should have such a powerful healing skill?" Alice smiled at him with a chuckle.


    "If it''s so rare, how do you know it''s not just a Fire Concept? Why are you so sure it is a Phoenix Concept?"


    Dante grunted and got out of his chair. "You want me to tell you why a Phoenix Concept is so rare?" He asked Julius.


    Julius looked up at the approaching old man and nodded eagerly at him. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Dante sat down in the seat next to him. "It is every healer''s dream to gain a life-related Concept like a Phoenix Concept. You won''t find a single healer who wouldn''t be willing to trade both of their arms for a fragment. But it takes a special kind of person to gain a Phoenix Concept. One is that someone needs an appropriate fire and life affinity, which is rarer than you would think. Most fire users are fighters and most life users are healers, two very opposite paths."


    Dante itched his beard before continuing. "It''s not just an affinity thing either. An integral part of your soul must have a deep connection with life and death. Yet, a young Tier 2 like you already has such a connection. It is one of the first things I noticed about you. You are familiar with death and have a weirdly personal connection with it. I don''t know how and honestly, I don''t particularly care either. But you fit the mold. If anyone is going to have a Phoenix Concept I''m going to bet it''s the person who fulfills the requirements and has a bloody skill with Phoenix in the name."


    Julius refrained from reacting to Dante''s statement about his connection with death. He was scarily accurate about that. Instead, he scratched his head awkwardly.


    Furthermore, when Dante put it like that, it was easy to see their point of view. Still, even if that was true, that leaves one very large question.


    "How do I evolve my Fire Concept to a Phoenix Concept?"


    "Beats me," Dante shrugged unknowingly. "If it was up to me, I would just throw you in a fire and have you constantly heal yourself until you get it."


    Julius averted his eyes to the ground and tried not to remember that was exactly what he had done before to learn his Fire Concept.


    Dante was close enough to Julius to realize something was off. The old man leaned closer and impolitely poked around his aura. Julius wasn''t able to fight off Dante''s aura no matter how hard he pushed back and the old man was able to get a sense of his emotions.


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    Dante leaned back and looked at Julius with a disgusted but also proud grin. "Seriously?"


    He didn''t look up at the man but nodded his head, confirming it.


    "You want to try it again?" Dante asked him.


    "We''re not throwing him into a fire!" Alice cut Dante off.


    "Why not? He already admitted that he''s done it. What''s the harm of doing it again?"


    "You''re seriously asking me what the harm is with setting a young boy on fire?" Alice asked questioningly.


    "You practically commanded the kid to torture himself for weeks. Don''t tell me you draw the line at this. The soul tempering was probably more painful than the fire was," Dante argued.


    "It was," Julius instinctively commented before he could stop himself.


    "We can try out some other way first," she said after she gave a sharp look at Julius.


    "Like what? Do you have any ideas or know many people who got a Phoenix Concept? I''m sure you can try to find a manual lying around somewhere," Dante huffed out sarcastically.


    Alice gave the older man a dark look, before turning around to look at Julius with assessing eyes. Seeing Alice''s face and no response, Dante raised both palms up at her. "Why don''t we ask the boy what he thinks."


    Alice continued to glare at Julius. "You really set yourself on fire before?"


    He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Kind of, yeah."


    "Is that how you got your Fire Concept?"


    He gave her a bright smile. "Yeah." He was admittedly pretty proud of that. Probably more than he should be if he was being honest.


    Alice pitched her nose. "I really need to have a conversation with whoever raised you. What kind of child thinks that setting themselves on fire is a smart way to get stronger?"


    Julius didn''t know how to answer that. She did have a valid point, it wasn''t like he was a normal kid after all. He himself realized how alarming it was when the first thing he thought of was to light himself in a fiery blaze.


    He gave her a casual shrug, which received a defeated sigh from Alice in return.


    "Okay, let''s try the fire," she said, sounding like it took all of her will to say those words. "But don''t push it too far. We don''t need you to get some sort of [Flaming Boy] skill yet. Your new skill should just about give you enough room to evolve your Concept and if you''re lucky evolve your healing skill to epic. If you get the wrong skill, you might end up being in a worse position than you were before, if that is even possible without dying before it happens."


    "Oh, so we are setting him on fire," Dante mused.


    "Yes, wasn''t that your idea in the first place?" Alice asked rhetorically.


    "I mean it was. But it doesn''t mean I was actually going to go through with it." Dante said.


    "However, I do want to note for the record that you are the one who decided to set a little boy on fire," Dante said with an innocent expression on his old face.


    "Holy shit. I am completely surrounded by idiots," Alice groaned.


    "Hey! Drasil is not an idiot!" Julius argued emphatically. The little life spirit was on his shoulder and nodding his head at Julius''s statement. Alice had either not noticed or cared that the adorable green spirit had come out almost immediately after Julius got the [Soul Tempering] skill. The little guy must have felt the difference the skill made to his soul''s condition and came out to check on his patient like the good healer he was.


    Julius passed the spirit a little orb of life mana to Drasil to suck on as thanks. To which the small saint cooed a thanks.


    "I am not even going to argue with you," Alice said exasperatedly. "Let''s get this over with. Hurry up and let''s set you ablaze before I kill all of you myself."


    Julius and Dante gave each other a secretive grin, knowing that they had successfully annoyed the other woman. They didn''t have much in common, but getting one over on Alice was something that both of them tried very hard to do.


    However, before he followed Alice he had a question. He held up the suppression bracelet that was still around his wrist. "What should I do with this? Do I still need it?"


    "No, you can do whatever you want with it. You can chuck for all I care," Alice told him.


    Dante made a disgruntled noise as he heard that. The man must have not appreciated his work being talked about like it was some common trash that was thrown away when it was no longer useful.


    Julius on the other hand was smiling. He already had some ideas for the suppression device when for the future. It could act as a very nice training device for mana control and other skill training. Though he would make sure that he didn''t tell Lily that. He had a feeling that she wouldn''t like that idea as much as he did.


    The three of them got settled in a spot where there wasn''t anything too flammable nearby. Not that there was much of a danger for a wildfire with two Tier 6s nearby. Still, it was a simple task to take some basic precautions.


    "Are we just going to start right away?" He asked Alice.


    "What did you do last time?" She asked.


    Julius blushed a little bit and bit his lip, thinking about whether or not he wanted to share with them that he had been buck-naked the last time. However, considering he had already told both of them his skills, nudity seemed a little less personal.


    He took a deep breath and looked at Alice and Dante with a shy grin. "I took off my clothes," he stated.


    Dante choked on his tongue and Alice''s eyes widened. She looked at him taken aback. "Say that again?" she asked.


    "I got naked," he repeated, this time with a bit more confidence and amusement.


    "Oh."


    "Yep," he said while looking at her expectantly.


    "Well this is weird," Dante commented. "I wasn''t expecting that issue."


    "I agree. I don''t know how I feel about this," Alice stated uncertainly.


    Julius looked at the two people who were both looking very conflicted. "Hold up. You both were okay with me setting myself on fire, but nudity is where you draw the line?"


    "I don''t know about other people. But I don''t make the habit of looking at underaged boys while they are naked and on fire," Alice pointed out.


    "Does that mean you''re alright with looking at underaged naked boys if they aren''t on fire?" Dante teased.


    Julius felt an immense pressure emit from Alice. The power wasn''t like anything he had ever seen. Just the pressure of the power made his entire body lock up instinctually. Alice wasn''t even using this power on him, it was being directed at the old man who made the joke.


    Dante had a face that was creased with exertion. As he fought off something from Alice. Julius didn''t know what it was, but it must be powerful enough that a Tier 6 like Dante had a hard time dealing with it. Alice on the other hand was calmly glaring at Dante.


    Finally, the old man seemed to have enough and tapped as a sign of submission. "Okay, okay!" He exclaimed. "I''m sorry."


    Alice pulled back her power with a satisfied grin and Julius was able to move again.


    Was that her domain? Or was it some other power she hadn''t shown to me yet? Whatever it is, I want it, he told himself greedily, practically licking his lips at the thought of such a powerful technique.

 Chapter 170: Getting Sidetracked

    In the end, it wasn''t even a big deal. Dante gave him a pair of clothes that he said would be able to withstand whatever flames he was able to create. They were a few sizes too large for him, but it was better than nothing.While he would have done it either way, he would have much rather not have gone through that kind of experience. He didn''t need the two of them to get a good look at his privates when he burned himself alive.


    He was keenly aware of the interested gazes from both of them. Alice had more concern lining her gaze while Dante had more excitement in his. He didn''t know how he felt about that. Knowing that someone was enjoying themselves as they watched someone go through pain was a little alarming.


    He didn''t waste any more time though. He created a shell of mana around himself. This time, however, it felt much more fluid.


    His control of mana really showed its improvements as he was able to create his construct with much more ease than before.


    Once he had created another hole at the very top for ventilation, he slowly ignited the fire mana. The first several seconds were just him getting comfortable with the warm flames that surrounded him. The fire itself didn''t harm him nor did it affect the clothing Dante had given him.


    Okay, let''s slowly increase the heat.


    With a mental command, he slowly increased the intensity of the flames. He didn''t add kinetic energy but he did use the less volatile version that used pure fire manipulation.


    It was then that he started to feel the burn of the flames. The violet flames started to wrap themselves around his limbs and started to turn his skin to ash. He was surprised though.


    The last time he had done this, it was much more painful than this. It had been agonizing to bear even with the help of his Concept of Will. However, this time he was handling the pain much easier than previously.


    Compared to the pain that his soul had been going through the last several weeks, this was quite tame. He also wondered if his new skill had anything to do with it. [Soul Tempering] was an interesting skill. Alice had forced him to get the skill because she said it would help stabilize his soul, but he wondered if pain reduction was also another benefit.


    He gently reminded himself that he was currently busy and should try to focus on the important things. For one, his primary goal was to get this Concept of Phoenix that Alice and Dante had mentioned.


    He tried his best to contain his excitement but he was very delighted that such a Concept existed. It had only been a fantasy and a hope, but now that it was confirmed, he really wanted to get it.


    Though, he didn''t really have any good ideas about how he would go about doing that. The last time he had been focused on gaining a Fire Concept, not the Phoenix Concept.


    However, going off of what Dante had said, a Phoenix Concept was a mixture of fire and life affinities. Therefore, following that same reason, it was possible that a Phoenix Concept needed both aspects of a Fire Concept and a Life Concept.


    Unfortunately, that was where it got confusing. Alice seemed pretty confident that he could simply evolve his Concept, but it could also be possible that he needed a Life Concept to combine with his Fire Concept much like how his skills combined together.


    Honestly, he didn''t really know how he was going to go about learning a Phoenix Concept. Still, the best probable solution was just to get started.


    The last time he set himself on fire, he was focused on how the fire interacted with him. He had concentrated on how the fire burned his skin and tried to understand the connection of the flames to himself. Not only him personally, but to the entirety of his path.


    However, unlike last time, he wanted to switch to the opposite side of the coin. He wanted to see how life fit into his path. The best way he knew how to do that was to use his [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] skill.


    The healing skill had been one of, if not the best skill he had. It had saved him countless times and was a big reason for his current strength. However, he rarely thought about how the life mana interacted with his body and what it meant to him overall.


    Concepts he had learned were a symbol and representation of his path. His Sharpness Concept was a weapon that cut through the shackles that attempted to restrict his freedom and mortality.


    His Concept of Will was a symbol that characterized his unwillingness to cede or to give up. It was a show of his unwavering will and resolve. It was proof that he wouldn''t be bullied into giving up his goals.


    His Fire Concept was a little bit different. It was the burning passion of his soul. It was the light that shimmered in the darkness. It was the light that illuminated his path.


    So what did life mean to him?


    That required more thought than he expected. And even after over an hour of him burning and healing himself, he wasn''t able to gleam any hints.


    Alice and Dante both respectfully remained quiet and were doing things of their own while they watched. Dante was tinkering with another one of his projects. This one was a hat he made himself and a hat that Julius had doubt was very comfortable. Julius found it funny that a guy like Dante enjoyed knitting and making cozy things.


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    Alice was reading a book. She was constantly aware of Julius''s actions though and was prepared to jump in if anything happened. She became much more relaxed once she had seen how well Julius had handled the initial period of the process.


    ***


    He eventually had to stop. He wasn''t able to evolve his Concept and there was only so much abuse he could or wanted to take. He could definitely have gone for longer, but he understood the importance of pacing himself much better now. There was a time and place for pushing himself.


    That didn''t mean he had to do it at all times. That was the cause of his current situation.


    He wouldn''t be able to continue setting himself on fire while he was at school. Alice made him promise only to continue where he left off when she or Dante was around. She explained to him that it was important that someone was there to assist his acquisition of his new skill and Concept.


    While his soul had gotten better and got a little more space for him to work around, it was still in a precarious situation. If he were to get impatient again, it was possible that he would cause worse damage to his soul than before.


    He didn''t want that. He was a changed man, he was learning how to be patient. At least that was what he was telling himself. He didn''t think the others would necessarily agree with that.


    He was currently walking back to campus with a happy bop to his step. He was still very excited that his soul no longer felt like it was getting squished by a hydraulic press. The feeling was absolutely liberating.


    Of course, fate couldn''t allow him to feel that good for very long.


    He was traveling through a district that had lured in many adventurers. It made sense considering that one of the major Adventurer''s Guild buildings was just up the street. Unfortunately, that meant that there were more frequent incidents in this district than in most others.


    Still, it wasn''t a huge problem considering most of the rowdy customers kept things within a limit. Most people understood the unspoken rules. As long you didn''t cause too many problems or hurt any innocents the guards kept a loose grip and let the adventurers have their fun.


    Julius himself was only taking this route because he had found a nice food stand that sold some delicious meat skewers that were charred over some magical charcoal the owner bought from a specialty merchant. They were fabulous and he had been planning to buy some to share with the others.


    It was a little late and they most likely already ate dinner, but he knew that they would gladly enjoy a second supper once they smelled the skewers. It was actually Edgar who had shown him the spot when Julius tagged along with the big fellow who was getting a replacement for one of his training armguards that got damaged.


    However, his attention was caught by a loud commotion at the side of a building. A quick pulse of [Spatial Perception] revealed it to be a group of four guys who were harassing a handsome young man and a beautiful woman.


    The group of men then grabbed the lone young man by the arms and held him to the side. Then the apparent leader of their crew got closer to the woman. The woman had a scared look on her face as she pressed herself against the stone wall behind her.


    Julius was about to ignore them. It wasn''t his problem to get involved with and he didn''t know the circumstances of the situation. For all he knew, the woman and the young man deserved it or perhaps there was a good reason for the group of guy''s behavior.


    The mistake he made was locking eyes with the woman. Her eyes were filled with desperation and fear, asking for his help. Julius tore his gaze from her and continued on his way, but just as he was about the round the corner, he stopped.


    Don''t intervene, it''s not your business, he reminded himself.


    However, even as he told himself this, he was already turning around. He probably wouldn''t be able to forgive himself if something happened to the woman because he chose to do nothing.


    The irony wasn''t lost upon him, he wasn''t doing it to help her, he was doing it because he wanted to keep his own conscious clear.


    Did that make him selfish? Probably.


    Was it still helpful for the woman? Yeah, most likely.


    Before he reached them, he made sure to cover most of his face with the black cloth. The woman had already seen his face, but it didn''t hurt to take precautions with the other group. Who knew what type of backing they had?


    "Hey! How''s it going?" Julius asked the group with a bright smile once he approached them.


    Everybody simultaneously turned to look at the newcomer. Julius gave them a quick once over. They were younger than he first thought. They probably weren''t much older than eighteen or nineteen years old.


    However, they were all genuine Tier 3s, he was able to get that much from their auras. There were pretty much no signs of aura control from them.


    However, I have just been proven by Alice that I shouldn''t judge people based on their "supposed" tier. So maybe I shouldn''t be so quick to judge. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    A guy with short black hair and a brutish-looking face was the first person who talked to him. "Mind your own business. This doesn''t involve your concern," he said dismissively. He probably assessed Julius''s own tier the moment he saw him and determined he was a nonthreat.


    Julius was no longer wearing the ring that Professor Youma gave him, he had not really needed it for a while. However, he was still displaying his Tier 2 aura. He had learned that sometimes hiding your tier was a sign of its own. There were two usual explanations for hiding your aura, either you were well-trained in aura control or you had the money to spend on an aura-concealing device.


    Therefore, he had taken a note from Alice''s book and while he was actually Tier 2, he enjoyed the idea of luring others into a false sense of confidence and showed off his Tier 2 aura without shame. He also tried to make it seem more normal and weaker than a normal Tier 2, but he was still working on that part.


    This brute in front of him was the perfect example of dismissing someone as a threat because he believed someone was a tier lower than himself. He didn''t even give Julius another glance and turned back to the young man the other two were restraining.


    Well, that''s just rude, Julius thought to himself. He walked closer to the guy and gave him a gentle poke on his back with still a big smile on his face.


    The man didn''t seem to appreciate the fact that he was being interrupted again. He mashed his hand right onto Julius''s face and gave it a harsh shove. A reaction that really didn''t fit the circumstances.


    Julius didn''t move from his spot, but he looked at the boy with a little less friendly gaze. That one action gave him enough information about what kind of boys these were.


    So that''s how it''s going to be?

 Chapter 171: Dealing With Thugs

    Hector POVHector was the third son of Lord Brandish. Unlike his other brothers and sisters, he didn''t have something that made him stand out. This made him pretty bitter at times, but he had found his true calling.


    A couple of years ago a powerful group approached him with an offer. He didn''t know the exact name of the group, and he was happy not to. People like that were not very forgiving to people who stuck their noses into their businesses.


    The offer was simple. They would offer him treasures and other valuable items. In return, he would do some favors for them. These favors varied immensely, some were jobs as a messenger and some were like the ones he was currently doing.


    He was told to make some trouble for Wendy Belick. They didn''t specify the exact methods he was supposed to use or expected to. However, the only requirement was that Hector had to harass Wendy and the people around her.


    The group didn''t give him much explanation, but from the little they said, they wanted Wendy''s father to sell his building. They wanted to make Wendy''s experience in Heston difficult and force her to leave the city.


    Her father was ridiculously overprotective of her and if she were to leave, he would most likely follow her. That was their plan. They wanted to force Wendy out so that the father would sell the building when he went with her.


    At least that was what Hector was able to determine.


    And while he didn''t enjoy harassing young women, they paid him very well for this job. The entire case of Tier 3 pills was more than enough to override his moral boundaries.


    A chance to advance a couple of my skills? I''d be crazy not to do it.


    Every man has their price and for Hector, that price was in the form of a case of water affinity Skill Strengthening Pills.


    With this, he could potentially push [Rain Step] to its next level. It had been stuck at Level 5 of rare for a while now. Or he could use them on his [Water Strike] skill. It had been capped at level 14 of uncommon and getting to rare would be such a huge improvement. He couldn''t imagine the power boost he would get once he got his second official rare skill.


    He would become even stronger than he already was.


    He and his three friends were currently harassing the young girl. Trevor and Fulton were holding the girl''s boyfriend by the arms. They weren''t hurting him, at least not that bad. A few nudges and a couple of smacks on the top of his head were all they did to the poor loser.


    "Hey! How''s it going?" some random person called out to them.


    He turned to look and frowned at what he saw. It was some weird young boy wearing a black cloth around his lower face. You could really only see his black eyes but you could see signs of his young features.


    He could also tell that this dumb little kid was smiling from underneath his mask. Which was honestly a bit more creepy than he wanted to admit.


    "Mind your own business," Cole scoffed at the kid before turning away and ignoring him.


    The boy didn''t go away, in fact, he got closer to Cole and softly touched his back to get his attention. Cole must have decided that his patience had run out and so he reached out to the young boy and shoved him right in the face.


    Hector expected to see the kid go flying back into the dirt, but instead, he found himself confused when the boy didn''t move an inch.


    He also knew that Cole hadn''t pulled back his strength that much either. He never did, he liked showing off his strength too much to do that. So when the kid literally didn''t move an inch, subconscious alarm bells started to ring in his head.


    However, he ignored those alarms, reasoning that it was just him trying to give the kid a break.


    The creepy kid still hadn''t moved and was still staring at Cole with that chilling smile that showed through his mask.


    "Get lost kid," Cole said, not sounding as confident as he usually did. The kid still didn''t say or do anything in response.


    Trevor seemed to have enough of the kid''s antics. He let go of his hold of the girl''s boyfriend and walked over to the kid. He reached down and grabbed ahold of the boy''s shoulder, trying to drag him away from them.


    However, the second he touched the boy, Trevor froze like a statue. It was like time had stopped. But he was still able to talk it seemed.


    "What the hell," Trevor said shakily.


    What happened?


    "What are you doing, man?" Cole asked.


    "I don''t know. I can''t move!" Trevor exclaimed. Hector could see that Trevor was struggling hard but nothing he did was able to let him move.


    Cole was the first one of them to react. Unfortunately, his first instinct when reacting was violence, and threw a wide haymaker at the kid''s head.


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    However, that only served for Cole''s body to freeze as well. His body was suspended mid-punch.


    The boy turned to look at Fulton and him with eerily calm eyes. Then he swiveled his gaze to the young couple. "Are you guys okay?" he asked kindly. This time the smile didn''t seem as creepy through the mask. He realized why the boy''s smile felt creepy. It was because when he smiled at Hector and his friends, his eyes were like a dead fish''s. However, when he smiled at the couple, they showed actual life.


    The girl who was still shaking stammered out a reply that nobody was able to understand and glanced rapidly between the frozen forms of his friends.


    The boy continued to ignore the four of them. "Would you like for me to stop these boys from harassing you?" he asked his voice steady with confidence, bordering on arrogance that needled Hector''s own pride.


    The girl looked at Hector and back at the boy, nervously nodding her head.


    The boy slowly walked over to the girl and his direction. Hector didn''t know what to do. He was frozen with indecision. However, he did the first thing that popped into his mind when the boy got within distance, he activated [Water Step]. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He reappeared in a flash right to the side of the boy and sent a fist empowered with [Water Strike] at the boy''s chest. It was overkill, he knew that, but he also didn''t know why his friends had been frozen like they had either and he wasn''t taking any chances.


    However, just before his fist reached the boy, he felt something envelop him like a blanket. It felt like he was moving through thick water, but unlike his friends, he was still able to move a little bit.


    Still, it didn''t seem like that mattered too much. It would still take well over a couple of seconds for his fist to reach its destination at this rate. The boy calmly looked at his slowly incoming fist and gave a shrug. He raised a fist up and cocked it back slowly. He took his time, doing two short practice jabs in the air before striking out a lightning-quick punch.


    Hector tried to activate a defensive skill in time, but something was preventing him from activating his skill.


    He wasn''t even able to catch the full strike. All he remembered was the embrace of darkness.


    ***


    Julius POV


    He looked at the knocked boy he just punched. He tried to hold back within reason so it was unlikely there was any real damage. The boy still seemed to be breathing, so he considered that a success.


    Julius turned to look at the last remaining boy from the group. He had let go of the other boy and was just staring fearfully at Julius. He hadn''t moved an inch. Unlike his friends, whom Julius held in place with kinetic energy and aura, he had chosen to stay frozen like a statue on his own.


    He just shrugged uncaringly and went over to the other two boys who were actually frozen in place. Their wills were shockingly awful. There was no way he should have been able to disable and prevent a Tier 3 from moving that easily.


    At least the leader seemed to fare a little bit better. Though, in Julius''s defense he would have been able to immobilize completely if he wasn''t holding the other two in place. Multiple targets he learned were pretty hard to hold at once.


    The two boys stared at him in shock. They hadn''t been able to see what happened, but they probably heard their friend hit the deck.


    "What did you do to us? What kind of item are you using to freeze us like this?" The boy who pushed him in the face asked.


    Why do they always think it''s an item that is responsible? I don''t really mind because it helps me out, but it''s still kind of insulting.


    He didn''t choose to answer them. Instead, he walked in front of the boy who tried to drag him away and gave a quick strike similar to what he did to Hector, knocking him out instantly.


    He had a feeling with wills as weak as theirs, he had a pretty good chance of knocking them out with pure aura and will, but he didn''t know what kind of damage that might do. For all he knew it would cause severe damage. And he didn''t want to do that, no matter if they kind of deserved it. He would save that for people who really warranted it.


    When he saw his friend getting punched in the face, the face-pusher guy seemed to struggle much harder. It was actually a much better attempt than their leader. If it was before, he might have gotten free. However, it didn''t do him much good now. Julius was able to put his entire attention on him and with a simple effort, prevented him from moving.


    Julius walked up to the frozen brute and apologetically patted his shoulder.


    "You are making a big mistake, I will fucking kill you!" The brute yelled out.


    Julius ignored him and sent two quick hooks into the guy''s chest. He heard a couple of ribs crack and then sent another one at his face, knocking him out instantly.


    It was the same treatment Julius subjected to his other friends, plus a few additional strikes. Though to be fair, he deserved it. There had been no reason to shove him in the face, he could have simply pushed him in the chest. The face push was just a power play because he felt he could bully Julius and Julius did not appreciate that at all.


    This was the repercussion of his actions and Julius didn''t feel bad about it at all. The last guy tried to run when Julius was busy but was quickly frozen too.


    "You two okay?" He asked the young girl and handsome boy while walking over and knocking out the last boy casually. The two of them looked at Julius with fear, but the girl seemed to gain some courage to speak.


    "We are, thank you," she said shakily.


    "Of course. It was no big deal," he told her. It really wasn''t. It''s not like it took him much effort these four thugs were embarrassingly weak. Also, he was walking by, so perhaps it was just meant to be. It wasn''t like he could have really walked away after seeing that.


    However, that didn''t mean he had to stay around either. Once he made sure he didn''t detect any injuries on them, he started to walk away.


    "Hey! Where are you going?" The girl''s friend had finally mustered his courage to speak and was in the process of fixing his hair that was mused about.


    "Um, away from here?" He asked like it wasn''t obvious.


    "Are you just going to leave them there?" The boy asked while pointing at the other''s prone figures.


    "Well¡­ Yeah. I''m certainly not going to waste my time dragging them somewhere," Julius said a little annoyed at the guy''s attitude. He felt like the boy could have shown a little more gratitude. He did save him from being bullied around after all.


    "You should really wait around until the guards come around," the boy demanded.


    Julius just shook the audacious attitude of the boy. He turned to look at the girl to see if she was seeing the same thing. Luckily, the girl seemed to have more sense and was looking at her friend with disappointment. Julius gave her a knowing look once they crossed gazes and turned around to leave.


    He didn''t stop even when the boy yelled after him, though fortunately the boy quickly stopped when the girl rebuked him.


    However, Julius didn''t really care all that much. He had more important things to do right now.


    A stall that sold delicious meat skewers was calling his name and he was hungry.

 Chapter 172: Enjoying Himself

    Julius was panicking. His eyes darted back and forth, his perception skill on full blast trying to find his target.He didn''t find the stall where he had seen it the last time he was there. He rushed around the plaza that held many other stalls like a chicken with his head cut off.


    This was possibly the worst-case scenario for him. He was praying that the guy just moved locations and it wasn''t because he no longer sold meat skewers. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Thankfully, after several minutes of frantic searching and asking around, he was able to find the stall on the other end of the plaza. He was glad that the stall had expanded as well. It was almost twice the size it was the last time Julius ate here and there was a huge crowd surrounding it.


    The scent of sweet, spicy, charred savory meat wafted dozens of feet from the grills. He had to wait a while in line, but it was very worth it. He got enough portions for everyone to have a full serving plus some more.


    He didn''t know when he would feel in the mood for it again and it was always a good idea to have some delicious meat in your bag for emergencies.


    The sun was already setting in the distance and so he walked back to campus while eating his skewer with a large grin on his face. He had already let the others know that he was grabbing something for them and so they were waiting for him at their usual training room.


    He arrived with sticky sauce all over his face and an empty wooden skewer in one hand that he had just polished off. The others all looked at him with curious gazes. They knew his habit and love for food, but he was rarely so messy.


    The only person who didn''t have a curious look on his face was Edgar. The moment he saw Julius''s messy face and wooden skewer he immediately got the most excited-looking face a giant muscular boy could have.


    Edgar used his physical enhancement skill to dash to Julius. There was no need for words to be exchanged. Julius knew his mission and Edgar knew his purpose. He dramatically took out another skewer from his ring and waved it in front of Edgar.


    Edgar pressed his two fists together and bowed slightly to Julius. With an imperious nod, Julius gave Edgar permission to retrieve the holy stick of meat. The large fourth-year gently took the skewer from his hands and slowly bit into it. Hot juices flowed out and splattered onto the guy''s uniform, but he didn''t care. He was too busy savoring the bite with closed eyes.


    "Are those the skewers that Edgar doesn''t even stop talking about?" Aubrey asked from where she was standing. She and Lily were going through some exercises they learned in Gabriel''s class. Lily was starting to come along very nicely in hand-to-hand.


    She would never be the best fighter, but she was definitely able to handle herself well enough. In his opinion, she could do with a little more aggression in her attacks. Sometimes it felt too careful and timid for close combat fighting.


    "I think so. I vaguely remember seeing those very same skewers sprawled across Edgar''s floor before," Derek commented.


    "Did you get enough for all of us?" Aubrey asked a little more excited.


    Julius shook his head. "Sorry, I didn''t know you guys wanted some," he told her regretfully.


    "But you said you were going to get enough food for all of us," Aubrey accused.


    "Yeah, but the stall was really busy and I felt bad for ordering so much," Julius explained.


    Aubrey scrunched up her face and went back to training with Lily, showing her how to properly sweep her opponent''s legs from underneath them when in a clinch.


    Julius sensed Kyle shuffle over to him. He had been reading off in the corner watching the rest of them train. However, when Julius walked in, Kyle immediately put down his book.


    As discreetly as he could, Julius passed Kyle a piping hot skewer. The guy gave him a gracious pat on the back and Julius gave him a knowing nod toward Aubrey''s direction.


    Kyle, the good friend he was, understood immediately. He put his fingers near his mouth and zippered it shut with a subtle smile. He took his skewer and happily went back to his spot in the corner and continued to read his book.


    Aubrey must have smelled something though because he saw her pause her demonstration with Lily and looked over in their direction. She had her head tilted upward and was sniffing the air like a dog.


    Then she spotted the skewer in Kyle''s hand and ran angrily at Julius, mana coursing through her veins.


    ***


    He managed to calm Aubrey down by distracting her. He told them the good news, that his soul was no longer in such critical condition. Everyone was very excited to hear that. Even Aubrey was happy for him, in fact, she was probably the most overjoyed, completely forgetting her earlier ire at him.


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    He also explained that it wasn''t fully healed yet. He needed to evolve his healing skill before he would be completely put back together.


    "Oh, I almost forgot. I have something for you," Aubrey said after he was finished telling them, passing over a small cube to him.


    He gave her a confused look but took it anyway and examined it. The metal cube had many layers of runic inscriptions on top of it. It was also pulsing with mana and aura, there was no doubt that whatever this was, it was valuable. The craftsmanship was impeccable.


    "What is this?" He asked her.


    She didn''t meet his eyes but she quietly muttered, "I might have explained some of your issues with my mother. She sent that over yesterday. It is apparently an item that is used in the Alliance of Morning Sun. It is used to help their Prime Candidates withstand immense soul pressure from their training and she thought it would help you."


    Julius gave her a sweet smile. It wasn''t often that Aubrey was sentimental but it was always endearing when she was.


    "You didn''t have to do that for me," he said softly.


    Aubrey huffed. "I didn''t do it for you. I just told her some small details. It was her that insisted and I have learned not to argue with her about this kind of stuff."


    "Where did you pick up something like this?" He asked.


    "She mentioned that she took it off of a Candidate she killed a while back, never found a use for it, but hoped it would help you," she answered with a casual shrug.


    So this is loot her mother got? He asked himself amusingly.


    "I don''t know how useful you will find it now that you''re better, but she already sent it over so I might as well give it to you."


    Julius walked over to the other girl and gave her a nice big hug. "Thank you," he said to her.


    She went still and gave him an awkward pat on the back in return as she wasn''t used to such sentiment.


    He didn''t know if it would help him out but he appreciated the thought more than she knew. Perhaps, it might help him when it comes down to evolving his Concept. He also had another idea in mind.


    Aubrey gave him a quick explanation of how it worked and he tucked it away for future use, smiling at Aubrey the entire time.


    ***


    He ducked underneath the thrusting spear of the Stone Goblin. The new change in their Applied Combat class was the introduction of humanoid monsters. When it was mentioned, Julius thought that meant goblins like the ones he fought in the Tier 2 rift.


    He was kind of right. The entire class faced off against a variant species of goblins called Stone Goblins. They were monsters that spawned in high earth-density mana environments. Unlike the normal variant, they were stronger and smarter.


    Their skins were like stone and didn''t have the feral tendencies of the normal goblins. That made them a much more dangerous foe out of the gate. Fortunately, this calmer mindset also meant they were much better used for training students.


    At the moment he was still wearing the suppression device even though he no longer needed it. He was using it for a few reasons. For one, it suppressed his mana and was good practice for his mana control.


    Secondly, it allowed him to train his other skills without worrying about them leveling up. He wanted to avoid any level-ups until he got his new skill, but he still wanted to train a little bit, so this was his solution.


    Thirdly, he just thought it was more fun this way. Otherwise, the fights would have ended too quickly. This way at least, forced him to use his entire concentration.


    It was also nice to mention that the pain effects of the device were no longer as present as they once were. Obtaining [Soul Tempering] seemed to help a lot with that. While there was still some pain, his new present handled the rest of that.


    The metal cube that Aubrey gave him was pretty simple to use. Much like the suppression device, it only required an input of his own aura to activate. He still didn''t know how it exactly worked, but it sent a cooling and relaxing aura effect to his soul. Which helped a lot with the remaining pain he felt whenever he wore the device.


    This meant that he could wear the suppression device without worry of the pain.


    Oh shit!


    He gave himself a firm reminder to focus more when the goblin''s spear almost stabbed him in the chest, it still nicked him on the shoulder though.


    He pumped as much kinetic energy through his body as the suppression device allowed him to control and shifted his shoulder to the side as another thrust came in. He then slammed his hand into the shaft of the stone spear. He quickly sent a front kick at the goblin''s exposed chest.


    He was using an application of aura and kinetic energy to do so. He learned that while the increase wasn''t that great for the effort it took, when he was handicapped like this, every bit mattered.


    He also learned that using his aura like this had an effect on the defensive skills of his opponents. If concentrated on using his Severing Will Concept he was able to "cut off" their connection to their defensive skills when he landed a hit. It didn''t last very long but in a fight, a second or two could make a crucial difference.


    The goblin''s stone reinforcement technique petered out and Julius lashed out with another fist to its chest. Its now much weaker body didn''t handle this strike as well as the last. He felt his fist crush the stone skin and sent it flying back.


    He didn''t allow it any space. He pushed forward and kept pummeling it. It already had its skill back up and running and was fiercely defending itself, but it was too late. He already won, now it was just about finishing it cleanly. It took another half minute, but he eventually wore it down and shattered its face.


    He took deep calming breaths when he was done. He had gotten a lot better in this period even though he had stopped training as madly. His ability to fight Tier 2 opponents with the suppression device had vastly improved. He no longer lost any fights and found himself being able to actually stand on his two feet after the fights.


    His levels didn''t increase, but his technique and pure skill did. Even Joshua and James frequently complimented his improvement. The two of them were very encouraging to Julius, even when he lost a couple of fights.


    He wished he could say that about the rest of the students. Some of them still watched many of his fights, but not as many as they used to. It seemed like flailing around and getting beat up was more interesting to them than him actually beating the monsters.


    He didn''t let it bother him though. He was enjoying himself.

 Chapter 173: He Has Stalkers

    "How much longer are you going to try this?" Alice asked him while sipping on her mug.Julius didn''t waste his time answering her, he was too busy focusing on his most recent strategy.


    Burn himself faster, that was his new idea.


    It wasn''t the best nor smartest plan. At least that was Alice''s opinion. He liked to think otherwise. Still, if Alice wasn''t directly on hand he wouldn''t be trying this. He was really pushing his healing skill to its limits. The fantastic skill was barely able to keep up with the damage he was putting himself through. His skin was evaporating as quickly as it regenerated and his life mana was almost run dry.


    "We should probably try another route. This clearly isn''t working," she commented.


    He let out a frustrated yell and stopped the flames. He sent out a compacted blast of fire and kinetic energy at the sky, cursing while doing it.


    She was right. This wasn''t working at all. It had been two full weekends of this. He would come here every Saturday and Sunday to try to evolve his Concept. The problem was that his previous method of setting himself on fire wasn''t working. There was something he was missing and he didn''t know what it was.


    Hours upon hours of self-conflagration and with nothing to show for it.


    It was absolutely infuriating. It didn''t help that Alice didn''t seem to come up with any recommendations either. Concepts were deeply personal and the methods to cultivate one were never the same for each person. So she just stood there watching him and occasionally practicing [Spatial Perception].


    That was another source of his frustration. She had been able to learn the skill just the other week. It didn''t take her very long and she was ecstatic to show it off to him.


    The only solace he took from it was that the skill didn''t offer much of a benefit to her considering she already had a similar more advanced skill. The [Spatial Perception] version she learned was also a little bit different than his. Her version went into more detail regarding sentient objects whereas his focused on everything in general.


    This meant that she could sense auras with it, while he had to use his normal aura sense in combination with the skill to do so. There seemed to be both benefits and drawbacks to that distinction, but she seemed very happy with the result. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    However, he was getting impatient. It was early morning Saturday, but he knew deep in his heart that he wasn''t getting the Concept today. It was like whatever avenue was open to him last time he set himself on fire was now closed off. He needed to find another way.


    ***


    He found himself walking around town with no particular direction in mind. He had told Alice that he was leaving to find another method. One that didn''t require him to torch himself for hours on end.


    It was kind of cold this morning, so he covered his face with the black cloth that Dante made. It was really a great item and immediately enveloped his face in a comforting warmth. He wasn''t the only one either. Many people on the street were bundled up with scarves and large coats. Kids were swaddled in multiple layers of clothing, walking around like fattened penguins.


    It was a pleasant morning if not for one single thing.


    He was being followed.


    He almost didn''t notice it, within this large crowd of people. But after half an hour he kept on sensing the same two people following him around. If he went to visit a stall, they would visit that same stall. If he went inside of a store, they would go inside that store.


    And the biggest hint was that he couldn''t even see them. That meant they had some sort of stealth skill like Aubrey and Amelia.


    However, what could be the reason for them following him? The only thing that he had done of any note lately was¡­


    Oh.


    The girl he saved. That could possibly be the reason for it. It would make sense too. He was wearing the same exact outfit as that time.


    He never bothered to ask the girl why they were bothering her. Honestly, he had forgotten all about that issue weeks ago. However, now he was wishing that he had.


    Don''t jump to conclusions, I don''t actually know why they are following me, he reminded himself.


    Although, that was all he had to go on. The only other reason he could think of was that Duke Greyson''s camp had found him. However, that was more unlikely considering that they hadn''t done anything to him since he got to Heston.


    His gut was telling him that it was because he intervened with that girl and the group of guys. He had been curious about why a group of Tier 3s were terrorizing a girl and her boyfriend, but he had written it off as simple bullying and harassment.


    However, what if that wasn''t what it was? What if they were trying to get something she had or something she knew? Were they like a gang of thugs and the people who were following him were their big bad brothers?


    Truthfully, he didn''t give a shit. He just cared that these stalkers were following him every step of the way. He had already tried to lose them within a crowd several times, but they didn''t seem to lose him for a second.


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    It was like they had a skill like his or a skill that tracked someone at the very least. They didn''t have any hesitation in their movements as they followed him at a distance.


    He couldn''t sense their auras, they were shrouded, but his intuition told him that they were at least Tier 3 and not the same weak Tier 3s like that group of guys he incapacitated if they could suppress their auras. Though they could have an item that did so.


    He wanted to lose them, but since they seemed to have a way to track him, that didn''t seem like it would be possible. Therefore, the next thought in his mind was dealing with them himself. If they wouldn''t stop following him, then he would just have to make them stop.


    It didn''t hurt that he might also get some answers out of them that way. The problem was where he could do this and if he should do this.


    The first problem was pretty easy to solve, he would most likely lure them out of town. If they continued to follow him as they had, he could literally bring them to wherever he wanted.


    The second was more tricky. He didn''t know if they knew who he was yet. For all he knew, they just saw him walking by in the same outfit and followed him from there. But if he confronted them, he would be confirming that he was the same person.


    Of course that only applied if they were after him for the reasons he suspected they were.


    There was also another problem of them following him back to campus. He didn''t want them to know that he went to school there, especially if they had no idea that he did.


    He spent a good amount of time trying to think of other solutions as he tried to lose them in large crowds and alleyways. However, nothing seemed like a great solution. He could go to Declan or the guards and ask for help, but that could reveal his identity. And if these men didn''t already know his identity, he would very much like to keep it this way.


    Okay, I guess they are not leaving me much of a choice.


    He let out an aggravated sigh. This was definitely not keeping his head low.


    He headed off to the city gates. If he was going to do this, it would be outside of Heston.


    As predicted, when he exited the gates, he was followed by the same two people. He diverted his path toward the woods that surrounded the city. He wanted to be as far away from people and witnesses as possible.


    It was funny. The idea of him losing to these two people didn''t even come to mind. They were at least a full tier above him, but he didn''t feel the slightest bit anxious or nervous. He didn''t know why he felt so confident about dealing with these people.


    For all he knew they were Tier 4s or higher and he would get demolished by them. If he couldn''t back up his arrogance, then he would be kidnapped or killed. Which kind of defeated the purpose of not going to the guards or going back to campus.


    This was probably not the best way he could have handled this. It was too risky and not well thought out.


    However, he was committed to this plan. It wasn''t like he could just explain it to the men who were following him and ask them to let him go.


    No, if he was going to do this. He needed to be one hundred percent committed. There were no half-measures, he wouldn''t lose, and he would find some answers from them.


    He was deep enough in the woods by now and prepared himself as well as he could. There were large pockets of kinetic energy he placed around the area and his body was fully reinforced as well.


    He sat down and waited for the two men to appear. And appeared they did.


    Well, one of them did. The other was still invisible and was flanking around to the other side of him. The guy who was walking toward him was tall, had a bald head, and a very thick beard. He also had a fake smile on his face.


    "Hello! What are you doing out here all alone?" He asked Julius.


    "Oh, I usually come out here to think to myself, but I think I might have gotten lost this time," he said anxiously, playing along with the guy.


    The guy gave him a concerned look and approached Julius more closely. "I''m sorry to hear that. Here, let me help you find your way back, what do you say about that?"


    "You would do that for me?" Julius asked innocently.


    "Of course, I would. Here, take my hand," the man said gently, extending his right hand out to Julius.


    Julius was always taught to be polite and so he reached out to grab the man''s hand. However, the moment the man grabbed ahold of his hand, his smile turned sinister. "You sure are an idiot, huh?"


    Julius gave the man his own menacing smile. "Are you sure about that?"


    The man just laughed and roughly squeezed his hand, trying to shatter Julius''s fingers. However, he was left surprised when he wasn''t able to and felt much more resistance than planned.


    Julius didn''t give him a chance to pull away, he released the construct he was holding in his hand with a huge burst of kinetic energy. A dozen small spikes exploded from his palm and skewered the man''s hand. It tore through his physical reinforcement skill like it was nothing.


    The man screamed in pain and tried to escape from Julius''s grip, but was unable to. The spikes locked him in place. Julius then swiftly created his mana-construct armor around himself. The violet mana pulsed softly as it encapsulated him.


    The man stopped trying to escape and instead sent out a large burst of flames from his other hand at Julius''s face. However, his helm protected his face from the attack, not that it would have done much good. Julius''s resistance to fire was alarmingly good, he was actually surprised that he hadn''t gotten a resistance skill for it yet.


    His ineffective attack seemed to make the man panic even more so.


    Julius manipulated the spikes that were dug into the man''s hand and tore them out as viciously as possible. He wanted to do as much damage to the hand as he could.


    The man gave another scream and fell to the ground, still sending out weak bursts of fire at Julius.


    Julius used [Flash Step] to avoid the shortsword that tried to pierce him in the back. He used another [Flash Step] to reappear closer to the still-invisible man. He sent a salvo of strikes at his opponent.


    However, he wasn''t caught off-guard like his friend was and was able to parry Julius''s blows with admittedly good skill. He was also pretty fast and strong, he must have had a decent physical enhancement skill. Julius would put him at the same physical level as Aubrey. However, this man didn''t have her skills to work with.


    Julius''s aggression pushed him back right into an orb of kinetic energy he planted and he exploded it at the man''s back. The man tripped forward and Julius was there with a knee smashing underneath his chin.


    The man was thrown a dozen feet and landed next to his friend who was staggering to his feet.


    The two men gave each other nervous looks and turned back to look at Julius who was stalking toward them, mana pulsing from his body. Julius cracked his knuckles, a smile on his face that was blooming with excitement and anticipation.


    Okay, round two, he chuckled to himself.

 Chapter 174: House Crest

    The bald guy with the beard got up to his feet and pulled a large stave from his storage device. He also summoned a chestplate and armor from his storage directly onto his body.Oh, it seems he is finally getting serious, Julius told himself with a smirk.


    Julius felt an incredible amount of mana getting pumped into the stave via one of the guy''s skills. Yellow flames engulfed the stave in a flickering halo. It looked pretty, but honestly, he believed that there was too much mana getting wasted in the process.


    He didn''t want to be a critic, but considering one of his main affinities was fire, he couldn''t help himself.


    His friend with the shortsword just pulled out another one, dual-wielding the two shorter blades.


    "Who are you?" The shortsword guy asked demandingly.


    "I think the better question is who are you and why are you following me?" Julius replied calmly.


    "You shouldn''t be sticking your nose into other people''s business," the bald guy said angrily.


    "Is that what this is about? I beat up some of your guys so you decided to tail me and¡­" Julius gave a dramatic look around at where they were. "... Kidnap or kill me?" He didn''t know if this was the actual reason, but he wanted to see if they would confirm some of his own suspicions.


    "You almost killed one of them," the bald guy growled out.


    Suspicion confirmed. Wait, what did he say?


    "Huh? No, I didn''t. I was pretty gentle with them all things considered," Julius replied to the guy. A little offended by the accusation.


    "I don''t give a shit what you said you did. The fact of the matter is that one of them had their organs ruptured and you can''t just get away with that."


    "Wait. You said he had his organs ruptured? Which one was it?" Julius asked genuinely interested. He was pretty confident that he held back an appropriate level, but he did hit that one guy with a couple of extra shots to the chest.


    "I ain''t telling you shit!" The bald guy yelled.


    "You say shit a lot," Julius said offhandedly.


    "What?" The guy stopped being angry and looked more confused than anything.


    "Nothing. Hey, quick question, but was this guy who almost died a burly-looking guy who had three friends?"


    "So you did do it!" The bald guy was once again furious.


    Julius placed his hands up in the air placatingly. "I might have done it. But to be fair, that is the only guy I did that to and he kind of deserved it," he argued.


    "I don''t care!"


    "Well, you should."


    Julius saw the veins on the guy''s shiny crown pulse angrily. That was the only warning he got. The bald seemed like he was no longer interested in talking with Julius and decided that violence was his answer. His feet exploded with fire mana and blasted him toward Julius.


    Julius used [Flash Step] and avoided it easily. But he didn''t really pay too much attention to the baldy. He was more focused on the other guy. He had gone invisible the moment baldy attacked and was creeping on Julius''s back.


    However, Julius let him. The guy shouldn''t know about his perception skill so he was just wrapping himself up for Julius in a neat little bow.


    Baldy sent another barrage of flames at Julius, blinding his vision and covering him in fire. It didn''t do any damage, but Julius didn''t think that was what it was for. It was most likely for his friend who was dashing at Julius through the flames.


    The fluidity and timing of the attack spoke volumes. These two were undoubtedly familiar with each other and had definitely done this same attack before.


    Hell, it was a good plan. Julius himself used it on the trolls. It was just too bad that he knew exactly where the shortsword guy was attacking from.


    Before the guy made contact with him, Julius siphoned the kinetic energy from the guy''s leap. He used some sort of wind skill to boost himself, but Julius quite literally took the wind from his sails.


    He thought that his previous usage of siphoning kinetic energy was a fluke because the guys were too weak, but now he just understood that it was his will that made such a dramatic leap in strength.


    These men weren''t scrubs; they were actually quite good fighters with solid willpowers of their own. His little test of wills to take away his kinetic energy proved it. Their wills outclassed the other thugs by a wide margin. It just sucked for them that Julius''s was still on a different level.


    He reached for Inexorable Will and clapped down on the man''s aura, completely overriding whatever resistance the man put up. The guy froze mid-air with a baffled expression.


    The best part of it was the guy left himself right in front of Julius, completely defenseless. His bald friend was too late to help, Julius absolutely rocked the shortsword guy with an arm full of kinetic energy, fire mana, and sharpened mana.


    The barrier and the defensive skill that surrounded him were completely shattered and overpowered by Julius''s strike. It tore a gaping hole into the guy''s chest and the guy fell to his face motionless.


    Julius could sense that he was still alive, his chest was still moving, but if he didn''t get attention soon he wouldn''t be.


    The baldy wasn''t just twiddling his thumbs while Julius was dealing with his friend either. He launched a concentrated bolt of fire mana at Julius''s back. However, since Julius was busy punching the other one, he decided to take the attack on his back to give him enough time to break through Shortsword''s defenses, hoping his armor dealt with the damage.


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    It held up pretty well. There was barely a dent in the armor, his Concept of Sharpness took care of most of it before it impacted. Julius turned to face the fire baldy with his full attention.


    He could still see the blood pouring down his hand from Julius''s spikes. But Julius didn''t think this guy was even aware of his injury. He was looking at Julius with bloodthirsty eyes, enraged at what Julius did to his friend.


    Unlike his friend, he didn''t attempt to engage Julius. He kept on sending blasts of fire mana at Julius while keeping his distance. Whenever Julius got too close he would set off a widespread explosion that knocked Julius away, allowing him to get distance again.


    Julius tried going after a couple of times, but after the third attempt, he wasn''t going to waste any more time chasing him. He created a bunch of spikes of mana over his shoulder. Pale violet sharpened spikes of mana pointed threateningly at the baldy in the distance.


    Julius saw the look of fear and surprise on the guy''s face when he saw Julius create so many powerful constructs. The guy knew the second he saw the first one appear that he had no chance. He immediately threw up his hands.


    "Okay, okay! I surrender!" He exclaimed loud enough for Julius to hear.


    Julius paused for a moment. He thought of what he was going to do and decided quickly. He relaxed his posture slightly and waved at the man to approach. The guy didn''t move from his spot, just darting his eyes back and forth from Julius to his friend''s prone body.


    "Come here then," Julius demanded. He would give the man a chance. If he wanted to surrender Julius would allow him that privilege.


    However, the guy didn''t seem to want to listen to Julius''s condition. He stayed put and didn''t move a muscle. He was just blatantly ignoring Julius as he stalled for time.


    Julius gave a loud sigh and sent a single spike tearing through the air at the guy. A barrier of flame appeared in front of him and stopped the spike, but only partly. The remaining energy from the spike exploded and knocked the guy off of his feet.


    Julius then controlled two of the spikes to float closer to the baldy in a threatening manner. That seemed to do it though. The guy was much more cooperative with Julius. He got on his hands and knees in front of Julius, looking at Julius with resentful eyes.


    Julius created shackles that immobilized the man before he did anything else. He didn''t trust this man but he would give him a chance. Once the man was completely restrained Julius spoke to him.


    "Who do you work for?" He asked politely.


    "I''m not telling you anything," the baldy grumbled out.


    Julius gave him a deadpan look. "So then what''s the reason for surrendering? If you aren''t going to tell me anything then what''s the use of keeping you alive? Am I supposed to just let you go and allow you to attack me another day?"


    The man stubbornly stayed silent. Julius gave him a moment to think about what he was going to do and went over to the other guy''s motionless body. A pool of blood was forming underneath his chest but he was still alive. Tier 3s were much more sturdy than Tier 2s.


    Julius dragged the injured man to his friend by the ankle. He didn''t really take care to make sure his injury wasn''t further agitated. These men were not good men and should be grateful that he was showing this much respect to them. They should especially be happy for the little bit of life mana that Julius was sending to him. It wasn''t enough to heal him, but it would give him some more time before he bled out. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He plopped the body next to the bald man and just gave a cold stare at him. "He''s your friend right?"


    The man just nodded at Julius reluctantly.


    "So if I had a way to save him, you would tell me information in return?" He asked.


    At this, the man actually hesitated and chewed on his lips. "I can''t, even if I wanted to," he mumbled out.


    "Why not? Some sort of oath or vow?" Julius asked, already expecting the answer.


    The bald one just nodded his head in confirmation. Well, that''s annoying. How else am I supposed to find out who they work for? I mean, I have a potential way, but I would rather not resort to that.


    As he thought he went over the notifications he got during the fight. It felt odd especially considering he hadn''t gotten many skill levels in the past month.


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 3 -> lvl 4]


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    [Flash Step lvl 5 -> lvl 6]


    The recent pain he felt when gaining skill levels wasn''t present anymore. Something he was very grateful for.


    As he was appreciating his rehabilitating soul, an idea popped into his head. He didn''t know if it would work, but it was worth a shot.


    He picked up the hand of the unconscious one and took the ring off of it. It was a storage ring and it might contain some answers. He tried to access it, but there was something preventing him. Declan mentioned something like this before, it was called an aura lock or something. However, Julius remembered that Declan had been able to disable it.


    Julius didn''t know if he could, but he was going to try. He took the ring in his hands and began to probe the ring with his aura. He didn''t really know what to look for and so he just inspected it carefully.


    The first thing he noticed was that there was some sort of enchantment that sucked in aura. It was like a swirling vortex of mana circuits all going down to the same point. He didn''t understand its exact function, but he was able to sense that the man''s aura was emitted from this part of the ring.


    The one thing he remembered about Declan when he broke the enchantment for Geoffrey''s ring was that he crushed it with a lot of force. So that was exactly what he attempted to do with this ring. He tried his best to encircle this particular part of the enchantment with his aura.


    It took almost five minutes before he felt comfortable that he got a nice grip on it. However, when he did he began to compress it with his own aura, not only that but he tried to insert a thread of his aura into the ring.


    He grunted from the unexpected resistance he got from the ring. It was like lifting a weight that was way too heavy for him. He strained himself, trying to overpower it. His Concept of Sharpness and Concept of Will both were used to aid his efforts.


    He used Severing Will to try and disconnect the bond between the ring and the unconscious man. Then he used Inexorable Will to press and destabilize it with sheer force, supplementing Severing Will.


    His ability to freeze people in mid-air wasn''t the only benefit of his increased willpower. His aura also got a nice boost from it. If he had tried this before, he doubted he would have been able to.


    Hence, he got excited when he felt something start to give. With a choking grunt, he crushed the remaining resistance and the aura enchantment like a pane of glass shattering.


    He definitely wasn''t as good as Declan because the ring didn''t just open up to him, but it literally exploded. On the bright side, the items that were stored within it were ejected out like an exploding plane. Items flew in every direction, shredded to pieces from whatever Julius had done.


    "What did you just do?" The bald man said fearfully. He looked ashen white as he saw the contents of the ring scattered about the woods.


    Julius ignored him and went over to inspect the items. The first thing he looked at was the scattered and half-ruined papers. Reason being, is that you only kept papers if it was important for one purpose or another.


    He eventually gathered himself a nice little stack of torn-apart parchment and started to peruse it. A lot of them were seemingly letters or orders of some sort. Some had directions on what to do and what time certain things would be arriving. However, there were words that he didn''t understand, clearly some form of code.


    He kept on looking anyway. Keeping an eye out for anything that stood out as an originator or the person who gave these orders. These papers didn''t give him much, but they definitely showed that these men were part of a larger group. They weren''t just acting alone, this was organized. The times and directions were painstakingly plotted out.


    He was hurriedly reviewing all of the documents and he almost missed something because of it. It was a little badge on some of the pieces of scrap. It was a crest of a wolf stamped on some of the papers.


    He knew exactly what this crest was. He had seen it before. It was the crest of House Greyson.

 Chapter 175: Big Crater

    He let out a shaky breath. There was no way to confirm whether or not, these men were working for Duke Greyson. For all he knew, these were just random coincidences.However, he had the perfect person to ask right in front of him.


    He tucked away the papers into his own ring and looked down at the two people, one of whom was still unconscious.


    "What''s your name?" He asked him. This time his voice had much more steel in it.


    The man unsurprisingly stayed silent. Julius sighed and turned his attention toward the other man. He created a sharp sword of mana and had it hover on the unconscious man''s leg. Only then did he look back at the other guy with an expectant look.


    However, he didn''t seem to be taking Julius''s threat seriously at all. He mostly likely saw Julius''s young age and assumed that it was an empty threat. A bluff.


    Julius had to show this man that he wasn''t bluffing and that he was to be taken seriously. "Still not willing to answer?" He asked the man again.


    The man just gave him a rebellious glare. It was expected but he really underestimated Julius''s desperation to find answers. The moment he saw that crest within their belongings, he had moved these men to a different category of people.


    Without giving any warning he stabbed down the sword of mana through the unconscious man''s leg. Stabbing through his thigh and out the back.


    "Joel," the man said quickly.


    See, it wasn''t that hard.


    "And his?" Julius pointed at the man with a sword in his leg.


    "Ruban," the man said with gritted teeth.


    "Okay, Joel. I want to know how you and Ruban managed to find and then track me throughout the city," Julius demanded.


    "It was just a coincidence," Joel answered begrudgingly.


    "Elaborate."


    Joel pressed his lips together and hesitated. But Julius''s creation of another sword dissipated those feelings pretty quickly.


    "Ruban remembered hearing about a young boy with a black cloth covering his face beating up some of the people we had working for us. It was only by coincidence that we saw you while walking around," Joel said.


    Julius had his aura sense on full blast trying to sense if he was lying to Julius. But everything he said was seemingly true, there weren''t any noticeable deviations within his aura. He could be still lying but Julius was positioned to believe him for now.


    "That''s it? So how did you track me so well?" He asked.


    "Ruban has a tracking skill," Joel said like that explained everything.


    It did, in a way. He also didn''t really care about the particulars of the skill, that wasn''t important.


    Finally, he asked the only question he really cared about. "What is your connection with House Greyson?"


    This question seemed to catch the man off guard. Julius felt the man''s aura constrict and the man swallowed his saliva nervously.


    "I don''t have any affiliation with them," the guy shook his head earnestly, but Julius knew he was lying.


    Honestly, that was the only reaction he needed. This man was most likely working for or had some kind of affiliation with House Greyson. And that pretty much decided the man''s fate.


    However, he still had his morals and didn''t just execute the man immediately because he learned that he was involved with House Greyson. No, he would give him a chance to prove himself worthy to live.


    Julius gave the man, Joel a chillingly cold look. "If I let you go, will you try to come after me again?"


    The man looked at Julius with steady eyes. "No, I promise we will not come after you again."


    That was a lie.


    He sensed the man''s aura jump up for the second time since he started questioning them. He had no plan of letting Julius go after this. If Julius let this man and his friend go, he would most likely have to keep an eye over his shoulder the rest of the time he was in Heston.


    Still, he would give the man a chance. He prepared himself to give the best performance of his life, one worthy of an Oscar.


    He turned to look at Joel with a nod and a grimace. Then with a jerk of his shoulders, he released the shackles, and his armor that was covering him dissipated into motes of mana. He took in large deep gasping breaths and his hands shook slightly. He slumped to his knees with his head down toward the ground.


    He pretended that he was out of mana and was tired. He wanted to see what this man would do. He knew that this Joel person was lying about leaving him alone, but he wanted to see if you would attempt to kill him at the first opportunity. That would determine Joel and his friend''s fate.


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    Julius was hoping that he was wrong, he really was.


    Unfortunately, he was swiftly disappointed when Joel immediately attacked him. There was no hesitation and he moved to kill Julius. The idiot didn''t even suspect that it was a ploy for single second. A large orb of condensed fire mana and a wave of fire was launched at Julius''s face.


    The armor that he had just removed was quickly put back into place and he activated [Barrier of Severance] to cut through most of the attack. The rest was taken care of by his armor. He saw the realization light up in Joel''s eyes. The realization that he had been played.


    "Wait wait, I-" Julius didn''t allow him to finish. He controlled the sword that was still stuck in Joel''s friend''s leg and detonated it. With no active defenses or barriers, the explosion tore through the other man with ease. It killed him instantly.


    He was surprised at the lack of guilt he felt as he did so.


    Joel looked at him with bloodshot eyes. "I am going to fucking kill you!"


    Julius looked at him with calm eyes. "I gave you a chance. Before I kill you just remember that." sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Joel responded by throwing every bit of fire mana at Julius with no holding back. It was sloppy, but the sheer amount of mana made Julius focus on protecting himself. He set up large panes of barriers around himself and intercepted many of the attacks. The rest, he used [Flash Step] to avoid.


    The barrage didn''t last forever. Before long, the man''s mana was exhausted and he gave a pleading look at Julius. "Please, don''t kill me. I didn''t mean it."


    He was still lying. His aura control was even more sloppy than previously and it was very obvious now.


    When the man saw Julius create a spike of mana his eyes widened in fear. However, the man seemed to have one last trick up his sleeve. He discreetly removed a metal ball from his storage ring into the hand hidden behind his back. He probably still didn''t know that Julius could see everything he was doing.


    Suddenly Joel''s fearful look turned to determination. Julius felt the man start to charge the object with something. He didn''t know what it was, but felt soul energy but much more potent. It felt as if the man''s life essence that draining into the object.


    However, Julius wasn''t going to just allow whatever last-ditch attack this man was trying to achieve actually go off. He immediately used all of his will to crush the man with kinetic energy and froze him like a statue. Without hesitating he sent the spike of mana and lodged it inside the man''s chest.


    He tried to contain as much of the explosion as he could, but it still made a mess of the man''s corpse.


    Another thing that he noticed was that he had been slightly too slow. The man had been able to activate the metal ball with his last vestiges of will. Julius had no idea what it was, but going off of the large pulsing bursts of fire mana building up within it, it was pretty safe to say it wasn''t a last-minute apology gift.


    He reacted on instinct. He formed a shell around the metal ball and layered many barriers of mana over it. He then sent it shooting off into the distance. He did not have a good feeling about this object. Whatever it was set his alarm bells off like crazy.


    He was just too late. A second after he sent it flying to the trees, it went off like a bomb. A white blinding light was all he saw before the explosion rocked the entire forest.


    He set up as many defenses as he could and braced for the impact. But it was all for naught. It was like one of his exploding orbs but many times stronger. It absolutely melted everything within a hundred feet, including himself.


    He didn''t know how the man was able to set off an explosion that strong, but honestly that didn''t matter too much. He was too focused on not dying at the moment.


    The blast tore through his barriers like paper and his armor only held up marginally better. The only thing he felt was searing pain as his skin blistered from the heat.


    His healing skill went into overdrive, healing the damage as it came through. It wasn''t enough though. He could feel the fire overwhelming him. There was nothing he could do to prevent it. [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was pumping as hard as he could and even Drasil was feeding him as much of his essence as he could. His mana was running out fast from the amount of damage he was taking at once.


    Was this how it was going to end?


    He had been confident of dealing with whatever the guy threw at him but didn''t expect something like this. How did someone like him have something so powerful on hand?


    He pushed himself as hard as he could. He used every single thing in his arsenal to hold off even if it was just for a second longer. He wasn''t going to allow himself to be killed so easily. Unlike his first death, he wasn''t going to give up without a fight.


    Unfortunately, no matter how strong his will was or how much mana he had, it wasn''t enough in the end. His arms and legs were completely turned to ash until only his torso was still left.


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 18 -> lvl 19]


    Haha! I don''t think that''s going to help that much, he thought bitterly to himself.


    That was the last thought he had before the dark void consumed him.


    ***


    Alice POV


    She messed up. She really messed up.


    She quietly floated above the destruction, her emotions in a turmoil of regret and anger. How had she been so stupid? So prideful?


    What was Lily going to say? Her friend''s ashy remains laid in front of her and it was partly her fault. She had been the one who pointed those men in Julius''s direction. She had been the one who let them battle it out. There wasn''t even a body left to retrieve.


    She had been hoping that a life-and-death battle would allow Julius to figure out his Life Concept. Some people had different ways to connect to life and in Julius''s case, she realized that he would most likely have a better sense of life by experiencing death. Or more specifically, by taking a life.


    Most people didn''t understand how intertwined life and death were. The two Concepts were different sides of the same coin. And so she thought that having him experience death, would allow him insights on a Life Concept.


    However, it went all wrong. How in the hell did that Tier 3 have such a destructive item? Who gave such a valuable item to him and why? She had seen similar items before. It was a device that sucked the essence from someone and in return created a suicide blast that destroyed everything in its reach. However, they were extremely difficult to make and very expensive as well. Only a Tier 5 and above crafter were able to make similar items.


    There wasn''t anything she could do to help Julius. She couldn''t stop the blast in time and she couldn''t pull him out in time with her spatial skills. His Will Concept was too strong for her to overpower in such little time. Especially when he was actively using it to survive.


    It was her fault for being so arrogant and carefree. She had been supremely confident in Julius''s ability to defeat the two men and she hadn''t been prepared for any surprises. She kept her distance and watched. Now look at what happened.


    Poor Lily. She knew better than anyone that the girl didn''t make friends easily and those who were she became fiercely protective of. Her talent was both a gift and a curse. Lily was always able to read people''s emotions with ease. She knew who was trying to get closer to her because of her status or had a second agenda and unfortunately, that was most nobles.


    How was Alice going to explain this to her? She had promised Lily that she would take care of Julius and what did she do? Not only did she fail at that, but she was the one who helped kill him.


    So she stared. She just stared at the missing crater in the earth with regret.

 Chapter 176: Consumption of Fragment

    Julius awoke to an empty void. It was actually kind of familiar to the void he was sent to when he met Jasper for the first time. However, unlike that void, this void seemed much more comfortable.It felt like the comfort of his own home. As if everything in this space was his and his alone.


    The last thing he remembered was burning alive. He laughed loudly at that. It was ironic that after all the attempts to burn himself, all it took was someone else doing it to finish him off. What were the chances?


    He took a look at the afterlife. Or what he was assuming was the afterlife. It''s the only thing that really made sense in his mind. The last moments he had were of him fighting for his life, and now suddenly he was here with no idea how or why.


    As he looked around, he spotted several glowing orbs of light. They were light stars painted onto the canvas of the void. If he hadn''t just died, he would have been much more appreciative of the view.


    Eh, why shouldn''t I enjoy them? Even if I am dead, it would be a shame not to appreciate this moment, he scolded himself.


    So he took it all in while trying to accept his circumstances. It kind of hurt his pride that he died in the way he did. He didn''t like to brag about his skills, but in reality, he was very proud of his strength. He truly believed that if he died it would be to a Tier 4 or Tier 5 at the very least.


    Dying to a Tier 3''s last-ditch effort felt kinda¡­ lame.


    He wanted to scream out in the void to vent his frustrations. He had so much to finish. So much that he wanted to accomplish. We want to explore the world he wanted to explore. And now¡­ he couldn''t.


    That was the real shame. He no longer had the opportunity. He already had a second chance, but he doubted a third one would show up out of the blue.


    Life was fickle. Life was like a flame, flickering away, never knowing when the last day would be your last. For him, that day had come much sooner than he had been hoping. He had hoped he would have had more time to complete his goals.


    Death had come unannounced and taken him away. Now he was off to another life potentially and this time he didn''t think he would be able to keep his memories. He hadn''t really believed in reincarnation before, but now that he knew that magic existed, he wouldn''t be surprised to learn that it was true.


    He sighed bitterly. This was just the natural cycle. The cycle of life and death. It was a concept that existed before me and will be here long after I am gone, he thought solemnly to himself.


    It was at that moment that something happened. It was like something was reaching out to him. A deep-seated connection rose within him and grasped out into the void. He didn''t know what it was looking for.


    But instead of rapping his brain for an answer trying to figure it out, he just sat back and observed.


    He eventually noticed that the connection within him reached out to one of the lights in the void. This particular one was crimson red with a swirling vortex of black and white at the center.


    The moment his focus turned to this light, it was like someone grabbed him and moved him in front of it. The light wasn''t that big up close, it was probably only the size of his fist. Much smaller than he had been predicting.


    He couldn''t help his curiosity and reached out to poke the glowing orb of light with his finger. The moment he touched it he felt his entire mind connect with the contents of the orb. He knew what it was the second it occurred.


    It was something he was very familiar with and that had saved his life many times. It was his [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] skill.


    He didn''t really understand what was going on. Did that mean all of his skills were represented by the orbs? There were many more lights than he had skills. So that didn''t really make any sense.


    However, something else happened when he touched the orb. The connection within him that had reached out to the orb found what it was looking for. It was within the skill and he felt the connection within him grab ahold of it. Then he felt it start to try feeding on it, like a starving beast.


    What is going on?


    Suddenly, he felt something unlock from inside of him. More accurately, he felt something get unlocked all around him. He finally had a guess where he was.


    He believed that this was his soul space.


    No wonder why this place felt so familiar and comfortable. It was literally everything that was him. It was the living representation of his soul. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    And the unlocking was him getting something he had been trying to get for a long time.


    Notice: Detecting resonance¡­


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Evaluating options¡­


    Previous acquisition of a Concept of Fire detected.


    Requirement of Life Concept or Death Concept not met¡­


    Unable to evolve Fire Concept.


    Evaluating alternative options¡­


    Notice: Fragment detected.


    Notice: Would you like to forcibly consume the Fragment of Phoenix?


    Consumption of Fragment in process¡­


    Julius felt his entire soul burn up. It was like setting himself on fire again, but this time instead of pain he felt a flood of euphoria when it happened. It was like he was being washed over in a fire of vitality. And that starving beast had its long awaited meal.


    Fragment Consumption successful¡­


    Appraising requirements¡­


    Fire Affinity requirement¡­ satisfied.


    Life/Death Affinity¡­ satisfied.


    Prior Experience of Death requirement¡­ satisfied.


    Prior Experience of Rebirth requirement¡­ satisfied.


    Concept requirement¡­ alternative accepted.


    Power rushed over him. His soul felt like it was getting hosed down with a torrent of fire and life mana.


    Congratulations. You have evolved your Concept of Fire: Blazing Ember into the Concept of Phoenix: Ashen Rebirth.


    Julius let out a laugh into the void. What kind of requirements were these?


    Not only did someone have to have a fire and life affinity, but they also needed to experience death and rebirth. How unlikely was that? No wonder the Phoenix Concept was so difficult to acquire. Who could say that they have died and also been reborn?


    After he finished laughing he let out a sigh. It wasn''t like this Concept would do him much good anyway. Perhaps, if he had it before he got burnt to a crisp, he would have survived that suicide blast, but of course, fate had to give it to him after he died.


    Or maybe not¡­ Why would I get a notification after I died? That makes zero sense, if I were dead, then I would just be¡­ dead.


    A spark of hope lit up inside of him. It was possible that he wasn''t dead yet. Though, that begged the question of why he was here. Was his body still alive and he was just unconscious? If so then how much time did he have left?


    Now that there was a chance that he could still live, he got off of his ass and started to move. The first thing he did was connect to his Concept of Phoenix. If he was going to survive this he was going to need some help from his new Concept.


    The instant he connected with his Phoenix Concept, he felt a surge of power unlike any other of his Concepts. It was somehow both violent and calming at the same time. However, it was the quality that took him by surprise.


    It made his Concept of Sharpness seem like his old Fire Concept in comparison. Normally that would annoy him, knowing that one of his Concepts could be better, but this time he was excited.


    This was exactly what he needed. If he was going to survive this he was going to need a lot of help from his Concept.


    He began to envision his Concept of Phoenix empowering him and his soul. It was actually surprisingly easy to do. It was like the Concept already knew where it wanted to go. Immediately he felt something. Something far off in the distance void.


    He instinctually knew that this was his body in the real world. The problem was how was he going to get back.


    He started to feed his Concept down this line connecting to his body along with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. It was clear that his body was still there, but it was barely hanging onto a thread. He knew that he must not have a lot of mana left, but he was hoping his new Concept would help with that.


    And help it did. However, it still wasn''t enough. He needed something more, something more powerful.


    It was at that moment that Julius felt the connection between him and Drasil once again explode. A soft verdant light dangling among the stars came forth and gave Julius the extra energy he needed. The line thickened as more of Drasil''s essence was fed into it.


    However, that wasn''t all Julius had in the tank. He didn''t even realize what he was doing until he looked back on it later. He started to feed his life essence into the skill, temporarily empowering it to heights beyond normal. Alongside his new Concept and Drasil''s assistance, he was able to supercharge his body with the skill.


    He gave it his all. He used his Inexorble Will to push himself far beyond his limits. He had a chance and he would be damned if he was going to waste it. His soul space was literally shaking from how hard he was pushing it.


    Finally, he was able to push that fat boulder across the line, and all of a sudden the dark void with the smattering of stars was replaced with blinding white light.


    ***


    Pain. That was the first thing he felt when he woke up. Just pain.


    It shouldn''t be new or surprising at this point, but still, he felt like this was becoming too much of a normal occurrence.


    He took stock of his condition real quick. He couldn''t see, the flames must have burned out his eyes. However, he still had [Spatial Perception] to his immense relief. Using that skill he inspected his body.


    What he found wasn''t good. It left him speechless for a good while, the shock distracting him from the pain. He didn''t know how he was still alive.


    He didn''t have any limbs left. He barely had a chest and head either. He was basically a burnt chicken nugget underneath a pile of ash.


    Fortunately, he was still alive so that was all that mattered and so he let out a sigh of relief that came out as a wheezing cough. His healing skill was still in overdrive, but the soul boost was no longer there. That meant he was healing pretty slowly. He barely had any mana left, whatever he naturally regenerated was immediately sent to his body.


    Thank god for his new Concept. The Phoenix Concept helped lower the cost of mana and made the skill much more effective as well. That was probably the only reason why he was still alive.


    However, there was nothing else he could do at the moment. He could only lay there, buried underneath a mound of ash slowly healing himself. Yet, while the pain was still present the immense relief he felt at the moment was more prominent. He wanted to laugh, but his vocal cords were still a mess.


    He hadn''t died, which meant he would still have a chance to accomplish his goals. His time in this world wasn''t done yet.


    His musings were distracted by a notification.


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 4 -> lvl 6]


    [Soul Tempering lvl 1 -> lvl 5]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 16 -> lvl 17]


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 19 -> lvl 20]


    Oh, that''s just wonderful. Of course, I get rewarded for almost dying again, he sarcastically joked to himself


    This world was a cruel one. It rewarded pain, suffering, death, and overcoming one''s limits. It incentivized conflict and was barbaric at its core.


    However, with that being said, Julius couldn''t help but love it.

 Chapter 177: Covered In Ash

    He must have fallen asleep. However, when he woke up he was still covered in ash. On the bright side, he had all of his limbs attached to his body.That was something to be celebrated.


    In fact, he felt really good. He didn''t remember a time when he felt as refreshed as this. He was still naked and covered in ash, but he felt amazing. More importantly, his soul felt more complete and more healthy than it had in months. His Phoenix Concept was already hard at work. Even the stress he put it under from soul boosting his skill was already healed by the time he woke up.


    He was a little taken aback at it first. He had believed that he would have to evolve his skill to epic before he was healed, but it seemed that he and Alice were wrong about that. Apparently he had only needed the Concept to do so.


    The first thing he did was push the ash from his body away. It was a surprising amount one would almost mistake it for an actual burial. With great effort and exertion, he was able to free himself at last. Gasping for air once his lips touched above ground.


    He took a look around. The surrounding area was a similar sight. Powdered black snow was floating everywhere. It truly put into perspective how destructive whatever that stupid ball of metal was.


    It was far hotter than even his fully empowered blue flames were. Did it make him crazy for wanting to learn how to replicate that more than focusing on the fact that he almost died? For real this time.


    The other times were not this close. He should have died here today. This was something far beyond his abilities to deal with.


    It was also a good reminder to not get cocky just because someone was Tier 3 or lower. Something he had done with those two men.


    As he moved to get to his feet, he felt something hard poke him in the back. When he inspected what it was, he was startled to see that it was his storage ring. It must have fell off during the blast. He was thankful that he didn''t lose it or that it got destroyed in the blast. There were a lot of tasty goodies stored within it.


    He dusted him off and finally found himself a spot that wasn''t completely covered in soot. It was only then that he removed his shower tool and gave himself a good scrubbing. It was very surprising to learn that he wasn''t even that dirty. Everything was ash, which meant that any dirt on him or in the vicinity was turned into plain ash.


    It was kind of a good bath in itself. Perhaps if he wanted to start a spa one day, an ash body scrub would make the list of possible treatments.


    After his shower, he needed to decompress. That meant he began to create a table and chair for him to relax in. He had been making progress on this part of his skill set during his "break" from training. That was why his new furniture constructs had detailed molding on the corners of the table and on the back of the chair.


    It was good practice and while it wouldn''t be that practical, it was very fun to do. It still was a work in progress but he had been improving. He had even gone to Dante for some tips, which the old man grudgingly gave to him


    He finished rounding off the table bevels with a caring touch, using a separate panel of mana to act as sandpaper. It was only then that he took out his food. In the spirit of surviving being turned to ash, he was going to treat himself to some barbeque.


    He had some leftovers from a place he and the others went to one weekend. There was still a full rack of ribs and various smoked meats.


    However, before he began eating, he took out Drasil from his core. The little green guy immediately ran and jumped his face. His worry was obvious and touching. Julius didn''t even mind when Drasil starfished on his face and whistled loudly at him, voicing his displeasure over Julius''s decisions.


    Julius took it as well. He deserved it after all and Drasil deserved to let off some steam. He was just very thankful that nothing happened to Drasil either. He knew that spirits didn''t actually die like humans did, but he still didn''t know what exactly would happen to him if he did.


    After a few minutes of scolding him, Drasil peeled himself away and gave Julius an expectant look. Julius in return just chuckled and placed the adorable green guy on a mat he pulled from his storage.


    While Julius had gotten better at softened mana constructs, he still wasn''t close to what a crafter with specific skills could create with their own. And in his personal opinion, the best little healer in the world deserved the best sitting arrangement.


    It didn''t matter that it cost almost a platinum for a pillow the size of his hand. It was ridiculously comfy and something that Drasil made sure Julius took out at every moment he could.


    Drasil got settled into his normal position laying on his back, the soft embraces of the pillow swallowing the guy up until all you saw was a slightly bulbous green tummy. Once the familiar got comfortable, he placed his hand in the air and left it palm up.


    Julius didn''t say anything but without pause, he created an enormously dense orb of life mana. This time he had added some of the Concept of Phoenix to it as well. He was curious how Drasil would like it.


    It turned out that the spirit loved it.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    I think I have found out his favorite new snack.


    A part of him was telling him to forget about food and look at his notifications, but he reminded himself to just be grateful he was alive. Level-ups and skills could wait, he deserved a good meal after that ordeal.


    Once he made sure Drasil was all settled in, he tore into the meats like a starving wolf.


    ***


    Alice POV


    "You did what?" Dante asked her demandingly.


    "It wasn''t supposed to go down that way. I did not expect the guy to have such a dangerous thing on him," Alice explained once again.


    "It doesn''t matter. He should have never been in that position in the first place," Dante pointed out angrily.


    "I know," Alice said regretfully.


    "I don''t think you do. I think you manipulated the poor boy to sate your own twisted curiosity," Dante gave a sarcastic chuckle. "For someone who was so against the boy pushing himself, you did an awfully good job of doing it for him."


    Alice scrunched her eyes into a frown. "I don''t know what you are even talking about," she refutted.


    "Oh? So I am mistaken in saying that you could have just given the boy a natural soul treasure. Sure, it would be expensive but it wouldn''t be that big of a deal for you. It woud have saved you a lot of time and effort. If you really wanted him to heal him as safely and thoroughly as possible, that was what you would have done," Dante said.


    When Alice didn''t argue that, he continued. "You just wanted to see how far you could push him. How far the boy was willing to go on his own. You only wanted to see how strong Julius''s willpower would become if he went through that."


    That wasn''t the only reason why, she thought to herself ruefully.


    Alice looked down, her lips pressed together. "You saw what I saw. We talked about it. This boy could have gone on to do incredible things. It would have been a waste to not take advantage of this opportunity."


    Dante snorted. "Yeah, could have."


    "When did you start to even care for the boy? I thought that''s the reason you are out here. To avoid personal attachments," Alice poked back.


    She felt Dante''s control of his aura slip and the bloodthirsty intent that made him infamous for rolled over her. "My feelings for the boy have nothing to do with this. You made a mistake and you cost the boy his life," Dante pointed his finger at her accusingly. "And for what? To satisfy your curiosity, that''s what."


    Dante got to his feet. "Show me," he demanded to Alice. "Take me to where it happened."


    Alice didn''t respond right away but she extended out her will to Dante. The older man accepted her will and allowed her to whisk him away with her spatial skill.


    When she and Dante appeared at the location, she felt the same surge of regret. The entire area was still covered in ash


    I can''t believe I made such a stupid mistake. If I could g-


    "What the hell is that?" Dante said, interrupting her thoughts.


    "Huh?" she said dumbly.


    "I thought you said he was dead," Dante said deadpan, his anger no longer as evident.


    "He is, I saw it myself. There wa-"


    This time she stopped herself. She saw why Dante was confused. The boy in question, the boy who she believed had died was sitting not that far away from the crater. Very much alive. Not dead like she had thought.


    How is this possible? I know what I felt, I couldn''t sense a single piece of him with my spatial senses. There was nothing but ash.


    However, what really confused her was the fact that Julius was not only alive, but he was currently sitting down on one of his mana-constructed tables, tearing into a rack of ribs with sauce all over his mouth. The boy was also completely naked.


    "What''s going on¡­" she murmured.


    ***


    Julius POV


    Julius was so focused on devouring every morsel of meat from each bone, that he almost missed the appearance of Alice and Dante.


    He turned to greet them. "Hey, what are you doing here?" He asked with a smile after wiping the sauce from his face.


    "How are you alive?" Alice asked slowly, she looked as if she had seen a ghost.


    "What?" Julius asked baffled at the first question she had for him.


    "You were dead," she said softly.


    Why would she think that? Did she know something happened to me? He took a glance at the crater full of ash. Although, it''s not very difficult to see that something happened here.


    He stood up and gave a dramatic wave of his body, showing that he was very much not dead. However, when he did that he realized one very embarrassing fact. He was completely nude. As naked as the day he was born.


    Red-faced with horror, he quickly turned around and as swiftly as he could, put on some clothes on. He cleared his throat awkwardly and gave them a shy grin. "Sorry about that."


    Dante had a weird expression on his face. Julius felt creeped out by it just by looking at it. If he didn''t know any better, he would have thought the old man was smiling. Is he secretly some pervert?


    Alice on the other hand was looking at him with the same shocked look on her face. "I was here. I saw you get burned to ashes by that suicidal attack."


    Say what again? Did she just say she was here when he was fighting the two guys?


    "You were here?" He asked slowly.


    She nodded at him. "I was. I also saw you die."


    "Well, obviously I didn''t. I almost did though. Some help would have been appreciated," Julius said with a slightly upset tone.


    "There wasn''t any time to intervene. Before I knew it the guy exploded himself and everything in the area, including you," Alice said to him.


    "And afterward?" Julius asked.


    "There was nothing to help. I am not exaggerating when I say I didn''t sense a single piece of you surviving. All that was left was ash," Alice said a little more loudly, hoping that he understood the implications she was making.


    Julius knew better than anyone how good Alice''s perception was. He admitted that her perception was better than even his own. It wasn''t a shame to admit that, but it did make him question what had really happened. If it was someone else, he would have thought they had made a mistake. However, if Alice was saying there was nothing left of him, then he was inclined to believe her.


    "What are you trying to say then?" He asked her, taking her concern with much more seriousness than before.

 Chapter 178: Healing Upgrade

    "I''m not trying to say anything. I just want to know what happened and what you remember happening," she said.He didn''t see the point in not telling her. She deserved to know, considering all the help she had given him.


    "During the blast, I managed to obtain a Concept of Phoenix," he told her.


    "During the blast?" She asked skeptically.


    "Why, what do you think happened?" He asked her. He had a feeling she already had a theory in the works.


    "I don''t know," she said, looking like she was lost at sea.


    She shook her head and smiled at him reassuringly. "It doesn''t matter. All that matters is that you are alive."


    ***


    As they were sitting down on the patio of the cabin Julius couldn''t help but think back to what Alice had said. She seemed pretty sure that he died and he was inclined to believe her. He didn''t really want to tell her about his experience in his soul though. It felt much more personal than sharing his skills.


    Not only that, but something stood out to him. She mentioned that she saw him die. Meaning that she was there and possibly following him the entire time.


    He always knew that was a possibility. She was after all a Tier 6 powerhouse, so it wasn''t a shock or anything like that. No, what made him pause was whether or not she had anything to do with the two men following him.


    The guy said it was a coincidence, but Julius found himself not believing in coincidences as much. She had let him leave Dante''s too easily for his liking. It was almost like him giving up and leaving was a part of her plan.


    He didn''t have any proof, but if she had anything to do with the two men finding him, he wouldn''t be too happy about that. He didn''t die, so he wasn''t too upset, but it was very important to note that he should have died. Which meant that she would have been responsible.


    He didn''t know how he would exactly feel about that if it was true, so he decided not to confront her just yet. He wanted to settle his own emotions before that.


    However, the more he thought about it, that idea was becoming more and more likely. If there was one thing he learned about Alice over this past month or so, was that she always had her own agenda.


    It wasn''t necessarily a bad thing, but it was something he was aware of.


    He shook his head, trying to put those thoughts to the back of his mind. He had a healing skill to evolve. A skill that other than [Spatial Perception], was one of the most anticipated skill evolutions for him.


    That was the reason why they came back to Dante''s cabin. Alice wanted to help him evolve his skill once she learned that he had gotten it to level 20. He explained that his soul felt pretty amazing and that he doubted he would need any help, but she told him that it was better to be safe than sorry. He couldn''t argue with that reason.


    He sat down alongside Dante and Alice, both looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness. He ignored their looks though and focused on the latest of his notifications.


    [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] has reached level 20.


    Appraising requirements¡­


    Congratulations. Skills requirement met.


    Congratulations. Concept requirement met.


    Congratulations. Soul requirement met.


    Would you like to evolve the skill [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]?


    He didn''t hesitate for a moment, he instantly selected yes. Afterward, he felt a surge of energy, and his Concept of Phoenix activated with a resounding boom.


    Skill evolution commencing¡­


    Skill [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Phoenix Renewal], [Phoenix Body], and [Revival of Ash].


    Julius reviewed the options with an unsteady frown. The first skill wasn''t unexpected. It was the skill he assumed it would become once he evolved it, dropping the pseudo from its name. It was also probably the safest choice he was offered.


    He already knew what the skill entailed and could pretty confidently assume that the skill was similar just more powerful than the previous version. It wasn''t like his healing skill wasn''t powerful, in fact, it was extremely potent for its rank.


    However, the problem he was having was that the other two skills sounded really nice as well.


    I know, first-world problems. But I really like the sound of the other skills, they are really interesting.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    He was having a mini-internal crisis. For one, [Phoenix Body] seemed like a ridiculous skill. It was a skill that appeared to be giving him a closer connection to a real phoenix. He didn''t know what the skill would entail, but it was a pretty safe guess that it was a good skill.


    He just didn''t know if it was a better choice than [Phoenix Renewal], a skill that hadn''t let him down yet. His soul damage notwithstanding. But he also didn''t know what it did. Was it a physical enhancement skill that used fire and life to bolster his body? Or maybe it was a healing skill that acted differently [Phoenix Renewal]


    The third skill offered sounded just as tempting as the others. [Revival of Ash] sounded powerful. Revival always sounded like a good idea, especially when he was so close to dying. Or according to Alice, actually dying. Perhaps, that was the reason why he got this skill offered.


    It was possible that she was right and Julius really died but came back due to his acquisition of the Concept. So far, that is just speculation though. He was also interested in how it compares to [Phoenix Renewal]. Would it still heal him like a healing skill or would it just act as a safety net for extreme situations?


    Would he have to give up on some utility for such a powerful revival technique? Or was it just a better skill than the general upgrade? Luckily he had two qualified people he could ask right next to him.


    "I got three options," he said loud enough for the two curious people to hear.


    There was a quiet silence that followed.


    "Well, what are they?" Dante finally asked after getting impatient for Julius to elaborate on his own accord.


    "[Phoenix Renewal], [Phoenix Body], and [Revival of Ash]," Julius told them.


    "[Phoenix Body]? That sounds interesting," Dante commented while scratching his beard.


    "Right? I''m just worried about what kind of skill it is. Is it still a healing skill or is it some body modification skill instead?" Julius explained his feelings about it.


    "The answer might be somewhere in the middle. By the sounds of it, it definitely has some relation to other body enhancement skills. There are a couple of similar sounding skills at the epic rank that I have come across during my years. One of them was the [Fire Spirit Body] that a mage managed to get," Dante stated.


    "What kind of skill was it? Do you know?" Julius asked very interested in the answer.


    "I can''t say I know everything about it, but I can confidently say that it was a very good skill. That mage went on the become a Tier 6 monster when it came to fire magic. To my understanding, the skill allowed him to gain an even higher affinity to fire as well as bring a multitude of physical, mana, and soul-related benefits. His body was partly spiritual, meaning that it became much more difficult for his opponents to actually hurt him. His mana capacity was raised significantly, but I believe it also came at the cost of using other mana sources. Though I can''t be certain of that, he used mainly fire mana to start with and might have just decided to use it for everything," Dante carefully explained.


    "What about the soul-related benefits?" Julius asked.


    "I don''t really know about that. I do know that his personality changed to reflect his new skill but also his aura became like literal flames itself. It was a very potent upgrade to his aura, that he used to his advantage," Dante said.


    "Do you think it would be a good skill for me to get?" Julius questioned. Other than the possibly mind-altering effects of the skill, the benefits sounded pretty nice. He also didn''t know how he felt about potentially losing his ability to use kinetic energy, but Dante admitted that he didn''t know if that was even true.


    "It''s truly hard to say. For one, the skill probably has some similarities. You will most likely gain an increase in your fire and life affinities and the ability to use those types of mana. However, I don''t know what that might mean for the healing aspect of your skill. It might completely remove the active healing part of the skill and just vastly increase your passive regeneration."


    "You''re saying that it might be possible for me to retain the ability to heal myself, but at the cost of more enhanced and powerful active healing?" Julius frowned.


    Dante sighed and started to tug on his beard in thought. "There''s only so much an epic skill can do. You are lucky that your rare skill was able to do some much at that stage, but you also had a Phoenix Fragment to lean on, so it was understandable. However, you can''t expect a skill to be able to do everything that I just explained while still keeping the same healing capabilities of a similar skill."


    Julius took all of that information in. He didn''t like the idea of giving up his current healing abilites. They have done so much for him so far. It was the reason why he was so powerful for his tier. It didn''t just heal his injuries. It also allowed him more time to train, and if he added his drive, it made him able to catapult himself over other students his age.


    Although the idea of increasing his affinities and gaining some nice physical and soul-related boosts was a nice thought, he wasn''t willing to give his healing up.


    "Do you think it is possible to gain a similar skill later down the road?" Julius asked the two of them.


    This time it was Alice who answered. "Absolutely. You might not get the same skill, but a comparable one is definitely a possibility. Many people choose the general upgrade skill and try to gain one the other options by hard work."


    "You do have [Kinetic Augmentation] close to epic, but if you were to try to add some Phoenix-related physical enhancement skill to it, you might get something interesting out of it," Dante added.


    "You really think so?"


    "Nope. I told you I am no expert in Phoenix-related skills. In fact, I doubt there''s really anybody who is," Dante said with a chuckle.


    Okay, so [Phoenix Body] is out for now. Though it is a skill I might want to get later down the line.


    "What about [Revival of Ash]?" Julius asked them.


    Alice took the lead on this one. "Like how Dante explained it. Most epic skills have a limit on what they can do. Revival sounds very powerful indeed. I know of a couple of revival skills out there, but every single one of them comes at a steep cost. If that skill lets you revive at will, I am certain that it will not be cheap and it will definitely not let you keep such potent healing abilities."


    "What kind of revival skills have you heard of?"


    "The most prominent one is called [Second Light], it''s a powerful revival skill that comes at the cost of life essence. While the loss of life essence is annoying and will leave the user in a weakened state for a long time, it is only temporary, just like your soul damage. More importantly, it is better than dying in the first place," Alice explained.


    "So what? Do you think I should get [Revival of Ash]?" Julius asked her, similar to how he asked Dante. sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    However, unlike him, she had a much more definitive answer. "No. I think you should get [Phoenix Renewal]," she said very confidently.


    He paused in surprise, he certainly wasn''t expecting that definitive of an answer.


    I wonder why that was.

 Chapter 179: Hard Choices

    "Is there a reason why you are so convinced I should take it?" Julius asked Alice."Several actually, but the main one is that your healing skill is already such a crucial part of your skill set that losing it could potentially hurt you more than you would want. Even though you can still learn another healing skill, possibly a Phoenix-related one, it is a huge risk. One I don''t think you need to take." Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He wasn''t exactly disagreeing with her either. He was leaning toward keeping the general upgrade himself. [Phoenix Body] sounded like it might have some permanent consequences. Consequences that were too unknown and potentially too damaging.


    [Rebirth of Ash] could save his life in the future. But considering that he had almost died, or in Alice''s opinion, actually died, he couldn''t trust himself that he was thinking clearly. He was still affected by the trauma of the event.


    Although [Sage of Savagery] and Inexorable Will helped keep his emotions together, he understood the impact of the recent event might be influencing his preferences right now.


    "I''m going to choose [Phoenix Renewal]," he told them, sounding much more confident than he felt. However, he still believed that it was the right choice. Alice was right, his current healing skill was his bread and butter. Losing it would drastically affect him and his abilities.


    "Okay, go for it. Me and Dante are here if you need any help controlling the skill if your soul can''t handle it," Alice assured him.


    He nodded at her and then without any further ado, he selected [Phoenix Renewal].


    Congratulations, skill [Phoenix Renewal] (Epic) acquired.


    It went really smoothly. More smooth than any of his other epic skills. He didn''t even feel like he had to do anything. Perhaps that was the advantage of a superior skill. It was also very nice to not feel any sort of pressure on his soul while he evolved it.


    Smiling to himself, he immediately took a look at his status.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 2


    Skills:


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 5] (Epic)


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 6] (Epic)


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 1] (Epic)


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 17] (Rare+)


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 14] (Rare+)


    [Soul Tempering lvl 5] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 18] (Rare)


    [Flash Step lvl 6] (Rare)


    Current Skill Slots: 9/11


    Concepts:


    [Concept of Sharpness]


    [Severing Will]


    [Concept of Will]


    [Inexorable Resolve]


    [Concept of Phoenix]


    [Ashen Rebirth]


    A lot of his skills hadn''t made that much progress in terms of levels since the last time he had looked at it. However, he had made some pretty large improvements during that time that weren''t reflected in his status. For one his mana control had taken leaps and bounds. Then his willpower had completely transformed into a powerful tool of its own. It was no longer just a utility and support ability, but a certified threatening ability.


    Not to mention his new Concept. Ashen Rebirth might be the most powerful Concept in his arsenal right now. The feeling he had when he used it for a moment was unlike his other Concepts, it felt deeper and more profound than the others.


    "So I guess your soul was able to take the influx of gaining a new epic skill quite easily huh?" Alice mused.


    Julius turned to her. "What? You didn''t believe me?"


    "I have learned that it''s better not to trust your opinion when it comes to your own personal safety," she retorted quickly.


    "Well, that''s rude."


    "But true," she pointed out.


    "Yeah yeah," he grumbled out.


    "Aren''t you going to at least try it?" Dante interjected.


    Oh yeah, that''s a good idea. My soul is a lot better than it once was, but I can tell that there is still some soul damage left within it. I wonder if the new skill will be able to heal it completely.


    He focused on the skill and slowly channeled some life and fire mana into the skill for the first time. He could notice the differences immediately. The pathways of the skill were much more streamlined and complex at the same time. He was also very interested to see that the skill required a higher ratio of fire mana than before.


    It used to be mainly life mana with only a fraction of fire mana, but now while it was still mainly life mana, there was a much larger portion of fire mana involved. It made the skill seem much more explosive and fiery.


    In other words, it felt really satisfying to use.


    The first thing he focused the skill on was his soul. He calmly evaluated his own soul and detected the areas that needed some healing. Then he pushed the healing skill into these wounds with all of his strength.


    His soul felt like it was on fire. But in a good way. It was a comforting fire that soothed the rigid scars of his soul like a miracle balm. However, he noticed something very interesting as the healing skill went to work. It was like his entire aura was engulfed in flames. Not only that, he looked down at his hands and saw circuits of red mana gently pulsing through his skin.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    He pulled out a mirror from his storage ring and gave himself a look over. It was the same with the rest of his body. Instead of the flames that used to engulf his injuries it seemed as if it was more subtle.


    I mean if glowing red lines in my skin can be called subtle, he joked with himself.


    His soul was quickly restored to its previous luster. Albeit there were still some signs of abuse, he was pretty confident that they wouldn''t be going anywhere soon. He had a feeling that these little imperfections would stay with him for the rest of his life. These were little markers that showed the tribulations his soul went through.


    He gave a little celebratory chuckle and looked over at Alice and Dante. Alice was giving a relieved smile at the success and Dante was giving him a grin with a curious glint in his old eyes.


    "How does it compare," the old man asked.


    Instead of responding Julius wanted to give the man a demonstration. He created a saw-like disk over his shoulder and without any hesitation slammed it through his arm. It took it off cleanly at the elbow, no blood came out as the heat of the disk cauterized the wound instantly. The sharpness of the disk made the pain almost nonexistent.


    Alice flinched back in surprise and looked at his arm on the ground with furrowed eyebrows. Dante gave Julius an amused smirk. "I didn''t mean for you to give a live example."


    "I was curious too, so it was for me as much as it was for you," Julius told the old man, trying to ignore Alice''s judgemental gaze.


    He fed the healing skill into his injured arm with a quick thought. His missing limb took the mana like it was a sponge. His arm lit up with complex lines of mana and his flesh began to regenerate. Within moments, he had his entire arm back. The only sign of evidence that it had been injured was the detached limb lying on the ground palm up.


    He swiftly incinerated his arm with a deft manipulation of mana and examined his newly healed arm. It was funny to still see the burnt scars on his arm from when he first started to play with fire. No matter, how many times he healed his arm, the scars remained there. It was kind of like the scars on his soul. While they didn''t hurt him, they were signs of his past.


    He actually didn''t mind that he couldn''t remove them. They weren''t that ugly anyway, they were no more than a collection of craggy lines on his skin.


    He turned his attention away from his arm and back to Dante and Alice. He also pulled out a cake from his storage ring. "Who wants to celebrate my new epic skill with me?" He asked excitedly.


    ***


    Reinera POV


    Julius was different today. It was the first thing she noticed when she saw him sitting at their usual table at the library. She had gotten used to the black-haired boy having this hefty weight over his shoulders, constantly looking tired and in pain.


    But today Julius felt more lively.


    Did he get better? It has been over a month at this point, it''s already weird that it''s lasted this long, she said to herself.


    "Hey!" She greeted him when she got to the table.


    He looked up from his book. "Good morning, Grace."


    She tried not to flinch at that. She still hadn''t told him about her real identity, and the longer she hid it the harder it seemed to be to tell him. It was as if she had more to lose now if he were to find out the truth. Amelia made sure she didn''t expose herself, whether that was a good thing or not, Reinera didn''t know yet.


    Speaking of the woman, she hadn''t joined Reinera this morning. While the hovering guard didn''t want to admit it, she had become much more willing to allow Julius in Reinera''s presence without supervision. She had some things she needed to attend to so she left Reinera to go to the library all alone.


    Her thoughts were interrupted by Julius. The boy had taken something out of his storage ring and passed it over to her. "Here, I got you something when I was coming back to campus yesterday."


    She was curious. The object he passed over was a plain white box. There were no embellishments or hints of what it was at first glance.


    "What is it?" She asked.


    "Just open it," he said with excited eyes. Just by his reaction, she could already guess what it was. One thing she learned about Julius was that he got excited about a few things. Food, magic, and books.


    And considering the size of the box, she had a feeling what it was. With an anxious smile, she opened the lid of the box and saw a glorious sight. It was filled with carefully sectioned-off pieces of parchment paper and organized within were golden brown cookies of all varieties.


    "This bakery had a bunch of tasty-looking cookies and I couldn''t decide on one, so I got a bunch," he said adorably proud of his feat. He then took out a couple more items from his storage that included some mugs, a canteen filled with what she assumed was a hot beverage of some kind and surprisingly more cookies.


    Though, it shouldn''t be that surprising. He often brought food for them to eat in the morning.


    "I even got some for Amelia, though I don''t sense her anywhere. Did she improve her skill or is she just not here?" He asked.


    She didn''t answer him. After all, she wasn''t listening to his question. She was too focused on the boy''s skillful use of mana to heat up everything from the cookies to the drinks. She often found herself entranced with the way he manipulated mana. It was unlike the mana control she saw from other students.


    People like her, who had exceptional or perfect affinities had a huge advantage when it came to controlling the mana of their associated affinities. However, that left a mark on their manipulations. A mark that Reinera and only a select few could spot. So seeing someone have such amazing control over mana with zero signs of these marks was breathtaking.


    Amelia had done a little research on Julius against Reinera''s wishes. What she had found out was that Julius''s strongest affinity was merely high. An anomaly in a school is typically only meant for those with exceptional or perfect affinities.


    She kept on observing Julius''s mana control, trying to pick apart his methods and take them for herself to use.


    Her [Radiant Mana Sight] was a powerful skill that gave her the ability to see mana everywhere, no matter the circumstances. It was a skill she learned because of her natural talent for mana sensing. She used to hate this talent when she was little. It used to give her the most excruciating headaches, headaches so bad that her family had to build her an isolated room where she could avoid such pain.


    It was only now that she was older that she came to appreciate her gifts. It gave her such a monumental advantage over other people. It also helped her own mana control by looking at other''s usage of mana.


    The way Julius managed to delicately control fine threads of fire mana and wrap them around various items to heat them up was extraordinarily impressive. But the most impressive feat was that he didn''t even look like it was challenging for him at all. In fact, she doubted that anyone other than her and a select few students their age would notice what he just did.


    Still, the boy continued to display such elegant control while casually humming a tune. If she didn''t like Julius so much she might have been jealous. Fortunately, she did and that meant she always had the opportunity to look at his deft manipulations.


    "Hello? Is anyone home in there?" She got jolted out of her distraction by Julius who was waving his hand in front of her face.


    She blushed a little bit from embarrassment. "Sorry, I was just lost in thought," she brushed off her lapse in attention and put those errant thoughts away for the moment. She could always look at his mana skills later. Currently, she has a more pressing issue.


    She bit her nails anxiously. Which cookies was she going to choose first?

 Chapter 180: The Others Opinions

    "What? When did this happen? I thought it would take longer than a month," Aubrey exclaimed. S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality."What can I say? I guess I am just an overachiever," Julius said smugly to her. She gave him a hard nudge on the shoulders in return but had a hidden grin on her face.


    All six of them were walking down the beach after they ate dinner. He had been explaining the general gist of what happened while all of them had been walking. He hadn''t had the opportunity yesterday when he was coming back from Dante''s. Then today the other''s had been busy with classes and such.


    "So you actually managed to get your already overpowered healing skill to epic?" Derek asked.


    "Yep," Julius said, emphasizing the last syllable with a pop. He felt Aubrey grab his shoulder and pull him closer to her.


    "So what kind of skill is it? Did you get some sort of healing skill that is even more overpowered now? Maybe one that gives you immortality?" She asked jokingly.


    He gave her a push and got out of her grip. "No, nothing like that. I got the general upgrade option," he paused. "Though I did get offered a skill that would allow me to revive, or so I think it would''ve."


    Aubrey and the rest of them paused in their tracks, leaving Julius walking all alone for a moment. He turned back wondering why they stopped and saw all of their faces look at him with various expressions.


    Lily, and Derek all had looks on their faces like Julius was crazy or something. While Aubrey, Edgar, and Kyle had more interesting countenances on their face.


    "What?" He asked them.


    "Why didn''t you get that skill?" Lily asked loudly.


    "You think I should have gotten it?" Julius asked, a little surprised at her reaction.


    Derek looked at him with a blank stare. "Of course. Personally, my family has been trying for me to get a similar skill. Resurrection skills are niche, but almost always come in handy. For someone with a lightning affinity like me, it is much harder as resurrection skills usually come with life, death, or light affinities, but there are outliers. Such as a skill called [Avatar of Lightning]."


    "I thought [Avatar of Lightning] wasn''t a resurrection skill?" Aubrey asked.


    Derek nodded at her. "You''re technically correct. It''s not really a resurrection skill so much as a skill that allows me to store a fragment of my soul somewhere safe. However, with the right resources and preparations, it should give me a second chance if something happens to me."


    Lily and Derek really seem to believe that I should have taken the [Revival of Ash] skill. Why would Alice and Dante believe otherwise then?


    Kyle interrupted before anyone else could say anything else. "I actually disagree."


    "Oh?" Julius asked.


    "Why would you disagree? Aren''t your parents also trying for you to get a resurrection skill?" Lily asked curiously.


    "They are, but that doesn''t mean that everyone needs to get one. It''s just something a lot of noble families do for their children to give them a better chance of survival. I want to get one just in case one of my experiments goes wrong. There are too many of my family members who have died because of an ''unfortunate'' accident. However, that''s not the point. The point is that I can see why Julius would choose the general upgrade," Kyle explained.


    "What do you mean?" Derek asked Kyle.


    Kyle gave him an exasperated look. "I mean, you just said it a few moments ago. You called his healing skill overpowered. So why would he give up such a powerful skill for a resurrection skill? A skill that would not be able to heal him like his current skill would."


    "He can always get another healing skill though," Lily interjected.


    "Can he?" Kyle asked knowingly as if there was a trick question behind it.


    Lily seemed to go quiet at that.


    "It would still be easier than getting the opportunity to learn another resurrection skill, that much is true," Derek argued, not seeing Lily''s reaction.


    "I''m not so sure about that," Kyle said vaguely.


    "Why?"


    Kyle turned to Julius and gave him a questioning look. "Can I tell them?"


    Does he really know? I haven''t told the others except for Lily the exact name of my skill.


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    However, he didn''t see a reason not to trust them. They haven''t been anything but dependable and trustworthy friends. Plus, he at least had the courtesy to ask for permission. Julius gave Kyle a short nod, he wanted to see if Kyle knew what it was.


    Kyle gave him a grateful smile. "Have you ever wondered why Julius''s healing skill has both life and fire aspects to it?" Kyle asked Derek.


    "Of course, but there are a lot of healing skills that have fire and life aspects. It''s not the most common but still seen enough to not be extremely rare," Derek said.


    "And how many of those skills have the power that Julius has at rare rank?" Kyle asked.


    At that Derek seemed to pause. He looked over at Julius who had put on an innocent expression, pretending to be unaware of the conversation. However, that only seemed to make Derek even more suspicious of Julius.


    "What are you trying to say?" Derek slowly asked his friend.


    Kyle started to pace around in the sand. "I thought it was two different skills at first. How often can a skill heal with such a wide range and also with such intensity? But I learned I was wrong. It is really just one skill."


    "Can you just say what it is already?" Aubrey said impatiently.


    "I think Julius''s healing skill has a Phoenix Fragment," Kyle said to them.


    Wow, leave it to Kyle to hit the nail right on the head. I can''t say I should be surprised though, the guy is unnervingly accurate about these things.


    "What? Why would you think that? Phoenix skills are one in a billion," Aubrey stated firmly.


    "And would you really be that surprised if Julius got one?" Kyle asked deliberately. Aubrey didn''t say anything in response, she just stood there thinking silently.


    "What makes you believe that though? Just because his skill is powerful and has affinities to fire and life?" Derek asked.


    "Not just that. But it is unusually extensive range shows that it is a skill that ranks high compared to other rare skills. That makes the list very small, but when Julius said he might be able to heal his soul by evolving his healing skill, I felt pretty confident about what kind of skill he had," Kyle explained.


    They all turned to look at him, expecting an answer or confirmation about Kyle''s claim. He gave them a slight smirk. "My old healing skill was called [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]." He kind of enjoyed the dropped jaws from some of them.


    "How the hell did you get a Phoenix healing skill at rare?" Aubrey exclaimed loudly. Luckily Lily had set up her barrier, otherwise, Julius thought the entire school might have heard Aubrey.


    "Pseudo-Phoenix," Julius corrected her.


    "Shut up."


    He just gave her a smug smile. However, before she could try to punch him Edgar interrupted. "Does that mean you got a Phoenix Concept to evolve your epic skill?" Edgar asked a little breathlessly.


    He looked over at the big guy with a surprised grin. "Yeah, that''s actually what I wanted to tell you guys."


    "That''s why you were so confident in learning a skill that could heal soul damage at epic," Derek said like it finally made sense. He had a face of wonder but it quickly turned back to confusion. "Though, I still don''t see why you didn''t choose a resurrection skill.


    "He has a Concept of Phoenix, Derek. I don''t think he is going to have a hard time learning a skill that a Phoenix is most well known for," Aubrey reminded him.


    "I guess not," Derek admitted. The handsome blonde boy turned to Lily. "Why don''t you seem as surprised as the others? Kyle I get, but you don''t seem surprised."


    "Probably because she''s known for a while," Aubrey said, pouting.


    "I was under oath," Lily told them like it explained everything.


    "But you still thought that he should have gotten the resurrection skill?" Kyle asked questioningly.


    Lily gave Julius an exasperated look. "I think he should have gotten that skill because I don''t want to see him dead. And knowing how he doesn''t have any self-preservation skills, I think it is still a mistake," she said plainly.


    "That''s hurtful," Julius grumbled quietly, but obviously not quiet enough.


    Lily turned the full force of her glare at Julius. "Oh yeah? What were you doing to learn your Concept of Phoenix, huh? You don''t think Alice wouldn''t tell me?"


    His wide mouth and silence were the only answer he could come up with. Alice told her? I''m not mad, I''m just kind of shocked. If Lily knew then I would have thought she would have confronted me earlier by now.


    Lily just shook her head. "That''s what I thought. I didn''t say anything because she promised me it would be okay, but that doesn''t change how stupidly dangerous it was," Lily said angrily.


    "What did he do?" Aubrey asked.


    "Nothing," he quickly stated.


    "He torched himself alive," Lily said disgruntledly.


    Every single one of them turned to look at Julius with open mouths again. However, instead of awe, they had disturbed and worried expressions. Even Edgar, his usual supporter of his extreme training regime was lost for words.


    "Why?" Derek asked


    "It worked?" Kyle questioned a little more excited than the rest.


    "What a stupid idea," Aubrey insulted him.


    Julius ignored Aubrey and Derek, saying to Kyle, "No, it unfortunately didn''t work. However, it did work for getting my Fire Concept." That last bit he added on hoping it would help defend his actions.


    It didn''t, the judgemental stares didn''t stop.


    Julius put his hands up pleadingly. "In my defense, I got the idea from Derek," he said trying to shift the attention from himself to the other boy.


    It funnily enough worked pretty well. Lily and Aubrey''s look of disgust turned to blame Derek.


    "When did I give you that idea?" Derek asked frantically, trying to remove himself from the line of fire.


    "When you said your grandfather put you inside of a lightning storm to help you learn your Concept," Julius told him truthfully.


    Derek facepalmed his own face. "I didn''t actually hurt myself to do that. He set up an artificial storm that mimicked the environment, but it wasn''t like I was actually getting struck by lightning. I was completely safe."


    "Oh," he said plainly.


    I didn''t even think of that. So my ''brilliant'' idea came from a misunderstanding?


    "You see why I wished he got the resurrection skill now?" Lily asked knowingly.


    Kyle gave Julius a complicated look. "Yeah, maybe the resurrection skill would have been a better choice."

 Chapter 181: Potato Garden

    Past Julius would have thought that the second he had healed his soul, he would be back to training like he had been.However, the new Julius had different plans. New Julius was smarter than old Julius and had a good idea. Or at least an idea that he believed was good. He didn''t think the others quite agreed with him.


    The idea consisted of continuing to use the suppression device that Dante made. He had learned that the bracelet had a wonderful ability to help his mana control. His mana control was at a comparable level as his previous control without the suppression bracelet.


    Not just his mana control either. His skills all seemed to take another step when it came to familiarity and ease of use. While his levels didn''t show his increased proficiency, he could feel it.


    Even his more recent skill [Flash Step] showed improvement. Julius''s comfort with the skill was much more impressive than the six levels would indicate.


    At the moment he had two main goals he set for himself. One was to learn a Space Concept with the assistance of Alice. The woman had promised him that once he had healed his soul she would help him gain a Space Concept. A Concept according to her, that was ridiculously difficult to acquire.


    However, he loved a challenge and this one wasn''t going to prevent him from evolving his perception skill.


    His other goal was a bit counterproductive to the first one. He wanted to try to take things more easy. He didn''t want to start lazing around all day, but he wanted to find the right balance for training.


    His soul injury had shown that there was a clear issue with him pushing himself as hard as he had been. Even though he had a skill that could heal his soul, he didn''t think that was a good reason to beat up his soul again.


    After he acquired Ashen Rebirth, he realized the importance of keeping himself balanced.


    That was why he was on his hands and knees by the little plot of dirt he and Edgar claimed for themselves. He wasn''t alone. Edgar was over at his patch of potatoes and Drasil was next to him trying to help Julius as much as the little guy could. Which wasn''t that much, but it was the thought that counted.


    He gently covered the seed he just planted with the soft soil and gave it a nice pat. He then poured a little bit of water over the top of it. This particular seed would supposedly sprout a little plant that created a berry that reminded him of a mixture of grapes and raspberries.


    He thought that such a berry would make a wonderful jelly or jam. Or that was what he hoped at least.


    He got up from his knees and brushed off the dirt from his hands on his uniform. He noticed someone coming up from behind him. Edgar had similar dirt-stained hands but that was overshadowed by the grin on the big guy''s face.


    "I''m glad you offered gardening to me," Edgar commented once he got within arm''s reach.


    "I should be the one thanking you. It''s much more enjoyable with someone else tagging along. Lily and Aubrey didn''t seem to be interested," Julius said to him.


    Edgar gave him a soft knock on his shoulder. "I''m serious. I haven''t had the chance to do something like this for a while. I didn''t realize just how much I missed helping out on my parent''s farm. Also, this helps me relax, something I haven''t been doing much of late."


    "Well, that makes two of us," he said with a grin. "Anyway, how does your family deal with the farm while you''re here at Goldencrest?" He asked.


    Edgar gave a hearty laugh. "They don''t need my help. My father and mother could easily handle the entire farm by themselves if they really needed to. They are both some of the best farmers in the region, I would probably just slow them down."


    "They can handle such a large piece of land all by themselves?" He asked curiously. He remembered that Edgar previously mentioned that his parents owned quite a large plot of land. However, Edgar seemed pretty confident that his parent could do all of the work by themselves.


    Julius wondered if that was due to some specific farming-related skills.


    "Yep, they are both Tier 3s with skills that work very well with each other. My father could till the entire farm within a couple of days if he wanted to. But instead, he hires some local folk to help around. My mother forced him to start taking it easier a couple of years back."


    Julius chuckled as he imagined a smaller woman berating an older version of Edgar. He went over to another patch of open dirt and planted another seed. "Doesn''t your sister and her husband live on the farm as well? Do they help as well?"


    "No, my sister chose to become a seamstress. Like me, her skills don''t really help out with farm work. Her husband is a pretty strong hunter though, he helps keep most of the monsters from preying on the animals and the crops," Edgar added.


    He was about to ask more about hunters when he noticed someone else approach them. It was someone he was familiar with. It was Tia Wellence, the plant girl from his Applied Combat class. She often came around this area, but they had never talked before. Julius sometimes left her a packet of snacks or something but that was the extent of their relationship.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    This was the first time the girl approached them on her own accord.


    "Hello," she waved at the two of them. Her voice was surprisingly soft, like a light breeze whispering through the forest.


    "Hello," Julius greeted her. "You''re Tia right?"


    She paused as if him knowing her name was unexpected. "You know who I am? I mean I know who you are, but I was just surprised that you knew my name," She said hurriedly.


    "Of course, we have Applied Combat together. You have some impressive magic," Julius complimented her.


    She gave him a warm grin at that. "Thanks! I actually wanted to come over to thank you for leaving me all of the snacks. Me and Sila really enjoy them."


    Julius gave her a confused look. "Sila?"


    Her eyes widened a little bit. "Oh sorry. I guess you wouldn''t know about her," she apologized. However, before Julius could assure her that it was alright, she closed her eyes and concentrated on something.


    Suddenly a green light bloomed on her shoulder. In its place was an ethereal little green squirrel.


    Oh, interesting. What is that? Kind of resembles Drasil, he thought to himself.


    "This here is Sila. She is my familiar," Tia announced proudly. The palm-sized squirrel let out a tiny squeak as if saying hello.


    "Oh, is that a plant spirit?" Edgar had gotten a grin on his face when he saw the little squirrel.


    "You can tell?" Tia asked surprised that he knew what it was.


    "Kind of. It looks different than other plant spirits I have seen, but its aura feels distinctly similar," Edgar said.


    Oh, is that why it feels different than Drasil even though they look similar? Julius noticed that Sila had a much darker green hue to her, whereas Drasil had a lighter hue to him.


    "You''re right. She''s a unique variant that my brother found," Tia said excitedly.


    Drasil must not have appreciated Julius not introducing him as Tia had done with Sila and gave him a poke on the face from his spot on Julius''s shoulder. "Oh sorry, this is Drasil, he''s not a plant spirit but a life spirit."


    Drasil gave a coo and waved his stubby arm at Tia and Sila. "He says hello," Julius told them with an amused smirk.


    Tia got a glowing smile and seemed to lose all of her hesitancy when she saw the cute little life spirit. She got with a couple of feet and reached out her finger to Drasil. "Hello, Drasil. I am Tia," she then looked at the squirrel on her shoulder. "This is Sila, my familiar. It''s very nice to meet you."


    Drasil like the gentleman he was, took ahold of the Tia''s finger. However, to Julius''s embarrassment, the little green spirit didn''t shake it, no he popped the finger into his mouth, sucking on it like a popsicle. "Don''t do that!" Julius hurriedly reached up and pulled Tia''s finger out of Drasil''s mouth.


    "Sorry about that. He is a little glutton," he apologized to Tia who looked more confused than anything.


    Drasil didn''t seem apologetic in the least. Instead of looking embarrassed at getting called a glutton the cute spirit was proudly puffing out his chest like it was some sort of compliment.


    Fortunately, Tia seemed to find this more amusing than offensive and let out a cute giggle. "He has quite the personality it seems."


    "You have no idea," Julius said meaningfully looking at the spirit in question.


    He heard Edgar clear his throat from behind. "Excuse me, but aren''t you going to introduce me, Julius?"


    "Oh!" Julius exclaimed quickly. "I''m sorry. Edgar this is Tia, she''s in my Applied Combat class as you might have heard. You also might have seen her around here at times, she''s a plant mage. Tia, this is Edgar. He''s a fourth-year and one of my closest friends. Don''t worry he looks scary but he has the heart of a sweetheart." S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Edgar gave Julius an annoyed glare and Julius felt a warning smack on the back. However, he ignored the other guy''s reaction, he was more interested in the reaction of Tia. He watched curiously as Tia''s previously smiling expression turned into a much more neutral one. "Edgar Crow?"


    The large fourth-year just stoically nodded his head and reached out his hand. "Yeah, nice to meet you, Tia."


    Tia blankly reached out her hand and shook Edgar''s hand.


    "I''m sorry, but we should really get going. I don''t want to bother you guys any more than I have," Tia such a little nervously before backing away and leaving promptly.


    Huh, that was fast. I wonder what made her do that.


    Julius pouted a little bit. "That''s a shame. She''s a plant mage so I thought she might have some good tips about growing berries," he said disapointedly.


    "Yeah, maybe she could have helped me grow my potatoes," Edgar stated.


    "Speaking of that. Why did she react like that?" Julius asked questioningly.


    "That''s a pretty normal reaction these days," Edgar said simply.


    Julius turned to look at the larger boy with an inquisitive gaze. "What do you mean by that?"


    Edgar just gave Julius a baffled look. "I sometimes wish I had your ability to ignore things."


    Julius was the one who gave Edgar a smack on the shoulder. "Can you stop being purposefully vague and mysterious? Just tell me why she acted that way."


    "Our little group is a bit famous as you might remember. That means situations like this happen from time to time?" Edgar explained.


    "Famous?" Julius asked with a tilt of his head. "Does that mean I am famous too?"


    Edgar shrugged his shoulders. "Kind of. Most people think you''re some poor straggler we collected on the way." Edgar then walked back over to his potato patch and continued to work on it.


    However, Julius followed him. "Does that mean most people who know of my existence think of me in more of a negative connotation?"


    Edgar gave him an uncaring shrug. "Sorta."


    Julius sat down next to him. "I don''t know how I feel about that," he said with a frown.


    It kind of reminded him of when he was younger at the estate. However, during that time he had been purposefully acting weird and crazy. This wasn''t the same case. He was trying to remain pretty lowkey, but instead of that, he was becoming known as the charity case of the group.


    He tried to think of a silver lining.


    At least people will probably underestimate me, he tried to convince himself of his new fate.

 Chapter 182: Tempting Offer

    Today was an exciting day. At least for many of the students in his class.Today was the day that they would finally be able to delve into a dungeon. After many repeated weeks of students fighting monsters and getting used to combat, Professor Rowe was taking them into a Tier 2 Rift.


    This meant a couple of things. One this would be the first exercise where students could actually get hurt. There would no longer be any combat simulation bracelets to mitigate damage. If someone got hurt, it would be for real. With that being said, there would be a number of healers accompanying them for their first rift. Apparently, the first rift was normally the one where students got hurt the most often.


    The second thing was that Julius would be going through the rift with the suppression bracelet on. It might have not been the smartest option, but he believed he would be fine. He had gotten to an acceptable level of strength even with the bracelet on. He was definitely at or above average for the class. Which was quite the achievement considering where he had been over a month ago.


    Joshua and James had even offered him a spot on the team they had compiled which was a surprise to him. To the rest of his classmates, Julius was a simple close-combat fighter with nothing that was spectacular about him other than his often desperate fights.


    However, Joshua seemed to think that Julius would be a good addition to his team, whether that was because they were already friends or because it was partly pity, Julius didn''t know.


    The entire Applied Combat class was standing around the field they normally used. Most students were split into groups of their own, likely with their own teammates as Julius was doing.


    Apart from himself, Joshua, and James, there were two other people. One of them was someone who was quite well-known within their class. It was the beastkin, Polux.


    Polux was widely regarded as one of the stronger students in their class. However, Joshua was also regarded as someone who was at a similar level, so perhaps Polux was interested in fighting alongside someone who knew what they were doing.


    The other person was a girl. He didn''t know her name but she was short and had black hair. She also had fine doll-like features, very pretty in a classical way. Julius reached out subtly with his aura to get a gauge of her. He didn''t touch her aura just in case she had a good sensitivity, it was already considered kind of rude to be doing what he was doing with his aura in the first place and he would rather not offend a future teammate.


    "So is this everyone?" Polux asked Joshua with an indifferent look at everyone within the group. However, Julius noticed that the boy''s gaze lingered on Julius a touch longer than the others.


    He seems slightly familiar. Though I can''t quite remember from when.


    Joshua turned to Polux with a nod. "Yes, this should be all of us. However, before we start I thought it would be a good idea to introduce ourselves to each other. Not everyone is familiar with one another and knowing what kind of fighter would be helpful before we enter the rift."


    Joshua gave everyone a gauging look, making sure that nobody had any issues with that plan. When he didn''t see anyone arguing against it he smiled. "Perfect. I guess I will go first. My name is Joshua and I am a hybrid fighter. I mainly use a sword but I also know some long-range attacks. I primarily use water but I can also give a small buff to stamina to our team," he explained to the group.


    Oh, a team buff might be very handy, Julius thought to himself. He wasn''t the only one, the others all gave acknowledging nods to Joshua as he explained his role.


    The rest of the team introduced themselves afterward. James was a mage who had a fire affinity. He focused on large explosive attacks. But what caught Julius''s attention was that James could also give a burn affliction to his opponents. He didn''t explain it very well, but Julius suspected that it would prove to be a very annoying ability for their enemies.


    Polux went next and explained his skillset. His was pretty straightforward. He was a frontline fighter who went headfirst into conflict. He had extraordinary physical abilities and enhanced his abilities mainly with aura, not mana like many typical warriors. Polux mentioned that he could act as a scout of some sort.


    While he made sure to mention on multiple occasions that he didn''t like the role, he grudgingly admitted that many of his skills made him a good person to hide their aura and find monsters by sensing theirs.


    The girl, who Julius found out was named Nessandra, or Nessa for short. Was a support mage. She wasn''t quite a healer, but she had some light healing capabilities along with some nice buffs she could pile on. She could also remotely activate barriers to help out someone who was in trouble.


    She might be a very valuable person to have on the team, he inwardly thought. While her abilities might not be the flashiest or most powerful, she would be able to cover for the others when they were out of position or were being overwhelmed. The healing skills were just a cherry on top.


    Finally, it was his turn. "My name is Julius and I am primarily a close-range fighter. I am pretty good at perception so I can also handle some of the scouting work," he offered. He didn''t go into detail about his skills for obvious reasons but also shared his better-than-normal perception abilities.


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    The reason for this was that he didn''t think that he would be able to completely hide his perception skill from them. It was better to let them know that he had a decent perception skill rather than trying to hide it.


    After everyone explained their general abilities, Polux started to speak. "I noticed that we don''t really have anyone that specializes in crowd control," the boy said thoughtfully, his wolf-like ears twitching slightly as he bit his lip.


    "No, we don''t really have anyone to do that. James and Nessa can both help on that front, but that''s not their specialty. On top of that, there are not that many people who fit that mold in this class, and the ones who do rejected my offer when I asked them to join," Joshua said with a frown.


    Polux sighed. "I guess we will have to make do. On the bright side, this rift shouldn''t be that difficult considering it''s the first rift delve."


    Hmm. Crowd control huh? There''s someone who fits that bill. Someone who he had just had an awkward run in just the other day. Julius gave the room a quick look and found who he was searching for quickly.


    Tia was standing by herself in the corner of the field. It didn''t seem like she had found herself a group. So either she would get automatically grouped together with whoever Professor Rowe decided or would be delving alone.


    Solo delving wasn''t the most common choice. Considering that making friends and connections was kind of a huge point for Goldencrest students, most didn''t take this route. The ones who did had to be approved by the professors. The staff weren''t just going to allow an unprepared student to go off alone.


    Still, Tia had proven herself to be strong enough to care for herself, she would most likely be given permission to solo delve as long as she had a supervisor with her at all times.


    However, Julius had a better idea.


    Not saying anything to the others, he left their huddled group and headed off toward where he had sensed her. He heard Joshua''s voice calling out to him as he walked away, but Julius ignored him.


    He bumped and maneuvered his way through the crowd of students until he finally reached Tia. She hadn''t noticed him yet, but that was going to change soon. He snuck up on her and gave her a soft poke on the shoulder.


    She was startled and swiftly turned around to see who had touched her. "Oh, Julius!" She exclaimed. She tucked her hand behind her ears and quickly tried to recompose herself. "I-I wanted to apologize for my rude exit yesterday," she stammered out.


    "Oh yeah. I forgot about that," Julius told her. He hadn''t but he wanted to make her feel less awkward about it.


    She visibly relaxed and let out a sigh of relief. "I don''t know what came over me, but I panicked and just up and left so rudely. I must have looked like such a weirdo," she said with furrowed brows.


    "Trust me, you''re pretty far from a weirdo," he assured her. He didn''t say it, but inwardly he was thinking of all of the weird things he had done in this and his last life. If anyone was a weirdo, it was him. It was actually a title he found himself taking more and more pride in lately, much to his amusement.


    "Thanks," she said, not sounding like she believed him for a moment.


    "Though, why did you run off like that? Did you know Edgar?" Julius asked with a tilted head.


    Tia''s eyes widened like saucers. "Know him? Of course, I know him!" She said excitedly. "I reviewed all of his matches last year. He is amazing!"


    "Oh, so you weren''t intimidated then? I thought you ran away because he scared you," Julius commented.


    "Of course, I was intimidated! That was Edgar Crow!" She said aggressively. However, he noticed her frown and looked at him with curiosity. "Why were the two of you together?" She asked, changing subjects suddenly.


    "We have a small area where we are growing some food," he said simply, not hiding the truth from her.


    "Food?" His answer seemed to make her even more perplexed.


    "Yeah, I am trying to grow various berries, fruits, and vegetables. Edgar is going more for the potato route," he said ignoring her growing look of confusion.


    "Edgar Crow is growing potatoes?" She asked tentatively.


    "Oh yeah, he loves them." Julius leaned forward and whispered to her. "I''ll let you on a secret. If you want to get on his good side, I would recommend giving him some help with them. He would probably really appreciate it."


    "What?" Tia asked nervously. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Yeah, you''re a plant mage right?" He asked questioningly.


    She nodded her head slowly. As if it was a trick question.


    "Well, I think you would be able to help his plants along, and in return, I don''t see why he wouldn''t be able to answer some of your questions whatever they are," Julius said casually. It sounded like Tia was a very big fan of Edgar. Which was kind of weird considering that she was very far from the type of fighter Edgar was. She was a mage who focused on crowd control, whereas Edgar was a juggernaut of destruction. Two polar opposites.


    However, if he could get on her good side he was willing to feed Edgar to the wolves. Plus, he didn''t think the older boy would mind that much. He was very likely to appreciate Tia''s help with his potatoes more than one would think.


    He saw Tia mentally processing what he had just said. Eventually what he said finally seemed to hit her. He watched as her face lit up in excitement. "You really think so?"


    "I know so," he said confidently. "He loves his potatoes and if you can help them along, I bet he would be willing to reward you," he told her conspiratorially.


    He saw her face get even more excited. A manic gleam entered her eyes and she stared at the empty air like a hungry lioness, as if she was imagining a tasty morsel right in front of her. However, she paused and looked at Julius with a skeptical look.


    "Why are you telling me this?" She asked cautiously.


    Julius didn''t hide his motive. "I want you to join our team. We need a good crowd controller and you are probably one of the best if not the best in our class," he told her honestly.


    "Who''s on your team?" She asked.


    "Joshua, James, Polux, and a girl named Nessandra," he told her.


    "Oh," she had an awkward look on her face. "I might have already declined Joshua''s offer."


    Julius waved his hand through the air. "That''s not a problem. He will be more than happy to see you joining."


    Tia contemplated his offer with a hand on her chin and the other twirling her hair. Finally, she looked at him and gave him a firm nod.


    "Wonderful," he said with a grin. He then had her follow him back to the others. However, as they were walking he heard her speak up. "What else does Edgar like?" He didn''t have to look back to know that she had a dreamy look on her face.

 Chapter 183: Competent Team

    Joshua saw him approach and met him halfway. "Where did you go?" The boy asked curiously. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality."What did you think I ditched the group?" Julius teased.


    "No, of course not. I ju-" he stopped what he was going to say when he saw who Julius had brought along. "Huh. Hello, Tia."


    Tia gave Joshua an anxious wave in return. "Hey."


    "Have you reconsidered my offer? I thought you were planning to go solo?" Joshua asked.


    "I was. But Julius was very convincing," Tia stated.


    Joshua gave an assessing look to Julius. "It seems he is. I didn''t know you guys knew each other."


    Tia gave him a small shake of her head. "We don''t really. We only recently had a run-in. I was actually really surprised to get an offer."


    "Well at least we have a controller now," Nessa said with a happy grin.


    Polux nodded sagely. "I agree, this is a good addition. Having her along will help us immensely."


    Tia blushed lightly. "I don''t know how much help I will be. I am not very used to working with large groups, so I apologize in advance if I hold you guys back."


    "Don''t worry, you will get the hang of it really quickly. You are already very skilled, so it''s all a matter of practicing," Joshua assured her.


    The five of them briefly reintroduced themselves to Tia and waited for Professor Rowe to give them further directions.


    ***


    The class was escorted to the rift entrance. Along the way, Professor Rowe explained the general ground rules. They weren''t that complicated. The first and most important one was to stay within sight of their supervisor.


    The second was not to take any unnecessary risks. Any infractions would be noted by their proctor and the offending parties would be punished as seen fit. This rift delve was supposed to be an introduction to rift delving and it wasn''t supposed to be a thorough exploration of the rift. That would come later down the line.


    The way the class was split up depended on the sizes of the groups. There was usually one large group with a smattering of smaller groups of two or four that a supervisor had to oversee.


    This would mean that groups would have to take turns fighting against a group of monsters. For this particular rift that meant fighting against packs of goblins. Which was to be expected, they were one of the most common rift monsters for a reason.


    Their group entered the rift without much fanfare. There was another group of four that accompanied them with the supervisor in the lead. The rift itself was quite normal. Normal in the sense that the environment looked like one you would find just outside of Heston. Relatively close croppings of trees filled the area with the occasional large open fields.


    As Julius and his team entered the woods he immediately started to pulse [Spatial Perception] instinctually. Even with the suppression bracelet on, his skill was still very effective. The restriction it placed on him didn''t seem to affect his perception skill as much as his mana-based skills.


    Their proctor, who Julius was seventy percent sure whose name was Mitchell got their attention. "Okay, this is the deal. Whoever finds the first grouping of monsters gets the honor of going first. There will be no fighting among the two of your teams. Any fighting will be punished personally by myself and Professor Rowe."


    Julius and his team were seriously taking in the proctor''s words. However, it didn''t seem the other group was doing the same. The other team consisted entirely of girls and they were too busy talking amongst each other loudly to listen to Mitchell''s words.


    Julius heard a couple of the girls bragging about their other experiences delving to their friends. Curiously enough, Mitchell didn''t seem to reprimand them. Instead, he gave the group of girls a disappointing look and ignored them.


    The eleven of them kept on walking around. That was until Polux suddenly said, "Up ahead. Approximately six goblins."


    Of course, Julius had already noticed them a little bit ago, but he was surprised that Polux had noticed them as well. The goblins were still a good distance away after all. Polux wasn''t merely boasting when he told them he had a good aura sense.


    Mitchell didn''t seem to be surprised either. Either he had a similar perception skill or he had another way to sense the opponents. Or that was what Julius was assuming. He didn''t believe that the school would allow a group of students to head into a rift without a way to control the amount of monsters encountered.


    Julius reminded himself to pay attention to Mitchell when he had a chance to see how the young man was able to sense the enemies.


    "Okay, Joshua, your team has the go-ahead. Deal with them as you see fit," Mitchell directed them.


    "What? Why do they get to fight them first?" One of the girls whined.


    Mitchell gave the girl a cold stare. "I already explained the reason not too long ago. Pay attention next time when I give directions. Lack of attention is what kills many people in a rift."


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    The girl pressed her lips together firmly in anger as Mitchell scolded her, but held her tongue.


    Julius''s team ignored the commotion and Joshua was already giving out instructions. "James I want you to cause as much mayhem as you can. You don''t need to kill any of them, but creating havoc is good enough to allow Julius and Polux to get close," he then turned to Nessa. "Nessa I want you to give buffs to the two of them, don''t use too much mana though. Let''s be careful how we use our resources. Tia, I want you to hold down as many goblins as you can without interfering with Julius''s and Polux''s attack."


    Hm, Joshua is actually a pretty good leader. He''s organized and well-spoken.


    "What are you going to do?" Nessa asked curiously.


    "I am going to watch for now. I want to see how everyone works together and then I can decide where I can fill in the gaps," Joshua said to her.


    Nessa nodded at him, not finding anything wrong with that reasoning. The six of them quietly headed right toward the pack of goblins with Polux leading them. It wasn''t long before the goblins were within view. The little green monsters were strolling through the forest.


    Unfortunately, they also had the other group of girls following along with them and one of the girls made a sound of disgust upon the sight of goblins. "Ew, do we really need to fight goblins? They are so gross."


    Julius rolled his eyes when he noticed that the goblins heard the girl. The goblins all simultaneously turned toward the direction of the noise and let out snarls, hefting their weapons in front of their chests.


    Does that girl not know that goblins had good hearing?


    He saw that his entire team gave the girl in question a dark look but that didn''t last for long. Knowing that their location had been compromised, as well as the element of surprise they all leaped into motion. Polux was the first one to start running toward the goblins with Julius fast on his heels.


    He then felt a coating of mana latch onto him and Polux. It was Nessa''s buff. This particular buff seemed to give Julius a hardened coating of mana around his body. It was clearly some sort of defensive buff.


    Julius was pumping as much kinetic energy through his body as he could to enhance his speed, however, he was kind of surprised to see that Polux was easily outpacing him. The beastkin boy was fast and Julius didn''t think this was close to his maximum speed. Instead, of focusing on it too much, Julius just pushed himself harder to keep up.


    He then noticed two large bolts of fire mana screeching over his head. The resulting attack exploded the dirt and the goblins, scattering their formation. It didn''t kill any goblins but it sent all of them stumbling.


    It was perfect timing. While they were getting back to their feet Polux was already on top of them. The beastkin boy launched a heavy punch and hit the goblin squarely in the chest. Julius was able to sense several layers of intricate aura manipulation over the boy''s fist as it pummeled into the goblin. The goblin didn''t stand a chance. It was blasted back with a sickening crack of bones.


    Julius wasn''t that far behind either. Just as the other goblins were getting back to their feet, he was also there to deal with them. Instead of punching the goblin like Polux had done, Julius jumped off his two feet. He used every bit of momentum he gathered while running and slammed his feet into the goblin''s sternum. It didn''t have the power of Polux''s attack but it got the job done. The goblin''s ribs were broken and was sent rolling away, removed from combat.


    Just as he noticed two other goblins reaching out to attack him when he was distracted, he felt a surge of mana through the ground. Suddenly, a flurry of vines tangled around the legs of the goblins, having them trip over themselves.


    A ball of fire quickly burnt one of them and the other was wrapped up and choked to death by Tia''s vines.


    Julius looked over to Polux''s side, where he had dealt with the other two goblins in quick order. Julius noticed that neither Tia nor James had helped Polux out. They probably thought the beastkin boy could handle it himself.


    I mean they were right, but I feel kind of sad that they didn''t have the same confidence in me, Julius pouted internally.


    ***


    The team quickly gathered the cores of the goblins. Tier 2 cores didn''t have the most value, but the school still used them to keep the school running and functioning.


    Joshua seemed pretty pleased with how things went. The only thing they had to reconsider was how far away Tia was able to use her crowd control abilities. Her reach wasn''t infinite and she would need to get closer for her to be effective. However, that was an easy fix. They would have gotten closer before if the other girl hadn''t made so much noise.


    Speaking of the all-girl group. They didn''t fare that well. Unlike their team''s good performance, theirs was a mess. They found a group of five goblins but compared to Julius''s team, the girls were sloppy.


    Their skills weren''t actually that bad. Two of them were long-range mages, one was a close-combat fighter, and the last one was a healer/support mage. It wasn''t that bad of a composition if not for one thing.


    They had no teamwork whatsoever. The two mages didn''t wait for their close combat fighter to get closer before bombarding the goblins. Their accuracy left a lot to be desired. The first bombardment wasn''t that bad, but as soon as the goblins started to move, they couldn''t hit anything.


    It was like they weren''t used to fighting monsters who could move around so dynamically. For the previous weeks, they had been fighting a single monster within an enclosed space and weren''t used to fighting in such an open space against several monsters.


    The only saving grace was how powerful their attacks were. The amount of mana they were able to output was quite impressive for Tier 2. It was just unfortunate that most of that mana was wasted since the attacks rarely hit.


    In fact, they almost took out their friend on multiple occasions. They hadn''t paid attention to what their close combatant was doing and their attacks scraped the other girl when she was engaging with the goblin. It was fortunate that the girl had a pretty good defensive ability.


    Their support mage wasn''t doing much of anything either. She was just nervously staring at the fight with wide doe eyes.


    Eventually, the sheer amount of mana and power overwhelmed the goblins. However, to Julius''s bafflement, the girls celebrated their win with excited cheers and jumped around giggling. It seemed all of them were oblivious to how sloppy their fight went.


    Julius took a look at his teammates, seeing if they were feeling the same way he was.


    He was thankful that he wasn''t alone in his concern. Every one of his teammates had frowns on their faces as they looked at the group of girls. Then simultaneously all of them gave each other a knowing look.


    Although they didn''t say a word, Julius was able to interpret their expressions. All of them were secretly thankful that their team wasn''t like that. He gave the girl group one last look.


    I didn''t know how I felt about this team thing, but I think I lucked out with my teammates. While it was too soon to really tell, so far all of his teammates seemed to have a good head on their shoulders.

 Chapter 184: Figuring Things Out

    His team went through the rest of the rift without much issue. Each one of them was responsible and understood their roles well. Nobody tried to do too much and were all supportive of each other. That was something that was rare in a newly formed team, Julius remembered that much from his previous life even without magic.He wished the other group of girls were the same. However, they weren''t. He almost felt bad for Mitchell. The poor man was rubbing his forehead so much Julius was worried the man might give himself a blister on his forehead.


    After the first battle, the girls constantly bickered with each other. For being such obvious friends, he would have thought they would have worked better with each other. Instead, they did the opposite.


    In fact, the first real injury didn''t come from them getting hit by a goblin, but instead one of them hit their frontline in the back with a bolt of white mana. It was apparently strong enough that the frontliner''s defense buckled and she then took a stab through the shoulder from a goblin. She went down with a loud cry and would have been stabbed again if not for Mitchell intervening.


    It seemed that actually getting hurt had surprised the girl. Julius suspected that this was the first real-time she had gotten hurt in a fight. Which wasn''t that surprising considering that she and her friends were most likely nobles who had been treated well their entire lives.


    Luckily, Mitchell seemed to be carrying some healing potions on his person. Healing potions were a weird thing. They had varied effectivenesses on wounds. Some healed a larger amount but over a longer period of time. Whereas some healed fast, but not as much.


    Since the girl was only Tier 2, the effects of the potion were quite good. The stab wound healed over pretty quickly.


    Healing potions were normally made by life affinity users who specialized in alchemy. Without the life affinity, the cost of making a healing potion was much higher. The largest issue was that as one advanced, the more difficult it was to get healed by a potion as did limitations on how many potions one could consume in a time period.


    Julius recalled a book he had read recently about this phenomenon. It was called potion sickness. Normally a person could only consume one or two potions consecutively before they would be longer effective. If someone tried to ingest more than what their body could handle, their body would be poisoned by the unfamiliar mana.


    It wasn''t just healing potions either. Other potions such as mana replenishing and stamina recovery potions had similar side effects. For overconsuming healing potions, the book stated that organ failure, decomposition of the flesh, and/or blood corruption were typical.


    This downside was somewhat mitigated for healing mages. Healing skills had a unique function that allowed the channeled life mana to adapt to the patient''s own mana signature. Reducing the potential side effects of frequent healing.


    However, it was also highly dependent on what type of healing skill one had. Many healers, didn''t have a sufficiently advanced skill that was able to do this. These types of healers were relegated to more benign and less fatal wounds. Often seen as doctors and healers for the regular folk, kind of like a pediatrician or a family doctor.


    Julius was very thankful that his skill didn''t seem to have this issue. Although, the fact that his skill was primarily a self-healing skill probably helped a lot with that. The life mana he was healing himself with was already his, to begin with.


    Soon after the girl got hurt, they all began to head back. It wasn''t just the injury for this decision, the group of girls ended up running out of mana as well. It wasn''t a shock since they had been wastefully throwing out mana, but it was still slightly disappointing. He and his team all felt like continuing.


    Then again, there was always another day. They wouldn''t delve every day but now that they had gotten further into the year it would be much more frequent. Something that Julius was looking forward to as well. He even had a new team that he had been enjoying so far.


    ***


    Joshua POV


    "How was your first official delve?" His cousin, Janet asked him as she sat next to him. She had a teasing smile on her face, she always treated him like he was still ten years old. He didn''t particularly mind it, but he acted like it did. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He gave her an annoyed look. "It actually went pretty well. I am happy with the team I managed to gather," he told her.


    "Oh really? That''s a nice surprise. I remember when I was a first-year. My team was a cobbled-together mess, everyone fought with each other. We did a better job hurting each other than the monsters ever did," Janet admitted.


    Joshua chuckled at that, remembering the group of girls his team had been saddled with. He could easily imagine his cousin among that group. She had matured a lot over the years, the previously entitled princess attitude was no longer as bad. She still had her moments, but compared to when they were younger, it was a massive difference.


    "I''m still surprised that you managed to convince that beastkin boy to join your group. Beastkin students are normally lone wolves, they prefer to prove themselves without anyone else helping them," she commented.


    He gave her a conceding nod. "I know, I am actually a little surprised as well. I only asked because I didn''t see the harm of it. The worst he could say was no. However, I am very glad that he accepted. Polux is a very talented fighter and a surprisingly good teammate. He works well with us," he said to her.


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    "What about that new friend of yours? What was his name? Jackson? Or was it Justin? Too many J names, in my opinion, it gets confusing," his cousin said with a shake of her head.


    "It''s Julius. And yes, he did very good as well," Joshua said.


    "That''s good. I remember you telling me your concerns about him joining your team," she mentioned.


    Joshua shrugged his shoulders. "He gives it his all and doesn''t get in anyone''s way. He has a very good sense for combat." He wasn''t exaggerating to his cousin either. While Joshua had mentioned his previous worries about someone like Julius holding his team back, he no longer had the same thoughts.


    One might think Joshua had asked Julius to join because they were friends, but his cousin knew better. Joshua learned to keep his personal feelings away from his responsibilities. However, he was glad he extended the invitation to Julius. The fellow first-year was a cunning and scrappy fighter.


    Joshua was honestly pleasantly surprised at how well Julius managed the fight. He observed the entire team and how they worked together, so he had a good idea about the other''s abilities. For Julius, the boy was never out of place. He was always right where he needed to be, he was never caught off guard, and was there when someone else needed a hand. It didn''t matter that Julius didn''t have as much explosiveness as the others, he did his job well.


    "By the way, I forgot to mention that Julius managed to convince Tia Wellence to join the team," he offhandedly told Janet. He had already discussed with her how the Wellence scion had declined his offer previously. So it was to his immense astonishment to see Julius walk back with her in tow. Tia was undoubtedly very talented, her crowd-control abilities were top-notch and a saving grace for their team.


    "Oh really?" Janet asked in an impressed tone. "How did he manage to convince her when you couldn''t? Is he a handsome fellow?" She asked with a teasing smirk.


    Joshua scratched his head. "I don''t really know if I am being honest. I only caught some of the conversation, but it seems that Tia was interested in one of Julius''s older friends."


    "He''s friends with some upperclassmen? Do you know their names?" She asked interestingly.


    "No, I haven''t asked nor have met them yet. He did mention that they were fourth-years though," he told her distractedly, not noticing her interest.


    He couldn''t help himself as his mind started to wander about how they could utilize Tia''s abilities better. They were potent skills and he didn''t think they were using them to the fullest extent.


    I might want to ask her and brainstorm some ideas with the team later on. Maybe we can get together in the library or something to strategize. Everybody seemed to get along pretty well, so suspect that this team won''t just be a one-off thing, he thought to himself.


    He was so immersed in his own head that he didn''t notice his cousin look at him with a weird look and a contemplative look on her face.


    ***


    Julius POV


    Julius and Lily were alone, sitting on a mat of mana he created for them. Neither of them said anything and just enjoyed the view for the time being.


    He was stalling and he knew it. He had asked Lily out here for a specific reason, but he didn''t know how to go about beginning. Instead, he just sat there awkwardly, nervously tapping his fingers.


    Finally, it seemed that Lily had enough of feeling his anxiety and spoke up. "Why are you so nervous? You''re not normally like this?"


    He sighed and turned his head to look at her. "This past weekend I had an interesting encounter."


    She gazed at him with an assessing frown. "What do you mean by ''interesting''?" She asked.


    "I met some people who had some sort of association with Duke Greyson. I don''t really know what they were doing for House Greyson, but I have some documents I wanted to show you," he said to her softly. He then took out the collection of torn-up paper that had he managed to stash away from the guy''s ring and passed them over to Lily.


    Lily took them from him with an interested expression and gave them a quick lookover. Eventually, she turned back to Julius. "Are you sure that these people were working directly for Duke Greyson?"


    "Yeah, I''m pretty sure why?" He asked confused.


    "Duke Greyson is normally very secretive. He doesn''t really handle his House''s affairs anymore. It''s mainly his advisers and other members that control the operational side of things. So it''s kind of important to distinguish if this was Duke Greyson or his family," Lily explained calmly.


    Julius gave her a confused look. "Duke Greyson doesn''t handle his own house? So his family members are able to just make decisions for him? That seems like it might lead to some potential problems."


    "It does. But Duke Greyson is currently trying to advance to Tier 7. He is more focused on his own progress than simple politics at the moment. I doubt that many of the recent movements House Greyson has been doing these past years have been under his direct orders," Lily commented.


    Julius froze at that. Did that mean that the attack at the estate might not have even been under Duke Greyson''s orders but because someone in House Greyson was feeling a bit too ambitious? Has his ire been directed at the right person to start with?


    He shared his uncomfortable realizations with Lily.


    "I''m not sure. The attack on the Hyperius''s Estate was a secretive plan. Even after looking into it myself and asking my father, there hasn''t been a lot of information coming out of the Valorbury region. However, that also gives some information in itself."


    "Like what?" Julius asked anxiously.


    "Like it is very likely that many of the remaining members of House Hyperius either were a part of the plot or were successfully bought off. Otherwise, there is no way that there isn''t any information leaving the region," Lily said gently, laying a hand on his back, afraid that her words would upset him.


    She didn''t have to worry on that front. Julius already knew that many of the elders were a part of the betrayal, but he didn''t think it extended that far. He still didn''t understand the full political meaning behind the betrayal either. Something he had kind of forgotten to investigate, he had been so busy with other things.


    "And the documents?" He asked her hopefully.


    She gave him a sad smile. "I''m sorry, but there''s not much to go on with them. I can only determine that many supplies have been coming and going from Heston. And that''s not unusual considering how many other Houses do similar things. I can look more into it if you want," Lily offered graciously.


    Julius gave her a small smile and nodded at her, showing his appreciation of her offer. Then he frowned. He had been hoping that the documents he found would shed some light on what House Greyson had been doing.


    It was frustrating. He wanted to place the blame on Duke Greyson, but now it seems that the Duke might not have had anything to do with what happened to him. It made him feel weirdly lost now that he didn''t have anyone to aim his anger at.

 Chapter 185: Not Everyone Is Fooled

    With Lily currently being a dead end until she can find anything with her contacts, he started to entertain his other idea. He still had the favor from Lord Lagos in his back pocket. However, he didn''t know how much he could ask for.This wasn''t a simple favor like gaining rift access, this was a favor that could potentially put Lord Lagos in a bad spot if anyone from House Greyson noticed the lord investigating their activities in Heston.


    There was also still the important question of what he was going to do with whatever information he gained. So what if House Greyson was doing something in Heston? Was he planning to interfere with them just to spite them?


    He didn''t know the answer to that question. It was good to remind himself that by interfering he would be putting himself into the crosshairs of House Greyson. He had gotten lucky that the other two men he had killed hadn''t alerted anyone of Julius. Or at least, he didn''t think so. He didn''t get that sort of feeling from them. Even if they did, it''s not like they really had much to go off of.


    At most, they would have a description of a young man with a black cloth mask who beat up their thugs.


    Actually, now that I think about it, the piece of cloth burned up in the blast. I am going to have to ask Dante to make me a new one or a different version of it. He might groan and complain about it, but I think he will secretly be happy to do so, Julius thought to himself with a grin.


    Still, it would be smart of him to be patient and not rush into things. For now, he was satisfied with just finding out what House Greyson was doing. He would make his decision of what he would do after he asked Declan.


    Either way, he still had to go and tell Declan the good news. So he could discuss it with him while he did that. He also wanted to see if Declan would be willing to give him the rift access card back.


    While he didn''t necessarily need it right now considering his usage of the suppression bracelet. His rift craving was currently satisfied with the Tier 2 rifts he went on in Applied Combat. Although, he would rather have something like that on hand just in case he did have the urge to go delving into a Tier 3 rift. Life was unpredictable and perhaps he would find himself wanting to fight stronger monsters.


    Look at me, I am talking about solo delving a Tier 3 rift like it is a Thursday afternoon. How cocky have I gotten? He joked to himself. While he was joking, he was very aware of the fact that some Tier 3 almost killed him not too long ago. He was going to be much more careful in the future.


    Or at least attempt to. He was well aware of his bad habits and prideful behavior, so it wouldn''t astonish him if he got himself into a similar situation down the line.


    ***


    The week went by pretty smoothly. Julius and his team ended up delving several more times. Each one was more successful than the last. They had been grouped together with several other teams at that time. And he was pretty confident that their team was one of the better ones in their year.


    It wasn''t that astounding when he thought about it deeper. They had one of the best pure warrior fighters in their year in Polux, Joshua was considered one of the top elites of the class as well along with Tia, additionally, James and Nessa were no slouches either.


    In fact, Julius was constantly impressed with their skill. Both of them had more supportive roles like Julius, but they did them very well. James was an unselfish teammate who never tried to kill or steal monsters from anyone, just using his fire magic as an effective disruptor in battle. Whereas Nessa had really good decision-making skills. She didn''t take too much time either, she would give up a barrier if she knew she was just wasting mana and didn''t buff Julius or Polux if she thought they didn''t need it.


    He was very happy with their team. Joshua did a good job configuring it together. Julius made sure to compliment the boy whenever he had the chance.


    It was Friday and they had finished all of their dinner. However, Joshua had the idea that they should get together and do some training. Nobody had any arguments against it either. They all got along well and every one of them wanted to improve. So the fact that this would kill several birds with one stone.


    Julius had just left his older friends and was on his way to the first-year training hall. When he got there, he was immediately reminded of the time that he blew a hole in the enchantments and promised himself not to do that again.


    As he approached, everyone else was already there waiting for him. Nessa and Tia were both laughing with one another, the two of them had become quick friends as the only two girls on the team. Where James and Joshua were already good friends. Polux and Julius were more of the loners of the group.


    Nessa saw him first. She waved at him. "Hey, we missed you at dinner. Where do you go off to?"


    Joshua was the one who answered for him. "He eats at the upperclassmen cafeteria with his older friends. Though, I am still a little bit jealous that he gets to eat there as a first year."


    Nessa''s eyes widened. "Really? You eat at the upperclassmen cafeteria? You are so lucky, we got to deal with so much chaos in the first-year cafeteria that I often grab my food to go," she complained with a pout.


    "I know. I wish I could eat there," James said enviously.


    "There are no rules against it," Julius reminded the guy.


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    "Speak for yourself. I tried to go for breakfast one morning and got bullied by some third-years the entire time. I don''t know how you do it, but I am going to avoid that harassment, thank you very much," James said.


    "Yeah and my cousin would beat me to a pulp if she saw me hanging out there," Joshua said solemnly.


    Julius just shook his head amusedly and headed into an empty room. The others quickly followed him and they got started warming up.


    Tia, Nessa, Joshua, and James were working on a new idea Joshua had come up with. It revolved around using Tia''s vines and Nessa''s barriers to create a suffocating containment. This would allow James and Joshua to unleash a much more powerful attack on their opponents. They each had a couple of skills that allowed them to output large blasts of damage, but it took a considerable amount of time to prepare and they needed for the enemies to be relatively still.


    James had a ritual-type bombardment skill. It was very impressive for a Tier 2 when it came to sheer destruction. It just took him too long for it to be that practical in a fast-paced battle. Joshua had a similar skill that used water to erode and compress whatever was within its vicinity.


    On the other hand, Polux and Julius were doing some light sparring with barely any physical enhancement on.


    One of the first things Julius noticed while he practiced with Polux was that the boy was very talented, he never fell for the same trick twice in a row and he used whatever openings Julius left to great effect. It reminded Julius a bit of Edgar and how the large fourth-year fought.


    Pure physical prowess, refined technique, and alarmingly good instincts. It was a simple skillset but one that continued to prove reliable and effective.


    The most annoying thing about fighting Polux was the unpredictable reach of the beastkin boy. His aura strikes allowed the boy to extend his reach far beyond what his arms would be able to without compromising power or speed.


    Julius blocked another high kick enforced with aura with an enforced arm of his own. He tried to grab the extended leg but a blast of aura and a twist of a leg allowed Polux to pull back safely.


    "Why don''t you use your fire affinity?" Polux asked out of nowhere.


    Julius was taken so aback by the sudden question that he almost took a jab straight to the nose. "What was that?" He asked with a frown.


    "I can sense that you have fire mana in your core. I have also seen you using fire mana on occasion, so I was just curious why you never use it," Polux said as he stopped his assault.


    Julius turned to see if the others were listening in but was glad to see them fully distracted by their experiments. He then turned back to Polux. "I just don''t really have that amazing of an affinity for fire," Julius told the boy, avoiding the real answer.


    "Really?" Polux asked with a doubtful expression. "You know that most students here aren''t stupid. Sure most of them don''t pay attention, but if some of the more talented ones took the time to observe you they would see exactly what I see."


    "And what do you see?" Julius asked with an intrigued grin.


    Polux pointed toward the bracelet on Julius''s wrist. "I know that you are holding back." Polux pointed toward his nose. "We beastkin are more sensitive than regular humans, and with my decent aura sense, that suppression bracelet stands out like a sore thumb to me. I just don''t get why."


    Julius shrugged. "Does it really matter?"


    Polux looked at him deadly serious. "Yeah. It does. I have noticed you since my first week here. You were one of the few students who had an aura skill at Tier 1, not to mention that my instincts tell me that you are dangerous. So again, I want to ask why you do it. Why do you pretend to be weak when you are the strongest person on the team?"


    Ah, I remember now. He''s the same beastkin who I caught staring at me at the beginning of the year.


    "Yeah, I don''t think I am the strongest. I think that goes to you," Julius brushed off his comment.


    Polux gave him a frustrated glare. "I told you that beastkin instincts are very good. It''s how we survive and gauge how dangerous monsters are in the wild. And mine tell me that I wouldn''t stand a chance against you," Polux spat out like the admission physically hurt him.


    Julius gave the others another quick glance and sighed defeatedly. It doesn''t seem like I will be able to fool Polux. He seems very convinced of his opinion. I will have to at least tell him something, otherwise, he is just going to continue to be more curious.


    "You promise you won''t tell the others?" He asked gravely.


    Polux solemnly nodded. "I haven''t said anything the entire year and don''t plan to say anything for the rest of it either. Though, I wouldn''t be surprised if the others find out later in the future. While they won''t be able to sense the suppression device unless they have talents like mine or have a really good sense of aura, they might still observe your uncanny control of mana and other things. We are on the same team after all."


    "Uncanny control?" Julius asked.


    "I told you. I saw you using fire mana with such amazing control. I myself don''t have a talent for mana manipulation, but I can sense it pretty well. And yours stands out from the others," Polux told him.


    Huh. Does that mean more people have already noticed it? That might be troublesome.


    Polux must have seen his concerned face. "Don''t worry. Unless they have been staring at you like I have been, it would be hard to detect. Look at Joshua and James, you have known those two for a while but they haven''t noticed anything yet and they aren''t slouches either. Also, you shouldn''t have to worry about students detecting the suppression bracelet. I was able to because of my aura talent and because my tribe uses similar items at times to hunt," he assured Julius. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius gave a relieved nod but was still curious as to why the boy was bringing this up now and not a while ago.


    "So why do you do it? Why don''t you use fire mana? And don''t say it''s because you don''t have a good affinity for it," Polux pressed.


    Julius shrugged. "Actually, I technically don''t. My affinity for it is merely high. Though you are right about me being proficient with it."


    "So why don''t you use it? Wouldn''t it be better for you to practice it as much as you can?" Polux asked.


    Julius gave him an acknowledging nod. "It probably would be. But I don''t want to attract too much attention. Plus, I use it quite often when I am not in class or around a lot of people."


    "And you''re okay with the rest of the class thinking of you as weak? You have to be aware of the looks you got when you fought those Tier 2 monsters. I don''t think I would like that very much," Polux admitted. He also looked more distraught over this than Julius had been expecting. It was almost like the idea of people perceiving Polux as weak was deeply upsetting to the beastkin.


    Hmm. I wonder if there is something else that is bothering him. Is my holding back going against some sort of beastkin code of honor or something? Julius thought to himself while giving Polux an inquisitive stare.

 Chapter 186: What He Asked For

    Eventually, after some thought, Julius shook his head. "I don''t really mind that much. Sure it can be annoying when a bunch of brats think poorly of me, but at the end of the day, their opinions don''t affect me that much. I got more important things to worry about."Polux frowned and looked lost in contemplation. Julius didn''t interrupt him either, it looked like the beastkin boy was trying to grasp Julius''s explanation. "So what? You pretend to be weak because you don''t want attention? Won''t that affect what kind of rewards you might get from Goldencrest?"


    "You''re looking for rewards?" Julius asked.


    "Of course. I heard that some of the top performers of the year get special potions or items that help with advancement, and even Concept enlightenment," Polux said with a nod.


    "I guess I don''t really care that much for the rewards. If I am having trouble with something whether that is a skill or a Concept, I will just have to work harder," Julius said in a matter-of-fact tone.


    Polux gave him the most clearly skeptical look. "Work harder? You should tell every person who isn''t born a genius to do that. I bet they will try to choke the life out of you if they heard you say that."


    "I''m not a genius," Julius said with a shake of his head.


    "Really? You''re not? Somehow I doubt that," Polux said with a sarcastic chuckle.


    "Seriously. My highest affinity is high and I wasn''t born with a bloodline or anything," Julius told him with a shrug of his shoulders.


    "You know that affinities and bloodlines aren''t everything you know? My great uncle was born with an average earth affinity but ended up being one the most powerful members of my tribe. So just because you don''t have a perfect affinity doesn''t mean you aren''t supremely talented in your own right. Otherwise, there is no way you are stronger than me," Polux said confidently.


    Only an average affinitty? I gotta admit, that is very impressive. I wonder how much fighting his great-uncle had to do to get to that point.


    Julius shook his head at Polux. "You still don''t know for sure if I am stronger. You are really good yourself. I think you''re underestimating your abilities."


    "I''m not. I know I am good. But my instincts tell me you are better," Polux said with a frown. "Don''t make me keep saying it."


    Julius could see that he was starting to frustrate Polux a little bit. So instead of arguing anymore he just nodded his head.


    However, that answer didn''t satisfy Polux and the beastkin boy gave Julius a deliberate stare. "Okay. If that''s how it is then let''s have a fight. I''ve wanted to fight you for months but have not had the chance. This would be a perfect opportunity."


    He wants a fight? Right here? I don''t really want to do that and I don''t see a reason for it.


    Julius didn''t say anything but gave Polux a pointed look and then at the others who were still trying out new things. "I''m good. I don''t want to fight."


    Polux gave him a smug grin in return as if he had been expecting that answer. "That''s fine. But I guess that means I will just have to tell the others about this. We are a team after all and I don''t think teammates should keep secrets from one another."


    Julius wore an offended expression. Oh, this motherfucker. That''s playing dirty, only I can do that.


    "So what? Blackmail? Is that what you are resorting to?" Julius asked with a pout.


    Polux gave him a nonchalant shrug and a much too-happy grin. "It''s up to you."


    Julius shook his in disbelief. He had been outplayed. "Fair enough. We''ll fight. But not now."


    A bright smile displayed itself on Polux''s face. "Okay. We can do it after the others leave for the night. That should be fine with you, right? I have seen you often training here late at night."


    Julius just gave him a firm nod in response. But that nod was all Polux seemed to need.


    ***


    Polux POV


    He had finally done it. He had finally mustered up the courage to confront Julius. His sister would be proud of him. She always told him that he was too cowardly. Hah, this would show her.


    Still, he was nervous. He didn''t really believe that Julius would accept his offer to fight. However, from Julius''s perspective, he didn''t really have a choice. So perhaps it was less accepted and more forced into a fight.


    It was important to note that Polux wasn''t actually going to tell the others if Julius hadn''t accepted, but his bluff worked so he didn''t really care.


    For the entire time he had been at Goldencrest, Julius had been a person he wanted to fight. His wolfkin instincts were telling him that this was a strong opponent. He didn''t let Julius''s act fool him like the rest of the class. His nose and aura senses were too good for that. Those were the only things his sister agreed he had a talent for. In her opinion, the only things but he disagreed on that.


    He would have to do something for Joshua later on. He had been the person who had gathered the team together in the first place and the main reason why he got this opportunity.


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    Everyone else from the team had left for the night. Now, it was just Julius and himself.


    For some reason that made Polux very nervous. It was like standing in front of his aunt''s Thunderous Raptor. The other boy wasn''t doing much of anything, he was just calmly staring at Polux. But Polux felt the boy''s aura drifting from him. It was heavy, like a thick blanket that covered his own senses.


    There was something else alongside it too. It was something that Polux had noticed a little while ago. It was this profound untouchable power. It reminded him of a Concept. But that was very unlikely. Julius was only Tier 2, the only people he had heard of learning Concepts at Tier 2 were heirs to powerful families or generational talents. Even his parents had tried and failed to teach him a Concept.


    Then again¡­ Is this why I feel so uneasy in front of him?


    He looked over at Julius who was now making his way toward the center of the training room with assured steps. Polux kept a tight lid over his own aura, he wouldn''t let Julius know how nervous he was feeling. It would just give the other boy an advantage.


    Polux followed Julius to the center where he was passed a simulated combat bracelet. He slowly put it on and activated it. He sensed the the enchantments activate in a flash.


    Polux was constantly amazed by the device. He could only think of a small number of schools that had such unrestricted access to amazing items such as these. He was very glad he had come to Goldencrest even against the advice of his family.


    If he had gone to the schools that many of his tribe went to, there was a good chance he would have been shoved into a crevice with a hungry Blood Bear stalking him down with no safety net except for hoping that a teacher helped him a time or a healer could heal him back to health.


    "Are you sure you want to do this?" Julius asked quietly.


    Polux gave a firm nod. "I have been waiting a while for this."


    Julius gave him an acknowledging nod and Polux watched as the small restrictions he felt from Julius''s suppression bracelet went silent. The other first-year must have turned it off. "Okay. Whenever you are ready." He then loosened his limbs and calmly stood there, waiting for Polux to make the first move.


    He is completely unbothered by this, he thought to himself.


    Polux didn''t let his anxiety build any further. He launched him off his feet with a burst of aura from his legs. He quickly appeared in front of Julius already sending a layered aura strike at the chest of the boy.


    This was the same strike that took out a goblin leader with one hit. He was confident in its power.


    However, he never was able to land the strike. Before he knew it, Julius had moved a foot to the side and avoided the punch.


    Polux inwardly frowned. He had moved so fast, that I could barely keep up with it. I knew he had [Flash Step], but it has never been this fast before.


    However, he didn''t let the surprise distract him. He sent a blistering combination of strikes following after the boy. He was frustrated to see that not a single one hit their mark. Julius calmly stepped aside or parried each strike with precision.


    It didn''t even look like the boy was trying. He had completely calm eyes and looked unfazed.


    And that annoyed him. He was one of his tribe''s most talented and worked hard every day to take advantage of it, but a student his age was not only keeping up but not even putting in a lot of effort.


    Finally, Julius seemed to have enough of playing defense and went on the offense for the first time in the fight. The first step caught Polux off guard. He had been so focused on being the aggressor of the fight that the change of pace put him immediately on the back foot.


    Julius then went on to pressure Polux. It took everything he had to smack aside and avoid the incoming blows. However, what gave him the most trouble was how fast and powerful the other boy was. Each strike required complete focus for Polux.


    Eventually, he wasn''t able to keep up with the onslaught. He mistimed a block and then fell for the feint afterward. A leg kick barreled into his hip with a loud thunk. His aura-based defensive skill took the kick but he felt it use up a good amount of aura to nullify the damage.


    Julius didn''t continue with his attack either. He had backed off and gave Polux a chance to gather himself.


    He still isn''t taking me seriously, Polux griped.


    Knowing he needed to show that he was to be taken seriously, he took a deep breath and started to use one of his best skills. [Aura Berserker] was one of his most powerful rare skills, it was especially useful for situations like this where he was outmatched.


    The moment he activated it, his body was consumed with power. However, that also meant that the timer had already begun. He would have approximately five minutes until it would dissipate. But for a one-on-one like this, it was the perfect skill.


    He saw that Julius noticed his skill''s activation and he stood up a little straighter. Polux smiled, knowing that Julius had gotten more serious.


    Still, there was no time to waste and so Polux went on the offense once again. His speed had practically doubled and now it didn''t feel like there was a difference in speed or power. In fact, his physical abilities seemed to have surpassed Julius''s now, that was how powerful his berserker skill was.


    Unfortunately, this didn''t mean Julius was done for. Polux was surprised when he still wasn''t able to land a solid hit on the other boy. Each blow was parried and evaded just like before. Even the strikes that he thought had gotten through were blocked by some sort of invisible defensive barrier.


    The barrier literally cut off all of his momentum and force behind his attacks. It was quite annoying to deal with. But that didn''t mean he gave up. Nope, he kept on attacking. [Aura Berserker] gained more power the longer he attacked continuously. S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Thankfully, his persistence paid off. He managed to smash Julius''s arm to the side and gave himself a wide opening. An opening that he didn''t let slip by him. His fist was bearing right toward Julius''s chin covered in dense aura.


    He got excited. He truly didn''t think he had a chance against Julius, but it seemed that he was wrong. As long as he tried hard enough, anything was possible.


    However, just as his fist was about to smash into Julius''s face. Polux felt his fist hit something just before the flesh. It was a violet barrier made of alarmingly dense fire mana protecting Julius.


    Polux''s fist crashed into the pane of mana and it felt like punching a steel mountain. His fist cracked and the bracelet''s enchantments activated, saving him from actually fracturing his fist.


    Shit, how did I forget that he had another affinity? I got too caught up in the moment, he scolded himself.


    Julius on the other hand was giving him a big smile. "Wow! That''s an amazing skill! How does it enhance your strength by that much? You are definitely hitting beyond your tier," he complimented Polux.


    However, the compliment didn''t feel as good considering that the boy in question had blocked it with a single barrier.


    Polux didn''t answer but just gulped nervously and wiped his sweaty palms against his uniform. His berserker skill only had a couple minutes left and he had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn''t be enough.

 Chapter 187: Still Not Strong Enough

    Julius was impressed. Polux was much stronger than he thought he expected. He had even been forced to use his constructs. That wasn''t something to be taken lightly. Julius had been confident that he could handle all Tier 2s without using his fire affinity.However, the beastkin boy had this amazing berserker skill that utilized aura. It was for sure a high-ranking rare skill. In fact, Julius was able to sense that Polux was getting close to reaching a Concept himself.


    It wasn''t quite there, but the skill definitely touched on something that related to his own Will Concept. With that being said, instead of pure will, it was a little bit different. It almost felt angry or rageful. He knew that a Concept of Rage existed thanks to some of the reading he did, but he also knew that it was much more common in the northern tribes. The same tribes that used kinetic energy.


    Maybe it''s a good idea for me to look into a Concept like that. I will have to ask the others or my new Tier 6 babysitters.


    Julius gave Polux an assessing look. He was sure that the skill wouldn''t last for that much longer. Julius could sense the aura of Polux slowly weakening as the fight went on. He guessed that Polux had about a couple of minutes before he would no longer be able to keep the skill active.


    Still, being able to double his physical abilities across the board would be a powerful skill to use against any of his opponents. It would certainly catch many by surprise, giving the boy an edge.


    Julius was curious if there were any downsides of the skill other than the weakness period that was definitely going to come around once the skill ran out of steam. There was no way something that volatile and aggressive didn''t leave the user weaker after it ran out of juice.


    A smart fighter would choose to keep their distance from Polux until the skill ran its course, but Julius didn''t believe that would be very sporting. The boy had this weird need to fight Julius. It was like he had something to prove, whether that was for himself or Julius, it was hard to tell.


    Julius still wasn''t going all out, but he felt like the least he could do was to give Polux a good fight. So that''s what Julius did.


    Since he had already been forced to use to use his constructs he might as well use them now. The only things he wanted to hold back on were using his Concepts, his healing skill, and the new technique that froze his opponents. Those abilities wouldn''t make the fight very fun for either of them if Julius started to use them.


    Julius stepped forward with [Flash Step] and Polux met him in the middle, throwing a punch. Julius created a panel of mana in front of Polux''s fist, however instead of using it to block the fist, Julius softened it. It was like the fist was encapsulated in a blanket, and once Julius had control of Polux''s fist, he threw the construct straight to the ground. Polux''s arm going with it.


    Even with his stance wildly out of place, Julius was impressed that Polux was able to present a semblance of a defense. Still, that didn''t matter too much to Julius. His leg shot out and slammed into Polux in the hip again. This time though, he had enforced his leg with a construct that had [Barrier of Severance] supporting it. This time he tore through the aura barrier of Polux and slammed the boy across the room.


    Julius followed and before Polux could get back to his feet he grappled the boy''s back in a style not unlike Gabriel. The bald professor would have been proud to see Julius''s improved technique.


    Julius wrapped his legs in between Polux''s preventing the boy from getting any leverage. He pressed his shoulder into the ribs of Polux, driving the beastkin boy deeper into the ground. Julius then managed to create a shackle to wrap around Polux''s legs, leaving his own free.


    Polux put up one hell of a fight. His skill gave him the opportunity to fight back on relatively equal grounds. The boy was actually slightly stronger than Julius in pure physical abilities. That didn''t matter though. Once, he had the boy''s legs pinned down. It was already over.


    Julius climbed up Polux''s chest and sent a few blasts of kinetic energy into the boy. Julius didn''t have to worry about holding back too much, the bracelet would handle whatever damage Julius could do.


    Julius eventually got his arm underneath the other boy''s chin. With one arm pinning down the shoulder, he used his other to hook under Polux''s neck and started to squeeze.


    The moment Polux felt how deep of a chokehold Julius had on him, he tapped Julius''s arm twice. Polux wouldn''t actually suffocate, but the bracelet would have activated the moment he was about to pass out so there was no reason to keep on fighting on.


    Julius immediately let go and got off of Polux. He then reached down and offered a hand to his downed opponent. Luckily it didn''t seem like Polux was a sore loser and took his hand with a short chuckle.


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    "I knew it," Polux said with a shake of his head.


    "You did well. That skill of yours is quite the powerful one," Julius complimented him.


    Polux shook his head. "You weren''t even trying," he said disappointingly.


    Julius was the one who shook his head this time. "No I was, your physical abilities are definitely a threat," he reassured him.


    "You''re saying that you went all out?" Polux said with a doubtful grin.


    "Of course not. That wouldn''t be fun for me or you. There are certain things that you won''t be able to overcome with pure strength," Julius told Polux, acting like a wise sage.


    Polux gave him an unimpressed stare. "What do you mean by that?"


    Julius shrugged and had a smirk on his face.


    Polux had this thinking expression on his face and paused for a few moments.


    Finally, he seemed to come to a realization. "Are you saying that you have a Concept? I thought it might be possible, but honestly, they are pretty unlikely at Tier 2 so I''m not sure."


    "Who knows," Julius said vaguely.


    Polux gave him an excited grin. "Can you teach me?" He asked quickly.


    "Teach you what?"


    "How to acquire a Concept. My family tried to teach me one, but I didn''t seem to have the talent."


    "So why do you think that I will be able to do something that they can''t?" Julius asked.


    Polux gave him a ''are you serious'' face. "Because you obviously have a talent for it. So maybe I might have a better chance if you help me."


    Julius just gave the other boy a cold glare.


    "If you don''t I will tell the others," Polux shamelessly threatened him with a shit eating grin.


    Julius just looked up to the ceiling and sent a prayer. Please Gods, give me strength to not strangle this boy.


    ***


    In the end, he managed the temptation. It was difficult but he didn''t have a Concept of Will for nothing. sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He promised Polux that they would find some time to work on it because he didn''t make sure to clarify that there was no certainty. Polux didn''t seem to care about that and happily agreed.


    After that, they went their own ways and the weekend was upon him when the sun rose the next morning.


    His weekend started out pretty tame. He spent some time trying to figure out his Space Concept for a few hours doing the exercises that Alice showed him, but honestly he wasn''t getting anywhere.


    Alice had told him beforehand to curb his expectations, even though he had gotten the difficult Phoenix Concept, didn''t mean the Space Concept would be any easier. The Concept was a notoriously difficult one that many never acquired.


    After that he finished a few assignments he needed to do for some of his classes, but that took only an hour. The rest of the time he spent hanging out with the others and trying out some new hobbies.


    He did get some good news though. While Lily still hadn''t found much of anything about what happened at the estate, she did manage to find out more information about what House Greyson was doing in Heston. According to Lily''s sources, the Ducal House was expanding its operations and influence. They were trying to establish themselves in the current Adventurer Association and other various industries in Heston. Buying out buildings and businesses within the city would allow them to put their fingers in the pie and hopefully influence some of the dealings that happened in Heston.


    Lily thought it was quite a power-hungry play that could come back to bite House Greyson. Heston was considered a neutral territory for a good reason. The powers backing the city wouldn''t be very happy about such moves.


    Lily also informed Julius about more details that he hadn''t known. For one thing, Heston didn''t have a ruling Governor or high-ranking noble that controlled the city like normal cities in the Luminous Empire but instead had a Council of Lords that controlled the city.


    On the surface to the general citizens of the Empire, these lords were just relatively low-ranking nobles who ran the city. However, Lily explained to him that it was much more complicated than that. Just as the Golden Wheel restaurant was backed by powerful hermits, so was the rest of the city.


    These powerful individuals held a solid grip over Heston. The Council of Lords were merely representatives of the true power behind Heston. People that not even the Emperor could easily offend.


    On another funny note, he also finally found out that Duke Greyson''s first name was Dolan, which was weird because this entire time Julius hadn''t really been considering the Duke as a real person. To him, he had been just another obstacle in his way.


    Anyway, Dolan Greyson had many sons and grandchildren. However, one in particular was quite ambitious. The second son Wesley Greyson was the main spearhead of many of House Greyson''s operations.


    This also meant that the incident at the estate would likely be something that this Wesley planned. Instead of Duke Greyson, Julius gained another target in his sights.


    A part of him was a little relieved. Duke Dolan Greyson earned the title of Duke for a good reason. His strength as a Tier 6 was a cornerstone of the Empire''s power. Going against him would mean he was going up against one of the premier individuals.


    Wesley Greyson on the other hand was still a Tier 4. Granted, he was considered an immensely talented individual who could reach Tier 6. Which meant that many of the House''s members supported him in case he inherited the title of Duke. However, being Tier 6 and having the potential of reaching Tier 6 were two very different things. Julius could start to see a plan developing in his own head.


    Still, he would patiently wait for his moment. He wasn''t even Tier 3 yet, he had some time before he was strong enough to face Wesley and his supporters.

 Chapter 188: Rusty Chicken

    As he mentioned before, he found himself a new hobby. Well, it wasn''t exactly a new hobby, but rather one he was re-exploring. It came as a shock but since he had come to Goldencrest, he realized he hadn''t really cooked a proper meal for himself.That was the reason he went to Gabriel for assistance. However, the bald and beefy professor gave him the most confused look when Julius asked if there was a way for him to use any of the school''s facilities to cook for himself.


    He had been confused as to why Julius was trying to cook instead of training. Julius had not really sparred with Gabriel all that often lately. Previously it was because his soul hadn''t been healed but even after it had been, Julius chose to wear the suppression band. With the band on, Julius had been satisfied with the level of his current opponents and didn''t really feel the need to fight the already frightening individual known as Gabriel on top of that.


    Okay, but not joking, it was just that Julius was too busy. There was always something that came up or distracted him, so he hadn''t been able to dedicate as much time to training as he had been. Though, he wouldn''t say that was necessarily a bad thing. His balance of training and relaxing had been noticeably improving.


    However, even while badgering Julius to reconsider his thoughts on sparring with him, trying to explain to Julius that cooking wouldn''t get him stronger, Gabriel still promised to find out if Julius could use the kitchens. With that being said, Gabriel didn''t foresee how it would be a problem and he was right.


    Julius was given permission to use the kitchens for his own purposes. It was a separate kitchen that many of the staff members used for their own private meals whenever they weren''t eating at the cafeteria.


    At first, the adults who were using it were confused as to why a first year was using their kitchen. However, once Julius proved that he was allowed in there, they left him be. In fact, some of them were very friendly and Julius found himself cooking alongside some of them.


    There was a particular guy named Johan, who was often there at the same time Julius was. This led to them cooking together. Johan was very helpful because, like Julius, he had a fire affinity. However, instead of using it for combat, he focused on becoming a chef.


    Johan was a shorter male with tan skin. He had a neatly trimmed goatee and a short buzz cut to along with it. The only thing he was missing was a cigarette hanging from his lips and he would have looked like every late-night sous chef from his old world.


    After a couple of meetups late at night in the kitchen, Julius and Johan formed a friendship of a sort. To Julius''s immense luck, Johan showed Julius his various skills that specialized in food preparation. They were some amazing skills as well. Julius could see some of them being used for combat purposes even though they had names that wouldn''t exactly go with fighting.


    [Refined Dice] and [Polished Knifework] were two very good rare skills that showed Julius just how amazing some sharpness aspected mana could cut through materials and with extraordinary precision too.


    Weirdly, Johan wasn''t shy about sharing his skills. His reason was that since he wasn''t fighting monsters or people, there wasn''t a need for secrecy. Julius kind of disagreed with that, but considering that it was this very mindset that allowed Johan to share his skills with Julius, he wasn''t about to complain.


    At the moment, Johan was showing Julius his [Regulated Temperature] skill. It was a skill that fit perfectly for cooking. He considered his mastery over temperature to be excellent. However, Johan''s ability to control temperature exceeded Julius''s own control by a large significant margin.


    Julius could get things within a few degrees of what he wanted, but when it came to consistently getting the same temperature with exacting accuracy, Johan was in a different league.


    Julius understood the importance of a few degrees made in cooking. Take two pieces of chicken and cook one a few degrees over what you want and it can come out noticeably drier.


    While Julius wasn''t going to get [Regulated Temperature] at this time, he was attentively observing Johan''s precise management of fire mana. There was a lot to learn just by watching Johan play around with his fire mana. After Johan finished his demonstration, he allowed Julius to have a turn. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Remember, the key is to infuse your will into whatever you are heating up. It is all about feeling the right temperature, once you know what''s right, you can replicate that same feeling the next time," Johan told him. Julius realized that Johan was a very much, go by feel type of guy. Which he didn''t mind at all. While sometimes it was hard to understand where Johan was getting at, once he got the general gist, it helped a lot with his own exercises.


    Okay, focus. Don''t allow it to get dry like last time, he reminded himself.


    The last time he had overcooked it by a hair and ended with something more akin to shoe leather than actual tender meat.


    The time before that he hadn''t cooked it long enough and it ended up too rare. The meat was from a Tier 2 monster, which meant that unless you cooked it perfectly the meat would be practically unedible. This time though, he felt like he got a handle on it. As one would say, the third time''s the charm.


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    He let out the breath he was holding. Then he gently and smoothly fed fire mana into the pan, making sure that each part of the pan was heated evenly. If there was any hot spots or places where heat was unevenly distributed it would result in potentially scorching part of the meat when placed in the pan.


    There were mana-fueled stoves available to use, but Johan was insistent that this was the best and proper way, especially for someone with fire mana. It made the dish taste so much better when directly cooked with magical fire. Julius believed him too, Johan showed him the difference and it was clear upon the first bite.


    The trick was to stay patient. Flooding the pan with heat would just ruin the entire process. Julius should know, he had made that mistake a couple of times already.


    It took his entire focus. [Sage of Savagery] was very helpful in this regard, the epic ranked skill proving its worth and locked him in so that nothing but the pan existed in the world.


    Following Johan''s instruction, Julius used his aura and will to soften the intensity of the flames, making them more malleable. At first, Julius didn''t quite understand what Johan was talking about, but once he felt it with his own manipulations, it was clear.


    It was sort of like using his former Fire Concept, now Phoenix Concept with his skills. Instead, this time he was focusing his willpower to directly force the properties of the fire to change to his whims. It was very similar to how he manually controlled the fire but slightly different because it allowed him much more leeway when it came to how is intent was interpreted.


    Finally, he succeeded. He made double sure that the fire mana was equally distributed throughout the pan. There were still slight imperfections, but honestly, that might have more to do with the material of the pan than himself. He wasn''t expecting perfection, but this was much better than any other attempt.


    He glanced over at Johan who was observing every motion he made. Johan stroked his goatee and examined the pan closely. After a moment, he looked up at Julius and gave him a proud nod. "There are still some things to be worked on, but it is definitely good enough to try it out," he said to Julius.


    Getting permission, Julius reached over and poured a good amount of oil into the pan, letting the heat leech into the oil. Afterward, he stretched out to grab the pan that held a piece of meat that came from a Tier 1 bird, called a Rusty Chicken. It was kind of an odd name, but once he saw what the chicken looked like it made sense. The meat had this weird rusty looking color to it when it was in raw form. However, once you cooked it, the color would turn white, just like normal chicken.


    It was also extremely delicious compared to a normal chicken as long as you cooked it properly. It was so succulent that one didn''t even need to add any salt or seasonings. The innate mana within the chicken did a better job than most spice mixtures.


    He laid the Rusty Chicken breast skin side down, hearing a satisfying sizzle crackle from the pan. The smell already wafting to his nose with a tantalizing aroma.


    However, he prepared himself. This next part was always the hardest part.


    The chicken itself was at a lower temperature than the pan. That meant the chicken was siphoning away some of the heat. This forced Julius to continuously feed fire mana into the pan, maintaining the same temperature he had worked so hard to achieve.


    As predicted he messed up in a few places. He wasn''t able to accurately assess where and how much heat he should have been adding. It wasn''t too bad though, just something that he would be able to work on with some practice.


    It was going pretty well and he was over halfway finished at this point. Of course, things couldn''t have just gone smoothly, something needed to happen. As he was using his willpower and aura to control the intensity of the heat, he made a simple mistake.


    He was so used to using his Fire Concept with his constructs that when he was completely in the zone, that was what he reverted to naturally. That was good news for his fighting abilities, but not so much for his poor chicken.


    His Phoenix Concept rushed into his fire and the heat soared. This inevitably led to the pan getting scorching hot, to the point that in a matter of seconds, his chicken went from beautifully seared to blackened.


    By the time he managed to pull back his fire mana and his Concept, it was too late. He just stared blankly at what had been his best attempt with a lost gaze. He then turned to Johan who had a similar look on his face, Johan was staring at the chicken like it held the secrets to the universe.


    Julius knew it was just a piece of chicken, but his stomach dropped to his legs and he felt an immeasurable sadness wash over him. He had been so excited to eat it. In his mind, he was already imagining the taste and the juices coating his mouth.


    Such a waste, he sadly rebuked himself.


    ***


    The next time went much better. After he cleaned up and restarted his attempt, he ended up with something he was proud of. The chicken skin was perfectly golden brown with fat still glistening on the surface. The juices of the chicken were slowly oozing from the meat onto the wooden cutting board. The aroma of savoriness had him salivating.


    Would you like to learn the skill, [Heat Control]?


    Huh, what do you know? That was the skill that Johan mentioned was a good skill that many chefs try to learn.


    Julius didn''t know if he wanted to learn it though. He was getting close to his maximum skill amount and didn''t want to clutter his already chaotic skill spread even more. Not to mention that he was already feeling the limitations of being in Tier 2.


    Although, he could see the potential use for a skill like this. It was probably not just useful for controlling the heat of a pan, but also for controlling the heat of higher-intensity flames. Perhaps the skill would enable Julius to have a more refined grasp on his violet or blue flames. His violet flames were pretty good, but the blue flames were still like riding a wild bull.


    However, he shook his head. This wasn''t the time to be thinking about it. He could worry about it later. Right now he had something more important in front of him.


    He had spent the last couple of hours waiting to eat this delicious morsel in front of him. So with an excited gleam in his eyes, he began to chow down on the Rusty Chicken.


    He didn''t know if it was because he worked so hard, but it was the best damn chicken he ever had. He almost cried tears of joy as he used his fingers to tear it apart.

 Chapter 189: Experimental Marker

    When the weekend rolled around Julius had managed to ask Declan about a couple of things. For one he managed to get back the rift access card with a little bit of arguing. However, luckily for him, he had come prepared. He spent the entire week beforehand coming up with logical arguments that Declan would find difficult to refute.Thankfully, it worked out perfectly. His preparation allowed him a landslide victory, poor Declan didn''t even have a chance. He handed over the access card to Julius with a defeated look. Knowing that he had been outsmarted and outtalked by a young boy.


    He had also discussed the potential idea of using Lord Lagos''s favor with Declan. The older man hadn''t really understood why Julius would waste such a favor on learning about what House Greyson was doing in Heston.


    After all, Julius still hadn''t fully told Declan what happened at the estate. He didn''t really know why he still hadn''t after all this time. A part of him rationalized it by thinking that it was to keep Declan and his family safe.


    In a way that made some sense. Julius didn''t know how far House Greyson or Wesley Greyson would go in order to cover up what happened. The others he felt more safe about telling. For one they were under a magical vow and secondly, they each had powerful backings of their own. He had much more confidence in their families being able to protect themselves if anything came out.


    Declan on the other hand had a wife and two kids to care for by himself. Julius knew that Declan would disagree and would want to know what happened to Julius regardless, but Julius was selfish. He made sure that Declan would never have to choose between Julius and his family by making the decision himself.


    The discussion between Juilus and Declan was fruitful though. Declan had brought up a good point about why he shouldn''t use Lord Lagos''s favor on something like that. Declan thought that Julius would be able to find the information by using some sort of information broker or through Declan''s own contacts in the city guard.


    Considering that it was within Heston''s own walls, the likelihood of the city guard or someone else who resides in Heston knowing what was happening was pretty high. So Julius had to admit there was some logical reason within that.


    He just didn''t like involving his friends with his own problems. That was a huge reason why he hadn''t asked for Derek, Kyle, Aubrey, or Lily''s help. In fact, he had made them promise to not do anything that could be interpreted as help. Julius''s reason at the time was that he didn''t want to tip off anyone as well as he didn''t want to do anything just yet.


    That was a small white lie. He mainly didn''t want them involved in any way because he didn''t know what would happen if they did. This was his problem and he would find a way without potentially endangering them. If they chose to side with him that would mean they would be siding against House Greyson. A Ducal House within the Luminous Empire.


    It was too much thinking to do this early in the morning. Julius was still in bed relaxing as the rising sunlight poured through his room, hitting the crystal dangling in the window. The crystal gave off a soft aura that made him want to stay in bed even longer. It was the perfect room decoration for lazy morning people.


    He had taken it down for that very reason. However, to his immense amusement, he had found the thing hanging from the window the next morning. Henry must have put it up while he was gone, Julius always knew that the boy liked it, though Henry wouldn''t admit it to Julius.


    Speaking of Henry, he was already gone. Which was unusual for the boy. Julius was normally the first one out of bed. Julius sat up and looked around the room. He heard a whistle of panic and felt Drasil slip from his chest, falling down to his lap. A fall like that was like Julius falling from a three-story building so he understood Drasil''s panic.


    He offered Drasil a small dense orb of Phoenix aspected life mana as an apology and the little spirit completely immediately forgave him.


    Huh, Henry really is gone, Julius thought to himself surprisingly.


    He and Henry had been getting along a little better ever since that last run-in. They weren''t friends or anything, but Henry never acted outright rude to Julius anymore. He would actually sometimes greet Julius in a friendly manner when they crossed paths.


    Julius didn''t know how he felt about that yet. It was nice, but kind of weird considering how Henry first introduced himself.


    Julius didn''t know if Henry''s apparent run-in with Aubrey had a large influence, but Julius certainly wasn''t going to complain.


    ***


    Julius walked into the library with a pep in his step. He had recently read an interesting account of a chef-turned-fighter the other day. He had looked it up after he had met Johan, trying to see if there was any connection or people who had used chef-specific skills to good effect for fighting monsters. Julius was hoping to finish up the book this morning before class started.


    It was more for his own curiosity than anything. But he found a person who had been quite successful. They used a similar combination of Julius''s own abilities. The person had a fire affinity but several sharpness-focused skills that he used to great effect.


    Apparently, he was quite the monster to fight. Slaughtering his way through waves of monster floods with nothing but a kitchen knife. His signature was that he left most of his opponents neatly diced up into precise cuts.


    He sat down, took out the book from his storage ring, and began reading.


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    Half an hour later, he sensed someone approaching him. It was Grace with Amelia following beside her. As he watched them walk up to his table, he smiled at Grace and gave Amelia a soft nod of acknowledgment.


    They quickly caught up, talking about their weekend and other small things before they both got started on their own books. An hour passed by like this. A comfortable silence where Julius and Grace read their books and Amelia sat there doing whatever she wanted.


    Eventually, Grace broke it. She must have just finished her own book and looked over at Julius. "What are you reading?" She asked him suddenly.


    He told her all about the chef turned battle maniac with enthusiasm. Grace was certainly amused by his recounting of the book, attentively listening to Julius''s explanation, while Amelia gave a scoff.


    "That almost sounds closer to a fictional story than an accurate historical account," Amelia said with a chuckle.


    Julius gave her an agreeing chuckle of his own. "Yeah, I kinda agree. Some things do sound pretty outlandish and it''s not like it''s a firsthand account. The author is most likely just some person who heard some of the stories of this person and compiled them into a book," he said.


    "Why are you reading it then?" Amelia asked curiously as if she couldn''t understand why he would be spending his time reading fantasy.


    "Eh, it''s entertaining imagining a chef taking out an entire horde of monsters," Julius casually said.


    "That''s the only reason?" Grace asked.


    "Who knows, I might be planning to use this chef as inspiration for my own skills," Julius joked.


    Grace gave him an odd look like she didn''t believe he was joking. It was as if she really thought he would do something like that.


    Admittingly, she''s not exactly wrong, Julius thought to himself amusingly.


    He did have some plans to make use of this person''s stories. He had a sharpness aspect himself and according to the story so had this chef. Unlike Julius''s way of incorporating his Concept into his aura and skills to cut off his opponent''s own skills, he was thinking of a way to use it in a more tangible way.


    Slicing apart his enemies like they were butter was an intriguing proposition. At the moment his Sharpness Concept worked more as a small buff to his constructs. [Barrier of Severance] was slowly falling behind his other skills. It was still a potent defense, but when it came to offense enhancement there was still plenty of room for improvement.


    He believed that this was because the skill was technically a defensive skill that he managed to use for offense. It was probably a good idea to get an upgrade at epic that focused equally on both aspects.


    However, he was also very happy with the way it cut off his opponent''s skill and mana usage. It wasn''t that powerful yet, but it often caught his enemies off guard enough that he was able to get an edge.


    He was broken out of his reverie when he saw Grace get up to return her finished book and probably went off to find a new one. Though as he watched, he couldn''t help but think of what he had been noticing lately with Grace.


    He understood that she was hiding something from him. It was pretty obvious. He wasn''t like Lily where he could sense everyone''s emotions just by being near them, but he did have quite a good sense for aura. At least that''s what he liked to think.


    That sense along with the fact that he has now known her for a good amount of time, gave him this suspicion. That wasn''t all. Julius slowly realized that he could never find Grace around campus during class time. She had always told him that she had a separate class schedule than he did, but honestly, that felt like a lie.


    The paranoid part of him told him that Grace was some sort of noble that was hiding out at Goldencrest or perhaps secretly the princess in disguise, but he still had a hard time believing the latter one. They acted so differently, not to mention how different their forms looked to [Spatial Perception].


    However, recently he has seen firsthand that the skill isn''t infallible. So he had to keep the possibility open. It didn''t escape his observation that he had never seen Grace or the princess together before. However, to be fair, he could say that about a lot of students. It was a large campus after all.


    When he thought about it, did it really matter that much? So what if she was the princess? What would that change? In his opinion, that wouldn''t change how he saw her. She would just have a different title, that was all.


    Still, he wanted to satisfy his own curiosity. It also didn''t hurt that he wanted to test out one of his experimental techniques. Although, that definitely wasn''t the reason why he was doing this. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Okay, that was a lie. He really wanted to see if this idea worked out.


    See? Even people like him sometimes lied, so if she lied to him about who she was, he promised himself that he wouldn''t get mad.


    It was about time to go meet the others for a quick breakfast before class so he neatly packed away his stuff. As he was doing so, Grace had come back with an arm full of books.


    "Oh, you''re leaving for breakfast?" She asked him from behind her stack of books.


    He nodded even though he knew that she couldn''t see it. "Yep, I could use some food. See you later?"


    She walked over to the table and put the books down. "Sure, can we get dinner together with the others tonight?"


    "Oh? What''s the occasion?" Julius asked. Grace usually didn''t eat dinner with them that often, she said that she didn''t feel comfortable being around all of the older students. He didn''t blame her, it took him a while to get used to their stares.


    "Nothing, I just feel like it," she said with a mysterious grin.


    He gave her a flat stare. "Come on, is that really what it is," Julius asked.


    She just laughed in his face. "Yep, that''s really what it is."


    I don''t believe her.


    She gave him a nudge on his shoulder and tilted her head toward the library exit. "Go on, I''ll see you later. The others are waiting on you."


    Julius just smiled and shook his head. He gave her a wave and walked away.


    He was smiling for a different reason though. His little experiment might have just worked. When she had bumped shoulders with him, he managed to transfer some heat from his body to her. It was like putting a sticker on someone''s back, a sticker that he could keep track of.


    He had gotten the idea from the two men who followed him as well as with some inspiration from Johan''s heat skills. It was very slight, but it was undoubtedly his own fire mana, mana that he could sense from a good distance.


    He didn''t know how long it would last, but all of his testing showed that it should last at least a couple of hours as long as Grace didn''t go jumping into a pile of snow. He just hoped that she didn''t notice anything. He knew that she sensed mana through her eyes, so he was hoping that she wouldn''t notice it because he placed it on the back of her shoulder.


    Well, only time would tell how well it worked out. For now, all he could do was eagerly wait and observe.

 Chapter 190: Smoking Makes You Smarter

    His ability to detect the tracker''s position wasn''t as accurate as he wished it could be. It was more like a broad compass than an exact location. He could sense the little blimp of mana but couldn''t calculate the distance from the target.However, as far as he could tell, Grace hadn''t moved yet, which made sense since she usually stayed at the library until class started anyway.


    He felt a little bit like a detective as he did this, which made it twice as exciting after that realization. In the spirit of things, he created a smoking pipe out of mana. It even had a little bit of smoke coming out of it.


    Weirdly the smoke was the hardest part of the whole thing. Magical fire unlike real fire didn''t use wood as a fuel, it used pure fire mana. Therefore, that meant that normal magic fire didn''t release smoke unless it was used to burn something else.


    In Julius''s case, he tried many things to achieve a nice puff of smoke. What was the point of creating a pipe if nothing was smoking out of it? That was just an unlit pipe, something much less cool than what he had envisioned.


    He even tried to use the moisture within the air to create steam, but that didn''t exactly work out very well. He just ended up making the air hot.


    Eventually he had to admit defeat and used a couple of pieces of old paper. He just stuffed them inside the pipe and lit them on fire. He could figure out how to make smoke another day.


    Just you wait Mr. Smoke, I''m coming for you, he swore to himself.


    "What are you doing?" He heard a confused voice call out.


    "Sorry?" He asked.


    Aubrey sat down next to him, placing her tray on the table. "Why are you pretending to smoke a pipe? Don''t you know those things are bad for your health?"


    "I got healing magic," Julius said as if that made the problem moot.


    Aubrey gave him a silent stare and then she turned to the person who had just arrived after her. "Lily, Julius is smoking."


    "What?!" The blonde-haired girl who still had one eye closed from sleep, jolted awake. "What''s doing who?" She asked mixing up the words to her question.


    Aubrey just pointed at him.


    "Tattletale," he muttered to Aubrey. Who just gave him a smug smile in return.


    Oh, just you wait, he promised Aubrey.


    Lily examined what Julius was doing with a critical glare. "You are way too young to be smoking. Don''t you know what that can do to your lungs?"


    "Like I told Aubrey, I have a healing skill," he pointed out.


    "That doesn''t work like that. You could also say that you cut your arm off and it doesn''t matter because you have a healing skill," Lily argued.


    Eh, that''s a little close to the mark there, Lily, Julius thought to himself as he remembered himself doing exactly that. However, since he was very intelligent he didn''t choose to mention this to Lily or Aubrey. He didn''t have a skill with the word sage in it for no reason.


    "Point taken. But I am not even smoking the thing," he told them. He turned the pipe around to show that it was just filled with paper. "Look, I can''t even pull any smoke from it," he said bringing to his lips and demonstrating for them. There was a hole at the end of it that he could suck on, but it wasn''t attached to the bowl.


    Lily sighed in relief when she saw him as if he had just avoided a catastrophe. With that being said, she still had a question for him. "Why would you want to do that?"


    He shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t know. It seemed fun," he said.


    "Let me try," Aubrey said and before asking for permission reached out and plucked it from his hands. She brought it to her own lips, doing what he had been doing, not at all caring that the pipe had been in his mouth.


    "Oh, you might be on to something, Julius. I feel so much smarter all of a sudden," Aubrey said in awe, continuing to suck on the fake pipe with enthusiasm.


    "Really? Did he manage to put some type of enchantment on it?" Lily asked excitedly.


    "Nope! It''s completely normal, but for some reason, I feel wise when I have it in my mouth," Aubrey told her.


    "Wait, so it''s just a fake pipe? Why does it do that then?" Lily asked curiously.


    "I don''t know, but here. Try it," Aubrey told her and passed it over for Lily to try. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


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    Julius watched as his stolen construct was passed around without his say-so. Lily took it between her lips and gave an experimental puff.


    Her face went from distrusting skepticism to wide-eyed with astonishment. "You''re right. I totally feel smarter. Almost like some enlightened sage," Lily said with an expression like that of an old hermit pondering on the mysteries of the universe.


    "That''s great and all. But can I have it back?" Julius asked impatiently.


    "Don''t be like that," Aubrey slapped him on the back. "You can always make another one right?"


    She had a point. It wasn''t like he couldn''t just create a second one. Which was exactly what he ended up doing. However, when Aubrey saw him making another one, she reached out her hand expectantly.


    "What is that for?" He asked purposefully naive.


    "Well, you might as well make one for me too, right?" Aubrey asked him blandly.


    "I could. But you guys can also share with each other," he said while sucking on his new pipe.


    She gave him a sad pout but he didn''t budge. He was made of sterner stuff than that. He would not cave to something as weak as puppy eyes.


    Lily was still pretending to suck on her pipe as she spoke up. "Can you please make another one? I don''t want to share mine," she asked him kindly.


    With a soft nod, he created another pipe within several seconds and handed it off to Aubrey.


    "How come you did it when she asked but not when I asked?" Aubrey asked in an offended tone.


    "Because she said please," he told her bluntly.


    "What? So if I said ''please'' you would have done it?" Aubrey asked with a frown.


    "Nope."


    "What?!"


    Julius gave her a teasing smile. "I just like her more than you."


    When he said that, he saw Lily hide the grin that popped up on her face, making sure that Aubrey didn''t see it.


    Aubrey on the other hand didn''t seem to find it as amusing. "What''d you say?! How could you say something like that? I am so nice to you," she managed to say with a straight face which was honestly impressive.


    He showed his opinion on the validity of that statement with the blank stare he gave her while puffing on the pipe.


    "Whatever," she muttered angrily while also puffing on her pipe.


    When the guys arrived, they saw the three of them all smoking on their pipes.


    "What are you guys doing?" Derek asked confused.


    Aubrey gave him a brief glance. "Being smarter." That was all she said, she didn''t expand on anything else. What was more surprising was that the guys didn''t even question it. They just shrugged their shoulders and dug into their breakfasts like normal.


    ***


    He kept an eye on the little tracking device he placed on Grace. He was able to determine the general direction for around an hour before it dissipated. It was much shorter than the several test runs he did beforehand, but it was also the first time he used it on another person.


    Perhaps there were other factors that influenced how long it lasted. He would have to try again another day.


    But on the bright side, it kind of worked. He might be able to use it for hunting purposes or if there is a scenario where he needs to keep track of someone or something. It was a niche technique but one that might find some use.


    Plus, it was also a fun way to experiment with various mana applications. He did admittedly feel a little bad about using Grace and basically invading her privacy. However, in his defense, he had already caught Amelia stalking him on several occasions. There were even some times when she thought he didn''t notice, but he did. So in his mind, this was not as bad. At least he wasn''t actually following her with his two legs like Amelia did.


    Did that really make it better though?


    That being said, he was very curious about what Grace was hiding. It wasn''t like he hadn''t asked her about it either. He had dropped some very noticeable hints about him knowing she was hiding something.


    He was of the opinion that everyone deserved some privacy and their secrets, but at some point, it was too obvious. Considering that Grace hadn''t even shared what classes she had or even what kind of affinity she had, said a lot in itself.


    He didn''t want to say that he distrusted her, but¡­ he just didn''t feel comfortable with not knowing what he was getting himself involved with. If she was being targeted by someone else, he would like to be aware before he got surprised out of the blue.


    And the way Amelia was so protective of her spoke of someone who was genuinely worried for her safety. It wasn''t the actions of someone who was just going through the motions. It was possible that Grace''s life had already been threatened, and that was the reason why Amelia was the way she was.


    ***


    Reinera POV


    She didn''t know how she felt at the moment. After Julius left the library she had gone back to her reading. However, just as she was about to leave, she felt something itching on her back.


    What the hell is that?


    She extended out her senses and found what had caught her attention. It was a small bundle of fire mana but with one small twist. There was a familiar signature, one she was familiar with.


    What is Julius''s mana doing on me? I do remember that I touched him, but this seemed a little concentrated to be just some remnants.


    She would have thought that it was some tracking skill, but she had specific skills that prevented those kinds of skills from even attaching themselves to her. It was the same skill that weakened all debuff effects that tried to latch onto her. Therefore, she was pretty confident that it wasn''t a malicious application of mana.


    It was also Julius''s mana, so she was certain that he didn''t mean any harm. With that being said, she didn''t know what this was. She hadn''t experienced anything like it. It wasn''t like any tracking spell she had seen but it certainly had similarities to one.


    She was about to ask Amelia about it before thinking otherwise. If she told Amelia, the woman would just assume the worst. It didn''t matter that Amelia had been comfortable with Julius, she would immediately prepare for the worst-case scenario.


    That was just the type of person she was. And Grace could not even argue that it didn''t have its benefits. Because of that attitude, Amelia had saved her life a couple of years ago, so Reinera wouldn''t be so critical.


    Still, it was better to stay quiet until she figured out what was going on.


    It might be time to confront Julius and maybe reveal some of her secrets. She winced as she thought about what Amelia might say if she shared her thoughts.

 Chapter 191: Flushed Away

    Julius watched as the group of students followed Professor Rowe into the rift.Today in Applied Combat, they would be entering a new kind of rift. This rift was a bit different from the other they had been delving into for the past week. This specific rift was a labyrinth type.


    That one single detail automatically made the rift much more dangerous than the last rift they had been delving into.


    Labyrinth-type rifts were pretty rare. Out of a hundred rifts, you would only see a handful of labyrinth types among them. With that being said, they weren''t unheard of and if you planned to delve many rifts in the future, you were bound to encounter at least one.


    The goal of delving into this labyrinth rift was to get the students some experience before they were caught unprepared later in their lives.


    He had come prepared at least. On top of the several assignments that the professor assigned, he had read up on several books in the library during the past several weeks. In his findings, he realized that the most dangerous elements of these types of rifts were several main things.


    One was the unpredictable nature of these rifts. Some labyrinths were monster-focused rifts, whereas some other ones were puzzle or trap-centric ones. This made properly investigating a rift that much more important.


    The second dangerous element was the close quarters of the rift. There were times when a team would be stuck in a labyrinth with very narrow walls and sharp corners. This made mages and other fighters who relied on open space to be severely limited by these conditions.


    The third was that many perception-based skills were restricted by the walls of the labyrinth. Even his own skill might not be safe from the rift''s effects. He would still be able to use it, but estimating how much it would before he could test it out for himself was hard to say.


    The fourth and final dangerous element was the randomness of where you might enter and how the rift might have changed since the last delve. Most rifts had certain predetermined sections where people enter. Labyrinths didn''t have that. You could spawn anywhere, with no rhyme or reason to it.


    The only way out was to either find an exit or destroy the core of the rift. Destroying the core could sometimes be next to impossible so finding an exit was almost always the solution.


    That extra level of danger was also the reason why the class would not be entering as a whole group. Professor Rowe was going to personally escort each group through the rift. That way there was no risk of a group getting stuck inside of it. Each class a total of two groups would be able to enter.


    The rest of them would be going through some exercises with the assistants or could choose to practice with their teams. Unfortunately, their group wasn''t one of the lucky ones, so that meant they had to watch as the other students disappeared with Professor Rowe.


    "Aw, man. That''s not fair," Nessa said disappointedly.


    "It''s just the luck of the draw," Joshua tried to cheer her up.


    "I know that, but I guess I kind of felt that we have done a good job as a team so far, which might have given us an extra privilege. You know what I mean?" Nessa said with a frown.


    "I feel the same way," Tia added. "I really thought that we might have been chosen instead."


    "Don''t worry guys, we have tomorrow''s slot. We shouldn''t be complaining that much," James calmly said.


    Polux slapped Tia on her back, surprising the young girl. "Yeah, look on the bright side. We have more time to figure out how we are going to deal with the rift. Maybe the other teams will give us some helpful information."


    "I doubt it," Nessa said, sounding unsure. "If the professors allowed that, the later teams would have a much larger advantage. They will most likely prohibit the other teams and individuals from sharing too much."


    "Yeah, that''s probably true," Polux said with a conceding nod and a thoughtful look.


    Instead of thinking about it too much, Julius and the others decided to practice their new maneuver that the others were trying out last week before the weekend. The others had spent a few hours over the weekend refining it and believed it could actually work.


    Now the next step was implementing Julius and Polux into it.


    ***


    The next day could not arrive soon enough. Julius was pretty excited and his early classes before Applied Combat went by even slower than normal. The entire time during Intro to Mana was spent fidgeting as he anxiously awaited to experience a labyrinth rift.


    It wasn''t just the labyrinth either. This morning Grace had told him that she wanted to talk to him later tonight after they were done with all of their classes. He was a little nervous that she had noticed what he had done yesterday.


    If she had, he was just hoping that she wasn''t too upset and was trying to figure out some sort of excuse he could tell her.


    However, he put that out of his mind for later. A labyrinth type rift was interesting to him. It wasn''t a rift he was familiar with yet, and even though it was a Tier 2 rift, the change was very welcome. He was tempted to use [Sage of Savagery] to temper his emotions but he kind of enjoyed the rippling waves that flowed through his stomach. It made it much more exciting.


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    He wasn''t alone either. When he arrived and saw the others he noticed that they all were slightly nervous and excited as well. He kind of wished they had the first delve of the day, instead of the second one because the wait would be excruciating.


    However, their little group of six used this time to prepare themselves and by the time their time came around, they were locked in. There weren''t any signs of nervousness on their faces like there had been earlier.


    Julius looked over to see who would be joining them. There was a team of three guys who Julius had seen often hanging out. He assumed they were all good friends, and they were pretty good from what little Julius had seen from them. Two of them were close combat fighters while the last one was a fire mage like James. However, unlike James''s more disruptive build, this guy was a pure offense build.


    All Julius had seen from him was large swaths of flame and fireballs. He wondered how that would work in a rift of this type and if his friends would need to step up and help him.


    The last person who accompanied them was a surprise. It was the princess herself.


    Julius was a bit surprised to see that the princess had chosen to delve by herself. He knew that there were plenty of people who would gladly give up their current teams to join hers. Hell, Julius suspected that even some of his team members would be tempted, and he wouldn''t blame them either.


    As scions of noble houses, getting closer to a princess would bring many benefits beyond school. However, that also made sense as to why Reinera didn''t choose to have a team. Perhaps, the political repercussions would be too complicated.


    Julius wasn''t experienced nor did he really care about such things, so he put it to the back of his mind. He did notice though that Joshua, James, and Nessa were all looking at their prominent group member with focused gazes.


    Polux and Tia didn''t seem to care that much. They only gave her a quick look before focusing on their own team.


    Professor Rowe had just finished explaining to the latest group what they were to do, when he waved his hand at them, beckoning them forward.


    "Okay, there are a few rules I want to go over. The first and really the only main one is to stay within close distance of me at all times. This rift has been specially curated for students but there are still some dangers and if you get lost then that could be very bad. Almost every student that has died or gotten seriously injured in the past did because they left their professor."


    Professor Rowe gave each of them a serious glare, his normal jolly behavior nowhere to be seen. "Secondly, I expect you all to follow my orders promptly and without question. Thirdly, you do not purposefully harm or interfere with another team. Anyone who does will be severely punished by me personally. Not even your family will be able to save you. Understood?"


    They all gave him serious nods of acknowledgement which seemed to satisfy him. Professor Rowe nodded. "Okay, let''s go."


    They all walked up to the rift portal and placed their hands on its blue swirling depths.


    Notice: Would you like to enter the rift?


    ***


    The first thing Julius noticed about the rift was how dim it was. There was a small smattering of lamps adorned around them.


    The area where they appeared seemed to be larger than what he had been expecting. It was more like a big open cavern than a tight hallway. The ceiling loomed several stories high and there were at least a hundred feet from wall to wall.


    "Get together now!" He heard Professor Rowe bark out loudly.


    Why does he sound so tense? What''s going on?


    Julius sent out large pulses of [Spatial Perception] but came up with nothing. Luckily, his skill still seemed to work, but it didn''t appear to be able to sense through the stone walls surrounding them.


    The group of students were all confused by the professor''s behavior but followed his directions. They all gathered closer together and immediately afterward, a large barrier of white light surrounded them.


    "Professor, what''s going on?" Joshua asked loudly.


    Julius didn''t see when, but Professor Rowe had taken out a shield and sword from his storage ring. "This area shouldn''t be here," Professor Rowe said to them.


    "What does that mean?" One of the boys of the other team asked nervously.


    "It means that something is wrong," Professor Rowe stated in a calm but grave tone. Julius could see the professor''s eyes constantly darting around, trying to figure out what was going on.


    "Something wrong?"


    "Yes, something very wrong. But I don''t get it, we went through all of the protocols this morning and nothing was amiss. I hope I am worrying for nothing, but stay within the barrier, nothing should be able to hurt you through it," Professor Rowe commanded.


    Just as the boy was going to ask another question, he was interrupted by a large gathering of mana that surrounded them.


    Julius threw out his mana senses and tried to figure out what was it for. He quickly found where the mana was channeling toward. There was something on the ceiling of the cavern, scripted on the stone. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was like a ritual circle, but one very large. It kind of reminded him of the one from the chamber where the teleportation circle was in.


    A very bad feeling started to bloom in his stomach. Professor Rowe seemed to have identified it as well. He had a very dreary look on his face. "Everyone, prepare yourselves," was all he said to them.


    The moment he finished saying that, Julius felt ripples much like the spatial ripples he had felt before from Alice exploding from the ceiling and a solid cylindrical tower of mana encasing the entire room.


    What the hell is going on? He thought to himself worryingly. The rest of the students had very panicked expressions on their faces. It was like they had just realized what deep shit they had found themselves in.


    Julius immediately started to activate [Sage of Savagery] with more intensity. That calmed him down enough to think properly and the first thing he did once he was more calm, was to deactivate his suppression device. He had a feeling that he would not be able to afford to not be at his best for what was to come.


    A part of him wanted nothing more than to launch a massive constructed spike at the circle above, but he remembered what happened when the attacker at the estate had done that and refrained. He didn''t need to take the chance of killing all of them. This teleportation thing was taking them somewhere else, he didn''t really get the sense that it was supposed to kill them.


    As he waited, he started to prepare for the worst.


    However, just as he felt the entire circle activate he felt someone grab ahold of his hand. The palm was sweaty and the person was clearly scared, he didn''t have time to check who it was but instead, he gave it a reaffirming squeeze.


    Then the mana detonated and everyone was whisked away like getting flushed down a toilet.

 Chapter 192: All is Revealed

    He was proud to say that this was not the first time he had been teleported before, but he could honestly say that this was a new feeling for him. It was like being tilted upside down and getting swung by his feet like the blades of a helicopter.However, when he opened his eyes he felt fine. It was like vertigo was suddenly gone.


    He still felt the person''s hand tucked tightly into his and turned to see who was still grabbing his hand. And he was slightly shocked to see who it was. A pair of sparkling rainbow eyes that had hints of panic stared up at him.


    Huh, not who I thought it would be, he thought to himself. He had originally believed that it was either Tia or Nessa, perhaps even a nervous Polux who had grabbed ahold of his hand. He didn''t expect to see Reinera there holding his hand.


    Once they met gazes, she quickly removed her hand from his. "I''m sorry, I just¡­" She trailed off as if she didn''t know what to say.


    For the moment, Julius ignored her apology and took a look around. The cavern was replaced with a narrow corridor, something that he had previously been expecting when they entered the rift. It was still dim and the only lighting was from the small number of lanterns hanging from the walls.


    Where the hell are we?


    However, there was a much larger issue. Unlike the cavern, when he sent out a pulse of [Spatial Perception] he ended up detecting several monsters far down the hallway. The walls were still blocking most of his skill, but he could still sense around the nearby corners.


    When he noticed that the princess who was with him was about to speak again, he held up his hand and covered her mouth. He felt her freeze when he touched her, but she didn''t try to pull away, which was weird. He honestly thought that a princess would hate being touched by a stranger like him.


    He took the time to take a look at the person who he was seemingly stuck with. Her brilliant silverish-white hair was a stark contrast to the dark and dreary stone walls around them. Her eyes were literally glowing in the dark as well.


    She doesn''t exactly blend in, does she?


    Eventually, she carefully pulled his hand away from her mouth. "What? Do you sense something?" she asked him in a quiet whisper.


    He noticed that she hadn''t let go of his hand right away and was still holding it in her hand. He gave it a pointed look and she dropped it quickly after she realized what she was doing, her blush was subtle in the darkness, but he could still see it.


    "At least six monsters ahead," he told her before sending out more pulses, trying to penetrate the walls of the labyrinth.


    Julius was feeling very confused at the moment. He had so many questions.


    He had no idea why there was a teleportation circle in the middle of the rift. He didn''t even know if they were still in the same rift. That teleportation had taken them here, but for what purpose?


    Was it an attempt on the princess''s life? That seemed the most plausible answer, but why go through all of these complications? If they managed to set up a teleportation circle wouldn''t they be able to just kill her directly instead?


    Or perhaps they were hoping to separate the princess from the professor and the others, hoping that the monsters would kill her for them.


    It was a very odd predicament, one that he wanted nothing more than to ask the girl next to him about.


    He quietly walked down the hallway, away from the group of monsters he sensed. He was assuming that this was still a labyrinth type, considering their current environment. That meant that there should be multiple ways to the exit.


    When he didn''t sense anything with his perception skill, he finally turned to the princess.


    "Do you know what is happening here?" He asked her bluntly.


    She winced and gave him a guilty look. "I have a suspicion," she admitted.


    He gave her a blank look. "Well, whenever you want to let me in the know, I am listening."


    She started to pick at her fingers anxiously, something he noted as familiar.


    "This might have been an assassination attempt on me," she said carefully.


    "I guessed that might have been the case, but where I am having a hard time understanding the reason for all of this," he said while waving at their predicament. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She nodded gravely. "I''m guessing that whoever wants me dead can''t make it so obvious. That''s the reason for the teleportation circle. It''s not exactly a new way to kill a noble before. There have been similar cases when they want to make it look like an accident or to shift the blame, they use these kinds of methods to do so," she explained with a frown.


    Julius pinched his nose. "Why not just kill everyone immediately instead? That could still look like an accident."


    She shook her head. "Not with Professor Rowe there with us. If something was able to kill a Tier 4 in a Tier 2 rift, it would be too suspicious."


    "And this isn''t?" He asked doubtfully.


    "This way there are more options to explain what went wrong. A random teleportation circle in a labyrinth is not unheard of, it is actually a common trap at the higher tiered rifts. While it shouldn''t be in a rift that Goldencrest controls, it can be chalked up as a mistake on behalf of the school. And if I were to die, then who''s to say that I didn''t die in the transport?" She said bitterly.


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    "But we didn''t," Julius pointed out, like it wasn''t obvious.


    "No, but I assume whoever planned this expected that. If I die to the monsters in here, then who''s to know any different?"


    "Are you saying that the others are probably okay?" Julius asked, a little concern for his team seeping into his voice.


    "Oh, it is highly likely that they were transported out of the rift and are safe and sound. You can''t exactly kill over half a dozen prominent scions and risk offending their families."


    "And yet it''s okay to kill you?" Julius asked.


    "I''m a princess with a target on my back. It certainly will not come as a surprise, it''s just a part of the game. People will know it''s an assassination, but if there is no hard evidence, nobody can really do anything about it," she said sadly.


    "You sound like you are already accepting your death," Julius said accusingly.


    She gave a harsh chuckle. "You think the people who set this up would just allow me to fight my way out? No no, they are going to make sure that I am going to be buried here," she said with another bitter laugh. "I can''t imagine what they had to do in order to get access to Goldencrest''s rifts, but it was well played."


    Julius frowned. He really didn''t like how bleak she was sounding. It sounded like she had already given up. "Maybe you shouldn''t be throwing in the towel so early. I don''t know if you are aware of this, but I am with you as well. And I can promise you that I don''t have any plans to die in this rift."


    "Have you taken a good look at the mana around us? I don''t think we are in the same Tier 2 rift anymore. I don''t know what they did, but the air has a quality that is like a Tier 3 rift," she quietly stated to him.


    He did as she said and quickly realized that she was right. Somehow the mana was similar to how the Tier 3 rift he had delved into felt.


    She must have seen his reaction because she continued. "I know. I am so sorry for pulling you into this," she apologized to him with a guilty face, she was almost on the verge of crying.


    Wait, when she grabbed my hand did that mean she had taken me with her? If she hadn''t done that, wouldn''t that mean I would be safe with the others?


    With this new realization, he looked at her with cold and judgemental eyes. I guess a drowning person will take down anyone in reach, huh?


    "So why did you? If you had an idea of what was happening why would you pull me down with you?" he asked calmly, glad that [Sage of Savagery] was active.


    At that, she seemed to finally break down. Tears started to trickle down her face. "I didn''t realize it until it was too late. It was just¡­ instinctual," she finally stammered out.


    "Instinctual, huh? Your first instinct when you are dying is to take someone along with you, is that it?" He scathingly asked. He knew he probably shouldn''t be venting his frustrations on her but he was very annoyed. He didn''t appreciate that he had been dragged into this.


    She just put her head down and continued to cry. He let out a frustrated exhale. He turned to the other direction where the monsters had been. Honestly, I can always just go my own way. It''s not like a Tier 3 rift is that dangerous to me. And I also don''t really feel like saving her if it means revealing my strength. I have no reason to help her and I am pretty pissed that she put me in this situation.


    The more he thought about it, the more it sounded like a good idea. He was already feeling much happier with the prospect of it. He would find the exit and kick the shit out of any monsters who got in his way. That seemed like a good plan to him.


    Not to mention she had already given up it seemed, so it shouldn''t matter to her. With his mind made up and with a much more satisfied mindset he got up to leave.


    He didn''t say a word and began to walk back to the monsters he sensed a ways back. However, just as Julius took the first several steps, she called out to him.


    "Wait, where are you going?"


    He didn''t even bother to look back. He didn''t want to see her beg, that would make abandoning her more difficult. Still, he didn''t know her. He had no obligation to help her nor to reveal his secrets to her by doing so.


    "Please, don''t leave me here all alone," he heard as he was walking away, but ignored her pleas.


    "Julius, please!"


    It was at that moment he paused. She knew his name and not only that, but her voice had changed too. Furthermore, it was a voice that he was familiar with. He turned around to look at her and was surprised at what he saw. It was Grace standing there with tears running down her face. When she saw him turn around she slowly transformed back into Reinera and then back to Grace.


    What the hell?


    His brain short-circuited and everything started to come together. He always knew that it was a possibility, but he never actually believed it. Everything from her physical form to her aura, to her mannerisms were different.


    Actually¡­ he recalled that she had just been anxiously picking at her fingers a few minutes ago, something that he noticed Grace doing on many occasions. She also hadn''t shied from physical contact with him.


    But it all made sense in a way. Her constant secrecy, hiding her classes and affinity from him. It kind of all fitted together, and now he didn''t see how he didn''t realize it sooner.


    He could be so stupid sometimes. He had been so confident in his perception skill that he ignored some pretty blatant signs.


    That was the reason why she grabbed his hand. She was scared and her friend was right next to her. He didn''t find fault in her wanting some comfort when she thought she was going to die.


    Julius couldn''t find the heart in himself to blame her for that. Knowing that Grace was Reinera changed everything.


    He chuckled softly and looked up to the ceiling. It wasn''t like he could abandon her now. That wouldn''t be right. He was still of course frustrated at being dragged into this but he didn''t blame her for not telling him. They all had their own secrets after all.


    "I wish I could say I never thought it was a possibility, but honestly I just thought I was paranoid. How did I not see it?" He asked her.


    Grace, or rather Reinera shook her head. "It''s not your fault."


    She reached down and pulled out a necklace from her uniform, another thing that Julius had never sensed before. She fiddled with it and suddenly she was back looking like the princess. To his spatial senses, her entire form changed physically, it wasn''t like an illusion.


    "This is an item made by my uncle. It creates a tangible and material disguise that alters my aura. It also has some subtle mind effects that make any person who has suspicions of my identity doubt themselves. It is relatively simple in its function, but very potent," she explained slightly nervously.


    He gave the necklace in question a very interested gaze. The plain looking necklace was an absolutely amazing work of inscriptions. He couldn''t even begin to start tracing the delicate and complex lines of mana running through it.


    He bet even a stubborn person like Dante would be impressed.


    Yeah, very simple in its function, he thought to himself sarcastically.


    "Wow, that is one amazing necklace," Julius commented while slowly walking toward the necklace, all previous signs of anger and frustration nowhere to be seen. He was too absorbed in looking at the item with sparkling eyes.


    He wondered how it worked. He couldn''t imagine that an item like that was easy to find normally. He would bet that Kyle would love to get his hands on something like that.


    While he admired it, he completely ignored the way that Reinera just looked at him like he had grown a third head.

 Chapter 193: No Worries

    Reinera POV S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.Reinera was a mess. Not even her focus skill was able to rein her emotions in. She could not actually believe that things ended up this way. What were the odds?


    This might have been the single worst possible way she wanted to tell Julius about her secrets. She was not prepared for this situation at all.


    Not to mention that she would be probably dying here pretty soon and knowing that she dragged Julius along didn''t do anything for her guilt. Her potentially one true friend at this school and she goes ahead and gets him killed alongside her.


    Thank goodness I didn''t have any more friends, perhaps if I did I would have killed them too, she said to herself in a bitterly joking tone.


    With that being said, it remained that they were stuck in this terrible situation together. All because some stupid noble probably thought that they had an opportunity to damage another faction. That was what really pissed her off.


    If it was because of something she did or something she said, she would understand a bit more. However, it was most likely just because of some stupid politicking and that was frustrating.


    And now the boy in question wasn''t even that mad anymore. It was like the moment he found out that she was Grace and spotted the necklace all of his previous anger vanished.


    Furthermore, he was now acting like there was nothing wrong, going so far as to focus his attention on the artifact around her neck instead of their perilous situation.


    She just gave him a disbelieving stare. She always knew that Julius was an unusual boy, after all, that was what had drawn her toward him in the first place, but this was different. She expected a different reaction than this.


    He didn''t notice though and continued on his thoughts. "Would someone like Lily be able to sense such mind-altering effects?" Julius asked curiously, his eyes shining brilliantly as his eyes didn''t leave the necklace. It seemed he was interested to know if such subtle mental effects would work on someone like Lily.


    She found herself caught up in his casualness as well and answered his question before she could help herself.


    "Well, a normal psychic wouldn''t be able to, but Lily is well¡­ Lily for a reason. I kind of expected that she already knew that I was hiding something. Sorry, but why aren''t you more upset?" She asked with her lips pressed together tightly.


    "Do you want me to be?"


    "Of course not, but I feel like a normal person would be very upset in this situation," she logically pointed out.


    He just shrugged his shoulders in response.


    "Aren''t you still upset that I dragged you with me?" She asked, confused.


    He gave a wave of his hand. "Not that much anymore. I was more upset that a random stranger pulled me into their mess, but obviously you''re not a stranger."


    She stared at him with a completely blank face.


    "Aren''t I? I have been hiding my true identity this entire time you know? How can you still consider me a friend after this?"


    He gave her a disappointing look. "Of course you''re still my friend. You might have been hiding your name and what you look like, but let''s be honest, what''s the real mask? I have a sneaking suspicion that the princess card is more of a mask than the Grace one," he said bluntly.


    She didn''t give an immediate response to that. She just stared at the stone floor while biting her lips. That might be entirely too accurate, she thought to herself resentfully.


    "You might have a point about that," she finally said.


    A stark silence filled the void. One that she was desperate to fill.


    "I was going to tell today after our classes," she admitted to him.


    She watched as he gave her a curious glance. "Is that why you wanted to talk?"


    "Yeah, I noticed that piece of mana you left on me yesterday and thought it was about time to tell you something."


    "You noticed that, huh?" His face looked a little bit guilty. Although, she was happy that she was finally getting some real emotion of him.


    "I didn''t know what it was, I just knew that it was about time to share some things," she explained.


    "So you were going to tell me everything?" He asked.


    She shook her head softly. "Not everything," she told him truthfully. "Just enough."


    He nodded his head. "Oh," he stated plainly.


    Another breath of silence passed between them.


    "I still don''t get why you aren''t more upset. Look at where you are because of me?" She asked, confused.


    He finally turned and gave her his entire attention. "I told you before, I don''t have any plans to die in here." He sounded so relaxed and calm. She didn''t understand why. It was like this was a regular Tuesday morning to him.


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    "We are in a Tier 3 labyrinth rift all alone, how do you expect us to survive?" She asked.


    "We kill the monsters and find the exit," he said like it was obvious.


    She let loose a genuine laugh at that, wiping the tears that were still drying on her face. "Oh, yes very simple," she said sarcastically.


    He didn''t seem to hear the sarcasm. "I know right? The hard part is knowing which direction to head though," he said thoughtfully.


    She understood that telling him that he should be more upset wasn''t working, so instead she decided to play along with him. "It''s probably a good guess that the areas with more densely packed monsters will be closer to the exit," she commented.


    "That''s a good idea!" he said brightly, heading directly back to the direction where he had sensed the six monsters.


    I still don''t see how he is planning to deal with the monsters, she thought to herself curiously. It was like he was forgetting that these were Tier 3 monsters they would be fighting. Sure she could handle a couple of them, but she would be hard-pressed to fight an entire group. She wasn''t even going to mention that fighting six was way out of her abilities.


    "You have a plan I''m guessing?" She asked wonderingly.


    He turned his head around and gave her a reassuring smile. "Of course, I do. What do I look like? Someone without a plan?"


    She couldn''t help but not feel very reassured by the smile. Something in her gut told her that she was missing something. However, she had to admit, she was a little excited to see Julius''s plan for dealing with them. Maybe he had a way to outsmart them or to trick them. So she followed him toward the dark depth and toward the group of Tier 3 monsters.


    ***


    Does he really have a plan? She thought anxiously.


    As they walked closer. She started to feel less excited and more nervous. Julius had not done anything or set up any traps. So far he has just walked toward the monsters with no preparation, she would have said something out loud, but she was more worried about the monsters potentially hearing her, so she kept quiet.


    She would trust Julius for now. She didn''t see why she wouldn''t, he was pretty confident and from what she knew from him, he wouldn''t act that way for no reason.


    Still, she expected him to have some sort of elaborate plan of some sort. So she was flabbergasted when he did nothing when the monsters sensed them and started to run at them. The monsters were some sort of ugly decaying creatures resembling a wolf.


    Undead, she realized, dread filling her veins. Undead were notoriously dangerous monsters. Not because of their individual strength, which sometimes could be frightening, but because there was always a large number of them. Additionally, there was always a source they came from. In most cases, this meant a necromancer or some sort of undead energy wellspring.


    When Julius still didn''t do anything, she acted instinctually. She created a lance of light using her epic skill, [Light of Destruction] to rip through the first of the monsters. She wasn''t a life mage, but her light affinity had decent effects on the undead at least, and sent the Tier 3 monster sprawling to the floor. She didn''t kill it instantly but she certainly injured it.


    Still, it''s not enough damage, she realized with a sunken feeling in her stomach. They were worthy of their Tier 3 status, their defensive abilities were far beyond the Tier 2s she had been fighting these past months.


    Furthermore, it was already impressive that she could even do that much at Tier 2. That was just the tier-jumping power of an epic skill and having a Concept.


    It was just too bad that the undead didn''t feel pain like most monsters. It was what made them dangerous. Remove the arm of a normal monster and the pain would debilitate them, but for undead, they couldn''t care less. They would continue trying to eat your face like nothing happened.


    She sent out more spears of light, blasting into the monsters, however, they now understood that the attacks were dangerous and avoided the majority of them with a quick use of a movement skill. She managed to tag a few of them, but there were too many of them for her to handle.


    She looked toward Julius who still had an amused grin on his face. His focus wasn''t even on the incoming undead but on her. "So that''s one of your skills. I have been wondering what kind of skills you had," he said happily.


    "Aren''t you going to do something!? I thought you had a plan?" She yelled at him, scared as the undead wolves closed the distance and mad that he still wasn''t taking it seriously. She didn''t want to see him die because he took the Tier 3 monsters so lightly.


    He ignored her. "Hmm, their wills are surprisingly weak. It must be because they are undead," he said contemplatively, not suiting the desperate situation they were in.


    Suddenly, the casual air around him disappeared and a raging flood of mana and pure power rushed out of him. It felt like the kinetic mana she sensed from him when he fought normally, but this time it was so much more. Reinera almost choked on her own tongue as she felt the immense pressure pulse out of Julius. And she wasn''t even the one to bear the majority of this force.


    The undead that were leaping toward them were crushed by this force and were suspended in place. It was like they were frozen in time. She didn''t know what kind of skill it was, she had never seen quite a skill like it.


    However, Julius didn''t seem to be surprised at this and calmly walked toward them. She saw him create a sword of densely compacted fire mana with her mana senses. The sword was violet and obviously hot, but somehow the heat didn''t manage to reach her. Julius had such a stalwart hold over the fire mana that it just appeared like a normal sword. Regardless, the sheer amount of mana he used was breathtaking.


    She had always known that he had such delicate control of his mana, it was one of the first things that she noticed about him that day they met. With that being said, control didn''t mean power. Oftentimes it meant the opposite. It was fairly common to see those with amazing control having low mana reserves. It was also somewhat easier to gain control over a lesser mana capacity than one that was large, there was less to wrestle control of.


    Reinera herself had a hard time when she was younger with her larger-than-average mana pool. However, she was put through rigorous training for hours a week, focusing on just her mana control until she finally got a good grasp on it.


    Since she never noticed Julius''s large capacity she had originally believed that this was the case for Julius. A person with not an outstanding mana capacity, but someone who took the time to really focus on their fine control.


    It was an admirable quality. As a person who loved mana as much as she did, she deeply appreciated it.


    But she was wrong, very wrong. The amount of mana he was using was insane, if he didn''t have a massive capacity she would give up all sweets for the rest of the year. The amount he was releasing and controlling at once was larger than the entire pool of some of the close combat-specialized students. For a moment she thought he was actually a Tier 3.


    With casual ease, he walked up to each frozen wolf and cut off their heads with a simple slash. The sword did not find the least bit of resistance from the Tier 3 undead''s defense. She was able to sense a powerful profound energy surrounding the sword.


    There was no doubt in her mind that this was the effect of a Concept. Having one herself she knew just how strong a Concept could be and the difference it could make in a fight. However, this one wasn''t like hers. Whatever Concept Julius was using was oppressive and so much more powerful than hers. It made hers look like a toddler waving a wooden sword in comparison.


    After the wolves were dealt with, he gave her an amused smirk, as if taking joy in how much she had been freaking out.


    "I told you there was nothing to worry about," he said with a smug grin.


    "What in the hell''s name was that?" She asked stunned at what she had just witnessed.

 Chapter 194: Worried Friends

    Now that he knew that she was actually Grace, a fact that was still taking time to fully grasp inside of his small brain. He felt much more comfortable showing her some of his true strength.Even though she had hidden a pretty big secret from him, he didn''t blame her. In fact, he was impressed at how well she did it. He could probably take some notes from her.


    He also trusted her, as weird as that sounded, he still trusted her. After all, she was still Grace and someone he had been learning to trust as they knew each other longer. He felt pretty confident that the girl he met at the library every day was the real Reinera, not the pretty performance she put on in front of the rest of their classmates.


    Now that his head had cooled and his frustration abated, he felt kind of guilty. He had been about to leave her at the drop of a hat. While he didn''t know it was Grace, just the fact that he now knew it was and he had been about to leave her, left a bitter taste in his mouth.


    He quickly decided that to make it up to her he would help her return in one piece. No matter, how matter how much strength he needed to reveal, he would get her back to Goldencrest safe and sound.


    After he quickly dispatched the last of the undead monsters, he took a look around. The more he observed their surroundings, the more he believed that the teleportation circle didn''t just send them deeper into the rift and that what Grace had said was correct. They had been somehow transported to another rift entirely.


    It was possible that the rift had evolved into a Tier 3 one, but that wasn''t something that just happened all of a sudden. There are cases when a rift evolves into a higher tier rift, but that takes time to do so.


    The stone walls were also made of a slightly different composition than the ones lining the cavern walls of the school rift.


    His gut feeling was that the teleportation circle sent them to a different rift. His question though was how was it possible to accurately transport them to another rift. A labyrinth type at that.


    It was very confusing.


    He understood that there have been cases in the past where labyrinth rifts had some sort of teleportation trap, and the people who got stuck in it found themselves in various places. Places that were even outside of the rift.


    He was assuming that was the case here, but what were the odds that they would also find themselves in another labyrinth?


    He shook his head. It honestly didn''t matter at this point. What mattered was finding a way out of here.


    "Are you just going to ignore me?" Grace, sorry Reinera asked.


    He gave a glance. "Sorry, I didn''t mean to. I''m trying to find a way out of here. I believe that is the more important thing at the moment."


    "But you didn''t answer my question," she pouted.


    "Seems, familiar doesn''t it?" He recalled with a chuckle.


    She couldn''t help but give a reluctant grin in return. "That it does."


    "Still, what kind of technique did you use against those undead wolves?" She asked again.


    "You know that I use kinetic energy right?"


    "Of course."


    "Well, I just used it to take away all of their kinetic energy," he explained plainly.


    In return, all he got was a doubtful stare. "If you could really do that, then you would know how unbelievable that sounds. If it''s anything like telekinesis, you would need to completely overwhelm their willpower with your own."


    He just shrugged his shoulders. "I did say that their wills were very weak for Tier 3, didn''t I?"


    "That is not a reasonable explanation!" She exclaimed. "Don''t think I didn''t see how much mana just that sword took to make, there is no way a normal Tier 2 should be able to create such a mana dense construct."


    She pointed at the suppression bracelet that was on his wrist. "Amelia told me what that was. I knew you were hiding your talents, but not this much. Why are you hiding so much of your actual strength?"


    He shook his head at her. "The attention would be¡­ annoying," he tried to explain to her. However, this didn''t seem to appease her curiosity.


    "You have five of the most influential students as your best friends, you already have a lot of attention," she pointed out.


    Julius gave her another shrug. "It''s a different type of attention. Being someone who is considered one of the strongest is different from being friends with people who are one of the strongest."


    She just sighed in exasperation. "Well, you don''t seem too worried about this," she pointed out.


    He shook his head. "The fighting isn''t what I am worried about. It''s the potential fallout that I am troubled by."


    "What do you mean?" She asked with a frown.


    "What do you think is going to happen once we escape? Do you think that nobody is going to notice that I was gone alongside the princess? I can get away with hanging out with the others because they are older and the other upperclassmen think of me as the group''s charity case. However, to my fellow first-years, I am an average student not worthy of much attention. Do you think that''s going to remain the same?"


    Julius watched as Reinera chewed on her lip. "Maybe? I am a princess after all, so it wouldn''t be surprising if the others think you were just an unfortunate student dragged along. It''s possible that you are just going to be known as the guy who was almost killed alongside me. If that happens I would be surprised if anyone remembers your actual name." sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Huh, that''s kind of mean, but honestly, that might not be too bad, he admitted inwardly. His mood improved slightly.


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    He was about to say more but he sensed another group of monsters up ahead and signaled it to Reinera.


    It probably would have been more exciting to say that the monsters proved to be a challenge, but he would be lying. Ever since he had combined his kinetic energy with his Inexorable Resolve to create the ability to freeze his opponents, there wasn''t much difficulty in his fights.


    The only ones who seemed to be able to resist were those who had Concepts of their own.


    He wondered if he would ever get a skill offered to him for such a technique. He knew that from now on he would find learning skills more challenging, but he felt like it was pretty close to getting to that point.


    Another pack of undead wolves was quickly taken care of without much thought and he quickly removed the cores by surrounding them with [Barrier of Severance], then controlling the barrier to bring them to him. Reinera gave him another wide-eyed look but he continued to ignore it.


    He wished he could have enjoyed the labyrinth a bit more, but honestly, he didn''t think this would have been the time to do so. If he was alone perhaps he would have taken more risks and had some fun, but with Reinera with him, that wouldn''t be a good idea.


    His perception ability was luckily able to detect several traps that he was glad to avoid. He had no intention of falling into a bunch of sharp spikes or being zapped by some mysterious magic circle.


    That wasn''t entirely true. He was kind of intrigued by the magic circle. He wondered what it would do if activated. He couldn''t tell by looking it at.


    If he had Kyle with him, he bet the other guy would have been able to tell Julius. Next time he was in a labyrinth or was planning to, he would make sure to bring Kyle along. He was sure the other guy would love seeing new and exciting magic circles. Julius wouldn''t be surprised if Kyle purposefully activated them just to see what they did, kind of like Julius was thinking about doing.


    It was even possible that Kyle would ask Julius to test a few himself. The guy knew that Julius had a good healing skill, so seeing how the traps worked on a real subject would have been good data for him.


    Julius chuckled lightly as he thought about that.


    "Having fun?" Reinera asked sarcastically.


    "What? You''re not?"


    She smacked him hard on the shoulder. "No, unlike you, I''m not dumb enough to not realize how perilous our situation is."


    "Why? You have me, don''t you? You should feel so much safer," he teased her, enjoying that she was slowly acting like her usual self.


    She groaned loudly. "I would feel safer if you took this a little more seriously."


    "What''s the point? I have my perception skill and focus skill fully activated. If I was any more tense, it would just dull my reactions. Sometimes being too serious is bad," he told her with a sagely nod.


    She gave him another doubtful look but didn''t try to argue with him.


    He took that as a win and wore a small grin as he made his way deeper into the labyrinth.


    ***


    Joshua POV


    Joshua and the others landed on the polished stone floor of the room that held the rift. As soon as he was able to get his bearings, he promptly puked all over the floor. He wasn''t the only one either. Almost every person other than Professor Rowe, who was already up on his two feet was spewing their guts.


    What happened? He asked himself once he was finally done emptying the contents of his stomach.


    He turned to Professor Rowe who had taken a communication device from his storage ring and was talking to someone on the other end with rapid instructions. Then he turned to see the rest of the group.


    They were all fine after they finished throwing up. However, Joshua immediately realized that they were missing two people.


    Where are Julius and the princess? Did they not get teleported with us?


    As he was thinking about this, he noticed the rest of their class who hadn''t gone into the rift were loudly asking questions in the distance. Their confusion over what had just transpired in the rift was obvious. Thankfully, the assistants managed to hold them back.


    "Where is Julius?" Tia was the first one to speak up, also noticing their team member missing. Her eyes frantically darted over the entire room, looking for any signs of him.


    "I don''t know," Joshua responded gently to her.


    "What happened? There should not have been any traps like that in the rift," James groaned angrily as he paced around, wiping the leftover bile from his face.


    They all had similar questions.


    Simultaneously, they looked toward Professor Rowe and were about to head toward him, but suddenly several figures appeared out of nowhere.


    They all had familiar staff uniforms of Goldencrest.


    "Don''t let anyone leave the area until we figure out what happened," a stern-looking woman commanded to the male at her side. The man nodded in understanding and Joshua quickly felt a large barrier surround the entire area.


    However, another smaller barrier from the woman appeared that surrounded the eight students and the rest of the adults.


    Once, it was set up she turned back to Professor Rowe. "What happened Charles?"


    Joshua could feel the intense pressure that the woman was exuding. He doubted it was on purpose, most likely it was the result of her taking this problem seriously. However, he wasn''t the only one who felt uneasy under this woman''s aura. The others were wearing similar grimaces.


    Professor Rowe finally put away his sword and shield. "I don''t know Kelsa. We entered the rift like normal, but this time we appeared in a cavern directly underneath a teleportation circle that was set up on the ceiling. There were no clear signs of any way to exit the room, and we were quickly swept up in it."


    The woman, Kelsa looked over at the remaining group. "It seems you are missing a couple of students," she said solemnly.


    "Yes, the princess and a student named Julius were not transported with us," Professor Rowe said.


    A man who was next to the stern looking lady spoke up. "The princess is missing? How could you allow such a thing Rowe?!"


    "This is not the time to be pointing fingers and blaming others, George," the lady scolded the man immediately. "It''s more important that we figure out what happened. I doubt that whatever happened was just a coincidence if the princess is involved."


    "You''re right, apologies, ma''am," the man George apologized with an embarrassed blush. He then turned to Professor Rowe. "I''m sorry Charles, I was too quick to judge."


    Professor Rowe waved it off, "There''s no need George, I understand. This is not a good position to be right now."


    "You didn''t notice anything else about the circle?" The last woman who arrived with them asked.


    "It was seemingly a natural rift spawned one like you would see in a usual trap. But I myself investigated the rift earlier this morning. There was no sign of any changes or rift evolution. The fact that it was there is very suspicious," Professor Rowe stated angrily.


    Kelsa finally turned to the eight of them and Joshua felt the uneasy pressure focus on them. "You all will be taken to have your memories of the events recorded," she told them like they didn''t have any choice. They probably didn''t, but the way she said it rattled some of their feelings.


    "Don''t mistake this, you will only have to give the memories of the accounts of this last morning. Afterward, you will all be forced to swear vows of silence until told otherwise. I expect that all of you understand the potential chaos that is to come of this correct?"


    They all nodded their heads and grudgingly accepted what they were told. It wasn''t like they could fight her on it. This lady was most definitely at least Tier 5, maybe even stronger.


    "Was this an attempt on the princess''s life?" One of the boys braved to ask.


    "It''s possible, but until we know more, we can''t say for sure," the stern woman told them.


    After that they were all swiftly taken to a separate building where they were interrogated and a psychic went through their memories. It gave them all massive headaches, but they were quickly healed afterward.


    The entire time though, Joshua couldn''t help but worry about Julius. He surprisingly didn''t care about how the princess was doing that much, he was more concerned about how his friend was faring.

 Chapter 195: Not The Big One

    Julius was doing great. He had a big smile on his face as he decapitated another wolf. He was having more fun than he thought he would. These undead monsters weren''t that strong, but he did see them progressively getting stronger as they made their way down the labyrinth. The wolves were now putting up some resistance to his will.Instead of being completely frozen the wolves could now slowly crawl toward the two of them. If they weren''t still trying to eat them, he would have given them all medals for their improvement.


    He was also glad that his perception skill at least allowed him to detect the traps. And because of that, they were able to avoid some really nasty ones. Julius had sensed a particular trap that collapsed the entire hallway with spikes. Then there was another one that had the roof fall on their heads. Of course, there were smaller ones, but the scary ones were always the ones that he wouldn''t be able to escape easily.


    Thankfully, because of his awesome skill, they were able to make their way pretty safely with only the frequent monster group encounters.


    There was a problem though.


    "Could you let some of them through next time?" Reinera asked hopefully. Her previous self-defeating behavior was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she was getting antsy.


    "You want me to keep some alive so you can practice your skills?" He asked as he created a large slash against the wall, to indicate that they had been in this area before.


    "If that''s not too much trouble."


    He shook his head and laughed lightly. "No, it''s no trouble at all. But why the sudden change? I thought you would still be moping around."


    She gave him a dirty look. "Never mind." sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He put his hands up apologetically. "Sorry. How many would you like to try?"


    "It would probably be safe to start with one," she said thoughtfully.


    He nodded his head in acceptance and waited for the next group. The actual navigation of the labyrinth wasn''t that hard. He had just been following her advice and heading toward the nearest group of monsters. As long as the monsters felt like they were getting stronger, he was pretty confident that they were at least heading in the right direction.


    Soon enough the next group of undead popped up in his perception. There were only five of them this time. However, unlike the other wolves, there was one that stood out. This one was much larger and exuded a much more dangerous aura than the others.


    He turned to Reinera. "So which one do you want?"


    "Um, maybe not the big one," she said timidly.


    He nodded his head and proceeded to send four large spikes of condensed mana at the four smallest wolves. He locked them down with his kinetic energy and Inexorable Resolve so that they couldn''t avoid them in time.


    The spikes speared them through the chest and let loose a small explosion that killed them immediately. The largest and remaining one froze in place even though he hadn''t used his ability on it.


    It had seen just how easily Julius had handled its brethren and must have felt very hesitant about engaging him in a fight.


    "I said not the big one," he heard from behind him.


    "Oh? My bad, I thought you said you wanted the big one."


    He felt her staring daggers into his back but easily ignored it. He just stepped to the side and motioned to her toward the undead wolf.


    This seemed to confuse the wolf even more and before it could react, Reinera sent a powerful lance of light at the thing''s face. To its surprise, it took it straight onto its nose, but it was much more sturdy than its friends, taking the blow with only a small wound to show for it.


    Its confusion didn''t last very much longer. The wolf decided that she was a much less scary opponent and threw itself at her.


    Julius smiled amusingly as the girl let out a soft exclamation of surprise and used a movement skill to dodge out of the way.


    That''s a pretty good movement skill, it actually leaves a mirage behind for the opponent, he realized as he observed the skill in action.


    Instead of just continuing to blast the beast with more lances of light, Julius watched as she sent an interesting gathering of mana at the wolf. He couldn''t quite tell what it was supposed to do, but the wolf suddenly started to thrash around.


    Her initial panic must have worn off because Reinera was much more poised as she sent several large ropes of light at the monster. These ropes ended up strapping the wolf to the floor. The beast tried to break free of the bindings but was seemingly having a difficult time doing so. Then Julius sensed an incredibly large amount of mana formed underneath the now captive wolf. It was very similar to a ritual circle, but it was slightly different.


    It seemed more like a medium that could focus and concentrate mana that was channeled into it. The skill reminded him of Joshua''s and James''s large scale attack.


    Julius didn''t have to wait long to see what it did, Reinera quickly activated it and a pillar of light formed around the monster. Runic symbols stacked on top of each other and detonated with a powerful pressure of mana.


    What was left after it was over, was a half dead wolf that was struggling to stay alive. Or dead. He didn''t quite know how that worked for undead monsters.


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    The skill must have taken a lot out of Reinera because Julius noticed that she was breathing much more harshly. He wasn''t surprised either, that amount of mana was a lot for a Tier 2. He didn''t expect most people to have the reserves like he did.


    Still, she had enough juice left within her that she was able to send one last lance of light at the wolf, putting it down for good.


    He gave a hearty applause, but she didn''t seem to appreciate it. A quick glare at the four monsters he had easily slain and back to the single one she had managed to take down with much more effort made him suspect she thought his clapping was more belittling than he meant it to be.


    To her credit, being able to take down a pretty strong Tier 3 at only Tier 2 was an impressive achievement.


    He even sensed that the wolf had touched upon a Concept already. It wasn''t that developed, otherwise she would have had a more difficult time, but it was outstanding nonetheless.


    Regardless, being able to fight across tiers was a very difficult thing that only the most elite fighters could do.


    It was something that he had been taking for granted since he had been taking Tier 3s on for a while. Admittedly, it would have been much harder for him if he didn''t have such a large mana pool. Otherwise, he would be tired after dealing with a few of them just like Reinera was at the moment.


    That last attack took a lot of mana, even by his standards.


    "Well, what did you think?" She asked suddenly when she regained her breath.


    "Huh?"


    "What did you think of the fight? Anything you think I should be doing differently?"


    He pointed at himself. "You''re asking me that?"


    She gave him an exasperated look. "I''m not that stubborn. I know when I should ask for advice."


    "And you think I would have some good advice for you?" He asked carefully.


    "Of course, if you are able to deal with these Tier 3 undead so easily, you probably have something helpful that I could incorporate into my fighting style. I may not look like it or act like it, but I don''t like being the weakest one asking for help. Still, if you can help me get stronger then I will gladly put my pride aside," she said straightforwardly.


    "I wouldn''t dare presume to give you pointers," he said as he shook his head.


    "Just be honest with me, please?"


    Well, if she really insists¡­


    "Your light attack uses too much mana," he tells her plainly.


    "Yes, it''s not ideal, but light isn''t exactly the most ideal attacking magic," she said, not only seeming to not care about his blunt criticism but was appreciative of it.


    "Then why are you attacking like that? Why not have a different way of fighting?" He asked her curiously.


    "Because I usually don''t have to worry about mana when there are plenty of light sources around," she explained.


    I remember now, the others were explaining to me a while ago.


    "You have the bloodline thingy right?"


    "Yes, I have that ''bloodline thingy''. That thingy also allows me to regenerate mana extremely fast, so I usually don''t have to worry about that. I suspect that''s why they chose to set the teleportation location to another labyrinth, where I can''t use it."


    "Wait, they were able to choose a labyrinth as the location on purpose?"


    "Kind of. It would actually be easier if they did since there are already several teleportation relays set up in a labyrinth because of the teleportation traps. They would just need to put the specification for transportation as a labyrinth relay and it would just send us to one nearby."


    Interesting, so the fact that we were transported to another labyrinth wasn''t pure chance then?


    "Do you have any other thoughts of what I could be doing better?" She asked him while he was in thought.


    "Do you need to make your lances of light that thick?" He asked.


    "No, but if I don''t I won''t have enough power behind them," she argued.


    He put his hand on his chin. "How''s your physical enhancement skill?"


    "It''s pretty good. It''s better with some light for me to use, but even without it, the skill is pretty effective."


    "So why not use that? It''s not like you need to fight as a mage," he said to her.


    She looked kind of embarrassed. "I haven''t really practiced fighting up close," she admitted.


    "What? Why not?" He asked confused at her statement.


    He was even more confused as she explained why. Apparently, her tutors when she was growing up didn''t force her to learn how to fight up close. For one, the younger version of herself didn''t want to and secondly, they didn''t seem to see the need for a princess to get down and dirty.


    That seemed kind of stupid to Julius. But he wasn''t exactly the expert on smart decision making. He couldn''t expect everyone to train their children to become the best fighters. Some parents just wanted their children to grow up happy.


    Look at Declan''s family. His children weren''t elite fighters like their father but were still very happy with their life.


    Still, it wouldn''t be a bad thing for her to learn. And what''s a better time than now?


    The next group they came across was the largest one yet. This group had almost a dozen monsters.


    He didn''t waste his time trying to stop them with kinetic energy, but instead just launched a bunch of spikes at them before they could notice him. He took out the head honcho looking one first and the rest followed.


    He made sure to keep one of them alive for Reinera to handle on her own. Once he made sure nothing could interfere, he handed the sword that he conjured to her. Well, it wasn''t a sword anymore. It was more like a spear, he thought it would be easier for someone like her to use a spear over a sword for her first time.


    Surprisingly, she didn''t shirk away and dashed toward the monster right away. It was a little sloppy and he could see that she didn''t have much experience. Her physical enhancement skill was pretty good. It was definitely one of the better ones he had seen from his peers, allowing her to keep up with the undead wolf.


    It was why he thought it was kind of a waste that nobody taught her close combat fighting with skill like that.


    He was impressed at how well she used her binding skill. The skill itself didn''t use that much mana and she could keep on using it without worry.


    Whenever the wolf wanted to attack her, she manipulated the ropes of light to interfere. This allowed her to dart in and out safely, scoring some wounds to the monster. Unfortunately, it was still an undead creature, so the wounds didn''t affect it that much. She would need to either destroy its core or cut off its head.


    After a few minutes of harassing the poor wolf, she managed to score a lucky hit that pierced the core of the beast. He had only needed to use his kinetic restriction technique to help her a single time.


    She was a little breathless, but a proud smile was on her face.


    He congratulated her but what took his attention was what was behind the group of wolves. He had noticed it when he spotted them. It was a medium sized room, but inside there was something that he was very excited to see.


    It was a silver chest that glowed softly in the dim light.


    Haha, I knew there would be treasure in here!

 Chapter 196: Treasure!

    He quickly walked up to the chest with anticipation clear on his face.This was his first treasure chest and he was going to savor it. When he had heard that chests appeared in labyrinth rifts, he had gotten very excited. He always wanted to be a treasure hunter when he was a young boy.


    These chests were a big reason why labyrinth rifts, while dangerous, were highly sought after. The items they contained could be very intriguing and powerful.


    Though he didn''t care that much for the value of the treasure, he was more excited about just opening it. It could have a pile of coal for all he cared, he just wanted to see what it beheld.


    He eagerly approached the chest and crouched down in front of it. Its shining glow made him shiver in anticipation and he reached out to touch it.


    He heard Reinera say something to him but he wasn''t focused on her at the moment.


    He gently lifted the lid with his right arm and before he could react something leapt out of the chest. It was a black shadow like figure with a huge maw. The jaws of the creature snapped down onto his arm and removed his entire forearm in one bite.


    He didn''t even have a chance to retaliate before the thing went back inside the chest without another word.


    Well, that was certainly rude, he sadly thought to himself.


    It was a common occurrence in labyrinths. Trapped treasure chests would pop up every now and then to trick adventures. And it seemed that this chest was one of them.


    He stared aimlessly at the innocent looking chest as his arm dripped blood down onto the stone floor. He distractedly felt Reinera run to his side and try to staunch the wound, but he was too upset to give his attention to her.


    My first treasure chest took my arm, he realized depressingly. It wasn''t supposed to be like this, he was supposed to get a pile of gold or something fancy to wear, like a crown or cape.


    Instead, all he got was a missing limb and a distressed girl by his side.


    "You''re going to be okay, Julius! I have a potion that should be able to heal you. It won''t be able to heal your arm all the way, but it will make sure you won''t bleed out," Reinera said in a panic.


    He gently shook her off of him and prevented her from uncorking the potion she took out of her storage ring.


    "I''ll be fine," he assured her. Which unsurprisingly, didn''t assure her at all.


    "We don''t have time to argue. Just take the damn potion before you bleed out," she yelled at him.


    "It''s fine," he said a little more aggressively. He held up his arm which was no longer bleeding. "See? No more blood."


    "You''re not fine! You just had your arm eaten by a mimic!" Reinera pointed out like he hadn''t noticed that.


    He just sighed and stood up to his feet. Then he pumped a little bit of mana and activated [Phoenix Renewal]. The skill reacted immediately, in fact, it was already working on it passively without his say so. However, with a bit of mana, he felt his flesh regenerating at an unbelievable rate. His new healing epic skill proved its worth in gold.


    In a matter of seconds, his arm was completely back to normal. Functioning and everything.


    "What did you do?" Reinera asked. He detected something that sounded close to trepidation in her voice.


    "I got a healing skill," he said to her.


    She didn''t say anything and just reached over to poke his arm as if to make sure that it was really there.


    "What are you? Part hydra? That would certainly explain your power for a Tier 2," she said way too seriously to be joking.


    He gave her an affronted look.


    "What? It would make sense," she stubbornly stated.


    He didn''t dignify or acknowledge her and turned back to the chest that was still sitting there looking like an actual treasure chest.


    "I don''t even want to ask how you are able to regenerate your limbs. I fear I won''t like the answer," she said under her breath but loud enough so he could hear it.


    Julius continued to pretend that he couldn''t hear her and crouched down in front of the evil chest one more time.


    "I know you have some treasures in there," he whispered to the mimic menacingly.


    "You know that it can''t understand you right?" Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He knew that she was most likely right, but he wasn''t going to give up his first treasure chest opportunity this easily. He would at least try to talk things through like a civilized person.


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    Mimics were fascinating creatures. They would often mimic valuable things like a treasure chest and surprise their prey when they weren''t expecting it. However, he also knew that they carried items to use as bait. So he was pretty sure that this one had at least a couple of valuable items.


    Thus, he was hoping he could convince it to give him one.


    "Come on just give me something. It doesn''t have to be something really nice, but I want something. You did take my arm to be fair," he spoke to the inanimate chest.


    Reinera seemed content to watch him try to talk to the monster with a disappointed shake of her head.


    When he didn''t get a response to his pleading, he got a little bit closer and reached out to touch the exterior of the chest. However, the moment he touched it, the creature''s maw tried to snatch the same arm again.


    He pulled back his arm in time, unlike last time. "Okay. I see how it is," he said with an understanding nod.


    He stood up and brushed the dirt from his pants. Once he got a good distance away, he gathered mana from his core and started to create an overpowered spike. This wasn''t like his normal spikes either. This spike was only a little bit larger than his usual ones, but the biggest difference was that instead of a pale violet color, it was sky blue.


    Even with his mana control, heat poured off of it in droves and he had to keep his entire focus on it so that it didn''t go out of control.


    He didn''t say anything but just pointed it at the chest in a threatening manner. He didn''t know if he was seeing things, but he could have sworn that the chest was rattling back and forth. Even Reinera was backing off fearfully, instinctively understanding how powerful this spike was.


    "Last chance," he told the mimic as he prepared to absolutely obliterate it.


    Much to his surprise, the chest quickly opened, and out flying came a shiny gold necklace, landing right at his feet.


    However, he stopped himself before he chose to pick it up. "I want another one," he told the chest.


    He almost felt the indignation of the chest as he demanded more. But with a threatening gesture with his spike, the chest coughed out another item. This time it was a small buckler that one could strap to his arm.


    "Thank you. You can keep the arm in return," he told it graciously before turning back to Reinera with a proud smile on his face. But she wasn''t paying attention to him, she was too busy giving the mimic an undecipherable stare.


    Hehe, doesn''t matter. I got my first treasure, that''s all I care about, he thought satisfyingly to himself.


    ***


    Reinera POV


    She didn''t know what to be more shocked by. Was it Julius''s overwhelming might? Was it the fact that he could somehow regenerate his entire arm back in mere moments? Or was it the fact that she had just seen him extort a mimic?


    Not only that but the mimic seemed to understand him and actually give him two treasures in the end.


    All of them seemed more implausible than the last.


    "Here, try it out," she heard Julius say to her as he passed over one of the extorted items.


    She carefully took it, scared that it would somehow be a trap or a cursed item. But after a quick look with her senses, she couldn''t sense any malicious intent on the item. It was actually quite impressive if she was being honest.


    The mimic must have been really scared for its life if it just handed over something like this.


    She wasn''t an expert crafter or enchanter, but this buckler was top notch in quality. It certainly didn''t look like it from first appearances. Its slightly torn-up leather straps and scuffed metal didn''t leave the best impression. However, her mana sense was able to see an incredible amount of mana and inscriptions layered over the shield.


    It was something that was definitely on the upper end of Tier 3, perhaps even Tier 4 if it was in top condition. She wouldn''t know the exact abilities of the shield until she took it to an evaluator or analyzer, but she could tell there was a potent defensive ability along with a repulsive attack option attached to it.


    "Why are you giving this to me?" she asked him. She was no stranger to valuable items, but seeing him easily give one up surprised her.


    "Because you are probably going to be the one who needs it the most," he told her bluntly.


    At first, she was going to argue, but she quickly caught herself before she could stick her foot in her mouth. She hated to admit it, but he was correct about that. He was much stronger than she was and now that she had seen his healing skill, she was becoming even more convinced that his confident attitude wasn''t just arrogance speaking.


    With that being said, she still didn''t know how he would be able to handle the boss monster who was guarding the exit. There was bound to be one, and she was just hoping that they didn''t run into a very powerful one. The weaker it was, the happier she would be.


    While he might be able to regenerate limbs at will, it didn''t mean she could. And she was very much emotionally attached to her limbs.


    ***


    The next group of monsters they came across were quickly dealt with by Julius. She watched as he slaughtered entire groups down without a second thought or any signs of slowing down. Julius was able to navigate their way through the labyrinth without setting off any of the traps.


    She knew that he had a good perception skill, but honestly, it was getting a little bit too insane.


    She had slowly become desensitized as she watched. At some point, she realized she was already subconsciously thinking of him as a Tier 3 instead of a Tier 2. That was just how strong he was.


    He kind of reminded her of her cousin. Quentin was almost a dozen years older than her and she had never seen him fight for real, but she had heard stories of him taking down hordes of Tier 3 monsters as a Tier 2, much like Julius was doing.


    However, unlike Julius, Quentin had the best available resources in the Empire to fuel his progression. What did Julius have? As far as Amelia was able to find out, he was a commoner who was sponsored by a vice-captain of the city guards. Not someone she would expect to have resources getting stuffed into him like a hog getting fattened for the holidays.


    That being said, she was becoming even more doubtful about that information. There was no way someone like Julius was able to get this strong without someone helping him along. She had a good feeling that there was someone backing him. It might even be some old monster that is hiding away.


    People of the Empire would be surprised to learn that most of the publicly known Tier 6s were less than a fraction of the actual number. However, it shouldn''t be that surprising considering that Tier 6s could live for hundreds of years.


    Take a look at Heston, before she came here she was informed that there were at least a dozen known Tier 6s just hiding away in the city. It wouldn''t be out of the realm of possibilities if one of them had taken Julius under their wing.


    She gave the boy in question a quick glance as he obliterated another pack of undead wolves, leaving exactly one for her to take care of.


    Actually, I think I would be surprised if one of them hasn''t already.

 Chapter 197: Undead Knight

    "Stay back this time," he told Reinera. He had been allowing her opportunities to practice against the stragglers, but this time he didn''t believe that would be a good choice.Something was up ahead and it was very powerful. This wasn''t the usual undead they had been fighting. This was different. The aura it gave off demonstrated that this was something that was something he needed to take seriously.


    Luckily, she didn''t try to argue with him, she appeared to trust his directions. Which he was thankful for. He didn''t think he would have the time to argue at the moment.


    They were far away, but he could already tell that the monster had sensed them. Unlike its undead brethren, this one seemed to have a pretty good perception skill.


    Without saying another word, he used [Armaments of the Arcane] to summon his armor around his body. He then created several large spikes that hung over his shoulder.


    He felt that familiar thumping in his heart that came from facing a strong opponent. It excited him and he used that feeling to fuel [Sage of Savagery].


    It rounded the corner and Julius was finally able to observe it with his eyes. It wasn''t a wolf this time, it was a large humanoid monster. It was like a knight out of nightmares, adorned in black armor and a ragged looking cape. Its flesh was already decayed and drooping from its skeleton, and it was lazily dragging a broadsword from behind it.


    However, Julius didn''t relax seeing this. In fact, he was even more focused.


    It was a good thing he was too, because he almost didn''t see it move until it was already on top of him.


    Its broadsword that was lazily dragging behind it was now a swift blade of death as it tore through the air at his head.


    Julius stepped back with [Flash Step] and watched as the blade missed his face by mere inches. The moment the blade passed by him, he dashed in with pistons on his fists.


    This undead monster was somehow able to bring that massive blade back around and use it to parry his strikes with unnervingly impressive precision. Each parry was elegant and carried such strength behind them that they blasted his arms back more than he expected.


    However, he didn''t allow it to get any breathing room. He didn''t want the undead to use its massive blade''s extra reach to keep him at a distance.


    He did notice that the monster was releasing some sort of black miasma that was getting absorbed through his skin, but he dealt with it by using his healing skill. It was quite insidious though, this miasma was trying to eat through his flesh and his mana at the same time.


    If he didn''t have his healing skills, he would have been in a lot of trouble.


    After a minute of his furious assault and not getting anywhere, he decided to change things up. He took a step back and allowed the monster to counterattack. It didn''t hesitate to do so. It immediately tried to take the momentum and put him on the back foot.


    Large and annoyingly quick slashes of the broadsword had Julius dodging. Whenever it wasn''t possible to dodge, he used an armored arm to knock the blow away. However, he didn''t want to rely on that.


    The strikes of the monster were infused with a Concept of its own. He couldn''t tell what exact Concept it was but it ate away at his constructs an annoying amount of effectiveness. It forced Julius to use more mana to recreate more of his armor.


    He had a feeling that this was how this opponent fought. It slowly ground down its enemies with its power and Concept until they had no more mana or stamina left.


    He sent a few probing spikes at the monster but the monster either dodged them or smacked them aside with its sword. The few that did manage to nick it, didn''t seem to do that much damage. The decaying aspect of its Concept weakened the construct before it could damage it too badly.


    He hated to admit it, but it was impressive.


    Was it weird that he kind of wanted it?


    He avoided another slash with a tilt of his head and had to block the follow-up backhanded swing. He was just about to send out an attack of his own to avoid getting overwhelmed when his eyes widened like saucers.


    The strike that the undead knight sent out wasn''t like its previous attacks. This time it had activated a skill on its own. The skill made the blade split into several identical blades, all coming toward him with incredible speed.


    What was interesting was that these shadowy blades weren''t just illusions. He was able to feel with his [Spatial Perception] that these blades were very much real.


    He had no interest in blocking all of these strong attacks. One of them was bad enough, four of them though were more than he wanted to handle.


    But the miasma that had been trying to leech into him changed how it was behaving. It no longer tried to poison him, but instead, it was fully committed to preventing him from moving.


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    He let loose an involuntary laugh. Just like he had been using his kinetic energy against his opponents, however, this time it seemed like it was being used against him.


    Touch¨¦, he thought toward the undead monster.


    Still, that didn''t mean he just sat there and allowed it to happen. He ramped up Inexorable Resolve and he felt the miasma''s hold on him struggle to keep him in place but it was no match for his ridiculously strong will. After all, fighting against someone''s will was always easier than pressing your own against another.


    Unfortunately, it was so well timed and he was unprepared for it that it allowed the blades of the knight to cut into his armor. It didn''t cut him in half, but it still broke through some of his armor and left gaping wounds on his chest.


    He used [Flash Step] to get a lot of space and sent some spikes to delay the monster''s charge, before taking the time to heal his wounds.


    There was something attached to the knight''s sword that fed into his open wounds. The Concept within it made it more difficult for his healing skill to deal with it. However, unluckily for the monster, he had a Phoenix Concept, something far beyond a normal Concept.


    He overpowered the poison and healed himself within a moment.


    He could have sworn he saw hesitation from the knight. However, he didn''t care for it that much, he had a good idea of how he was going to deal with it. He had finally seen an opening he could exploit.


    With a quick dash, he sent out blistering strikes at the monster. If it was any other monster he had faced within this rift, it would have already fallen from the sheer pressure of his attack. However, it was able to fend off his assault.


    Julius continued this for a couple of minutes, carefully monitoring the situation. Finally, he decided to disengage, giving the impression that he needed to recover his stamina. He even went as far as to not use his healing skill to recover it during his burst.


    Thus it was much more believable when he was actually out of breath.


    The undead knight decided that it was the perfect time to counterattack him. Just like last time, the knight waited until he tired himself out and then tried to punish his aggressiveness.


    However, that was exactly what Julius had been counting on. He noticed it last time, the knight''s skill with a blade was phenomenal. Its skill with mana? Less so.


    Julius had noticed a slight lag from when the knight used his multiple-strike skill and the time it took to deploy.


    When the knight went for the same combination again, he was ready. The second he felt the knight activating the skill he immediately used kinetic energy to freeze the knight''s movements. And since the undead knight was too distracted with trying to use that same freeze skill on Julius, its will was not prepared for his attack.


    He used everything he had and was able to freeze the knight for a single second. Still, that was all he needed.


    Julius sent the six spikes that he had left hovering over his shoulder at the chest of the knight. These weren''t the usual spikes. These ones were blazing with blue flame. That wasn''t all either. He had been using the time he was viciously assaulting the knight to infuse as much Inexorable Resolve and Severing Will into them as possible.


    This made them much more durable against its own Concept and Julius found his spikes piercing the knight with ease. Julius didn''t allow it any time to break down the spikes any further and immediately detonated the payload within them.


    Even with its impressive defensive skills, it wasn''t able to withstand the absolutely massive explosion that ripped through its chest.


    All that was left were two legs and the remains of what used to be its torso. However, what was impressive was that it wasn''t done yet. Even with all of that, it was still not finished.


    He didn''t let it have a chance to recover, he didn''t know what kind of skills this thing had in reserve so he sent three more spikes and blasted apart the monster. This time he felt its aura finally fade away.


    He wiped his brow dramatically. "You were one tough cookie," he complimented the destroyed remains of the knight. The only thing that survived was the large broadsword, though it had some chips, showing it took some damage.


    There also wasn''t a core left to recover, his explosions must have been too much for it to withstand.


    He tossed the sword into his storage ring and looked back to where he left Reinera.


    He was very surprised to see the young girl on her knees completely ash white in the face with black lines of miasma coursing through it. She was sipping on some sort of potion that was helping her body fight the miasma as her eyes were screwed closed in pain. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He didn''t think the corrupted mana would have reached her, but it seemed he was wrong.


    Along with the potion, Julius was able to sense that she had some sort of skill already activated, that was fighting back against the miasma. The only problem was that this miasma was backed by the undead knight''s Concept.


    Something that her skill seemed to be having a hard time dealing with on its own.


    He dropped down to one knee by her side and started to immediately feed his life mana into her. The only problem was that [Phoenix Renewal] made it very hard for him to heal others. This left him in a difficult spot because he wasn''t able to infuse his Concept into his manual healing technique.


    Thinking for a moment, he came to a potential solution. He called out Drasil from his core. The little green spirit popped out and went over to Reinera right away.


    Drasil gave a small whistle and patted the girl on her shoulder reassuringly. As if he was saying it was going to be alright. The girl who was in pain, could only give a struggling grunt in return, but that didn''t seem to deter Drasil. The little guy hopped up onto her face and placed both of his tiny hands on her forehead.


    Something that Julius realized as Drasil went through some changes was that he was able to heal others as well, not only Julius. The little spirit could infuse some of his essence into people, but that wasn''t what Julius was hoping for.


    Since there was a Concept at play that didn''t want to go away, he believed it would be possible for Drasil to use some of Julius''s mana that had been infused with his Phoenix Concept to heal her.


    Since he couldn''t do it himself, Drasil would act as a medium for the infused mana to break down the miasma.


    And to Julius''s surprise, it worked really well. The miasma didn''t stand a chance against the full weight of Julius''s and Drasil''s combined effort.


    The black lines that were pulsing through her skin quickly faded away and her painful breathing turned into a sigh of relief.


    Julius had to hold back a laugh. When Reinera finally opened her eyes all she saw was Drasil''s round tummy that was squishing against her nose.

 Chapter 198: More Friends Worries

    Lily POVWord travels fast in a school like Goldencrest, especially if it pertains to a certain royal member. The disappearance of the princess was on everyone''s lips as she hustled to the school''s gates. However, Lily didn''t really care about the princess given the situation.


    While almost everybody was focused on the princess, they had forgotten that another person had disappeared alongside her.


    "Wait up Lily!" She heard Aubrey call from behind her.


    "I can''t! The more time I waste the more likely it will be something happens to him," she yells back.


    "You''re really that worried for him? You know he can handle himself right?" Aubrey called out again.


    "It doesn''t matter if he can. It only matters that I should be trying to find him because he is our friend!"


    Aubrey didn''t have a response to that. Lily knew that out of everyone Aubrey might have cared about Julius the most. Other than her of course.


    "By the time you get in contact with your family and explain the situation, it might be too late," Derek called out calmly.


    It wasn''t just Aubrey who was following her. Edgar, Kyle, and Derek had all come along as well.


    "I realized that. That''s why I am not going to my family," she told him.


    "Then who?"


    "There''s someone who is quite close by who is very well suited to a problem like this."


    Lily had already messaged Alice and tried to explain the situation. She didn''t respond but Lily knew she would be waiting outside for her.


    The moment she crossed the barriers set up around the school gates she saw Alice appear out of thin air. The beautiful brown haired woman was casually sipping on some sort of drink.


    However, Lily knew that casualness was just an act. Alice''s aura showed that she was ready to act whenever she needed to.


    "Explain what happened," Alice said gently, but there was no mistaking the commanding air as she spoke to Lily.


    Lily did her best to give as detailed of an explanation as she was able to, but the truth of the matter was that she didn''t know enough to give a perfect picture. As she was explaining the rest of her friends had arrived and were looking at Alice with curious looks.


    However, they maintained a respectful distance and kept their questions to themselves. They would be able to tell that whoever Alice was, she wasn''t just some regular person.


    "So that was what happened," Alice said thoughtfully.


    "What? You knew something happened, Alice?" Lily asked.


    "I couldn''t sense him anymore. While there could have been several reasons for that. I was hoping it was because he figured out how to avoid spatial detection. This reason is a bit more tricky," Alice admitted with a frown.


    "But there''s still a way to find him, right?"


    "I would need access to the teleportation circle to determine where it sent him, but you can already see the problem with that right?"


    She frowned heavily. Indeed she saw the problem with that. The rift that had taken him was a Tier 2 rift. A rift of that quality would not be able to hold someone like Alice for more than several minutes before the rift collapsed.


    Even someone as skilled as Alice in spatial magic couldn''t change that.


    Finally, it seemed that Aubrey''s patience had run thin. "So what? You can''t do anything to help him?"


    Alice slowly turned to look at Aubrey. "Watch how you speak to me young Crysalia. Just because I know your mother doesn''t mean you can speak to me however you wish," she softly warned the young woman.


    Even though she didn''t raise her voice or pressure them with her aura, every single one of them felt like the walls surrounding them tightly squeezing them.


    "She didn''t mean any disrespect," Lily quickly defended her best friend. "She is just as concerned about Julius as any of us."


    That suffocating feeling slowly ebbed away, but there was an undeniable tension now. "Of course, it''s understandable," Alice said.


    Sometimes Lily envied Julius and his ability to ignore tier disparity like he did with Alice and Dante. He was completely unaware of certain social cues and lacked basic common sense a lot of the time, but if there was anything that was impressive about him, it was his ability to be completely at ease in front of powerful people such as Alice. He would even go as far as to joke or tease Alice, something even Alice''s own family members would balk at.


    With that being said, Lily knew that Alice secretly respected that about Julius, which was why the woman didn''t wipe the boy from existence even though he acted so casually with her.


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    Lily wasn''t able to do the same. She was really good at hiding it and pretending it never bothered her, but it wasn''t the same. She knew that it was similar with Derek and Kyle as well. They had all been trained and been in the presence of enough Tier 5 and Tier 6 individuals that they were sort of used to it. But that didn''t mean they were comfortable being around them.


    The only person she felt that way with was her grandfather.


    Aubrey was a different story, Lily just believed that the other girl was too dumb and rash to care about things like that. Perhaps, that was her mother''s influence on her.


    Before Lily could ask Alice another question, Derek interjected with a polite bow. "Pardon the interruption, Lady Alice. But what does that mean for Julius?"


    Alice gave Derek her attention. "You''re Zenith''s boy, right?"


    "Yes, ma''am."


    "I''m surprised you''re showing this much concern for a boy like Julius," Alice said with a chuckle.


    Derek''s polite smile on his face remained, but there was now an edge that hadn''t been there before. "What is that supposed to mean?"


    "Well, your father certainly wouldn''t believe in showing so much care for someone without much status."


    "I''m not my father," Derek said testily.


    "No, I guess you''re not. Though I suppose that''s a good thing. I''m sure your grandfather is happy about that," Alice said with a nod of her head. "Anyway, I understand your concern with the boy, but I don''t think you have to worry that much."


    Lily gave her a confused look. "Why do you say that?"


    "Because do you really think that there are many things at his tier or even at Tier 3 that pose a threat to him?"


    "But what if it''s something beyond that? That''s what I am worried about."


    "I doubt it," Alice said with much more confidence than expected. "I have played around with the teleportation circles in labyrinths before. Whoever messed with the school''s rift was likely restricted in what they could do unless it would be too obvious when they did an inspection. That means that they would have to use a pre-existing connection, which is normally found in similar labyrinths."


    "So that means they are in another rift?" Lily asked.


    "No, there could be other connection points, but it is the most easily accessible connection to exploit. It wouldn''t even take that much to do so. You would just need to have a Tier 4 with a decent understanding of space magic and some time to reconfigure the rift."


    "Is that supposed to be reassuring?"


    "Yeah, it should be. You''re his friends, right? You really think that crazy kid is going to die in some random rift?"


    "But what if it''s a Tier 4 rift or higher?"


    Alice shrugged her shoulders. "Well, then he is pretty much dead already and there isn''t much we can do about that. Regardless, since he was taken from a Tier 2 rift, it is most likely they will find themselves in a Tier 2 rift, Tier 3 at the max."''


    Lily and the others exchanged looks with one another.


    Alice continued. "The main thing I am worried about is where exactly they are going to come out?"


    "Come out?" Derek asked confused.


    "It''s possible that wherever they come out might be in a dangerous area that hasn''t been explored yet."


    That does sound like a problem.


    Lily didn''t doubt Julius''s prowess and strength, she had learned to stop underestimating her young friend a while ago. But she still couldn''t help but feel worried for his safety.


    ***


    Julius POV


    After gently removing the small spirit from her face, Reinera sat up, almost falling back down as she did.


    "Thanks, Drasil," she gratefully said to the adorable spirit once she got her balance.


    To which Drasil responded by giving her proud whistle and a suspiciously smug-looking grin toward Julius''s direction.


    What was that for? Is my darling Drasil going through a teenage phase? I didn''t know that was possible for spirits.


    "How do you feel?" He asked the girl while passing over a sandwich to her.


    To Reinera''s credit, she didn''t even hesitate to take the food. She quickly removed the paper from the sandwich and started to devour it. Julius knew from experience that Drasil''s healing made one pretty hungry after it was done doing its job.


    "Tired, but much better now," she said through a mouthful of food, not really giving off the impression of a well-mannered princess anymore. He guessed that since his identity was revealed she didn''t care talking with her mouth full with him.


    "Hmm, delicious," she murmured through the food.


    While she was doing that, Julius placed his attention back to what the knight was guarding. Just beyond where the monster came from there was a large room. Unlike other rooms, this room was in much better shape.


    The stone walls weren''t exactly polished, but there weren''t ten layers of grime either. Many more mana lamps were decorating the room along with some broken down furniture.


    He didn''t know what to expect but it wasn''t something like this.


    He continued to look around the room, sending out pulses to see if there was anything hiding beyond his vision. While he didn''t find any more monsters or threats, he was able to detect something different at the back of the room.


    It was a black door. At first glance, it was nothing special, but upon closer inspection. He realized it wasn''t just a black door. No, it wasn''t a door at all. It was just a door frame that held a black void that looked like a door.


    "Hey, Reinera!" He called out.


    He felt her approach him from behind. "You know you can still call me Grace if it''s easier for you."


    "But isn''t that your real name?"


    "Yes, but Grace is the person you believed I was, so I wouldn''t blame you if you keep calling me that."


    He gave her a sincere smile. "I honestly don''t care about the name too much. Like I said, I feel like I already got to know the real Reinera. With that said, don''t be surprised if I sometimes call you Grace for the time being."


    "That''s fair," she said with a bright smile.


    He grinned and turned back around. "Do you know what that is?" He asked while pointing at the void.


    Reinera got an excited look on her face. "I think that''s an exit!" She said happily.


    "The exit? That easy?" He asked shocked at how simple it was. He thought they would be stuck here for much longer.


    "Easy? Only you could say that with a straight face. You do realize I would have died here dozens of times if it wasn''t for you right? I mean, I almost died just from the aura of that undead monstrosity. I''m not going to mention how many traps we avoided." Reinera said, exasperated at how he perceived their time in the labyrinth.


    She does have a point there. I guess I have developed a unique sense of what''s normal, he admitted to himself.


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 Chapter 199: Deja Vu

    Reinera POV"You know that this one is most likely a mimic as well right?" Reinera asked with a knowing tone.


    "You can''t be sure of that."


    "I can sense its mana. It''s almost for sure a mimic," she said in a disbelieving tone, she couldn''t believe that he was going to insist on trying another chest after what happened earlier.


    There is no way he can''t sense exactly what I am seeing. I have just seen Julius overwhelm the entire rift so far.


    Overwhelm might have even been an understatement. The way he demolished one of the minor bosses was more like a slaughter. It was a really strong one too, its Concept was a top-tier decay or death aspected one. Her own Concept of Light wasn''t able to hold it off, it needed more development before it stood at that level.


    However, that wasn''t the case for Julius''s Concept or Concepts. He was able to overwhelm it and then the boy went on to destroy the undead knight so thoroughly that there was barely a piece of bone left. That pretty much established Julius''s power in her eyes.


    He had everything a fighter could want. He had potent fire skills for long-range attacks, kinetic energy for close combat, a healing skill that was pretty much cheating, and numerous other abilities that she could barely start to guess.


    But why is he being so dumb? There is no doubt in her mind that this thing was a mimic.


    Yet, there she stood as the boy walked toward the chest with a naive smile. She didn''t feel that worried for him, she had already seen him regenerate an arm like a lizard regrowing its tail. Still, it couldn''t be fun to lose an arm. The pain must be excruciating.


    Even thinking about the miasma she had experienced made her wince at the sheer memory of the pain. Losing an arm must be way worse. And yet¡­


    "At least don''t touch it with your arm," she told him.


    "Sorry, what''s that?" He asked, already reaching toward the chest with his right arm.


    Why did I even bother?


    She closed her eyes as she heard the chest open. She heard a sound that resembled a lumberjack chopping down a tree and then a cursing Julius.


    "Son of a bitch!" He yelled out toward the chest which was surprisingly a mimic.


    The events that followed were like deja vu. Julius started to smack around the chest with his one arm and threatened the mimic. She was a little less surprised to see the mimic effectively cowed this time around but was still skeptical of the whole thing.


    Who had ever heard of someone threatening and extorting mimics?


    Although, to his credit, the items they got were way nicer than any other chest they spotted. Along the way, Julius had found several other chests, but they all held pretty boring items. Most were weapons that were of questionable quality, likely from dead delvers from the past.


    However, this was the second time the mimics gave him really nice items. Like the small buckler that was attached to her arm. This little shield had enabled her to deal with the undead monsters with much more ease. It was able to take much more force than its small size would indicate.


    Perhaps, he is on to something, she admitted to herself with a frown.


    ***


    Julius POV


    He made sure that the mimic gave him some good items before leaving it alone. Unlike the necklace he got last time, he had a good idea of what these items would do.


    One of them was a dagger that had a very complex-looking enchantment etched onto its surface. He was able to tell that it was sharpness-related because of his Concept.


    The other item was a ring. A very plain-looking iron ring. He put it on experimentally and was surprised to find out that it was able to deploy a remote barrier upon activation. The information to know how to do so was put into his brain the moment he placed it on his finger.


    It wasn''t that useful to him, but it was still a cool new toy.


    Once his curiosity was sated and he had enjoyed his new treasures, he gave the exit another glance. As he was doing so he finally pulled up the notifications he received during the rift that he had been ignoring.


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 5 -> lvl 6]


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 6 -> lvl 7]


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    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    [Soul Tempering lvl 5 -> lvl 6]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 17 -> lvl 18]


    [Flash Step lvl 6 -> lvl 9]


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    He had gained quite a lot from the short time he had spent here. He suspected that a lot of it was residual gains from keeping the suppression device on, rather than actual progress from the rift, but it was still nice to see.


    However, he hasn''t been putting too much importance on skill-level gains recently. After he had gained his third epic skill and now that he had three Concepts, he didn''t think there was much left for him to do at Tier 2.


    With the acquisition of [Soul Tempering], he had become a little more aware of his soul and how much he could handle. The skill was telling him that there wasn''t much more he could fit into his soul at Tier 2. He would need to advance to Tier 3 if he wanted to get any more epic skills or Concepts.


    That was a little bit disappointing, he had two skills, [Spatial Perception] and [Kinetic Augmentation] that were close to evolving. However, they both needed other Concepts or rather he wanted other Concepts to evolve them with.


    Unfortunately, that didn''t seem to be possible at his current tier. Even these level gains he just got were quite stuffing. It was like eating another plate of food after he was already full.


    Alice had told him that at some point, he would just be unable to gain any more levels. He shouldn''t be in as much danger of hurting his soul as the last time, but he would start finding it impossible to progress any further.


    ***


    A part of him didn''t really want to leave. He had been enjoying this rift so far and wanted to explore more of it. That last fight was a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, it wasn''t just him who had been trapped here. Reinera was also with him.


    If she wasn''t then he would be much more inclined to stay. However, he knew that he couldn''t do that to her. It wouldn''t be fair because she wasn''t wrong. She would have died several times if it wasn''t for him.


    "Are you ready?" He asked her.


    She gave him an exasperated shake of her head. "You really have to ask that?"


    He just nodded his head and started to walk toward the ominous black void with Reinera following him from behind.


    When they got close to it, he could swear that the void was almost trying to pull them into it.


    "I don''t know about you, but this doesn''t feel like a welcoming exit, right?"


    "Yeah, I don''t know why they are like that, but it''s just a thing you get used to I guess," she said agreeingly.


    There was a prolonged silence as the two of them stared into the black abyss.


    "I never really got the time to thank you," she said, suddenly sounding very serious.


    "You don''t need to, I was trapped with you," he reminded her.


    "Yeah, but you wouldn''t be in here if it wasn''t for me in the first place."


    He gave her a reassuring smirk. "I''m kind of glad you did."


    She gave him a look of confusion and surprise. "Why would you say that?"


    "It was fun, well for me that is. I got to see a bunch of new things and even got to fight that undead knight at the end. Plus, we both got stronger, I know for a fact that you gained a good amount of levels in your skills, especially your physical enhancement one," he said.


    While he didn''t outright show it, he had been paying very close attention to her. She had made some incredible improvements and she was much stronger than she had been a day ago.


    That was what fighting monsters a whole tier above you would do for your skills. He would know.


    "If that''s your idea of fun, I don''t want to know what you think of your idea of not having fun."


    Hey! That''s uncalled for.


    ***


    They walked through the scary-looking void and he was half expecting for them to be torn into pieces but he was excited to see that they weren''t.


    In fact, unlike their way into the labyrinth, this transportation much much smoother.


    However, when he opened his eyes he couldn''t help but notice that something felt familiar. He and Reinera were placed in the middle of an open plain. Tall grass tickling their skin.


    "Where are we?" He heard her ask out loud.


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    "Where''s the rift entrance? I don''t see anything that looks like it around here," she said while inspecting the surroundings.


    "Probably underground somewhere. I heard that many rifts are hidden in caverns beneath the earth. People don''t know they are there until a rift breaks open," Julius explained something he had read a couple of weeks ago.


    "Shouldn''t we let people know that there''s a rift hidden around here?"


    "That''s a good plan. If we can find anybody that is."


    "Good point."


    Julius gave her a smile. "But it wouldn''t be a bad idea to mark down the location and let the Adventurer''s Guild know."


    "Agreed. But like you said, we got to find a way back to civilization first."


    He nodded his head and gave a look around. They hadn''t been inside of the rift for that long all things considered. The sun was just cresting over the horizon.


    He didn''t sense anyone waiting for them, which was slightly surprising. He was half expecting the people who had orchestrated all of this to be waiting for them. And although he was happy that they weren''t... a small piece of him was still jacked up from that fight with the knight and had him wanting for some more.


    Perhaps, they couldn''t accurately predict where they would end up and believed that the Tier 3 rift would have taken care of the princess.


    He pointed toward the opposite direction of the setting sun. "It wouldn''t hurt us if we started to walk east and see if we can find anyone on our way. However, we might want to find a place to settle down for the night. Let''s keep an eye out for anything that might look like a good spot."


    He wasn''t worried about supplies either. His storage ring was full of food, water, and even some camping equipment. Wherever they ended up they would be pretty comfortable, but he was just worried about what kind of monsters roamed around this area.


    While cities like Heston didn''t have many monsters around, it couldn''t be said the same for places in the middle of nowhere. Dangerous monsters still were out and about. Thus, he was more concerned about finding a safe place before it got too dark.


    He wasn''t expecting to find a town or people before the night. The sun was already quickly fading and it was time to get a move on. The more time they wasted now, the more time they would have to make up tomorrow morning.

 Chapter 200: We Got Swindled

    It wasn''t that much of a surprise that they couldn''t find a suitable shelter in the hour they had until night.They did make some good distance though. Reinera''s physical enhancement skill was surprisingly sustainable for long distances, especially when she had access to natural light.


    It wasn''t like his uncle''s sun affinity which was restricted to sunlight, but it was able to use all sources of natural light. That meant the moon and the stars apparently as well.


    I can see why their bloodline ability is so sought after now.


    Julius ended up having to dig them a big hole in the middle of the plains. He did have a tent in his storage ring, but he didn''t like the idea of being so exposed at night. Their tent would literally be the tallest thing for miles around.


    It took more mana than he felt comfortable with, but since there were two of them, he had to make it larger than he would if it was just himself.


    After he finished digging out the hole, he used a large tarp that he bought a while back to cover the top. He also set up some enchanted rods that Kyle insisted he get.


    The rods would supposedly dissuade any monsters from approaching. According to Kyle the man who had been selling them severely underestimated their actual value.


    Once they got settled in, Julius brought out some of his food to share with Reinera. The moment the girl saw the food, she perked right up and practically salivated all over it.


    "I always questioned why you had so much food on hand at all times, but now I am deeply appreciating your foresight," she mumbled through a roasted leg of meat, fat dripping from her fingers and splattering on the compact dirt.


    They finished up and after such a long day, as well as a satisfying meal, Julius watched as Reinera passed out on the mat he rolled out for her. Her quiet snores filled the empty hole.


    He didn''t do such a thing. While he had been getting a good night''s sleep every day for a while now, he didn''t want to take the chance tonight. He had gone without sleep for weeks in the past, so a night shouldn''t hurt him that bad.


    Instead, he used the night to meditate on his Spatial Concept and cultivate toward Tier 3.


    His Concept meditation was a bust, which was unsurprising. But his cultivation proved fruitful.


    Tier 3, much like Tier 2 didn''t require that much input from the person. It was a natural process that almost every person would inevitably get to. However, for people who challenged themselves and improved, that process went by much quicker.


    Still, there were things he could do to expedite his advancement. Getting to Tier 3 required one to assimilate their entire existence together. That meant his soul, core, and body had to be properly aligned.


    One way, which was the simplest, was to channel mana from his core throughout his body and then back into it. This action could be hard for some, but after some practice, it would become natural.


    The most difficult part of advancing to Tier 3 was undoubtedly the soul aspect of it. It is where most people find themselves stuck. This is where Julius had an advantage. He had already touched upon his soul many times in his reckless training and eventual recuperation.


    [Soul Tempering] helped a lot on this end. The skill didn''t just temper his soul, but he found that his aura was similarly affected. Which made sense, his aura was a representation of his soul. It was why control of one''s aura made advancing much more seamless.


    He didn''t know exactly how close he was to advancing, but he felt he wasn''t that far away from it. After all, another method to advance was to experience challenges, kind of like forging yourself through fire. And if there was anything he had been doing for the past year, it was challenging himself.


    For now, he would just have to be patient and wait.


    Unfortunately, patience wasn''t exactly one of his virtues.


    ***


    He barely noticed when the morning arrived. He had been playing around with [Spatial Perception], making sure that nothing snuck up on them, and also to see if there was something he could use to learn a Concept.


    Reinera quickly awoke afterward.


    They enjoyed a quick and easy breakfast, shoving pastries and coffee down their stomachs before packing up and leaving their makeshift hole.


    It was pretty chilly in the morning air, so Julius made sure to keep a small barrier of heated air around Reinera. He didn''t need one, since he could just infuse some directly whenever he wanted.


    They traveled along the boring plains for hours. They did see a few creatures along the way, such as a herd of bison-looking monsters. However, the monsters didn''t care much for them and didn''t bother them.


    It wasn''t until the later afternoon that they finally saw something. Just on the horizon, was what looked to be like a town.


    Julius watched as this made Reinera almost cry for joy. While Julius had been fine with constantly running for hours on end, it was obvious she had not been. While her enhancement skill was really good and she never had to worry about running off of mana in the bright sunlight, it would seem that her body wasn''t used to such intensive running.


    On top of many breaks, Julius had to infuse some life mana into her occasionally to help her keep going. So when she finally saw an end to her suffering, Julius saw her run toward the town with such speed that it shocked him.


    He had to push himself to keep up with her.


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    ***


    When he caught up with her, he grabbed her shoulder gently.


    "You might want to use that necklace of yours to change your appearance," he said once she was paying attention to him.


    He saw the look of realization bloom on her face and her face flushed at her potentially thoughtless mistake. She quickly activated her disguise and he watched as her brilliant silver hair and bewitching features toned down to more subtle beauty.


    While they were at it, they took the time to change out of their Goldencrest uniforms into more subtle clothing.


    Well, his new outfit was subtle. Reinera''s was still a very expensive-looking outfit if you knew what to look for. The black cloth had a brilliant glimmer to it and showed all of the telltale signs of being made from higher quality materials.


    "Better?"


    He gave a non-committal shrug. "Better than before at least."


    They approached the walls of the town with a much more calm pace. At first glance, he was a little surprised at how different this town already was from Heston. Unlike the awe-inspiring and impressive city walls of the larger city, this town''s defenses weren''t pristine.


    The stone walls had large slashes and looked quite worn in comparison. It gave the appearance of a wall that had a history of many battles. Also, unlike Heston, the walls weren''t shining brightly with mana-enforced enchantments.


    They found one of the gates that allowed entry into the town and walked up to a line where there were already several people waiting to be allowed in. A pair of guards in light armor were standing by it and were checking over the people coming in.


    The two of them got in line and awaited their turn. As they waited, Julius took the time to inspect the two people in front of him. They had a large bundle of cloth strapped to a wagon they were dragging behind them. And when it was their turn to approach the guards, Julius was able to sense the two people handing over some coins to the guards discreetly.


    Oh boy. Do we need to pay a toll or something?


    Julius understood that not every place would be like Heston. Heston was a city with practically no crime but it was still surprising to see bribery right in front of him.


    When it was their turn Julius walked up to the guards with a smile on his face.


    The shorter one spoke to him first, the grip on his spear tightened just a hair. "What''s your business here?" His tone was slightly rude and condescending. But Julius didn''t let that bother him, if rude and condescending bothered him, he would have thrown Aubrey from the top of a cliff by now.


    "We are just passing through, hoping to get some food," he calmly explained to the man.


    "Well, the toll is two silvers for each of you to enter," the guard told them.


    "Two silvers? That is robbery!" Reinera exclaimed. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Are you calling us thieves girly?" The other taller man called out in a threatening tone.


    Julius watched as her face got increasingly angry as she heard his reply, but he intervened before she could do anything that might cause them problems.


    "We don''t have four silvers to give you," he lied to them.


    "Well then you can''t enter," the short guard scoffed at them.


    Julius reached into his pockets to grab a handful of coppers, probably just over two silvers and presented them with the most ashamed expression he could manage. "I''m sorry, but this is all we have. But we still need some left to eat."


    The guards laughed at him and the tall one reached over to grab the coppers roughly from his extended hand. "I guess that will have to do," he said with a hearty laugh.


    Julius kept his calm, but he felt Reinera was about to do something. So before she could, he bowed his head. "Please, sir. We need that money to eat."


    The short guard looked over at this friend. "You should at least leave the kids with something," he said with an arrogant smirk.


    "You''re right, that wouldn''t be very nice of me if I took all of your money."


    Yep, like that''s not exactly what you are doing right now.


    "Here," the taller guard said to him while tossing a single copper at him. Julius had to restrain the temptation to punch the two guards into the next town. Instead, he kept his head low and walked through the gates.


    As soon as they got far enough away from the guards, Reinera spoke up.


    "Why did you let them steal from us like that? There is no way a town like this has a toll of two silver," she exclaimed furiously. Her eyes were blazing with righteous anger.


    Julius had stopped pretending to be so meek and looked at her with calm eyes. "You really want to pick a fight with a bunch of town guards over a few silver?"


    "I don''t care for being robbed in broad daylight."


    "Why do you care so much about a couple of silver?"


    "It''s not about the silver, it''s about the principle of it. Those guards are supposed to protect the town, not extort its people," she argued to him.


    "You''re just used to living in cities like Heston and the capital. You can''t expect the same things in rural places like here. Not to mention, that it would just bring too much unwanted attention to us. We don''t need to get in trouble with the locals when we don''t even know where we are," he calmly explained to her.


    "It doesn''t matter. People shouldn''t be stealing from each other regardless of where they live. It''s not right," she vehemently stated.


    I bet it''s hard for her to understand the concept of doing anything for some money. She is a princess, after all, she has most likely never had to deal with being poor before.


    In his past life, when he was being raised from gramps, they didn''t have a lot of money. His gramps was living on his social security income and only got a little from the state because of Julius, so money was never in abundance.


    Looking back on it, moral obligations didn''t seem to matter as much when he was poor. Even he had done some dubious things just for a few bucks. In hindsight, it wasn''t something that he was proud of, but he could understand why he did it.


    A few bucks could have bought the old Julius a good many things.


    Now, it wasn''t so easy to think that way. It was hard to when he had handfuls of platinum and many valuable cores in his ring. By all standards, he was quite wealthy.


    He didn''t bother trying to argue with her anymore. It wasn''t like she was exactly wrong in her opinions, just a little bit naive in how realistic a task like preventing stealing or coercion would be.


    Instead, he gave the town a good look. As expected, it was nothing like Heston. The streets weren''t pristinely cleaned nor did all of the people wear really nice clothing. Furthermore, there were a lot more children running around.


    These children were obviously not well off, but they all had smiles and laughter on their faces as they played around on the cobblestone streets. It was a nice little reminder that showed that money didn''t necessarily mean happiness.


    He ended up pulling aside the most trustworthy looking person he found and asked them for directions to a good inn that had tasty food.


    The lady he asked was very kind and generously gave him very specific directions to an inn called Gentle Breeze. Apparently, it was a local favorite and had amazing food. It also sometimes had a performance for the patrons to enjoy.


    He ended up talking with her for a while and found out that this town was named Stonewall. He didn''t get to ask her where that was in relation to Heston, but he would hopefully be able to find it on a map tomorrow.


    He thanked her sincerely for her help and went on his way. However, without her noticing, he floated a gold coin over to her pocket.


    He ignored the broad smile that Reinera gave him after she spotted him doing so.

 Chapter 201: Old Man

    It wasn''t a particularly impressive-looking inn. Just a simple building really. But the atmosphere was bright and cheery. She wasn''t lying about the place being a local favorite. There was practically nowhere to sit.Luckily, they still had some rooms open for the night and they were able to get a pair of rooms. Afterward, they had some dinner and enjoyed some music from a group of musicians who were playing on a stage while people were eating.


    The lady did not lead them astray. The food was amazing. It was simple soup and roasted meat, but it was surprisingly delicious.


    Once they had their fill, they both went back to their rooms and while it was still early, decided to get some rest. Running around for several hours would do that to a person.


    However, unlike Reinera who actually went to her room, Julius ended up sneaking out.


    As for why he was doing so, well, that was simple... he wanted his money back.


    Reinera had a point, it wasn''t about the money, it was about the principle of it. Julius didn''t enjoy getting taken advantage of, which was why he was heading back out to the gates of the town, hoping that the two guards were still on duty.


    To his good fortune, they were still there, just lazing around. There weren''t any people coming in, so they were just loudly joking around with each other. The short one was pretending to stab an imaginary enemy while the tall one was talking.


    "Did you hear that Dennis died the other day?" The tall guard asked.


    "What? Doesn''t that mean his wife is available?"


    "Yep, I would do anything to get that woman into my bed," the tall one chuckled loudly.


    "I don''t think you would have to do much, I heard she has been fooling around with a lot of guys."


    While these men were busy talking, Julius was sneaking up behind them.


    Once he got close enough, he used his kinetic energy to restrict their movement. The tall guy froze from where he was sitting next to the gate, and the short guy was stopped in the middle of a thrust.


    Julius even managed to prevent the two men from yelling out. He didn''t say anything to them, but he felt their auras flare out in panic, their fear obvious.


    He didn''t stop to care and taunt them. He wasn''t there for that. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He slowly walked behind the tall guard and reached into the man''s purse, the same purse where he had seen the man put his stolen money. He pulled out all of the money with a smooth motion.


    He could feel the man''s heartbeat pounding through the man''s chest as Julius was practically breathing down the man''s neck.


    The man was terrified and Juilius wasn''t going to lie, it felt like a bit of well-deserved karma. This man and his friend had probably extorted so much money over the years.


    Just by looking at this purse, there were well over a couple of gold worth of coins sitting in there. Way more than a simple guard should have in his purse.


    He didn''t bother going over to the shorter guard, Julius didn''t sense much coin on his person, only a few silver. It seemed like the tall guard was the one in charge of the money they stole. Julius suspected that they didn''t just keep the money for themselves either. It was likely that there were multiple people involved in this scam.


    Julius was tempted to leave a single copper in the man''s purse, as a sort of joke but thought better of it. He was already taking a risk by doing this, there was no reason for him to give these guys and who they worked for any hints about who had done this.


    Instead, Julius took the money and just as quickly as he came, left back to where he came from. Only releasing the guards once he was far away.


    He was feeling pretty good. The annoyance he had been feeling toward those guards was now alleviated and had a cheery smile on his face. However, as he was walking back to the inn, he spotted a group of kids playing outside of a building with a nice-sized yard. Then he looked over and saw a sign hanging from the front.


    Stonewall Orphanage.


    He glanced at the kids and back at the money he had just taken from the guards. He had only gone back to take the money because he didn''t like being taken advantage of by a bunch of scumbags.


    But he didn''t really need the money. He would rather sow some good karma instead. So he snuck his way over to the building to investigate. He wanted to see what kind of orphanage it was beforehand.


    He wasn''t about to steal the money just to leave it to a bunch of orphanage workers who didn''t care about the children.


    He did admittedly feel pretty weird about stalking around an orphanage, but he reminded himself that he was doing it for a good reason.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Over the course of an hour, he observed several workers going about helping the children. There were a good number of them who wore similar robes that seemed to mark them as members of some sort of religion, but Julius didn''t know what kind of religion.


    It was most likely the Church of Light, as that was the most prevalent faith within the Empire.


    However, in his short time scouting the orphanage, he felt like they cared enough for the children. The children were all seemingly happy as well. It showed that this wasn''t a bad orphanage at least.


    Thus, with his mind made up, he now had to figure out how to get the money to the children.


    He thought about just giving it to some random kid, but he could already see how that might end, so he quickly tossed away that idea. He sat down and brainstormed some ideas until he came up with one that wasn''t too bad.


    However, as he was about to move he felt someone appear right behind him.


    Julius didn''t hesitate for a moment, he immediately powered up all of his skills and reached out with his kinetic restriction technique.


    As his will touched the person who had appeared behind him, he felt like he had hit a brick wall. The person''s will crushed his with a tyrannical fist. His wasn''t even close, but that didn''t mean he gave up.


    No, instead he dug deeper and channeled Inexorable Will with all of his might. He felt his soul strain from the effort, but [Soul Tempering] allowed him to push his soul beyond what it would normally be able to.


    He actually felt the person''s will slightly bend from Julius''s surge. Their aura showed a hint of surprise as Julius was able to fight back. That didn''t last very long though as they put in a little more effort of their own and wiped out Julius''s attempt.


    The one thing that Julius noticed right away was that this person hadn''t chosen to attack him yet. There was clearly an opportunity for this person to attack him if they wanted to, but they hadn''t.


    The moment he realized this he pulled back and focused on this unknown person.


    It was an older man. He was thin, had greying hair, and didn''t seem all that impressive, but Julius had just felt how impressive this man was just a few seconds ago, so he made sure to remind himself of that.


    He saw an amused grin on the man''s face. "Are you done?"


    Julius responded with an embarrassed scratch of his head. "Sorry, you just scared me," he apologized to the man.


    "Scared? I have seen scared boy, I wouldn''t quite call that scared."


    "Surprised," Julius corrected himself. "I was surprised to see you there."


    "You shouldn''t have been able to sense I was there in the first place, so I guess I can''t be too upset with your reaction then," the man stated, itching his chin. "Although, I still want to know what you are doing here."


    Julius gave him an abashed grin. "I was just checking out this place."


    "And why''s that?"


    "Curiosity, I suppose," he said with a shrug.


    "I don''t believe that''s the main reason," the older man said with a shake of his head.


    Who''s this man? How was he able to get so close to me before I could sense him? While he looks harmless, there is no mistaking that this man is no ordinary old man.


    It was weird. Julius was usually pretty good at sensing what tier someone was at. His instincts allowed him to be a pretty good judge of how strong someone was or what kind of threat they were.


    Even with Dante and Alice, he had been able to guess that they were very strong people, regardless of their aura suppression.


    This man he got nothing from. If he hadn''t just been proven otherwise, he would have thought this old man was a weak old man.


    "Who are you?" Julius finally asked.


    "Oh, I am just a regular old man who happens to be the caretaker of this orphanage. The same orphanage that you seem to be stalking about like a thief of the night."


    Julius frowned at the old man. "I''m not a thief," he stated defensively.


    "Well, you are certainly hiding in the shadows and sneaking about like a thief," the old man stated simply.


    Point taken.


    "Well, I promise you I am not a thief."


    "Oh, you promise don''t ya? If you say that, then that must be true, huh?"


    Julius''s shoulders dropped at the man''s sarcastic remarks. He decided to just come out with the truth.


    "I just wanted to see if the people here treated the children well. I was thinking of giving some money I came across to the orphanage, but I wanted to make sure that it was going to the right people."


    "Oh, is that what you were doing? Well, what did you decide, huh?"


    "I thought I made up my mind, but I might be reconsidering it," Julius said with a meaningful stare.


    "Why''s that?"


    Julius looked off into the distant setting sun. "There''s this old man that I don''t really trust. He appears to be harmless but he''s clearly hiding his strength. I can''t help but wonder why he would be a caretaker of a random orphanage."


    "Some people just want to help children, is that so hard for you to imagine?" The old man chuckled in a raspy laugh.


    "No, of course not. You can call me a cynic if you want, but I just have doubts about people who do things for inexplicable reasons."


    "Is doing something because it''s the right thing to do an inexplicable reason?"


    Julius gave a noncommittal shrug. "Perhaps."


    A long pause stretched between them.


    The old man finally broke that silence. "Well, you better come inside. Dinner is almost ready and you look hungry."


    Julius gave him a blank stare. "I just ate." He really just did too, he wasn''t lying.


    "Nonsense, you are a growing boy. Come, I can introduce you to the children."


    "I don''t want to," he once again declined the offer.


    "Come on, I won''t take no for an answer. Also, if you don''t come in for food I won''t accept that money you stole from those guards," the old man calmly told him, turning around as he said so.


    The moment he mentioned that Julius did a double take, turned back around, and gave the old man a look of disbelief. He took a few moments to process what he had just heard. Eventually, he couldn''t come up with a suitable explanation or alternative.


    Thus, he just took a deep breath and followed the old man who was already walking back toward the orphanage, completely confident that Julius would be right behind him.


    What''s up with me and coming across mysterious and powerful people?

 Chapter 202: Meddlesome

    Upon closer inspection, the building was in quite good shape. The stone wasn''t brand new, but there weren''t any large signs of damage and the glass windows were quite clean. Even the hedges were maintained properly.However, as they walked toward the front door they were intercepted by two unknown assailants.


    "Hey, Elder Han, who''s the kid?" A brat with red hair and dirt all over his face asked.


    "Shut up, Landon. Ever since you turned ten you have been calling everyone kid, as if you aren''t a kid yourself," another kid that was following behind who was similarly covered in dirt but had black hair.


    "Yeah, so what?"


    "Then stop calling people older than you ''kid'', it''s weird," the black-haired boy told Landon.


    "You''re weird!"


    "Yeah, but you''re more weird!"


    An argument quickly started and the old man, who was supposedly named Elder Han just sighed and massaged his forehead.


    "Landon, Abel, stop yelling at each other. You guys better go get cleaned up before Sister Cathy gets mad at you two for being late."


    That seemed to scare the boys into compliance. The moment the name Cathy came out, the two of them stopped immediately and ran off to get cleaned. As they were sprinting, the red-haired boy tripped the other boy and ran away with a giggle.


    Julius observed Elder Han smile as the old man watched the two boys run away.


    "Kids will be kids," the old man finally said.


    Julius just grunted in agreement as the two of them calmly walked toward the building.


    "Who are you really?" Julius asked curiously.


    Unlike the last time, the old man actually gave him a serious glance. "Just an old man trying to find some purpose in these old bones before I kick the bucket."


    "And before that?"


    The old man shook his head. "Not important anymore."


    Julius was about to press more but withheld his curiosity. The man obviously didn''t want to talk about it, and Julius could respect that.


    "Do you run this orphanage?" Julius asked, changing the subject.


    Elder Han nodded. "Partly. I have plenty of help and each one is as vital to the upkeep of the orphanage as I am."


    They paused as a group of small little girls ran by in a hurry. Probably scared of Sister Cathy like those two boys were.


    Once they were out of earshot, he asked the old, "How did you know about the guards?"


    "In a town like this, it''s more difficult not to notice anything out of the ordinary," the old man said cryptically.


    "What does that mean?"


    "It means that you don''t often see two Tier 2 kids exuding the aura you and your friend do in a town this size. Most of the kids who even come close either end up going to an academy to study or end up joining a sect."


    "Sects?" He asked.


    "You never heard of sects?" The old man asked, surprised.


    "No, I do, but information was pretty limited about them," he explained.


    It was true. Even with the extensive library, he hadn''t really found much about sects. Then again, he wasn''t that interested in them and hadn''t looked that hard. He was more interested in fun stories and interesting historical accounts that might give him some inspiration for his skills.


    As far as he understood it, sects were like private communities. Those who were a part of them rarely interacted with the outside world.


    There was supposedly a pretty large sect near Heston. It was called the Stormbreaker Sect and from what Julius had heard about it, its members were quite powerful fighters. However, from what Julius had heard they stayed out of the Empire''s politics and focused on fighting monsters.


    "Well, there are a few local sects around here that every so often have an exam to scout out talent. Most of the children who have it, end up going with them or choose to go to an academy."


    "Is there a large difference between academies and sects?" Julius asked, taking advantage of an opportunity to learn more about this world.


    "Of course."


    "Like what?" He asked.


    "Well, some people choose academies because there is less of a commitment. Whereas, if you joined a sect, it is kind of a lifetime commitment. You can''t share what you learn from them with others and you owe your allegiance to them," the old man explained as he opened the door for Julius.


    Julius had to wait to enter as one last group of children ran past him, eager to get some food.


    "So why would people even consider a sect?"


    "Power," Elder Han explained simply. "Because of your commitment, you are able to learn much more powerful skills and techniques."


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    "You make it sound like academies don''t provide that."


    The two of them were walking down a long hallway that was warmly lit. It felt distinctly homey and cozy.


    Elder Han turned to look at him with a meaningful look. "Do they? You should know better than anyone else."


    "What is that supposed to mean?"


    "It''s pretty obvious. If you were from a sect you would know more about them and from the way your defending academies make it seem like you go to one," Elder Han stated, but then sighed. "Look, I''m not trying to say that academies are useless. But there is a reason why most students are nobles. They already have backing from their families, they have skills and legacies with long histories. Not every commoner has that."


    "There are commoners at the academy I go to," he pointed out to the old man.


    "Those are the outliers. Most commoners, especially the ones out here choose to enter a sect or some sort of association. Not only will they get access to more help with their skills but also they gain the backing of an established power. The allegiance goes both ways. Just as you have to be loyal to your sect, your sect will have your back when you need it."


    Julius paused as he thought about that.


    It made sense. Most of the students he met at Goldencrest already had an idea of what kind of skillset they were pursuing. Their families most likely picked many of them out for them when they were young.


    He couldn''t expect that all commoners were like himself and were able to acquire powerful skills on their own. Some would need some guidance to do so, and he hasn''t seen that from Goldencrest. Even Gabriel was limited in what he could show Julius, the big baldy said so himself.


    But if you were to swear a magical oath to keep how one learned a skill a secret and to swear loyalty, then it wouldn''t be unfair to say that someone would be more willing to teach a person said skills.


    Goldencrest didn''t have anything like that in place. They had opportunities to get stronger, but it was very much a find-your-own-way type of school. However, you also didn''t tie yourself to a single power.


    Regardless, for a commoner with nothing to support them except for their families, he could see how the sects were a superior offer.


    Elder Han waved his hand. "I don''t know how I ended up lecturing you on my dated opinions, but I apologize. You are free to make your own opinion later in your life. But for the moment let''s just go eat. Sister Cathy doesn''t like it when anybody is late, that goes for me as well," he chuckled.


    ***


    Dinner was surprisingly nice. He met with some very interesting young children and had the pleasure of meeting the infamous Sister Cathy.


    Unexpectedly, Sister Cathy wasn''t some scary old nun. No, shockingly, Sister Cathy was a gorgeous young woman in her early twenties.


    But he quickly saw why the children feared her. She gave commands like a drill sergeant and her voice was like a thorny whip. Not even the cutest girl was safe from her tongue lashings. It was equal tyranny.


    As Elder Han was walking him around the complex, Julius passed over the money he took from the guards. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Oh, changed your mind again, have we?"


    "That''s a lot of children. I don''t think it''s going to get you very far," Julius said.


    "Every copper matters. Who knows? Maybe I will end up treating the kids to some sweets," the old man commented with a chuckle.


    "I''m sure Sister Cathy wouldn''t appreciate that."


    "Oh ho, you would be surprised. As long as I get her a couple of things it will be alright," Elder stated confidently.


    "Whatever you say," Julius said with a shake of his head, already preparing for Elder Han''s funeral.


    Julius didn''t know where Elder Han was taking him. But they were heading toward the back of the orphanage. The old man had said he wanted to show him something, but he couldn''t help but wonder what was back here.


    It didn''t take very long to find out.


    He heard the familiar sound before he saw it. There were a few children who were out back already training some of the skills. It was mainly boys, but there were a couple of girls who were also participating.


    "What is this?" He asked the old man.


    "One of the best ways to support oneself and their family in a rural place like Stonewall is to learn how to hunt monsters. We try our best to teach the children who are interested."


    "I thought you said many of the children end up going to sects or other established powers," he commented as he observed the group of children.


    "Not everyone is considered to be talented enough to be recruited. Those who don''t have an exceptional affinity often have to prove themselves before any power accepts them within their ranks. A lot of the time, the unchosen end up as adventurers. Before that, they have to learn skills somehow right?"


    "And you''re the one who teaches them?"


    The old man laughed softly. "Not really, after all, I am just a simple old man. What kind of child would listen to my advice?"


    "I would," he easily replied.


    The old failed to hide the grin as he heard Julius''s comment.


    "So what am I doing here? I suspect you have a reason for this. I doubt you brought me out here to show me your talented students," Julius stated.


    "That''s exactly what I was doing. But you''re right. That''s not the only reason," Elder Han told him with a pat on the shoulder.


    "Can you just come out and say it?" Julius asked exasperatedly.


    The old man chuckled at his behavior. "I want you to help them."


    "You really think I can offer more than you could?"


    The old man didn''t even try to hide his amusement. "Of course not, you''re not exactly an experienced teacher even I can tell that much. But you do have something that I don''t."


    Julius had to rein in his urge to argue with the old man, instead he played along. "And what''s that?"


    "Youth."


    "Youth?" He asked skeptically.


    "Yep. Like I said earlier, these children only think of me as a simple old man. They don''t really have faith in what I tell them."


    "I bet that would change if you just showed them a fraction of your power," Julius said with a deadpan expression.


    "Perhaps. But I am not looking to do that. It would defeat the whole purpose after all," the old man replied with a shrug.


    Julius gave the old man a blank stare. "And why would I do it?"


    "Because you have a good heart," the old man chuckled.


    "No, I don''t"


    "Yes, you do. Otherwise, you would have just kept that money. Rather than do that, you decided to give it to some normal orphanage."


    Normal orphanage my ass.


    Julius shook his head. "I am not exactly a teacher like you so helpfully pointed out," he made another excuse.


    "I don''t need you to give them a formal education. I just want you to beat them up a little bit," the old man said like it was a completely normal thing to say.


    "Beat them up?"


    "Just a little."


    He didn''t have a reply to that. Instead, he looked over at the children who were training. At first glance, it was obvious to see the effort they were putting in. Every one of them was putting their heart into it.


    It was kind of inspiring. Just from an initial glance at their auras, they weren''t anything special at least compared to some of the students at Goldencrest. Still, their dedication touched him.


    He suspected that was what Elder Han was hoping for.


    "I am starting to see that you are quite the meddlesome old man," Julius told the old man as he walked toward the group of children.

 Chapter 203: Feeling Nervous

    Sarah POVSarah sent another mana bolt toward her target. She had been trying very hard to improve the power of her attacks but was having a hard time. She hadn''t increased the level of [Mana Bolt] in quite some time.


    What am I doing wrong?


    The others weren''t having quite the same problems as her. All of them were improving quite well. Even Scott, no matter how annoying he could be, had improved a lot in these past few months.


    It was hard not to know, considering that the boy had been bragging to everyone about it. He kept on saying that the next time the Razor Wind Sect came along they would be begging for him to join.


    She didn''t want to admit it, but there was a good chance he wasn''t just blowing empty air. The boy was most likely the strongest out of them. If anyone had a chance, it would be him.


    However, joining a sect wasn''t a part of Sarah''s goals. She was planning to join the Adventurer''s Guild once she was old enough. Her parents had been adventurers and she was planning to follow in their footsteps.


    Not at this rate though.


    She had a high water affinity, but everyone knew that water mages were weaker than other mages such as fire mages at lower tiers. That was the reason why she had chosen to get the [Mana Bolt] skill. It would allow her to hit a little bit harder than some of her water skills did.


    So far, it had been slow progress and she couldn''t help but doubt her initial plan. However, she was determined to show everyone that she could do it.


    So she sent another [Mana Bolt] at the target, trying her best to channel as much mana into it.


    As she did that, she couldn''t help but notice Elder Han approaching from the distance. Alongside, the old caretaker was a boy around their age.


    I think I remember seeing him at dinner earlier. Another orphan maybe? He is going to join us in training?


    "Everyone, come and gather around!" Elder Han called out to them all. All of the kids stopped what they were doing and came on over.


    Although Elder Han was usually a gentle grandpa to them, he could be surprisingly commanding when he wanted to. It wasn''t like Sister Cathy either, Elder Han was loved by everyone, regardless of their age. He was the one they ran to when they were trying to hide from Sister Cathy.


    "Who''s the new kid?" Scott brashly asked.


    "This is Julius. He''s not an orphan but I asked him here to give you guys some help," Elder Han explained with his typical smile, like there was something they didn''t know.


    Sarah had been around since she was six years old, so she knew what that smile meant. The others would have too if they cared to pay attention.


    Scott obviously didn''t notice or care. "What?! How''s a kid our age going to teach us anything?" The boy exclaimed.


    Finn, the more polite of the two also spoke up. "I agree, no offense Elder Han, but why bring us a boy who can''t be older than us to teach us things?"


    Elder Han gave them that same smile. "Because you guys have been getting cocky lately."


    "No, we haven''t! We have just been getting stronger, so it''s natural that our attitudes will change with it!" Scott argued.


    "Oh ho? You think so?"


    "Definitely! I have been working hard, there is no way some pampered brat is going to beat me," Scott boldly declared.


    "That sounds like a challenge," Elder Han commented. It sounded like he was expecting something like this. Sarah had a weird feeling in her gut.


    "Damn right, it is!"


    "How does that sound Julius? Would you be willing to fight him?" The old man asked the boy next to him.


    Sarah took the time to finally get a good look at the newcomer. He was decently tall for his age, and he was wearing some baggy clothing so it was hard to tell if he was muscular or thin, but his eyes were what drew her in.


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    There was a weird sparkle in them that distracted her.


    Probably just the light playing tricks, she told herself.


    The boy ran his hand through his black hair, showing his somewhat attractive features. He wasn''t overly handsome like Scott, but he had his own sort of charm. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Why do I think you were expecting this, old man?" The boy asked, his voice deeper than she had been expecting.


    "You can never predict the youth these days," Elder Han said with a smirk.


    "Well, are we going to fight or not?" Scott asked sharply. Finn, who was next to Scott, gave the other boy a hard elbow as if telling him to be nicer.


    The black-haired boy gave a calm look at Scott. "Sure, I don''t have any problems with that."


    She watched as Julius and Scott both walked toward the empty area where they often had mock fights.


    Scott picked up a wooden sword that was lying on a rack and tossed one to Julius.


    "Here, we fight until the first crippling blow, alright?"


    "That''s good by me," the new boy stated evenly.


    Scott didn''t wait for much longer and went onto the offensive right away. Sarah observed Scott''s patent fire augmentation skill activate and his speed increased dramatically.


    Ah, he''s going all out from the start, she thought to herself with a frown.


    However, she was surprised to witness the new boy take this all in with a passive face. He calmly and easily deflected all of Scott''s swings with a quick flick of his wrist. His feet barely moved from their place, using just a single hand to parry.


    A quick pivot or a sudden backstep was all he needed in order to defend himself from Scott''s attacks.


    She noticed Scott grow increasingly frustrated as none of his usual attacks worked on this new boy. His annoyance started to show through his fighting.


    It was one of his biggest weaknesses, in Sarah''s humble opinion. They had all repeatedly told him that, but the rash boy didn''t care. He just used his frustration to power his blows, making them faster and stronger, but also more predictable.


    Julius seemed to come to this understanding as well. As he casually fended off Scott''s offensive surge, he spoke to the other boy. "Anger has its uses. But blind rage won''t get you anywhere," he gently rebuked the other boy.


    Scott replied, in the only way she knew he would, he attacked harder.


    Sarah saw the new boy just sigh. Rather than keep on defending, she watched as the boy dropped his sword without a care in the world into the dirt.


    As Scott sent a furious overhanded strike, Julius stepped calmly to one side, the wooden blade passing down his body. He stepped into Scott''s guard and sent a single punch into the other boy''s stomach.


    A grimace of pain flashed through Scott''s face, but credit to him, he didn''t allow it to affect him that much. He brought his wooden sword back around and backhanded a slash at the now weaponless boy.


    This didn''t seem to matter to Julius. He used one hand to clamp down on the forearm of Scott, gave it a sharp twist, and forced the other boy to let go of his weapon.


    The now weaponless Scott backed up and had a furious expression on his face. He was holding his arm in pain but kept looking at the sword that was on the ground with desperate eyes.


    Scott launched himself toward Julius with a tackle, which the other boy avoided with ease, but Sarah was shocked to see that Scott hadn''t been planning to take down the other boy in the first place. He had been trying to retrieve his sword.


    Unfortunately for Scott, unlike Sarah, Julius had not been fooled. The new boy stretched out his foot and poked the sword just out of Scott''s reach. As Scott tried to lunge further for his sword, Julius stomped down on his ankle, preventing him from doing so.


    No matter how he struggled, Scott wasn''t able to remove the leg from his ankle.


    With a sigh of exasperation, the new boy released his hold and walked away with his hands in his pockets, clearly demonstrating that the fight was over.


    Scott unfortunately, didn''t seem to understand that the fight was already well beyond lost. Whether it was his anger or stupidity that kept him going, she didn''t know. However, once Scott struggled in the dirt and got a hold of his sword, he lept back to both feet. He then ran at the boy who had his back turned to Scott.


    Sarah was about to cry out a warning, but she was too late. Scott swung a powerful blow at the unprotected head of the other boy. Even though it was a wooden sword, it was wood that was much stronger than normal wood. If it connected, it could do some real damage.


    However, somehow Julius seemed to have eyes on the back of his head, because he tilted his head down at the perfect moment, avoiding the sword, pivoted, and sent a front kick at Scott''s chest. It was so casual and fluid that she couldn''t help but gasp in awe.


    She wasn''t that talented in close combat or had any skill in striking techniques, but she practiced enough with the others to realize that was something that only could be pulled off with many countless hours of practice. The flexibility and footwork that was demonstrated was very impressive.


    This wasn''t like any other of his attacks either. This one had some power behind it. She heard a loud thump and the sound of all of the air gushed out of the Scott''s chest before he was sent flying head over foot into a rack of wooden weapons with a loud crash.


    Scott didn''t make any moves to get up but she wouldn''t be surprised to learn if the boy was completely unconscious and had broken ribs for his stupid decision. Attacking someone like that from behind was too far, even for Scott.


    Julius just walked over to where Scott remained lying down, hands still in his pockets, and stared at the boy with a disappointed and irritated glare.


    Although Julius''s attention wasn''t on her or the other kids, for some reason Sarah suddenly found it difficult to breathe. It was like the time when they had faced a Tier 2 monster for their very first hunt. She knew at that moment that there was no doubt that the boy could have hit Scott harder than he did. Furthermore, she couldn''t help but feel nervous about what the new boy was going to do to Scott for his actions.

 Chapter 204: Taking Them All On

    Julius wanted to groan in frustration."I thought you said the children here were good kids," he said accusingly toward Elder Han.


    "There are, but as I said, some of them have gotten arrogant," the meddlesome old man stated with zero shame. As if one of them hadn''t just tried to smash his head apart after the spar was clearly over.


    Julius stalked on over to the prone figure of the boy who had tried to hurt him. He didn''t help the boy up, no, he gave the boy another small kick for good measure.


    "Hey! That''s cheap!" One of the other boys called out angrily.


    "Cheap? You mean more cheap than swinging as hard as he could at a defenseless person''s head?" Julius retorted back without looking.


    "Well, obviously you''re fine!"


    "So that makes it okay, huh? What if I hadn''t been prepared? What if he actually managed to hit me?" Julius asked the boy.


    Truthfully, if Julius had managed to get hit by that strike, it would have done pretty minimal damage since his physical enhancement skill had been still active. Additionally, he would have just healed whatever damage with his healing skill. So there wouldn''t have been a problem.


    However, he wasn''t going to tell them that. In the end, one of their friends had just tried to ambush him after losing the fight.


    It was a show of poor sportsmanship and a reflection of how he fought. That thoughtlessness was the reason why the poor boy had been beaten so easily.


    It wasn''t like the boy had shitty skills. As a matter of fact, Julius was pretty sure that he had several at rare already. A pretty good feat for someone living at an orphanage. Likely better than some of the students in his class.


    Although, he suspected that had a lot to do with the old man. But he doubted many of them realized that.


    After Julius''s retort, the boy went beat red and had his fists clenched.


    "Calm down, Ibram," another girl told her friend with a hand on Ibram''s shoulder. S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Calm down, Sarah? You saw what he just did to Scott."


    Scott? Oh, that must be the boy in the dirt, he thought to himself.


    "Scott deserved it and you know it."


    Just as the other Ibram boy was about to say something, Elder Han clapped his hands together with a deafening boom. The sound was much louder than what an old man should be able to produce.


    "This is why I asked Julius to help you guys," Elder Han spoke. The usual teasing tone was nowhere to be seen. His voice was authoritative and stern, and Julius saw that every one of the children stood up a bit straighter.


    "After your guy''s success hunting some monsters, you have grown too arrogant. I thought it was needed to show you guys that there are people out there that you are no match for yet."


    "And you''re saying that this guy is? I admit he beat Scott, but that doesn''t mean he could beat the rest of us. If Scott fought a little smarter, he would have likely beaten him," Ibram confidently stated.


    "No, he wouldn''t."


    The assertiveness and absoluteness of Elder Han''s words cut through all of them.


    "Even if every one of you guys fought him, you would die before you could scratch his skin," Elder Han told them bluntly.


    "That''s a bit unfair Elder," the girl named Sarah defended herself and her friends.


    "Why is that? Do you think that just because you guys can take down a Tier 2 monster by yourself you can win against any Tier 2?" The old man''s rebuttal was sharp like a whip, his sarcasm evident.


    "No, that would be unreasonable, but to assume that we would all be defeated so easily against another kid our age seems unfair to our hard work," the girl calmly argued.


    She has a point. I don''t blame her for being offended. If someone told me that no matter what I or my group of friends did, we wouldn''t be able to beat another person of the same tier, I would be similarly offended.


    "That''s just the harsh truth of the world. And I want to show you this before you all head off onto your own journeys. There are just some things that you can''t fight your way out of. I would rather you find out now, than die in a few years because of that pride," Elder Han said more gently.


    "Look, we get that we won''t be able to beat some of the geniuses of the sects or academies who have perfect affinities, but you can''t expect us to constantly live in fear of fighting someone who has perfect affinity," a different boy spoke up.


    "It''s not the people with perfect affinities, that I want you to worry about, Finn. It''s the people who get as strong as them who don''t have such advantages that you should be wary of. You will be surprised at how many people with subpar affinities go on to become powerhouses."


    "What like him?" Ibram asked skeptically, pointing at him.


    Hey, stop bringing me into this. I just got caught up with the old man, I didn''t mean for this to become such a thing.


    "Exactly like him."


    Shut up, old fart.


    "Well, I still don''t believe you. To say that all of us together wouldn''t stand a chance against him is too much," the boy adamantly stated.


    "Why don''t you try?" Elder Han welcomed daringly.


    Julius gave a harsh look toward the old man. "I have no intentions of dealing with this drama. If you are so worried about the children, then you should find a way to deal with them yourself. I''m certainly, not going to fight them all for you."


    "Oi, sounds like you are scared," the boy kept on talking.


    "Shut up kid, the adults are speaking," Julius casually dismissed the boy who was probably older than him. But he was getting annoyed at the kid''s attitude.


    He heard an angry response, but he tuned it out. All of his attention was on the old man.


    Elder Han gave him an acknowledging nod. "I understand your hesitancy, Julius. However, what if I gave you something in return."


    "What could you give me?" Julius asked, not outwardly showing his interest.


    "What if I could help you evolve your physical enhancement skill?" Elder Han threw out.


    Julius paused at that. "What would you know about that?"


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    "I might have a useful Concept that will go along quite nicely with that skill."


    That did intrigue Julius. The only problem with that was that he didn''t think he would or should get another Concept or epic skill before getting to Tier 3. He had learned his lesson and understood that his soul could only handle so much.


    "Under normal circumstances, that would be a good offer, but I would have to wait until Tier 3," he honestly told him.


    "Oh?" Elder Han''s grey and bushy eyebrows lifted in excitement. "So you''re at that point huh?"


    "What point?" The girl named Sarah asked. "And what did you mean by teaching him a concept?"


    They both ignored the girl, much to her annoyance.


    Elder Han nodded. "Okay, then how about a favor? If there''s something you need and if it''s within my abilities, then I will provide it. Does that sound fair?"


    Julius smiled inwardly. He liked favors. Elder Han didn''t know that of course, but the thought of gaining another favor greatly appealed to Julius. Especially, from someone as enigmatic as this old man. It was his secret weakness, after secret treasure chests of course.


    "That could work," he said approvingly.


    "Wonderful!" Elder Han clapped his hands happily. "Everyone, you all sound very confident in your ability to beat this boy. Now you can prove it."


    Julius gave a look at who he would be facing. There was the boy Ibram, Sarah, another girl, Finn, and the last boy. The Scott fellow was still lying unconscious so Julius wasn''t counting him.


    Okay, so five of them versus poor old me, that doesn''t sound very fair to them, he internally joked.


    "You still feeling arrogant huh?" Ibram called out as the rest of them got into position and stared down Julius. However, unlike Ibram, the others didn''t look as confident. They were anxiously looking at him, the Sarah girl in particular seemed very wary.


    At least not all of them are like those two boys.


    Julius smiled at the boy who was angrily pacing back and forth, sword in hand, and waited for Elder Han to begin the fight.


    "Begin," the old man shouted out.


    As expected the Ibram boy dashed in, but unlike the Scott guy, he was much faster. He had some sort of speed-focused physical enhancement skill, but Julius could already tell that he sacrificed power for it.


    The two girls and one boy were mages it seemed. They sent out a medley of ranged attacks. One was a plain old mana bolt, one was a barrage of rocks, but one was interestingly a powerful shard of metal.


    He didn''t activate his armor, instead just covering himself with [Barrier of Severance] and using [Flash Step] to avoid the attacks. He also made sure to dodge in a specific way that forced the two other boys who were charging in, to get hit in the back from their friends.


    It didn''t do too much damage, as they both seemed to have some defensive skills and the girls weakened them before they hit, but it still staggered them.


    Unlike his fight with Scott, he didn''t play around for that long. He moved in to take advantage of their off-balance stances. He took out Ibram first. A quick smack with an enforced arm tore the boy''s sword from his grasp and a follow-up kick sent the boy careening right where his friend was unconscious.


    The other boy used the opening of Julius with commendable skill. He sent a quick thrust at Julius''s back, completely silent as he did so. Julius dodged but found himself in the volley of another barrage.


    Instead, of trying to sidestep them, he pushed forward and dashed toward the undefended group of mages. He saw their eyes widen as they realized what he was doing and tried to retreat.


    However, [Flash Step] quickly had him right in front of the metal mage. The boy named Finn was definitely the only one who was the real danger. He sent a blast of kinetic energy into the boy''s stomach, making sure to hold back. He didn''t want to blow a hole into the boy''s stomach after all.


    The other two girls quickly followed. He did the same to them and had taken them all out by the time the last spear-using boy caught up.


    The spear user was skilled, tall, had long limbs, and utilized his superior reach to good effect. The only problem was the boy didn''t seem to have any explosive or powerful abilities to give him an opening.


    After humoring the boy for a little bit, he finally grabbed the haft of the spear, pulled him in, and gave a little headbutt to the boy''s dome. Sending him into the dirt with a thump.


    Afterward, he looked around to see that all of them were either still on the ground or were still struggling to get up.


    Eh, maybe I should have held back a little bit more, he inwardly winced.


    Elder Han seemed to enjoy it though. "Haha, I told ya, didn''t I?"


    Julius watched as Sarah stumbled to her feet and cradled her head. "Why is he so much stronger than the rest of us?" She asked despondently.


    "Like I said before, there are gaps that you can''t easily overcome, even at the same tier."


    "What? Like the concepts you mentioned before? Is that what you mean?" Sarah asked.


    "That''s exactly what I mean, Sarah," Elder Han said proudly.


    "Well, then how do we get one of those?" The Finn boy asked.


    "It''s not worth it at Tier 2. You could spend years trying to learn one. It becomes much easier once you get into Tier 3."


    "So why haven''t you told us about them before?" Sarah asked with a frown.


    "Because if I did, you would have all tried to get one. Maybe you would have, but that time would have been better spent training your other skills," Elder Han explained.


    Just as Sarah was about to argue, Elder Han waved his hand, cutting her off.


    "We already wasted enough time. You have someone who can help you get stronger. Why don''t you use him instead of asking a useless old man questions?"


    Julius gave the ''useless old man'' a meaningful look. Elder Han spotted it but shamelessly ignored it.


    Julius just shook his head but was quickly distracted by the horde of teenagers that approached him with fiery intensity in their eyes.


    ***


    Sarah POV


    When Elder Han said that they didn''t stand a chance, she and the others did not believe him. Although they respected the old man more than anyone else, it was hard to trust the opinion of someone who looked like they could keel over and die at any moment.


    Still, when he had dismantled them so easily, it was impossible to ignore that Elder Han was right.


    Thus, once they dusted themselves off they shamelessly asked for help. Even Ibram swallowed his pride and asked the boy for some pointers.


    However, Sarah knew that Julius wasn''t just there to teach them new skills or techniques, he was here to show them that there was always someone better than you out there.


    It was humbling and frustrating in equal measure.


    However, then it was finally her turn to get his help.


    "Why do you use [Mana Bolt]?" That was the first thing he asked her. It almost sounded like the idea of her using [Mana Bolt] offended him in some way.


    "I wanted some more offensive powerful spell to use," she explained like she had a thousand times to everyone who had the same question.


    "Is that all? Because if so, that''s a pretty poor reason."


    "How is me wanting to do more damage and contribute to a fight a poor reason?" She said offended by his tone.


    "Because it is wasteful and your use of the skill is not very good. To be honest, your skill does more damage to my eyes than if I just let it hit me in the face," he told her with a completely straight face.


    She felt herself get riled up. "You keep talking like that you will find the answer to that pretty quickly."


    He raised his hands and laughed at her. "Sorry. But it''s true. Why don''t you use your water affinity instead? There''s plenty you could do with it to be useful. One of my friends uses their water affinity as a hybrid fighter. He has some pretty cool buffs as well."


    "Because I want to use [Mana Bolt]," she stated stubbornly.


    He looked as if he was going to continue arguing, but must have decided against it. "Okay, then let''s work on that [Mana Bolt], because it is absolutely sad to see it as is."


    She sent a low-powered [Mana Bolt] at him for that, and she wasn''t that surprised that he avoided it without even looking at her.


    "First, you have to learn how to compress it more."


    "Compress it?" She asked curiously.


    "Yes, if you want to make [Mana Bolt] work you have to compress your mana, otherwise it will be too weak. Also, you are wasting a lot of mana as you create each [Mana Bolt]. Focus on making sure that all of the mana you use ends up in the [Mana Bolt], right now about half of your mana ends up dissipating in the air, mana that could be used to empower it even more," he explained to her.


    For the next while, he helped her work on her skill. He was surprisingly a good teacher. Sarah had learned most of her mana control from the workers of the orphanage, but Julius seemed to have a much higher standard when it came to control.


    It was almost to the point of perfectionism and she would have complained if it wasn''t for it working so well.


    By the time he was done helping her, she had already gained two levels in [Mana Bolt] and each bolt of mana was noticeably stronger. Before, her attacks had almost floated towards her target, whereas now she actually felt like they were tearing through the air to them.


    It wasn''t just that, but there was much more weight behind each bolt of mana. As if the mana from the bolt was like a hammer, smashing into the defenses of Julius''s barriers.


    She sent another fully empowered [Mana Bolt] at Julius with a smile, all the while inwardly thanking Elder Han for bringing this boy to them.

 Chapter 205: Come on!

    Reinera POVShe had no idea where Julius had run off to. She spent several minutes knocking on the door to his room, but there was no response, which likely meant that he was out.


    She had wanted to take the time to have a sit-down and real talk with Julius now that everything had calmed down.


    There wasn''t exactly a lot of time, nor it was the right place to have a heart-to-heart in a labyrinth. But now that they had reached a town, it was different.


    Where could he have gone? Did he go out and get some more food? She thought to herself wonderingly.


    She would be the first one to admit it, but she loved food more than most people would find healthy. However, Julius might have been an even larger fanatic when it came to food.


    Although they had been stuck in a Tier 3 rift, Julius had no end of delicious and delectable treats. It was like the boy had his very own personal buffet stored in his storage ring. It wasn''t like she was complaining though. It had made the frightening experience much more bearable. It was amazing what a few good meals could do for the soul and morale.


    Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to go and look for him. While she was at it, she could observe the town for herself.


    As a princess who was always guarded by Amelia or others, she rarely had the opportunity to explore on her own. However, now that she did have that chance, she wanted to take it.


    It was this same feeling of freedom that prevented her from letting her family''s retainers from knowing where she was.


    She hadn''t told Julius, but she had an item that would activate as a distress beacon. The moment it was activated, a team led by a space mage would appear in a matter of minutes.


    However, she hadn''t activated it after they left the rift and she still wasn''t activating it now. For one, it still needed some time to recalibrate. The spatial transportation must have effected it somehow and it wasn''t able to be activated quite yet. It would take some time before it was ready.


    But that wasn''t real issue. Even if it was working she wasn''t that willing to actually use it. She knew it was selfish and Julius might have been angry if he found out, but she wanted to experience this just for a little. Her entire life she had been caged up and coddled, and she just wanted to see how it felt to be someone normal.


    Someone who wasn''t burdened with royal responsibilities.


    As she left the noisy inn, she started to walk down the street aimlessly. She had no direction and really didn''t have the intention of finding Julius. It was just a pretense for her to leave her room and explore.


    The sun was falling over the horizon and she noticed how quiet the town seemed.


    It was so different than what she was used to. Heston and the Capital were always busy, it didn''t matter what time of day it was. It could be two in the morning and there would be many people out and about.


    Stonewall was different. There was this distinct sense of peace as she walked down the streets. There was the occasional laughter and noises coming from homes and restaurants, but it was peaceful and she was enjoying it.


    The crisp night air felt great against her skin.


    It felt so great that she found a bench near a fountain and sat there for a while, just taking it all in. She didn''t know the next time she would be able to do something like this. She didn''t know the next time she would be completely alone. So she savored every second of it.


    It was just too bad she wasn''t allowed to.


    She felt the impact before she sensed the mana. Something cracked the back of her head with a surprising amount of force.


    The blow completely caught her off guard and she instinctively threw out a bunch of mana at random.


    She had been so focused on enjoying the moment that she let her guard down. It was so stupid of her, she had been reminded of not doing it so many times, yet here she was.


    Still, whoever was attacking her wouldn''t get an easy fight. She tried to steel her hazy mind, still disorientated from the ambush, and sent a barrage of smaller spears of light at the attackers.


    There were half a dozen masked attackers and all Tier 3s, but her quick response had surprised them. They probably weren''t expecting such a violent reaction from a Tier 2 girl.


    It took one of them by so much surprise that he allowed himself to get pummeled by the spears of light. One of them, stabbing quite deep in his stomach.


    However, to their credit, they didn''t take it lying down. The rest of them threw out blasts of mana and those who didn''t have a ranged attack rushed her down.


    She tried her best, she really did. She used everything, including her improved physical enhancement skill, but half a dozen Tier 3s were too much for her. The attacks smashed through her defenses and there were too many of them for her to deal any damage.


    She clawed and scratched her way, making sure that she didn''t give up. That was one thing she learned from Julius. It was to not accept defeat so easily. However, she didn''t have his overpowered skills to back her up.


    Regardless, she gave it her all. Every ounce of mana was spent fighting back. Even when she was tossed off of her feet and clobbered in the face, she didn''t let up.


    Unfortunately, she wasn''t like Julius, who could beat down an entire group of Tier 3s with ease and eventually fell under the barrage.


    However, as she did, she got a good look at the people who attacked her and couldn''t help but smile when she saw them worn out and bloodied from their fight.


    "Grab the girl quickly. We made way too much noise. People are going to come to investigate," a voice called out.


    "Can we just kill the bitch?"


    "No! She is way more valuable alive. Anyone who is wearing clothes made out of Void Panther materials is definitely the daughter of some rich noble."


    Oh, come on! Can''t I catch a break just this once? she sighed to herself as the darkness came for her.


    ***


    Julius POV


    After he had beaten them up a little bit, he was surprised at how easily they set aside their pride. Even Ibram was being more respectful. Although, Scott, who had been knocked out, wasn''t being as cooperative.


    He was doing his own thing to the side, as Julius was helping the others. Pouting as his friends gleefully took advice from Julius.


    Once, he had taken the time to help every one of them, he left with Elder Han escorting him back.


    "What was the true purpose of that?" Julius asked.


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    "You still don''t think it was to offer some help to some poor orphans?" Elder Han questioned.


    "I think there''s another reason on top of that," Julius stated confidently.


    Elder Han smirked at that. "You know when I spotted you enter Stonewall with that girl I couldn''t believe my old weary eyes."


    Julius''s eyes narrowed. That ''girl''? He thought to himself.


    "Oh ho. So you do know who you''re traveling with. Hm, I would have expected you were just some ignorant boy."


    "What you are trying to say?"


    "I''m just saying I am surprised a boy like you with your talents is traveling with a distinguished member of the royal family." Elder Han said, Julius detecting a hint of scorn behind his words.


    Julius halted mid-step. He knows that she''s the princess? How does he know?


    If it wasn''t for the fact that he thought Elder Han wasn''t a bad guy, he would have attacked immediately at that moment, it didn''t matter if he was vastly more powerful. He wouldn''t allow a threat to his friend to continue to exist.


    "Surprised you huh? I''m glad something finally did." Elder Han chuckled.


    "How did you know?"


    "How could I not? Silly girl is wearing the same disguise as she did years ago," the old man said but then paused. "Although, you are the one who brought my attention to her. If it wasn''t for spotting your brilliant aura, I would have overlooked her. It''s the reason why I was paying attention to you and also know you took the money from those guards."


    Julius gritted his teeth. He had believed that his control over his aura was pretty good. But it seemed he was wrong. The old man had seen everything and that had led him to recognize the princess.


    "What do you plan to do now?" Julius eventually asked.


    Elder Han laughed. "Me? Nothing, nothing at all. I am an old man who wants nothing to do with drama involving the royal family. I couldn''t care less why the princess is all the way out here. I am more interested in you, a person who has multiple Concepts at Tier 2 is quite the anomaly. How your soul is in one piece, is quite the mystery to me."


    Well, you would be surprised to learn that up until recently, it wasn''t, he thought to himself.


    "And what? This was all some sort of twisted test?"


    "I just wanted to see what kind of person you were first. I found that introducing people to rude children tends to bring out a more genuine version of themselves."


    "I still don''t see the reason for all of this."


    Elder Han shrugged his shoulders. "Call it an old man''s whim."


    Julius didn''t bother trying to pry any further. He knew that he wouldn''t get anywhere. Instead, he and Elder Han walked quietly back to the front of the orphanage.


    However, he was much more guarded against Elder Han. Everything in Julius''s instincts said he didn''t have to worry about the old man, but he would take some precautions.


    Julius still didn''t know how he felt about Elder Han now, but he was still hoping that the old coot could help him find an easier way back to Heston. Back to his friends, who were probably worried sick.


    Leaving with more questions than answers, he walked away from the orphanage, through the town, and entered the inn. The moment he did, he reached out with [Spatial Perception].


    However, to his confusion, he wasn''t able to sense Reinera anywhere. She wasn''t in her room, nor was she in the dining room. He didn''t even bother trying to go up to their rooms, he turned back around and left immediately. sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He spent a few minutes looking around the inn, but he still wasn''t able to find her.


    She probably just went out for some fresh air, he thought to himself, planning to just head back to his room and wait for her.


    However, more cynical thoughts arose in his head. Thoughts that stemmed from his interaction with Elder Han. He didn''t think the old man would do anything, if anything he sounded like he couldn''t care less about the princess.


    Maybe, I will just look for her and we can go back to our rooms together, he decided.


    Luckily for him, just based on where the inn is situated there was only one real direction where she would go. It wasn''t that big compared to a city like Heston, so he would have a decent chance as long as he used his perception skill and his mana senses.


    Several minutes into his search, he came across a square that was abandoned. However, the first thing that jumped out to him was the signs of destruction around the area. That wasn''t it either, there were lingering signs of mana from many people.


    And one of them he was very familiar with. It was Reinera''s mana.


    What happened here? Did she get attacked?


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t tell where it went. He used [Kinetic Augmentation] to boost his speed as much as he could and ran around the square as fast as he could, but he wasn''t able to tell where she or the other people who were there had gone.


    I might have to see that old codger sooner than expected, he grimly thought to himself.


    ***


    "Well, I was hoping to see you soon, but I can''t say I expected to see you this soon," Elder Han said while sipping on some tea.


    Julius didn''t have time to entertain the old man at the moment, so he spoke bluntly. "I think someone kidnapped the princess."


    The old man sat up noticeably straighter, setting aside his tea. "You said you think someone kidnapped her?"


    "What? You''re telling me that you didn''t know? I thought that if you could sense me stealing from those guards you would be keeping an eye on her as well."


    "Not even I can keep track of everyone I want to at once. It''s not exactly my skillset. There are certainly others who might be able to do something like that, but I can''t say the same. Tell me what happened."


    Julius squinted at the old man and eventually decided that he was being truthful. He then explained everything that happened from the time he left Elder Han to when he found the square.


    After he finished, Elder Han ran a wrinkly hand over his chin. "I think I know who took her."


    Julius stood up quickly. "Who?"


    "The same group that those guards you robbed belonged to," Elder Han said.


    "Group?"


    ***


    Apparently, the group has been quite active in the region in recent years. Elder Han explained that the group used coercion, blackmail, kidnapping, and many other morally dubious things to expand their influence.


    And kidnapping noble-born children was a normal thing for them. They would kidnap these children and then sell them back to their parents.


    That was why Elder Han believed that they were planning to do the same for Reinera. Unfortunately, she wasn''t just a simple lord''s daughter. She was the Princess of the Empire.


    "How can I find them?"


    "Oh, I know exactly where they are and where they are probably holding her," the old man stated like it was no big deal, but didn''t expand on where that might place was.


    Julius tried to stay calm. "And where might that be?"


    He got no response in return. Even after a minute of silence, Elder Han didn''t seem like he was going to be forthcoming about the information.


    When Julius asked two more times, he finally got a reaction.


    "Why would I help a person of royal blood?" Elder Han asked bitterly, surprising Julius with how much resentment was in that single sentence.


    "I thought you said you knew her?" Julius asked carefully.


    "Oh, I do. I know that family quite well. But that doesn''t mean I like them. I guess it would be accurate to say that I don''t have very kind feelings for the royal family," Elder Han said waspishly, not sounding anything like the kind old man Julius had seen so far.


    What occurred between him and the royal family to cause such bad blood? Julius thought to himself.


    "Does that mean you won''t help me find her?"


    "If they wanted her safe, then the royal family should have done a better job protecting her," Elder Han said dismissively.


    "She''s practically a child, I would think that someone who ran an orphanage would have more sympathy than that," Julius argued in disbelief.


    "I don''t know how you got caught up with her, but you should just let her go. Trust me, she''s not worth it."


    "You don''t know her."


    "No, but I know her family well. That says everything I need to know about her."


    Julius gave him a look of pure disappointment. "So you won''t help me?"


    "No."


    "Not even if I use the favor to make you give me the location?" Julius asked.


    "You would waste your favor on something like this?"


    Julius looked Elder Han directly in his eyes. "I wouldn''t be wasting it," he said calmly.


    Elder Han stopped the retort that was about to come out of his mouth. Instead, he gave Julius a meaningful stare. "Is she so different?" Elder Han finally asked, a hint of hope appearing in his otherwise dreary tone.


    "I don''t know," Julius told him honestly. "I haven''t met any of the other royalty."


    Elder was silent for a while, fiddling with the handle of his teacup. "I hope for your sake, that you are right," he said while looking out of the window with a lost gaze.

 Chapter 206: Finding a Way In

    Reinera POVReinera woke up in a daze. However, after a few moments, she was able to get her bearings. A quick glance at the room had her feeling confused.


    The first thing she noticed was the enchanted barrier, isolating her in the stone room she was in. It was slightly damp and a little bit musky. As she slowly woke up the memories started rolling in.


    She had been kidnapped.


    She didn''t know whether she should be proud of it, but this wasn''t the first time she had been kidnapped before. It was somewhat of a normal occurrence at this point.


    It almost made her laugh whenever it happened now.


    Although, the most hilarious part about it, was that it wasn''t even because she was a princess. The people who had snatched her didn''t seem to have any clue about her identity.


    This time it seemed these people kidnapped her in order to ransom her back to her noble parents.


    The joke was on them though. How matter how much digging they did, they wouldn''t be able to find what house she belonged to.


    In fact, their inability to do so would only prolong her isolation until they were able to figure out who to contact. But it wasn''t that bad to be fair. There was even an actual room and a bed provided for her, the last time she had been kidnapped, she had to sleep on the hard floor in a cage.


    She didn''t get to enjoy the quietness for as long as she wanted.


    Several minutes after she woke up, she heard the door of the room open. And a man with his face completely covered entered with a confident stride.


    Unlike her attackers, this man wasn''t a Tier 3. In front of her stood a genuine Tier 4.


    These weren''t just common thugs at this point. Anyone who had a Tier 4 within their ranks were people with some kind of backing or connections.


    "What is your name?" The man suddenly asked her. His voice was surprisingly soft. It was gentle like drops of water hitting a glass window.


    She didn''t say a word to him. The less information she provided the more time she would have to figure out how she was going to get out of something like this.


    The biggest issue was that, unlike prior times, her family and their retainers weren''t actively looking for her. They were still probably too busy finding out where she had been teleported.


    Now, she was kidnapped by some unknown group in a town that she didn''t even know where it was in relation to Heston. Not to mention, that they had already taken her storage ring.


    The only person who she could hope would find her was Julius.


    Normally, relying on Tier 2 to help her escape from a den of criminals who were all Tier 3 and even a person who was Tier 4, would be a pipedream. However, she had learned better than to underestimate Julius.


    A part of her wanted for him to save her, while another was secretly hoping that he wouldn''t, it would be safer for him if he didn''t. But she knew he would try. That was just the type of person he was.


    The man kept on trying to ask her questions, but she refused to even look at him. Instead, she kept looking at the empty space on the wall.


    The man didn''t get outwardly irritated at her lack of response and once it became obvious that she had no intention of saying anything, he just left as quietly as he came.


    ***


    Julius POV


    After way too much pointless arguing, Elder Han finally gave in. It seemed that even whatever grudges he held against the royal family, weren''t enough to prevent the old man from helping him.


    According to Elder Han, this group operated out of several locations in Stonewall.


    One of them was surprisingly, but also somewhat not surprisingly, one of the local lords.


    However, Elder Han was pretty confident that they wouldn''t take a kidnapped girl to the lord''s manor. It would be too damning if something were to happen and people were to find out that one of the local lords was kidnapping young children.


    Thus, Elder Han told him of the other locations she was most likely in.


    As the old man was telling Julius in detail about the locations of these hideouts, Julius was confused. He asked the old man why he hadn''t done anything about these people if he knew so much about them. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It wasn''t like the old man didn''t have the strength to do anything about it. Julius still didn''t know just how powerful Elder Han was, but he was confident it wasn''t an insignificant amount of strength.


    However, Elder Han said to Julius, that sometimes it was necessary to keep certain criminal organizations in place.


    The old codger''s point of view was that there would always be some element of crime within society. It was inevitable. However, there were ways to control said crime. And in his experience, the most difficult times were when there was a vacuum of power.


    This void prompted many other people to try and take its place. This led to lots of bloody conflict and unpredictable groups forming.


    Julius understood it, he didn''t necessarily agree with everything the old man said, but he could comprehend what he was trying to explain to him.


    Sometimes it was better to have an enemy you know.


    While Julius managed to convince the old man to help him, he wasn''t able to actually get the old man to come along. That was a bit too much of a stretch.


    It would have been easier, but Julius was just glad the old man had even helped at all. It really seemed like he didn''t like the royal family. Julius could only imagine why that was.


    "Which one should I look at first?" He asked himself aloud.


    As he left Elder Han, he had to come up with some sort of plan, but there were just too many unknown factors he realized. So instead, he just needed to figure out where he would head first.


    After some thought, he decided to head toward the closest one and set off in a hurry.


    After all, he had a princess to rescue.


    ***


    The first two were a bust. He wasn''t able to sense anyone except for a couple of people random people hanging out inside.


    The third one though, was looking much more promising. He had already sensed more people around than the other buildings combined.


    It was an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the town. There weren''t any houses or people living by. It was kind of the perfect hideout.


    Julius took a lot of precautions. He paid extra attention to suppress his aura and any mana he was emanating. He also chose to wear an entirely black outfit. Face covering and all. It was at this time that he really missed his black face covering from Dante. The one he was currently wearing wasn''t nearly as comfortable.


    Perhaps, when he got back to Heston, he would ask the cranky crafter to make another for him. Maybe bribe him with some treats or threaten to tell his niece if he didn''t. She liked Julius and would have his back.


    He softly snuck around the warehouse, controlling his kinetic energy, so that each footstep was as silent as possible.


    As he got closer, he was able to sense more people who were coming inside and out of the warehouse. There were at least half a dozen of them.


    However, what really got his attention was the empty void he detected in the building. It sort of reminded him of when Dante removed himself from his spatial perception, but larger.


    He suspected it was some sort of spatial isolation barrier, that prevented any teleportation.


    It was kind of like the ones that were set up at Goldencrest, but this was way less subtle. But it also prevented Julius, from being able to sense what was going on inside of this space. And that was annoying.


    While he hadn''t been able to find Reinera yet, it would be a pretty good guess to say that she was within that barrier.


    He needed to find out more about what was inside, which also meant he needed to get closer. So with mindful steps, he carefully snuck past the people and peeked around without being noticed.


    Second time today that I am acting like a thief, he mused to himself.


    When he got near, he finally saw what the barrier looked and felt like from up close.


    It was basically an enchanted barrier that contained the entire internal space of the warehouse, with inscriptions running up along the wall.


    His biggest problem was that he didn''t know how he was going to get past the barrier.


    He had no idea if the barrier would detect his presence if he walked past it. Although, he was expecting something like that, otherwise what was the use of a barrier?


    However, there must have been a way for the other people to enter. Julius had seen several people walk through a doorway, that was covered by the barrier with no problem. The issue was how was he going to do it.


    So for the next hour or so, he just sat in a dark corner and observed.


    He watched as people came in and out of the barrier, with no issues. It was only after a very close inspection that he noticed something.


    It was fast and he had been overlooking it this entire time, but there was a flash of mana the second they entered the barrier.


    It took another several looks at it before he was confident, but once he was, he was able to see it clearly.


    The moment these people would pass through the barrier, a charge of mana would activate from something within their pockets or on their person.


    Julius suspected it was something like the access card to the rifts he got from Lord Lagos, but this time for entry.


    Now that he had a lead of what he needed to get in order to enter, he just needed to figure out how he was going to get his hands on one.


    The most obvious choice was to follow a person who was leaving and ambush them. Once he took care of them he would steal their access card and be able to enter on his own.


    I guess I kind am a thief this time around, he realized with a chuckle.


    He couldn''t really think of a better plan, so that was what he went with.


    Although he waited for a long time already, he would have to do some more waiting.


    This time, he would be keeping an eye out for anyone leaving or anyone who was isolated.


    Eventually, he believed he spotted his victim. There was a person who had exited the barrier and who was now leaving the abandoned warehouse, back to their home or to a bar.


    They, like all of the rest of the people, were wearing black masks. That meant he didn''t get to see their face, but he could tell that they were a female.


    The fact they were a female made him pause for a moment. It wasn''t that he had a problem with hitting women.


    Okay, that came out wrong.


    He was just surprised to see a woman involved in what is a kidnapping of a young girl. He would have thought that women had higher standards. Men were idiots, so he could understand why these men chose to be criminal scum but to see a female criminal scum was kind of unexpected.


    Or perhaps that is just me being naive.


    Regardless, he needed to do this. So he toughened up and mentally prepared himself.


    Sorry in advance, but you have my friend and you''re my best way to get her back, he apologized to the unknown woman.


    So as she was walking away from the warehouse, Julius carefully followed her at a distance.

 Chapter 207: Striking Fast

    Once he figured they were far enough away and there was nobody nearby, he struck.He blitzed in as fast as he could, while simultaneously activating his new technique with as much vigor as he could manage. He didn''t want to take the chance that she had a stronger will and allow her an opportunity to do something. He had learned his lesson since the last time he almost died.


    Luckily, it seemed it was unneeded, her will was crushed under his will with such force, that he felt her aura let out a screech of pain.


    It was actually pretty likely that she was already done for, but he wasn''t taking any chances.


    By the time he appeared in front of her with a [Flash Step], he was already preparing an armored fist loaded with kinetic energy. Without hesitating, he blasted the woman right in the nose, crunching her face in.


    She fell like a puppet with her strings cut and as he stood over her unconscious body, he had to keep his thoughts from straying.


    Although he had told himself to treat her like he would a man in her position, he might have hit her a bit too hard. Unlike with the guards, he didn''t want to risk her waking up too early, so he made sure he hit her enough to keep her out for a while.


    She was a Tier 3 and if he didn''t, it was likely that her heightened regeneration would heal her before Julius was done freeing Reinera so he wanted to be sure. You know what they said, better safe than sorry.


    He checked her vitals and was glad that she was still breathing, but she breathing weirdly.


    It was like the sound a clogged vacuum would make when there was too much hair stuck in the container. It was probably the blood seeping into her nose.


    Still, he did his best to ignore her plight. He had a job he needed to do and a princess to save. So with one hand he flipped her around and tried to search her pockets for the item he sensed her using to leave the barrier.


    There wasn''t much in her pockets, but he eventually came up with a small orb.


    Up close, he was able to feel the passive hum of mana it released, and it was identical to the one he felt being used to access the barrier.


    Feeling confident he had what he needed, he stood up and stashed the orb in his pocket.


    He also took the woman''s mask for good measure. While it was just a plain black mask, it would still help him blend in better if he ran across anyone.


    He put it on after he gave it a quick rinse and dry, subtly noting how itchy it was.


    After he finished fiddling with it, he looked down at the woman one last time before he left and winced. He had frozen her with kinetic energy as he blasted her with the full brunt of his willpower.


    While the fist to the face hadn''t helped matters, he was actually less concerned about her caved-in face, and more worried about her soul.


    He felt something integral to her being cracked by that attack.


    Giving her one last glance, he started to head back toward the abandoned warehouse with a determined step.


    ***


    Reinera POV


    The man had returned. Unlike last time, he didn''t seem to be as willing to let her silence go without punishment.


    It wasn''t like he was torturing her, but he pressed his considerable aura down onto her.


    Still, using a Tier 4''s aura to press down on her was like a Tier 2 putting their feet down on a puppy''s chest. There was nothing she could do but hold her breath.


    "Who are you? And who are your parents?" He asked again, still talking in the same gentle tone.


    She just gave him an indifferent glare once more.


    He turned up his aura a little bit more. And this time, her brows furrowed from the sheer pressure. "The sooner you tell me, the sooner I can help you reunite with your family," he promised in a silky voice. One that had her wanting to believe him.


    Still, she kept her tongue quiet.


    "Okay. If that''s how it''s going to be, then I will give you two choices. Choice number one is that you remain silent. However, since we won''t be able to figure out which family to contact in order to get your ransom, we will have to do something else with you," he said ominously. "Or the second choice, which is by far the better of the two choices, is to tell us who your family is and we contact them. After some exchange of funds, we hand you over to them with no harm to you."


    She remained silent for a long while.


    In the end, he didn''t lash out or hit her, he just nodded and made his way to leave. "I will give you the night to think about it. Let me know what you choose tomorrow morning, okay?" He said politely.


    Even though he was the one holding her hostage, the fact that he hadn''t made any moves to harm her so far was better than most criminals would have been.


    It made her believe that this man wasn''t just your normal citizen who turned into a criminal. This man was calm and competent. His aura and the fact that he was able to reach Tier 4 displayed more than enough for Reinera. She had seen some powerful auras from many of her family''s retainers, and this man was no worse than any of them.


    She had difficulty believing a man like this was working for a criminal organization that kidnaps noble born. Sure, the money must have been good, but she doubted he would find it difficult for some noble family, sect, or some other established power to take him in if he wanted to.


    There had to be a reason why he was here. Maybe if she figured out why, she would be able to convince him to let her go.


    ***


    Julius POV


    His worries about the access orb only working for the woman were unfounded. He was able to easily slip past the barrier without anyone noticing him.


    As he was stealthily moving down one of the hallways, he reached out with his perception skill.


    Now that he was inside of the barrier, it didn''t seem to restrict [Spatial Perception], so that was a stroke of good luck. It made avoiding the people much easier.


    There were many rooms in this warehouse. Most of them he realized were for storage. There were things from furniture to food, to other random crap shoved in wooden boxes. He ignored these rooms for now and made his way deeper into the warehouse.


    However, the deeper he got, the more people he began sensing. There was a small group in one room, almost all of them seemed pretty sloshed. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    They didn''t even have their masks on anymore, they were just swinging a bottle of liquor in one hand as they sang drunkenly. It would have been a heartwarming sight if not for them being kidnappers.


    Still, he had not sensed Reinera yet. So he continued his way onward, passing by rooms occupied by sleeping figures, some of whom weren''t exactly sleeping yet as they were doing other things.


    Eventually, he came across a door that led downstairs.


    Well, if this doesn''t look like a place to hide a prisoner, then I don''t know what to say.


    He carefully climbed downstairs and as he reached out with his skill, he was able to pick up several people all within a room of their own. The rooms were completely made out of some sort of stone and had a huge bar that locked them inside.


    It appears that Reinera isn''t the only one who is being kidnapped.


    After some closer examination, he was able to figure out which room held her. There were no enchantments to prevent him from sensing through it.


    At the back of the cellar, there was a lone room where he sensed her lying down on a bed.


    Now the problem is how I am going to get her out of here.


    He extended his mana senses beforehand, he didn''t want to accidentally activate some sort of alarm.


    And he was glad that he did, the moment he touched the stone with his mana senses, he was able to see that there were subtle enchantments on the door. He didn''t know what they did, but he could tell they weren''t there to help him.


    Also, since they were so discreet, it was likely that they weren''t there just to strengthen the stone. There was probably a whole lot of stuff that would activate if he tried to break open the door.


    Realizing that he couldn''t just blast it open, he stepped back and began to think.


    However, as he did, he felt someone appear in his senses. The thick stone of the cellar made it hard for him to get an accurate picture of what was happening above, but he was able to detect someone walking down the stairs.


    He quickly looked around for someplace to hide and spotted a pile of crates in the corner. He quietly moved behind them and waited for the person to come down.


    The first thing he noticed though was the man''s aura. It wasn''t completely suppressed, but it was handled with a firm grasp of control. Furthermore, this man was at least Tier 4, there was no doubt.


    He tried not to feel too nervous, though it was hard not to.


    He had not been expecting a person this powerful to be around here. Elder Han said that the people of importance should be staying at the lord''s manor, but it was obvious he was wrong. This man wasn''t some random bum watching the prisoners.


    He held his breath as the man headed toward his direction.


    However, just when he thought the man wouldn''t notice him, the man spoke.


    "There''s no need to hide," he said in a very soothing voice. It was the type of voice that would lull one to sleep.


    Unfortunately, in Julius''s case, he wasn''t trying to fall asleep, he was trying to hide. Something he was apparently massively failing at.


    "I know you''re behind those crates," the man said after a brief pause.


    Who knows, he might be talking about some other person hiding behind the crates, he thought to himself optimistically.


    "I''m not talking about another person."


    What is he? A mind reader?


    "You could have been," Julius called out from behind the crates. There was no reason to keep on hiding, the man had obviously seen through it. He stood up and finally got a look at the man who had caught him.


    He surprisingly, wasn''t wearing a mask. However, his features didn''t match his voice at all. While his voice was smooth, this guy looked more rugged. He was still very handsome, as Julius realized came from being a higher-tiered individual, but he had more of a good-looking fireman type of vibe.


    "Why are you here?" The man asked him.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "You took my friend."


    "The brown-haired one?"


    He nodded. "You think you could allow me to just take her and we can forget about all of this?"


    He saw the man hesitate at that, a look of uncertainty washed over the man''s face.


    "I can''t do that," he finally said with a hint of regret.


    He was at least hesitant about it, Julius noted to himself.


    "Why not? You don''t seem like a guy who wants to kidnap little girls," Julius told him.


    "I don''t like this any more than you do, but I can''t. I owe someone a favor and no matter how disgusting I may find it, I won''t just break my promise," the man said sternly.


    Julius looked over at the cell that was holding Reinera and back to the man. "Well, I can''t say that I agree with your morals, but I am going to get my friend out of here no matter what I have to do," he warned the man. Which he bet the man was thinking was pretty funny.


    A Tier 2 like Julius didn''t just go around threatening Tier 4s. Julius suspected the only reason the man gave him the courtesy to give himself up was that he was Tier 2.


    Although he might come to regret that decision. No matter how polite this man was to him, he wasn''t going to let him keep his food bestie in that cell.

 Chapter 208: Monster

    The man must have seen the look in Julius''s eyes because he sighed loudly. "You''re not just going to leave are you?"Julius shook his head calmly. "And you''re not just going to allow me to take my friend back with me?"


    The man shook his head.


    "Well, it seems we have a conundrum," Julius said softly.


    "So it seems," the man agreed with him. As he finished saying that he was slowly walking toward Julius. "My only responsibility is to protect this warehouse, that means if you leave now, I will not try to stop you."


    It sounded like the man really wanted Julius to leave.


    Unfortunately, Julius didn''t have any plans to do so.


    The man gently placed a hand on Julius''s shoulder and tried to lead him back toward the stairs, prodding him to leave.


    However, at that moment Julius made a decision. There was no way to avoid a fight it seemed. And while this man was a Tier 4, he wouldn''t let that deter him. He had fought strong people before, what was one more?


    So as the man was too distracted with trying to remove Julius as nicely as possible, Julius decided to attack first.


    He sent an overcharged fist covered in a gauntlet packed with kinetic energy at the man''s chest.


    The man wasn''t expecting Julius to attack him. It probably never occurred to him that Julius would be the first to attack, nevertheless, pose an actual threat. However, he quickly learned that this was a mistake.


    His fist smashed into the man''s chest with an ear-shattering crack.


    Even though his opponent was surprised by the attack, he was able to react in time to put up a semblance of a defense and Julius''s strike was met with the man''s own skill.


    Still, his opponent was sent off his feet and onto his back. Julius didn''t let this chance go and pounced on his downed opponent.


    While he was doing so he was creating massive spikes behind his back. Each one glowing with potent blue flames, heating up the room with fiery intensity. It was hard to keep several blue constructs at once, but he would need to if he wanted a chance against a Tier 4.


    He already knew how strong a Tier 4''s authority could be, he wouldn''t underestimate his opponent.


    By the time he reached the man, he had already surrounded himself in armor, each piece was humming with sharpness, fire, and kinetic energy.


    He dropped an elbow right onto his opponent''s face and was met with a hand that tried to block the strike.


    As the man tried to block, he sent out his authority to wash over Julius.


    Authority was a weird thing. When Gabriel had first used it against Julius, it had been an overwhelming power that he had not been able to fight. It had completely immobilized him and stripped him of all of his strength.


    As he got stronger, he noticed that Authority relied heavily on the power of one''s willpower, aura, and overall strength of one''s tier and Concepts.


    And while Julius didn''t have the tier requirements to fight against a Tier 4, he had the others in spades, at least for a Tier 2.


    His aura, willpower, and Concepts clashed against the authority of this unknown man. His collection of Concepts and his aura were no match for the man''s but they put up one hell of a fight. However, his willpower was what allowed him a foothold.


    Julius accomplished something that nobody would believe unless they saw it for themselves. Instead of being completely overwhelmed by the signature ability of Tier 4s, he was able to withstand it.


    And that was all he needed.


    Julius watched as the eyes of his opponent widened in surprise. The fact that he wasn''t incapacitated by his authority seemed to shock the man. Hence, he wasn''t in time to block the next elbow Julius dropped down onto his face.


    It was like a sledgehammer. The strike was so hard that it cracked the stones underneath them and he kept raining them down onto the stunned man.


    However, no matter how hard Julius hit the man, he wasn''t actually doing that much damage. his opponent''s defense was tough. Tier 4s had that luxury. Not only that, but the man had some sort of resounding force that tried to disrupt Julius''s own armor and attacks.


    It almost felt like sonic waves trying to shatter his arms.


    Julius put everything he had into trying to pummel the man into oblivion, but his surprise attack didn''t last for long.


    His opponent eventually recovered and was able to kick off Julius with a brutal knee to his back. Julius flew like a bullet and smashed into the stone wall. Dust and rubble going everywhere.


    Before the man could counterattack, he sent out a spike at him. The blue and powerful spike blasted the man backward once more. The power of the spike was no joke. Even to a Tier 4, it wasn''t something that he could ignore.


    He quickly got back to his feet though and he was glad he did. His opponent had also gotten back to his feet, and he seemed way less patient than he had been just a few minutes before.


    His face was bleeding from several places and was wincing slightly. However, his eyes were totally different than before. They were completely alert and there was a dangerous glint in them.


    It would seem he was taking Julius much more seriously now.


    It was a compliment in a way. It made Julius feel good that he could force a Tier 4 to fight him seriously.


    Julius couldn''t help but start grinning like a madman. He knew that his chances in this fight were slim. The surprise attack worked, but now that he was prepared, it was doubtful Julius would come out on top.


    If his spars against Gabriel had shown him anything, it was that Tier 4s didn''t just have their authorities to rely on, they were also so much stronger, faster, and had a faster natural regeneration than a Tier 3.


    The difference was not even comparable.


    Regardless, of that he had always been itching to fight one for real someday, it would just seem that day came much sooner than he thought it would.


    ***


    Dustin POV


    What the fuck?


    He wiped away the blood that was dripping down his forehead, the cut on it was already healing.


    It was his fault for being underestimating his opponent. But seriously¡­ What kind of kid was this?


    He hit like a powerful Tier 3, each strike was backed by so much mana and power, that it actually broke through his defenses.


    But it wasn''t that which made Dustin wary. It was the kid''s willpower and Concepts.


    He must have had more than one Concept, all of which were likely pretty high-tiered. But his willpower was on another level. It practically rivaled Dustin''s own. When used in conjunction with the boy''s Concepts it allowed the boy to resist his authority.


    Something a Tier 2 should never be able to do against someone like him.


    He couldn''t help but be a little impressed.


    Although he reminded himself that he had to take the boy seriously. There was no way he could just keep on fooling around.


    Even though he hated that he had to protect a base of criminal scums, he owed his former teammate a favor. His pride wouldn''t allow a Tier 2 to make him fail that duty.


    So he charged in, using [Resonating Disruption], to delay the spike of blue fire heading toward his chest.


    He had already learned that he wasn''t able to outright destroy the construct with his skill, which was a bit embarrassing. There was so much willpower and Concepts jammed into that spike, that he wouldn''t be able to disrupt before it reached him.


    However, he could delay it.


    Which gave him the opportunity to dodge it and get closer to the boy. While, the boy had many terrifying aspects to him, his physical strength was undoubtedly much weaker than Dustin''s. If Dustin could not beat the boy with his authority or his Concepts, he would have to just how to deal with him the old-fashioned way.


    He would overwhelm the boy with sheer brute strength.


    So that was what he did, he got in close and began to pressure the boy, sending combinations and blasts of compressed soundwaves without holding back. With that being said, the boy did a very good job at limiting the strength of Dustin''s strikes.


    Each time, he felt the boy taking away some force from his blows with one of his skills. He also noticed that the boy would always try to destabilize his foundation. Whether, that was sending out blows to Dustin''s feet to make sure he couldn''t send out a fully empowered punch, or to make sure he was just slightly off balance was really annoying to deal with.


    He also had to keep an eye on random spikes of fiery mana. They were way stronger than they had any right to be, and the boy would use them to get some space or to punish Dustin for not being in his face.


    That was why Dustin spent the entire time within arm''s reach of the boy. But as he did he felt himself gaining an advantage, he continuously smashed through the constructed armor of the boy, forcing him to waste mana to recreate it.


    However, what was by far the most annoying ability he had to deal with was the boy''s healing skill. He had some sort of regeneration skill that was without question, one of the strongest healing skills he had seen from a non-support user. It was like the boy was practically immortal.


    He once again bashed through the boy''s arms and whipped a devastating kick at the boy''s side. It landed flush and he felt several bones break and what must have been at least a couple of organs rupture. And the boy went flying off into the wall across the large cellar.


    But he already knew that it wouldn''t keep the boy down.


    He watched completely flabbergasted as the boy staggered to his feet and regenerated within seconds. It was like fighting a troll. But a troll that was smart and could use magic.


    It wasn''t the first time such a thing happened in the fight either. Dustin had dealt at least five strikes that would have debilitated anyone else, but somehow the boy kept on going. His face was one of pure calm, even though his body was covered in his own blood, the boy never once winced or hesitated.


    It reminded him of the time he fought some soldiers from the Endless Legion.


    This boy is a monster, he thought to himself.


    He had so many powerful abilities and his mana pool must have been absolutely massive.


    How the boy had not run out of mana so far, he did not know. Even Dustin was feeling the drain of mana-consuming skills. S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Who the hell trained this kid?


    They must have been deranged in the head. There was no other way a boy should be able to be this powerful and take this much punishment without whimpering a single time. Dustin would love nothing else than to kick this boy''s mentor down a mountain.


    He dodged another pair of spikes that were heading toward him, the blast tearing another gouge into the stone. He took a look around real quick as he caught his breath. There was blood everywhere, the basement was a total wreck. Only the cells holding the prisoners remained relatively untouched.


    He was grateful that the enchantments and his skill prevented any sound from leaving the basement and allowed them to fight undisturbed. He didn''t want anyone to come down here, for multiple reasons.


    One of which was to see Dustin struggling to take down this Tier 2 boy.


    Speaking of who, Dustin looked over at the boy who was still calmly staring at him with those scary eyes. The boy was breathing heavily and his posture was slouched. He looked quite miserable and defeated, but he would not make the same mistake twice. The boy''s eyes were still full of life and determination.


    Although, he did notice that the boy was no longer creating a full body of armor. Dustin assumed it was to save as much mana as he could. There were also fewer spikes getting sent at him.


    He''s probably running on fumes, he thought to himself a little bit grateful for that.


    He took a slow deep breath as he went in for the finishing blow.

 Chapter 209: Bad Feeling

    Julius was gassed.By far the biggest problem was his opponent''s physical prowess. There was just no way for Julius to keep up with the man. By the time he tried to react to his movements, he was already getting punched in the face.


    He could see it, but could only watch as the fist connected with his face.


    He was just now starting to understand just how much Gabriel must have been holding back whenever they sparred.


    The other thing that really made it difficult was the man''s authority. Although Julius was able to keep it at bay, it wasn''t like it was easy.


    It took a significant amount of mental commitment to deal with it. It forced him to control less of his constructs which whas probably his largest source of damage.


    The problem with his blue fire spikes was how much mana and focus they took. The man had a way to interfere with them just enough to where he could avoid them easily. Additionally, his reaction speed outclassed the speed at which Julius could shoot them. Which made them less useful than they normally were.


    He was lucky that his opponent didn''t seem to going for instant kill shots. The man for some reason was hesitant to kill Julius. He always held off before he would kill Julius.


    There were a couple of times when Julius was completely wide open, with his arms and chest crushed like a compressed soda can, but the man never tried to smash his head open.


    While Julius wouldn''t be that surprised if he was to survive that, it was a bit confusing to see that the man didn''t even try to go for it. That was why he believed his opponent wasn''t trying to kill him.


    Although, at this rate, he wasn''t going to be able to keep it up for much longer.


    His mana was almost out. Something he thought he would never say.


    The last time that had happened was at the troll rift. However, in that time Julius had gained even more mana. So the fact that he was almost out said a lot.


    He had chosen or rather been forced to stop using his full body armor. It was actually cheaper mana-wise to just tank the hits than to recreate each damaged armor piece.


    Now that mana usage was becoming an actual issue, he realized that his armor was a bit wasteful.


    He had no reason to use armor for his entire body. He just needed to select pieces to protect his vital points. Furthermore, he could even just create a construct whenever he noticed an attack on the fly.


    His mana control had gotten good enough that he could probably pull something like that off.


    It would certainly save him a lot of mana that way. Even though he wouldn''t look as cool, it would probably be more efficient. He was learning that he would have to be a little more careful how he used his mana in the future.


    That is if he still had a future in a couple of minutes.


    Shaking those negative thoughts out of his head, he focused back on the fight.


    The man was giving Julius an expectant look. As if he was trying to say to Julius, ''give up, you''re not going to win''.


    Julius wasn''t going to deny that the man was probably right, but he wasn''t the type of person to shy away from a fight just because he thought he would lose. That wasn''t the kind of person he wanted to be. He also had a friend who needed him right now, sitting behind that door.


    He checked his mana capacity. There was just enough mana left where he could launch one last offensive. He would need to make each ounce of mana count.


    He had a plan in mind, though it was certainly one of his more crazy ideas. He was going to have to rely on a mixture of luck and hope that the man wouldn''t immediately go for the kill shot.


    Julius took a calming deep breath, his mind was clear, and so was his will.


    He saw the man gently shake his head and once again come after Julius with an insane burst of speed, only [Spatial Perception] allowed Julius to track the man.


    I got one shot at this, he reminded himself.


    His opponent went for the same thing. He came blitzing in and smashed apart the constructs and Julius''s defenses with a couple of powerful strikes.


    Once Julius was undefended his opponent sent a vicious punch at his chest. However, unlike the times before, Julius was already moving before the man struck out, guessing and hoping to get lucky. While he was dodging, he also finally used his kinetic immobilization technique for the first time during the fight.


    He had been saving it for a couple of reasons. For one, he didn''t think it would actually do much to his opponent, considering how strong the man''s willpower and Authority were.


    Also, he wanted to keep it as a last-ditch ability that might give him an opening. An opening just like this one.


    As the technique reached the man, it barely had an effect. Instead of freezing the man in place because of his siphoning the kinetic energy, it was more accurate to say that it froze him for a moment because of how surprised the man was. It was akin to a kid grabbing a hold of an adult''s coat jacket with their two fingers.


    Fortunately for Julius, that was all he needed.


    As the man''s arm was passing by Julius, he reached out and clapped down on it. The constructed armor that had been surrounding his fists, melted down like water and wrapped around his opponent''s arm.


    For the first time ever, Julius pumped the constructed gauntlet with kinetically enhanced fire.


    He had always been too nervous to do so. Making blue spikes was different, they weren''t attached to his body, which meant that the chances of them killing him were much lower. However, he also realized how stupid he was being.


    When had he begun to stop pushing his skills and abilities just because he was scared of what would happen? When had that fear begun to override his desire to get stronger?


    It was pathetic and it was disgraceful.


    He should never be scared to use his own techniques backfiring on him. If he kept on doing that, it would just act as an anchor that would keep him down for the rest of his life.


    So with the type of confidence that only came when there were no other options, he supercharged his construct.


    Both his arm and the man''s arm were enveloped in a brilliant blue flame. And before the man could try to disrupt it or before Julius chickened out, he detonated it.


    The blast was many times stronger than his spikes had been. The resulting explosion tore his entire body apart. For the first time during the fight, he lost consciousness briefly.


    When he awoke, he was buried under a pile of rubble with his body slowly healing itself. He was bone dry and had no mana left. He distantly felt Drasil pumping in some of his essence to supplement his skill, trying to heal him as much as he could, but the damage was way too great and Drasil had already been feeding Julius his essence during the entire fight.


    He took a look around, trying to get a grasp of the situation. He first noticed the gaping hole in the ceiling and the complete mess the cellar was in. The once large room was now buried in stone, with the ceiling about to completely cave it.


    However, he clenched his teeth tightly together when he spotted the man staggering to his feet on the other side of the room. On the bright side, the man didn''t come out unscathed. His arm was a bloody mess, bones were sticking out of it from multiple places and there were burns marking him up and down his body.


    Unfortunately, unlike Julius, he seemed still able to fight.


    Julius tried to get up, but there was just nothing to stand up with. His legs were little more than nubs of shredded flesh and scorched bones. Not even Inexorable Will or Ashen Rebirth were able to help him. He had no more mana left in him.


    He was completely dried out. It was only due to Drasil that he was able to heal as much as he was. However, most of that energy was going toward keeping him alive.


    So he just had to watch as the man approached Julius with slow, but steady steps. The full weight of what his loss meant was sinking in.


    ***


    Dustin POV


    He didn''t expect that the boy had something like that in his back pocket.


    When was the last time he had been hurt this badly? It had to been at least several years by his estimate. Was it because he was rusty?


    No, rusty or not, it wouldn''t have made a difference.


    He stumbled to his feet and quickly downed a healing potion. His Tier 4 healing along with the potion helped heal the worse of his wounds.


    He looked over and stared at the boy who was still calmly glaring right back at him. The boy was barely a boy at this point. It was like a wolf used him as a chew toy, spat him out, and then got roasted over a campfire.


    Still, the boy didn''t look in pain. He must have had one hell of a pain resistance skill. Dustin could not even begin to imagine what kind of trauma the boy must have been through in order to acquire such a skill.


    Unlike their entire fight, Dustin didn''t see the boy healing like a troll. It would appear that the boy had finally run out of mana.


    However, before he was about to walk over to the boy, he heard people coming down the stairs to the room. It seemed that the last attack had been so powerful that not even the enchantments or skill could isolate the noise and shaking of the ground.


    Regardless, that meant he had a choice to make. And it had to be fast


    With that being said, it was this fight that really opened up his eyes for the first time in what seemed to be an eternity. It cleared the haze that had been covering his eyes.


    Seeing a young boy at Tier 2 desperately fight against him, a Tier 4, in order to save his friend showed him a part of himself that had been missing for years.


    A piece of his humanity, that he had thought was long gone and had died alongside his family.


    While Ashton had saved his life all those years ago, did it really justify him doing this? Even if he did change, was there still a redeemable part of him left to be salvaged?


    He sighed and let out a small self-deprecating chuckle. Perhaps¡­ it wouldn''t be a bad idea to find out for himself.


    He looked over at the boy who was still desperately trying to claw his way to his feet, even though they were no longer there. Even with no mana or legs, the boy still wanted to save his friend.


    His stomach ached at the mere thought of killing this boy. The boy''s grit and determination were something to be inspired by, not be snuffed out like a candle.


    If the boy still managed to have the will to fight, who is to say that he couldn''t do the same? Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He sighed again and before the group of people who were coming downstairs to investigate even made it halfway down and before he could even fully realize he was doing it, Dustin sent a concentrated blast of authority right toward them.


    Unlike the monster wearing the skin of a boy, these Tier 3s were unable to put up even a fighting chance against his authority. The moment he had total control of them, he ripped a compressed strike of soundwaves directly through their bodies. Doing what he had been wanting to do since the day he met them.


    They didn''t even have a chance to yell out. They were dead before they realized what had happened.


    "..."


    "What did you do that for?" He heard the boy croak out from where he was lying in his own blood.


    Dustin''s eyes didn''t leave the stairway. "I''m not¡­ I don''t know," he said to the boy with a frown.


    These people''s deaths wouldn''t go unnoticed. He would need to figure out a lie he could tell Ashton and the organization. He was preparing for the shit that was going to come his way.


    "Does this mean you are going to let my friend go?" The boy asked bravely, considering his current state.


    Dustin nodded his head. "Yeah, you can take your friend and leave," he said to him with hints of a grin, already feeling like a massive weight was lifted off his shoulders.


    He heard a choking laugh from the boy. "After all of that? And you are just going to let me get what I came here for originally?" Dustin could have sworn he heard anger in the boy''s tone.


    "Would you rather I didn''t?"


    "Nope! Your generosity is much appreciated," the boy said quickly.


    Dustin sighed and pulled out another healing potion, chucking toward the boy''s direction. The vial smacked the boy in the face with a thud. "Ouch!" He heard the boy yell out, pretending like it hurt.


    Who do you think you are fooling with that? I just beat the shit out of you without you making a single peep or wince, but a vial hitting you in your face hurts? He thought skeptically.


    "Take that, it will help you heal. After you are done, take the girl and leave town. Get as far away as you can," he told the kid.


    The boy gave him a careful stare as if he couldn''t believe that Dustin changed his mind all of a sudden. He didn''t blame the boy, he could hardly believe it himself.


    However, he still drank the healing potion without much pause. It was a Tier 3 healing potion, one that would normally kill or poison a Tier 2. But Dustin knew better. The boy could handle it.


    The effects of the potion kicked in immediately, and the legs of the boy which were already healing, regenerated quicker, aided by the potion.


    That is some healing skill, even with barely any mana, it is still able to heal better than most passive healing skills. He thought to himself while shaking his head.


    The boy eventually struggled to his newly grown feet. "What about the other cells?" He asked.


    Dustin frowned. He had no idea about what to do with them either. It wasn''t like he could just leave them be while he let the boy and the girl go. But he had no idea what to do with them after he freed them.


    "There''s nowhere for them to go," Dustin finally said.


    He saw the boy frown, obviously trying to think of something. After a few moments, he must have come up with something.


    "I might have an idea," he said with a devilish grin.


    Dustin gave the boy an uncomfortable look at that. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

 Chapter 210: Some Empathy Left

    Julius felt a little bit awkward. After their intense fight, or rather his intense beat down, he was now standing next to the guy like nothing had happened.Julius learned that the guy''s name was Dustin and he was only there because of a favor for his friend.


    Julius guessed that beating down a young boy grew a conscious in a person, which was the reason why Dustin was helping him now.


    Although, Julius was surprised that Dustin killed the people who had tried to come investigate. Unlike the fight they had, Dustin killed those people with zero hesitation. One moment they were coming to check on things and the next they were empty bags of flesh.


    Such a massive difference from how he treated Julius. Just that one thing made Julius trust Dustin just a little bit more.


    He placed his attention back to the cell when he heard a hiss as the door to Reinera''s cell opened. Inside wasn''t as bad as he thought it was. It was in all honesty a clean and plain room.


    Oh look, there was even a pretty nice bed inside for her, he sighed gratefully.


    As he was distracted by the room, the moment he entered he was taken by complete surprise as a blinding white spear of light smashed into his face.


    It sent him flying back several feet, his face a scorched mess.


    That was a lot more weight behind those beams of light than I expected, he thought to himself as he lay on the ground.


    His mana was already regenerating so he was able to heal himself pretty quickly, but it was still a shock.


    Here he had come, ready to rescue the princess in distress, maybe even take her away in his arms. Yet, instead of that, he got a blast of light to the face.


    ***


    Reinera POV


    From inside her cell, all she heard were loud blasts and rumbling, indicative of a battle going on outside.


    A small piece of her hoped that it was Amelia here to rescue her, but she knew that was very unlikely.


    Julius on the other hand was most likely. However, with that Tier 4 lurking around, she was really hoping that wasn''t the case.


    No matter how strong he was, he wouldn''t be able to take down a Tier 4. Certainly not a Tier 4 as strong as that man seemed. Perhaps if the man was a weak Tier 4 he might have a chance, but even that was just blissful thinking.


    That was why she was preparing for the worst. The moment the door opened, she would come out swinging. It didn''t matter if the man was a Tier 4, she would throw everything she had into her attack.


    So when the sounds of fighting stopped abruptly, she got up and readied herself. The second the door opened, she released the attack with a grunt of effort. There wasn''t any light for her to use within the cell, but she had plenty of mana within her core.


    However, she was shocked when the person who opened the door wasn''t an enemy, it was Julius. Furthermore, she had already let go of her attack and could only watch in horror as she blasted her friend in the face.


    She immediately ran over to him as he lay motionless on his back. Worry and guilt washed over her.


    Thankfully, by the time she had kneeled next to him, he was already in the process of healing. Which was a big relief. Still, her attack had really done a lot of damage to his face. It was like someone had stuffed his face into a pile of coals.


    Thank goodness he has his healing skill, she thought inwardly.


    "I am so sorry, Julius! Are you okay?!"


    He groaned out. "You''re welcome for saving you." S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I didn''t mean to, I promise! I thought it was the guy from earlier," she tried to frantically explain her actions.


    "Oh? So that was for me?" She heard from behind her.


    She whipped around and saw the Tier 4 man from earlier. He didn''t have a mask on anymore, but she could recognize his voice and aura immediately.


    "What are you doing here?" She asked slowly.


    "I am the one who opened the door," he said plainly before turning toward her downed friend. "Are you sure this is your friend? I can always put her back if you want."


    Reinera went on full alert and jumped up to her feet, putting her fists up, preparing to fight. There was no way she was going back in there.


    She felt Julius reach out and grab her by her clothes. "Don''t worry, he''s just joking. He''s on our side now," he assured her as he sat up with a dramatic wince.


    She gave her former imprisoner a doubtful look. "Why would you change your mind all of a sudden?"


    She saw the man get a faraway look in his eyes. "That''s a good question. I''m still trying to figure that out for myself."


    She bit her lip. She didn''t have anything to say to that and turned back to Julius with a confused look. "Can you explain to me what is going on?" She had no idea what was happening. Why was the person who kidnapped her now helping her and why was Julius here?


    Were the two of them fighting earlier? Was that what the noise was?


    "We will have to explain as we go, we don''t have a lot of time. We need to free these people and get them to that old man you were talking about," the man said to Julius.


    What old man? She thought to herself, confused at the whole situation.


    ***


    Julius POV


    It was surprisingly easy to let all of the other children out. It was also important to note that not everyone who was helped within these cells was a child of nobles. Some of them, according to Dustin actually deserved to be here.


    Julius didn''t know what he meant by that, but apparently some of the people in the cells weren''t the best kind of sort.


    Which was the reason why Dustin insisted they stay in those cells and not take them with them.


    Julius didn''t have time to investigate these people on his own, so he had to trust Dustin on it. He deserved that much trust since he was helping him and had spared Julius''s life.


    While letting the noble-born children out of their cells was easy, convincing them to listen to them was much more difficult. After much arguing and attempted reassurances, Dustin just decided to press them with his authority and threaten them.


    Julius didn''t know if that was exactly the nicest way to go about it, but he couldn''t deny its effectiveness. The children all immediately became much more compliant.


    Even the more obstinate ones become much more agreeable. If it wasn''t for the fact that they were still children, Julius would have been tempted to leave them to their fates.


    Well not really, but some of them were real brats. Plus, he didn''t necessarily care about them. He got his friend, and that was all that really mattered to him.


    If he could save some innocent children while he was at it, then he would, but if they made it difficult for him to save his friend, then he would prioritize his friend.


    Well, maybe not the little ones, he corrected himself as he looked at the small children who were looking quite scared and adorable.


    ***


    Somehow they were able to sneak all of the dozen or so children out of the complex without much issue. Dustin had taken care of the rest of the criminals, but thankfully there weren''t any more surprises.


    The most worrying thing was the small children. There were a couple around six or eight years old who didn''t quite understand the gravity of their situation.


    But luckily for them, they were happy to just follow the group. Julius even created little platform constructs which he used to transport the younger ones since they had tiny legs and hastened their travel. It also worked as a good way to distract them.


    When they arrived at the orphanage, he wasn''t surprised to see Elder Han already out in front.


    "What is this?" The old man asked bluntly.


    "These are the other children who were kidnapped," Julius said simply as if that explained everything.


    Funnily enough, it seemed like it was. Elder Han just let out a defeated sigh and nodded like it was expected. Then he gave a curious look at Dustin who was trailing toward the back, making sure there wasn''t anybody following or noticing them.


    "And him?"


    "He''s a person trying to turn over a new leaf," Julius said after some thought.


    "And you trust him?" Elder Han asked him seriously.


    Julius paused again. "He could have killed me. I was out of mana and completely done for, yet he spared me. I would like to think that allows him some leeway. Which by the way, you were wrong. There weren''t just shitty Tier 3s there."


    "You fought him?" Elder Han asked surprised.


    "Yeah, kind of got my ass handed to me," Julius admitted.


    "Well, that''s what happens when a Tier 2 tries to fight a Tier 4. You should be grateful that you even were able to put up a fight," Elder Han scolded him.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "I didn''t exactly have a choice in that matter."


    "You never considered just surrendering?" Elder Han said with a scoff.


    Julius opened his mouth but nothing came out.


    Huh, I didn''t even consider that. What does that say about me? He thought worryingly.


    "You actually didn''t. Gods, you are really something. No wonder you got as strong as you did. I guess, not having a brain can be a blessing at times," the old man scathingly said.


    "Okay, okay. I get it. No need to get all grumpy on me. You might give yourself a heart attack," Julius tried to calm him down.


    The old man wagged his wrinkly finger at Julius. "Watch it. I might be old, but I can still give you a lesson," he said before pausing for a second. "On second thought, if I do, you will probably just enjoy it, you masochist."


    "Haha," Julius dryly laughed. "So are you going to help these children or not?"


    "You think you can just drop a bunch of spoiled noble brats at my doorstep and expect me to help you out?" Elder Han said with an offended expression.


    "Yep," Julius nodded his head confidently.


    Elder Han didn''t even bother to respond. He just turned around and walked back toward the orphanage.


    When nobody made any moves to follow him, he turned around. "I don''t got all night. Are you guys coming in or not?"


    Julius didn''t even bother trying to hide the smile that made across his face.


    Elder Han may have been grumpy, cynical, wrinkly, and old, but he knew that the old man still had some empathy left in him.

 Chapter 211 Whats This?

    "What are you going to do?" He asked Dustin."I''m just going to tell them that the girl we kidnapped had a scary strong friend who wasn''t happy that we took her," Dustin said with a devious smile.


    "That''s it?" He asked.


    "They will likely understand. There is always someone who is more powerful, even in a rural town like this. Look at that old man over there," he said while pointing at the old man who was directing the children toward a small building at the back of the orphanage. "Someone like him could have easily annihilated the entire warehouse without blinking an eye. As long as I don''t outright lie, I should be fine."


    Julius also looked over at the old man, it was surprising how well he was able to deal with the children without resorting to violence like they had. He guessed that was just the experience of running an orphanage.


    "You''re sure you still want to go back there?"


    "It would be more suspicious if I don''t," Dustin said with a shrug.


    There was a brief pause between them. "Thank you," he said suddenly.


    "For what?"


    "For not killing me and for helping me save my friend."


    "You''re just a young boy, I wasn''t ever going to kill you. I only hit you so hard because you kept on regenerating like some monstrous troll. Plus, you helped me more than you know," Dustin told him while giving him a slap on the back.


    "Still, thank you. If you need anything, just let me know."


    "Oh? A Tier 2 is offering a favor to me?" Dustin asked teasingly with an amused smile.


    "This Tier 2 almost beat you," he reminded him in a similar tone.


    Dustin shook his head aggressively. "You weren''t even close," he said with more confidence than Julius thought he was feeling. He still remembered how ragged Dustin looked after their fight. However, he was a generous person and didn''t bring that up, allowing Dustin to keep on believing what he wanted so he could sleep better at night.


    After Dustin left to head back to the warehouse, it was just him, the old man, and Reinera left. Elder Han had got the rescued children all situated and already had plans for how he was going to reunite them with their families.


    However, now that it was just the three of them, Julius noticed the weird atmosphere between Elder Han and Reinera. They were both staring at each other with expressionless faces, it was to the point that Julius had to say something.


    "Do you two know each other?" He asked, already knowing that Elder Han knew Reinera, but he didn''t know if Reinera knew who the old man was. Or if she knew that Elder Han was aware of her true identity.


    Reinera nodded her head. "Yeah, I''ve seen him before," she said vaguely, sounding as if she was afraid of giving up something she wasn''t supposed to say.


    He decided that it would probably be better if she knew that her secret was already out. "Elder Han already knows that you''re the princess somehow," he told her.


    Reinera''s eyes widened and he felt her mana react instinctively. "What? How?"


    He shook his head. "I don''t know. He just told me that he knows who Grace was and that he has some sort of grudge against your family."


    Reinera chewed on her lips and fidgeted with her fingers. "Of course, he does," she said finally. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Elder Han didn''t seem interested in this conversation any longer, he had a severe frown on his face as he turned to him. "If you don''t need anything else from me, I am going to go get some sleep," he said.


    Julius put up his hand. "Hold on for a moment. How do you two know each other?" He asked the both of them.


    When neither seemed willing to respond first, he looked up in the air with an irritated sigh. "You know, I have had quite the long day," he said to no one in particular. "I had to deal with a crotchety old man who''s pretending to be a normal old man, got my ass handed to me by a Tier 4, save a princess, and deal with a bunch of rescued children. I feel like the least I deserve is some honest answers," he said more calmly than he was feeling.


    However, it seemed that his irritation seeped through more than he wished. Because both of them gave him sympathetic looks. But when they both noticed they had the same expressions, they quickly removed them.


    Reinera was the first to speak. "That old man," she said while pointing violently at Elder Han. "He''s the former Sect Leader of the Fallen Spire Sect. He''s a cruel old bastard who will do anything for the right price," she said with disdain.


    Fallen Spire Sect? He had heard of that name before, though he had no clue about anything other than their name. Furthermore, based on Elder Han''s reaction, he wasn''t denying Reinera''s words so they must have had some truth to them. Although, he wasn''t just going to take those words lying down.


    "You speak of me like you and your family is any better," he croaked out. "Your family is willing to do anything as long as you guys maintain your tyrannical grip over the Empire."


    "I''m not my family," Reinera spat out angrily.


    Elder Han chuckled sardonically. "No, of course not, you just benefit from their prestige."


    "That is not fair and you know it."


    "Life isn''t fair and you of all people shouldn''t be telling other people what is and what isn''t fair, princess," Elder Han retorted. The benevolent old man was nowhere to be seen, just an old man with built-up resentment.


    I know I wanted them to open up a little bit, but I should probably intervene before it goes any further.


    "Okay, that''s quite enough," he said, infusing a bit of aura into his words to make his point. "I wanted to know answers, not for you two to start bickering like children. We are already surrounded by too many of them, there''s no need for two more to show up," he then turned to the old man.


    "I also don''t appreciate you obviously keeping things from me. If you are going to continue and manipulate me, you are going to find that I won''t be so agreeable," he said warningly, knowing full well that he was talking to someone who would wipe the floor with Dustin, not to mention someone like Julius.


    He felt Elder Han''s aura flare up for a mere moment. It barely showed, but for the first time, Julius was able to see just how oppressive the old man''s aura was. It was soul-crushing, in that brief moment he felt so much power that he almost kneeled to the floor.


    However, he didn''t. He wrestled the pressure back and used the full weight of his willpower to remain as unaffected as he could. He calmly stared back at the gaze of the old man as he withstood the small amount of aura.


    Eventually, after what seemed to be an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds, the old man''s aura calmed down. He gave an amused chortle before covering his aura once more.


    "You are something special, boy. Too bad your stupidity and pride will probably kill you first," Elder Han said in exasperation.


    Julius pretended to ignore him and went over to Reinera who hadn''t held up against the aura as well as he did. She had fallen to her knees and was gasping for air like a fish out of water. He gave her a reassuring pat on the back and channeled a little bit of life mana into her to alleviate the worst of it.


    "Are you okay?" He asked her.


    She just groaned and mumbled out an affirmative.


    He scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, I might have wound him up too much," he admitted.


    "You think?" She asked in a sarcastic tone, staggering to her feet. She was using him to drag herself up, almost taking him down to the ground as she did.


    "It seems like your issue with each other isn''t even that personal," Julius noted.


    "What do you mean by that?" Reinera asked in disbelief.


    "I mean have you actually seen Elder Han do anything outright bad with your own eyes? Or is that something someone from your family said to you?" Julius asked, already having a feeling what the answer was.


    "He''s not a good man, Julius. He''s¡­" She paused as Elder Han gave her a warning look.


    Julius noted this and couldn''t help but wonder what Elder Han didn''t want her to say about him. Likely something awful that the old man did in his past, that seemed like the most probable answer.


    He ignored this for now and turned to Elder Han who was back to acting like a normal old man. "I get she''s princess, but remember I told you that she isn''t that bad. Don''t you trust my opinion on that?"


    Elder Han grumbled something, but he couldn''t make out what he said. However, he was no longer glaring at Reinera like she murdered his family.


    Feeling like he had gotten the situation settled, he let out the breath he was holding. Reinera was his friend, someone who he was feeling much closer to after she revealed, or rather been forced to reveal her secret.


    While Elder Han was a man he didn''t know. But Julius felt like he had somewhat of an idea who the man was. No matter what his past might have been like, it was important to remember that the old man had taken in the rescued children and made plans to reunite them with their families without much convincing.


    He would much rather have both of them get along. And if getting along was too much to ask for, then Julius would happily settle for a mutual truce in the meantime.


    ***


    Before they left the orphanage, Julius managed to ask Elder Han where they were in relation to Heston. According to the old man, they were pretty far north of Heston, in the northeast section of the Empire.


    The old man said that if they wanted to get back their best bet would be to find a teleportation relay in a larger city. There wasn''t anything like that, at least nothing open to the public around Stonewall.


    "I got to tell you something," Reinera suddenly said.


    Julius turned to look at her. "What''s up?"


    They were heading back to the inn to get some rest, it was pretty late and they needed some sleep. Or rather, she needed some sleep, Julius could go without some for quite some time. Lily wouldn''t be too happy about that, but she would probably be understanding.


    "I have to come clean," Reinera said hesitantly.


    Julius frowned. "About what? Did you do something dumb?"


    Reinera winced at that. "A little bit," she admitted.


    "Well, you might as well rip off the bandage," he said with a sigh.


    "I might have a way to get us back immediately," she slowly told him.


    What does she mean by that? He thought curiously. How immediate was immediate?


    "I don''t follow," he said to her.


    She fidgeted with her fingers. "I have a beacon that my family gave me in case of emergencies like this. Once I activate it, they will know my location and send a space mage to me along with a team."


    She had something like that the entire time?


    "And you didn''t do it before because¡­?"


    "Well, at first it wasn''t working because of the spatial complications when getting teleported randomly, it took some time for it to recalibrate. But that isn''t the reason why I still haven''t used it. In fact, I was kind of glad that it wasn''t working," she took a deep breath.


    "I never had this kind of freedom in my life before. I wanted for just a little bit, to explore and see the world on my own without Amelia or other guards directing my every move," she quickly explained, as if she had been wanting to vent to someone for a long time.


    "But you also got kidnapped¡­ again," he reminded her.


    "I realize that," she said, giving him a blank look. "Look, I wanted to use it then, but¡­"


    "But it wasn''t working yet, and then they took your ring that held the beacon, I get it," Julius finished for her.


    "I just wanted to experience it, just for a little bit. But then I got myself kidnapped again by people who didn''t even know I was a princess," she said in disbelief. "I knew I was being selfish and should have told you sooner, but I didn''t think it would affect you like this. I''m sorry."


    Julius ran a hand through his hair. I wish she would have told me about it beforehand. But I guess I can''t fault her for wanting a taste of freedom. I would probably have made the same choice in her position, he admitted to himself.


    There was no way for her to predict for all of this to happen.


    He gave her a gentle smile and told her exactly that.


    "But if I did, then we wouldn''t be in this mess," she tried to remind him.


    "Yes, but it is also in the past. It has already happened, and there is nothing we can do to change that. We can only focus on what we are going to do next."


    As he finished saying his impromptu pep talk, he saw her take out something from her storage ring. The same one that Dustin had returned to her earlier.


    "That''s also why I wanted to ask you what you wanted me to do with this," she said while handing over the item to him. It was small but it didn''t take a genius to figure out that this was the beacon that she had just mentioned.


    He rolled it around in his hands as he looked at her with a contemplative look.


    What am I supposed to do with this?

 Chapter 212 Leaving for Blumand

    It was pretty obvious to Julius that Reinera offered the beacon to him as a sort of apology. She was most likely trying to say that he could activate it whenever he wanted to.However, it was also pretty obvious that was not what Reinera wanted him to do.


    "You don''t want to use it still," he asked, but it was more like a statement.


    She hesitated, probably thinking about denying it, but instead, she nodded her head.


    He was expecting that so it didn''t bother him. Regardless, it was still a question they needed to answer. A question he needed to answer for himself. How badly did he want to go back to Goldencrest?


    The biggest temptation was to see his friends and to make sure they knew he was alive. Other than that, he didn''t see much of a reason to go back.


    Elder Han had said something that resonated with him. He mentioned how academies, especially ones like Goldencrest were structured around noble children who already had a path planned out for them by their families. Julius didn''t really have that.


    Although to be fair, his affinities made it hard for there to be a structured or formalized path for him to follow. His skill set wasn''t exactly a normal one, it was just one he kind of cobbled together by his own experiences.


    Furthermore, he was enjoying the novelty of exploring his path on his own. It would have been way less fun if he had followed some instruction manual to get his skills and abilities. Was it possibly less efficient? Maybe. But Gabriel and Dante had both assured him that originality was more important for one''s path than being the most optimal.


    Considering that they were some of the more impressive people he had met so far, he trusted their opinions on that.


    With that being said, this still inevitably meant that specialized lessons at Goldencrest, especially as a first year, were limited.


    He knew that upperclassmen got access to more advanced lessons and classes, but for him, he wasn''t seeing much use there. The teachers were limited in what they could share with the students.


    Even Gabriel admitted to him that he was pushing what was acceptable by sparring with him in his free time.


    Then again, if he hadn''t gone to Goldencrest he would have never gotten the chance to befriend the others. He would have never gotten to meet Declan, Orus, or Rae. He would have never gotten help from Alice or Dante.


    There were many things to be grateful for by attending Goldencrest.


    But if he was being honest with himself, he felt like the school limited him in many ways. While his days there were enjoyable and fun, he still had to remind himself of the reason why he had chosen to go there in the first place.


    He had gone there because he wanted to get stronger.


    So it was important to ask himself something. Would going back allow him to get stronger than if he didn''t?


    Not only that, but Reinera also seemingly wanted to stay out here. She had slightly different reasons, but the overall theme was similar to him. He wanted to get stronger so that he could be free from the whims of the power. While she wanted to have a taste of freedom she had been denied her entire life.


    Their goals weren''t so different, he understood after some thought.


    Plus, when he saw his friend desperately wanting something in front of her, it was hard to ignore it and even more difficult to say no to it.


    It seems like my decision has already been made, he inwardly chuckled.


    He wordlessly passed back the beacon to Reinera, ignoring her wide-eyed look of surprise.


    "I don''t see a reason why we can''t take our time and explore the Empire on our way back. I also haven''t seen much of the world, so it should be fun. I bet there are some amazing things to eat along our way as well," he said with a smirk.


    She gave him a similar smirk and stored the beacon back into her storage ring with a quick flick.


    ***


    In the morning when he woke up, he finally managed to take a look at the notifications he got last night. It had been so hectic that he didn''t find a good chance to take a look. But now that he did, he opened them up.


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 6 -> lvl 7]


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 3 -> lvl 4]


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 18 -> lvl 19]


    [Flash Step lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    He actually got more than he thought he would. Although, it had been a tough fight, one of the toughest if he was being honest, so some levels made some sense. He would need to advance to Tier 3 before he made any more large improvements.


    [Empowerment of Will] managed to hit level 19 though. That was nice to see, his aura skill has been relegated to more of a strictly aura skill ever since he got his epic skills and Concepts, but it was still a great skill.


    It worked very well with Inexorable Resolve and he expected that it would evolve to epic without much trouble. That is if his soul could fit it while he was still in Tier 2 that is. Which he found very unlikely.


    ***


    "Are you sure we should trust him?" Reinera asked bluntly. Not caring at all that Elder Han was standing right in front of her.


    "Yes, we talked about this last night, we can trust Elder Han. I know you have your prejudices against him, but from what I have seen we should accept his offer," Julius said patiently.


    "Don''t let me stop you princess, you can refuse the offer. It wasn''t meant for you in the first place, it was for Julius, you are just his baggage," Elder Han snipped back at her.


    Julius rubbed his palm into his face, these two weren''t as hostile as before but they were still quite antagonistic toward each other. He reminded himself that he should just be grateful for that.


    What they were arguing about was the offer Elder Han had extended this morning. He had contacted some of his old friends and they were helping with taking some of the children back to where they came from.


    In this case, one of the younger boy''s family was in one of the main cities of the region, south of Stonewall called Blumand. A carriage would be by pretty soon to take the young boy there and if they wanted to, they could hitch a ride.


    Reinera didn''t trust this offer, but Julius thought it was perfect. He didn''t mind running toward Blumand on his own, but it would be much more comfortable to relax in a carriage. He was just surprised that Reinera wasn''t more on board with it. He would have thought that riding in a carriage would have been much more her style, instead of running there, getting all sweaty.


    "She''s not going to refuse," he told Elder Han, giving a pointed look toward Reinera.


    "Okay, in that case, we are going to meet the person who will be taking the child just outside of the town. I don''t want to risk one of the guards seeing the boy," Elder Han said.


    "How are we going to do that?"


    "We? Who said I was coming along?" Elder Han asked while shaking his head.


    Julius gave him a deadpan stare. "You did, like literally three seconds ago. You said we are going to meet the person," he told the old man.


    "Eh, you must have heard wrong. You gotta wonder who''s the old man here, me or you."


    He refused to play along with the man''s games. In the short time he knew the old man, Julius got a reasonable idea of how Elder Han acted. He just liked to be confusing and purposefully mysterious. It was probably very amusing to the powerful old man.


    Apparently, he and Reinera would sneak the boy by traveling through the secret tunnel that the orphanage had that led to outside of the town''s walls. It would be there that they would meet their escort.


    Before they left, Julius was given proper goodbyes by many of the children Julius had met yesterday. Even the previous contemptuous Ibram had completely done a one-eighty on his behavior. Now just grateful for Julius''s help.


    Julius didn''t blame him, he helped the teenage orphan with his weapon skill and how to utilize his mana more effectively, gaining the teen a level in his skill. The other children were equally displeased to see him go, which honestly was a bit heartwarming.


    He was glad that he was able to make such an impact on them in such a short amount of time. He was hoping that one day he would see them again, no matter how unlikely it might seem.


    After a prolonged goodbye, they finally left with Elder Han taking him aside for one last thing before they headed down the tunnel.


    "Here, take this," the old man said to him while passing a small card to him.


    It was completely black and made of a material that was unique, Julius had never seen quite a material before. It was heavy and stiff like metal but had this soft texture to it that made it feel like cloth as well.


    "What''s this for?" He asked curiously.


    "Don''t worry, you probably won''t need it, but just keep it in your storage ring. It won''t hurt to have it," Elder Han responded mysteriously.


    Julius didn''t try to argue, he just nodded his head and calmly stored it away. Although, he saw the slightest hint of disappointment on the old man''s face. He probably expected Julius to be a little more outwardly curious and less accepting of the item.


    "Thanks for all of the help and sorry for bothering you with all of the children."


    "Eh! It''s not that big of a deal. I take care of this orphanage for the same reason why I helped them. It has nothing to do with you," the old man grumbled.


    "Oh, by the way. It''s okay if you can''t do this, but I was hoping you might have a way to get a message to someone for me," Julius took out a letter he wrote earlier. It detailed his situation and that he was safe. He was hoping Elder Han could get it to one of his friends for him.


    "Depends on who I am giving this to," Elder Han said while taking the letter.


    "Lily Violet."


    "... Violet?" Elder Han asked while raising his eyebrows.


    "She''s a good friend who can be trusted to deal with it," Julius explained.


    "That should be fine," Elder Han assured him. "I would ask how you know the young genius of House Violet but considering everything, I can''t say I am that shocked."


    Julius chuckled at that. "Just lucky."


    "Or unlucky," Elder Han grumbled good-naturedly.


    Julius just shook his head and chuckled again. "Don''t die before the next time I see you old man," Julius said to him as he turned to walk down the tunnel.


    "Haha," Elder Han laughed sarcastically. "I''m old, but I''m not so old that I am going to drop dead any moment," he said, offendedly.


    "Good, then I will see you around next time," Julius promised.


    "That you will. Don''t be a stranger and try not to do anything too stupid in the meantime okay?"


    Julius turned around and gave the old man one last grin. "No promises."


    ***


    Elder Han POV


    He watched as Julius and that girl escorted the young boy down the tunnel. He knew that he shouldn''t have been so harsh on the girl but he couldn''t help himself.


    She looked so much like her relatives that it was hard not to associate her with her family.


    However, he was proud of Julius for how he stuck up for his friend and to him. Not many people were able to stand up to him, especially when they realized who he really was.


    As a former Sect Leader of the Fallen Spire Sect, he had enjoyed many privileges, including respect. Or rather in his point of view¡­ fear.


    It was a big reason why he appreciated what he was doing now. The children didn''t treat him like some untouchable person, they treated him like a doting grandfather. It was a relief in many ways, there was less pressure and responsibilities, and he was able to enjoy the twilight years of his life now.


    "You still want me to follow them?" He heard from a nearby shadow.


    "Yes, and make sure they don''t run into any ridiculous problems along the way," he told the shadow.


    "But if there''s an encounter with someone who is strong but within their abilities to handle you want me to stay away?" The shadow prodded.


    "Of course, they''re young. Let them experience some hardships. I doubt they will find their trip back to Heston an easy one. I can already tell that the girl is a magnet for trouble and the boy might possibly be worse if that is possible. Only interfere if something beyond their abilities shows up, understood?"


    "Yes, master. I will follow your instructions."


    Elder Han nodded at the shadow. He already guessed that they wouldn''t use that tracking beacon the princess would most definitely have. If so, they would have already used it by now. It seemed like they were going to explore the northeastern regions of the Empire by themselves.


    He didn''t disagree with their choice either. It would be a good experience for them, they might even gain a lot by doing so.


    He wasn''t expecting the two young children to come across too much trouble either. However, considering that Julius had just chosen to fight a Tier 4 of his own volition, he wasn''t the most confident about that assumption.


    "By the way, I know I told you before, but make sure you stay hidden with your skill. Julius has some sort of spatial awareness skill and he will detect you the moment you come out of it. I doubt it will become an issue if he detects you, but I would still rather you not be detected," he reminded the shadow.


    "Don''t worry, I won''t underestimate the boy."


    "Good," he said with a nod. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This generation is looking to be quite the interesting one. I wonder how far some of these children will go.


    However, just from what he had seen so far, he believed that Julius might be one of them who truly separated himself from the others. That or the boy was going to get himself killed. There would be no in between. He had seen many boys that were similar to Julius, all of them except for a rare few ended up dead in a matter of years.

 Chapter 213 Comforting

    Julius, Reinera, and Cory quickly made their way through the tunnel. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.Cory was of course the small boy they were escorting. He didn''t talk much but he also didn''t seem to be scared. He just sat in Reinera''s arms kind of blankly, not moving and not really looking at anything either, only sometimes gazing at the lights Julius created.


    It kind of worried Julius. He could understand a boy who was crying or a boy who was excited, but he didn''t understand a boy who looked completely robotic. It was almost like the trauma of what he experienced totally overwhelmed his brain and shut it down.


    Nothing that Reinera did seemed to help. So far, the only thing that boy seemed remotely interested in were the balls of light Julius created to light their way.


    He had formed over a dozen little lights that lit up the entire tunnel. It turned their trip from a dark and kind of depressing atmosphere to one that seemed a little more cheery. At least they weren''t traveling through the sewers.


    The tunnel itself was dark, but it was at least pretty clean. Whoever managed it, must have done something to keep it neat.


    As he did, he couldn''t help but think about the last few days. And the more he thought about it, the harder it was for him to believe that the old man was being entirely truthful with him. The whole time he knew Elder Han, Julius felt like he was dancing in the old man''s palm.


    I shouldn''t be worrying about this right now, he reminded himself.


    Instead, he turned and observed Cory quietly watching the soft orbs of light with a concentrated gaze. Figuring that he had nothing to lose, he walked up to Cory slowly.


    The boy didn''t pay him any mind, unsurprisingly.


    Julius took his time to create something a little more complex than his normal constructs. He was going back to his days when he would practice by making constructed soldier figurines. However, his skills compared to then were night and day.


    He carefully molded his mana, using everything he had learned up till now. Using the softened properties of mana, he was able to create much more delicate joints for the figurine. Even making use of a tiny needle of sharpened mana to carve out the small details of the face of the soldier.


    He still wasn''t an artist, but it was already looking so much better than his attempts before.


    He gave the soldier a sword to hold, though he made the mistake of making it just like a real sword the first time around. That meant that it was really sharp and much too dangerous for a simple toy, so he had to fix it, making sure the sword couldn''t cut through stone.


    That probably wouldn''t be the best thing to hand over to an emotionally traumatized kid.


    After some finishing touches he was finally done. The soldier was complete and looked pretty nice if he said so himself. He had even included clothing that had similar properties to cloth, which meant whenever the soldier moved, its cape would flap a little bit.


    It was completely unnecessary and nobody would really care, but he thought it would be a nice touch.


    He had been so focused on creating it, that he didn''t realize that Cory had stopped looking at the light orbs and was completely entranced by his actions. Unlike the lights, there was a glimmer of excitement in Cory''s eyes as he stared at the figurine.


    Julius extended his arm that was holding the soldier to Cory, offering it to the little boy. However, instead of taking it from his hands, Cory just continued to stare at it.


    He had to physically tuck the construct into Cory''s arms before the boy finally reached out to touch it.


    However, all of his efforts were rewarded because the boy''s blank expression gradually turned into one of wonder and awe. Cory handled the figurine like it was made of glass not knowing that Julius made it so that it would be able to handle almost any Tier 3 attack. He had even infused some Concepts into it, knowing full well that it was overboard but wanted to do so anyway.


    Reinera turned and gave him a knowing smile, winking at him as the boy in her arms smiled for the first time.


    That wasn''t all Julius had for the boy either. He gently took control of the construct and had it move its arm into a salute, putting the joints he had carefully made to good use.


    This small action shocked the boy and he let out an involuntary giggle as he watched the figurine go through a number of dramatic and funny poses.


    And that was how their adventure through the tunnel and sneaking out of Stonewall went. Two young people smiling as they watched a little boy giggle in joy.


    ***


    "Are you Julius and Grace?" The man asked.


    Julius and company had come out of the tunnel just outside of the walls of the town. They ended up having to wait for a little bit until their escort came, but he eventually showed up exactly where Elder Han told them he would be.


    "That''s us," Julius nodded. "Are you our ride to Blumand?"


    "Yep, that''s me. I''m here to take the little one back to his family in Blumand," he said while giving the little guy a small wave and a large smile. However, Cory was still completely immersed in the figuring still and didn''t pay the new man any attention.


    The man looked a little sad at being ignored but quickly regained his smile. "Han told me you two were just hitching a ride, correct?"


    "Yeah, I hope you don''t mind," he said politely.


    "Not at all, the more the merrier. Come on, follow me. The carriage is just over there," the man pointed over the ridge. "The name''s Danny by the way."


    "Nice to meet you, Danny, I''m Julius, but you already knew that," he said with a laugh while following Danny. Reinera and Cory were right behind him, Cory still poking the figurine back as Julius controlled it to give the kid small teasing jabs with its dull sword.


    When he eventually saw the carriage he was pretty impressed. It was a sleek emerald green carriage that was being pulled by a single creature. The creature itself was an interesting mix between a horse and a cheetah. It''s muscles were lean and there wasn''t an ounce of fat on it. The creature looked like it was bred for speed.


    The carriage itself didn''t have any wheels. Like many of the carriages he had seen in Heston, it was held up in the air by wind magic. The only difference was that, unlike those carriages, this one was being drawn by an actual creature.


    The inside might have been an even more surprise than the outside. There must have been some sort of spatial enchantment that enlarged the space inside because it was at least twice as large as it looked from the outside.


    Not only that but there were some extremely comfortable chairs lined up along the walls.


    "This is a very nice carriage," Julius said genuinely impressed.


    "I know right?! I saved up for a while to get this. I used to have this old carriage, but it was nothing like this one," Danny said proudly.


    "I''d say it was worth it," Julius agreed with him.


    Danny nodded emphatically. "I wish my wife thought the same. She thinks it was a waste of money and said that it would have been better to spend the money on something practical. But she just doesn''t understand a man''s desires," he said while clenching one fist in the air dramatically.


    Julius laughed goodnaturedly and continued to make small talk with the man. Finding out small things about Blumand and the region as he did.


    ***


    The carriage was not only nice, but it was fast. The creature he found out was a monster known as a Phantom Colt. Or as Danny liked to call him, Colton.


    Colton''s species didn''t get the name phantom because it could turn invisible or had any properties of a ghost. No, it was purely because of how fast their species were. When they ran at full speed those at lower tiers would only see an afterimage of the beast.


    Colton was a genuine Tier 4 monster which was worth more than the carriage itself. It was only because Danny had a good friend who bred them for a living that he was able to get Colton as a calf for practically free.


    Colton wasn''t the only strong one either. Just looking at his aura at a glance, it seemed that Danny was just another Tier 3. However, upon closer examination now that they were in a carriage together, he realized that wasn''t the case.


    Danny must have had pretty good training or item because his aura control was phenomenal. There was no way he wasn''t at least Tier 4. In fact, Julius wouldn''t be surprised to learn that he was Tier 5, though he doubted that.


    He didn''t try to ask either, as that was considered quite rude to do. It also wasn''t that important for Julius to know. It wouldn''t change much at all.


    Despite that they were going really fast across the plains, Julius could barely feel a thing within the carriage. He would dare to say that it was even smoother than riding in a vehicle from his old world.


    On top of that, it was much faster than if the two of them had tried to travel by themselves. He was glad that Elder Han had offered a ride much more now that he was experiencing the benefits.


    It took them about half the day before they reached their destination. The sun was still just above the sky and he could see the city approaching in the distance. There were tall walls surrounding the city just as Stonewall did, but unlike the smaller town, these walls were quite impressive.


    It was less the size of the walls and more of the mana he felt radiating from the stone enchantments. He could practically feel them glowing from the carriage. He could tell that Reinera felt the same thing as well. Her eyes were glued to the walls just like his were.


    Blumand was apparently one of the larger cities within the northeastern region. Which made sense considering its importance to the region.


    They had to slow down as small villages were placed around the city, much like how Heston had some. However, unlike Heston, these villages were not as nice as the ones there.


    They were noticeably less pristine, but it wasn''t in a bad way. It was more like a realistic view of how a village would actually look. Heston had always felt a little bit like fairyland. The city had always seemed too nice and too clean to be considered normal.


    Thus, in many ways, seeing a city and villages like this was like a breath of fresh air.


    Their carriage gained a good amount of attention from the people. The emerald green carriage was quite stylish and Danny was smiling as he basked in the attention, proud of his ride.


    It wasn''t like they were the only fancy carriages though. As they got closer to the city, they saw an increasingly larger amount of carriages. Among those were some really nice ones too. They must have belonged to nobles or some other rich families.


    Although, Danny''s stood out because he was one of the few people who actually had a monster attached to the front.


    Eventually, they got to the city gates without issue. After waiting for their turn to be inspected, Danny passed over what looked to be some kind of license or permit and was allowed through without many questions.


    When they entered, Julius took the time to admire the city. Blumand wasn''t quite like Heston, but it certainly held its own unique charm. Tasteful architecture and relatively clean stone streets gave him a good impression of the city right away.


    Furthermore, there were a lot of people out and about, shopping or spending their day outside. All of whom seemed pretty happy, at least on the surface.


    Danny took them down several roads and ultimately ended up at his place. Danny made sure that Colton was settled in the barn that was on the property and welcomed them inside to rest.


    At first, they were hesitant to stay, as they were planning to check out the city before it got too dark. However, Danny''s next words convinced them quite quickly.


    "Angela is making some of her famous stew, she would be very upset if I didn''t invite you all to try it."


    Hearing that there was food involved, both Julius and Reinera immediately accepted, which prompted Danny to laugh. The two of them swiftly followed Danny, Reinera still carrying the distracted Cory in her arms.


    Julius had to wipe the saliva from his mouth as he imagined a nice hearty stew filling his tummy, it had been a weird few days and he could use a comforting meal.

 Chapter 214 In the Corner

    They didn''t only just have dinner but somehow Danny''s wife, Angela managed to convince them to stay the night. As Danny had mentioned several times beforehand, she could be very convincing when she wanted to.Not only that, but Cory didn''t seem to want to leave them either. Thus, Reinera made the executive decision to stay the night. Julius wasn''t complaining though. The stew was one of the best stews he had in a while and Angela had promised to make some of her biscuits the next morning.


    The same biscuits that Julius was currently devouring alongside Reinera.


    "Are you guys sure that you don''t want to come with me?" Danny asked them after sipping on his cup of coffee.


    "I''d think it would be better if we didn''t get too involved with nobility," he replied to Danny after he finished chewing his food.


    Danny had told them the plan for young Cory when they were riding in the carriage. Apparently, Cory wasn''t just some regular local noble. He was the grandson of Marquis Easten, the presiding lord of Blumand and much of the region.


    Julius was a little taken aback by this revelation. He had thought Cory was just an unfortunate noble''s son, but being the grandson of the current Marquis was much more serious than he had been expecting.


    Hmm, now that I think about it, don''t I have a similar status? He asked himself wonderingly.


    Never mind that.


    How had the group that took Reinera managed to capture the relative of such a prominent figure? He was starting to think that this group was much larger than he initially believed.


    He also didn''t think it would be best for them to get too involved with the Marquis. If he and Reinera wanted to take some time and explore some of the Empire before returning they would be better to remain low-key.


    "Why?" A soft and adorable voice called out.


    All heads swiveled to the young boy who had spoken for the first time. Reinera''s eyes got especially wide. She had been trying to get a word out of young Cory the entire time yesterday but never was able to.


    Reinera stood up and went over to where Cory was sitting. He was still playing with his new toy, completely ignoring the food on his plate.


    She crouched down and spoke in a soft tone. "When we saved you from those bad guys, we had to be secretive about it. If they found out we did it, it could cause problems for us. That is why we are going to let Danny handle getting you back to your family."


    Cory looked up with his big bright eyes and reached out his arms to her. "But I want you guys to," he said while also glancing at Julius with pleading eyes.


    Oh, that''s not fair.


    Reinera seemed to think so too, because she was folding faster than a lawn chair after all of the food at a barbeque was gone. He could see it in her face.


    She looked toward Julius and gave a hesitating bite of her lips. He already knew what she was thinking in her head. She was most likely believing that it wouldn''t be that much of a risk to go and personally deliver Cory to his family.


    "We probably shouldn''t," he said gently, not sounding very convincing himself.


    He saw both Reinera''s and Cory''s faces drop down in disappointment. Their sadness was evident.


    "I wouldn''t say it would be that much trouble," Danny interjected.


    Quiet, Danny. Don''t make this any harder for me please, he begged the man.


    Reinera''s and Cory''s faces brightened up at that and gave another hopeful look toward Danny.


    "The contact I have from House Easten is supposed to meet me at the gates for a dropoff of some goods for the property. He will sneak us through and take us to a place where I can drop Cory off. Then the guard will take him to his parents quietly. You won''t have to worry about dealing with his parents or any nobility at all. The only people who will know you guys came along would be me and Cory himself. It will be simple," Danny explained confidently.


    Reinera gave Julius a pleading look. "See? It will be easy. We escort Cory to his family''s estate and leave just as easily. That would make him feel better, right Cory?"


    The little boy nodded his head so vigorously that Julius thought his head might come off on accident.


    He recognized when he had been beaten. So he gave a small defeated nod. However, he had to hide a smile as Cory ran out of his chair to wrap Julius in a hug with his small arms.


    ***


    The plan was for Julius and Reinera to pretend to be workers for Danny while keeping Cory hidden in a small compartment underneath the merchandise. Some stealth enchantments should help hide the boy, but they shouldn''t need them according to Danny.


    "Are you sure this will work?" Julius asked again.


    "Yes, I am sure. I do deliveries here all the time. They know who I am, plus my friend is on duty today. He will make sure we get through without trouble," Danny said confidently.


    He turned to Reinera.


    "Do you know anything about House Easten?" He had already asked Danny before, but he sounded kind of biased, not to sound too distrustful of the man.


    "I haven''t met them before, but I do know their entire family is generally considered honorable and extremely competent," she said to him.


    Well, that''s good news. I would have really been against it if it was a corrupt noble.


    When they got to the gates of the estate, Julius could not help but be impressed. It was quite the place.


    Even though, he had grown up on a similar-sized estate, House Hyperius''s Estate was lacking in comparison to Easten''s. Many people were running around, all busy doing something. The estate was also in much better condition.


    Was House Hyperius poor? Julius realized with a short gasp.


    As he was having a miniature existential crisis, he stopped to observe the metal gates that surrounded the property. Every inch of metal on the gates was polished to the point that Julius had to squint at the glare. It was made of some sort of metal that gave Julius the feeling that he could spend a lot of time trying to break it but find himself unsuccessful.


    They approached the group of guards who were all wearing dark blue uniforms displaying the crest of House Easten. Some sort of bird-like creature was proudly adorned on the chests of the guards.


    The guard who greeted them walked up to Danny with a smile. "Hey, Danny! You here to make another delivery?"


    "Yep, just dropping some things off, Reg. You know, the usual."


    The guard looked over at Julius and Reinera who were doing their best to come off as non-threatening as possible.


    "New workers?" The guard, Reg asked questioningly.


    "Yeah, owed their parents a little favor," Danny lied.


    Reg shrugged his shoulders as if he didn''t care. "That''s fine. But you know the drill," he said while waving his hands at the two of them.


    Julius and Reinera were already warned of this. They were to exit the carriage and get scanned by the guards. Apparently the enchantment worked so that anyone with malicious intent would be prevented from entering.


    It was a general enchantment and it unfortunately couldn''t decipher the reason why there was malicious intent but it was very effective at detecting any of it. Thus, anyone who showed any of it would be stopped and interrogated. Since they weren''t planning to do anything bad, they had nothing to worry about.


    While that was happening the carriage would be scanned as well for any unauthorized entry or people being smuggled in. Fortunately, for them, since Cory was the grandson of Marquis Easten he was already keyed into the enchantments and wouldn''t set off any alarms. At least that was what Danny told them. sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After they got scanned they were led into the gates by another stern middle-aged guard and were taken to the back of the estate to unload their goods, Julius finally let go of the breath he was holding.


    Once they were alone with the guard, their demeanor got much more friendly. They smiled at Danny and gave him a quick hug. "You got the young master?"


    "Yeah, I got him. He''s inside. This isn''t going to cause you too many problems is it?" Danny asked.


    "Nah, Lady Rebecca knows I wouldn''t do anything to harm her family. She trusts me. Remember, she was the one who took me off the streets," the guard said reassuringly while giving Danny a pat on the back.


    "And she won''t ask why?"


    "Of course, she will, but she also will understand you want to stay anonymous. Which I don''t get why you would want that, she will happily reward you for bringing back her son."


    Danny nodded before chuckling. "I don''t need any reward, I''m already getting paid," he said before his eyes widened and turned to Julius and Reinera. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce you all. This is Frank, he''s been a guard for House Easten since he was a young lad."


    Frank gave them a formal bow. "Nice to meet you," he said.


    Julius reached out his hand on instinct. "Julius."


    "Grace," Reinera bowed.


    Frank reached over and gave them a firm shake. "Are you the two who saved young Cory?"


    "I don''t know what you are talking about," Julius said with a grin, giving a quick glance toward the side of the room.


    Frank nodded. "Of course not, how silly of me," he said with a smile before turning to Danny. "Is he in there?" He pointed at the carriage.


    Danny nodded and promptly went over the the carriage. Julius and Reinera also went on over as there were still actual goods to be taken out of the carriage. Although it was just a pretense to get in, they still had to show that they were delivering something.


    Once, they got the goods out of the way, they made enough space for the compartment to be opened.


    When they finally did, Cory''s little head popped out, and smiled when he saw Julius and Reinera. Julius reached down, helped the little boy out, and dusted him off with a gentle pat. As he did that, Cory''s eyes lit up as he saw Frank off to the side and ran over to the man as fast as his little two feet could take him. Clearly recognizing the man.


    Frank smiled widely and laughed as he picked up Cory in a big hug, swinging the boy around excitedly.


    When he finally stopped spinning the boy around, he placed him on his hip and bowed. "I can''t tell you how grateful I am for you guys saving him."


    "We''re just happy to see that he''s in good hands," Reinera said with a smile.


    Julius smiled as well. He was glad he had chosen to come along and drop Cory off with his own hands. No matter what followed, seeing the smile of the young boy as he hugged Frank made Julius''s day. It reminded him that he had made the right choice.


    He glanced at Reinera who looked like she was thinking the same. She was also looking at Julius with a knowing smirk. As if trying to let him know that she was right when she said they should drop him off. He didn''t say anything, but he gave her a conceding eye roll.


    Frank spoke to them again. "If you guys need anything, just ask. I might only be a simple guard of a noble house, but I will do anything to repay this debt," he said while bowing slightly, still holding onto Cory with one arm.


    Julius waved him off. "There''s nothing to thank. We only did what was right," he said with a smile toward Cory, who was trying to wiggle out of Frank''s arms.


    Frank allowed the boy to get down and watched as Cory ran back to Julius and Reinera giving both of them hugs around their legs. They both crouched down so that they could reciprocate.


    After Cory released them, the little boy fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out the figurine that Julius made. He made a gesture to hand back the soldier to Julius. But Julius shook his head and closed Cory''s hands around the construct.


    "You keep it, I am not sure how much longer it will last, but you should keep it until then," he said to Cory, much to the young boy''s delight. The boy jumped up and down, giving Julius another hug that was surprisingly strong for a boy only around seven years old.


    The figurine would likely remain existing for quite some time. The sheer amount of mana and Concepts he used while making it would allow the construct to exist for some time.


    Frank had walked up to the two of them with a tearful expression. "I can''t offer you guys much, but I can promise you that I won''t let anyone know it was you who saved Cory, not even Lady Rebecca."


    Julius gave the man a reassuring pat on the back. "I think it is already too late for that," he said with a nod toward the direction he had glanced at earlier. Frank''s eyes furrowed in confusion, before widening in surprise as he realized what he meant.


    Julius on the other hand didn''t panic, he just calmly turned and stared directly at the woman who was shrouded in the corner.

 Chapter 215 Meet the Mother

    Julius had immediately noticed her when she got within his skill''s influence. She had been watching them silently for the past several minutes, ever since Frank took them back here.Julius didn''t know for sure that it was this Lady Rebecca, but he was pretty certain that it was. She was wearing a fancy dress and had all of the signs of a noble lady. Also, he didn''t see a reason why someone like her would be just hanging around this area at this specific moment unless there was a reason.


    Therefore, he speculated that this woman was Lady Rebecca or at least someone who was related to Cory. He didn''t know how they managed to get wind of his drop off but the fact remained that she was here.


    She also knew that it was Julius and Reinera who brought Cory back. That could potentially be a problem for the two of them.


    Danny whipped around as did Frank. Reinera was thankfully a little more reserved, however, she also knew about Julius''s perception ability. So she probably wasn''t that surprised that Julius was able to notice her intrusion.


    Well, not intrusion exactly. This is probably her home to be fair. More like snooping, he decided.


    "Who''s here?" Frank asked confused.


    Julius didn''t respond, he just continued to look exactly at the spot where the lady was hiding.


    Eventually, the lady seemed to understand that Julius had noticed her and slowly removed whatever stealth skill she had active, appearing in front of them.


    "I thought you said you had to help out with gate duties today, Frank," she said accusingly.


    Frank seemed to both simultaneously relax and tense up. He was probably glad that it wasn''t some enemy but was also nervous at being caught red-handed.


    "I''m sorry, Lady Rebecca. As you can see, I-I had good reason to," he said with a small stutter.


    Ah, so it was Lady Rebecca, Julius mentally noted, giving himself a small pat on his back for his deduction skills. She even had the same bright blue eyes as Cory as well as sharing some of his facial features.


    "Yes Frank, that is the only reason why I am not upset with you or the fact that you were totally willing to lie to my face," she said meaningfully before turning to Danny. "Hello, Mr. Hollins. Rest assured, I will also be having words with you regarding your continued services at a later date."


    Danny didn''t dare to look her in the eyes and suddenly found a smudge on the floor very interesting. Then there was Frank who was practically shaking in his boots and was about to say something but she waved her hand, interrupting whatever he had planned to tell her. Instead, she quickly crossed the room, moving in the blink of an eye.


    In fact, she did. Julius didn''t sense her moving, she had used some sort of teleportation skill to move. One moment she was across the room and the next she had Cory in her arms drowning the poor boy in kisses.


    Cory was obviously happy to see his mother, but on the other hand, he looked like he was trying to escape as well. He was clawing his way out of her arms with such fierceness, that it was like seeing a totally different boy. He gave Julius a look that was a clear plea for help, but Julius, the smart man he was, purposefully ignored the boy.


    He was not getting in the middle of a mom and her reunion with her precious baby.


    Once the mother seemed to get her fill and Cory was gasping for air, she turned to them with a dangerous glint in her eyes.


    "I heard most of your guys'' talk, but I noticed you failed to mention the details of my son''s kidnappers," she said. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius gave Reinera a look, letting her know that he would take care of it. He didn''t want her accidentally saying something that might endanger them or even worse, Elder Han and the orphanage.


    "I''m sorry, it is Lady Rebecca correct?"


    She nodded.


    He took a deep breath. "I wish I could tell you everything, but honestly, I can''t," he could immediately tell that she didn''t like hearing that, so he put a placating hand up. "But¡­ I can tell you that a group of men from a town we visited had your son imprisoned and had plans to ransom him back to you. We ended up running across them and saving them," he explained as carefully as he could.


    He probably could have told her more, but he didn''t want the remote chance of someone figuring out that the orphanage had anything to do with saving them. That group was able to hire a Tier 4 like Dustin to protect the place, which meant there were undoubtedly more Tier 4s or those even stronger involved. He didn''t want them looking for trouble and then ended up having the orphanage directly in their scope.


    Then again, Elder Han was protecting the orphanage, so it might have been one of the most protected places in the region.


    I am kind of interested to see what Elder Han would do if they tried, he thought humorously to himself.


    He only had sympathies for anyone who dared to attack the orphanage. He doubted that there would be anything left of them if they did.


    Still, there was no need to tempt fate. Who knew what could happen outside of Elder Han''s control? It''s not like the children stayed inside the orphanage forever.


    This was just overall safer for everyone involved. He didn''t really care if the lady didn''t like it. They had saved her son, so that should be enough for her. If she couldn''t accept that, then that said enough about what type of person she was.


    "We are already aware of the group that kidnapped my son. They messaged us a while ago. I am asking you if there are any details that you could share with us that could help us get some retribution against these scumbags," she said murderously while also covering Cory''s ears with some mana, ensuring the little boy didn''t hear her curse.


    "They''re all dead. I am not sure you are going to get much revenge on them any time soon," he said semi-truthfully. He didn''t include Dustin with them because the man had been the reason they had even been saved. So according to Julius, Dustin was a new man and had no relation to this group anymore.


    The noble lady clenched her fists. "I don''t just mean them. I want to get revenge on the whole group itself. We have been doing some investigation of our own and apparently this isn''t just some small group of criminals. They are a part of a much larger group that has been doing this with other noble families on top of some other activities. They are a parasite to society and I want to eradicate them," she said menacingly.


    Julius sympathized with her, he really did. He would like nothing more than to see this group gone for good. But he also wasn''t about to tell them that Dustin would be able to tell them everything they would need to know.


    "I wish I could help you more," he said, genuinely remorseful.


    She nodded her head. "Me too. I wish you would be more forthcoming, but I see you insist on hiding some things," she said disappointedly.


    "What does that mean?" Reinera called out, sounding very displeased but not surprised.


    "It means I am not going to let you leave until you give us some actual answers," Rebecca said calmly.


    "We saved your son and now you are going to imprison us?" Reinera asked.


    "You can''t really expect me to just let you go, right? You snuck into our estate and had my missing son in your possession. I want some answers and if you''re not willing to help me, then I guess you will have to stay here for the time being."


    Reinera maintained her poise, acting every bit like a dignified noble. "Are you sure you want to do it like this?" However, a bit of anger leaked into her tone. He couldn''t blame her either. It wasn''t exactly a fair thing to do, but he could understand her point of view.


    Lady Rebecca glared at her. "Two Tier 2s come back with my son who had just been kidnapped, saying that they managed to save him. Do you think I am ignorant or something? You guys are hiding something. I want to know what it is or you guys are never leaving here."


    Julius walked over to Reinera before she could get any more furious and tried to calm her down. "It''s okay. I don''t think she means us any harm. She just wants to find out what happened to her son," he quietly explained, knowing full well that Cory''s mother could hear them.


    There wasn''t any need to try and fight their way out either. They wouldn''t stand a chance. Julius was able to tell that the moment she teleported to Cory. He had been able to sense immensely profound Concepts and aura from her during that brief moment.


    She was undoubtedly a powerful Tier 5, which was honestly a bit surprising. Tier 5 wasn''t just something you could spend gold to get to. It required talent and hard work. Whoever, this Rebecca was, she wasn''t just some pampered noble lady. She was a fighter.


    He also knew that this situation had always been a possibility. In fact, he had been expecting something like this to happen. Knowing Reinera''s luck and then added to his, he had a gut feeling that something would go wrong. That was why he was against coming here in person.


    Still, he couldn''t say no to such a cute face like Cory''s. He also didn''t think they were in any real trouble. It would most likely just be an annoying inconvenience.


    That was why he was perfectly calm, even without the aid of [Sage of Savagery].


    He took out a couple of chocolates from his storage ring and handed them over to Reinera.


    "Eat these, it will help you calm down," he told her with a grin, popping one of them into his own mouth.


    She looked like she wanted to hit him, but with an angry expression indulged his request, taking a couple of pieces of chocolate for herself. She angrily chomped down on the perfectly tempered piece of chocolate and glared at the blue-eyed noble lady. Thankfully, the moment she started to eat them, her furious attitude calmed down just a hair.


    What can''t chocolate fix? He thought to himself with a grin as he enjoyed his own piece.


    He saw Cory try to wiggle his arms free from his mother''s arms, reaching out to Julius. He still had the earmuffs made of mana over his head, so he didn''t understand what was going on, but he saw Julius taking out chocolate. It was the same chocolate Julius had snuck to the boy during their ride to Blumand and the boy loved it.


    Without any hesitation, he walked over to Cory with a smirk, taking out a nice generous hunk from his ring. Julius ignored the death stare that Lady Rebecca was giving him as he approached, having full confidence that she wasn''t going to hurt him.


    Once he was within a couple of feet of Cory and his mother, Julius offered the chocolate to the boy.


    "What do you think you are doing?" Lady Rebecca asked threateningly.


    Julius never took his eyes off Cory. "You really think we have any intentions of hurting him after all of the trouble we went to saving him?"


    "I don''t care. It might be poisoned or have some kind of mind-altering effect to it. I did just say that you are now our prisoners after all, I wouldn''t be shocked if you decide to harm him now," she said sharply.


    Julius finally looked at her. Taking in her beauty. She was tall and had the same dirty blonde hair as Cory as well as his blue eyes. Only his were a bright innocent blue, while her''s were an ice-cold blue. Still, up close he could really start to see the resemblance. They had the same lips and nose, there was no doubt that they were related.


    Instead of handing it to Cory, he handed the piece of chocolate over to her. "Here try it for yourself. There''s nothing in there except for chocolate and sugar."


    When she didn''t take it and stared daggers at him, he sighed and talked quietly so that only the two could hear.


    "He has just gone through a traumatic event. He didn''t eat and barely blinked when we found him," he saw her clench her teeth at that. "That''s why I think he deserves any bit of happiness he can find right now," he told Cory''s mother with a saddened smile.


    She didn''t say anything in return, but she did up taking a tiny bite of the piece of chocolate him giving it a taste for herself. Once she ensured it wasn''t contaminated with any external elements she nodded her head and passed it over to Cory''s eagerly awaiting hands.


    The boy gleefully nibbled on it as his mother smiled at his actions.


    Eventually, Lady Rebecca turned to look at Julius. "Follow me, please," she said to him in a much more civil tone.

 Chapter 216 Marquis Easten

    "This is quite the place," he commented to nobody in particular. More just appreciating the beauty of the estate."How are you able to be distracted by the architecture at a time like this?" Reinera asked. She was calmly following Lady Rebecca, it was like she knew that they didn''t have a choice and was just going along with it.


    In fact, Julius suspected that she was feeling pretty comfortable considering that she had always been around high-ranking nobles her entire life. She didn''t look uneasy at all.


    "What? Would you rather me spend time planning how to escape?"


    "No, that''s silly. We wouldn''t even make it out of the front door," she said absolutely. "Lady Rebecca is a well-known fighter. We will probably get about two feet before she stops us."


    "Want to bet that I can make it to three?" Julius asked.


    He did see Lady Rebecca give him a glance. There was no way she didn''t hear him and he gave her a smile in return.


    Instead of replying to him, she ignored it and continued on walking.


    Julius looked at the noble lady who was escorting them inside the mansion. She certainly didn''t look like a fighter. She was wearing a very elegant and beautiful dress along with high heels that accentuated her already long legs. Her hair was all done up and was the picture-perfect example of a noblewoman.


    He mentally chuckled as he thought about what kind of surprise these people got when they realized how strong this woman really was.


    Frank who was still alongside them, interjected as well. "You shouldn''t have to worry about anything. Lady Rebecca is an honorable woman, she won''t harm you guys or anything. She is just a bit overprotective of her family."


    Julius wasn''t that worried. He didn''t think she was going to hurt them. If Cory felt as comfortable around her as he displayed, then it was safe to say that she was at least a pretty good mother. That was a green flag in Julius''s books.


    Eventually, they arrived at a room. This room was a bit different as it had several retainers all standing outside. They weren''t exactly guards, but Julius noted that every one of them could have been easily mistaken for one. They were all stern and serious people. Even the lone woman who was standing beside them was scary-looking with her black hair and blood-red eyes.


    When they approached, all of their eyes focused on the three newcomers. However, when they noticed who Lady Rebecca was carrying in her arms, they all noticeably reacted. The scary woman even gasped in surprise and headed straight for Cory.


    "Young master is safe?" She asked as if she couldn''t believe her eyes.


    Lady Rebecca smiled widely. "Yes, it would appear so. Is my father inside?"


    The woman nodded. "He is, there is a small meeting going on, though," she warned.


    "Do you know who?"


    "Just a couple of elders, your husband, as well as a man from the Adventurer''s Guild. They are trying to find out more about the group that took young Cory and organized a mission. Should I let them know you are here, my lady?"


    "No need, Astrid, I will let myself in."


    She then turned to look at Julius and Reinera. "You two come with me. Frank, you can show Mr. Hollins out."


    "You''re letting him go?" Julius asked genuinely confused.


    "I know Mr. Hollins''s deal, he is just a middle man, I am not in the mood to try and pry answers from what is most likely protected by his oath skill. And if I decide I need to, then I know where to find him and his family. There are more pressing matters right now."


    Oath skill? What is that? Is is some kind of skill that acted like a contractual vow did?


    Julius noted to himself that he should ask Danny what she meant the next he saw him. If they ever did.


    Julius observed as Lady Rebecca pushed open the doors to the room, looking back to ensure that the two of them followed her into the room.


    The room in question was a large gorgeous room. Tall glass windows inlaid with gold finishings that spanned from the floor to the massive white stone ceilings. There was a large rectangular table where half a dozen people were sitting, stacks of paper and other items sprawled across it.


    They were all deep in conversation but stopped when the door opened.


    One man, who looked like he was the same age as Rebecca, around his early twenties spoke up first. "Darling, perfect timing. We need to ask you something¡­" he paused as he finally noted who was with her. "I see you brought guests," he finished, his face questioning but his eyes panned over to his wife and realized who she was carrying in her arms.


    He quickly got up out of his chair, the chair tumbling down and onto its side from his sudden action. He then moved to Rebecca who offered Cory to him and reunited with his son with a tearful hug.


    "What is this?" Another older man called out.


    The man at the head of the table spoke up. "I would like to know that too. Becca, please explain to me what is going on."


    Julius watched as Rebecca turned to the older man sitting with his hands folded under his chin. This man himself was quite distinguished. He had sharp and strong facial features. Julius would approximate his age to be around thirty years old, but considering that this man was putting off quite a dangerous aura, he knew that was unlikely.


    This is most likely Marquis Easten in the flesh, Julius quickly realized. Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Lady Rebecca gave a brief but thorough report of what had happened.


    "Daniel was with them?" The older man asked with a furrowed brow.


    "Yeah, I told him we would talk with him later, but I wish I could say I am surprised."


    "What is that supposed to mean, Becca?"


    "You know I trust your opinion, Father, but as you are well aware, Mr. Hollins works for a lot of other parties, not just House Easten. I have never been shy about my opinion about continuing to employ him," she said.


    Her father sighed. "We talked about this before Becca, just because he works for a lot of others but doesn''t share their secrets with us is a sign of integrity, not distrust."


    "Well, he just invaded the estate," she pointed out bluntly.


    "Yes, and it seems like it was for good reason too," Marquis Easten said calmly. When Julius noticed that this didn''t appease his daughter, her father shook his head. "Okay, I will personally have a talk with him later." It was only after that did Julius saw her nod and relax.


    Why does it sound like Danny has some sort of relationship with Marquis Easten? He didn''t mention it to us on our way. Then again, he also has some sort of connection to Elder Han, so I shouldn''t be that shocked.


    Finally, the older man''s attention focused on Julius and Reinera. "And who might you two be?" His voice was deep and calming, but there was an undertone of firm authority behind it. It was no question, it was a command dressed up as politeness.


    He waved his hand at him. "I''m Julius," he said with a friendly smile.


    Reinera was far less casual and graced the man with a perfect curtsy. "My name is Grace, Lord Marquis."


    Julius watched as the man gave her a quick glance before turning his attention back to him. The man had similar eyes to Cory and Rebecca, which wasn''t that surprising considering they were related, but it was the power he felt in those eyes.


    He felt like those blue eyes were able to see his deepest secrets with a single glance.


    Soon after, he felt the man''s domain reach out and encapsulate them. As he had learned from Alice and Dante, expanding one''s domain into another''s personal space was extremely rude. However, Alice also mentioned that using one''s domain was necessary for one to get a detailed sense of what was going on.


    Not everyone was like her and could use spatial awareness that came with their domain without it being active. That was another reason why Julius''s [Spatial Perception] was such an amazing skill. It was something that many people would love to have. It would allow Tier 5s and above to extend their spatial perception without alerting their opponents of their perception.


    Of course, they still had other ways to perceive, but there wasn''t any comparison to sensing with a domain. Thus, in a situation where two people who had his grandson in their possession intruded on the estate, Julius found it hard to criticize the man for using his domain against them.


    It was uncomfortable, but truthfully, Julius didn''t find it that bad. In fact, he was glad for it. He did his best to commit every detail of what he was feeling to his memory and think of ways to replicate it at a later date.


    The way the mana and aura mingled together with Concepts was far beyond him, but he had a feeling that if he was able to take away something from this, it would be important for his advancement.


    Although, he felt kind of bad for Reinera. She was doing her best, but the oppressive nature of the domain was far more powerful than Dustin''s authority.


    Eventually, the domain was released after what seemed like minutes of being under its influence but what was really only a few seconds at most.


    He must have been satisfied with whatever he found out because he didn''t make any moves against them.


    "Why were you two in possession of my grandson?" He asked them.


    "We came across the group that kidnapped him and ended up freeing him," Julius explained simply.


    "Where was this?"


    Julius gave a careful look around at the four other people at the table. He had no idea who they were and was already worried about them knowing it was them who had saved Cory. This was what he wanted to avoid in the first place, but he would have to adapt now.


    Marquis Easten saw his glance at the other parties in the room. "You can speak freely, boy. These are trusted members of my house, they won''t speak of anything we say to anyone outside of the room."


    Julius gave the man a smile. "While you may trust these people, it doesn''t mean I can."


    He felt someone''s aura ripple and turned to look at who it was. It was an older man with silverish hair. "You will speak to the Marquis with respect commoner. If you can''t use your tongue properly, then I will remove it for you," he said with a calm tone even though his aura was saying something else.


    "Calm down, Arthur. If you remove his tongue, he won''t be able to tell us what we need to know," an older lady said with a shake of her head.


    "We can reattach it after he has learned his lesson," the man, Arthur said easily.


    Julius felt a vein pulse angrily but contained his anger. These two were obviously at a high tier, probably Tier 5, but honestly, they didn''t even give him the same feeling of danger that Rebecca or her father did.


    The Marquis on the other hand, just sat there with his hands still folded underneath his chin, but there was a glint of something in his eyes as if he was waiting to see how Julius would react.


    Is he testing me?


    If he was, then what was he testing him for? What was he looking to see? Was it for Julius to reign in his anger or was it for Julius to stand up for himself?


    Normally he would have an idea and trust his gut, but this time he didn''t get a good sense of what to do. This man was completely unreadable to him.


    On the other hand, the older man named Arthur had gotten up from his seat and walked over to Julius. He towered over Julius with his aura pressing against Julius''s in a very rude manner.


    "Why did you have the young master and where did you find him?" He asked, in the same calm manner that contradicted his aura.


    Julius finally turned to look up at the man''s eyes. He had a smirk on his face. He knew it probably wasn''t a good idea, but he wasn''t going to lie down and let this man just bully him, not after he had just saved their family member. If the Marquis was testing him, then that was alright. He was in the lion''s den already and he wasn''t about to show weakness when in front of a predator.


    "I told you that we saved him from the group that kidnapped him. And I can''t tell you more because I don''t know you," Julius said while staring directly into the man''s eyes.


    Let''s see what you do now Marquis Easten. He was willing to play this man''s game, he just hoped it didn''t get Reinera in trouble with him if it went south.

 Chapter 217 Meddlesome Old Man Indeed

    Casidus Easten POVThe boy in front of him was quite an interesting case.


    His usual analysis skill wasn''t working on the boy, which wasn''t exactly unusual, a lot of people had skills or items that could shield them from skills such as his [Eyes of Zephyr]. In any case, being able to prevent his skill from working said a lot in itself.


    That was why he ended up using his domain on them. It was a bit overbearing on his part, but he wanted to know why these two were found with his grandson or if this was some kind of plot.


    Just as the boy was interesting, the girl was interesting too. She clearly had some good training. Her mana control, aura control, and overall power of her soul for a Tier 2 was quite impressive. There would be very few people her age who could say they were her equal.


    At least that was what his brief examination of his domain showed.


    The boy, on the other hand, he wasn''t able to get a clear sense of. When he had tried to investigate with his domain, it had met an obstruction.


    He was somehow able to resist his domain, something that didn''t happen often. Not from anyone below Tier 5 and certainly not from someone at Tier 2.


    That was why the first thing he checked was to see if the boy was in fact only a Tier 2. Casidus had seen many people try and fake their tiers. Whether that was because of an item or a special skill, it didn''t matter.


    Despite this, he did not detect any skills and he didn''t detect any items either. From everything he could see, this boy was a legitimate Tier 2.


    Does it have to do with the same reason why I can''t use [Eyes of Zephyr] on him?


    Usually, he wouldn''t do this, but he cranked up his domain a bit. If he couldn''t slip through the boy''s defenses he would just overpower them.


    However, as he did, he felt a pulse from the storage ring on the boy''s finger. It wasn''t just a normal pulse either, it was something that he was familiar with. It felt exactly the same as the thing he gave an old friend a while back.


    I see he''s still up to his old tricks, he thought to himself amusingly.


    Even though he had already made up his mind about what he was going to do with the boy, he let Arthur continue his usual shenanigans. Letting him try to get some answers out of the boy. He was even using that silly aura trick to try and scare the boy into talking. The one where he would flare his aura while acting relaxed.


    Casidus didn''t blame Arthur for this trick, he was always surprised at how well it worked on people.


    He was more curious as to how this boy would react.


    Why would that meddlesome old man give him that item? There had to be a reason. The old man did things for specific reasons. Reasons that Casidus didn''t always agree with, but there was always an explainable purpose behind his actions. And he wanted to see if Arthur could get the boy to demonstrate that for him.


    So he sat by and watched as Arthur tried to bully the poor boy and then inwardly smiled as the boy stood his ground against one of the more scary elders of House Easten.


    It was only when he noticed that Arthur was about to take things a little too far than he was comfortable with that he stepped in.


    "I want everyone but these two children to leave the room," he commanded suddenly.


    "..."


    He saw the others all look at him with skeptical faces and didn''t immediately follow his orders.


    "You want us to leave, Casidus?" Beth asked as if she could understand why he was asking that of them.


    "I want to speak to the two of them alone," he instructed, making sure there wasn''t any room for them to argue.


    Arthur who had been pressuring the boy stopped and gave Casidus a look like ''What the hell? I almost got the answers out of the boy''.


    Casidus sent him a quick message with his aura. Don''t worry. I don''t think they are our enemies and the boy might be more willing to say something if it''s just the three of us in the room.


    Arthur thankfully understood immediately and didn''t argue with him.


    Understood Lord Patriarch, the man replied. Then he stood up and left the room without another word.


    It was a reason why Casidus loved Arthur, the man was loyal and adept, two traits that were honestly hard to find nowadays. There were too many people who worried about lining their own pockets and increasing their influence over doing what was best for the House or for the region.


    After Arthur got up, it sent a signal to the others to follow suit. The others, including the representative from the Adventurer''s Guild all promptly left the room and shut the door behind them. The only people remaining were the two children and his daughter who had remained.


    "Becca, I would like to talk to these two alone," he said to her.


    "I have some questions for them myself, father. I won''t budge on this," she said stubbornly.


    For a second he was going to insist but when he saw that trademark look on her face, he ultimately decided not to. He knew when to pick his battles with his daughter, and this wasn''t something he felt he was going to win.


    "Okay, but you won''t speak a word of what is said to anyone outside of the room, got it? I am serious about this," he said giving her a stern look.


    Thankfully, she seemed to understand his seriousness and nodded firmly.


    "And also try to be a bit more polite if possible. By all signs, they saved Cory. Therefore, showing some restraint, no matter how skeptical you are, would be appropriate."


    This time she hesitated, but eventually nodded her head and did her best to relax.


    He finally turned to the two children who were waiting in front of him. The boy was strangely calm considering the situation he found himself in. While the girl was also pretty calm, she was obviously a little annoyed at how they were being treated, but she maintained her poise with confidence.


    There''s no way she isn''t some high-born. Her demeanor is exactly how I would expect someone trained in etiquette would behave. The boy on the other hand, I don''t know. His manners say he is a commoner, but it''s too soon to say. Commoners don''t typically have indicators of such impressive training.


    "Why did he give you the token?" he asked the boy, who for the first time this entire time, looked confused.


    ***


    Julius POV


    Token? I don''t know about any token.


    "I''m sorry. Who''s ''he''?" He asked the man. He was also confused as to how quickly the man got the rest of the people to leave the room. Now it was just four of them, even little Cory was gone.


    He saw the Marquis give him an assessing look. As if he was trying to see if Julius was playing dumb or not. Evidently, the man must have come to the conclusion that Julius was being honest.


    "So you''re saying that you didn''t meet any¡­ meddlesome old men recently?" Julius heard the man ask.


    Meddlesome?


    There was only one person that came to mind when that word was brought up.


    It was only then did he recalled the black card that Elder Han gave him before he said goodbye. He knew that the old coot, had something in mind when he gave that to Julius. He should have questioned it a bit more before he took it.


    His face must have given away his thoughts because the Marquis actually interrupted his thoughts and laughed. "That jolted your memory, huh? Yeah, Han does that type of stuff," the man like he knew exactly what type of person he was.


    Ah, so does know who Elder Han was, Julius smiled to himself. It made him chuckle as he realized that this Marquis not only knew Elder Han but also knew him exactly how Julius would describe him¡­ meddlesome.


    "You know Elder Han?" He asked.


    "Elder, huh? That''s what he''s going around calling himself nowadays? He always thought it was so amusing to act like a mysterious old grandpa," the man grumbled. Julius watched as the man''s previously purposeful attitude changed into one more disgruntled as if remembering the old man brought up some bad memories.


    Julius wouldn''t blame him if it did. He had a feeling that Elder Han had that effect on a lot of people.


    "You said he gave me a token? Do you happen to know what that token is?" Julius tested him.


    The Marquis smiled, knowing exactly what Julius was asking for.


    "A black card made of a unique metal."


    Okay, so he does know. I am starting to suspect that Elder Han gave me this ''token'' knowing full well that I was going to meet this man in front of me. The question is how was he so certain that was going to happen?


    "Meddlesome old man indeed," Julius muttered.


    "I know the same feeling. He''s like that."


    "I feel like this is his little piece of revenge for inconveniencing him," Julius admitted.


    Actually, it is probably more accurate than I suspect. He seems like that kind of petty person, he thought while shaking his head.


    "You mean the rest of the children?"


    Julius''s eyes widened. "Rest of the children?"


    "Yes, I imagine you didn''t just save Cory while you were there. You must have saved the other children along with him."


    Julius laughed and shook his head at how easily the man had seen through things. Honestly, he didn''t see much reason to hide that much from this man. The fact that he was able to sense Elder Han''s token already spoke for him. The fact that he and his family seemed like good people so far helped as well. Julius''s gut told him he could trust this man.


    "Yeah, I wasn''t alone though. There was another person who worked for their organization that helped me rescue Cory. He deserves more credit than I do, if I am being honest."


    "Oh? Someone had a change of heart?"


    "Yeah, without him Cory wouldn''t have been rescued."


    "I will make sure that reward him properly if I ever come across him. Does he have a name?"


    Julius bit his lip as he hesitated. "His name is Dustin and he was the Tier 4 who was supposed to oversee the warehouse where they kept Cory. He mentioned that he had to go back to the organization to lie about what happened. So I really don''t want his name out there while he is still among them." S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You have my word that his secret is safe. My daughter will make sure to do the same."


    "That would be much appreciated."


    The nobleman waved his hand. "That''s the least I can do for you after saving my grandson. If he needs any help getting away from the organization, he can come to us for help."


    Julius smiled. "If I see him again, I will make sure to tell him that. I think he might take you up on that offer."


    He was about to continue but paused as he thought of something. "What is this organization''s name anyway? I haven''t heard them call themselves anything."


    The Marquis nodded his head. "They go by a few names, depending on their region, but from what I and my people were able to find, they are a large group that is present within many regions within the Empire, not just the Aegos Region. However, from what we can tell their main calls themselves the Conclave. We don''t know where they came from, but they must have several powerful nobles and groups as a part of their circle. Otherwise, there is no way they could have such a large presence."


    The Aegos Region was the region Blumand was currently in. Just as Celestia was the main city of the Valorbury Region, Blumand was the main city of this region. Each region was quite large on its own, so that meant this group was pretty big if they were able to span over multiple regions. He could see why the Marquis was worried about them and wanted to know more.


    The Marquis walked over to a chair to sit down and gestured for Julius to sit down alongside him.


    "If there is anything you can tell me about what you noticed or what you know about the activities of this group, I will make sure you are well rewarded for it," Marquis Easten promised.


    Julius didn''t see a reason to hold back. He didn''t like organizations that kidnapped his friends or other children very much. And so he explained what had happened in Stonewall to the noble in front of him.

 Chapter 218 Curse Lord

    After Julius was done retelling their journey, with a few omissions of course, he was asked some clarifying questions."How did you get into the warehouse? I can''t imagine they just allowed you to stroll right in?"


    "I ended up stealing an access card from one of the people who left," Julius admitted.


    "You stole an access card from a Tier 3?" The man asked questioningly.


    "I took her by surprise," Julius said truthfully with a wince, recalling his ambush on the unsuspecting woman and that he never checked up on her afterward. He had just left her there lying face down in her spit.


    "Her?"


    "Uhh¡­ yeah."


    "Then you snuck in and made it down to the basement where you were found out by the local Tier 4 guard, Dustin right?"


    "Yeah, he then proceeded to kick my ass," Julius admitted.


    Marquis Easten frowned and looked at him. "See, that''s what I don''t get. I can behind you sneaking into the warehouse and past some low-life Tier 3s, but the fact that you said you fought this Tier 4 is odd. How is it you were even able to actually ''fight'' him?"


    Julius''s mouth opened about to reply but nothing came out. He failed to mention that he not only did he fight Dustin, but that he fought off Dustin''s authority, forgetting that he shouldn''t have been able to fight at all. Most people crumble like a house of cards the moment a Tier 4 used their authority against them.


    He just shrugged his shoulders. Honestly, Marquis Easten had already used his domain against him, which meant that he should already have an idea that Julius had something to fight against a powerful person''s influence.


    "I have certain abilities that allowed me to fight back against his authority," he said. Marquis Easten simply nodded as if he understood.


    "Is there any way for you to prove that?" he heard Cory''s mother interject from the side. Unlike Marquis Easten, she wasn''t as quick to believe Julius. He didn''t blame her though, his story did sound a bit odd.


    He didn''t have a response for that. It wasn''t like he was just going to list off every one of his skills and Concepts for her.


    His silence didn''t seem to bother her. "I see. Do you mind if I verify your claim?" She asked politely.


    "What do you mean?"


    "I want to see if you can withstand my authority. I promise I won''t use my domain just my authority," she said to him, sounding sincere.


    He frowned and looked at Marquis Easten to see his thoughts. The man held up his hands. "I believe you, but if you want my daughter to believe you, it would just be easier if you showed her. But if you don''t want to, then you have no need to."


    Julius just shook his head. It didn''t sound like that big of a deal. It wouldn''t hurt them if they knew and if it allowed Julius to convince her to trust him more then all the better. "Okay, go ahead."


    He saw the woman give him a weird look at how readily he agreed. It was as if she was expecting him to be more resistant to the idea. But soon, he felt the woman reach out with her authority. Unlike Dustin''s, her''s was much more¡­ full.


    That was the best way to describe it. Her authority felt like it was complete, not necessarily more powerful even, just more real.


    Despite her admittance of not believing him, she didn''t use her authority at full strength. She held back quite a bit, at least that was what Julius suspected. It didn''t feel aggressive or oppressive, it merely felt like she was prodding him gently with it. It immediately gave him a better impression of her. She could have easily used her authority with much more power, but didn''t. She was just testing him.


    It was almost ticklish in a way and he playfully slapped it away.


    He did enjoy the way her face curled into confusion. He barely needed to use Inexorable Resolve to fight against her influence. He simply smiled at her, while withstanding her authority.


    In spite of his belief that she would push him harder, she didn''t. Instead, she pulled back and tilted her head at him. "You''re telling the truth," she said dumbfounded.


    "I haven''t told you guys a single lie yet. I may not tell you everything, but I won''t lie," he said to her.


    "Plus, I feel like I have been the one doing most of the sharing." He swiveled to her father and decided that it was time for him to ask Marquis Easten a few questions of his own.


    "Do you know who is backing this Conclave?"


    The man gave his daughter a quick glance before answering.


    "Not yet, but it is safe to say that there are high ranking nobles among them, as well as several groups from outside of the Empire helping them."


    "What is their goal?" Julius asked.


    "That''s one of the major problems. We don''t really know what their goal is. They seem to just be a large criminal organization whose focus is to gain influence and money. But honestly, we suspect there is something more to it."


    I wonder if House Greyson is involved? He mentioned that several high-ranking nobles were a part of this organization. It wouldn''t be a stretch to suggest that House Greyson is involved somehow. I already know that they are sketchy, Julius thought to himself.


    If House Greyson was indeed involved, he would be much more incentivized to bring them down.


    "Do you think it''s possible that a Ducal house could be a part of this group?" Julius asked after thinking for a moment. He saw Reinera give him a disappointed look as if she couldn''t believe how tactless his question was.


    The Marquis rubbed his chin, his blue eyes gazing into Julius''s with intensity. "What? Do you have an idea about who might be involved?"


    "Not really, but is it possible?"


    "Possible? Absolutely. Likely? It''s hard to say. I would like to say no, but in reality, this organization has some deep ties that would be easily explained if a Ducal house was involved."


    "And if one is?"


    "If one is, then there''s a chance it''s the same House you are thinking about," the man said to Julius with a knowing look.


    "How do you know I am thinking about one?" Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Because there are not many reasons why you would think it was a Ducal house unless you had one in mind. Since there are only five Ducal houses within the Empire, that list is pretty short. Duke Zenith is ruled out, there is no way that monster would do something like this. Duke Silver enjoys his peace too much to jeopardize it. Duchess Willow might be a scheming woman, but she wouldn''t be caught dead kidnapping children. That only leaves House Greyson and House Argus. I can see both of them being involved in some way. So which one do you think it is? I''m sure you have a reason."


    "I have had some issues with House Greyson in the past, but I might be biased."


    Marquis Easten nodded in agreement. "In my opinion, if there is a Ducal house working with this group, House Greyson would be my bet. I told Dolan before he went into seclusion that he needed to take care of his house politics," Marquis Easten sighed. "He didn''t listen. Dolan hates anything that doesn''t have to do with fighting."


    "Do you mean Duke Greyson?" He asked the man.


    "Yeah."


    "Father, you shouldn''t be talking about this with these people," Rebecca lightly chided him.


    "It doesn''t matter that much Becca. Young Julius here is being very helpful, so it would be rude not to extend the same favor. Propriety has its place, but sometimes you can''t be held back by it," the Marquis said gently.


    "We don''t know them, though."


    "If Han gave them the token, then we can trust them."


    "Who is this Han person anyway? What makes his word so valuable?"


    Marquis Easten smiled at his daughter, his expression looked teasing. "He''s gone by many names. But you will likely know him from his title as the Curse Lord."


    Lady Rebecca''s face went from confused to stark white in an instant. "Han? As in Hanson Roth? The former Sect Leader of the Fallen Spire Sect? I thought he was dead?"


    Julius chuckled. "Close, he looks like he''s gonna keel over any minute now."


    Lady Rebecca jerked her head at him and looked fearfully as if he was going to summon the ''Curse Lord'' at this very moment.


    Haha, Curse Lord. Such an edgy name for an old man. I bet he loves it, Julius confidently thought to himself.


    Marquis Easten on the other hand, found it extremely funny. He let out a boisterous laugh. "Haha, you know I always suspected that he allowed himself to age just so he could pretend to be a sagely old man."


    Julius felt someone poke him in the side. He turned and saw it was Reinera.


    "I told you Elder Han was bad news. He''s known for killing entire Sects and Houses just because they offended him," Reinera whispered to him.


    Entire Sects and Houses? I gotta say, that''s pretty dark.


    Julius whispered back to her. "You didn''t say anything back then. Why didn''t you mention it before?"


    Reinera shrugged her shoulders. "He seemed to like you, so I didn''t want to make him mad by telling you all of the awful stuff he''s done over the years."


    "You didn''t seem to have a problem yelling at him though."


    "It probably wasn''t my best decision at the time, she admitted with a frown"


    Marquis Easten spoke up, hearing their conversation. "Don''t worry, girl. Hanson isn''t like that anymore. Not to mention that many of the stories you have heard about him are highly exaggerated and used more as a deterrent than anything else."


    The nobleman turned to his daughter, saw her incredulous look, and sighed. "Okay, maybe not everything is exaggerated. But to be fair he has calmed down in the past several decades."


    Reinera gave him a ''see, look what I told you'', type of expression.


    Julius saw the Marquis''s attention turn to Reinera. "By the way, Grace was it? What House do you hail from?"


    Julius saw Reinera not react too outwardly as she heard the man''s question, but he couldn''t help but notice her fingers pinch together.


    "I am the illegitimate daughter of a noble, as for the House my father belongs to, that is not something I wish to divulge," she smoothly explained.


    "That sounds exactly what I would train my children to say when hiding their identity," the Marquis smiled.


    "Pardon?"


    The man continued to smile at her. "You see, I don''t actually care too much about what family you are from. You are obviously noble born, but I only really care about if having you here will cause me or my house any trouble?"


    Reinera had already put her princess act back on and controlled her reaction as well as her aura, not giving away any signs for the man to read from.


    "No, you won''t get any trouble from my family," she said to him.


    They won''t cause trouble as long as we don''t tell them, he thought to himself.


    The Marquis stared at her for quite a while, as if he were deciding whether to believe her or not.


    He was thankful when Marquis Easten finally nodded and turned his attention back to himself. Though Julius had a feeling that the man hadn''t totally believed Reinera''s claims. He only hoped that it wouldn''t come back to bite them.

 Chapter 219 Challenge Rift

    "Well now that is out of the way, I want to discuss the terms of your reward for saving Cory," Marquis Easten said to them."There is no need to reward us, Marquis Easten," Julius told the man, brushing him off.


    "First off, call me Casidus you have earned that much at least. Also, there is no way I am going to let my grandson''s saviors walk away empty-handed."


    "No no, don''t worry about it."


    "Please, I insist."


    "Okay, I accept," he said a tad too eagerly.


    His gramps had always told him that you never accepted someone''s invitation the first two times. Politeness demanded you had to reject the first two and only then you could accept it the third time.


    "..."


    The Marquis was baffled at the quick change of his attitude, giving him a weird look.


    Even his daughter and Reinera were giving him odd looks as if they couldn''t decide whether to be amused or disappointed.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, the Marquis insisted," he explained, trying to defend himself.


    "Yeah, but you aren''t supposed to be so shameless about it," Reinera mildly scolded him.


    "I wasn''t! I waited until he offered three times before accepting," he argued.


    She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Yes, but you can''t just shamelessly accept it just because he offered it three times. You should accept it with some grace and humility."


    She''s probably right about that.


    "Sorry," he said to her and to the Marquis.


    The man waved his hand. "Don''t worry about it. I was going to reward you regardless, so I don''t mind."


    He turned to see Reinera, "See? He doesn''t mind?"


    He watched as she looked down and muttered to herself.


    "Name your price, I will do my best to make sure that it comes true," the noble lord promised.


    Julius thought about that for a moment. He hadn''t really come in thinking about getting a reward. He was more concerned about leaving the estate after dropping Cory off without anyone noticing he was there. This whole situation wasn''t something he had been planning on.


    Which is why he stood up from the comfortable seat he was lounging in and paced around. He was racking his head about what kind of reward he wanted. His go-to was to just ask for a favor and a part of him was really tempted to do so. S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    However, he wanted to force himself to ask for something that could help him now. Almost all of his favors have been unused and just sitting in storage. Perhaps, it would be a good thing to get something real instead.


    With this being said, there was one thing that he had been wanting for some time.


    He stopped pacing around and looked at the Marquis. "I want to advance to Tier 3."


    Tier 3 had been a goal Julius wanted to reach for a while now. As nice as skills and Concepts were, tiers were still the backbone of strength in this world.


    No matter, how many good skills he had, there were just some barriers that he couldn''t cross with skill alone. He had realized this after Dustin had wiped the floor with him. He needed to advance to Tier 3 if he wanted to get stronger.


    There was only so much he could squeeze out of Tier 2. In fact, he had been outgrowing Tier 2 for a long time now. It felt like that even when he first advanced to Tier 2. At that time he was already pushing the limits of the tier, funnily enough.


    Now, he was really struggling to make any progress. His skills were pretty much capped. His soul would only be able to handle so much more. It was a big reason he suspected he wasn''t getting any notices about acquiring any new skills.


    Not any powerful skills at least. If he wanted to learn some lower-ranked skills he could probably fill out the rest of his slots. However, he wanted to save them for something more important.


    He had been attempting to push his physical strength to the next level. It was something he had also realized when fighting Dustin. The skill that did the most damage was [Armaments of the Arcane]. There was no doubt about that.


    Dustin had taken many attacks from him head-on, however, he always made sure to avoid his constructs.


    It has been the same for a while too. In the troll rift, he had shown that his constructs were the most powerful of his attacks.


    However, he was currently more of a close-range fighter. To be honest, this might have not been the best decision, logically thinking. With Julius''s mana control and epic ranked skill, he would have been an incredible long-range mage.


    Yet, he found himself enjoying throwing himself into the frontlines much more than standing back chucking spikes of death. And in his opinion, enjoying his style was more important than what made the most sense.


    He was a firm believer that if he loved a style he could take it much further than a style he chose for practicality.


    It was why he respected people like Sarah who stubbornly insisted on training something people would consider silly, like [Mana Bolt].


    Getting bashed up and duking it out with fists was what he enjoyed and he wasn''t planning to stop doing that.


    At least not primarily.


    That being said, he needed to find a way to get stronger in the close combat department. He had done some extensive comparing of his physical enhancement skill and Edgar''s while they sparred.


    The big guy''s skill was much better than Julius''s [Kinetic Augmentation]. Even though kinetic energy was one of the best affinities to have when getting a physical enhancement skill, Julius felt like his was a bit¡­ well, in Dante''s words ''lacking''.


    Edgar on the other hand had managed to create a skill that synergized both of his affinities into a single powerful skill. Earth and fire combined into a physical enhancement skill that put Edgar on top of the Goldencrest and Tier 3s in general.


    So far, Julius had not come across anyone else who had such a robust body skill.


    However, an epiphany came to Julius when he was offered the skill [Phoenix Body]. If he could somehow learn a body enhancement skill along those lines, it might be possible for him to find a way to combine said skills. That way he would be able to leverage all of his affinities.


    He didn''t like the idea of just having a skill that used one affinity. Kinetic energy was potent, but if he could implement some of his other affinities aspects, he believed he would be able to leap in his strength.


    At the moment, much of his strength came from the sheer amount of mana he had. He was able to pump so much mana into [Kinetic Augmentation] that it didn''t matter too much.


    However, just as he had seen with Dustin, that was a limitation. He had run out of mana pretty quickly. Constructs alongside his other mana-intensive techniques, sucked him dry.


    If he wanted to get better, he would need to clean up some of his skills.


    Perhaps, the first skill he needed to figure out was his physical enhancement skill.


    In order to do that, he would need to advance to Tier 3. He didn''t think he would be able to do it without having some more leeway in his soul.


    Furthermore, he was already pretty close to Tier 3. He had been feeling it for a while. His soul has been sufficiently tempered and now he just needed to bring everything together.


    A couple of months ago Professor Youma made an offhanded comment about the importance of insights if one wanted to trigger their advance to Tier 3. He mentioned that each person''s insight was different.


    There were no real rules behind it, and it also was something that eventually happened by simply experiencing life. That was why most people reached Tier 3 by the time they died.


    There were many times it happened after traumatic events like losing a loved one or surviving a tragedy. It was never the same for every person, but one fact remained the same¡­ It had to do with the person''s aspirations.


    That was what Julius was stuck on. He felt like he was there. He felt like he was looking across the other side of the fence, but he wasn''t able to get his leg over on the other side.


    That was why he asked the Marquis for help. Perhaps the man had a way for Julius to advance quicker or more easily. He was a noble of a House with centuries of history behind it after all.


    "That''s all?" The man had an expression that made it obvious that he was expecting something different than what Julius requested.


    Reinera smoothly interjected. "That is just one request." He noticed that her tone was still the tone of a princess. It was kind of impressive how quickly she was able to behave so differently when needed to.


    He also was taken aback by her statement. Just one? I was pretty happy with just that. Although, it wouldn''t be a bad thing if Reinera was able to get some more out of this. I am not the best at negotiating, which is why I like accumulating favors, he reflected briefly.


    "What else do you guys want?" The Marquis''s voice also went through a similar change. Instead of the casual tone he had been taking with them, he switched over to become a little more serious.


    "We want access to your House''s Challenge Rift," she stated directly.


    When she mentioned that, he saw both father and daughter go rigid. There was no longer a comfortable atmosphere in the room. It was tense.


    Julius on the other hand, had no idea what they were talking about. Challenge Rifts? He had never heard of them.


    Were they some sort of secret rift that nobles had access to?


    He liked the sound of that. He liked it very much so.


    Good job Reinera! He praised her. He was just going to ask for help advancing to Tier 3, whether that was personal advice or a special natural treasure that would facilitate it. But he was glad that Reinera had interjected. He would not complain about getting more from this.


    If they could manage to get access to something that sounded as cool as a Challenge Rift he would be more than happy. The only thing was that he didn''t know if these two were taking the request very well. They still hadn''t answered and were looking at Reinera with frowns.


    "What do you know about our Challenge Rift?" The Marquis asked Reinera with cold eyes.


    She shook her head. "Not much, but I do know your House has one. That is the other reward we are asking for. On top of procuring peak-quality Advancement Potions and isolated chambers for both of us to advance to Tier 3, we want access to the Challenge Rift. What do you say?" Reinera asked.


    A brief silence washed over the room. It only lasted a few moments, but honestly, it felt much longer.


    "The fact that you are so certain we have a Challenge Rift makes me slightly suspicious, but it is also not an unreasonable request. I will have to consult with some of my elders about it, but I don''t see it being a problem as long as some certain details can be agreed upon," the Marquis finally stated.


    Reinera gave Julius an excited smile. He had no idea what she had just asked for but it seemed like it was a good thing, so he returned her smile with a grin of his own.

 Chapter 220 Its Decided

    Both Julius and Reinera answered and asked a few more questions before being excused. Afterward, Lady Rebecca had taken them to a section of the estate where the two of them could relax. Before she left, she told them that they would talk to them after they settled some other matters.Once they got into the room they were provided, he asked Reinera a question. "You really want to advance to Tier 3 already?"


    She gave him a confident look. "I have been pushing the boundaries of Tier 2 for over a year now. I haven''t seen much progress with my skills so I should be pretty much ready to go. I have the feeling that it''s the same for you?"


    "Pretty much. What do you think they will do to help us?"


    "Tier 3 isn''t that hard to advance to. They probably have a room set up with specific enchantments that will help our cores, bodies, and souls merge with more ease. It shouldn''t take us too long to do so."


    Julius nodded but couldn''t hold back his curiosity anymore. "What''s a Challenge Rift?"


    Reinera gave him a slow look of confusion. "You don''t know what a Challenge Rift is?"


    "Not a clue," he shamelessly admitted.


    "Well, I guess for commoners it wouldn''t be a surprise if you haven''t heard of them. A Challenge Rift is a special kind of rift. There are not too many in existence and those found are highly protected and coveted by other parties. They are rifts that provide some sort of challenge specific to the theme of the rift and to the person taking it. That challenge can vary quite wildly, but there is always one thing that the rift gives you for completing it¡­ a reward. It is also different from typical rifts in that they don''t disappear after one completes it. They remain long after completion and for many years after."


    Julius paused as he heard her explanation. It sounded like these rifts were quite valuable.


    "What kind of rewards are we talking about?" He asked clearly the most important question.


    She grinned at him, knowing how much he liked his rewards. "It depends. Some Challenge Rifts are better than others. There are a few that the Adventurer''s Guild holds onto that are supposedly really good but are only available to their most loyal members. The royal family has something similar. But most of the time, even in the lowest ranked ones, you can be rewarded a custom-made item suitable for your path."


    "And for the higher-ranked ones?" Julius asked, his eyes sparkling as he imagined what else there could be.


    She shrugged her shoulders. "You name it. Soulbound weapons that will grow alongside you as you advance, soul empowerment treasures, Concept manuals, powerful skills, and the list goes on and on."


    "Why don''t nobles or other rich families send their children into these rifts as much as they can?" Julius was thinking that if these people had access to rifts like this, wouldn''t it give such an unfair advantage to affluent families?


    "Most Challenge Rifts are Tier 3 rifts or above, with only a small number of Tier 2 Challenge Rifts ever recorded. That means one has to usually be Tier 3 or above to enter one. The other limitation is how many times a person can delve into a Challenge Rift. Each specific rift can only be attempted a single time and is not always successful. It''s a challenge for a reason, a lot of people die in these rifts if they aren''t prepared. So it''s not always worth the risk. There is also a mechanism that the Words of the World implements that prevents people from discussing the challenge. This prevents cheating and giving other participants an unfair advantage," she explained to him.


    "But couldn''t you just have a network of a bunch of Challenge Rifts between families or guilds and have people attempt these rifts around the world?" He asked a little bit confused, he was already imagining how these rifts could be taken advantage of.


    Reinera nodded at him. "People tried this before, but there is a set number of limitations on how many Challenge Rifts you can do in one''s tier."


    Julius got interested. "What determines that number?"


    "A bunch of things. Soul strength, tier, how advanced one''s previous Challenge Rifts were, and many others. Some people found that after a single high-tiered Challenge Rift they weren''t able to do another until they advanced to the next tier."


    He smiled to himself. Soul strength? Does that mean I might be able to do more?


    He knew having a strong soul had given him many advantages already, but it seemed like there was still more he could benefit from it.


    "What about House Easten''s Challenge Rift? What kind of reward will their rift give?"


    He was excited to hear what she had just negotiated for them. He would love to have the opportunity to get himself a Concept of Space manual. That sounded like it would be a huge help, especially considering how difficult a time he had been having trying to learn a Space Concept. Although, the odds of that happening were probably close to zero.


    Instead, of giving him an answer, she just shrugged. "I have no idea."


    He tilted his head at her confusingly. "Why did you ask for access to it if you didn''t know how valuable it is?"


    She gave him a smirk and fell back into the soft couch that was placed in front of a fireplace. "House Easten has been known for its powerful members for a long time. Marquis Easten himself is considered a very powerful man, with potentially even more powerful children."


    "What? Like Lady Rebecca?"


    "Yes, exactly like her. However, she isn''t the only powerful child of that man. Marquis Casidus Easten has four more children other than Lady Rebecca. His second youngest is Charles, he is also a powerful Tier 5 just like Rebecca. He made a name for himself some years ago when he singlehandedly protected the region from a rift outbreak. His third youngest is Toriana. She''s not like her siblings and didn''t become a fighter. However, don''t underestimate her, she made a name for herself by becoming a talented enchanter, going on to create a guild of her own."


    "I thought you normally didn''t pay attention to every noble," Julius commented, remembering something she mentioned a while ago.


    "I don''t. But House Easten has been quite popular in recent years, it''s hard not to hear about them in the rumor circles, even all the way in the Captial."


    Julius was about to reply but he realized something. "So when we were escorting Cory, you knew all of this?" He left his real question unvoiced, but he knew that she would understand what he was asking.


    He watched as she pressed her lips together and looked away from him. "I wasn''t exactly planning to get caught. I was hoping we could get away without notice."


    "But?" S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "But, I didn''t think it would be that bad if we did either," she said unapologetically. "Also, Cory was so adorable, how could we have said no to him?"


    She has a good point. And I agreed, so I am as much to blame.


    He was about to ask her more questions, but he knew that they couldn''t be sure that they were alone. For all they knew, someone was listening in to their conversation at this very moment.


    "Okay. What about the other two children?" He asked eventually.


    She paused. "I don''t know much about the second oldest, Valen. Much like Rebecca, I haven''t heard much of anything about them other than their names, he''s supposedly strong though. The eldest is quite famous though."


    "The eldest son?"


    "Yeah, Aden Easten, the Sword Tempest. He won the entire Tier 3 Inter-School Tournament when he was in his second year. He never competed again after that, going off into the world, and advancing rapidly through the tiers. Last I heard, he had already gotten to Tier 6, but there''s not much information on him. It was like he dropped off the face of the continent when he left his school."


    "What school did he go to?" He asked.


    "A smaller and rather unknown school at the time. Trinity Sword Academy. They aren''t small anymore, not since his victory. A lot of sword users try and go to the school, with the hopes and dreams they can be the next Sword Tempest."


    "How did that go?"


    She chuckled. "Honestly? Pretty well. There have been quite a number of talented geniuses who have come from Trinity Sword Academy, but no one like Aden Easten."


    Julius strolled over to the other couch and plopped down just like Reinera did, taking out a sandwich from his storage ring as he did. "Is that why you think House Easten has a high-tiered Challenge Rift?"


    "No, it would be silly to assume that Aden Easten got as strong as he did because of a single rift. However, I also find it hard to believe that a House as strong as House Easten doesn''t have a good Challenge Rift."


    Julius took a bite and chewed on it while he thought. "What if it''s just a regular Challenge Rift?" He asked once he swallowed his food.


    She brushed aside his concerns. "It doesn''t really matter too much, any Challenge Rift will be useful to us," she explained.


    "But if it''s strong then all the better?"


    She turned and gave him a smug smile. "Oh yes, all the better."


    "..."


    A brief moment of silence pervaded them.


    "You gonna share that sandwich?" She asked suddenly.


    ***


    Casidus POV


    After he had Becca escort Julius and Grace to a guest room, he had Arthur and Beth join him again. The Adventurer''s Guild representative had already left by this point and Cory''s father, Richard was busy with reuniting with his son.


    "You can''t be serious," Beth argued from her seat. Her expression looked very displeased and her gray eyes were stormy with disbelief.


    "It is not an unreasonable request," Casidus said to her.


    "Yes, it is. How can we just allow them access to our Challenge Rift?" She exclaimed.


    "We do it for many of our allies. I don''t see why we won''t do it for these children," he pointed out.


    "Exactly, we do it for our allies. Not for some random children that come to our doorstep, Casidus. Come on Arthur, help me convince him."


    "They did save young master Cory, Beth. In all fairness, they might have done us a bigger service than many of our so-called allies have done over these years," the older man commented from his seat.


    "Why are you defending them?"


    "I like them," Arthur said with a bright smile.


    "What? Because he didn''t fall for your stupid aura trick?" Beth scoffed.


    "Partly," Arthur admitted. "But during that time, I was able to get a good read of his aura. I liked what I saw."


    Casidus watched Beth quiet at this. Arthur was known for his aura-sensing abilities and his opinion held a lot of weight in House Easten.


    He also made a good point about them doing more for them than their so-called allies.


    Many of their allies were more political associations created because of necessity rather than choice. If they could let the spoiled scions of House Krayt use their rift, he didn''t see a reason why he couldn''t allow these two children to use it as well.


    Cory''s life was more valuable than the entire rift in his eyes. Cory could go on to become quite a talented young man. Even rivaling Aden, as ridiculous as some might think that was.


    Not everyone shared his opinion on that, but Casidus believed that Cory with his bloodline, could tower above his generation given some time and nurturing.


    The boy already had a passion for magic, now it all depended on how well they were able to cultivate that passion into something tangible. The boy was just a little bit odd, but then again what generational genius wasn''t?


    "I still don''t think it''s the best idea," Beth added.


    He shook his head. "You don''t have to worry about that for now. They requested something else that should be decided before they can even enter the rift."


    "What did they ask for this time? To see our entire library of our legacy skills?" Beth asked, only partly joking.


    He grinned. "No. They wanted help to reach Tier 3."


    "Tier 3? Why would they want that? I assumed they were asking for access after they reached Tier 3 later on. Are they planning to advance just to gain access to the rift now? That seems shortsighted." Beth asked.


    "I don''t know about that," he said, staring out the window that overlooked the city, a frown on his face.


    "What do you mean?" Beth asked.


    "I mean that when I used my domain against them, I didn''t get the sense that they were in the beginning stages of Tier 2. It was only a brief look, but they both might be ready to advance."


    "Even the girl?"


    "Not worried about the boy?"


    Beth shook her head. "No, the boy felt strong for a Tier 2. I imagine he is already prepared to advance. The girl though didn''t seem that outstanding in comparison."


    He took his attention from the cityscape and looked at Arthur. "She might not look like much, but the girl already has a Concept of her own. She''s quite the talent. I am actually very curious what House she hails from."


    He saw Arthur''s brow raised as he was shocked by that revelation. "Interesting."


    "Indeed."


    "What do you two think about the boy?" He asked them, curious about their thoughts.


    "He''s probably some bodyguard her family trained to protect her," Beth threw out.


    Arthur nodded toward her. "I agree, that seems most likely. But his attitude didn''t show the deference expected from a retainer."


    "So what are you saying?" Beth frowned.


    "I don''t know. But I don''t think we should make any assumptions quite yet. I felt a curious feeling of stubbornness in the boy''s aura, something that indicates a Will Concept."


    Beth frowned again and didn''t respond. She was busy thinking about something.


    Casidus gave each of them a look. "For the time being, their reward remains undecided. I suggest we come back to the Challenge Rift discussion at a later date. Do either of you have an issue with House Easten helping these two with advancing?"


    The two of them shook their heads.


    "Okay, then it''s decided."

 Chapter 221 Down the Hatch

    Eventually, Marquis Easten returned. Julius and Reinera were simply waiting and eating some snacks as they relaxed."I have discussed your request with some of the elders of my House. Your first request was quite easy to agree upon. You will both be provided with our best advancement chambers to use in order to facilitate your advancement. We will also be providing you each with a Tier 3 Advancement Potion. They are of such quality that neither of you will experience any negative side effects from consuming them. As long as the two of you are confident that your foundations are solid enough, there shouldn''t be any short or long-term issues," Marquis Easten explained.


    Reinera was the first to speak up. "We gratefully appreciate your generosity. However, what about our second request?"


    Julius saw the man frown. "That is still up for debate. I am still trying to convince them to allow you two rift access. However, I can promise you that I will do my best to make the most compelling case."


    Reinera bit her lip like she wanted to say something, but gave a firm nod instead. "I understand, that is all we can really hope for, Marquis Easten," she said politely.


    "I told you already, please call me Casidus. My title is normally used for more formal settings"


    Casidus then took out a pair of bottles from his storage ring and presented them to Julius and Reinera.


    "This is the Advancement Potion. The rooms are ready whenever you two feel like it''s the right time. Just let me know and I will have you shown to the chambers."


    That was fast.


    "We can do it immediately?" He asked Casidus.


    "Of course. I suspected that both of you wanted to do it as soon as possible so I made sure to expedite the preparations," Casidus explained.


    That''s convenient. I wasn''t expecting it to happen so quickly, but I am not exactly complaining either. The sooner I can advance to Tier 3, the better.


    He looked over at Reinera to see her reaction. He was honestly ready to do it this very second, but he wanted to see if she was also prepared.


    He got a firm nod in return. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The Marquis saw both of their actions and gave a small smile. "Follow me then. I will show you where you two can advance."


    ***


    The Marquis took them down the large hallway and Julius took this time to just observe the mansion.


    There was so much luxury within reach that it was a bit jarring. The walls were covered in immaculate art pieces. The paintings themselves almost felt alive, as there was mana gently pulsing from its canvas.


    However, what caught his attention was a particular massive painting. It was probably around the size of a small movie theatre screen and it was one of the most fascinating things he had seen. Whereas the other painting felt alive, this one actually looked alive.


    The scene depicted in the painting was a simple view of the plains they had seen when traveling to Blumand. However, where it was different was that the image actually moved. The tall grass gently swayed across the canvas, the sun dancing just over the horizon glistening and the birds in the sky flapping their wings.


    The Marquis stopped when he noticed Julius''s attention. "My mother made that," he said proudly. "She was a talented fighter but an even more brilliant artist. She had a way of infusing her mana and Concepts into her work in a way I haven''t seen many others do."


    It was only then that Julius realized what else was so different. Beneath the layers of paint and mana, there were profound Concepts almost peeking their heads behind the tall grass. He tried to get a sense of what they were and found himself completely lost within its scenery.


    For some reason, something pulled him in, like a whirlpool that had him totally enraptured. It was only when he felt Reinera give him a soft poke did he realized that he had spaced out.


    He blinked several times to get his bearings again, but he couldn''t help but notice the intense look Casidus had given him.


    ***


    When they arrived at the chambers, Julius was surprised.


    It wasn''t like he had been imagining at all. In his mind, he had been prepared for a bare cellar or underground ritual chamber like the one he had been to for his affinity ritual all that time ago.


    Instead, what he saw was pretty much a normal bedroom that was covered from wall to floor with enchantments. The bedroom was of course much larger than any normal bedroom, but there was even furniture placed in the room. It looked like it was built for comfort.


    "Not what I was expecting," he commented.


    "What were you expecting? Some dark dungeon with only cold rock to keep you company?" Reinera asked, joking with him.


    However, when he didn''t laugh and looked at her while scratching his head she opened her mouth in disbelief. Her poised demeanor crumbled away just a bit. "You did! You really thought that''s what we were going to experience."


    The Marquis who had been about to leave after explaining the basics of the chambers to them stopped and gave Julius a disgruntled look. He just shook his head and said to them, "Remember, if you need anything, just press the white glowing button and someone will come and assist you."


    Julius and Reinera both thanked the man and watched as he left to go do some important Patriarch stuff.


    He gave Reinera a questioning glance. "How long do you think you will need to advance to Tier 3?"


    "It''s kind of hard to say. A lot of people advance at different rates. My cousin took almost a week to advance, whereas her brother took only a couple of hours. I am hoping that I am at least somewhere in between."


    "A whole week? Is that normal?"


    "You don''t know the process? I know that Professor Youma explained to our class the general process," she said to him.


    "I understand the process, but he never mentioned how long it would take. He just said that some people have an easier time melding their souls and cores into their body, while others have a more difficult time," he defended himself. Although, he admitted to himself that it was likely he hadn''t been paying attention at the time.


    "And what? You think you might take a long time?"


    "I don''t know, maybe."


    "Don''t worry about it. It''s why we have these chambers. They are used in order for you to take as much time as you need. They create the perfect atmosphere to facilitate advancement. The ambient mana is balanced, the enchantments protect the room from any outside interference, and nobody can interrupt you unless you want them to. There is a reason why these kinds of chambers are so expensive for the normal person," she explained.


    "Expensive?" He asked curiously.


    "Oh yeah, it probably costs them a lot of cores to keep this room running. It is only a room meant for Tier 2s, but if you wanted to rent a room like this in the outside world, you would have to spend a good amount of money to use it."


    Julius looked at the two rooms with a little more care. "Well, then what are we waiting around for? The last one who advances has to buy the others whatever they want to eat?" He proposed to her.


    She grinned at him, her teeth brilliantly shining at him with a predatory smile. "Deal."


    ***


    He closed the door and retreated to the most comfortable-looking chair he spotted.


    Until I reach Tier 3, I will be staying in this room for the time being, he told himself.


    It felt kind of weird that he was planning to advance to Tier 3 now. He had half expected that he would advance to Tier 3 during his fight with Dustin or some other fight. He was glad though that he was able to do so at his own pace.


    He felt prepared, and after these past few days, he managed to squeeze out a few more levels of his skills.


    He did a quick checklist of what he had.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 2


    Skills:


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 7] (Epic)


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 7] (Epic)


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 4] (Epic)


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 19] (Rare+)


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 15] (Rare+)


    [Soul Tempering lvl 6] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


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    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Flash Step lvl 10] (Rare)


    Current Skill Slots: 9/11


    Concepts:


    [Concept of Sharpness]


    [Severing Will]


    [Concept of Will]


    [Inexorable Resolve]


    [Concept of Phoenix]


    [Ashen Rebirth]


    Three epic skills alone were three more than most Tier 2s would ever be able to acquire. It was only due to his unique situation that he was able to do so.


    It wasn''t just that either. He also had six rare skills, most of which were at the end of rare rank. If that wasn''t enough, he had three Concepts which were used for each of his epic skills.


    He doubted that in the world, there could be many, if any people who could say they have gained so much at Tier 2. He was confident that there wasn''t anymore he could do in Tier 2. He was ready to advance and continue his improvement.


    He would need to if he truly wanted to stand on equal standing with the rest of the world.


    This whole experience had taught him one thing. It wasn''t enough to be able to beat Tier 3s. He couldn''t be satisfied with just that. He needed to be able to beat Tier 4s as well.


    That was the standard he needed to go after. Tier 3s were common, but being able to beat a Tier 4 was a mark of being able to stand up to the world.


    He gritted his teeth tightly, recalling the feeling of defeat he felt when Dustin beat him not long ago. No matter how much he was grateful for Dustin and his mercy, he still felt the sting of defeat deeply within his heart.


    He didn''t want that to happen again. And if he wanted to change that, he needed to grow stronger.


    He clenched one fist and gazed at the potion that he held within his other fist. It was the same one that Marquis Easten had given him and Reinera.


    This would be his opportunity.


    He would advance to Tier 3, no matter what. It didn''t matter how long he had to stay in this room, he vowed to himself that he wasn''t leaving this room until he achieved his goal.


    So with a resolved grin, he uncapped the potion and poured it straight down his gullet. He was so focused that he didn''t even pay attention to the surprisingly tasty and fruity flavor of the potion. He simply sat down on the chair and closed his eyes.

 Chapter 222 Letter Back

    Lily POVThere were times when she resented being the daughter of House Violet.


    It wasn''t because her family was awful or cruel. In fact, they couldn''t be further from it. Out of the many noble houses that did terrible things, House Violet was one of the good ones.


    No, what she hated was the expectations that came with being from such an esteemed family. Everyone in the Empire knew of House Violet''s reputation. Which made it difficult to live up to them.


    Sometimes those expectations were too heavy for her small shoulders. And it was only thanks to her friends that she was able to bear it. They helped support her when she felt like she was going to crumple from the pressure. Not only that, but she had surprisingly managed to gain another person she felt like she could call a friend. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Or at least she thought.


    She did her best not to crumble the piece of paper within her grasp. However, she accidentally released a strong pulse of psychic energy as a result of her anger.


    How could Julius be so stubborn and stupid? It made her want to run off and find him so that she could throttle him. Perhaps if she hit him in the head hard enough, he would start making better decisions.


    "Shit! Calm down, Lily! It hurts!" Aubrey yelled.


    Derek, Edgar, and Kyle were all similarly holding their heads as they were subjected to Lily''s mental attack.


    Their pain jolted her back to reality and helped her rein in her emotions.


    "Sorry, sorry! I lost control for a moment," she apologized to them. That was embarrassing, I haven''t done that since I was second year, she scolded herself.


    Lily turned her attention back to the letter in her hands.


    Well, what was once a letter. It closer resembled a ball of paper at this point. At some time and as her concentration was interrupted she realized she had involuntarily crumpled the letter.


    Cursing the boy in mind, she unraveled the letter she received from one of her family''s trusted retainers and reread it.


    Hello Lily,


    Before anything else, I want to say I am sorry for worrying you guys so much. I am safe, as safe as I can be. I know you probably think that''s not very reassuring, but I can promise you I am making an effort.


    I don''t know when this letter will reach you but I will give a brief explanation as to what happened and why I am no longer in Heston.


    There was an attempt on the princess''s life, go figure. And I was unfortunately caught up in it. I will explain everything when I see you, but long story short, we got transported to the northeast region. I would tell you exactly where, but I have a feeling you might try and hunt me down.


    I know, I know. But before you get even more mad at me, I wanted to say that I believe this might be good for me. It may not have been planned, but this could be an excellent experience for me.


    You know better than most that I haven''t seen much of the Empire and I don''t want to waste this chance.


    I still plan to come back, don''t think for a moment I''m not. But along the way, I might take some detours or take a longer, more scenic route. Who knows, I have a feeling that we might get into some trouble along the way so that could be exciting.


    Anyway, I hope you are all doing well and I can''t wait to see you guys when I come back.


    Sincerely,


    Julius


    P.S. Aubrey, if you''re asking Lily why I didn''t send this letter to you instead, it''s because I have no idea how to get something to you. She was the easiest person to get a hold of considering her connections and no offense, but I trust her judgment on who she thinks she should share this information with more.


    After she got through it a second time, it almost made her angrier. Why didn''t he want to tell her where he was? She could have her family find him within a day and get them both back. It would be quite simple, and she didn''t know what was going on in that stupid brain of his.


    It was also safe to assume that the princess was with him considering he used the word ''we'' multiple times. That was a whole other issue that she wanted nothing to do with.


    To be fair, she kind of understood his reasoning to explore the world before he came back. She remembered him telling them a little bit about his childhood. He hadn''t experienced anything else other than the same estate for his entire life.


    It must have been oppressive and lonely. She most likely would have done something similar if she had been raised similarly.


    It just infuriated her that he believed now was the best time to go adventuring. He probably failed to realize that there were so many organizations and powers frantically searching for the princess. This whole situation was a living nightmare.


    At least she knew that he was within the northeastern region of the Empire. She could let her people know where to start looking. She expected there would be some sort of incident that drew attention to him while he was exploring. That was just the kind of boy he was.


    "What does it say?" Edgar asked, the others all leaning forward expectantly.


    Lily let out a long breath and passed the crumpled letter over to him so that he could read it for himself.


    The others all squished together so that they were able to read it as well.


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    Before ten seconds passed, Aubrey shouted. "Why didn''t he send it to anyone else? Why did he only send it to you?"


    Edgar gave Aubrey a soft flick to her shoulder. "You should be grateful that he is even alive and okay," he chided her.


    "Eh, there wasn''t any doubt that he survived," she stated boldly.


    "I recall you just the other night, being very upset about not knowing what happened to him," Edgar reminded her.


    "No, I wasn''t. I was just mad that I didn''t know what happened," Aubrey lamely argued.


    "Sure," Edgar said, making it clear that he didn''t believe a single word.


    "Can you two be quiet, some of us are trying to read," Kyle said.


    "I just want to know why he only sent it to her," Aubrey stated.


    Lily only shook her head. "Read the entire thing."


    Aubrey pinched her eyebrows together but did as she said. When she was done, she looked noticeably more deflated.


    "What''s wrong with my judgment?" She muttered softly.


    The others all gave her quick glances but didn''t say anything. They all were thinking the same thing but didn''t think it was the right time to mention it.


    Edgar finally spoke up. "What are we going to do with this?"


    Derek scratched his cheek and carefully removed the letter from Edgar''s hands. "I don''t know. On one hand, the royal family will be elated to know that their princess is alright. However, I am not sure we should tell them."


    "You don''t think we should let them know? I mean, I don''t care about the royal family, but even I know that they will be pretty pissed if we keep this from them," Aubrey stated.


    "True, but Julius is asking us to keep it secret for now," Edgar pointed out.


    "Yeah, that''s another thing. Are we really just going to allow him to take an adventure and not look for him?" Aubrey asked.


    "Who said we aren''t going to look for him?" Lily asked with her arms crossed over her chest.


    "But didn''t he ask for some time to explore?" Kyle interjected.


    Lily stared at Kyle who leaned back under the pressure of her gaze. "He is going to get some time to explore. He will have as much time as it takes until we find him. That is all he is going to get though. I don''t trust Julius to stay out of trouble enough that I feel comfortable with him traveling the Empire with a princess in tow," she said intensely.


    "That''s a good point," Derek added. "I wouldn''t be surprised if he hasn''t already gotten himself into a dangerous situation."


    "My point exactly," she said.


    "So we''re not going to tell anyone about the princess''s survival? But are going to look for Julius?" Aubrey asked.


    "Yes, she might honestly be safer if no one knows where she is. I will also have some of my people keep an eye out for anyone who matches his description," she turned to Derek. "Can you ask some of your people to do the same?"


    Derek nodded. "I already have. But I will let them know to direct their attention to the northeast for the time being. Maybe they can find some signs of Julius that might lead us to him."


    She smiled gratefully at him. Hopefully, with their resources, they could find Julius before he did something dumb and got himself killed.


    While she sometimes didn''t like being a part of such a renowned House, she must admit that at times like this, she was grateful for it. It was because of her House that she was able to use her vast resources to track this silly boy down.


    The northeast was pretty far away from most of the Empire''s politics, but she had plenty of contacts there that would gladly help her keep a lookout for a certain troublesome boy.


    The others slowly left and headed off to do their own things. Lily though, remained with the letter in one hand. Once she was alone though, she couldn''t help but reveal the smile she had been holding in.


    Her friend was alive and for the time being, that was all that mattered.

 Chapter 223 Advancement

    The advancement potion wasn''t like he had been expecting at all.Although to be honest, he didn''t have any expectations at all. He hadn''t been planning to use any potions or assistance tools while he advanced.


    He had heard many times that some potions that helped with progression often came at the cost of long-term stagnation. For example, skill potions aided with the leveling of one''s skills. However, if one used them frequently, it was common to see a plateau of progression.


    This was because it relied on external elements rather than internal comprehension, meaning at some point, one''s skill would be more advanced than the person using it knew how to handle. Effectively halting any more progress of the skill until they understood their skill more thoroughly.


    Furthermore, it was a general consensus that those who relied on these types of potions were weaker than their peers. Their foundations were less established than those who didn''t.


    There was also the fact that these kinds of potions affected your body and soul. Professor Youma explained to the students that these potions put a tremendous strain, not only on their bodies but also on their souls.


    There were some extreme cases when people died from overusing these potions. People got addicted to them and would constantly consume them in the hopes of gaining a single level. Until they died just as how one would die from a drug overdose.


    On top of all of that, Julius didn''t like the idea of taking skill potions for a more important reason.


    It felt like cheating.


    This advancement potion Julius thought was similar. It was only after Reinera''s explanation of the contrary that he decided to use it. Unlike most potions that accelerated one''s advancement speed, such as hastening the process of accumulating one''s mana with their body, which left impurities and foreign mana integrated into one''s body, this potion didn''t have any side effects. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was apparently a commonly used item for wealthy people to give to their children. It was more like a natural accelerant rather than an artificial one. The zero side effects also meant it was much more expensive.


    With that being said, Julius thought it would be a gradual build-up, not the immediate sensation he experienced. It was as if his soul was lighting up like a disco ball.


    It was a bit overwhelming at the beginning. It felt like opening his eyes for the first after being stuck in a dark hole for days.


    It wasn''t only that, but he felt a soothing blanket of calmness wash over him. He didn''t know if that was because of the potion, the room, or perhaps a combination of both. But he felt like he entered a meditative trance.


    However, that same feeling he had been going through these past few weeks slowly came to the forefront.


    If the divide between Tier 2 and Tier 3 had been like a fence before, now it felt more like an open door. It was as if all he needed to do was accept the welcome and walk through the threshold.


    Additionally, at the same time, he couldn''t help but notice the outright terrifying amount of power he felt emanating from the other side of the door. A primal part of himself knew that the moment he entered through the door, he would have to endure whatever that followed.


    There would be no coming back and there would be no re-attempt. At least for a very long time.


    Stop being such a coward, he admonished himself. There is no need to be scared, Tier 3 is simply another step on my path.


    He made sure that Drasil was all settled within his core, ensuring that he was also prepared for what was to come. Drasil shouldn''t experience any discomfort but he wanted to make sure he dotted all of his letters before beginning.


    After he got confirmation from his resident life spirit, Julius smiled and steeled himself before taking that last step. Finally triggering his advancement.


    At first, the energy surged at a steady pace throughout his core, body, and soul in equal measure. Each time, it would cycle between the three of them, ensuring that every time it did, the connection between them would strengthen.


    He was combining his core, body, and soul into one single state.


    It was only now that he was truly understanding what people had meant when they explained the process. Hearing about it and experiencing it were two very different things.


    However, Julius quickly approached a very troublesome issue.


    He was no longer able to go any further past this point. While he was slowly integrating his entire being into one, there was still were things he needed to do.


    That''s where my insight comes in, he realized.


    He had been telling himself that he didn''t know his insight for a while now, but it was only now when his mind was in a complete state of calm he saw his folly.


    In typical fashion, he wanted to believe that his insight would be something profound or impressive. He had enough self-awareness that he realized that he liked to surprise others with his power or impressiveness.


    However, he knew that was not the case for his insight.


    One''s Tier 3 insight was supposed to be something personal in nature. It was meant to be a mixture of who he was and who he wanted to be.


    Previously, he had believed that he was missing something. But now that he was in this meditative trance, he realized that it was something he had already known well beforehand.


    At least he subconsciously knew it. He just didn''t want to admit it because it didn''t sound particularly impressive or noble.


    His path was one of power and strength. He knew that that had never been in question.


    However, it was why he wanted it. Freedom was just a lame explanation for getting more powerful. While it certainly played a big part in why he has spent so much effort into his training, that wasn''t the biggest reason.


    He has seen firsthand that power didn''t equate to freedom. He has seen those with no power experience freedom, people he could have beaten in a fight a long time ago.


    People like the food stall owners or people like Declan''s children, these people weren''t the strongest in their tier or had immeasurable power, yet they were able to be free in their own way.


    No.


    The biggest reason why he wanted to get stronger was simply because he hated being weak and he loved the feeling of getting stronger. The simple sensation of progressively getting better through hard work.


    Was it slightly disappointing that it wasn''t for any profound reason? Sure, he wished he had some sort of righteous intention, but it wasn''t really who he was. Nor was it someone he really wanted to be. Being virtuous and righteous all the time sounded like a pain in the ass.


    While his insight was single-minded and prideful, he also couldn''t bring himself to hate it.


    He had fun getting stronger. He had fun gradually learning new skills and Concepts. The idea of pushing his limits to get more powerful, no matter if it was by a single level. It didn''t matter if people thought he was being stupid or unreasonable. He would continue having fun.


    If that meant he would occasionally need to burn himself for a little bit or chop off an arm or two, then so be it.


    That type of enjoyment was why he wanted to continue progressing down the path to eventual transcendence. That was what he wanted his future self to believe as well.


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    "It doesn''t have to be noble reason, mine is good enough," he softly stated.


    At that moment he felt the three pieces of himself that were being held apart, finally start to come together.


    ***


    Initially, he believed that his insight was all he needed to advance to Tier 3. Unfortunately, it seemed he was wrong. There was more he needed to do.


    The moment he began the fusion of his self, that was where the true struggle began.


    The wave of energy that had been held back, was no longer being so easy to control. It was like fighting a bear with rabies that was in the process of trying to rip him apart.


    He soon realized that this was simply his core trying to merge with his body.


    Whereas Tier 2 was the integration of mana with his body, Tier 3 required his actual core to break down and melt into his body. This seemed to be a challenge considering his absurd amount of mana in his core.


    He hated to admit it, but his body was by far his weakest link between the three things. Even compared to other students, his body was nothing spectacular. It was something he was eager to rectify once he advanced to Tier 3.


    With that being said, he still needed to keep his body together as his core assimilated with it. He made good use of his Concept of Will though. Inexorable Resolve was helping him fortify his willpower, allowing him to focus and keep the mana from ripping apart his body.


    He was certain that most people didn''t have such issues when advancing. Then again, they also didn''t have such large mana pools at Tier 2.


    He could distinctly feel his body rapidly going through changes. His core was trying to fuse with his body, doing its best to kill him. He also sensed that he was undergoing significant changes.


    His affinities within his core were no longer separate entities, they were synergizing together, creating this powerful medley of life, fire, and kinetic energy. All of this fed his body, strengthening his muscles.


    He felt the pain of his bones being ground down and recreated, more powerful than before. [Sage of Savagery] did a wonderful job of allowing him to ignore the pain and concentrate on ensuring the transition was as perfect as possible.


    Just as the pain from his bones started to subside, he felt searing heat radiate through his body. It was like thousands of hellfire ants were nibbling his flesh under his skin, only to be dosed with a refreshing wave of life energy, before the process started again.


    He had believed that his life affinity would help with this, but unfortunately, it just allowed him to feel bliss before the pain renewed.


    It wasn''t for nothing at least. He felt his body create complex circuits of compacted mana, much like veins, replacing his core. His entire body was slowly coalescing into an object that was optimized for mana.


    Then finally came his head. His mind was similarly seared like a piece of meat over some charcoals. Mana fortified his mind in a way that he knew was helpful, but it just sucked how much it hurt.


    Even [Sage of Savagery] had its limits and Julius could feel him starting to grunt from the pain.


    Just when he thought he was finished, he suddenly felt his eyes disintegrate into ash. The sheer force of mana obliterated them into nothing but atomized dust.


    However, in their place, new eyes regrew into his sockets. These news ones felt completely different.


    They were no longer normal eyes. They were so pumped full of mana that Julius half expected them to pop out of his head by blinking.


    He smiled widely though. Because even though that had hurt like a bitch, he felt that the assimilation of his core and body was complete. He had merged them together into a powerful singular entity.


    Now, he only had one thing left to do. It was the only part of this that he had been kind of nervous about.


    The incorporation of his soul¡­

 Chapter 224 Skill Incorporation

    The intricacies of his soul weren''t something that he understood very well.As for how it was going to fuse with his other body and core, that was something he understood even less so.


    There were too many variables to predict how it was going to go. The fact that he was reincarnated into a different world was just one issue. His soul damage and history of scarring his soul was another one. And then there were his many high-ranked skills that needed to be considered.


    Alice had told him that there could be some complications when he advanced to Tier 3 due to his unique situation. However, she also told him that as long as he could endure it, he would be fine.


    He didn''t necessarily know what she meant by that. He didn''t like the word ''complications'' when she had been explaining that to him. But she wouldn''t expand on it either when he pressed her for more information.


    Before he had time to prepare, just like the fusion of his core and his body, it started immediately, with no warning.


    However, unlike the fusion that just happened, his consciousness went into his soul space. Something he was only aware of because of his previous venture into it when he almost died to that random Tier 3 and gained his Phoenix Concept.


    He noticed his skills right away, the bright balls of light indicating their existence. He instinctually knew exactly what each skill was, there was no need to touch them or label them. This was his soul and each skill left its mark on him.


    Without even realizing what he was doing, he reached out and touched the closest skill. It was [Spatial Perception] and it pulsed warmly under his palm. The skill itself was almost greeting him in a way.


    It wasn''t just that either. The moment he touched it, he felt his entire being react to the connection he established with the skill. There was a reaction in his body as well. It felt like the power of the skill entered his body and made slight changes to his body and soul.


    Interesting, he noted to himself. Was this what people meant by saying that it is best to have as many high-ranked skills as possible before advancing?


    Once, he got used to the sensation he gathered it up and went on to the next one. This time it was [Kinetic Augmentation] and just like he had with [Spatial Perception], he gathered it up as well. This time, he could have sworn that he felt more changes to his physical body than before.


    Smiling as he enjoyed the feeling of this new sensation, he started to collect his skills like precious stones that he wanted to carry around in his pocket.


    Next was [Flash Step], [Soul Tempering], [Barrier of Severance], and eventually [Empowerment of Will].


    Within a short amount of time, he managed to gather all of his rare skills into his arms, each managing to forge a connection with his body and soul. The only ones he didn''t touch yet were his epic skills.


    Those were the skills he was worried about the most.


    Even just looking at them it was obvious at the raw difference in quality they were compared to his other skills. These orbs were much larger and glistened with this lustrous sparkle that made his rare skills look plain in comparison.


    The question was which one did he want to try and assimilate first? Did he want to go with [Armaments of the Arcane]? It was his first epic skill and held quite a dear place in his heart because of that.


    It was also the only epic skill that his Concept of Sharpness really synergized with. The other two skills didn''t have a direct connection with the Concept.


    Or did he want to choose [Phoenix Renewal]? It was probably one of the most powerful skills he had in his skill sets and it had the Phoenix Concept as well. The fact that the skill was specifically meant to heal him whenever he was hurt also made him want to choose it.


    Then there was [Sage of Savagery]. It was primarily a focus-based skill, however, it was also one of the most used skills he had. He used it for many applications. Whether it was for pain tolerance or using it to focus his mind when using another skill, it has always been useful.


    Additionally, it directly used his Concept of Will to evolve into an epic skill. Inexorable Resolve didn''t really have any offensive capabilities as his Sharpness Concept did, but it excelled at being a support Concept.


    He wished he had asked Alice or Dante which skill he should assimilate first when he had the chance.


    With that being said, there was a big chance that they wouldn''t be able to answer that either even if he did.


    One''s advancement was deeply personal and everyone advanced down their own path. For Alice''s and Dante''s Tier 3 advancement, it was highly likely that the two of them had undergone a completely different method of combining their core, body, and soul.


    Their soul space could look vastly different than his.


    However, he eventually decided after much thought. He would try and assimilate [Sage of Savagery] and his Inexorable Resolve first.


    He had a feeling that merging his Will Concept before he attempted the others would help him greatly.


    So with more confidence than he was actually feeling, he reached out and touched the shining blue orb that was his skill.


    His instinct about the difference between epic and rare skills was indeed correct. The moment he touched it, he felt an overwhelming amount of power surge through him.


    If gathering the other skills had felt like picking up marbles off the ground, this felt like picking up a tungsten boulder with one hand. He felt his soul space start to vibrate from the sheer amount of effort he exerted to gather the skill.


    However, once he finally managed to, he felt something different. Unlike with the rare skills where he felt some of their energy trickle throughout his body, his epic skill positively surged through it. It was the power of his Will Concept entering his body and changing it.


    However, with that power came danger. His body struggled to contain and handle this newfound source of energy. It was the pressure that was the most surprising.


    He felt the weight of a mountain getting pressed against his back. Like Atlas holding the world on his shoulders, Julius grunted in effort as he held the weight back from crushing him. It was like this was a test of his resolve from his Concept.


    And it was only due to his strong willpower that he wrestled it under control.


    His body was absolutely humming with this newfound strength. Not only that, but his mind felt more focused and clear than ever before. In such a way that it scared him because he could easily imagine himself getting addicted to that feeling.


    The skill and Concept had permeated his flesh and modified it. It was almost like the Concept had infused his body with an aura of resoluteness.


    After a while, the flood of energy settled down and he started to feel kind of normal. The addicted feeling started to ebb away and he calmed down.


    It was at this moment that he also realized that he didn''t need to assimilate his other epic skills in order to advance. Something inside of him was letting him know that if he wished to, he would be able to take that last step to Tier 3 with just his epic skill and six impressive rare skills.


    He fully realized the logic behind this. That one epic skill had flooded his body with so much power that it was difficult to imagine how well his body would be able to take the other two skills and Concepts.


    He instinctively knew that if he failed to contain this energy, it wouldn''t just mean he would fail his advancement, but it would result in his death.


    Therefore, why should he take that chance? He already has gotten to a point that very few people ever reached. How many people in Tier 2 advanced while already having a Concept? He doubted there were many in the entire Empire. The requirements to do that were way too high. It wasn''t just a matter of comprehension, but it was a matter of how strong one''s soul was.


    Reinera had one, but she was considered one of the Empire''s great geniuses. Nobody would blame him for stopping here.


    And yet¡­


    He would blame himself and for him, that was all that mattered.


    He didn''t comply with the standards of others. No, he only cared about what his own standards were. And if there wasn''t anything he hated more than dying, it was failing to meet his own expectations.


    This was simply another challenge placed in front of him. Besides, if there was anything he loved more than anything than the tempting uncertainty of death, it was a good old challenge.


    He smiled widely and before the rational side of him could convince him otherwise, he reached out and touched the white glowing orb in front of him.


    [Armaments of the Arcane] held a special spot in his heart. It wasn''t just the first epic skill he acquired, but it was also one of his favorites to use. He was able to play around with it and do so many enjoyable things with the skill.


    How else would he eat his delicious pastries? On a regular plate like a regular person? That was absurd.


    With all that being said, when he felt the power surge through him, he was quickly reconsidering his opinion on the matter. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    If his Will Concept tested his will, then his Severing Will Concept tested how well he could hold up against an all-out assault.


    Similar, funnily enough, but very different experiences.


    Instead of a mountain of weight, he felt thousands of blades cutting apart his soul, shredding it into little pieces of confetti. It took everything in his power just to keep his soul together. He knew that if he didn''t, he would just fall into the void, lost forever.


    Luckily, his idea of merging his Concept of Will worked out, because the infusion of the Concept enabled him to hang on better. His will was empowered by the newly consolidated Concept and allowed him to weather the storm of blades.


    He didn''t know how long it took, but eventually, he felt the storm peeter off and abate.


    Leaving him feeling like he had just run totally naked into a sandstorm but the sand was sharper than a knife.


    With that being said, he didn''t come out without some benefits either. He felt a similar burst of power that made his entire being feel¡­ sharper.


    His mind felt sharper as did his perception of the world. Everything, even within this soul space felt sharper and more crisp.


    He laughed excitedly after he was done, but that smile quickly turned more somber as he turned to the last red orb, floating menacingly in the void.

 Chapter 225 Tier 3

    It wasn''t that shocking that this particular orb was the most worrying out of the three epic skills. There was a reason why he had been wanting to save this one for last.However, he wasn''t going to hesitate this time around. He knew what he was going for. He wanted to reach Tier 3 with three Concepts and three epic skills. There wasn''t anything that was going to stop him. He would do it or die trying.


    He cranked up [Sage of Savagery] to its absolute max. It was so intense that he almost felt like he blacked out, but after reining himself in, he was prepared.


    There was only the orb and himself present at the moment. With a resolved reach of his arm, he touched the orb with his fingers.


    He didn''t have a fighting chance.


    Nothing could have prepared him for the onslaught of power that was unleashed. It completely overwhelmed him and he felt his soul begin to burn.


    Nothing he could do would stop it. It wasn''t like this was his actual body, this was just a metaphysical representation of it. Therefore, there was nothing for [Phoenix Renewal] to heal.


    His soul was literally being burned to ash.


    He could only desperately fight with everything he had as he watched his soul burn one inch at a time.


    Still, no matter how bleak it looked, he made sure to keep fighting. It didn''t matter how dire the circumstances were, he wouldn''t give up.


    With that being said, the power of the Phoenix Concept ran over any of his efforts like it was nothing. Inexorable Will wasn''t able to hold it off.


    He had known that this had been a possibility, but he had been expecting that he would have been able to handle it as long as he tried his hardest.


    The frustrating reality was that his body and soul weren''t able to handle the assimilation. They weren''t properly prepared to handle such stress.


    Despite his best efforts, he could only watch in bitterness as he felt his grip on his soul start to slip away.


    ***


    Reinera POV


    She let out a rasping breath. Those final steps had been the most difficult, much more difficult than she had expected. Not even Amelia''s or her family''s warnings had been enough to prepare her for her advancement to Tier 3. Assimilating her Concept took all of her will.


    However, in the end, she managed to overcome her trial. She was now officially a Tier 3 and had even managed to advance with a Concept to boot. Something that not many people could say they have done.


    She couldn''t help but feel proud of her accomplishment. It was a testament to the hard work she had put in these past several years.


    She hoped her mother and father would be proud of her as well.


    Although, she winced at that thought. Perhaps that was a bit of a stretch and wishful thinking on her end.


    In all honesty, they would probably be furious that she had advanced without their say-so or their supervision. They likely had an entire chamber built just for her to breakthrough to Tier 3. Still, she has talked with Amelia about how prepared she was. That was why she had been assured about taking the next step.


    She did feel bad about not letting Amelia be here for this moment though. If there was one person who deserved to be by her side, it was Amelia.


    Shaking her head, she took a long deep breath. Although, that was a huge mistake. She instantly choked on the stench that invaded her nose, gagging as she was assaulted by the odor. She simultaneously smelled rotten fish and sweet fruit for some reason.


    The combination was unusually deadly.


    Then she looked down and realized that she was coated in a very thin spotted layer of dark gunk.


    I guess there were more impurities in me than I thought, she thought with a frown.


    Initially, she believed that she had done a good job purging any impurities and cleansing herself before she advanced, but it seemed like she was wrong. She had consumed a Crystal Spirit Lotus every month for the last year in preparation for her eventual advancement. It had been with the hopes that it would hasten and ease the process.


    They were expensive too. Each lotus was worth around a Tier 5 core on its own.


    That said, they did work at least. The amount she released was way less than people would normally exude. She could only imagine how many impurities she would have had if she hadn''t taken the Crystal Spirit Lotuses.


    It wasn''t like it was necessary to do so, but it would help immensely with the coalescing of one''s core and soul with their body. The fewer impurities there were beforehand, the less work it would take to remove them during one''s advancement.


    She immediately went over to the hidden washing area in the corner of the room to turn on the shower and give herself a good scrub, making sure that she held her breath until all of the gunk was nowhere to be seen again. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was only after she was clean that she changed into a clean pair of clothes and removed a piece of cake from her storage ring. It was the same one that Julius had introduced her to all that time ago. She had been saving a piece for this very moment.


    When the taste of rich chocolate and bitter espresso hit her tongue, she moaned in delight. It was just as good as the first time she tried it. She was glad that she had decided to keep a piece stored away for such occasions.


    It was just another thing that she needed to thank Julius for.


    Speaking of Julius, she wondered how he was doing.


    With a quick thought, she removed her timepiece from her ring and looked at the date and time.


    She stopped chewing for a moment and frowned. According to the device, it said that it had been over three days since she went inside the room. That was more than what she had been expecting.


    From her perspective, it had only felt like a few hours at most. The fact that it was days since she began her advancement was a bit of a jarring realization. However, she calmed down once she began chewing again. The delicious flavor flooding her mouth distracted her wonderfully.


    As she was enjoying her treat, she also looked down and gave her empty fist a hard clench. Her body felt amazing. Every muscle felt so strong, dense, and full of hidden power. She could no longer sense her core and instead felt all of her mana running through her flesh in a complex weave of threads.


    Every breath she took absorbed the ambient mana and her body processed it automatically. She no longer needed to use her core to do it.


    She reached out with her [Radiant Light Arts] skill and created an orb of light floating in the palm of her hand.


    The difference was outstanding. All the mana flowed so much more smoothly and more importantly, faster.


    The amount of mana one could produce in a single moment was one of the most limiting aspects of being in Tier 2. Since there was still a core, it took time to channel mana from it to one''s body or for external manipulations.


    However, that was going to be less of an issue from now on. She had always felt like mana listened to her, more so than most people. Despite that, it has never felt more responsive than it did at this very moment.


    She just laughed and giggled as she spent a lot of time just playing around with her mana, grateful that she had made it to Tier 3. Not even noticing the notification that had appeared.


    ***


    Julius POV


    After he had blacked out, the things that followed were like a blur. He didn''t remember anything, all he could recall were vague memories and sensations.


    It was like waking up from a dream but not knowing what you were dreaming about.


    The only thing he did know was that he survived. Or at least he thought he did. He couldn''t see anything or even open his eyes as of yet.


    His mind and body didn''t seem to be on the same page. It was like he was back in his body, but not really.


    Things were still a bit hazy and he needed to gather himself. Thus, he tried to evaluate his situation.


    First, he was no longer inside his soul space, that much was clear. It was a sensation that was very different from when he was in his soul space.


    However, what was more worrying than not being able to open his eyes, was that he wasn''t able to use any of his skills at all. It was like some sort of connection between him and them was cut off. That meant that he wasn''t able to use [Spatial Perception] to get a feel of what was around him.


    That left him completely blind for the first time in what seemed like forever. He had gotten so used to being able to see everything around him that once it was gone, it was like he was trapped in a void of darkness. Not knowing what was going to happen or what was around.


    It honestly made him feel a little bit helpless. But instead of panicking, he reminded himself to stay calm and give it some time.


    He assumed that he was still in the cultivation chamber, but he wouldn''t know until he could confirm it.


    He just laid where he was for a while, not moving a muscle and just patiently waiting to see if anything in his condition changed. However, once a good amount of time passed and he didn''t feel anything getting better he decided he wanted to try something.


    While he might not feel the connection to his skills, he still vaguely felt the connection to his mana. Although it was hard to reach out to it. Leading him to really focus and try to grasp whatever he was able to.


    Unfortunately, no matter what method he tried and no matter how determined he was, it seemed like the mana kept slipping through his fingers. It was frustrating to an absurd degree, but he continued to persist.


    His stubbornness was way stronger than whatever was preventing him from connecting with his mana. There was no way anything was going to take that away from him.


    Eventually, after what felt like days, he was able to wrestle control of a single crumb of mana. It took so much effort that he wanted to scream in excitement, but he maintained his poise so that he didn''t lose control of it.


    However, it seemed like that was all he needed.


    Mere moments after he took control of the small bit of mana, he felt everything snap back into place. A large pulse of something exploded out of him like a bomb.


    It was only then that he was able to open his eyes and move his body around. Even the connection to his skills was reestablished. His mind was back to operating like normal.


    However, there was a massive difference.


    He no longer was able to sense his core. Instead, all he felt were intricate circuits of mana weaving through his body. It was like all of the mana that had been in his core beforehand, plus more was now constantly surging through his body.


    Speaking of his body, he distinctly felt the difference in the raw power in his muscles and his bones. He revealed an elated grin. He couldn''t wait to test it out later.


    It would seem he had advanced to Tier 3. Although he couldn''t recall the final moments, the evidence would suggest that he had been successful.


    He made sure to double-check his body and his soul, and from what he was able to sense, nothing was wrong. Matter of fact, he had never felt so great.


    The only thing that was unusual was that his eyes were a bit sore for some reason. It was like they had been dilated and were extra sensitive. Other than that, he felt amazing.


    However, it was only after his excitement slowly calmed down that he looked around the room. Finally taking the time to observe the chamber and his mouth opened wide in astonishment.


    For some inexplicable reason¡­ the entire room was covered in ash.

 Chapter 226 Tier 3 Achievement

    Casidus POVSpying wasn''t the most noble of things he had done in his life, but he was known for his curiosity, even as a young boy. Just ask his mother.


    He knew that it wasn''t proper and that his parents would have disapproved of his actions. But he couldn''t help himself. The fact that the boy had been inside the chamber for a really long time made it even more tempting.


    His friend was already done and officially Tier 3. She was currently impatient for Julius to be done as well. During her wait, she had been spending a lot of time with Cory to his young grandson''s delight. However, it also seemed like she wasn''t that surprised that Julius was taking so long. In fact, it appeared like she had been expecting something like this.


    Speaking of Grace, he did not doubt that she was some daughter of some highly ranked noble or powerful family. Her demeanor was well-practiced and her knowledge about the Challenge Rift was a big indicator.


    However, he didn''t feel like she or Julius would be a problem for them. His instincts were telling him that cultivating a relationship with these two would only bring his House benefits.


    Old Man Han thought so as well, otherwise there wasn''t a reason why he would send them his way.


    Casidus believed that he was supposed to help these two in some way.


    This was the reason he had already made the executive decision to give them access to the rift. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    While some of the elders might have problems with that, he was hoping that after some time they would come to understand his decision. Furthermore, he was able to do this because of one simple reason.


    He was the Patriarch. Which meant his words held quite a lot of weight.


    It was almost three weeks after Julius entered the chamber, which was already a very long time by anyone''s standards.


    Although Casidus has personally seen an advancement from a friend reaching Tier 4, that had taken longer than a year to complete. However, their case was a bit of a special one. They had a Time Concept which made things much more complicated.


    Julius''s was only to Tier 3, so anything over a week was an anomaly.


    But he wanted to see the boy''s advancement with his own eyes. Well, not exactly with his eyes, but since he managed many of the enchantments of the estate, he was able to use them to get a good idea of what was happening inside the chamber.


    At first, he was nervous because, around the two-week mark, the boy went silent. If he didn''t sense the tiniest sliver of life from the boy, he would have thought he had died.


    But it was still worrisome when several days went by like that. Despite this, he made sure to keep an eye out for any new developments.


    It wasn''t until around the three-week mark that he felt something change.


    He had been in the middle of a meeting but had allocated some of his attention to paying attention to the chamber where the boy was just in case.


    Casidus had felt a powerful surge of mana come from the boy''s previously innate body. Moments later a massive wave of flames flooded the room and turned the furniture to ash. Leaving only the boy in the center of the room, completely naked.


    He had no idea what had happened and had never seen an advancement that explosive before. The one thing that really caught his eye was the wave of Concepts that were released in that explosion. He already knew the boy had more than one Concept, but he had no idea how strong each Concept was.


    It wasn''t unusual to see people with many Concepts, but many times they weren''t that extraordinary.


    His were.


    Casidus was beginning to see why Old Han was interested.


    He also made sure to remind himself that he needed to give Julius something a little extra for his indiscretion and for spying on his advancement. Maybe some personal training or some other type of reward would be enough to rectify his discretion.


    ***


    Julius POV


    He awkwardly looked around at the destruction and put on a new set of clothes. His previous plain black clothes were gone, never to be seen or worn again.


    However, he was a bit confused at the fact that he didn''t have any impurities around him. He had been expecting some sort of discharge of his built-up impurities since that was normal after advancing to Tier 3.


    Of course, it was possible that he had and the explosion which had turned the furniture and comfortable chair to dust had also turned the impurities to dust.


    The first thing he did was take out Drasil from his core.


    Actually, I don''t have a core anymore. So where does Drasil go now? He realized something important.


    Fortunately, he was able to follow the connection that was still there between them and found the little life spirit tucked away in his soul space.


    The little guy was seemingly napping happily, but Julius removed Drasil and gently held him in his palm.


    The green fellow didn''t wake up but he rolled over and yawned before scratching his stomach.


    Julius put the spirit up close to his eyes and tried to investigate if anything was different about the little guy, but didn''t see anything out of the ordinary.


    He seemed like the same spirit he had been just the other day.


    Instead of placing Drasil back, he took out his cushion and placed the spirit on top of it, allowing Drasil to continue his nap in peace.


    He also created a table and chair where the two of them could relax for a moment. Julius even took out a massive sub-style sandwich from his storage ring to eat.


    He had no idea how long he had been in the chamber for, but he was positively starving. He also left a dense orb of Phoenix-infused mana right next to Drasil for when he woke up.


    Just when he had created the orb, he had immediately felt the difference in how his mana responded to him. It was so much quicker and more receptive to Julius''s will. A huge improvement even at first glance.


    While he was enjoying the sandwich he noticed the notification he had received and opened it up.


    Congratulations, you have earned an Achievement.


    For advancing to Tier 3 with three previously acquired Concepts, you have obtained a Special Emblem on your soul for your rare accomplishment.


    Your Emblem is something wholly unique to you and will grow alongside you as you progress through the ranks. In time it will be a pillar of your strength and a testament to your dedication to your path.


    Notice: You will not be able to share this information with anyone who doesn''t have an Emblem themselves.


    Julius had to reread the notification multiple times to begin to understand what had just happened.


    He had never heard of such a thing before and didn''t know what it meant.


    It wasn''t the first time that he had earned a reward from the Words of the World. The last time he did was when he managed to gain another skill slot. He had been half hoping that this notification had been another similar reward.


    However, it seemed he had come across something entirely new.


    What caught his eye was that it mentioned that this ''Special Emblem'' would grow alongside him as he progressed through the tiers. Did that mean it would get stronger along with him? If so then was it pretty weak at the moment and its value would only come to fruition after some time?


    He also was interested as it explained that it would become a pillar of his strength. It didn''t say it would be ''the'' pillar of his strength, but it heavily implied that it would be important for him.


    He was confused about the importance of it being a testament to his dedication to his path as well. What kind of significance did that mean? Was it like some sort of badge of honor that others could see or was it some kind of requirement for future developments?


    He had more questions than ever.


    The fact that he couldn''t share any of this information with anyone who didn''t have an Emblem was a bit of a problem too. That was probably why he had never heard of it before, but it was still annoying. He wanted to know more.


    However, he realized something after he read it a seventh time.


    It said that he couldn''t share it with anyone who didn''t have an ''Emblem'', but was that any different from the Special Emblem that he got?


    A regular Emblem might have required only a single Concept when advancing while his Special Emblem was because he had three.


    Hehe, I might be special, he smirked to himself jokingly.


    Perhaps, Reinera would get a similar Emblem because she had a Concept of her own. That would mean he might be able to ask her about it.


    Though, if the notice was anything to go by, she probably didn''t know much about it either. Since she didn''t have one beforehand, people wouldn''t have been able to share it with her.


    He did wonder how the Words of the World managed that though. Like how would it be able to prevent him from telling people about his Emblem or about how to get one? He was sure many people had tried to skirt around the warning.


    He did make the quick decision and decided not to tell anyone about his Special Emblem though. Even if he found someone who he could talk to, he would simply state that he had a regular Emblem. He didn''t see the need to make himself out as more interesting than he already was.


    With that being said, he was enjoying the fact that he got a special reward more than he was expecting. It felt good to be recognized by the world for his hard work.


    He just had zero idea what that would mean for him and what kind of benefit he could get from it.


    However, that was an issue for another time. His current issue at the moment was getting more food out of his storage ring because his previous one was already gone and it felt like he hadn''t eaten in weeks.

 Chapter 227 Exiting The Chamber

    When Julius finally left the chamber, he was welcomed by a servant just outside of the chamber. The servant in question was asleep and had a book opened up in his lap. The guy had probably been waiting outside of the chamber for who knows how long, waiting for Julius to either come out or to ask for something.He still didn''t know how long it had been. He resolved to get some sort of device that tracked time in the near future.


    Julius gave the guy a gentle nudge with his hand.


    The guy jolted awake instantly and looked at Julius with wide eyes.


    "I am so sorry, I didn''t mean to fall asleep! I''ve been waiting for you to exit for a while," the man quickly explained in a hurry.


    "How long was I in there?" Julius asked the question he was most curious about.


    The man frowned in thought as he tried to estimate the time. "About three-ish weeks," he said in an uncertain tone.


    "Three weeks?" Julius couldn''t believe what he had just heard.


    Three weeks was a very long time.


    "Do you know what happened to my friend? When did she leave her chamber?"


    "I don''t know when she was finished with her advancement but I do know she has been hanging around the estate for the past couple weeks or so. Her advancement took some time but it wasn''t as long as yours."


    That''s good, I bet she has been going around and trying food in the meantime, he assumed.


    "Can you take me to her?" He asked the man.


    "Of course. She should be getting up pretty soon but I believe Lord Easten wanted to see you when you were done," the servant said politely.


    At least I know it''s the morning.


    "He wants to see me?"


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    "Correct, I actually have orders to take you and see him as soon as possible."


    Julius couldn''t help but wonder what the man wanted to see him so soon for.


    "Do you know why?"


    The man merely shrugged.


    Julius thought for a quick moment before gesturing toward the man that he was going to follow him. He didn''t see a reason why he wouldn''t go and speak to Marquis. It would also give him a good chance to ask more about the Challenge Rift. He was still very excited about the prospect of delving into that rift.


    ***


    Julius entered the room that the man escorted him to. Before he had left, the man promised to let Reinera know that he was out and was talking to the Marquis.


    The room itself was closer to a study than anything else. There were numerous large bookshelves that were packed to the brim with books. A nice area by a fireplace that he imagined would make a wonderful place to sit down and enjoy a book. And at the center of the room, in front of a large window, sat a man scribbling away at his desk.


    "Ah, good. I see Jeremy has brought you," the Marquis stated with his eyes still concentrated on the paper.


    "Yeah, he said you wanted to talk with me?"


    "Yes, I wanted to discuss the terms of the Challenge Rift you and Grace wanted to enter."


    "Did the elders decide to allow it?" Julius asked curiously.


    The man shook his head. "No, they were still not willing," he told Julius gently.


    "Oh."


    "But don''t worry. Luckily for me, I can still give you access without their permission. It''s one of the perks of being the Patriarch."


    "Oh!" Julius said, but this time with much more enthusiasm.


    "There is one thing though," Marquis Easten added.


    "Oh?" His enthusiasm dampened slightly.


    "Although they weren''t happy with my decisions, the elders insisted that there must be some sort of exchange."


    Julius''s forehead creased as he frowned at the man. "You mean more than saving your grandson?"


    The Marquis gave Julius a guilty look. "Yes, unlike me, they don''t seem to appreciate what you have done as greatly as I or his parents do."


    Julius sighed. "What do they want?"


    "In return for allowing you access to the rift. They want you and your friend to help out with a little issue we have been having lately."


    "Issue?"


    "Yes, the organization that kidnapped Cory has also been targeting our merchants and supplies while traveling on their routes," the man explained.


    "This Conclave group? The one that might or might not have the backing of a Ducal House?" Julius asked.


    "Yes, the very same one."


    "Why do you want us? I feel like you could simply have one of your more powerful members go and escort some of these routes," he said, a little bit confused at the request.


    The man understood Julius''s confusion and simply nodded at him. "We have done that before. We sent a group of Tier 4s and even a Tier 5 along with a group not too long ago, trying to lure them out. However, they ran into no trouble along the way. On the other hand, the group after them who were very quiet about their movements, but who had only a single Tier 4 protecting them came under attack. We believe that this group specifically knew which caravan to target and when."


    "You''re saying you think they have someone feeding them information from your side and know which escorts have the powerful fighters and which do not?"


    "Correct. I think that I have a traitor within my House. Someone who has details of our logistics and operations. With that said, there are a lot of people who have access to such information, so it is very difficult to find who it is?"


    "And the elders want me and Grace to what? Fight off this group and protect the caravan?" Julius asked skeptically.


    The man laughed. "No, some wanted you to sign contracts and then have you two work for House Easten for various missions. I was the one who recommended this particular job instead."


    "You''re the one who recommended this ''dangerous'' sounding job?" Julius asked in a completely deadpan tone.


    "Yep. I thought that you and your friend in particular might be a great choice. Both of you are now Tier 3, which congratulations by the way. However, both of you two will be extraordinarily more powerful than your typical Tier 3 even at the beginning stages of the tier. This group seems to know the exact composition of our fighters. Therefore, anyone Tier 4 and above they are very careful about. Since you both are only Tier 3, they won''t be expecting people like you. The fact that you two have Emblems will give you a massive advantage against other Tier 3s without one," the man dropped a huge surprise bomb on him at the end.


    "Emblems?" Julius asked, a little shell-shocked.


    "The two of you had Concepts prior to advancing, that makes it pretty easy to guess that you both have Emblems of your own," the man said.


    Julius had so many questions that he didn''t know where to start, so he started simple. "What is an Emblem?"


    The man looked thoughtfully for a moment. "The best way to describe an Emblem is to compare it to a representation of your soul. Much like how your aura is one. However, unlike your aura an Emblem is a supportive element that gives more weight to your existence. It makes your Concepts more easily imposed onto others while making it harder for those with Concepts to impose them on you."


    That was kind of the direction Julius was already thinking about how they worked, but it was nice to get some clarifying details about it.


    "How do you know about then? Did you have a Concept when you advanced to Tier 3?"


    The Marquis waved his hand. "No no. I wasn''t that talented. I got mine after I learned my third Concept when I was already in Tier 3. That''s the other way you can earn one without having one before Tier 3. It''s the most common method to gain an Emblem."


    "Is having an Emblem a requirement for reaching Tier 4?" S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Absolutely. Without an Emblem, you can''t manifest your Authority. It is also the reason why having an Emblem so early in Tier 3 is a massive advantage, it gives you a head start on your peers. You two are very blessed," the Marquis said with an admiring smile.


    Julius had always wondered why Dante and Alice had been so sure of him reaching Tier 4 without much trouble. He thought that they had simply believed in him, but it seemed like they understood that he was going to earn an Emblem the moment he advanced. He was curious how Marquis Easten knew that getting a Concept before Tier 3 would earn one an Emblem though. Which is why he asked the man.


    "Both my eldest son Aden and Rebecca earned Emblems at their advancement," the man said with fatherly pride.


    Before Julius could keep on going down this rabbit hole of asking about Emblems, first he wanted to ask about this so-called mission.


    "Let''s go back to the escort thing. You want the two of us to hide within the caravan and wait until someone attacks it, and then what?"


    "You beat up whoever it is and try to get as much information from them as possible. Though, if that''s not possible, then simply allow one to escape while tagging one of them with a tracking device I will give you later on," Marquis Easten explained.


    "What if there''s someone stronger than us there?" Julius asked.


    "There is still going to be one Tier 4 going along with you, just so it doesn''t seem out of place. But according to all reports, many of the attacks consist of mainly Tier 3s and at most a couple of Tier 4s," the man tried to assure him


    "And you think we can handle it?"


    Marquis Easten didn''t answer with words, instead, he extended out his domain and pressed it against Julius. Unlike the last time, Julius felt something profoundly different. The weight of the man''s domain wasn''t as debilitating and did not require as much effort from him to hold off against. In fact, Julius barely realized it was there.


    He didn''t think the Marquis was really trying to hurt him with it, but merely making a point.


    "I think I get it," he told the lord.


    "Yes, that is simply one of the advantages of earning an Emblem so early. If you were able to fight against that Tier 4 like you said, then you should be able to fend off another Tier 4 at least until the Tier 4 I will send with you can deal with his side of things." The Marquis sounded strangely confident in his assumption.


    One that Julius wasn''t as comfortable to make.


    "Have you discussed this with Grace?" He asked.


    "I have. She seemed willing, but she said she wanted to talk to you before she made a decision."


    That was good. Julius wasn''t honestly that unwilling. However, a good part of it was because he was curious about this group. He wanted to know if they really had a relationship with House Greyson. And if so, he would be much more inclined to throw a wrench in their plans with or without House Easten involved.


    "Okay, let me talk to her and we will let you know what we ultimately decide," he told the Marquis.


    The man smiled at him. "That is fine. In the meantime, here." Julius was passed a small golden coin.


    "That should allow you to pass through the property enchantments as if you were a retainer or family member. It''s only keyed to your aura so nobody else can use it, but it should allow you pretty much-unfettered access around the estate."


    Julius thanked the man. But before he left he made sure to ask a couple more questions regarding Emblems. He got some information, but nothing that he wouldn''t have found out on his own eventually.


    It was similar to willpower, he would have to slowly train it and strengthen it through experiences and hard work.


    He also made sure to ask some questions about some recommendations of what was good to eat around Blumand before leaving the study and trying to find Reinera.

 Chapter 228 Getting Used to Advancement

    "Finally!" He heard Reinera yell out to him before he had even approached her.He waved at her as she approached. The first thing he noticed was her aura. It was still restrained by whatever enchantments her disguising item had activated, but it didn''t hide the powerful feeling he got by looking at her.


    "What took you so long? Did you have any problems?" She asked once she got within arms reach.


    He nodded at her. "I did, but eventually got over it. What about you? How was your advancement?"


    "It all went as expected. I wish Amelia was here to see it though. She is going to be mad at me for advancing without her," she said to him, wincing at the thought of Amelia''s anger.


    Julius winced alongside her. He could already predict Amelia''s anger when she found out Reinera advanced without her.


    Maybe, I will brag to her that I was here. I bet that would make her really jealous, Julius thought with a smile. While he and Amelia had developed a much more courteous relationship, he still made sure to give her a hard time as much as she gave him a hard time.


    It was only fair after all.


    "Have you tested your ability to use ambient mana yet?" She asked.


    He shook his head. "Not yet, is it that much of an improvement?" He knew that Tier 3 was the first step for people to actually manipulate ambient mana with a sense of control but didn''t have the chance to test it out yet.


    "Yeah! You should try it out! Look at what I can do," she excitedly told him, practically jumping up and down with barely contained joy.


    He watched as she closed her eyes and concentrated. At first, he had no idea what she was planning to do, but he noticed that the mana all around them started to come together. It didn''t matter what kind of mana it was, it all was gathered up vortex of mana.


    Julius was impressed. He couldn''t help but wonder how much time she had been playing around with ambient mana since she advanced.


    Once she was happy with the vortex she had, he felt her reach out to something. It was hard to tell what it was and he probably wouldn''t have known if he wasn''t already aware that she had a Light Concept. But she managed to infuse her Light Concept into this vortex of mana slowly.


    As this was happening the swirling vortex of invisible mana slowly became visible to his eyes. It was a wonderful medley of various colors of the rainbow. All of it spiraled together before dissipating into the air with a shimmer.


    "Now you try it!" She said while grabbing his arm. "I want to see what kind of things you can do with¡­" She trailed off as she stared at him.


    "What? Is something wrong?" He asked.


    "Your eyes," she said with a weird expression.


    "My eyes?" He asked worried, reaching for them instinctively. He recalled the weird sensation that lasted for a while, but he didn''t know if that had any more permanent effects.


    "They are different," she said slowly while also getting closer to him, examining his face.


    Different? What does she mean by different? Are they a different color or something? If so why didn''t the Marquis say anything?


    "How are they different?" He asked her while grabbing her shoulders.


    "Look for yourself," she said as she held out a mirror she removed from her storage ring.


    Julius took the mirror with a nervous expression. But sighed when he saw what she was talking about.


    Experience tales at empire


    His eyes were different. But they were barely different. They were still primarily black eyes but the only thing that had changed was that there was a very thin ring of red surrounding his irises.


    It was barely noticeable and only upon closer examination would someone see it.


    "It''s not that bad. You made me think that I had some type of deformity," he accused her.


    "No, I noticed them because I saw something flash within them," she argued.


    "Something flashed within them?" He asked confused.


    "Yeah, there was a burst of red, almost like a small flame flicker in them. But it was gone after a moment."


    That was weird. She said that something red flickered in them, but he also didn''t know what she meant by that. The only thing he had been doing when she noticed it was when he reached out to his Concept as he was also gathering some ambient mana.


    Oh, he realized to himself.


    With a quick thought, he touched his Phoenix Concept once more.


    "There it is again!" She said while pointing at his face and getting closer to inspect his eyes.


    "Interesting," he muttered. It would seem that his eyes flickered when he used his Phoenix Concept now. However, he couldn''t see the use of something like that or why it was there now.


    It would be different if it was some sort of ability but as far as he could tell, he didn''t get any new abilities.


    He checked his status again for good measure.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 3


    Skills:


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 7] (Epic)


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 7] (Epic)


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 4] (Epic)


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 19] (Rare+)


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 15] (Rare+)


    [Soul Tempering lvl 6] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Flash Step lvl 10] (Rare)


    Current Skill Slots: 9/11


    Concepts:


    [Concept of Sharpness]


    [Severing Will]


    [Concept of Will]


    [Inexorable Resolve]


    [Concept of Phoenix]


    [Ashen Rebirth]


    He didn''t spot anything different except for the change to his tier which now said he was officially Tier 3. That little detail did bring a small smile to his face though.


    "Do you have any ideas why?" He asked Reinera.


    She shrugged. "No clue. A side effect of your advancement perhaps?"


    "I thought you would have a better idea considering your own¡­ you know," he hinted at.


    She shook her head with a grin. "I was born with them. It''s a side effect of my bloodline, nothing more. But your''s seems to be some kind of body modification that was made during or after your advancement. It''s not too uncommon, but a lot of times people''s eyes change because they have some sort of eye-related skill. One of my family''s retainers has a pair of eyes that look like the eyes of an eagle, all because he has a skill," she told him.


    Julius frowned. But ultimately it didn''t seem to be that bad. On the contrary, he should be happy. He had always been a little upset about having such plain black eyes. Now he had something that made them a bit more unique.


    "Do they look cool?" He asked.


    She didn''t bother responding but he noticed her exasperated shake of her head.


    "They''re cool right?"


    "Yes, they are cool alright," she muttered. "Now let''s go get some food, I have been wanting to show you this place I found a couple of weeks ago," she while tugging on his hand.


    "Food?"


    "Yes, food."


    He didn''t need any more explanation. The sandwiches he ate had not filled his empty stomach and he could definitely have more.


    "Well what are you waiting for, lead the way," he said to her.


    As he was following her around the estate, toward the exit, he noted that she was very familiar with where she was going.


    "Oh yeah, don''t forget you lost the bet, so you get to pay," she said to him offhandedly. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Bet? Oh, right. The bet on who finishes first, he remembered.


    "Yeah, I guess I lost," he grumbled to her with a defeated sigh.


    Her victorious grin only made him more suspicious of why she was taking him to this specific spot.


    He preemptively clenched his coin purse a little tighter, praying that she wasn''t going to clean out his wallet.


    ***


    For the next few days, Julius took the time to explore the city of Blumand with Reinera. They went shopping, and sightseeing, but mostly ate a lot of food. They mainly relaxed and slowly got used to their newly advanced bodies.


    Julius in particular accidentally broke a glass at a restaurant while he wasn''t paying attention.


    Additionally, there was one surprising development.


    Lady Rebecca had come to Julius and Reinera the other day and offered some help. She explained to them that in return for safely returning her son, she wanted to help them with their training before they were to head into the Challenge Rift.


    Speaking of the Challenge Rift, Julius managed to squeeze out some information from both Rebecca and her father. Apparently, the Challenge Rift in question was a pretty decent one that rewarded skills more so than items.


    And according to Reinera, this was something that would benefit them more. While items created by conditions of a Challenge Rift were better than most human-made items, they were still just that.


    Items.


    Skills on the other hand would last for the rest of their lives and could potentially have a greater impact on their strength.


    Which excited Julius as much as it did Reinera.


    Their timeline for entering the special rift was a bit complicated. It needed some time to recharge and since it had been used pretty recently, that meant they would have to wait around two weeks at the very least to enter.


    That was fine with Julius because in the meantime they were able to relax and train for a bit.


    That is also where Rebecca came in. He had already heard from her father that Rebecca was one of the few people who had earned a Concept in Tier 2, which also meant she was a proper prodigy.


    Therefore, her offer to help them train was very valuable and one that Julius and Reinera both accepted quickly.


    Today was their first official day of their training with the noblewoman and he was anticipating what she had planned for them.


    However, when he arrived at the training yard, he was surprised at what he saw. All of the times beforehand, Lady Rebecca had always come across as a prototypical noblewoman. However, Julius now spotted her wearing a tight combat suit that showed all of her curves and long legs. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and there was no makeup on her face.


    In one hand she held a scary-looking stick, which Julius immediately got a bad feeling about.


    Reinera was already there and waiting for him, playing with young Cory off to the side. Apparently, Rebecca hadn''t let Cory out of her sight for the past few weeks, understandably.


    "Okay, now that we are all here, let''s get started right away," Rebecca said to them.


    "What are we doing exactly? You wouldn''t tell me before Julius got here," Reinera asked.


    "We are going to work on you getting used to your bodies first. That is going to be one of the most important things to work on. As of now, you guys are both physically stronger, but until you train you won''t be able to control or even properly leverage this new power," Rebecca explained.


    "How are we going to do that?" Reinera asked nervously. It was like she already knew the answer to that, but just wanted to make sure.


    He knew exactly what was going to happen. This wasn''t his first rodeo and he was prepared to get beaten and bruised up. That stick had told him everything he needed to know.


    He also didn''t want to let Rebecca know but he had missed training like this. He was itching to throw out some punches and get some in return.


    He also couldn''t wait to test out his new body and his skills in combat. This would be an amazing way to do so.


    Rebecca got straight into it, she calmly instructed them to head into the center of the training area with a stern face. All the while, she was smacking the intimidating stick into her palm.


    Reinera looked over at him in worry, but he gave her an encouraging smile and thumbs up in return.


    However, it didn''t seem to work and all he got was a glare back.

 Chapter 229 Never Passing Up Free Food

    It wasn''t that bad. Not as intense as he had been expecting at least.However, Reinera might have heavily disagreed on that. Rebecca made them strain their bodies until Reinera was gasping for air, crawling along the ground on her knees. Julius on the other hand faired way better, much to Rebecca''s surprise.


    She shouldn''t be though and neither should he. Julius had always pushed his physical training to the limit, which meant that he was in much better shape than Reinera and most people.


    The only people who have kept up with him were monsters like Edgar. With that being said, his ability to use all of his newfound strength was difficult. Using it efficiently was even more so.


    They only sparred for a little bit. And it was a stretch to call it sparring. It was more like Rebecca was trying to get a gauge of their current physical abilities. Afterward, they moved on to more practical and simple training.


    Rebecca showed them many exercises that helped with their transition. Many of them weren''t actually focusing on strength. Almost all of them had to do with balance.


    She would make him do various calisthenic exercises or force him to run across a small course she set up to test his agility and balance.


    Those were surprisingly difficult. Perhaps, before he advanced he would have been able to easily breeze through the course. However, now that he had more strength, he found himself jumping a bit too far or not enough.


    He had the improved power, but not the finesse yet. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was weird, there was so much more power in his muscles but he didn''t really gain much mass. He might have gained a little bit of height, but that was it.


    There was also the issue that he was able to channel so much more kinetic energy through his body with [Kinetic Augmentation].


    It wasn''t quite double, but it was pretty close. However, he also ran into another issue with that.


    He would have expected that since he was able to channel almost twice as much mana and kinetic energy, it would mean he would be almost twice as strong.


    Unfortunately, it didn''t seem to work that way.


    For one, his efficiency was quite far from perfect. Secondly, there was some sort of diminishing returns to how much mana he pumped his body with and how much strength his body got.


    At least that was what Rebecca explained to him. She said that he would eventually need to learn how to infuse his Concepts into each movement. That would be the first step of advancing to Tier 4, along with a lot of other stuff.


    Julius got pulled away from his thoughts as he watched Reinera get about a third of the way through the course before she finally slipped and smacked her head into a wooden pole. Falling like a sack of flour and hitting the dirt with a thump.


    He winced but assured himself that she would be okay. She had a pretty good physical enhancement skill of her own. He was more worried about her pride. She was getting kind of frustrated with the whole thing.


    Which was understandable. She must have fallen and smashed her head into the ground at least a couple dozen times by this point. No matter how strong their bodies were at this point, it didn''t feel good.


    He would know, he had done the exact same thing just minutes ago. It was embarrassing.


    She at least made some good improvements. She had gotten so much further than her first attempt.


    He got up when he saw Rebecca give him a look, letting him know it was his turn again.


    "Remember, trust in your mana''s newfound responsiveness. As long as you realize it in time, your mana and intent will help you do the rest," Rebecca advised him.


    He nodded with a smile before getting up. On his way, he passed by a muttering Reinera who was giving the entire training course a very dangerous look.


    If the thing was burned down tomorrow morning, he would know who to blame.


    He went over to the beginning of the course and readied himself. Once he was good, he set off like a rocket.


    The first section of the course was easy. It was a simple task about trying to get to the other end as fast as he could while also striking the occasional obstacles marked in red. They needed to inject a set amount of mana each time in order to successfully trigger the target.


    That wasn''t a difficult challenge for either of them. They both had really good control of their mana. The problem came after.


    Once he reached the other side, he needed to stop on a dime and land exactly on a skinny pole that would shift around in erratic patterns. Fortunately, his kinetic energy helped him a lot with this maneuver. He was able to siphon all of his momentum with a thought and with more ease than when he was Tier 2.


    With a series of confident jumps that had only come after falling dozens of times already, he hopped from one pole to another. It didn''t matter too much if the poles were shifty little things, he had gotten used to the irregular movements of the poles already.


    Kinetic energy for the win.


    After a brief moment, he was able to complete it. He didn''t check to see but would bet that Reinera was scowling at him as he finished what she had been having so much trouble with.


    The next obstacle was much more challenging. It introduced an element he would need to actively dodge. He looked at the wildly swingling threads of thin wire in front of him with a smile. Even with [Spatial Perception], it was hard to keep track of all of the wires in front of him.


    The goal was to get across to the next area while not getting touched a single time. It was so difficult because even if he got grazed by a wire, the course would know and automatically fail him.


    It tested his balance, perception, and knowing where each part of his body was at all times.


    The key he realized after many failed attempts was to plan ahead. It was probably a way to train newly advanced Tier 3s to leverage their upgraded mind just as much as they did with their bodies.


    When he analyzed the patterns, he found out that there would always be an opening at some point. His goal was to find this opening and use his newly improved physical traits to take advantage of it.


    Therefore, he forged on methodically. Each step was deliberate but also very explosive when needed. Even since his advancement it almost felt like his perception had slowed down. The threads which would have been too fast for him to track with his eyes alone, were no longer too fast.


    His focus was completely on this and nothing else. However, this also helped him as he had no time to overthink his actions.


    He didn''t have time to think about how much power he put into a step or if he jumped a bit too hard. He was finding his balance, improving each step he took.


    He was having fun, more fun than he would have expected if someone told him that he was going to spend his day jumping like a grasshopper.


    With a big burst of speed, he leaped head-first through an opening of threads, landing on his hand, and rolling to his feet. He looked back toward the rest of the third section with a big grin. This wasn''t his first time completing it, but it was still rewarding to do so.


    His smile went away as he stared at the next obstacle. This was where he has failed every time he tried. It was an unfair combination of all three obstacles shoved into one monstrous challenge.


    There was still the heavy storm of flying wires, but now instead of a flat surface to move on, he needed to be able to dodge them by leaping from pole to pole. However, by far the most difficult aspect of it was the fact that Julius wasn''t able to take his time or choose his route. He needed to run pretty fast just like the first obstacle, weaving in and out of the wires with inhuman accuracy. He also needed to strike the occasional target with mana on his way.


    This severely limited his options and possible paths.


    His previous strategy of being patient and methodical could only be so effective when he was forced to run. A beam of light followed him at a constant pace, the only indicator of how long he had to get past the threads.


    He couldn''t ''cheat'' either. Rebecca would know exactly if he was and would fail him if she caught him doing that if the detection system installed didn''t do that already.


    Careful use of kinetic energy had him past the first set of wires, reaching the target with a red circle in the middle of it, striking it, and infusing it with the right amount of mana.


    He then reached the second, and third with equal effort. But just when he thought he thought he was going to get past the fourth, he was smacked from behind.


    The wires wrapped him up and had him tripping over his feet. Just like Reinera, he fell and smacked his face unto the next nearest pillar with a dull thud. Before hitting the dirt in a puff of dust.


    As he groaned in the dirt, he heard them talk.


    "That''s it for the day. We can resume tomorrow at the same time if you want," he heard Rebecca call out.


    "How are we supposed to finish the course? It doesn''t seem feasible," Reinera said to her while Julius was dusting himself off the ground.


    Rebecca laughed lightly. "That''s kind of the point of this course. It was built for our Tier 3s to practice their body control. It is also not really meant to be completed. The fact that the two of you are adapting pretty well is a show of your talent."


    Julius noticed that Rebecca gave him an odd look when she said this, but he didn''t know the reason why. Experience exclusive tales on empire


    Shaking his head, he went over the two of them with a frown on his face. He had really believed he had a chance on that last run.


    When he arrived next to them, Rebecca handed him a small glass bottle before doing to same to Reinera.


    "Take these. They are simple endurance recovery potions, it will help your muscles heal faster," she said to them.


    Julius was a bit hesitant but when he saw Reinera uncap it and swallow it in one go, he quickly followed.


    It tasted distinctly like fresh lemonade. He licked his lips to get the remnants of flavor onto his tongue and felt the effects of the potion kick in instantly. His muscles felt a wave of life affinity mana wash through them and slowly heal the fibers back together.


    While he had his healing skill, he hadn''t used it in front of House Easten yet. It was something he learned was useful to keep hidden for as long as possible. Not many people expected such a powerful healing skill from a Tier 2¡­ correction Tier 3.


    He was curious as to how much it changed since he advanced though. He had no doubt that it was a bit more effective now that he was Tier 3, but he also knew that Tier 3s were harder to heal. Which made him wonder if those conditions canceled each other out.


    He would need to test it in his spare time. Preferably without other eyes on him. He didn''t want to try and cut a hand off with someone around. They might get the wrong idea about what kind of person he was.


    Before she left, Rebecca turned and grabbed Cory who was playing with his toy soldier that Julius made, and took him in her arms. Rebecca had done a lot of testing on the thing to make sure of its safety before finally allowing Cory to keep it.


    "You forgot to tell them, Mum," he heard Cory call out. Ever since he had come home, Cory has become much more vocal and clearly more comfortable, to everybody''s relief. Julius had dreaded the possibility of the kidnapping causing some sort of permanent mental damage.


    Rebecca stopped walking for a moment. "Thanks, Cory. I almost forgot," she said to her son before turning to them. "My husband and I wanted to invite you guys to dinner at a place in the city. We want to thank you properly for saving Cory, we haven''t really been able to do that so far."


    "Dinner?"


    "Yes, there is an exclusive spot that we made reservations for tonight. We hope you two will come along. Trust me, you won''t regret it," she said with extreme confidence.


    Julius watched as Reinera quickly turned to him with bright eyes. He could have sworn that her rainbow eyes practically burst from her disguise.


    "Can we go?" She asked him hopefully.


    He looked at her like she was crazy. "Who do you think you are talking to? You really think I am going to say no?"


    Not a chance. Free food was free food.

 Chapter 230 Fire Enhancement Skill

    The restaurant was indeed very exclusive. But it wasn''t quite his cup of tea.Like the Golden Wheel in Heston had been, it was a luxurious place with amazing food. However, unlike the Golden Wheel, there was this uncomfortable air surrounding the place.


    It felt like a very posh and stuffy place meant for rich nobles. With that being said, it wasn''t like they had an awful experience.


    Matter of fact, Reinera fit in very well. She acted every bit like the royal member she was. Her manners and etiquette were on full display. Fitting in with such grace, that Julius was a bit envious of her.


    He could barely hold his fork correctly. And although he wasn''t technically a commoner, his lack of education in noble etiquette was easy to see. No matter how often Edwin had tried to instill in him some form of manners, he wasn''t able.


    Something he was wishing he had paid more attention to now.


    Rebecca''s husband and Cory''s father, Richard was a wonderful man or at least that was the first impression he had of him. Unlike his wife, Richard was very exuberant and very alive. It was a stark contrast to how everyone in the restaurant acted but it was a welcome one.


    It made Julius feel much more comfortable.


    He believed that the man was very aware of the social environment and good with people, which would also explain his very affable personality.


    Richard must have realized that he was feeling a bit uncomfortable because not long after they arrived, the man proposed for them to leave to somewhere else. Something Julius was grateful for.


    Instead of staying there, they ended up eating some sort of warm custard dessert from a stall that Richard took them to. It was quite chilly out, much colder than Heston, thus the warm treat was a big welcome.


    The real surprise came when they were walking back to the estate.


    "So Rebecca told me that you are working on a fire enhancement skill," Richard said while playfully swinging Cory around in a circle.


    "She did?" He asked. Julius vaguely recalled commenting on trying to work on a body enhancement skill to Rebecca earlier today when she asked about his plans for some of his physical aspected skills. He didn''t remember saying anything about him getting a fire enhancement skill though.


    However, he did believe that Rebecca had a good idea about him having a kinetic affinity. After all, she had seen him using his kinetic body skill all day so it wouldn''t be that much of a surprise. But he realized after some thought, that she must have noticed his affinity from the construct he made for Cory.


    Richard tossed Cory high up in the air much to the delight of the young boy before responding. "Yeah, she said that it might be a good idea for me to help you," he said to Julius.


    He wants to help me learn a fire-related physical skill? Does he have a fire affinity of his own? He thought to himself wonderingly.


    Before he could answer, he saw Rebecca smack her husband with her arm, her face a little red surprisingly. "You weren''t supposed to tell him that I mentioned that," she pouted.


    He turned to his wife with wide eyes. "I wasn''t?" He sounded sincere, but Julius could spot the smirk on his face. It seemed like Richard knew exactly what he was doing.


    I need to be careful around this man, Julius noted to himself, a little wary. Sneaky smart people were always the hardest to see through. The upfront and blunt types like Rebecca were actually easier to deal with.


    "What do you have in mind?" Julius asked finally to Richard.


    "Well, I don''t mean to brag, but I have a pretty good skill myself. I don''t expect you to get the same skill, but I feel pretty confident in being able to show you some things that might make it easier for you to acquire something similar."


    "Daddy is strong," Cory said proudly.


    Julius smiled at Cory. "Stronger than your mother?"


    At that question, Cory quieted. He looked at the man who was carrying him and back toward his mother with a worried glance before looking back toward Julius.


    "No," he said with certainty.


    "That''s my boy," Rebecca snickered from where she was standing. Distinctly pleased with her son''s answer.


    "Oh, so he''s your boy now? I recall you saying that he was my son whenever he got in trouble. However, it seems that whenever he does something amazing, he''s all of a sudden your son, huh?" Richard asked with a sarcastic grumble.


    "Don''t pout dear, it''s not proper," Rebecca said with a grin. Shamelessly ignoring that she had been the one pouting just a moment ago.


    "What kind of skill do you have?" Julius asked curiously. He knew that there were various options for fire enhancement skills. For example, Edgar had told him that before he combined his earth and fire skills together into one skill, his fire skill leaned toward explosiveness.


    However, he told Julius that there were versions that leaned toward stable output, even though that wasn''t something fire was typically known for.


    Julius was hoping for a nice blend of the two if that wasn''t being too greedy. He already had kinetic energy to use for his body skill, but he wanted to take advantage of his other affinities as well.


    Much like how Edgar had done, only with kinetic and potentially life mana if that was possible.


    If Julius could somehow learn a Phoenix-based physical enhancement skill, kind of like how [Phoenix Body] sounded like it would have been, that would be wonderful.


    Now that he was Tier 3, he would have much more space within his soul to increase his skills and learn new ones.


    Ever since he advanced he has already felt the enlargement of his soul. It was quite relieving. It was like being clogged up for days and finally emptying the excess.


    There was a lot of other stuff he wanted to do with this newfound space in his soul, such as learning a Space Concept and potentially one that would fit his kinetic affinity better than his current ones, but that might have to be put on hold again.


    Enjoy new chapters from empire


    His fight with Dustin showed him that his weakness right now was his physical strength and his body enhancement skill.


    He also wanted to get it done before he tried to advance [Kinetic Augmentation] evolved to epic. He believed he would receive a much better skill if he utilized his fire affinity or Phoenix Concept into a new ability beforehand.


    "My body skill leans toward being more dangerous," Richard admitted with a wince.


    "How so?"


    Richard paused as he tried to think of how to explain his skill, obviously contemplating how much he wanted to share.


    Eventually, he just shrugged. "You saved my son, so I don''t mind sharing this with you," he said with a small smile. His next words were quite forthcoming.


    "The version I have is an epic ranked skill called [Blazing Embodiment]," Richard told Julius.


    "[Blazing Embodiment]?" He asked.


    "Yes, it is a very powerful skill that helps me use my advanced mana manipulations to great effects and with great synergy. I am primarily a mage, but I needed a better body skill, which led to me learning this particular skill with great effort," Richard explained.


    "But it will work for me even if I am not primarily a mage?"


    "Oh? You''re not a mage?" Richard asked surprised.


    "No, I like to fight up close," Julius clarified while holding up his two fists.


    "My apologies. I thought with your mana control and the construct you made for Cory you were a mage."


    Rebecca frowned as she heard this as well. "I was curious why you did so well on that training course today. Now it''s making more sense," she muttered.


    "That was someone doing well?" Reinera asked in disbelief. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Richard laughed at her. "Don''t worry about it, Grace. My wife told me about the training she was helping you with and I was impressed when she told me that you almost did the entire second part of the course in a single day. It takes many of our Tier 3s weeks to complete the second section."


    That comment seemed to cheer Reinera up a bit and she smiled at the man.


    After successfully making her feel better, Richard turned his attention back to Julius.


    "Even though you aren''t a mage, I still believe that you might find my skill useful or good inspiration for your own," Richard said.


    "How are the skill''s close combat abilities?" Julius asked. He was interested in how dynamic the skill would be for his usage. The skill itself sounded very nice. If he had to choose a possible skill based on a name, it would be a top contender.


    Richard wiggled his hand from side to side. "It''s not the best for a pure warrior but it''s a pretty advanced skill. My version of it also is influenced by my tendencies. Which means it is going to be more tailored for mage skill sets. However, with that being said, it is a very flexible skill and I could easily imagine the skill being modified into a more close combat style skill."


    Julius didn''t see a reason not to try it out. If he didn''t like the options he got, he would simply not choose any of them. He also thought this would be the perfect opportunity to see another person''s skill up close and personal.


    Even if he didn''t get a body skill out of it, it would be an educational experience for him.


    "Okay, how would we do that?" Julius asked.


    Richard went on to explain to him the general details of how he would teach Julius his skill.


    It was pretty simple. After Rebecca helped him in the morning with their physical training, Richard would take some time to show Julius the ins and outs of his skill. He would show him the training methods that helped him acquire the skill in the first place.


    The goal wasn''t to get Julius the epic version right away. No, even Julius realized how crazy that sounded.


    The goal would be to get Julius an uncommon version or hopefully a rare version. However, Richard mentioned that it might be better to try to get an uncommon skill first because how it will have more time to evolve to Julius''s needs rather than being a more developed skill.


    Julius agreed with him on this part. Although it would require more time and effort, he would rather grind out the skill and try to upgrade it than get a subpar skill that only partly suited his style.


    Furthermore, he actually looked forward to the training. His soul wasn''t in danger anytime soon, at least not anymore, so that wasn''t an issue. But he was missing the days he was able to train all night.


    He knew better than to try and do that now, but he still wanted to get back into grinding some skills. There was a lot he wanted to do now that he had some space in his soul to allow some more improvements.


    First, he wanted to get an improved body skill that somehow utilized his other abilities. That was his most pressing and immediate goal.


    The second was to evolve [Spatial Perception] and get a Space Concept for himself. However, that might have to be put on hold until he has Alice to help him out.


    He was still struggling to even catch a whiff of a connection with a Space Concept. It might be smarter to just be patient and wait for someone like a Tier 6 space mage like Alice to help him. She already told him that she had some ideas for him, but things kind of... happened.


    With that being said, he didn''t really need to evolve [Spatial Perception]. The skill was still very powerful. He just really wanted to evolve, which was a big difference in his priorities.


    Furthermore, he wanted to get settled in as a Tier 3 before he and Reinera attempted to challenge the Challenge Rift.


    They would only get one shot and he wanted to be prepared. So even if it was ready in a couple of weeks, he was prepared to decline entering it until he was good and ready.


    In the meantime, he had some things he needed to do.

 Chapter 231 Definitely Not a Mage

    "Yeah, mage my ass!" Julius yelled out as the man snuck a left hook underneath his guard. Crashing a fist into his liver, leaving Julius in pain.It had been almost a week since he had dinner with Richard and his family. During that time, whenever he wasn''t training with Richard, he and Reinera had made repeated attempts at the training course.


    They both managed to make improvements as well. Reinera consistently completed the second section and was making good progress with the third section.


    Julius on the other hand was still on the difficult fourth section, but he was slowly getting better with each attempt. While he had not gotten to the end yet, he felt like he was getting close and from Rebecca''s reaction, he was doing much better than anyone at his level should be doing.


    That made him feel much better about his progress. However, he didn''t let her know that.


    Reinera was feeling extra competitive with him recently. She wanted to catch up with him and his progress, even going so far as to receive some amazing skill level gains to her physical skills.


    But she was still frustrated that she wasn''t quite able to close the gap, no matter how hard she tried.


    She was probably used to being the most successful one, considering her status as a genius and all.


    But to be fair, Julius had some major advantages. For one, he had an amazing skill that allowed him an unfair perception of the entire training course as well as practice utilizing this skill to great effect.


    He also had an affinity that was regarded as one of the best affinities for physical fighters.


    He chided himself for getting distracted as he received another blow to his knee.


    While Richard was supposedly a mage, the man could fight like a demon. It reminded Julius of Edwin. Their styles were very similar.


    Julius couldn''t help but feel his heart clench at the thought of his previous mentor. He had to use [Sage of Savagery] to temper his emotions.


    The main difference was that Edwin used shadows and deception whereas Richard used Julius''s own perception against him.


    Richard quickly understood that Julius was able to sense any of his attacks, leading the man to take advantage of that. He would attempt very subtle feints that nobody other than Julius could sense, but then punish Julius if he ever fell for them.


    The other one was that unlike Edwin who had been Tier 4, Richard was a genuine Tier 5.


    "Why didn''t you become a close combat fighter?" Julius asked as he parried a punch and checked the follow-up leg kick from Richard.


    Richard paused for a moment. He wasn''t even close to out of breath, he looked so at ease as he casually took Julius apart.


    "My family is a House full of warriors. We have an extensive history of being some of the best frontline fighters in the Empire. But I didn''t want to go down that route. I stubbornly insisted on becoming a mage, much to my family''s displeasure," Richard said with a laugh.


    "Why did you want to become a mage so bad?"


    Richard looked over where Rebecca was helping Reinera with some of her skills with an embarrassed look. "I met a girl." Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You met a girl?" Julius asked slowly, in disbelief as to the reason.


    "Yes, a girl. My heart was captured the moment I laid eyes upon her. It was as if fate herself placed my darling right in my path," Richard said dramatically.


    "I still don''t understand why a mage though."


    Richard gave him an affronted look. "Isn''t it obvious? I wanted to impress her. She was a mage herself and I wanted to show her that I could be just as amazing as her. She didn''t have any interest in a guy who beat someone up with a hammer or sword."


    "And it worked?" Julius asked, surprised.


    "Not a chance," the man replied instantly, laughing boisterously afterward. "No, we found other things in common that brought us together. And then¡­"


    "And then the rest was history," Julius finished for him with a knowing grin.


    "And then the rest was history," Richard repeated with a bright smile toward his wife and son before turning to look at Julius. "So what about you and Grace? You two are about the same age."


    "What about us?"


    "Well, I thought it was curious that the two of you were traveling alone. You see, a noble-born daughter like her would normally have retainers or guards escorting her, and yet she just has you."


    "What makes you think she''s a noble born?"


    "Oh, please. Anyone with two eyes can see it. Her whole demeanor says it, although it seems like she is getting more comfortable with my wife and that facade is fading away," Richard noted.


    Julius could only shrug. Richard had a good point. Reinera, especially when she wanted to, could act very noble like. It wasn''t that subtle.


    "So?" Richard asked.


    "Huh?" He asked while looking at him.


    "I mean, what''s the story between you two? How did you guys even come to Blumand? Like I said, you don''t often see two noble children running around alone in such an isolated part of the Empire."


    "Two noble children?" Julius asked, surprised.


    "Well, there is no way you are some average commoner. You are far too monstrous to be that. You might not be a noble, but someone trained you. People don''t just become that powerful without any assistance or massive luck. People might assume you are a commoner based on your lack of etiquette but I have seen noble born who act like thugs and commoners who act like spoiled princes. Behavior can be learned," Richard said to him with a grin.


    "Also I can''t see how Grace would be allowed to just run off with a lone boy, nobles don''t like that sort of thing. You obviously have known each other for a while, but I can''t comprehend the dynamic. At first, I thought you were some sort of bodyguard her family trained, but you don''t act with the subservient attitude one would have if that was the case. Most families don''t allow their guard dogs that much freedom, especially not ones who teach their daughters that much etiquette," Richard said with a knowing look on his face as he observed Julius.


    Julius didn''t know how to respond to that. The man was scarily perceptive, just as he noticed when they went out that night. The man was all smiles, but Julius realized that this man was likely much more dangerous than anyone else at this estate.


    "What do you think now?" He finally asked.


    Richard shook his head and chuckled. "That''s the beauty of it! I have no idea!"


    Julius gave him a blank stare for a good long while.


    "Does it really matter that much?" He finally asked Richard.


    The man shook his head. "Not really. I know some of the others want to know but I don''t care that much. Neither does Becca, but it is something that is somewhat of a mystery to us," Richard admitted.


    "Well, it''s not really my decision to make," he told him. "It''s really up to Grace to decide whether or not she feels comfortable sharing with you guys. Until then, I don''t really want to give anything away that she might not want me to."


    "That is understandable, and I will respect it. Rebecca will too. She only gets a bit obsessed when it concerns Cory."


    Julius nodded his head and gave the man a grateful smile.


    "You want to continue?" He asked.


    "Of course, whenever you are ready."


    ***


    The more time Julius trained with Richard, the closer he was getting to earning a skill. Or at least, that was his feeling.


    The first step Richard had him do was to channel a bunch of fire mana through his body. That was relatively easy. His mana control has always been one of his strongest abilities.


    With that being said, the difficulty came after he managed to do that. Julius had tried to gain a fire-based physical skill in the past but had never been able to manage it.


    He wasn''t able to utilize the fire mana in any way other than just heating his body up.


    Richard fortunately, had a way around this. In fact, his skill actively used this aspect as a part of its function.


    The trick was to use his aura as an aid. Julius had been using [Empowerment of Will] to aid his [Kinetic Augmentation] for a while now. It was a skill that used his aura to empower his actions, whether that was his other skills or something else.


    The skill had fallen somewhat behind some of his other skills, the epic skills in particular. However, it was still a superior skill that would use his Will Concept whenever he was ready to advance it.


    In fact, it was already at level 19, so that day might be closer than suspected. He just needed that one last push to get it over the line.


    However, for the time being, he was using it to facilitate his ability to use fire mana to enhance his body.


    Richard helped and guided Julius into channeling his mana into parts of his body in specific circuits.


    However, when Julius was still unable to learn a skill, the man proposed an interesting idea. He believed that since Julius already had a kinetic body enhancement skill, he was used to channeling this energy for his body. This might lead to him subconsciously trying to use fire mana like kinetic energy.


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    Furthermore, this was a common problem for those who want to use multiple energy sources for their body skill. Hence, his own problems so far.


    He would sometimes practice over 12 hours a day, with or without Richard around to help him. The man was still a father and a busy man after all. He couldn''t dedicate his entire life to helping Julius gain a single skill, whether he was grateful for him saving his son or not.


    Thankfully, he learned his lessons from his previous training experiences. This meant he still maintained a better balance. When he wasn''t training, he was exploring the city with Reinera, sometimes Rebecca and Richard came along as well.


    Occasionally he would spend time meditating and getting a feel for his Emblem, something Richard recommended to him. However, that was a work in progress. Julius was only able to figure out that his Emblem was some sort of marker on his soul and not much else.


    He didn''t see much of the Marquis, but the man was a Patriarch to a Marquis House, so he didn''t think it was odd.


    Although, the man had told Julius that the rift was ready whenever they needed it. Assuring them that there was no rush to use it. Something Julius was immensely appreciative of.


    It was only after a couple of weeks of persistent training, that Julius finally made a breakthrough.


    He didn''t know what it was. It could have been his repetitive actions paying off or just sheer luck, but he finally felt something click into place.


    A rush of fire mana surged through his body in an invigorating manner. It was a completely different sensation than his kinetic energy.


    Whereas his [Kinetic Augmentation] felt like a reactive and quick pulsing of power. This new feeling was deep and consistent. It was equally flowing throughout his entire body with such warmth and vibrance.


    With that feeling came a notification that he had been waiting for with extreme impatience.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Thermal Empowerment]?


    When he read the message, he jumped and down in joy.


    It was late at night and he was alone, practicing in his usual training area outside, but he wanted to go and tell Richard as soon as he could.


    However, he restrained himself. He had been waiting for weeks at this point and he could wait another several hours until their usual training session to surprise the man.


    In the meantime, he just reread the notification many times over, proud of himself for finally getting a skill that has been challenging to learn for a long time.


    The smile didn''t leave his face for hours, not even when he was devouring a piece of cake as a celebration.

 Chapter 232 [Thermal Empowerment]

    Julius had breakfast with Rebecca, Richard, Cory, and Reinera before they went for their daily training session. It had recently become a thing especially since they were already meeting in the morning, it just made sense that they would eat breakfast as well.It was actually Richard''s idea. One that was becoming a good one as time went on.


    Julius learned a lot about the family of three during this time.


    Surprisingly, Rebecca was quite the sloppy person in the morning. It took several cups of coffee and a couple of hours until she really woke up. Before then, she could barely stand on her two feet.


    On the other side of things, Richard and Cory were both the complete opposite. The two of them were like two peas in a pod. They were abnormally excited to eat breakfast.


    Cory loved to have pancakes but in a complete surprise to him and Reinera, the boy didn''t like anything on them. No butter or syrup. Just plain old pancakes.


    Whereas his father loved to smother his own pancakes with a criminal amount of toppings, enough for everyone at the table and more.


    Usually, Julius was with the two of them. He loved breakfast but this morning he couldn''t help but feel restless the entire time. It took all of his willpower and Inexorable Resolve to not tell them about his recent breakthrough the night before.


    Richard wiped the excess syrup from his face and went over to Cory to clean up the flakes of pancakes from his face as well before looking toward the rest of them with a smile.


    "Are you guys ready to go?"


    Rebecca was still barely awake, sitting there with both eyes perpetually trying to close shut. But she nodded regretfully.


    ***


    After they finished breakfast, they went over to the training course and did their normal routine.


    But then it was his turn with Richard for their body skill training.


    However, before the two of them could even get started, Richard was looking at him with a knowing grin on his face.


    He knows something is up, he told himself with a sigh.


    That was sad, Julius really thought he had a better poker face than that. But he wondered what Richard thought he was hiding. Did he suspect it was his skill option notification?


    "Did you finally get it?" He asked Julius.


    "Did I get what?" Julius acted ignorant.


    "My guess was something along the lines of [Fire Enhancement] or [Fire Augmentation]," Richard said with a shrug. "Was it something similar or did you get something entirely different?"


    Julius could only shake his head in exasperation. "[Thermal Empowerment]," he admitted with a smirk.


    "Really?! [Thermal Empowerment]?" Richard asked in surprise.


    "What is that unusual?" Julius asked.


    "Absolutely. Empowerment skills are usually reserved for aura-based skills. The modification of your aura skill must have been the main reason for you being offered such a skill."


    "Should I take it?" He asked the man the most important question.


    He saw the man shake his head. "I don''t see any reason not to. It doesn''t sound like a basic skill at least. Considering your difficulty in obtaining a skill at all, I think that it''s a good choice to pick it up. If you don''t like it, then you can always try to evolve it and get a better fit for your next skill."


    "What are the odds that it is an uncommon skill?" He asked. Like he had thought about before, he would rather go through the process of evolving an uncommon skill to rare in order to get a rare skill that was a better fit.


    "Truthfully, it is pretty high odds that it is uncommon ranked. Fire skills that have the word ''thermal'' are normally advanced uncommon skills in my experience, there are exceptions though," Richard told him.


    Julius could only smile. He had hoped that was the case. He remembered his previous skill uncommon skill, [Thermal Compression]. It had been a wonderful skill that greatly enhanced the power of his constructs and its evolved version had combined with [Arcane Construct] and [Composite Mana] to create [Armaments of the Arcane]. His very first epic skill.


    Realizing that there was no need to hold back any longer, he brought up the notification once more. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Thermal Empowerment]? Enjoy exclusive content from empire


    He mentally selected yes and waited for the results.


    He felt the familiar sense of mana flowing through him and information flooding through his brain.


    Congratulations, skill [Thermal Empowerment] (Uncommon) acquired.


    He did a little jump in joy as he read the notification.


    "Quick! Try it out!" Richard exclaimed with wide eyes. The man was possibly more excited than Julius was to see the new skill.


    However, Julius wasn''t going to let either of them keep waiting. He swiftly activated the skill and observed the difference.


    The first thing he noticed was the warming sensation he felt throughout his entire body. It was like suddenly being dipped into a bath of warm water.


    The next thing he did was to dash toward Richard with a grin.


    The Tier 5 didn''t even look surprised as Julius threw a punch at him. He only smiled and didn''t move as Julius''s fist crashed into his open palm with a loud thud.


    During their attempt to gain a new body skill, they had set up a few rules. One of them was to limit the activation of any other skills that might interfere with it. Skills such as [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Flash Step].


    It was the same thing now. He had only used his recently acquired skill to attack Richard.


    It was a massive difference already. Now that he officially had a skill, he was able to empower his body with fire mana with an ease that he hadn''t been able to before.


    As skills often did, they streamlined the process and made it automatic. This allowed Julius to focus solely on putting as much fire mana into his body as he could. The process that had been difficult to concentrate on before was now a simple thought.


    With that being said, it was still only an uncommon skill. Unlike [Kinetic Augmentation], which was a rare skill, it wasn''t even close to as powerful.


    However, that would hopefully change with time as he levels the skill up.


    He also took note that he had now used ten of his eleven skill slots. Granted, he was planning to combine at least two of his skills into one singular body skill, but in the meantime, it left him only with one more slot until he was able to get a new one.


    Considering that he had gotten his extra one a little bit early, he was anticipating that his next one was soon on its way.


    "Not bad," Richard said after he looked at his palm which had taken Julius''s strike with ease.


    The surface of his skin was slightly smoking, the only evidence that Julius had attacked him at all.


    The good news was that it seemed his strikes included a form of fire damage to them. He didn''t know how powerful that would be at the moment, he didn''t exactly have a good test subject in front of him.


    The defense of a Tier 5 was not something Julius was expecting to go against in the future very often. At least not until he got stronger along with his new skill.


    It would be interesting to see what kind of effects would happen if he included his Phoenix Concept along with it.


    "What do you think?" Julius asked Richard.


    "It''s definitely more powerful than a standard uncommon skill. The only thing I would be worried about is how much power you can deliver each strike with it. On second thought, you do have the other skill. That might actually synergize pretty well with each other."


    "You think so?"


    "Well, your kinetic skill is definitely more explosive and packs a bigger punch. However, the possible secondary effects of [Thermal Empowerment] could be pretty nice. If you work on that while also utilizing the other aspects of your kinetic skill, they could go really nice together," He told Julius.


    That was an idea to think about.


    He had previously been going for sheer impact and force. He thought that two enhancement skills would allow him to hit twice as hard. Richard quickly drove that idea out of him, explaining how that wouldn''t be possible.


    It was disheartening to hear, but it made sense. Otherwise, he expected more people would just acquire multiple body skills instead of just primarily using one.


    He could only imagine if someone could learn ten body skills and become the most physically powerful person in the world.


    However, he hadn''t really given much thought about the secondary effects of his fire affinity yet.


    His mind couldn''t help but go toward the game of Pokemon and how burn damage worked. He played the game when he was younger and he loved to use the move Will-O-Wisp against his opponents. Not only did it do residual damage to them, but it decreased their attack stat as well.


    It might not be a bad idea to try something like that out. He had seen firsthand how effective debuff skills were and how annoying they were to deal with.


    He shared his idea with Richard, wanting to hear the man''s opinion on his possible intention.


    "It''s not a bad idea. I know some deadly curse users use fire as a medium. I also fought against a ghost-like monster who used some sort of mystical flame to great effect. I personally have a skill that uses fire mana to eat away at people''s mana," Richard shared.


    "Eat away at people''s mana?" Julius asked.


    Richard shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, it''s a skill that ignites a person''s mana pool into creating flames of my own. I then use these flames to burn them from the inside out," he said, completely casually. As if what he had just said was not horrifying or anything.


    Julius merely stared at the man with wary eyes and backed up slowly.


    The man saw his reaction and put his hands up pleadingly. "Don''t look at me that way. It sounds worse than it actually is. It usually does very little damage to people at my level and is mostly used to control their resource regeneration. If it helps, I also have a skill that similarly burns away their stamina."


    No, that didn''t help the man''s case at all. In fact, it made Julius even more wary of the man. It sounded like Richard was quite the monster himself.


    Julius knew very well how much mana he had in his own pool and could only imagine what would happen if Richard was able to ignite all of it. Not to mention the man admitted he could do the same with his stamina.


    Furthermore, he strictly said that it didn''t do that much damage to people of his own tier. He didn''t say what would happen if he used it against a Tier 4 or god forbid a Tier 3 like Julius.


    "Stop looking at me like that!" Richard protested.


    "Stop looking at you like what, dear?" Rebecca asked as she approached the two of them, with Cory and Reinera in tow.


    "Like I am some sort of evil person," her husband complained to her.


    "What? Are you telling the boy about your scary mana-eating skills?" She turned to Julius. "Don''t worry, he''s too timid to use them against people most of the time."


    Most of the time? Julius picked up on her admission that he did use them.


    "They are not scary and I am not eating people''s mana!" Richard argued with his wife.


    "Sorry sorry, burning. You burn their mana," she said while rolling her eyes. "Like that makes it sound any better," she muttered.


    "I heard that!" He exclaimed.


    "You were meant to!"


    Julius ignored the two''s bickering. It was quite common to see the two of them bickering like an old married couple. It was almost always over something silly as well. Just the other night the two of them got into a heated argument about which elder had the most troublesome child that lasted for almost an hour.


    Funnily enough, Beth, the female elder that Julius had seen when he first arrived was one in heavy contention to win this award.


    "How does your skill work?" Julius asked, changing the subject before they could get too derailed. He had already seen with his own eyes how long some of these debates could be.


    "Oh! That''s a good question," Richard happily said. "It''s a mixture between my Greed Concept and Fire Concept. I had two skills that incorporated these Concepts pretty well. One of them was [Dominion of Fire] and the other was [Blazing Ruin]. The skill still allows me to do many of my previous skill''s functions, but it also allows me to do things such as burn away someone''s mana pool. There are other factors as well, such as willpower and authority, but that is the general gist of it," he said with a lot of pride.


    Julius couldn''t help but start to share the man''s enthusiasm and smiled alongside him. He would love to have an effect like that added to his [Thermal Empowerment].

 Chapter 233 Casual RIft Delving

    reinera povreinera and julius continued to put off their delve into the rift for the time being. neither of them was in too much of a rush to get back to heston.


    especially not when they had two very helpful people, personally tutoring them every day.


    while richard was helping julius with [thermal empowerment], rebecca was helping her with aura and willpower training.


    although she had exceptional mana control, her aura and willpower didn''t quite match that standard. in particular, it was her willpower that was the thing that needed the most work.


    that was where rebecca came in. she had been a great help for her and her aura. the older woman used her aura to suppress reinera''s almost constantly.


    she had to fight for every inch of the way. rebecca not showing the least bit of mercy. unlike many of the tutors she has had in the past who had been much more gentle with her.


    she didn''t know whether to love or hate that rebecca was the complete opposite of that. the woman was like a demon when it came to training. she couldn''t help but think that the woman would be a better fit for someone like julius.


    speaking of julius, she looked over to where he and richard were sparring. julius had recently gotten his new body enhancement skill and was getting used to it with richard''s help.


    she had not really ever known how hard julius trained.


    during school, she mainly interacted with julius in the library or the cafeteria. she didn''t see him much outside of that.


    and while she knew that he was stupidly strong for his tier, she had always believed that it was mainly talent that had gotten him there, much like her in a way.


    it wasn''t until the past few weeks occurred that she began to realize that julius wasn''t just talented, he was absurdly hard working on top of it.


    she had heard things from his other friends such as lily and aubrey. they always joked about his training habits, but she didn''t realize that they were actually being serious. she thought they were just exaggerating things, even after she learned of his strength.


    they were right. julius did not stop training.


    long after reinera was done with her own willpower training, she would spend the rest of the day recovering or relaxing. despite this, julius continued to work on his skill far long after richard was gone.


    it made her feel lazy. even though she wasn''t, she couldn''t help but feel that way. seeing someone work that hard made one feel like their own efforts were insufficient. it didn''t matter if that person in question was a maniac or not.


    "don''t try to compare yourself to him, grace," she heard rebecca console her from the side.


    she briefly glanced toward the woman who had snuck up behind her once again. "it''s hard not to. we''re about the same age after all," she replied.


    "i''m serious. it won''t do you any good. trust me, my brother was exactly the same way. i tried to keep up with him, but no matter what, i wasn''t able to," rebecca said with a solemn frown.


    "your brother, aden?"


    "yeah. i always like to tell people that his real talent wasn''t his incredible comprehension or perfect affinity, that it was his love for the sword that got him there," she nodded at reinera.


    reinera shook her head. passion was a good word for it. though, she could think of another word as well.


    obsession. s§×arch* the n??efire.¦Çet website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    when she looked at julius train for over ten hours non-stop, she saw obsession in his eyes. it was a mad glint of something that terrified her. but at the same time, it motivated her to try and keep up.


    and keep up she would try.


    she turned to look at rebecca with a determined look on her face.


    "let''s go one more time before we take a break."


    rebecca didn''t even bat an eye and just smiled at her while shaking her head.


    ***


    julius pov


    julius was honestly surprised at how open richard was with sharing his skills. most people didn''t like the share the details of their skills or abilities, and julius was included on this list.


    richard didn''t just tell him what kind of skill it was either. he was telling julius exactly how he got it, including the names of the skills and concepts he used to combine them.


    then again, it would probably be next to impossible to recreate the same skill as richard even if julius knew exactly the process.


    hell, even if richard personally helped julius, it would still be highly unlikely to be successful.


    pushing those negative thoughts away, he examined the swirling blue vortex in front of him with a small grin.


    "finally, i was thinking you would never let me delve," julius said to the man next to him, not looking at him because he was already aware of the exasperated expression on the man''s face.


    "don''t be like that. there is no reason why you shouldn''t take a bit of time to acclimate yourself to your tier and new skill. there are times when you need to slow down," richard said to him.


    "is that why the lord marquis decided to assign you to me and rebecca to reinera?" julius asked suddenly.


    he was paying very close attention to richard when he asked this question. he had been waiting for the right moment to slip this question in, wanting to catch richard off guard a little bit and get a genuine reaction. after all he had been curious about it for a while now, but just hadn''t had to opportunity to ask.


    but his timing was the only reason why he even noticed a flicker in the man''s facial features. his aura didn''t show anything, but julius wasn''t naive.


    richard would never allow his aura to move outside of his control.


    his facial expressions on the other hand¡­ well, that was something that the man seemed to have a harder time controlling.


    "what''s with the odd question?" richard smoothly asked, as if nothing was wrong. that flicker was gone as quickly as it appeared, nowhere to be seen.


    however, julius forged ahead. mostly confident of his next words.


    "just something something i realized not soon after we began training."


    "and what''s that?"


    "you''re here to teach me patience, whereas rebecca is supposed to teach grace urgency. isn''t that correct?" he asked, finally turning to look at the man in the eyes.


    richard must''ve decided to drop the act because he sagged his shoulders and gave julius a long-suffering sigh.


    "that''s not the entire truth, julius."


    "so then what is?"


    "the patriarch did indeed request the two of us to teach you. but that doesn''t mean we were against it either. you did save cory after all. but the patriarch also believed that grace needed someone with a firmer hand in her training. he suspects that her trainers growing up, coddled her. and i lean toward agreeing with that sentiment, at least from what i have seen so far. rebecca was a good choice. she is a brutal taskmaster and won''t take lack of effort as an excuse for failure," richard explained calmly.


    "okay¡­ and about me?"''


    "he said that you needed the opposite. you were your own firmest hand and you might benefit from someone who could force you to take a step back," he said with a shrug toward him.


    julius clenched his fist tightly before relaxing. he wasn''t dumb enough to ignore the truth of those words.


    "to my credit, i have been much better recently. my friends would be proud of the current me," he admitted a little defensively.


    he saw richard noticeably wince at that. julius''s words physically hurt the man. "what?" he asked when he saw the reaction.


    "nothing," richard said softly.


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    "..."


    "anyway, like i said, that''s not the whole truth," richard said in a hurry after a moment of awkward silence. "i''m not just here to teach you the value of balance and restraint. i am also here to help you build your foundation for your eventual advancement to tier 4. you already have an emblem and you have the willpower to use it, unlike grace. but that''s why becca is helping her with that. that leaves me to help with the other smaller stuff, such as your body skill."


    julius could only nod at the man. he didn''t really mind and he only asked that question because he had been curious about why rebecca and richard had been helping them so much, regardless of them saving their son. it seemed a little too good to be true.


    besides, he was grateful for the man''s help, more than julius had told him.


    "what are you waiting for? are you going to go in or not?" richard said after another moment of silence.


    julius looked back toward the swirling blue portal that led to the rift with an excited smile. "you don''t need to ask me twice," he said before reaching out and touching the vortex.


    ***


    this rift wasn''t the challenge rift. this was simply a rift that their retainers used to train their skills and abilities.


    this particular rift was wonderful in that aspect. it was a straightforward rift with a simple task, fight the monsters.


    the only way to clear the rift was to break the core at the center of the forest. this meant that it was difficult to accidentally clear the rift and it also meant that this rift had been around for many years.


    the monsters were a variety of creatures. most of them specialized in some kind of wind or earth affinity.


    julius was just excited to finally test out his skills now that he was in tier 3.


    richard wasn''t able to come along, the man was tier 5, and the rift wouldn''t be able to contain him without something bad happening.


    this was why julius was all alone. richard was confident that julius didn''t need anyone to protect him though, it wasn''t a particularly strong tier 3 rift. only the monsters toward the center, protecting the core were any real dangerous threat.


    he wouldn''t be going there though. he was just there to finally let loose and test out his tier 3 abilities now that he had gotten used to the transition. with that being said, today was more about testing his [thermal empowerment] than anything else. he had gotten a couple of levels in it the past week or so of testing it out.


    richard now thought it would be a good idea to test it out on some tier 3s and on a variety of opponents other than himself.


    while julius was walking around at the place he found himself transported to, he couldn''t help but notice how windy it was.


    he knew that it was a wind aspected rift, but the noise from the wind was quite loud. the wind made the dense foliage of the trees whistle in a high-pitched whine.


    in fact, it was so loud that he would have missed the missile that was tearing through the air behind his back if not for [spatial perception] and his mana senses.


    he used [flash step] along with [thermal empowerment] to step aside and allow the projectile to pass by him unharmed. however, as he did, he noticed that it wasn''t some sort of missile, but it was an actual monster.


    he cocked his head sideways as he observed the cute-looking rabbit with a big ass horn on top of its skull. the rabbit itself was only about a foot or so tall, but the horn was almost the same size as it.


    he almost laughed at the comical look of it. he would have too if it hadn''t just almost speared him in the back of his neck.


    what was also interesting was that the rabbit had used the ambient wind mana in the swirling wind to hide its presence. that was why julius had failed to recognize it earlier.


    it was a pretty nifty skill in his opinion.


    he looked at it with an inquisitive stare. he half expected the monster to run away once its ambush had failed. but it was also a rift monster, which meant it wasn''t exactly normal.


    however, before julius could decide what to do in this situation, the rabbit decided for him. he felt a build-up of mana and the rabbit came blistering at him with impressive speed. this time he was better prepared and created a barrier with [armaments of the arcane] in front of him. ever since he advanced to tier 3, his mana responded so nicely. he barely had to concentrate, merely thinking about it activated the skill.


    he winced as the rabbit crashed into the barrier with a bone-crushing crack. its horn failed to penetrate the barrier and julius just watched as the rabbit slowly slid down the side of the barrier, completely lifeless.


    he suspected that it had broken its neck during that exchange. kind of like how a bird broke its neck when crashing into a window.


    he could only shake his head before continuing to explore the rift, hoping he would find some nice opportunities to test his [thermal empowerment] skill.


    maybe he would make a breakthrough with his new skills, he certainly wouldn''t mind something like that.

 Chapter 234 Rabbit Gathering

    he came across a couple more rabbits along his way. none of them managed to make a dent in his barrier, not even surviving the impact.realizing that defeated the purpose of his delving, he stopped using [armaments of the arcane]. in fact, he put a restriction on using any skills that didn''t have any direct synergy with [thermal empowerment].


    so when the next rabbit came flying toward him, he didn''t place a barrier, instead concentrating on its movements with razor-sharp focus.


    it was fast, but julius had experienced faster attacks before.


    he only used [thermal empowerment] to empower his body. the flames from the skill radiated from his body in a soft aura glow.


    he refrained from using [kinetic augmentation] for the moment. he knew that he would eventually have to use the two in tandem and he wanted to combine them, but for the moment he wanted to see what this new skill could do.


    he sent a surge of fire mana to his arm, increasing its speed and allowing him to be barely fast enough to catch the rabbit by the base of its horn before it could impale him in the face.


    he let out a sigh of relief but he couldn''t help but notice the addicting thumping in his chest. he missed this.


    training with nothing to lose or risk wasn''t as fun as something like this. at least this way, if he had missed he would have been punished for his mistake.


    he felt its wind mana that was surrounding its horn slicing his hand but he ignored it. he could always heal it. however, before he killed it, he stopped himself.


    he had a better idea.


    he threw the rabbit away from him and allowed it to stagger back to its feet. the monster gave him a confused look, but that only made him smile.


    he gestured toward the rabbit with his bloody hand, inviting it to attack again. fortunately, even if it probably didn''t understand his actions, it decided to attack again.


    this time, he stepped aside and tried to grab it by the chest as it passed him.


    that was harder than just grabbing it head on and he missed it by a hair. receiving another cut to his hand for his failure.


    the rabbit wasn''t smart by any means, but it was persistent. it continued to attack julius with no qualms, just launching itself over and over. toward the end, he got much better at snatching the fast little monster from the air.


    he also learned to manipulate the radiating fire mana from his [thermal empowerment] skill to create a hardened layer of fire mana woven into his skin.


    it was quite similar to how he used [armaments of the arcane] to create a skin-thin barrier over himself, but unlike the epic skill, this method didn''t feel restricting at all.


    one of the downsides of creating armor or thin barriers over himself with [armaments of the arcane] was the slight stiffness he felt whenever he moved using it.


    it was similar to trying to run around in denim jeans. this new skill felt like wearing polyester fabric. but it also protected him much worse than his other skill.


    he made some good progress at least. in his opinion, he was already making better progress in his new skill than the last week just using it with richard. the notifications seemed to agree with his opinion too.


    [thermal empowerment lvl 3 -> lvl 5]


    his little breakthrough of using the skill to harden his skin seemed to help him get two levels in one go.


    he looked down at where the rabbit was on its back, completely worn out. it had tried to kill julius until it was too tired to move anymore. sear?h the n?vel_fire.¦Çet website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    but now that it was totally done for, it was kind of cute. its pink tongue was rolled out of its mouth and was panting with partially lidded eyes.


    he didn''t kill it, no he had another brilliant idea.


    he gathered the rabbit in his arms and went off deeper into the forest with a smile.


    ***


    there were now three rabbits in front of him. the original rabbit, the one who had gotten tired out was the only one who was looking at him calmly.


    his plan had been to find a couple more rabbits to help him with his practicing. that had been pretty easy considering his [spatial perception] and the rabbit''s tendency to attack anything on sight.


    the new rabbits were still restricted with kinetic energy, but the lone calm rabbit didn''t need that at all. it was merely staring at julius as if waiting for him to do something.


    ever since it woke up, it hadn''t tried to attack him once. a totally different attitude than before.


    not sure what to make of it, he gestured at the rabbit the same way he did before. however, it still didn''t make any moves to attack. its friends, on the other hand, couldn''t wait to get a piece of him.


    they were powering their horns with mana in anticipation.


    feeling kind of confused, he decided to see what would happen if he released all of them. not to his surprise, the new murderous rabbits shot themselves at him with glowing horns aiming for his vital points.


    the original rabbit hesitated for a moment before joining its friends. however, julius noticed that it wasn''t powering its horn like the last time and it didn''t move as fast either.


    he was so distracted by this that although he caught one of the rabbits, he completely missed the second one. getting impaled just right over his heart.


    julius could have stopped it with his other skills, but he was somewhat curious about what kind of attack it had. so he allowed it to hurt him but made sure to examine it in detail.


    what was a bit surprising was the payload that was unleashed once the horn had connected. a big wave of wind mana blasted through his shoulder and ripped a massive hole through his upper body. his hardened skin was not able to protect against it.


    the rabbit, once it had released its payload, jumped off his chest and removed the horn from his chest along with it.


    he was astonished at how fast his healing skill activated. [phoenix renewal] felt so much more compatible with his body. the circuits that replaced his core improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the skill in a shocking way. even though his body required more mana to heal, the efficiency of the healing more than balanced it out.


    the hole in his chest healed in a matter of seconds.


    the original rabbit had stopped when it noticed him get hurt and almost looked¡­ worried.


    however, when it saw him perfectly fine, it looked confused for a moment before attacking him. this time he was paying attention and was able to catch the rabbit in his empowered hand. being much more gentle about it.


    he brought the rabbit up to his face and didn''t notice any malice behind its gaze anymore.


    weird¡­


    he continued to let the rabbits attack him in a frenzy. he only stopped once he gained another level in [thermal empowerment].


    [thermal empowerment lvl 5 -> lv 6]


    once he did, he left the area with the original rabbit following him like a pet. he killed the other rabbits easily, but he wasn''t able to bring himself to kill this one. he didn''t try to bring it with him, it had just followed him on its own accord at a safe distance.


    he ignored it, for now, he could decide what to do after he finished up.


    eventually, he sensed another monster nearby. and this time, it definitely wasn''t a small rabbit. nope, it was a pretty big burly burly-looking creature.


    he would say it was a bear, but the last time he checked bears didn''t have long tails and they certainly didn''t have two heads, but still looked very much like one.


    the first thing he noticed after that was the profound earthly feeling from it. he instantly recognized that this monster had a concept of its own.


    julius consciously updated the danger potential of this monster to a higher tier. he had learned that tier 3s weren''t that much of a threat unless they had a concept to fight with.


    the monster didn''t seem to have that great of perception, even with an additional set of eyes and ears. he was able to walk up it and got pretty close before it was able to smell him.


    it turned around and julius calmly watched as the massive monster snarled at him. its bulging muscles were already infused with its concept and mana.


    julius on the other hand waved at it with a smile.


    the bear monster thingy must have thought julius was taunting it because it immediately took off and started charging julius.


    it wasn''t that fast, but it was much faster than julius would expect from something of its size. it was on him in a matter of moments.


    even though his gut told him that he wouldn''t win in a contest of pure brute strength, he decided to test his newfound tier 3 strength on the bear.


    he stepped forward and tried to block the devastating blow of the monster with his elbow. his new skill was the only thing empowering his body.


    it was clear to say that he lost that contest very badly. the claws of the bear-like monster tore right through his newly hardened skin and smashed him in the chest. he was sent flying backward until he finally was stopped when he slammed into a nearby tree.


    well, that answers that, he groaned to himself.


    upgrade physical abilities or not, going head to head against a monster that obviously specialized in brute strength was not a good idea. especially when he wasn''t using his primary body enhancement skill.


    however, he found himself smiling as he got back up. his wounds were already almost all the way healed and he stared at the monster who was slowly making its way over to him. the beast probably thought the fight was already over and was expecting to enjoy a meal.


    thus, it was surprised when it saw him standing up with no injuries. julius didn''t let it get comfortable, he quickly dashed toward the monster.


    just because he wasn''t going to use some of his skills, didn''t mean he was going to take it completely easy on it. he was still planning to kill this thing after all.


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    his recent mistake was already learned from, he ducked under the wild swipe from the two-headed bear and smashed a perfect strike into the monster''s snout. flames blazing out from his fist as he tried to do his best to burn the monster as an aftereffect.


    it didn''t really work though. for one, the fire didn''t cause that much damage. it was like he had just singed the monster a little bit.


    for two, the blow didn''t seem to do all that much except to piss it off even more.


    it roared at him and did its best to maim him. julius had to use a couple of [flash steps] to dodge the close ones but continued to try and hammer away at the monster with mainly [thermal empowerment] as his only offensive skill.


    it didn''t work all that well considering the skill was still only at uncommon rank, but he felt himself gaining a lot of experience when using it.


    unlike sparring with richard, he was constantly making slight adjustments to how he used it with greater ease.


    each strike became a little more sharp and a little more powerful. he was completely in the flow and he made sure to make the most of it.


    he took several large slashes that sheared through his skin and strikes that broke some bones, but he continued to rain down as many punches as he could.


    this thing''s defense was impressive, especially since it was using its concept almost entirely to enhance its physical prowess. but for every strike he got, he made sure to return it ten times over.


    it was a straight-up brawl between the two of them. it was dirty and messy, but julius loved every second of it and found himself laughing.

 Chapter 235 Two Headed Bear

    the two-headed bear charged at him, swinging wildly and without much grace. it was pure power and brute force, but that was in its own way, a very dangerous weapon.the beast didn''t have to worry about taking damage, it knew that julius didn''t have many options to hurt it with. but it also knew that it was slower.


    that was why it had deployed the strategy of getting ahold of julius with its arms and then trying to tear him apart with its two sets of jaws.


    something interesting that julius realized after some time was that the monster did have a reason for having two heads.


    one head seemed like it was responsible for doing the actual fighting, while the other head was almost entirely devoted to keeping its skill and concept running through its body.


    it was like having two separate brains for fighting. it definitely worked too, because julius was honestly a bit impressed by how well the monster was able to infuse its concept into its body.


    julius could definitely learn a few things from this creature.


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    it was just too bad that he wasn''t really in a position to ask it for some pointers. he had a feeling that the answer he would get would be a sharp claw to the face.


    he did need to start finishing this fight up though. he was already sensing several other monsters observing their fight from the trees. even the little rabbit was sitting back and observing.


    he maintained his calm and allowed the monster to overextend itself before going on the offensive.


    once he evaded both claws and made sure he wasn''t in range of either of its jaws, he smashed a leg loaded with fire mana into the bear.


    as he did he made sure to do his best to infuse his phoenix concept into [thermal empowerment].


    that was one thing he had been trying to improve as the fight went on. the uncommon skill didn''t make it easy, but he pushed through it.


    he believed that if he wanted his new body skill option at rare to contain some aspects of his phoenix concept, he would need to make some headway into infusing the skill as he did with [phoenix renewal] and to some extent [armaments of the arcane].


    it would be his best chance. or that was what he was hoping for.


    he got in another three nice strikes before he needed to back off and avoid the slashing claw.


    however, he was ecstatic to see that for the first time something had happened. he had been partly successful in infusing his body skill with his phoenix concept and the result was quite exciting.


    he was able to notice the fire mana actually break through the two-headed bear''s defenses and ''contaminate'' its body. there wasn''t any outward damage, but julius smiled when the monster roared in pain all of a sudden.


    something must have happened, he thought to himself.


    seeing that he was on to something, he eagerly rushed back in. his next fist was covered in fire and when he made contact he flooded as much fire mana that was infused with his concept into the monster.


    it was successful again.


    the bear flinched away and roared once more in pain.


    if julius didn''t know better, he would guess that whatever he was doing to the bear was burning its aura or its soul. because according to his aura senses, the monster''s aura no longer had the indicators of an earth beast, but now had some aspects that resembled a monster with an affinity to fire.


    he looked at the bear with a hungry smile and he noticed the bear was now looking at him with signs of hesitation.


    not showing any mercy, he stalked toward the monster with both arms enflamed while the monster took a step back in fear.


    ***


    he kept this up for as long as he could. he didn''t care that they were accumulating a large crowd of monsters. they weren''t interrupting the fight and seemed satisfied with just watching, not wanting to get in the middle of a fight with two powerful creatures.


    julius had a feeling that they were waiting until the two of each other tired the other out. unfortunately for them, julius still had plenty of energy.


    and while julius could have ended it at any time he was experiencing such rapid improvement in this [thermal empowerment], he didn''t want to.


    he wished he could do this forever. if he could, he believed he would be able to rank up this skill in no time at all.


    unfortunately, the monster was just about on its last legs. the effects of the fire were showing.


    julius stared directly at the two heads, both arms and legs were softly dancing with red flames. his skill raging forth with intensity.


    the monster must have realized it was a lost cause because julius felt it begin to compress something within its chest.


    he immediately used [flash step] to gain some distance and was glad he did because the two-headed bear, now flush with so much power charged at him with terrifying speed. he only barely dodged it.


    it felt similar to what the man who had almost killed him with his suicide attack had done. this bear was probably feeding the rest of its life energy or soul energy into whatever berserker skill it was using.


    julius had already learned his lesson from that experience. so he was about to create a barrier with [armaments of the arcane] in front of him, prepared to break his self-imposed restriction.


    however, he stopped himself after a moment when he saw the monster stop from where it had flown past him. he could see the challenging glare in the monster''s eyes.


    julius shook his head in amusement. he couldn''t help but want to prove that he could defeat this monster without having to rely on his other powerful skills. he wanted to beat this thing with the tools he had been using the entire fight.


    his pride was demanding that from him.


    so what if the bear was stronger now? did that automatically make it stronger than him?


    no, he was stronger and he would show it. he still had his healing skill to rely on too.


    this wasn''t some sort of item that the monster was using, this was just another one of its skills. he could handle it, and if he couldn''t then that was on him. but he already decided that he would beat it with [thermal empowerment] and he would.


    he grinned at the monster with all of his teeth and he saw the monster glowing with a dark red aura.


    when they met eyes, julius saw the determination behind the rage.


    the monster released a deafening roar to which julius eagerly reciprocated with one of his own before both of them charged each other.


    the monster was much faster than before that much was certain, but it also was more wild. it didn''t really focus on protecting itself earlier and that was doubly so now.


    it knew it was going to die, but all it cared about was taking julius with it before it did.


    he knew that it was just a monster. a monster that was hell-bent on killing him, but he couldn''t help but respect that.


    he kept on evading the blows, only parrying the ones that would have connected. but that came at a cost. every time he met one of its blows, it was like parrying a mountain. his bones were creaking and fracturing every time he did so.


    [phoenix renewal] healed up instantly though, so he didn''t mind.


    but then he got his opening and he had been preparing the entire time to capitalize on it.


    he had been infusing his phoenix concept into his fire mana while he waited.


    he stopped flowing the skill through his whole body and focused all of the mana and aura he gathered into one arm. then he proceeded to slam his right arm into the right head of the monster.


    and the result was equally reckless and glorious.


    his arm disappeared in a spray of blood, only his elbow remaining. despite that, the monster''s head took even more damage. not even its powerful body enforced by its skill and concept could withstand the devastating blow. sea??h th§× nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    as their concepts clashed, he felt his emblem flare up and completely bulldoze the bear''s earth concept.


    one moment its head was there and the next it was gone in a flash of light. the only thing remaining was the ash that blew off into the wind and the trees.


    he then kicked off the monster''s chest and used the momentum to gain distance just in case.


    he half expected to see the monster dead on the ground because that was what usually happened when you destroyed a creature''s head. but this one had two heads so he wasn''t too surprised to still see it standing.


    however, it was done for.


    there wasn''t anything left in its tank. there was no more mana or earth concept running through its body. it was just kneeling on the ground and the remaining head looked at julius with tired eyes.


    julius walked up to it, his arm already almost healed.


    the monster looked¡­ content. like it had known it had done everything it could but had still come up short.


    when they met gazes, there was a mutual understanding between them. julius only nodded at the bear with a solemn motion of his head.


    in his healed arm, he channeled more fire mana, and with zero hesitation, he buried his fist into the last head. it exploded as it crumbled underneath his strength.


    once he was done, he turned to look around him. there was a large ruined clearing from the backlash of his fight. trees were upturned and patches of scorched dirt littered the area.


    just outside of this clearing, there were over a couple dozen various creatures who were watching him from the trees. the rabbit was oddly nowhere in sight and must have run off during the final exchange.


    but of all of the spectating monsters, none of them were close to as powerful as the two-headed bear. but then again, that bear was something else even for a tier 3 beast.


    it was definitely as strong if not stronger than the undead knight he fought previously in the labyrinth rift.


    it was hard to say though. the bear was definitely stronger when it came to sheer physical prowess, but the undead knight had a very annoying corruption skill that would have been pretty dangerous if not for his healing skill or his willpower. it also was a skilled swordsman, whereas the bear was an instinctual fighter who relied on overwhelming strength.


    it would probably come down to how well someone''s skillset matched up against each of them to determine who was stronger.


    he scratched his head as he continued to watch the crowd of monsters.


    he was tempted to fight the rest of the monsters around him, but he honestly did not feel like any of them would be much of a challenge. perhaps only if all of them attacked at once did he think he would have to resort to using his other skills.


    but he wasn''t sure that they would do something like that. otherwise, he believed they already would done just that. they didn''t necessarily seem like a pack or have any leader to direct them.


    in fact, that two-headed bear was most likely the area boss.


    still, he wasn''t surprised when he sensed one specific monster slowly inch closer to him. it was kind of small. not rabbit-sized small, but it was around the size of a dog.


    what stood out though was that this monster also seemed to have some sort of concept. there was a sense of profoundness that he had come to associate with those who obtained a concept.


    it also had elegant sharp blade-like scales covering its entire body and seemed like it had some sort of stealth skill on top of it.


    julius wasn''t able to sense it with his aura or mana senses. only [spatial perception] was able to track the monster as it stalked closer to him, using the foliage to hide its approach.


    it wasn''t until it reached the edge of the clearing that it stopped.


    it was facing directly at his back but it didn''t do anything quite yet. but julius waited, curious about what this little guy might try and do.

 Chapter 236 [Aura Burn]

    the scaly fellow wasn''t the only one that was showing signs of aggression. there were other monsters who were waiting with tense auras. they were simply waiting to see if anyone else was going to make the first move.thankfully, he didn''t have to wait for long for one of the monsters to get impatient.


    he pivoted to his right and grabbed the stone missile out of the air. a winged monster hiding up in a tree had shot it at him.


    it wasn''t that powerful and compared to the monster he had just fought, it was like catching a tennis ball out of the air. he hefted the projectile in one hand, getting a sense of the weight of the object, before cocking back his arm and throwing it.


    he cheated a little bit and aided the throw with kinetic energy to stabilize the flight but he didn''t feel confident in throwing an unfamiliar elongated object without some magical aid. still, the result surprised him.


    he would have thought it would be a bit more careful since it had just attacked him. however, the creature didn''t even notice the retaliation before it was too late. its own projectile tore through its chest with ease. killing it in a single blow.


    while this was going on, the other monsters must have realized that this was their best chance to attack. the second he killed the winged creature in the trees, all hell broke loose.


    almost a dozen various long-range attacks swarmed his position.


    he didn''t feel danger from any of them though and dodged most of them, but still took a few glancing blows. but the damage they did was pretty nominal. [thermal empowerment] actually did a pretty good job protecting him from these attacks.


    he was more focused on the scaled monster and the fact that it was now dashing toward his unprotected back.


    it was only about a few feet away from him when he finally stopped pretending that he didn''t notice it. he quickly turned and stepped toward it, with his knee brought up. the monster was predictably shocked at julius''s sudden actions and was caught with a crushing blow underneath its jaw.


    julius could have sworn he heard something crack and then the creature went flying off until it smashed into the tree.


    although the hard impact did a lot of damage, the thing that did the most damage was his recent breakthrough with his skill and his concept infusion.


    as his strike connected, he felt his concept overwhelm the monster''s concept with more ease than it had with the two-headed bear. and just like the two-headed bear, he felt its aura ignite into a blaze.


    while the other monster had taken this burning effect pretty well, this monster seemed way less resilient. it let loose a piercing scream and started to thrash around in the dirt.


    the other monsters who had sent out attacks of their own didn''t make any other moves to attack again. in fact, when he had kneed that scaled monster against the tree and it started to screech, they all took a step back and hesitated.


    however, they still weren''t running away.


    julius sighed, a little annoyed at their behavior.


    they were like vultures waiting for someone else to kill him and then swoop in to take a pound of flesh for themselves.


    and he didn''t like that one bit. not at all.


    the two-headed bear and to some extent the scaly guy at least had the guts to attack him head-on. he could respect that. they tried to take him down, but they didn''t do so without taking risks of their own. they put their own safety on the line in order to get a chance.


    these other monsters just shot at him from a distance when they thought they were safe. but the moment they thought they were in danger, they pulled back and froze in fear or hesitation.


    he wasn''t going to let them keep on doing that. they probably thought he was some person who didn''t have a way to take care of them as long as they maintained their distance.


    he didn''t mind proving them wrong though. with a mere thought, he created over two dozen small spikes of mana the size of a pen with [armaments of the arcane] and charged them with a bit of kinetic energy.


    he did this so fast, that the other monsters hiding behind the trees didn''t have time to react.


    they were only realizing their mistake when the blue spikes formed around him in a deadly halo of blue light. julius could only shake his head at them when they started to try and retreat.


    but by that time, it was far too late.


    julius sent these terrifyingly powerful tiny spikes at the crowd of monsters with precision.


    his advancement to tier 3 hadn''t just improved his physical strength and speed. that was simply the easiest thing to notice. no, the thing that might have been the biggest upgrade was his mind.


    he didn''t know if it was due to advancing with [sage of savagery] and his will concept, but his mind was so much more flexible. he was able to concentrate on each individual monster in the forest and target each one of them.


    it was like a symphony of explosions as the thin needles of mana tore through all of the monsters with laughable ease. they made the two-headed bear''s defenses seem like an impregnable fortress in comparison.


    not a single opportunistic monster survived. all of them were snuffed out in an instant.


    honestly, if they had all just decided to attack him at once, there was a good chance he would have allowed them to without using his other skills.


    however, he wasn''t just going to sit there a let them bombard him with long ranged skills until he got tired. that wouldn''t let him get the type of training he wanted with [thermal empowerment].


    the only monster left was the scaled creature that was still spasming by the tree. it wasn''t quite dead, but honestly, it was practically on the verge. s~ea??h the n?velfire(.)net website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    its aura was falling apart before his very eyes. he kind of felt bad for it even if it had attempted to ambush him.


    the damage he was sensing seemed very similar to what he had done to the woman who he had stolen the access card from. in that case, he had used his aura to collapse the woman''s in a very brutal manner.


    however, in this case, he had used his body skill. although his body skill was heavily derived from his aura skill. perhaps that was the reason he was able to burn his opponent''s aura so effectively.


    i was looking for a debuff kind of attack i could add to my body skill, but i didn''t think it would be something quite like this, he inwardly thought.


    he shot a spike of mana at the poor creature and quickly put it out of its misery. there was no need to let it continue to suffer.


    after he did so he checked the many notifications he got during the training session as he walked deeper in the rift. discover hidden content at empire


    [thermal empowerment lvl 6 -> lvl 11]


    [phoenix renewal lvl 4 -> lvl 5]


    [flash step lvl 10 -> lvl 11]


    he was also surprised by the next notification.


    would you like to learn the skill [aura burn]?


    he had been thinking it was a part of his new skill, but apparently what he had been doing was just another ability entirely.


    with that being said, he didn''t know if he wanted to take this skill.


    the main reason was that he only had one single skill slot left to fill.


    however, he had a feeling that he would be getting another skill slot pretty soon. most people get their extra skill slot as a reward after they advance to tier 3. that was the most common method.


    but julius had gotten his when he was in tier 2. this led him to believe that he would be getting something offered to him pretty soon. perhaps, it would happen when he evolved a few more skills. at least that was what he was hoping for.


    then again, he was planning to merge his body skills into one in the future anyway, so he would have another open slot when that happened.


    there weren''t many skills he wanted to get either. he kind of wanted to get a skill for his kinetic restriction technique now that he was in tier 3 and had more space in his soul to get a skill for it. but honestly, he didn''t know how practical that would be.


    he liked it because it felt really cool to freeze his opponents with just his will. but against stronger opponents, it wasn''t as effective.


    but would getting a skill make the technique stronger? that was the question.


    he left it be for now. he could decide at a later date. after all, it wasn''t like there was a timer for his decision. he still had the notification for the [heat control] skill he could accept at any time.


    maybe he would try to see what kind of skill he would get with his kinetic restriction technique before he decided.


    it actually might not be a bad idea to try it out when he was in this rift.


    he had made some really good progress with his body skill, so perhaps it would be smart to take a small break from it and change it up a little bit.


    in fact, he believed he had a couple of volunteers coming up ahead.


    they hadn''t noticed him yet, but it was a small pack of monsters.


    he had made some decent distance from where he had the fight with the two-headed bear and came across a more open area with a small lake up ahead. and right next to the lake were a bunch of weird-looking monsters.


    they resembled goblins in a way, but they definitely weren''t the usual goblins. these ones didn''t have the green skin or the softer humanoid features. these were darker brown-skinned and had canine-like features. long fangs and sharp-looking claws from their hands glimmered when the light hit them.


    this was also the first time he had seen a group of the same species working together since he entered the rift.


    so far, it had been all solitary monsters doing their own thing.


    this group was different though. they looked very much like a pack. there was even a leader directing some of them. this leader was taller and meaner looking than the rest of them, so it was easy to distinguish it from the others.


    some might have avoided confronting this pack of monsters by themselves. in fact, lily would definitely urge him to ignore them but he couldn''t help but look at these monsters and think of them like potential sparring partners.


    who knows? he might even get a skill offered for his kinetic technique. that would be very helpful in allowing him to decide whether he should accept [aura burn] or not.

 Chapter 237 You Can See Why I am Worried Right?

    richard povrichard had taken out a folder with some documents he had to go over as he waited for julius to finish up. the boy was probably taking his time and acclimating to his new skill.


    there was a large selection of monsters to choose from in this specific rift. julius would be able to take it slow and get comfortable with his [thermal empowerment] skill.


    he did a double take as he read a certain paragraph from the report, making sure to reread it before tilting his head back in annoyance.


    a part of his duties as son-in-law to the patriarch meant he had to take care of many logistical matters from time to time.


    it wasn''t that bad though. he knew that many of the other spent over a dozen hours of their day at a desk making sure that house easten was run properly. he had it easy in comparison. he was mainly there as deterrence for the house and only occasionally had to help with the paperwork.


    that was a pretty nice benefit of advancing to tier 5. on top of that, he got special privileges such as exclusive delving locations and use of the house''s teleportation circles to delve at freshly spawned rifts in the endless forest or other parts of the empire.


    the rewards for clearing a rift were always nice, if not as common as they were when he was in tier 3.


    his noble heritage also helped with how he was treated. being a son of house gallow had its perks.


    even though he didn''t have the best relationship with his family, their name demanded respect.


    house gallow was quite notorious for their combat effectiveness. it was why his family had been so angry with him for choosing not to pursue the typical family path.


    a gallow who wasn''t a frontliner or warrior was almost unheard of. especially someone like him, who his parents were proud of for being a genius from a young age.


    however, in recent years they have been getting along better. the division between them was slowly healing as they realized that he had chosen a strong path.


    because at the end of the day, the one thing house gallow respected more than anything was strength.


    so richard being as strong as he was, even as a newly minted tier 5, was a big reason why his family had backed off in the last couple of years.


    it was just a shame it was only after that that they begrudgingly agreed to his choices. he wished they could have accepted him even if he was ''weak''.


    with a sigh, he finished reading the material within the documents. the material was about the recent attacks on their teams transporting various goods and materials across the region and to some extent, the entire empire.


    it had been a big pain in the butt. it wasn''t like this conclave was stealing anything of that much importance, all of their highly valuable items were transported via teleportation circles and such. but their large shipments of other goods that couldn''t be transported so easily or without great cost were still considerable losses to house easten.


    they needed to do something about it pretty soon, or else it would become a much larger issue. it also sent the wrong message to their allies. a message that house easten couldn''t protect their own stuff. that is the bigger danger of letting these people continue to act with impunity.


    with that being said, he didn''t know if he particularly enjoyed casidus''s plan. using children to bait out these people sounded like an unnecessary risk. one that he nor rebecca were quite comfortable in taking.


    especially not when they had recently been getting to know grace and julius. he and becca had become emotionally attached. even though she wouldn''t admit it they both were. more so for little cory, he absolutely adored the two of them.


    sometimes he believed cory liked them more than he liked him or his mother.


    richard knew that the two of them were much stronger than most tier 3s, even though they recently advanced. but it wasn''t a matter of strength in this case, it was about experience.


    people who have been in tier 3 for years had so much more experience than either of them. he doubted either of them had ever fought a real battle between two people before. well... at least he knew for sure that grace was green, her occasional sparring with rebecca showed this.


    it was very subtle, but he noticed that sometimes grace was too hesitant to hurt her opponent and would occasionally flinch when unprepared for an attack.


    granted she was a mage, but an experienced mage would have already experienced someone pressuring them in close combat.


    take himself for example. he was a mage, but he was more than capable in a close combat situation. he had to, otherwise he would be in big trouble.


    he had seen firsthand mages who only learned how to chuck attacks from a distance die at the hands of their first close encounter when another human swung a sword at their heads.


    it was a scary thing at first and the only way to deal with it was to experience it.


    he didn''t want either of them to die like that.


    although he was less worried about julius. the boy was an enigma. nobody really quite understood what kind of boy julius was.


    he had multiple concepts at tier 2, which was already crazy enough, but what had taken all of them by surprise was just how solid his willpower was. unlike grace who rebecca was training daily, julius''s willpower needed no training.


    it was one of the most sturdy and powerful willpowers he had seen from a boy his age.


    and that didn''t come from just simple training. the boy had offered that reason when asked, but richard knew better than that. it most likely came from life-or-death situations.


    granted the boy did train like a man possessed, but no amount of regular training would let someone that young have such an impressive willpower. it meant that it was probable that he had been in many dangerous fights before.


    he couldn''t help but wonder if the boy managed to become a beast tamer or a mind mage, what kind of monster he would be. with that kind of willpower at tier 3, he would most likely be able to control some select tier 4 beasts with little effort.


    that would automatically make him a serious threat. not that he wasn''t already.


    "how long has he been in there?" he suddenly heard someone ask from behind him.


    richard turned to look at casidus who had avoided his detection as easily as he usually did.


    "it has been several hours," he responded after looking at the rift portal.


    "you think he''s going to want to enter the challenge rift after this?"


    "it is highly likely he will choose to do so. grace might not want to yet, but he''s ready," he said confidently.


    he would know, he had gone through the challenge rift before when he was still a tier 3. it hadn''t been easy, but it was accomplishable for someone of their caliber. the question was how good of a reward they would get after they were done.


    "you still disagree about sending them to help draw this group out?" casidus asked.


    "yeah, i don''t think it''s a good idea," he said gravely.


    "i don''t know either anymore," casidus admitted with a frown.


    richard furrowed his brows and gave the man a questioning look. "why the sudden change of heart?"


    "i heard some information that has been making waves through the empire," casidus revealed.


    "what kind of information?"


    "princess reinera is apparently missing from goldencrest and it is causing quite the ruckus in certain circles."


    "she''s missing? why would that make you hesitant? sure, she''s royalty, but in the larger scheme, she is simply one of many royals, albeit with a bloodline. i don''t get the connection," richard said confusingly.


    "that isn''t all. the less-known version is that another student went missing alongside her. a male student going by the name julius," casidus said looking directly at richard meaningfully.


    richard opened his mouth but nothing came out as he processed what he had just been told.


    what were the odds?


    two powerful young children who just happened to be traveling alone, one of whom is named julius himself. that is¡­ odd. s~ea??h the nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    but that would mean grace was the princess. and there was no way she could be, it was practically impossible. he was confident that there must be some kind of mistake or it was a weird coincidence. he couldn''t believe¡­


    he froze in realization. why can''t i believe it, huh? that''s not normal. unless¡­ he shook his head in disbelief.


    "it took me a while too," casidus said. "it must be one hell of an item if it could even work on me."


    "some sort of mental effect? or is it something else?"


    "i''m not sure."


    "well, we certainly can''t send her on that mission now," he said the obvious. he couldn''t believe that he had not even considered it. for heaven''s sake, julius had even let her name slip in front of him in the past. he felt silly.


    "definitely not, that would be a disaster if anyone found out we were about to send the princess on a mission as bait. the royal family will come down hard on our house," casidus said.


    "what about julius though?"


    casidus shrugged his shoulders. "you tell me. you and becca have been around the boy for longer than anyone else."


    richard glanced toward the rift where the boy in question was still delving before turning back to casidus. "i think he''s secretly looking forward to it," he admitted to the man.


    looking forward to it?" casidus asked, a look of confusion on his face.


    "i don''t know why, but from what i have talked to him about it, he gets this oddly excited look whenever i bring it up. i have a feeling that he might want to do it more than we want him to," richard said with a frown.


    "why would he¡­ huh," casidus paused what he was going to say as if he realized something.


    "what?"


    "on the day we first met him, he mentioned something about ducal houses and asked about their potential involvement, but i noticed he was unusually curious about house greyson."


    "what? you think something happened between them?"


    "maybe, or maybe he just has something against this conclave group."


    that could be possible too. even though they had been getting to know julius and grace for some weeks, they didn''t know much about them. they didn''t talk about their families or anything.


    "what should we do about ''grace''?" he finally asked after a brief moment of silence.


    "i think we should pretend like we have no idea who she is. she is clearly here on her own free will, there is no doubt in my mind that she has some sort of way to get in contact with her guards, but she is choosing not to. let''s allow her to do what she wants. the person who i am more concerned about is julius," casidus said, sounding almost slightly anxious, which was unusual for the man.


    "why him more than her?"


    "the reason i found out his name was because i got two separate visits from house violet and house zenith. they both are very serious in finding his whereabouts. what was more odd was that they didn''t seem to have any care about the princess though."


    richard frowned. house violet and zenith were two houses that nobody on the continent wanted to mess with. each one of them had too much influence and power to risk angering them. in his opinion, it was worse than angering the royal family in many aspects.


    "why are they looking for him specifically?" enjoy new adventures at empire


    "i have no idea. but they are really serious about finding him, they sent their best."


    "who did they send?" he asked, feeling a bit nervous.


    casidus gave him a grave shake of his head. "house violet sent marcus avery and house zenith sent stella quincy."


    he felt a flash of fear pass through his stomach as he heard their names.


    "shit."


    "yeah, i think you can see why i''m a little more worried about julius right now."

 Chapter 238 Deciding Which To Choose

    it surprisingly wasn''t difficult at all to get a skill. in all honesty, it was very disappointing.the monsters weren''t even that strong. even the leader, who was the only one julius was able to sense a concept from, was not very extraordinary. it was about the same level as the scaled monster he beat down earlier.


    he was able to walk up to the pack of monsters and use his kinetic energy to immobilize each one of them.


    the only one who showed the slightest bit of fight was the leader but was just because of their concept more than their willpower.


    julius was able to overpower its concept with help from his emblem, something he was figuring out was something that he could channel in order to get a leg up against other people with concepts.


    he was beginning to understand why the patriarch had told him he would have a massive advantage over other tier 3s who had not already gained an emblem of their own.


    while it was disappointing that he didn''t have to work harder to get a skill or that it wasn''t some sort of dramatic notification, he was still happy that he was offered it.


    furthermore, if he was being logical about it, it was probably so easy because he had already done most of the legwork in the earlier months.


    it was just now that his soul had some space that he was being offered it.


    speaking of that notification, he pulled it up once he dealt with the last of the monsters.


    would you like to learn the skill [kinetic restriction]?


    it was the exact skill he had been expecting to learn. but it also made his decision harder to make.


    [aura burn] or [kinetic restriction], what should he choose?


    he really liked the effects of [aura burn]. but he also liked [kinetic restriction] though.


    decisions decisions¡­


    he ultimately decided to sleep on it. it might be a good idea to ask richard for his opinion. he has been very helpful so far and open regarding his own skills. perhaps, he might have some advice for him.


    in the meantime, he believed he had accomplished all that he needed to for the day. it was time to head back toward the portal.


    he and reinera had some plans to head into the city later for food and she wouldn''t appreciate it if he was late for it.


    ***


    when he came out of the rift he was greeted by richard. however, could have sworn he saw the man give him an odd look. but if it was there, it was gone so fast he didn''t know if it really was there or if he was imagining it.


    "how was it?" richard called out.


    "it was fruitful," he answered honestly.


    "you get anything useful?"


    julius hesitated for a moment before he answered. "i got a skill offered," he eventually said.


    "was it a fire skill?" richard asked with a knowing smile.


    not even surprised that the man guessed that he nodded his head. "do you have a guess on what kind of skill i got?"


    "you did mention getting your body skill some sort of secondary effect and most people end up getting a burn effect at first. i suspect that you have something along those lines."


    julius blew out his lips. "you''re no fun," he said.


    richard smiled brightly. "so what skill did you get?"


    "[aura burn]," he revealed easily.


    he cocked his head to the side. "interesting. i''m guessing that the skill burns the aura of your opponent?"


    "you would be correct."


    "that sounds potentially very powerful, though it might have a lower initial power."


    julius shook his head at him. "actually, it''s pretty powerful already. it incapacitated a tier 3 with its own concept pretty easily."


    "it incapacitated a tier 3 with a concept? that''s not something that is easy to do," richard said with a weird glint in his eyes.


    "what?" he asked, wondering what the man was thinking behind those expressive eyes. your journey continues at empire


    "i think it might be a wonderful addition to your skills," the man said to him, clapping his hands together excitedly.


    "yeah, but i also have another skill that i want to get as well," julius added.


    "something that sounds better than [aura burn]?"


    "oh yeah, it''s a cool skill for sure. but i don''t know if it''s practical."


    "what kind of skill is it?" richard asked curiously.


    "it''s a movement reduction skill for my kinetic affinity."


    richard clapped his hands together again. "that sounds good too!"


    "i know, i don''t know which one i want to decide on first."


    "and you have all of your slots full already, right?"


    "yep, i have one left until i combine my body skills or get another slot."


    richard frowned in thought as the man tried to think of an answer for him.


    "i think it would be a good decision to get [aura burn], it probably has a high chance of combining with [thermal empowerment] because of the circumstances of how you got offered it."


    "you really think so?"


    the man nodded. "here, try the two techniques on me first. i will let you know what i think," he offered.


    julius hesitated for a moment. "are you sure?"


    "absolutely, i want to see what kind of skills we are dealing with before you decide!"


    he gave richard one last look, but the man seemed very insistent so with a bated breath he used his kinetic restriction technique on him.


    he clamped all of the surrounding kinetic energy around the tier 5 and suffused his willpower with his will concept in order to give it extra oomph.


    richard allowed julius to do so and didn''t fight back against it even though he could have easily done so. it seemed like he was just trying to get a feeling on julius skill on its own.


    still, a look of surprise flashed across richard''s face. because he hadn''t tried to fight against it, julius was able to completely immobilize him. the man wasn''t able to move a single finger.


    richard stayed like this for a few moments before giving a surge of his own will and easily gained control back of his body.


    "that makes things harder," richard muttered.


    "why?" he asked anxiously.


    "let me see the other technique first," he said to julius.


    with a brief look toward the man, julius did as he requested. he walked up to the man with his [thermal empowerment] active and pushed a finger infused with his phoenix concept, maintaining his intent on burning the man in front of him.


    just like how it did with the two-headed bear and the scaled monster before, he felt his flames melt into richard''s aura with swift intensity.


    however, unlike the monsters, the man in front of him had an aura that was like a steel mountain. he was barely affected by the flames and the effect was snuffed out in an instant.


    well, that didn''t work as well as [kinetic restriction], he noted.


    "i think you should still get [aura burn]," richard said suddenly.


    julius jerked his head toward the man. "what? it seemed like it didn''t work as well on you though."


    "of course not, it was an uncommon skill whereas the kinetic skill is most likely a rare skill already. the two skills are obviously going to be different in terms of current power. however, since it''s uncommon, [aura burn] will have a better chance of merging with your uncommon body skill. it''s also very powerful on top of it."


    "but you handled it easier," he said with a cocked head. he wasn''t that surprised to learn that his kinetic skill was rare, it was something he had been practicing for a while now.


    "not really. i wasn''t able to stop its effects completely. it was only because of how large my aura is that i didn''t receive much damage, but it seems like that burning effect doesn''t lean on your mana consumption like other burning skills," richard commented.


    "what does it lean on then?"


    richard grinned widely. "your willpower."


    "my willpower?"


    "yes, which is exactly why i think it would be a good decision to get the skill."


    "doesn''t my other technique use my willpower as well?" he asked.


    richard nodded. "yes, but almost every skill uses one''s willpower in some aspect. that movement restriction technique seemed to rely on your manipulation of kinetic energy just as much as your willpower. your aura-burning skill on the other hand was primarily reliant on the strength of your willpower, with it only needing some mana manipulation in order to connect with your opponents."


    "and that means¡­?"


    the man shook his head humorously. "it means you can use your alarmingly strong willpower to much better effect while also having a higher chance of combining it with your fire enhancement skill."


    "plus, you seem to use the restriction technique pretty well on its own so far," richard added.


    julius took in what the man explained to him. everything made sense to him and he believed that richard made a very good point.


    "okay, i think i am going to choose [aura burn] and hope that it will combine with [thermal empowerment]."


    "i believe that is the best choice, but the decision is up to you," richard assured him.


    julius nodded gratefully at him and pulled up the notification.


    would you like to learn the skill [aura burn]?


    julius firmly accepted the notification.


    congratulations, you have learned the skill [aura burn] (uncommon).


    "i got it," he told richard.


    "congratulations, i don''t think you will regret choosing it."


    "i hope not," he said, not sounding as confident as the older man did.


    "you want to try it out on me?" richard offered.


    julius shrugged his shoulders. "sure, why not."


    ***


    the two of them had decided to try it out by actually sparring. this meant they ended up going to their usual spot by the obstacle course. the course, that julius still hasn''t been able to complete by the way.


    he made sure to give his usual angry fist shake at wooden beams as he passed by them, ignoring richard''s laughter from behind.


    "what do you want to do?" julius asked.


    "just come at me. get a feeling of using your new skill with [thermal empowerment], i wouldn''t be surprised if something changed now that you have an official skill."


    he didn''t need to be asked twice. he was curious about what kind of changes occurred and blitzed out toward the older man covered in flame red aura, still not using [kinetic augmentation].


    richard, like usual, danced around and outskilled him with grace. however, he also purposefully left more openings for julius to go for than he has in the past.


    julius didn''t shy away from this either. he eagerly took them and connected with a strong strike with [aura burn].


    the effect was quite surprising. it immediately felt more natural, he barely needed to concentrate. the infusion that he had been doing with his phoenix concept, didn''t seem to be as necessary.


    the process happened all on its own and the injection of his fire mana seemed to go deeper into richard''s aura. s~ea??h the n?vel?ire.net website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    although the older man''s aura was more prepared than the last time he tested out the skill, julius was able to feel the burning effect more pronounced. he also could feel that he could use this effect even without physically touching his opponent.


    he believed as long as his aura was touching his opponent, he would be able to use this effect in some capacity.


    he couldn''t help but smile as he was aware of a notification signaling another level increase.


    that didn''t take that long, he thought to himself with a joyful grin.

 Chapter 239 Only One Real Choice

    today was the day. after putting it off multiple times, they finally decided to enter the challenge rift.it had been about a week after he got [aura burn] and unfortunately during that time, he hadn''t found a way to merge the skills into a single skill.


    on the bright side, he got a few more levels to add to the skill as well as [thermal empowerment].


    [thermal empowerment lvl 11 -> 13]


    [aura burn lvl 1 -> lvl 7]


    it turned out that using his skills against a far superior opponent, especially one that had a debuffing element to it, was good training.


    [aura burn] in particular was a good skill for this particular situation. it was a skill that relied on clashing his willpower against his opponents. and his opponent''s willpower wasn''t like the monsters he had faced in that rift he had done last week.


    he had tried to use his emblem alongside it, but there was an obvious restriction on how much his emblem was able to interact with an uncommon skill.


    however, both he and richard believed he was close to something. whether that was another breakthrough or another merging of his skills, they didn''t really know for certain.


    that was one of the reasons why they thought it would be a good idea to go into the challenge rift, they were thinking that the rift would give him that extra push he needed.


    they were also hoping that since he had filled out his slots, the rift would reward something other than a brand-new skill. opening up the possibility of the rift rewarding him with a method of combining the skills he wanted.


    ***


    "how are you feeling?" he asked reinera.


    she looked up from where she was sitting on the stone wall and gave him a brief smile.


    "i don''t know. a mixture of nervousness and excitement, i guess. you?"


    julius shrugged his shoulders and looked over at the crowd of people who were preparing the rift up ahead. "kind of the same. i don''t want to perform poorly and get some shitty reward after all this time waiting."


    "tell me about it. how embarrassing would it be that after all this time we get some standard and boring reward from the rift." she said with a laugh.


    he laughed alongside her. "please don''t jinx it. i would rather that not happen." sea??h th§× n?vel_fire.¦Çet website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "are you two ready?" he heard rebecca call out to them.


    "i am," he replied before turning to look at reinera. "how about you?"


    "as ready as i am going to be," she said with a sigh.


    rebecca gave reinera a gentle pat on the head and a warm smile. "you don''t have to force yourself if you don''t feel like you''re ready. it''s better if you wait until you feel like you are the most prepared."


    the younger girl looked up in surprise. "i thought you were the one who has been pushing me to get ready for exactly this?"


    "grace, i have been pushing you because you clearly need someone to give you a kick in the butt at times. but you have done a good job these past several weeks, there is nothing i can complain about when it comes to the effort you put in. so if you still feel like you need more time, then take it. you won''t get another chance at this challenge rift," rebecca said softly.


    reinera hesitated for a second and looked over at julius. he didn''t say anything, letting her know that her decision was completely up to her.


    he and rebecca watched as the girl thought to herself for a few moments, giving her as much time as she needed.


    but they both smiled when the hesitative look on her face was slowly washed away and was replaced with one full of vigor and life.


    "no, i want to do this," she said resolutely.


    rebecca nodded at her and had a proud smile on her face. julius was proud of her as well, he believed that she would do well in the challenge rift. she had been doing a lot of work with her willpower training it would help her better compete with other people''s concepts.


    plus, she had an emblem as well, which would help her even more.


    he was more worried about what the challenge might be. rebecca and richard who had both done it, seemed confident in their success, but they obviously couldn''t give them any hints.


    he heard a voice call out from the other side of the room. "we''re ready for them!"


    it was one of the people who was helping with setting it all up.


    julius gave reinera an encouraging smile before they both headed toward the large archway placed at the center of the even larger cavern.


    they were below the main estate and reminded him of the underground chamber at house hyperius.


    he took a look at where they would be entering. it was something that was very different from what he was used to.


    the rift wasn''t the usual pale blue color, it was a bright white swirling vortex. it was also much larger than the rift portals he had gone through. it took up almost the entire large archway.


    he walked past a few people. richard, rebecca, and the patriarch were expectantly there, but there were several more people as well.


    there was the person who had called them over, the elder he believed was named arthur, and another person who hadn''t said anything. he had no idea who that person was but he did notice the man giving both him and reinera distrustful looks quite often when he thought julius wasn''t paying attention.


    "do we enter it like a normal rift?" julius asked. discover stories with empire


    "yep, just reach out and touch it. you will receive a notification and if you accept you will be swept away," richard said excitedly.


    julius was ready as he would ever be and gave reinera one last glance before they both simultaneously reached out and gave it a poke.


    would you like to enter this challenge rift?


    notice: once you enter you will not be able to leave until you complete the challenge.


    the notification was expected but still felt weird reading it.


    he gave rebecca and richard one last look before accepting.


    when he accepted, he felt the usual pull from the rift and he was taken away.


    ***


    when he opened his eyes he was met with another notification.


    you have entered a challenge rift. by doing so, you have agreed to attempt the challenge and will not be able to leave. the only paths to leaving this rift are to overcome the challenge or death.


    however, if you are to succeed in completing the challenge and show your merit, you will be rewarded for your efforts.


    the challenge for this rift is to survive ten waves of opponents. each wave will be more challenging than the last and you will have ten minutes to recover before the next one begins.


    if you survive ten waves, you will have completed the challenge and will be able to leave promptly.


    please select the difficulty you wish to challenge¡­


    easy


    medium


    hard


    julius read the message several times to make sure he didn''t miss anything.


    it was one of the most wordy notifications he had gotten so far. most of his notifications are quite simple and straight to the point.


    he was also taken aback by the option to choose what kind of difficulty to go with. he hadn''t been expecting something like that, but it was something he was very intrigued by.


    it was clear that the harder the difficulty the better the rewards would be, but it would also mean more danger.


    with that being said, there was only one real right choice for him.


    he selected hard without another thought.


    you have selected hard difficulty, please prepare for the first wave.


    good luck¡­


    after he read the last message, he took a look around at where he had been taken.


    it was a small room with a single podium at the center of it. he strolled up to the podium and looked what was on top of it.


    the only thing there was a circular button. nothing less nothing more. just a little red button.


    however, it wasn''t that hard to figure out what that button would do. it would most likely control when the waves would begin.


    before he pressed the button, he took the time to prepare some of his skills. if the rift was allowing him time to prepare and give himself an advantage he would take it.


    perhaps, this grace period was a part of the challenge itself and those who used it were already on the right track.


    he created a nice layer of armor around himself with [armaments of the arcane] and created several constructs that hovered over his shoulder like little drones. after he did that, he waited to see how fast his mana regenerated.


    it wasn''t fast nor was it particularly slow, it felt like normal. however, he was already expecting that this challenge was going to be a fight of endurance.


    in the old games he used to play, waves usually relied on large numbers to wear you down. if there were ten waves required to be completed, he would have to make sure he wasn''t wasteful with his mana. no matter how large his pool was.


    he wanted to perform well so that he got himself a nice reward, especially since he would be attempting the hard difficulty.


    once he got prepared, he just waited until he had recovered all of his mana. it was only when he was completely topped off that he looked back toward the button.


    not seeing a reason why to wait any longer, he reached over and pressed it.


    he suddenly felt himself get wrapped up again and he found himself standing on top of a small grassy hill. he looked up and saw that the sun was directly overhead and was bearing down on him with quite the amount of heat.


    he had been transported again but unlike most times, he didn''t feel any discomfort or nausea from the teleportation. it must have been a feature of the challenge so that nobody died because they got a little motion sickness.


    he laughed to himself and looked down the hill where he quickly spotted what would be his first wave. his laughter just as quickly faded as he observed the incoming horde.


    "of course it''s goblins," he muttered to himself.


    all he saw was a blanket of at least fifty goblins all running toward him up the hill, each one of them screaming with various crappy weapons in their arms.

 Chapter 240 A Lot of Goblins

    he was able to tell right away that these goblins weren''t even tier 3 yet. it seemed that all of them were around tier 2 and that the main threat they posed was their numbers.not even because he was afraid they would overwhelm him, but because he believed that taking care of all of them without expending a lot of energy would be kind of difficult.


    he didn''t feel threatened but he couldn''t help but feel wary about the first wave having so many enemies.


    he had been half expecting a dozen or so monsters. nothing like the horde of goblins running up the hill at him. experience tales at empire


    shaking his head slightly, he prepared himself anyway.


    he took a construct hovering over his shoulder and broke it down. turned it into a couple dozen smaller needles of mana and took aim.


    once he was confident he sent them screeching through the air, razing over half the horde in a single attack. not every needle hit a goblin in the head but the way he layered them, he was guaranteed that the needles to continue to the next target after they pierced the first goblin.


    only around a third of the needles were still usable after the first attack, but he still made sure to use them to finish off the rest of the goblins off, only targeting the goblins who were still running at him.


    there were many who were injured on the ground, but the ones who could still fight posed a greater threat.


    however, once that was done, he went over to the injured goblins. some had missing limbs or holes in their chests and he quickly dispatched them.


    what he did notice, was that these monsters didn''t act like the goblins he had fought in the past nor the monsters he had fought in any rift.


    while monsters normally didn''t have the most impressive intelligence, they still had animalistic tendencies. these goblins were different though.


    they had this weirdly feral attitude but also this dead stare in their eyes. it was quite unnerving to see up close.


    he shook his head, pushing away those thoughts for the time being. he had to get ready for the next wave in ten minutes.


    this was just the first wave, the easiest if the notification were to be trusted. he just hoped that the difficulty increments were not that drastic.


    he was also very happy that he didn''t use much if any mana. he felt that he did a great job being efficient while also not taking too much time.


    that being said, his opponents were only tier 2, so it was hard to say it was a balanced fight. he also didn''t know if he would be facing more tier 2s in the next wave.


    speaking of the next wave, julius watched as the bodies of the goblins slowly evaporated into light and disappeared completely.


    it was a very interesting thing to see, it must have been some sort of mechanism of the rift.


    congratulations, first wave completed¡­ please wait ten minutes for the second wave.


    as the bodies disappeared, he was left on top of the hill, just waiting there for the next wave to start. he knew that he was going to have to wait for ten minutes so while he waited, he decided to see if he could find himself an advantage.


    he walked down the hill and took one of his constructs in hand. he then remolded it into a large shovel before attempting to jam it into the ground.


    however, to his shock, he found himself completely unable to do so. it was like the grassy dirt was made of steel. but he also knew for a fact that it wasn''t. just moments prior, he saw small holes created from his attack against the goblins.


    is the rift preventing me from using the terrain to my advantage? that doesn''t seem fair, what if i had some sort of trap-making skill set that required me to dig the ground up?


    regardless, now that he knew, he just stood back and waited for the ten minutes to be up.


    ***


    ten minutes were gone before he knew it. it was easy to see that was because another wave of tiny green monsters spawned before his very eyes.


    they were still goblins, but this time it seemed the rift believed that fifty of them wasn''t enough of a challenge and sent a hundred of them this time around.


    it really didn''t make much of a difference. the only thing that really changed was that he needed to use slightly more mana than last time. but that was all, he easily took care of the hundred goblins without any trouble.


    congratulations, second wave completed¡­ please wait ten minutes for the third wave.


    ***


    the third wave thankfully didn''t double the amount of goblins and only added another fifty. sea??h th§× novel?ire(.)ne*t website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    and the fourth wave did the same thing. a total of two hundred goblins all stormed up the hill at him with dead eyes and feral screams.


    he couldn''t help but wonder how others would be fair if they were in his position. but he also didn''t know if they would be undergoing the same types of waves he was experiencing. it was possible that by choosing the hard difficulty each wave specifically presented monsters based on each challenger''s abilities instead of something more standard.


    perhaps, reinera was facing off against more powerful monsters but in smaller numbers. however, he didn''t doubt that she would choose hard, she liked to pretend she wasn''t but she was very competitive.


    he was almost hoping for something like that instead. because at this point there were so many goblins that were sprinting at him that he wasn''t able to take them out before they got closer than he wanted them to.


    with that being said, they were still only tier 2 and weren''t much of a problem at all.


    in fact, it was actually more unnerving than anything else. he didn''t care if the goblins were weak, even for their tier, they just reminded him of an army of rats trying to take down an animal.


    and in this case, he was the animal. with a shiver, he took out a small snack as he waited for his expended mana to recover.


    congratulations, fourth wave completed¡­ please wait ten minutes for the fifth wave.


    ***


    the fifth wave was finally where he started to see a difference. on one hand, he was happy not to see a large horde of hundreds of tiny goblins running at him. this wave seemed to send only ten at him.


    on the other hand, seeing only ten opponents gave him a larger feeling of danger. it was because this time each of the opponents was tier 3 and much stronger than the goblins before were.


    to be honest, though, the new monsters weren''t that different than goblins. they were much larger and more muscular, even having a large set of tusks protruding from their mouths, but they still had green skin and yellow eyes.


    he had a feeling that these new monsters were the tier 3 versions of goblins, often called hobgoblins.


    they no longer carried wooden clubs and beat-up weapons either. they were all armed with shiny steel weapons. some carried swords, others had spears, and some had bows. but the most annoying thing was that their warriors all had shields.


    that would severely limit how much damage he could do with his constructs even if he didn''t sense any concepts from this group of hobgoblins. just having to tear through another layer of defense would slow down his effectiveness.


    furthermore, dealing with the archers would be frustrating for him to deal with. it was easy to focus on a bunch of wildly swinging monsters, but having to keep an eye on the sky for any straying arrows would be more difficult.


    luckily he was on top of a hill, so that should make it harder for the archers to hit him. or that was what he was hoping for at least. he didn''t know if it would actually go like that.


    he observed as the hobgoblins all rushed toward him up the hill. the three archers were already knocking arrows on their strings and he sighed as he finally activated his body enhancement skills for the first time during this rift.


    he then split one of his hovering blocks of mana into ten smaller spikes and sent them hurtling toward the archers toward the back.


    to his surprise though, he sensed the archers activate a skill that allowed them to partially dodge the spikes in a quick movement. but they weren''t fast enough to avoid them altogether. he only managed to tag two of the three, but they were hurt pretty badly.


    the third one had gotten out of the way in time and released its arrow as it did.


    julius was forced to step to the side of the arrow and quickly sent out another piercing spike at the archer.


    however, unlike the first attack, some of the hobgoblins retreated back to guard their archers and one of them had blocked it with its shield.


    the spike was still powerful though and knocked the hobgoblin completely off its feet and put a large dent into its shield.


    that just left four who were approaching him and another three who were guarding the archers.


    the two he injured were hurt pretty bad but they somehow managed to get up and draw their bows again with their comrade''s support.


    he sighed and decided to take the four rushing toward him while their friends were scrambling to protect the archers.


    he pumped mana through his body skills and used a single strong [flash step] to avoid the arrows coming toward him, but also used it to decrease the distance.


    he took the first hobgoblin out with a brutal strike to its throat, almost decapitating it with a single strike. its friends quickly followed. he made sure to be as efficient and waste no movement.


    they were much too slow to keep up with him. his physical abilities have increased quite a lot since he advanced to tier 3 and got his new body skill.


    simple tier 3s without concepts weren''t a match for him.


    [aura burn] was also nice to add. it didn''t take that much mana to use and mainly relied on his aura as a resource, so he still wove it into his attacks.


    he wasn''t worried about running out of mana during this wave, but he wanted to ensure that he was keeping it as clean as possible.


    he only needed several surges of kinetic energy to take care of the four hobgoblins. his kinetic energy body skill still did the majority of work when it came to enhancing his physical abilities, but the new [thermal empowerment] skill did a nice job enforcing his body in other ways. it actually did a better job of protecting him than [kinetic augmentation], which was more of an offensive enhancement skill.


    he was very happy with the skill so far. it had been what he had been looking for in a skill he wanted to merge with [kinetic augmentation].


    after he handled the four, he instantly pivoted toward the two injured archers. he sent two powerful spikes of mana toward the archers and before the hobgoblin warriors could protect them with their shields, julius froze them with his kinetic energy for just a moment.


    the technique used more kinetic energy than just simply taking care of them with his fists, but he had used it so briefly, that the waste was a non-factor.


    and it worked out too. the warriors who had decided to protect their long-range fighters froze just before they covered the archers and could only watch as julius tore through them with ease.


    before they could get back to their feet and realize what was going on, he was already on top of them.


    he ripped away the shield of one of them and proceeded to use it to bash the warrior to the side. he then turned back to the one he took it from and swung it down in an overhead swing, smashing through its extended sword as it desperately tried to block him.


    he crushed its head into a pulp and before the third warrior had rotated over to help, he threw the shield with a small burst of kinetic energy attached to it.


    when the warrior lifted its own shield to block, it was surprised that it was knocked off of its feet.


    julius sidestepped two arrows that had been shooting toward his back and lept to the warrior he had initially bashed to the side. the hobgoblin had just managed to get back to its feet with a stagger but was greeted with julius''s fist crushing its jaw with a perfect hook, completely removing it from its face, and leaving an ashy trail in his wake.


    then he sent two small needles of mana at the injured archers who were in the middle of firing off more attacks. this time, they weren''t able to activate their movement skill in time and took the arrows to the chests, killing them instantly.


    he glanced over at the last two. it was the uninjured archer and the warrior who had taken his flying shield.


    he checked his mana and found it relatively full. he would be able to recover it within ten minutes easily.


    thus, he splurged a little bit. he wrapped the two of them with kinetic energy and walked up to them once they were completely immobilized.


    since neither of them had concepts or powerful wills, he was able to freeze them with little trouble.


    he quickly sent two bursts of mana and removed their heads when he got within several feet.


    and then he watched as the bodies all around him, weapons included, turned into particles of light.


    congratulations, fifth wave completed¡­ please wait ten minutes for the sixth wave.

 Chapter 241 Thats Not Fair

    ten minutes was more than enough for him to recover all of the mana he expended.the wave wasn''t hard, it had only taken a couple of minutes and that was with him being stingy with his mana usage.


    however, one thing did bother him. are all hard-difficulty challengers supposed to be able to beat ten tier 3 monsters on their own?


    especially for the ones who don''t have concepts yet, it was hard to see people like that being able to take on the wave he had just finished.


    it just further assured him that there was some sort of personalized challenge for each individual. otherwise, a wave like that last one wouldn''t make sense.


    with that being said, that didn''t matter that much right now. at the moment he needed to keep focus on the next wave.


    thus he quickly finished the meat pie he was eating and got up to his feet before the ten minutes were up, making sure to dust any crumbs from his pants as he did.


    like he had expected the sixth wave was similar to the last one. there was another group of hobgoblins staring at him from below his vantage spot on the hill.


    this time there was more than the previous ten, but not that much more. there were about fifteen of them this time.


    that didn''t help them though. he plowed right through them just as easily as he did the last wave. he used the warrior hobgoblin''s shields to bash them into a bloodied pulp and took out the archers soon after.


    it didn''t matter if they had five more hobgoblins. he wiped them out and watched as they faded into light.


    congratulations, sixth wave completed¡­ please wait ten minutes for the seventh wave.


    another ten minutes went by and he recovered all of his mana by the time a new crowd of monsters showed up below him.


    the first thing he noticed was that the number of monsters remained the same, only fifteen of them.


    but the more troubling thing he noticed after a moment was that one of the monsters had a concept.


    a monster who had a concept versus one who didn''t showed a large difference in strength. every tier 3 monster he faced who had been strong, had a concept of their own.


    thus, seeing the largest hobgoblin strutting up the hill toward him displaying signs of a concept put him on guard. this one was slightly different not just because of its size or concept, but because it was the first one he had seen that didn''t have an offensive weapon.


    it only bore a large pavise-style shield off to the side with a single arm. the shield was practically the entire size of the monster and it looked very high quality.


    a lot of the other weapons he had seen during the last wave while better than the previous ones, weren''t that impressive.


    they were cheap weapons he saw all the time when he strolled down a market.


    this one shield though, had a greenish-silver luster to it that pulsed with mana. the rest of the hobgoblins all had bows. s~ea??h the n?vel_fire.¦Çet website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    it seemed like the challenge''s new curveball was to send a single strong frontliner to agress him while the rest of them would shoot from a safe distance.


    although, he doubted the effectiveness of this plan. he already had several ideas on how to deal with this new formation.


    hence, when he watched them stop at a relatively flat spot on the hill, he made his move before they could get in position to rain arrows at him.


    he sent a volley of spikes at them, freezing the scary-looking frontliner as he did.


    he did that for several reasons. for one, he wanted to test his willpower against it to see how well it would defend against it, and for two, he didn''t want the frontliner using some kind of defensive skill to protect them.


    fortunately, his technique worked and he was able to freeze the hobgoblin in its tracks and it could do nothing as his spikes soared toward the archers.


    however, he was surprised to see not some sort of movement skill from them, but a barrier of mana appeared in front of them.


    it appeared it came from a few archers who activated some kind of protective skill as they noticed the attack. unluckily for them, they didn''t quite realize how strong his spikes were, even if they were only the size of a hand. thus, the barrier was only able to hold for a few moments before the power from his constructs overwhelmed the barrier and shattered it like glass.


    a few of his spikes made it through and exploded at the center of the group. sadly, their trajectory was slightly changed due to their impedance, but he was still able to hurt a couple of them.


    however, before he could send another volley, he heard a roar come from the goblin who he had pinned down. he felt a large surge of mana and then the kinetic energy he controlled around the hobgoblin seemed to break away.


    he was slightly surprised by this development. the only way he had seen that technique broken was through using their willpower to prevent its influence.


    but now he was sure he had just felt the usage of a skill.


    he had heard of skills like this before. in fact, edgar had a skill just like it. in edgar''s case, julius believed that the older boy utilized his aura and his fire affinity to break down any obstacles in his path.


    these ''anti-debuff'' skills were usually for allowing a warrior to ignore movement control skills such as [ice chains] or [earth trap], or like tia''s vines she used to control the battlefield.


    julius just didn''t think that this monster would have a skill like that. not to mention something that would work on his own kinetic technique. find exclusive content at empire


    however, he also realized that the hobgoblin had used a lot more mana than julius had used to immobilize it. therefore, it was safe to say it wasn''t very mana-efficient.


    that was why he did it again and made sure to send another volley at the archers while it was distracted.


    this time around, the archers decided to split up among each other. making sure he couldn''t hit multiple archers with a single attack.


    it was smart, but also annoying to deal with. a few of the archers managed to dodge his attacks completely. their barrier-making comrades had placed a small barrier over each of them. the barriers weren''t in place to stop the attack, but its sole purpose was to delay the attack long enough so the archers were able to use their movement skills to get out of the way.


    this meant that even the attacks that managed to hit some archers, didn''t do that much damage.


    after he saw his attack successfully thwarted, he placed his attention back to the hobgoblin warrior who had once more roared out while breaking out of the technique.


    however, this time around, julius was able to sense something bloom right before his eyes. when the hobgoblin got up again, julius sensed this weird connection between this warrior and the rest of the archers behind it getting established.


    the connection was weird enough, but what really caught his eyes, was what was being transmitted through this connection.


    it was like this connection allowed the archers in the back to donate their mana as well as merge their willpower with the frontliner hobgoblin. he was able to feel the immediate difference because when he tried to gather kinetic energy around the monster and freeze it once more, he felt powerful resistance that hadn''t been there just seconds ago.


    he could only shake his head in exasperation. it was basically a group of devotees all simultaneously empowering a single individual.


    regardless of how powerful his own willpower was, he wasn''t able to overwhelm fifteen wills combined, especially not when one of them already had a concept.


    seeing his first confrontation not go so well, he took a step back and re-evaluated his situation with calm eyes.


    hmm, that might work actually, he thought to himself with a grunt.


    after a few seconds, he decided on his new path forward.


    he tossed out a single powerfully enhanced spike and followed that with a dozen smaller and weaker ones.


    as expected, the warrior hobgoblin had some sort of skill that protected the archers. julius could only watch as the shield slung in front of the monster glowed and a massive opaque green wall planted itself between julius and them.


    the strong spikes and the single, really strong one struck the barrier hard with a loud boom.


    the barrier shook and wavered for a second. however, unlike the barriers from before, it was able to hold up against julius''s spikes.


    seeing that his gut was right, he could only shake his head and slowly approach the hobgoblin with his own two feet, no longer content to sit back.


    he believed that if he really wanted to, he could bombard the barrier of the warrior until it broke or until all of the mana it was borrowing from its comrades ran out.


    however, he felt like that would be a gross waste of mana.


    he had a better idea which required him to use much less mana. it would just wear him out physically instead. if only he had a healing skill that solved that problem for him¡­ oh wait¡­ he did.


    he laughed to himself as he was once again grateful for his powerful skills.


    his walk slowly transitioned into a jog, which then turned into a full-on sprint as he charged the large green monster with a challenging grin on his face.


    he didn''t bother to create any armor over himself. he only covered his fists and lower legs with condensed mana, and that was only because they were more for offense and not really for defense.


    if this thing wanted to protect all of its friends from him, julius would just have to bash through it to get to them.


    he used [flash step] to close the distance before the hobgoblin was ready for him. taken off guard, julius was able to send a powerful kick at the kneecap of his opponent. he aimed right at the joint so that if he connected, he would completely dislocate the knee.


    he did connect and when he heard the crushing sound of cartilage he quickly sent another blow at the same spot. almost disintegrating the joint within the blink of an eye.


    once it dropped to one knee, julius smashed his mana-covered knuckles into the cheekbone of the monster. making sure to send a huge burst of kinetic energy through his fist, breaking through its concept-infused defenses and tearing a chunk out of its face.


    julius was able to deliver such a brutal attack but not without some cost.


    while he was busy brutalizing the warrior, the archers didn''t just sit back and do nothing. they sent a rain of arrows at him.


    they had some sort of skill attached to them as well that made them seem more penetrative and then suddenly multiply when they were in the air. the fourteen archers were able to shoot close to a hundred arrows at once.


    even though julius noticed them incoming, he decided to take a few of them in return for dealing with the warrior quickly. he did manage to come out relatively unharmed.


    three arrows hit him, two of those scraped him as he was unable to dodge and a single one lodged into his shoulder.


    their frontliner had taken much more damage though. the warrior was a pincushion of arrows.


    that was another question he had about the effectiveness of their strategy. how were they going to hit him without hitting their comrade?


    his question quickly got answered, they weren''t about it at all. it almost felt like they didn''t even try to avoid the warrior. in fact, he would daresay some of them purposefully hit it.


    he couldn''t help but give a confused look at the archers and down to the critically injured hobgoblin at his feet.


    however, that confused look quickly turned into one of bafflement as he saw the arrows sticking out of the hobgoblin start to glow and then get absorbed into the monster in an instant.


    once they were absorbed he felt a surge of life mana wash through the monster and he watched as all of its injuries were healed in mere moments.


    he could only stare at it with disbelief.


    was this what other people felt like when fighting him?


    he could start to see why dustin and the others complained about it.

 Chapter 242 Cant Even Sit

    seeing the fully healed hobgoblin stand back up as if nothing happened annoyed him.that wasn''t fair, he was the only one who could heal like that. that was his thing and this monster was stealing it from him.


    he let out another breath of air. the seventh wave was proving to be the hardest wave so far, still, that was within expectations. he didn''t think he would be able to finish the tenth wave without exerting himself a little bit.


    regardless, he narrowed his eyes as he glared at the beast. okay, you want to show off your healing in front of me, huh? let me show you how it''s done.


    cracking his neck, he focused his gaze toward the archers who had released another volley of arrows at him as he stood by and observed the hobgoblin heal.


    the arrows were fast, but they weren''t as powerful as some of the other attacks he experienced from other tier 3s. they had some sort of penetrative skill empowering them, but compared to his [armaments of the arcane] they were lacking in many things.


    he casually created a barrier of mana in front of him and blocked all of the arrows without trouble. they weren''t even able to make a scratch on his barrier. his sharpness concept cut away the arrow''s connection to the archers, making the power behind them lessen considerably.


    seeing that, made him pause in excitement.


    his sharpness concept, severing will was something that he hadn''t been paying much attention to lately. at least when he compared it to his will concept or his phoenix concept, it was clearly at a level below them.


    if he were to rank concepts, he would say that his sharpness concept was around the upper echelons of the low tier or a weaker middle tier concept, whereas his will concept was around the top of middle tier. his phoenix concept was easily in the high tier, it was in a class of its own.


    it was just hard to use compared to his other concepts.


    his sharpness concept, on the other hand, was quite easy to use. it had one simple ability. to cut anything in his path.


    whether that was the defenses of his opponents or to cut apart the mana making up their constructs or skills, julius would be able to use severing will to do so.


    so why couldn''t he use the same thought process to cut away the connection that bound the single hobgoblin and the archers?


    with a new idea in mind, he smiled and dashed toward the hobgoblin once more. he completely ignored the rain of arrows coming his way and only had the single large hobgoblin focused in his eyes.


    it tried to block julius with its shield, but it was slow. even with the empowerment from all of its comrades, its speed wasn''t impressive. most of the empowerment was in the form of healing and aiding willpower.


    julius suspected that the hobgoblin wouldn''t be able to handle such an increase in speed, with its limited body in addition to what was already flowing through it.


    he grabbed a corner of the shield and used a large pulse of kinetic energy and attempted to rip the shield away from its body. while the monster''s speed wasn''t impressive, its strength was quite noteworthy. it took him considerable effort to overpower the monster. but in the end, it wasn''t able to hold onto the shield and protect itself.


    julius crushed a fist covered in [aura burn] and [armaments of the arcane] into the liver of the monster, sending it staggering back several feet.


    [aura burn] did its job and he heard the beast roar out in pain as the flames burned its aura without mercy.


    however, the real attack, the one he used with [armaments of the arcane] was the one he most interested in.


    he had pumped a lot of his severing will into his attack and focused on severing the connection between the hobgoblin and the fourteen archers off in the distance. s§×ar?h the n?velfire(.)net website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    the combined willpower of the fifteen of them tried to stop the attack. but julius wasn''t attacking the hobgoblin directly. he was attacking the thin connection between it and the rest of them. that meant he didn''t have to compete with the combined willpower. he only needed to deal with a single side of the connection.


    if the archers and hobgoblin were the two anchors on a mountain, the connection was the wire that linked them together. and julius shredded that wire with brutal precision. the connection fell apart and the empowerment the large hobgoblin was experiencing faded away like nothing ever existed.


    he saw the astonishment in the creature''s eyes as the glow surrounding its body dimmed to nothing and then fear appeared in its eyes as julius stalked toward it.


    the monster looked back toward the archers with panicked eyes and julius watched as a massive volley of arrows headed toward him, this time though, not a single one got close to the hobgoblin.


    he smiled as his plan seemed to have worked perfectly and went on the offensive once more.


    a surge of kinetic energy had him in front of the lone monster and he smashed a front kick at its shield. the strike was so powerful that it was staggered back once again, not being able to deal with such a strong blow.


    julius then used [flash step] to get behind the hobgoblin and brutalized the beast with an endless swarm of blows. each one had [aura burn] damaging it and he even used [barrier of severance] on the skin of his body to give him even more damage.


    he didn''t bother to use any of his constructs, this was more mana-efficient, and for some reason, he really wanted to finish this thing off with his own two fists.


    [kinetic augmentation], [thermal empowerment], [aura burn], and [barrier of severance] all worked in perfect tandem.


    one enhanced his overall explosiveness and power, the other helped his body handle this power, one burned his opponents aura, and the other shredded the skin and defensive layers of the monster.


    it wasn''t able to even get in a single hit before it crashed to the ground, a smoking husk was all that remained after he was done with it.


    he then turned to the archers who had been much more careful about their attacks now that their connection between it and their protector was gone. they only sent out several attacks and tried to reestablish the connection multiple times, but he always made sure to cut it off before they could.


    giving these archers a wide-eyed stare, he charged the closest one with murderous intent. now that they didn''t have their protector, they were sitting ducks.


    he was already on top of a lone archer who released an arrow as he threw a punch. [barrier of severance] was enough on its own to destroy the arrow before it penetrated his flesh.


    the barrier that one of its comrades created in front of it wasn''t enough either. now that he knew how strong the barriers were, he used just the right amount of mana and kinetic energy to tear through the barrier.


    he ignored the rain of arrows that was heading his way, it would seem that the other archers already decided to shoot regardless of who was caught in the crossfire. he sidestepped one last desperate swing from the archer it made with its bow and sent out a charged fist.


    the archer didn''t have anything left and was torn apart with a swift punch to the head. but not soon after, the now dead archer was pierced by a dozen arrows like a pincushion.


    after he was done, he glared at the rest of the archers who had decided that friendly fire was now the better choice.


    [barrier of severance] had been enough to protect him from most of the arrows that hit him, but some of them were still able to penetrate his skin since he wasn''t wearing any armor. he casually pulled out the couple of arrows that had managed to hit him.


    he didn''t bother healing his wounds. they weren''t that bad and he would rather heal using his natural regeneration rather than using an intensive skill like [phoenix renewal] to do so.


    it wasn''t like they were poisoned or cursed either, so there was no real need. he would be able to fight just as well even if he had a couple of new holes in his body. he had dealt with much worse before.


    two down, thirteen to go, he noted to himself as his eyes locked on to the nearest archer.


    he took off in a burst of speed using [flash step] to appear next to the archer and quickly dispatched it in a similar manner.


    twelve more¡­


    ***


    congratulations, seventh wave completed¡­ please wait ten minutes for the eighth wave.


    after he took down the hobgoblin with the concept, he had taken out the rest of the archers within a minute or so.


    without their protector, they were just monsters with a few useful skills and some long-range attacks.


    nothing he wasn''t able to handle.


    he was curious about what kind of concept that hobgoblin had though. he wasn''t able to get a close enough look at it to determine what it was, but it was probably something that allowed it to establish such a connection with the other hobgoblin archers.


    some kind of concept that revolved around unity or cooperation perhaps? he knew that there were many esoteric concepts out there, but he wished he had a way to determine what kind of concept someone had with greater accuracy.


    it would help him a lot with analyzing an opponent and their potential strengths and weaknesses.


    julius could only shake his head and sit back down on the ground.


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    he had been about to create a chair made of mana out of pure instinct, but he stopped himself at the last moment and reminded himself that he needed to save as much as he could. he had splurged on the prior waves, but he knew that it wasn''t smart to do so now.


    conserving mana became more important than ever, especially considering that this was the first fight where he wasn''t going to be able to recover all of the mana he used during the fight.


    it wasn''t by much, but it was still something he noticed.


    he could have used one of the constructs that were still hovering above him and remolded it into a chair, but even something like that wasted a small amount of mana during the conversion process.


    it didn''t matter if he had an absurd amount of mana, he wanted the best chance to complete this challenge then using his mana appropriately was crucial.


    thus he had tried to remove a chair from his storage ring but was surprised to find that he was unable to do so.


    richard had already told him that using potions and other items that give an unfair advantage weren''t allowed to be removed from his ring. however, he had been allowed to take out food from his storage ring, which made him believe that he would be able to take out a chair. but he found himself being restricted from doing so.


    he would understand if the rift prevented him from taking out a powerful weapon or a special treasure to heal himself with, but this was a chair he was talking about.


    what did the rift think he was going to do with a soft leather chair? use it as a deadly weapon that would help him complete this challenge?


    he could only shake his head in disbelief and relegated himself to sitting on the grassy dirt while munching on his snacks with a sad frown, internally cursing whoever controlled this rift.

 Chapter 243 Stupid Ants

    the eighth wave arrived right on time. however, he was surprised when it wasn''t another group of hobgoblins. the rift must have decided to change things up for him. in their place was something he had been praying not to show up.something he had thought wouldn''t show up this late in the waves.


    all around him, gathered on every side of the hill was a countless horde of ants the size of small dogs.


    there were so many he couldn''t even begin to count.


    it was just a black wall of moving dots as they made their way up the hill.


    he cursed the rift once more. he hated insects. ants, cockroaches, mosquitos, and flies.


    he understood that ants had their purpose in nature. they helped aerate the ground, but he still didn''t like them too much. it probably stemmed from him falling into an anthill when he was young and came out with scars littering his legs for the rest of his life.


    lingering resentment tended to stay with a person when something like that happened to them. it also didn''t help that these ants were hundreds of times larger than the ones he was used to.


    when he looked down the hill again he couldn''t help but get the creepy crawlies.


    there were so many ants.


    but on the other hand, he was glad that the rift had chosen ants. since they were ants, he was free to go wild. he was actually looking forward to crushing them.


    he raised his hand upward into the air dramatically and clenched it into a fist. he wouldn''t leave any alive, that was his promise.


    the ants weren''t that strong either. most of them were only tier 2, but some among them were tier 3. and he was able to feel one particularly strong one shine out from the rest. this one most likely had a concept of its own and was the one controlling the rest.


    perhaps, it was their queen or something.


    he was already moving before he was even aware of it himself. he tossed out a strong spike of mana at the queen. but was surprised to see a literal wave of ants come crashing down onto the queen and protect it with their own bodies.


    the spike detonated and caused an explosion that killed at least a couple dozen ants. but he wasn''t able to hurt the queen. soon afterward, the ants all swarmed the queen and covered her in countless layers of bodies.


    he didn''t think he would be getting through something like that very easily. not even if he used his blue flames and a lot of mana.


    even if he did, it wouldn''t likely work. the queen would simply just move away once he was close to hitting her.


    while these ants weren''t strong there was such a large number of them that he couldn''t help but feel a little nervous.


    he wasn''t nervous because he was afraid of dying to these ants but because he was worried about how much mana he was going to have to use to deal with all of them.


    he suspected that was the rift''s plan. it was possible that the prior waves were just to get an idea of his skills and test him in various ways. but now it realized that it would need to drain julius of his mana.


    or perhaps he was giving too much credit to the rift.


    he shook his head, no matter how well he did on conserving his mana, he would have to use a lot in order to take them all out.


    however, he did have an idea already in mind though.


    it was a little cowardly and wasn''t something he had practiced yet, but he believed it would help him have more mana left over after this wave was complete.


    besides, it was an idea he had been wanting to try for a long time now. he did feel like he was ready though.


    well¡­ he hoped that he was.


    with a loud boom, he jumped and released a burst of kinetic energy from his feet.


    he got pretty high off of that one jump and right as he reached the apex, he created a panel of mana below his feet that acted like a platform. he then used this panel to jump even higher up. it was a little hard to maintain the panel stable in the air, but his manipulation and willpower had increased vastly in these past couple of months, and was able to do so with a little extra effort.


    he repeated this a couple of times until he was happy with his position and finally rested onto a stable platform high in the sky. he wasn''t actually flying, but it would give him a higher vantage point where he could use his long-ranged attacks without being harassed.


    this gave him a simple way to relax and conserve his mana.


    getting overwhelmed by sheer numbers seemed like the biggest danger. it also helped a lot that this way he didn''t need to get any closer to them. now he would be able to throw down as many spikes as he wanted with plenty of time to regenerate some of his mana as he did so.


    it didn''t hurt that he also didn''t need to actually touch them, but that totally wasn''t the reason why he chose this strategy. definitely not.


    he didn''t see any wings on them and didn''t see a way for them to deal with him easily. in fact, he was already mentally preparing himself that the next wave would have something that would prevent him from doing the same tactic once more.


    he created a nice couple dozen orbs of mana, each one was made for its explosiveness and how much area it could cover, rather than for piercing defenses. they were beautiful things. deep swirling blue flames danced around the orbs looking like pretty little balls of death.


    since he was safe up here, he decided to test if his blue flames would be more efficient.


    he gave the ants below, who were already at the top of the hill one last smug smile before he dropped all of them off of his little platform like dropping glass marbles to the floor.


    the explosions below rang out like a beautiful symphony of fire and death.


    each orb was actually stronger than he thought it would be. these orbs created massive craters that tore apart countless ants in a single blast. he even got a little lucky and took out a few tier 3s when they got too close to the blast radius.


    he didn''t follow up the bombard immediately afterward either, he just sat down on the platform he created and watched the ants run around in chaos as his mana recovered passively.


    he couldn''t help but draw comparisons to people in his old world who would burn down antshills or pour molten metal down them. he had never done that before so this was a novel experience for him.


    he could understand why these people used to laugh when they did it too, because at the moment he was close to cheering out in joy.


    while he waited, he thought he might as well check the notifications he had been putting off since the beginning of the rift. s§×ar?h the nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [armaments of the arcane lvl 7 -> lvl 8]


    [sage of savagery lvl 7 -> lvl 8]


    [flash step lvl 11 -> lvl 12]


    [barrier of severance lvl 15 -> lvl 16]


    [thermal empowerment lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    [aura burn lvl 7 -> lvl 8]


    a bunch of skills leveled up by one level. [armaments of the arcane] and [sage of savagery] weren''t that surprising to see, he had been on the cusp of another level for a while.


    neither was [flash step], [thermal empowerment], or [aura burn]. but seeing [barrier of severance] was a little bit of a surprise.


    he hadn''t gained a level in this skill for a while. it had been kind of stagnating and left forgotten in his skill slots. but perhaps this was a sign that he should begin to focus on it again.


    after all, it had been of great use in dealing with the previous wave.


    it was also a guaranteed epic skill once he got it to level 20. his severing will concept would quickly assimilate with it and evolve it from there.


    he was very excited for [thermal empowerment] to reach level 15 though. it was only a level away and he was very tempted to forget about hiding up in the sky and go down there. but he reminded himself that there was a good chance he would have an opportunity pretty soon and to be patient.


    although he couldn''t help but wonder what kind of skill he would be offered.


    he was hoping that since he infused his phoenix concept with his fire mana, it would generate better options, but it was hard to say. he wasn''t really able to use his phoenix concept to its full strength because of the limitation of it being an uncommon skill.


    ***


    once he felt like he regenerated enough mana, he created some new orbs, this time he played around with them a little bit before he let them go.


    this time around, he added his sharpness concept and packed it between the layers of the orbs in specific arrangments. he was hoping that this would release waves of sharpened mana outward once they exploded.


    so with curiosity shimmering in his eyes, he dropped the orbs and focused on how effective this addition would make them.


    to his disappointment, he sensed that the layers of sharpness-infused mana didn''t release as he had planned. instead, the layers were quickly destroyed by the overwhelming power of the explosion.


    in fact, not only did it not add anything to the orbs, it actually might have hindered their effectiveness.


    since the blast had to take time to destroy the new layers he created, it probably wasted some energy to do so.


    back to the drawing board, it would seem.


    he completely ignored the devastation he created below him. after the second bombardment, a significant number of ants were blown up. probably leaving three-fourths of them still alive.


    this was perfect for him. this meant that he had several more chances to see if he could improve these orbs and test out some more theories. he clapped his hands together in excitement.


    continue reading on empire


    ***


    there was only a small number of ants left. a fraction of what had been an endless horde of creepy insects.


    the ground all around him was littered with deep craters that were smoking and ash was floating in the air.


    while he hadn''t been able to create an advantageous environment for himself before the wave started, it seemed that he was able to once it began. or at least if it was by accident.


    shockingly, the queen was still alive, it had sacrificed most of its underlings to protect itself. it even used some kind of skill that allowed it to heal itself and take the mana of the other ants.


    it would seem that taking out all of the ants before was the simplest option.


    he didn''t really care about that though. for the past half an hour he had been solely focused on adapting his explosive orbs using his sharpness concept to improve its damage output.


    and only after many attempts, did he believe he had it right.


    he stood up on the platform that he was still relaxing on and released a single orb.


    this one though was very different than the ones he had been sending down, it was quite volatile.


    he had realized after multiple attempts, that what he needed wasn''t to find a delicate solution to use his sharpness concept more effectively.


    he was going for destruction which meant that straightforward methods would work the best.


    and that required him to pack as much of both energies into the small orb.


    there was no need for multiple elegant layers, he just needed to jam them all together and hold it together with pure willpower.


    and that was exactly what he did.


    this tiny orb the size of his hand, now had more energy than he ever used in a single construct. but by adding more, he was able to add more of his sharpness concept as well using [barrier of severance] as an aid.


    it worked out wonderfully though, the other energies balanced in a way he wasn''t able to do by layering it.


    when he let go of the orb, it didn''t simply fall like the other orbs he had dropped. this one plummeted to the ground like it was made of a tungsten alloy rod smashing toward the surface below.


    he could only smile in glee as the entire hill below him was wiped out in a flash of bright light and a deafening boom. it was so big that the shockwave exploded upward and almost knocked him off of his platform.


    but in the end, there was not a single ant left standing.


    hell, there was barely a hill either, it was just a scorched hole in the ground. it was only then that he allowed himself to chuckle.


    congratulations, eight wave completed¡­ please wait ten minutes for the ninth wave.

 Chapter 244 Resonating Burst

    Julius pumped his fist through the air and checked the notifications he received with a smile.[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 8 -> lvl 9]


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 16 -> lvl 17]


    It also felt good taking out all of those ants. Those things were menaces, especially when they were the size of a fully grown poodle.


    He took a glance at his mana to see where it stood at and winced a little bit.


    That last orb had taken a good chunk out of his mana. More than he had been planning to at least. But he also thought that it was a worthwhile endeavor. He now had a new way to create his constructed bombs.


    Plus, he still had a good amount left over.


    At Tier 2, he had a lot of mana for his tier, but now that he had advanced to Tier 3 it had gotten even larger. And while that advantage of having more mana than other people of his tier wouldn''t be as drastic as it once had been, it was still big.


    While he was about to sit down and relax, he felt something shift around him.


    It was like the entire rift had gripped him and then suddenly all he saw was blackness.


    Thankfully, only a few moments went by like this until he was able to see again.


    He was no longer standing on top of the hill. He was now standing in a very large closed cavern. The ceiling wasn''t that high and he was placed in the center of a massive bowl.


    Okay, I suspected the rift wouldn''t like how I completed that last wave, but this is going too far. I am literally being put into a death pit, he complained.


    At least the hill had given him some kind of positional advantage, but now he was literally in the center of a sloped bowl where he was the main target.


    With that being said, he wasn''t just going to sit in the pit and let the wave start with him totally exposed. Nope, he would at least make his way toward the taller edges of the bowl.


    Or he would have if he could.


    Once he started to try to walk up the slope toward the other side, he felt something grab ahold of him. It was like someone had taken control of all of his limbs and he couldn''t move a single inch.


    It was as if his own kinetic technique was being used against him.


    He could only sigh in amazement. Was the rift really trying so hard to handicap him? What did he do? He couldn''t even reposition himself so he was in the worst place to be.


    He found that he was able to move as long as he wasn''t actively trying to go to the top part of the slope. So instead, he just sat down and meditated. He might as well recover as much mana as he could.


    He had a bad feeling that this next wave is going to be much more difficult than the last one and the ones before it combined.


    ***


    Yep, I''m in deep shit, he thought to himself as he stared at the spawned horde in front of him.


    Of course, the rift couldn''t have shown him some mercy and gave him another monster to fight. Nope, it must have sensed his revulsion because once again it sent another army of ants at him.


    But for every ten of the weaker ants, he sensed at least one Tier 3 ant to go along with them.


    To make it even worse, there had to be around half a dozen larger insects that stood out from the rest.


    He would bet every piece of food in his storage ring that they had at least one Concept.


    Yep, he was sure of it. The rift was out to get him, there was no way a normal Tier 3 would be able to handle all of these monsters. It was probably only due to his performance so far that it was doing this.


    Stupid hard difficultly, why did it actually have to be this hard? Just because something was labeled ''hard'' didn''t mean it really had to be.


    He cursed the rift once more in his head.


    He better be getting a good reward out of this once he finishes the Challenge. If he didn''t, he would actually try and permanently destroy this rift if all it gave him was a stupid shiny sword at the end of it.


    Once again, he wasn''t worried about dying or anything. The ants were scary, but they weren''t out of his expectations.


    He was just certain that he wouldn''t get out of this one without using a lot of mana. It was too many opponents and there weren''t even ways for him to safely disengage to recover his mana.


    There was no sky for him to hide or any way for him to lead them around the nose while he regenerated mana. He would be swarmed by all of these monsters pretty quickly.


    Speaking of which, the stupid ants didn''t wait for him to act, they went after him the moment they spawned.


    Julius could only sigh as he went in.


    He wouldn''t be using his newly discovered bomb unless he needed to. He would try to take out these things in close combat to conserve as much mana as he possibly could.


    On the bright side, he would get a good opportunity to train up his body skills.


    He dashed forward to a random group of ants. Their razor-sharp mandibles didn''t deter him.


    He activated [Thermal Empowerment] and [Kinetic Augmentation], however, he made sure to tone down [Kinetic Augmentation] for the moment, keeping the balance between the two pretty even. After all, it was the more resource-intensive skill between the two skills.


    That being said, the ants didn''t stand a chance.


    He tore through three of them with three strikes. Crushing the skulls of two of them and ripping through the throat of the other one within seconds.


    When they did try and swarm him, he just released a powerful localized blast of mana, which took care of all of them easily and efficiently.


    He was hoping that they would continue this strategy as it actually helped him. However, it would seem the rift or the ants seemed to understand this and stopped swarming him. Much to his displeasure.


    The biggest advantage he had was that the ants were large enough that they got in each other''s way, so only a few could attack him at once.


    Suddenly he noticed a shining white light spear down from the ceiling.


    He used [Flash Step] to dodge it and tried to figure out where that attack came from. He took out several other ants as he did so, not sensing anything.


    It wasn''t until he was clipped from behind and staggered a bit that he sensed a pulse of mana come from the ceiling once more.


    He quickly traced the mana back to one of the larger ants sitting in the back. Its eyes were glowing white and was looking at Julius with an expression that he could only think of as taunting.


    Just because he felt spiteful, Julius sent a quick spike of mana at the ant in question. He didn''t know if it was the queen though, it looked very similar to the rest. But he wasn''t surprised when a thick layer of mana formed around the ant. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The spike still tore through it, but it had weakened the spike enough that the quick ant evaded it before it could do too much damage and hid behind the rest of its comrades.


    Julius made sure to give it a taunting look in return before focusing back on the horde of ants trying to eat his face.


    Like he said, he wasn''t in any real trouble as of yet. [Barrier of Severance] and his enhancement skills were more than enough to protect him against these weak Tier 2 ants. He didn''t even have any need to use his constructs yet.


    He reminded himself to stay focused as he got distracted when one of the Tier 3 ants decided to attack him from behind. It left a small scrape that managed to pierce his defenses, but it wasn''t that bad. It was shallow enough that he decided not to even heal it.


    But he turned his attention toward it and hunted it down before it could do it again. With a burst of speed, he tore through half a dozen ants and stood in front of the Tier 3 ant.


    It had tried to retreat after its attempt, but Julius wasn''t going to allow it. He grabbed the ant by its jaws as it tried to bite him and while he kicked away the swarming ants, he tore the monster''s bottom jaw from its face with a grunt.


    He then infused some of his Sharpness Concept into the jaw and threw it at the nearest ant in a burst of speed. It pierced the ant''s chest and lodged itself into the ant behind it with a loud thump.


    He kept at it.


    He didn''t show any mercy and was animalistic in the way he tore these revolting insects apart. He would often use the ants themselves as weapons to throw around and use as shields.


    He fell into a trance. It didn''t matter if they were Tier 2 or Tier 3, they were crushed under his fists all the same.


    In the back of his mind, he realized that he was burning through his stamina and to some extent his mana, but he was way too occupied with the fight to care. He felt himself smiling like a madman as if he were like a bloody storm of death.


    He was making continuous improvements to his enhancement skills and in the background, he knew that he had multiple notifications already present.


    However, while he was absorbed in combat, he started to feel something else. Something that made him very excited and forced him to use [Sage of Savagery] to delve deeper into the sensation.


    The world seemed to slow down as he became more conscious about each punch and strike he made.


    He was aware of the gathering and eventual release of his kinetic energy, the effect pummeling his opponents into pulp.


    His kinetic energy felt so snappy and explosive.


    It was quiet one moment and deafening the next.


    It was during this moment that he reached the realm of profoundness that he had been searching for.


    His blows started to feel less simple and more explosive. It was almost like the echoed and poured into his opponents like an endless tidal wave.


    That''s it, he smiled to himself in realization.


    He smashed a fist into one of the larger ants and he felt his kinetic energy vibrate through its body in a series of waves.


    It was a strike that was way stronger than it should have been considering how much mana and kinetic energy he used in it.


    One moment the ant was there and the next moment the entire ant disappeared in a flash of exploding yellow blood. It was like the ant had imploded from the inside.


    And as the blood and flesh from the monster rained down on him from the sky, he finally understood what he had been missing and couldn''t help but laugh out loud.


    Congratulations, you have acquired the Concept of Force: Resonating Burst

 Chapter 245 Ugly Work At Best

    Reinera POVShe 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. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    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.

 Chapter 246 Stone Titan

    Julius once more watched as the hundreds of bodies around him dissipated into light particles. Even the blood that he was absolutely covered in was gone like it was never there.He only had one more wave to go and made sure to check his mana before he did.


    He frowned when he noticed how much mana he had ended up using. He only had around half of his mana left and that was without him using his more cost-intensive skills, it was less than he was hoping for.


    Although he did kind of lose track of time when he was fighting, so it was hard to estimate how long he had fought those ants.


    He could only hope that the last wave wouldn''t punish him for it.


    Regardless, he was excited about what had popped up¡­


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 19 -> lvl 20]


    Kinetic Augmentation has advanced to level 20. Would you like to evolve the skill?


    That wasn''t all either. It would seem he managed to get [Thermal Empowerment] there as well.


    [Thermal Empowerment lvl 14 -> lvl 15]


    Thermal Empowerment has advanced to level 15¡­ Error¡­


    Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Thermal Empowerment] and [Aura Burn] into a single skill?


    I was definitely not expecting something like this, he thought to himself, taken aback by the new development.


    He had not experienced a simultaneous advancement option and a synergy notification before. But he certainly wasn''t going to complain.


    It was what he had been hoping for when he chose [Aura Burn].


    There were kind of a lot of notifications at once and he wanted to organize them real quick.


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    First of all, [Kinetic Augmentation] had reached level 20, which was a big leap and one that he believed happened only because of his newly acquired Concept. The skill had been teetering on the edge for a while and it was nice that it had finally made that last step.


    But he made sure not to open the notification, he didn''t want to open the option selection yet. Not until he saw the ones he got for [Thermal Empowerment] and [Aura Burn].


    Speaking of which, he didn''t hold off accepting that notification and accepted it promptly.


    Synergy detected. Would you like to evolve [Thermal Empowerment] and [Aura Burn] into a single skill?


    You have learned the skill [Scorching Empowerment] (Rare+)


    He wasn''t that surprised to see it registered as a superior skill, as a matter of fact, he would be much more upset if it wasn''t. He didn''t put all that work into infusing his Concepts into both of the skill''s usages for nothing.


    Although it didn''t have the ''of'' descriptor, he didn''t care too much about that. He was still planning on merging it with [Kinetic Augmentation].


    He then checked out his status to see what had changed.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 3


    Skills:


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 9] (Epic)


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 8] (Epic)


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 5] (Epic)


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 19] (Rare+)


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 17] (Rare+)


    [Soul Tempering lvl 7] (Rare+)


    [Scorching Empowerment lvl 1] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 20] (Rare)


    [Flash Step lvl 11] (Rare)


    Current Skill Slots: 10/11


    Concepts:


    [Concept of Sharpness]


    [Severing Will]


    [Concept of Will]


    [Inexorable Resolve]


    [Concept of Phoenix]


    [Ashen Rebirth]


    [Concept of Force]


    [Resonating Burst]


    Everything seemed to check out. His new Concept was properly reflected in it and he now had an extra slot available to him.


    A part of him was tempted to accept [Kinetic Restriction] then and there, but he held off with a supreme act of willpower. He had a gut feeling that the technique would become much less energy-consuming if it was a proper skill. But decided to wait at least until he was done with the Challenge Rift.


    The ten minutes were close to being up and the final wave would be approaching any moment. Julius would like to meditate and try to recover as much mana as he could before it did. He had a feeling that this next one was not going to be a walk in the park.


    But he would just have to wait and see.


    ***


    The start of the wave didn''t begin like he expected.


    No, instead of a horde of monsters or god forbid another wave of gross insects appearing in front of his eyes, all he got was a loud rumbling throughout the dark cavern.


    It was pretty dark, but that didn''t bother Julius. He rarely fought while relying on his eyesight.


    But the rumbling did concern him because it was getting louder and louder until it suddenly stopped. Just when he was about to relax a bright light bloomed throughout the entire cavern, blinding him temporarily and when he finally opened his eyes he was stunned at what stood in front of him.


    Big.


    That was the first thing that popped up in his head. It was at least fifteen feet tall and was built like a tiny mountain.


    It was very humanlike in its appearance, but it had distinctly monster-like qualities. It was completely covered in some sort of rough armor made up entirely of dark stone with red craggy lines woven through it, but he could feel the oppressive power coursing through those lines.


    Its blood-red eyes stared down at him with complete disdain, which kind of pissed Julius off. He didn''t know if this thing was sentient, but the look it was giving him made Julius want to crush the stone around its throat.


    It held an equally large sword in one hand with a shield in the other. Each weapon had the same red markings as its skin did and released a similar oppressive aura.


    If he was being honest, the giant''s whole aesthetic was pretty cool. It looked like a boss monster straight from Dark Souls and he could practically imagine the health bar appearing above its head.


    The other thing that really stood out to him was the fact that this monster felt way more powerful than any other Tier 3 monster Julius had the chance to fight.


    Just the aura that was surging off this giant screamed that it had at least one really strong Concept that Julius suspected had to do with strength or oppression. He said this because when he was in its presence he got the feeling that he should be kneeling in front of it.


    As if he should be grateful that he was even allowed to breathe in the same space as it.


    It actually reminded him of the aura of the undead knights, the one with the Corruption Concept, but even more powerful.


    If not for his own strong willpower, he would have collapsed to one knee. However, as if it was replying to the challenge, his Emblem lit up violently in response. Roaring back at the monster''s aura.


    To Julius''s astonishment, for the first time since he gained his Emblem, he felt something resist his Emblem. He knew right then and there that this monster had an Emblem of its own. Which also meant that it had at least three Concepts as well.


    A part of him got worried about that, but he quickly squashed that feeling. So what if this thing had an Emblem?


    He had already fought a Tier 4 before who had a complete Authority of their own. And while he didn''t win, he still put up a good fight.


    Therefore, this monster shouldn''t be a problem for him.


    He watched as the giant slowly walked toward him, dragging its long sword behind it as it did. The edge of the blade was obviously sharp considering that just by dragging it, the sword was cutting through the stone floor.


    Its shield was pulled up in front of it and it started to slowly pick up its pace from a walk to a jog.


    Julius let out a deep breath and prepared himself.


    He wasn''t holding back this time. This was the last wave and he no longer had to worry about saving his mana. He could fight to his heart''s content.


    So he activated both of his rare-ranked body enhancement skills and dashed toward the monster.


    Fire and small pulses of blue kinetic energy sparked off of him as he ran, constructs forming around his arms, legs, and a small chest piece, but left his face uncovered.


    His new skill, [Scorching Empowerment] was unbelievably stronger than the other two skills. He was confident that it was on par with [Kinetic Augmentation] if not stronger at this point.


    He layered both of the skills so that he got the benefits of both and the results were glorious. He was able to move faster than ever and he could feel just how much power was packed in his muscles.


    When the two of them finally clashed, the shockwave shook the cavern. His new Force Concept surged forth and smashed into the monster''s shield.


    However, unlike what happened with the ants, it took the blow with relative ease. The massive giant barely budged an inch and in return, it swung its sword with way more speed than a monster of its size should be able to.


    He had to use a [Flash Step] to avoid the massive broadsword that almost took his scalp off and get some distance to rethink his approach.


    The good news was that his new body enhancement skill was a great improvement. This thing was very strong physically, it made the two-headed bear seem like a toddler in comparison. And it was only due to his improvements that he was able to come out even in the exchange.


    If he hadn''t gotten the new skill or Concept, he might have been blown off of his feet and into the nearest wall.


    With that being said, it might be a good chance to try out his new bombs at this thing. It was way faster than he first initially believed, the sword strike had used some type of skill as well. Perhaps, it was another Concept in work as well.


    Thus he jumped back and quickly created a spike. He didn''t keep anything back and flooded it with all of his Concepts. Even his newly acquired one.


    However, he unfortunately reached a point where the orb wasn''t able to contain any more energy. Thus, he sent what he was able to jam inside of it at the monster.


    To his dismay, he saw the creature activate one of its skills and hold up its shield. The spike hit really hard, the explosion itself almost deafened him, but after the dust cleared, the shield was still in place and so was the monster.


    It was at that moment did he began to understand just how strong this monster in front of him was. This wasn''t just any Tier 3. This was a Tier 3 who was on the cusp of advancing to Tier 4.


    He believed that this monster would even give Dustin a hard time.


    Julius shook his head bemusingly and prevented himself from tossing out another spike. He needed to find a way to take care of this thing before he started to waste more mana sending out constructs at it.


    It was a humbling reality to see a monster at Tier 3 manage to keep up with him. He had been so confident that nobody at Tier 3 would be able to beat him after he fought Dustin. He had believed that if he could go toe-to-toe with a Tier 4 as strong as the older man, he would be able to take out anyone else with ease.


    But it would seem he would need to reevaluate that assumption going forward in the future.


    However, another part of him was glad.


    He was glad that he had another challenging opponent in front of him. An opponent that he would be able to fight as equals. After all, there was nothing more he enjoyed more than a good fight.


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 Chapter 247 Just Keep on Hitting It

    The big scary stone giant decided that it wasn''t just going to sit there and let Julius do what he wanted.Julius sensed mana converging around the giant in a powerful swirl and a second later a stone slab the size of a car zipped toward him.


    Julius managed to sidestep it, but doing so left him directly into the charging giant''s sword. He created a construct barrier in front of himself just in time to deflect the sword upward and Julius snuck under the massive shield.


    Since the monster was so large, the only realistic place to hit it was the legs, so he blasted a fist into the thing''s kneecap.


    Unfortunately, its defense was not as weak as the other Tier 3s he had been fighting so far. And the only response he got out of it was a loud thud.


    He quickly dodged the kick from its other leg and blasted one last strike to the same kneecap before he used [Flash Step] to get away, only barely avoiding the sword that struck where he had been only a second prior.


    How was he going to deal with this massive thing? So far even his increased physical abilities weren''t able to deal any significant damage.


    This thing wasn''t as fast as Dustin, but it had the strength and mass to compensate for that. It also knew how to use its weapons pretty decently too.


    It might be a battle of attrition at this point, which he suspected the rift was going for by choosing this particular opponent.


    The rift might have been planning to waste his resources fighting the previous waves and then send him an opponent that would force him to get into a prolonged battle, hoping that he had little mana left.


    Unfortunately for the rift, he didn''t think it really knew just how large his mana pool was. While it may have thought he used a lot because of the prior wave, in truth, he only used about half.


    That means he should have enough to take this giant down. Or at least, he was hoping that was the case.


    He needed to find a better place to attack if he wanted to continue fighting up close though.


    Or perhaps not. Continually bashing its kneecap might not be a terrible idea.


    He doubted that this thing had a regeneration skill like he did and if he tore one of its legs off, it might just topple over like a skyscraper.


    You knew what they said. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.


    Let''s see if that works in this case.


    With his mind made up, he stepped back prepared what he needed to accomplish such a goal. Instead of creating a bunch of spikes to throw at the monster, he decided to create a large wedge.


    It was packed with a lot of kinetic energy and he knew exactly where he was going to put it. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    With a smile, he tore right back toward the giant with a [Flash Step] and cranked both of his physical enhancement skills to their limit. When he did, he felt his speed increase dramatically.


    He slid under the slab of stone that rocketed toward him and jumped over the sword that followed it with a quick application of kinetic energy. The practice he had with the training course helped a lot. He was able to change his direction and accelerate to his maximum speed at the drop of a hat. This meant that he was able to pass the sword with little trouble.


    The real trouble was what was behind the sword.


    The shield was an annoying thing and probably one of the biggest issues he faced. With that being said, he had an idea.


    He quickly created several strong spikes and shot them point-blank at the giant. The monster instinctively protected its exposed face with the shield. The blast was hard and knocked the giant a step back. The explosion covered its vision in smoke.


    That small opening was enough for Julius to use [Flash Step] and a huge surge of kinetic energy to slip around to the side of the giant without it noticing. And when he did he slammed a fully charged leg at its knee.


    He didn''t stop there, he kept on hammering the kneecap with half a dozen other strikes. Eventually, the giant realized what he was doing and was swinging his sword and shield at him. Trying to swat him like one would swat an annoying mosquito.


    But Julius was a tenacious and stubborn mosquito and the monster would find he wasn''t so easily brushed off.


    He did end up taking a few grazes which fractured a couple of bones and one blow which almost took his entire arm off. But he stayed close and didn''t let the giant get any distance.


    He did get caught by a backhanded blow he wasn''t able to dodge in time, but he managed to heal himself in the blink of an eye before throwing himself back into the fray.


    After a few tricky maneuvers, he was able to get back within its guard and continued to hammer away at the same right kneecap he had first struck with stubborn ferocity.


    He was aware that he had two real choices. One was to either fall back and use his long-range skills or he had to get really close and make sure its large weapons weren''t able to use their superior reach on him. His current plan was the latter.


    He danced around the giant like a vengeful storm, not caring about the damage he was taking or the oppressive aura that tried to bog him down. He had [Phoenix Renewal] and he would make sure to make good use of it.


    He activated his Emblem to enforce his willpower and sent the occasional burning debuff at its aura. Which he learned had quite a nice effect and merged pretty well with the new skill.


    To his joy, the giant seemed to react the most whenever he used that skill.


    And while it had an Emblem, Julius was confident that his willpower was much stronger than its willpower.


    The brief clashes proved that. The only problem was that since it had an Emblem, that was enough to hold him at bay for now at least. He didn''t think it would last for long though. As he was rolling and dodging around its legs, he made sure to keep on hammering its Emblem with his own Emblem.


    To his excitement, the aura-burning effect from [Scorching Empowerment] made this much easier and he slowly chipped away at its Emblem while his fist chipped away at its knee.


    And then it finally happened. With one final clash of Emblems, he broke through and overwhelmed it.


    He managed to create a thick fracture along its Emblem and he felt its oppressive aura dissipate into thin air. And the temptation to kneel before it was gone as well.


    The other thing he noticed was that it stumbled back like it was hurt or something. Knowing better than to ignore a perfect opportunity, he smiled briefly before he capitalized on that moment.


    He wrapped his kinetic energy around it and squeezed the life out of it. Its ability to resist his efforts was almost non-existent now. The main difficulty was just how large the thing was and how much effort it took him to freeze it in place.


    But he did and he made sure to take advantage of its immobilization.


    He sent the wedge he had been remotely controlling to stay at a distance to come soaring in alongside as many spikes he could create at once.


    The wedge slammed into the kneecap with such force that Julius was knocked over a dozen feet away.


    He made sure to keep an eye out with [Spatial Perception] though and was happy with the results. The work he had been doing, continuously hammering away at the kneecap, compromising the structural integrity was successful.


    Because of this, the kneecap of the giant was torn completely off and the giant toppled over, desperately trying to balance using its weapons.


    He only gave his hard work a brief moment of glory before he lept back toward the giant with a feral smile.


    The first thing he went for wasn''t to punch its head, which was now within reach. No, his target was the shield that it was using to prop itself up and he sent an overpowered strike at the wrist that was holding onto it.


    The monster which was in a daze from what had just occurred, didn''t even realize what had happened until it was too late. He managed to rip the shield away and with a quick burst of kinetic energy, sent it flying away in the distance.


    He tried to do that with the sword next, but unfortunately, it was able to swing it at him before he could.


    But the damage was done. Its leg was lying across the cavern and its shield was no longer a threat.


    Regardless, he carefully watched as the giant struggled back to one leg and held its sword, pointing its tip toward him.


    The red markings around the creature were flickering and whatever damage he had done to its Emblem didn''t seem like it was going to fix itself anytime soon.


    The aura it had once been throwing out was gone. Now that it was gone, the giant almost seemed pitiable. The domineering and oppressiveness were replaced with defeat and quietness.


    Julius was even able to tell with his last attack, that whatever had been enforcing its body was no longer active. The wrist he struck was almost torn away by just a single strike.


    But it still had some fight left in its eyes. The disdainful look was no longer there, but the angry glint was.


    He didn''t need to be invited twice. He was more than happy to oblige it with another round. This time he was going to finish it for good.


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    So with a menacing stare, he strolled toward the giant with another wedge of mana hovering over his shoulder like a guillotine of death.


    The monster tried to put up one last effort to fight him off, but it was useless. With no shield, no leg, and its Emblem no longer working, there was no way to defend itself.


    Julius smashed the sword aside and drove a spike at the chest of the monster. The stone armor that had once been so sturdy was now like regular stone and crumbled before the attack.


    He checked his mana real quick and was able to sense that he had just under a quarter of it left. But that was enough for what he wanted to do. He didn''t want to risk this thing having some sort of suicide attack so with a quick thought, he summoned over a dozen spikes over his head.


    The pulsing blue from the flames and his kinetic energy danced menacingly over his shoulder. Then with a final command, the salvo of spikes blasted toward the giant and connected in a bright flash of light.


    The deafening explosion rocked the cavern and the only thing remaining where the giant stood was the pommel of the sword and some fragments of stone.

 Chapter 248 Rewards

    Julius watched the creature''s remnants disappear into particles of light and let out a tired sigh.That had been more difficult than he first thought when he planned to take on this Challenge Rift. He had really underestimated how dangerous it was.


    But in the end, he still came out on top so it was worth it.


    Tenth Wave completed¡­ Congratulations, you have completed the Challenge with superior marks. Please wait as your reward is generated¡­


    He couldn''t hold back the smile that overtook his face as he read the message. After what seemed to be forever, he had completed this Challenge Rift.


    Furthermore, it seemed he did so with ''superior'' marks. Which led him to believe he would be getting something good out of this.


    He felt like he had done more than enough to be rewarded with something useful.


    Suddenly, he felt himself get wrapped in some sort of mana but he didn''t panic. It was a familiar sensation he had felt a couple of times by now. A swift jerk and he found himself standing in the same room that had the red button to start the Challenge. Only this time there was no pedestal.


    The notification had told him to wait for his reward to be generated and so that was exactly what he did.


    He created a mana chair and took out some food to snack on while he waited because he was starving. All of that fighting really made a man hungry.


    While he was munching he looked over the notifications he got during the fight.


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 8 -> lvl 9] Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 5 -> lvl 6]


    [Flash Step lvl 11 -> lvl 13]


    [Scorching Empowerment lvl 1 -> lvl 4]


    He gained a whole bunch of levels in his epic skills which was nice to see. These skills were so much harder to level up than his other skills. Even if he used them quite often.


    Seeing the two levels in [Flash Step] was nice to see. It was actually one of the more difficult rare skills to level because it wasn''t directly connected to any of his affinities. But that was what Gabriel had warned him when he chose it so it wasn''t that surprising.


    Still, he couldn''t help but wait until he could acquire the teleportation version, [Instantaneous Step]. He believed that would be an excellent skill to have. Or perhaps if he was lucky, he would get another teleportation skill as an upgrade option.


    The one thing he was disappointed to see was that he had not gotten a notification about merging [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Scorching Empowerment].


    He knew it was unlikely but he had really been hoping that he would be able to get the option to do so after this fight.


    He guessed that he was being slightly too optimistic.


    Merging two different affinity-based body enhancement skills was notoriously difficult. There was a reason only talented people like Edgar and others were able to do so.


    It would seem it would not be so easy.


    But that had been within expectations. Richard had many discussions with him about what he should be looking to get from this Challenge Rift.


    Richard and Rebecca had agreed that there were a couple of items that both Reinera and Julius should look for. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    One of them was a growth-type item. Those were always useful and highly sought after. Many people in the upper tiers still used the growth item they got when they were in Tier 3. It was something that could stand by him for years to come. Thus, if he was offered something nice, he would definitely consider it.


    The other item that Richard recommended Julius keep an eye out for was a reward called a Skill Combination Token.


    This token could apparently have two skills that would otherwise be complicated or difficult to merge on his own. Which would make it perfect for his situation.


    But the man also heavily emphasized that Julius should not take it unless it was a token of high or exceptional quality.


    Apparently, some tokens the Words of the World offered were average or middle quality. And while it would not be the worst thing to take. Richard believed that Julius would be able to get a better version with time and hard work.


    However, a high-quality token was something that would merge his skills in the most optimal way. Something that even with a lot of hard work and time, Julius might still not be able to replicate on his own.


    There were a few other things he should keep an eye out for, but they weren''t as amazing.


    He did hope that his natural talent would have allowed him to merge his two body skills on his own though. Sadly his relatively lower affinity compared to Edgar''s might have worked against him in this case.


    After all, he didn''t have any exceptional or perfect affinities like many of his friends did. He was a poor boy who merely had some high affinities.


    Just as he was bemoaning his talent and comforting himself by shoving food into his mouth, he got a notification.


    Evaluating difficulty¡­


    Hard difficulty selected.


    Challenge Rift reward generating¡­ Successful.


    You may select one of the options¡­


    Skill Combination Token (Pinnacle Grade)


    Gauntlets of Kinetic Phoenix (Growth-Type)


    Superior Rare Skill (Kinetic Affinity-Based)


    Concept Manual


    Familiar Evolution Token


    Julius was a bit stunned and bewildered at the same time. Not only had he gotten five different options to choose from, but some of them were way out of his expectations.


    He had expected a Skill Combination Token, but instead of a high or exceptional grade like Richard told him to choose, he was offered a token that was a pinnacle grade. He had no idea what that meant but he was confident that it was a better quality than what he had been hoping for.


    He almost chose that option right then and there. Only his curiosity prevented him from doing so. He wanted to see what other options there were.


    The second option was just as intriguing as the first one. The option was a growth-type item called the Gauntlets of Kinetic Phoenix. Just the name sounded amazing. Kinetic Phoenix was what he had been looking forward to do with some of his skills and hoped that his eventual body skill would have a similar name.


    Fusing his kinetic affinity with his fire and life affinity was something he had been wanting to do for a long time.


    Even the option of the specific weapon was nice. Gauntlets were just what he would want in a weapon. He realized that he enjoyed punching things with his hands more than a normal person should. This was a top contender as well.


    The third option wasn''t as tempting as the others. A superior skill sounded nice, but he honestly wasn''t that intrigued. Perhaps he was spoiled because he already had several superior skills but he also had plenty of skills and Concepts.


    In fact, he had already reached the Concept requirement to advance to Tier 4. The main thing he still needed to do involved him nurturing his Emblem so that it evolved in his Authority.


    That was especially true now that he had gained his fourth Concept.


    The fourth option sounded nice as well. Or well¡­ it would have sounded nice if Richard hadn''t told him in strict terms to not choose this option.


    Apparently, there were differences between the Concept Enlightenment and the Concept Manual in terms of rewards.


    Julius recalled being offered Concept Enlightenment in the past when he chose the extra skill slot, but he didn''t really know what it meant back then.


    But luckily Richard explained to him what both were and why Julius should never accept a Concept Manual reward. At least in his case anyhow.


    According to the older man, Concept Enlightenment was the reward of allowing someone to reach an enlightened phase to help hasten their process of gaining a Concept. It worked especially well if someone was close to gaining Concept but needed that final push. However, it didn''t mean that one would be able to acquire a Concept with certainty.


    The Concept Manual on the other hand was different. If you chose this option, it was almost guaranteed that you would gain a Concept as long as you followed the manual.


    While sounding really nice, the downside of this was that acquirement of the Concept would be far less interlinked with one''s soul since it was less personal to the person. It was a way for people who couldn''t learn one of their own to do so.


    But for people like Julius, it would only serve as a handicap. He had already proven he could learn Concepts and had four Concepts on his own to prove it. Thus he wasn''t in need of artificial aid. That was why Richard told him never to choose this reward.


    If it was the Concept Enlightenment, that would be a different story altogether, but the manual was a no-go. Which was why Julius instantly tossed that option in the trash.


    The fifth and final option was something that Julius had not heard of from anyone. But it was a very interesting option. A Familiar Evolution Token sounded like it would be a perfect item for Drasil.


    And to be honest, he was tempted to choose it just for that reason alone. Drasil was his loyal familiar and friend, saving his life more than once. He believed that Drasil deserved a reward for his work. Therefore, there was a huge incentive for Julius to choose this option.


    He knew that if Drasil was out here with him, he would be the first one to tell him not to get it, but he wasn''t. In fact, Julius hadn''t been able to summon his familiar the entire time he had been in the Rift. He had tried a couple of times when he had a break, but something about the conditions of the Rift prevented him from doing so.


    However, no matter how badly he wished to spoil Drasil, he couldn''t bring himself to actually select the fifth option.


    There were other ways he could help Drasil evolve. There were items such as the lotus that Lily gifted to them a while back. He would make sure to keep an eye out for any treasures that could do something similar.


    But in the end, there was only one real option available to him.


    Thus, with a firm nod to himself, he selected the Skill Combination Token, holding his breath as he did.

 Chapter 249 Pinnacle Grade Token

    There weren''t any bright lights or flashes of mana. When he selected it, one moment he had empty hands and the next he was holding a small item the size of a coin in the palm of his right hand.It was a plain token with only a weird-looking sigil on one side and another similar-looking sigil on the other side. He had zero idea what this sigil meant but was quite curious.


    While he was turning the token over in his hands, he could feel that he was able to use the token whenever he wanted to. All it would take would be a simple thought and he would be able to use it.


    However, he wanted to wait until he was out of the Rift to use it, if that was possible. He didn''t want to use such an item in the middle of the Rift. He thought it would be best to use it when he had Richard overseeing him at the very least.


    The main issue though, was how was he supposed to leave now? He was stuck in a closed-off room with nothing that stood out as a way out.


    After he got his reward, he had half expected the Rift to just boot him out like a house guest who overstayed their welcome.


    Funnily enough, the second he thought about leaving, he felt the Rift wrap him up in the familiar sensation of mana. Then he felt himself getting pressed together and he was gone from the room in a burst of mana.


    The first thing he saw was the bright white portal that entered through. However, when he released a pulse with [Spatial Perception] he was able to sense the room around him.


    There were people around him. Some he immediately recognized with a quick glance. There weren''t as many people as there were when he first entered but he was glad to see that Richard and Rebecca both were waiting for him.


    There were a small number of other servants, but he didn''t really pay any heed to them. They were just hustling around, looking like they were cleaning up something.


    It would also seem that Reinera had already exited the Rift before he did and was standing right beside them, waiting for him with a really big grin on her face.


    She must have gotten something good, he thought to himself with a nod.


    "When did you get out?" He asked her as he walked over to her.


    "Not too long ago, only a few minutes," she replied, still wearing that big grin of her face.


    "So how long did we take to finish the Challenge Rift?" He asked.


    "Rebecca said we only took around an hour. But it felt like much longer for me," she said, the grin on her face finally sliding off her face and turning into one of confusion.


    He knew exactly what she was feeling confused about. If her experience was anything like his, the rift must have felt like it was much longer than a mere hour. From his perspective, it was like a whole day had passed.


    He couldn''t help but wonder if there was some sort of time effect going on.


    "It felt much longer for me as well. I suspect it was some sort of time dilation thing," he shared his thoughts with her.


    Before she could respond, Rebecca interrupted. "What do you know about time dilation?" She asked him, sounding perplexed as to why he would know about it.


    "Umm¡­ I don''t know. I must have heard it somewhere," he told her, completely forgetting that he had only heard of that because of novels from his old world. He couldn''t exactly explain something like that to her very easily without sounding like a nutjob.


    "I''m surprised too. Time dilation is not something most people know or even take the time to care about. It is something that only really advanced time mages can do," Richard commented.


    "But is he correct?" Reinera thankfully intervened and asked them.


    Richard turned to her with a nod. "We don''t know for sure, but we suspect that it has something to do with manipulation of time. It is the only thing that really makes sense."


    "What''s the other theory?" Julius asked curiously, trying to keep their attention on this subject and not the fact that he knew what time dilation was because of fiction books from another world.


    "The other theory is that the Challenge Rift doesn''t actually take you anywhere. That the Challenge happens in one''s own subconscious. Most people don''t believe in that though."


    Julius nodded. He could see why that was the case. It was hard to believe that all of the things that happened inside the rift were just figments of his imagination. Because that would lead to many questions about how people died when they failed. Did they simply not return through the white rift because the rift just killed them when they failed? It was an odd question.


    One thing he was really curious about was if he could talk about the rift now that he had finished it. It was possible that since he had now completed it and the others had completed it as well, he would be able to share some of the details of his Challenge. As well as get some answers to some questions he had.


    However, the moment he thought about sharing his details, he felt himself unable to even speak a single word. He wasn''t able to let out a whisper to his surprise.


    Okay, so still no sharing. That''s annoying, he thought to himself frustratedly. He wanted to ask about Reinera''s own experiences and what her Challenge had been like.


    The only thing that he didn''t feel a clenching feeling around his throat was when he thought about discussing his reward. It would seem that sharing what he was rewarded with, was not against the rules.


    It would seem that he was only unable to share what had happened inside of the rift.


    That was a silver lining at least.


    He turned back to Reinera with a grin of his own. "I''m guessing that smile I saw when I exited was because of the reward you got?"


    Her confusion and thoughtful look were quickly replaced with an excited grin. "Yep, I got something very nice as my reward. What about you?"


    He shook his head at her with a rueful grin. "I asked you first."


    She gave him an exasperated look but didn''t look that upset.


    Matter of fact, she looked like she had been hoping he would insist on something like that. Because she didn''t even try to argue and with a dramatic flourish of her hand she pointed toward him.


    "Behold! A weapon of divine power," she with a much too big smile.


    Rebecca and Richard who were watching her were barely able to contain their laughter. Julius wasn''t as composed and outright laughed at her performance which made her give him a disappointed look.


    But she quickly reined that look in and gave him one last bright smile before she summoned an elegant and beautiful metal staff in one arm. The metal glinted in the light, like an iridescent pearl. It was an impressive piece of art.


    "You chose a staff?" He asked, slightly surprised at her decision, but also not really. She kind of needed something to help her defend herself. She also wasn''t in need of getting any new skills other than the one teleportation skill that she and Rebecca were attempting to get for her.


    "Yeah. It was probably the best option I got. I wished I got something a little more special, but it will be an item I will keep for the rest of my life."


    "A growth type?" he asked, already knowing the answer to his question.


    "Of course," she said with an offended expression as if she couldn''t believe he would think she would choose anything else.


    He put his hands up and smiled. "Just checking."


    She huffed at him. "Well, don''t ask silly questions like that. I would never choose an item if it wasn''t a growth type over my other options."


    "What else did you get offered?" He asked.


    "No no. I already told you what I got. Now it''s your turn to tell me what kind of reward you got," she said demandingly.


    "What if I didn''t get anything that good?"


    She gave him a deadpanned stare. "You got something good," she said with complete confidence.


    Which kind of warmed his heart that she was so certain of his outcome.


    But it seemed that she wasn''t the only person who thought he would get something good because Richard walked up to him with an excited look on his face.


    "What did you get?" He asked, practically jumping up and down in anticipation.


    Julius could only shake his head in disbelief at the man''s behavior. "I got something we discussed would be a good option."


    "Oh! You got a skill combination token?" The older man asked while shaking his wife by the shoulder.


    The other woman just stood there getting rocked by her husband with an expressionless look on her face. It was as if she was very used to his behavior.


    "Calm down, Richard," she tried to calm down the man.


    "But it''s so exciting," Richard said eagerly.


    Rebecca gave a long sigh and looked over to Julius. "You made sure it was a good quality token right?" Enjoy new adventures at My Virtual Library Empire S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius nodded at her but she must have noticed the weird look he had on his face.


    "What is it?" She asked carefully.


    "I got something called pinnacle grade," he admitted to her.


    "Pinnacle grade?!" Richard yelled out.


    Rebecca for the first time actually reacted more violently and whacked her husband across the head. "Don''t yell! I have my domain up protecting us from any prying eyes, but it doesn''t really work if you yell at the top of your lungs."


    Richard, looking properly ashamed, apologized to her. "Sorry, Darling."


    Then he turned to Julius. "Sorry about that. I guess I got too excited," he said before bowing his head toward him.


    Julius waved his arm at him, letting him know it was fine. All of the servants had left the area, according to his [Spatial Pecerption] so he didn''t think it was an issue. "It''s okay. But is pinnacle grade that much of a big deal?"


    "Big deal? Do you have any idea how rare it is to be offered a token that is graded as pinnacle?"


    Julius could only shrug his shoulders in ignorance.


    Richard muttered something under his breath and gave Julius an envious look. "Even I have only gotten an exceptional grade token before and that was something that was really valuable at the time."


    "So I should use it?"


    Richard gave him a blank stare. "If you don''t use it, I will shove it down your throat until it activates on its own. You are going to use the token if it''s the last thing I do."


    Julius could only chuckle as he saw a rare display of seriousness from the man and it happened because it was for his benefit.


    "Should I save it for later or should I use it immediately?" He asked.


    Rebecca was the first to answer. "I don''t see why you wouldn''t use it right away. The token was made considering all of your skills and potential combinations at the current moment. If you wait, you risk the possibility of it not being as optimal later on."


    "I agree, the sooner would probably be the better," Richard added.


    He looked at Reinera with a questioning look.


    She shook her head. "Don''t ask me. I would trust their opinions."


    He agreed with her. The two of them hadn''t steered them wrong yet so he would listen to their advice.


    He took the token in his hands and fingered it for a moment before closing his eyes and activating it.

 Chapter 250 Ruin and Fear

    Skill Combination Token consumed¡­Julius watched in awe as the token dissolved into dust and felt a powerful feeling surge through him.


    It wasn''t like he was feeling it through his body either. It was like a burst of energy was funneled directly into his soul.


    There weren''t any options for him to choose which skills he wanted to merge either. It was like the token already knew exactly what he was looking for because he felt the token connect his [Scorching Empowerment] and [Kinetic Augmentation] on its own volition. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He gasped as the connection continued to get stronger and stronger. It was slowly becoming a bit overwhelming. It made the energy he felt when he advanced, seem paltry in comparison.


    Was this the power of a pinnacle-grade token?


    If so, he could see why Richard and Rebecca seemed so shocked to learn that he had one.


    With this much energy, he couldn''t see a way that he wouldn''t be able to merge them together.


    The thing he was most anxious about was that he felt more than just those two skills start to connect. There was an additional thread other than just the two skills.


    Concentrating as hard as he could, he did his best to follow the connection. It was only thanks to his practice with his soul space that he eventually found the other skill and he could not help but feel a little bit confused at what was being combined alongside the others.


    That made him hold back the natural process that the token was trying very hard to kickstart.


    He turned toward Richard with great effort. The energy that was coursing through him at the moment, made even moving his head a huge issue.


    "A-another skill is a part of the combination," he stammered out.


    Richard teleported next to him in the blink of an eye and placed a steadying hand across his back. "What skill is it?" The man asked anxiously.


    Julius didn''t hesitate to tell the man, it would be dumb to hold back the skills name during something like this.


    "[Soul Tempering]," he grunted out, the energy coursing through his soul was now becoming less uncomfortable and more painful by the moment. He didn''t know how long he would be able to withstand it and believed he needed to make a choice soon.


    It didn''t matter if it was a yes or a no, but if he didn''t, his soul might pop like an overinflated balloon.


    "[Soul Tempering]?" He heard Rebecca mutter bewilderedly.


    Richard on the other hand only smiled more widely and patted Julius a bit too excitedly on the back, almost knocking him into the dirt with his superior strength.


    "It''s the more advanced version of [Soul Resistance]," the man commented eagerly before looking at the distant wall with a nostalgic expression. "Actually, my parents wanted me to get [Soul Resistance] when I was younger. I was supposed to evolve it into a powerful defensive aura skill eventually that would also be able to bolster my physical abilities. I assume that [Soul Tempering] is something very similar." Find exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire


    Julius groaned as another wave of energy wreaked havoc through his soul. "Maybe not the time for a trip down memory lane," he yelled out impatiently, the pain was very much increasing at a rapid pace.


    Richard placed both hands on his chest and realized that this was not the time to remember his childhood. "Sorry, sorry. Bad habit," he quickly apologized to Julius and continued to speak. "You should definitely take it. It is probably being used because of the aura aspects of your fire enhancement skill. It will help strengthen the more intangible characteristics of the new skill as well as your soul," he advised Julius with a confident tone.


    Julius could only nod at the man that he understood and quickly let the process continue without holding it back anymore.


    Synergy detected.


    Appraising requirements¡­


    Congratulations. Skills requirement met.


    Congratulations. Concept requirement met.


    Congratulations. Soul requirement met.


    Would you like to combine [Scorching Empowerment], [Kinetic Augmentation], and [Soul Tempering] into a single skill?


    Notice: Pinnacle Grade Token presence detected¡­ Improvements to the skill will be made.


    While he was taken aback by the notice he received, it sounded like a nice addition and a benefit of the pinnacle grade, so he accepted it without another thought.


    However, he almost immediately regretted accepting it. If he thought the pain was bad before. It was nothing before the absolute mountain of pain that crashed right on top of his soul.


    It was much worse than his previous soul pain and he could feel himself screaming out.


    It was as if someone had stabbed a lightning bolt into his soul and let it go wild. There was nothing he could do but endure.


    Fortunately, his mind was unable to bear the pain and he felt his consciousness slip away once again. The last moment he recalled was the stone floor of the chamber approaching his face.


    ***


    When he awoke, the first thing he felt was the cold stone pressed against his cheek. As well as the dull pain emanating from his nose.


    Did I smash my face into the ground? He thought to himself curiously.


    It didn''t matter too much, he quickly healed his face, the pain fading away quickly. However, he remained lying against the stone floor for the time being. The cold stone was very nice to feel against his otherwise very hot body.


    He didn''t know why, but for some reason, he felt unbearably hot at the moment. If he didn''t know better, he would think he had some sort of fever. But with [Phoenix Renewal], he didn''t think it was possible for him to even get sick anymore.


    However, soon the stone floor no longer offered its wonderful coolness, and the heat from his face was somewhat abated. Thus, he picked himself up and turned to look at the three of them who were simply staring at him with wide eyes.


    "None of you tried to hold me up before I smashed my face into the ground?" He asked a little offendedly. He didn''t blame Reinera as much, but he was certain that Richard or Rebecca would have been able to catch him before that happened.


    The two older people at least had the grace to look properly shamed.


    "We were surprised," Richard meekly explained.


    "I still am," Reinera said loudly, still staring at him with wide eyes.


    Julius gave her a curious look, noting that she had not made any moves toward him which was odd. He half expected her to be the first one to run at him. "Surprised about what? Is something wrong?"


    As he asked that, he looked down and gave himself a once over. He gasped as he saw small flickers of blue light pulse sporadically throughout his body. He wasn''t consciously able to sense why it was happening, but perhaps the new notification would have some answers for him.


    You have learned the skill [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] (Epic+)


    It was a sigh of relief when he saw the notification. After all of his hard work, he had finally managed to gain a better body enhancement skill.


    It certainly took much more effort than he had previously been expecting and had taken a pinnacle grade token to accomplish it, but it was done. On top of that, it was a superior epic skill, which he had no idea what that meant, but it couldn''t be a bad thing.


    He was guessing that the sporadic blue spurts were because of his new skill. It wasn''t exactly turned on, but he was able to sense that the skill would always have some sort of passive effect, regardless of the circumstance.


    That was a good thing for a couple of reasons he could think of right off the bat. For one, it ensured he had some sort of protection at all times and it didn''t require him to use a lot of his focus to activate the skill.


    Secondly, since it was already passively on, he could already tell that he could ramp up the power much faster than it otherwise could.


    As a matter of fact, that was exactly what he did. He sent some mana through the skill and the blue bursts of light became much more solid and fluid. His entire body was pulsing in kinetic energy and fire as well. The power that coursed through his veins was incredible.


    It made [Kinetic Augementation] seem so weak in comparison. Not even the combined power of [Scorching Empowerment] and [Kinetic Augementation] could hold a candle.


    Not only that, but the power was much more stable than in the past. Previously, kinetic energy had always been a bit jumpy and hard to keep still, but it would seem the addition of a new skill helped balance out the kinetic energy.


    Furthermore, after a closer examination, he was able to sense some aspects of life as well. It wasn''t quite as potent as his [Phoenix Renewal] skill, but he was able to see that his Phoenix Concept had some influence over the skill.


    Perhaps, it was a bit too much to ask for the skill to have both his fire and kinetic energy in addition to his Phoenix Concept. It might be something he could increase as the skill levels up and eventually evolves to the next rank.


    He also was happy that he had two more open slots for new skills. Now that he had [Pyrokinetic Embodiment] it should mean he had a total of three more slots.


    The only thing that worried him was the name of the skill itself. The pyrokinetic embodiment descriptor was pretty much expected. However, the last addition to the skill gave him pause.


    It was just a simple word, ''ruin'' but it filled him with some unease.


    Richard had already told him that his skill had been [Blazing Embodiment] at epic and Julius had expected something similar. Embodiment was a descriptor of skills that often evolved from enhancement skills that had some sort of aura aspect to them.


    The aura after all was the embodiment or projection of one''s soul, so it made sense to him. But seeing his skill being called ''of Ruin'' gave him seriously dangerous vibes.


    Sure, many of his skills leaned toward the destructive variety. It was natural since his main offensive affinities were fire and kinetic energy.


    But that didn''t mean he would get a skill with such a violent-sounding name. After all, he had been going for Phoenix-related things lately and had hoped that he would see it in his new skill.


    Actually¡­ now that he thought about it, his Concepts were also somewhat destructive related. He had a Sharpness Concept, a Concept revolving around ash, a Will Concept, and a Concept of Force.


    At least three of those had some sort of violent connection.


    Thus, the ruin descriptor was becoming more acceptable to him. In fact, he was already beginning to like the sound of it more and more as he thought about it. The skill sounded strong and if the token was the reason why it had that change, he wasn''t going to be the one complaining.


    Actually, I am hoping that it will be my future opponents doing the complaining, he laughed to himself with a devious grin.


    After he took some time to feel out the skill he turned to look at the three of them with a proud smile.


    But the smile quickly faded as he watched none of them walk over to him.


    Matter of fact, despite his hopes, Reinera''s eyes widened even further and instead of tentativeness, they were filled with something resembling fear.

 Chapter 251 Worries

    He looked at all of them with a worried glance."What''s wrong?" He asked nervously, almost afraid to hear the answer.


    Richard, who also had a slightly anxious look must have saw his facial expression and quickly came over to Julius with a swift teleport. The man laid an arm on his shoulder and said to Julius with a serious look.


    "Don''t be alarmed, try to remain calm."


    Seeing the man''s unusual seriousness, Julius was even more confused.


    "Can you tell me what is going on? Why are you all looking at me weirdly and why is Grace looking like I am going to hurt her?"


    "You can''t sense it?" Rebecca asked perplexed.


    "Sense what?"


    "Your aura," she said like it was obvious.


    My aura? What does she mean?


    Julius quickly focused inward and tried to get a feeling of his own aura which was harder than it sounded. While he had gotten very good at controlling his aura, there were things he wasn''t able to control. And being able to see his aura exactly how others did, was quite difficult.


    It was like facial expressions in a way. Just because he knew he was smiling, doesn''t mean he knew exactly what he looked like. He needed a mirror to do that.


    However, when he concentrated and looked inward on his aura, he felt something off. It wasn''t totally under his control anymore. His previously proud control was not to be seen. And there was some sort of fluctuating reverberations pulsing outward.


    How did he not notice this earlier? Sure it was subtle but he should be able to control it.


    Also, how did this happen? It obviously hasn''t happened before, otherwise one of them would have told him. So it must be something because of his new skill.


    "Is my aura acting like this because of my skill?" He asked Richard, worry coloring his tone.


    "I don''t know, but you are going to have to learn how to control it that''s for sure," the man replied with a firm shake of his head.


    "It almost feels like that undead knight," Reinera commented from where she was standing, her face no longer as pale and not looking as scared, to his relief.


    "Really? Like my aura is corrupting you?" He asked her.


    "No, there isn''t that same sickly feeling that the monster had, but instead it seems more aggressive. Almost as if your aura is trying to burn and destroy anything in its way," she said to him with a meaningful stare.


    Almost like ruin huh?


    Richard gave him another encouraging pat on the back. "It''s probably because of your [Aura Burn] skill as well as the pinnacle grade token. That token might have given you a really powerful skill, one that might be too much for you to control at the moment.


    "What should I do then?" He asked.


    "I can help keep it in check for now, but if you go around the estate like that, you are going to hurt some of the servants," Richard said to him with an awkward smile.


    "Do you have any ideas about what I can do to control it?"


    "Practice. Once you start learning how it works you should be able to get good control over the aura aspect pretty soon afterward. But I wouldn''t worry too much about it now. If there''s anything I don''t worry about you, it is your dedication to training. You are going to be just fine."


    Julius gave the older man a grateful smile and went to work right away trying to control this new skill. He didn''t want to accidentally hurt someone when he walked down the streets of the city.


    If Reinera was right, then his aura was now like the undead knights, whose aura almost killed her just by being exposed to it. That wasn''t something he wanted to expose his friends to.


    His enemies on the other hand¡­ well that seemed like a very nice tool to have.


    However, no matter what he tried, he wasn''t able to stop the ruinous aura from wafting off of him like a badly scented candle.


    It wasn''t like normal aura control and it felt like a brand new limb he needed to train.


    In the end, Richard was forced to use his domain to temporarily suppress his aura so that he could walk around the estate without hurting anyone within reach of its presence. It wasn''t comfortable for him, but it was necessary.


    Stay tuned with My Virtual Library Empire


    ***


    Richard POV


    "You know, he''s not going to be allowed to be around Cory until he has a handle on it," his wife said to him after she washed her face, getting ready for bed.


    "I know. I made sure to set up the isolation enchantments to his room so that nobody is accidentally hurt if they walk by," he assured her.


    "What kind of skill do you think he ended up getting?" She asked as she headed for their bed, her blonde hair tied up in a bun. She looked as gorgeous as the day he met her and couldn''t help but smile like an idiot as she crawled underneath the covers with him.


    "Earth to Richard," she said while waving a hand in his face.


    He shook his head. "Sorry, what did you ask?"


    "I asked what kind of skill do you think Julius got?"


    He shrugged his shoulders and reached over to hug her, shifting the both of them around so that he was spooning her.


    "It''s a good bet that he got something that combined his kinetic and fire affinities," he stated.


    "Well of course that, but what kind of addition is that aura ability of his? We are both Tier 5, but that aura is quite scary," she admitted.


    "I haven''t known anyone who has gotten one of those before, but it has to be something that the pinnacle grade Skill Combination Token provided him. I can''t help but wonder how such a skill is going to advance as it levels up," he commented but noticed his wife go silent.


    He reached out his aura to check on her and she opened up to allow him to feel what she was feeling at the moment. sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    All he got was a feeling of uneasiness and sadness.


    "What''s wrong," he asked.


    She turned her head so that one of her eyes looked at him over her shoulder. "I never told you this, but Aden also received a pinnacle grade token from this Challenge Rift when he attempted it."


    "Aden got a pinnacle grade Skill Combination Token as well?" He asked surprised, but also not that surprised. While pinnacle grade rewards were things of legends, it wasn''t exactly shocking to learn that someone as powerful and talented as Aden was rewarded with one.


    She shook her head. "No, he got a Skill Evolution Token, but it was a pinnacle-grade token too. It ended up helping develop one of his signature skills."


    Richard could only nod his head as he listened to her. But his mind was already connecting the dots.


    Aden''s signature skill was a sword skill which leaned toward being very destructive. Something very similar to what he had felt from Julius''s aura that had been changed by his new skill.


    It was unusual to see a single skill make such a large impact on someone''s aura. But Julius''s aura had made such drastic changes, that he could barely believe it if he hadn''t touched the boy''s aura earlier that day.


    What was once a strong and resolute aura, was now something else. It was still strong and resolute, but there was this destructive and terrifying energy to it now. It made the boy seem less like a powerful but young boy and more like a grizzled war veteran who was having a hard time reigning in their aura.


    "Do you think that the rift had an impact on the direction each of their skills took?" He asked his wife, knowing she was already thinking of something similar.


    "I don''t know," she said honestly. "Both of their skill sets lean toward the violent side of things. Aden was always a blade of death and carnage, but Julius also has skills and Concepts that lean in that direction. So it might just be a coincidence."


    "So then what are you worried about?"


    "I am worried that Julius might end up just like Aden," she admitted with a sad frown.


    "You don''t really think that do you?" He asked, squeezing her tighter around the stomach.


    "I can''t help it. The two of them are similar in so many ways, I just can''t help but think about what''s going to happen to Julius if he continues," she told him.


    "Just because the two of them are both strong for their tier and age, does not mean they are the same person. I only met Aden several times when I was younger but I can tell you that Julius isn''t like him."


    "How can you be so sure?"


    "Julius has things that Aden never had. Aden was so focused on the sword that nothing else mattered in the world. From everything I have seen from Julius, he won''t have the same struggles," he reassured his wife.


    He knew what Becca was worried about. She was worried that Julius might turn into another Aden. A heartless person who only cared about the sword and nothing else.


    Richard knew firsthand how Aden''s obsession with power and the sword drove him to become the person he eventually became. But he was certain that Julius was not the same.


    He had seen it with his own eyes. How the boy treated the servants around the estate. How he treated the two of them. How he interacted with Cory. How he befriended ''Grace'', a princess known for not having any friends.


    No, he wasn''t like Aden. Aden never cared about people like Julius did.


    So while his wife was worried, he was not. For some reason, he felt supremely confident that Julius wouldn''t become like that, apart from something truly tragic happening to him. He would just have to make sure that nothing like that did happen.

 Chapter 252 Honey Pot

    Julius was still having a hard time controlling this newfound aura effect he was emitting. It was so bad that he wasn''t able to leave the room without feeling like he was putting other people at risk.The only way he was able to leave, was if Richard or Rebecca were with him. Only their domains were capable of managing the aura.


    Funnily enough, Drasil wasn''t affected by his aura at all. He had taken the little life spirit out during one of his breaks from training and noticed right away that the spirit didn''t react negatively at all.


    Perhaps, it was because of their connection, but so far Drasil was the only one other than himself that wasn''t affected by the aura.


    He also learned from Richard that a superior epic skill wasn''t that much different from a superior rare skill. The main difference was that the skill had already met the requirements to reach legendary rank once it hit level 25. As for the other details, Richard told him that it was better for him to explore it himself as it had to do with acquiring his Authority.


    He didn''t disagree with the man either. He was honestly a long way from ranking up any of his skills to legendary if his current progress indicated anything. There were so many other things he had to worry about.


    Such as getting a handle on his aura. This was why Julius was sitting around the room, trying to find a way to manage his aura so that the ruinous aspect didn''t try to kill everyone it touched.


    But if there was anything he was good at, it was being persistent and stubborn. Thus, for the next week, he stayed isolated with one goal in mind.


    Get control of his aura.


    ***


    It took longer than he thought it would, but in the end he finally managed it.


    The trick he figured out was that he needed to essentially create a barrier with the sole purpose of containing the ruinous aura and bury it under many layers like it was some kind of nuclear waste.


    It was difficult at first because he wasn''t able to properly seal off the aura from coming out, but as long as he maintained focus on it, it was doable.


    This technique was a bit different than his usual aura control. Typically, he made sure that his aura was contained to his person and limited any large fluctuations. This was more so that people couldn''t read his aura to get an idea of what he was thinking or feeling at the time.


    But he rarely ever cut off his entire aura. For one, it was wildly uncomfortable. For two, it was impractical. And for three, it was just rude to do so. It was sort of like wearing a face mask the entire time during a conversation. It was just impolite.


    Furthermore, a major point of aura control was to deceive your opponents. And if they noticed you clamping down your aura, it would tell them that you are skilled enough to accomplish an ability that most people couldn''t do with proficiency.


    There was the existence of items though. However, the better he got at aura control and aura sensing, the more he realized how much these items stand out when someone wears one. It was almost just as bad as simply allowing one''s aura to lash out uncontrollably.


    Almost.


    However, what his new technique allowed him to do, was to effectively handicap his own aura. He took the core, the most integral part of his aura, and shoved it deep into the furthest recesses of his soul.


    He did not think that this was a viable long-term solution in the least, but for the time being, it would have to do.


    At least this way, he would be able to walk around without killing people like an exposed nuclear reactor.


    When he finally left his room for the first time in over a week, he was greeted by Richard''s smile.


    "You hungry?" The man asked him.


    "Absolutely starving," he replied dramatically.


    For the past week he had been training, he had been barely been eating. Only eating the occasional snack within his storage ring. Granted, with [Phoenix Renewal] he was able to go without food for a long time as long as he had mana, but that missed the entire point.


    Food was an essential part of his life. And at the moment he could use a real meal.


    "Let me go get Grace and Becca, I already let them know that you might be coming out today. We can maybe go to that spot we found the other week," Richard said to him cheerfully.


    Julius nodded excitedly, Reinera had found a pretty nice breakfast spot the other week. It was a simple diner that looked like it would fall down with a gust of wind, but the food was amazing.


    When he exited the room, he held his breath. The enchantments around the room would no longer hold his aura back if he accidentally let it go. He was pretty sure that his makeshift method worked, but honestly it was still in the experimental phase.


    Of course, he made sure that it wouldn''t just break apart if he lost focus. That was what the last couple of days had been primarily spent on. Richard helped him and ensured that he wouldn''t lose control just because someone bumped him in the streets.


    ***


    The four of them found themselves sitting down at the diner, each with a full plate of food in front of them.


    Julius was gorging himself on a huge plate of this fried meat covered in gravy which reminded him of country fried steak along with too many hashbrowns to be considered healthy. He also had several other smaller plates of various items just out of reach.


    The diner was just like he remembered. The walls were in constant flux of falling apart and the tables were one nudge away from breaking down like a house of cards. But the food was delicious, so nobody complained about it at all.


    "Since we are all here, I wanted to talk about the mission we discussed a while back," Richard began.


    "What about it? Is it coming up soon?" Reinera asked after swallowing her food.


    "Probably in a couple of weeks, if I had to guess," he replied to her.


    "Okay, sounds good. I think we will both be prepared by then. It should allow me to get used to my new staff and Julius his new skill," she said with enthusiasm.


    However, it wouldn''t seem that Richard or Rebecca shared her enthusiasm. The two of them winced at the young girl.


    "Yeah, about that¡­"


    "What? Did something happen?" Reinera asked, concern coloring her voice.


    Julius saw Rebecca nudge her husband in the arm. As if telling him to spit it out.


    Richard sighed and gave Reinera an apologetic look. "That''s the thing. It has been decided that you won''t be going along on the mission."


    "What!? Why not?" Reinera asked loudly, standing to her feet.


    "We have decided that there is a better mission that would fit your abilities better," he said placatingly.


    "What does that mean? Are you saying that I might be a liability to Julius? I know I am not as strong as he is, but come on, I can hold my own," she insisted.


    "It''s not about holding your own," Rebecca interjected sternly. "It''s about weighing out options. We feel like there is a much better job where you can help us way more than you going on this bait mission. We think it would be a waste of your skills if we sent you with Julius."


    "What do you mean? What kind of job are you proposing?" Reinera asked, sitting down and sounding at least a bit more interested.


    "While Julius is going to continue with the prior plan, we want you to spy on someone for us," Rebecca explained.


    "Spy? I''m not a spy."


    "No, but you have the noble etiquette required to blend in with the group we want you to spy on. You also are a new face, so you won''t be connected with House Easten if you show up," Rebecca told Reinera before she turned to look at him. "And no offense to you Julius, but you would stick out like a sore thumb."


    He pointed a finger at himself with a look of disbelief on his face. "Me? Why what''s wrong with me?"


    Before Rebecca could even respond, Richard coughed into his fist. Julius turned to him curiously and saw the man looking directly at Julius''s hand and face.


    Hands and face which were currently covered with various food and gravy.


    He nodded, understanding the unsaid reminder. "Okay, maybe you have a point. But I still think that I could blend in if I tried," he insisted.


    The three looks he got in return said everything. Not a single one of them believed in him. What did they think he was going to do? Blow something up? S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    That would be completely¡­ completely normal for me, he realized. Okay, that was just a bad comparison, he tried to convince himself now, but even his own words rang hollow to his ears.


    Instead, he pouted and resumed to shove more food down his stomach, leaving them to their discussion.


    "See?" Rebecca pointed out. "This is why we need someone like you to help us, Grace."


    "I''m still right here," he muttered.


    They ignored him.


    "Who do you need me to spy on?" Reinera finally asked, sounding less reluctant.


    "We have suspicions on a lord of Blumand who might be leaking information out to the Conclave. We want you to attend some parties and events, in the hopes that you might find something useful or incriminating."


    Reinera gave her a doubtful glance. "You want me to spy on a Lord? Don''t you have actual spies to do that?"


    Rebecca shook her head in denial. "No, we don''t want you to spy on Lord Townsen. We want you to spy on his son, Eric. The two of them are regulars in the noble social circles and attend most of the parties in the city. The son in particular has been known to be quite loose-lipped in front of pretty young women. We are hoping that he might let something slip in your presence that might help us figure out if Lord Townsen has betrayed us."


    "Wait? You want her to act as a honey pot?" Julius asked, baffled at the situation.


    All three of them looked at him with confusion. "Honey pot? What''s that?" Rebecca asked.


    Oops, they wouldn''t know that.


    He scrambled to find a suitable explanation.


    "It''s when someone approaches another with the intention of enticing the other in order to gain information or trust. It''s usually a woman who leads on a man," he attempted to explain as best as he could without offending Reinera. But he still saw her face frown as described the term.


    "Oh, I get it. Honey pot, that''s a good one. I am going to use that from now on," Richard said, sounding oddly pleased.


    Rebecca gave him a wack across the shoulder and a stern eye. "She won''t be acting as a ''honey pot''. She merely needs to befriend the boy and see if he says anything bad about House Easten or accidentally says something that might point toward them betraying us."


    Reinera pulled on her fingers in thought before finally saying her two cents. "I don''t mind doing this job instead as long as I don''t have to do anything I am uncomfortable with. But what about Julius, who will be there to watch his back?"


    "We will make sure to have plenty of trustworthy people alongside him. He shouldn''t be in that much danger. He should be able to protect himself long enough for reinforcements to arrive and take care of the rest of the attackers," Rebecca assured her. "We just need to lure them out first and hopefully get one of them to talk or to pry information out of them forcibly."


    "And this is the only plan you have?" Reinera asked skeptically.


    "Of course not. We have several other plans in the works, but they haven''t worked out yet. This one I think has the highest chance of success. They shouldn''t be expecting someone like Julius there as well."


    Reinera turned to him. "And your new skill isn''t going to be a problem for you?"


    He shook his head. "It shouldn''t be. I got a decent grasp on the new aura effect and I just need some time to adapt to the new strength of the skill. But after that, I should be fine."


    Richard gave him a questioning look. "Are you sure you still want to do this? No matter how good a plan is, there is always the chance of something going wrong. If you don''t feel comfortable, we won''t do it."


    He shook his head firmly. "No, you already know that I want to do this. I have some things I want to settle with them. This might be a perfect opportunity for me to do so."


    He was glad when Richard didn''t press him for more details about what he wanted to settle with this group.


    Instead, the older man simply gave him an encouraging nod and went back to eating as if the conversation never happened.

 Chapter 253 Prepping the Bait

    The next couple of weeks were spent preparing for his mission as bait.When he wasn''t practicing his new skill, he was training his aura control, which had become exponentially harder to tame after his new enhancement skill, especially when it was active.


    He had gotten pretty comfortable with keeping his aura under wraps when he wasn''t using the skill actively, but once it was turned up, it became a whole other issue.


    The first time, he really pumped his skill was during a spar with Richard. The resulting aura blast, shellshocked Reinera from where she was training with Rebecca. It was quite a debilitating effect, especially on those Tier 3 and lower.


    But that was also a good thing. It gave him a very powerful weapon to use against his future opponents. All it required was for him to learn how to properly control it.


    With that being said, he found his new epic skill to be absolutely delightful. Other than the destructive and ruinous aura, the skill was better than he could have imagined.


    It took the best parts of [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Scorching Empowerment] in order to create a powerful skill. Fire and kinetic energy surged through his body enhancing beyond anything he had ever experienced.


    It was actually so strong, that he still hadn''t been able to use it at full power. The one time he had tried, he almost tore his entire body and soul into two.


    However, that wasn''t something he was worried about. The amount his body and soul could handle was plenty at the moment.


    He estimated that his physical strength when the skill was active rivaled Dustin''s and Edgar''s strength. Which said a lot.


    Richard and Rebecca were especially impressed with the power of his skill.


    Since the man sparred with Julius almost every day, he saw firsthand how much of a difference [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] made on his abilities.


    What had once been one of his weakest aspects, had now become one of the most powerful.


    In fact, it actually made him feel like his long-range attacks had fallen behind now.


    Despite, the sometimes negative nature of his aura because of his skill, he was glad for the evolution. There was so much potential within the skill and it was only just at the beginning of epic. Imagine what it could become later down the road.


    Furthermore, the ruinous aura was not only successful as a debilitating effect, but it actually worked better when he made contact with his foe.


    The few times he managed to land a strike on Richard, he found that the ruinous aura would seep through the blow and into the older man.


    It didn''t matter what kind of aura defenses the man created, the ruinous aura was able to break down the man''s aura and in some applications, his mana.


    Richard had a similar skill that allowed him to burn his opponent''s mana and stamina. Two very important resources during a fight. But Julius found himself with a very similar ability. When he focused on it, he could direct his aura through Richard''s body and effectively destroy his aura and mana.


    It wasn''t quite burning the mana like the man''s skill did. But it was more like violently exploding his aura and mana, which in his opinion was much worse.


    Richard''s skill only targeted mana and stamina, but he seemed to target the aura itself. Which had some very painful effects.


    On top of that, the explosion would also disrupt Richard''s usage of any of his abilities if the man wasn''t using his domain or authority. It didn''t matter what resource they drew on. The man was still skilled though, and so Julius wasn''t able to capitalize on the man''s distraction.


    However, on a weaker opponent, one that wasn''t Tier 5, he suspected that he would be doing a lot of damage. He would have to be careful about using such abilities on people in the future. It was a vicious and destructive ability, one that put a lot of responsibility on him using it correctly.


    ***


    He dodged Reinera''s staff that was swung at his head and sent an open-palmed strike at the girl''s chest. However, she slapped his hand away before he could make contact and jumped back with a use of [Quick Step].


    She had gotten the skill recently because Rebecca had decided that evolving [Quick Step] would be the best option for Reinera to get [Blink] or some other teleportation skill instead of continuing to try their previous plan. It was similar to what Julius was going for, but just a slightly different direction.


    And it had helped immensely in regards to her abilities in close combat.


    Not to mention, that her staff was an amazing addition as well. The staff gave her the reach and offensive support she dearly needed.


    Unfortunately for her, it still didn''t mean she was able to close the gaps between the two of them, much to her annoyance and to his amusement.


    It became a little game for them to see how often she was able to land a strike on him. So far, her record was five strikes in a single day. Something she liked to point out whenever she could.


    At first, he had been nervous about sparring with his friend but finally agreed to it after much pestering. In the end, it was decided it would be good practice to see how well he was able to control his aura.


    And it was a smart decision too. He found himself making more progress than ever before when he risked hurting his friend. He was now able to use the skill without accidentally attacking others with his aura.


    As a matter of fact, he just got another notification for the skill.


    [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 9 -> lvl 11]


    During these past weeks, he also managed to level up [Sage of Savagery] twice because of the sheer amount of focus it took to control his aura. Without the skill, he doubted he would have made as much progress as he did.


    Reinera noticed that he had gotten distracted and stopped her next attack midway through. "Another level?" She asked.


    He nodded happily. "Yep."


    She shook her head in disbelief. "You know I have a perfect affinity for light and I still seem to level my skills slower than you do. I don''t know how you are able to constantly level up your skills with only high affinities."


    He cocked his head at her. "What do you mean by that?"


    "Seriously?" She asked.


    When she saw he was indeed dead serious she couldn''t help but chuckle to herself. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You do know why affinities are so important right?"


    He nodded. "Of course I do. They help people connect more easily with skills of a certain affinity or aspect. Which means they can improve those skills more easily."


    She shrugged her shoulders. "Close enough. But you still don''t see why I am baffled by your improvements?"


    What is she trying to say?


    He could only shake his head at her with a curious expression on his face.


    All he got was an exasperated sigh in return. "Most people who have a high affinity your age would be struggling to earn a single rare skill at all. The path from uncommon to rare is not as easy as you make it seem to be. I have witnessed you get a couple of uncommon skills and level them up all the way to rare and finally merge them into an epic skill in a matter of a month or so. Do you not understand how weird it is?"


    He shrugged at her. "I didn''t rank them up the most traditional way. I combined most of them to become rare skills and then combined those to become an epic skill," he explained.


    If he had to rank each one up to its level cap, then it would have taken much longer than it did. But since he went about it the way he did, it ended up taking much less time than he expected. Plus, the token helped out immensely. He didn''t want to think about how long it would have taken him to combine the skills if he didn''t get it as a reward.


    It most likely would have taken him more time than the initial gathering of the skills itself.


    "I don''t know if you realize this, but you only get offered a skill combination when you already show proficiency in using the skills in tandem. So you being offered to merge them, means you are already able to use them well enough. So my confusion still stands. How do you do it?"


    Huh, he didn''t know that. But it made sense when she put it that way, he thought to himself.


    "Truthfully? I just train a lot. You have seen my healing skill, it allows me to push myself harder than most could ever feasibly do even if they had constant healing from a dedicated healer."


    "Yes, I get that, but the stress your soul must be undergoing would be insane. Rest is an important thing, everyone knows that," she said to him in a matter-of-fact tone.


    He scratched his head awkwardly. Apparently, he was the only one who didn''t know that.


    "Well, that was an issue for a little bit," he said tentatively and quickly held his hands up in the air when she got visibly worried. "But not anymore. My skill can help with that and I also got that [Soul Tempering] skill I told you about to help with that too."


    "Wait, so that''s how you got that skill?" She asked in disbelief. "You basically just trashed your soul and earned an advanced [Soul Resistance] skill as a reward?"


    He paused for a moment in thought before nodding his head. After all, that was a pretty basic but apt explanation of what he did.


    She didn''t even try to reason with him anymore and gave up in a loud huff, throwing her hands into the air.


    He awkwardly watched her as she walked in circles, kicking up every loose piece of dirt in her wake, and muttering to herself.


    Eventually, she stopped and turned to him. Shockingly, all signs of annoyance were gone and were replaced with one of worry.


    "Are you sure you want to go on this mission? I understand you''re strong and all, but there is undoubtedly going to be at least two Tier 4s attacking the caravan. If they''re a bad matchup against you, it could be trouble," she said anxiously.


    "I don''t mind being the bait. In fact, it''s a bit exciting. I want to see the surprise on their faces when I start to beat them up," he said with a smile.


    She laughed at that. "Oh, I am sure you are going to startle a lot of them."


    "Right? Plus, I have some questions and I want to see if I can find some answers to them on this mission."


    "Questions?" She asked curiously.


    "Just some things that I want to get some clarity on," he explained simply.


    Reinera didn''t try and press, she already had a decent idea of what he wanted to find out anyway.


    "Well, while you are doing that, I will be acting as a ''honey pot'' for some arrogant noble," she said with a sigh of disdain as if the idea of socializing with nobles offended her.


    "Aren''t you practically a noble yourself?" He asked with a grin.


    "Hey! I am royalty. There is a difference between me and someone like that," she said with a haughty upturn of her lip.


    He put his hand in the air apologetically. "My bad, I can''t believe I made such an egregious error, milady."


    She let out a dramatic huff. "Well, you should be. Next time I won''t be as gracious and will have your head on a pike," she said threateningly.


    "Sure sure," he said dismissively with a chuckle.


    "I will, just you wait and see," she insisted.


    "Well, if you want my head, you are going to need to do a lot better fighting me than you have shown so far," he taunted and closed his eyes in laughter.


    He had to dip down his head as she tried to take his head off once more and stepped out of her reach.


    He wagged his finger at her. "See? You are too hasty, with your mana attacks and staff, you shouldn''t be the aggressor so often."


    He let out another chuckle as the response he got was in the form of a volley of light spears heading toward him. Discover hidden content at My Virtual Library Empire

 Chapter 254 A Little Lost Boy

    "Do you have everything you need?" Richard asked."I think so, I made sure to pack plenty of yummy food," he said proudly.


    Rebecca, who was off to the side gave him a small flick to the back of the head. "That''s not what he meant and you know it. How come all you ever think of is food or training?"


    Julius shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? I am a simple man," he said happily.


    The older woman frowned at him and was about to flick him again but held herself back with extreme patience that only a mother could have.


    "Did you at least pack the potions that I got for you?"


    He was about to say yes, but restrained himself at the last moment and took the time to make sure he actually did pack them.


    He looked inward into his storage ring and sensed the package Rebecca had given him a week ago lying right where he left it. Then he smiled at the woman and nodded.


    "I do. You really think I am going to need them though?" He asked.


    He has shared a lot about his skills with them so far. However, he hasn''t exactly told them how effective his healing skill was. They knew he had some sort of regeneration skill, but they probably thought it was some normal healing skill. One that a lot of close combat fighters had to increase their stamina or health regeneration.


    If they had seen what the skill could really do, he believed they would be much less worried about his safety. Actually, he suspected they would have been worried regardless of his skill.


    "It is better to have them than to not have them," Richard interjected.


    "Yeah, don''t worry about saving them. Make sure to use them whenever you think necessary. While they might normally be expensive, we have our own alchemists and ingredients to make the cost pretty low," Rebecca added.


    "I promise I will consume them like they are tasty desserts," he told them with a wide grin.


    "Well, don''t do that. We don''t need you dying to potion overdose before you can actually act as bait," Richard said.


    "Richard," Rebecca scolded.


    "What? You have seen him devour sweets. If he does that with these potions, he might actually implode," he pointed out.


    "Yes, but you don''t need to say such things before he heads out. You know it''s bad luck to say stuff like that."


    "Bah, you and your superstitions!"


    While the two of them got into another scuffle, he turned to Reinera who was looking quite nervous despite that she wasn''t even going along with him.


    "I will only be gone for a couple of weeks. Marquis Easten has arranged for me a teleportation slot to come back after I finish," he said to her.


    "I know, but I still can''t help but feel nervous. We don''t know for sure what they are going to do. We don''t even know if they are going to show up."


    "They will. Marquis Easten made sure that we''re transporting enough materials that the Conclave can''t help but try and attack us."


    "That''s not exactly reassuring," she grumbled.


    He gave her a pat on her downtrodden head. "It''s going to be fine. If something really goes wrong, I will just run the other way."


    "You promise?" She asked, a little more brightly.


    "Of course. The moment I see someone too strong, I am going to sprint in the opposite direction," he said confidently.


    However, he was displeased when he saw the doubtful look she made at him. A look he gladly ignored.


    "So where exactly am I supposed to meet the caravan?" He asked the two bickering spouses.


    Richard was the first to turn to him. "You are going to meet them at the square where most of the caravans leave Blumand. It will be easy to find, just look for the big House Easten symbol on the the wagons and then go search for a man named Rolus. He is the leader of the expedition and one of the only ones who knows why you are really there."


    "What does this Rolus look like?" He asked.


    "Oh trust me, you can''t miss him. You will know exactly when you see him," Rebecca said with a laugh.


    He didn''t know what that meant. But it didn''t seem like he was getting a better description of the man. So he left it be and got ready to leave to meet the caravan.


    He couldn''t wait.


    ***


    Stephanie POV


    Stephanie and her friends were long-time workers of House Easten. Officially they were adventurers, but they always had the first crack at escort contracts for House Easten.


    This was perfect for their group for many reasons.


    The pay was amazing, for a job that required minimal work, it paid quite lucratively. The other main benefit was the fact that they were able to get closer to the ruling House of Blumand.


    This allowed them all to gain some valuable opportunities and opened many doors that otherwise would be closed to people like them.


    Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice.


    "Jeez, are we going to sit here all day?" Beck, their tank grumbled from his spot on the back of a wagon.


    "You''re always so impatient, man. We still have some time before the official departure," Matt, their leader said to the man, trying to keep their tank calm.


    "Yeah, but if we leave now, we could get to our destination sooner," Beck argued.


    "Yes, but if we forget something and have to come back to get it, then we would be wasting even more time," Stephanie pointed out for the tenth time.


    The man couldn''t stand still, no matter the occasion.


    She looked around at the rest of their team. There was Beck and Matt, but just behind them were George and Pamela.


    George was their resident scout/assassin. The man was quite good at his job. He rarely made mistakes and the ones he did, were always within expectations. He communicated well and had the skills to help the team''s effectiveness.


    The only thing that she wished he would change was his ''leisurely'' activities.


    For some reason, the man could not keep it in his pants. If they weren''t delving or on a job, the man would be hitting on women left and right. He wasn''t picky, as long as they were relatively attractive and not a male, he would go after them like a dog in heat.


    She had to admit, she could see why he would do it though. If she was that attractive, she might be doing the same thing. Furthermore, it wasn''t even just his looks that helped him, it was his ''mysterious'' vibe that he loved to accentuate for the ladies. And unfortunately for her and her team, these women gobbled it up like naive idiots.


    Pamela on the other hand was the total opposite. The woman never had a boyfriend in her life. It wasn''t because she was ugly either. She was very cute and had a wonderful personality. It was just too bad that the woman was shy around new people.


    Regardless, the woman was a terrifying mage. She had an uncommon acid affinity, something that didn''t suit such a timid woman.


    There have been times when people underestimated Pamela only to watch the woman''s acid attacks eat through everything in its way. Unsurprisingly. once they saw her acid rain kill an entire horde of monsters their opinions changed quite quickly.


    Stephanie was their healer and support mage. Her responsibility was to make sure everyone was in the right place at the right time as well as making sure they were all in their best shape.


    She could still hear Beck complaining to Matt once more but before she could cut the man off, she noticed something in the corner of her eye.


    Approaching their caravan was a young boy who could not have been much older than fifteen. The boy seemed lost as his head kept on swiveling back and forth. The large crowds that were frantically trying to get the caravan ready to go were brushing past him in a hurry. Almost everyone had something in their hands that they were taking to a wagon.


    The boy managed to dodge most of them but he was still looking around, obviously looking for something.


    "I wonder what a kid is doing here," George spoke up, all of a sudden right next to her. It would seem that the man had also noticed the boy.


    She gave George a quick glance and was given a brilliant smile in return, the man had been pining after her for a long time. Fortunately, he respected her refusal but still threw out the occasional advance.


    "I have no idea. He might have gotten separated from his family or something and is lost," she said hypothetically.


    "Perhaps. Are you going to help him?" George asked with a knowing look.


    She gave him a frown. "Why not? We have nothing better to do at the moment. We are just sitting around, waiting to leave."


    George thought about her response and it must have convinced him because he shrugged his shoulders and headed straight for the boy. With her right on his heels.


    The boy must have noticed them heading toward him because he stopped and gave them a friendly smile as they approached.


    She was the first one to say something.


    "Are you trying to find something? You seem kind of lost," she said to him with a soft tone.


    The boy awkwardly scratched his head. "Is it that obvious?"


    She shook her head and laughed. "It''s not a big deal. I know better than most about how chaotic it can be to find something around here when it''s this busy. So what are you trying to find?" She asked with a smile.


    "I am actually trying to find a person. His name is Rolus, I am supposed to go find him," the boy said with a laugh of his own.


    She paused for a little bit. Why was this boy looking for Rolus? Maybe, he was delivering a message or something to man.


    She shook her head. It didn''t matter, it wasn''t like it was her business and it wasn''t like Rolus couldn''t handle a boy himself.


    She pointed over the left shoulder of the boy. "Rolus should be somewhere by the main wagon just over there. Just follow those light poles all the way up and you should see eventually find him."


    "What does he look like?" The boy asked curiously.


    George chuckled at her side. "Trust me, you won''t have any problems finding him. Just look for a man with a massive sword strapped across his back and that will be him."


    The boy scratched his face a little bit but eventually nodded his head. "Okay, I think I understand. Well, thank you for all of your help!" He said sincerely before turning around and walking toward the direction of the main wagon.


    Once the boy was out of sight, once again swarmed by people running around, she turned to George with a smile.


    "Don''t you feel better now? You did your good deed for the day," she said while giving him a patronizing pat on the back.


    However, George didn''t seem to react like he normally did. Instead, he was staring off where the boy had walked off to.


    "What''s wrong?" She asked.


    He finally turned to her with an odd look on his face.


    "Did you sense his aura?" He asked her.


    "Of course, why?" She was confused as to why he was acting this way, but he was very skilled in aura, so perhaps he noticed something that she didn''t.


    "I don''t know. I just thought it was weird that someone his age would be Tier 3," he noted.


    "He was Tier 3?" She asked in surprise.


    She hadn''t noticed he was Tier 3 at all. From her initial assessment, she thought he was TIer 2 or something. His aura was pretty weak, thus Tier 2 would make sense.


    If George believed that the boy was Tier 3, then she was inclined to take him for his word. But it was weird that the boy would have such a diminutive aura for a Tier 3.


    "He must have rushed through Tier 2 or something," she said while shaking her head. It was sad to see but it wasn''t exactly uncommon either. Children who didn''t have the proper guidance often tried to advance through the tiers as fast as they could without building their foundation.


    It would seem like that poor boy was one of those children.


    "What? You feel bad for him too?" She asked George.


    "Something like that," he said distractedly.


    She thought he was acting weird and was about to ask about it but she heard Matt call out to her through her communication skill, signaling to her and George that they needed to head back toward the wagon. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Come on, Matt is calling for us," she nudged George who stopped spacing out and nodded in acknowledgment.


    All thoughts about that interaction were put on hold as they maneuvered their way back to their team.

 Chapter 255 Rolus

    Julius was completely overwhelmed. There were so many people running around that his [Spatial Perception] was running in overdrive trying to keep up, trying to inspect every person within its reach. It got so bad that he didn''t even attempt to find this Rolus person with the skill. Instead, he used the old-fashioned way. Your next read is at My Virtual Library EmpireHis eyes.


    Sadly, that didn''t exactly make things easier. He still wasn''t able to find Rolus in this mess. Thankfully, he managed to come across some nice people who helped him. The woman and the handsome man next to her pointed him in hopefully the right direction.


    If they hadn''t, who knew how long he would have spent searching.


    Maybe he would get to see them again if they were a part of the caravan as well. That would give him the opportunity to thank them more properly next time.


    With new determination in his eyes, he followed the women''s directions and eventually came to a section that wasn''t as crowded as the others.


    At the center of it stood a single wagon, but it was hard to call it a wagon. It was more like a small house than anything else.


    As a matter of fact, it reminded him of one of those large camper RVs from his old world.


    He felt pretty confident that this was the so-called ''main wagon'' she had mentioned. Additionally, he spotted the reason why Richard and Rebecca had been so confident that he would know who Rolus was the moment he saw him.


    There was one aura that stood out from the rest. It was a large looming aura that emanated strength and fortitude, unlike many other auras he had ever sensed before. The person was obviously Tier 4, which was the most obvious hint.


    But he was even more convinced this was Rolus when he spotted the humongous sword strapped across the back of the man.


    Most people didn''t keep their weapons out it they had access to a storage ring. Sometimes it was just quicker to take a weapon out of their ring instead of unsheathing it. However, there were times when people preferred to keep their weapons on their person. This Rolus guy must have been this way. Otherwise, he couldn''t figure out why he kept such a cumbersome weapon on him the entire time.


    Julius tried to walk around and get a good look at the man. Since he was staring at the man''s back, all he could see was the hulking sword.


    When he finally got a good look at the man, he was startled. The man wasn''t as tall or large as he had been expecting.


    In his mind, he had already been imagining a giant of a man. Someone who would fit the stereotype of someone who would carry such a weapon. But instead, he was greeted by a man who couldn''t have been much larger than himself.


    Now that he was looking at this Rolus, he couldn''t help but think the visual was a bit comical. The sword was bigger than the person who was swinging it. As such, he couldn''t help but be curious about how the man was able to use such a weapon with any type of proficiency.


    With that being said, Julius had no doubt about the man''s strength. The man was a genuine Tier 4 and going off his aura, was someone who was likely stronger than Dustin.


    With little hesitation, he walked toward the man who was surrounded by a number of other individuals.


    Most of these people had sheets of paper and seemed like they were in charge of logistics and the general running of the operation. Julius observed as the man with the large sword, handled all of these people with patience and expertise.


    The man was in complete control as he pivoted from one person to the next. Fluidly directing his members with efficiency.


    It wasn''t until Julius noticed that nobody else was coming up to the man that he finally made his approach.


    "Hello," he spoke out to the man as he got within a few feet.


    The man turned to him with furrowed brows, probably confused as he had no idea who Julius was. Upon closer inspection, Julius was able to see more of the man''s features. His face was quite ordinary. Not handsome but not ugly, he had short cropped hair, but what really stood out were the scars littered over the man''s face and neck.


    Viscous ropes of scars wove throughout his skin and gave the man a much more fierce look to him.


    "What can I do for you, Sonny?" The man asked.


    Julius gave his best friendly smile. "You''re Rolus correct?"


    "That''s right."


    He nodded in relief. "Perfect, I was supposed to find you and give this to you," he said while passing over a letter he had gotten from Richard.


    Rolus gave a curious look at the letter and gently took it from his hands, opening it up after he did.


    Julius watched as the man swiftly reviewed the letter''s contents. While he was reading, the man looked up to give Julius a few surprised glances. When he was finally done, he folded the letter back up and handed it back to Julius.


    "So you''re Julius, huh? I didn''t think you would be so¡­ young," Rolus said slowly.


    "What did they tell you?" He asked.


    The man gave the immediate surroundings a look before answering. "They explained the general details of the mission and your part in it. I can''t say I necessarily agree with the idea, but I am also not the person making the decisions."


    "But I can come along, right?"


    The man chuckled. "I couldn''t stop you even if I wanted to. You got permission from the big guys, so, by all means, come along. But just know that there is a very real possibility of you getting hurt or even dying. I hope they explained this to you before you accepted the job."


    Julius gave an amused grin. "Trust me, they made sure I knew about the dangers."


    Rolus nodded understandingly. "Then you will get no problems from me. Just try not to cause any trouble while you are with us and we will get along just fine," the man said with a half smile. But the scars on his face made the smile a little less assuring and he couldn''t help but notice the almost dismayed look on the man''s face.


    Julius ignored it though and gave another smile with a thumbs up. "You won''t get any trouble from me. I am only here just in case something happens. Who knows, maybe we can get to our destination without any problems."


    Rolus didn''t say anything but simply gave him a stony smile in return.


    *** sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Rolus POV


    Rolus watched as the boy walked away with an anxious expression on his face.


    He didn''t understand what the Marquis was thinking. Rolus had been working for Casidus Easten for almost ten years now, and he was always grateful for it.


    Not everyone was able to get such a good job as he did. He worked his way from a simple guard to now running transportation and protection for House Easten. And the entire time, he had never disagreed with the House''s plans or behaviors.


    Unlike many of the other noble houses, House Easten was an honorable sort. They treated their workers great and compensated them well. However, for the first time, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit of irritation toward them.


    In what world did they believe sending a green Tier 3 along with the caravan on a bait mission was smart?


    He didn''t care who the boy''s family was or his connections. They were most likely going to be attacked by Tier 4s and many other Tier 3s on their way to Greenwich. It was almost a guarantee considering how valuable the materials this particular caravan was carrying.


    They were hoping that the Conclave wouldn''t be able to resist making an attempt on this trip. It was why they had employed some of the best Tier 3 mercenaries, adventurers, and retainers they could.


    They were undoubtedly going to lose some people, but it was all in the hopes of trying to capture some of the Conclave''s members. Something they have failed to do so far.


    Hence, when he was told there would be a backup weapon that would protect the group so that reinforcements could come he was relieved. If they could limit their losses by even a couple of men, it would be a blessing.


    However, when the boy showed up and gave him that letter, he didn''t know what to feel anymore.


    He had been expecting some monstrous Tier 3 to come and help them. Instead, all they got was some kid who couldn''t have been much older than his daughter.


    Not only that, but the boy''s aura was weak. While it could have easily been some sort of item or skill that hid his aura''s strength, there was a lack of hardness in it that skills or items were unable to hide.


    He doubted this boy had fought in many battles so far. After all, he was too young to be a Tier 3. He had no doubt that the boy advanced recently.


    "What was that about?" Adrian, his second-in-command asked, approaching after the boy, Julius left.


    He turned to his friend. "That was our backup," he said with a deadpan expression.


    "What? Him? I thought they were sending someone strong, not some boy," Adrian growled out in a hush.


    "Me too."


    "Do you think there''s some sort of noble politicking involved?" Adrian threw out.


    "I wouldn''t be surprised to learn that was the case here. But House Easten normally doesn''t let stuff like that affect the important stuff. It seems out of character for them," Rolus pointed out.


    "Yeah, but can you think of any other reason why they would send us a kid?"


    He tried to think of a reason but came up empty and shook his head.


    Adrian sighed. "I hate politics. Some elder or noble thought they could send their son with us as a way to gain easy experience or worse, try and get the boy killed."


    "I doubt it''s the latter. He knew exactly why he was here," Rolus told him.


    "Wait so he knows that we are all bait?"


    Rolus nodded.


    "And he''s okay that we are likely going to be attacked by a group of Tier 4s and Tier 3s?"


    Rolus nodded again.


    "Okay, now I am confused too," Adrian said with a frown.


    Rolus turned to his friend and slapped a hearty hand onto his shoulder. "It doesn''t matter if the boy is going to help us or not. The only thing we need to focus on is making sure we protect as many people as we can while also trying to find the bastards who have been attacking us these past months."


    Upon hearing that, Adrian also steeled his face. "Oh trust me, I am going to show those assholes they messed with the wrong people."


    The two of them knew better than most about the damage this Conclave group has been causing. They have lost more than half a dozen friends who have been attacked and wanted nothing more than to put an end to this now.


    This was their best chance at getting some revenge and some answers. And the two of them didn''t really have the time to focus on finding out why they were sent a boy. There were more important things they had to think about.

 Chapter 256 Meeting Some Adventurers

    After Julius talked to Rolus, he found himself sitting inside one of the wagons just as Rolus recommended he do. They had taken off from Blumand not too long ago and would be traveling to Greenwich for the next couple of weeks.The route would take them through several other towns and cities before they made it to the end of their trip. Which would mean Julius would have the opportunity to see some new things as well.


    He looked around the surprisingly spacious wagon with curious eyes. The wagon itself had seats for all of them to rest on and was filled with the noise of chatter.


    He was surrounded by a bunch of other people who all seemed to know each other in some way or form. About a handful of them were merchants if he had to guess while the others were clearly in some sort of team. He thought this because they all wore similarly colored armor and equipment.


    He was also somewhat glad to see the same woman and man who had given him directions on the other side of the wagon. They had seemed like nice people and he didn''t think their team would be too bad if they were a good representation of the others.


    Everyone on the wagon was Tier 3s and had been ignoring Julius for the most part. They knew he was there but nobody had tried to engage him in any type of conversation as of yet. The woman was busy discussing something with their leader, but she had recognized him when he entered their wagon.


    Just as he was getting comfortable, a large bearded man who was sitting across from him uncrossed his legs and turned to Julius with a nonchalant smile. The man''s grey jacket with green accents shimmered as the mana lights inside of the wagon hit them at an angle.


    "Aren''t you a bit young to be traveling with us?" The man asked in a slightly patronizing tone. Julius didn''t know if that tone was just because of his own age or if the man had something else against him, but he didn''t react outwardly and simply looked up at the man''s eyes, the hood that he had used to shroud his face slipping off as he did.


    The man''s nonchalant smile dipped a little bit as Julius''s stony eyes gazed right back at him. Perhaps he expected someone Julius''s age to be a bit more intimidated or uncomfortable in a wagon with ten strangers.


    At this point, the rest of the people in the wagon seemed to halt their conversation and pay attention to the new development with interested looks. Some seemed to notice the tense air between the two of them.


    Julius still didn''t say anything and kept his eyes on the man for a few moments longer before turning away.


    He sensed the man''s fist clench slightly in response to his indifference with [Spatial Perception] but the man didn''t do anything else. Instead, the woman who he had met earlier spoke up.


    "Don''t worry about Beck. His mouth works faster than his head and he comes off as more rude than he really is," she said with a quick glance at the man. "On the other hand, I didn''t think you would be coming along with us. I thought you were just delivering something," she said curiously.


    "Nope, I am technically a part of the escort," he said while turning to look at her with a small smile.


    "Interesting. So are you a solo adventurer?" She asked, her tone unlike the man from earlier was much more warm and polite.


    "I''m not registered with the guild," he said while shaking his head.


    "Oh my bad, I thought you were some young adventurer who got chosen for this mission," she said while rubbing the back of her head. Her long brown hair was tied up in a tight ponytail and she had quite the pretty hazel eyes as well.


    "It''s fine," he said to her.


    "By the way, my name is Stephanie! It''s nice to meet you," she said with another smile.


    He smirked a little bit at her enthusiasm. "Julius," he said while pointing at himself.


    "So Julius, how did you get selected for this mission? While Beck was a bit rude, I am also curious how someone your age was chosen for such a dangerous mission," she commented throwing out a quick dirty look at her teammate.


    Julius looked over to the man who had first talked to him who was looking properly chastised before looking back at her.


    "Dangerous mission?" He asked, feigning ignorance.


    "You didn''t know?" She asked worryingly. "The Adventurer''s Guild rated this mission as an A-rank danger for Tier 3s."


    "Oh," he said, not having to pretend to hide his surprise. He had no idea that this mission was already deemed as dangerous by the Adventurer''s Guild. Although, it would make sense. If there have been so many targeted attacks against House Easten''s routes, then a higher danger level would be appropriate.


    "So how does the ranking system work for adventurers? Can only some people take dangerous missions or is it just a warning for teams who choose to accept them?" He asked, actually interested in hearing the answer.


    She nodded her head. "A bit of both. It is a good way to warn all potential adventurers that death or injury is highly likely. E-rank means there is little to no danger, D-rank means there is a little danger, but nothing an average Tier 3 can''t handle, C-rank means there is the normal amount of risk, B-rank is a bit more dangerous, and A-rank means there is a real possibly of death."


    When she saw him nodding along with her explanation, she continued.


    "All adventurers are given a rank for their tier. They start out at E-rank at every new tier and rank up as they complete missions and get stronger. For example, I am a B-rank. That means I can take all B-rank missions and below without issue. However, since our entire team is B-rank, we can take a higher-rated mission if we attempt it as a team. It also helps that our team leader is an A-rank himself," she explained while pointing at the other man who was looking out of the wagon''s window. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius took the time to examine the team leader in more detail.


    He had already marked his presence earlier when he first entered the wagon. After all, the man''s aura was by far the most impressive. However, at the time he didn''t try to investigate it further. He didn''t want to come off as rude or anything.


    But he did take note of it. However, now that his teammate had pointed him out, he had a better excuse to take a closer look.


    The man was tall and didn''t have the bulkiness that Beck had. Instead, his limbs were lithe but he didn''t miss the signs of tightly corded muscles showing through his own grey and green jacket.


    Julius reached out his aura with a gentle probe. The man''s aura was firm and well-controlled. A sign of good training and strength. Discover exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire


    Furthermore, his probe didn''t go unnoticed. The moment their leader sensed someone poking around, he stopped looking out the window and directed his gaze toward him in a blank stare. But when he gave him a once over and saw that he was just a kid he went back to ignoring him.


    "Yep, that''s Matt. He''s our leader and a swordsman. He is also pretty good at spells as well," Stephanie said with pride.


    Julius bobbed his head. "Indeed, he seems strong," he said with total sincerity.


    That seemed to make Stephanie as well as the other members of the group grin.


    Another man interjected with a hesitant tone. "So how did you get selected to join then if you aren''t registered at the Guild?"


    Julius didn''t see a reason to hide some of the truth. "I have done things for House Easten in the past and they offered me this job."


    "Oh that makes more sense," Stephanie said in understanding before pointing at the group of merchants. "Gregory and the other merchants also were chosen because of their connection."


    "Yeah, but they are also not fighters. So what''s the reason why the kid is coming along?" The man named Beck spoke up. The dismissive tone was no longer there and he noted that it contained genuine curiosity. It did come off as a bit harsh though.


    Stephanie gave the man in question a dark glare again and was about to speak but someone beat her to the punch.


    "It''s none of your business, Beck. He''s here like the rest of us to do the job. Now stop being an ass before I throw you out of the carriage and you can run alongside us until we make camp," their leader, Matt said softly but looking at Beck directly. His aura flared up in warning and also as a challenge. Daring the man to argue with him.


    Julius didn''t pay attention to how Beck reacted though. He was too busy trying to control his aura which had risen up to Matt''s aura. Luckily, he was able to catch it in time and his ruinous aura wasn''t let out.


    After he did, he made sure to throw a grateful nod toward their leader to which he didn''t get a response, but that was fine. He was appreciative of his actions. Not everyone would have spoken up against one of their team members so easily for a stranger. It would also make Julius''s trip with them a bit more drama-free.


    ***


    Several hours went by as they left Blumand and headed toward their next stop.


    If he recalled, it was a town called Willow''s Front. It was a medium-sized town where they were dropping off some supplies and some of the merchants to do some business.


    On the bright side, the group must have felt more comfortable around him after Matt spoke up because they all started to talk again, but this time including him in their conversations, asking him various questions.


    Things like where he was from and why he chose to come along. He lied about where he was from. He told them that he was from Blumand and tried to avoid most of the more personal questions.


    Luckily, he found a topic that helped him avoid these questions. Food.


    "Carmen''s is pretty good, but Plopski''s is so much better!" Stephanie argued passionately with him.


    Julius shook his finger at her. "Nope, Plopski''s meat can be drier than the leather of my boots. I have never had a dry piece of meat from Carmen''s," he argued right back.


    "What are you talking about?" Beck exclaimed loudly. "Plopski''s is the place for anyone who knows what they are talking about," the man backed up his teammate. After Matt had properly reprimanded the man he had become less aggressive. Even going so far as to actually engage Julius in conversations.


    Julius gave Beck a deadpan expression and looked meaningfully at the man''s torso. "I bet you love Plopski''s so much because they have cheaper prices on alcohol."


    The man was about to retort but there must have been some truth to Julius''s words because instead he pouted and looked away guiltily. The rest of his teammates laughed at the man''s reaction.


    Stephanie grinned widely. "You have no idea how true that is. We always end up going to Plopski''s for that reason. But I actually love it because of the lively atmosphere. They have some great music and the occasional fight in the back," she said bashfully.


    Julius gave her an incredulous look. "You like that sort of thing?"


    From what he had seen from the woman, she seemed all prim and proper. Definitely not the sort who liked to watch backyard fights between drunk people. He had seen one of those fights the last time he went to Plopski''s. It was a fight between two Tier 3s who were absolutely hammered and who could barely stand on their two feet.


    To their credit, it was hilarious. They were so drunk, the actual crowd would have been in more danger if not for the enchanted barrier surrounding them.


    "Oh, so you''ve seen them? A young boy like yourself shouldn''t be seeing stuff like that quite yet," Beck joked to him.


    "Oh, but a proper young woman can?" He retorted back, looking at Stephanie as he did.


    She gave him a shy grin. "What? Can''t a girl enjoy herself once in a while?"


    Julius shook his head in bewilderment and was about to reply when he sensed something approach them from the distance.


    It was hard to tell from so far away, but there was something coming toward the caravan just over the horizon.


    He wasn''t the only one to notice either. Matt had already gotten up and was looking at a place where Julius had sensed them.


    "Get ready everyone, something''s coming," He commanded, his aura wrapped around all of them. Almost infusing them with some sort of buff.


    Julius wanted to take time to analyze this technique as it was quite interesting but didn''t have the time. He was too focused on the incoming aura presences closing in on their location.

 Chapter 257 Dealing with Some Monsters

    It would seem that they weren''t the only ones who had sensed it. There was a signal to halt all of the wagons resounding throughout the caravan.All of the wagons swiftly came to a stop and as they did, everyone except for the merchants got out of the wagon. Matt''s entire team had taken their weapons out and prepared their equipment very quickly, jumping out of the wagon with serious faces. The previous joking atmosphere was no longer present.


    Julius was not surprised to see that all the other teams were filing out of their wagons as well. There were a couple dozen fighters who were participating in this mission, quite a large number for a simple escort mission.


    He turned to look back in the direction he had felt the surge of aura.


    The first thing his mind assumed was that this was the Conclave making a move on them. But after a minute, he realized that it would be silly if they announced their presence this easily.


    Furthermore, the auras he sensed did not feel particularly well controlled. This made him believe it was some sort of group of monsters instead.


    "You don''t have to worry," Stephanie said to him reassuringly. "It''s probably just a random group of monsters who sensed all of us."


    Beck gave him a pat on the shoulder, the time spent in the wagon talking seemed to make Beck much more friendly. "It''s pretty common to see if this area. A lot of monsters like to roam these parts. That''s why having an escort is important. Don''t feel bad about hanging back to see how the other teams deal with them. We probably won''t even have a chance to fight unless the mages miss everything," he said with a laugh.


    Julius didn''t try and argue with the man. He was more than fine with staying back and allowing the rest of the people to handle this. His mission was to fight the Conclave, not some random monsters. Although the battle-crazy part of him really wanted to test out his new body enhancement skill and he had to cram that part of him back down into its hidey-hole.


    It wasn''t time for it to play just yet.


    "Stephanie! Take Pamela and go help the other mages," Matt ordered calmly while pointing at the area where some of the other team''s mages were congregating.


    "See? What did I say? This is the best part about having mages on your team. You can just sit back and let them do all of the work," Beck whispered to him as Stephanie and her teammate jogged off to the other group of mages.


    "You can go along with them too Beck if you are going to keep on talking," Matt warned the man.


    The man held his hands up pleadingly. "I''m good. You know that I don''t really have many options for long range attacks. I would just be wasting mana."


    "That''s why you should go, perhaps it would be good practice for you. Your [Firebolt] could use a lot of work anyway."


    Julius stifled a laugh as the man visibly deflated at the statement. "You didn''t need to bring that up," the bearded man said depressingly.


    "Well then be quiet and pay attention in case they need us," Matt told him.


    Interestingly, it worked and Beck no longer said anything else.


    Soon after, he managed to get a good visual of the monsters that were coming toward them.


    There was a surprisingly large number of them. At least several dozen monsters were running on four limbs. If he had to guess, he would say that they were some sort of canine monster around the size of a large human.


    These monsters also had light green fur which helped them blend into the tall grass that surrounded the area. From what he could tell from this distance, there wasn''t any monster above Tier 3. But it was also too soon to tell.


    Julius watched as the assembled mages lined up and faced the incoming monsters.


    At this point, the monsters were full-on running at them now and were impressively fast.


    However, that made little difference to the mages as a large number of attacks were released toward the monsters in a dense stream of multi-colored light.


    He watched in awe as the entire horde was torn apart with brutal efficiency. The first attacks to make contact were several large-area spells.


    A large blast of frost was detonated from the center of the group, covering a significant portion of them with ice. The following large area attack was a bomb that released some sort of black misty substance. This substance floated in the air and was absorbed into the monsters'' bodies.


    Honestly, just these two attacks might have been enough on their own. The frost caused significant damage and also managed to slow down the monsters by a lot. Then the black substance was even more insidious.


    Whatever skill it was, it was terrifying to see. The black flecks literally ate away the skin of the monsters and rapidly grew like some sort of infection. Until finally, the monster''s flesh was gone like it was dumped in a vat of acid.


    The following salvo just took care of the stragglers.


    "I see Pamela''s acid attacks are just as scary as ever," Julius heard Beck mutter. And he had to agree with the man. Seeing that black mist of acid corrode the monster''s flesh was not a pretty sight.


    George, the man who had been with Stephanie when she met Julius heard him and commented too. "For such a sweet woman, she has some very evil abilities."


    "I know, but we should just be glad that she''s not evil. Otherwise, that would be a much more terrifying thing to imagine," Matt added with a happy smile.


    ***


    The cleanup and departure went off without a hitch. It was done with extreme precision and he could tell was something that was only possible due to their experience.


    All of the monsters were broken down for their materials or what was left of them anyway. And most importantly their cores. These cores were then distributed evenly throughout the mages who participated.


    With Pamela getting a larger amount, unsurprisingly.


    Julius, making sure he stayed back and out of the way, just watched. He took notes on how the various teams all worked together and got ready to depart with such efficiency. It was something that might be useful later down the road.


    Several hours after they left the scene where they were besieged, they stopped on an open plain to rest for the night.


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    There was plenty of food and the entire caravan set up an entire kitchen as well as many grills for people to cook some meat on. While some people were still on duty, making sure nothing snuck up on them at night, the rest of the people were relaxing and decompressing from a long day of travel.


    Julius tried this as well, but ended up bickering with Beck about the proper way to use a grill and how he wanted his meat cooked. The bearded big man insisted on cooking his meat until it was black and covered in charcoal before smothering it in his ''famous'' sauce he brought along.


    "I can see why you like Plopski''s now," he grumbled while aggressively tearing through the blackened piece of meat.


    Beck waved the pair of tongs at him, from where he was cooking more. "If you want to give it a shot, you are more than welcome to."


    Julius shot up faster than a kid on Christmas morning. "Okay," he said quickly before the man could take away the offer.


    He had actually been pestering the man to let him grill for all of them, but Beck had insisted that he was the grill master. Something, he noticed that not all of his teammates were too thrilled about. Some of them even walked away to find other grills to eat from.


    When he finally got ahold of the tongs and the grill, the first thing he did was to take control of a bunch of fire mana and absolutely torch everything that had touched the grates of the grill.


    He didn''t want anything Beck touched to remain. When he was done, there was nothing left except for ash that floated away into the night sky.


    He then used his mana to give it a nice scrubbing before he took out an apron that Aubrey had bought him a while ago while they were shopping in Heston and put it on.


    While he hadn''t taken any of the skills needed for cooking, he still had a fire affinity that was perfect for times like this. As such, he didn''t bother to use the provided fire enchantments to cook the food and instead used his own.


    It was better anyway since he would be able to control the temperature much easier if it was his own mana. Or at least better than Beck''s own failed attempts. For a man with a fire affinity, the Beck''s control over temperature was quite substandard. But he was a tank after all, so he couldn''t expect much else.


    "Nice apron," Stephanie said while struggling to hold in her laugh.


    He dutifully ignored her and the others chuckles. He was wearing it because he liked it and because it was a gift. Waving off the jeers, he stood over the grill, and with Beck watching over him with a critical eye, he began to show the man how to actually cook meat.


    ***


    A couple of days went by without too much trouble. Sure, they were attacked by a group of monsters a few times and just recently they were attacked by a lone Tier 4 monster, but it wasn''t anything too dangerous.


    Admittedly, the Tier 4 was a bit taxing for a brief moment, it took almost the entire group of mages and a few of the more powerful Tier 3 members to take it down. But after some time, they managed to overwhelm the monster with sheer quantity.


    Still, they were never at any real risk. Rolus was still right there, ready to jump in whenever he needed to. The only reason he didn''t was to let the other Tier 3s get some experience and improve their skills against a higher-tiered opponent.


    Julius, as he had been for the past couple of days, did nothing. In fact, he would barely consider himself a part of the fighters at this point. It was more accurate to say he had been designated as the group''s cook.


    Something he enjoyed teasing Beck about immensely. After the first night, his entire team decided to not let Beck pick up the tongs again. They adamantly demanded that Julius be the one who grilled their food.


    It would seem that they enjoyed food that didn''t have so much¡­ carbon on it. He still did end up using the man''s ''famous'' sauce at least. He had to give Beck credit for that. While he couldn''t cook for a damn, the sauce was quite tasty and went well with grilled meat.


    He didn''t mind being forced to be the group''s cook either. Since he wasn''t doing any of the actual fighting, cooking at least gave him something to do to drive the boredom away. Plus, it was always good practice for his mana control.


    That was why he was currently setting up to make a quick lunch for the rest of them. Rolus had thought it was a good idea to rest a little bit after the Tier 4 fight since it was around lunchtime anyway.


    "You''re mana control is surprisingly good," Stephanie complimented him as she watched him manipulate the flames. The rest of the others were horsing around just a few dozen feet away while he got things ready, but the woman had made it a habit to always stay by him for some reason.


    "Surprisingly?" He asked in a mock-offended tone.


    She smacked her head. "Sorry, that came out wrong. I didn''t mean it like that. I was just surprised that someone your age has such fine control."


    "I wouldn''t call it ''fine'', he said, downplaying his own skill.


    She gave him a blank stare. "I''m a mage and a healer, a pretty good one too. Trust me, I can see the signs of a well-practiced mage. You don''t let any of the residual mana go to waste, making sure you are reusing it at all times. You also are independently controlling several different sections of mana at once with precision. That''s not something even some of these mages here can do with as much delicate control."


    He turned away from his food and looked at the woman who apparently had been keeping a closer eye on him than he thought, his apron flapping in the wind. "Why are you so interested?" He asked.


    "Because you mentioned that you were primarily a close-combat fighter. But you don''t really see many close-combat fighters who have better mana control than a dedicated mage," she while giving him an inquisitive stare.


    "I like playing with mana," he said simply and truthfully.


    "I can see that," she said with an amused grin. "I just can''t help but wonder what other kind of surprises you have hidden away." sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He didn''t respond and returned his attention back to the food he was preparing, deciding that no answer would be better than any other one he could think of.

 Chapter 258 Null Fiends

    The caravan didn''t actually need to head into Willow''s Front as he had originally believed. In fact, they didn''t even get within the smaller walls surrounding the town. Instead, only a few wagons ended going through the inspection guards and unloading their goods. While the rest of them continued on their way to Aspinith, the next town on their route.So far they had not run into many other problems. Other than the occasional group of monsters, it was quite peaceful. Even the monsters weren''t that disruptive. The mages took care of them before they even managed to get close, so it wasn''t like any of the warriors were tiring themselves out fighting monsters either.


    And since Julius was technically a ''warrior'' that meant he was also left to observe the mages having their fun.


    Even though he was okay with keeping his abilities quiet for the time being, he couldn''t help but want to stretch his legs a little bit. The cooking was helping him stay somewhat busy, but he didn''t know what else to do in the meantime.


    In the end, he decided to use his free time reading from the small collection of books he had tucked away in his storage ring. It wasn''t as exciting, but he hadn''t read in a while so it was an unexpected treat nonetheless.


    ***


    "Everyone get ready," George called out suddenly.


    Julius looked up to see everyone getting up swiftly. The man''s tone was different than usual. This time it felt more urgent.


    Thus, Julius closed the book he was reading softly and put it away into his ring before looking at where George was focusing his attention. It wasn''t like Julius hadn''t noticed them, but he didn''t think there was anything out of the ordinary.


    Sure it was quite a crowd of monsters, but it wasn''t like something their caravan hadn''t dealt with many times at this point.


    "What''s wrong?" Stephanie asked, also noticing George''s tone.


    "A group of Null Fiends are approaching fast," he said while getting out of the wagon. Stephanie''s face turned a bit more anxious but her voice didn''t waver.


    "How many and how strong?"


    "A few dozen and all Tier 3 except for one who is probably Tier 4," George said, his eyes not leaving the direction where he sensed the monsters.


    "Null Fiends approaching from the south!" Matt suddenly hollered out for the entire Caravan to hear.


    "What the hell are Null Fiends?" He asked Beck who was preparing his armor for the first time since he met the man.


    "You don''t know what Null Fiends are? I thought you grew up around Blumand?" The man asked, confused.


    "No, I have no clue. What are they?"


    The man put on the last piece of his armor and explained. "They are some of the more dangerous monsters that roam this region. They are powerful for their tier and have the annoying ability to absorb mana. So the only effective way to deal with them is to either overwhelm their absorption or to fight them with swords."


    "So, can they absorb everything made with mana?" He asked.


    "No, but if you attack them with a pure mana attack like most of our mages do, they will simply absorb it and use it to empower their attacks. The best option is to use physical-based attacks. They can still absorb some mana if the attack uses mana but their ability to do so will be heavily limited," Beck quickly explained before hopping out of the wagon.


    "Warriors are the best option to fight them. Otherwise, we will just waste a lot of mana," Stephanie said to him while also getting out of the wagon.


    Julius hopped out, following the two of them. "What kind of attacks do they have?"


    "They have a pretty simple but powerful attack that uses plain blasts of mana. They are also pretty beefy on top of their mana absorption. But there are several variations of them, so don''t expect all of them to be the same. They might have a healer or assassin in their midst so be mindful," she advised him.


    Julius was about to ask another question but was distracted by the monsters who made their way over the hill.


    Fiends was a proper name for what he saw. Tall humanoid creatures covered in glowing red runes. Their faces looked more akin to reptiles and even from this distance, looked distinctly menacing.


    He heard Rolus giving directions to various teams from where he was. "I want all mages to focus on supporting our warriors. Don''t bother wasting your mana to attack them unless you have the proper spell to do so, it will just give them more mana to attack us with."


    "I will focus on drawing the Tier 4 away from the battle and deal with it so that you don''t have to worry about being collateral. While I am, stay together with your teammates as much as possible. If you don''t have a team, then stay with the group I placed you with. But remember that the most important goal is to keep the others in the caravan safe. Is that understood?"


    A resounding yell of affirmatives rang throughout the caravan before they all collectively went to meet the incoming monsters before they could reach the wagons.


    Julius kept up with the others. Beck was bearing a shield in one arm as he easily led their group in front with Matt and Aaron a step behind him.


    It would seem I will be getting a chance to stretch my legs, after all, he thought giddily.


    ***


    Stephanie POV


    Null Fiends? Really? She thought to herself exasperatedly.


    Talk about awful luck. Null Fiends were always annoying to deal with. Not only were they powerful, but their mana absorption skill was such a dangerous ability. They weren''t like the normal rabble they easily dealt with on their way here.


    Regardless, she wasn''t too worried. There were a lot of quality fighters here and her team had taken care of their share of Null Fiends in the past. Matt, Aaron, and Beck should be able to take care of them without getting hurt.


    The only person she was worried about was Julius. According to him, he had never even heard of a Null Fiend before, which was slightly worrying.


    As a newly advanced Tier 3, going against monsters who had their own Concepts would be especially dangerous. Her and the rest of her team all had their own Concepts which allowed them to fight against the monster''s mana absorption, but he might find it very difficult to fight back against the monster''s ability.


    She would make sure to keep an eye on the kid even if it meant that some of the others got a bit more beat up in the meantime. They would understand. They couldn''t'' allow their dedicated cook to die here. Nobody wanted to go back to Beck''s cooking.


    She shuddered just thinking about it.


    "Be careful of the mana absorption, even if you attack with physical attacks, just being near them will let them draw mana out of you. For now, stay near me, you can see how we fight and slot yourself in wherever you feel comfortable," she said to him while running beside him.


    He turned to her with a weirdly excited glint in his eyes. "Thanks, I will be careful," he said with a grin.


    She didn''t know why he was acting so excited. He should be a bit more worried considering what kind of monsters they were about to fight. After all, she didn''t doubt they would find at least one Null Fiend who had multiple Concepts. Those were the most annoying ones to deal with.


    However, his ignorance of who Null Fiends were probably helped his nerves, so she didn''t bother trying to scare him. It would only make him more nervous and that was potentially much more dangerous.


    She did note that the boy was keeping up very well all things considered. He was matching pace with them with ease. Although they weren''t going as fast as they could, they were all still very strong Tier 3s. Even she had better physical abilities than most healers. So it was to his credit that he wasn''t displaying any exertion as they made their way to the monsters.


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    Just as they were about to clash with the fiends, she felt a bunch of skills activate from all of the other teams including her own.


    While her debuff skills wouldn''t be effective on these monsters, some of the warriors had their own taunting or debuff attacks that didn''t rely on pure mana. Beck, in fact, had a very powerful taunting skill that would cause confusion and anger within his foes.


    Matt also had a skill that used his aura to punish his enemies. It was the same skill that he used to buff his teammates, but could also be used to hurt his opponents.


    While the monsters were caught off guard by these debuffs, the group tore through them. Nobody on their team held back. Beck practically crushed two of them in a single blow with the shield blast he had been building up during the charge.


    Matt removed the arms and legs of two of them. While Aaron beat down another one with his hammer.


    The other teams were also having success. And it was exactly what she expected from a bunch of strong teams. She knew that most of them were only here because of the money, but they were kind of in a similar boat so she couldn''t judge. She was just grateful they weren''t surrounded with a bunch of people who couldn''t handle themselves. That had happened too many times in the past.


    She threw out a bunch of buffs to everyone within her sphere of influence. It would invigorate them as well as give them a pretty nice boost to their passive regeneration. She didn''t use her buff for their defenses quite yet. She wanted to wait for a better time to do so because at the moment they didn''t need it.


    The one person she kept an eye on was Julius who was charging toward a fiend. Good mana control or not, dealing with a strong monster like a Null Fiend was totally different. Still, she didn''t stop him even though he was probably outmatched. It would be a good chance for him to get some experience, plus she was ready to jump in at any moment''s notice.


    The boy shockingly didn''t have any weapon or any armor. For a close combat fighter, that was uncommon. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    But she did notice some sort of mana based defense surround the boy along with some type of body enhancement skill and shook her head. Since it was mana-based, the fiends would use that as a channel to steal his mana away.


    She was about to step in and help him but held herself back when she noticed that the fiend wasn''t taking any mana at all. She paused and made double sure that it wasn''t, but a deeper examination only reaffirmed it.


    How is he stopping it from taking his mana? Does he have a Concept after all? Or is it some sort of skill?


    That wasn''t the end of her surprise though. The young boy didn''t show the least bit of fear or panic as the fiend slashed a lightning-fast claw at his face. He merely lowered his head and took a step forward.


    It was almost like teleportation, one moment he was in front of the monster and the next he was behind it in its blind spot.


    She had originally believed that Julius was a pure fire affinity user much like Beck. But it would seem that she was wrong because the boy blasted a fist of kinetic energy right into the ribcage of the Null Fiend.


    A kinetic affinity was not commonly seen but it was a warrior''s dream affinity. It had almost no long-range applications or flexibility. But it excelled in one area. Pure close combat brutality.


    Unfortunately for Julius, it would seem that his strike wasn''t quite strong enough to take out the Null Fiend in one shot, but it didn''t mean he stopped. No, just as the Null Fiend was blasted off its feet, Julius was right on top of it.


    He didn''t allow it a second to breathe and hammered several more strikes into the back of the fallen monster''s skull, putting it down with cold-blooded ferocity. Only taking a small slash to the arm in return.


    She immediately sent out a small pulse of life mana to the boy, that healed the bleeding gash in seconds and was rewarded by an appreciative nod from the boy before he leapt back into the action with the same enthusiastic grin.


    Perhaps, I don''t have to worry about him as much as I thought I would, she amended her previous thoughts with a chuckle.

 Chapter 259 Aura Skill Advancement

    It was extraordinarily difficult to keep control of his aura during all of this chaos.He did feel the mana absorption that Beck and Stephanie had been trying to warn him about. It was a fascinating technique. If he was right, it worked so well because there was some sort of Concept backing it.


    He had no idea what the exact Concept was, but it helped whatever skill that was trying to suck away his mana. Too bad for the monsters that he had an Emblem which made it impossible for them to take even a smidgen of his mana.


    The Null Fiends in general were pretty strong even without their mana absorption skill. They had quite impressive defenses and as well as excellent physical strength.


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    After he took down one of them, he was beset by another Null Fiend, who was looking to take revenge for its comrade.


    This time, instead of claws to the face he got a compressed blast of pure mana sent at his back. He felt Stephanie, who had been keeping a close eye on him about to activate a skill to protect him, but before she could, he used [Flash Step] to avoid it.


    The blast ended up missing and hitting a teammate who was in front of him. Luckily, one of their mages was paying attention and created a barrier in front of them before it could hit them.


    Oops, I should be more mindful of how I dodge attacks. There is no need to endanger another team because of my carelessness, he reminded himself.


    Julius stepped forward and dashed at the fiend before it could send another blast. He used his kinetic restriction technique subtly, just enough to delay the monster. But a moment was more than enough for him.


    He crashed a fist full of kinetic energy and fire mana into the Null Fiend, this time using a bit of his aura-burning effect as well, testing out his new aura. Their physical defenses were strong, but he had no idea how strong their aura defenses were.


    He quickly found the answer. It would seem that they were not as good at aura defense because his skill penetrated the monster''s aura and scorched it. It must have surprised the monsters because it was staggered for another brief moment. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    But before it could get its bearings, he got in close and clobbered it with a bunch of strikes, not giving it a single opening.


    With one final punch, he crushed the monster''s head with finality.


    After that, he took a step back and took a deep breath. His aura hadn''t slipped, but it had come close. It was only due to sheer willpower that he rangled it back.


    However, it would also seem that had a nice benefit for him. He got a notification of something he had been impatiently waiting for ever since he got to Tier 3. It was something that he had been expecting to happen much sooner. But it was better late than never.


    [Empowerment of Will lvl 19 -> lvl 20]


    [Empowerment of Will] has advanced to level 20. Would you like to evolve the skill?


    While he wanted nothing more than to see what kind of options he got, he reminded himself that he wasn''t in the clear yet and that there was a better time to check it out.


    He looked around at the battlefield. Most of the Null Fiends had been already taken care of. The other fighters had done a spectacular job at quickly dispatching the monsters. The only remaining ones were a handful of leftover monsters at the edge of the group.


    It was amusing to see that nobody intervened in these fights either. It would seem that there was a sort of gentleman''s code not to interfere with someone''s fight.


    He didn''t notice anyone dead or heavily injured thankfully. The worst injury was someone who had taken a blast of mana in the back, but their healer was able to quickly heal it without issue.


    He then took a look over toward where Rolus had been fighting the lone Tier 4 Null Fiend. He had kept a scrutinizing eye on Rolus and how he dealt with the Tier 4 monster. And he was happy to say that he wasn''t disappointed.


    Rolus was strong, that was not in doubt. The man was able to take out the Tier 4 with little trouble. The only reason why it took as long as it did was that the Tier 4 Null Fiend had monstrous regeneration abilities. But it was quite one-sided and Rolus barely broke a sweat.


    If they had to fight the Tier 4 without Rolus, he would suspect that the group would have been in much more danger. They were lucky that wasn''t the case.


    While he was feeling lucky, it would seem that the other people around him felt a bit differently.


    "What is this shit luck? First, we have to deal with more monsters than usual, but then we get attacked by a group of Null Fiends?" George complained while wiping his face with a towel. Julius also spotted a pair of shortswords dripping in blood in the handsome man''s hands.


    Contrarily, Beck, whose armor was covered in a bunch of fiend blood walked up in a great mood. "What are you talking about? This was amazing! I thought I would have to stay in the back the entire time watching the mages have all of the fun."


    George gave him a shake of the head. "Well if you enjoyed it so much, maybe you can deal with the next group of monsters by yourself."


    "You really think they would allow me to do that?! That was a nice warm-up, but I want to fight some more" Beck said enthusiastically.


    Huh, I shouldn''t be shocked to see that Beck is a battle maniac too, Julius inwardly noted.


    Julius had been watching all of his new team''s fights. Beck was by far the most aggressive out of the bunch. The large bearded man had smashed into at least a dozen different Null Fiends and had been absolutely smothered by them in return.


    However, the man was terrifyingly tanky. He took blasts of mana and sharp claws like they were nothing. His taunting skill also helped everyone in the group to focus on the bare minimum of opponents. He was a good tank.


    Matt on the other hand had shown amazing prowess as a team leader and with a sword. He was the glue to the team, always in the place where danger was the biggest.


    Furthermore, there was no doubt that the man had some sort of sword or sharpness-related Concept. In fact, he might have sensed something that resembled an Emblem as well.


    The man was likely close to gaining his Authority and advancing to Tier 4.


    Stephanie was very skilled too, although focusing most of her attention on him, she still made sure to properly support all of her teammates, creating the occasional barrier and healing people who needed it. Her healing skill was pretty amazing as well.


    He had no doubt that it was an epic-ranked healing skill because its effectiveness was decently close to his own healing skill which was a mark of its power.


    Aaron was a simple fighter. He focused on pure body enhancement and swung his massive hammer without any worries. He had gotten the most injured, but the man also had a regenerative healing skill that kept him healthy throughout the entire fight.


    George on the other hand¡­ Julius didn''t know exactly how to explain it, but the man was unusual. The man made sure that nobody was attacked from behind and made sure there weren''t any holes within their defenses.


    Julius sensed the man sending out some sort of communicative skill to the others throughout the whole fight. He also had some scary damage-dealing skills. Out of all of the fights Julius tried to keep track of, George was one of the few people who was able to take out a Null Fiend with a single attack.


    It was a combination of aura, mana, and stamina that allowed the man to unleash a devastating strike in an instant. A perfect skill for ambushing or catching a monster off guard.


    George was obviously skilled so that just made Julius even more confused. Why had the man allowed that monster to shoot him in the back?


    There was no way that George hadn''t known about the threat. Julius had caught the man looking at the fiend who attacked him with [Spatial Perception].


    So the question remained. Why did George allow Julius to get attacked from behind without stopping it or even alerting Julius to it? Did the man have something against him? Or was it simply an accident?


    He couldn''t think of an answer that he was confident with, so he packed it away to think about at a later date. It didn''t let it bother him too much, he wouldn''t have been injured too bad if he hadn''t noticed it soon enough.


    Just as he was about to head over to the two fiends he took care of, he was slapped on the back by a still enthusiastic Beck. "How was that, Julius? Did you have fun? Maybe next time you can participate more actively," the man boisterously said in laughter.


    "You were probably too busy smashing your face against the monsters to notice, but he did take care of two fiends himself you know," Stephanie called out from behind.


    Beck quickly turned his entire body to look at her. "No shit? Two of them? Did you help him?"


    Stephanie chuckled at Beck''s startled expression. "No, he did an impressive job holding his own."


    Beck turned back to Julius with a proud smile. "I guess I underestimated you, huh?"


    Julius scratched the back of his head as everyone''s attention was on him. He kind of wished that Stephanie hadn''t said anything, but it wasn''t too much of a big deal. He was still keeping most of his abilities secret.


    "I got lucky, I guess."


    Beck shook his head and gave Julius another hearty slap. "Luck is a sign of a good fighter. No need to be embarrassed about a bit of good luck."


    Julius smiled at the man, who was quickly becoming one of his favorites in the group despite their first interaction. The man wore his heart on his sleeve and if it offended some, then it did.


    It is kind of like how Aubrey acts, he realized with a solemn smile.


    "Come on! Let''s get things cleaned up and then we can celebrate your first fight with us!" Beck said while dragging Julius over to one of his own kills.

 Chapter 260 Aura of Ruin

    Stephanie POV


    She let the fake smile slide from her face as they finished up celebrating and were getting ready to hit the sack.


    She was angry. More angry than she has been at one of her teammates in a while. It took her using her focus skill to calm her emotions.


    They were on a mission, so it would not be proper if she freaked out in front of everyone. But she was still going to get some answers and depending on his response, she would decide what to do next.


    Luckily, she knew exactly his routine and knew that they would have some space to talk without any interruptions.


    She walked with firm steps toward his back, where he was watching the stars with a calm gaze before deploying a sound barrier around them.


    "What the fuck was that, George?" She asked softly, her anger simmering just below the surface.


    "What was what?"


    "Don''t play dumb. I am too pissed off to play these games with you right now," she gritted through her teeth.


    He must have realized she was one second away from blowing up and gave her an ashamed look. "It was a stupid mistake," he admitted.


    "Mistake?! You could have gotten him killed," she said furiously.


    "I know."


    "Then why did you do it?"


    "Because I had to see what he would do," he said, raising his voice slightly, letting some of his frustrations leak out.


    "What do you mean by ''you had to''?" She asked.


    "Are you telling me you have not been at least the littlest curious about him?" He responded with a knowing look in his eyes.


    She knew exactly what he was talking about but she couldn''t support his actions. "That doesn''t mean I''m going to risk his life like that. You know how dangerous one of those blasts can be."


    "I was pretty certain that even if it connected, it wouldn''t have hurt him that badly," he said too assured in his assumption for her liking.


    She had a disbelieving expression on her face and had to restrain herself from punching the man.


    "And what gave you that confidence, huh?"


    "His body enhancement is powerful," he explained with no hesitation.


    "Yes, powerful for someone his age. But not against a dangerous monster like that."


    George laughed at that. "You really think that? You really think Julius was using his body skill at full power?"


    She paused at that.


    No, I actually do not know that, she admitted to herself.


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    "That still doesn''t make what you did right. Even if he wouldn''t be too badly hurt, he would have still been injured deliberately by you."


    "I know, I messed up big time. I wasn''t thinking properly. I am just¡­ I don''t trust him."


    "What? Why?"


    George sighed. "You know about the attacks on House Easten''s operations, you''re telling me that you don''t think there is something fishy about them?"


    She couldn''t believe what she was hearing. "Oh, so you''re saying that Julius is working with the people who have been robbing and attacking these transports?" She asked sarcastically. However, when he didn''t immediately respond and just looked downward she let out a choking laugh.


    "You do! You really think that! He''s a kid George!"


    "You''ve sensed his aura, Steph! You''re telling me that someone with that weak of an aura is capable of taking out two Null Fiends, without any help?"


    "So he has an item that artificially restricts his aura, so what? That doesn''t mean he''s a spy for a bunch of criminals," she said dismissively. She already knew that the boy was stronger than his weak aura would indicate. His mana control was too elegant not to be, so she wasn''t surprised.


    "He has no item. He''s doing it manually," George said meaningfully.


    Stephanie froze at that. She knew exactly what George meant by that. Being able to restrict your aura was impressive, it was a sign of a skilled practitioner. But something along the lines of what Julius was doing was absurd. The boy hadn''t just been restricting his aura for a few hours, he had been doing it for several days.


    "You''re sure it''s not an item?" She asked slowly.


    "Not entirely, but there are too many signs of natural fluctuation within his aura to be an item. I have been watching for the past few days. The only way it could be possible is if the item is extremely powerful and thus expensive," George said assuredly.


    That is something a bit more worrisome. Skilled people, especially assassins could hide their aura for hours, but to restrict one''s aura for that long would already be massively uncomfortable and practically impossible without an Authority or Domain to help do so.


    "Would you be able to do something like that?" She asked a question she already knew the answer to.


    George shook his head. "Not a chance. Maybe several hours or a day if I was under a lot of pressure, but a few days? No way."


    She pressed her lips together. That would mean that Julius had been keeping his aura under heavy restriction for days without letting anything slip out.


    What if George is right? What if there is a nefarious reason why Julius came along with the caravan? It is weird that such a young boy was given permission to come along with them, she tried to process everything.


    However, she gave herself a mental jolt and reminded herself to not make assumptions. This was still a boy at the end of the day and she wasn''t going to write him off just because he was hiding some secrets.


    "He was assigned by House Easten directly, so it would make sense if they gave him something that could shroud his aura. They have the means," she pointed out.


    "That is a good point, but still, why is he hiding so much? I just don''t get it."


    "It doesn''t matter," she finally said to him.


    "It doesn''t matter?"


    "No, what you did was wrong. Plus, we have no actual proof that Julius is with this organization attacking transports. He has every right to hide his secrets, we barely know him after all. But if you do something like that again, I promise I will report this to the guild and House Easten," she said sternly.


    George didn''t look very happy with her answer but held his tongue seeing that she was serious about it. "Got it. But don''t blame me if something happens."


    "Remember, he got permission from House Easten and Rolus even verified it. And you still think he''s a traitor or our enemy?"


    "You know that doesn''t prove anything. How do you think all of the other transports have been attacked? There must have been someone from the inside feeding information to them. I am just trying to ensure that you and our friends aren''t killed on this mission," he intensely exclaimed.


    She gave George a sympathetic look. "If we get attacked by the organization attacking these transports, I think we are going to have bigger issues than Julius."


    When she didn''t get a response, she nodded and began to walk away. She wanted some sleep, today was tiring enough as is.


    But as she was walking away she heard George mutter something behind her.


    "I think he might be a bigger issue than you give him credit for."


    ***


    Julius POV


    After they finished the small party and everyone got ready to go to sleep, he smiled to himself.


    Finally.


    He had been waiting to check his notifications all night and so with a jolly jump in his step, he collected some leftovers onto a mana-created plate and walked over to an empty rock to sit down.


    The stars were quite beautiful all the way out here. The skies were perfectly clear, which let him get a totally undisturbed view of the night sky. He took a few moments to take in the fresh night air and pick at his food before eventually opening up his notifications.


    [Empowerment of Will] has advanced to level 20. Would you like to evolve the skill?


    He accepted the notification and waited patiently.


    Appraising requirements¡­


    Congratulations. Skills requirement met.


    Congratulations. Concept requirement met.


    Congratulations. Soul requirement met.


    Skill [Empowerment of Will] is evolving¡­ possible advancements: [Ruler''s Will], [Willpower of the Resolute], [Unrelenting Will of Resolve], and [Inexorable Aura of Ruin]


    He quickly looked over his options while chewing on some piece of bread.


    Truthfully, he was a bit bewildered to see so many options that were obviously influenced by his Concept of Will. Three of the four of them had direct connections to the Concept.


    But he didn''t have a problem with this. He was actually glad for the most part. His Concept of Will has been so important to him so far, and it was partly the reason he had gotten to this level in the first place.


    First, he took a look at [Ruler''s Will]. If that was the general upgrade then it sounded quite¡­ domineering.


    It would probably be a skill that would allow him to more easily impose his will onto others. Something that would make using his kinetic restriction technique to better effect as well as perhaps imposing his Concepts on top of it. Definitely not a bad skill to choose.


    The next was a skill called [Willpower of the Resolute]. He didn''t know if this was an upgrade, but he liked the sound of resolute.


    He didn''t know what the difference between ''Will'' and ''Willpower'' though. He assumed they were similar, but he was just confused where they differed.


    If he had to guess, he would think that [Willpower of the Resolute] focused more on the overall strength of his willpower, making it harder for someone else to impose their will onto him.


    Which would make it the other side of the same coin when comparing it with [Ruler''s Will]. One was for imposing his own will onto others while the next was to prevent others will from imposing their wills onto him.


    In other words, one was for offense while the other was for defense.


    At least that was the feeling he got when he focused on the notification, something he was beginning to realize was a feature of whatever system this world used.


    The next two skills were the ones that he was more interested in. [Unrelenting Will of Resolve] just sounded like a better skill than either [Ruler''s Will] or [Willpower of the Resolute].


    The last skill [Inexorable Aura of Ruin] though was what his eyes were ultimately drawn toward. For one, it was the only skill that used ''aura'' within its'' name. Furthermore, it was undoubtedly a skill that was offered because of his recent development and problem with his aura.


    It was highly likely that this skill would make controlling the ruinous effect of his aura a bit easier and less burdensome.


    As of now, he wouldn''t be able to use his abilities to their full potential if he was worried about controlling his aura.


    Not to mention, it sounded really cool and could have some dangerous if not powerful effects.


    And while he would love to have someone like Alice or Dante give him some advice, he was feeling pretty confident in what skill he would be choosing. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    So without giving him too much time to overthink it, he chose something that would make his life extraordinarily easier as well as potentially giving him a new shiny weapon.


    Congratulations, skill [Inexorable Aura of Ruin] (Epic) acquired.

 Chapter 261 About Time

    Unlike most skill acquisitions, this one felt different.


    This time the process felt more personal and affected something on a spiritual level. His aura, which had been purposefully stifled, underwent a transformation of a sort.


    What had once been an unruly child throwing a temper tantrum with no rhyme or reason, gradually mellowed out. With this, Julius''s tight grip over his aura also slightly loosened. He already instinctively understood that he no longer needed such a firm hand.


    The main thing that had changed was that his aura was no longer giving off such a weak signature. Previously, whenever he restricted his aura, it made it seem weaker than it was. But the new skill managed to suppress the ruinous effect while also not completely stifling it. This meant he was able to ''breathe'' once more.


    Or at least that was what it felt like. He didn''t have Richard or Reinera there to ask and trying to see what his own aura felt like from another perspective wasn''t that simple. He might still try to keep up that weak aura presence though, he thoroughly enjoyed the fact that he could trick people with it.


    If there was one dramatic change, it was that his aura seemed to have this new weight to it.


    His aura has always been more powerful than others of his tier, mainly deriving from his powerful soul. But this was different. This had more of a destructive and oppressive element to it.


    It probably had something to do with the ''ruin'' element of the skill.


    Luckily, he didn''t sense anyone too close nearby and quickly hid his aura so that it went back feeling like its previous self. Thankfully, his new epic skill made manipulating his aura many times easier than it was in the past. What had once been challenging felt simple now and he was able to replicate that same restricted feeling.


    He let out a deep sigh of relief. For the past several weeks he has been constantly focused on his aura. And while it didn''t seem that bad, it was absolutely irritating to deal with every second of every day.


    He was immediately glad that he had chosen this skill.


    ***


    For the next several days the caravan continued their way to Greenwich. During this time, they came across many more groups of monsters. But none of them were close to the level of the Null Fiends. Most of the time the mages took care of the monsters before they got within reach.


    Another thing that he noticed was that the atmosphere around the group felt a bit weird. Beck was his normal self, loud and sometimes crude, but it was a comfort compared to how George and Stephanie were acting.


    Stephanie was still being kind and all, but whenever she thought he wasn''t paying attention, he would spot her intensely looking at him. She wasn''t alone either. George, it would seem was looking at him the same way.


    It didn''t make him that comfortable, especially not after George had pulled that thing while he was fighting the Null Fiends.


    He couldn''t help but be confused about their behavior. He didn''t see a reason why they would act so oddly.


    They aren''t doing anything wrong at the moment, it just feels like both of them are constantly watching me, he thought to himself with a sigh. Also, it didn''t really matter at this point. He had a feeling that things were approaching that time.


    He looked over at the other caravan members who were lying around the campsite they created.


    Most of the people who were apart of this mission had gotten settled in and used to the routine they established.


    The sun had already set over the horizon and everyone except for a few people who were on duty to make sure they weren''t attacked at night were relaxing or laughing with their friends.


    They weren''t too worried about being attacked. It had only happened once since the mission started and it was only a lone monster. Most of the time, the sheer amount of numbers scared off most of the solitary hunters that prowled the nighttime.


    He was sitting down on the grass a good ways from the caravan when he sensed someone approaching him from behind.


    "What are you doing out here this late?" Stephanie asked as she got closer.


    He turned toward her. "Just enjoying the night sky," he said without turning around to look at her.


    "You seem to like doing it quite often," she noted.


    He shrugged his shoulders. "It''s calming and gets me away from the rest of the people," he explained.


    "You don''t like being around us?" She teased.


    He didn''t respond and simply kept staring out toward the pitch-dark plains. He felt her shift uncomfortably as she continued to look at him, expecting an answer.


    "So you don''t?" She finally asked.


    "What do you want?" He abruptly questioned her.


    "Sorry?" His abrupt change of attitude appeared to put her on the back foot.


    "I suspect you came out over here to say something to me or to ask me something. What is it?" He asked, not really having the patience to beat around the bush. Her and George''s incessant staring had been getting on his nerves a little bit and even his patience had a limit.


    "I¡ª" Stephanie started to say something but held back.


    He sighed and shook his head. "You don''t think I haven''t been aware of you or George staring daggers at my back? If you keep looking at me like that, I might get the wrong idea."


    "What do you mean?" She asked softly.


    "I mean George is much more subtle. But that must come with his skill set and practice. But the way you guys are looking at me makes me think that you have some sort of ulterior motive," he said in a semi-joking manner.


    Her mouth opened but nothing came out. It would appear his forthright manner caught her off guard and she didn''t know what to say.


    "So? What is it?" He asked.


    An awkward silence pervaded the night air.


    "Your presence here is quite odd, can''t you agree with that?" She finally eeked out.


    "Odd?" He asked.


    "Yes, odd. You are way too young to be allowed to come along on this mission. You are also apparently here under House Easten''s direct orders with knowledge about what has been going on. Things like the continuing attacks and issues that have been plaguing House Easten."


    "And?"


    "And your aura, which has been suspiciously weak for someone who can take down multiple Null Fiends suddenly changed several days ago," she said a bit more confidently.


    His brows raised slightly. "My aura changed?"


    He didn''t know that. He had been under the assumption that his aura was quite similar to how it had once been before he got his new aura skill. However, it would seem that he was wrong about that. That was his mistake and he mentally slapped himself for the error.


    "Is my aura such a big deal?"


    "It''s everything. This mission is rated as an A-rank mission for a reason. And I don''t want me or my team to die because there is something we don''t understand. We have been through too much to die because of some stupid noble politics," she said aggressively.


    "Trust me, I don''t want any of you to die on this mission," he tried to reassure her.


    "Trust you? How can you ask that? If you want me to trust you, an explanation of who you are and what you are doing here would go a long way."


    Good point, but I don''t know if I can exactly tell you why I am here.


    The odds of her and her team being a part of the Conclave were low, but he didn''t know for sure.


    "What about George?" He asked suddenly.


    "What? What about him?" She asked, confused.


    "You speak of trust and yet George allowed that fiend to shoot that attack at me without warning or trying to stop it. I think it''s a bit hypocritical of you to be distrustful of me when it was your teammate that could have gotten me killed or hurt don''t you think?" He pointed out.


    A guilty expression flashed across her face but she quickly smothered it and opened her mouth as if to reply. However, he cut her off before she could. "Don''t try to deny it either. I saw you go and confront him the other night. And yet the only thing that happened was that you started to stalk me."


    "I was not stalking you!" She said firmly.


    "Practically. Whenever I moved or did something, you or George were always looking at me. I don''t think I have gotten a moment of peace or alone time in these past several days. For hell''s sake, you two have been watching me while I sleep. What do you think I am going to do? Sneak off and go report to whoever has been attacking caravans."


    "What George did was not okay. He was totally out of line. I will have him apologize to you immediately," she promised, pointedly not denying the other things.


    Julius chuckled. "You can tell him that right now," he said to her, glancing at the empty space to the right of them.


    "What do you¨C?" She started before she realized what he meant by that. "George?" She asked toward where he had glanced at.


    The man in question seemed to realize that he had been found and appeared before their eyes. The handsome guy must have noticed the two of their absences and decided to sneak around them with some sort of stealth skill.


    "And you wonder why we are suspicious of you," George said to him with a wary eye. "How did you sense me?"


    Julius didn''t look at the man with his eyes but responded. "Your stealth skill could use some work. You hide your aura decently well, but your physical presence stands out like a sore thumb. You also release too much mana," he said honestly.


    "What does that mean?" George asked, sounding a bit offended at the evaluation of his stealth skill.


    "Why were you spying on us?" Stephanie asked before George could say anything.


    The man looked at his teammate and shrugged. "I saw you leave and wanted to know where you were going."


    "Yes, a sign of a very trustworthy person," Julius said with a sarcastic smirk.


    Stephanie gave him a look before turning to George. "This is perfect, you can use this time to properly apologize to Julius." Discover stories with My Virtual Library Empire


    The other man looked ashamed for a moment and looked at Julius. "I''m sorry," he said, sounding surprisingly sincere. "Even if I have my doubts about you, I shouldn''t have done that to you."


    Julius mulled over the apology and understood that from the perspective of apologies, it was a pretty good one. So merely nodded at the man. "It''s fine. I wouldn''t have been hurt anyway."


    George and Stephanie both seemed surprised by his nonchalant and confident answer.


    "Are you saying that even if you didn''t avoid it, the attack wouldn''t have hurt you?" She asked.


    "It might have, but I doubt it. It wasn''t that powerful," he said distractedly, still staring at the darkness beyond the plains.


    "Not powerful? Really?" She asked in disbelief.


    "Eh, nothing that would worry me too much," he said with confidence.


    "Why are you acting like this now? You have obviously been hiding your abilities since we left Blumand, so why the sudden honesty? Who are you?"


    He smiled. "I wasn''t hiding anything to deceive you guys in particular, if that makes you feel better."


    "Then for what? What is your real purpose for coming along?" She asked, getting a little frustrated at his attitude as well as the fact that he wasn''t looking at either of them.


    Julius noticed that George had tensed up, noticing the weird air.


    "My purpose?" He asked her.


    "Yes, why are you here?" She asked once more.


    "I''m here because of that," he said while pointing out at the darkness with a wild grin.


    "What the hell are you talking about?" She asked, now properly annoyed at his behavior.


    "You can''t sense it?" He asked curiously. He was surprised, to his senses it couldn''t be clearer. It was why he had been spending so much time observing the plains at night. It was what he had been eagerly waiting for.


    He had already been made aware that most of the attacks on the transports happened at times when they were most unprepared.


    Whether that was when the group had just finished fighting a group of monsters or like in this case, when everyone was either asleep or going to bed.


    George must have realized what he was implying and sent out a strong pulse of some kind of skill. Julius amusedly watched as the man''s face turned to ash. However, to his credit, he didn''t waste a moment.


    "We''re under attack!" He yelled out as loudly as he could, alerting the rest of the caravan before staring at Julius with a glare and dashed toward him in a burst of speed.


    But instead of getting close to Julius, George found himself completely immobilized mid-leap.


    "I am not with them," Julius promised the irate man while holding him with kinetic energy.


    Stephanie who was still processing what had just happened looked lost.


    "You''re here too¡­"


    "It was House Easten''s plan," he casually came out and told her, pretty sure that neither of them were a part of this scheme, their reactions were too panicked.


    While he let her come to grasp with the new development he got to his feet, dusted off the dirt from his butt, and stepped toward the incoming aura signatures running toward him with a narrowing of his eyes.


    With George''s yelling, it would seem they were no longer bothering to hide their actions.


    If they wanted a fight then he would gladly entertain them. After all, he had been getting tired of waiting once he noticed them watching their caravan for the past few night and wanted to release some stress he had been building up. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 262 Under Attack

    Stephanie POV


    She was a bit taken aback by the drastic change in Julius''s attitude. It wasn''t anything like the smiley and slightly meek boy she had gotten to know during this past week. Instead, she was presented with a boy who exuded confidence bordering on downright arrogance.


    Even his posture shifted. It had become much more relaxed but she could also see signs of his muscles coiling like a snake. As if any moment he could strike.


    Then George screamed out a warning to the rest of the camp and tried to attack Julius. She was about to step in and stop the unstable man, but in a crazy turn of events, George was completely frozen in place.


    All due to the young man whose eyes hadn''t left the vast plains the entire time she had been talking to him. George''s warning seemed to be the trigger that started the chaos. One moment it was a quiet peaceful night and next, she sensed a wave of auras come crashing toward them.


    She immediately understood why this mission was rated so dangerously.


    She ignored George who was still stuck in place and took out her staff out of her storage ring. She quickly used some mana to tie her hair behind her, there was nothing worse than getting hair in her face when someone was trying to stab her.


    Then she looked over at Julius who still had an unnerving smile on his face.


    He says he''s not with them, but can I really trust that? She clenched her fist as a wave of indecisiveness washed over her. However, she was made of sterner stuff than her looks may have indicated and quickly made a decision.


    "You said that this was all a part of House Easten''s plan, so what should we do?" She asked, already setting up several spells around her.


    Julius still maintained that annoying calmness as he stared down an incoming horde of enemies and responded in a level tone.


    "Take them out. Don''t worry about keeping any alive for now. I have no doubt that there will be plenty of survivors to question later. The ones who are more important to keep alive are some of their Tier 4s, they will probably know more than all of them."


    She could barely comprehend what she was hearing. A boy not much younger than her brother was talking about killing other humans with such indifference was unsettling. She had only gotten used to such death because she and her team had been sent on many missions to kill or capture vile criminals.


    "Is there something wrong?" He asked.


    "You don''t have any reservations about killing them?" She asked.


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    He shrugged uncaringly. "They decided to ambush us in the middle of the night. These aren''t exactly the people to give such empathy."


    She couldn''t help but shrug alongside him. He did make a very valid point.


    "What should we do then? You aren''t seriously thinking about attacking them without the others are you?" She asked, expecting some sort of strategy or trick.


    But to her surprise, he nodded. "It''s not a bad idea. It would give all of the others time to get ready."


    She couldn''t believe him. Where was this arrogant attitude coming from? He couldn''t seriously think that he could take them all on by his lonesome. It didn''t matter how much he was hiding his strength.


    She could already sense multiple Tier 4 auras from the incoming attack.


    She didn''t bother trying to argue and went over to the boy, grabbing his arm to pull him back toward the others who were quickly preparing in a sleepy haze.


    However, she found that she wasn''t able to budge him a single inch.


    She pulled harder once she saw the first group of people off in the distance. Urgently trying to get him to come back with her to the others.


    They were out of position and would only get killed this way.


    But just as she was about to use her skills to forcibly yank him away, she sensed a huge gathering of mana. It was so powerful and quick that she almost believed it belonged to some sort of Tier 4. However, it wasn''t. It belonged to the young man in front of her.


    She observed stunned as the boy, who was a "close combat" fighter weaved an amount of mana that represented a significant size of her pool with ease. The actual weight of the mana made it a little hard to breathe.


    All around Julius dozens of small thick pellets the size of her thumb spawned into existence. They were like small blue stars, sparkling in the night. But it wasn''t just the amount of mana that surprised her or how amazingly constructed they were, it was the profoundness of each one.


    There was no doubt in her mind that each pellet was packed with more than just one Concept. There had to have been at least three different aspects radiating from them.


    "Head back to your team," he told her softly. "They are going to need your help if they want to survive tonight."


    When she was about to argue, she felt the boy''s aura shroud drop for the first moment she had known him. And it was¡­ terrifying.


    A monstrous aura that exuded pure death and destruction flooded from him. She choked as this aura seeped into her own aura and started to wreak havoc on it. Thankfully, it was mainly concentrated around Julius and stopped pretty quickly.


    "Sorry, still tweaking some things," he said apologetically, with a hint of red flushing his cheeks. "Go back, okay?"


    This time she could only nod her head, the residual fear from his aura made her much more compliant and quickly made her way toward the others who had already grouped up.


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    "Oh yeah, take him with you," Julius said while tossing George over to her.


    The handsome man was literally tossed over to her and she had to catch him with a softened barrier so that George didn''t smash his face into the dirt. She quickly yanked the man behind her and met up with the others who were desperately trying to find out what was wrong.


    Matt was the first one to notice her approaching and came over to her, taking notice of George who was getting pulled behind her with an upraised brow.


    "What is going on Steph?"


    She filled him in as quickly and in detail as she could. Thankfully, she didn''t have to repeat it either because Rolus had arrived in front of her, listening to her explanation.


    After she was finished, the caravan leader looked at the spot where Julius was still patiently waiting for the enemies to arrive with a frown.


    "He''s planning to take them all on?"


    "He said he will give us time to get ready."


    Rolus scoffed. "Arrogant children," he said while unsheathing the massive sword off his back. Something he hadn''t even done when fighting against the other Tier 4s during this trip.


    "He''s going to get himself-" The man froze mid-sentence as Julius chose this exact moment to send out whatever attack he had been preparing at the enemies.


    She could only watch in awe as several dozen finger-sized constructs screamed through the air toward the rushing attackers. They didn''t look like much from a distance, but she had seen how much mana was packed into each one.


    A powerful barrier of mana spawned in front of the attackers, attempting to block the attack. It would seem that the enemy''s mages didn''t see it as too much of a threat because that was all that was done against it.


    However, she watched in a mixture of amazement and horror when the barrier was only able to hold a dozen of these pellets at bay for a fraction of a second before shattering like a broken pane of glass.


    The rest of the pellets razed the entire frontlines without mercy.


    The ground detonated in a deafening explosion, wreaking havoc and injuring many enemies. The lucky people took direct shots and were killed before they knew what had happened. The unlucky ones had their limbs blown off and were left with gaping holes in their torso.


    If there was anyone still asleep, they would certainly be up after hearing that.


    "Holy shit," George breathed out as he observed the destruction caused by a lone boy, before turning to look at Stephanie with wide eyes.


    Rolus on the other hand chuckled like a madman and had an unusually excited look in his eyes that was similar to the one she saw on Julius''s face.


    "Unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome."


    ***


    Godfrey POV


    Their preparations have gone without issue so far. They had successfully baited out all of the member''s abilities and the ones which presented the most danger by sending in a carefully selected group of monsters.


    It was difficult to decide which monsters to send because if you sent too many, it ran the risk of being suspicious. But if you didn''t send enough, it wouldn''t push them enough to show their skills.


    Their leader and vice-leader were obviously the most dangerous of them. However, there were some other notable members. For example that acid user was quite dangerous if left alone.


    That was why there would be a dedicated team who would kill her before she could do much damage. With their abilities, they should be able to kill her before her team could save her. They just needed their front liners to create an opening.


    Unfortunately, it would seem that not all plans worked out the way he wanted. Somehow a person within the transport had spotted them.


    Godfrey had no idea how this was possible. Crane''s stealth ability should have hidden them well enough that they could attack before the transport could prepare.


    He shook his head in frustration. He didn''t like complications in his plans. Everything had been meticulously prepared but now this forced them to immediately pivot.


    He turned to look at Fuval, one of his Tier 4s.


    "No need to hide anymore. They know we are coming. Remember to focus on their support members. The vanguard will cause enough chaos for many of our assassins to sneak in, it will then be their job to take them out. Once they make their move, I want you to take advantage of that and hard-press the rest of them. Use the chaos to finish them off. I want this to be quick, we need to be gone before any help can arrive," he commanded.


    Fuval bowed deeply. "Understood, Lord Bishop."


    Godfrey waved him away and beckoned Crane over to him. "How did they break your stealth skill?" Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I don''t know. Not a single person in the past week has been able to notice it, so I am also quite unclear about how they managed it," Crane admitted hesitantly, likely worried about being punished for his mistake.


    "Don''t worry about right now. Focus on taking out those supports got it?"


    "Yes, sir," Crane bowed toward him before heading off.


    Godfrey wasn''t going to hurt Crane like some of the other Bishops might have for the error. He knew that sometimes people were just unlucky. Still, he would have to punish Crane once this mission was over. If he didn''t, it would be a bad message to the rest of them.


    It would probably be something light, like reduced pay. Crane wouldn''t mind. He would just be grateful that he was going to keep his head.


    Godfrey stood by and watched as his group of men charged toward the campsite with haste. They should be fine, according to their assessment the fighters were mostly around B-rank with a few A-ranks. With only a single Tier 4.


    The lone Tier 4 felt like an odd decision. With the value of some of the treasures they were transporting Godfrey had expected at least two or three Tier 4s. As a matter of fact, he was about to call it off because of his suspicions before he saw the said Tier 4 in action.


    Whoever that Tier 4 was, he was really good. Definitely, on the pinnacle of Tier 4. It also meant that House Easten perhaps was hoping to surprise them with a powerful lone Tier 4 instead of scaring them off with multiple of them.


    Furthermore, this attack was quite important. Someone high up in the organization wanted some of the natural treasures they were transporting. Which forced him to proceed. No matter the uneasy feeling he was getting about the attack.


    That uneasy feeling ended up being true when he saw a salvo of explosive constructs wipe out a good number of their Tier 3s before the mages were able to protect the rest of them.


    Idiots. Why didn''t they create more barriers to stop the attack? He could only shake his head in disappointment as a lone person demolished all of their momentum with a single strike.


    Although to give credit to the lone person, they were strong. If he had sensed it correctly, they had to have at least three separate Concepts since he felt the presence of a fledgling Emblem in their aura.


    This is another unexpected development, he said to himself with a frown marring his face.


    "Lyn, go down and help them out. Deal with that Tier 3 before he kills any more of our people," he commanded at the crazy Tier 4 woman who was staying back with him as a backup.


    The moment he gave permission to her, he felt her entire aura shiver in excitement. The woman was insane, there was no doubt about that. Godfrey had rarely met a woman so unhinged and who loved to fight as much as she did. Unfortunately, she was also too valuable to kill or leave out of the fight.


    "Don''t go overboard got it?" He said pointedly.


    The woman''s pretty red eyes looked at him with an innocent doe-like expression. One that would have fooled anyone who didn''t know her. "Aw? Not even a little bit?" She cutely murmured.


    "No," he said sternly. "If you do, I will personally go down there and deal with you myself. Is that understood?"


    "Spoilsport," she grumbled before disappearing in a flash of movement.

 Chapter 263 Dealing with the Assassins

    Julius was honestly surprised by how easily they allowed him to bombard them with attacks. He didn''t know what they were thinking, but only one of them created a barrier to stop his attacks.


    Maybe they thought that since the constructs that resembled shotgun shells were quite small, they didn''t need to worry about them. Or perhaps it was that he was the only person attacking.


    Still, it was a mistake that cost them dearly. Chaos was rampaging across the field, but he didn''t let this deter him.


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    He checked behind him to see if the rest of the others were ready. By this time most of the people had gotten all of their armor and equipment ready.


    He had wanted to wait until later to show his strength but that would have put the other people in the group at too much risk. These Conclave people had been watching them for the past few nights and must have decided that tonight was the best chance to attack.


    Instead of agreeing like he wanted to do, he reeled himself back and made his way back toward the group. He didn''t want to get in the way of their own attacks. That would just mean he would be getting assaulted by both sides.


    It would also save him some mana. That initial bombardment had used a hefty chunk of mana. Furthermore, he had feeling that the Tier 4s within this group had just marked him as a target.


    He used [Flash Step] to arrive next to Stephanie who was looking at him with stunned eyes, but also a hint of fear.


    "So I guess House Easten did send someone with some skill, huh?" He heard Rolus say from beside him.


    He chuckled at the remark. "It''s not my fault if you made the wrong assumption."


    "I know, I know. That''s my bad, I underestimated you," the man said with an amused shake of his head. "So what else did Easten say to you?"


    "They said that you could take a couple of them on your own. Which leaves one or two for me to distract until you can take care of them as well," Julius told him the plan while watching warily at the man''s massive sword which was exuding an extremely bloodthirsty aura.


    The man''s response was interrupted by a salvo of the enemy''s own long-range attacks. Luckily, their mages had already prepared and were able to block most of them with barriers of their own.


    The attackers kept up the assault and led to both sides throwing out blasts of mana or other attacks while the other defended. While the enemy had a large amount of people, it was already clear that their mages were more skilled.


    While that was happening the enemy warriors had crossed the distance and started to clash with the rest of the caravan.


    The sound of metal clanging against metal filled the night sky. Then the first Tier 4 arrived in front of them in a burst of speed. The person immediately engaged Rolus, to which the man with the large sword responded the same way without showing any surprise.


    The two clashed in an explosion plume of dirt and dust, trading many blows in an instant.


    Neither cared about anybody else, their focus solely on each other.


    At least that was how it was for a moment. It wasn''t until a flash of light pierced the air toward Rolus that the man had to shift his attention.


    In a display of unbelievable skill, the man parried the axe of his opponent and twirled his huge sword behind his back, just in time to block the bolt of mana.


    There are the two Tier 4s, he thought to himself while observing the battlefield.


    He was a bit confused by this situation and it wasn''t until he sensed another group of people flanking them that he understood what they were planning.


    "Assassins behind us, they might be targeting our supporters," he warned everyone.


    Adrian, Rolus''s second gave a startled look toward him but reacted quickly. The man deployed a mist of ice toward where Julius pointed. The ice wasn''t that powerful, but that wasn''t its purpose. The ice covered the invisible enemies quickly and revealed their locations to the others who weren''t prepared for them.


    Julius on the other hand, darted forward to these assassins in a burst of speed, his [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] rushing through him, making his speed increase even further. He knew how bad it could be if they managed to do what they wanted.


    He smashed a fist full of his Force Concept into the face of the first assassin he engaged. The opponent didn''t realize how fast Julius was and had his head explode as a result.


    He then pivoted and backspun into an elbow that crushed the next assassin''s chest, sending the person flying off into the distance. Julius sensed that they were still alive but didn''t go after him and went after the next one.


    He was met with a masked woman with a pair of shortswords and they were already slashing toward his face with murderous intent.


    Fast, he noted as he calmly sidestepped the flurry of strikes.


    When he spotted the woman finally overextended by a hair, he punished her. He sent a blast of kinetic energy at her back, which further exaggerated her overextension, and followed it up with a brutal knee to her face.


    Unfortunately, that wasn''t a finishing blow as the woman managed to get her hands up in time to take the brunt of the knee. Still, he felt something crack underneath his knee and kept up the aggression.


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    He didn''t allow her to back up and used a small pulse of kinetic energy to restrict her before throwing a blistering fast punch at her sternum. Her willpower resisted slightly, but unsurprisingly it wasn''t a match for his, and was swiftly overwhelmed.


    However, to his immense interest, his fist passed right through the woman''s body, and was almost caught with an upward slash to his chest due to being caught off guard.


    He barely managed to parry it with his other arm and was once again beset by another flurry of attacks.


    She must have some sort of intangibility skill, he realized quickly.


    It was quite an annoying skill, but also thankfully quite rare. However, it would seem that this Tier 3 woman was capable of using it when needed.


    "That''s a very cool skill you have," he said to the woman admiringly.


    Unsurprisingly, he didn''t get a response, but he could have sworn he felt her mouth twitch upward with [Spatial Perception]. But couldn''t think too deeply about it as she once more blitzed toward him.


    He couldn''t help but grin as he continued to fight the woman. Her speed was definitely at the pinnacle of Tier 3 as was her skill. If he were to put her against Aubrey, he could confidently say that Aubrey would lose almost every time. When it came to skill and sheer amount of Concepts, this unknown woman had her beat.


    He would dare say that Edgar would have a hard time as well. Especially considering that the large fourth year relied almost completely on physical attacks.


    He would have too, if he hadn''t made some improvements of his own. But he did and it bore its fruit.


    So with a smile, he calmly handled the woman''s aggression. He could have ended it immediately, but even though they were currently being attacked, he wanted to experience her intangibility skill. He didn''t know the next time he would have such an opportunity again.


    As his fist once more passed through her body, he concentrated on the way her mana shifted. She had some sort of shadow or darkness affinity, that much was clear to him, but he also noticed that she needed to use a lot of attention to pull it off.


    Surprise was the only reason why he had connected with that first knee to the face. However, he was beginning to understand the skill a little bit more.


    As a matter of fact, he believed he would be able to get around it pretty easily. The skill seemed almost entirely focused on evading all physical attacks. But luckily for him, he didn''t have just physical attacks.


    He had some attacks that used his aura and soul, which he would daresay might be even more dangerous now.


    So with a quick thought, he took hold of his aura which had been laying quietly in his soul for the time being, and manipulated it with shocking ease. His new epic aura skill was showing its worth and he was able to immediately surround the woman with his aura.


    Once he managed that, he let his aura go rampant. It was funny, there was no need to control it to attack. His newly evolved aura''s nature was to cause ruin and destruction. He merely needed to point it in the right direction.


    The woman which was breathing slightly ruggedly tried to shrug off his aura but found herself totally incapable of doing so. Her eyes widened as his aura started to take hers apart piece by piece. S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He didn''t even need to hit her, all he needed was just suffocate her with his aura.


    He watched as her mouth behind the mask widen and let out an ear-piercing screech. When he got a closer feel to her aura, he was able to see the devastation his aura was causing. When she finally collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain, he stepped forward and calmly prepared a fist full of kinetic energy.


    But before he could finish her off, he had to use [Flash Step] to avoid the dagger that almost penetrated his skull.


    He immediately used [Sage of Savagery] to heighten his senses and focus.


    That attack was way too powerful to be from anyone less than Tier 4. It was only thanks to his [Spatial Perception] and new body enhancement skill that he was even able to dodge it.


    Without either of them, he would most likely have a dagger sticking out of his forehead. While it probably wouldn''t kill him, it definitely wouldn''t be a pleasant experience.


    Additionally, who knew what kind of effect that dagger had? These were assassins he was talking about. He wouldn''t be surprised if it was covered in some kind of deadly poison that could hampen his healing skill.


    Okay, that was a lie. He would actually be surprised if it was able to do that, but the fact remained. He didn''t know what kind of tricks the person who threw it had up their sleeves.


    Tier 4s were scary after all.


    So he unwillingly ignored the still prone figure on the ground and focused on the new attacker who was already on top of him.


    It was a man wielding two shortswords, not unlike the woman he had just faced. Also, like her, the man had a black face mask that covered most of his features. The only thing he could tell was that the man was below average height and had a slighter build than most men.


    But Julius didn''t let this fool him. The man was fast, much faster than the woman had been.


    Julius had to use [Flash Step] once more as the man send out two very swift slashes. The edges of the blades were shrouded in some kind of black aura.


    He didn''t know what it was, but it was a safe bet to think that getting hit by these daggers would hurt. The man sent a short burst of mana at him as he retreated, to which Julius created a barrier to slap aside the attack.


    Once he retreated a good distance neither of them made a move. They both took the time to examine each other properly.


    However, it would appear that the man was willing to speak.


    "Who are you?" The man asked with a tilt of his head as if he couldn''t quite understand what he was seeing in front of him.


    "Who are you?" Julius shot back.


    The man shook his head at him and looked toward the still-twitching woman on the ground. "That is one nasty aura skill you have there. Nobody told me someone like you would be here."


    "Who told you we would be here at all?"


    The unknown Tier 4 shrugged. "It doesn''t really matter all that much."


    "It matters to me," he said softly.


    "Even if I did know, it''s not like I could tell you. I''m under strict orders you know," the man said with a grin.


    "But you can tell me what organization you belong to right?"


    The man tilted his head and gave him an assessing look. "I think you already know the answer to that question," he said with another smirk.


    Julius gave an acknowledging nod. "Yeah. I think I do. I am actually more curious about which noble families are working with you guys."


    "Who says we are working with any noble families?"


    Julius scoffed and turned his eyes toward the rest of the battlefield. There were already many dead people scattered about the dark plains. From both sides. He did notice that Stephanie and her team were still alive and well at least.


    Rolus on the other hand was still fighting the other two Tier 4s. The man was quite something. He moved his massive sword like it was a feather and even though the other Tier 4s were quite impressive in their own right, he could already tell that scarred man outclassed both of them.


    Julius would merely need to stall for time but another part of him wanted to put this man into the dirt before Rolus had a chance to come over.


    After all, he never liked assassins.

 Chapter 264 Tier 4 Rematch

    He kept his back toward the assassin. He did so for good reason though. He was purposely luring the man to attack. Perhaps he would think that Julius would have his guard down and make some mistake.


    Sadly, he didn''t fall for it and kept his distance.


    "So you''re saying that the Conclave is not working for or with any Houses?" Julius asked in a tone that plainly revealed his skepticism.


    "Nope," the man said with another grin, not disclosing anything to him.


    The one thing that Julius did notice though, is that the man was ever so slowly shifting his position so that he placed himself between Julius and the woman that was incapacitated.


    "She important to you?" He asked the man with a wondering tone.


    He felt the man''s entire body tense for a brief moment, the first real reaction he got out of him so far.


    "I don''t know what you mean," the man played ignorant.


    Julius shrugged, with his back still toward the man. "That''s good to know. I guess I will-"


    He was interrupted by a flashing sword slashing toward the back of his neck. With a quick burst of mana, he covered his hands with constructs and parried the next flurry of attacks with careful precision. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It would appear that the man was quite protective of the woman and thought that Julius was maybe threatening her. Of course, this wasn''t true at all. Julius would never try to beat someone by threatening someone they care about. His pride as a fighter would have him rather die than do something like that.


    But he did hope to bait the man.


    Of course, the Tier 4 didn''t know that and was pressuring him with quite the ferocity. It took all of his focus to avoid getting slashed by those scary-looking blades. However, the most dangerous attack was done by the man''s Authority which tried to suppress Julius. Unlike some of the other Authorities he had experienced, this one was quite different.


    It wasn''t as outright oppressive or strong, but it was sneaky. If Dustin''s Authority was like a sledgehammer that crushed him, then this was like someone was trying to stab him in the dark with a knife.


    No matter how strong his willpower was, it was a different battle than anything else he had fought before.


    Thankfully, his new aura helped a lot with this. The ruinous effect was the first thing confronting this Authority. And it helped keep it at bay. More than the Tier 4 was clearly expecting.


    Julius could see the man''s surprise and took advantage of it.


    Unleashing more of his body enhancement skill than before, he got in close and smashed a fist covered in dense mana in the man''s chest, but the man leaned toward the side just enough that he simply sent him staggering backward.


    He sent a volley of spikes screaming at him and grinned as the explosions rocked the man. Using [Flash Step], he kept up the pressure and sent a kinetically charged leg at his opponent, but clicked his tongue as the man was wrapped up in a thick cloud of black mana and disappeared from sight.


    Stupid teleportation skills, when can I get one, huh? He grumbled to himself as [Spatial Perception] tracked where the man appeared and he sent several spikes at that location without hesitation.


    The man''s composure cracked even further as he was swarmed instantly by more mana constructs. He used another quick teleportation to escape but it didn''t help. Julius found the man once more and bombarded him.


    It would also seem that his teleportation skill was on some sort of cooldown and couldn''t just run away.


    Thank god for that.


    But Julius could only shake his head in utter bafflement as the man displayed an intangibility skill much like the one the woman had used and watched as the construct passed right through him without harm.


    Teleportation and intangibilty? What? Is he afraid of ever getting hit? Julius thought with a shake of his head.


    Typical of an assassin.


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    Despite being annoyed at this, he already had an idea of how to handle such an ability from fighting the woman.


    He sent a bunch of smaller constructs toward the Tier 4, trying to keep the man focused on using the intangibility skill. While he was doing this, he sent a blast of condensed aura much like he had with the woman.


    Unfortunately, the Tier 4 had a much more sturdy will and his aura didn''t have quite the debilitating effect. But this didn''t mean he let up. He kept sending lots of smaller constructs at the man.


    He was aware of the skill''s proclivity to use a lot of mana while it was active. Thus, until he found another way to get around the skill, he was content with just wasting the man''s mana.


    If there was one thing he wasn''t worried about, it was using all of his mana before the man had to deactivate the skill.


    Sure, the man might have a larger mana capacity than he did by sheer advantage of his tier, but the intangibility skill was much more mana-hungry than his small constructs. So if there was someone who was going to run out of mana first, it was going to be this man.


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    Unfortunately, the man was not unaware of this fact either. While he didn''t know just how deep Julius''s mana pool was, he soon realized that he was in a losing battle of mana attrition.


    To Julius''s surprise, the man dropped the skill with zero hesitation. The constructs tagged him a few times, but instead of relying on the skill to avoid them, the man had decided to use his superior speed to dodge them and his tough Tier 4 body to withstand them.


    The Tier 4 closed the distance and weaved in between his spray of constructs, only getting hit occasionally. But since they weren''t that powerful individually, the attacks left minimal damage.


    The man was an assassin, which also meant his defenses were not even close to someone like Rolus or the other Tier 4s the man was currently fighting. Small lacerations and burns were appearing on the body of the assassin with a growing number.


    Unfortunately for Julius, this was all the man needed. Julius sensed the man disappear from ahead of him and reappear at his back. A dagger plunging downward toward his skull.


    Julius reacted instantly and created a plate of condensed mana between him and the dagger. To his surprise, he sensed a large gathering of mana wrap around the dagger and when it made contact with the barrier, it shredded the thing open. He tried to lean out of the way with a burst of kinetic energy, but the blade plunged right into his back. The man also clinging to his back like a murderous monkey.


    Making a bold split-second decision, he sent a suffocating blanket of kinetic energy at him. Instead of pushing him away, he did his best to trap him. So even though some sort of mana was continually infecting him through the blade that was still lodged in his back, he used all of his willpower to freeze the man for a mere moment.


    However, that moment was enough time for him to get some retribution. In the time before the man realized he was stuck, Julius blasted the man with as much kinetic energy and fire as possible.


    Halfway through the explosion, the assassin understood what was going on and used his intangibity skill once more, letting most of the damage to wash over him. On another note which piqued Julius''s curiosity, was that the man was intangible but somehow was able to keep in contact with the blade even though the blade was not.


    With that being said, he had predicted that the man would use his intangibility skill and he sent the prepared aura burst at the man with as much power as he could.


    This time, the aura worked. While the man was too busy keeping his intangility skill active and pouring whatever nasty mana into Julius''s body. He couldn''t maintain his aura defenses well enough and was brutalized by Julius''s aura.


    The Tier 4 let out a choking scream of pain and let his defenses drop even further. But kept flooding Julius''s body with the unknown mana. Mana which was literally corroding his flesh and organs at a swift rate. His skin was blackening and was already in the middle of peeling away in large chunks.


    Julius ignored it though and pressed harder, pushing even more of his ruinous aura into the man, absolutely flooding him with destructive aura. The other interesting detail that he found out was that the man wasn''t completely safe from his kinetic restriction technique.


    On the contrary, in his intangible state, it was actually much easier to restrict him once he got past the man''s willpower.


    At this point, it was a battle of who could injure the other more before the other fell.


    Typically, it would be a battle that this assassin would win ninety-nine times out of a hundred. His skill that was wrapped around his blade was a deadly one. One perfectly suited to an assassin like him.


    Unfortunately, he didn''t take into account that Julius had a ridiculous healing skill.


    And so Julius watched the horror blossom on the man''s face as [Phoenix Renewal] rushed through his body and destroyed all of the invading mana which was in the middle of eating away his organs with some sort of Death related Concept. The Death Concept was no match in the face of his Phoenix Concept.


    His skin was gradually healed and while not as fast as it normally did, it was still quite fast. The black chunks of flesh fell off and were replaced with brand new healthy flesh.


    Additionally, since the assassin had given up all defenses to take Julius down before his aura could take the man down, he was left in a very dangerous spot. Because now Julius had the man completely wrapped in his ruinous aura and there was nothing he could do.


    The Tier 4''s Authority was unable to help as his aura crushed the will of the assassin who was still trying to inject more mana into Julius. Even going as far as to jam another blade into his spine. But that didn''t help. His healing skill was more than enough to let his body take a beating.


    He had gone through much worse than this and merely laughed out loud as the assassin frantically tried to pull away. However, he couldn''t. Julius had him stuck with kinetic energy, focusing most of his attention on the knives that the man had such a strong grip on.


    The assassin tried to teleport away, thinking it would let him escape, but being in such close proximity to the ruinous aura was already disrupting much of the man''s focus and seemed to prevent him from using his spatial abilities.


    Julius could only grin like a madman as he firmly kept the assassin in his grasp. He was dedicated to not let this person go no matter how wildly the man''s Authority tried to wrestle back control.


    The downside of having such a subtle Authority meant it wasn''t very good when it came to direct clashes, which was exactly what he was going for. He brutally pushed his Emblem, his willpower, and his aura to metaphorically sit on the man''s soul with pure weight.


    If the man had been physically stronger than Julius, he might have just thrown him off. But since the man specialized in speed and evasion, his other abilities were quite lacking.


    Instead, he was totally stuck.


    Knowing that he needed to do something, the Tier 4 released his intangibility skill and also his grip on his daggers that were still jammed into Julius''s back.


    Julius gritted his teeth at this. He had been hoping the man wouldn''t realize that being intangible was a benefit to him and keep it active. Ironically, the man probably dropped it because he thought it was a waste of mana.


    The Tier 4 then used Julius''s back as a springboard and sent a huge blast of mana through his feet and into his back. Unable to keep restricted, Julius had to release his technique.


    On the bright side, since the man was now tangible, it meant that Julius was able to throw an empowered spike at the man who was still mid-air. Unsurprisingly, the man teleported to evade it, able to use the skill again once he was not in direct contact with Julius.


    However, that didn''t mean he was safe. Julius sensed the teleportation and sent another spike toward the location. Already preparing for the second and final teleportation the man could use before there was a cooldown.


    And just as expected when the man saw the next spike soaring toward him, he teleported again¡­ right into the spike of mana that was waiting for him.


    Julius connected with his first real strike of the fight and it was glorious. The Tier 4 was smashed directly in the chest and his weak defenses weren''t enough to protect him from the massive explosion from the spike.


    The Tier 4 was blasted off of his feet like a ragdoll and eventually came to a stop in the dirt completely motionless.

 Chapter 265 One More

    Crane POV


    What the hell is going on? He groaned to himself as his emergency healing item worked its magic.


    Defeating his student was one thing, but kicking his ass? That was something else.


    He liked to pride himself as a person who was quite skilled for his rank. Nothing like some of the nobles who pay their way to Tier 4, but someone who was capable.


    What kind of kid was this?


    Tier 3? He was highly doubtful of that. Hell, he was debating whether or not he was really a kid. By the way, he fought and how handled Crane with such skill, it was more likely that the guy was a few decades old. It was just as likely that he was a Tier 4 who had some kind of tier-obscuring item that allowed him to present himself as a Tier 3.


    There was no other explanation for how this ''boy'' was so powerful. He hit like a truck, his speed, while not as fast as his own, was capable of keeping up, he was skilled in mana control, and to top it all off, he had some kind of brutal aura.


    He mentally slapped himself as he tried to come up with more and more reasons that would make his situation less bitter on his tongue. Crane knew the truth. He was simply just making excuses for his current dilemma and why he was lying in a pool of his own blood.


    There was one hint that made him believe the boy was still a Tier 3. Authority. Or rather the lack of it.


    The boy didn''t have a single wisp of his own Authority. He still had an Emblem, and while strong, wasn''t a true Authority.


    How ridiculous, he grunted to himself as the powerful healing item kept him alive and wove his flesh back together painfully.


    Crane was half hoping that the boy would think he had killed him and go on his way. While it was a bit embarrassing to think that way against a person who was a full tier below him, he didn''t like his chances of that happening.


    The boy had some kind of powerful perception skill. There was no other way he could have predicted his teleportation with such accuracy and sneak attacks so easily. Not even Godfrey could do that with such precision.


    Just as his item was halfway done with healing him, he felt an incoming attack made out of insanely compressed mana. With how injured he was, he couldn''t do anything but throw up a shield made with plain mana. There was nothing else he could do.


    His shield was ripped through like wet paper and he was struck with another explosion. But he couldn''t help but let out a bitter laugh. This time, it would seem that the boy had been going after his legs. And in a flash of light, they were shredded apart and he let out an ear-piercing scream.


    He writhed in pain as the shock of losing his limbs overwhelmed his senses and he felt his hold over the rest of his skills falter. Then to make things even worse, that boy''s brutal aura seeped through the opening and ravaged what was left.


    His Authority wasn''t even able to put up a proud fight. It was swept away with a simple bash of aura and he was subjected to even more pain. This time it was physical. It was a soul-crushing pain that had him desperately wishing for it to end.


    He was suddenly regretting not training his willpower like many had advised him to. He relied too much on tricks and subtlety and was paying the price.


    However, as fate would have it, his wish came true. The pain slowly subsided as it was replaced with a feeling of heavy shackles being placed on his soul. It wasn''t just his soul either, it was his entire body. The boy had used some kind of skill to imprison him in place and there was nothing Crane could do but resignedly thrash at these chains.


    He sensed the approaching steps of the boy and for some reason, they felt much louder than they should have. An ice-chilling needle went through his spine as he opened his eyes to stare at the young boy who was giving him a soft smile.


    But make no mistake, this wasn''t a comforting smile. There was no joy or warmth in these eyes. All he saw when he looked in them, was nothing but blackness and the slightest hints of crimson red flashing through them like little stars.


    When the boy got to where he was lying on his back, he bent down and took a knee.


    "So¡­ about my previous question. Would you like to rethink your answer?" He heard the boy ask in that same calm and arrogant tone.


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    "Screw you," Crane grunted through clenched teeth. His missing legs were still radiating pain from where they should have been still attached.


    "That''s not very nice. I am sparing your life right now, but that is only in exchange for answering some questions I have," the boy said with a mocking frown.


    "If I tell you anything, I am going to wish you had killed me when the Conclave gets their hands on me."


    "Oh, they are that scary?" The boy asked this time a genuine smile gracing his lips.


    "If you were smart, you wouldn''t find that so amusing. No matter how strong you are for your tier, you won''t be able to do anything when some of the more powerful people in the organization get their hands on you," Crane said to him with a bloody smile of his own.


    He watched nervously as the smile faded from the boy''s face and he was looked directly in his eyes. "I don''t care about all of the influential people within the Conclave and I don''t even care about what House Easton wants to ask you. I only really care if a certain House is a part of it. And if you can tell me that if that one small House is, I will let you live."


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    Crane saw a flicker of anger flash through the boy''s eyes and swallowed the bloody saliva that was filling his mouth, the copper taste coating his tongue.


    "Just one House?" He asked hesitantly.


    "Just one," the boy said, openly showing his sincerity through his aura.


    That was honestly a better offer than he was expecting. There were hundreds of noble families who were in some way a part of their operations. He didn''t know every one of course, but he knew that there were plenty of Houses involved.


    If all he had to do was share the involvement of a single House in return for his life, he was more than willing to share. Even if it meant risking the Conclave finding out about it. Plus, if it would give someone time to come rescue him, even better. The boy was unlikely to live through the night anyway, but whether or not he decides to kill Crane before that happened was still up in the air for debate


    Besides, there were always leaks. Letting something slip like what House was involved was different than telling him the exact location of their safe houses and details of their current missions or plans.


    The odds of someone already having leaked a House''s involvement were pretty high, so he doubted the Conclave would care that much even if they found out he had betrayed that information.


    "Actually, maybe two," the boy interjected with an apologetic scratch of his head.


    Crane was about to protest but held himself back. Okay, two still isn''t that bad, he thought to himself.


    He really only had two choices in front of him. One was the tell the boy what he wanted to know and hope someone came to help him. The other was to keep his mouth shut and likely be killed. He took the time to weigh the pros and cons to both of the choices and ultimately came to a decision.


    It was the most obvious one considering he very much liked his life and wished to continue living.


    "I can''t promise you that I know every House involved, okay?" Crane tried to temper the boy''s expectations in the chance that he didn''t like the answer.


    "I understand," the boy said with a reassuring nod, still letting his sincerity show through his aura but it honestly came off as more threatening and scary than anything else.


    Crane swallowed nervously as he stared into the flickering red eyes of the boy and nodded his head defeatedly. "What do you want to know?"


    He was surprised when he saw the boy actually hesitate. During their fight the boy had not shown such weakness, he had been brutally decisive and cool-headed. However, for the very first time Crane was seeing the boy for what he was¡­ a boy.


    But that moment passed by in an instant and was replaced by firm resolve.


    "What is House Greyson''s association with the Conclave?"


    Crane couldn''t help but be surprised by the boy''s question and took a moment to regain his composure.


    "You said ''small house''," he said with a scoff.


    The boy didn''t respond and simply stared intensely at him. He didn''t know if the boy was doing it on purpose but his aura was pressing against him in a very threatening way. But a part of him doubted it, it didn''t have the same level of control he had seen so far from the boy. It was wild and savage. Which made him even more uncomfortable.


    Crane swallowed nervously and looked around, hoping that someone from their side had noticed what was going on. Unfortunately, everyone else was way too distracted with their own battles.


    "What is their association with them?" The boy asked again, this time holding a large blade up of way too much mana over his head.


    Crane didn''t know if he could answer now. House Greyson was definitely not a house he could easily offend. A small lord''s house was nothing, but a Ducal House? One that was vital in their operations activities? That was something else.


    "So they are associated," the boy seemed to come to a conclusion without Crane answering.


    Crane nervously tried to avoid his eye contact.


    "What about House Townsen?" The boy thankfully switched topics.


    "Yes, they are one our main contacts in Blumand," Crane easily replied. He was much less worried about giving House Townsen up. It was even easier considering there was already a lot of scrutiny on Lord Townsen.


    "And who else is working alongside House Townsen? I want everyone you can think of."


    Crane bravely put his foot down. "That wasn''t our deal. You said only two Houses."


    "Yes, but you never answered my first question. I came to that conclusion myself, you didn''t say a single thing. Consider this my compensation." S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He glanced at the terrifying blade of mana that was getting closer to his neck. At this distance he could hear the humming noise it made, indicating just how much mana was being packed into this thing. He had no doubt that with a thought the boy could decapitate him. He was also still trying to stall.


    So he did the only thing he could do. He told the boy all of the groups associated with House Townsen.


    "Hold on," the boy raised a hand to him. Halfway through his reveal, the boy took out a piece of paper. "Okay, start from the beginning"


    He did as he was told, all the while desperately praying that one of the others noticed his absence and came to check up on him.


    Once the boy was done writing, he showed him the paper. "Are all of the names correct?"


    Crane could only bitterly nod his head. He didn''t correct the boy on a few names he noticed were spelled wrong, but that was his only way to spite him.


    The boy casually placed the list back into his storage ring and gave a more genuine smile at him.


    "So, back to what I initially asked. What is House Greyson''s association with the Conclave?"


    "I don''t know," he said.


    "You know something."


    "I swear I don''t know anything!" He pleaded.


    "What is Wesley Greyson hoping to accomplish?" The boy asked, ignoring his pleas.


    "I am not even a Bishop in the organization. All of the important stuff is hidden from people like me. I only know about Blumand because I worked there directly," he tried to convince the boy to believe him.


    He really didn''t know all that much. He knew of their involvement, but that was just about the extent of it.


    Seeing a chance to waste even more time he quickly jumped on this. "A Bishop, a position within the organization. They are normally only held by Tier 5s."


    "Oh, so you really are just a grunt then, huh?"


    Crane tried not to be offended by that. There was no need to be hasty, he had already sensed a person''s aura who he was very familiar with racing toward their position.


    He maintained his act though. "I am technically an officer," he said, not having to pretend to be somewhat defensive.


    "Yes, a very sneaky one it would seem too," the boy said with a wild grin as he swung the blade of mana over Crane''s head.


    However, his target wasn''t Crane at all. The blade passed just right over his head and smashed into Lyn who was just a few feet away from the boy, sword in hand ready to decapitate the boy.

 Chapter 266 Enjoy the Show

    Julius couldn''t help but appreciate the man''s attempt. If it was anyone else, they would not have noticed the approaching Tier 4. The woman had concealed her presence very well and once again [Spatial Perception] saved his life.


    As soon as his blade of mana crashed into the woman, he instantly manipulated it so that it flowed over his body, into a set of armor.


    The woman had exceptional reflexes and managed to intercept the attack with her crossguard just in time, sending her rolling off to the side.


    He didn''t go after her. He could already tell that this woman was different than the legless man he had just beaten.


    Whereas the man had focused on speed and evasion, this woman was a typical warrior. She was still fast but also had the strength and fortitude to go along with it. Her ambush had shown that she was both quicker and stronger than him, even with his new skill, which was saying a lot.


    He took the time to examine the woman in depth. There was no way to know for certain, but his gut was telling him that this woman was stronger than the Tier 4 he had just fought.


    Her aura wasn''t even affected by his aura. It stood steadfast in the face of its ruinous effects. Her Authority also had a much more hefty weight to it. While not as subtle, it pummeled into him and it took a significant amount of willpower to hold it at bay.


    As he assessed the woman, she did the same to him. But she also looked down at her colleague with disdain.


    "You let a Tier 3 beat you down this bad? What are you? Some fledgling Tier 4 who doesn''t know his ass from his blade?"


    "Shut up, Lyn. Don''t underestimate him. He''s dangerous," the man groaned, still on the ground, desperately consuming a healing potion.


    Julius frowned, he didn''t know how much a potion would do for the man''s legs.


    The woman, Lyn, still didn''t attack and gave Julius a curious tilt of her head. "How are you able to hold off my Authority so easily?" She asked barely retraining her bloodthirsty aura.


    "I wouldn''t say it''s easy," he replied, keeping a close eye on the woman. He was more than fine with her talking because it allowed him to get a better measure of her.


    "Certainly seems so," she said as she ramped up her Authority pressing it more tyrannically onto him.


    Julius took it on straight on and gritted his teeth as he fought against it, noticing the woman''s growing smile as she watched him hold her back.


    "Be careful of his aura skill," the man suddenly called out.


    However, as he spoke, the woman stopped using her Authority to pressure him and turned around to kick the man in the face. The man''s head snapped back and started to bleed from his forehead. Weirdly enough, the man didn''t seem that shocked to be kicked.


    "Shut up. You lost, so now you can just sit there and be quiet. I don''t need any help from someone who gets their legs cut off by a Tier 3."


    Then she turned back to look at Julius who had a surprised look on his face. "Sorry about that. He is a good assassin, but honestly, he is pretty shit in a real fight. All he knows to do is to stab people in the back and run away," she said with scorn.


    Then she switched her full attention to him, pointing her longsword at him with a steady arm.


    "Let''s hope you are different."


    Julius tilted his head at her and held up his arms loosely by his sides. "I guess we''ll see."


    ***


    Rolus POV


    He slung his sword to the side, removing the remaining blood from its surface.


    Those two Tier 4s while decently strong, weren''t anything close to his level. It was unfortunate that he wasn''t able to finish off that mage though. They had managed to retreat while he was finishing off that warrior.


    The good news was that the mage wouldn''t be a problem for the rest of the battle. Rolus had inflicted his blood magic on the poor mage and unless he found a top-grade healer quickly, they would barely be able to move for the time being if he even survived that is.


    He stepped over the body which he had cut into two pieces. The body itself was dry as a bone, the blood within was almost completely drained of it.


    He then dropped to one knee and removed the man''s storage ring, pocketing it for further inspection later. He didn''t really care much for the valuables inside the ring, but he was much more interested in what kind of clues or information he could gain.


    While he doubted the man was stupid enough to leave everything inside his ring, there were other ways to find information. Most people would be surprised by what a single innocuous item could tell him about a person.


    As he caught his breath and recovered from the fight, he took a look around the plains. It was still nighttime, but with how many fights going on, the sky was quite bright. Flashes of colorful mana filled the area and the screams of people filled the air.


    The sheer amount of blood was what got his attention though. There was so much blood around him, that he couldn''t help but try and control it.


    He wasn''t a mage by any means, but his blood affinity allowed him to have pretty good control of blood in general. He wasn''t like his sister who was able to create a storm of bloody constructs, but being present within such a rich environment, he couldn''t help but bring some of the blood toward himself.


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    With an extension of his Authority he gained control of the blood and managed to draw it through his skin. The blood seeping into him like it was water in the dry desert.


    The rest of the wounds and fatigue were recovered in a matter of moments, barely costing him any mana for it. While most of the blood was only Tier 3 blood, there was such volume that it didn''t matter.


    He sighed pleasantly as the usual euphoric sensation surged through his body and he fully recovered back to his peak form.


    Battlefields really are blood users'' greatest allies, he thought to himself with a shake of his head.


    He took a general count of the casualties of the battle. As expected from some of the best Tier 3s, they managed to handle themselves pretty well.


    Most of the bodies belonged to the other side, while a smaller number from their side. One team in particular was quite impressive.


    Matt Leuger''s team was slaughtering their way through the other Tier 3s with such efficiency that it gave him pause. The leader himself was quite a threat on his own. He was at the pinnacle of Tier 3 and could advance any day if Rolus was sensing correctly, only a half step away from forming his own Authority.


    However, the other members of his team were extraordinary as well. They had that acid mage, Pamela who was wreaking havoc on the poor sods who decided to ambush them. Half of the time she didn''t even bother to kill them, her acid ate through most of their body parts, rendering them useless in the fight.


    Their tank was quite impressive too. Beck, was his name if Rolus recalled correctly.


    He did everything a team wanted in a good tank. He was extremely aggressive and could take a beating if his half-destroyed armor was any indication. He must have had over a dozen Tier 3s trying to kill him just by himself.


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    Luckily, he had a healer who was overseeing his health and who had quite an impressive arsenal of healing skills. Of course, this made her quite the attractive target for the enemies which was why she had three people dedicated to protecting her at all times.


    Seeing that they were handling themselves well, he decided to go help the other teams who were in more dire straights. He empowered the blood within his veins with [Draconic Blood], his legendary skill, and blitzed toward his allies, slaughtering any enemy within reach.


    As he alleviated the pressure on the rest of the teams, he also simultaneously started to search for the boy House Easten sent them.


    After searching the vicinity, he started to get a little nervous. Where is he? He thought to himself, trying to remain calm and extending his senses as far as he could. While perception has never been his greatest strength, he had committed the boy''s aura to memory, thus it was worrying that he wasn''t sensing it at all.


    Did he get killed? Rolus couldn''t help but think about a very possible result. The boy had been supposed to take on the other Tier 4s and while he was admittedly stronger than Rolus expected when he first met him, he still didn''t think he could hold off a Tier 4 for that long. It was a huge reason why he had rushed to finish off his enemies. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Understanding that he had to switch things up, he started to focus on the most powerful and outstanding fights. Once he did that, he immediately found another Tier 4 and while he had no idea if this was Julius or not, he still ran toward it.


    When he got there, he could only stare in astonishment and watch as a Tier 3 boy was slugging it out with another Tier 4.


    Just the shockwaves as they smashed into each other would have harmed other Tier 3s.


    The opposing Tier 4 wasn''t any pushover either. She was stronger than the ones Rolus had just beaten and much more skilled. She had a simple but merciless way of swordfighting, everything was clean and without wasted movement.


    Very similar to his own style.


    The real surprise was the boy, Julius who was enveloped in a blue aura that pulsed heavily after each movement and gave off a very dangerous feeling even from this distance.


    He was way too fast and strong to be a Tier 3. His Tier 3 body enhancement skill must have been extraordinary because it allowed the boy to exchange blow after blow.


    The woman slashed a devastating overhead blow and rather than dodge it, the boy managed to block it with an insanely sturdy barrier of mana over his forearm, countering with a strike that smashed into the woman''s equally sturdy defenses.


    Even though Rolus wanted nothing more than to watch this fight, he was about to jump in and help the boy. Not that the boy seemed to need his help that much.


    Just as he was making his move, he felt the boy''s aura reach out to him and he turned to look at Rolus. The boy''s eyes flashed a crimson red as he gave a severe glare at him. There weren''t any actual words said, but the meaning was clear.


    Back off.


    Despite their situation, Rolus couldn''t help but chuckle at the audacity of the boy. However, he could respect it.


    So Rolus decided to honor the boy''s wishes and hold back. Instead, he focused his attention to the person he saw observing the fight off in the distance, dressed in clothes so black, they blended into the darkness.


    When he got closer to the person, he saw the pitiful situation he was in. He wasn''t in danger of dying, he must have used some kind of healing potion or item to fix him up, but he was still quite injured.


    Somehow he had gotten both of his legs removed and his aura was a mess. As a matter of fact, it took Rolus much too long to realize that this person was a Tier 4. He was in such bad shape that he had believed him to be a Tier 3.


    Did someone else do that? Or did the boy take down this Tier 4 beforehand as well? Rolus inwardly frowned.


    However, a quick glance at where the boy was trading blow for blow with the strong Tier 4 gave more credence to the latter of the options.


    Rolus quickly took out the enchanted restraints that House Easten had loaned him and went over to the man.


    The man seeing him approach, tried his best to get away and teleported away. However, the skill only had a limited distance and didn''t seem to be working properly.


    Rolus quickly caught up with him. But was quickly annoyed when the guy teleported away once more.


    I hate assassins, he grumbled as he chased the guy once he sensed him again.


    Thankfully, the guy''s skill was on cooldown and Rolus was able to use his blood magic to hold the man in place. Since the man''s aura and Authority was in such a mess, it was easy for him to gain control.


    He then placed the shackles on the man and watched as the activated with a surge of mana. The shackles were an expensive item and they showed why when they wiped out everything technique the man had been holding onto.


    All of his mana was rendered useless and with his aura in its current state, it was even worse.


    Rolus then dragged the legless man back to where Julius and the Tier 4 woman were slugging it out and dropped him like a sack of potatoes. He then sat on the legless man, ignoring the groaning complaint and watched the fight unravel, ready to intervene at any moments notice.


    He didn''t forget that these people belonged to the group that had killed many of his friends in their past attacks and while he would give the boy his well-earned chance, he wouldn''t hesitate to step in if it looked like it was getting out of control. But for now, he would just enjoy the show.

 Chapter 267 Knowing When to Give Up

    Lyn POV


    She was having so much fun. Way more fun than she expected to have when she was assigned this mission. Who would have known that she would encounter such an interesting boy?


    When she had seen Crane in such a pathetic state, she blamed it more on the man''s skill than anything. But now she was quickly reevaluating her opinion.


    The boy was something else.


    He hit as hard as a Tier 4 and had the skill to match. Her Authority which normally took care of most of her opponents, was barely able to faze him. Displaying a uniquely powerful aura skill along with a sturdy willpower unlike she had ever seen from a Tier 3.


    The most impressive was the boy''s healing skill. She had managed to sneak in a few slashes that should have weakened him, but she practically swallowed her tongue in excitement as the boy regenerated like he had a dedicated healer on standby. Not only that, but he was smiling like a maniac right alongside her as they exchanged blows.


    She swung two rapid slashes at the boy, already expecting him to parry them with the constructs in his arms. Then she smashed a heavy overhead strike at him, causing him to stagger as he took in straight on.


    The moment he was off balance, she used [Instantaneous Step] to get behind him and swung at his chest. Unsurprisingly, the boy had already noticed her attack and created a barrier of mana that resisted her attack just enough for him to turn and blast a powerful explosion of mana at her chest.


    She took it without dodging and pushed through, eventually breaking the barrier of mana. Her sword was heading straight for his chest and he was already in a position to parry it, but she had a surprise in store for him.


    Most people wouldn''t expect it, but her affinity was one of water. Many assumed that water affinities were mainly for people who flowed around attacks and were graceful fighters. However, they were surprised to learn that wasn''t the only way to use water.


    In Lyn''s case, she used the heavy properties of water. The properties of pressure and relentless force. She crushed her opponents just like the deep depths of the ocean did to a metal canteen and she loved it.


    But that didn''t mean she didn''t have any softer skills of the sword. Not at all. She merely saved them to use against difficult opponents like this boy.


    So with a smirk, she activated [Ceaseless Blademist] to create three more blades, all attacking the boy at different angles. [Ceaseless Blademist] was originally a skill that was supposed to deal with a large number of weaker opponents. Each particle of mist would pierce her enemy, despite its useful benefits against weaker opponents, it wasn''t that effective against stronger foes.


    However, she found but if she concentrated and adapted the skill slightly, she was able to create small number, but very dangerous attacks with just compressed mist.


    So as the mist formed around the boy and stabbed toward him, she couldn''t help but grin to herself as for the first time in the entire fight, she managed to catch the boy off guard.


    He wasn''t fast enough to react in time.


    But she was further impressed when he was able to make a cold-hearted decision in an instant. Realizing he wouldn''t be able to deal with all of the attacks, he took the ones he was willing to.


    He let loose a blast of kinetic energy and shifted to the side. The blast of energy, shifted the blades just a little bit, but her attacks were too strong to simply be stopped by it. They continued forth and slashed through the boy''s enhancement skill, carving out large hunks of flesh.


    One of them even removed the boy''s forearm.


    With that said, she wasn''t happy with the results. That last attack should have killed him, but he somehow managed to sneak through them in return for getting hurt badly.


    Good news, is that he will be handicapped now, she thought with a nod to herself. Not even he should be able to regenerate his arm, at least I will-


    She choked on her words as she felt an intense surge of mana rush from the boy. Fire and life mana bloomed and she watched in exasperation as her words were proven wrong right before her eyes.


    She lept back. "What the fuck? Are you half troll or something?" She exclaimed, her earlier excitement from the battle now replaced with disbelief and a feeling of unfairness.


    She saw him flinch, seemingly take offense to that question, and pressed his lips together in a pout. "Why does everyone ask that?"


    She waved the tip of her sword at him in disbelief. "Maybe because normal humans can''t regenerate their arm in a matter of seconds. It takes a highly advanced healer to accomplish that!" She stated the obvious as if it wasn''t basic knowledge.


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    The boy tilted his head at her. "Can''t healers be fighters too?"


    She wanted to palm her own face as the boy began to spout nonsense and looked over to the Tier 4 she was supposed to fight. The man was plopped down and sitting on her colleague with a dangerous gleam in his eyes, looking ready to pounce at a moment''s notice.


    The scarred fellow only gave her a death stare in return, exuding a lot of killing intent. "Don''t look at me. The only reason why I am sitting back to let him fight you is because he wants to. If it was up to me, I would gladly join in and beat the shit out of you."


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    Okay, not so friendly, she grumbled to herself. She knew exactly what kind of position she was in. After seeing the boy''s healing skill in action, not even she had full confidence of winning the fight. Sure, she could perhaps whittle him down over time, but she had zero clues about how much mana his healing skill took.


    Mana sensing wasn''t exactly her forte.


    The more likely scenario was that she would be the one who was whittled down. Then there was the fact that she would have to fight the man with the big sword afterward. A man who was likely as strong or stronger than she was if their recon was correct.


    Furthermore, if the man was sitting here, that meant that the other were either dead or injured enough to have to retreat. Effectively leaving her to fight both of them alone and tired out. Something she didn''t think was a good idea.


    While she might have loved a good fight more than anyone else, she also knew that if she died, she wouldn''t be able to have any more fights. That was an even more depressing thought. One that cleared her head quickly.


    She could only shake her head as she placed her hands high into the air. All the while, hoping that Godfrey would realize the situation and come to save them.


    ***


    Julius POV


    He was having so much more fun fighting this woman than he did with the assassin. This woman was a true fighter, she didn''t rely on sneaky tactics to win. She used pure skill and strength to fight. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The assassin, while strong in his own right and had powerful skills, was a bit¡­ disappointing if he was being honest.


    It made the achievement of finally beating a Tier 4 a little bit sour. It didn''t feel like a legitimate win in his mind.


    Some would punch him in the face if they heard him talking like that, but it was true. He didn''t feel like beating that Tier 4 was a proper display of what he had gained.


    This woman, on the other hand, forced him to rely on all of his recent improvements. Using his new body and aura skill in concert with one another, something he learned was a great combination.


    [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] and [Inexorable Aura of Ruin] worked very well with one another. It was not surprising considering their related names, but the actual effects were stunning.


    His new aura enhanced both his physical abilities and aura to great lengths. And his new body skill let him use more of his ruinous aura effect against his opponents. Making his strikes all the more harmful as they damaged his opponents, even through their physical defenses.


    He blasted backward and allowed his arm to regenerate. That last move had really surprised him, if he hadn''t been fast enough, he could have lost his head.


    But more importantly than that, he started to feel his excitement grow.


    Give me more, he laughed to himself as he prepared to launch a volley of constructs at his opponent.


    So when the woman put her hands up in the air and surrendered so spontaneously, he couldn''t help but freeze in shock.


    What? We only just got started though. Why is she giving up? She just had the upper hand?


    Julius couldn''t understand what was happening and that feeling of excitement was quickly being replaced by a feeling of depression.


    He was hoping that he could test more of his skills against her, she really was a wonderful opponent.


    He actually already gained some amazing level gains just from their short bout.


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 10 -> lvl 11]


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 6 -> lvl 7]


    [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 3 -> lvl 5]


    [Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    [Flash Step lvl 13 -> 14]


    All of his epic skills gained at least a single level while his newer ones gained two whole whopping levels.


    With gains like these, why would he want it to end?


    "Why are you giving up? I thought we were having fun?" He called out to the surrendering woman. Although, deep in his mind he wasn''t blaming her. He was well aware of the fact that Rolus was just standing to the side waiting for the fight between the two of them to end.


    Even if Julius lost the fight, he had no doubt that the man would demolish the woman afterward when she was tired. So her giving up was the most logical decision. Logical but surprising considering the attitude she had displayed so far.


    "We were, but seeing your crazy healing skill made me realize that I am playing a rigged game. If I win against you, I will still lose in the end. And if I lose, then I will be beaten by a Tier 3 like that loser over there," she said pointing at the man Rolus was sitting on top of.


    Julius couldn''t help but notice that the man''s aura was still in quite the disarray from his attack with his new aura skill.


    "But we could still enjoy a fight," he said, trying to convince her to continue their fight with a hopeful smile.


    She sighed. "If there''s no path for me to win why would I play?"


    "Because it''s fun?" He said with another hopeful grin.


    "And let you gain more free levels?"


    He must have reacted to her words because she nodded at him. "Don''t think I don''t know why you want to fight so badly. You''re not the only one who likes to fight stronger opponents for the skill gains. I was the same way your age. Which is also why I am not going to just let you use me as a grinding stone."


    He pouted. "That''s petty."


    She shrugged with a teasing smile. "And one could say that fighting me with someone to clean the mess if you lose is not fair either."


    Touch¨¦, he thought to himself, understanding the unfairness of it all.


    "Enough with the banter. If you''re finished then come over here and surrender yourself," Rolus said menacingly from his spot.


    "I just wanted to let you guys know that this wasn''t my idea," she said deflecting the blame. "You think I am the type of person to attack someone with their back turned?"


    Julius couldn''t help but nod alongside her words. She definitely didn''t seem like that type of person. She seemed more like the type of person who would knock on her opponent''s door and invite them for a fight in their front yard.


    "I don''t care. If you''re surrendering then deactivate all of your skills and place these on your hands," Rolus said uncaringly as he tossed the woman a pair of shackles that glimmered brightly with dense mana inscriptions. The weight of the shackles created a small crater in the ground as they fell into the dirt.


    Surprisingly enough, the woman didn''t bother to argue or waste time, she simply picked up the heavy mana shackles and put them on without another word.


    It was only then that Rolus relaxed a bit more.


    "I have some questions for you," the man with the large sword said with a smile that warped the scars on his face in a scary way.

 Chapter 268 Rudely Interrupted

    Julius watched as Rolus unsuccessfully questioned the woman, still a little peeved that the fight hadn''t gone the way he wanted it to.


    On another note, they found out that Lyn wasn''t exactly a member of the Conclave, she was simply a person who her family lent over to them. Which explained her general uncaring attitude about the members of the Conclave.


    She wouldn''t share who her family was or anything more important, but it would seem that she just didn''t know a lot of things.


    While Rolus kept trying to get more information out of her, Julius took the time to keep an eye out for other enemies.


    The woman had surrendered too easily for his liking and no matter the reason she chose to share with them, he believed it was because there were other people involved.


    Apparently, Rolus had already tried to notify House Easten of the attack but it would seem that the enemies had some kind of item or skill that kept the beacon from working, which was why the other teams that had gotten attacked, hadn''t been able to call for help.


    Items like these weren''t exactly uncommon, but they were pretty expensive and hard to use. This was how House Easten knew whoever they were dealing with were not just simple thieves.


    As he kept an eye out for more enemies, he glanced at the man who was still lying legless in the dirt and who was now in shackles of some kind that resembled the ones he had in his storage ring, but a little differently.


    These ones seemed a little less intrusive but they also had some kind of imprisoning enchantment that his didn''t have.


    It was admittedly hard to feel bad for the guy. Julius didn''t particularly like assassins, which wasn''t shocking considering his history with them. Whereas he could already feel himself feeling more compassionate to the Lyn woman. Even though she was much closer to actually killing him.


    What could he say, he respected people who could give him a good fight. That last attack could have potentially ended really badly if he hadn''t made the decision to give up his arm and a good portion of his chest.


    He still hadn''t gotten his head chopped off, but that could have been the first time if he hadn''t reacted in time.


    It was just too bad, the fight ended before it could really start. He blamed Rolus for being there. If the man wasn''t there, the odds were high that the woman would have continued to fight.


    He sighed depressingly at the sadness of the situation. On the bright side, the rest of the fights were going pretty well. They were almost finished and most of the teams were still alive, taking fewer casualties than he expected going into this thing. Considering how much they had been outnumbered, he would say it was a pretty big achievement.


    It helped that the four Tier 4s who came along with them weren''t able to join their fellow Tier 3s. If they had, it likely would have gone in a completely different direction.


    Once he saw that the other teams were handling the end of the fight, he finally took the time to process the information he got from that Crane guy.


    First of all, it was nice to finally get some confirmation that House Greyson was a part of the Conclave''s operations. That wasn''t so much of a surprise though. He had expected something like that. A scummy House like House Greyson was bound to work with people like that.


    He also wasn''t surprised that this Crane person didn''t know the details about the relationship between the two. It made sense that a simple Tier 4 wouldn''t be privy to that information.


    What was surprising, was the extensive list of names he managed to gather from the man about House Townsen''s involvement.


    It was quite a detailed list, one he was honestly surprised to get from the man. Furthermore, he was pretty certain that the information was all correct. He had the man in such a choke hold with his aura, that it would take the man himself believing in the wrong information to fool Julius.


    While he didn''t know every name on the list, he recognized a few names. Houses Hopley and Utman were one he had heard Richard and Rebecca discussing before. However, it would appear that only a few members of these Houses were truly traitors. Most of the people in those Houses were uninvolved.


    Although Lord Townsen was almost guaranteed to be directly involved himself. Which was going to be an issue for Richard and Rebecca to handle. Julius had done his job and repaid the help he had gotten as well as getting something for himself.


    He would have loved to get more information about House Greyson, but now he was pointed in the right direction at the very least and could start to work unraveling their operations.


    If Crane was right, then House Greyson was a major player in the Conclave, though it was obvious considering their influence as a Ducal House. But if Julius could take them down a few pegs, he would be happy.


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    As he stood by and watched for any more incoming enemies, he decided to try to use his communication orb again. He removed it from his storage ring and tried to contact Richard. However, the field that was blocking communication seemed to still be up and he was unable to.


    Shaking his head, he put it back into his storage ring and replaced it with a smoking hot hand pie.


    His teeth bit into the buttery and flaky crust, crumbs falling everywhere. He mumbled in joy as he enjoyed the hot meal.


    Fighting really worked up a guy''s appetite.


    Just as he was going in for another bite, he was blindsided.


    Somehow, before his perception could even detect them, a person appeared in front of him and jammed their fist into his chest.


    Julius didn''t even get a chance to react or move as the person''s hand pierced all of his defenses like they were nothing. He could feel a distinctly powerful usage of mana cover this person''s limb as it made a mess out of him. Then once the person''s arm was deep into his chest, they detonated a mass of mana and blew Julius''s entire torso apart. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He tried to gather his mana and protect himself, but he felt something clamp down on top of him without mercy and all of his mana fell apart.


    It didn''t help that the circuits within his body were torn to shreds either, which hampered his mana channeling.


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    Then he was blasted in the face with one last strike and was sent hurdling over a hundred feet off into the distance.


    After he stopped rolling, he didn''t get up right away. He couldn''t.


    He was too stunned and too injured to do anything.


    The good news was that he wasn''t dead. Which he had every right to be at the moment. It was worth noting that he was missing more than half of his body. On the bright side, the pain was surprisingly not very present.


    [Phoenix Renewal] was working in overdrive as it flooded his body with mana, trying its best to keep him alive some of his organs were splayed out in front of him, and the rest were scattered all around him.


    The bad news was that [Phoenix Renewal] was having a difficult time healing him compared to normal. Usually, when he used the skill, he didn''t have a problem with overcoming any external influences.


    But it would seem that this wasn''t the same case.


    Whatever mana had pierced him and torn his chest apart was still there. And unlike normal mana, this mana had a sort of resilience to it that made his skill less effective than normal.


    So instead of healing his wounds within moments, he found himself still struggling to stop himself from bleeding into the dirt and gurgling on his blood. He could feel his vitality start to slip as the damage was becoming too great.


    What the hell just happened? He thought as he focused his skill on the most important parts of his body, trying to remain calm despite his dire situation.


    Since the skill was severely hampered for the time being, he decided he needed to place his attention on the most crucial parts, things like his heart which was missing its lower half.


    He struggled as the unknown mana fought against him. It almost felt like the mana had a will of its own and he cranked up [Sage of Savagery] and [Inexorable Aura of Ruin] to rise against it.


    Thankfully, whoever''s mana it was, must have believed that Julius was already dead because the potency of it was quickly fading. That was the only reason why he was able to crush it with his own will. If it wasn''t for that, he didn''t know if he could have overcome it.


    Once a good chunk of the will within the mana was dissipated, he was finally able to use [Phoenix Renewal] to start really healing himself.


    Now that his skill wasn''t bogged down, his flesh quickly wove itself back together. Vitality rushed through his body as he pieced himself back together.


    Once he was relatively back to normal, he couldn''t help but notice that he had used a lot of mana. Much more than normal.


    Perhaps, it was because of how much effort he exuded into removing the outside influence from his body, but he found himself with much less mana than he had just a minute ago.


    He sat up, patted himself to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, and took a look at where he was attacked.


    There he spotted the person that had almost killed him.


    It was a hulking man wearing nothing but a white t-shirt and shorts who was in the middle of tearing Rolus apart. The scarred man no longer had his sword, was beaten black and blue, and was missing both arms. But Julius had to give the man some credit, he was still fighting with everything he had.


    A reverberating layer of green mana covered the man''s arms as he punched Rolus in the shoulder, sending the armless man flying off into the distance.


    But the hulking man didn''t seem to think this was enough and Julius saw the man teleport and appear behind Rolus in mid-air. The man smashed a hammer fist down on poor Rolus, burying him into the dirt in a huge explosion of dirt.


    Yep, definitely Tier 5, Julius declared confidently to himself.


    The stupid and idiotic part of him wanted to dearly fight this scary man who had just put down Rolus like taking out the trash. Completely forgetting that just moments before the man had his fist in Julius''s chest.


    However, the more logical and reasonable side of him, that oddly sounded like Lily''s voice called out to him, telling him not to throw himself at this man.


    So he held himself back and no matter how much he wanted to, he decided to leave Rolus where he was and backed away slowly.


    Tier 4s he could handle. Tier 5s?


    Nope, he had seen just how easily Richard demolished him without using any skills.


    He mentally saluted Rolus and turned in the other direction. There was nothing he could do for the man.


    He gritted his teeth as he retreated. There should not have been any Tier 5s in the first place. Richard and the others assured him that he would only be facing Tier 4s at the most. He would definitely be having words with them after this.


    He could have been killed just a few moments ago.


    If he wasn''t lucky the Tier 5 would have-


    A lightning-fast arm passed over his head, just the shockwave itself kicked up dirt several dozen yards behind him.


    He sent so much kinetic energy through his body that he almost imploded as he rocketed his body backward, creating several dense layers of mana around him.


    He only barely managed to dodge because he had recognized the spatial warping from the Tier 5s spatial skill. Without that, his head would have come clean off and without his head, he didn''t like his chances of living.


    The Tier 5 paused as Julius avoided his strike and looked at him before taking a glance around him, inspecting something.


    "You are still alive?" The man''s deep baritone voice echoed throughout the plains.


    The surviving members of the caravan who had finished up their fights had all stopped what they were doing and were watching with bated breaths. They had seen what had just happened to Rolus and were visibly scared of the man.


    He didn''t blame them either. It didn''t matter if they fought, they would die all the same.


    Fighting someone a tier above you was difficult beyond imagination, but fighting someone two whole tiers above you, was just suicidal.


    And now with their sole Tier 4 out for the count, they realized they were fucked.


    It would seem that some members already understood this and were making a run for it. However, the man in front of Julius didn''t bother chasing them down. He let them run and maintained his attention on Julius.


    A piece of Julius that wanted to stay alive another day, kind of hoped the man would have gone after these people.


    It was just his bad luck that this man seemed more interested in him. He didn''t know what it was about powerful people taking interest in him, but he was getting sick of it.


    The Tier 5 still wasn''t attacking and was examining Julius as if he were some valuable specimen.


    "You don''t have any signs of external life mana and I don''t sense any activated items that would be able to heal such damage," the man continued talking to himself out loud. "What kind of skill do you have?" He directed his question at Julius.


    Julius released a sigh and rolled his shoulders in preparation. [Sage of Savagery] was fully activated so his fear of the situation was relatively tame to his circumstance. He knew how much shit he was in and was fully prepared for what was about to come.


    He always knew that someday he would come across someone stronger than him and who wanted to kill him. He had just hoped it would have come later down the road. He had been a bit gung ho ever since he had been reincarnated and had been extremely lucky to even still be alive.


    But he would be damned if he just let this Tier 5 kill him without a fight.


    So he ramped up all of his skills to the max. Everything in his arsenal was pushed to its limit. His body skill was humming with so much power that his ruinous aura lashed out uncontrollably. His constructs were packed with as much mana as he could, to the point that they were on the edge of destabilizing.


    Even [Phoenix Renewal] was preemptively active, hoping that since it was active it would be able to heal him better than it had been able to just minutes ago.


    The Tier 5 who was looking completely unfazed by how much mana Julius was displaying tilted his head to the side. "Are you sure you want to do this? If you answer some of my questions I promise I will let you live."


    Julius scoffed at the man and finally responded. "And then what? You hand me over to the Conclave where they will do gods know what to me? Is that fate really any better?"


    The man gave him a pitying look. "No, but it would mean you still get to live."


    Julius let out a deep breath and smiled at the man.


    "I think I will take my chances."


    The Tier 5 nodded understandingly. "If that is your choice."

 Chapter 269 Clashing Against a Tier 5

    Julius didn''t let the man make the first move.


    He had already experienced what that was like and did not want that to happen again. That was why he blitzed toward the Tier 5 with nothing held back.


    There was no hiding his skills or conserving his mana. He went all out from the very start. Huge spikes that more closely resembled a spear the size of a tree trunk soared toward the man.


    The Tier 5 didn''t flinch as the missiles struck him. The man used some sort of green defensive skill to block the constructs. The resulting explosion created a massive crater in front of the man.


    As the smoke billowed out, Julius closed the distance, charging as much mana and aura into his fist as he possibly could.


    It didn''t matter that his ruinous aura was damaging his own body, he was more concerned about whether or not it would be enough to even scratch the man.


    He swiftly found out that he was still too arrogant.


    Instead of worrying about injuring the man, he should have been more concerned about getting close enough to even hit him.


    Just as Julius got within several feet, he felt the man''s Domain collapse onto him like a tidal wave of pure power.


    He had felt people''s Domain''s before. He had experienced Richard''s on many occasions, which was why he felt prepared to face this man''s Domain.


    How wrong he was. Why did he ever think that overcoming a Tier 5''s Domain would be easy or even possible for a Tier 3 like him? It was hubris to the extreme.


    It didn''t matter how strong or resolved his aura or willpower were. It didn''t matter if his Emblem was already powered by four strong Concepts.


    In the face of a fully powered Domain, he wasn''t even allowed an inch to move as he was held in place by pure mana. Somehow the man was able to use just simple mana to surround his body and immobilize it.


    There was no need for any fancy skills, it was just a demonstration of how the man was able to use an extraordinary amount of mana to suffocate him.


    All of his mana was wiped away and dismantled like kicking down a child''s sandcastle. It was humbling and terrifying at the same time.


    The Tier 5 casually closed the short distance and gave Julius''s body a quick examination. Going so far as to send a pulse of mana that traveled through his body and exited it just as swiftly.


    "Very interesting," the man said with two fingers placed on his chin in thought. "Very interesting indeed."


    The Tier 5 finally stopped examining him and looked him directly in the eye. "Why?"


    Even Julius was surprised at the man''s question. What did he mean by ''why''? What was he talking about? He wanted to talk, but man''s Domain was still in the midst of strangling him.


    "Sorry about that."


    The man seemed to realize this as well because he released the pressure of his Domain slightly, allowing Julius some freedom in his throat, enough to talk at least.


    The man looked at him again. "Why?"


    Julius gave the man a confused look in return. "Huh?" S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He saw the man''s brows furrow in thought. "I guess it doesn''t matter that much. Either way, I changed my mind. I don''t care if you surrender willingly, you are coming with me," he said to Julius like there wasn''t any other choice.


    Julius''s anxiety spiked a little bit as he didn''t like the tone the man was talking with. It sounded like he thinking of Julius more as an interesting toy rather than a person. He attempted to say something in response but found himself once again unable to speak.


    The man had reactivated his Domain to restrict his voice.


    Like hell I am going to just let myself get kidnapped, he angrily thought to himself.


    Therefore, even if he was stuck in the man''s Domain, he focused as deeply as he could.


    If he was going to have a chance of escaping the man''s Domain he was going to have to use his Emblem to do it.


    He already had a good idea of what an Authority was. Although Richard or Rebecca didn''t tell him directly, he figured out that one''s Authority was simply an extension of their will. He also knew that in order to gain an Authority, he needed to use his Emblem to do so.


    Thus, he did the most obvious thing he could think of. He gathered everything he could and started to compress them into his Emblem.


    He didn''t even fight against the man as he was dragged by the feet like a sack of potatoes. He simply stayed concentrated on his task.


    All of his willpower, aura, and even his Concepts swirled around and started to come together. He couldn''t help but notice that the process came together more easily than he expected. It wasn''t until he took a closer look that he found the reason why that was.


    It was the man''s Domain. Nothing was able to leave its boundaries. Not a single piece of mana and not a wisp of aura.


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    However, it also meant all of Julius''s willpower, aura, and Concepts had nowhere else to go but where he directed them.


    He didn''t have to worry about keeping tight control of them. The man''s Domain did that for him.


    It was quite ironic. He was only attempting this because the Domain was oppressing him but the reason he might be able to break out of it was because it was there.


    With that being said, it still wasn''t easy. His willpower and aura were a little difficult to shove into his Emblem but feasible. He had done similar things in the past, so it wasn''t that different. The real issue was trying to put his Concepts into his Emblem. That was a much harder task. One he doubted would be impossible without the ''help'' of the Domain.


    Using one Concept in his Emblem was something he had already accomplished. But integrating more was another beast altogether.


    But he wouldn''t flinch from the challenge. He would meet it head-on because if he didn''t, he might be taken to god''s know where and the man could do whatever he wanted with him.


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    Death might be a blessing compared to being imprisoned and experimented on or whatever they had planned for him.


    He started by integrating his Will Concept into his Emblem. He chose this for obvious reasons and let out a breath of relief as the Domain''s pressure became a little bit more bearable.


    This further encouraged his theory that he needed to leverage his Emblem if he wanted to fight against the influence of the Domain.


    Then he started to feed his Phoenix Concept into the Emblem.


    This was where it got hard immediately. There was no space for his Phoenix Concept to fit alongside his Will Concept. That didn''t stop him though.


    He started to squeeze both of his Concepts and compress them as much as his will was able to. He tried to imagine it like one of his constructs and how he managed to shove both fire mana and kinetic energy into a ball.


    Unfortunately for him, Concepts didn''t work in the same as mana or kinetic energy did.


    Instead of squeezing the Concept and compressing it, the Concept slipped between his fingers and out of his control.


    He didn''t give up though. He adapted his method and tried to compress it, but this time he made sure to create a sphere around the Concepts with pure willpower and aura that was present in his Emblem. He then used this to press them together like a hydraulic press.


    The good news was that his Concepts no longer slipped between his fingers.


    The bad news was that it hurt like hell.


    His Emblem started to feel like a balloon that was getting inflated with too much air. But he didn''t pay the pain any heed. He had experienced much worse pain and so he pushed through his soul''s protests.


    He unconsciously felt something wet dripping down his face from his eyes and nose. But maintained his focus with an unwavering will.


    However, just as he felt the two Concepts pressing together, almost completely filling his Emblem up, something unexpected happened.


    The pressure he was placing must have been too much because everything exploded.


    All of his willpower, aura, and Concepts were released in a roaring boom, the shockwave coming directly from his body.


    He wished he could say he was surprised by this turning of events, but honestly, he had learned that self-inflicted explosions were a simple part of his path.


    With that said, he couldn''t help but feel very anxious when he inspected himself. His soul was once again damaged by his reckless actions and his Emblem was looking quite ragged on top of that.


    The bright side was the explosion had let him break free from the Tier 5''s Domain. Somehow the release of pressure had been powerful enough to break whatever hold it had over him.


    Not letting this chance pass him by, he instantly formed the most powerful spike of mana he could and launched it at the man''s back.


    The hulking man had noticed something was wrong and was in the process of turning around to inspect what was happening but was welcomed with a supercharged spike to the face.


    Julius deeply desired that his attack did any meaningful damage, but he was swiftly shown the reality of his circumstances. While his spike was strong, it would appear the defenses of a Tier 5 were stronger.


    What he had done was the equivalent of throwing a pile of stinky poop at the man''s face. It didn''t hurt the man so much as surprise and anger him.


    Julius didn''t stay behind any longer and see how the man reacted because he immediately funneled more kinetic energy than was safe through his legs, rocketing him as far away as possible.


    He didn''t like running away, but he had been shown that he was outmatched completely. Thus, he made a hasty retreat, throwing out more spikes of mana as he did.


    As he was sprinting for his life, he felt the man''s Domain start to close around him once more. The Tier 5 must have felt so confident in his Domain that he wasn''t even chasing after Julius. He was merely relying on it to hold him down once more.


    However, this time he was more prepared. He was already in the midst of replicating what he had done just moments ago, this time with a little more purpose and a little bit less¡­ violent.


    Once more he compressed his Concepts together until they released another shockwave, once more destabilizing the Domain that was trying to suppress him.


    He had made quite a large gap between himself and the man already, running in the opposite direction of the other people who were already escaping. And for a minute he really believed that he was going to get away.


    It wasn''t until he felt a disturbance with [Spatial Perception] did that feeling go away really quickly. Thankfully, unlike before, he managed to avoid the man''s fist from entering his chest.


    On the other hand, that just meant the man''s follow-up kick smashed into his back and he found himself flying over a hundred feet with his organs pummeled into mush.


    [Phoenix Renewal] was already working to heal that damage but he was more worried about the fact that the Tier 5 was already chasing after him. Before he hit the ground, the Tier 5 teleported on top of him and sent another brutal strike down on him.


    Julius quickly sent out a blast of kinetic energy to buffer the attack as well as absorb as much kinetic energy as he could. Unfortunately, that proved to be much more difficult than he hoped it would have been.


    Instead, he found himself smashed several feet into the ground, in the middle of a crater.


    As the man appeared on top of him, he lashed out with a kick that held all of the power he could gather, actually making contact with the Tier 5. But that didn''t seem to matter to the man. He took it without flinching and then proceeded to grab his leg, lift him out of the crater, and smash him into the ground repeatedly, shattering almost every single bone in his body.


    Miraculously, Julius was still alive as the man stopped slamming him into the ground. The Tier 5 paused the beatdown and dangled Julius in front of him like a dead fish.


    "You''re full of surprises ain''t ya?" The Tier 5 said with an annoyingly curious tone.


    Julius on the other hand, looked up at the man, half of his face missing, likely still somewhere in the dirt, and gave the man the most intimidating glare, a person who had been beaten down as badly as he could. He then tossed a spike of mana at the man''s face just for spite.


    The brute of a man didn''t even bother avoiding it either. He took it straight to the forehead and as the smoke cleared, had the same unbothered grin on his face looking at Julius like one would an unruly cat.

 Chapter 270 There He Is

    Marcus POV


    Marcus was currently trying his best to relax and enjoy the ride in the carriage.


    However, it was becoming a much harder task than one would originally believe. Especially considering the person he had to share the carriage with.


    "Why are you taking a carriage? Why not just teleport around from city to city?" Stella''s voice rang out.


    He sighed and adjusted the brim of his hat to cover the rest of his face from her gaze, ignoring her.


    "I mean it''s inefficient! Instead of wasting almost all of our time traveling from one place to another, we could be using that time to search through so many cities and towns. What are we going to find all the way out here?"


    Most people would say that Stella was blessed with the voice of a goddess. But he would invite them to try saying that after staying within the same carriage as her for over a week. The woman didn''t stop talking. It didn''t matter if it was early in the morning or if he was trying to fall asleep, she didn''t stop yapping.


    "Like I told you a thousand times, if you think there''s a better way to find the boy, you can go off on your own. Nobody is forcing you to follow me. I have other responsibilities other than finding the boy."


    "Pft, are you kidding me? You really are still trying to convince me that you are actually following a different person at the moment? Even I know that is a bald-faced lie," she scoffed as she swung her legs from the bench.


    "It''s not a lie. I am following a person of interest that has been quite an annoyance to House Violet and their dealings," he said honestly, even opening up his aura to her so she could verify its veracity.


    She still shook her head disbelievingly. "Whatever you say. I am still going to stay along for the ride."


    He shrugged at her. "Do what you wish."


    He was telling her the truth. He was after a man who he was led to believe was quite nearby. This person has been quite the thorn in the side of House Violet and removing this thorn would be a welcoming pleasure.


    What he didn''t tell her, was that he was pretty certain that this person and the boy the two of them were looking for were connected somehow.


    Although, he had a sneaking suspicion that she was already aware of this.


    It was no secret that people of note knew of Marcus''s unusual ability to track things or people down. It is what made him such a valuable asset to House Violet. What most people didn''t know was that he had a very very rare affinity for Karma Magic.


    He would be the first to admit that it wasn''t a very impressive or strong affinity, not even close to some of the legendary seers but it was just enough that he was able to predict where certain things were or what was going to happen.


    In this case, he had felt a strong connection between the boy and the man House Violet wanted to take care of. It was the reason why he had not forced House Easten to give up the boy even though he had been pretty certain that they knew where Julius was or had some kind of relationship with the boy.


    He had waited until the boy left on his own volition. It was simpler this way and avoided angering a powerful House such as House Easten. He knew better than most what kind of dangerous secrets laid beneath the Marquis House.


    "Do you think we will come across any Null Fiends along our way?" Stella asked, suddenly.


    "Huh?" He asked reflexively, immediately regretting it as he did.


    "You know, Null Fiends. The big scary monsters that absorb mana? And the ones that are quite prominent in this region?"


    "I know what Null Fiends are," he said blankly.


    "Well, you asked," she pointed out.


    "No, I was confused as to why you were even asking something like that," he said exasperatedly.


    "I was just curious," she mused.


    He only shook his head and used his lone arm to scratch the stubble that was poking his neck, ignoring the look she was giving him.


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    He knew why she was looking at him. She was hoping that he would ask what she was curious about. But he wouldn''t ask. After all, he had already fallen for the trap several times during their trip.


    "You''re not going to ask what I am curious about?" She finally stated.


    "Why would I need to ask? You''re just going to tell me regardless," he pointed out bluntly.


    She pouted. "Yes, but a good conversationalist would ask what I am curious about."


    "I never said I was a good conversationalist."


    "You could at least fake being one then," she pointed out with pleading eyes.


    He grunted at her, giving her the only answer he thought was necessary.


    She harrumphed and went on to explain it regardless. "Okay, well I am curious about how every one of their species has the ability to absorb mana. Even those at Tier 2 are capable of some kind of absorption. Don''t you find that odd?" sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "No, not really. They have very specialized skills and Concepts that allow them to achieve this."


    "Come on. You really believe that''s the whole reason?"


    "The only reason I really care about. I haven''t had to deal with Null Fiends in years," he said uncaringly.


    "Well, I have a different theory," she stated proudly. "I believe that the main source of their dangerous absorption ability comes from the unusual way they circulate their mana."


    "What?" He asked, a little bit of interest actually forming.


    "I know it sounds weird. But the last time I came across a Null Fiend, was a Tier 5 who was protecting some of its spawn. I didn''t really care about the adult Null Fiend that much. But what I noticed during this time, was the way the newborns were using their mana." Marcus noted the extremely giddy tone Stella was getting as her eyes glimmered.


    "It was quite uncontrolled, but it allowed me to get a better idea of how they use mana, funnily enough. I couldn''t quite get a close enough look without the Tier 5 getting aggressive, but the children almost were using their mana in a way that sucked every bit of ambient mana inward."


    His interest waned. He didn''t see where she was going with this. Sure the absorption skill of Null Fiends was impressive but many other users had some kind of similar ability.


    When she saw his less than enthusiastic response she couldn''t help but give him a frown. "Don''t you understand the significance of this?"


    "Nope," he said while sitting up and looking out through the window. He had sensed something but wasn''t quite sure what it was.


    "How can you say that like you don''t care? Aren''t you curious why or how a Tier 2 monster can filter all of that mana without harming themselves or changing their path? How come they are all relatively the same monsters? If they were absorbing ambient mana without any control or adaptive regulator, that would drastically affect the progression and evolutionary traits they gained or learned."


    Marcus was barely listening to her as he focused his senses outward. He even went so far as to use his psychic abilities to enhance his brain so that he could reach out further.


    Stella on the other hand was so enthralled with the topic that she hadn''t noticed that his attention was elsewhere.


    "The only thing that makes sense is that the Null Fiends have some type of natural regulator that tirelessly and systematically organizes and codifies each type of mana on its own. Can you imagine what we could learn from examining this process in closer detail, Marcus?" She stated excitedly but when she noticed he was staring out the window her eyes narrowed.


    "Marcus? Are you even listening to me?" She exclaimed.


    Instead of answering her, he was too focused on what he was sensing. It was the aura of a Tier 5 off in the distance, a human Tier 5, a decently powerful one too. It also showed very similar signs to the man he had been hunting.


    However, that wasn''t what gave him pause. He felt a lot of other aura signatures alongside the Tier 5. A very large group of humans were fighting with other humans if his senses were correct. Alarmingly, he felt the connection of the boy he was after was also with them.


    He didn''t particularly care about the lives of the other people, but Lady Lily had made it very apparent about the importance of saving her friend. If something happened to this boy during this battle and he was too late to do anything about it, Lady Lily would be furious.


    Marcus did not want to endure that. The young Violet''s temper was just as terrifying as her grandfather''s.


    The thing that worried Marcus was that the karmic connection he managed to establish with the boy felt a bit¡­ off. It almost felt like someone had placed him in some kind of restriction or imprisonment.


    That made Marcus angry. If anything happened to the boy, he would slaughter anyone who was involved. It didn''t matter if it was the Crown Prince of the Empire. They wouldn''t escape Marcus''s wrath.


    "Why can''t you be a little more interested in what I have to say?" Stella asked sadly.


    He turned and gave her a serious look. "I think I sense the Tier 5 I have been chasing after," he told her.


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    That made her stop the tangent she must have been preparing for him.


    "So? Just go and get him then. Unless you think you can''t handle another Tier 5," she said teasingly.


    He nodded at her and got up, preemptively activating his skills. The wave of power that exuded from his body made the enchantments on the carriage flicker and Stella gave him a curious look. She must have been wondering why some random Tier 5 was making him use so much power to deal with.


    However, before he teleported he gave her another look.


    "I thought it might be prudent to let you know that the boy might be with this man," he said before wrapping himself in spatial magic.


    He smiled as he saw Stella''s stunned face. He gave her credit though. She recovered quickly and before he was even able to finish his teleportation, he felt her activate her Time and Spatial Magic at the same time. Then with a look of complete concentration on her face, she teleported alongside him toward the distance.


    That''s one way to get her to be quiet, he mused to himself.

 Chapter 271 Is This The Right Boy?

    "Why struggle so much? It should be obvious that you aren''t going to hurt me," the Tier 5 said to Julius as he continued to dangle him by the foot with casual indifference.


    "And what? Be content with being kidnapped?" He mumbled out from his still-healing mouth.


    The man shrugged. "It would be less painful at the very least."


    Pain? Julius almost laughed out loud. He wasn''t feeling any pain at the moment. All he felt was rage.


    Rage at his helplessness.


    And one thing about rage is that it makes people do stupid things, which was why he prepared himself for his next all-time stupid plan.


    He knew in his head that he should just bide his time. Wait for someone to come or intervene. If that didn''t happen, at the very least he would be able to recover some of his mana which was getting pretty close to empty at this point.


    But he was a dumb, prideful boy, who loved to fight, so of course that meant he wanted to continue to battle it out.


    The main issue that he was having wasn''t even the man''s Domain anymore. It was just being able to gather enough power to physically hurt the man. Being beaten as badly as he was didn''t feel good. But not being able to scratch the man hurt his pride even more.


    Which is why he was resolved to at the very least injure the man before he was done. He already instinctively knew that winning was out of the question, but taking his pound of flesh was still possible.


    So without any precaution or sense, he began to release as much kinetic energy and mana through his body as possible. He always had an issue about his body not being able to handle the full amount of his mana. While it got better when he advanced to Tier 3 and learned a new body skill, it still didn''t quite allow him to use all of his mana at once like he wanted to.


    But he threw all caution out of the window. It didn''t matter if his body could withstand it or not. He jammed way too much mana into his body and flooded it out in an explosion wave. He didn''t care it hurt him more than the man in front of him.


    He would heal whatever damage was done. But if it forced the man to start taking him more seriously, it would be worth it.


    Determination filling his bones, he connected with Drasil who had been sleeping peacefully while all of this had been going on. If he was going to do this, he was going to have to rely on the little green guy''s support.


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    The connection came easily. It didn''t matter if Drasil was sleeping, their bond was quite strong and he was able to feel the steady surge of life mana as he deepened their link.


    With a calm and steady mind, he sent a burst of mana through the leg the man was holding on to with such ferocity that it exploded before the man realized what was happening.


    Julius noticed the surprised face of the man as he was taken aback by his action. He then used [Phoenix Renewal] to heal his leg in the blink of an eye, using the surprise of the man to his advantage.


    However, instead of running like he had done before. He ran forward, more mana and kinetic than he had ever held in his body at once, ready to explode. With a burst of speed that made the assassin he had fought earlier almost seem slow in comparison, he smashed a fist into the chest of the hulking Tier 5.


    All of the gathered mana and kinetic energy surging out in a deafening roar.


    As expected, Julius''s arm didn''t survive the attempt. Neither did most of his torso. He was treating his body like a disposable sack of flesh that carried his attacks, only using the circuits as a way to direct his attack.


    This time, he laughed out loud when the man was knocked off his feet. There was a scorched mark on the man''s white shirt, and while there wasn''t any actual damage,e Julius knew that this was an improvement. Before he hadn''t even been able to break through whatever green layer that was surrounding the man.


    But now, seeing the damage on the man''s shirt, he could see that he had a chance.


    So with the other half of his body that was healthy, he slammed another strike into the staggered man. Using just as much power into his blow, but this time making sure to concentrate on leveraging his Emblem.


    All the while, he was recycling as much kinetic energy and mana as he could, squeezing out every last drop.


    He then used the same method of jamming his Phoenix Concept and Will Concept together and timed the strike to explode along with his Emblem blasting apart.


    He didn''t care about the damage that his soul was showing already from his rash actions. If it meant he had the smallest chance to hurt the Tier 5 in front of him, he was willing to tear his body and soul apart a thousand times.


    Thankfully, it would appear that his strike did more damage than the last one. The addition of his Emblem helped break down whatever defenses the man had just enough so that his attack made it through.


    This time he noticed that the man grunted in astonishment as Julius knocked him back even more. A little bit of blood showing through the white shirt.


    A manic grin bloomed on Julius''s face as he realized what he had just achieved.


    The man also seemed to come to an understanding as well because he no longer let Julius wail on him unchallenged. With a lazy jab, the man tried to punch Julius in the face. Just because the fist was lazy by the other man''s standards, didn''t mean it was slow.


    But Julius had already predicted this. He shattered every bone in his leg as the surge of kinetic energy let him avoid the man''s fist by a hair and he threw a punch with one of his regenerated arms, smashing into the shoulder of the Tier 5 with a resounding boom.


    His arm vanished in a mist of blood but smiled as the force behind the blow sent the man staggering once more. Furthermore, this time he had shoved his Force Concept and his Concept of Sharpness into the attack, increasing the offensive potential and finding the combination of the two to be much easier.


    He created a construct surrounding his leg made of pure mana to stabilize himself as his leg healed in the meantime and used it as a pillar to throw another front kick at the back of the staggering man''s head with his remaining good leg.


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    The impact was by far the loudest out of all attacks and the Tier 5 was sent sprawling into the dirt. With a big blackened scorch mark on the back of his head.


    Realizing this was his chance to pounce, Julius jumped over with his two mana-constructed legs and drilled an elbow into the back of the man''s head.


    But his heart sank as the feeling when he struck the man was different. This time it felt like he had just tried to punch a steel building. He had to explode the barely regenerated remnants of his leg to avoid the lightning-fast backhand that almost took his head off.


    The man didn''t go after Julius immediately. Instead, he got up and dusted the dirt from his shirt, rubbing the back of his head as he did casually.


    "Damn, you really are a monster ain''t ya? What a ruthless method you decided on. Absolutely no care about your own health as long as you get in a hit or two, huh? I guess you can make it work considering that absurd healing skill you got there. You are making me even more curious by the minute."


    "Curious enough to let me go?" Julius asked as the rest of his limbs regenerated, trying to delay as much time as possible. He was almost entirely out of mana and each second helped him recover more.


    The man chuckled with eyes wide with unhidden desire. "Curious enough to make sure I take you alive at any cost now. I can''t help but wonder what kind of healing skill you have. What kind of sacrifice must you be making for such an effective skill? There is no way you can just heal like that without any consequence."


    Actually, I kind of can. It''s a big benefit of having a Phoenix-related skill and a cute life spirit, he thought to himself although he wasn''t planning to share this with the man anytime soon. He suspected that if he told the man, the Tier 5 would be cutting him open in the middle of the plains, looking for a way to get a skill.


    That was how intense the man''s greedy gaze was.


    Julius could only smile to himself as the man stalked toward him with a newfound purpose.


    ***


    Marcus POV


    When they arrived, he couldn''t help but notice how many dead bodies were present. There were at least a few dozen dead people scattered about.


    Death wasn''t an unusual thing on the continent. With how many monsters and dangerous people, safety was something that was in short supply. But it was still saddening to see such a waste of life.


    After examining the sight for a brief moment, he came to a quick conclusion. Some sort of caravan of merchants with guards came under attack by a group of thieves. Most of the bodies seemed to belong to the thieves, with only the occasional guard lying dead in return.


    That was actually quite impressive. That meant that these guards were quite good if they were able to deal with such opponents. Because these weren''t normal bandits either. Their gear was much too good for simple poor bandits trying to make a living. These were professionals.


    However, it would also seem that the battle was pretty much over. Most of the bandits who weren''t dead had already retreated. But what really caught his attention was that the guards who had won weren''t staying to sort through the gear of the dead.


    They were in the middle of packing up and running away. He did notice a few teams were staying around, but all of their attention was placed where Marcus sensed the only ongoing battle.


    With another quick teleport, he and Stella both went over. But they were surprised at what they saw.


    Off to the side, there was a group of Tier 4s. One was unconscious and badly injured, another was in some sort of restrictive restraints, and the final one was crawling along the ground without any legs, also in restraints.


    Then there were the people fighting in front of him. It was the Tier 5 that he had sensed and been tracking. Godfrey was a well-known Tier 5 who had multiple bounties on his head from various associations.


    Recently though, he had been known to be working with a group calling themselves the Conclave. A relatively new organization, but has made their name known by how brazen some of their actions have been.


    Marcus was instructed to capture or, if that wasn''t possible, kill Godfrey.


    It was the other person who had really shocked him.


    It was a Tier 3 boy who was in the middle of getting demolished by Godfrey. As a matter of fact, the boy was doing more damage to himself than he was doing to Godfrey.


    The boy, whom he had already assumed was the Julius that Lady Lily instructed him to find, was literally using so much mana and kinetic energy that he was exploding himself to pieces trying to keep up with the Tier 5.


    And even more impressively, it was working¡­ for the moment.


    The boy had some kind of healing skill or item that allowed him to regenerate his eviscerated limbs with ease. Letting him keep using this stupid and suicidal technique.


    I think I know why Lady Lily was so worried now, he realized with a sudden burst of clarity.


    She had emphasized the importance of finding the boy before he did anything "stupid". At first, he thought she was being dramatic, but he could see his folly now.


    She was completely serious. Because only a fucking lunatic would fight in the way the boy was fighting against a person two tiers above him. He watched as the boy smiled manically as his shoulder and arm were mangled beyond belief as he threw a punch at Godfrey, it unsurprisingly was blocked. However, it was followed up with another strike that exploded the boy''s leg into a fine mist of blood but impressively rebuffed Godfrey.


    He stood there for a brief moment, partially in shock and the other in awe.


    Then just as Godfrey''s Domain tried to restrain the boy, he sensed a weird usage of Concepts and the boy''s Emblem. The resulting surge managed to disrupt whatever control the man''s Domain had over the boy, but Marcus couldn''t help but wince at the damage he felt echo through the boy''s aura.


    He could immediately see that Godfrey wasn''t trying to kill the boy. No, the boy was in more danger from himself than the Tier 5 to Marcus''s befuddlement.


    With a shake of his head, he decided that he better step in before the boy killed himself, but before he could, he felt Stella make her move. Her shroud that she was using to hide her presence was torn away as she threw a complex spell of time magic at the Tier 5.


    The attack surprised Godfrey, as the man hadn''t noticed their presence yet, being too distracted with the boy.


    A sphere of dense runes encircled Tier 5, and then another layer of dense spatial magic surrounded it.


    Godfrey tried to react in time, but his teleportation skill was wiped away by a superior space mage and could only stand there frozen in place under the power of the time sphere.


    Marcus whistled to himself at the speed and power of Stella''s magic. She deserved her reputation. Being able to use both time and spatial magic was extraordinary. Being able to use them with such precision and ruthlessness¡­ was completely insane. And she made it look so simple.


    There wasn''t a thing Godfrey could do as he was frozen in time and encased in a barrier of space magic that even some Tier 6s might have a hard time getting out of.


    Marcus would not have been able to capture him with such ease. He would have needed to beat the man unconscious beforehand, and even after that, he didn''t know how he would keep him contained.


    He turned toward the boy, who still hadn''t quite realized what was happening. All the boy knew was that two new potential opponents appeared behind him. And so Marcus wasn''t surprised when a salvo of mana constructs soared toward them.


    With a chuckle, Marcus used his telekinesis to grab ahold of the constructs and ripped them apart, showing a little bit of interest at how sturdy these constructs were made. It actually was quite hard to dismantle them quickly.


    This boy is becoming even more interesting.


    Stella on the other hand, didn''t even bother trying to placate the boy. She simply threw a sphere around the boy, which he somehow managed to detect, and tried to dodge. Unfortunately for the boy, she was too quick and managed to capture him without much trouble. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Once the boy was contained, the two of them turned to look at each other at the same time. Each of them had furrowed brows as they looked back toward the now-frozen boy, thinking the same thing.


    Is this the right person they were tasked with finding? And if so, what kind of person did their young masters send them to find?

 Chapter 272 Meeting His Rescuers

    Julius got completely lost in the moment. It was partially because he was so focused on fighting the Tier 5, but it was also because it was easier to just ignore the pain.


    Exploding and mangling his own body wasn''t something that was easy to do. No matter what kind of ''experience'' he had with self-inflicted punishment, this was a step further than ever before.


    With that being said, he was proud of how well he was able to keep up with the Tier 5. He knew that the man had been taking it easy on him, but it was still notable that the man wasn''t able to just beat him down like nothing. He had to put some effort into it.


    However, when he sensed another two individuals show up unannounced, he lashed out instinctively, not even realizing they had helped him before it was too late. Thankfully, they were strong, much stronger than the Tier 5 he had been fighting if the way they dealt with him was any indicator.


    Furthermore, the woman managed to trap him in the same barrier she did with the Tier 5. He tried to avoid it, but she somehow managed to know exactly how he would move and predicted his movements, trapping him inside the sphere of dense runes.


    When he was encircled, everything seemed to stop. His brain shut down and he didn''t even recognize the flow of time.


    One moment he was dodging and the next he was sitting on the ground with the two individuals standing over him.


    The man was quite an impressive specimen. While he only had a single arm, the man was absurdly muscular and absurdly scary looking. He had a set of glowing purple eyes that immediately reminded him of Lily''s and a matching purple aura that seemed to weave through his skin.


    The woman on the other hand was almost the exact opposite. For one, she was extraordinarily pretty. Like, one of the prettiest people he had seen, which was saying a lot considering that most people were attractive the higher the tier they were.


    She was tall with ashy brown hair with a pair of sparkling dark blue eyes that examined him with curiosity and had a dazzling smile on her face.


    Oh yeah, and both of them revealed some of the most powerful Tier 5 auras he had ever sensed. It made the man he had been fighting seem like a child in comparison. It even made Rebecca''s aura seem almost trivial.


    "Oh goodie, you are awake," the woman exclaimed while clapping her hands together. "Are you okay? Ah, you must be low on mana, take this," she said while pushing a crystal bottle of what seemed to be a mana potion into his hands.


    "Calm down, Stella, let the boy breathe. He still is missing a couple of limbs," the one-armed man said to the woman.


    "You calm down, Marcus," she argued back. "I''m well aware he is missing a few pieces. That''s why I gave him the potion. His healing skill seems to be more efficient than any healing potion we could offer him."


    "Yes, but you could let him actually focus on healing before you start yapping at him."


    "Bah! You saw him, his healing skill, or whatever he uses to heal is good enough that a little distraction wouldn''t hurt its effectiveness. I am more concerned about the pain or rather his lack of reaction to it," she said with a curious frown.


    "Don''t even think about trying to break down his skills. It is not the time nor the place. We are here to rescue him, not use him as an experiment for skill development."


    He watched them bicker at each other for a moment before he spoke up.


    "What is going on? Who are you two?" He asked confusedly as he opened the bottle he was handed, smelling it as he did so.


    Huh, seems like the other mana potions I have in my storage, but much more potent.


    Still, he didn''t consume it. Instead, he took one of his own out of his storage and chugged it down because she was right about one thing. He had practically no mana left in the tank. He was running on fumes. But as he downed the potion, he immediately felt a rush of mana flood back into him.


    It wasn''t quite the same feeling of his own mana, and had this almost plasticky feeling to it, but it was enough to channel his healing skill to help start regenerating his limbs.


    "My name is Marcus Avery and this is Stella Quincy. We have been looking for you for a little while," the man said to him.


    Julius frowned at him. Why would they be looking for him? He couldn''t think of anyone who might¡­ never mind.


    He let out a loud sigh that had all of the emotions of exasperation, gratefulness, and amusement. He knew exactly who it was. The purple eyes should have been the first hint.


    "Lily?" He asked in a knowing tone.


    He saw the man smirk at that, giving him all the confirmation he needed.


    "Indeed, Lady Lily was the one who sent me after you," Marcus said.


    Julius sulked and leaned back, ignoring the itching feeling he got from his regenerating limbs. "I knew I should not have mentioned which part of the Empire I was in."


    The man''s purple eyes shimmered with amusement. "It did make my job easier to be fair."


    Julius turned to the woman who was pouting off to the side. Looking upset that he had rejected her potion.


    "I noticed that he said Lily only sent him and not you. What did he mean by that?"


    The woman perked up as he spoke to her. "Oh! I was sent by my young master to find you as well," she said with pride.


    "Young Master? Wait, you said you''re last name is Quincy?" He asked with interest.


    She nodded her head and then curtsied at him. "Yep, a proud member of the Quincy family, Stella Quincy at your service."


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    "So you are related to Kyle then, huh? I''m guessing he is the one who sent you after me too?"


    "Actually, it was young master Derek who sent me after you. Well more specifically, it was his father who assigned me, but it was all on behalf of the young master''s request," she clarified.


    "Oh yeah, Derek did mention his family and Kyle''s worked closely together," he murmured.


    "Hmmhm, we Quincy''s and Zenith''s have been working together for many years," she said enthusiastically.


    Julius nodded his head, already aware of the relationship between House Zenith and Quincy. It did feel weird though. How did they manage to find him? While he understood that he mentioned that he was in the northeastern region of the Empire, he never specifically said where he was. Additionally, he found it hard to believe that they were able to track him down in such a manner.


    "How did you guys find me?"


    "Oh, that was easy. I just followed Marcus here. He has this special knack for finding people and things. And even though he tried to lie to me, I just followed him until he eventually found you."


    "I didn''t lie."


    "You didn''t tell the truth either."


    "Godfrey is right there. You literally just captured him," Marcus said while pointing at the sphere behind Julius. One much like the one he was captured in for a moment.


    Oh, so his name is Godfrey, huh?


    "Valid point! But you could have told me that you were going to find Julius alongside him."


    "I didn''t know that for certain," he said unconvincingly.


    "But you knew it was likely right?" Stella asked.


    The man''s noncommittal answer was all she needed. "See, this is why I stayed with you."


    "Well now you can leave, I got the boy and so the mission is done," Marcus told her.


    "You mean I got the boy and this ''man''. Don''t even think about stealing all of the credit."


    Marcus rubbed his face with his lone arm. "Credit? You just admitted that I was the one who tracked them down and you were just following me."


    "Yes, but I also was the one who actually captured the Tier 5 and Julius. I should be the one who gets to take them in with you."


    Julius frowned as he heard them discuss things but had to interrupt.


    "Wait, what do you mean by taking me in?"


    The two of them looked over at him.


    "Isn''t that obvious? We are going to take you back to Heston," Stella said like it was a silly question to even ask.


    He shook his head. "I''m not going."


    "What? Why not?" She asked with genuine confusion.


    "I can''t exactly up and leave. There are other people I have to let know before I head back to Heston," he told her.


    "Like House Easten?" Marcus asked.


    He looked over in surprise. "Actually, yes. How did you know that?"


    The man smirked. "I went over to talk with House Easten a little bit ago to try and find you. I knew that you had some sort of connection with them based on my observations, but they clearly weren''t willing to divulge any information."


    He tilted his head at the man''s response. "How did you know I had a connection with House Easten?" As far as Julius knew, his presence was quite lowkey. Only a small number of people even knew of his existence within the Easten household.


    "Like Stella said, I have my ways of finding people and things," Marcus said mysteriously.


    Understanding he wasn''t getting anything else from the man, he asked his next question. "Who did you talk with?"


    "Marquis Easten himself."


    "Hm, and you told him why you were there and who sent you?" Julius asked. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Yes, and the man didn''t care. He simply sent me on my way. I am not sure what you did to have a man like Casidus Easten personally invested in your well-being, but he didn''t share anything with me. Not even when I levied House Violet''s influence against him."


    That was nice to hear, Julius had enjoyed his time at House Easten, and seeing that the Marquis had not sold him out so easily was a good sign. He did feel a bit worried about the potential backlash they might receive because of that though.


    "Well since you already know, I hope you don''t mind that I follow through with the job I was doing for them," he said to both of them.


    "You mean this farce which happened to put you in such danger?" Marcus asked with a slight edge to his voice. "I am sure that Lady Lily will not be happy to hear that House Easten has sent you on such a dangerous mission."


    "Neither will House Zenith or Quincy," Stella added firmly.


    "It was not that dangerous."


    "You were getting thrashed by a Tier 5 when we arrived, literally blowing yourself up to just keep up with him," Stella said bluntly, with mainly disgust but also a little bit of respect coloring her voice.


    He was about to argue but realizing she had a point, he stopped and paused for a moment. "It wasn''t supposed to be that dangerous. The plan was to lure out a few of their Tier 4s," he said, pointing to where the Tier 4 woman and assassin were still on the ground.


    "Ah yes, a Tier 3 child fighting against a bunch of Tier 4s. Totally normal and expected," the purple-eyed man said sarcastically.


    "Hey, it would have worked if there wasn''t a Tier 5 in hiding, okay?"


    The man groaned as he rubbed his stubble once more. "I am going to have some choice words for Casidus Easten and whoever else planned this operation."


    "Oh, so that means you aren''t taking me back to Heston?"


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    "Oh no, we definitely are. But I don''t see a harm in taking you back to Blumand first to settle your stuff there," the man said.


    "Oh." Honestly, he was kind of hoping that they were going to let him head back to Heston on his own time. He had been kind of enjoying his time away from school, even though he missed his friends.


    "We can probably grab the princess while we are there too," Stella added casually.


    "Wait, you know about Reinera?" He asked, slightly nervous.


    They ignored him.


    Marcus frowned at the woman, "I was told that the princess was not a priority and that I could allow the Royal Family to take care of it. My only concern is this ''dumb'' boy."


    "Hey!''


    Marcus turned to him with a frown. "Not my words, Lady Lily''s words when she described you. Also, considering that I found you blowing yourself up into little pieces as you attempted to fight a Tier 5, I am going to have to agree with her description of you."


    Okay, fair point, but more importantly¡­


    "She really called me dumb?"


    Marcus gave him a sympathetic look. "She used many other choice words, but that was the general gist of it."


    Julius moped as he heard that. That was hurtful to hear but not surprising.


    "You might not have instructions to grab the princess, but I was told that I was to take her with the boy if the opportunity allowed for it," Stella explained, ignoring their side conversation.


    Marcus shrugged. "Do what you want. I am only here for the boy, I couldn''t care less about the girl."


    Julius gave the two of them one last pleading look.


    "Does this really mean I have to go back to Heston with you two after?" He was really hoping that he could stall it.


    "Absolutely," Marcus said with no room for arguing.


    He paused at that. "What if I say no?"


    It was Stella who responded. "Then you can join him," she said while pointing at the scary sphere of runes that contained the Tier 5 with ease.


    He swallowed nervously. "That''s okay, I don''t think we need to do that."


    "Good, that makes things easier," she said brightly.

 Chapter 273 Off He Goes

    Stephanie POV


    She and her team were stunned as they watched things play out.


    They all knew that things would be extremely risky considering the danger rating on this mission, but they could have never expected something quite like this.


    A group of Tier 4s attacking the caravan like they did was not something you would think would happen, but it was a possibility. Being attacked by a Tier 5?


    That was very unreasonable.


    For what reason would a Tier 5 attack them? She doubted it was the materials they were transporting. At that tier, you don''t care for Tier 3 materials anymore. Clearing a Tier 5 rift would make you very wealthy just with the cores alone.


    So why would this man attack them? She knew she wasn''t the only person thinking about this either.


    She released the breath she was holding as she observed the conclusion of the whole situation.


    A large number of the caravan had up and left. Most of them had been merchants who abandoned their belongings once they saw the Tier 5 show up. But there was a large number of the escort teams who ran away as well.


    While she doubted that the guild would punish them too severely, the fact would remain that they ran away from their duties. It wasn''t expected for adventurers to throw away their lives for the people they protect, but there was a kind of professional integrity that you didn''t abandon your clients to the dangers they hired you to protect them from.


    So although they wouldn''t be removed from the guild, it would likely be a dark mark on their records for the rest of their careers.


    She doubted many of them cared. At the end of the day, reputation could be mended, but you only had a single life.


    But now everything was fine. The Tier 4s were all taken care of and the Tier 5 was captured by two random Tier 5s who had shown up out of the blue.


    This whole mission had devolved into a huge complicated mess.


    "What the fuck just happened?" Beck voiced out a question all of them had, just in more crude terms.


    "I think we got very lucky," Matt said aloud, taking a look at all of them. "We could have all died, but we were fortunate that we didn''t lose anyone today."


    They all took a look around at the dead bodies that littered the plains. Most of them were enemies, but there were people from their side who had also been killed.


    People she had seen or interacted with in previous days. People she would never see again.


    This was the life of an adventurer. Death was commonplace and part of everyday life. One got used to it pretty quickly. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I was talking about Julius fighting against a Tier 5. A Tier 5 that ripped through Rolus like nothing."


    Speaking of Rolus, she was glad to see that Adrian had gone over along with a healer to help their caravan leader. The Tier 4, while hurt and unconscious, didn''t seem to have any life-threatening injuries. It also helped that his affinity meant he had quite impressive healing skills.


    The Tier 4, although missing both of his arms, should be okay. Treatment for limb regeneration was expensive for a Tier 4, but considering that the man had lost them due to his duties and responsibilities to House Easten, she expected that the man''s treatment would be covered by the noble house.


    She was more worried about any soul damage. Fighting against a Domain could be dangerous, it was what made fighting against a Tier 5 as a Tier 4 next to impossible. This made her even more confused because Julius had been able to resist the man''s Domain.


    "I told you that I had a weird feeling about him," George commented to her, the man still looking over at where the boy was talking with the Tier 5s.


    "You said that he could have been a traitor. I don''t know what you saw, but I can say with confidence that he wasn''t with them in any way," she corrected him.


    "No, but he was hiding something," he tried to still point out.


    Matt interrupted her before she could speak.


    "Wait? You two knew that there was something off about Julius and you didn''t tell any of us?" The man didn''t sound mad, but he did sound a little hurt that the two of them didn''t share their suspicions.


    Stephanie looked at their team leader with a shake of her head. "We had no idea that Julius was that strong. George found his weak aura kind of suspicious and I found his mana control to be too skilled to not be strong. But there was nothing that would indicate he could take on a Tier 4 by himself, nevertheless, hold his own against a Tier 5 and his Domain."


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    "So his aura was just a ploy to lower people''s guards?" Pamela asked quietly. "I thought he was just a weak Tier 3 who advanced too early. But that aura he showed tonight¡­ I have never seen something quite like that, not on a human anyway."


    Beck scoffed. "Weak? Are you serious? You really believed that Julius was weak? Even I was able to tell that he hiding his strength." Enjoy new tales from My Virtual Library Empire


    "Sure you did, Beck," Matt said in an incredulous tone.


    "Yeah, how did you know, huh?" George asked.


    "I knew after the first day when he noticed the group of monsters approaching before you or Matt," he said to their scout with a scoff. "Admittedly that could have been luck, but when it kept happening time and time again, it was clear it wasn''t."


    "And how did you know he sensed them first?"


    "Because I felt his bloodlust and intent spike just before they showed up. He also was never surprised by their arrival, it was almost like he knew that they were already there,'' Beck explained to them.


    That she did believe. If there was anything they could trust Beck on it was his expertise on bloodlust and murderous intent. Beck had an uncanny ability to control and sense bloodlust. It was why he was such an effective tank. He could use this ability to taunt enemies and heighten his own battle prowess. And her teammates knew that too.


    "And you didn''t say anything either?" Matt asked.


    "Why would I? He''s a good kid and I for one believe he is privileged to his own secrets," the big man said confusedly. "I admit I was very shocked to see him fight though. I don''t think I have seen a person fight using his own body parts as expendable resources."


    "Yeah, you''re usually not supposed to do that."


    She still had no idea how he managed to heal like that. Even a healer like herself, wouldn''t be able to heal such extensive damage like that without some sort of powerful item or natural treasure to assist her. He must have regrown his limbs at least a dozen times over the course of a couple of minutes.


    Regardless if he was Tier 3, which was easier to heal than a Tier 4, she didn''t quite comprehend how it was possible.


    Hell, she didn''t even know how he managed to have enough mana to power such regeneration.


    If she had to guess, she would say it was some kind of bloodline that focused on regeneration. She knew that there were a few families out there who had increased regeneration due to their bloodlines and it was possible that he was a member of one of those families.


    That or some sort of powerful artifact that House Easten gave him. But she didn''t know of anything that would allow him to do something like that.


    "You think there''s a chance he''s a part of the House Verdant or something?" Pamela commented, thinking the same thing that Stephanie had been.


    "What do you think he has House Verdant''s powerful life bloodline which allows him to heal like that?" Matt asked.


    Both Matt and Pamela were children of nobles. Although they weren''t anything too prominent, the two of them would have a better idea of which families had what kind of bloodline that she would.


    "I mean it''s possible, but they are very protective of their family members. I don''t think they would easily allow their son to just waltz into the plains on a mission like this," Pamela added.


    "No, but it could be another family like the Natel Clan or some other one since it seemed more combat-focused than most of the bloodlines."


    "But even that I can''t understand. As far as I know, there aren''t any bloodlines that heal with that level of intensity at Tier 3. It might be something else," Pamela said.


    Matt sighed loudly. "We can talk about this later. First, we need to get everything gathered up and try to get some of the people who ran away back. I don''t think we will be able to take all of the goods without more people to help."


    "Good luck trying to track them down. I suspect they are halfway across the continent by now if the way they were running was any sign," Beck laughed boisterously.


    "Let''s sort things out first and then we can wait until Rolus wakes up to give up more directions. If he doesn''t, then Adrian will let us know. Sound good?" Matt asked.


    Everyone let out sounds of agreement and immediately got to work. But it was obvious that they all were distracted by something. She was sure that many of them were still thinking about the fights they had just witnessed and been a part of.


    But for her, she couldn''t help but recall the way she felt the mana move as it healed Julius. There was something there that she couldn''t quite grasp yet. It was like something on the tip of her fingertips.


    She believed that if she managed to understand a small piece of what she had witnessed, she would make an astronomical leap in her healing abilities.


    Being able to heal like that would be something that would let her team stay alive. To be able to survive more battles like these. She didn''t want to lose any one of them.


    She also couldn''t help but believe that if she managed to do so, she would get closer to gaining her third Concept, a mark of a true Tier 3.


    This battle made her realize that her once proud strength wasn''t anything to be actually proud of. B-rank didn''t mean anything in the face of a Tier 4 or someone truly strong. She needed to get stronger and she didn''t have the luxury of being shy. She wanted some answers to her questions. Answers that might let her reach the level she saw the boy she had previously believed was weak.


    So as the rest of the people who were still around cleaned up and organized everything, she went over to where Julius and the Tier 5s were talking.


    She didn''t know if he would be willing. But it didn''t hurt to try and ask. She just hoped that the Tier 5s didn''t find her presence annoying and smite her for her impudence. You never knew with people that strong.


    As she got closer, she couldn''t help but start to feel even more nervous. The only times she had ever interacted with Tier 5s were when she saw them at the guild or during important events. Other than that, she had no real interaction with them.


    However, she stopped feeling as anxious when she noticed Julius talking with these people with seeming familiarity. Perhaps, the boy did know who these people were and maybe they were a part of House Easten''s backup plan.


    Firming her resolve, she sped up and was about a dozen feet away from them when all of them disappeared from her sight.


    It wasn''t just them either, the enemy Tier 4s were gone as well. It was pretty apparent that one of the Tier 5s managed to use some sort of spatial magic to teleport them somewhere.


    She frowned as she continued to look at the spot where they had just been. It was unfortunate because she was seriously interested in asking Julius some questions about his healing skill. She was also jealous that the boy was likely already back in Blumand or some other city while she would have to travel by foot for who knows how long.


    With a saddened sigh, she turned back to her team and couldn''t help but wonder if she would ever see Julius again.

 Chapter 274 Cookies and Constructs

    Stella, who Julius quickly found out was an extraordinary mage who had access to both spatial and time magic, didn''t waste any time and transported them all back to Blumand.


    One moment they were standing on the plains in the dark and the next they were standing on a platform inside of some sort of building. He felt a small amount of dizziness but it quickly faded as he got situated.


    He was more impressed at the delicate control of mana he sensed from the woman. From everything he had heard, space and time magic were two of the most difficult categories of magic on the continent. And the fact that this woman was able to use not one, but both kinds was supremely impressive.


    "Where did you take us?" He asked the pretty woman.


    "We are back in Blumand. I teleported us to one of House Quincy''s properties we have in the city. Where there is also a spot where I can drop these troublemakers off," she said while pointing at the Tier 5 and two Tier 4s she dragged along. The assassin still looked pretty beat up and the woman was relatively uninjured. Though both of them were placed inside of a sphere of their own.


    "I thought it would be irresponsible if I left a bunch of Tier 4s lying around with nobody in the caravan guards who can handle them," Kyle''s relative explained with a proud grin.


    "That and you are hoping that House Easten will owe you for capturing some of their members right?" Marcus added with a knowing shake of his head.


    "That certainly helps," she didn''t deny it at all.


    He didn''t see a reason why it was a bad thing. He suspected that the Marquis would be extremely pleased to find that she captured not only two Tier 4s but also the Tier 5 who had been overseeing them.


    "So what are we going to do now?"


    She was about to respond but Julius sensed someone approach them from a distance. He watched as the door to the room opened and a man in a sharp suit strolled in.


    "Ah, Lady Stella, it is an honor to see you so soon again."


    "Well I just missed your company so much Heinrich that I couldn''t stay away," Stella teased back.


    "I see you have brought some honored guests as well," the butler noted with a polite nod toward Marcus and Julius. But then gave the ones contained within the blue spheres a darker look. "And perhaps some that are not as honorable."


    "Yes, I have to take care of these ones real quick. Do you mind showing these two upstairs where they can rest until I am done?" Stella requested of the man.


    "Of course, milday. I will have the same tea and biscuits you enjoyed last time waiting for you when you are finished," the butler said with a graceful bow.


    "You are a peach, Heinrich," Stella said with a happy clap of her hands, before shooing towards the two of them.


    "Go on, I will only be a few minutes. I don''t want to come back later only to find that they have escaped."


    The two of them didn''t bother to argue and followed the butler upstairs. Julius, a bit more quickly than Marcus, the moment he heard that there would be snacks. Almost dying always made him hungry and whatever Stella enjoyed must be something delicious.


    ***


    I was wrong, he thought to himself bitterly.


    No offense to the butler or Stella, but he didn''t enjoy the tea or biscuits at all. It became quite clear that Stella had a very big sweet tooth because the tea and biscuits tasted so sweet that his tongue was numb.


    Furthermore, Marcus had already seemed aware of this because the man hadn''t touched his food at all. He merely drank the glass of water while giving Julius a knowing look.


    "You could have told me beforehand," Julius complained to the man.


    "I thought all kids loved sweets?" The one-armed man asked with a smirk.


    "Yeah, but there''s a difference between something sweet and something made entirely of sugar," he pointed out while removing some of his own snacks from his storage ring and munching on them trying to remove the sting of sugar from his mouth.


    "I never understood her taste preferences either," Marcus stated.


    A brief moment of silence echoed through the room as the only sounds made were the crunching of him eating a cookie. It was only when he got the sickening sweet taste out of his mouth that he asked the man a question he had been curious about.


    "I apologize if asking offends you, but how come you only have one arm? I would think that Lily''s family would pay for any healing or treatment," Julius asked the man.


    Marcus chuckled at his question. "No offense taken. Most people are curious but are too scared to ask. The truth is that I could have it healed anytime I want but have chosen not to."


    "Why? Wouldn''t having an arm be useful for everyday life, not to mention combat?" He asked.


    "You would think so, right?" Marcus asked as he stared at his left arm with a smile.


    Julius nodded in agreement. He couldn''t see a reason why being handicapped would be an advantage.


    "Well you see, I got this injury when I was Tier 3 much like you are. During that time it wasn''t possible to heal the injury. I got hit by a monster with a dangerous destruction affinity, smashing any dreams of getting my arm back. So I had to adapt. I used my telekinesis to fill in the gap of my missing arm and ended up acquiring some powerful skills along the way." Stay tuned with My Virtual Library Empire


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    "I still don''t understand why you haven''t gotten it healed. Wouldn''t advancing to Tier 5 allow you to heal it?" Julius was still confused.


    "Advancing to Tier 5 did fix that issue. But I had gotten so used to using my telekinesis at that point that I found that I didn''t even need any arms. I had more control and dexterity with telekinesis than I ever would have with an arm. Plus, it felt like it was part of my identity at that point as if getting my arm back would actually hamper my abilities," Marcus explained.


    "Here, let me show you something," the man offered when he saw that Julius wasn''t quite convinced.


    He watched as the man removed a pack of something from his storage device. On closer examination, he realized it was a deck of cards. Interested in what the man was about to do, he quickly polished off the rest of his cookie and leaned forward.


    He saw Marcus''s purple eyes slightly brighten as he used his telekinesis to take control of the deck of cards and gasped in amazement as he witnessed the man spread out the entire deck in an elegant spread.


    Then the man controlled the cards so that they flew upwards and danced in a coordinated show of skill. It was like seeing a flower blossom and fold back into itself. Marcus continued to show Julius a bunch of various displays of careful and deliberate control.


    Seeing such immaculate skill, he no longer wondered why the man didn''t see the need to have an arm. Sure, having an arm would have been more beneficial than not having one, but being able to have such deft manipulations made an arm feel clumsy in comparison.


    "What if someone fights you up close? Wouldn''t having an arm be good then?" He asked, all the while his eyes never looked away from the show Marcus was displaying.


    "Oh yeah, I figured out a way to take care of that too," the man said with a nod, forming a purple prosthetic on his missing limb. The amount of mana and pure power that exuded from the arm was remarkable.


    Julius was fascinated and got closer to examine the arm in closer detail. Seeing his reaction, Marcus even went as far as to extend his arm out for him to look at.


    He was impressed with the construction of the prosthetic. It wasn''t quite the same as his own constructs, but there was a massive difference in how strong it was compared to his own.


    It was difficult to say how much exactly the difference was, but he could immediately get the sense that this man''s arm would never break no matter how much he pounded it with his own constructs.


    Seeing that there was no reason to hide his own skills, considering the man had already seen him fight going all out, he created a similar creation over his own arm. The same kind he would create when forming his armor.


    He had believed that his own constructs were quite pretty and elegantly formed. However, he was really reconsidering that opinion the more he examined the man''s purple prosthetic.


    There were layers upon layers of intricately woven threads that formed the arm. Connections which appeared to be some kind of circuits or lines flowed around the arm in a pulsing pattern.


    He had some serious work he needed to do with his own constructs if he ever wanted to create something this powerful. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "How did you manage to create something like this?" He finally asked the man the million-dollar question.


    "Practice and repetition," Marcus answered simply. "I started off with simple exercises and slowly increased their difficulty until I was able to create something like this."


    Julius could only nod as he heard the man''s explanation. He had no doubt that such fine work needed a lot of practice. It also reminded him of how he first began compressing his constructs.


    In the beginning, he had really focused on the weaving of mana and layering. However, as time went on, he no longer needed to focus on such things. It took too much time to do so and thus he used his skills and memory to form the constructs without much thought.


    That being said, they were still very powerful for his tier and he was able to create them with such ease that made it very useful in a fast-paced battle. But he was also realizing that perhaps that wasn''t the best idea in hindsight.


    He had forgotten some of the basics on his way. For the past several months he had been extremely focused on infusing his Concepts with his constructs. Something that had been coming along very nicely by the way.


    With that being said, the other aspects of his constructs might have been falling behind. He could be putting much more deliberate effort into creating something more powerful and able to withstand more of his Concepts or mana.


    He already had ideas about what kind of mana training he would be doing in the future. It was something he had already been thinking about improving, but now he had a direction he could start heading in.


    Speaking of improving, he forgot about the notifications he got while he was fighting the Tier 5, and with an excited glint in his eyes, he opened them up.


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 11 -> lvl 12]


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 10 -> lvl 13]


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 7 -> lvl 9]


    [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 5 -> lvl 7]


    [Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 3 -> lvl 6]


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 17 -> lvl 18]


    [Flash Step lvl 14 -> 16]


    Unsurprisingly, almost every single one of his skills leveled up from his experience. The only one that didn''t was [Spatial Perception] which was still capped at level 19 until he got a suitable Concept to evolve it.


    His other skills made some amazing progress. [Armaments of the Arcane] had only gotten a single level, which now that he assessed Marcus''s own prothetic he didn''t feel that odd. He had a lot of work he would need to do before he was happy with the skill.


    It was nice to see [Sage of Savagery] gain three whole levels though. He had been using that skill to direct a lot of the other skills. It also allowed him to keep his concentration on the fight and not worry about blowing apart his body or the pain that came with such a decision.


    [Phoenix Renewal] had also made some nice leaps unsurprisingly. He had lost of a lot body mass during that fight and regenerating through whatever willpower the man influenced him with was a hard task.


    [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] along with [Inexorable Aura of Ruin] he had recently acquired made some nice improvements. Those two skills had been directly responsible for allowing Julius to keep up with the man. The ability to strengthen his body that much allowed him to be fast enough to dodge the Tier 5, even if he had to sacrifice some meat to do so.


    Then the aura skill allowed him to fight against the man''s Domain''s influence with greater ease than he probably should have. Regardless of whatever hobbled-together technique he used to create that weird burst he probably should have been crippled by the Domain.


    Speaking of that technique, he quickly checked out his soul. At the time, he hadn''t been worried about his soul since he was more worried about staying alive or not being kidnapped. But now that he had time, he made sure that he was okay.


    He scanned every inch of his soul to ensure it was fine. He did manage to spot some damage and stress fractures, but honestly, it was better than he expected it to be.


    He estimated that it should be fine within a day or two as long as he used his healing skill to fix it up. With a sigh of relief, he smiled and resumed his inspection of Marcus''s arm.


    Which oddly enough, the man seemed completely fine with. Maybe it had to do with the fact that the man worked for Lily''s family, but Marcus was surprisingly very considerate of him. Almost like he was trying to please Julius.


    Regardless, he wasn''t going to complain. Not when he had the opportunity to examine such a cool skill before his very eyes.


    So while snacking on some more cookies, he paid close attention and attempted to decipher the man''s construct.

 Chapter 275 Discussing With the Marquis

    Stella was oddly sad about the fact that neither of them wanted the tea and biscuits that she loved so much. However, that only lasted for a few moments because the moment he offered the rest of his to her, she brightened up considerably.


    After that, the three of them left and went on their way to House Easten''s estate.


    When they finally arrived at the gates, Julius realized that he hadn''t contacted any of them yet like he was supposed to.


    Instead, he was going to be showing up with two Tier 5s in tow. When he got to the gate, he saw one of the guards that he had gotten to know while he stayed there. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Julius is that you?" Larry asked as he approached, squinting his eyes to make sure he was seeing things right.


    "Hey, Larry! Yeah, it''s me. Kind of a long story but do you know if Richard or Rebecca are around?"


    "I know Richard is gone for something, but Rebecca should still be around," Larry said while already preparing to let him through the gates, but before he could, the guard finally spotted the two people with him.


    "Are they with you?" He asked questioningly, looking surprised that Julius had strangers with him considering that during his entire time at the estate, he hadn''t brought back a single guest of his own.


    "Yeah, I would like to bring them to talk with Rebecca."


    Larry gave the two of them a closer look. The two Tier 5s had shrouded their auras with such skill that even Julius was fooled. If he hadn''t already known how strong the both of them were, he would never think they were Tier 5s.


    It made him wonder just how many people he had walked past down the street who were much stronger than he thought.


    Still, it was important to note that his aura senses had improved with his new epic skill. Even before this, his aura senses were better than most. At least that was what he liked to believe. But the fact that they were skillful enough to display their aura, which felt like a bunch of normal Tier 4s, was something he wanted to learn.


    They also chose a believable level of power. If they pretended to be a bunch of Tier 2s or 3s, he doubted anyone would believe that. But choosing to be Tier 4s was the perfect balance. Just powerful enough to be respected but not strong enough to be overly feared or stand out.


    Larry himself was a Tier 3 and a pretty good one at that. However, he didn''t seem to be able to see through their aura shrouds.


    "What are their names?" Larry asked.


    Julius looked at both of them and waved at them, directing them to give their names to Larry. He didn''t want to say their names himself because maybe they wanted to be a little anonymous.


    "My name is Marcus and this is Stella," Marcus said, surprising Julius with his truthfulness.


    It would seem that the man had no fears about sharing his real name.


    A weird face appeared on the guard''s face. "Just one second. I am going to check in with my captain real quick," he said to Julius.


    The three of them patiently waited as Larry went off to find Justice, one of the captains of House Easten. Well, Julius thought it would be Justice, considering that Justice was usually the captain of the team Larry was a part of.


    He was glad to see that he was right when Justice swiftly approached the three of them, the usually stony-faced and calm man showed a hint of nervousness as he beckoned them to follow him through the gates and the enchantments.


    The three walked with the guard captain through the estate.


    "It is good to see you two again soon, Lord Marcus and Lady Stella. I have notified the Marquis about your presence and he is waiting for you at the same place as last time," the man said very politely, as if the two of them were a moment''s away from biting his head off.


    Julius didn''t understand the man''s panicked behavior. As far as he could tell, the two of them were very nice people. Sure, his perception was a bit warped because of their earlier aid, but even his conversations with the two of them showed that they weren''t bad people. Except for some eccentric things he noticed, they were pretty normal. Marcus was even kind enough to allow him to examine his own constructs without issue.


    Justice then finally turned to Julius. His face visibly relaxed as he saw him, a stark contrast to how he looked when he was talking to the other two.


    "It''s good to see you back and safe, young Julius. I hope everything went well."


    Julius smiled at the man, apparently Justice knew some things about what Julius was up to. Not that surprising though, the man was a highly trusted retainer of House Easten. He and his entire family worked in some capacity for the House.


    "Some surprises certainly, but nothing too out of expectations." If fighting against multiple Tier 4s and Tier 5 was within expectations, that is. He didn''t dare say that to the man though.


    He did notice that both Marcus and Stella gave him matching disbelieving looks. As if they were baffled that he had the gall to say something like that after they found him in the position they did.


    Thankfully, Justice didn''t notice these looks. "That''s wonderful to hear. Should I let Lady Grace know about your arrival as well?"


    "She''s here too?"


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    "Yes, she got back a couple of days ago."


    "Then that would be great. I forgot to let her know that I had come back already. It was all a bit sudden," he said to Justice while rubbing his head, already predicting the scolding he might be getting in the near future.


    The man grimaced. "I don''t envy you son, but I will let her know for you."


    "Thanks, Justice."


    "Don''t thank me yet," the man said warningly.


    "What''s the worst she can do to me?" He asked in a joking manner.


    The silence he received in return was worrying.


    ***


    Marquis Easten was sitting at his desk when they entered.


    "I see you found the boy," the Marquis said to Marcus and Stella, not sounding the least bit surprised.


    "We did, it would appear our fates aligned," Marcus stated with a firm nod.


    "Well, I am glad that you did."


    "No thanks to you," Stella grumbled.


    The Marquis gave an awkward smile to her. "Apologies, but I couldn''t just be selling out our guests to anybody who comes looking. How would your House react if I came in demanding to take one of your guests?"


    Stella begrudgingly conceded the point with a nod.


    "But as Marcus pointed out, it seems that your fates aligned and that you guys seem to be getting along if you are here together. Although I am curious about how you guys came across each other and how you are sitting in front of me at the moment," Marquis Easten said before looking at Julius.


    "It is good to see that you are safe and sound. I hope the mission went along as planned."


    Julius nodded at him and gave a thumbs up.


    "Everything went to plan and with their help we managed to capture a few of their higher-ranked members to interrogate."


    "Oh yeah, everything definitely went to plan," Stella sarcastically said under her breath but everyone in the room had enhanced hearing so they heard every word.


    The Marquis gave a worried look toward Julius. "What does she mean? Did something happen?"


    "Nothing really happened. Everything we expected came to pass," he brushed off the man''s concern.


    "No it didn''t," Marcus said bluntly.


    "Yeah, because it''s normal to expect a boy to fight against a Tier 5," Stella blurted out, staring at the Marquis with judgemental eyes.


    "Tier 5? What Tier 5?" The noble man asked in shock.


    "The one that we found playing around with your ''guest''."


    "There wasn''t supposed to be a Tier 5. According to our sources, the strongest member has been a Tier 4, with only sometimes there being multiple of them."


    Julius decided to interject before Stella could say more that might offend the Marquis.


    "I think they were waiting far away and only came when they noticed the other Tier 4s were taken care of. I am not sure if this is a normal thing though."


    Marquis Easten placed his chin in his palms as he went into deep thought.


    "Did he say anything to you that stood out?"


    "He seemed very keen on taking me alive for some reason. I don''t know if that was to question me or to find out what kind of abilities I have. But the other Tier 4 gave me some really nice information."


    "Like what?" The man asked, leaning forward with interest.


    "He mentioned something about Bishops. I assume it is some kind of ranking within the organization, but he said that he wasn''t that well-informed. He did say that only Tier 5s can be Bishops though."


    "Yes, we have heard the term Bishops tossed around in our investigation of them, but we did not know that they were specifically Tier 5s. That is good to know."


    Julius brightened as he remembered something else. " Also, apparently, House Greyson is working in some capacity with the Conclave. The Tier 4 didn''t have much information on them, but he did seem quite certain of their involvement, at least his reaction did. He also gave me a list of names of all of the affiliated people he knew about in Blumand," Julius mentioned.


    "You got a list of names?" Marquis Easten asked in astonishment.


    "How the hell did you convince one of their members to tell you?" Stella asked, just as surprised.


    "Well, I don''t think he was in the best condition at the time. He also seemed pretty scared of dying, but more than that I believe he was certain that I wouldn''t be leaving alive and was stalling for time. Perhaps, he thought that the Tier 5 would have taken care of me before I could tell anyone," he hypothesized.


    "Do you remember the names he said to you?" Marcus asked calmly, but there was a clear interest in it.


    He smiled widely. "Even better, I was smart and wrote down all of the names instead," he said proudly while fishing through his storage ring trying to find the piece of paper he wrote on.


    Marcus gave an approving nod. "Indeed, that was a good idea."


    When he finally found out, he removed it from his ring and handed it toward Marcus without any hesitation. However, before the man could grab it from his hands, a firm but gentle pressure exuded from the Marquis sitting across from them.


    "If you don''t mind, I would rather you not. This is originally a matter of House Easten and you really shouldn''t be listening to this in the first place. It is only because of the situation at hand that I am allowing it. The fact remains that you two belong to two different Houses and this is my House''s business," the Marquis said politely but he also didn''t leave any room for arguing. Experience tales with My Virtual Library Empire


    Frowning a little, Julius looked at the Marquis and back toward Marcus.


    "Do you really want to see that list? Is it important to you as well?" He asked.


    "Not as important as it is to House Easten considering it pertains to Blumand, but yes, House Violet would undoubtedly benefit from seeing if any of their contacts are on that list," Marcus said, not hiding his intrigue.


    He then turned to the Marquis. "Could you please allow Marcus to look at it after you are done?"


    Julius watched the Marquis remain impassive but he had a feeling that the man didn''t like the request he was making.


    "I understand they are from two separate Houses, but you can trust him. For one, they saved my life so without them that piece of paper would have been lost anyway. Secondly, I am friends with members of their House."


    The Marquis shook his head. "I can''t allow that. Even if you are friendly with members of their House, it doesn''t mean they can speak for the Houses themselves. Even if they promised to keep the information confidential, they wouldn''t have the power to uphold that promise."


    He was about to respond, but Stella actually beat him to it.


    "Actually, I was sent directly by Darius Zenith himself to find the boy, and he has given me permission to act with his authority, such as making promises," she said casually.


    Marquis Easten was visibly startled. "Why would the next Duke of House Zenith send you to find Julius?"


    "Well, the friends Julius was talking about aren''t just any members of our House. They are Derek Zenith and Lily Violet herself."


    When he heard this, the Marquis froze and looked over at Julius who was looking downward at the table, pointedly ignoring his gaze.


    "Okay, it might be better to explain everything from the beginning," the man said carefully.

 Chapter 276 Need More Crazy

    Julius did his best to explain what had happened during the mission, only omitting a few things that had no real importance. He also briefly talked about his relationship with Derek and Lily.


    "So let me get this straight, two of the heirs of some of the most powerful Houses are really good friends and they decided to send out these two to bring you back?"


    He gave a shrug at the man. "Kind of, yeah."


    "What about Grace then? Do they know about her?" The Marquis asked in an odd tone.


    "We know all about ''Grace''," Stella said with a shake of her head. "It is sort of a delicate situation, but House Zenith has a plan for how they want to handle it."


    Julius looked between the two of them. "Wait? Do you know?" He asked the Marquis, a little taken aback by Stella''s willingness to openly share sensitive information and also that the man didn''t seem that surprised by it.


    "Yeah, we figured it out a little while ago. We were just going to ignore it for now, we thought it was better than getting mixed in with the Royal Family. They have always been a pain in our backside," he said with a sad shake of his head.


    He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He hadn''t really expected them to find out about her so easily. Then again, who knew what kind of resources they had access to?


    "So you don''t mind if we take the two of them back to Heston after this is finished?"


    "Not at all, as long as they are both willing to go along with you guys, then I won''t argue."


    "Perfect, in that case, we have three people who were a part of the attack, including the Tier 5 locked up in one of my family''s residences. I will organize the transfer over to you guys as long as you are willing to share any information that might be of help to us."


    The three of them, excluding Julius, talked for a while, discussing the details of how they were going to plan things out. It would seem that knowing that Derek and Lily were his friends made the man much more willing to work with them.


    As they did so, he just sat around twiddling his thumbs aimlessly, not having much to offer them now that he had done his part.


    He even took a snack from his storage ring as he waited for them. There was a lot of negotiating about what each House would give to the others and a lot of promises about future dealings were made. There were times when things got a little heated but in the end, everyone seemed pleased with how it went.


    After they were done, the attention was back to Julius.


    The Marquis turned to Julius with a frown on his face. "I really thought the princess would have been the most trouble but then somehow you end up being more problematic than her. I must say, that is quite impressive."


    "Problems which you and your House are directly responsible for I might add. Problems that I am obligated to report to my lady once I return," Marcus commented with a dark look.


    The Marquis gave a conceding wince. "Of course, we are as much to blame as anyone. Julius will be properly rewarded for his contributions to House Easten, you have my word."


    "I will make sure that you do," Marcus nodded firmly and looked at Julius. "Are we all good now? Can we take you back with us?"


    He shook his head. "I still have to say some goodbyes to some people."


    "That''s fine. Take a day to say your goodbyes and we can leave tomorrow evening. In the meantime, I will be staying on property and settling the details on a few more things such as examining the list you procured and any other information these Conclave members might have."


    "Hey! What about me? What am I going to do?" Stella asked.


    "I thought you said you had other duties to take care of?"


    "Yeah, but that should only take a little bit. I was thinking we could go eat somewhere and relax before we head back," she said hopefully.


    Marcus shook his head. "My lady has already made her impatience quite clear to me. She wants her friend back and nothing is going to stop me from getting her that. If you want to face Lady Lily''s wrath, by all means, go and explain to her why you wish to delay such an important moment for her."


    Stella actually flinched.


    "No no. We don''t need to go that far. Your plan sounds wonderful, I will just go on and handle the transfer," she said already walking away from Marcus in haste. However just before she walked out of the door, she turned to Marquis Easten. "If you don''t mind Casidus, I would like to get some permissions to use some spatial magic on the property."


    "Of course, let me show you where you can put them," the man said while standing up and walking with Stella out of the door.


    Stella hastily followed the man, making Julius chuckle at her sudden willingness to get away from him and Marcus.


    "Is Lily that terrifying?" He asked Marcus once it was just the two of them.


    The man gave him a meaningful look. "You''re friends with her right?"


    "Of course."


    "Then do you really need me to answer that question?" The one-armed Tier 5 said while walking away, reviewing the copy of the list Julius had made.


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    Julius cocked his head as he recalled all of the times Lily had gotten angry at him or the others.


    Yeah, that was a dumb question.


    He jogged to catch up to Marcus. "Have you told her yet?"


    The man shook his head. "Not yet, no."


    "Why not?" He asked with a worried look on his face. They were just talking about how scary Lily could be when she was mad. But now this man was admitting that he hadn''t told Lily about them finding Julius. That seemed like a sure way to earn her ire.


    "I am hoping to surprise her. I already asked Stella to refrain from telling House Zenith as well," the Tier 5 said to Julius''s surprise.


    "Won''t she be mad about you not sharing this with her? That sounds like a recipe for disaster," he noted with a tense look toward Marcus.


    The man actually chuckled at that. "Oh, definitely."


    "Then why do it?" He asked with a confused look.


    "Because it will be worth it," the man said with a loving smile as he gave Julius a soft glance.


    Ahh, I understand, he thought to himself with a grin blooming on his face.


    "You are actually quite the teddy bear aren''t you?" He said to Marcus with a small bump to the larger man''s shoulder.


    "What''s a teddy bear?" Marcus asked with crinkled eyebrows.


    "It''s like a stuffed animal of a bear. Looks like a bear, but totally harmless on the inside," he explained with a grin.


    "I am a Tier 5 who can level an entire town," the man said bluntly. "I don''t think that qualifies me as harmless."


    "Only if someone angers you right?"


    Marcus''s exasperated sigh was everything he needed to hear.


    "See? You''re a good person," he said with another encouraging wack to the man''s back.


    "Lily was right. You''re an odd boy."


    "What is that supposed to mean?" He asked, a little offended at the sudden insult.


    "You do realize that most people act in fear around me, right? That normal people are put off by my aura and presence. Look at Marquis Easten, even if he is a whole tier above me and is a Marquis, he still shows me and Stella more respect than one normally does for people a full tier below them," Marcus said to him.


    "I did wonder about that. But I assumed it was because of House Violet and Zenith backing you two."


    "Not entirely. We have quite the reputation," the man explained as he walked down the hallway.


    "I''m sure you do. I doubt Lily''s and Derek''s parents employ weak people," he said matter-of-factly.


    Marcus glanced to his right, directly at Julius''s grin that was looking up at him.


    "You still seem unaffected by our presence."


    He gave the man a knowing look. "I don''t know the exact reason why, but powerful people''s auras and presences have never been that scary to me. I am sure that to most people, you guys are terrifying, but to me, unless you direct it towards me, it doesn''t feel threatening. Plus, you have seen my aura when I am not controlling it. Do you really think that I can stand here and say that your aura scares people? Mine literally wants to eat and destroy others'' aura without any manipulation."


    "Yeah, speaking of that, I am really curious how you got such a volatile aura. That with your ability to fight against Godfrey''s Domain is very unique."


    "I got the aura effect from one of my skill options," he said truthfully. "I am still getting used to it, but I am continually getting better at handling it. As for my ability to not be captured by the man''s Domain, I don''t really know. It''s certainly not something anyone should do, I am still recovering from the damage I did to myself attempting it."


    "Wait, you are still injured?" Marcus asked worriedly.


    "It''s not too bad. It should be healed in a couple of days," he assured him.


    "What got damaged? I can''t sense any injuries so I am assuming it is your soul or mind?"


    "My soul," he admitted.


    Marcus stopped walking and Julius felt the man''s Domain encapsulate him with a gentle touch, probing his aura.


    "I''m assuming by your lack of reaction you either don''t know what that means or you aren''t worried about it."


    "It has happened before. I should be fine, I will keep a close eye on it for the next few days though."


    Marcus gave Julius a scrutinizing look. "Try not to let people know that you have such a skill. They will do a lot of things to you just to figure out how you got such an ability."


    "Yeah, I think that was what that Tier 5 was hoping to figure out by capturing me," he commented.


    Marcus didn''t say anything in return but he gave him one last look with a weird look on his face.


    Hmm, I wonder what he is thinking about, Julius couldn''t help but think to himself.


    ***


    Elder Han POV


    "You let things get way too close," Elder Han said to the shadow while pinching his nose in frustration.


    "You told me not to interfere unless it was absolutely necessary," the man he had sent to keep an eye out on Julius said.


    "I told you to step in if he went up against someone he had no chance of winning against," he pointed out darkly.


    "Yes, but I didn''t think he was in any actual threat of death." sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You just told me that he just fought a Tier 5. That''s a threat of death if I''ve ever seen one."


    "Under most circumstances, I would agree, but this Tier 5 seemed very interested in taking the boy alive. He wasn''t trying to kill the boy, merely tiring him out before he took him away since his Domain wasn''t effective. Which is why I thought it was better for me to just try and lure Marcus Avery to the boy''s location instead."


    "His Domain wasn''t effective?" Elder Han asked, sitting up a little straighter in his chair.


    "Sort of. It was hard to tell what exactly happened, but for some reason, the Tier 5 wasn''t able to pin the boy down like he should have."


    "Very interesting," he said to himself out loud.


    A stark silence pervaded between them and the shadow only spoke up after a full minute went by.


    "What do you want me to do now, Master?"


    "There''s no need to keep an eye on him anymore. Those two should be more than enough to take care of him until he goes back to Heston. In the meantime, I have something else I want you to look into. This Conclave is sounding much more complicated than we first believed. I want you to see if you can find anything else that might help give us a better idea of how they operate."


    "Where are you sending me?"


    "I heard that there has been some trouble brewing in the Valorbury region. I want you to see if there is anything connected with the Conclave."


    "Understood, Master," the shadow said with a low bow toward him before disappearing into nothing.


    Elder Han leaned back into his chair, sipping some tea as he did.


    "Jeez, why is that boy always causing trouble? First, he decides to fight against a Tier 4, then not long after he decides that he needs to fight a Tier 5. Got to give him credit though, at least he''s not boring," he muttered as he stared out the window of the orphanage.


    As much as he hated to admit it, something was coming and they would need to find as many people just as crazy as the boy that they could find.

 Chapter 277 Heading Back

    He and Marcus went their separate ways. Marcus still had to take care of some things, but he made sure to remind Julius that they were leaving the next day.


    When he got back to the living quarters where he and Reinera had been living, he sensed the girl in question immediately.


    She was pacing back and forth in front of the entryway, fiddling with her fingers like she always did when she was nervous.


    He took a deep breath before he finally grasped the doorknob and opened the door.


    Reinera immediately swiveled to where he walked in and strolled toward him with an aggressive pace. At first, he thought she was going to hit him in or at least give him a good wack. He had already closed his eyes, accepting his fate. But he was pleasantly surprised when she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.


    She continued to hold onto him for a while before she finally spoke up. "Aren''t you going to hug me back?" She asked offendedly.


    He grinned and proceeded to wrap his own arms around her.


    "How was your mission, huh?" He asked.


    "Surprisingly, not awful. That boy they wanted me to spy on didn''t really pan out. He tried to hit on me and tried to get me alone several times, but he wasn''t that bad. Just a little too arrogant and cocky but then again what noble boy isn''t? Sadly, I didn''t catch him saying anything about his father''s operations or if they were the traitors. It seemed like the son had nothing to do with it and was merely a spoiled teen," she explained to him.


    "How about you? Nobody has told me anything yet. Did everything go to plan?" She asked.


    "It went about as I expected. We got some vital information and even captured a number of their stronger members, so hopefully, they have some things that might help House Easten," he said truthfully. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She must have been skeptical though because she pulled away from him so that she could stare him in the face.


    "So you weren''t in danger or anything?" She asked, looking directly into his eyes.


    Seeing that he was being scrutinized, he ended up telling her most of the details. Even the ones pertaining to the Tier 5 he fought briefly. As well as Marcus and Stella showing up to save him at the last moment.


    When he was finally done retelling the events, he found himself getting smacked on top of the head.


    "What did I say before you left?"


    He closed his eyes and made an honest attempt at trying to remember what she had said to him. To be fair, there were a lot of things to review and he couldn''t remember everything. But when he failed to answer her, he had to take another smack to the head.


    "I had you promise me that if you were in any danger, you would prioritize your life over everyone else''s. That includes not taking on a Tier 5! What were you thinking?"


    He put his hands up placatingly. "I promise you, it''s not like I had a choice. I promise I tried to run. He just ambushed me before I could even try. Plus, there wasn''t supposed to be anyone that strong going. It''s something that Marquis Easten and the others are going to figure out though."


    "They better! They could have gotten you killed."


    "I know," he said with a solemn nod. He knew better than anyone just how close he was to death once again. While he liked to pretend it wasn''t that dangerous, the fact remained that he got lucky once again.


    "There is something more important that I wanted to tell you," he said to her before she could continue berating him.


    "What? What could be more important?" She asked sarcastically.


    "They know," he said simply, knowing that she would understand what he meant by that.


    Her eyes pinched together. "What do you mean they know?"


    "I don''t know how, but it seemed like they had realized it a while ago," he said softly.


    She grabbed her hair and pulled on it. "So they know that I am not Grace but Reinera?"


    He nodded hesitantly at her, not knowing how she might react.


    She stalked around the room angrily and kept on muttering to herself, but after a few minutes, she calmed down.


    "I had a feeling they knew," she finally admitted with a frown.


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    "Really? Why''s that?" He asked with a tilt of his head.


    "Because they prevented me from going on that mission with you. The one they had me assigned to didn''t even seem like it was a real mission. It was more like I was just supposed to dress up and mingle with the other noble children. Looking back on it, it was probably just an excuse for them to not risk my life on that mission," she said, shaking her head.


    "Huh, I hadn''t thought of it that way before."


    "Yeah, which is also why I think that they knew how dangerous it could potentially be and that makes me mad because they still decided to send you anyway," she grumbled angrily.


    "That''s not the whole reason," he tried to calm her down. "I insisted on going to. I wanted to find out some answers for myself and I did."


    "Yes, but are you really that surprised? House Greyson sounds like it''s full of greedy nobles. If a noble House like House Townsen is a part of them, then it wouldn''t be too much of a stretch to say that other influential Houses are connected too."


    "No, it wasn''t exactly a surprise, but it was nice to confirm some of my feelings as well as get some more information for House Easten," he pointed out.


    "Yes, and for that they better reward you properly. I will ensure that they follow up with it as well and since my identity is already known, that just makes it easier for me to do so."


    "I wouldn''t worry about that, Marcus promised he would make sure that they kept their word. Plus, House Easten doesn''t seem to be that kind of House so far," he said to her.


    "Speaking of that. I am shocked that Lily and Derek sent Marcus Avery and Stella Quincy after you," she said with a shake of her head.


    "Why''s that? You''re not the only one who seemed to think highly of them."


    "Because they are quite renowned throughout the Empire. Even my family doesn''t have many people with their skills. I believe that my father has made multiple offers to both of them to work for the Royal Family. But they both are loyal to their Houses. Something that is rare amongst nobles. The fact that Lily and Derek sent both of them just to find you must mean they value you very highly, way more than simple friends."


    "Are they really that impressive?" Julius got the sense that both of them were strong. But honestly, they acted very normal and nothing like he would expect from the people she was describing.


    She nodded her head firmly. "Very much so. Stella is a ridiculously talented mage who is skilled in both time and spatial magic. Two very different and complex fields, making her one of the most sought-after individuals on the Continent. Whereas Marcus is an absolute demon on the battlefield. There have been reports of the man taking down Tier 6s and even clearing Tier 6 rifts all by himself. I can say with confidence that the two of them are some of the most extraordinary Tier 5s in the Empire."


    "Oh."


    "Yeah, so bash those thoughts you are having right now."


    "What thoughts?"


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    "The ones I know you are thinking about," she said with a stern look.


    "I don''t know what you are talking about," he insisted but failed to convince her of his honesty.


    "Whatever ideas that involve you trying to run and escape them, throw them away in the trash. You will only just piss them off. I for one have no plan to piss them off and now that they know who I am, it makes things much more difficult," she said with a meaningful look at him.


    Okay, how did she know what he was thinking? Was he that predictable?


    He had been thinking about ways to avoid going back to Heston right away. He still had more things he wanted to explore, and to be honest he wasn''t looking forward to the scolding he was undoubtedly going to get from all of them. Mainly Lily.


    With that being said, he realized that he was just being a coward. He could avoid them forever. He would have to see them again one day and it honestly might be better to just rip the bandaid off before it got any worse.


    "Okay, okay. I won''t try to run," he promised her, which made Reinera sag her shoulders in relief.


    "But are you okay with going back to Heston too? I thought you wanted some freedom?"


    "I have had more freedom in the past couple of months than I have ever experienced. I have been able to go to places without people hovering over my shoulder and try new food without someone tasting it for poison. However, I have also realized that I miss some things. People like Amelia and things that I once took for granted," she said with a sad frown.


    Julius didn''t reply right away and simply stared at her with a soft dip of his head, acknowledging her point.


    "So back to Heston?" He finally asked.


    She smiled at him. "Yeah, I guess it''s back to Heston."


    He chuckled. "I guess our vacation is over now. I was getting used to the freedom."


    "Me too, but I think it might be good for us. Who knows, maybe we will be back in time for the end-of-year tournament," she said with a smirk.


    "I''m not joining any tournament," he said with a scoff.


    "Why not? You would probably win and get a bunch of nice stuff for it," she said with a confused glance toward him.


    "First off, I am only a first year which means that I won''t be able to join the upperclassmen tournament. Secondly, I doubt the school is going to allow me to join the underclassmen tournament either since I am a Tier 3 now," he explained.


    She gave him a look of exasperation. "You do know that it''s only called the upperclassmen tournament because most people who join are upperclassmen, right?"


    "Well, yeah. I kind of figured that from the name."


    "It''s mainly upperclassmen because they are the only ones who are Tier 3. The real requirement is the tier one is at, not the year or how old you are. That includes the Inter-School Tournament with the other schools in the Empire. As long as you are still in Tier 3, you can join."


    "Wait that''s how it works?" He didn''t know that. He had believed that only third or fourth years were able to participate.


    "Yeah, I can''t believe you didn''t know that."


    "I just hadn''t paid attention, I guess."


    He wasn''t planning to participate either way so it didn''t matter to him.


    Reinera gave him a small look and turned to walk away. "I know you don''t care, but I did hear that one of the rewards might be something that helps one transition their Emblem into an Authority," she said casually.


    He knew what she was doing, but she was smart enough to believe that even if he knew what she was doing, she would interest him regardless.


    And she was right because he looked at her disappearing back with a piqued smile on his lips.

 Chapter 278 One Last Thing Before He Leaves

    His last night was bittersweet. Both Richard and Rebecca had come over to see him and he explained to them what had happened.


    Rebecca was in denial and disbelief when she heard him. But for some reason, Richard had not seemed that surprised at all. It was as if he expected something like this to happen.


    After he had a lengthy conversation with them, he told them that he and Reinera would be going back to Heston. They both decided not to hide anything from them, especially since they already knew about Reinera''s true identity.


    Which surprisingly made the girl feel better. He had a feeling that a lot of it was because they treated her like a normal young girl even though they knew she was a princess. It told her that they didn''t care so much about her status rather than who she was.


    They didn''t do anything too special. There wasn''t a grand party or celebration, just a simple dinner like usual, but they did spend more time than normal hanging out late into the night.


    The two parents even allowed Cory to stay up well past his bedtime for this occasion. Something Rebecca never allowed.


    Speaking of Cory, the little boy was devastated to hear the news. He had been getting used to Julius''s and Reinera''s presence. Therefore, hearing that they would be going back broke the boy''s heart.


    There were a lot of tears and snot, but Julius was already prepared. He had preemptively taken Drasil from his soul space and offered the life spirit as a sacrifice.


    Thankfully, Cory had a special obsession for Drasil and his tears disappeared quite quickly once he had Drasil in his clutches.


    Drasil had looked back at Julius with teary eyes, the betrayal shocking the cute spirit. But Julius understood that sometimes sacrifices were necessary.


    ***


    The morning, all of them found themselves standing in front of the wooden beams.


    Before he left, he really wanted to give this training course one last shot. He had still not been able to complete the thing. With that being said, he hadn''t given it a shot since he got his new epic-ranked enhancement skill.


    "You do realize that this course is not really meant to be completed right?" Rebecca reminded him.


    "Just because you keep on telling me that doesn''t mean I am going to give up, you know? It just makes me want to prove you wrong that much more," he said to her with a cocky grin.


    She shook her head and walked away, activating the enchantments on the course. "Well, don''t let me stop you then."


    He gave her one last smirk before directing his full attention to the course. The smile slipped off his face like water and he activated every one of his skills.


    It was weird to think that he was feeling more nervous about this than he had when fighting the Tier 4s and even the Tier 5. When he had fought them there had been no real expectation to win. Thus, the fear of losing wasn''t really there.


    However, now that he had gotten this strong, he believed that this course was definitely completable. If he could defeat a Tier 4 then why couldn''t he beat a course meant for Tier 3s? That added pressure made his heart beat a little faster and he had to use [Sage of Savagery] to temper his emotions.


    So with a steady and calming breath, he charged himself full of kinetic energy. When he felt prepared, he sent himself blasting through the course.


    As usual, the first stages were easy. He had those ones already figured out and breezed through them without much issue.


    It was the last section that always gave him problems.


    It didn''t matter if he was fast or if he noticed the threads before they hit him. The reality was that the threads were way too close together in order to dodge. It was a simple problem of being too big to squeeze past them.


    He did everything perfectly, he perceived the threads, understood where he needed to place his body, and adjusted promptly. But like always, he was always tagged by a single thread.


    The red light, signalling his failure once again, lit up the entire course.


    He looked up into the sky and let out a frustrated sigh. The problem wasn''t even his speed, it was the fact that he physically couldn''t move out of the way in time. There were literally no gaps to go through.


    The only way he could even get through without being touched would be to either teleport past the strings, become intangible like those two people he had fought, or somehow become half as big.


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    None of them were actual solutions.


    He would very much like to teleport but he hadn''t gotten to that point with [Flash Step] yet. It was still at level 16, even though it was one of his more regularly used skills.


    The other issue was that even if it was at level 20 and ready to evolve, he would need to have a Space Concept to go along with it. Therefore, since he has been having an extraordinarily difficult time learning a Space Concept, as evidenced from his [Spatial Perception] skill which was still sitting at level 19, he was unable to teleport or use any spatial movement technique.


    Intangibility also wasn''t an option. That wasn''t something he believed was even possible with his current skill set and affinities. While it would have been nice to have, especially after seeing the practicality of such a skill in action, he sadly probably would never be able to.


    The last option was even more unlikely.


    He knew that there were people out there who had special magic that could alter their physical forms. Types of metamorphosis and flesh magic could probably help with something like this, but once again, he didn''t have that really available to him.


    So with a determined sigh, he went at the course once more.


    He really wanted to finish it. After all, this was one of the first things he started when he arrived at House Easten, and being able to complete it before he left would be a very nice personal accomplishment.


    Forget about beating up a Tier 4, this course was more important to him.


    Which was why he resolved himself to keep it going until he got it. Marcus would have to forcibly kidnap him if he wanted to remove Julius from this course.


    Something he didn''t doubt the man would do.


    And so he failed.


    He attempted the course a couple of dozen times over the hour. But each time he failed at the final hurdle with a single thread nicking him or tripping him into the poles below.


    His frustration was at an all-time high. Reinera and Richard both tried to calm him down and convince him that it wasn''t worth it, but he wasn''t listening.


    He wasn''t about to be beaten by a bunch of wooden beams, harmless lights, and stupid threads.


    Once more, he lined up at the start. This time he wasn''t even thinking, his mind was completely locked in. There was nothing except him and the course. It was funny, he didn''t even have the need to use [Sage of Savagery] anymore. His frustration and willingness to succeed were more powerful than the skill could help him.


    He channelled all of his emotions into his willpower and used that to empower his skills. So with roar he blasted from the start, not even noticing that his burst of speed ripped apart the wooden beams behind him.


    ***


    Rebecca POV


    She could only shake her head in half amusement and exasperation. Julius was much too hard-headed. She could understand his motivation and why he was so desperate to complete this course more than anyone else.


    She had spent more time than she cared to admit trying to complete this course when she was younger. It was to her immense frustration that she was only able to complete it after acquiring a spatial skill that allowed her to ''cheat''.


    To this very day, it still bothered her.


    So when she observed the stubborn boy throwing himself at the course, she couldn''t help but chuckle.


    She also couldn''t help but frown as she examined the boy demonstrating a level of speed and strength that wasn''t on the level of a Tier 3. Definitely not a Tier 3 who she personally observed advancing recently.


    "Are you sure we shouldn''t step in?" Grace, or rather Reinera asked her with a concerned frown.


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    Rebecca glanced at the young girl. While she had been surprised when her father told her about the girl, she hadn''t really cared all that much. At that point, she had spent more than enough time with Reinera to see who she really was, and just because her name changed didn''t mean the girl changed too.


    Princess or not, Reinera was still the same person she had been helping train these past couple of months.


    "No, let him keep trying. It''s probably for the best."


    "He''s pushing himself too hard though."


    "He''s more resilient than you give him credit for," she said to the young girl with a reassuring smile. However, on the inside, she was just as worried. The boy was using a lot of mana and kinetic energy, much more than a typical Tier 3 body could handle. She knew that his new body skill was impressive, but there always was a limit.


    The boy was so concentrated on completing the course, that his aura was radiating out of his control. The destructive aspect of his aura was seeping out the boy''s skin and tearing apart anything in its way.


    But she also noticed that he had a much better handle on it than when he left. Whatever improvements he made during the mission must have paid off because although his aura was exuding more than what was normally safe, it was a lot better than what it had been like before he left. The effects of the aura were relatively benign and wouldn''t detrimentally affect anyone Tier 3 or above.


    With that being said, it was more powerful as well. Whatever he had done that had enabled him some measure of control also amplified the weight of his aura, making it arguably more dangerous.


    Thus, she extended out her Domain as a precaution, protecting Reinera. Cory wasn''t with them otherwise she wouldn''t have allowed this to go any further.


    Instead, she just watched everything unfold.


    At least she did until she saw what he did next.


    In a flash of bright mana, Julius''s entire arm disappeared in a mist of blood. She stood up and was about to move in when she noticed that the boy appeared to not be surprised by this. As a matter of fact, it looked like he had been planning it because the thread which had been about to touch him, passed him by without touching him.


    Then before she could even begin to comprehend what was going on, the boy threw himself forward, hit the target, and detonated his leg. The limb also vanished and the explosion gave him the necessary power to dash between the small gap she noticed.


    Her mind didn''t even realize that he had passed the line that signaled the course''s ending.


    All she could do was sprint toward the now limbless boy with a panicked expression on her face, already retrieving a bottle of healing potion from her storage ring.


    However, when she kneeled next to him she couldn''t help but want to smash his head into the ground because instead of looking in pain or shock, he had the audacity to laugh loudly and pump his remaining arm into the air in celebration.


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 Chapter 281 - 279: Finally Returned

    "Haha, I told you I could do it," he weezed to Rebecca as he used a little bit of [Phoenix Renewal] to recover his stamina and his missing limbs. "It was a piece of¡ª mmph."


    He was interrupted by Rebecca appearing in front of his face and shoving a bottle of something down his throat.


    He flailed around but the woman was much too strong for him and managed to pin him down with ease, forcing him to swallow the potion. He kicked his legs instinctively, but there was nothing he could really do. Rebecca''s Domain had kept him immobilized and he didn''t think exploding his soul to escape it would be the smart thing to do.


    Truth to be told, he enjoyed the cooling sensation of the injected life mana flowing through his stomach and heading to his injuries.


    However, his skill quickly took over this life mana to repurpose it for its own use. In a brief flash of fire, his arm and leg, which he had sacrificed, were regenerated just like how it was before. He couldn''t help but notice that the small scars he had around his forearm were still there too and gave them a soft smile.


    "What the hell was that?" She asked, staring at him with a look mixed with disgust and fascination as she grabbed his newly healed arm tightly.


    "I told you he had some sort of healing skill," Richard mentioned from behind his wife, not showing as much surprise as Rebecca.


    "You never said that he had something quite like this. Is this why you were so confident in allowing him to go on that mission?" She asked Richard with narrowed eyes.


    The man in question put his hands high up into the air. "I didn''t know it was quite like that. But yes, I had a feeling that it was more powerful than he was telling us. There was no other way Julius should have been able to push himself that hard in our spars."


    With one final dark look at her husband, Rebecca turned to look back at Julius.


    "Even if you have such a skill, you shouldn''t be using it like that. It''s much too dangerous for something as simple as dodging an obstacle."


    He looked at the ground guiltily. He hadn''t meant to do something so rash. As a matter of fact, he hadn''t even been planning to show the extent of his healing skill to them. He was just so distracted by completing the course that he hadn''t bothered to hide his skill. Everything just happened so fast and before he even fully realized what he was doing, his arm and leg were gone.


    He had gotten the idea from when he was fighting that Tier 5. But this time it wasn''t for more power, it was merely to give the threads less physical flesh to hit.


    Furthermore, if there was anyone he didn''t really care about knowing in all of Blumand, it was the two of them. Reinera had already seen his healing skill in action so he wasn''t worried about her. Marcus and Stella had seen his skill in action, so maybe it was only fair that Richard and Rebecca saw it too.


    Seeing that he was truly regretful, Rebecca didn''t scold him further. She merely sighed and stood up.


    "Are you okay though?"


    He grinned at her and showed off his arm. "Yep, completely fine," he said as he waved it up and down.


    She shook her head at his antics but begrudgingly smiled at him. "It was a stupid move. But still congratulations. You are the first person I have seen to finish this course without the use of some sort of spatial skill or other cheating skill."


    Julius couldn''t help but get up to his feet and do a little excited dance. Funnily enough, he was excited about doing this than completing the Challenge Rift or beating the Tier 4. For some reason, he felt this immense sense of satisfaction.


    "Do I get some kind of reward for finishing it?" He asked excitedly to Rebecca.


    The woman chuckled and before he knew what had happened he got slapped on the back of the head.


    "There''s your reward," she said smugly.


    He rubbed the back of his head, which was still ringing from the hit, looking at her in disbelief before looking at Richard and Reinera for support.


    Richard was in the middle of backing up, distancing himself from Julius.


    Reinera on the other hand was looking at him with a look of supreme disappointment.


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    ***


    "You all set?" Marcus asked him, barely giving Reinera''s presence any attention.


    "I think so," he replied with another quick check of his storage ring. "Did the two of you finish everything else you needed to?"


    Stella, who was standing next to Marcus, sighed dramatically. "Yeah, as much as we could in such a short time. That Tier 5 had some nasty soul contracts attached to him. We actually got more information out of the two Tier 4s instead."


    "Anything of importance?"


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    "Not really, that list you got was probably more enlightening than anything else we managed to get from them. Like you said, they were smaller pieces of a much larger group. If we are going to find anything worth finding, it is going to be from that Tier 5. But breaking through the restrictions of his soul contracts is going to be very difficult and time consuming," she explained.


    "What are you guys going to do with them?" He asked.


    "That Tier 5 is going to be kept here and under tight lock and key. Marcus mentioned that in the near future, the man will be interrogated by some specialists of House Violet. If anyone is going to break through the restrictions, it is going to be them."


    Julius looked over at Marcus and saw the man nod in confirmation. "It all depends on who created the vows, but hopefully we can see if there is a loophole we can exploit. But that''s not really my realm of expertise, we have plenty of talented mind mages who can deal with that," the large man said casually as if the use of mind mages wasn''t that big of a deal.


    "Can I ask for a favor?" He asked Marcus after ensuring that it was only the four of them around.


    "Go ahead."


    "If you find anything out about House Greyson, can you relay that information to me?"


    The man gave Julius an inquisitive look for a few moments but eventually dipped his head. "That is acceptable. I will keep an eye out for any information they gain from him."


    "Thank you."


    "Don''t worry about it. You played a big role in capturing him in the first place. This is the least House Violet can do," Marcus said to him with a small smirk.


    He returned the smirk with a small smile of his own. "By the way, you mentioned what was going to happen with that Tier 5, but what about the other Tier 4s?"


    Stella was the one who answered. "They didn''t have any contracts attached to their souls, but their lack of information of specific details of their operations makes them less valuable now. The Tier 4 woman, Lyn, seems to have no real allegiance to them either. Apparently, her services were offered by her family. A family she doesn''t seem to have any loyalty to, and she expressed a weird amount of interest in working with us."


    He recalled the fight he had with the woman. She had been quite the impressive fighter. Their fight hadn''t quite been finished, but he had been very fascinated with her fighting skills. She had been a much better opponent than that assassin.


    "She wants to work for House Easten?" He asked curiously, a little surprised to her willingness to switch sides.


    "Yes, and according to my aura senses, she seemed oddly sincere," the woman said with a frown.


    "She did seem like the type of person who was working for them merely because of the opportunities to fight and not because she held any real loyalty," he noted.


    "I got the same feeling. I told Marquis Easten that it wouldn''t be a bad idea to have her accept a vow of loyalty for the time being and monitor her. It''s rare to find such a well established Tier 4 that''s not attached to another organization."


    "And he agreed?"


    "He said he would think about it," she said with an uncaring shrug.


    "What about the other Tier 4?" He asked.


    She winced at that. "You left that man in quite the disastrous state, you know? I don''t think he will ever recover unless someone spends a lot of money on natural treasures or a really powerful healer. He might be executed just to put him out of his misery."


    He similarly winced. That had not been a part of his plan when he used his aura against the man. At the time, he had gotten a bit carried away with his new shiny skill and newfound control that he just unleashed his aura onto the man. Looking back, he had absolutely brutalized the man''s aura and soul far beyond what he needed to.


    The thing that assuaged his guilt was the fact that this man had tried to kill him and the others of the caravan.


    Stella gave him a sympathetic smile. "Go on, say your goodbyes before we leave," she said while pointing over at the group of people congregated off in the distance.


    ***


    He managed to say goodbye to almost everyone he had gotten to know over this period. It was a bit sad, but the thing that made it easier to bear was the fact that it wasn''t like it was goodbye forever.


    With things like spatial magic, they would never be that far away. Although it was hard to predict when he would be able to come and visit them.


    But after everything was all settled, he and Reinera were finally prepared to leave.


    They stood next to Stella who used some type of skill to wrap a barrier around them and with one last wave goodbye, he felt the familiar tug of being pulled through space and vanished into thin air.


    During the transfer, he made sure to pay extra close attention to how Stella was able to do so.


    It happened very quickly and he wasn''t able to catch much of it, but he did sense one thing. It was as if the woman''s will or aura was wrapped around him and was the primarily reason for why the space was folding onto itself before his very eyes.


    He didn''t know what it meant exactly, but he felt pretty confident that it was a significant hint about figuring out spatial abilities of his own.


    However, he didn''t have a lot of time to figure that out because the next moment he was spat out and he found himself standing in front of the walls of Heston just like he had been when he first arrived all that time ago.

 Chapter 282 - 280: Seeing Old Faces

    According to Stella, they weren''t able to take the two of them to her family''s compound for a few reasons.


    For one, she didn''t want anyone in House Quincy to spot Reinera on accident because their arrival would undoubtedly be recorded.


    Secondly, there were enchantments placed around Heston and her family''s compound that would trace the spatial movement and she would have liked to avoid any drama that came along with the people who came to investigate.


    Thus, it was simpler to just appear outside of Heston. Part of Julius hoped that he would see Orus or Declan at the gates, but he doubted that would happen. He realized that he hadn''t really thought about them or Rae in a long time. He couldn''t help but wonder what they were thinking about or if they even knew if he was gone.


    Or worse, they believed that he had forgotten about them entirely. That made him feel way more guilty. He could take it if they were worried if he was alive, but for some reason, the thought that they believed he completely forgot about them was more heartbreaking.


    He looked around the road they were walking on and realized that they were actually on the same road that led to the small town outside of Heston where Dante lived.


    I think it would be nice of me to let Dante know about my return, he and Alice had helped out a lot. I don''t know if Lily told them or not, but they deserve to hear it from me personally, especially if I am not far away. I could also stop and visit the guardhouse once I enter the city too, he thought to himself while chewing on his lip.


    So as they were strolling toward the city, he turned to the others. "Do you mind if we make some stops beforehand?"


    They all stopped and looked at him with confused looks.


    "You mean like shopping or dinner?" Reinera asked with a hopeful smile.


    "No."


    Her face deflated just as quickly.


    "Then what is it?" Stella asked. "If there is anything you need I don''t mind stopping."


    "Me either. We''re not exactly in a rush, nobody is expecting us," Marcus added.


    He gave an awkward expression toward them. "I was hoping that you would let me make these stops by myself. There are some people who I haven''t seen or let know about my disappearance who might be worried about me."


    "No offense, but I am not letting you out of my sight," Stella said bluntly.


    "Why''s that? We''re practically in Heston already, right?"


    "Yes, but you seem like the type of person to run all the way back to Blumand if you wanted to," she said, directing a stern look at him.


    "You think I am going to run away?" He asked skeptically.


    "Hmhm."


    "Do you think I would run away too, Marcus?" He asked as he turned to look at the other man with a pleading expression.


    "The odds aren''t low," Marcus said simply.


    His shoulders drooped upon hearing that. "Come on. Can you just allow me to see them and let them know at least?"


    "Not alone."


    He sighed in exasperation. "Alright. Would it be okay if you guys came along then?"


    "That is acceptable," Marcus said with a nod.


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    "Fine, just don''t do anything to offend them okay? One of them is a bit cranky," he warned them.


    "As long as he doesn''t harm you or is a threat, it will be fine," Marcus said confidently.


    Julius opened his mouth to say something but closed it instead. He didn''t exactly know how to explain Dante to them and a part of him also didn''t want to. He wanted to see how they would react in front of the old grumpy man. The only thing he hoped was that Dante wouldn''t hurt them by accident.


    He was ninety percent sure that Dante wouldn''t do anything that rash as long as Julius was there with them.


    ***


    When they arrived in front of the cabin, Julius was surprised to see that some changes had been made. Where there had once been an empty grassy space, there was now a large greenhouse.


    He walked up to it and examined the glass panes that made up the greenhouse. Upon closer review, he frowned in astonishment at the amount of complex runes he noticed were placed between each panel of glass.


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    He had no idea what they did, but he was able to sense the incredible amount of mana they used.


    As he was poking at the panes of glass with a curious finger, he sensed someone appears behind him.


    "I thought I told you to stop messing with things that aren''t yours, boy."


    The others who were busy looking at Julius were surprised at the appearance of the man. This was funny because Julius thought that if he could sense Dante, Marcus, and Stella would be able to as well. Especially Stella considering she was a Tier 5 space and time mage.


    Perhaps, Dante was only hiding himself from them and not Julius.


    He didn''t turn around and face the grouchy old man and kept poking the runes, injecting a small amount of mana into them, seeing what kind of responses he got.


    "This just seems overboard," he said to Dante, knowing that the man would know exactly what he was talking about.


    "I had some spare time on my hands. Now will you stop jabbing your mana at them, you might destabilize the careful balance I created," Dante rebuked him.


    "It must not be very strong or practical if something like my finger could destabilize them," he noted with a smirk, jabbing another pane of glass with a little more force.


    "If you don''t stop you are going to see how much I can destabilize you with my finger," Dante promised.


    Julius chuckled and finally turned his attention to the old man. He looked the same, greying hair with a powerfully built body. He did notice the flour stains on the man''s apron though.


    "Did Lily tell you? You don''t seem very surprised to see me."


    "No, but Alice came over the other month and let me know."


    "I see, how is she doing?" He asked curiously.


    Dante shook his head at the question. "Busy like usual."


    "What about yourself?"


    Dante shrugged. "Busy too."


    "Yes, I can see that. I imagine building a glass greenhouse that could withstand a tsunami takes a lot of time."


    Julius laughed at his own joke when he was interrupted by the sharp finger that dug into his side, coughing at the sudden attack.


    Dante examined the finger he just used to jab Julius. "I see your time away hasn''t done any miracles about your attitude."


    "And I see your grouchiness hasn''t changed either," he shot back.


    Dante gave him another side eye and looked at his finger once again. Julius stepped back and preemptively protected himself just in case the man decided to attack him again.


    Thankfully, the old man had some mercy in his creaky bones because he turned his attention away from Julius and toward the three people who were looking at them with wide eyes.


    Marcus and Stella both were pretty tense but didn''t make any moves. Based on their reactions, Julius suspected that the two of them both knew that Dante was a Tier 6. The man''s shroud was good, but Julius had some doubts about whether it could hold up against the senses of very skilled Tier 5s.


    "Why did you bring all of them with you?" Dante grumbled.


    "They are retainers of House Violet and Zenith," he said to the man, not bothering to hide anything.


    Dante grunted and stared at the two Tier 5s with a grumpy frown before turning away from them and looking at Reinera.


    "Is this the princess that has been creating so much drama?"


    "Why do you think she''s a princess?" He asked, more curious than surprised that the man already knew.


    "That item she is wearing has quite an interesting effect," Dante said while getting closer to Reinera.


    "Wait? You can sense it?" Reinera asked in surprise.


    "Of course, I can girl. Who do you think I am? A blind old man?" Dante asked with a pointed glare.


    "Maybe not blind, but definitely old," Julius muttered, aware that Dante would hear him.


    "What was that?" Dante asked, not bothering to turn to face him.


    "Nothing, just admiring how impressive of a crafter you are," Julius lied shamelessly.


    "You better have been," the old man grumbled as he got within a few inches of Reinera.


    Reinera to her credit didn''t flinch or shuffle away, but she did look a little uncomfortable with Dante being so close to her. Especially when the man gently reached out and grabbed the necklace in one hand.


    "The runic structure is very old, archaic even," Dante muttered with a frown on his face before looking at Reinera.


    "Where did your family get this?" He asked the girl.


    However, before she could speak up, Stella slid an arm between the two of them. "I''m sorry, but can you not approach her so rudely? You are making her uncomfortable," the woman said in a polite tone.


    "Did I say you could interrupt girly?" Dante said sharply, his aura slightly lashing out.


    Stella, also to her credit, didn''t back down. She stared at Dante with an impassive stare, releasing her own aura.


    Julius grimaced as he spotted Marcus preparing to intervene. That wouldn''t help things.


    Before anyone could make things worse, he stepped in. He released a small pulse of his aura, not enough to be interpreted as an attack, but enough to get everyone''s attention.


    "Calm down you grumpy old fart. Stella has a point, if you want to look at Reinera''s necklace you should ask before you reach down her shirt and take it," he reproached the Tier 6.


    Dante turned to give Julius a glare of his own but thankfully didn''t push things further. Instead, he turned to Reinera who was now visibly sweating and shaking as the strong auras pressured her.


    "The stupid boy is correct for once, you have my apologies. With that being said, I still would like to know how your family got such an item."


    Reinera looked over at Julius as if asking him for his opinion. He shrugged his shoulders, telling her that it was up to her.


    "My family member made it," she said simply.


    Dante seemed interested upon hearing that. "Curious," was all he said before ignoring the girl once more and giving Julius a grim look.


    "What did you do to your aura boy? I thought you were done with shredding apart your soul?"


    "Hey! I didn''t do anything!" He stated loudly.


    Dante didn''t look convinced at all.


    "I didn''t do that much!" He revised.


    When he heard that, Dante at least had the graciousness to nod albeit with a defeated sag of his shoulders.


    "You might as well come inside and tell me how much you actually did."


    Julius smiled at the grouchy man and followed him inside, beckoning the others to follow him as well.

 Chapter 283 - 281: Prepared For the Worst

    "You could have let us know that the person you wanted to visit was a Tier 6," Stella exclaimed loudly once they had left Dante''s cabin


    They hadn''t stayed for very long. Julius was well aware that Dante didn''t have the patience to entertain guests for more than an hour or so. This was why once he gave a simplified explanation to Dante about where he had been, he decided it was time to actually head into Heston before it got too late.


    Although he promised Dante he would explain what happened in more detail at a later date, when not everyone else was around.


    "Yeah and that he was a crotchety old man," Reinera muttered.


    "That too."


    Julius smiled apologetically at them. "Sorry about that. He''s harmless, he''s more bark than bite."


    "His bark could probably level that entire town," Reinera pointed out, glowering at him.


    "Hey! He''s just a bit grumpy is all. He''s actually quite sweet on the inside once you get to know him," he defended Dante.


    "Sure," Reinera said while rolling her eyes.


    "It''s true! He didn''t even kill or hurt anyone of you, right?"


    "I wouldn''t consider not killing someone a sign of someone sweet. That is just a sign of someone who is not a psychopath," Stella mumbled before looking over her shoulder anxiously as if Dante would appear right behind her.


    "Sorry, what was that?"


    "Nothing," she quickly said.


    ***


    Suddenly he was feeling a lot more nervous.


    "What are you waiting for?" Stella asked.


    "Just trying to build up some courage," he admitted.


    "Courage? For what? To say hello?"


    He didn''t respond and simply stared at the guardhouse while biting his lip worriedly.


    Finally, he mustered up as much courage as he could and approached the front door where two guards like normal were standing outside. Thankfully, it would seem that this time the others were fine with staying behind.


    "Can we help you?" One of the guards spoke as Julius got within several feet.


    "Um yeah, is Declan around?" He inquired hesitantly.


    "Why are you looking for the vice-captain this late?" The other guard asked him.


    "I just wanted to see him if he was still here."


    "The vice-captain left for the day, he will be back tomorrow," the first guard said with a frown on his face.


    "We can let him know you stopped by though. What is your name?" The second guard asked.


    "I kind of expected something like that. Do you know if Orus or Rae are still here though? My name is Julius by the way."


    The both of them seemed taken aback that he knew who Rae and Orus were but recovered quickly. The second guard was looking at Julius kind of intensely but suddenly his face lit up as if understanding something.


    He stepped forward and examined Julius''s face a little closer.


    "Wait, aren''t you that kid from several months ago? The one that Declan brought in?"


    The first guard smacked his hand on his thigh. "That''s right! I remember now! You are the kid who used to train late out back and who always got to eat Rae''s food! You grew taller though."


    "We all eat her food, Jeremy." The second guard commented with a confused frown.


    "Yes, but she would make him her famous cookies and snacks. All of us would always get jealous whenever she did," Jeremy said with a laugh.


    "Oh yeah! I remember now! I used to complain to my wife about you all the time," the second guard said bluntly to Julius.


    Julius awkwardly scratched his head. He didn''t know he had left such an impression on them.


    "You said you''re looking for Orus?" Jeremy asked with a smile.


    He nodded. "Is he still around?"


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    "I think he was just called out for a disturbance just down by the market along with some of the others. You can stay here and wait for him if you want. Rae is still here and you can go say hi as you wait," the man offered.


    "That sounds¡­" he stammered.


    Jeremy leaned over and slapped him on the back. "Come on, she is going to be happy to see you," he said as he dragged Julius by the arm into the guardhouse.


    Realizing his fate, he stiffened his resolve and followed the man into the guardhouse.


    "You remember where to go right?"


    He nodded softly.


    "Perfect, I will let Orus know when he returns," Jeremy said with a thumbs up.


    "Thanks, Jeremy, I really appreciate it," he said with a grateful smile.


    "No worries."


    As he walked down the hallway, he was instantly reminded of the familiar scent of wood that greeted him when he first arrived here all that time ago.


    Although he had only stayed here for a short while, those times were quite enjoyable.


    When he arrived at the kitchen, he saw Rae immediately. She and several other workers were all talking animatedly while eating. It was like his feet were stuck in place and he stood in the doorway for a while just staring at her.


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    What was he supposed to say to her?


    Hey, remember me? The boy you took care of and then who you never heard from again?


    One of the workers seemed to see him standing aimlessly in the doorway though. "Hey, can I help you find something?" They asked Julius.


    Before he could say anything, Rae turned to see who her colleague was talking to and froze.


    He gave a small hesitant smile and was about to say ''hello'' but he didn''t have a chance. He was too busy getting wrapped up in a smothering hug.


    ***


    In the end, he had nothing to worry about. Nobody thought that he had abandoned or forgotten them. They were very worried about whether or not he was okay or not.


    Orus''s running theory was that he had hurt himself during one of his training sessions. A theory that shouldn''t had as much merit as it did, but he couldn''t argue against its high probability.


    Declan thought that he had pissed off some sort of powerful person and got killed for it. Which was a bit more sobering to hear, but that also had its merits.


    "What about you? What did you think happened to me?" He asked Rae from his old stool by the counter.


    Rae was in the middle of taking out some cookies she quickly made for him out of the oven.


    "I thought that your relatives had finally come for you and taken you away," she said as she placed the piping hot cookies in front of him.


    "My family?" He asked, a little confused at her answer.


    "Yeah, I always told Declan that you were some noble or of some noble heritage," she said as if it wasn''t a big deal. "I always got the suspicion that you were hiding from someone when you first arrived. Being chased by your family would be the most obvious answer, but you could also have been running from some bad people too."


    He didn''t know how to respond to how scarily accurate her theory was, instead he told her the truth.


    "I actually got pulled into a trap meant by someone else. I got teleported across the Empire and just got back earlier today."


    "A trap for someone else?" She asked with a tilt of her head as she handed him a glass of cold milk.


    He frowned as he took time to think of how he wanted to explain things to her. Eventually, he decided just how much he wanted to tell her and once it began, it all came out.


    ***


    "How many more stops do you need to make?" Stella asked as she dangled her feet from the wall she sitting on.


    "That''s it, we can go now. Thank you so much for allowing me to do this," he said gratefully.


    The three of them had been waiting patiently for him for the past hour or so. They had gotten some food in the meantime but had come back after they were done.


    Sadly, Orus hadn''t shown up and he decided that he would just have to come back another day. Rae had promised him that she would let Declan and Orus know, which would spare him from any awkward attempts at communicating with them later, but he was still sad that he couldn''t see them.


    On the bright side, he had gotten a new stock of treats from Rae and was in the middle of sharing them with the others as a thank-you for waiting for him.


    "I thought you said you had to go explain your disappearance?"


    "I did."


    "So how come you came back with food?" Reinera asked with a frown.


    "She gave me some for the road," he said with a proud grin. "I take it that you don''t want any?"


    The girl quickly swiped the offered goods from his hands before he could take them away.


    "I never said that," she said with a scoff.


    "Okay, let''s go. I have contacted Lady Lily about my arrival," Marcus said with a hidden grin.


    "Are we going to meet her at the school?" He asked, a little excited to see her surprise as well.


    "That is the plan."


    "Wait, you didn''t let Lily or the others know we are coming back?" Reinera asked in disbelief.


    He looked over at Marcus. "It''s supposed to be a surprise. I believe that Stella also hasn''t told anyone yet, right Stella?"


    The woman in question teleported off the wall and appeared next to them. "Nope, as Marcus requested, I have refrained from reporting anything to Derek or his father yet."


    "That seems¡­ dubious," Reinera said after a brief moment of silence.


    "I somewhat agree, but it was Marcus''s idea," he said with a glance toward the man in question.


    Julius still had doubts whether or not this was a good idea. On the one hand, he kind of enjoyed the idea of surprising his friends, but on the other, he felt like he would be getting the brunt of the blame for this.


    "Are you still sure that this is a good idea?" He asked Marcus with an anxious look.


    "Of course, Lady Lily will probably be extremely overjoyed," the man said confidently.


    Julius pinched his lips together and looked hesitant. A look that didn''t go unnoticed by Marcus. "Don''t worry. She can be scary but why would she be angry?"


    He could think of a hundred reasons why she would be angry. He had learned that Lily wasn''t always the most reasonable person. Furthermore, in this case, she would have plenty of reasons to rightfully be angry.


    However, it was a little too late to pull out now.


    Thus, he signed dramatically and prepared himself for the worst.


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 Chapter 284 - 282: Reunion

    It was the weekend and there wouldn''t be classes until tomorrow, which meant that the campus was relatively empty.


    It also meant that it was quite a simple thing to get guest passes for Stella and Marcus.


    When they were all walking through the courtyard and to the meeting location, Marcus was supposed to meet Lil,y he couldn''t help but feel weird. Although it hadn''t been that long all things considered, the fact remained that he had been gone for a good amount of time.


    If his estimate was correct, the school year was almost over. This would mean that he had spent almost half of the school year not even at school.


    "What do you think Amelia and my family are going to say?" Reinera asked him suddenly. He turned to look at her and found her looking very worried.


    It was only at that moment that he realized that he had only been thinking about his own worries and had not put any thought into Reinera''s own troubles. He immediately felt like a bad friend.


    For a while he had been so focused on his own issues that he had been ignoring her and her own plights. Of course, she was worried about how her family and friends would react to her coming back without warning.


    For all they knew she had been missing and presumably dead for the past few months.


    While he had been worrying about how Lily and the others would react, there were people who had known her for her entire life concerned about her wellbeing.


    It really put into perspective his own issues. Suddenly not telling Lily and the others didn''t seem that big of a deal.


    "I haven''t met the rest of your family so I couldn''t venture a guess, but for Amelia, I expect that she will be angry that you haven''t contacted her, much like how I expect Lily and the others to react."


    Reinera visibly deflated upon hearing that. "Yeah, I was having the same thoughts."


    He reached over and patted her back. "But, I bet she will also be happy to see that you are alright."


    "You think so?" She asked hopefully.


    He nodded firmly. "Absolutely. Amelia and I might not get along the best, but there is no doubt that she cares about you. I believe that her relief at seeing you alive will surpass her anger at you for not contacting her."


    "I was actually wanting to ask you about that."


    "About what?"


    "I had been prepared to tell my family that my beacon was broken and that was the reason for not being able to contact them. Do you think I should lie to them or should I tell them the truth?"


    Hmm, that is a good question, he thought to himself with a deep frown.


    It would certainly help explain why she had not tried to contact her family and ease the scolding that would eventually come. He also didn''t know her family, so once again, it was hard to say what was the right move.


    "I think that is up to you. If you feel like that is the best thing to do, then I don''t see why you shouldn''t tell them that. It is a soft lie that would save everyone from a lot of drama," he said to her.


    She didn''t say anything in response and simply nodded softly. Instead, he saw her put her head down and go deep in thought.


    Realizing her need for him was no longer required, he directed his attention back to his upcoming issues.


    However, after talking with her, he no longer felt as nervous.


    So what if they got a little bit angry? He had let them know he was okay and he had specifically asked them not to come after him.


    Therefore, they didn''t really have much room to be angry about him surprising them like this. If anything, this was his deserved payback.


    He nodded sagely to himself. With that mindset, he smiled as he approached the clearing that was just outside of the library.


    Now that he was in range, he pulsed out [Spatial Perception]. He got a response and his smile widened as he sensed two people sitting on a bench.


    They hadn''t noticed them yet, but he took the time to examine both of them.


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    Lily looked the same as usual. Her dirty blonde hair and violet eyes sparked even from this distance. Her aura was just as restrained and controlled as usual. Ever since his own improvements with aura, he had been getting a better appreciation of the nuances of aura control.


    Which was why he was noticing just how good Lily''s aura control was.


    The past Julius from several months ago would never have noticed the way her aura acted so naturally. He knew that it was a shroud, but that was because he had felt her aura when it was completely unrestrained.


    To anybody else, it felt completely natural. She was fluctuating her aura in such a way that it looked soft and welcoming. However, he knew better than anyone that her aura was not moving a single inch from her control.


    Julius then looked at the person next to her. He shouldn''t have been surprised to see Aubrey alongside Lily. The two of them were roommates and best friends after all.


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    He suspected that they had just come from dinner with the others, it was about that time if he recalled correctly.


    Aubrey looked the same as well. Tall, pretty, and looking completely impatient. Even from this distance, he could see the girl tapping her leg up and down as she sat down.


    The other thing he noticed was her aura. Aubrey was not as good at aura control as Lily, which was why he instantly could tell that she had gotten much stronger in his absence.


    There was this dense and strong feeling emanating from her aura.


    As they got closer, he wasn''t surprised when Lily turned toward them. She was really good at detecting people. With that being said, he did his best to hide behind the much larger Marcus.


    "Hey Marcus, over here!" She yelled out excitedly.


    When Marcus got a bit closer, he addressed her. "Lady Lily, it is always a pleasure to see you."


    "Oh, I told you to stop with that ''lady'' nonsense Marcus!" Lily scolded the man with a mock frown before walking over and giving Marcus a very fierce hug.


    "How is Emily?" Lily asked after hugging the man for a good long while.


    "She''s good, she''s just about ready to get started on her training but her mother isn''t quite on board with it yet," Marcus said with a shake of his head.


    "That''s too bad, I know how badly Emily wants to start training," Lily said with a smile.


    "You tell me, she won''t stop bugging me every time I come home."


    "So what''s going on? You said you had something you wanted to tell me. I thought you were busy trying to find Julius. Have you found any hints or clues about his whereabouts?" Lily asked, prompting Aubrey to lift her head, swivel as she started to pay attention.


    "I have been and have some good news on that front," Marcus said with a small grin.


    Lily, noticing the Tier 5''s unusual tone, peeked over to look at who was accompanying the man. She saw Stella and had to shift around to see Reinera standing right beside her.


    "Grace?!" Lily exclaimed.


    "Wait, if you''re here then that means¡­" she trailed off as Marcus dramatically stepped to the side to reveal Julius.


    He gave a shy wave. "Hey," he said to the stunned girl with a bright smile.


    For what seemed like an eternity she just stared at Julius with a blank expression. He couldn''t get a read off her and it made him start to feel a bit of nervousness that he previously believed he brushed away.


    He was about to say something to break the tension but before he could, he was attacked by a tall brunette.


    He had no chance, one moment he was standing there with his hand waving in the air and the next he was on the ground with Aubrey on top of him.


    She grabbed his face and examined it as if making sure that it was indeed the real him. "How do we know it''s the real Julius? For all we know it this is some kind of imposter," She said with doubt coloring her voice.


    "Mmhmph," he tried to reply but the way she was mushing his face together made it impossible to say anything coherent.


    She released her iron-like grip on his cheeks and allowed him to speak.


    "I missed you," he said brightly.


    She still didn''t look quite convinced. "What did I give you for your¡­ you know."


    He squinted at her and looked confusingly off in the distance. He had no clue what she was talking about.


    "See? Not Julius," Aubrey said confidently as she took a step back.


    "What are you talking about? What thing¡­ oh," he realized midway through his sentence what it was.


    So with a quick thought, he sat up and perused his storage ring. He made a note to himself about how full it was getting and that it might be time for a larger one or reorganizing it.


    After he fumbled around for a few moments, he found it and took it out. The metal orb was just like he had last seen it. However, what he cared about more was the reaction from Aubrey who was staring at the orb with sparkling eyes.


    Before he could say anything, he was once again attacked and back onto his back. This time he found himself getting crushed by a hug.


    "What did you mean when you said you couldn''t trust my judgment?!" She muttered to him as she got off his chest.


    "You remember that bit, huh?"


    "Of course I do! That was very hurtful to read," she said with a sulking expression.


    He reached over and hugged her around the shoulder.


    "I''m sorry," he said sincerely.


    Neither of them said anything else, the two of them just enjoyed sitting next to each other and took in the moment.


    However, he did look over to see Lily''s reaction and wasn''t that surprised to see the girl staring at him with a very conflicted expression on her face. It was as if the girl didn''t know whether to be happy or angry at the surprise.


    The good news was that he hadn''t been attacked with any mental stabs from the purple-eyed girl as of yet. He didn''t know how long that would last, but he was hoping that she wouldn''t resort to that. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He also wasn''t surprised to see Lily glancing over at Marcus with dark eyes. He didn''t feel a little bit bad for the man. This was his idea and Julius had already planned to drop all of the blame at Marcus''s feet if Lily yelled at him.

 Chapter 285 - 283: Finding the Others

    "I see you found him," Lily said blankly to Marcus.


    "Yes, my mission was successful, my lady."


    "We are going to have words later, Marcus," she promised to the man.


    When she finally turned to look at Julius, a smile bloomed on her face. He was glad to see Lily come running over to where Aubrey and he were sitting on the grass.


    "I''m sorry, but it was all Marcus''s plan," he said before she could blame him along with Marcus.


    "It''s okay," she said softly before crouching down and wrapping her arms around him tightly.


    There was a probe from Lily''s aura directed at him, and he let down some of his own defenses to allow the girl to connect with his emotions. Once they connected, he sensed that she was similarly offering him access to her emotions.


    He closed his eyes and released a sigh of relaxation as he felt Lily open her aura to him. The happiness and relief emanating from her were heartwarming, so he embraced that feeling without hesitation.


    As he enjoyed that feeling, he felt someone poke him in the side. He opened his eyes to see Aubrey staring at the two of them with puffed-up cheeks. Lily, being Lily, already knew exactly what the girl was asking and created another connection that let Aubrey in as well.


    There was no reason to say anything to each other. Their connection expressed their feelings better than they could express them verbally.


    It was only after several minutes of sharing their emotions and aura that they finally released one another.


    Lily then turned to face him with a stern face.


    "Even if it was Marcus''s plan, you still could have contacted me," she said while wagging a finger at him.


    "I thought it would be a nice thing too," he said to her.


    "That''s the only reason why, huh?" She asked with a knowing look.


    He looked away guiltily and shook his head. "To be fair, you did send Marcus after me after I specifically expressed my request that you didn''t do that."


    "You really think I wasn''t going to send someone after you? That sounds like you don''t me at all."


    "Good point."


    She was about to say something else but held herself back. "The only thing that matters is that you are okay," she said with another smile.


    "Now tell me everything," she said with a much more serious look.


    ***


    He ended up telling Lily and Aubrey a pretty quick summary of what happened, from how the whole teleportation fiasco occurred to where they ended up inside the labyrinth-type rift, and then how they got to Blumand and in contact with House Easten.


    He did keep a few details secret, but it was pretty obvious he was, and they both knew it.


    "Come on, just tell us," Aubrey said to him.


    "Some stuff, I just can''t tell you guys because it is not my stuff to share. Also, I don''t want to have to explain everything again to the other guys."


    Speaking of the other guys, they were all testing some things at the training facilities after they all had dinner. Kyle had created something and wanted Edgar to try it out with Derek.


    "Well, then what are we waiting for? Let''s go see them now," Aubrey said while tugging on Julius''s arm.


    He allowed himself to get pulled away, but Lily stopped her.


    "Hold up, Aubrey. We still have company," she said, looking at where Marcus, Stella, and Reinera were all standing awkwardly.


    "Oh yeah. Hey there Grace, it''s good to see you are safe as well," Aubrey said with a heavy emphasis on her name. Which led him and probably everything else to believe that Aubrey knew exactly who Grace was.


    At this point, he didn''t think anyone in his friend group didn''t know.


    Reinera gave a shy wave back to Aubrey. "Yes, it is all thanks to Julius. I might have died if not for him getting dragged away with me. I owe him a lot."


    That seemed to make Aubrey happy, as she noticeably brightened up and nodded at the girl before bumping Julius on the shoulder.


    He gave her a little harder bump in return knowing exactly what she was implying. Aubrey simply grinned at him knowingly before turning to look at Stella.


    "Who the hell is this though?"


    Lily was the one to answer her. "Don''t be so rude, Aubrey. This is Stella, she works for Derek''s family and is a part of House Quincy, which makes Kyle her family. She also is the other person who helped find little Mr. Troublemaker here. You should be thanking her instead of being so crass."


    "Little?" Julius muttered with a frown. "I''m taller than you though."


    She barely gave him a second glance, but he felt a soft jab in his head due to her psychic abilities.


    He saw Marcus notice this and the one-armed man tried and failed to stifle a smile.


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    "Oh, my bad. Then, in that case, you have my deepest thanks, Stella," Aubrey said much more politely. "This dum-dum over here always seems to be getting in a lot of trouble and who knows what kind of mess he would get into if you hadn''t found him in time."


    To her credit, Stella didn''t take offense to the initial gruff attitude and had a wide smile on her face. "It''s no problem at all. I was just doing my job," she said as she brushed the gratitude away.


    "But it''s funny that you mention it. When Marcus and I came across Julius here, we found him." She paused midway through his sentence because Julius had sent a powerful pulse of ruinous aura at the woman.


    He didn''t concern himself with the fact that it would have likely hurt anyone not Tier 4 or above, he was much more concerned about the woman leaking his secrets.


    One thing he definitely wanted to hide was that he had been fighting a Tier 5. He didn''t need to give the other even more ammunition to use against him.


    Thus, he used his newly improved aura powers to great use and halted the woman in her tracks before she could cause irreparable damage.


    The actual aura itself didn''t do much of anything. Stella was much too powerful for that to happen, but it did surprise her just enough that she realized that he didn''t want her to share it with them.


    Thankfully, she seemed to understand his position and didn''t continue to rat him out. He promised to remember this and pay back this favor in the future.


    However, this usage of aura didn''t go past Lily without her notice.


    She whipped her head around and looked at Julius.


    "What was that?" She asked with a narrowing of her eyes.


    "What was what?" He asked in mock ignorance.


    "Your aura. What was she about to say that you didn''t want her to tell us?"


    He looked completely sincere at her and shook his head. "I don''t know what you are talking about."


    Of course, she didn''t believe a single word and turned to look at Stella. "What were you about to say?" S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Stella suddenly looked away and stared at the library behind Lily. "I wasn''t about to say anything."


    Julius wanted to slap his own forehead. That was the least convincing lie he had ever heard.


    "Oh, okay," Lily said, turning to look at Marcus. Tell me what she was about to say," she demanded.


    "I don''t know what you mean, my lady," the man also played ignorant.


    "You have made an oath of loyalty for House Violet, correct?"


    Marcus nodded. "That is correct," he said, defeatedly.


    "Then I command you to tell me what you are hiding," she said with a smirk.


    "Hey! That''s not fair!" Julius argued from the side.


    "I agree with Julius on this, my lady. My oath does not require me to tell you everyone''s secrets. I promised Julius that I wouldn''t talk about everything. If you would like to know, then I suggest you ask the boy yourself," Marcus surprisingly stood firm in the face of Lily.


    Lily huffed. "Don''t worry, I will be doing that," she said to Marcus, dropping the issue without much fuss.


    Julius wiped the sweat that had been forming on his brow. He would make sure to repay Marcus as well.


    ***


    While Lily, Aubrey, and he went over to the training facilities, the others didn''t come along. Marcus and Stella offered to take Reinera to Amelia, who still didn''t know of Reinera''s return.


    He didn''t want to see what would happen when the guard woman finally found out. After all, he had his own issues to take care of.


    While they were walking toward the training area, both girls didn''t stop talking or touching him. It was almost like they couldn''t believe he was actually there.


    "So what''s up with your aura now?" Lily questioned him. "It feels very different from before. Almost as if it underwent some significant changes."


    "Yeah, that is a little more difficult to explain, but if I do, it will probably be better if I wait until the rest of them are here as well."


    "You do realize that you will be asked many questions by both the school and possibly the Royal Family, right?"


    "Yeah, that is something I am not looking forward to. I have a feeling that the school had already been contacted when I entered. Someone is likely going to come and find me pretty soon," he said with a sigh.


    "I would be more worried about the Royal Family," Aubrey said with a shake of her head. "They are always so pushy and arrogant."


    "Speaking of that, when did you find out Grace was¡­ you know?"


    "Oh, I have known for a while. But the others put it together once the two of you disappeared and we never saw her again," Lily said to him.


    "Oh yeah, I haven''t really had the time to ask, but how have you guys been?" He asked with a bright smile. There was so much attention on him and what he had been doing that he failed to ask anything about how they had been handling his absence or what they had been doing in the meantime.


    "Well, after we got your letter, a lot of stress went away because at least we knew you were alive. But other than that, it has been quite busy for all of us. Derek, Edgar, and Aubrey have been really focused on the upcoming tournament. Aubrey in particular has made some very impressive leaps in these past several months. We believe that she will definitely be at the top and has a really good chance of qualifying for the inter-school tournament," Lily explained.


    "What about you and Kyle then?"


    "Kyle has been focusing a lot on enchanting and item creation, which is what they are experimenting with right now. I have been putting a lot of my focus on stuff outside of school. There have been a lot of recent developments that need my attention," she said in a tired tone.


    "What about your own abilities?" He asked curiously.


    She shook her head. "I still try to dedicate a certain amount of time, but honestly, it has been hard. Much of my focus has been acquiring a third Concept, but that has been a little more difficult. I want something that diversifies and covers some of my weaknesses, but it has been less than fruitful. It''s frustrating because I know if I tried to get another Mind Concept or something mind-related, I would probably have already acquired it," she vented to him.


    He nodded his head and pouted alongside her. "I know the feeling. I have been trying to get a Space Concept for a while now, but it hasn''t been that fruitful either," he admitted.


    "You want a Space Concept before you get your third Concept? That is quite optimistic," Aubrey snorted.


    "Why''s that?"


    "Because everyone knows that Space and Time Concepts are some of the most difficult Concepts to learn. Most who actually are fortunate enough to learn them do so when they are already at Tier 4 or higher. Something about the qualitative difference between the minds of a Tier 3 and a Tier 4," Lily explained. "Even Stella probably only learned her Concepts at Tier 4, but then again knowing her, it wouldn''t be impossible if she did at Tier 3."


    He nodded his head at that. He already knew the difficulty from what Richard and Rebecca told him, but it was nice to hear another perspective.


    They eventually got to the training facilities, and he couldn''t help but notice that there were more people than usual, especially during the weekend. It was probably due to the upcoming tournament that Lily mentioned.


    After navigating through the busy crowd, they promptly knocked at the training room.


    It took a few moments, but the door finally opened to reveal a sweaty Derek.


    "Hey, I got your message. Did you guys want to join? Kyle''s new item is pretty fascinating, it might even be able to block some of your skills, Lily. Actually, on second thought I don''t-" Derek cut himself off because he eventually noticed that it wasn''t just Aubrey and Lily.


    Julius gave a similar wave he did to Lily and Aubrey and found himself smothered in a hug once more. Only this time, it was distinctly more sweaty, but still just as pleasant.

 Chapter 286 - 284: Whos That?

    Julius had found himself quickly swarmed by Edgar and Kyle as well. Thankfully, Edgar and Kyle were a bit more reserved than Lily and Aubrey had been.


    They were just glad he was back safe and sound, though they had some questions of their own.


    He did his best to answer them, also further explaining to them about the plan against the princess and how he had been dragged into it. With that being said, he didn''t mention that Reinera had been the one who physically dragged him along with her. He didn''t need them to blame the girl more than they might already be.


    Edgar seemed very fascinated by the fact that he had been taken to a labyrinth-type rift and seemed somewhat disappointed with the fact that Julius didn''t fully explore it. He remembered the general vicinity of the rift, though, so if there was ever a time he went back to that area, he might try to rediscover it.


    "What is up with your aura? It''s very shrouded but it also feels¡­ different," Kyle said interestingly.


    "Oh yeah, I noticed the same thing, but he wouldn''t answer me. He told me to wait until all of us were together," Lily said to Kyle before turning to look at Julius. "Now that we are all together, can you answer my previous question?"


    Julius pressed his lips together and thought about how he wanted to share the news to explain what had happened. A lot of things happened that contributed to his newfound aura. So much that he didn''t remember everything.


    Did he tell them about the Challenge Rift? Because he kind of thought that he should keep that little bit a secret, it wasn''t entirely his own secret to share.


    However, instead of harping about it for too long, he eventually decided that he would just let his aura shroud drop and just show them.


    So with a gentle control of his aura, he slowly released his aura, careful to not let it attack the others with its ruinous effects. He didn''t need to hurt his friends when he just came back.


    At first, they merely looked confused more than anything but that slowly changed. Lily was the first to notice something because her face morphed from curiosity to surprise, eventually settling into concern.


    "Wait, have you advanced to Tier 3?" She asked in shock, walking over to Julius and using her aura senses to probe his aura.


    "Huh, Tier 3!?" Aubrey exclaimed.


    "Yeah, I advanced to Tier 3 while I was gone," he said with a grin, not realizing that this would be the first thing they would notice.


    "Aren''t you worried that you might have advanced a bit too hastily?" Derek asked concerningly.


    "I don''t think he really needs to worry about that. Before he disappeared, he already had a Concept and many highly ranked skills. If it''s his foundation you are worried about, I don''t think we have much to be concerned about," Edgar commented with a chuckle.


    The big fourth-year came on over to Julius with a wide smile. "I''m sure you had your reasons. Actually, I am more interested in that body enhancement skill you have running in the background," Edgar noted.


    "Ah, you noticed that huh?" Julius asked with a smile of his own. It wasn''t surprising that Edgar was the first to notice. After all, he had been deeply influenced by Edgar''s own enhancement skill when he created his.


    "Hard not to. Is the skill always passively running? Or are you just keeping your focus on it the entire time?" Edgar asked curiously.


    Julius got a little excited when he noticed this detail. "It''s always running and it takes no real focus to keep running passively," he said with a proud nod. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Wait, so that means that you can probably increase its intensity with little concentration or time," Edgar realized with widened eyes.


    "Oh yeah," he said with a smug grin. "It doesn''t take much to have it fully activated, it makes it much easier to react to threats in an instant."


    Edgar heard Julius''s words and put his hand on his chin, clearly in thought about something. One of the hardest and most annoying aspects of having an enhancement ability was the fact that it took time to activate. It wasn''t like a person was that physically powerful at all times, it required a large influx of mana or energy to empower oneself. What Julius basically had was a shortcut to increasing his physical abilities. He suspected that Edgar was thinking about incorporating this feature into his own skill.


    It was funny because when he first learned the skill was passive, he thought Edgar would be very interested in it as well.


    It would seem he was right.


    Edgar walked over to Julius and wrapped one of his massive arms around his shoulder. "Would you mind if I could see the skill in action?" Edgar asked enthusiastically.


    "Hold up," Lily interjected loudly. "Why does your aura have a different¡­ flavor?" She asked with a frown.


    "I''m curious about that too. It''s like your aura underwent a drastic change. I would have thought you were a totally different person or even an imposter if I didn''t know better," Kyle added.


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    "That''s what I said!" Aubrey exclaimed.


    Julius gave her a blank look. "Yeah, but that wasn''t why you thought that. You just didn''t trust that it was me because you didn''t want to."


    "That''s not true! I thought you seemed different is all. Which actually might be explained by your aura," she argued.


    "You are Julius, right?" Kyle asked hesitantly.


    He groaned. "Yes, I am Julius. Aubrey has already asked me questions to make sure I am. What? Is my aura that different?"


    He knew that his aura had undergone some massive changes, but he thought that its core remained the same. Or at least that was what he was hoping for.


    "Previously, your aura seemed much more gentle, which might have had something to do with your life affinity, but now your aura almost exudes this aspect of destruction and death," Lily noted with a concerned look.


    Aubrey gave Lily a meaningful look. "Who knows? Maybe he really isn''t Julius, Lils."


    "What? I thought you determined that I wasn''t an imposter," he blurted out.


    "Yeah, but I think you could have fooled me with that orb," Aubrey said with narrowed eyes.


    "For heaven''s sake," he muttered, not believing that she was doing this again.


    Thankfully, he knew exactly what would finally convince her that he was the genuine Julius. After a quick thought, he connected with Drasil, who was relaxing in his soul space, and found the little guy sleeping like usual.


    He then brought him out, and the adorable green spirit appeared on the palm of his hand. Drasil didn''t even seem to realize that he had been summoned outside yet; he was still peacefully snoring away.


    He could hear the soft whistling chimes coming from his mouth and noticed the little leaves on his crown shivered with each snore. Not having the self-control to resist the temptation, he gently rubbed Drasil''s belly with his finger.


    Drasil cooed softly as he did and wiggled in his sleep, bringing a smile to Julius''s face.


    He looked at all of them. "Satisfied?" He asked in an exasperated tone.


    "Aw, I missed Drasil," Aubrey said with an excited squeal, making sure to stay quiet enough not to wake the little guy, and turned to Julius. "I was just joking you know, I was just hoping that you would bring him out to prove yourself," she said with a smug smile.


    Lily also leaned over and gave Drasil''s tummy a soft rub as well.


    "He didn''t change when you advanced to Tier 3? I thought he might get bigger," she said with a gleeful smile as Drasil playfully batted away her finger in his sleep.


    "He got a bit more energy and our connection got deeper, but nothing else really changed," he said to her with a shrug.


    "He might be staying small like that because you subconsciously want him to," Derek offered. "One of our retainers has a life spirit too, but she wanted a spirit that could protect her, so she ended up with a giant snake that was quite powerful on its own."


    He hadn''t thought about it that way before, but it would make sense.


    "Okay, we''re getting sidetracked. I still am confused as to why your aura seems so dangerous now. Did something bad happen?" Lily asked, worryingly.


    "Yeah, did you brutalize your soul again or almost die because you did something stupid?" Aubrey asked.


    "No, I didn''t get the skill because something bad happened," he said with a shake of his head, in disbelief that they only thought his aura changed because he did something dumb.


    "I actually got it because of my new enhancement skill," he admitted.


    "Really?" Edgar asked in excitement. "Your skill is aura-based? That is very interesting. We should definitely try it out."


    "I have never heard of an enhancement skill affecting someone''s aura to this degree," Derek mused.


    "Me either," Lily added. "You haven''t noticed anything wrong with your aura after this change? Destruction and death-aspected auras are notoriously dangerous," She asked him concerningly.


    "There were some issues with controlling it early on," he admitted with a chuckle. "But I spent a lot of time controlling it and making sure it didn''t affect anyone in its vicinity."


    "What do you mean making sure it didn''t affect anyone?" Aubrey asked, visibly confused.


    He waved his hand at her. "It wasn''t that big of a deal," he said.


    "He probably means his aura was trying to kill whoever it touched. I bet it was quite the dangerous aura to be around for a while," Lily said with a very big frown.


    How did she know that? I don''t think I ever mentioned anything like that, he thought to himself.


    "Trying to kill whoever it touched?" Derek asked worriedly.


    "Yeah, that is the unfortunate thing about such violent auras. They tend to attack anyone and anything in their way," Lily tells him.


    "That sounds¡­ dangerous."


    "Very much so," she said with a pointed look at Julius.


    He frowned at her. "Hey, I didn''t exactly choose the skill by the way."


    "I didn''t mean it like that," she said, realizing what she had implied.


    He shook his head and looked over at Edgar. "You want to see it in action right now?" A little bit of excitement crept into his voice.


    "Definitely! It will also let me see how much you have changed over these past several months. I have a feeling that you might even have a really good chance of qualifying for the Inter-School Tournament if your power at Tier 2 showed anything."


    He shook his head once again. "I don''t have any plans to join the tournament."


    "Why not? It might be a really good opportunity for you. If you do well enough, you could possibly get enough influence to learn more about your family''s situation," Aubrey said, confused as to why he didn''t seem interested.


    "To be fair, he has us. I don''t think he really needs the influence. But the rewards would be very beneficial," Derek said.


    "Like I told Grace, I will think about it," he told them.


    They nodded in acceptance at his words.


    "Well, in the meantime you can always help me prepare. Edgar and Derek are not the best opponents for me. I need a little more variety," Aubrey said to him as she grabbed his arm, leading him to an empty section of the training room.


    "Hey! I am supposed to go first," Edgar called out.


    "I was the first to greet him when he returned, which means I have first dibs," she shot back.


    Edgar looked ready to argue but must have thought better and bobbed his head. "Okay, but I get next."


    "Agreed."


    However, before any of them could proceed, Julius sensed someone entering the room. This made him pause in confusion because he knew that the room was locked from the inside.

 Chapter 287 - 285: Already Getting Interrogated

    He wasn''t the only one to notice, either. All six of them forgot about what they were discussing and focused on the door. They wondered the same thing: who it could be and how they had entered the room without their permission.


    However, they all soon released their tense shoulders when they saw the Goldencrest uniform on the person. It was a tall, clean-shaven man with a pair of thick glasses. The man scanned the room and finally laid his eyes upon Julius.


    "Hello, Mr. Snow. My name is Travis Gulkan, and I am a professor. Would you please follow me? I have some questions regarding your recent disappearance."


    Although the man worded it like a request, his tone and demeanor would imply that it was anything but that.


    That being said, Julius could understand where the school was coming from. He had been expecting this after all. He only wished that he had more time to catch up with the others before it happened.


    With an acknowledging nod, he headed over to the man but was pulled back by Aubrey.


    "Why does he have to go with you right now? We are just in the middle of reuniting with our friend," she said to the professor with some attitude.


    "When someone who goes missing with the princess suddenly shows up out of the blue without any communication, people are obviously going to want some answers," Travis said to Aubrey.


    "Well, if you want him to come along, then we are coming too."


    "I''m sorry, Ms. Crysalia, but this is a sensitive matter, and you are still a mere student. I can''t allow you to accompany Mr. Snow until we have had the chance to question him."


    Aubrey was about to argue further, but Julius sensed Derek step forward before she could.


    "We understand you wish to question him and we have no problems with that. However, if you wish to do so, you will allow us or one of my family''s retainers to accompany him. He is still a child and since he doesn''t have any parents or guardians, one of our families will take up that role," Derek said firmly.


    The man hid the frown that came to his face pretty well, but Julius spotted it. "We are not going to be asking anything too personal. We are merely trying to get a report of what happened during the incident from Mr. Snow''s point of view."


    "Then there should not be any problems with having someone to come along with Julius."


    The man seemed to understand that it was a pointless battle and sighed. "Fine, you can join him if you wish."


    Travis looked away from Derek and waved his arm at Julius. "Come along Mr. Snow, we have much to discuss. We have already made contact with the Princess and have plans to question her as well at a later date."


    Julius shrugged his shoulders, thinking it would be nice if the others came along. He wasn''t planning on sharing anything too personal with the school anyway. He had already decided with Reinera that they would tell them about the teleportation circle and that they were trapped inside a rift before being able to sneak out after a while.


    They had also chosen to tell others that they were hiding in a city near the rift, not wanting to involve House Easten or anyone else.


    He just reminded himself to stay calm and not give them too much information, as long as he did that, they would be fine.


    ***


    They followed Travis to the campus area where all the administration buildings were. Julius had not been in this direction since his first days at Goldencrest.


    However, he was pleasantly surprised to see both Marcus and Stella waiting outside for them already. He looked over at Derek and Lily questioningly.


    Lily shrugged at him. "We contacted them on our way over. They were already close by anyhow."


    It wasn''t just them who noticed the two Tier 5s. It would appear that Travis also saw them, and not only that, but he also seemed to recognize who they were. Seeing that the man became noticeably more uncomfortable with their appearance was a little amusing.


    It was hard to tell how strong Travis was. The man was wearing an item that did a really good job at shrouding his aura. Although, as usual, having an item to help with aura control was an indication on its own. But Julius wanted to assume that the man wasn''t anything less than Tier 4 especially since most professors were either high Tier 3 or Tier 4.


    However, the man likely had a more logistical role within the school, so it was possible.


    Julius wasn''t getting any dangerous vibes from the man anyway. Even if he was a Tier 4, he didn''t think the man was combat-oriented.


    "What are you two doing here?" Travis asked, showing some anxiousness.


    "We were told that young Julius needed someone to supervise the questioning you plan on giving him," Marcus said simply while staring at Travis with intense eyes.


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    Travis chuckled nervously. "I don''t think there''s a need for that. We aren''t planning to interrogate him; we only wish to ask him some simple questions about what happened and where he and the Princess have been these past several months."


    "Then I don''t see a problem if we come along as well," Stella said brightly, repeating the same argument Derek had said earlier. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Travis opened his mouth to respond but must have thought better. He sagged his shoulders and nodded, directing them into the building.


    They walked down the hallways and ended up in front of a set of large doors. Julius couldn''t sense anything beyond these doors, as a separate layer of enchantments was placed around the room.


    He was only able to see what was inside once Travis opened the doors and guided them inside. What he saw upon entering kind of surprised him.


    Based on how the man had described it, there would only be him and possibly a few others questioning him. Instead, there were a lot more than just a few people.


    The room was set up like a large conference room, with a huge table at the center and an equally large number of chairs. Many staff members, all in uniform, sat in each chair, probably close to two dozen people in total.


    He noticed only a few people not wearing uniforms, and he recognized one of them right away.


    He smiled and nodded softly toward Gabriel, who was relaxing in his chair and wearing nothing but a pair of training pants and a t-shirt.


    The others, who weren''t in uniform, were all sitting toward the head of the table. There were two men and a woman.


    The man in the center had a very crisp suit but looked like he would have been much more comfortable in a set of armor. He was a tall and muscular man, whose suit was barely fitting around his shoulders and glasses that didn''t detract from his intense look. Julius was certain of one thing, this man was strong.


    The other man was slightly younger-looking, but looks can be deceiving when it comes to people of advanced tiers.


    The woman seemed to be around the same age but had a severe look to her. He had a feeling she was a no-nonsense type of person.


    He glanced at Travis, who was walking to an empty seat. Julius took another look around and spotted a lone chair at the foot of the table.


    "You can take that seat there, Julius," Gabriel said to him with a reassuring nod.


    "What about them?" He asked, pointing at the others who had accompanied him.


    Gabriel glanced at them and pointed over to the side where a number of other chairs were laid out. "Sorry about that. We weren''t really expecting you to bring so many with you," he said with a curious look at Travis. "But they can take a seat over there if they are fine with that."


    The others all seemed fine with that and headed on over to take a seat as well.


    The only person who hadn''t followed them was Lily, who remained by his side. He gave her a curious look to which she responded by smiling at him and removing something from her storage ring.


    He almost laughed out loud when he saw her remove an entire chair and scoot his chair to the side, placing hers right next to his. She then challenged everyone around the table, as if daring them to speak up against her actions before sitting down, and Julius immediately followed suit.


    He did notice that the man at the very center gave her an exasperated look for her behavior.


    After a few moments, when nobody seemed to be saying anything, he felt the need to speak up.


    "I was told that I would be asked a few simple questions and not an interrogation. I don''t know what this is, but this doesn''t seem to be very simple and it kind of feels like an interrogation," he said, directing a dark look over at Travis who was in the middle of avoiding his gaze.


    He saw Gabriel stifle a laugh off to the side.


    "I see your attitude hasn''t changed," an older woman scoffed.


    He shifted his attention to the woman and he could have sworn he had seen her before. He racked his brain trying to jog his memory.


    She seems so familiar, why does it feel like I know her? Perhaps, I have- ah, now I remember, he realized with a sigh.


    "Aren''t you that examiner? Your name is like Sandy, Sally, or something?"


    "It''s Sonia, boy," the woman said impatiently.


    "Well, I see you are just as rude as you were during my interview," he said with a shrug of his shoulders, getting a mental jab from Lily in response, letting him know to cut it out.


    Thankfully, Gabriel interjected before the woman could respond. "Julius, we wanted to call you here because we have some questions about the incident. When we were notified about your reappearance, we all quickly got together. Would you be alright with answering some things for us?"


    "As long as it only pertains to the actual incident and not anything outside of its purview," Lily answered for him.


    He heard a couple of the staff members start to say something as if they didn''t like hearing that answer. But Gabriel was very swift to cut them off before they could say something that would cause any issues.


    He looked over at Lily. "I am glad to see you have already reunited with your friends. Of course, if you don''t wish to answer all of our questions, that is quite fine. We would appreciate any answers as long as they are truthful. We don''t need to pry into your personal life, we simply need to figure out how someone was able to set up a complex runic circle in the middle of a highly secured rift."


    He smiled gratefully at the man, appreciating that he was going for the more gentle route and not the one where they pressured him. He could tell that many of the others, including that rude lady from his exams, wanted to bully him into telling them everything.


    "Thank you. I am willing to answer as much as I can on that front," he said with a smile.


    Gabriel clapped his hands together happily. "Perfect! Vice-Headmaster Lucien will be the one asking you some questions," he said, nodding at the man sitting at the head of the table.


    Ah, so this is the Vice-Headmaster, huh? He thought to himself with a curious tilt of his head, wondering what kind of questions the scary-looking man would ask him.


    "Excuse me, sir, but I thought we were going to have the boy give us his memories of the incident," the woman to the Vice-Headmaster''s left commented.


    "Yes, Kelsa, that was the plan. But I have a feeling that this young boy will not be very welcome to that idea, something that Gabriel seems to have realized too," Vice-Headmaster Lucien said patiently while giving Julius a questioning look.


    Julius gave a laugh of disbelief and genuine mirth. "Yeah, that''s not happening. I will not be consenting to anyone putting their gross little fingers in my head."


    He saw people around the table grind their teeth at his words but he didn''t care. There was no way in hell he was going to accept something like that. If they forced him to, he would fight tooth and nail to make sure they didn''t.


    Luckily, it seems the head honcho already realized this, making him feel better. However, he would have to be on guard to make sure they didn''t try to pry too much from him. This is also why he was glad Lily was here; she would help ensure he did just that.


    He looked around at the table with a confident smile. "We can begin whenever you like."

 Chapter 288 - 286: Some Things Are Irreplacable

    Before the vice headmaster could begin to ask questions, Lily spoke up.


    "I don''t believe it is necessary for all of these people to be here," she said with a meaningful look at the crowd of staff members who were sitting there.


    "With all due respect young lady, you don''t tell us what is necessary or not," a man close to the head of the table said with disdain.


    "Then I guess this is over," Lily said while standing up and grabbing Julius by the armpit.


    He didn''t bother arguing because he agreed with her. This amount of people felt completely unnecessary. Marcus didn''t hesitate for a moment and followed his lady''s actions, already going over to the door to hold it for her.


    "You can''t just leave," the Kelsa woman said sternly.


    Lily stopped suddenly and turned to face the woman with narrowed eyes and pinched lips. "Are you going to stop us?"


    At her question, Julius felt both Marcus and Stella tense up and a surge of mana flowed through them. The two of them then released some of their aura in warning, as if daring one of the staff members to try and stop them.


    He was sure that the other people at the table could understand the message too, because almost all of them paled at the sight.


    "I don''t think we need to go that far. Please, Mr. Avery and Ms. Stella, pull back your auras. You are terrifying some of the people here," Gabriel chuckled placatingly, still looking at ease.


    If Julius had to guess, he would say that the massive baldy was enjoying this. Something he wouldn''t be surprised by either.


    Kelsa looked unhappy, but she also looked over at Lucien who placed a calming hand on her shoulder.


    "It''s fine. If it makes Mr. Snow more comfortable sharing, then I don''t mind," Lucien said before addressing the rest of the room. Please give us some privacy. I am sure we won''t be too long."


    Some people seemed more than happy to leave while others seemed a bit more bitter. Julius was guessing that some of their egos were bruised from being kicked out. The lady from his examination was definitely bitter about it if the death stare was anything to go off of.


    He couldn''t help but give her a smug smile when they met gazes. A flash of anger appeared on her face, giving him a weird feeling of satisfaction.


    Serves her right, she was always so rude, he thought to himself. He didn''t forget her words about his ''shit'' affinities all that time ago.


    Well¡­ actually he kinda did, but he recalled it pretty quickly, so that was all that mattered.


    He was brought out of his thoughts when he saw Gabriel standing up to leave as well and interjected quickly. "I don''t mind if Gabriel stays, I would actually feel more comfortable if he did," he said aloud.


    Gabriel stopped getting up and looked at Lucien, who gave him a stiff nod before sitting back down.


    Once the room emptied out, there were only a few people left. There were the people at the head of the table. Then there were Julius and the others, as well as Gabriel who was still looking mighty pleased with himself.


    "Okay, can we start now?" Kelsa asked him.


    He nodded in affirmation and made sure to give Lily a squeeze of appreciation for how she was able to remove all of the peanut gallery.


    The questions that followed were pretty expected. They first asked him to narrate his version of events from the day before until the time he was transported. They impressively didn''t interrupt him a single time until he was finished.


    He didn''t hide anything from them. He told them about the night before and how he had been hanging out with the others. Then, he described his morning and the events that led up to the rift. There was nothing to hide; he was sure that they already knew most of what happened anyway. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He also informed them that he had not known about the assassination attempt nor did he really know anything about teleportation circles. At least not enough to help them.


    However, after he was done, they had many questions.


    "Would you be willing to allow us to see your memories and see what kind of runes they were?" The lady beside the vice-headmaster asked.


    "Nope, he had it right," Julius said while pointing at her boss. "Nobody is going to be entering my mind anytime soon."


    The lady didn''t seem to get the message though. "I don''t think you quite understand how important it is for us to find out who had done this, boy. If we can figure out the style or structure of how they built the circle, it can help us determine who was behind it." She didn''t stop and kept on insisting.


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    Lily cut in sharply. "He said no, and if you continue to badger him or pressure him into doing anything he doesn''t consent to, you are going to find many people upset over your actions," she warned, her voice teetering with anger.


    "Is that a threat, Miss Violet? I don''t care who your parents are, I will not stand here and let a little girl threaten me," the woman said with a frown.


    "It''s not a threat. I am simply telling you what is going to happen if you continue to act like this. You might be able to pressure other students into allowing you access to their minds, but you are not going to be allowed to act like this with Julius. It is not his fault you guys have not found out who has done this," Lily said firmly.


    "We are not saying it is his fault. But he has information that would greatly help us," Lucien interjected gently, his voice sounding equally calm and firm.


    "It is not his responsibility to figure it out for you. If you don''t remember, he is a student at this school, one who you have failed to protect in the first place. The fact that he is even willing to answer your questions is enough as is. I''m sure the Royal Family and the other parents would be thrilled to learn that this whole situation was because someone from the inside allowed this to happen," Lily ground out.


    "How do you know it is someone from the inside?" The vice-headmaster asked, looking at Lily with more scrutiny.


    Aubrey scoffed from the side of the room. "Well, it''s quite obvious that is the answer. If you haven''t thought about that yet, you guys are more incompetent or stupid than I thought."


    Julius stifled a chuckle of his own and he saw that Edgar, Kyle, and Derek all facepalm at Aubrey''s words. While Lily and he had been argumentative, they didn''t outright insult the staff. It would seem that Aubrey didn''t have any compunctions about speaking her mind.


    Kelsa stood up angrily and stared at Aubrey. "You better watch how you speak to us."


    Julius suspected she would have said more, but Stella and Marcus both leaned forward in their chairs, prepared to get up. He had to admit, they both looked pretty intimidating, and the lady seemed to think so because she backed down.


    Gabriel was the one who interrupted.


    "You mentioned you were taken to a rift, but what kind was it? Was it a Tier 3 rift?"


    Julius had been prepared to be questioned about that and he didn''t mind answering either. It would actually help their explanation if they told other people that they were stuck inside a Tier 3 rift. Their inability to contact the outside world would also be explained this way.


    "Yeah, it was a weird and massive Tier 3 rift that took us a very long time to find our way out. We also managed to advance to Tier 3 during this time period," he shared willingly. He didn''t see a point in hiding either of their advancements since it would come out pretty soon anyhow.


    However, this didn''t seem to surprise the people at the table. Either they already had a feeling that he was Tier 3 or that advancing to Tier 3 made the most sense in order to escape a Tier 3 rift.


    For the next hour or so, he was asked a lot of questions. He didn''t answer all of them or even most of them, which frustrated them, but he didn''t really care about that. He shared as much as he was willing to.


    ***


    He stretched his arms out and breathed in the familiar night sky of Heston.


    He felt a whole lot better when they were finally done.


    It went pretty easily, much more smoothly than he had expected when he had first entered the room. He had been grateful that Derek and the others insisted on coming along with him. He was worried that they would try to pressure him into answering some questions. While he had no intentions of doing so, he probably would not have gotten out of so easily.


    Lily was a huge help. She was like his own personal lawyer and didn''t take any shit from any of the staff. Not even the vice-headmaster.


    Whenever they would ask a question that didn''t fall under the purview of the incident, she would completely deny them any information and let him know that he didn''t need to answer anything.


    Once again, he was thankful that he had them for friends. Because he doubted he would have gotten out of it without much issue. Using their families as protection didn''t feel as bad as he thought it would. He thought he would have felt more guilty.


    As he was deep into his own thoughts, Aubrey leaned over to him and draped her arm over his shoulders, bumping into him and shaking him around.


    "What do you guys say about us going down to the beach and hanging out? It''s private and we can use that time to catch up," she said brightly.


    "I''m down," Edgar said with a grin.


    "Me too, but I can''t stay out too late. I have to make adjustments to the item we tested earlier," Kyle commented.


    "Oh, come on! Julius just came back. You can take a night off to enjoy the reunion," Aubrey said to Kyle.


    Julius smiled when Kyle mumbled in agreement and turned to look at Marcus and Stella who were still with them.


    "What about you two? Do you guys want to join us? I got some food in my storage ring," Julius offered.


    Stella pouted. "I wish I could, but I have to go report to Darius about the princess and probably will have a bunch to do afterward."


    "Come along with us, Stella. I will tell my father that I ordered you to," Derek said with a sneaky smile.


    Stella smiled sweetly. "Oh Derek, this is why you are my favorite out of all of Darius''s children."


    "I''m his only child," Derek said with a frown.


    "I know, but I still mean it!"


    Julius and the rest of them all laughed.


    "What about you Marcus? You''re coming along too, right?" Lily asked.


    "If my lady wishes so, then I shall oblige," Marcus said with a bow.


    Lily reached over and swatted the big one-armed man. "Shut up with that nonsense. Why must you always tease me?"


    Marcus took the swat without reacting. "I have no idea what my lady means."


    Lily gave up and ignored him, but Julius spotted the grin on Marcus''s face when she turned away.


    For the rest of the night, they all enjoyed food and each other''s company while sharing stories of what had happened these past several months.


    He told them some things about Elder Han and how they rescued some of the children. Edgar told him about how Tia kept trying to flirt with him. Whenever he went to check up on his potato garden, he found the girl waiting there for him.


    Aubrey complained about Liam and how he kept on making advances toward her, she kept on swearing to Julius that she would beat his ass during the tournament if they faced each other¡ªbragging to him that she had made some improvements to her mirages. He even said that he wouldn''t be able to perceive her location as well as he had in the past.


    All in all, it was a wonderful night, and he internally slapped himself for ever thinking that he should delay coming back. There were some things you could never replace.

 Chapter 289 - 287: Reuniting With His Roommate

    Lucien POV


    Lucien continued staring at the door, the boy and his friends had just left. He didn''t particularly know how he felt about the situation and how everything went down.


    A part of him had wanted to snap at the boy for daring to speak with such arrogance and disregard for their own reputation. However, he was reminded of Gabriel''s earlier words moments before the boy had come in for questioning.


    He turned to the man in question who was still relaxing in his chair.


    "Are you sure this was the proper way we should have handled that?" He asked the Applied Combat Professor.


    "Absolutely, I have spent a good amount of time with the boy and I know better than anyone how stubborn he can be," Gabriel said with a light chuckle.


    "Stubborn or not, we could have gotten way more information out of him if we just pressed harder. I don''t care if we offend the boy or the other children''s families. This is Goldencrest, their families will not be able to act with impunity here. This is not like the regular world," Kelsa argued angrily.


    "This was the better way Kelsa and you should be grateful that your attitude didn''t make it any worse. I don''t think any of us want to get in a fight with Marcus Avery or Stella Quincy," Gabriel replied to her with an amused shake of his head.


    "But we barely learned anything! We are still just as stuck as we were a day ago. That might have been one of our best chances in the past few months to find anything worthwhile. We can only hope that the princess will be forthcoming with her information, but I somehow doubt that," Kelsa exclaimed.


    Lucien sighed because his experience told him that he agreed with Kelsa. It didn''t really matter if they stepped on the toes of House Violet or even House Zenith. The fact remained that this was Goldencrest, a place where politics had little standing. However, he also trusted Gabriel''s opinion, which was why he allowed it to happen like this.


    "I gotta say, Gabriel, I agree with Kelsa here. I don''t like how little information we got about the incident from someone who was involved. The boy barely answered any meaningful questions that we didn''t already know beforehand," he said to Gabriel while rubbing his head stressfully.


    "I doubt the boy knows who did it either. If he did, I would bet that he would tell his friends, and they would have told their families if anything was dangerous to Goldencrest. Don''t forget that they also attend here," Gabriel pointed out.


    That was a good point. No matter how much he didn''t like how ruthless the young Violet had acted during questioning, he didn''t think she was the type of person to learn about a threat and ignore it, especially one that existed under her nose at the school she attended. Her House was one of the truly good ones.


    "I still believe that this was a mistake," Kelsa said firmly.


    Gabriel scooted back his chair and stood up aggressively before pacing around the room while scratching his bald head.


    "I don''t think you quite understand my reasoning here, Kelsa. I am not worried about House Violet or House Zenith, or frankly, any of his friends'' families coming down on us. I am much more concerned about what the boy himself will do in the future if we piss him off now. He has a specific personality and those who treat him with respect get it in return. Those who don''t¡­ well, let''s just say we don''t want to go down that route. A good example would be Sonia."


    Kelsa scoffed. "What are you talking about, Gabriel? He''s just a child. While admittedly a child at Tier 3, it is likely that the boy advanced much too quickly. According to his records, he had only recently advanced before the incident happened. I would daresay that the boy has created quite the crack in his foundations, one that he will be struggling to fix if he wants to advance to Tier 4."


    Lucien internally agreed with her assessment. While it wasn''t impossible to advance in a matter of several months, it was very rare. The boy would have needed to level up many of his skills to rare at the very least if he wanted a solid foundation. Lucien also checked the boy''s aura during the meeting. While it was well controlled, there was a lack of weight that most geniuses or powerful people had.


    Gabriel actually stopped pacing and laughed loudly as if what he heard was hilarious, making the two of them pause in confusion. Gabriel directed a very serious gaze at her. "Don''t be fooled by him, Kelsa. That boy is by far the strongest person in his year, I would even say that when he was in Tier 2, he would have been able to beat a good number of the upperclassmen."


    Kelsa scoffed loudly. "Come on, Gabriel! I know you like the boy, but that is ridiculous. He has a couple of high affinities at best, and no matter how much skill he has, crossing the gap between tiers is very hard no matter the tier." Kelsa dismissed the man''s words easily.


    Gabriel shook his head at the woman, appearing to give up on trying to convince her. However, unlike Kelsa, Lucien didn''t take Gabriel''s words as a grain of salt.


    "Are you saying you believe that boy is going to be a Tier 5 or Tier 6 in the future? You felt his aura, there is a high chance that he has ruined his foundation with his advancement."


    "I doubt that," Gabriel said confidently. "I told you, he is better than a lot of the upperclassmen. He also has quite a hunger for power. So I don''t think he would advance without being sure of it."


    "People do dumb stuff to survive Gabriel," Lucien reminded the man.


    "Some people also do dumb stuff for power," Gabriel shot back, which gave him pause.


    Ain''t that the truth, he thought to himself, recalling his own mistakes from his youth.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Are you saying that he threw himself into danger, without regard to his safety?"


    "That is exactly what I am saying. The boy isn''t the most rational person, but he has this talent for overcoming dangerous situations."


    Lucien sighed loudly. "I guess it doesn''t matter too much at the moment, we have other important things to handle. What''s done is done and we need to focus on how we are going to move forward."


    "I agree, but what do we do now?" Kelsa asked frustratingly.


    "First we need to contact the Royal Family at once, but not too soon, as we won''t be able to question the princess if they come and take her away. I suspect her guard will have already made contact but try and delay them."


    "Are you sure we want to risk offending them? If we weren''t willing to offend the other families, why are we going to risk offending the Royal Family?"


    "We''re not, don''t worry, we are going to be even more polite with the princess. I don''t want any outburst like you just did. I want to ask the princess some general questions and see how her story aligns with the boy. We have no idea how close the two of them had gotten during their time away, and we have no idea what they did for these past several months. For all we know they hate each other," he said to the still-irritated woman while adjusting his glasses.


    Kelsa appeared to accept this reasoning and nodded her head. When he saw this, he notified someone to go get the princess and bring her in.


    He didn''t expect to get anything new from the girl if the boy was any indication, but it wouldn''t hurt to check.


    ***


    Julius POV


    After hanging out at their secret spot, it was time to head back to his dorm. A place that he hadn''t been back to in a very long time. He couldn''t help but wonder what his roommate might think upon seeing him again.


    Hell, he didn''t even know if he had a roommate anymore. Did the school just remove all of his stuff when he was gone? He had no idea.


    When he reached the door to his room, he checked the inside with [Spatial Perception] and immediately sensed Henry inside. However, what caught his attention was that he wasn''t alone. Several students were hanging out inside, looking like they were having fun.


    He hesitated momentarily and pondered whether it would be worth it to just sleep somewhere else tonight. The training rooms always had a nice comfy mat if his memory served him correctly.


    With that being said, it would probably be best just to rip the bandaid off. He would rather just get it over with. Plus, he would love to sleep in a real bed tonight. So without any further ado, he opened the door and walked in.


    Everyone in the room turned to see who had entered.


    He recognized two of the other people right away. Chris and Garrett, he believed their names were if he could recall correctly. The other three girls he didn''t recognize at all. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Who are you?" A blonde girl with many bangles on her wrists asked him.


    "How did you get in? Was the door locked?" Another black-haired girl asked.


    He ignored them, which seemed to frustrate them, and merely looked over at Henry to see his reaction.


    Henry had his mouth wide open and was staring at Julius like he was seeing a ghost. His friend, Garrett, poked the other boy in the side. "Wait, isn''t that you know¡­?"


    "When did you get back?" Henry finally asked after a while.


    Julius shrugged. "I just got back today."


    "Wait, does that mean the princess is back too?" Henry asked with surprise, coloring his voice.


    Seeing no reason to hide what would become common knowledge tomorrow, he nodded his head.


    "Hold up, Henry. Is this your old roommate? The one who disappeared along with Princess Reinera several months ago?" The blonde girl asked loudly.


    Henry turned to her and nodded his head. "It is and I will explain things a little later, but could you guys give us some privacy?"


    "Come on! This is the boy who everyone thought was dead alongside the princess, and now you want us to leave before we get to ask him what happened?" The blonde exclaimed.


    Julius chuckled at the whole situation. He wasn''t that surprised that they didn''t even know his name and only knew him as the boy who disappeared with the princess.


    He gave Henry a shrug of his shoulders. "I already talked to the school earlier and they have asked me not to share anything with the other students yet. So if you want to ask me what happened, you are going to have to wait until the school releases that information."


    It wasn''t exactly the truth, but it would hopefully let him escape any more questions without too much trouble.


    He looked at Henry. "I don''t mind if your friends want to stay, but I am going to relax. I had a long day and sleeping in a bed would be very nice."


    Henry frowned and thought for a little bit. "No, it''s okay. We were all just about to head off to bed as well," he said with a meaningful look at his friends.


    Luckily, they seemed to get the message. Even though they grumbled the entire time, they all eventually gathered their things and left the room.


    Julius didn''t miss the intensely curious stares he got the entire time though.


    Once they had left and shut the door, he quickly changed into more comfortable clothes and flopped into his bed, sighing in pleasure as he had forgotten just how soft the bed was.


    He closed his eyes and got ready to go to sleep, but was interrupted.


    "You know, I never got the chance to apologize for my behavior towards you when we first met," Henry suddenly said.


    He opened his eyes and looked over at his heavily fidgeting roommate.


    "Where is this coming from?"


    "I did a lot of thinking when you were gone and realized how much of an arrogant douchebag I was to you. I don''t know, I just have been feeling really guilty about it ever since," Henry said ashamedly.


    Julius was about to say that he shouldn''t worry about it and brush the apology away, but he sensed the boy''s aura pulse anxiously. It most likely took a lot of courage to come out and apologize like this.


    "Thank you. It takes a brave person to apologize like that," he said sincerely.


    "That''s it? No berating or insulting me? You just accept it like that?" Henry asked, confused.


    "What else is there to say? I appreciate your apology, and I don''t hold any hard feelings about what happened in the past."


    "I don''t know, I was kind of expecting you to yell at me or to tell me to eat shit," Henry admitted.


    Julius waved his hand at him. "Trust me, I had to deal with a lot more other shit in the past several months than you being an arrogant noble ''douchebag''," he said jokingly.


    Henry let out a sharp chuckle. "Yeah¡­ I guess you have."


    Smiling softly to himself, he closed his eyes once again.


    "So does that mean we''re good?" Henry asked after a few moments.


    Julius chuckled while shaking his head. "Yeah, we''re all good."


    He heard Henry release a sigh of relief upon that.


    Perhaps, the arrogant boy wasn''t so bad after all, he thought to himself amusedly as he fell asleep.

 Chapter 290 - 288: No Point of Hiding It

    It felt weird as he got up and prepared for class. Something just didn''t seem right about being gone for as long as he had and suddenly showing up in class like nothing had happened.


    What was he supposed to say to the other students if they asked him? The truth? Or just ignore them? He kind of liked that last option, though he wasn''t sure how well that would work out for him.


    He suspected that students would be very persistent.


    He had tried to convince the others that not going to class was a better option, but they convinced him otherwise.


    Henry had already left for the day, which was surprising because it was really early for the other boy. However, he suspected that it was more because he wanted to avoid Julius and any awkwardness that might come with seeing him again in the morning after their little chat last night.


    ***


    When he arrived at his Physical Training class, he spotted Joshua and James walking onto the large field.


    However, James must have noticed something because he turned to look directly at Julius.


    For a moment, Joshua''s face was a mixture of confusion and disbelief. Then he realized what he was seeing and immediately started shaking Joshua furiously by the shoulder.


    Joshua seemed annoyed by the sudden assault and was about to reproach James, but he looked over to where his friend was pointing animatedly.


    There was no hesitation; Joshua took off at an impressive burst of speed and was instantly in front of Julius.


    He didn''t even get a word out before Joshua started to talk quickly.


    "I can''t believe it! I heard from people this morning that the princess had returned to Goldencrest, but they didn''t mention if you had! I am so glad that you are alive and safe," the boy said with genuine relief in his voice. He gripped Julius by the shoulders and shook him just like James had shaken him moments earlier.


    James, being the mindful one, pried Joshua''s fingers from him.


    "He has been worried about you the entire time you have been missing. I mean, the entire team has been, but Joshua has been particularly worried. He had his family send people to go and search for you," James said to him in a whisper.


    "Don''t pretend like you weren''t really worried either."


    James ignored him and grinned at Julius. "I''m really happy to see you safe and sound."


    Julius looked down at the ground and smiled. "Thanks, you guys. How have you and the others been since I have been gone?"


    James nodded proudly. "Honestly, we have all made some incredible progress. Joshua, Tia, and Polux have both stood out in our class as some of the best first years."


    Julius frowned. "What about you and Nessa? You don''t consider yourselves that way?"


    James laughed. "Nah, we aren''t combat specialists. We are definitely toward the top of the class, but the other three have a clear advantage over most of the other students. I would say only a handful of first-years can even match them anymore. Although, I am sure that you have gotten stronger than any of us."


    He looked over at James with confusion. "Why would you think that?"


    James gave him a knowing grin. "I mean Polux might have told us about how you were hiding some of your abilities," the boy said with a look toward Joshua.


    I thought he promised that he wouldn''t say anything, he thought to himself with a grimace.


    Joshua appeared to see his expression and put his hands up to calm him. "He mainly did it because we were so worried that you would die. But he kept up telling us that he believed you would be absolutely fine. We badgered him about why he was so confident and he finally had to tell us that you were much stronger than you ever let on. He said that you were even stronger than Helen and possibly the princess."


    Julius still shook his head. To be honest, it wasn''t like he really minded that much. After the whole incident and spending some time away from Goldencrest, his view on things had changed.


    He realized that he wasn''t as worried about hiding his abilities or his strength. He had reached a point where it wasn''t worth the effort.


    He was now Tier 3 with a Special Emblem to boot. Which meant he was already decently close to advancing to Tier 4. Plus, he was able to fight against Tier 4s and win. With that kind of power, he didn''t feel as fragile anymore. While he knew that he wouldn''t be able to handle a Tier 5 or a really powerful Tier 4, the fact remained that there weren''t a lot of people like that out there.


    He also shouldn''t be too worried about House Greyson hunting him down for the House Hyperius stuff, because objectively speaking, his stunt with the caravan would put a much larger spotlight on him. If they were coming after him, it would be because of that.


    "I''m still going to punch his face in," he said quietly to them.


    "I think he might be glad to take it when he sees that you''re back," Joshua said with a big grin.


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    "Speaking of that, how did you find out that the princess returned? We only got back last evening."


    "I heard some of the students talking with each other this morning as I was walking to class. Apparently, they spotted a bunch of professors and random people last night and figured things out."


    "Do you think that I am going to be getting a lot of attention? Or do you think it will mainly be on her?" He asked, kind of dreading to hear the answer.


    "Oh yeah, you are definitely going to be getting a lot of attention," James said bluntly, laughing a bit after he told Julius that.


    "At least, it won''t be as bad as the kind of attention the princess will be getting. I bet she won''t even be able to leave her room without people hounding her," Joshua added with a small grin as well.


    He nodded his head in defeat. He had expected something like that when he returned. Reinera was too high-profile, and since he had disappeared alongside her, he would inevitably receive some of that attention as well.


    Joshua gave him a sympathetic hand on the shoulder. "Either way, I am glad that you are back. We missed you."


    ***


    The two of them were right. By the time his next class rolled around, a good number of students were staring at him very intensely.


    It would appear that rumors traveled fast in a school like this because people who he had seen but who had never approached him before, were now staring at him like he owed them lunch money or something.


    He doubted they even knew his name, perhaps some of them only knew him as the person who got his ass kicked during Applied Combat class by weak monsters.


    Halfway through his day, it felt like everyone and their mother knew about him. As he sat through Intro to Mana, he felt over a couple dozen gazes pressed into the back of his skull.


    [Spatial Perception] just made it worse and he had to turn it off momentarily because otherwise, he wouldn''t be able to concentrate very well. The only thing that made it not so bad, was the fact that people were hesitant to come up to him. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    When Applied Combat rolled around, he was even more glad because he witnessed firsthand Reinera getting swarmed by practically half of the students before class had started.


    Professor Rowe had to yell in order to get the class to calm down and be quiet.


    He shared an apologetic smile with Reinera who had thrown him a desperate look, pleading for help. He dutifully ignored her like the good friend he was.


    He hadn''t been able to talk to her since they went their separate ways yesterday, so he didn''t know how her discussion with Amelia and her family went. However, considering that she was still here, he assumed that it went okay. If it had gone bad, he suspected that they would have pulled her out of Goldencrest and taken her back to the Capital.


    He was surprised they didn''t do it anyway but glad they chose not to. Or maybe she had convinced them to allow her to stay. He didn''t know what had happened, but they had promised to talk to each other tonight.


    A part of him wanted to go over and talk to her. Given the circumstances, pretending that they didn''t know each other no longer made sense.


    They had both returned at the same time, so people might already assume that they had been together wherever they had been.


    Actually, now that he was thinking about it, it was really quite silly. They were friends for goodness sake. It wasn''t like he wasn''t already friends with people of notoriety. Hell, Lily and Derek on their own were scions of the very powerful Houses. Even Edgar, Aubrey, and Kyle were quite well-known in their own right.


    So with a shake of his head, he made his decision.


    ***


    After class ended, he was beset by several students. He suspected that these people were the ones who realized that bothering the princess was a fruitless endeavor, and if they wanted to satisfy their curiosity, he would be a much easier target.


    Unfortunately for them, he didn''t give a shit. So before any of them could stop him and pester him with questions, he could see they desperately wanted to ask, he was already brushing by them.


    His direction took him straight to Reinera, who was being mobbed by other students.


    He saw that she was in full princess mode and didn''t look the least bit ruffled by the loud clamoring of voices.


    "Oh my god, when I heard what had happened, I was so sad! I am so relieved to see that you are okay."


    "Can you tell us what happened?"


    "Where have you been for these past months?"


    "It must have been so terrifying. If you want to talk with anyone, I am here for you."


    "Do you want to eat lunch together?"


    He chuckled as students did their best to either find out what happened or to take this opportunity to get closer to her. He didn''t exactly blame some of them either.


    She was a princess after all and getting closer to her would probably be a good thing for their Houses.


    With that being said, he could tell that she wasn''t enjoying all of this. While her outward demeanor showed that she was fine, the time spent with her let him realize the truth. He could tell that she was feeling overwhelmed and uncomfortable.


    She was pinching her fingers together so tightly that he almost thought she would draw blood.


    This was the exact reason why he started to bump and shove his way through the crowd. He was shocked at how difficult it was and had to resort to activating his enhancement skill to jostle some of the more aggressive students out of the way.


    The fact that they were only Tier 2 made this surprisingly easy once he used his skill.


    When he finally fought his way to the center, he spotted her surrounded by a lot of people. The ones closest to her were the people that he had seen around her prior to their disappearance.


    He had no idea what their names were, but he knew from talking with her that many of them were simply opportunistic people who cared more about the status of being associated with her than about knowing her.


    Which made him feel less bad about stepping up and shoving people away.


    A group of them turned around and started to berate him, but he continued to ignore them all. He didn''t care about them, and he had only one thing on his mind.


    Out of my way, I am trying to save a princess here. He thought to himself amusingly.


    He finally latched his hand on her wrist and started to drag her away before she even realized what was happening. He felt her start to freak out a little bit, as she had no idea who was grabbing her so roughly.


    However, when she looked at the person who had grabbed her, she completely relaxed. He saw her give him a look of relief and gratitude, but that look quickly turned into one of confusion. They had talked about keeping some distance for the time being until they figured things out.


    So when he saw her questioning look, he merely gave her a shrug in return which earned him the first genuine smile he had seen from her yet.


    She untensed her arms, simply allowed him to drag her away. Luckily for him, he knew that she was less delicate than most people would initially think. Her improvements to her body skills, along with her advancement, made her quite the sturdy person.


    This allowed him to shove their way through the crowd, and he almost successfully completed his snatch and grab when he was obstructed.


    A guy who was a part of the group that had hung out with Reinera chased after them and grabbed his shoulders very harshly.

 Chapter 291 - 289: Getting Used to the Attention

    "Hey! What do you think you are doing?"


    Julius turned his head to look at the dude with an innocent expression on his face. The guy was quite the handsome fellow, but it was marred by the severe frown on his face.


    "Have some respect. You can''t treat her like that!" The guy berated him.


    Julius confusingly looked toward Reinera and she just shrugged her shoulders, as if saying she didn''t know what to do either. Not knowing who this person was, and since she apparently didn''t think to try to explain things to him, he decided to ignore him.


    Julius gave him one last glance before pulling away with Reinera in tow.


    Unfortunately, the other boy wouldn''t allow him to leave so easily. A hand latched itself onto his shoulders once more. This time, a little more strength went into it. Julius could feel the mana flowing through the guy''s body as his enhancement skill activated.


    "I was talking to you," the unknown boy said angrily enough that the people around them realized something was wrong. The chatter died down a little as they became curious about what was happening.


    "Oh, I''m sorry," Julius said with a soft bob of his head before whispering over to Reinera. "Do you know this person?"


    She leaned forward and gave him a soft shake of her head. "Kind of, his name is Adam, and he''s not really a bad guy. He''s just a bit¡­" She trailed off.


    "A bit like a noble?" He finished for her.


    "Yeah, like a noble," she admitted in a soft hush.


    "What should I say to him?" He whispered back.


    "I don''t know, it wasn''t like I was expecting you to come over here. I thought you wanted us to pretend like we didn''t know each other?" She mumbled with a quick look at all the people who were staring at them.


    "I did, but then I thought about how annoying it would be to pretend to do all of that and that it would eventually come out anyway. Also, you looked pretty miserable over here and thought you could use some help," he said with a light laugh.


    "Well, thank you. I thought when I gave you that look earlier, you decided to ignore me," she said to him with a grin.


    "I thought about it," he said with a matching grin.


    She shook her head and kicked him in the shin for his teasing.


    The boy who had obstructed them seemed pretty close to blowing his lid while they forgot about him as they talked.


    However, Reinera thankfully turned over to this ''Adam'' person. "It''s alright, Adam, I''ll see you and the others later," she said gently.


    "Who is this?" Adam asked with a derisive look toward Julius.


    "This is Julius, the other student who was transported with me," she explained before turning away. This time, she was the one who began dragging Julius along by the wrist.


    "Woah," he said as she almost made him fall off his feet, but luckily kept up with her. He also felt Adam reach out once again in an attempt to grab his shoulder, but this time he did something about it.


    The first two times Adam grabbed his shoulder, he could accept. But after she had explained things to him, he didn''t think the guy had any need to touch him again. This is why he used a brief pulse of kinetic energy to halt Adam''s movements.


    It was surprisingly easy to do. Since he was only Tier 2, Julius didn''t even have to focus on overcoming his willpower. It felt like it was barely there in the first place.


    He didn''t completely immobilize the boy, either. He simply made sure that he could not reach over and grab him. He released him quickly afterward, and by that time, they were already out of reach.


    Thankfully, the boy didn''t come chasing after them, and he followed along amusingly as Reinera dragged him off to the cafeteria.


    However, he couldn''t help but notice the weird looks he was getting from the other students as they all spotted the princess hauling him away.


    ***


    "How have you been enjoying your first day back?" Lily asked him.


    "Some stares, but for the most part, it has been pretty boring, to be honest," he said to her, looking around at the cafeteria.


    Whereas the first years had swarmed Reinera, now that they were in the upperclassmen''s cafeteria, the other students didn''t really give them much attention. Of course, there were some stares, but it wasn''t bad at all. Most of the older students didn''t seem to care all that much about the princess''s return, at least not enough to come storming towards their table to interrupt.


    Reinera, who was sitting on his other side, chuckled. "I suspect that things might change pretty soon," she said with an empathetic shake of her head.


    There is that, he thought to himself sadly.


    "Yeah, I noticed that you aren''t exactly hiding that you know each other," Edgar said with a mouth full of food.


    "Chew before you talk. You are getting food everywhere," Lily said to the big guy.


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    "No, I''m not," Edgar said while crumbs were falling off of his face.


    Lily pinched her nose and turned back to Julius. "Anyhow, why did you decide to do that? I thought you were still trying not to attract attention?"


    "I went over what we talked about last night, and you guys were right. There is no way that I am going to be able to hide things for very long anymore. If it''s not my recent advancement to Tier 3 getting attention, it will be something else, like my relationship with Reinera. So I thought it was better just to get it over now."


    "See? I give some good advice," Aubrey stated proudly.


    He ignored her, much to her displeasure.


    "I am still wondering if it''s worth it to stay at Goldencrest. I feel like this place is limiting me," he said to them.


    "Where is this coming from? You said something like that last night."


    "Just something I was realizing when I was sitting in my classes. There isn''t much that I find useful in those classes. Physical Training is something I can do with or without school, Professor Stewart is not someone who teaches mana the way I use it, and while Professor Rowe and Professor Youma are great teachers, they were limited by what they can teach the rest of the class."


    "What would you do though? Leave and go adventuring?" Aubrey asked, sounding genuinely curious.


    He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. I hadn''t thought that far ahead, but it might be the better option to get stronger." Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Lily gave him a soft bump to get his attention. "You really think that''s the best option? Remember, not everything is about getting stronger."


    He gave her a small, unsure smile. "I''m not saying I have decided just yet."


    "Well, before you start getting ideas about leaving, you should focus on how you two are going to deal with the mess you got yourselves into," Aubrey said while chewing on her food.


    "Yeah, don''t remind me," he said tiredly, already knowing that after lunch was over, they would be swarmed once again.


    ***


    It was chaos. For the next week, he and Reinera found themselves getting nonstop attention from all of the other underclassmen, specifically first years.


    It was so bad that Julius and Reinera had straight-up avoided going to class. However, after the first few days, it died down a little, and he was able to start getting back into his routine.


    The only time he had to himself was when he was hanging out with the others or in a training room.


    People were very suddenly very interested in finding out who he was. Previously, he was a nobody. Most students didn''t even know his name, and he was more well-known to the older students who saw him with the others.


    However, that had changed very quickly.


    People tried to talk to him and ask him questions all the time. At first, it was questions about Reinera and how he had gotten close to her. But recently, the questions had become more about him rather than her.


    A very funny development was that he suddenly became very popular with the girls in his year. It would seem that being ''friends'' with a princess made girls want to befriend him as well.


    During class, girls would frequently approach him and try to initiate a conversation. Somehow,, they had found out things about him beforehand. Most of them already knew that he was friends with Joshua and that group.


    A much bigger shock to him was that it had also come out that he was friends with Lily and the others. After some thought, he suspected that Henry''s friends had told some students who then told everyone else. He remembered that Aubrey had literally threatened Henry and his friends earlier in the year, so it would make sense for them to know about their relationship and they would only need to ask some older students to verify it.


    The fact that he was friends with them wasn''t exactly unknown to the upperclassmen, but for the first years, this was big news¡ªnews that garnered him a lot of attention regardless of his connection with Reinera.


    This meant he had quickly become one of the most popular or rather most sought-after guys in his year. He still didn''t know how he felt about that quite yet.


    It certainly felt better than being ridiculed or looked down on, but the fact that everyone always looked at him when he passed by them didn''t make him feel comfortable.


    "You are still using too much mana," he commented offhandedly to Joshua, who was in the middle of some training. The other boy had been asking for his help quite often after Polux spilled that Julius was stronger than he pretended to be.


    He didn''t mind it, though. Joshua was surprisingly hard-working when he wanted to be. He had already tightened up a lot of his techniques. While nothing too impressive so far, it had only been around a week of training so far.


    Julius was also sparring with Polux, who was trying to get used to a new skill the boy had earned a few days earlier.


    It was a skill that used some properties of mana to enhance his attacks.


    The boy decided to get this skill because he had some trouble against enemies who had an aura-based defense skill. They weren''t that common, but apparently, several students had one, and it always gave Polux a hard time whenever he sparred with these people.


    It wasn''t quite a body enhancement skill, the skill was more like a spontaneous burst of energy instead of a sustained flow of mana which was probably better for the wolfkin boy.


    It was quite a simple skill that literally burst an amount of mana through his fist and at the moment, it was a little lacklaster and wasteful. However, Julius believed that there was potential for it to grow into a powerful skill one day.


    A good old burst of mana never hurt anyone. It was actually similar to what he did for [Flash Step] but just for a fist.


    With that being said, Polux always had trouble with mana-specific skills so he was still having some difficulty adapting to it. Currently, he was trying to speed up its activation and asked for Julius''s help.


    Julius was still upset at the boy and decided that this was a good time to get back at the other boy. It was basically a free chance to beat up on the tattletale.


    Polux stepped forward and activated the skill. Julius sensed the manipulation of mana and placed a barrier of aura in front of him, blocking the attack easily.


    That was probably the biggest problem with the skill. It just took way too long to activate, and by that time, he could create any number of barriers to block it or simply avoid it. However, Polux already knew that, which is why they were practicing.


    "Don''t even think about making it pretty," he advised Polux.


    "What do you mean?" Polux asked after taking a step back.


    Julius looked at Joshua, who was training his mana control. He was still making sure Joshua was paying attention in case he had to give advice to the other boy, too. After seeing that Joshua was trying to limit the amount of mana wasted during the spell''s formation, he nodded his head approvingly and turned back to Polux.


    "The skill itself isn''t very complicated. At its core, it is pure mana exploding outward. Don''t worry about controlling every bit of it. We can worry about mana conservation later. Right now, just focus on throwing your mana as swiftly through your fist as possible."


    Polux nodded his head firmly and closed his eyes before lashing out in another strike. This time, Julius noticed that it was slightly quicker this time around, and while it wasn''t elegant to watch, it was effective.


    "Better, just focus on pure speed until you run out of mana, okay? Try and actually land an actual strike if you can," he said challengingly to the boy.


    Polux smiled and proceeded to try doing just that. Whether he was able to accomplish that, well¡­ that was up for debate.


    For the time being, he enjoyed himself and occasionally hit Polux a bit harder than necessary. However, it didn''t feel as satisfying as it could have because the other boy seemingly enjoyed it more than he probably had any right to.

 Chapter 292 - 290: Teacher Julius

    Tia had shown up not long afterward and asked to join their little session.


    "So you and the princess, huh?" Tia asked with a knowing grin on her face, immediately going for the throat.


    "Why do you care so much about that? That''s like the fifth time you asked me about it since I came back." He said to her.


    "Because it''s such a romantic cliche," she said with a cheery smile.


    Joshua scoffed from the side. "What? Get pulled through a dangerous spatial trap and find themselves stranded inside a Tier 3 rift? Oh yeah, and almost dying as well. Sounds very romantic to me."


    "You know what I mean," she argued before turning to Julius. "Also, I have seen the two of you together. I know it''s not just me who sees how close the two of you are."


    He shook his head at her but couldn''t argue against her. He had heard people talking about it, too. Some of the rumors have been getting quite out of hand, though.


    "Are we going to practice, or are we going to gossip the entire time?" He asked her.


    "Okay, okay. But just to let you know, I am going to ask you again after this," Tia promised with an evil grin.


    He ignored her, but that only seemed to invigorate her.


    ***


    "You''re still using too much mana. Maybe you should take a break. You are getting a bit sloppier than you were earlier," Julius commented to Joshua across the room.


    "What do you mean he is using too much mana?" Tia asked as she worked on some of her skills.


    "It means he is using too much mana," he said plainly.


    She sighed exasperatedly at his sarcastic answer. "He is already using so little mana. Isn''t that good enough?"


    He paused and let Polux''s fist connect with his shoulder, not worrying too much about it because even though it was quite powerful for a Tier 2, the punch didn''t even penetrate his defenses.


    "He is wasting a bunch of mana because he is letting a good amount drift off into the air," he said while pointing at all of the wasted water mana he sensed drifting from Joshua.


    She gave him a disbelieving stare. "How can you even filter out the water mana and sense it? I certainly can''t."


    "Well, that might be something you should work on," he said as he ducked his head to avoid the overhand right from Polux and threw a frontkick at Polux, sending the wolfkin boy flying through the air. He still hadn''t completely forgiven the other boy yet. Or rather, he didn''t want to. He enjoyed hanging it over the wolfkin boy and using that as an excuse to be rougher on him during their sparring.


    "That''s what Domains and Authorities, to an extent, are meant for," the girl said to him with a deadpan stare, clearly not liking the tone of his response.


    "I don''t see a reason why you can''t start now though. Plus, you won''t be able to get either of those if you don''t already have some proficiency in those areas," he said to her much more politely, realizing how terse he might have come across. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Because it would probably take me focusing on my perception skill for the next couple of months even to get close to making any kind of meaningful progress. The prelims for the tournament are next week, I have to focus on my strengths," she said with a frown.


    He sighed. He quickly found out that Tia loved plants and skills that revolved around that. However, for anything else, she was very unwilling to put in the effort. He didn''t know if it was because she didn''t like practicing something she wasn''t good at or if she just found it boring, but he was confident this would be something that would keep her behind the others in the long run.


    She couldn''t just focus on plant magic the entire time. She needed to round out her skillset just a little bit. Her physical abilities were quite substandard, as were her general perception abilities, not just for mana but for aura and threat detection as well.


    Additionally, he found out that her aura control wasn''t that great; with his new skill, he was able to read her intentions practically without much work. It would always be at a huge disadvantage if she ever fought someone with good aura senses like Polux. The wolf boy could literally read her like an open book. It was why she never won in their mock battles.


    "Look, I know you want to win the tournament, but I am going to be honest, like you asked me to when you joined this training. Currently, you don''t have much of a chance of winning against someone who can avoid your plants. If you don''t pin them down, it''s pretty much over. That is why I have been advising you to add something to your toolkit. It doesn''t have to be mana sensing. It can be something else. But it needs to be something that can help you when your main weapon is ineffective," he explained calmly to her.


    "But the tournament-" she tried to argue, but he quickly cut her off.


    "Forget the tournament. Think about what is going to happen in the real world when you come across a monster you can''t pin down with vines. What is going to happen to you? Are you going to rely on your teammates every time? I thought you said you want to be as strong as Edgar?"


    "I do!" She said fervently.


    "Then prove it," he said before turning away. This wasn''t the first time he had a similar conversation with her this week. Only this time, he wasn''t as patient with her. She was just stubborn and didn''t like to listen to other''s advice. He didn''t entirely blame her either. He was ''just'' a Tier 3 to her. While it was a mutual agreement that he was stronger than her, she probably thought he was stronger merely because of the tier difference.


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    As he was walking away, Polux came up to him, rubbing the front of his chest where Julius had kicked him.


    "Don''t you think you were a little harsh on her?"


    "She was the one who asked me to," he said with another sigh.


    Polux nodded his head. "Fair, but she is stubborn. I have found that out the hard way these past several months."


    Julius looked over to where she was still playing with plant magic."Then she will fall behind, I guess."


    "Why don''t you spar her for real?" Polux offered.


    "Yeah, but what is that going to prove? That I am stronger?" He asked Polux.


    "No, don''t just beat her. Beat her in the same way other people are going to. Force her to acknowledge that she needs another method of fighting. I try to work with her, but she says that I am too fast for her vines to work. I don''t think she realizes that someone of significant skill can avoid her vines without being extraordinarily fast or strong," Polux stated.


    That isn''t an awful idea, he thought to himself.


    "And you think I can?"


    Polux scoffed. "I know you can. The others have no clue about how strong you really are. I told them some things, but experiencing it versus hearing it is something else entirely. I think she needs to experience how someone in Tier 2 can beat her with sheer skill."


    "You do remember that I am Tier 3, right?"


    Polux gave him a deadpan look. "No, it''s not like you haven''t mentioned a hundred times."


    "It has not been a hundred times," he argued.


    "Close enough. And you can always limit your physical abilities to Tier 2. I have seen you do something similar already."


    Julius bounced the idea around in his head. Eventually, he came to a decision. Because, at the end of the day, he wanted Tia to succeed. He wanted all of them to succeed. And what was the point of becoming strong if he couldn''t help his friends?


    They were nice people, and if he needed to deal with the occasional hard-headedness, he would. After all, he knew better than anyone how hard-headed he could be at times. He couldn''t exactly criticize her, considering all of his own¡­ issues.


    Resolving to at least give it a try, he went over to her.


    "Let''s spar," he said without beating around the bush.


    ***


    Tia POV


    She kicked imaginary dirt on the training floor. What did he want from her? First, he suggested that she start learning better body enhancement skills, and now he thinks she should learn a new mana perception skill.


    Who does he think she is?


    First of all, she was a mage. She didn''t believe that she needed to learn how to fight like Polux.


    Secondly, her mana sensing was just fine. It was just his that was abnormally good, a fact that she was very jealous of. Of course, she would want to have amazing mana-sensing skills like his, but it didn''t work like that. Believe her, she has tried.


    Finally, she did not believe that she needed to change her style, which was one of the main reasons she had been one of the more powerful students in their year.


    She remembered that Polux said Julius was much stronger than he initially led them to believe. However, you would think Julius could do no wrong when Polux talked about him. He even went as far as to say that Julius at Tier 2 was stronger than Helen or the princess, two tough things to believe after seeing both of them in action.


    She still recalled when Julius had difficulty dealing with weak Tier 2 monsters. And now, all of a sudden, he was a Tier 3 on his return.


    Don''t get her wrong, she liked Julius a lot. But she didn''t know if she needed to listen to all of his advice just because he was a tier above her.


    However, his offer took her by surprise. He wanted to spar for some reason, and she could smell Polux''s stupid furry fingers all over it.


    She looked at Julius for a little while as she processed his words. Eventually, she came to a decision. At the end of the day, it wouldn''t hurt, and it would be a good experience to fight against someone stronger than she was. While she had no expectation of winning, she believed she could gain some valuable insight into the difference between her and a Tier 3.


    "Okay, right now?" She asked.


    "Sure, why not? We have plenty of room," he said to her unbotheredly.


    She nodded her head, headed over to an emptier space, and got into position. Polux and Joshua had both come to observe, as well. Polux stepped toward the middle to referee the match.


    "You guys both ready?"


    She vocalized her assent and saw Julius nod his head as well. Seeing that both of them were ready, Polux signaled the beginning of the fight.


    She already knew what she was going to do. Julius liked to fight up close and personal, which meant that he would most likely blitz toward her before she could activate her skills. He would want to prove to her that she needed another method of fighting.


    She sent a thick wall of thorns as he dashed toward her. Although she was surprised at this speed, it wasn''t as fast as she had been expecting from a Tier 3. It would seem that he was holding back for her sake.


    He avoided the wall of thorns quite easily, but that was expected. The wall helped delay him enough so that she could activate her other skills. She targeted a large area around Julius and areas where she believed he could move.


    Then, in an instant, a wave of vines covered in thorns swarmed his location, and she saw him not make a move to dodge them and stay right in the middle of them.


    He must really be underestimating me, she thought to herself with a slight smirk.


    However, that smirk quickly fell off her face when he effortlessly danced through her vines. Julius wasn''t even using his superior physical abilities to get through them as Polux had done in the past.


    In fact, he was moving pretty slowly, all things considered. Each step was methodically planned and executed. It was like he always knew exactly where every one of her vines was.


    There were no fancy skills activated or big explosions. All that he used were small bursts of mana and minimal movement. Unfortunately for her, that was all he needed.


    Realizing that he would make it through her field of traps, she threw everything she had at him.


    But it wasn''t enough to stop him. He fluttered around her vines, and when he arrived several feet in front of her face, she activated one of her failsafe skills.


    It was a skill that released a bunch of paralytic spores; the range wasn''t that big, but when someone was already so close to her, it was hard for her to miss.


    However, she groaned when she saw a barrier of mana appear in front of him and mold around his body, protecting himself. The spores tried to get through the barrier, but it was well made, and they were rebuffed.


    And before she could do anything else, his hand was on her shoulder, looking at her in the eyes. He didn''t show an ounce of tiredness or exertion. It was like he had just strolled through a park on a sunny morning, not through a field of thorns that would have shredded anyone else.


    So, she had to admit defeat with a tired droop of her shoulders.

 Chapter 293 - 291: Hard Decisions To Make

    He gave himself a proud mental pat on the back for a job well done. He hadn''t believed that he could avoid all of Tia''s vines while severely limiting himself to a Tier 2''s strength, but he had. Thanks to that stupid obstacle course at House Easten, it gave him the ability to do so.


    "How did you avoid all of them?" She asked him, shock still present in her eyes.


    Julius looked over at the girl, who looked utterly lost. She probably hadn''t believed he could easily make it through her vines. Though, it wasn''t as easy as he made it look. If he had been using his entire strength, then that would be a different story, but since he had been using kinetic energy to limit himself artificially, he was probably as weak as he had been when he first arrived at Goldencrest.


    He was probably even weaker than then since he had to focus on using his skills to handicap himself, limiting how many other techniques he could use at once.


    "I told you, your aura makes it pretty easy to determine your intentions. I also just used my mana sense to see where you were creating the vines beneath me. I didn''t even use my perception skill to do so. If I had, I would have had an easier time," he explained to her.


    He was telling the truth, too. He had not used [Spatial Perception] to detect the vines. There wasn''t much need to do so, either. The mana of the vines she created underneath him had released quite a bit of excess mana that he could easily detect.


    Her aura also told him what she had been planning when she sent the initial wall of thorns at him. There was no real intent to attack, which was how he knew she was planning something else, and he let her know exactly all of that.


    After he was done explaining it to her, he watched as she looked down at her feet with a frown.


    "Look, I didn''t do this to embarrass you, but I wanted to show you that people can avoid your vines without any unusual or rare skills. You shouldn''t only be worried about people destroying your vines or dodging them with an intangibility or teleportation skill. There are other ways."


    "I know, and I''m not forgetting that I am the person who asked for your help in the first place," Tia said while gnawing on her lips in frustration.


    "What do you think I should do?" She finally asked him.


    "Well, I think you need three things. One is that your vines are too conspicuous. I was able to sense them easily, and while most people won''t have my mana-sensing abilities, they should be able to figure it out, too. You can easily train with Joshua who is trying to learn how to use his skill without wasting mana. It''s for a different purpose, but it should still help you out," he said to her.


    "And the other two?"


    "Well, the second thing is that your aura basically lets your enemy know where you are aiming. That is why Polux knows where to dodge and where to smash through. But that can be solved with an aura item that hides your aura. If you don''t have one, I can give you one of my items, but you should start training your aura. Trust me, there are many more applications other than limiting what people can sense from you."


    "What about the last thing?" She asked with a soft frown.


    "You should, at the very least, make yourself a harder target to hit. It is almost like you are waiting for your opponents to come to you," he said with a shake of his head. Even when he had gotten close to her, she hadn''t made a single attempt to move away or avoid him.


    "What do you mean? I don''t follow that one," she said, her frown growing larger.


    "Imagine if you used your vines to shroud your position or use them to buy you more time to reposition. You might not be able to fight your enemies with your fists, but you might just be able to avoid them long enough until your magic works."


    He could see that these words seemed to break through to her, and realization blossomed on her face.


    He sighed as he finally made some progress with her. Who knew that helping others train could be more stressful than his own training? And this was taking into account that he regularly lost limbs or spontaneously exploded during his training.


    ***


    Julius had just left the training room and was heading to the library, where he was supposed to meet the others. Reinera said she might drop by, too, but she had been really busy as well.


    Her family might have allowed her to stay, but she had to uphold certain requirements if she wanted to. She didn''t fully explain them to Julius, but she said it wasn''t that bad, and he believed her when she told him.


    He had almost made it to the library when he felt a group of people approach him, and he recognized a couple of them. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


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    "Oh, look who it is," Adam scoffed at him.


    Julius already had an idea of what was going on, and he didn''t even bother to respond, simply continuing to walk.


    "What? You''re too good for us now that you are all chummy with the princess?" Adam called out again.


    While he has been receiving a lot of attention recently because of his relationships with Reinera and the others, he also has to deal with people like this.


    People who didn''t quite appreciate that he was so close to the princess were usually the same ones who wanted to get close to her themselves. As such, they were properly jealous of him and what he had accomplished.


    Most of them firmly believed that it was all luck and that if not for him being transported alongside her, he would have never gotten the opportunity to even talk to her. What they didn''t know was that they had known each other prior to the incident. Something he wasn''t in a rush to tell them. He had a feeling that it would only make them more angry.


    Some of Adam''s friends started to chirp at him as well, but he kept ignoring them. He used [Sage of Savagery] to distance their voices. If he could handle the pain of exploding his limbs, he could handle the annoyance of a few arrogant nobles.


    However, his continuing avoidance of them seemed to piss them off even more because he suddenly found himself getting grabbed by the shoulder.


    Although these weren''t the first people to try to get a rise out of him during this past week or so, this was the first time someone had tried to put their hands on him.


    This time, he didn''t ignore them and slowly turned to Adam, who gripped his shoulder tightly.


    "You think you can just ignore us? Do you have any idea who the hell we are?" The boy said with gritted teeth.


    Julius glanced over at his shoulder to look at the hand that was still latched onto it. "Why do you like grabbing people so much? This is like the third time you have grabbed me," he said to the other boy.


    "Huh?" Adam tilted his head and asked confusingly.


    If he were Tier 2 or someone weaker, it might have bothered him more that this boy was tightly squeezing his shoulder. But although the boy was clearly trying to intimidate him by squeezing hard, it felt more like a soft, reassuring pat.


    He didn''t think that Adam knew that Julius was Tier 3. He didn''t think many of the students knew that he was just quite yet. It wasn''t exactly something he had been sharing with people. He had told his friends, but that was about it.


    It was also doubtful that Adam and his buddies would be as aggressive if they knew this.


    "What are you guys even looking for? Are you trying to pick a fight? Or are you simply relieving some of the frustrations you have been having?" He asked calmly, looking at each one of them.


    "No, we just don''t think a person like you deserves to be anywhere near the princess," Adam said to him angrily.


    Julius did notice that some of the other boys seemed a bit confused by Julius''s nonchalant behavior and the fact that he wasn''t bothered by the tightly compressing hand on his shoulder.


    "Is it really your business, though?" He asked.


    "Yeah, it is. Us nobles need to stick together because otherwise commoners like you will try and take advantage of our generosity," the boy said firmly, almost as if he actually truly believed in what he was saying.


    "If we are being accurate, the two of you are not nobles. You are a noble. She is royalty. Trust me, she was quite insistent on the difference when I made the same mistake," he said with a light laugh.


    However, his joke seemed to fall flat, and instead, all he got was a noble in his face for his troubles.


    "What did you say?" Adam said, barely controlling his anger as he got within a foot of Julius''s face.


    "I said that she is royalty and you are a noble. So when you said that you nobles needed to stick together, it wasn''t exactly correct," he said, unbothered by the boy''s threatening posture.


    While it might have worried some, he didn''t feel the slightest bit nervous after fighting a Tier 5 and beating a Tier 4.


    He knew that he shouldn''t be egging the boy on, but he couldn''t help himself. The boy was acting like a spoiled brat, and he couldn''t muster any sympathy to feel bad about it at all. The boy had come onto him, and if he wanted to have some fun, then Julius was obliged to let him. It wasn''t his fault if the boy''s confrontation didn''t go according to plan.


    "You better watch your tongue, commoner, before I rip it out of your mouth."


    Julius sighed at the boy''s theatrics and the sight of the other boys beside him trying and failing to look scary.


    "Look, just get out of my way. I have things to do," he said before he turned around and walked away, ignoring them once again.


    With that being said, he couldn''t say he was surprised when he felt a fist flying toward the back of his head.


    He didn''t even bother to try to dodge it. The punch didn''t have any Concepts or overwhelming power, which is why, upon contact, he barely felt a thing. It was just a dull thump.


    However, he was still a little peeved that Adam hadn''t even had the courage to punch him in the face.


    When he turned around again, he observed the stunned and confused looks on all of the boys'' faces. They had seen the punch and heard it make contact with him, but they also saw that he barely reacted.


    Adam was already preparing to attack again, and a couple of the other boys were leaning forward.


    Understanding that they wouldn''t let this go easily, he decided to take matters into his own hands. So he quickly extended his aura to them and ripped through their willpower. He saw the shock and pain they felt when this happened.


    Once they were defenseless, he used kinetic energy to lock them in place.


    He ensured that his brief usage of aura didn''t hurt them too badly. After he did that, he didn''t even bother to look at them again. He went on his way, putting the entire incident to the back of his mind.


    He had more important things to do, such as choosing which cake he wanted to try first tonight. He had just bought some specialty cakes from a new bakery, but he was left with a hard choice to make. Did he want strawberry or chocolate?


    He let out another sigh. So many hard decisions¡­

 Chapter 294 - 292: Rematch Against Edgar

    Julius stepped back and ducked under Aubrey''s swinging fist with a small grin.


    The other girl had gotten much faster during his time away. She must have picked up a new skill or evolved one of her prior ones because now she was displaying speed that she definitely didn''t have before.


    Aubrey had never been the fastest of people, and although she had a pretty powerful defensive skill, the fact that it was harder to hit her was a significant improvement for her. It also posed a very annoying problem for her opponents because she still had her mirage skill, which already made it hard enough as is.


    Luckily for him, he was still able to detect which clone was the real one. However, it was a much more difficult thing to do as each clone had more substance than before. It was almost easier just to use his aura senses to determine the real Aubrey and the fake ones.


    He had been training with her as she got acclimated to her new speed. She wanted him to help her instead of Edgar or Derek because Julius had always been able to perceive where she was easily.


    This meant that she had to use her newfound speed much more efficiently than she otherwise would when fighting Edgar or Derek.


    He wasn''t using his full speed, either. Shockingly, it wasn''t even his idea; it was Aubrey''s.


    She had asked him to dial back his speed when she started sparring. Something he was certain pained her to ask, but he got where she was coming from.


    She wanted to gauge her progress against someone relatively equal in speed, and once she showed some improvement, she would ask him to go a little bit faster.


    With that being said, it wasn''t easy to dodge all of her strikes. Because although her clones weren''t the real her, the attacks were much more threatening now that they had some substance behind them.


    What had once been her best skill at avoiding attacks was now one of her strongest attacking skills. It was kind of hard when almost a dozen Aubrey''s were trying to punch you in the face.


    "Oh yeah, by the way, we already signed you up for the Tier 3 tournament coming up," Aubrey dropped a bombshell in the middle of their sparring, making him lose his concentration and get hit by one of the clones at his back.


    He blasted a short burst of kinetic energy at the clone to destroy it and looked at the others with a confused frown.


    "What do you mean you already signed me up?"


    "Well, after talking with Professor Kellar we were able to figure out how you would be able to participate in the prelims in a couple of days," Edgar said proudly from where he was working on his aura training with Lily.


    "That wasn''t what I was asking about, and you know it."


    "Do you really think we were just going to allow you just not to participate?" Aubrey asked, stepping back, signaling their spar''s end.


    "Yeah, that was what I was hoping for," he said with a firm nod of his head.


    "Well, then we would be bad friends. There is no way you shouldn''t at least try. I mean, you have already decided to stop pretending to be inconspicuous. Most of the students in the school already know about your existence if that''s what you are worried about," she pointed out to him.


    "But it sounds like a huge pain," he complained.


    "That''s a poor reason to give up free rewards."


    "It would probably take me winning the entire thing to make it worth it. Plus, I already have rewards House Easten is supposed to give me."


    "What? You don''t think you can?" Edgar asked with a knowing look on his face.


    "What do you mean?"


    "Lily told us some of the things that happened to you when you were gone," Aubrey said with an exasperated sigh.


    Julius couldn''t help but wince. Marcus apparently had told Lily a tiny amount of details about how he and Stella found Julius a few days ago, though it was unavoidable since he was still a retainer of her House.


    While Marcus hadn''t told Lily everything that happened, he might have mentioned that he found Julius getting beat up by a Tier 5 upon their arrival. It wasn''t like he could avoid it either because House Violet was supposed to help interrogate the Tier 5, and eventually, it would come out how he was captured.


    This predictably didn''t go over very well with Lily, and she had been giving him the silent treatment for the past few days. She hadn''t even tried to scold him like usual. Normally, she would be yelling at him for being dumb and irresponsible. But instead, she gave him a disappointed look every now and then.


    And now she must have told them something.


    He looked over to where she was doing her own thing, still ignoring him.


    Like it had been for the past few days, she wasn''t even looking in his direction, even though she was totally listening to their conversation.


    The only silver lining to it was that Marcus didn''t tell her everything. The man had the mercy not to say to her that Julius had been voluntarily blowing his limbs off while fighting the Tier 5.


    If she knew that, he expected she would be giving him much more than the silent treatment.


    "And why does that change your mind about me participating in the tournament?" He asked.


    "We didn''t change our mind," Aubrey pointed out. "We always thought you should have signed up for it. Even if you didn''t do that well, it would serve as a good experience for you. But apparently, Marcus told her that you were very strong, which is a huge compliment coming from that man."


    "That doesn''t mean I can win the entire thing," he argued.


    Aubrey was about to respond, but for the first time in a few days, Lily spoke to him.


    "How strong are you exactly?" She asked, looking at him with a weird look in her eyes.


    He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought about how he wanted to answer.


    "I don''t really know. But I can say that I am stronger than I was when I left; that''s for certain," he said in all sincerity.


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    "And do you think you can win the entire thing?" She asked, looking directly into his eyes.


    He shied away from her intense gaze. "Yeah, I have a pretty good shot at winning the entire thing," he admitted.


    "Then there''s no debating or arguing about it. You are going to participate in the prelims in a couple of days," Lily said with finality.


    At some point, he knew when to admit defeat. There was no way he was going to be able to get out of this. She was very serious about him participating.


    But that brought up a new problem. He hadn''t told them that he didn''t just have a good shot at winning, but he was very confident that he would. He also hadn''t told them the real reason he was against signing up in the first place.


    From his perspective, Aubrey, Derek, and Edgar were all in their fourth years, which meant that this was the last chance they had to win the tournament. He felt that if he were to participate, he would be taking away their own chances of glory.


    He wanted to see all of them succeed, and if he were to join, he would be another competitor.


    He understood that he was being very arrogant, declaring that they wouldn''t have a chance against him, but that was how he felt this past week when they asked him to participate. He didn''t feel like he needed to win any rewards, and seeing one of them win would give him greater pleasure. But he also realized that they would smack him in the face if they knew he was treating them like one would a child.


    But it was at the exact moment that he realized that not participating for that reason would be wrong.


    "Okay, I will do it," he said with a defeated shake of his head.


    Aubrey clapped her hands together happily. "Wonderful! See how easy that was? But now that is settled, let''s get you ready, too. I feel like we have been the only ones training. I haven''t seen you actually train this entire week, and that''s not like you at all."


    "Agreed, I want to see how much stronger you have gotten," Edgar said with an excited smile. "None of this half-hearted stuff you have been doing since you returned. I want to see you really fight."


    Julius chuckled at the two of them.


    "Well, if you insist."


    ***


    Edgar POV


    Edgar wasn''t lying when he said he wanted to see just how much Julius had improved.


    He already had some inclinations about just how much stronger Julius was now. When Julius was a Tier 2, he was able to keep up with him very well. He had even been able to beat Aubrey pretty consistently too.


    So now that Julius was at the same tier as them, Edgar was genuinely curious to see how much he had changed.


    He had been making his own improvements during this time Julius was away. He had finally gotten his third Concept and got himself an Emblem, something he had learned was essential for advancing to Tier 4.


    He had made some progress in cultivating his Emblem, but it was slow work. It might take a lot of rift-delving to hasten the process. Professor Keller had already told him that fighting monsters and going through real-life battles would make his advancement much easier and seamless in establishing one''s Authority.


    However, he also knew that Julius already had at least two Concepts and possibly even three before he even was at Tier 3. Thus, he wouldn''t be shocked to learn that Julius already had an Emblem of his own, making him close to the same stage as Edgar if you disregarded skill levels.


    He had also sensed that new enhancement skill. Whatever it was, it was quite a scary skill. He didn''t know how it worked, but there was no doubt that it was a combination of at least two other enhancement skills.


    "Are you ready?" He asked Julius as he readied his fists.


    The other boy nodded firmly and looked serenely calm, just like usual. His focus skill always allowed him to keep a measured composure, one of the many skills Edgar was envious of.


    Without any preamble, Edgar activated their simulated combat devices and dashed toward Julius, activating all of his skills.


    He appeared right in front of him and threw a powerful punch at his chest.


    A barrier of dense fire mana appeared in front of Julius, but Edgar made sure to use [Forceful Disruption] to weaken the construct. With that being said, he found it quite difficult to break through. By the time he did, the strike was severely weakened, and Julius easily avoided it.


    But he also noticed how swift the other boy was. Much faster than he had been before and might have been faster than himself.


    Rolling his shoulders, he stared at Julius for a brief moment before blitzing back in. He didn''t let Julius have time to prepare any constructs, and when he did, he made sure to use his skills to destroy or weaken them.


    However, unlike when he was Tier 2, Julius was able to keep up with his speed and strength much more easily. Edgar was actually finding himself on the back foot when it came to sheer physical abilities, something he didn''t experience very often.


    He scoffed to himself. When Julius had told him that he had gained a pretty decent enhancement skill, he didn''t think it would be this much better than Edgar''s own.


    While he was technically still more skilled in hand-to-hand combat, Julius must have been practicing because the openings he used to exploit were no longer there.


    He realized that Julius was baiting him into trying to use them.


    He took a sharp leg kick in the hip and was blown backward. The force of the impact was quite brutal and was backed by some kind of Force Concept. He knew this because he had a Force Concept of his own and felt it resonate with it.


    After he rolled back to his feet, he decided to take a risk. Julius stopped disrupting the mana constructs as he dashed forward and started to pile on the pressure.


    Instantly realizing that Edgar was no longer restricting his constructs, Julius created a swarm of spikes all around them and sent them shooting at him.


    Predicting all of this, Edgar decided to use a huge chunk of his mana on his legs, and he threw himself at Julius. A few of the spikes hit him, but the ones tracking toward his back were still coming.


    And so just before he got within hand''s reach, he disrupted the constructs. However, his real plan wasn''t to actually disrupt them, it was merely to distract Julius and hope that the boy would use to much of his attention toward keeping the constructs together.


    Julius always had the bad habit of fighting for everything, whether necessary or not.


    He grinned, as he was right, and Julius kept a tight grip on these constructs. Unlike the ones that had been disrupted before they were fully formed, these ones were much harder to destroy.


    But when Julius''s focus shifted slightly, he implemented the next step of his plan.


    He understood better than almost anyone how ridiculous Julius''s perception was. There was no truly surprising the boy in a fight. The only way he found he could was to not let the boy react in time.


    So once he got close enough, he activated his epic skill, [Volcanic Disaster], and the entire room was lit up as magma exploded from Edgar''s body.


    He had developed a skill in case he was surrounded and about to be overwhelmed. He didn''t have the mana control like Julius or Derek, but he could still just let it all out.


    He smiled when he saw that Julius was still able to react in time. The boy completely discarded his spikes and created several layers of mana around him, protecting him from the blast. S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    But their hasty construction left them weakened. They didn''t hold up all the way, shattering upon contact, and Edgar''s fist was already soaring toward his face through the opening.


    However, just when he thought he was going to connect, he felt a wave of an absolutely terrifying aura wrap around him. It overwhelmed him, and he could do nothing. He tried everything he could.


    He desperately threw all of his aura at it, but it was to no avail. The aura seeped through and started to eat away at his physical enhancement skills. It was like trying to hold back a tidal wave, and aura had never been his strongest suit.


    He couldn''t help but grimace as his enhancement skill flickered out, and he found himself entirely immobilized by Julius''s kinetic energy.


    And there was nothing he could do as Julius walked up to him and gave him an apologetic shrug.


    What the hell had that just been? Edgar thought to himself in shock.


    "Was that the new aura skill you mentioned?" Lily asked with similar wide eyes from the other side of the isolation barrier.


    "Yeah, it can be a bit brutal at first," Julius admitted.


    He heard Aubrey scoff. "You think?"


    Julius turned around and started to argue with her while jabbing his finger in her direction.


    As the two of them started to bicker with one another, Edgar laid down and put his head back, still not quite believing what had just happened. He had already expected to lose but thought it would have been closer.


    In the end, there was nothing he could do. Still, there was one thing he was certain of. He needed to work on his aura skills.

 Chapter 295 - 293: His Heart Cant Take Anymore

    The day of the prelims had arrived. Julius had been practicing with all of his friends during this time. However, his main focus was on gaining a space concept and improving his mana constructs.


    He had tried to get some advice from Stella about how she was able to learn her Concept. According to her, she had gotten lucky when she had been caught in a spatial trap inside of a rift.


    She also told him that he shouldn''t expect to learn one the same way. Her family had tried to replicate the incident but had not had any luck in gaining a Space Concept.


    That left him with the boring task of meditating and trying to gain some insights from his [Spatial Perception] skill. He also did his best to remember how Stella used her aura to fold space when she had transported them to Heston. It was fleeting and difficult, but it might have helped him, so he still tried.


    The others explained the general structure of the tournament. Each student would have five fights in the prelims. After these five fights, the second stage would consist of seeded battles, with those with a better record in the first stage fighting against those with a lower record.


    These fights were further broken down into four different brackets, Brackets A through D.


    At this point, each person would fight a single elimination match. At the end of the second stage, the top four from each bracket would advance to the finals.


    This seemed pretty fair to him. It rewarded those who did well in the first stage and did a good job of preventing all of the top seeds from eliminating each other during the second stage.


    This meant that there were sixteen in total for the finals, and this was where the tournament got serious. Whoever was still standing after that would be crowned the winner.


    However, just getting to the finals was a big deal because if you did, you would gain one of Goldencrest''s slots to the Inter-School Tournament no matter how well you did at the Intras.


    While some of the rewards for the Goldencrest Tournament were supposedly nice, he was much more interested in the rewards for the Inter-School Tournament. He decided that he would be happy just to get a slot for the Inter-School Tournament.


    His first match was also today. He didn''t know who he would be facing quite yet, but it would likely be a third or fourth year. He didn''t know of any other first or second-years who would be participating in the Tier 3 tournament.


    Even Reinera, though she was Tier 3 now, wasn''t going to join. Apparently, that was another one of her family''s requirements for her to stay at Goldencrest.


    Not that the girl needed it. Her family could likely get her whatever she required unless it were truly special or something specific like a Challenge Rift.


    "Do you feel ready?" Lily asked him as they headed their way over to the venue.


    "Yeah, just a bit overwhelmed," he said to her before glancing over at the massive crowd of students heading toward the arena.


    "You''re going to be fine. For people like you, these prelims are more of a warm-up. The real fights usually begin during the final round or at the end of the second stage when people are fighting for those last few spots."


    He nodded his head at her and continued to look at the rest of the students, who were all heading over to check who they would be fighting.


    "Are you sure you don''t want to participate? It feels weird after you basically forced me to," he said to her with a sigh.


    He had learned that she wasn''t going to participate, so she had chosen to stay with him and guide him.


    Although most of the upperclassmen were ''pressured'' into at least giving the tournament a shot, Lily was an exception, and she had decided not to sign up. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He understood where she was coming from, too. Since the school used simulated combat bracelets, the unfortunate side effect was that it did not protect the student from certain mind magics that Lily was great at.


    It was similar to how it didn''t let his healing skill work because he wasn''t technically taking any damage.


    She could put a person''s mind in a blender if she wanted to. However, the bracelet''s protection enchantments had a tough time dictating when to intervene in mental attacks.


    This also meant that she was forbidden from using any of her more¡­ dangerous abilities during the fights. This is what happened last year, and it is why she was forced to concede many matches and not placed as well.


    Everyone in their friend group and even many other students knew that Lily was one of the scariest people in the school; it was just that she couldn''t actually show off her skills in a tournament-style environment.


    "I did it last year, and it honestly felt really constricting. I wasn''t able to use any of my actual skills. I was hoping that they would find a way to modify the bracelets this year, but to no avail," she said sadly.


    When they entered the facility, many things had already been set up: large banners displaying Goldencrest''s symbol and an even larger number of staff running around.


    He followed Lily over to a booth where a bunch of students were in line. He and Lily stood behind these people and waited for their turn.


    A number of students recognized Lily and whispered to each other when they didn''t think she was paying attention. A few also recognized Julius, but it didn''t seem like they particularly cared about him like they did for her.


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    When it was finally their turn, a man beckoned them forward.


    "Name?" The staff member asked Lily disinterestingly.


    "Oh no, we are here for him," Lily said while patting Julius''s back.


    "Hm? Is that so?" The man looked up and examined Julius. "And what''s your name?"


    "Julius Snow," he said to the man who was already scanning his eyes down a list of paper.


    "Oh, here you are," the man said before pinching his brows together in confusion and looking at Julius. "You''re a first-year?"


    "Hmhm."


    The man gave Julius and Lily another weird look before shrugging his shoulders. " Your first fight will be Arena 3, Zone 5," the man said to Julius while handing him a card. "Your fight will occur in about an hour at noon, and you will have to use this to enter your designated zone. It will be recorded as an official loss if you don''t show up before the match begins."


    "Does it say who I will be fighting?" He asked.


    "It looks like you will be fighting some third-year named Feras," the man informed him with a shrug.


    "Thank you," Julius said to him before turning away and leaving. However, he heard the man call out to him before he could get too far away.


    "Good luck, kid."


    He smiled gratefully and gave the man a thumbs in return.


    ***


    Since neither Julius nor Lily had anything to do, they decided to head over even though they had about an hour before his fight started.


    He found Arena 3 pretty easily since everything was labeled and had huge signs.


    When he looked around, he saw that there were many fights already getting started. Arena 3 was basically a large gymnasium with stands surrounding a gigantic open field, each with over a dozen zones separated from each other and slightly opaque walls of light blue mana.


    He and Lily chose to sit down in the relatively empty stands. Some people were watching the fights, but he suspected that most of them were here watching and supporting their friends.


    When they sat down, just like during their wait in line, some people noticed them and kept glancing their way. He found it annoying, especially since his skills kept on alerting him about their gazes. He even contemplated turning off his skills so that he could get some peace, but in the end, he realized he was just being silly.


    Getting nice and comfy, he leaned back and scanned all of the fights with a curious eye. After a moment of looking around, his attention was brought to a fight just off in the corner of the arena. It was between two girls, and they were ferociously slinging spell after spell at each other.


    The power from their spells could not be hidden by the barrier surrounding their zone.


    He wasn''t the only person watching their fight, either. He spotted a good number of the other students all paying attention to these girls, and he didn''t blame them for doing so. It was quite a flashy fight.


    One girl was a typical fire mage who used large swaths of fire to drown her opponent. The other girl was much more defensive and used some barrier skills to deflect each wave of fire.


    She would occasionally throw out a thin plate of mana at the fire girl, forcing the other girl to focus on her own defenses.


    The barriers the girl used looked like they were created with mana, but to his senses, they felt like slabs of steel. There was something about how she created them that caught his attention. They weren''t just the usual barriers of mana he often saw from other mages.


    She must have had a Concept that she infused into each one of them, it was possible that there were even two of them present. The shape of them would change slightly too. If the girl wanted some to cut, she would send out a thin barrier covered with mana over the edge. And if she wanted something with a big more force, she would create a thick slab that would smash into the other girls defenses.


    Whatever these barriers were, they were dangerous, and he didn''t doubt that being hit by one would hurt a lot.


    Another thing that impressed him was just how nimble the girls were. Although they were mages and not known for their physical prowess, both of them were surprisingly quick.


    The fire mage girl was always on the move, trying to flank the other girl and smother her with fire magic.


    He continued to watch the fight, nodding his head as he did, impressed at the level of skill they each showed. While he watched, he took out some snacks and started to munch on them.


    However, he felt Lily give him a gentle jab, and he wordlessly passed half of his snacks to her.


    "What do you think of those two?" He asked with a mouthful of food.


    "Who?" Lily asked curiously.


    He pointed over to where the two girls were fighting. "Them."


    "Oh, the girl who is using fire magic is Alia, and the other girl using barrier magic is Quinn. They are both pretty good fourth-years, especially Quinn. They both have a decently good chance of advancing to the top 16, depending on what kind of skills they have been hiding away. It''s just a shame that they had to fight each other so early on," she explained to him before throwing some snacks into her mouth.


    In the end, the girl Quinn finally came out on top after exhausting the other girl''s mana without taking a single blow.


    He would make sure to keep an eye on the girl. Her defensive magic was quite impressive. But even more remarkable was her ability to manipulate each barrier so that she was always protecting herself with minimal resources. He could probably learn a few things from the way she used her barriers.


    Eventually, his time had come. So he sat up and brushed off the crumbs from his clothes.


    "Wish me luck," he said to Lily, who just scoffed at him.


    "Just don''t do anything stupid, alright?" She said to him with a knowing grin.


    "What do you mean? I never do anything stupid," he lied shamelessly.


    All he got was a soft mental prod from her, and she shooed him away to get going.


    He laughed and started to walk down the stands to the arena.


    "Wait," he heard her call out to him.


    He turned around and gave her a confused look. "What''s up?"


    She leaned forward and stretched out her hand to him.


    Grinning at her, he reached over and gave it a loud high five. But he found himself being even more confused when she gave him a disappointed look.


    "What?"


    Finally, he noticed that her eyes were firmly placed on the half-eaten bag of snacks in his other hand and realized that she had already finished her own snacks.


    "Really?" He asked with a deadpan expression.


    She didn''t say anything but waved her upturned fingers at him with an expectant expression on her face.


    Sighing loudly, he handed over his remaining snack.


    "I feel like everyone only cares about me for my food," he said dramatically.


    He dutifully ignored the agreeing nod from Lily, he didn''t know if his heart could take anymore, and went on his way to his match with downtrodden shoulders.

 Chapter 296 - 294: Feras

    Feras POV


    Feras was feeling a bit nervous and had to wipe the sweat from his palms against his pant legs.


    "Come on, stop being so nervous," his friend Harold said to him.


    "But what if I get paired with one of the stronger fourth years?" He asked Harold worriedly.


    Harold shrugged. "Well, I guess that means you just have terrible luck. Don''t worry about losing. We are both only third years, which means we shouldn''t be too hung up about winning all of our fights. This is a great chance for us to experience it for next year, where we will be stronger and have a much better chance."


    Feras had to concede to that point. Unlike the other fourth years, they still had a shot next year. Very few people in the school''s history have managed to reach the top sixteen, not as fourth years. This realization made him relax a bit.


    "Let''s head on over to your section. My fight isn''t until later, but yours is in a little bit, so we might as well get there early. You did ask who you were fighting, right?" Harold asked him.


    "Yeah, some guy named Julius. Which is why I am worried because I haven''t heard of a Julius in our year before, which means it''s probably a fourth year."


    He saw Harold squeeze his forehead together and scratch his chin as he tried to figure out if he knew a Julius from somewhere.


    "Yeah, I haven''t heard of a Julius in our year either," Harold eventually admitted.


    Feras looked high into the air and sighed heavily.


    "Hey, on the bright side, the fact that we haven''t heard of him must mean he''s not a favorite to win, so you lucked out there," Harold said optimistically.


    "Yeah, I guess you''re right about that," he said with a hopeful grin.


    ***


    When he arrived at his designated zone, the person who would officiate his match greeted him.


    He was given a quick breakdown of the rules and what was forbidden. It was pretty simple. The winner would be the first person to activate the other person''s protection enchantments. You weren''t allowed certain items, which would give you a massive advantage. However, a sword or a magical focus was allowed.


    After the official checked over his weapons to ensure they were allowed, he headed to one side of the field.


    Once he got settled in, he just had to wait for his opponent to show up. Luckily, he didn''t have to wait very long because a few minutes later, a boy walked in.


    The first thing he noted to himself was how young the boy looked. It looked like he was a second-year or something.


    He knew that some second years advanced to Tier 3, but that was still relatively rare since it was better to advance once you had as many skills at rare rank as you could gain.


    Before he could think about it any further, the official addressed the two of them.


    "Okay, this is an official match between Third-Year Feras Jonith and First-Year Julius Snow. You have both been explained the rules, so I expect a clean fight. If any of you violate any of these rules, you will be automatically assessed a forfeit, and depending on the severity of the offense, you might be punished even further. Do you guys understand?"


    Feras felt himself subconsciously nodding his head, but his mind was completely distracted by what he had just heard.


    A first year? Why was the first year participating in this tournament? It just didn''t make any sense to him. But a quick examination of the boy''s uniform confirmed the official''s words. He was a genuine first-year.


    He couldn''t help but feel a little bit bad and consciously relaxed when he heard that he would be fighting a first year. He had been expecting a powerful fourth year and had already written himself off.


    But now?


    Now, he was feeling sympathetic for the kid. What kind of person decided that advancing to Tier 3 so quickly was a good idea? His family must have been very upset to learn that their son ruined any potential to advance further because of his impatience.


    With a shake of the head, he readied his spear, letting his shield hang lazily from his side.


    The boy didn''t even have a weapon or a magical focus. He merely stood in front of Feras with a surprisingly calm demeanor.


    Is he a hand-to-hand fighter? Or is he just a mage who dislikes using a focus? He thought to himself.


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    It didn''t matter, though. He was planning to end it swiftly. There was no need to embarrass or humiliate the kid. A quick ending would be a mercy. Although he couldn''t say that other students would be as gracious, he was already thinking about the people he knew who would love the opportunity to bully this kid.


    He distantly heard the official''s countdown, and when the fight started, he paced toward the kid, his spear pointing at him.


    The first year just stood there, and Feras noticed that the boy still didn''t look the least bit nervous. The same blank expression remained on his face, and an uneasy feeling started to bloom in Feras''s gut.


    However, he brushed it aside and continued to advance slowly.


    Once he was within striking distance, he waited to see if the boy tried to make a move. He wanted to give the boy a chance to attack, which was the least he could do.


    But when he didn''t move a single inch, he came to the conclusion that the boy had no intention of being the one to attack.


    So, without any further ado, he activated his earth-aspect movement skill and dashed toward the boy with crushing force.


    However, just as he was extending his spear toward the boy''s chest, he widened his eyes as the boy calmly raised a forearm to parry his strike.


    Feras''s spear went wide, and he instinctively raised his lowered shield to block the punch that was coming toward him.


    The fist had much more force than he would have expected, and he had to use some earth magic to stabilize his footing. He then ducked his head to avoid the leg kick swinging for his head and used a burst of mana to throw himself backward, enabling him to use the reach of his spear to ward off the boy''s next strike.


    Just like before, the boy didn''t make any moves to come chasing after him, still standing there with a serene calmness. However, after that last exchange, that calmness was starting to feel much more eerie and creepy than serene.


    He immediately reevaluated his assessment of the boy. While he wasn''t the fastest person he had fought, there was no denying that the boy was skilled in combat. He had used the optimal amount of force to parry his strike and then used that opportunity to force him off balance. That wasn''t something a normal first-year would be able to pull off with such practiced ease.


    Steadying himself, he reigned his focus back and took all of it a bit more seriously because he was not about to lose his first fight, especially not to a first year.


    Taking hold of his mana, he sent it rushing toward the boy and tried to manipulate the earth beneath the boy''s feet. To his immense concern, the boy must have sensed his mana because he sidestepped to the right, and the clamps of earth magic missed the boy''s legs.


    However, he was already moving in the second he activated his skill. His spear thrust out at the boy''s chest, but once again, the boy avoided it and stepped forward as if trying to take away the reach advantage of Feras.


    Luckily for him, he had the skills to handle these situations. He activated [Crushing Blow] and slammed his shield at the boy.


    But instead of smacking the boy with the shield, the boy somehow leaned backward in a supreme display of flexibility and grabbed hold of the edge of his shield. Feras tightened his grip on his shield, and as they wrestled for it, he tried to slam pillars of stone into the boy''s back.


    However, before the pillars could connect, the boy, still holding onto the shield, dropped low and sent a brutal strike right at his knee, making sure to use the leverage of the shield to his advantage.


    Feras growled as a flash of phantom pain emanated from his leg. He felt the enchantments activate to limit his leg''s mobility. His anger caused him to send out a flood of earth magic centering around himself.


    This staggered the boy, and Feras didn''t let this chance pass him by. He continued to send continuous blistering strikes at the boy''s vitals. There was no more thought of taking it easy in his mind. He was now too preoccupied with not losing.


    As he forced the boy backward, he made sure to use his earth magic to try and pin him down. Unfortunately, the boy appeared to have eyes on the back of his head because each time his earth magic was about to restrain him, the boy would step to the side or jump out of the way.


    Feras kept up the offense but got frustrated as he did because it felt like he was swinging at air. The boy was still just as annoyingly calm as at the beginning of the fight. Not a single flash of annoyance or stress was seen on his face. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He casually and calmly avoided every one of his spear strikes.


    The worst part was that he was starting to feel tired. He kept pumping more and more mana into his body enhancement skill, trying to go a little bit faster. But the boy was always just fast enough to dodge.


    Understanding that it couldn''t continue the way it was going, he decided to make a choice. He sent one last blast of earth magic at the boy, hoping to gain him some time, and started to manipulate his mana in complex patterns.


    However, to his shock, the boy decided to take the attack head-on for the first time during their fight. The entire fight, the boy had been focused on dodging and evading, but now Feras was surprised as the boy took the blast of earth magic to the chest.


    When the cloud of dirt dissipated, a shimmering barrier of mana was seen flickering on the boy''s chest, and the boy was charging toward him. Feras was alarmed by the change of pace and used his movement skill to send himself backward, trying to buy as much time as he could to use his larger spell, which he was almost done preparing.


    Despite his attempts, it wasn''t enough, and he panicked when the boy disappeared from his sight. He desperately tried to activate his large spell even though it wasn''t quite finished yet.


    Yet it wasn''t fast enough. Before it could take effect, he felt something smash into his back with alarming force. His defenses, which he was so proud of because of his exceptional earth affinity, were cracked with a single blow.


    He was sent face-first into the dirt, and the spell that he worked hard to create dissipated into the earth. He got up to his knees and swung his spear around him in a wide arc, preemptively swinging at the place he thought the boy would attack next.


    All he hit was air, and he found himself getting smashed once again on the back of the head, dazing him.


    He roared and sloppily swung his spear and shield, hoping it would connect. But the boy let them pass by his face with that annoying calm expression on his face.


    And with one last strike, the boy leaned down and sent a brutal fist right to Feras''s face. This seemed to be enough for the enchantments because they activated and signaled the end of the fight.


    The fight was over, but Feras found himself still lying on the ground with a lifeless expression on his face, trying to pick up the shattered remnants of his confidence from the ground.


    He still did not quite comprehend what had just happened to him and didn''t understand how a mere first year was able to thrash him so badly.

 Chapter 297 - 295: Watching Other Fights

    When Julius exited the field, he was greeted by Lily and Aubrey. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Not how I expected it would go down," Aubrey commented.


    "What do you mean?" He asked, confused.


    "I thought you would have just used that same stupid immobilization technique you used on me," she said.


    He couldn''t help but let loose a smirk at her words. After his fight with Edgar, and seeing Julius beat him. Aubrey had wanted to know how he was able to stop Edgar from moving. This was why he had demonstrated the skill on her and she got pissed off when she wasn''t able to fight it off as easily as she had been thinking she could.


    To her credit, when she knew it was coming, she was able to prevent it from completely immobilizing her. But if she wasn''t using her entire attention to fight it, she was done for.


    It was better than Edgar at the very least. The guy had never been the best with aura and the recent loss to Julius lit a fire underneath the large fourth-year''s ass.


    He was now taking aura lessons and willpower training very seriously.


    Lily, on the other hand, had also wanted to experience it for herself. But Julius was amazed at how well she managed to fend off his willpower. He had known that she was really good at aura control, but that didn''t always transfer to a powerful willpower.


    However, she had one of the most impressive willpowers he had seen from someone not at Tier 4. It was actually more impressive than that Tier 4 assassin he had beaten up.


    "What about you? Did you find out who you are fighting? He asked Aubrey, knowing that if she was here then she already went ahead and checked who she was scheduled to fight.


    She gave him a confident smirk. "I ended up getting paired up against this guy in his third year," she informed him.


    "Don''t get cocky just because he''s a third-year," he tried to remind her.


    She slapped him on the shoulder a couple of times. "Bah! You are an exception, don''t be thinking that I am going to run into many people like you anytime soon."


    "You never can know for certain," he pointed out.


    He saw the gears start to shift in her head. "Good point. Then I will make sure to be safe and bury the poor sod into the ground immediately."


    He turned to look at her with a disbelieving look at the complete change in attitude. "Okay, maybe you don''t have to go that far."


    "Nope, you are right. I can''t know for certain, and I really don''t want to be like that kid you just murdered in there," she said to him, looking over at where his recent opponent was walking away.


    Julius followed her eyes, and his gaze inevitably came across the other boy''s. Feras was the boy''s name, if Julius recalled correctly.


    Feras was now intensely looking at him like he had just been beaten up and mugged by Julius. His friend was trying to cheer the other boy up, but it seemed futile. Aubrey winced as she saw the look on Feras''s face.


    "Yeah, see what I mean?" She said, shamelessly pointing at Feras, quickly receiving the boy''s attention.


    "I did not murder him," he defended himself. He actually thought he did pretty well, all things considered.


    He had established some ground rules for himself. If he was going to fight, he was going to continue with the story he had established when he first arrived.


    He was a close combat fighter with affinities in fire and kinetic energy. He thought this was a good opportunity to hone his close combat skills against a wide variety of people.


    It was a big reason why he hadn''t fought that hard against participating after they signed him up on their own.


    He was fine with showing off his new enhancement skill and the occasional fire construct if need be, but he didn''t see the need to show his dangerous aura ability or other skills like [Phoenix Renewal].


    Plus, he didn''t know if his aura skill was prohibited, and he didn''t really want to find out. Because if he did, then it would mean he was forced to use it, and he didn''t need people to start creating even more nasty rumors about him.


    He already had enough rumors about him and Reinera being ''together'' from the other first years. Even his other first-year friends couldn''t help but tease him about it.


    "No, you definitely brutalized the poor boy. He didn''t stand a chance even if you were holding back," Lily said to him with an apologetic grimace.


    "Yeah, and he was actually pretty good. He had solid fundamentals and instincts, using his skills with impressive control. He might be toward the top of the third year," Aubrey commented.


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    "You think so?" He asked.


    She nodded her head. "There''s a good chance he will make it decently far for a third year. I''m sure there will be some eyes on you now," she said while looking around at the handful of eyes watching their small group of three.


    "They''re just looking because you two are here," he reminded her.


    "For now, at the very least," Lily said to him.


    "What do you mean?"


    "Well, until they start to see you rack up a flawless record. I am going to guess that their attention will quickly shift over to you," Lily explained.


    He couldn''t argue the sense of her words and sighed dejectedly at that thought.


    They walked off and headed over to Arena 1, where Aubrey''s match was scheduled to begin.


    However, as he did, he observed the other students look at Lily and Aubrey as they passed by. But it wasn''t just that. While their attention was mainly focused on them, he couldn''t help but notice that some of their gazes lay on him for much longer than most people usually did.


    ***


    "Damn, I thought she was joking," he commented to Lily.


    "I didn''t," Lily whispered to him. "Her emotions seemed oddly resolved when she said that earlier."


    Julius winced as he looked at the poor boy who had taken an absolute beating. If Aubrey called his fight with Feras a murder, then she did nothing less than eviscerate the third year.


    Her opponent didn''t get a chance to use more than a single skill before he was drowned in a prismatic beam of light. And while that hadn''t taken the boy out of the fight completely, Aubrey''s follow-up fists made that a certainty.


    She slammed crystal-covered fists and elbows into her opponent''s face over and over until the enchantments activated with a huge burst of mana, protecting the boy from any more of her violence.


    "And you called my fight a brutalization, huh?" He whispered to Lily.


    She gave him a guilty look. "Yeah, maybe I was a bit too hasty," she admitted back in a whisper.


    They were whispering because there was a much larger crowd in this Arena than in his. It was also a much larger Arena than his. This meant that there were, of course, more seats to go along with that, which was why it was surprising that more than half of the seats were filled up.


    He had thought about creating a barrier to isolate themselves, but it would have been incredibly rude, and it wasn''t as if they were talking about anything important.


    According to Lily, Arena 1 was the main arena and the one where many of the more anticipated fights were happening. When students chose to watch fights, they usually chose to watch these ones. Julius didn''t blame them either, he would probably do the same if he had to choose which fights to watch.


    It was the same way in his old world. People didn''t like to watch a minor league team play as much as they enjoyed watching a major league team.


    Another thing that surprised him was the number of non-student spectators. He knew that people other than students were allowed to watch the matches, but he was still surprised at how many showed up, which is why he asked Lily to clarify his confusion.


    "A good number of spectators are people who live in Heston and come here to watch the matches. However, some are scouts for guilds or other organizations. They like to approach students before they establish themselves in the world. If they do everything correctly, they might be able to create a contract with a person with high potential for an undervalued price. All it would take for them is to give some resources to advance and watch them grow."


    "Does House Violet try the same thing?"


    "Of course we do. However, we are looking for other qualifiers. Most of the time, people are looking for fighters or crafters. House Violet always has a need for people with unique traits or skill sets," Lily said proudly.


    As they were talking with each other he noticed a small group of attractive fourth year girls approach them, walking up the stairs to their seats.


    "Oh hey, Lily!" One of the girls said cheerfully when they noticed her.


    Lily smiled back at the girl. "Hey, Irene."


    Irene took this as an invitation to come over, and her friends all sat down next to Lily and Julius.


    "I just saw the ending of Aubrey''s fight. Did she have something against that other boy or something?" Irene asked with a laugh.


    "No, I think she was just motivated," Lily chuckled good-naturedly, thankfully not telling her that it was because Julius had warned Aubrey to take it seriously. Actually, now that he thought about it, he was partly to blame for the boy''s evisceration.


    "Oh my god, did you hear about what happened between Daph and Eric?" He heard one of the other girls ask Lily and couldn''t help but hide a grin. Based on the way she said it, you would have expected something terrible happened, but he soon learned that these two students had simply gotten into an argument during a class.


    Realizing where this was heading, he swiftly tuned out the newcomers and placed his attention on the other fights that were going on. Although Aubrey had finished hers, there were many other fights going on.


    He saw one fourth year in particular use fire magic in a way he had never seen before. The girl was not like the girl he saw in the other arena, this girl didn''t use large blunt attacks.


    This girl''s fire magic took on many fascinating forms. For example, he saw her use an interesting spell that created a field of flowers. However, these flowers were practically individual landmines that tried to smother her opponent and then explode.


    Safe to say, the person she was fighting in her match was not having a good time. He was constantly throwing out short bursts of mana to try and destroy these flowers, but there were just too many of them. Not to mention, it wasn''t worth the mana expenditure.


    However, he used this chance to examine the girl''s magic in further detail. She did a really good job at recycling the fire mana from any destroyed fire flowers to create new ones.


    There were also at least two Concepts woven into these constructs¡ªsomething he hadn''t seen from many people yet.


    By far the most interesting thing he observed was the way she imbued her willpower into each strand of mana.


    Imbuing willpower into your mana was a normal thing to do and something essential if you want to create anything of real substance. However, this girl was doing it in such a way that he couldn''t help but feel like her constructs were more of a construct of willpower rather than mana.


    Not only did it make it stand out, but he could feel the additional power this technique lent to her attacks.


    Of course, like all good things, his peaceful examination of the girl''s magic was brought to an end when the girl finally noticed his presence, and they put their attention on him.


    It didn''t matter that he had been doing his best to fade into the background. So with a heavy sigh to himself, he turned to them, hoping they weren''t the nosy type.

 Chapter 298 - 296: Hes Got Some Strong Friends

    "So this is the famous Julius?" Irene asked with a teasing tone toward Lily.


    Julius did his best to stifle the smile when he felt Lily send him an apologetic signal with her aura.


    "Yes, this is him," she said to them before turning to him. "Julius, this is Irene and her friends. I have known them since our first year at Goldencrest."


    Irene extended out the back of her hand to Julius. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Julius. I have heard so much about you."


    "Hopefully, not too much," he said with a quick glance over at Lily.


    He took the hand with his right and gave it a soft shake, well aware that this was not what he was supposed to do with a young noblewoman''s hand. Although he wasn''t in the mood to act like a ''proper'' noble, plus he was supposed to be a commoner, so him not knowing what to do was quite in line.


    He hid a smile when he noticed that this didn''t seem to pass by anyone else''s attention either, because he saw one girl scowl at his actions while two others giggled at him.


    Irene, to her credit, took it all in stride.


    "Are you enjoying the tournament so far?"


    He nodded at her. "I have. It has been much more lively than I expected when I first heard about it when I enrolled here."


    Irene gave him a dazzling smile. "I remember the first time I saw the tournament. I was amazed at how strong some of the students were and couldn''t ever imagine myself standing at the level of those students," she said with a self-deprecating chuckle.


    Lily laughed lightly. "Yeah, and now look at you. One of the strongest people within our class," she said to everyone, but he believed that she said this more for his benefit than anything else.


    Irene blushed. "Oh, stop it, everyone knows that you are right beside the rest of us. We are all aware that your skills can''t be displayed in a setting like this. It''s too bad, because Duncan always tells me how scary you are."


    "Duncan likes to exaggerate," Lily chuckled.


    "Yeah, but I don''t think he is," Irene said with a much more serious look before shaking her head. "It''s a shame you didn''t choose to participate this year, I would have loved to have a chance to fight you."


    He agreed with Irene on this. He would have loved to see fight Lily, but he also knew that the girl didn''t enjoy combat the same way Aubrey or Edgar did.


    Irene looked over at the large clock placed at the top of the arena. "Well, I''d better be going. My fight is in a little bit, and I don''t want to be late."


    "Good luck," Lily said to her with a cheery smile.


    "Thanks, I am going to need it. For some reason, I always get so nervous before my first fight," Irene admitted with a grimace and turned to Julius.


    "Well, it was wonderful to finally meet you. I am glad that you were able to come back safe and sound," the girl said to him with another stunning smile.


    "It was good to meet you, too. I hope you win your match," he replied to her.


    "Thank you! It is also never a bad idea to take the time to analyse some of these fights. Trust me, if you do, it is going to help you a lot when you fight in the underclassmen tournament," she said to him.


    "Oh no, he''s actually signed up for the Tier 3 tournament," Lily interjected.


    This appeared to baffle Irene and her friends, all of them whipped their heads to look at Julius for confirmation.


    He merely nodded his head and looked over to Lily with a questioning look. He wondered why she felt the need to tell them that. It wasn''t as if it was important for him to let these girls he had just met know.


    A brief silence washed over them.


    Finally, one of the other girls spoke up. "But he''s only a first year¡­"


    "Yeah, isn''t that a little bit¡­ hasty?" another added.


    Irene poked her friends in the ribs. "Don''t be rude. He must have his reasons," she said while looking at him a little bit differently than she had just moments ago. The smile was still there, but there was this pensiveness to it now.


    Previously, it almost felt like she looked at him like he was some adorable pet or kid. But now she was looking at him as if he were a potential opponent.


    He didn''t know if he liked this change. She had looked a little more friendly before, and her pretty smile had made him feel good.


    Irene looked him up and down for a few moments. "I guess that whole incident must have been quite the adventure, huh?" She eventually said with a knowing smirk on her face.


    "A little bit," he admitted.


    She nodded her head and gave him one last look. "Well, if we come across each other in the arena, I wish you the best of luck," she said to him before walking away, her friends following right behind.


    After they were gone, he looked over at Lily with a frown. "Did you really need to tell them that?"


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    Lily grinned at him and slung an arm over his shoulder. "She would have found out about it eventually. This way, she won''t dismiss you so easily." S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "That would have been fine with me."


    Lily shook her head. "No, while Irene is a bit too cunning and manipulative for my tastes, at the core, she is a loyal girl with a trustworthy House behind her. It is better for you to get on her good side, and I didn''t like how she was already looking at you like you are our group''s charity pet project."


    "Like I said, I don''t mind that," he said with a shrug.


    "Well, I do. I don''t like it when my friends aren''t being treated with the respect they deserve. And you certainly don''t deserve people looking at you like some stray puppy we picked off the street," she said with a loving squeeze.


    "Isn''t that exactly what you did, though?" He reminded her, recalling how they met. He wasn''t exactly a stray puppy, but he was pretty darn close.


    She smiled as she probably remembered the same memory. "Yeah, but people don''t need to know that. Also, didn''t you say you didn''t wish to hide as much anymore? What about that?"


    She had a point. He had mentioned that he was trying to stop hiding every single piece of himself from anyone.


    "Yeah, you''re right. Old habits die hard, huh?"


    She simply smiled at him as the two of them continued to watch other fights and waited until Aubrey arrived.


    "Hey!" The energetic girl and recent victor called out to them as she strolled up the stairs.


    He waved at her. "Hey, nice fight," he said to her once she got close enough.


    "Thanks, what did you think of it?" She asked excitedly.


    He winced and looked away. "It seemed a bit brutal," he told her truthfully.


    "What do you mean? You were the one who told me to take him seriously!"


    "You slaughtered him," he said with a deadpan expression.


    She looked away guiltily. "I didn''t think it would be that one-sided."


    He was about to say more, but he held off because he spotted something going on in one of the other arenas. Derek had walked onto the field, about to begin his very first match of the tournament, and Julius wanted to watch.


    ***


    He was quite surprised by how many people suddenly showed up. There were already a good amount of people who were there to watch the fights, but for some reason a large influx of spectators started to flow in.


    Soon, they were boxed in by big groups of people.


    "Are they all here to watch Derek?" He asked, talking a little bit loudly over the sound of the noisy crowd.


    Lily nodded her head and had a big smirk on her face.


    "Oh yeah. A ton of people are here to watch him. Most of them had not seen Derek fight for an entire year. If not for some bad luck last year, he would have most likely been in the top sixteen. I suspect that a good number of them are very interested in seeing how much progress he made during this past year. There is also the part where he is the heir of a very powerful House."


    "It''s not like he is going to be joining another organization after school, though, right?"


    She chuckled. "Of course not. But that doesn''t mean people aren''t curious about the future Duke Zenith."


    Aubrey scoffed from his other side. "It also helps the girls at school love him," she said while glancing around the seats.


    He frowned and looked around as well. He hadn''t noticed it before, but there was a weirdly large ratio of women to men. Then he shifted his gaze down to where Derek was standing across from another fourth year.


    He had to admit that Derek was quite a handsome guy. Tall, strong, with model-like features. What woman wouldn''t find him attractive?


    "I can see that," he eventually muttered to Lily''s amusement, if her chuckle was any sign.


    He smiled lightly at her before paying attention to the fight that was about to begin.


    Derek held his spear with his right hand and stood quite relaxed while staring at his opponent. Julius then turned to examine the other boy.


    The first thing he spotted was that he was not looking very confident at all. The other fourth year was holding onto a two-handed sword, but unlike the calm Derek, he was visibly twitching his hand and had a pinched expression on his face, one would expect from one who had already lost.


    Julius felt bad for the guy. It was just really bad luck to be pitted against Derek in his very first match. Not only that, but practically half the school was here watching it.


    He could not imagine the other guy''s emotions at the moment.


    "Kick his ass, Derek!"


    He turned to look at Aubrey, who had her hands cupped to her mouth, and gave her an exasperated shake of his head. She truly had no shame.


    When the official began the fight, Julius was glad to see that the guy didn''t freeze in fear. Derek''s opponent dashed forward with a very noteworthy show of speed, heading straight toward Derek.


    It was a very similar skill to [Flash Step] and allowed the other guy to cross the distance in a matter of moments. His sword was already in motion, cutting down toward Derek with some kind of skill that radiated a sense of sharpness.


    Julius would not be surprised to learn that this guy had a Sharpness Concept of his own.


    Unfortunately, speed was not something the guy would beat Derek in. After all, Derek had a perfect lightning affinity, and people were about to be shown just how potent this affinity was before their very eyes.


    Julius watched as Derek sidestepped the sword with ease, lightning flickering around his body. Then, Derek bashed the shaft of his spear into the other student''s chest. The force of the impact blasted the other student off his feet and sent him tumbling to the ground.


    While Julius could perceive both of their movements, he doubted everyone in the arena could. The weaker ones probably only saw a quick flash of lightning before seeing Derek''s opponent fly off into the dirt.


    Julius had to admit that Derek was still one of the fastest Tier 3s he had come across. That assassin girl he fought on the plains was quite powerful and fast in her own right. She didn''t have the same level of explosiveness and acceleration as Derek.


    It wasn''t just that either. But he knew that Derek wasn''t close to using his full strength. He had seen some of the spars between Edgar and him before he had gotten transported away. Derek had been faster than this during that time.


    He also expected that in the time he had been gone, Derek had improved his speed.


    Unlike Aubrey, Derek didn''t seem to want to destroy his opponent without giving him a chance to fight back. He allowed the other student to stand back up, not taking advantage of the situation.


    That didn''t mean the other guy had a chance. Derek proceeded to beat the other boy without looking the least bit ruffled. The only time Julius saw Derek actually try was when the other student tried to use his Concept to pressure Derek.


    The way the other fourth year used his Concept seemed a bit¡­ clumsy, but there was a fair bit of willpower backing it, so it was still quite effective.


    Still, Derek easily handled it without batting an eye and won quickly afterward.


    Although not quite as¡­ passionately as Aubrey, Julius cheered alongside the two of them, happy that his friend won his fight. And while it had been expected, it didn''t detract from the accomplishment. It merely showed that his friends were quite impressive in their own right.

 Chapter 299 - 297: Tier 3 Rift Permissions

    The preliminaries were supposed to last a whole week. It was split up into five matches until the second stage started.


    During this time classes were not mandatory, which excited many of the students to no end. However, there were a good number of students who were more than willing to attend these classes.


    In Julius''s case, he only attended a couple of them. The ones like Intro to Mana, he didn''t bother to attend. He didn''t like Professor Stewart anyway, and he had it on good account that she didn''t like him much either.


    It had been two days since he had his first match. He just had his third match earlier today and it wasn''t that much of a surprise that he won just as easily as the other two times.


    It was worthy to note that this time he had faced a fourth year who had displayed some very interesting skills. Sadly, this didn''t help his opponent all that much.


    However, now he was attending Applied Combat at the insistence of Joshua and some of the others. The underclassmen didn''t have to attend classes for the next week like the upperclassmen. Plus, those who were participating in the Tier 2 tournament still had fights.


    Just like the Tier 3 tournament, they still had a preliminary stage of five matches. The worst thing though was that their matches were sometimes at very early or very late times. For example, Joshua had his third match at seven this morning and Tia had hers an hour afterward.


    Still, this didn''t stop them from wanting to take Professor Rowe''s offer to delve into one of the rifts. On top of that, they wanted Julius to come along with them.


    "I don''t know if Professor Rowe is going to allow me to enter with you guys," he explained to them.


    "What do you mean? There is usually a Tier 3 supervisor with us anyway, so I don''t see a reason why you wouldn''t be allowed," Tia pointed out.


    "Are you guys sure that you want to delve today? Don''t some of you have matches later today?" He asked. All of them were participating in the Tier 2 tournament, and according to some of them, they had some good chances at getting a pretty high finish since there weren''t many powerful people left among the second years.


    A few of the stronger second years had already advanced to Tier 3, which surprised Julius since that wasn''t that common, but he clearly wasn''t the right person to complain.


    Apparently, this happened from time to time, but since there was practically zero chance of them winning, they didn''t join the Tier 3 tournament and waited until next year. However, since they were at Tier 3, they couldn''t join the Tier 2 tournament either.


    This also meant that Helen Cromweld was in contention to win the entire thing, which was a massive achievement considering she was only a first-year.


    However, based on what he had seen, he would say Polux had a good chance at matching her. Now that the wolfkin boy had been diversifying his abilities, he didn''t have as many glaring weaknesses to worry about.


    Joshua and Tia were also strong, but he didn''t quite think they were on the level of Polux or Helen.


    "I got one later, but I don''t plan to overexert myself," Polux commented as he walked beside them.


    "I do too, but I already lost my second fight, so I hope I am not put up against anyone too strong," James added.


    That was another thing he had found out not too long ago. The way the prelims worked was that those who had better records often found themselves facing those with similar records.


    That meant that the fights would become much more competitive and balanced towards the end of the preliminaries. It would also draw in a much larger crowd since there was a chance that people could see a fight between two powerful people who had a chance to win the whole thing.


    However, Lily assured him that this didn''t start until after the halfway point. So he shouldn''t be too worried about drawing too many eyes yet. With that being said, once he got to that point, people would be keeping a very close eye on him since he would be fighting a bunch of powerful students.


    "Also, this is the perfect time to delve since most students are slacking off and enjoying the break. We might even get the whole rift to ourselves," Tia said happily.


    "We will probably run into Helen and some other groups," Joshua said distractedly while reading something from a piece of paper.


    "Hey, is it too much to be optimistic?" Tia asked with a frown.


    "Just staying realistic," Joshua responded, dodging the vine that appeared behind him to smack him.


    ***


    When they arrived, they immediately asked Professor Rowe if he was allowed to go along with them. Funnily enough, the professor was very encouraging, and he went with them.


    "I tell you what, if you can show me that you can oversee them on your own, then I will allow you guys to delve without an assigned supervisor," Professor Rowe said to them.


    "Isn''t that against the rules?" Tia was surprised at the man''s answer.


    "No, the only real rule is to have someone stronger accompany you in the rift. It doesn''t technically say that it has to be a staff member. I am also only considering this because of your team''s recent success and spotless record while delving. All of the instructors have reported that you guys are very well organized and behaved. Which further incentivises me to give you some more freedom."


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    "Actually, I have a question about my future delves," Julius said to the professor.


    The man turned to look at him. "I''m guessing you are wondering if you are now allowed to delve Tier 3 rifts?"


    Julius smirked a little bit. "Yeah, am I that predictable?"


    "Of course not, it is just a common question from students who have advanced to Tier 3," Professor Rowe said with a light laugh.


    That made him feel a bit better.


    "So is it possible?" He eventually asked.


    "Of course it is. There are some things I would need to fill out, but it shouldn''t be that much of an issue. However, there will be a separate examination to make sure you can handle a Tier 3 rift. Are you planning to delve on your own, or are you going to join some of your fourth-year friends?"


    Julius didn''t find himself too shocked that the man knew of his friendship with the others.


    "Well, since they are graduating soon, I think it would be better to plan to delve by myself for the time being."


    "In that case, let''s set up a time for you. What about sometime this weekend? You shouldn''t have any matches during that time," Professor Rowe offered.


    "That sounds good, just let me know what time and I will make it work," he told him.


    "I will, and don''t worry about it too much. I saw your fight yesterday, and I don''t think you are going to have any worries. You should be able to get permission quite easily," Professor Rowe said with a knowing smirk.


    Julius gave the man a surprised look. "You were watching?"


    "Of course, when I heard that one of my first years was going to participate, I was very interested in seeing them. I must say, I am very impressed. I always heard some good things about you from the other assistant instructors, but I hadn''t gotten the chance to watch you in person. It''s good to see that they were right."


    Julius scratched his head awkwardly at the compliment. "Thanks."


    Professor Rowe smiled. "Just saying what is already known. Look, I gotta finish some things before class starts, but come talk to me afterward, we can figure out some of the details then, okay?"


    He nodded and watched as the professor went over to some of the assistants preparing the rift for delving.


    In the meantime, he and the others all sat down and waited for the class to begin. As time passed, he wasn''t surprised to see that some other students showed up as well.


    Helen Cromweld was one of them. Taking a closer look at her, Julius observed something very interesting he had not noticed before. There was some sort of weird aura surrounding the girl. It was very well hidden, the girl must have some kind of high quality aura skill and even more impressive control, because it was better than most Tier 3 students he had seen.


    But thanks to his newfound improvement in aura, he was able to sense what she was hiding.


    It almost felt like a living tempest. There was a continuous swirl of erratic energy around the girl, unlike anything he had ever seen before. He could see why many considered her to be the strongest person within their year.


    He was actually reevaluating his previous assessment that Polux could beat her. If the deep profoundness he felt from the girl was any indicator, then she was very strong.


    He would have kept examining her, but he was distracted by an unexpected person showing up.


    They walked up to him and gave him a playful bump on his shoulder.


    "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you had a match later?" Reinera asked him with a worried look.


    He chuckled and bumped her back. "I''ll be fine. I am just here to watch over these guys. I won''t be exerting myself. What about you? Why are you here? I find it hard to believe that you want to go delving into a Tier 2 rift."


    He noticed that the others had all stopped talking with each other and focused on the princess. It was still quite a new experience for them. When they first saw Julius hanging out with her, they didn''t know how to act.


    Even after over a week of seeing them interact, they still felt a bit awkward interacting with the royal princess.


    Reinera shifted from one foot to another. "I was hoping to ask Professor Rowe about the possibility of getting permission to delve into Tier 3 rifts."


    "Oh yeah? I just asked him about it, and he said it was possible and we would only need to take a separate examination to get approval."


    "Really? That''s all?" She asked happily.


    "Yeah, you should come and talk to him with me after class. I''m sure we can take the examination at the same time if you want," he offered to her.


    "Absolutely!" She said excitedly. She then turned to look at the professor, who was still looking quite busy.


    "I''ll come back in a bit then."


    "Why not come with us?" He asked.


    "Into the rift?" She asked confusedly.


    "Yeah, I am just going along with them, but I don''t see a problem if you join as well," he said before turning to look at them. "You guys don''t mind if Reinera tags along too, right?"


    Joshua gave a polite bow toward Reinera. "Of course not, it would be a pleasure if the Royal Princess were to join us."


    Julius sighed and pinched his nose. "I told you to stop being so formal around her. You don''t need to bow or scrape your forehead on the floor, you just come off as a weirdo. Right, Reinera?"


    She chuckled. "I wouldn''t say a weirdo, but yeah. I would feel much better if you treated me like a normal student."


    Joshua short circuited a little bit after she spoke to him.


    Thankfully Polux spoke up. "Well in that case, let''s get a move on girly! We got some monsters to hunt!"


    He slapped his forehead. Okay, perhaps, maybe some manners were in need.


    Polux was quickly punched in the side by James. "She said to treat her like a normal student, not like some servant," the other boy whispered harshly to Polux.


    "What? This is how I treat everyone though," Polux argued.


    "Okay, well maybe in your case, you should treat her like a princess. Everyone else can treat her normally."


    Polux gave a genuine look of confusion. "But she''s not my princess. My tribe has our own version of a princess."


    James gave a deadpan stare toward Polux and looked away, appearing to give up entirely.


    "Just do as you please, but don''t come running to us if she decides to break you in half."


    Polux scoffed and gave a measuring look at the delicate stature of Reinera. "She wouldn''t break me in half."


    However, when he saw Julius''s sympathetic shake of his head to the side, he became visibly more worried.


    He slowly turned to face Reinera. "You wouldn''t, right?" He asked her hesitant smile.


    She shrugged her shoulders and looked at him with a blank stare, not responding. However, Julius was able to tell that she was having fun messing with the wolfkin boy. But it''s not like he was planning to tell Polux that anytime soon. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    With that, the group of them all headed toward the rift. He did find himself chuckling silently when he spotted Polux constantly throwing worried glances back toward Reinera, probably scared that she had actually taken offense.

 Chapter 300 - 298: Something Is Off

    Julius found himself impressed by the efficiency of their teamwork. Tia had gotten even better at restricting monsters with her plant magic, and James had gotten a new skill, or at least evolved one of his old skills. His fellow first-year was now able to pack a much larger punch into his fire magic.


    The damage was similar to Julius''s previous fire constructs, making him think it was a pretty good rare skill.


    Polux was a demon in close combat like usual, but he had tempered his aggression, something that had been an issue several months ago when Julius had been delving with them. Instead of always being in the monster''s face and sometimes getting in the way of his teammates'' attacks, he had learned how to create separation to allow them to throw in an attack or two.


    This helped Polux recover some of his stamina and charge his new mana-based skill.


    Nessa helped keep everyone protected at all times, never wasting mana and constantly monitoring their flank.


    Joshua was truly impressive, though. While he didn''t defeat the most monsters, he commanded the rest of them with such precision. He always knew the correct time to push the aggression and when they needed to just be patient.


    He ensured that nobody overextended and used the most optimal amounts of mana to help the others take down their opponents with minimal effort.


    While the boy hadn''t made that many large increases in pure power, he had, without a doubt, improved his skills as a leader and as a director of the battlefield.


    Julius wouldn''t be surprised to learn that Joshua had acquired some skills that helped him with this.


    After he watched the team slaughter the last group of wolves, he looked at Professor Rowe, who had a weird expression on his face.


    "Is something wrong?" He asked the man.


    "I''m not sure. But I spotted a couple of unique variants in that last group. Usually, they spawn pretty rarely, and I haven''t ever seen more than two of them in a single pack before," Professor Rowe said with a frown on his face.


    "Is that a bad thing?" Reinera asked. The three of them were standing a bit away from the others who were actually fighting. Since they were mainly here as supervisors, they gave them some space, which also allowed them to speak amongst each other without anyone overhearing.


    "I wouldn''t say it''s a particularly bad thing. But it is somewhat odd to see. That usually means something within the rift has changed," Professor Rowe explained to her.


    "Aren''t the rifts heavily regulated, though, so that doesn''t happen?" Reinera asked.


    "Yeah, but that doesn''t always work. The issue with regulating a rift that has hundreds of students delving into it is that you can''t predict how much mana or other kinds of energy the rift will absorb. We do our best to estimate how many groups need to be killed in order to keep the balance, but it''s still difficult."


    "So why is the appearance of multiple variants a weird thing?"


    Professor Rowe scratched his chin. "Because it''s likely something else more drastic has occurred within the rift, and the variants are just the symptom of it."


    "What are we going to do then?" Julius asked after he glanced over at the others, who were in the middle of reviewing their fight and making adjustments.


    "The safe thing would be to leave and then come back to investigate further," Professor Rowe said softly.


    Julius nodded his head. He agreed with the professor, if there was anything wrong with the rift, he didn''t feel good about them all staying in there. He thought that the three of them would be fine, but the others were still Tier 2 and if something happened, it was hard to predict how well they would fare.


    ***


    The others weren''t so happy when they found out that their delve would be cut short. However, after Professor Rowe gave them a quick explanation of why he made that choice, they quieted down.


    Additionally, Julius found himself being surprised by Professor Rowe''s next words to him.


    "Would you two like to join me?" He asked.


    Reinera looked surprised. "You want us to join you? Are you planning to head back in right now?"


    "I don''t see a reason to wait any further. If something is happening, I would much rather find out now than later," Professor Rowe explained to her.


    "And you''re okay with us coming with you?" Reinera asked hesitantly.


    "We left mainly for their benefit," he said while pointing at the others. "You both are Tier 3 and should be able to handle anything that the rift might throw at us if there is something wrong. Another set of eyes never hurt anyone when investigating rifts. I also think this could be a good opportunity for me to do a quick examination and see if you are ready for Tier 3 rifts. "


    Julius perked up upon hearing that.


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    "You mean if we come along, then you will give us approval to enter higher-ranked rifts?"


    "Well, it depends on what we find in there. But yes, if there is a problem in there and you two handle it appropriately, I will give you both permission."


    "We accept!" Reinera exclaimed instantly, not even asking about Julius''s opinion. Although he would have said yes, too, so she wasn''t exactly wrong.


    Professor Rowe grinned. "I had a feeling you might feel that way. Let''s head in and take a closer look, huh?"


    ***


    When they re-entered the rift, Julius made sure to take a closer look around. It was the same forest environment as usual, and he didn''t detect anything approaching them.


    Professor Rowe spoke up. "If there is anything wrong with the rift, it is going to be closer to the center. We should head there first."


    Julius and Reinera nodded at the man and followed him as he headed deeper into the forest.


    They quickly passed the area that they had been around before and walked by several signs that said ''restricted area''.


    On their way, they came across several wolf monsters, and unlike scaring them off like Julius expected Professor Rowe to do, the man gestured them toward the monsters.


    Realizing what he was telling them, Julius shrugged his shoulders and looked over at Reinera.


    "You want to handle them?"


    She crinkled her forehead. "Sure, unless you want to take care of them yourself."


    He shook his head at her. "You mentioned that you wanted to test a skill out several days ago, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to see how it works on a real enemy."


    She had got a new skill and the other night she had talked to him about wanting to see how it worked on a living opponent.


    She grinned at him. "Wish me luck," she said while preparing her skill. He could feel some sort of manipulation of mana coursing through the air towards the approaching wolves.


    Then, with one final pulse, he watched as a series of brilliant white chains formed and wrapped around two of the wolves.


    Two more had avoided the chains, but she quickly dispatched them with a couple spears of light to the chest, killing them instantly.


    The other two who were still trapped, struggled desperately to escape, but the chains were much to tough for them. He sensed some sort of Concept compressed into them, which must have made them more sturdy than they would appear to be.


    He could also tell that it was a new skill because she wasn''t quite familiar with it, like she was with her other skills. He doubted many would notice it, but there were times when the mana to one of the chains would be interrupted, but Reinera, being the genius she was with mana control, quickly fixed it.


    Then, in a complicated weave of mana, the chains made of light wrapped themselves around the wolves'' throats and constricted like a python.


    The monsters struggled even more, but it was already too late. They died not long after.


    Reinera quickly manipulated some mana and tore the cores out of the monsters before looking back toward him, giving him a very satisfied look.


    "What did you think?" She asked him with a hopeful look.


    He shrugged and played cool. "Not bad."


    He hid his grin when she pouted at him.


    ***


    As they made their way deeper into the rift, there were even more signs that something had changed within it.


    There was a gradual shift in the feeling of the rift. This powerful mana radiated from the center, unlike anything he had ever seen before from a rift.


    Professor Rowe definitely noticed this too, as the man took out several tools from his storage ring and started to measure something on them.


    With these changes and as they made their way deeper into the rift, there were more encounters with monsters. This time, it wasn''t just wolves.


    Or maybe they had been wolves, but they were now bipedal creatures. Not only that, but they had gotten significantly stronger than before. He would estimate that they were on the edge of Tier 2.


    Seeing these changes, they all started believing that something was happening. That feeling of wrongness was quickly being confirmed before their very eyes.


    On the bright side, these more powerful monsters gave Reinera a better opportunity to test out her new skill. While it was nice to see how they worked on a real-life enemy, the fact remained that the other wolves were too weak to get a good gauge on how powerful they were.


    However, these new monsters actually did a good job of testing the strength of these chains. Their physical abilities were quite high for Tier 2 and rivaled some of the Tier 3s he had come across.


    Being the amazing friend he was, he let her deal with most of the monsters they came across, it was only once in a while that he chose to punch a monster in the face if it got too close to him.


    Professor Rowe just watched on calmly. To Julius, the man seemed much more focused on finding out the reason for the sudden changes and letting them deal with the monsters.


    Eventually, they came across an interesting scene.


    It was a large clearing in the forest, but what had caught all of their attention was the way the trees looked. These trees had changed from their normal deep brown bark and green foliage to a darker, almost silver color.


    "Do you think it has something to do with the change in monsters?" Reinera asked their professor.


    "Certainly seems that way," Professor Rowe said as he walked up to a random tree and placed his hand on it.


    Julius took the time to use his senses to investigate as well. It was weird, but he could have sworn that he felt some kind of mana that he had only felt from those who used some sort of metal magic. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It would definitely explain the silverish color of the trees.


    However, before he could examine the trees much further, his perception skill pinged an incoming monster coming towards them from ahead.


    However, unlike the wolves or even the newer versions of the wolves, this one was different.


    He wasn''t the only person to sense it either and he saw Reinera already preparing her skills. She must have already realized the same thing as he did because she began the process of throwing out chains.


    When he spotted it with his two eyes, he was quite surprised because the creature itself was quite adorable. It was a small monster, much smaller than most he had come across. If he had to say, he would compare it to a larger version of a squirrel.


    But instead of a reddish brown coat, it was covered in a dark silver sheen, glimmering in the soft sunlight that cascaded through the trees.


    Moreover, what was the biggest surprise was that this monster wasn''t a Tier 2, like one would expect from a Tier 2 rift. No, this was a genuine Tier 3 monster.


    This was no longer just a simple issue, but was quickly becoming much larger than he thought.


    What the hell was going on? He thought to himself with a frown.

 Chapter 301 - 299: Man Vs. Bear

    "That''s not normal, right?" He heard Reinera whisper to Professor Rowe.


    "No, it is not," the man replied with a confused look on his face.


    "What should I do? Should I kill it?"


    The man thought for a moment before shaking his head. "No, it might be a good chance to get a closer look at what is going on. Can you try to capture it with your chains?"


    Reinera shrugged her shoulders. "I can try, but I think this fella might be a little harder to capture than the wolves. I have a sneaking suspicion that it''s pretty fast."


    The man was about to say something, but was rudely interrupted when the monster flickered with a flash of silver and dashed toward Reinera.


    He saw that Professor Rowe was about to intervene, but the man held back when he saw that Reniera wasn''t caught off guard.


    She created a dome of chains surrounding the creature and collapsed onto it.


    This seemed to work and the chains grappled the squirrel as it struggled against the bonds.


    For a moment, Julius thought it was already finished, but then he sensed a powerful surge of mana coming from the creature. An explosion of silver light blasted from its body, fractured the chains enough to break through.


    He didn''t know if the squirrel realized that it had picked on something bigger than expected, but instead of rushing toward Reinera again, this time it ran away in the opposite direction.


    Julius couldn''t help but chuckle to himself.


    At least the little bugger is smart enough to know when to run, he thought with an amused grin.


    Reinera tried to run after it, but the thing was really quick. It split through the trees and off into the forest before she could catch it.


    "Well that was weird," he finally said as they all stared at where the monster had run off to.


    "I agree, we should head back," Professor Rowe said to them.


    "What? Why would we do that? We are already pretty deep," Reinera said to him.


    "I don''t feel comfortable with two delving this rift when you recently advanced to Tier 3. There is no doubt that this rift is undergoing some kind of transformation at the moment and I would rather we didn''t take any risks," Professor Rowe explained.


    "I thought that was why you wanted to bring us in here? You know, to test us?"


    The man frowned and looked at the trees around them. "I wanted to test you guys in a more controlled environment. This is far from controlled. I have no idea what would force the rift to undergo such drastic changes, but the fact that a squirrel has managed to transform into a Tier 3 monster is indicative of the severity of the issue."


    Julius understood where the man was coming from. At the end of the day, Professor Rowe was a teacher and had to prioritize students'' safety before anything else. So the decision to fall back would be considered the safest option.


    With that being said, Julius had no real desire to leave, not when it was finally getting a little interesting. He knew that Reinera was feeling the exact same way, if the excited smile on her face was anything to go on.


    So when Professor Rowe had already started to head back toward the rift entrance, he had to stop to look back at where Julius and Reinera were both still standing.


    "Come on, let''s head on back. I will get a group of other organized to come investigate."


    "Give us a shot! We can protect ourselves, we promise," Reinera pleaded.


    "I can''t take that chance. Remember the last time something weird happened in a rift? You two were transported to a random rift and almost died," the man reminded them.


    Oh yeah, he kind of forgot that Professor Rowe had been the one with them when it happened.


    "And because of that, we got a lot stronger. Plus, this will be a great experience for us if we ever encounter something similar. But next time we won''t have a Tier 4 looking out for us," Reinera said so convincingly that even Julius didn''t notice that he was nodding along right beside her.


    Professor Rowe looked at her with a serious gaze. "Are you sure?" He asked.


    "Absolutely."


    Their teacher sighed and deflated a little. "Okay, but when I say we leave, we leave. No arguing about, okay?"


    "Understood!" Reinera said with a beaming smile.


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    ***


    They didn''t come across any more Tier 3s, but the deeper they walked into the rift, the more they spotted signs of this silverish corruption.


    The feeling of this metallic-like mana got even stronger, which made them all wonder what could have caused this.


    A few monsters decided to attack them, but weirdly, they didn''t come across that many of them.


    Eventually, they came close to the center of the rift, and Julius spotted a huge lake just up ahead. But what he saw made him pause in interest because the water was almost like diluted mercury instead of a crystal blue lake he had been expecting.


    "That doesn''t seem good," he said with a blank stare at the lake. "Does it always look like a pool of melted metal?"


    "No, no, it does not," Professor Rowe confirmed for him.


    Julius ended up perking up when he spotted a group of monsters heading toward them. Like the squirrel, these ones had the auras of Tier 3s.


    However, unlike the squirrel, these seemed much more enthusiastic about fighting them. Several wolves were stalking toward them, but the most interesting one was the giant bear standing at the back.


    He looked over at Reinera. "You want to handle the wolves, and I get the big guy?"


    She grinned at him and created a bunch of spears of light over her head.


    "Are you sure you can handle it?" She teased him.


    He rolled his eyes and shoved her toward the incoming wolves. "Just worry about yourself, alright," he said with a sigh.


    She almost fell over but was laughing as she regained her balance. And before the wolves could get any closer, she sent her volley of spears at the monsters.


    He wasn''t surprised when they pierced their defenses easily. They didn''t stand a chance. A good portion of them were killed in a matter of moments. The rest of them hesitated after the attack.


    Julius ignored them and slowly walked over to the bear, who was staring at Professor Rowe with a careful look on its face.


    This bear wasn''t like the two-headed bear he had fought in that other Tier 3 rift. That one was a stretch to call a bear. This one, though, was very much a bear. The only thing that wasn''t the same was the fact that it had a dull silver coat of fur.


    The bear saw Julius approaching it, but for some reason, it must have decided that he wasn''t the main threat and continued to look at Professor Rowe. He sagged his shoulders, upset that he was ignored, but still headed over with a slow gait.


    It was only when he stood in front of the monster that it finally decided to shift its attention onto Julius. And with a careless swipe of its arm, it swung its claws toward him.


    He was quite impressed with the power behind the blow. It was clear that this monster was quite powerful in its own right, and he was almost certain that it had a Concept of its own. Based on the aura he was getting from the monster, he would guess that it was metal-related.


    With that being said, Julius didn''t see a reason to avoid the blow. As a matter of fact, he was quite curious about how he would be able to handle the blow with just his pure strength.


    So before it hit him, he managed to create a thin layer of mana over his body. He channeled power through [Pyronkinetic Embodiment of Ruin] and [Barrier of Severance], the latter of which was still hovering at level 18. It was a skill he hoped to evolve since it was one of three skills that hadn''t evolved to epic yet.


    He had been using it during his previous three matches already and was hoping that he would be able to advance it before the tournament ended.


    Moreover, the other two skills that hadn''t evolved were [Flash Step] and [Spatial Perception]. Both of which he wanted to learn a Space Concept before he evolved them. While he didn''t have to, he thought he would get better options or at least options that would suit what he wanted better.


    When the bear''s arm smashed into him, he barely felt a thing and didn''t even budge. He hadn''t siphoned any of the monster''s kinetic energy either, which just showed how much stronger he had become physically.


    He chuckled to himself as the bear looked at him with confusion clear in its eyes. It was probably expecting to smash Julius into a smear of blood. Seeing that its attack was ineffective seemed to make the bear''s brain go haywire. It held up the arm it used to attack with to its face and examined it like there was something wrong with it.


    However, Julius was a polite guy and so he let the bear regain its bearings, not moving an inch or attacking it in the meantime.


    Eventually, the bear decided that it needed to attack again and so when it swung its claws toward him for a second time, he smiled when he saw that it was being much more serious.


    The power behind the blow had a lot more momentum and was heading straight for his face.


    Since the monster was taking him more seriously, he believed that it was only fair that he would reciprocate in the same manner. So with a calm expression on his face, he lifted his arm to block the incoming claw.


    The shockwave from the impact between their two arms rippled throughout the field and he chuckled as he was actually pushed back slightly. There was so much weight behind the blow that it was inevitable not to.


    "Finally getting serious now, huh?" He said to the beast, knowing full well that it wouldn''t be able to speak back.


    He was sure that there was some kind of skill the monster had to increase the weight of its attacks and he wouldn''t be shocked to learn that it was attached to whatever Concept it had.


    Unfortunately for the beast, it had come across Julius who had four Concepts of his own. Which meant that when the bear''s Concept tried to oppress him, the monster found it impossible to make any headway.


    Seeing that Julius had once again withstood its attack, the monster decided to throw everything at him. Its uncaring attitude had drastically changed into one of pure animalistic rage, and it roared as it swung another arm at his face.


    Julius took a step backward, let the claw whoosh by him, and clobbered his fist into the beast, sending it staggering off to the side. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It quickly got back to its feet and dashed toward Julius with a breathtaking display of speed for something of its size and stature.


    This time, instead of trying to bash his face in, it decided to ram into him.


    He noticed that a silverish sheen covered the bear''s entire body, and sharp spikes were created, covering its whole body like a porcupine would.


    Julius smiled as he saw this skill activate and channeled even more mana into [Barrier of Severance] to match this beast, and without another word, rushed headlong into the bear.


    If it wanted a brawl, he would happily give it one. He had some things he wanted to test, and this bear would help him accomplish that.


    Plus, he could use some good fun and a good fight. Lately, he hadn''t been able to let himself go. However, this bear was nice enough to give him that chance.


    So with a big grin, he smashed into the bear and the two of them tried their best to rip each other into pieces.

 Chapter 302 - 300: What Did He Do?

    Charles Rowe POV


    Charles did not feel totally comfortable with what they were doing, but his curiosity got the better of him.


    This whole rift was becoming a bit suspicious. There should be no way a rift that has existed under the direct control of Goldencrest has experienced so many changes.


    Everything was highly regulated, ensuring that the conditions of the environment stayed the same. That is why he decided to investigate further, and now he is very glad that he did.


    As they went deeper into the rift, the changes became clear. Some kind of external influence was changing the parameters of the rift. Something had appeared at the center that caused a cascading effect to warp the entire environment.


    In his opinion, it was something like a metal-aspected natural treasure that had started to take over the rift. Or at least influence to the point where some of the monsters were being infected.


    Looking at the silver lake, he could not understand how nobody had noticed. He knew that maintenance on Tier 2 rifts was much more relaxed than a Tier 3 or the Tier 4 rifts they had, but this still should have been noted during the last time it was checked up on.


    He would make sure that whoever was in charge of it was investigated, especially since they still have not found out who had messed with the rift the princess had been transported in. It also started to make him believe that someone had artificially planted this treasure or item in the rift.


    To achieve what, he had no idea. But it was becoming very suspicious.


    Realizing he should pay closer attention to his students, he looked up and saw Reinera dealing with some of the evolved Tier 3 wolves. Upon inspection, he realized that she was already quite powerful for a Tier 3. He could feel the distinctive signs of a Concept, and she had a really good grasp of her mana control and aura.


    Some people found it difficult to adapt to the newfound strength of becoming a Tier 3. It took some students almost a year until they got comfortable with their new power. Sometimes even longer when it came to controlling their aura.


    Nobles in particular, because they often had items which helped them. He never liked these items, they created bad habits, but he could see why kids would use them. They were easy and did most of the aspects that aura control was supposed to help with.


    Seeing that she had everything handled, he looked over to where he spotted Julius already walking toward a lone bear and paused.


    This bear was not like the wolves at all. The wolves were simple Tier 3 monsters. This bear was most definitely not. This thing was well into Tier 3 and boasted a very intimidating presence as well.


    However, when he spotted the boy''s confident steps, he held himself back from intervening right away. He had seen Julius in action already and knew that the boy was a decent close combatant who had a kinetic affinity. Thus, he wasn''t as worried about him confronting such a physically imposing opponent.


    With that being said, though, he was not expecting the boy to literally not attempt to protect himself at all. He stood there and took a swing with his face.


    Charles moved in to save the boy from his idiotic behavior, but it was too late and he was too far away. Thankfully, the bear hadn''t seen the boy as a threat and it wasn''t as hard as it could have been.


    Still, he was surprised when Julius didn''t move an inch. He took the blow with ease and had the gall to smile at the bear while completely still.


    Charles wanted nothing more than to run over and shake the boy silly. He could not believe the boy was acting so stupidly in front of a dangerous opponent. There was no way he was going to clear the boy to delve alone if he continued to show such rampant disregard while fighting. There was no way he could do so if he wanted to have a clear conscience at night.


    Charles took a deep breath, reeled in his emotions, and calmed down. Instead of assuming the boy was just an idiot, he could at least give him a chance and examine the boy in closer detail.


    It was noteworthy and applaudable that the boy was able to tank the attack in the first place, so there was a degree of justification for his actions.


    Therefore, Charles was interested in seeing how the boy was able to deal with the bear now that it was obviously taking him more seriously.


    He sensed the boy activate some kind of skill and reinforced his body. To his immense relief, the boy understood that taking that weaker blow was completely different than taking an actual strike and was preparing some sort of defense or to dodge the incoming attack.


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    However, he still looked on in disbelief and incredulity when the boy decided that instead of taking the blow straight to the face, he would meet the attack head on with his arm.


    Charles and every other professor at Goldencrest taught students that they needed to deflect the force of the blows at angles. Thus, most of the power behind the blow dissipated into the air.


    Julius, it would seem he had not listened to this particular lesson because he thought that it was a brilliant idea to smash his forearm directly into the bear. Charles was able to feel the impact from where he stood.


    To his credit, the boy was able to take the blow head-on once more and only staggered back a little bit. Much better than Charles could have ever expected. Regardless of that, he was already prepared to jump in and save the boy at any moment, but for some weird reason, he held back.


    If that were the end, he would have been glad. Unfortunately, it was not.


    For the next few minutes, he witnessed the most deranged clash of heads he had ever seen in his ten years as a professor.


    There was no intention of dodging or graceful fighting. It was an all-out brawl that one would never expect from a person and a monster. If he didn''t know any better, he would have thought that he was watching a fight between two bears clashing against each other. It was like the boy had actually embraced the role of a beast.


    And the worst part? The boy clearly enjoyed every moment of it.


    Even from where he was standing, he could hear the laughs and child-like giggles from the boy each time he slammed into the bear.


    He pressed his face into both of his hands. He didn''t like it, but he couldn''t help but become more and more skeptical of the boy''s sanity.


    As he continued to watch, he was approached from behind, and he turned toward the royal princess with a depressed look on his face. He knew that they had been together since their disappearance, so he thought that if anyone could explain to him what he was seeing, it would probably be her.


    "Does he normally do this?" He asked softly.


    He did not like the fact that the girl noticeably winced at him.


    "He''s not always this bad," she offered with a strained smile.


    "But he does do this type of thing often?"


    She shrugged. "It depends. But if you are worried about him getting hurt, then you shouldn''t stress over it too much. He''s much more durable than most would think," she said with an amused grin.


    He glanced over at where he was witnessing two wild beasts slug it out with each other, with an uncomfortable look on his face.


    "If you say so," he finally said to her. He would trust her words, and since she did not appear worried about the boy''s safety, he would just continue to watch.


    With that being said, his opinion about the boy would be forever changed.


    ***


    Julius POV


    While it was not the most interesting or powerful opponent he had faced, it was still quite an enjoyable fight, even more so when he decided only to use his physical abilities and not his constructs or aura.


    That would have taken all of the fun out of it. Instead, he appreciated the chance to relax and throw himself against a living punching bag.


    If there was one thing that the bear had, it was an extraordinary level of stamina and the unique ability to take a beating. He suspected it had something to do with the metal aspected nature of the beast, but still, it managed to take his strikes with little reaction.


    It wasn''t like he was holding back all that much either. His punches still had enough force to seriously hurt most Tier 3s.


    It actually reminded him of Aubrey''s own crystal defenses. Except in her case, she didn''t have the sheer weight helping her absorb the force of his blows.


    Unfortunately, like all good things, they must eventually come to an end.


    The bear could no longer keep up with him. Its chest was heaving, and it gasped for air. Even its massive stamina could not keep up with the brutal pace they kept going at.


    The monster''s body was covered in torn pieces of flesh and blood. However, there was still a fighting spirit tucked in its eyes. Understanding that he wasn''t going to be getting much more help, he gave a grateful nod toward the bear. Appreciating the good fight and for allowing him to relieve some of his pent-up stress.


    Then, without further ado, he slammed one last crushing fist onto its skull, killing it quickly.


    Once he was finally done, he looked down at himself and frowned.


    He wasn''t heavily injured, his [Barrier of Severance] skill had actually done a noteworthy job of protecting him. That on top of his new enhancement skill made his defenses much more sturdy than they had been previously. He had a small collection of scratches and a bunch of bruises scattered all over his body.


    Furthermore, he found that his clothing had not come out of it unscathed. His training outfit was barely hanging onto his torso, and he was missing an entire side of his pants.


    He quickly changed into a new pair of clothes and made sure to stop his healing skill from activating. He didn''t really want to show off that particular skill in front of Professor Rowe quite yet. He was more than fine showing some of these other skills, but [Phoenix Renewal] was always a flashy skill.


    That was still something he would like to keep a bit more secret if possible. Thus, he took out a small vial of a healing potion he still had from when Rebecca had given him a sack of them and downed it. The small littering of injuries was taken care of pretty quickly, and when he was done, he turned to look where the other two were staring at him.


    Reinera had an exasperated expression on her face, but he was more surprised to see that Professor Rowe had this look of supreme disappointment. Julius wondered what he could have done to deserve such a reaction.

 Chapter 303 - 301: Polluted Lake

    "How are we going to get it out of there?" Reinera asked their professor while staring at the large lake in front of them.


    After the battle, the three of them had gotten closer to the lake and investigated what might have happened to it. They were all pretty certain that some sort of item or treasure was somewhere in the middle of the lake. However, it was very difficult to detect where it might be placed exactly.


    For all they knew, it could be directly in the center of the deepest part of the lake or merely placed in one of the shallow sections.


    The lake had done an excellent at defusing the mana equally through the water. Thus, it was all just a guessing game.


    Julius might have been able to detect it with [Spatial Perception] if he were close enough, but the lake was pretty big, and the center of it was outside his range, even if he went over to the other side.


    If only he could fly¡­


    "Actually, I might have an idea," he said suddenly.


    Professor Rowe looked over at him with interest. "What''s that?"


    "If I can scan over the water, I might be able to find out where this object is. Regardless, it is still predicated on something being down there in the first place," he explained quickly.


    "You would be able to do that? What about the mana rich water? Wouldn''t that impact your ability to sense through its depths?" The professor asked, looking very much confused at Julius''s bold claim, but also genuinely curious.


    He didn''t blame the man for his skepticism either. If the man himself couldn''t sense the object, then how could Julius proclaim he could? After all, Professor Rowe was still a certified Tier 4.


    "My perception skill doesn''t only rely on mana," he said simply, not intending to explain too much about [Spatial Perception]. Of course, Reinera already knew about his insane perception, so it wasn''t news to her.


    Professor Rowe looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face. "Alrighty then, I guess I can create a barrier under your feet if you want to use that to hover above the water," he offered to Julius.


    That actually would work out great. This way, it would let him hide his mana construct abilities. After all, while he wasn''t hiding that he was strong, he still wanted people to believe that he was a warrior and not a mage.


    More importantly, though, using pure mana and willpower to fly was an impressive feat, according to Richard and Rebecca. Not every mage was able to do that. He was much more concerned about that.


    So, without further ado, Professor Rowe created a nice thick barrier of mana just underneath his feet. It was almost like a small boat and was very sturdy. He believed that even if he struck this thing pretty hard, it would take some time to crack it.


    Thus, it made him feel much safer as he was hovering over the lake. He didn''t wish to fall in. They had no clue what any prolonged exposure to this mana would do to people. It didn''t feel that awful, but it was hard to tell unless one of them decided to take a dip in it, and he wasn''t going to be volunteering anytime soon.


    It took a while because of the sheer size of the lake, but when he was scanning the center of the lake, he thought he sensed something. He waved his hand at Professor Rowe to signal to stop the makeshift boat.


    He had already stopped to check something before, but this time he really thought he sensed something. It was just really hard with water this condensed with foreign mana. It affected his [Spatial Perception] skill enough to make it difficult. It was like looking through a foggy bottle, and it took him immense concentration to make sure he hadn''t overlooked anything.


    Sure enough, he found something. It wasn''t a very large object, probably only around the size of his hand, but he was certain that it was what they were looking for.


    So with a deft control of his aura, he wrapped this object up and brought it to the surface, where he was able to see what it exactly looked like for the first time.


    He could have used his still-developing ability to control ambient mana, but in this particular case, he didn''t want to risk damaging the object or potentially setting something off. Thus, he felt much more comfortable using his aura control to grab it.


    He frowned as a silver ore-like object appeared, and now that there wasn''t any mana-rich water surrounding it, he was able to feel a powerful source of mana radiating from the ore.


    He had no idea what this thing was, but whatever it was, he doubted it was created by this rift and further proved their theory that this thing was artificially placed here. He didn''t think a Tier 2 rift would be able to create such a powerful object. It felt like something a high-level Tier 3 rift or possibly a Tier 4 rift would have.


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    When he got back to the shoreline where Reinera and Professor Rowe were waiting for him, he showed them what he had found.


    "Do you know what this is?" He asked Professor Rowe.


    The man in question was staring at the object with a very severe frown. Julius observed as the man took out a couple of tools from his storage ring and started to scan the ore with them. After a few moments, the man finally sighed and shook his head in disbelief.


    "What is it?" Reinera asked.


    Their professor looked at them with a grimace. "This is a piece of Tier 4 Adremite Ore, a very dangerous ore that infects its surrounding area with its mana. Usually, it wouldn''t be able to affect a diverse environment like this as it is typically found deep in mountains and only infects other common ores, but someone must have done something to it so that it could infect this body of water."


    "What do you mean they did something to it? How could an ore, even if it''s a Tier 4 ore, cause this level of change?" S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The professor shrugged his shoulders and looked over at the lake, which was still quite silver despite them removing the object. "It''s like they enchanted it or perhaps changed the ore with alchemical methods. Whatever it is now, it''s no longer a simple ore. It is closer to an enchanted item or weapon than a piece of metal."


    ***


    Once they figured out the origin of the problem, they left the rift, making sure they took the ore with them. Professor Rowe had secured it and was going to make sure that it would be thoroughly investigated. He also shut the entire rift down for the time being, even mentioning the possibility of clearing the rift if it wasn''t salvageable.


    What Julius was more worried about was the fact that this was the second time that he had seen signs of someone other than the staff messing with the school''s rifts. Or perhaps, it was someone who was a part of the staff. It would certainly explain how they were able to get access.


    It was hard to imagine what kind of problems could have arisen if they hadn''t investigated the rift. If a bunch of Tier 2 students came into the rift and came across some of the Tier 3 beasts, it could have ended in their deaths.


    Shaking his head to clear those negative thoughts, he walked alongside Reinera.


    "Do you think it''s the same people who messed with our rift before?" She asked him suddenly.


    He turned to her and noticed that she had an uncomfortable look on her face.


    "What? Do you think you were being targeted again?" He asked her with pressed lips.


    She shook her head. "No, if they were going to target me, it wouldn''t be in a Tier 2 rift. They would not even expect me to go into one. But I do think these events are connected in some way."


    He nodded in agreement.


    "Speaking of going into a rift, I was surprised that you were even allowed to enter the Tier 2 one. I thought that you would have had more restrictions on you putting yourself in any kind of danger," he said.


    She turned to him and gave him a smirk. "I wasn''t supposed to. Amelia gave me very specific instructions not to delve into any rifts without her, but she was busy today, and I snuck away. However, in my defense, I wasn''t looking to delve; I was only going to ask about how I am supposed to get access to Tier 3 rifts."


    "And she''s fine with that?"


    "No, but even my family understands that there is no point in me attending Goldencrest if I don''t actually take advantage of their resources. The school has allowed me to bring Amelia into all of the rifts just in case," she explained.


    "I am actually a little surprised that your family hasn''t sent over an entire team of guards to protect you," he said with a joking laugh.


    "Oh, they tried," she said with a roll of her eyes. "They insisted that my safety was in question and wanted some of my family''s Tier 5s to come to the school."


    "They tried?"


    "Yeah, the school fullheartedly denied them. They weren''t going to allow a bunch of powerful retainers of the Royal Family to waltz in and have access to campus," she said with a grateful smile.


    "I bet that didn''t make them happy. I would have thought they would have taken you back to the capital in that case," he commented.


    "Yeah, they weren''t thrilled, and they did threaten to take me back. But I managed to convince them not to when I mentioned that bringing me back to the Capital would probably put me in more danger, considering that the whole reason I left was because people were constantly trying to kill me. This is actually the fewest number of assassination attempts I have experienced in a single year," she said with this weirdly prideful tone.


    He gave her a mirthful smirk, but before he could reply, he suddenly remembered something important.


    "My match!" He exclaimed.


    Reinera whipped her head to look at him. "What? Did you miss it?" She asked frantically.


    He glanced over at the large clock on the side of the building next to them and facepalmed his forehead once he realized that he had indeed missed his match. It was supposed to have begun ten minutes ago.


    "I am so stupid, I can''t believe I completely forgot about it," he said while slapping himself on the side of the head. This was his own fault for his general uncaring attitude toward the tournament. He had not thought of it as important and forgot it the moment something more interesting popped up.


    She went over to him and patted him soothingly on the back. "Look on the bright side, it''s only the prelims and not the second stage, which just means you will only have a loss on your record."


    He sighed loudly. "I am more worried about the scolding I am going to be getting because I forgot," he admitted.


    She winced at that. "Yeah, but at least you had a good excuse," she said optimistically.


    He nodded to himself. She had a good point, it wasn''t like he had been sleeping or something. They had been investigating something important.


    Plus, it wasn''t like he had been looking forward to his match either. The last three opponents he had faced had not been much of a challenge. They weren''t that powerful and did not have many interesting skills.


    The real fights would only begin after the prelims were over. Just now, he had a single loss on his record, which wasn''t the worst thing in the world, all things considered.

 Chapter 304 - 302: Match Against Bethany

    Julius was still headed toward the arena just in case he could still make his match, or if there was some reason why his opponent was also late.


    Unfortunately, it seemed that he could do nothing and was met by Lily, Aubrey, and Edgar.


    "We were waiting for you for a long time!" Aubrey exclaimed. "But imagine our surprise when you didn''t even show up!"


    He held his hands up and tried to placate her. "I got tied up with something important. A rift had another issue and time just got away," he explained.


    That seemed to calm her down quite swiftly. "Another rift incident?" Aubrey asked worriedly.


    "What do you mean? Did something bad happen again?" Lily asked anxiously.


    He sighed and spent the next minute explaining to them what had happened. Thankfully, this seemed to distract them from the fact that he had forgotten his match.


    "Doesn''t this seem kinda suspicious?" Aubrey said with a tilt of her head.


    "I agree. What are the odds of something like this happening during the tournament? Everyone knows that this is the busiest time of the year and when the staff are already overworked," Edgar added.


    "Who do you think would do something like this, though? And what could possibly be their reasons for doing so?" Lily asked


    "The Conclave," Julius couldn''t help but mutter to himself.


    "What was that, Julius?" Edgar asked.


    He shook his head. "Nothing, just talking to myself," he replied.


    Edgar gave him a funny look but didn''t press him any further.


    "Anyhow, we should still have time to go see Kyle''s match. If we head over now, we might get there before it begins," Lily said with a smile.


    The four of them headed off to the other arena to go and support Kyle, and for the moment, the fact that he missed his own match was forgotten.


    ***


    Today was the last match of the prelims until everyone got paired. At the moment, he sat at three wins and one loss. The loss, which was completely his fault, as Aubrey loved to point out.


    However, he had a feeling that today''s fight was going to be a bit different than his other matches. His opponent this time around wasn''t like the other people he had fought.


    It was a fourth-year girl and right away he was able to tell that she was stronger than the other people he had fought as of yet just by looking at her aura. Her name was Bethany and according to Lily, she was definitely toward the top of the fourth years.


    This meant that Julius found himself in Arena 1 for the first time. This also meant that he would be fighting in front of a lot of people. Previously, he had been fighting in front of a couple of dozen people at most.


    However, Arena 1 was where most of the more interesting fights occurred. It was designated to people that the school believed were more ''attractive'' to watch, which obviously caused it to be more packed than any other arena.


    When he walked onto the field, he was kind of surprised by the small anxious jitters he was feeling. There were so many eyes looking at the field. Almost every seat in the arena was taken and he could hear the loud roars from the crowd as they cheered on the other fights that were going on around him. The booming cries and collective groans when someone got hit particularly hard echoed throughout the entire arena.


    For the first time since the prelims began, it finally started to feel like a serious tournament.


    The moment the two of them walked onto the field, he was able to sense that many of the crowd''s focus turned to watch their match. While he knew that most of their eyes were on the pretty girl in front of him, he still felt a little nervous, but he had to admit that he felt a spark of excitement as well.


    He saw the Bethany girl staring at him with an intense gaze from across the field. For some reason, unlike the other students he had faced, she didn''t seem to be looking down on him just because he was a first-year student.


    He didn''t know if that was because she had heard about his other fights or if that was just the type of person she was, but it was nice to see that she was considering him an actual opponent.


    The official walked out onto the field between the two of them.


    "This is an official match between fourth-year Bethany Jacobs and first-year Julius Snow," he announced, though Julius doubted that many people were able to hear the man over the noise of the crowd. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    However, he was soon proven wrong when suddenly a large portion of the arena went silent for a brief moment. After the stark silence, he watched as many of the spectators turned to each other and started muttering amongst themselves.


    He could hear the crowd saying things like ''first-year'' and ''it''s a shame''. He didn''t blame them for their reaction. His participation in the tournament was still not common knowledge, and it seemed that many of the people were shocked to hear the revelation.


    Although he had more pressing issues in front of him at the moment. So he put these thoughts into the back of his mind and focused on the match. The official then looked at the two of them with a meaningful glare, ignoring the crowd''s mutters.


    "You both know the rules, so I expect a clean and fair fight. If one of you breaks one of these rules, you will forfeit the match and be punished accordingly. Understood?"


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    Julius nodded at the man, and Bethany did the same from her side of the field, but he noticed that her eyes never strayed from him for a single second.


    ***


    Bethany POV


    When the official signaled the start of the match, Bethany didn''t waste any time and sent a salvo of mana spears straight toward the young boy in front of her.


    She knew better than to underestimate the first year.


    While most people would think that someone was stupid for advancing to Tier 3 so young, she didn''t share the same opinion. She had seen one of the earlier matches by accident and was immediately able to tell that he wasn''t just some impatient boy who wanted to tout his Tier 3 status to his peers.


    He was a genuine fighter who displayed a level of skill and poise that she didn''t see even among her fellow fourth years. Too bad that his past opponents hadn''t realized the same thing and they were punished for their arrogance.


    Julius was also supposedly really good friends with Derek and Edgar¡ªat least, that was what her friends told her. But this made her wonder what kind of help they gave the boy to prepare him for the tournament.


    She shook her head and focused on the fight in front of her. It didn''t matter what they taught him, she only knew one thing for certain, she wasn''t going to be getting her first loss from a boy three years her junior.


    So with a roar of mana, she drowned his position with mana spears, not letting the boy get the chance to breathe. All the while, she started to weave a powerful barrier of mana around her just in case. She knew that the boy was a close combat fighter, but who knew what kind of tricks he was hiding.


    She heard the crowd gasp in surprise at her vicious opening, but she ignored them. They probably thought she was going overboard against a first-year. But they hadn''t seen the boy''s previous fights where he dismantled other Tier 3s without much effort.


    She observed as Julius danced between the explosions of mana and used some sort of movement skill to avoid the more dangerous attacks with grace. However, she grinned to herself because the boy was already showing much more speed than he had during his previous match, which she had watched.


    I knew he was holding back during that fight, she confirmed to herself.


    And so while the crowd was surprised to see the boy avoid the swarm of spears that would have taken out some of the other Tier 3s in the tournament, she was already sending out another cluster of spears.


    However, these ones were different from the last ones. They weren''t meant to just explode, but they had something secret packed inside of them. These spears were loaded with her [Resonating Mana] skill to destabilize the boy''s mana in his body.


    So when he tried to avoid the spears like he had the last time, she smiled when he was surprised by her little trick and his movement skill was interrupted when the spear got closer.


    Still, she was impressed with how quickly he recovered. He wiped out her technique and regained control of his mana almost immediately. Too bad, it was already too late.


    He was bombarded with several spears and was blasted backwards in a cloud of smoke.


    She heard the crowd roar as they thought the fight was over. However, she knew better than to believe that. At the last moment, she had felt some kind of resistance, and on top of that, Julius''s protection enchantments hadn''t activated yet. Which meant he had withstood the attack.


    So without any hesitation, she sent several more spears ripping through the air at the cloud of smoke.


    The crowd muttered confusedly at her actions, but stopped when they spotted Julius standing there in the middle of the field, relatively unharmed. He looked a bit battered and dusty, but he was definitely okay with continuing to fight.


    She sent out more spears, trying to disrupt his mana once again, but this time she frowned when her mana wasn''t able to destabilize his. Somehow, her attempts at interrupting his mana were completely shrugged off to the side. It was almost as if her skill wasn''t able to find a single opening to affect his mana.


    His willpower must be extraordinary, she realized with a surprised expression.


    He used her surprise to close the distance, and before she knew it, he was already in front of her, swinging his fist at her head.


    If she didn''t know better, she would say that he had gotten even faster than a minute ago. His strike slammed against her barrier and she widened her eyes as her barrier barely withstood the punch.


    Before he could strike again, she blasted mana outward and used the force to launch her up toward the sky. She wasn''t able to fly, but she was able to use mana to let her float for short periods.


    This was perfect when she was fighting against close combat fighters, like she was at the moment.


    For several brief moments, the two of them just stared at each other. The boy had this silly grin on his face as he stared up at her. He shook his head as if in disbelief that she was basically hiding up in the air.


    She didn''t exactly like this strategy as it felt a little cheap, but it was a genuine strategy against people like Julius and one she was planning to use against some of the stronger close combat fighters like Edgar.


    Despite her guilt, it didn''t stop her from creating several spears of mana and then raining them down toward the boy.


    He frantically dodged them and ran around in circles. The other benefit of being higher up in the air was the fact that he was an easier target for her. Forcing him to dodge from unusual angles.


    After he avoided her attacks, she gave him an apologetic shrug and spoke out to him.


    "There is no shame in admitting defeat. Trust me, I can do this all day."


    She watched as the boy threw his head back and giggled with mirth.


    And before she could ask what he found so funny, she was blasted backward as her barrier blocked a powerful construct of mana.


    She looked down at the boy with astonished eyes. He had created a single fire construct and launched it at her with incredible speed.


    She had no idea that he could do something like that. While a lot of specialized warriors had ways to fight at a distance, she didn''t think the boy had such skills since he was too young to focus on multiple aspects of combat.


    Clearly, she was wrong because she quickly found her barrier getting slammed by a spike of mana one at a time. The power of these constructs wasn''t weak either, they were more powerful than a newly advanced Tier 3 should be capable of and she could even sense a Concept infused into them.


    Realizing that she was sitting duck floating up in the air, she made a decision to drop back down to the ground.


    And before she could regain her balance she found herself being charged at. Julius had closed the distance once more and this time he smashed an overcharged fist into her barrier, actually cracking it this time around.


    She desperately blasted out another burst of mana to get some distance, but she was surprised once again when he didn''t get knocked back like last time. Instead, he barely budged and released another brutal strike, that further cracked her barrier and quickly followed it up with one last kick that shattered it completely.


    Despite her frantic efforts to destabilize his mana and his body enhancement skill, she found that her efforts were in vain. She realized much too late that his body skill didn''t revolve just around mana, but it was a skill based around aura. This meant that her skill was practically useless against it, even if she was able to overcome his willpower.


    So, although she struggled with all her might, she couldn''t help but curse as the boy finally broke through her defenses and slammed a crushing blow against her chest, activating her enchantments and signaling the end of the match.

 Chapter 305 - 303: Guild Offer

    Lily POV


    She chuckled and saw that the others were having a jolly time as well. Aubrey in particular was having a blast. She was laughing boisterously and was immensely enjoying all the people visibly and audibly confused of what just occurred before their very eyes.


    Edgar was laughing right beside Aubrey, slapping his knee in amusement at the people''s reaction.


    Derek was doing his best to hold in his own laughter but there was a shit eating smirk on his face that he wasn''t able to hide. Kyle, at the very least, was able to rein in his reaction, but she was still able to notice the guy''s enjoyment from the waft of emotions she was getting from him.


    She tried to listen in as all of the people clamored loudly about how a first-year was able to beat one of the stronger participants.


    Aubrey was still laughing her ass off and pointed at the surrounding crowd. "Look at their faces!"


    Her loud voice caught the attention of the closer people. Their confused expressions quickly turned into offended ones. They didn''t appear to appreciate her laughing at them at their own expense.


    Derek nudged her while still stifling his own laugh. "Stop making fun of them. How are they supposed to know? I think their reactions are appropriate considering the circumstances."


    "Yeah, but it''s still funny to see!" She said with an even wider grin.


    He shook his head. "Not as much as you''re making it seem."


    She pointed a finger at his face accusingly. "I know you find it hilarious too! I bet on the inside you are peeing your pants in laughter."


    "I am not!" He denied fervently.


    Aubrey turned to Lily and looked at her questioningly. She didn''t even need to ask the question. Lily knew exactly what she was asking with that look.


    She looked over at Derek''s pleading look and tried to hide a giggle from escaping because they were both aware that he found it hilarious. He just had more manners than Aubrey.


    However, Aubrey had already caught their exchange and exclaimed loudly. "See! I knew it!"


    But before she could say anything, Derek zapped both of them with a little lightning before pouting off to the side.


    After another soft smile to herself, she turned back toward the field where both Julius and Bethany were walking off of it.


    Bethany Jacobs was someone she had known for a while, and while they weren''t exactly friends, they had run across each other quite a lot over the years. Lily had even faced her in prior tournaments.


    Unfortunately, Lily had not won against her before. So she knew better than most that Bethany Jacobs was not someone to take lightly. Her ability to destabilize people''s mana and her powerful mana-based attacks were quite well known throughout the school.


    The Jacobs family was a well-established House with generations of powerful people at their disposal. This wasn''t just a first-year beating a Tier 3 who was in their third year and had recently advanced. This was a genuinely good fighter. Someone who had a good chance at getting a slot for the Tier 3 Inter-School Tournament.


    This expectantly caused the interest of many who attended Goldencrest and perhaps more importantly, she could see that many of the representatives of the various guilds and organizations took note of Julius as well.


    If he had wanted to remain lowkey, it would seem that period was over. He would now be a person of interest and of high potential for these groups.


    Despite this, she grinned widely because she was excited to see that her friend was finally getting the recognition that he deserved.


    ***


    Julius POV


    He was pleasantly surprised by how the fight went. He hadn''t been expecting that much, but his opponent had shown him some interesting skills. S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Not only did she have pretty impressive mana control, but she also had a very exciting skill that disrupted his own mana.


    It wasn''t like any of the other mana-disrupting skills he had seen either. This one didn''t seem to rely completely on Concepts or a powerful skill. It was almost like she was doing it manually.


    If he had to compare it to something, it would be like she had been vigorously shaking her mana at a frequency that interrupted his own connection. It caught him off guard the first time she used it.


    Luckily, he quickly understood that he just needed to reinforce his mana with his willpower. That way ,his mana wouldn''t be as affected by this weird mana frequency.


    As he was reviewing the fight in his head, he noticed the girl walking up to him.


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    "Good fight," she said to him.


    "You too."


    "I wasn''t expecting you to have such a powerful ranged attack. Did you not use it in your prior matches because you wanted to keep it a secret?" She asked him with a grin.


    He shook his head with a matching smile. "Partly, but mainly because I have been focusing on my close combat skills. I still need to work on my constructs."


    She scoffed at him. "You say that, but how many people do you think can shatter my barrier with only a few attacks?"


    He tilted his head at her. Upon seeing her reaction, he didn''t think he should tell her that he was holding back and that he could have created many more spikes at one time. That would probably only make her feel worse.


    "If it makes you feel better, I am going to try and take your mana disrupting technique and implement it into my own skills," he told her right to her face that he was planning to steal her skill.


    She smiled confidently. "Go right ahead, you wouldn''t be the first person to attempt it. My family has been honing this technique for a long time. You should see my father use it, he makes my version seem like child''s play in comparison."


    "Any advice or maybe some tips of how to make it work?" He asked cheekily which had the girl give him an exasperated roll of her eyes.


    "Wait until next time, I am not going to lose so easily. Just watch and see," she promised him before turning to walk away with one last grin.


    ***


    As he was returning to his friends, he noticed that someone was approaching him.


    To his bewilderment, it wasn''t a staff member or another student. The woman seemed to be one of the people who had come to watch the matches, and if his intuition was correct, she was probably one of the scouts that Lily had mentioned earlier.


    He stopped to let the woman come up to him. She was quite tall for a woman and although her beauty wasn''t on par with Lily''s or Aubrey''s, she had this weird appeal to her that had him already feeling quite positively about her. He had no idea if it was one of her skills that was causing this or it was just her natural presence.


    "Can I help you?" He asked before she could open her mouth and say anything.


    To her credit, she went along with it very easily. "That was a very splendid fight," she complimented.


    "Thank you, though I suspect that is not the reason why you came over to me," he said with a meaningful look.


    "Straight to the punch, I see, I respect it," she said with a chuckle. "As I am sure you might have figured out already, I am a representative of the Stormcaller Guild based here in Heston. My name is Kiera, and I just wanted to introduce myself first before more people inevitably do so as well."


    "I can''t say I have heard of the Stormcaller Guild," he said to her with a frown.


    "I am not surprised that you have. We aren''t exactly the most renowned guild, as our numbers are quite low compared to other organizations. We specialize more in quality than quantity. With that being said, you can ask anyone and they will tell you that we are still one of the most successful groups with an impeccable record."


    "I still don''t see why you would come to me. I wouldn''t be shocked to learn that this was my first fight that you have seen so far. If you guys emphasize quality, what makes you think I fit that description while only seeing a single fight?" He asked skeptically.


    She smirked. "You don''t think we wouldn''t be impressed with just that?"


    He looked at her with a calm expression. "Not for a moment."


    She chuckled once again. "You''re right, normally we wouldn''t. But I happen to have good instincts about who I should recruit. Plus, you are a first-year who managed to beat a very good mage whom many would find hard to win against."


    "And those instincts are the reason you approached me?"


    "Partly."


    "Oh? What are the other reasons?" He asked.


    "We like to focus a lot of our efforts on commoners. While nobles are willing to join our organization, we found that commoners have fewer strings attached to them and they can often be diamonds in the rough if we cultivate them properly," she explained.


    He nodded at her reasoning, but he didn''t know what she was trying to ask of him.


    "Regardless, you still haven''t stated what you are offering me or what you are asking from me," he told her.


    "Oh, I thought you already knew what I was here for. We are offering you the opportunity to join our guild."


    "That is quite fast," he noted. "You don''t need to see anything else from me? What if you find out that I am not actually what you are looking for?"


    She looked at him with a grin. "I think you are exactly what we are looking for. And don''t worry about resources, our guild has the resources to cultivate you, which rivals larger organizations. On top of that, since we have fewer members, these resources are much more available."


    That was actually a great point and if he was interested in joining a group, it probably would be a big decider for him.


    When she saw him ponder her words, she shook her head. "There is no worry about giving an answer now. You can take your time, I simply wanted to introduce ourselves to you before all the others come and attempt to gobble you up. In the meantime, take this," she said while handing him a card.


    "Don''t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. The location of our main building is on that card, you are more than free to come and visit."


    He looked behind and saw that his friends must have wondered where he had been because they were coming to find him.


    Kiera saw this as well.


    "Well, it was nice to meet you. I hope that you choose to reach out to us," she said before turning away to leave.


    He watched as she left just as quickly as she arrived and then looked down at the card she had given him. It was quite a pretty card, he must admit. However, he made sure that there wasn''t anything weird attached to the card. He didn''t want to keep it if there was some kind of location tracker enchanted to the card.


    There was one thing that had bothered him the entire time he was talking with the woman. She had shown incredible control of her aura, to the point that he had zero clue about how strong she was. She seemed pretty normal, but he was confident that she wasn''t wearing any aura items. There wasn''t any of that artificial feeling that he associated with them.


    No, this lady was at least skilled enough to shroud how strong she was from him. Something that was quite interesting, considering his recent improvements.


    However, it certainly gave credit to her claims that her guild focused on having quality over quantity. He didn''t see many people like that. It had surprised him, but many of the people he had come across since he came back didn''t have that level of control.


    Despite that, he understood there was no point in thinking about it for too long.


    He examined the card one last time, and once he ensured there was nothing but paper and ink, he tucked it away into his ring. By the time he did, the others had finally arrived with a very excited Aubrey in tow.

 Chapter 306 - 304: More Rumors

    He wasn''t even given the chance to wave at them before Aubrey was already in his face.


    "Who was that?" She asked loudly.


    He used a single finger to push her forehead away from him as her nose was practically pressing into his own.


    "Have you ever heard of personal space?"


    Aubrey smacked his finger aside and threw her arms around him, squeezing tightly. "What is that supposed to mean?"


    "It means¡­ never mind," he said, his voice muffled in her chest.


    Lily thankfully helped peel her off of him and he was able to see the light again.


    "You should hear what some of the other students are saying about you!" Aubrey exclaimed.


    His face twisted in confusion. "What do you mean?"


    He didn''t know if he wanted to hear what people were saying about him. They already haven''t been that nice to him about the Reinera stuff. He had even heard people accuse him of manipulating her with some kind of magic, turning her into his slave.


    He didn''t see how they could think that, if that happened, he doubted he would be alive to see tomorrow. Her family would likely wipe his existence from the continent.


    "I think I''m good," he said.


    "What? Come on, some of it is hilarious," Aubrey insisted.


    He deflated and let out a depressed sigh. He had a feeling he was going to hear what it was, regardless of whether he said yes or not. "Okay, what are they saying?"


    However, once he said this, it was like the floodgates were unleashed and they all started speaking at once.


    "I heard some theorizing that you somehow experienced some sort of time dilation rift where it was actually three years instead of several months," Edgar said with a wide smile.


    "Some say you are actually a bastard son of a powerful House and that is the reason you are so strong," Derek added with a knowing smile.


    "Although most are whispering that you are the princess''s gigolo and that her family gave you a bunch of treasures to consume. Which helped you advance to Tier 3 so quickly," Aubrey said proudly as if it was something he should be pleased about.


    He squinted at her in disbelief. "Why do you make that sound like that''s a good thing?"


    She shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, she''s a princess, I feel like that is a compliment."


    "In what world is that something I should be proud of?"


    "I don''t know, but I know I would be," she said enthusiastically.


    He shook his head in disappointment and was already regretting his decision to ask them what they had heard.


    ***


    It seemed like deja vu or something because once again, he found himself getting stared at by half of the student body as he walked around campus. Only this time it wasn''t because people found out he was friends with their local celebrity.


    This time it was because he had shown the school that he wasn''t just some weak Tier 3 first-year. He had proven that he was someone that people needed to take seriously.


    This was funny because almost the entire time he had been at Goldencrest, students had underestimated him. Of course, he did a lot to help this sentiment spread, but it remained a fact that people believed him to be a less-than-stellar representation of strength.


    His prior incidents with weak monsters at the beginning of the year probably didn''t help him either.


    "I still can''t believe you beat Bethany," Joshua exclaimed from next to him.


    "What? Do you know her or something?" Tia asked curiously.


    "Yeah, her family and mine are pretty good friends. She would come over to our estate from time to time when I was younger with her siblings to play. My cousin is actually still really good friends with her," Joshua replied.


    "Oh yeah, you mentioned that your cousin was a fourth year. Is she also participating in the tournament?" Polux said.


    "Yeah, she is. But she doesn''t think she will be able to get a slot for the Inter-School Tournament. Her skillset doesn''t specialize in pure combat. She has more of a supportive role on her own team," Joshua explained before turning to Julius once again.


    "Regardless, I know Bethany, which is why I know that she didn''t hold back like some of the people are claiming. She would not have blitzed you from the start if she were. She only does that when she is taking it seriously. Which makes your achievement all the more impressive."


    Julius smiled in gratitude at Joshua''s compliment and continued to snack on the muffin in his hand.


    Unfortunately, it would seem that not everyone was convinced that his win was exactly ''legitimate''. Once the wilder rumors died down, there were still an alarming number of students who believed that his win was a fluke. This was especially more common among students who weren''t there in person.


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    "Those people are stupid. Anyone who was there in person knows what happened. The ones who were and are still denying it are just coping. Like I have been telling you guys for months, Julius is very strong. He is so strong that I am already making bets on him winning the entire thing," Polux stated firmly.


    "Don''t get ahead of yourself Polux, while I must admit that Julius is stronger than any of us thought even after you telling us, he still has to beat the likes of Liam Abrams, Irene Greiche, Derek Zenith, Edgar Crow, and others," Tia said and he couldn''t help but notice that she placed much more emphasis on Edgar''s name when she listed them. It would seem that her crush still hadn''t gone away and that made him chuckle internally.


    "Well, it''s too late, I already put in most of my money earlier this week," Polux said with a proud smile.


    Julius whipped his head over at the wolfkin boy and he wasn''t the only one. Joshua and Tia had similarly given the boy looks of confusion.


    "Wait, you were serious?"


    "Yeah? Why would you think I was lying?" Polux asked, sounding genuinely startled.


    "How much did you bet?" Joshua asked hesitantly.


    "I don''t know the exact number, but I asked my tribe to send over some additional funds, so it is a pretty hefty number. And the best part is that I submitted my bet before you won that fight, which means my odds are much better than they are probably at now," Polux said enthusiastically.


    "I didn''t take you for a betting man," Julius commented with a laugh.


    "Is it really a bet if I already know the outcome?" Polux said arrogantly.


    Tia smacked Polux hard. "Shut up, now you are just sounding like an idiot. How did you even manage to find a place to place such a bet?"


    Polux didn''t even flinch when he was hit. He merely dusted off his shoulder. "Haven''t you guys been paying attention? There are students advertising it all around the communal areas."


    Julius didn''t know that, though to be fair, he didn''t hang around in those areas, especially with how things were recently. Even the library wasn''t quite as safe as it once was.


    While the librarians did a really good job of not allowing students to harass him and Reinera, they could do nothing about people staring. This meant that he found himself only getting alone time at the beach or at the training facilities.


    Speaking of training, he reminded himself that he wanted to try another variation of his experiment later tonight.


    He had been working on two main things. One was his Space Concept, which was having mixed results, and the other was improving his constructs.


    When it came to his Space Concept, he was still having a hard time figuring it out. When he went out the other weekend, he visited Declan and Orus, but he also made another trip to Dante''s, where he was able to see Alice for some time.


    It wasn''t for very long, but he was able to ask her for more advice. When he mentioned his frustrations with his lack of progress, she laughed loudly at him.


    She told him that some people went dozens of years without ever touching upon a Space Concept. While some were able to learn spatial skills, the actual acquisition of a Space Concept was on a different level. So even with his likely high affinity for it, he was still going to find it hard.


    Not to mention that he was still Tier 3 and that his mind still hadn''t taken that step into Tier 4 territory, which probably hampered his progress.


    She admitted that it had taken her years to finally acquire her own Space Concept.


    Her reassurances helped him calm down. He was still used to learning Concepts pretty quickly and he had to remind himself that he couldn''t expect everything to come so easily.


    Still, it was a bitter pill to swallow because he really wanted to acquire one. He only had three more skills left to evolve to epic and he was already imagining how nice his status would look once he was able to.


    Speaking of status, he hadn''t looked at it in a while and decided to pull it up.


    Name: Julius Von Hyperius


    Tier: 3


    Skills:


    [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 7] (Epic+)


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 12] (Epic)


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 13] (Epic)


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 9] (Epic)


    [Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 6] (Epic) S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 18] (Rare+)


    [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)


    [Flash Step lvl 16] (Rare)


    Current Skill Slots: 8/11


    Concepts:


    [Concept of Sharpness]


    [Severing Will]


    [Concept of Will]


    [Inexorable Resolve]


    [Concept of Phoenix]


    [Ashen Rebirth]


    [Concept of Force]


    [Resonating Burst]


    He looked at his status with a smile. It certainly showed some improvements since the last time he was Heston. If the current him fought the old him, he wouldn''t even have to move a finger, he would be able to beat him with just his aura.


    After he reviewed his status, he changed his mind. He wasn''t going to work on his Concept training tonight. He believed that it might be a good chance to change his approach and it wouldn''t be a bad idea to work on something else in the meantime.


    [Barrier of Severance] was quite close to advancing, and it might be a good idea to work on it instead of slamming his head on the steel wall, which was the Space Concept.


    He already had some ideas about different ways he could use [Barrier of Severance] and how that might be able to advance it to level 20.


    He might be able to adapt the skill so that it worked with his aura skill. He didn''t know if it would work, but if he could use the sharpness aspect of the skill to elevate his aura''s ability to cut through his opponent''s defenses, it might be worthwhile.


    However, he wasn''t putting many expectations on it since it was more of an excuse to train his skill in funny ways. There were other ideas floating in his head which he could try if it didn''t work as well.


    "Hey, are you listening, Julius?"


    He shook himself out of his own world and turned to Joshua who had been talking to him.


    "Sorry, what did you say?"


    "I asked if you were ready to go and head over to watch James''s final match?" The other boy repeated.


    "Oh, is it already time?"


    "Yeah, it should be starting in less than an hour. I want to get seats before it starts, though."


    "We''ll be fine, he''s fighting in Arena 5 which means there won''t be that many people," Tia reminded him.


    "It doesn''t hurt to make sure," Joshua defended himself.


    Everyone else had already finished their last match of the prelims. Polux had actually finished with a flawless record, and Joshua had gotten close but ended up losing his final match when he went up against a talented second-year.


    Tia had gotten close as well but had similarly ended up losing her final match to a powerful fire mage whose fire devoured her vines.


    This was a very impressive result for all of them, showing the progress they had made in the several months Julius had been away. Tia had even already made some very nice changes to her vines in the past couple of weeks. It was much more difficult to sense them with one''s mana sense.


    Without another word to each other, they all headed toward the arena to support their resident fire mage.

 Chapter 307 - 305: Construct Channels

    As Tia had predicted, there were plenty of seats available to choose from. He would dare say that more people were fighting than people actually spectating.


    However, he saw several adults who looked like representatives of guilds or other groups. He said this because he noticed that these people were wearing some type of emblem on their clothing.


    Something he now noticed the woman from the Stormcallers Guild wasn''t wearing.


    "Do you guys know who James is supposed to be fighting?" He asked them.


    Joshua looked his way. "Yeah, he mentioned it was another first-year named Adam."


    Julius frowned. Where had he heard that name before? He felt like it was someone he should have known about.


    It wasn''t until he saw the person walk onto the field that he recognized who Adam was. It was the same asshole who liked to grab his shoulder.


    Immediately he started to cheer for James to kick this guys ass back into next week. He didn''t like people like Adam, who went through life thinking that just because he was a noble and handsome, it meant he could just do whatever he wanted.


    Julius would have loved nothing more than to beat him up himself, but he was a Tier 3 now and couldn''t just go walking around thrashing people a tier lower than him. That was a big no no in this world, and the reason why he hadn''t done so even after Adam and his cronies had confronted him last time.


    People didn''t complain if two people of similar strength clashed heads, but those who purposefully bullied those of a lower tier were looked down on and sometimes even punished by people who could actually fight back. This was a big role for the city guards and Declan''s duties as a vice captain.


    So, while as much as he wanted to punt this arrogant noble personally, he had to settle for watching James do it for him.


    However, what caught his eye was that before the fight, there was a bunch of talking between the two of them. By the look on James''s face, it didn''t seem like Adam was saying very nice things either.


    Julius observed as the official, off to the side, had to step in and reprimand Adam before signaling the beginning of the fight.


    If he was being honest, he was quite surprised to see that the arrogant student had a decent level of skill to be arrogant about.


    He was a close combat fighter and had a good set of abilities to support him. Paired with a potent fire affinity that he used to enhance the power of all his attacks, it was quite the threat. The boy was also clearly well-trained in swordsmanship.


    Thus, it was a match between two fire users. The main difference was that while one was a mage, the other was a warrior.


    Unfortunately, for James, it became clear quite early that he wasn''t going to be the one coming out on top. As much as Julius wanted to cheer for him and wanted him to win, he had to admit the truth. James was outclassed on many levels.


    James wasn''t an individual combat specialist, while he was a very good mage on the team, he didn''t do very well when he didn''t have his other teammates supporting him.


    This was apparent as Adam picked apart his defenses.


    What was even worse was that James was definitely already low on mana. He had been throwing out way too many explosive attacks, so he could not have more than a quarter of his mana remaining.


    On the other side, Adam had barely consumed any. He had mainly used some for his enhancement skill and some occasional blasts of fire, but other than that, he had conserved a nice chunk of it.


    James continued to try to pin down Adam with a flurry of attacks, but the other boy was too fast and evaded most of them calmly. Adam shrugged off the ones that did manage to hit. Likely having his natural fire resistance to thank for that.


    Eventually, the time came when James ran out of mana.


    Adam appeared to realize this as well and chuckled as he closed in on James. The shields of fire could only keep Adam back for so long and he finally broke through James''s defenses. Swinging a quick slash at James''s left shoulder.


    Fortunately, James had activated a protective skill and was able to block most of the damage. But there was nothing he could do to stop the kick that sent him flying into the stone floor.


    Adam advanced, but not as quickly as he could have. It was as if he was savoring this moment of victory.


    Instead of dashing in and taking him out swiftly, Julius sensed a collection of mana around Adam and suddenly several balls of fire popped into existence in front of him.


    They rotated for a little bit as Adam continued to approach, and then finally they flew towards James, who was in the middle of recovering.


    James tried to avoid them and block the ones he couldn''t, but he was too slow as one of the orbs exploded in a swath of flames, blasting James off his feet for the second time in a row.


    As he tumbled across the floor, Julius couldn''t help but notice that once again, Adam wasn''t going in for the kill. He was still leisurely walking toward James with another set of orbs in front, along with a smug grin.


    He waited until James got back to his feet before sending two balls of flame at the boy. James did his best to throw himself to the side but was still affected by the fire.


    Although he had a fire resistance of his own, it was clear that his wasn''t as good as Adam''s. Thus, the flames caused some notable damage to James.


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    Adam still chose not to end the fight immediately, which everyone who was watching should be able to notice was well within his capabilities. Instead, he decided to prolong it, tossing the random ball of fire and watching amusingly as James dodged for his life.


    Julius stared darkly at Adam below as annoyance started to build into anger.


    He knew that the bracelets dampened whatever pain James would experience, but he also understood that wasn''t the real issue.


    The real issue was that Adam was purposefully humiliating him in front of his friends and whoever else was watching. That was what was pissing him off.


    Joshua, in particular, was furiously standing up and clenching his fists so hard that he was almost drawing blood.


    While they were all friends, Joshua and James had a much closer relationship than anyone else. Thus, seeing his best friend getting humiliated in front of him must have made him incredibly furious. If Julius was pissed off, then Joshua was positively livid.


    Finally, after what seemed to be forever, Adam finished the fight with one last orb smashing into James''s face, ending the whole thing.


    To make things worse, Adam chose this moment to look up at the stands where they were sitting and smirk arrogantly at them.


    Whatever doubts of this being purposeful had vanished from Julius''s mind, and whatever hesitation he had about not beating up someone of a lower tier than him had similarly vanished into thin air.


    He didn''t care if the other boy was a Tier 2 or even if he was untiered. He was going to smash his skull in and shove it up his ass.


    Okay, maybe not that far, he tried to calm himself.


    Perhaps, a good beating and I can even try to smush his aura with my own. I bet that will hurt, he thought darkly before scolding himself. That was also too far.


    The beating was fine, but there was no need to potentially maim the noble prick. He deserved a broken jaw, not permanent damage to his soul.


    So with a calm and purposeful demeanor, he got up and slowly walked down the stairs to where he knew the fighters would leave from. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    However, just as he was walking down, he felt someone grab onto his arm. Surprised, he looked back at who it was and was surprised when he saw the raw anger in Joshua''s face.


    "Let me handle it," Joshua said with a dangerous edge to his voice but the entire time his eyes had not strayed from Adam down below.


    Julius was about to argue, but when he sensed the pulse from Joshua''s aura, he stopped. Instead, he took a calming breath and activated [Sage of Savagery] to reel in his emotions. Joshua was right, James was his best friend, and he should have first dibs to thrash that arrogant prick down below.


    "Okay, but I get to watch," he said to Joshua.


    "Trust me, I want to make sure everyone is watching when I get back at him," Joshua said in a soft but menacing tone.


    ***


    That night Julius ended up using his additional energy to fuel his training. While he had agreed to let Joshua handle everything, he still had some stress to release.


    Which was the reason he was leaning back into his more nonstandard training practices.


    He took hold of his [Barrier of Severance] skill and started to force it through his aura. This wasn''t the first time during this session that he had attempted this and he wouldn''t be surprised if this failed just like it had the last several attempts.


    The main issue he seemed to be having was that [Barrier of Severance] appeared to need some sort of physical object to attach to. He was able to do this mana since he was able to create material constructs that he could lay the barrier of sharpened mana on top.


    However, aura was another challenge entirely. What he was trying to accomplish was something Declan had explained a while ago. He mentioned that there had been a person who was able to use their Sharpness Concept to cut off all mana-based skills.


    Since Julius was able to do something similar with his aura already, he thought he might be able to transfer that knowledge to [Barrier of Severance].


    With that being said, his aura didn''t exactly destroy mana. It just wreaked havoc on anything it touched. There was no real elegant manipulation. It was just pure destruction.


    What he was attempting to do was much different. He was trying to selectively target specific mana from his enemies while not affecting other sources from his allies with his skill.


    However, realizing that he wasn''t getting much of anywhere, he wanted to try a few more things. He had gotten an idea when he fought against Bethany earlier. She had used her mana spears as an amplifier for her mana disruption technique.


    This enabled the girl to focus on other things while her spear did all the work for her. It also seemed to help strengthen the power of the disruption since it was attached to a strong physical object.


    In a weird way, it reminded Julius of a moving domain. While some would fervently disagree with that opinion, the fact remained that the spear had been able to disrupt his mana much like the Tier 5 had been able to with his domain.


    The main difference was just how powerful the effects were. Thus, in a way, it was a bastardized version of what a domain offered. He had a feeling that when Bethany got to Tier 4, she would find creating a domain much easier than other people would.


    Since he had nothing to lose, he created a small spike in front of him. It was slightly different from his normal spikes, it was still just as tightly compressed with woven threads of mana, but since he had taken his time, the structure of the spike was more refined.


    He had been working on being more diligent with each creation. Although he didn''t feel comfortable enough with using them in battle, his time examining Marcus''s own construct helped him immensely.


    He had created makeshift channels that flowed through the entire construct in a complex web. This was something he had realized would allow him to send even more mana into his constructs, and while it looked kind of rugged so far, practice would only let him improve.


    However, there was another benefit of this, one he hadn''t realized at the time.


    He couldn''t help but chuckle to himself. As he truly began to understand why Marcus added them, it was clear now that he felt stupid for assuming it was just to shove more mana into it.


    These channels weren''t just there to fuel more mana. They were there to stack on additional effects and skills to the construct.


    The purpose of these channels was to help his constructs become a base for whatever else he wanted to add. A sturdy prototype and model that he could change little by little for whatever needs he had.


    In this case, he wanted to add his Sharpness Concept and [Barrier of Severance] to it.


    So he sent the skill rushing through these channels while focusing his intent on what he wanted. He imagined the sharpness aspected mana cutting through the enemy''s mana-based shields, shredding them apart before they could block his attack.


    Much to his surprise, it worked. For the first time since he had been experimenting, he had finally found some success.


    The spike that was hovering in front of him was now slightly different from what it had been just moments ago. There was this rhythmic swirl of sharpened mana flowing through the channels of the spike, like blood coursing through one''s veins.


    Along with this change came some notifications.


    [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 12 -> lv 13]


    [Barrier of Severance lvl 18 -> lvl 19]


    Immediately understanding that he had made an interesting discovery, he lost track of time as he delved deeply into this new method that he could utilize his constructs for.

 Chapter 308 - 306: Carried Away Once Again

    Julius groaned face-first into the floor. In typical Julius fashion, he had gotten carried away and attempted to jam even more stuff into his Concepts. Once he had learned how well his Sharpness Concept and [Barrier of Severance] had adapted to the new technique, he tried to use it with his aura skill not long after.


    That had proven to be a mistake because almost instantly, his construct exploded right in his face.


    Apparently, his spike was not able to handle such strains at this stage. He would definitely need to practice before he could. It was something he should have seen coming as well, because in the case of [Barrier of Severance] and his Sharpness Concept, they already had an established connection with [Armaments of the Arcane]. His skill has used the Concept as a basis for evolving itself into an epic skill, and while he had added additional Concepts later on, there was still an originating connection.


    Regardless, he shouldn''t have been surprised when things literally blew up in his face. It was bound to happen, especially after he had gotten so excited.


    However, what he hadn''t expected was Lily knocking on the door almost immediately afterward. That was definitely not something he had or could have predicted.


    "Julius, open up! I know you''re in there!" He heard her yelling through the door.


    Instead of immediately heading over to open the door, he stood there in confusion. How did she know which room he was in? Usually, he had to tell them but she hadn''t asked him.


    "Open the damn door, I heard the explosion. You better not be blowing yourself up again!" She scolded him.


    "I think you have the wrong room, ma''am," he said in a high-pitched voice.


    For a moment, he thought he might have actually tricked her, but she rapped on the door again. "I can literally feel you in there, Julius. Did you forget that I am a mind mage and an empath?" She said with a fed-up tone.


    Shit, I didn''t actually think she could sense me through the enchanted doors though. I would have thought they prevented her psychic abilities from detecting me, he thought to himself.


    With a heavy sigh, he got up and staggered over to the door, making sure to put on a new outfit to replace the one that had burn markings all over it. It would hopefully prevent Lily from berating him that harshly, though, to be fair, she hasn''t been nearly as bad as she was before he left Goldencrest.


    It would seem that she had somewhat accepted that he would be doing dumb things and mostly just gave him disappointed looks from time to time.


    Finally, he opened the door to reveal Lily, looking as pretty as ever. Her blonde hair had this ephemeral glow to it as her violet eyes sparkled in the low light of the hallway. However, it was somewhat ruined by the vexed expression on her face.


    "Really?" She said to him.


    He shrugged unapologetically. "I didn''t know that you could sense me through the doors."


    "And that makes it better?"


    He chose not to answer that. He had learned when her questions were just traps, thus it was better to stay silent. He suspected that this was a trick she learned when doing business for her family.


    As she strolled into the training room, he noticed that she was holding a bag in her left hand.


    "What is that you have?" He asked curiously.


    "Nothing you would find interesting," she replied.


    He looked at the bag once again and noticed that there were some kind of rectangular packages stacked on top of each other. He already had a sneaking suspicion of what was inside.


    "Seriously, what is inside?"


    "It was for you."


    "For me?" He asked with an excited grin.


    "Yeah, emphasis on was," she said with a meaningful look.


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    He gave her a look of bafflement. "What is that supposed to mean?"


    "What were you doing in here before I knocked? I heard a loud explosion," she said with an expectant frown.


    He decided to come clean as he thought it was more likely she would give him what was in the bag if he was truthful.


    "I was playing with one of my constructs and put too much stuff into it, causing it to explode," he admitted.


    She facepalmed and shook her head. "Why do you keep doing such wildly dangerous experiments? Haven''t you learned your lesson already?"


    He shrugged. "You''ve seen my healing skill. I can handle a little damage," he said to her, trying to reassure her of his safety.


    The only response he got in return was her pointed glare toward the area of the room where it was obvious a large explosion occurred. It stood out quite easily because where the rest of the room was a light gray stone color, there was a circle of blackened stone in the middle of the room.


    "Fair point, but as you can see, I am perfectly fine," he said while showing her his unharmed body.


    She did take a look at him and when she saw that he was okay, she sighed.


    "I don''t know why I even bother anymore. If you want to blow yourself up in your spare time then there is nothing I can do to stop you," she said defeatedly.


    He smiled widely at her. "So that means, you''re gonna share that with me?" He asked while pointing at the bag in her hand.


    She couldn''t help but let out a soft grin at his behavior. "Of course, but make sure you save some for the others. We are going to meet up with them later down at the beach," she said with an amused shake of her head before handing the bag over to him.


    He pumped his hands into the air and went over to open the bag. He let out another gasp of surprise at what was revealed.


    "Where did you get these?" He asked in awe.


    "I had my family send them over for me as a favor. I got them for you as a present for getting past the prelims," she said with a proud uplifted chin.


    She had every right to be proud too because what was displayed in front of him was a glorious sight. The box wasn''t just a simple box, but it was a spatially enhanced box that held an assortment of the most amazing looking pastries he had ever seen.


    What was even more astonishing was that he was able to sense mana radiating from them. He had no doubt that the ingredients used weren''t from regular animals and most likely from high-tiered monsters or beasts.


    He immediately went over to Lily and gave her a fierce hug, making sure to display all of his gratitude.


    "You know me so well," he said to her.


    She smiled and hugged him tightly in return before pushing him away with a light laugh.


    "Alright, you need to wash up before we go. You smell like a sweaty ash tray," she said while pointing at the wash up area in the corner. "I''ll wait and then we can go."


    He didn''t waste a second and ran over to get cleaned up. After all, the faster he cleaned up, the sooner he would be able to taste those delicious looking treats.


    ***


    Today was the day they released the brackets for the second stage.


    This was where the tournament finally started. While the prelims were the official start of the tournament, there wasn''t any real consequence for losing a match. If you lost, then it just meant you were placed at a lower seed.


    However, now it was a single-elimination game. Whoever lost was out, and for that reason, everyone was much more serious.


    Julius went with Aubrey and Edgar to check on the brackets. The others had other things to handle, so they couldn''t come. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    They hadn''t even gotten close to the courtyard where they were supposed to post the brackets before they were stuck in a huge crowd. It would seem that they weren''t the only people who wanted to see where they placed and who they were fighting.


    Thankfully, they had Edgar at the helm and most people who tried to push back against the large fourth year quickly regretted their decision and let the big guy through without any arguing. Once they were able to fight their way through the crowd and finally managed to spot the humongous board that displayed all of the brackets, they looked for their names.


    There was a surprisingly large number of students who went undefeated. It wasn''t a shock to see Aubrey, Edgar, and Derek were among them.


    After scanning the list, he found all of his friends. Edgar was in Bracket B and he was a little surprised to see that both Derek and Aubrey were in Bracket A.


    Julius eventually found his name in the D Bracket. While he wasn''t undefeated, his 4-1 record ensured that he wouldn''t be facing anyone too strong off the bat. According to the board, he would be facing someone named Keldon Branderson.


    He wasn''t that worried though. As a matter of fact, he was actually looking forward to seeing and experiencing other students'' skills. While he still didn''t care all that much about winning the tournament, he understood that experiencing various skills would allow him to advance his own skills.


    He did head over to the board where the underclassmen tournament was posted. The area over there wasn''t as busy as the main tournament, so he was able to find his way to it without that much fighting.


    There was only one real matchup he cared about and he smiled when he spotted their names.


    He didn''t know if fate was smiling upon them or not, but when he saw that Joshua and Adam were placed within the same bracket, he grinned widely.


    Now they only had to hope that he wouldn''t lose before he faced Joshua, because as long as he didn''t then Joshua would have the perfect opportunity to slaughter the boy in front of everyone.


    And he was certain he wasn''t the only person who was hoping to see that.

 Chapter 309 - 307: First Elimination Match

    Before he knew it, the day of his first match had arrived. However, instead of being nervous like some would expect, his mind was distracted by other things.


    While he had been training last night, he had come across something interesting. It was late, so it was hard to tell if it was a dream or if it was real, but he could have sworn he felt his soul connect to something.


    It felt very similar to what he had experienced in his prior dealings with acquiring a Concept.


    This weird experience had affected him so much, that he ended up not sleeping at all for the rest of the night, trying and failing to recreate that sensation.


    Which was how he found himself lying down on one of the benches in the garden that he and Edgar used with Drasil on his chest, playing with the collar of his shirt.


    On a completely different note, he had observed that Drasil had changed ever so slightly. If he wasn''t paying attention, he would have never noticed.


    The biggest difference was how much more dense Drasil''s mana felt. It was as if it was maturing as time went on. Not only that, but the thorns on his crown were growing as well.


    It looked like the vast amounts of mana that Drasil consumed was finally paying off. Although it was about time, with how much of his mana he had given to Drasil, Julius suspected that it would have been enough to fuel an entire house worth of enchantments for almost a year.


    As Drasil was in the middle of folding his collar over itself, he sensed someone approaching him from behind.


    "You''re up awfully early," Reinera called out to him.


    He sat up and Drasil, who was still firmly attached to his collar, let out a chime of surprise as he was lifted into the air without anything to support his legs. However, he quickly gathered himself and managed to scramble into the nook on Julius''s neck, angrily slapping him for his carelessness.


    "I couldn''t sleep," he said to her before looking over at where he saw Amelia right behind her.


    Julius had not had many run-ins with Amelia since his return. The few they had, the woman hadn''t stopped glaring at Julius, and today was still the same. The bodyguard was staring at him like he had personally offended her.


    "Why is she still looking at me that way?" He asked in a whisper to Reinera.


    Much to the little spirit''s delight, Reinera had already walked over and started scratching Drasil on the head.


    "I tried to talk to her," she said with a shrug.


    "It''s because you are a bad influence on her," Amelia exclaimed suddenly.


    "How am I a bad influence?" He asked with shock coloring his voice.


    "Ever since she met you, she has become much more defiant and free-spirited." sea??h th§× N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Free-spirited doesn''t sound like it is the worst thing to be," he stated.


    "It is when you''re a princess representing the Royal Family."


    That was kind of a good point, he had to admit, but she also wasn''t the crown princess or something. It wasn''t like she was going to inherit the throne anytime soon, she still had a brother who was supposed to take up that responsibility.


    He sighed at Amelia. "You make it sound like I had everything to do with that. Are you really trying to say that Reinera hasn''t been like that the entire time and simply was hiding it? You can''t blame me for everything you know," he argued.


    "She also didn''t use to argue with her family as often as she has done since she came back," Amelia said with a frown.


    "She wanted to stay at Goldencrest," he pointed out.


    "I am fully aware of that, but it''s dangerous for her here. There are some obvious compromises in this school and I don''t feel safe with her staying here. Plus, the main reason she wants to stay is because you are here," Amelia said to him begrudgingly.


    "It''s dangerous for her anywhere she goes. Isn''t that why she is even all the way out here in the first place?"


    Reinera, who had been ignoring their bickering and showering Drasil with affection, finally interrupted them.


    "Amelia, I have told you to stop blaming Julius for how things are going. It''s not entirely his fault."


    "Entirely?" He muttered with a betrayed look at her.


    She ignored him.


    "I chose to stay here because I wanted to, not because he asked me to. I would also like to remind you that I have experienced fewer assassinations during this time than I have ever before. So even though Goldencrest isn''t the safest place for me, I am still safer here than I would be in the Capital."


    Amelia opened her mouth to argue, but Reinera slashed her hand.


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    "Enough! I have had enough with you trying to pick a fight with Julius. I let you vent your frustrations, but at the end of the day, he''s my friend and I won''t stand here silently as you berate him. That''s final. If you keep on continuing this behavior, I will be forced to ask my family to send someone else to come protect me. Someone who isn''t as hostile to one of the only friends I have ever made," she said with calm but furious eyes.


    Amelia seemed to understand that she had gone too far and simply looked down at the ground.


    Reinera sighed. "Just go ahead and get breakfast without me, I will see you later, okay?"


    Amelia looked up and was about to argue but thought better of it at the last moment and walked away.


    When she had rounded the corner, Julius looked over at Reinera with a proud nod. "Well done," he complimented her.


    "It was about time. She still hasn''t completely gotten over her dislike of you. The recent events only made it worse," she said with a frown.


    "What about your family? Did they express their opinion about me?" He asked while moving over to make some room for her to sit down.


    She smiled gratefully at him as she squeezed onto the bench with him.


    "They actually don''t have much of a problem with you at all. I would say that most of them are extremely grateful to you. I didn''t tell them everything, but I told them about you saving me twice and that seemed to raise their opinions of you. I think she is a bit bitter because of that too."


    "What? So she''s mad that your family likes me and while she thinks I am bad for you?"


    She shrugged her shoulders. "Kind of. There are a lot of other things too, but for now, my family is fine with my friendship with you. I suspect a lot of that is because they think you are another layer of protection, but that''s fine with me. Although some of them were reluctant when they heard you were a commoner, stating that I should be making friends with people of more prestigious lineage, but that number is few."


    "Am I?" He asked curiously.


    She looked confused. "Are you what?"


    "Another layer of protection?"


    "Of course you are," she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.


    "Well, at least you''re honest about it," he grumbled, which made her laugh loudly.


    "Oh yeah, what was that about earlier?" He asked before he could forget.


    "What do you mean?"


    "You said it is not entirely my fault. What did you mean by ''entirely''?" He asked with a pinched forehead.


    She looked away from him and started to pay attention to the flowers all around them.


    "Hey, I''m asking you something," he said while prodding her with his hand.


    She kept on ignoring him.


    ***


    If he thought the prelims were a fiasco, then this was just chaos.


    Everything was packed to the ceiling. You could barely walk two feet without bumping into someone.


    It wasn''t just the number of people either. It was the entire change of the campus that surprised him.


    The arena was always a bit tucked away from the rest of the school, and he now realized why that was. The staff had basically sectioned off the whole area for the tournament, allowing spectators to roam the area like one would see at a festival.


    There were still boundaries so that students weren''t harassed on campus, but for the next week or so, the campus would be like this.


    Furthermore, there was a breathtaking and wonderful display of magic all around. Stunning works of mana constructions bloomed across the campus like a rainbow of sparkling art. Life-like animals made up entirely of mana pranced around the air as spectators looked on, fascinated at the spectacle.


    Children of parents who were here to watch the matches jumped up in the air trying to grab these constructs and the cheerful laughter of the crowd was infectious. He couldn''t help but smile as he witnessed such beauty.


    He spotted a row of tents and carts where he could smell the food wafting in the air. He wanted nothing more than to run over and try everything in sight, but he was grabbed by the arm.


    "Come on, we can check it out the stalls afterward," Lily said while dragging him along. He depressingly followed along without putting up a fight, but that was mostly because he could sense that she wanted nothing more than to do the same and respected her self restraint.


    The others were already in the stadium getting ready for their own matches.


    Speaking of the stadium, the matches weren''t just being held in the smaller arenas they used for the prelims. A good portion of matches were being held in the main stadium, the one he had noticed during his first week, but had not seen used.


    The other arenas were still being used as well, but they were reserved for the underclassmen tournament and some other ''less important'' matches of the Tier 3 Tournament.


    When they arrived at the section where students needed to sign in for their match, he noticed that not everyone around was taking this as calmly as he was.


    A lot of the students were visibly nervous, he even saw a couple of them throwing up in a nearby bin.


    He didn''t blame them. This was much different than the prelims, and the number of people who would be watching would be enormous, no matter where you were fighting. He suspected most of these people fought in front of a couple of dozen other students and spectators in the last round. As such, seeing thousands of spectators clamoring in the stadium must have been nerve-racking.


    After he got all set up, he was taken to a separate room where he was supposed to prepare and wait for his name to be called. Apparently, since he had gotten himself a decent record, he would be fighting in the main stadium today.


    It wouldn''t be just him though, there would be a small number of other fights going on at the same time as well. But with the large field, it could easily hold dozens of matches at the same time if they wanted to.


    While he waited, he took the time to practice his aura control with Lily, who had stayed with him.


    It helped keep his mind off the upcoming fight, and he was proud to say that with his newfound control, he actually posed a challenge to Lily. She wasn''t just able to steamroll him with her aura and had to actually try in order to beat him.


    With that being said, she still had better delicate control than him, whereas he had the brute strength which helped him keep up.


    It was only when he was given the ten-minute warning that she got up and left to get a seat to watch. The students had their own private section, so she didn''t have to worry about not finding a seat, but if she wanted to watch, she needed to leave soon.


    So with a quick goodbye and wishing good luck to him, she headed off, leaving him alone.


    When the time finally came, an official came into the room and checked him over, much like the other round had gone. The woman made sure that he didn''t have anything he wasn''t supposed to have and ensured that his device was working properly before explaining the rules again.


    Once she believed he was ready, she sent him off to the field for his very first real elimination match of the tournament and he couldn''t help but smile like a little kid in excitement.

 Chapter 310 - 308: Keldon

    As he was walking down the hallway to the field, he started to hear the roaring voices of the crowd as fights went on all around him.


    It already felt like a much different atmosphere than the prelims. There was an electrifying energy in the air; he could sense it even from the tunnel.


    For the first time, he started to feel a little anxious. It wasn''t because he was afraid of losing but because he was more nervous about so many people looking at him. It was funny; he had faced death many times and fought against a Tier 5, but the idea of embarrassing himself in front of a crowd was still a scary prospect.


    What if he accidentally blew himself up in front of everyone? He was known to do that from time to time, so he couldn''t entirely rule out the possibility of that happening.


    He took a deep, calming breath before exiting out of the tunnel and was shocked at what he saw.


    It was like exiting the tunnel of a massive football stadium and being flooded by every light and sound imaginable. So many people were packed into the seats that they all seemed like a blur of faces, and their roars had suddenly become deafening.


    Like how it had been set up for the prelims, large, slightly opaque barriers separated the fights. However, what really caught his eye were the massive images he saw floating above each match.


    Lily had already explained to him that there would be mirage projectors set up all around the stadium, but he didn''t know what she was really talking about until he saw them for himself.


    He had been expecting something similar to a television or a crappy misty image, but what he saw was a fantastic sight.


    Each individual fight was displayed right above the match in such clarity. Not only that, but someone must have controlled the image or set up an enchantment because the image was set up so that the audience wasn''t just looking at a stationary position. It was almost like watching from the point of view of someone moving around and filming the fight themselves.


    He had no idea how they had created such a complex working, but he had a good feeling that the large and powerful runes he sensed above were a big part of the reason.


    If his old world had something similar, he would have been sure that sports events would be forever changed. The projector also did a great job of showcasing the fight to people who might have been too far away to see the fighters up close.


    With an excited grin, he headed over to his predetermined spot and saw that his opponent was also making his way to the same area.


    He looked around and finally saw Edgar''s match still underway. From what he could see, a good portion of the crowd was watching Edgar''s fight, their eyes glued to the overhead projection.


    Edgar looked utterly at ease, and Julius noticed he wasn''t using his more explosive attacks. It was almost as if the older student was purposefully trying to avoid using them.


    Still, even with that, Edgar found himself in an excellent position against the other fourth-year, who was also a warrior.


    The other boy was quite slim and had a head of really bright blonde hair that sparkled in the daylight. He had two shortswords in his hands as he tried to slash Edgar, but Julius also observed that the blonde was already quite red in the face.


    Julius had no clue how long this fight had been happening, but the blonde boy was visibly exhausted. He could see the giant heaves of his chest with each swing, showing that he was running on fumes.


    Still, he was fighting with everything he had. Even when fighting on practically empty, he kept on being aggressive, not allowing Edgar to control the pace of the fight. However, considering his current state, he might have been better suited not to do that.


    On the other hand, Edgar remained patient and let the other boy come to him. To Blonde''s credit, he was fast, but that was just about it. He didn''t have the level of mastery that Julius had seen from other speed-focused fighters.


    His movements showed a distinct lack of control. A lack of control that Edgar was slowly punishing one exchange at a time.


    Just as he was speaking, he noticed the boy had wrongly gauged the distance between him and Edgar. Edgar then smashed a single fist into the boy''s shoulder, sending him sprawling once again.


    Before Edgar could follow up, the boy used some kind of skill to blast himself away from Edgar''s reach. This must have used a lot of resources because the boy looked even more tired afterward.


    Seeing that the fight was practically over, he reminded himself to stop getting sidetracked and headed over to his field.


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    After passing through the barrier, he was surprised to hear the crowd''s sounds muted. The barrier didn''t block out all noise, but it significantly reduced the loud sounds from the outside.


    He also wondered how people managed to hear individual fights. He was sure that if they had listened to all of the fights, it must have been a sensory overload for the spectators. What if they wanted to listen to just one fight and ignore the others?


    He shrugged to himself as he tried and failed to come up with an answer. It was something he noted to ask Lily and the others later. Actually, Kyle would probably be the best bet. The older boy was quite passionate about enchantments after all.


    As he walked onto the field, he made eye contact with his opponent. Julius believed his name was Keldon or something.


    Keldon wasn''t what he had been expecting. The older boy was quite small and thin. Julius would have thought he was some kind of mage if not for the lack of magical focus and the light armor covering the boy. By all appearances, Keldon looked like a warrior.


    With that being said, appearances could be deceiving, so for all he knew, the smaller boy could still have been a mage.


    He was barely paying attention as the official introduced the two of them. He was too busy staring at the fight right next to theirs, where a girl was using some weird magic to cover another girl in a greenish liquid.


    At first glance, it looked like the girl was throwing slime on the other poor girl. A thick, mucousy liquid drowned the opposing girl, who was doing everything in her power to stay clean.


    He winced as he watched the girl desperately try to avoid the liquid. He didn''t think the opposing girl was worried about losing anymore; it seemed like she only cared about avoiding any more of that nasty goo.


    He was so distracted that he almost didn''t hear the official when he started the fight and his opponent came at him.


    So he is a close combat fighter, huh? He thought to himself with a grin as he prepared himself.


    He blocked the surprisingly snappy leg kick that tried to go for his legs with his own knee. However, when he made contact with the smaller boy''s leg, it was like his leg was being sucked into a whirlpool. He got caught off balance and took a punch in return for his troubles.


    However, he looked at the boy confusedly. The actual strength behind the blows was quite weak, especially for a Tier 3. He would have thought that a Tier 3 would have more power. The punch barely did anything except knock his head back.


    Frowning, Julius continued to examine Keldon as they exchanged another series of blows. He couldn''t help but grin as the boy showed brilliant skill and mastery. There was no opening for him to counter and he felt like he was being funneled into wherever the other boy wanted him.


    Realizing that this was precisely what he had been hoping to experience during this tournament, he totally forgot that he was fighting in front of a crowd and enjoyed himself for the next few minutes.


    They danced around one another, each trying to get the upper hand. However, he couldn''t help but feel bad for the smaller student. His opponent had evident skill, and his hand-to-hand combat abilities were well polished. This had been clear from the very first exchange.


    However, it was just a shame that his physical abilities were not on the same level. Not even close. This meant that Julius didn''t suffer any damage, even if his opponent landed a blow. There was no need to activate his enhancement skill to higher levels to protect himself.


    It was starting to make sense why someone of such skill had fallen so low in the rankings.


    With that being said, there was much Julius could learn from the boy''s fighting style. He was particularly interested in how his opponent managed to utilize small amounts of force to destabilize his balance and create an opening.


    It was a creative technique that must have required immense skill to pull off.


    That was why he took the time to patiently observe how the boy used his skill in tandem with his close combat abilities. He imagined himself as a sponge, desperately trying to absorb as much information from the fight as possible.


    Like in his fight with Bethany, he was learning that just because he was stronger than these other students didn''t mean they had nothing to teach him or something for him to improve.


    His opponent in front of him was proving it firsthand.


    Julius threw another kick that flew over Keldon''s head and observed as the other student used his skill to slightly tug on his limb, offsetting his center of balance.


    Then, while he was rebalancing himself, his opponent sent out a rare punch covered in water mana, something he had only done when he felt like he had a perfect opening. Like his fighting style, his mana control was polished. He created a vortex of swirling water mana over his knuckles and drove them at Julius''s chest.


    Luckily, Julius was still faster and parried the blow with his left hand, but he could feel the vortex around the fist attempting to tear through his skin.


    They went at it like this for several minutes, and while Julius hadn''t been powering his enhancement skill as he could have, he still had to maintain absolute focus. He didn''t want to waste a single second of this fight, especially when it was something that he could use when it came to his own uses of kinetic energy.


    He felt he could implement his opponent''s technique and fighting style into his own. It also had the additional benefit of not being costly on mana. Unlike his immobilization technique, which used a lot of kinetic energy and willpower each time he activated it.


    Unfortunately, his opponent wasn''t able to keep up with him in the long run. His stamina and mana had run out, and he was left swinging even slower punches at Julius.


    He realized that he wasn''t going to get any more out of the other boy in this fight and decided to end it.


    So, with a surge of mana, he increased his speed and smashed through his opponent''s defenses, ignoring the pull-like effect from his skill. S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After his opponent got knocked back, Julius stepped forward and delivered another crushing blow that activated the enchantments, protecting the other boy from any more damage.


    Noticing he was more tired than he had realized, he took a deep breath and relaxed as he listened to the deafening cheers from the crowds who had watched the conclusion of his fight.

 Chapter 311 - 309: Rewards

    Lily POV


    She couldn''t help but shake her head. But should she have expected anything different from him?


    Julius had once again decided to fool around and make things more stressful than he needed to. At least the crowd had their fun, and to their eyes, Julius''s fight seemed the closest in terms of skill level. Most of them did not realize that Julius was horsing around.


    Knowing him like she did, he had likely chosen to fight like that because his opponent had an interesting skill he wanted to copy.


    To be honest, she had no idea what he was planning anymore. But it was something she was used to. She had quickly learned that she shouldn''t associate normal behavior with him. He was just too unpredictable.


    When she had caught him blowing himself up again, she had belatedly realized that she wasn''t even that mad. It was almost so normal that she forgot about it an hour later.


    After Marcus reluctantly shared the details of how he encountered Julius, she was not as surprised as one might think. It was the nature of being around Julius. You sometimes forget to associate him with being a normal human and give him different standards.


    So when she heard he was fighting a Tier 5, it was more of a relief than anything else. It meant that he was still alive and remained the same person even after disappearing.


    Regardless, she still gave him the silent treatment for a while, but that was more because of general principle than her actually being mad at him. She felt like if she didn''t do it, it would only encourage him to continue with his reckless behavior.


    Not like that is going to stop him, though, she grumbled internally.


    As she watched Julius and his opponent talk after their fight, she received a notification on her communication device. It was again Marcus asking her when she wanted him to meet her.


    During his match, Marcus informed her that part of Julius''s reward from House Easten had arrived. She didn''t know what it was, and House Easten wasn''t willing to divulge the reward to her family. She could appreciate this as it showed that they had some measure of loyalty to Julius. At least enough that they weren''t afraid of denying House Violet''s request. They simply wanted to ensure that people weren''t aware of the reward without Julius''s permission


    She quickly replied to Marcus, stating that she would come by the front gates and grab it from him later. Then, she got up and headed back down to the waiting room, where Julius should be once he left the stadium.


    While it was not as bad as it used to be, she still didn''t enjoy being around large crowds.


    There were just too many emotions and people around. When she was younger, she would have just blocked everything out, regardless of the situation, but she quickly learned that doing that was not good in the long run.


    She couldn''t just shut everything out if she ever wanted to learn how to control her powers. Moments like these were more beneficial for her than dozens of training sessions.


    It also helped that the people in the crowd were mostly in a good mood. Sure, she was able to sense a few sparks of anger throughout the stadium, but for the most part, people were having fun.


    In a way, it bled into her own emotions and she couldn''t help but feel that same excitement they were experiencing. She knew that if she wanted to, she could fall into that sensation and lose herself in that excitement and joy. Something she had been guilty of doing in her younger days.


    Despite that temptation, she maintained control over her emotions and filtered out the crowd''s thoughts and emotions like she had been trained to do since she was a little girl.


    Among the excitement, she could feel the occasional spite and envy from some of the other students in their section. She understood their feelings, though. After all, Julius was a first-year student already displaying an impressive show of strength for someone so young.


    While some of the spectators had no idea of his age, the students had heard the rumors by now.


    Some of them made excuses for how he managed to get that strong, stating things like he got special treatment from the Royal Family or other such nonsense. More importantly, the people who were skilled enough on their own realized that Julius wasn''t just some propped-up Tier 3. They also likely realized that he had held back in this match, displaying pure raw skill that many others didn''t come close to.


    The tournament''s top contenders were quickly realizing that he was the real deal, a threat to their tournament run, which is why she grinned as she saw some of those same students off in the distance, not taking their eyes off of Julius, even after the match had concluded.


    ***


    Julius POV


    He was happily strolling down the hallway alongside Lily. That last fight, while not the most exciting and competitive, had shown him a lot about what he could improve. He always had a much more difficult time with using softer and more gentle techniques.


    His style was more about being fast and blowing things up.


    Keldon, his opponent though, was the complete opposite. He didn''t have the sheer power like Julius had, which forced him to practice his other skills. sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


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    However, it was a mystery why the older boy decided to continue fighting in such a style when it obviously didn''t suit his natural talents. He might have been much more effective as a mage or at least using a weapon that might enhance his offensive potential.


    Julius could already imagine what kind of menace Keldon might have been if he was just as proficient with a weapon that could threaten his defenses. Hand-to-hand combat seemed a little weird to him. But who was he to judge?


    It wasn''t like he made rational decisions about doing things he wanted. He did them because he enjoyed them, not because it was the wisest path. Perhaps Keldon was similar and wanted to continue fighting the way he was.


    Look at Richard; he had chosen to become a mage even though his entire family was made up of warriors and had the talent to become one as well.


    Julius shook his head, although he couldn''t help but imagine what kind of force of nature Keldon would become once he figured out a way around his physical limitations.


    Still, he had many things he wanted to test tonight, and he believed he might be able to convince Aubrey and Edgar to help him out. He had ways to bribe them if they didn''t want to.


    He also had Reinera, but she said she had to do something tonight. It involved the same thing she had been doing for her family and why she was able to stay at Goldencrest. But if the others declined, he could ask for her help tomorrow.


    He would have asked Gabriel, but the man had been much too busy lately. They hadn''t even had the opportunity to spar since he had returned. The man was swamped with preparing the tournament and such.


    He shifted his attention back to Lily.


    "What''s the big surprise?" he asked, playfully bumping her. However, because he was a little too excited, he ended up using more strength than he planned. She threw him a dirty look when she was almost knocked off her feet.


    "Sorry," he said while scratching his head, a little embarrassed at his display of lack of control.


    She brushed herself off dramatically. "Do you really want to know?" She asked him with a smirk.


    He nodded his head aggressively. "Yeah, tell me."


    "Well then, we better get there soon," she said with amusement.


    "Rude," he muttered, understanding that she had no intention of telling him.


    He kept getting more confused as this so-called surprise took them to the school gates. He couldn''t help but wonder what kind of surprise was waiting for him there.


    However, when he spotted Marcus standing in front of the gates, he got even more bewildered.


    What kind of surprise requires Marcus to be here? Isn''t he a busy man? He thought to himself.


    When they walked up to Marcus, the older man let loose a slight grin and bowed toward Lily.


    "Lady Lily, it''s nice to see you again so soon," he said politely, turning toward Julius.


    "Julius, I see that you are still in one piece more or less," he said with much more casualness.


    "What? Were you expecting me not to be?" He asked the man with an affronted expression.


    Marcus shrugged and looked away. "I wouldn''t be surprised is all."


    "I guess rudeness runs in the family," he grumbled.


    "What do you mean?" Marcus asked, genuinely confused at his statement.


    "You know we''re not related, right?" Lily mentioned with a sigh.


    "Yeah, but he seems like he is practically family, which is close enough, right?" Julius pointed out that if Marcus''s pleased expression was any indication, the man enjoyed that statement very much.


    "No, it just means that we both know how you act and have certain expectations for you."


    "See, rude."


    "Do you want your surprise or not?" She asked exasperatedly.


    He immediately put on an innocent expression. There was no time to fool around. "Yes, ma''am."


    She looked very pleased by his actions and nodded her head. "Okay, Marcus, show him," she instructed the man.


    He swiveled his head to look at Marcus, who was in the middle of pulling something out of his storage ring. What appeared in his hands was a small, beautiful, inscribed white box made of ivory or bone.


    The inscriptions were dark blue, and they pulsed gently as Marcus held them out in front of him. Julius slowly reached forward to take one; the weight surprised him, almost making him drop it.


    "What is the box made of?" He asked Marcus with an inquisitive stare.


    "I don''t know, but it is made of some kind of powerful tiered beast material if I had to take a guess."


    Julius looked at the box and examined it in his hands. Whatever enchantments were on it, he wasn''t able to sense what was inside, even with [Spatial Perception].


    For the next few moments, he tried his best to see what was inside, but to no avail.


    "Are you going to open it? You do realize that the gift is the thing inside of the box," Lily said to him.


    "Hey! Don''t rush me. I am taking my time," he rebuked her. "By the way, shouldn''t you know what you are surprising me with?" He asked, confused, as he turned toward her.


    "I have no idea what is inside," she admitted to him.


    "What do you mean?"


    "We weren''t allowed to open it. The box is enchanted only to be opened with your aura signature," Marcus explained.


    "Well, who gave it to you guys to give to me?" He asked.


    "House Easten."


    "You weren''t supposed to tell him yet, Marcus," Lily complained.


    "You want him to open a box without knowing who it is from?" Marcus asked doubtfully.


    "We know it from them, so it''s safe. But now it ruined half of the surprise."


    "He still doesn''t know what is inside. Plus, it would appear that he is much more interested in the actual box than the object inside," Marcus pointed out.


    The man wasn''t exactly wrong. The box''s construction was quite interesting, and if it really was from House Easten, Rebecca and Richard knew full well that he would find it interesting. He suspected that the box was part of the gift.


    Smiling when he saw that Lily was practically exploding with curiosity beside him, he found the keyhole in the enchantments to feed his aura into. Without hesitation, he started to push some aura into it, and right away, he noticed that the box had swallowed it.


    The box made an audible clicking noise as the latch was opened. Opening the lid, he was met with two objects lying before him.


    One was a tiny, bright white sapling sitting in a glass bottle, and the other was a small chain necklace.


    Each looked valuable, but the only issue was that he had no clue what to do with either of them.


    He gently poked them with his finger and smiled. It seemed that his reward from that mission had finally arrived, and he had a feeling that he would love them. Well, first he had to figure out what they did.

 Chapter 312 - 310: Testing Out His Rewaresd

    The first thing he looked at was the shining white sapling. He already had a good idea what it was for. Since it was from House Easten, Rebecca and Richard knew just how much Drasil meant to Julius.


    There was a high probability that this sapling was something that Drasil could use. The only question was how he was supposed to activate it and what it was meant to do.


    He looked up from the items and gave a questioning frown toward Marcus. "Did they provide any instructions?"


    Marcus shook his head. "I was just given that, nothing else. Why? What''s in there?"


    Not seeing a reason to hide the item from either of them, he gladly handed over the glass bottle to Marcus.


    "I think it is supposed to be for Drasil, but I am not sure," he said to the man.


    Marcus looked very confused for some reason. But he took the bottle anyway and inspected it. "Who or what is a Drasil?" He asked while activating some kind of skill.


    "Oh, you haven''t met him yet?" Julius asked, a little taken aback that Marcus didn''t know about Drasil. He definitely thought that Marcus was already aware of the little fellow''s existence.


    "No, I haven''t met anyone named Drasil. Is he another friend?" Marcus asked with a tilt of his head.


    "He''s my familiar. He is also a life spirit I raised from a little seed," Julius said proudly while placing his hands on his hips.


    He heard Lily chuckle from the side.


    "Huh, I guess that makes your unique style of fighting a little more reasonable," Marcus noted.


    "Hey! I would like to clarify that''s not how I normally fight," he pointed out fervently.


    "Of course not," Marcus said skeptically before returning to the little sapling.


    Julius huffed in irritation as the man just ignored him, but started to watch much more intently as Marcus''s eyes turned a brilliant violet color.


    Furthermore, what was more astonishing was the powerful thrum of mana he sensed from whatever skill he was using. It was enough that he could feel the literal weight of Marcus''s mana as it wrapped around the object. However, he almost laughed out loud when he felt the mana curiously poking at the sapling like a kid would a small critter.


    "I can''t be sure without taking it out of this bottle, but from the looks of it, this appears to be some type of natural treasure that is imbued with a lot of life mana. Which would make sense if it were for your life spirit."


    "What about this other one?"


    Marcus looked at the chain necklace with an intrigued expression. He did the same type of analysis with his mana as he had with the sapling.


    After a few minutes of Marcus examining it, he shrugged.


    "Yeah, I don''t know. There are many enchantment layers on it, making it close to impossible to analyse properly. Whatever it is, it is valuable. The materials it is made out of are extremely resistant to outside influence. I can barely make the thing react to my mana."


    Julius agreed with Marcus''s assessment. The item was weirdly resistant to mana and, to some extent, to aura as well. He couldn''t provoke a reaction with his mana or aura either. In a way, it felt exactly like a plain piece of iron.


    "Try feeding it your aura signature again, like you did with the box. Perhaps, you might learn something after you do that," Lily supplied. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    That wasn''t a bad idea and it certainly didn''t hurt to try it, so with nothing to lose he reached out and instead of poking it with his aura, he tried to force feed it to the necklace.


    This time, he got a reaction. It was slow at first, but gradually he felt the necklace sucking in his aura like a vortex.


    As this was happening, the necklace''s chain links started to glow, and small, detailed runes appeared on each individual link. It was startlingly beautiful.


    Then all of a sudden, he felt something grab hold of his soul and tug him forward. Caught off guard, but too curious to fight back, he let the item do its magic.


    A flood of information dumped into his brain, and he was able to sense the item latching itself onto him and locking itself into place. However, the sensation was a little bit too much for him to handle at once, and he stumbled as he grabbed his head.


    It wasn''t pain exactly, but it was more like he was experiencing a bout of vertigo and had to find a pillar to hold himself up against.


    "Are you okay?" Lily asked concerningly as she quickly stood by his side and supported him with her arms.


    He groaned out loud but nodded his head. "Yeah, I am okay," he assured her.


    "What happened?"


    "Well, I think I know what the item is supposed to do," he said with a chuckle.


    She perked up when he mentioned this. "What is it? Does it obscure your presence or have a similar effect?"


    "Nope, the enchantments placed on the necklace will prevent anything from sensing it. I believe it is more for practical purposes rather than an indicator of what it does," he explained to her and shook his head one last time to get rid of the weasiness he had just experienced.


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    However, once that feeling dissipated, he couldn''t help but let out a wide grin and intently stare at the necklace.


    The necklace would be a fantastic tool for him. He could see why Rebecca and Richard would recommend such a reward to him. They knew how hard he had been training and practicing during his time with them.


    He would have to make sure to properly thank them the next time he saw them. There was no way this wasn''t expensive and an extremely valuable tool. He hadn''t heard of something quite like it before, and it was probably for good reason.


    He recalled having a similar discussion with the two of them about the possibility of experiencing such a thing, but he didn''t think they would remember that talk and even go as far to give it to him.


    "What does it do?" Lily asked impatiently.


    He laughed brightly. "I think I should show you instead."


    He looked around at where they were standing. There weren''t many people around, but he would rather not show off such an item for the first time in a place like this.


    "Although this probably isn''t the best place to show you," he admitted.


    "We can always go to one of the residences House Violet owns if you want," Marcus offered.


    Julius nodded his head. "That would work. Is that fine with you ,Lily?"


    She sighed. "Yeah, it is, but let''s not take too long. Even though the tournament is going on, students aren''t really allowed to leave campus for too long."


    "We''ll be quick," he promised.


    ***


    When they arrived, the servants and retainers around the residence all pampered Lily to no end. It was like their favorite daughter had arrived and they pulled all stops to make sure that she was taken care of.


    It was hilarious to watch, and even better, Lily didn''t like it at all. These people were so dearly trying to please her, and she could not have been more uncomfortable.


    Marcus, who had been standing right beside him the entire time, was silently laughing as well. Julius could practically sense the amusement seeping through the man''s aura even though Marcus had a tight hold on it.


    They were taken through the residence to a room that looked very similar to one of the training rooms at Goldencrest.


    "Lady Lily, please let me know if you need anything else. I will come the second you call for me," the lady said with a very deep bow before walking away.


    When she finally left them alone, Lily let out a tired breath.


    "Shall we go inside, Lady Lily?" Julius asked with a teasing bow.


    He got a mental slap in return for his cheekiness, but he laughed all the same. Marcus couldn''t help it either and was lightly chuckling right beside him.


    "Shut up," she grumbled toward the two of them and opened the door to the room.


    He was wrong. The room was much nicer than the ones at Goldencrest and was spatially enlarged to fit a massive field. He didn''t know what enchantments were applied here, but there was a staggering amount of mana.


    There was also an entire section off to the side that looked closer to a whole weapons store rather than a simple rack of training tools. Everything, ranging from a sword to something weird that looked very similar to a double-sided scythe, was displayed.


    There were also several smaller sections where various training tools were laid out just in case. He even spotted a smaller version of an obstacle course off in the corner. He was starting to see why House Violet was considered one of the wealthiest Houses in the Empire.


    He could not even begin to imagine how expensive it was to create such a room.


    "Jeez, are all the training rooms like this?" He asked in shock.


    "No, this is one of the nicer ones, usually reserved for our more important guests who come to Heston," Lily said casually.


    He nodded distractedly as he went over to the weapons and inspected some of the more unique ones. He noted a pair of gauntlets made from some type of black metal and saw that a pair of blades were hidden behind the arm guards.


    "Interesting," he murmured softly to himself.


    "Are you finally going to show us or what? The anticipation is killing me," Lily complained.


    "Give me a second, okay? While I got a set of instructions to follow, it doesn''t mean I have used it before. For all I know, things will go very badly," he explained while playing with the necklace.


    "What do you mean by ''badly? Is it dangerous or something? Like something that is going to blow you up?" She asked.


    "Why does everyone always assume that everything associated with me has to deal with explosions?" Julius asked offendedly.


    "To be frank, the first time I met you in person, you were blowing yourself up," Marcus muttered.


    "Huh? What was that?" Lily asked, sounding very confused.


    This made Marcus and Julius remember that she didn''t know the exact details of the fight. While Marcus had told her about his fight with the Tier 5, he did not inform her about his suicidal tactics. Something he had been very grateful for.


    However, seeing the man slip up his words, those feelings of gratitude were swiftly fading away. Marcus, to his credit, tried to recover from his mistake instantly.


    "I meant that when I saw Julius for the first time, he was getting blown up by the Tier 5," Marcus amended.


    And while it still didn''t sound very good, at least it made it sound like it wasn''t his own choice to blow himself up. With that being said, it didn''t look like Lily was completely convinced.


    Luckily, her curiosity about the item won over. "Well, there is only one way to find out. But if you feel like it is too dangerous, I am sure that Marcus would be more than willing to test it for you."


    "What?" Marcus froze and looked at Lily in disbelief upon hearing her volunteer him as a guinea pig.


    "I don''t think the item would allow him to use it. I think it keyed into my aura and my aura only. And I don''t feel confident about transferring it over yet without breaking it," Julius said.


    "I mean, if you think it can be dangerous, then you should take some time to figure out exactly what it does," she tried to warn him.


    He shook his head. "Nah, I''ll be alright," he said with much more confidence than he was feeling.


    Before she could say anything else or try to stop him, he activated the item, flooding the necklace with mana. It took an astonishing amount of mana even to get started, but once he felt the runes fill up, he mentally envisioned the spot several feet in front of him and surged his mana.


    When he opened his eyes, he realized nothing had happened and rechecked the instructions.


    After a moment, he understood his mistake. Shaking his head at such an obvious oversight, he took control of his willpower and aura, then sent it off to the same spot before activating the item.


    This time, something happened.


    He suddenly felt like someone had jammed him into a trash compactor and everything around him became muddy. But before he could regain his bearings, he found himself falling onto his face.


    He looked up and back where the two of them were watching, but he felt confused when he didn''t see them. He looked around and finally found them. They were all the way across the room, staring at him with wide eyes as they witnessed him teleport across the room.


    He laughed loudly and waved toward them. However, his laugh faded as he realized that the arm he was waving was missing a few pounds of flesh.

 Chapter 313 - 311: Thats Not Good

    "That''s not good," he muttered while examining his missing limb as if looking hard enough would magically make it reappear.


    "What the hell was that?" Lily exclaimed.


    "I think I might have lost my hand," he said amusingly.


    "Not that, I meant, how did you just teleport? Was that because of the item?" She asked, surprisingly not that concerned about his missing limb, which came somewhat as a shock considering her usual attitude of him hurting himself.


    "Hmm."


    "What?"


    "I thought you would react more to this," he said while waving the offending missing limb at her.


    She rolled her eyes. "You''ll survive. I know better than to freak out over injuries like that. I have seen you heal from worse."


    "So how come you got mad about me about the other stuff?" He asked, confused at her words.


    "I''m more mad about your decision-making than anything else. But I have accepted that you will get hurt regardless of what I do. So it''s up to me to get used to it."


    "Oh."


    "So what is that item? How were you able to teleport?" She asked, changing the subject back to the item.


    He nodded at her and at the same time, sent a quick burst of mana through [Phoenix Renewal] and regrew his hand in a matter of seconds.


    However, he could not help but notice how much more difficult it was to heal the injury than a typical explosion. It was almost like something was blocking his skill. A part of him believed it had something to do with whatever spatial enchantments or magic the necklace had, but it was too hard to tell. He wasn''t exactly an expert.


    "Yeah, the necklace has some type of enchantment that allows me to charge it and activate a teleportation of my choice. Although it appears there is quite a long cooldown," he said with a frown.


    The necklace, which had allowed him to accomplish something he had wanted to do for a very long time, was in a sleep mode. The inscriptions wouldn''t accept any more of his mana, and any attempt to force it led to the enchantments shaking dangerously. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He believed that if he continued to try to push it, the result wouldn''t be something he would like.


    There was an unusual look on Lily''s face, which was weird in itself. He would have suspected that she had seen similar items in her experience with her family''s business.


    "Why the long face?" He finally asked.


    "I don''t think I have seen an item quite like that in person," she told him with a frown.


    "What do you mean? I thought your family was a merchant and a business House? Wouldn''t you have seen a whole assortment of rare items?"


    She shook her head. "First off, I don''t take care of the day-to-day operations. We have specific managers and supervisors who handle the exchange of items. Secondly, I doubt I would have seen many items like that in person, even if I did. Teleportation items are scarce, and most of them are found in rifts. Or in rare cases from master crafters specialized in spatial magic enchantments."


    "Yeah, but I am sure that someone like you has one," he said confidently.


    "I have a spatial beacon that I can activate for my family''s space mages to locate my position. But no, even I don''t have an item that can let me teleport at will. The restrictions on using them are very high. I don''t have the confidence to use one like you just did. Furthermore, an item like that would likely be a valuable tool for anyone who can use it, and I doubt they would let it go easily. I don''t think many have even been sold at auction very often. Most likely, the Auction Houses will buy it at a premium for themselves."


    "Why would House Easten give me such a valuable reward then? I admit, I did a lot for them, but this sounds like it is much more valuable than what I did for them," he noted.


    She shrugged her shoulders. "I have no clue. However, I also know that any spatial travel skill or item requires a very powerful will to activate and even more to control it. Even those at Tier 4 might have a hard time with taming such a skill, which is why space magic is so revered. But they must have known that you could handle it. I don''t think you quite understand how impressive it was that you were actually able to use it on your first try."


    "I mean, I did lose a limb," he mentioned.


    "Yeah, that seemed dangerous, but if they knew about your healing skill, then I bet they were a lot less worried about you injuring yourself too badly," she said before turning to Marcus. "What do you think about this item? Have you seen something like it before?"


    "I have seen several items in the past that operate similarly. Although most of them that activate that quickly usually have a limited distance they can travel. Did you notice anything that limited you?" The man asked Julius.


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    He inclined his head at Marcus. "Yeah, I don''t think the distance is that great. I would say that it''s effective around a hundred feet. But anything further than that, I don''t think it would work."


    Marcus nodded his head a few times as he listened. "That is in line with what I was expecting. It doesn''t sound like it is going to be the most valuable tool in a fight, while it is relatively quick for an item like that, anybody with some skill would be able to attack before it activates. Plus, he can''t use it more than once since it has a cooldown. At least not until it has time to reset."


    "So what are you saying? That it''s pointless unless he wants to use it as a way to save himself from walking from a to b?" Lily asked.


    "No, no," Marcus quickly objected. "I believe they gave it to Julius more as a tool to help him acquire a space-related skill or Concept focused on movement rather than something like tearing space or stabilizing it, which is what Stella focuses on."


    "I think it is going to help me, I already noticed some things that I haven''t before, just in that first teleport," Julius added.


    While he had teleported before, that had been under the control of skills used by other people or runes. This was the first time he felt like he was in somewhat control of the process, which meant he could get a better sense of what was required.


    If he could reverse engineer the process, he would have a better grasp of space. Even if he wasn''t able to learn a Space Concept, he believed he would at least be able to figure out a skill that utilized similar properties of the item.


    After all, it was why he was trying to evolve [Flash Step] into [Instantaneous Step].


    He knew he had been planning on getting the general skill upgrade, but perhaps he could create a version of a skill that improved its general functions without any side effects.


    It seemed ambitious, but with this item, he felt like that option was becoming much more of a possibility.


    "I am actually much more interested in the secondary effect," Marcus commented as he got closer to the necklace around Julius''s neck.


    "What secondary effect?" He asked interestingly, not knowing what the man was talking about. The information he got when he infused his aura into the device did not mention that detail.


    "I think the item''s main purpose is to escape from a spatial barrier. The item purposefully destabilized space as it teleports the user. You didn''t notice it here since you teleported within the spatial barrier erected around the residence, but if you tried to teleport out of it, I think it would have been possible," Marcus explained.


    "Wait, aren''t space breakers usually one-time use items?" Lily asked.


    "Yeah, which is why this item is quite curious. I don''t know how strong the effect is, but as long as the barrier isn''t too strong, it should be able to help you out if you ever find yourself trapped in a spatial barrier like the simple one Stella used on you."


    Julius loved hearing that. He was already imagining the possibilities of such an item. One thing he had been very worried about regarding spatial movement skills was their restriction via enchantments or other skills. He often found that houses, properties, and other objects had various methods of inhibiting spatial movement.


    Richard had even told him of scary situations in which people interfered with the process and splintered themselves. This was similar to what had just happened with his hand.


    Most of the time it wasn''t too bad. But in a battle, the loss of a hand could be devastating.


    However, if he could learn a skill that helped prevent people from interfering with his spatial movements, that would be even better.


    In the meantime, though, he wanted to test the item a couple more times before they returned. Perhaps, this next time, he wouldn''t lose his hand.


    ***


    On the bright side, he didn''t lose his entire hand again. He only lost several fingers and toes.


    It was clear that his accuracy with the item was not quite up to standard yet, but he was slowly getting more comfortable with it.


    The cooldown for short distances was around ten minutes, but he realized that the longer the jump, the longer the cooldown seemed to be.


    The three of them ended up staying there for much longer than planned, but it was a fruitful session. Marcus had his own spatial movement skills and helped Julius adapt as best he could. As for Lily, she was there to cheer him on and provide moral support.


    After they were done, they decided to have dinner before heading back. They were in the middle of eating when Marcus suddenly turned to Julius.


    "I almost forgot, but remember that favor you asked of me?"


    Julius frowned at him. "What favor? What do you mean?"


    "The one about if I heard about House Greyson and if something comes up in the investigation?"


    Ah, yes, he remembered now. He had asked Marcus to let him know if anything pertaining to House Greyson popped up.


    "Yes, did you find anything?"


    "I won''t lie to you and say we found a lot. But we did find out that they have been working behind the scenes in many cities where the Conclave had dipped their fingers in. Regions like Koana, Langus, and Valorbury have all shown signs of House Greyson or their partners working on something. We don''t know what that is quite yet, but I wanted to let you know. It''s not much, but I promised," Marcus said before shoving another piece of meat into his mouth.


    Julius, on the other hand, slowly finished chewing his food and pensively looked at the stone walls of the room. He noticed that Lily looked at him with worried eyes. She knew the truth about him and recognized the region where he was from.


    Valorbury Region was the region where House Hyperius held power. He still hadn''t heard much from it and neither had the others. According to everything the others had found, there was nothing wrong with House Hyperius. At least nothing they heard from their sources.


    Still, it was another piece of evidence that House Greyson was involved in what happened almost a year ago.


    He sighed softly because he still didn''t know what had happened and if he ever would find out the exact truth. In all honesty, he had given up on that front. It was better for his psyche if he didn''t harp on the past for too long. He had many other things he had to worry about.


    He knew they wouldn''t want him to dwell on the past either. Edwin would have kicked him in the teeth if he had thought Julius was wasting his time on it. He would tell him that instead of pouting, he should use that time to train.


    And train he shall. With this new item, he believed his goal of learning some spatial skills and maybe a Concept was closer than ever.


    Tearing off a piece of food a little harder than necessary, he promised himself that he would be spending a lot of time figuring out the secrets of this new item. He also made sure to thank House Easten for their generosity. It was a gift more amazing than he could have ever hoped for.

 Chapter 314 - 312: Drasils Treat

    Before they decided to head back, he had one last thing he wanted to do.


    He had planned to do it before, but had gotten sidetracked with playing with his new item.


    So without further ado, he took Drasil out of his soul space. The adorable green guy popped up right on his palm. Like usual, the little lazy spirit was fast asleep, snoring away like nothing else mattered in the world.


    He attempted to poke Drasil to wake him up, but all that accomplished was Drasil grabbing tightly onto his finger and snuggling it like one would a stuffed animal.


    When he tried to retract his finger, he ended up pulling Drasil along with it. So with a life spirit dangling off of his finger, he waved it at Marcus.


    "This is Drasil. He is a life spirit, indulgent glutton, and as you can already see, a lazy little guy who loves to sleep." Julius quickly introduced his familiar to the other man.


    "Hey, don''t talk badly about Drasil. He does his best, and you should treat him better," Lily scolded him. She then walked over and gently removed Drasil from his finger, cuddling the small spirit to her chest while scratching his stomach with her own finger.


    "I''m not wrong. He rarely does anything except sleep. The only time he really wants to be awake is to eat my mana," he said with an exasperated look toward Drasil.


    Marcus walked over to Lily and inspected Drasil up close. His eyes were glowing purple, as they had when he had analysed the items earlier.


    "Fascinating," he murmured.


    "What''s fascinating?"


    "Your familiar is. He is very healthy and well developed for a life spirit," Marcus commented.


    "He better be, I give him enough mana," Julius said with a pointed look at the spirit.


    "It''s more than that. He has a solid foundation, much more advanced than you would normally see from a regular life spirit. You said you raised him from a seed?"


    "Yep, fed him my mana and out he came," he said.


    "Are you planning to give him that sapling tonight?" Marcus asked, still staring at the sleeping Drasil in Lily''s hands.


    "That was the plan. Although if he doesn''t wake up, then I will just have to do it another night," Julius said while removing the glass bottle from his storage ring.


    He raised the bottle into the air and let the light from the room illuminate the brilliant white sapling contained within. The bottle was blocking any mana that might come from the sapling, but he could practically see the life mana emanating from the treasure inside.


    After he turned it over in his hands and gave it another inspection, he walked over to Lily, who was drowning the sleeping spirit in affection.


    "Hey, wake up, buddy. I got something to show you," he said to Drasil.


    Predictably, this didn''t work, and Drasil continued to snore away.


    Sighing, he created a small ball of life mana in his hand and hovered it over Drasil''s face. Almost immediately, the gluttonous fellow snatched the orb with astonishing speed. Grabbing it with his two tiny hands and bringing it his mouth to suck on.


    Unfortunately, his motions seemed to be an instinctual reaction, and he remained ''asleep'' as he suckled on the life orb.


    "I told you a thousand times to stop eating while you sleep," he reprimanded the spirit.


    Drasil let out a satisfied coo as he drained the orb of mana.


    "If you want to sleep, that is fine with me. But I guess that means I will have to find another life spirit to give this tasty treasure to," he said with a sad shake of his head while dangling the bottle over Drasil.


    To his immense amusement, Drasil stopped pretending to be asleep and tried to snatch the bottle in front of him. However, unlike the orb of life mana, Julius was much faster than his familiar and quickly moved it out of reach, much to Drasil''s displeasure.


    "What, did you really think you could trick me?"


    Drasil looked away guiltily and chimed quietly. As if he were saying to Julius, "It was worth a shot."


    "You''re getting too spoiled lately. Maybe I should cut back your diet," he muttered quietly to himself.


    He heard Drasil gasp dramatically and leaped from Lily''s hand onto his nose.


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    The little spirit tugged as hard as his tiny fingers could onto his nostrils and let out a symphony of sounds that vocalized his vehement protest at this idea.


    Staring crosseyed at Drasil, who was staring at him with sadness, he sighed. "Okay, I won''t cut your diet, but you have to start listening better."


    Drasil nodded firmly and threw up a single arm in a mock salute, while promising Julius he would.


    Seeing that his point was made, he picked Drasil up from his nose and placed him on the nearby table. Then he handed the life spirit the bottle containing the sapling with a chuckle.


    The little guy yelped in joy as he grabbed the bottle, which was practically his size, and ran around the table in excitement. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Julius had learned that Drasil was much stronger than one would expect from a spirit of his size. He had personally witnessed Drasil tossing a rock twice the size of his little self with ease just because the rock was in the way of a spot in the grass where he wanted to nap.


    He had also learned that Drasil could sense life mana no matter how small, wherever he was. Thus, he wasn''t surprised when the spirit seemed to know what was in the bottle or at least knew that it had something to do with life mana.


    "A good foundation and remarkably intelligent, too, it would seem," Marcus noted with a grin.


    "Yeah, a little too intelligent at times," Julius admitted with a smirk of his own.


    "Better than the opposite."


    Julius had to acknowledge the truth in that statement. He was very grateful that Drasil could understand him. He didn''t even need to tell him with words. Drasil had the ability to sense Julius''s emotions and thoughts with such clarity that it made words obsolete. The connection between the two was strong and only got stronger as time went on.


    Julius had even gotten much better at sensing Drasil''s emotions. With that being said, it was a much more difficult task. A life spirit''s mind didn''t work the same way a human''s did. Sometimes, he had no idea what certain flashes of emotions and images coming from Drasil meant. Thankfully, Drasil usually only had two real thoughts going on at one time.


    Food and sleep.


    Therefore, if he had to deal with Drasil''s occasional trickery, he would say it was well worth it.


    He was jolted out of his thoughts when he felt Drasil tugging on his hand. Looking down, he saw Drasil''s pouting face.


    The spirit had been trying to open the bottle in order to get to the sapling. He had even gone as far as to wack the glass bottle onto the table and it would appear that he had given up.


    "Do you need help opening it?" He asked with a knowing smile.


    Drasil nodded aggressively and held out the bottle toward Julius.


    The bottle was just like the box, and opening it required some of his aura. So, he quickly funneled his aura and felt the cap snap open.


    The moment the seal broke, he was able to feel the incredible surge of life mana immediately. It was so potent, he almost sneezed from the overwhelming sensations. Whatever this sapling was, it was positively blooming with mana and there was something else along with it.


    It felt like a Concept, but it was a sapling, so he was confused about why he was feeling that way. Whatever this treasure was, Drasil was undoubtedly overjoyed to see it.


    Just like he did when he sensed the lotus he had received from Lily, Drasil cheered loudly and raised his arms toward the now-revealing treasure, motioning at the bottle.


    Julius, understanding that Drasil would know better what to do with the treasure than he ever would, passed the now open bottle to Drasil''s eagerly awaiting arms.


    Before he could inspect the sapling, Drasil tilted the bottle upside down. Julius watched as this natural treasure disappeared down the gullet of his life spirit in the blink of an eye.


    He wasn''t going to lie, he expected to see a big boom of mana or something of the kind, but he was slightly disappointed when all he saw was a burping Drasil who now sported a bulging stomach.


    "It is probably going to take him time to digest and break down the treasure," Marcus commented to him, probably seeing Julius''s expression.


    "How long do you think it''s going to take?" Julius asked, sensing the rhythmic pulses of life mana from Drasil''s stomach.


    "I don''t know. It''s too hard to say, but the treasure definitely felt like a powerful one, so I imagine Drasil might take quite a long time to absorb it completely."


    Julius nodded at Marcus before turning toward Drasil, who looked immensely pleased and satisfied.


    "How was it?" He asked his familiar.


    Drasil cooed softly and staggered over to Julius to give him a grateful hug.


    Julius could sense that Drasil was getting tired very quickly. Apparently, consuming a treasure like that made a spirit sleepy, and Drasil was about to fall asleep on his feet.


    Picking him up with both hands, he removed a small blanket from his storage ring and wrapped him up in it. Drasil, chimed his gratitude and started snoring almost immediately.


    Lily, who had been watching intently the entire time, walked up to him with pleading eyes that eerily resembled what Drasil had looked like only moments ago, holding out her hands and looking at Drasil.


    "How many?" He asked her.


    "Two cakes from Holly''s Bakery," she stated firmly.


    "Five," he shot back.


    She looked at him with such disgust, as if he had just punched her mother in the face. "No way, that is robbery. I will do three, and I get to hold him until we get back to campus."


    He shook his head. "Four and you get to hold him until I head off to bed," he offered.


    She was about to argue, but stopped in her tracks when he held up the snoring Drasil right in her face. When she saw him and heard the soft snores that sounded like the gentlest breeze rustling the leaves of a tree, she deflated defeatedly.


    "Deal."


    He smiled victoriously and happily handed over Drasil to her. He had successfully haggled with Lily and came out on top, not something done easily.


    Sure, it might have required him to sell off his familiar like a commodity, but he was sure Drasil would understand. It was all in the name of food, and if anyone could empathize, it would be the gluttonous little life spirit.


    So with a pleased expression on his face, he gave himself a pat on the back for a job well done.


    However, that feeling only lasted a few moments when he spotted the similarly pleased and victorious expression on Lily''s face.


    He was starting to have the feeling that he hadn''t won their negotiations at all.

 Chapter 315 - 313: Collapsing Space

    Julius found himself very distracted for the next couple of days. He was so distracted that his next fights barely registered in his brain. He went to them and won them. That was all he really cared about.


    It wasn''t like his opponents were all that exciting either. His second match had him facing off against a girl with a similar skillset to Bethany. She mainly used simple mana-based attacks but without the fascinating disruption technique that Bethany had used against him.


    He didn''t bother to let that fight draw out like the one with Keldon. This one he finished in under a couple of minutes. He could have just waited a couple of more minutes before the girl emptied her entire mana pool all by herself. She wasn''t the most accurate or precise opponent he had faced and had wasted a lot of mana in her attacks.


    While they had been strong, she had to actually hit him if she wanted to do anything.


    His third match of the second stage was against someone a bit better when it came to interesting skills. Another girl, but this time she used some kind of summoning magic to bring out some spirits made of fire. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Summoning magic was an interesting type of magic that differed from many others. First off, summoning magic relied heavily on the contracts one made with certain creatures or astral beings.


    This can include beings like spirits, spectres, or even more common monsters.


    The contract would provide the user with certain benefits, such as being able to summon them from anywhere at any time. They could also improve one''s affinity to the element or type of magic the summon used.


    For example, the girl he had fought had used fire spirits as her main summoning contract. This likely allowed the girl a deeper connection to fire than she would normally have.


    There were some pretty large downsides to summoning magic though. The most glaring one was the user''s inability to make a contract with powerful creatures without the appropriate strength. Since the creature you would make a contract with would stay within your soul space, that also meant you had to have a powerful soul to go along with it.


    Of course, this limited the number of summons you could have as well. While seemingly similar to taming magic, there wasn''t as strict a limit on the monsters you could tame since you didn''t need to store them inside your soul.


    Without a powerful soul, there wouldn''t be a way to even forge a contract with powerful creatures, much less command the creature in question.


    That made the lower tiers of summoning users kind of weak. The girl was a prime example of this. While she was able to use fire spirits, the spirits themselves were weaker than other Tier 3 monsters. The trade off was that the summons couldn''t die very easily.


    If they took a lot of damage, the summon would simply disappear back into the summoner''s soul space to recover.


    Summoners often didn''t see the fruits of their labor until Tier 4, and sometimes, it took until Tier 5 for them to actually see any benefits.


    You often saw summoners use their abilities for utility. They made good scouts since they could investigate without much risk of death. There were also a lot of people who used their summons to help with their day-to-day activities.


    For example, Julius recalled that there was a food stall in Heston, where the person had a fire spirit to help them.


    Still, the girl and her spirits hadn''t been much of a threat, doubly so because of his fire resistance. The flames from the spirits had barely tickled him. He tried to see if there was anything he could learn from them, but he quickly realized that he wasn''t going to be learning anything.


    His own talents specialize in a different direction.


    Drasil''s changes were a welcome sight as well. Marcus was correct when he said that it would take Drasil some time to absorb the properties of whatever that treasure was. However, Julius had already noticed some changes.


    For one, Drasil''s coloring had already changed. Instead of being comprised entirely of a soft verdant green color, there were now white little specks flecked into his familiar. It was especially noticeable in the crown on Drasil''s head. It almost looked like tiny white flower buds were blooming among the vines.


    Not only that, but the quality of Drasil''s mana underwent a significant change as well. The little spirit now had mana more potent than before. Much like how the sapling displayed a Life Concept property, Drasil was showing something similar.


    The teleportation item he received was a bit more complicated. Julius spent most of the day stuck in a room, testing it and trying to figure out how it operated.


    The only times he left the room were to fight his match for the day or to have dinner with the others.


    He would have stayed up all night like he used to, but his friends would not have allowed him to.


    Even at this moment, he was teleporting himself across the room as soon as the cooldown was up. Although he hadn''t figured out how it worked exactly, he was able to confirm a few things.


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    First off, spatial magic, like he had suspected, required a high level of willpower and to an extent, a strong soul to go along with it. He believed that this was the reason why people weren''t able to utilize spatial movements until Tier 4.


    He also found the mind aspect difficult. Visualization was probably one of the hardest parts. When he used the item, he had to envision the exact location he wanted to be in. It wasn''t enough to throw his will toward a spot and activate it; he had to really visualize the location.


    His eyesight was enough for this in most cases, but that also limited where he would be able to teleport. He had a feeling that [Instantaneous Step] would also be like this. It was highly likely that the skill could only teleport you in a step at a location you could see.


    However, after some experimentation, he figured out that [Spatial Perception] helped far more than he could hope. When he properly utilized this skill, the visualization became much simpler.


    Sensing the cooldown was up again, he focused on a spot around a dozen feet away and activated the item once again, trying to really feel how the item folded space around him.


    The world around him distorted and he felt the item wrap itself around him like a protective barrier. Then suddenly he found himself a couple of feet away from the spot he was aiming at.


    He gave himself a quick once over and was happy to see that he was completely intact. After some practice, he didn''t splinch himself a single time on the last day or so. That was something he was proud of.


    With that being said, no matter how proud he was that he was in one piece, he couldn''t help but frown.


    He still didn''t feel the folding process like he did when Stella had transported him. The way he was teleporting now felt much more primal and rugged.


    There was no elegant overlapping of spaces he could subtly detect from Stella''s own technique. If he didn''t know any better, he would say that the item wasn''t folding space around him, but actually ripping an actual hole into space to send him through.


    Wait a second, he thought to himself with pinched eyebrows. Remember what Marcus said about the secondary effect.


    If he was able to recall correctly, Marcus was quite impressed with the item''s seeming ability not to be restricted by anti-spatial barriers. While he hadn''t quite tested that part of the item yet, he trusted Marcus''s opinion.


    It wasn''t as if the man wasn''t competent himself.


    Therefore, what was the difference between folding space and tearing through it if that was the case?


    For example, does folding space create a more structured teleportation route, limiting the possibility of something going wrong mid-transport? Or perhaps it was the standard and simpler way of spatial travel.


    And if tearing through space allowed one not to be as restricted by anti-spatial enchantments, why didn''t more people use this method?


    There were so many questions he wanted to find answers to. He could probably ask Stella if he ever ran across her again and he could probably ask Alice too, but she was always so busy. For all he knew, she was on the other side of the continent working on something important for House Violet. It wasn''t like he could call her like he would a dog and expect her to show up.


    Plus, she had also mentioned that she used the properties of folding space to teleport the last time he had spoken with her. At the same time, she didn''t fully explain the reasoning why, she seemed to be confident that it was a better method.


    For the time being, he might have to find out some things on his own. Which in all honesty, might not be a bad idea. Getting answers for free was not the best way to learn. A lot of the time, he was able to progress more if he figured things out on his own. If he had to work and struggle his way through a task, he would internalize the process better once he did.


    And so he continued to experiment, deep into the night. Whenever the item was on cooldown, he would train [Flash Step] as much as he could.


    The skill was still at level 16, and he needed to get a few more levels before evolving it. He still wasn''t wholly convinced that [Instantanous Step] would be his next skill anymore, but if he wasn''t offered something that was definitely better, he would probably take it.


    With a single-minded devotedness that he hadn''t displayed since his early days, he continued to push his movement skills as hard as he could, and eventually, that hard work paid off.


    [Flash Step lvl 16 -> lvl 17]


    However, he barely paid attention to the notification. [Sage of Savagery] was being pushed to its limits as he concentrated on improving his skill while also figuring out how the necklace worked.


    Realizing he needed to change things up, he changed the way he used [Flash Step]. Since he couldn''t figure out how to ''fold'' space, he decided to try to tear it apart.


    The hard part was figuring out how to do that, though. He made many attempts but could not see any progress.


    It wasn''t until after countless attempts that he felt something shift. On his last try, he had been using his ruinous aura to literally eat away at the fabric of space, literally trying to rip a hole through it with sheer willpower and aura.


    But this last time, his [Spatial Perception] was able to grasp onto something. It reminded him of a small distortion he felt when he sensed the Tier 5 teleport that one time.


    Only this time, the distortion didn''t feel like a vortex. It felt rough and jagged. Nothing like before.


    Still, it was progress and he leaped on it like a starving wolf in winter.


    He grabbed onto this distortion and pumped as much aura into it, forcing it to widen with pure willpower. He used the innate properties of his aura to aid the process. As a matter of fact, he believed his aura was the only reason he was even able to accomplish this.


    It fought him, but he resisted with everything he had. In his mind, there was no room for failure.


    Eventually, the distortion admitted defeat first. The little pinprick in space that had been fighting so hard to close was now more or less stabilized. He said more or less because he knew the moment he lost concentration, the distortion would collapse immediately.


    At this point, he was barely thinking and working off of sheer instinct. But this same instinct told him that he needed to connect the distortion with something else, that there needed to be a destination point.


    So, with half of his mind continuing to focus on keeping the first distortion up and running, he attempted to create another distortion at another point across the room.


    At this point, things went terribly wrong. The first distortion, which was no longer being held up by his focus, was shaking wildly. He tried to shift his full attention back to the original distortion, but it was way too late. Like a stack of dominoes, the distortion collapsed onto itself, and the results weren''t pretty.


    A massive explosion blasted from the point of the distortion and ripped through his body. He wasn''t even able to react in time as the rebounding shock of the collapsing hole in space blew his chest into chunks of flesh.

 Chapter 316 - 314: Not Advanced Enough

    He awoke and found himself with Drasil sitting on his chest, desperately pounding his chest with his small arms while pumping him with life mana.


    [Phoenix Renewal] was slamming concentrated pulses of healing into him as it tried to keep him alive. He looked down and examined the damage.


    What he saw shocked him. He lost everything from the waist down. His chest was just a single lump of flesh with only his heart and ribcage somewhat intact.


    The pain was there, but [Sage of Savagery] was thankfully handling the brunt of it. Still, he winced at the dull throbbing that made it past the skill.


    This was probably the most damage he had received in a long time. That collapsing spatial distortion had wreaked havoc on his body, unlike many other things could have done. Not even his fight with the Tier 5 had caused such extensive damage.


    Sure, he blew up a few limbs and got blasted with an arm through the chest, but he had more trouble dealing with the leftover Authority, which prevented him from using his healing skill. His actual injuries were not that bad, at least by his standards.


    For the first time in a while, he actually felt like he was quite close to kicking the bucket. What was


    "Is this why people don''t use tears in space for spatial travel?" He muttered as he lay there, letting his skill and Drasil patch him up.


    Luckily, Drasil''s consumption of the sapling also helped his healing abilities. Julius was already able to feel the difference. Some kind of resistance prevented his wounds from healing as easily as they normally would.


    He had a feeling that this problem was due to the spatial nature of these injuries.


    The only thing he could do was focus his skill on his vital areas first. It was probably a good idea if he healed his stomach sooner rather than later. His guts were all falling out at this point, it didn''t seem like a smart thing just to let be.


    On the bright side, he noticed he had some notifications waiting for him.


    [Sage of Savagery lvl 13 -> lvl 14]


    [Phoenix Renewal lvl 9 -> lvl 10]


    [Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 6 -> lvl 8]


    His aura skill had gained a whole whopping two levels from his experimenting. Sure, it might have almost killed him, but some might consider it well worth it. Him being one of them.


    After all, he had learned some interesting things about spatial magic.


    It wasn''t just levels, either. He had another notification that caught his eye.


    Would you like to learn the skill [Spatial Tear]?


    He grinned wildly as he read the notification. He had been hoping to acquire a spatial skill for a long time, but now that he was finally being offered one, he laughed out in joy.


    See? That''s some proof that some good things come from almost killing yourself.


    Now, the question became whether he wanted to accept the skill. He didn''t see a reason not to, but he also didn''t know enough about it to feel confident in his choice. Unfortunately, his curiosity and impatience had him selecting yes before he could start overthinking it.


    However, the flood of notifications was not what he had been expecting.


    Skill acquisition in progress¡­


    Error¡­


    Concept of Sharpness: Severing Will not advanced enough for the new skill. Searching for replacement Concept¡­


    Appropriate Concept not detected. Unable to acquire [Spatial Tear] (Epic).


    Evaluating options¡­


    Cancel skill acquisition process


    Acquire downgraded version of skill - [Spatial Crack] (Rare)


    What was that supposed to mean? Julius couldn''t help but review the messages with a worried frown on his face.


    What did it mean when the Words of the World told him that his Severing Will Concept was not advanced enough?


    He knew that it was his first Concept and all, but that didn''t mean the Words of the World had any right putting it down like Dante or Alice liked to do. Only he could do that.


    He sighed and sat up now that he was somewhat healed. He stretched his newly grown legs and picked Drasil up, who was still doing his best to whack Julius with his tiny fists.


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    The issue was that he didn''t know what to do or what to make of this.


    While he had realized long ago that his Sharpness Concept was quite lacking compared to his other Concepts, he didn''t see a way to fix that.


    Well, actually, that was wrong. He did know a way, but he had no clue how to proceed.


    He understood that Concepts were very important to a person''s path and that you could never really get rid of them. However, he also knew that there were ways to change or evolve them.


    At least, that was what he had gathered from talks with those of higher tiers. While they had not outright told him, they dropped enough hints about eventually evolving Concepts to implement with your Authority or Domain. He also experienced this when his Phoenix Concept evolved from his Fire Concept.


    Since he was still Tier 3, they probably didn''t think it was the most crucial of information to explain to him. It wasn''t like they would know he already had four Concepts at this point.


    After all, most people at Tier 3 only had three Concepts before advancing to Tier 4 since that was the requirement for gaining an Emblem and evolving it into an Authority. Something he was still working on during his downtime. But it was tedious and slow work. It wasn''t like mana or aura control practice where he could make up tasks to occupy his boredom.


    Advancing an Emblem required patience and simple allocation of will toward one''s Emblem.


    The only known method to increase this process was to either consume expensive treasures or fight powerful beasts. The latter was the more common option for people and was why those who graduated often went on to delve and adventure frequently.


    It was probably going to be what he had to do if he wanted to hasten the process. Otherwise, he might be spending a lot of time at Tier 3, slowly nurturing his Emblem the old-fashioned way. And he had no plans on wasting years of his life doing it that way.


    He shook his head as he got off track from the main point.


    Was he, or was he not going to get the skill?


    Hell, did he even want the crack?


    It would be his second spatial skill, and if he acquired it, it would probably help him obtain a Space Concept more easily.


    Plus, he didn''t really mind that it was rare, that just meant he could evolve it into something more suitable for him when he upgraded it to epic.


    The name was a weird one, though. He definitely would rather have a skill named [Spatial Tear] than [Spatial Crack].


    He sighed once again. He was already leaning toward accepting it. He had plenty of skill slots open still and it was a spatial skill he had been looking for.


    If worse comes to worse, he could always just remove it. Sure, it might hurt his soul once again, but this time he had [Phoenix Renewal] that could heal his soul, provided enough mana and time.


    After thinking for some time and not seeing any reason not to accept it, he confirmed the notification.


    Congratulations, skill [Spatial Crack] (Rare) acquired. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The usual flood of information entered his brain, and he nodded his head as he took it all in. It was very similar to the process he had just used not long ago to create the spatial distortion.


    The main difference was that he felt he could create that distortion much more easily.


    He couldn''t contain his curiosity, and before he could think better of it, he activated his new skill.


    However, he was smarter than last time and made sure to create the distortion further away from him, so in case it did explode, it wouldn''t be right in his face.


    Despite his worries, he felt his aura seep outward and rip open a distortion once again. This time, it wasn''t as unstable. Sure, it was still rugged and somewhat crude, but there was this sense of balance that wasn''t there before, likely stemming from his new skill.


    It was funny because although his skill called it a crack, you couldn''t actually see the crack with human eyes. It was only with [Spatial Perception] that he managed to sense the crack in space.


    Mustering his courage, he decided to try the same thing which had caused the accident to happen. He concentrated on opening another crack on the other side of the room with another twist of ruinous aura.


    Thankfully, his new skill seemed to help immensely with this. Unlike last time, he was able to hold the first crack open while focusing on opening the second one.


    With that being said, it was still very difficult to do. He grunted as he tried to wrangle his aura and skill under control.


    Only after a few minutes of struggle did he grasp the space and rip it open. Once he had both open, it was much easier to simply hold them open as long as he didn''t try to do anything with them.


    Now that he had two separate spatial distortions set up, he could finally implement his idea, which was the whole reason he began trying to do something like this.


    He stared at the two cracks in space with a skeptical expression as if, at any moment, they would implode all on their own. But eventually, he gave in and walked over to one of them.


    He was holding a piece of blue fabric in one hand and slowly used his aura to carry the fabric so it hovered in front of the crack.


    But before he could drop it in, he made sure to tuck Drasil back into his soul space and create several barriers of mana. After he took another several steps backward, he shoved the piece of fabric through the crack.


    It disappeared instantly. One moment, it was in front of him, and the next, it was nowhere to be seen.


    Where in the hell did it go? He thought to himself while looking exactly at the place where the other crack was. It hadn''t exited the other side of the crack like he had been expecting.


    Thankfully, nothing exploded, but he was still curious about what had happened to the cloth.


    However, just as he was turning away, he sensed the first crack, the one he sent the fabric through, ripple slightly. He took a careful step closer and created another three mana barriers just in case while enhancing his body.


    A moment later, he stared confusingly as the crack spontaneously ejected a puff of dust that had a scarily similar blue color as the fabric had.


    He was suddenly very glad that he hadn''t used himself as a test subject. He had a feeling that whatever happened to that piece of fabric when it was in the crack would not have been very nice to experience with his own body.


    Still, he was excited because at least he knew that he could send stuff through. The problem now was that he wanted to figure out how to do that with the object surviving the trip and exiting the other crack. Because at the end of the day, he was hoping to use this technique himself and he didn''t want to accidentally vaporize himself if he stepped through one of his own cracks.

 Chapter 317 - 315: Spatial Crack

    He had been playing around with his new skill for hours when he eventually received a message from his communication device. It was from Lily, who asked where he was.


    He didn''t really want to tell her that he had been up the entire night. She had been very insistent that he get a good night''s sleep, and she had a good point.


    A big reason why he had gotten into trouble with his soul damage was because he wasn''t sleeping for weeks on end. But this was also the first day that he had really stayed up all night, so it shouldn''t be that bad.


    Still, he didn''t see the harm if he avoided telling her what he had exactly been up to.


    As he left the room, he made sure nothing was too badly damaged. Some blast marks were on the stone, but overall, the room was in one piece. Which was quite an accomplishment for his standards, so he was proud of himself.


    He checked the notifications he had gotten during these past several hours of training.


    [Spatial Crack lvl 1 -> lvl 3]


    [Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 8 -> lvl 9]


    [Flash Step lvl 17 -> lvl 18] S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was quite surprising that he was able to level up [Flash Step] even though he had not done that much in terms of diversifying its usage. He couldn''t help but wonder if it had something to do with his new skill correlating with the following general upgrade for the skill.


    [Spatial Crack] has also shown some nice improvements. While he hadn''t really learned how or what to use the crack for other than creating a space bomb, he was quickly becoming much more proficient in creating them.


    The time it took to create them had been cut in half, and he was beginning to understand the process a little better the more he used the skill.


    He really wanted to figure out how to connect the two points, though. He believed that once he did that, he could take the first step toward using these cracks for teleportation. Unfortunately, the only thing he could currently use them for was as a weapon.


    Because if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that whatever was sent into these cracks didn''t come out intact. He had even taken the risk of collapsing a crack on purpose just to see what happened in closer detail.


    Of course, this was all in the name of science, and he took the proper precautions.


    Still, the collapsing spatial crack was quite powerful. The explosion was unlike his other explosive abilities. It was as if space itself was tearing the nearby object apart. It was probably why he had taken so much damage and found it so difficult to heal afterward.


    He would even go as far as to say that this new skill leaned more toward the offensive side of things. The only thing that prevented it from becoming an actual viable attack was how long it took to activate.


    It still took him several seconds to create the distortion, and then a few more to purposefully collapse the crack in space.


    In a fight, his opponent would have already thrown dozens of attacks in that span. Furthermore, he would be relying on the fact that they wouldn''t be moving either. Since the point couldn''t be moved mid-activation, the only way it would work is if his opponent was practically crippled or too lazy to move.


    For now, he wasn''t going to be thinking of his new skill as either a movement or an attack skill. It was going to simply be a skill he could use to get a better grasp of spatial magic and how it worked¡ªusing it as a way to gain a Space Concept and hopefully evolve his other related skills.


    ***


    He met Lily and the others at the cafeteria, where he spotted them almost finished with breakfast.


    "Where have you been? You never miss breakfast," Aubrey said with a mouthful of food.


    "Sorry, I got sidetracked," he said to her.


    "No worries, it just means less food for me," she said grumpily.


    Edgar looked over at her with a baffled look. "What do you mean? How does Julius''s attendance affect how much food you get?"


    "What you haven''t noticed?" Aubrey asked him confusedly.


    "No, what did I miss? Did something happen?"


    "Yeah, I can''t believe you haven''t noticed that whenever we go get food with Julius, the staff always gives us bigger portions," Aubrey said with a disappointed shake of her head as if she couldn''t believe Edgar hadn''t noticed yet.


    "There''s no way that''s actually real. It''s just in your head," Derek said to her assuringly.


    "I am not wrong," Aubrey argued fervently. "I have taken notes and made extensive comparisons to what I get served when I am with or without Julius. Everything I have investigated shows that whenever I get food with him, I get more food than usual."


    "Why would they do that? It''s not like we can''t get up for seconds, Aubrey," Derek pointed out with a gesturing look toward the line.


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    "The proof is right there," Aubrey exclaimed while jabbing her finger at Julius''s plate of food. "Look how much more food he got compared to us."


    Edgar leaned over to stare at Julius''s plate. "Hmm, actually, now that you mention it, it does kind of look like there is more than what I was given. I think they gave him the crispy corner piece, too," he said with a conflicted frown, looking very upset at this spectacular revelation.


    "I can''t believe you guys never noticed. It is a big reason why I missed him when he was gone for those several months and is the reason why I always try to get served with him," Aubrey stated while throwing her arms up in the air.


    "Come on!" Julius exclaimed toward her. "That''s why you always insist on getting in line with me?"


    She looked at him like he was stupid. "Of course it is. Why else would I do that? Hell, Lily has been doing it since the very beginning," she said, pointing to where Lily was dutifully ignoring their gazes.


    "Really?" He asked when she still didn''t look up.


    "I mean, that''s not the only reason," Lily eventually muttered when pressed under the stares of all of them.


    "Why do they treat him better than us, though? I have known a couple of them for years," Edgar stated, sounding offended at the realization that Julius was getting preferential treatment.


    "I don''t know, but they love him for some reason. Their emotions always brighten up when they see him," Lily mentioned with a shrug.


    Julius grinned widely at this. "It''s not my fault. I just happen to visit some of them in the kitchen and help them cook or clean up occasionally."


    Edgar weirdly got very interested when he mentioned this and stared at Julius''s plate of food with much more intensity than before. Julius could see the cogs in the boy''s head already in motion.


    ***


    After breakfast and some time to relax, he found himself standing in the crowded stadium, surrounded by clamoring spectators who were screaming at the fights happening around them.


    It was his fourth match of the second stage, and he was against someone who had been doing very well for themselves so far.


    It was a third-year named Devin Bolten who was said to have a chance to win a slot. This was a very impressive feat that only people like Edgar and Derek had a chance to achieve last year.


    It was probably his first match, other than Bethany, in which his opponent was someone he needed to take somewhat seriously.


    It showed right away, too. The other boy used a greatsword but swung it around like it was a rapier. He had a water affinity and utilized it in a way that reminded him of the crazy woman he had fought on the plains. He maintained the grace and smoothness that often came with water users, but he had this powerful weight behind all of his blows.


    It wasn''t just that, either. Julius had to be mindful of the reverberating blows that came afterward.


    These echos would try and off balance him with pure weight, it reminded him of fighting against the tides of the ocean.


    Julius stepped back as the greatsword tried to split him in half once more and sent a powerful kick at the hand that was gripping the handle.


    Sadly, a thin but strong barrier of water mana surrounded his opponent''s hand, protecting him. Still, this allowed Julius to take some of the initiative, and he blitzed forward to attack. The third year showed surprising skill as he used his greatsword like it was a shield to fend off his blows.


    Julius was too fast for the boy to keep up, though, and he eventually sneaked a blow through a gap. His opponent gasped as the blow slammed into his ribcage, and he had to use one of his skills to retreat.


    Julius tried to chase, but the flood of water kept him away just long enough for his opponent to catch his breath and reestablish his guard.


    However, his opponent''s expression had changed a lot from the first moments of the fight. At first, it was obvious that his opponent wasn''t taking him seriously as he should have.


    It didn''t seem to matter to him that Julius had not technically lost against anyone else. Like many other students, he probably believed it was a fluke, mainly because he had been fighting against weaker opponents or had had good match-ups.


    So it was pretty gratifying to see the silent acknowledgment on his opponent''s face as Julius pushed him back slowly but surely.


    Devin had not been able to get the upper hand a single time during the match, and they both knew it.


    House Bolten was quite a renowned House in its own right. According to Lily, it had a great track record of cultivating strong warriors who protected the Empire during the Monster Floods. This is why so many more people eagerly watched this fight than they normally would.


    Despite Julius having been fighting in the packed stadium for the past few matches, he didn''t hold any naive thoughts that his fights were the ones most people were spectating. There were names like Derek, Edgar, Aubrey, and many others that people came to watch.


    For the first time, his fight was one of the most viewed, and he could hear the confused mutterings from the crowd as he handled Devin with casual ease, especially from people who hadn''t seen any of his previous fights.


    Devin also seemed to hear this, as his opponent appeared to get more frustrated the more he listened to the whispering. Unfortunately, Devin let his anger get the better of him, and for the first time, he launched himself at Julius without the careful control he had shown so far.


    Julius calmly sidestepped or slapped aside the brutal strokes of the greatsword. Devin had given up entirely on any signs of defense or maintaining proper positioning. The attacks were strong, sure, but definitely not as dangerous as they had been during the beginning of the fight.


    He let the anger exhaust the third year and watched as the boy''s attacks got sloppier and sloppier as the fatigue started to kick in. The reverberating attacks were no longer as threatening, and after avoiding one last tired swing, Julius slammed his heel into his opponent''s chest, sending him flying off across the field.


    A defensive skill managed to block most of the damage, but it must have drained a lot of mana. Mana that his opponent was almost out of.


    Gasping for breath and with a red face full of frustration, the third year dragged his sword up with both hands, still not giving up.


    Unfortunately, the match was already done the moment his opponent let his anger control him.


    This time, Julius stepped forward instead of avoiding the blade and slammed his hand around his opponent''s wrist, halting it in midair. Then, before Devin could do anything, Julius buried his forehead into the boy''s face.


    He ripped away the greatsword from the weakened grip of his opponent with a powerful surge of mana. Then, before the other boy could do anything, he pivoted around and used the momentum of the spin to smash the boy with his very own weapon in a brutal blow that might have killed him if he wasn''t wearing the silver bracelet.


    Once he was certain the fight was over, he dropped the sword to the ground uncaringly and walked off, not bothering to listen to the roaring crowd. He was more focused on the upcoming training session, which he was already planning for his new skill. To him, that was much more interesting than beating up someone he knew he could win against.

 Chapter 318 - 316: Tristan

    As Julius headed back to the training rooms, his attention was caught by someone staring at his back intensely.


    While he had become used to people looking at him lately, most of them were unknown or stared at him mainly out of curiosity. This stare, however, felt much more purposeful.


    It made sense as well since it was coming from someone he was well aware of.


    His cousin, Tristan, stood off to the side with his friends and stared at Julius with a mix of disbelief and confusion.


    Julius already knew the moment he saw that expression that Tristan finally recognized him. He closed his eyes and grimaced as he thought about the potential shitstorm that might happen now that Tristan knew.


    Honestly, he had been half expecting it to have already happened by now. But after months of his cousin not recognizing his face, even when they were in the same Intro to Mana class, he had convinced himself that Tristan didn''t remember him.


    Unfortunately, that had come to an end.


    The first thought that popped into his head was to simply eliminate Tristan as a problem, but he quickly swatted that thought aside.


    He frowned at himself. He was beginning to realize that his thoughts had been leaning toward the more violent side of things lately. Something he didn''t think was a good thing. His first thought should not immediately leap toward killing the problem, especially if that person was his cousin.


    Was it possible that his aura skill was affecting his mind? Or was it just a natural progression as he adapted to this more violent world? Whatever it was, he had to make sure that he kept it in check.


    He slowed his walk as he considered what to do. He could always ignore it and let things play out, but then he started to think about how bad things might get if Tristan reported this to his father.


    Julius still didn''t know if Tristan was involved in the coup at the estate. He didn''t want to believe it, but he had to face the facts. The timing of his and his father''s departure was way too suspicious to be a mere coincidence.


    They had decided to leave so early to explore the city, as his father, Frederick, had mentioned. If you asked Julius, it was awfully convenient.


    However, it was hard to imagine that Samuel and the other traitors had informed Tristan of their plan. The other boy was only a Tier 2 and would likely be a liability rather than helpful.


    Frederick, though, seemed more likely to know that something was going to happen. Even if he didn''t know the exact plan, Julius found it unlikely that he didn''t know.


    This was why ignoring Tristan could be a bad idea. What if he contacted his father and told him that Julius was alive? He suspected that if that happened, it would complicate his current situation beyond what it already was.


    However, his decision was made for him as he observed Tristan head right toward him, excusing himself from his friends. Julius turned to look at his cousin, and they made eye contact for a brief moment. He could see the many questions that Tristan had from looking at his face.


    Julius nodded toward the garden area behind the buildings, indicating that they should be somewhere more private for the upcoming conversation. Tristan nodded back, and the two of them quickly walked away from the crowd.


    When he finally found a place where he didn''t sense anyone in the vicinity, he sat down on a rock and waited for Tristan to arrive.


    "So it is you¡­" He heard accusingly from his cousin the moment he walked into the glade.


    For a moment Julius thought about lying, but he didn''t see how that might help him out at the moment. For all he knew, Tristan would still tell his father that he had come across him. More importantly, this might be his best chance at finding out what happened at the estate.


    "Yeah, it''s me," he confirmed.


    "How are you alive?" Tristan asked with confusion and anxiousness evident in his voice.


    "What? No welcome back?" Julius joked, trying to ease the obvious tension in the air.


    "You think this is funny?" Tristan asked bitterly.


    "A little bit; I mean, we have been in the same class ever since the beginning of the year, and you never noticed me then," Julius said to him.


    "We only met that one time, and you don''t exactly look or act the same," Tristan argued. "Also, it seems that you recognized me well enough. Which means you could have told me a long time ago."


    Julius shrugged. "I didn''t think it was a good idea at the time."


    "What do you mean by that?" Tristan asked with a frown.


    "I mean, you said it yourself. You didn''t think I was alive."


    "Nobody did, and you still haven''t told me how you managed that," Tristan pointed out.


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    "Why did you think I was dead? What were you told?" Julius asked.


    Tristan shook his finger at Julius. "No, no, you can''t just all of a sudden start demanding answers from me. You could have let me know you survived almost a year ago. You are going to answer some of my questions first. For example, what happened that night?"


    Julius looked at Tristan intently and extended his aura to wrap around the other boy. He didn''t particularly care about showing him his ruinous aura, but he still kept it in check.


    "You really don''t know what happened?" Julius asked, getting a sense of the other boy''s emotions. Unfortunately, he had an aura item on, which made it harder to accomplish. But Julius had learned a few tricks from Lily and managed to sneak through the gaps of the aura item''s defenses to get some information.


    Tristan swallowed nervously as he undoubtedly felt the oppressive and destructive nature of Julius''s aura, but he still answered.


    "What are you talking about? Nobody really knows what happened. We only know that some other House attacked the estate and killed the Patriarch along with some of the Elders. You were supposed to be one of them, too."


    Julius squeezed his aura a little bit tighter, partly out of anger at being reminded that Lukas had died and also because he was trying to see if Tristan was sincere in his answer. Eventually, Julius released his aura, letting the other boy breathe more easily. As far as he could tell, Tristan was being truthful and believed what he was saying. Which just further proved his previous theory that Tristan was just as in the dark as he was.


    Still, that didn''t make him happy to hear it.


    "Who told you that another House attacked House Hyperius and killed Lukas?" Julius finally asked darkly.


    "My father told me. But I saw the damage with my own eyes. The entire estate was practically destroyed. Several Elders and staff died fighting off the attackers."


    Yeah, more like Lukas took a bunch of the traitorous shitstains with him, Julius thought with a sardonic smile.


    "Do you know who your father said attacked us?"


    "No, he said that the bodies we recovered were unidentifiable. That it was likely one of the neighboring region Houses, taking advantage of House Hyperius''s weakened state after the recent monster flood."


    Julius nodded. That was even more suspicious. But at least he knew who was behind it. However, he wasn''t going to be telling Tristan that, not when his father was potentially a part of the plan.


    "You still haven''t answered how you managed to live," Tristan said to him again, but this time, Julius noticed that he wasn''t as demanding as he had been moments ago. Julius''s aura must have unnerved him.


    "I escaped through a teleportation circle." Julius didn''t see a reason to hide that piece of information. The people who had attacked him should have already shared that information.


    "What about the people who attacked? Do you know who they were?" Tristan asked hopefully.


    He shook his head. "No, I wasn''t able to figure out who they were, I was too busy running for my life," he lied shamelessly.


    Tristan nodded sadly. "I am just glad that at least someone made it out alive. I will have to let my father know the good news."


    Julius winced. "Yeah, about that¡­"


    "What? Is something the matter?" Tristan asked, concerned at his words.


    "Please don''t tell anyone, not even your father, that I survived."


    Tristan looked very confused. "What do you mean? Why not?"


    Julius took a deep breath and decided to take the chance.


    "Lukas was very sure that there was a traitor in House Hyperius. Otherwise, they would not have been able to break through the defenses of the estate so easily. I don''t know if those people are still around, and if they get word that I survived, I don''t think they are going to let me live in peace," he explained carefully.


    "But my father could help you. I promise you that he wouldn''t tell anyone if I asked him not to," Tristan said confidently.


    Julius shook his head. He didn''t want to call out Frederick as a traitor in front of his son, so he had to be smart about how he was going to convince Tristan so he didn''t share that Julius was alive with anyone.


    "I''m sorry, but please keep this to yourself. I am sure that you believe that your father is trustworthy, but I can''t take that chance. At least not yet, maybe when we figure out what happened, we can share the news, but for now, let''s keep it our little secret," Julius said.


    He could tell that Tristan wanted to continue arguing, but the other boy stayed silent for a bit as he took everything in.


    Eventually, Tristan nodded defeatedly. "Okay, I understand where you are coming from. I won''t tell anyone until you are ready, at least not for now. Fair?"


    Julius smiled gratefully. "I appreciate it."


    ***


    Tristan POV


    He didn''t know how to feel at the moment. For almost the past year, he had been distressed at the fact that his House had been attacked. Their Patriarch and their only real hope of recovering to the heights House Hyperius had been at before all the problems was dead.


    However, now he just discovered that Julius was alive.


    The only reason he had recognized Julius was because his father had just been talking about the day they left the estate for Heston the other week and he randomly remembered the weird boy he had met.


    He didn''t make the connection between him and the person who the students were gossiping about until he saw him in person. He was much taller and had lost the baby fat in his face, but he could still barely recognize those eerie black eyes and dark, ashy hair.


    He would keep his promise not to tell anyone about Julius for now, but it still felt wrong. His father would have really wanted to know that information.


    However, he understood Julius''s situation, and while he didn''t tell the younger boy, he had been having similar thoughts that there were traitors in House Hyperius as well.


    He would never admit this to Julius, but he had questioned the timing of his departure from the estate. At first, he had been grateful that he hadn''t been around for the attack, but as time went by, he began feeling suspicious of the timing.


    He didn''t want to ever think that his father knew about the attack, but the timing was too damn suspicious even to him. That was another reason he agreed to Julius''s request, though he would never say that out loud.


    Tristan also couldn''t help but belatedly realize that since Julius was the nephew of the previous Patriarch, he might be considered the next rightful heir of House Hyperius. That was a staggering realization.


    One that would change a lot of things and give even more credence to Julius''s worries about keeping his survival a secret. If there were traitors in House Hyperius, they would not like to hear that Julius was alive, especially when Patriarch Lukas had basically adopted the boy a couple of years ago. Some might take this information as proof of Julius''s right of inheritance.


    For now, Tristan would stay quiet and at least let the tournament blow over before he made any rash decisions. But he couldn''t help but grin as well. Because if even half of the things the school had been rumoring about Julius''s talents were true, then perhaps House Hyperius had some hope.

 Chapter 319 - 317: Taunting Aura

    His fifth match was finally here. This would be the one that decided whether or not he would advance to the final round.


    From here on out, all of his opponents had to win all four of their matches, which meant that none of them were slouches. With that being said, he wasn''t worried. As a matter of fact, he found it hard actually to care about the match.


    He would do it because he would gain a top sixteen spot this way and a slot for the Interschool Tier 3 Tournament. But at this point, he didn''t think anyone could really match him.


    He had some fun with some of the fights, there were some opponents which he had learned from, but other than that, there was no real excitement. It wasn''t even that the opponents were weaker, but it was the lack of danger present.


    With the bracelets, there was no actual risk of harm or death. Which took all of the fun out of it.


    So even as he walked through the tunnel toward the field, he couldn''t help but frown unhappily. He was tempted just to blitz his opponent and end it quickly. He had some other ideas regarding his new skill to test later today.


    [Spatial Crack] was clearly not a regular skill. First, it was highly volatile, so any adjustments he made to the spatial distortion were quite dangerous. Due to his experimenting, he had already blown a few cracks apart and some of his own limbs in the process.


    Thankfully, he was a bit more careful and avoided any really bad damage. He has still been trying to connect two cracks and use them as points of transfer. He firmly believed it was possible, and he only needed a little more time to figure it out.


    Then there was the whole Tristan situation now. He didn''t know if he could trust the other first year, but he didn''t really have another choice. If Tristan chose to tell his father about Julius, then he might be in trouble.


    It has already been shown that not everyone was safe at Goldencrest. He wasn''t going to forget that Reinera was almost killed because someone had messed with the rift. Additionally, they still didn''t know who had messed with the Tier 2 rift they entered with Professor Rowe.


    The investigation was still ongoing, and so far, it had not revealed any hints about who was responsible.


    There were a lot of things going on at once, and it was becoming messy to handle all of them at once. He needed a break, and when the tournament ended, he hoped that would be the time.


    On the bright side, his friends were all doing very well. Edgar and Aubrey had already won their matches earlier today, confirming their spots in the top sixteen. Unfortunately, Kyle lost the other day and was out of it.


    To be fair, he had done much better than expected, considering his skill set did not lean toward combat at all.


    For the Tier 2 tournament, Pollux had also locked in his spot in the final round. Tia sadly wasn''t able to make it through. She had lost yesterday in a close match against a second-year mage who managed to avoid getting trapped by Tia''s vines.


    Joshua had his final match of the second round today. And as luck would have it, he was facing against Adam.


    The world had a wicked sense of humor. But Julius was not about to complain about that. He was anticipating that match and already planned to head on over once he finished his match.


    He smiled when he walked out and saw the blooming magic constructs decorating the sky. He couldn''t help it. It was such a beautiful display of magic. He could see why the tournament was such a big event for the entire city. Even if you didn''t like watching people fight, the atmosphere alone was worth it.


    There was so much joy and laughter that it was infectious.


    He looked around and saw that there wasn''t any other match going on. There was just a singular large field surrounded by an equally large barrier.


    Since there were fewer matches now, all the attention was placed on his fight.


    When the crowd saw him walk out of the tunnel, they roared with enthusiasm. They didn''t even need to know who he was. They were simply cheering because they were excited to see another fight.


    He saw his opponent walking up as well.


    Julius quickly took the time to examine him. All he had been informed was that his name was Darren Silum. He didn''t know if he was going to be facing another mage or warrior, he didn''t really have time to talk with Lily about him.


    But based on pure looks, Julius would go out on a limb and guess that his opponent was a warrior. Of course, he could have easily been a mage, but the hulking muscles, hardened face, and large axe said otherwise.


    He did seem kind of familiar, though. He was almost certain that he had seen him before. But he couldn''t remember where for the life of him. He racked his brain but failed to come up with an answer to his annoyance.


    Julius shrugged his shoulders, not paying any more attention to it, then shoved the crowd noise to the back of his mind and entered the field.


    "Ah, look who it is. It''s the group pet," his opponent immediately stated with a mocking smirk.


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    Julius looked over at his opponent with a scrunched-up nose. He had no idea why he had decided to be rude out of the blue. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Who me?" He asked while looking around to see if the guy was talking about someone else.


    "Yes, you. Who else would I be talking to, you idiot?" His opponent said scathingly.


    "What''s up with the hostility? Do I know you or something?" He asked, genuinely curious why this guy was suddenly so abrasive. Maybe, he did know him from somewhere, and the guy had a reason why he was being such an asshole.


    This didn''t seem to be the right thing to say, though, because instead of calming down, Julius was able to feel the anger rise in the guy''s aura. He also noticed that the aura was very rageful but in a purposeful manner.


    It didn''t seem like it was simply just anger, but there was something else that Julius didn''t quite understand.


    He was actually somewhat interested in the skill, though he didn''t feel that mentioning it to the guy would earn him any brownie points.


    "You''re a cocky little thing, aren''t you? Don''t think just because you have made it this far, means you are actually strong. You have been lucky up until now, and I am going to prove it in front of all of these people," the guy exclaimed with another mocking grin.


    "Okay," Julius said slowly, feeling more confused than angry.


    His nonplussed reaction seemed to trigger the other guy even more.


    "Oh wait," Julius said suddenly and pointed at the guy.


    "I do remember you! You''re one of Liam''s lackeys, right?" Julius said proudly. He had to dig through many memories until he found a face that looked too similar to the one in front of him. It was quite an impressive feat if he was being honest, and it was likely thanks to his Tier 3 mind.


    "Keep on joking. Just wait until I get my hands on you. I am going to rip out your tongue and feed it to the dogs," Darren said angrily.


    "Goldencrest has dogs?" he asked wonderingly. That was news to him. He loved dogs, and if he had known there were dogs around, he would have spent a lot more time with them.


    Darren frowned. "What? No, the school doesn''t have¡­ never mind," he trailed off, deciding not to continue to play along with Julius''s games.


    It was only when Darren stopped talking that Julius smirked to himself. People like this guy were too easy to wind up. However, he did notice that his opponent was already using some skill. He guessed that it wasn''t against the rules since it was an extension of his natural aura, but Julius sensed that the aura had some weird properties.


    It was almost like it was trying to infect him with its rageful properties.


    As he was examining the aura and how it worked, the official came out and introduced the two of them.


    Although the crowd was muted behind the barrier, he could still hear the roars and if he was hearing things correctly, there were a surprisingly large number of people who were cheering him on over his opponent.


    He suspected that the crowd was cheering for him because he was a first year and saw him as an underdog or something. But he didn''t really care, all he wanted to do was to finish it up so he could resume his training again.


    Thankfully, his opponent seemed like he was in a rush too, because the moment the fight began, he rushed headlong at Julius. For a big guy, he could move quite swiftly, and the axe he was able to handle with a single arm without issue.


    Julius had to step back to avoid the lightning-fast slash that attempted to remove his head. Although it missed him completely, he still managed to feel a light stinging sensation across his cheek.


    He wanted to take some time to understand the sensation a little more, but the follow-up swing that went for his legs rudely interrupted him.


    It would seem that his opponent was very much an aggressive fighter, not allowing Julius to dictate the pace at all. However, Julius wasn''t all that upset about it.


    As a matter of fact, it was a blessing in disguise. Dodging the attacks was quite simple. Although they were fast and sometimes cunning, he was able to easily avoid them with a simple side step. This allowed him a better opportunity to get an idea of how his opponent''s aura skill worked, as it was by far the best skill his opponent had, in Julius''s humble opinion.


    After a few moments, Julius was able to identify the main function of the skill. His opponent would accumulate emotions such as rage or anger to invigorate his aura, which he would then use to empower his body.


    Like Julius''s own body enhancement skill, it was based on aura enforcement.


    However, there seemed to be another effect that was quite an interesting thing to experience. It was almost like a taunting or mind-altering effect. That was the weird feeling he was picking up on before the fight started.


    The aura had a passive effect that heightened the opponent''s emotions and tried to unbalance them. This was likely why the guy had been so rude at the beginning. Julius assumed that making someone emotionally unstable would only help the skill. It also had an interesting Concept that went alongside it.


    He didn''t know if he sensed an Emblem, but there was something similar that reminded him of it. Maybe it was a newly blooming one? He wasn''t quite sure.


    With all that being said, he was fascinated with the skill''s ability to target specific individuals. Julius was able to tell right away that the aura skill wasn''t like his own. It was able to choose who it affected, not just everything in its general vicinity like [Inexorable Aura of Ruin] wanted to do all the time.


    At the moment, [Sage of Savagery] and his own aura abilities were doing a good job of holding back the taunting skill. However, he was very very curious about how skill worked and wanted to be able to experience what the targeting technique felt like with his own senses.


    He knew it was probably a bad idea and that it wasn''t the best time to start playing around, but he was feeling a bit bored and wanted to spice things up. If the worst came to worst, he would just need to reactivate his defenses.


    So, without any further hesitation, he let lowered [Sage of Savagery] and allowed his opponent''s aura to seep into his own.


    It was funny because even though he was giving their opposing aura space to roam free, Julius could have sworn that the aura felt almost wary of accepting the free passage, like it was scared it was some kind of trap. However, it eventually took the opportunity and started to work its magic.


    The entire time this was happening, he was still dodging the nonstop slashes from the man''s axe. But he didn''t really pay attention to it. He was much too focused on learning how the man''s aura skill worked and how it selected specific targets, hoping he could integrate the same technique into his own aura skill.


    Even though he had vastly improved his ability to manipulate his aura, there were things he still wanted to upgrade. For example, if there was one thing he was upset about his aura skill, it was that it couldn''t differentiate between allies and foes. He didn''t like not being in control of his own skill, and he believed that if he was able to learn how his opponent was doing it, he could perhaps replicate the same for his own aura.


    So with a little more excitement blooming in his chest, he eagerly let himself get completely enraptured.

 Chapter 320 - 318: Monster Who Only Looks Human

    Darren POV


    Darren didn''t know how he felt about this. His style might have revolved around using his opponent''s emotions to unbalance them, but he wasn''t sure if it was the best strategy at the moment.


    From what he had seen from the other fights, Julius had been holding back. At least, that was the feeling that his gut told him. The younger boy never fought the same way. Using a variety of styles of techniques to win.


    It almost seemed like he was playing around, which was crazy considering what was at stake was a slot in the top sixteen.


    No matter what Darren said to the boy just moments ago, he didn''t really think the recent victories were just flukes. He had seen Julius fight and understood that he was someone who deserved some respect. He only said those things in order to rile him up and let his skill work a bit easier.


    However, something was telling him that provoking the boy was a bad idea.


    But Liam had also agreed that it would be better if Darren could oust more of the boy''s secrets. He did notice that Liam was more curious than normal. Usually, Liam didn''t care all that much about Darren''s fights, but this one he paid more attention to. Which was why Darren agreed to Liam''s unspoken request.


    After all, of all the people still in the tournament, Darren was probably the most suited to elicit some type of reaction. Still, he didn''t think it would matter all that much. It wasn''t like he was expecting to lose.


    Even if Julius had accomplished an already amazing result, Darren had no intention of letting the boy get any further. He would try and provoke some secrets from the boy before he ended the fight. That was the bare minimum he could do in order to satisfy his friend''s curiosity.


    At least, that was what he had been planning in the beginning. Darren couldn''t help but feel that uneasy sensation grow deeper, the longer he fought the boy.


    He had only felt this way in front of his stronger family members. Even then, it wasn''t anything quite like this.


    The first sign he should have been worried about was how his taunting skill and aura were unable to affect the boy. Most people would have already been affected, but the boy had some type of focus skill that protected his mental state from being altered or manipulated, something that typically only mages had in their skillset. Not even his insults had any effect on him.


    The second sign he missed was the first year''s ability to avoid his attacks. There was not an ounce of panic in his movements. Everything was calm and calculated. It didn''t matter what Darren did. Not when he used some of his active skills to try and catch him off guard, nor when he attempted to grab his opponent in order to immobilize him. None of it worked.


    However, the real moment he should have known when he made a mistake was when the boy decided to completely open up his aura to Darren''s own aura and taunting skill. What was even more odd, was that it wasn''t by mistake either, it was totally voluntary.


    What is he doing? Why all of a sudden let my skill go through? He must have a plan, he thought to himself confusedly.


    The usual reddish hue surrounded the boy''s aura. This was the normal indicator that his taunting skill had worked. He had been expecting the boy to have some type of plan, but it would appear he was simply allowing Darren to use his skill on him without resistance.


    His taunting caused the boy to finally stop dodging around, and with the heightened aggression his skill caused, Julius tried to meet the next blow of his axe head on.


    Darren grinned at himself as he finally forced the boy to make a mistake, and with another burst of aura from his enhancement skill, he increased the strength behind the next blow, intending to end the fight then and there.


    He internally apologized to Liam for not learning more about the boy''s skillset. Darren hadn''t even managed to get the boy to use the long-range attack that he had used to beat Bethany earlier. But he wasn''t going to take any chances. The opportunity to get in the top sixteenth was too enticing to risk.


    So, with a brutal downward strike, he smashed his axe toward the first year.


    However, instead of blowing through the boy''s defenses and activating the safeguard enchantments, it felt like he slammed into a wall of steel. A large shockwave rang out from their collision, and when the dust cleared, Darren was alarmed when he saw the boy holding the very edge of the sharp axe with a single hand covered in blue mana.


    But what unnerved Darren even more was the psychotic grin on the boy''s face. This was worrying because his skill was supposed to induce rage and anger. But in this case, it seemed like he had induced excitement instead. If it wasn''t for the glowing red eyes, he might have believed his taunting skill failed.


    He gulped harshly as he stared directly into a face that had a faint red glint in its eyes and a toothy smile. He was nervous because the boy grasped tightly onto the blade of the axe with just his hand.


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    No matter how hard Darren tried to pull away, he wasn''t able to. It was like the axe was stuck to the boy''s hand. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Realizing that he had to do something, he slammed a front kick at Julius''s chest.


    However, once again, the boy didn''t try and dodge it. Nope, he merely stood there as Darren''s foot crashed into the sternum of his chest with a loud boom. And yet, nothing happened. It was like kicking a mountain.


    Darren swallowed anxiously once more as the boy continued to grin at him with that manic smile, and before he could step away, all he saw was a blur of motion. He didn''t even see the fist that buried into his chest with unfathomable powerful force.


    He was launched right off his feet, flying backward across the stone floor. That single punch almost shattered his aura barrier in a single strike. He got up immediately, but when he looked up, he didn''t see the boy anywhere near him.


    Swinging his head around nervously, he wasn''t able to see the boy until he appeared right under his nose, and another punch completely shattered the remaining vestiges of his defenses, sending him rolling off onto the floor once again.


    Some of the bracelet''s enchantments activated, and he lost feeling in his chest, signaling that he had received significant damage. This was extremely worrying because if there was one thing Darren was confident about, it was his ability to take a hit.


    It was the reason he was a tank for his delving team, yet he found himself almost being taken out in two strikes.


    Before it could get any worse, he activated his berserk skill and felt a surge of powerful aura and mana flow through his body. He had no more thoughts about taking it easy or luring out secret skills; it was an all-out fight to survive.


    With the berserk skill activated, he had become almost twice as strong and much faster. The only real downside was the punishment after he deactivated the skill. He would experience a large cooldown and period of weakness, which would make him unable to fight.


    But in a tournament setting like this, it was actually quite powerful since he didn''t have to worry about those side effects. He would only be fighting a single opponent anyway.


    With this boost, he was finally able to perceive the next incoming attack and threw up a large barrier around his arm as he tried to block it. A fist blasted into it, and for a moment, he thought it was going to shatter right through it like it had previously.


    Thankfully, it held, and he was able to retaliate with an attack that only hit the air.


    He preemptively activated his protective skill once more, expecting another attack, but was surprised when he saw the boy pull back and look at him with that same eerie smile.


    Darren saw the boy nodding to himself, and before he could question what he was doing, the boy walked over to where Darren''s axe was lying and picked it up.


    He needed that axe. A lot of his skills revolved around him using a weapon to enhance the power of his strikes. If it weren''t a tournament, he would have already summoned his backup weapon from his ring, but he wasn''t able to do that here.


    The boy looked at him with that manic grin, and Darren saw his red eyes flash before he tossed the axe right at Darren with a single arm.


    Darren snatched the axe out of the air with a hesitant expression on his face. The boy had just willingly given him his weapon back for no reason.


    What the hell is happening right now? Did he really just give me back my weapon? He thought to himself, genuinely baffled at the events occurring.


    However, he wasn''t about to look the horse''s gift in the mouth and gladly took the axe. But with a bit of uncertainty, not sure if there was some type of trap put on the axe. The last thing he would want was to use it only to find out that it would explode in his hands.


    Despite his worries, he still decided to use the offered weapon. Based on the look and the boy''s attitude, Darren doubted that it was trapped. It simply just looked like his opponent wanted to have an honorable fight with Darren¡ªsomething very admirable in Darren''s opinion.


    Once he readied himself, it was Julius, this time, who made the first move. In a flash of movement, he appeared right to the side of Darren, slinging a fist into his gut. Darren thankfully reacted quickly enough and managed to choke up on the shaft of his axe to block the punch with the blade.


    Alarmingly, this didn''t seem to deter the boy, and the fist met the blade with a loud boom. He tried to block the next strike, but he was a little too slow and took a hard hit to the knee.


    He followed this up with a wide slash, trying to force the boy to back up and give him some space to work with. But instead of dodging, the boy stepped forward and slammed his elbow onto the shaft of the axe, staggering Darren backward.


    Before he could react, a spinning elbow caught him right on the chin, dazing him even further.


    Then, he was swarmed by small but quick blows. His opponent was no longer focusing on powerful punches but on ensuring that Darren couldn''t find his balance. He said it was small blows, but in all honesty, it still felt like a sledgehammer smashing into him.


    Every attack was focused on something annoying. One moment, it was a kick that took out his knee, and the next, a punch to his wrist, which almost caused him to lose his grip on his axe.


    His berserk skill desperately tried to keep up with the onslaught of blows, but even with the skill, Darren found himself too slow and too weak to put up any defense. He did his best to parry as many attacks with his axe, but he was slowly being pushed into a corner in a display of total dominance. He couldn''t help but wonder if the boy had activated a berserk skill of his own. That was the only logical way the boy was outclassing him so overwhelmingly.


    There was still that frustrating psychotic grin on the boy''s face as he systematically ripped Darren apart, and it was somewhat of a blessing when the boy finally smashed a powerful kick at his head.


    Darren hazily felt himself flying through the air and smashing into the walls of the barrier containing the field in a deafening boom. Fortunately, the safeguard enchantments activated and saved him from actually being hurt. He imagined that if he took that without the bracelet, he might be little more than a splatter of flesh on the barrier''s surface.


    He gingerly peeled himself off the ground. While he hadn''t sustained any real damage to his body, his mind was still in recovery. He still couldn''t wrap his head around what had just happened.


    But he was certain of one thing. He was naive in believing he ever stood a chance against this first-year. He was a monster who only looked human on the outside.