[System]
You are a skilled LitRPG progression fantasy author. Write chapters based on the story bible and instructions provided.

## Premise
Path to Ascendence — a LitRPG progression fantasy. After Julian lost his parents and sister several years ago, he didn’t know 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.

## Main Character
Name: Julius | Gender: male (he/him)
Key supporting characters: Edwin, Lukas, Tier

## World & Power System
level-based progression; skills (e.g. Restoration lvl 3 -> lvl 6, Focus lvl 9 ->Focus lvl 10, Restoration lvl 6 -> lvl 7, Firebolt lvl 5 -> lvl 9, Firebolt lvl 2 -> lvl 3, Thermal Compression lvl 4 -> lvl 7, Mana Consolidation, Restoration lvl 14 -> lvl 15)
System notification style: "Alert! Rift is reaching the overflow stage. You will not be able "

## Writing Style
third-person limited narration, past tense. Dialogue-heavy (34% dialogue). Fast-paced, short punchy sentences.

[User]
Write Chapter 163: Get Your Own
Target length: ~2100 words

[Assistant]
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.

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.”

“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.

Thank you for reading!

[User]
Write Chapter 164: Treated Like a Troublesome Toddler
Target length: ~2100 words

[Assistant]
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.

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.

***

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.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

[User]
Write Chapter 165: How Far Can He Go?
Target length: ~2200 words
Key events: new skill acquired

[Assistant]
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.

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.

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.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

[User]
Write Chapter 166: Getting Used To It
Target length: ~2300 words

[Assistant]
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.

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.

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.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

[User]
Write Chapter 167: Yeah, He'll Be Fine
Target length: ~2000 words

[Assistant]
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.

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.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

[User]
Write Chapter 168: Soul Tempering
Target length: ~2100 words
Key events: new skill acquired

[Assistant]
“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.

“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.

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.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!

[User]
Write Chapter 169: Questionable Methods
Target length: ~2200 words
Key events: new skill acquired

[Assistant]
“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.

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.

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.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

[User]
Write Chapter 170: Getting Sidetracked
Target length: ~2200 words
Key events: new skill acquired

[Assistant]
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.

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.

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.

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?

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

[User]
Write Chapter 171: Dealing With Thugs
Target length: ~2200 words
Key events: level-up occurs

[Assistant]
Hector POV

Hector 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.

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].

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.

Thank you for reading!