Julius let out a tired sigh as he crushed another skull with his fist. Blast after blast of kinetic energy slammed into the crowd of undead with a resounding boom. His Sharpness Concept was helping his output quite nicely.

It still wasn't as strong as his other skills, but it was definitely showing itself to be a powerful tool. He just wondered what he could do to upgrade his Concept or perhaps gain a skill.

He had quickly gotten used to the undead's fighting patterns. They all attacked him in the same way with the same weapons. He still got clipped with their poison, but he didn't really pay it much mind.

He only cleansed himself when it started to drastically affect his actions. He really only cared about focusing on his new technique. It was very hard to use and even harder to make sure that it didn't go out of control and shred his body apart.

While his Sharpness Concept was one of his weaker Concepts and he had plans to upgrade it. He understood that he was also very lucky that it was weaker. If he had tried this with a stronger version of the Concept, he suspected that the repercussions would have been much more severe.

It was only because it was weak that he was allowed such freedom.

Something was still missing, though. His Sharpness Concept didn't quite work perfectly with his kinetic energy, and he could tell that he wasn't there yet. He needed to figure something out if he wanted to master it truly.

He jerked himself out of his self-reflection. he had gotten a little distracted and ended up with another slash across his forearm from one of the undead's swords. He avoided the next attack with a calm sidestep and even used a small [Void Step] to appear next to an unsuspecting undead. It didn't even get a chance to react before he tore its head off.

He grimaced as the nasty flesh of the monster got on his face and allowed himself a moment of selfishness. He manipulated his fire mana and burned all of the decaying flesh from his body. Just because he wanted to train his kinetic energy didn't mean he had to be dirty while doing so.

There were still a good number of undead left, but he worked his way through them. He toughed it out and kept on using his new method without wavering for a moment. It hurt, and it was debatable if it really worked that well, but he reminded himself that it was something that practice would improve over time.

It wasn't until he dealt with the wave of undead that he finally let out a sigh of relief. The stench of the decaying flesh lying around him was quite disgusting, even with [Sage of Savagery] aiding him. He quickly moved down the cavern to escape the smell.

As he did so, he looked into his soul space and at his core. Another reason why he had chosen to come to the Endless Forest was that fighting monsters was generally agreed upon as the best and quickest way to advance to Tier 4.

He didn't know the exact reasoning behind it, but apparently, fighting and defeating monsters would naturally cultivate his Emblem and his core, allowing him to advance to Tier 4.

He suspected that it had to do more with facing and overcoming challenges than killing. However, he had to admit that that was pretty much the same for a person like him. He enjoyed fighting too much not to realize this fact.

Unfortunately, it would seem that his Emblem or core hadn't made much progress despite the dozens of monsters he had just defeated. Perhaps, they weren't enough of a challenge for him, and he needed a more dangerous foe.

He just hoped that he didn't need to fight a bunch of Tier 4s to advance. That would be quite annoying if that were the case.

Eventually, after some walking, he made it to a narrow passageway that led to a set of large doors. He was almost certain that this was where the boss of the rift was. The mana coming from the door clearly was of a different caliber than what he had been facing so far.

He wondered if he beat it would it collapse the rift? It was pretty likely, unless there was a different condition to complete the rift.

It was at this moment that he realized that he had never really completed an entire rift before, other than the troll rift. That was a long time ago, and it has already felt like an eternity since then. He grinned to himself when he thought about how much he had changed since then.

Back then, he was still Tier 1 and almost died several times in that rift. This time around, it was very different. He purposefully restricted himself and was still finding it relatively easy. The hardest part was his own self-imposed rules.

Not seeing a reason to wait any longer, he walked up to the doors with a calm and studious gaze, examining the swirling pools of mana covering the doors.

He didn't know exactly how long he had been in the rift, but it hadn't been for more than a few hours. Which, in all honesty, was pretty good for already reaching the boss room.

He checked his resources one last time. He winced when he noticed that he was pretty low on mana. While he hadn't been using his mana techniques or skills, his healing skill still took a good amount of mana to power it.

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He also noticed that his body was feeling a little weird. There was no noticeable damage, but the fact that he had been using sharpness-infused kinetic energy throughout his entire body was definitely a reason for this.

This was the reason why he decided to take another short break to recover as much mana as possible. He even decided to chug a mana potion to help speed things along. He didn't like to consume potions such as these because they were never good to rely on. Also, they never provided mana that was as suitable as his naturally regenerated mana. It was partly why overconsumption of potions was a bad thing and could lead to mana poisoning.

It was only after he felt prepared that he moved forward to open the doors.

However, what awaited him wasn't something he would have ever expected.

***

Lily POV

While she knew that she wasn't the most experienced when it came to combat, she liked to believe that she had strong enough abilities and skills that let her hold her own. With that being said, actually fighting monsters was always more complicated.

The four of them were a good team, though. Edgar and Aubrey handled the brunt of the work. As their frontliners, they were more than willing to take a beating and be the first contact. That left Derek and her to work around them, making sure to contribute as much as they could.

Derek, who was usually a hybrid fighter, had been relegated to more of a long-range role. He used his lightning to zap their opponents from a distance and was honestly quite terrifyingly good at it. Lily made sure to use her psychic skills to shred the monsters' minds apart.

She was very good at causing mayhem among the enemies. She didn't have to kill each monster, as that would take more energy than it was worth, especially with her friends to help her. Additionally, she was very good at sensing enemies before anyone else. Even though they weren't humans, she was able to sense the monster's psychic fluctuations and emotions. It allowed her to become a pretty decent scout despite her lack of training in the other parts of the role.

They were currently delving into one of the rifts that the Stormcaller Guild had prepared for them. It wasn't anything too fancy, but there were a plethora of monsters who were all good matches for them. But in a weird way, she was beginning to understand what Julius was talking about when he mentioned to them how he wanted something less planned out.

Because what they were doing felt very regulated and organized. From the monsters to how much they were being pushed. The Stormcaller Guild and Lord Holten never seemed to push them too far. They exerted themselves, but they were never truly worn out after a fight.

She suspected that Julius was already setting himself on fire again or tearing his body apart. Then again, he was the exact opposite of normal when it came to stuff like that. Not everyone had a healing skill that made them practically immortal within their tier.

She just hoped that he didn't take things too far like she knew he had a penchant for doing.

What was she thinking? Of course, he was. She should know better than to believe that he wasn't.

"Nice work. We will take a quick break, and then you guys can try and take on the next group," Devonte, the Tier 4 from the Stormcaller Guild, and who was supervising them during this rift, called out.

They all nodded in acknowledgement and rested for a moment.

"Are you okay?" Derek asked her with concern.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" She questioned him.

"I don't know. You seem a bit distracted today. Are you worried about Julius?" He responded.

She nodded slightly. "That obvious, huh?"

Derek shrugged. "Easy guess. But you shouldn't worry too much. You know how hard it is to kill him."

"Yeah, he will be fine. He is like a cockroach," Aubrey said brightly, as if she was giving the highest of praise.

"It would have been nice to delve with him, though," Edgar commented with a soft smile.

Lily grinned alongside him. "Yeah, it would have been nice," she said softly.

Aubrey shrugged her shoulders. "His loss. Although I admit I got a good laugh when that Vice Guildmaster found out that Julius wasn't coming. It seemed like they had something planned specifically for him and looked very depressed when they realized he had other plans."

"You're wishing they would have given it to you instead, aren't you?" Edgar said knowingly.

"Damn right!" Aubrey said enthusiastically. "I mean, it's not like they don't know we aren't important people either. They could be a little more excited about meeting us."

"I thought you didn't like it when people treated you differently because of your mom?" Derek pointed out to her.

"Yeah, but I hate it more when people ignore me," Aubrey said shamelessly.

Lily pinched her nose in exasperation at Aubrey's words and used the rest of her break to inspect the bracelet that Julius had given to her. According to him, it was the same bracelet that the assassin had used against him on the beach.

She didn't know how she felt about using an item from such a person, but she couldn't deny its usefulness. This bracelet was quite impressive. The barrier that it created was very strong and she doubted many monsters would be able to break through it very easily.

She wasn't the best when it came to physical barriers of mana. Which meant an item like this was very helpful. The main issue was that this item was meant to be used by a Tier 4 and required a certain level of strength to use.

Luckily for her, her willpower and mind were of a higher quality than almost every other Tier 3. This allowed her to tap into some of the item's enchantments with a little effort.

Devonte walked back up to them with a casual gait. "Are you guys ready to resume?"

They all nodded and stood to their feet, readying themselves. She didn't know what Julius was doing at the moment, but she knew that he wasn't loafing around and was working on getting stronger.

That was why she decided to join them, too. She didn't want to get left behind. For that reason, she narrowed her eyes and got a little more serious. She would make sure she got stronger in the coming months. It didn't matter how many rifts or training she had to undergo. But she knew that she wouldn't be the one to falter and get left alone as the others advanced.