It was amazing how well this technique worked. It gave him so much space to fight. Dealing with the trolls when he wasn't being harassed by all sides was much easier. They didn't stand a chance and were quickly dispatched by him.

The issue was that it required a lot of willpower and focus from him. Using three Concepts was a hard thing to do, and the trolls had some sort of Life Concept of their own, which let them fight back with more ease.

He was enjoying himself, though. He was slowly improving his kinetic energy usage. Each attack was getting sharper and more powerful. Even his ability to siphon kinetic energy was improving at a noticeable rate. It helped that he had sparring partners who wouldn't die unless he removed their heads.

This is why he started to take advantage of this, and as the number of trolls dwindled, he started to focus less on killing them and more on practicing his skills. Kinetic energy was quite efficient to use, so he wasn't worried. He also didn't have to use [Void Step] all that often. They weren't fast enough to force him to and with half of them no longer swarming him, he had more breathing room to move around with just kinetic energy.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to keep the sharpness-infused kinetic restriction technique up for very long. He was forced to deactivate it from time to time. The concentration required to hold it was immense, and he needed to take a breather.

He didn't particularly mind this, though. It made the fight much more interesting.

***

He slammed his fist into the gut of one of the few remaining trolls. This one was the same troll who had thrown that initial spear. Apparently, Julius hadn't killed the troll when he threw the spear back. To the troll's credit, it was much harder to damage than its comrades. It had a skill that protected it on top of its healing skill.

What was interesting was that this defensive skill acted like a converter. Whenever an attack hit it, Julius was able to sense some of the damage being converted into life mana, which then fueled the troll's regeneration magic.

It was quite impressive but also annoying to fight against.

However, it made him curious about whether he could do something similar. He was already able to siphon kinetic energy, but he didn't know if it was possible for him to somehow convert that energy into mana that he could use to power his own healing skill. That would be really nice.

He was already imagining all of the things he could do with something like that, but he smacked himself in the head.

"You already have too much to focus on," he reminded himself.

He still took the time to analyze the troll's skill. While he might not focus on it now, he still believed it would be something worthwhile to learn in the future. He just added it to the mounting list of things he wanted to do.

However, as he was taking this opportunity to improve his kinetic energy abilities, he found himself getting lost in a trance. The entire time, he had been adding his Sharpness Concept to everything he was doing. He hadn't even realized it at the time, but he was even using it when he wasn't using kinetic energy.

Each little movement focused on the Concept. He was also much more aware of how it impacted his environment. He felt how it tore the troll's flesh and the way it split apart the small gaps of its defensive skill.

However, there was a massive shift when he accidentally added the disruption technique to the mix.

He didn't mean to and had only done it out of reflex, but he used his Sharpness Concept along with the kinetic restriction technique to disrupt whatever skill the troll was using to convert damage to life mana.

With so much going on around him, he had kinda forgotten about this technique. But the entire time he had been using Severing Will to aid his kinetic energy, it had been on a physical level and had forgotten about its other use.

The same use he had used in the past and the same thing that Irene had helped him improve upon.

Disrupting his opponent's mana, cutting into their flesh, and enhancing his own movements. This combination of applications allowed him to tear through the defenses of the troll with much greater ease.

However, he wished that was the end of it. But the world wasn't happy to let him have this victory and decided he shouldn't be able to bask in the glory of it.

He felt something shift within his soul. At first, it was a warm, fuzzy feeling, but it quickly turned into something painful, almost like someone was squeezing his heart like an orange. He groaned out loud and grabbed his chest as if he could help his soul this way.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The troll, noticing that he was distracted, raised both arms above his head and slammed them down on his back. Julius was smashed into the dirt, creating a Julius-sized crater. However, he barely recognized this. This sudden and weird sensation too disoriented him.

He was no longer worried about training. He was much more concerned about why he was suddenly feeling this way. It wasn't anything like he had experienced so far, not even when he had damaged his soul.

This was something else and he didn't need to have an angry troll attacking him when he was dealing with it. He mustered the rest of whatever focus he had and created a small blade of mana right behind the troll's head. He wrapped it with his Sharpness Concept and charged it with kinetic energy. The troll didn't even sense the blade until it was too late.

He sensed the troll hit the ground with a dull thud, but he couldn't take the time to check if it was dead or not. He would just have to hope that cutting off its head would do the trick. At the moment, he was overwhelmed by the increasing pressure he felt upon his soul.

It was alarming because he didn't believe he had done anything to warrant such a reaction. He had been a good boy in recent times. He hadn't been overexerting his soul in any way. At least he didn't believe he had been.

He had even been taking breaks from time to time on top of not spending all night training. He was doing well. So it was even more confusing why this was happening.

The painful sensation continued to ramp up, and instead of getting his soul squeezed, it felt like it was cutting into small pieces, as if his soul had decided to jump headfirst into a blender.

He needed to figure out what was happening, so he decided to delve into his soul space. He wanted to examine what was going on and see if he could somehow fix it. So he closed his eyes and analysed his soul's condition. It didn't take much time at all to see the problem.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the problem was glowing like a miniature sun in his soul space. The little blue orb of light that represented his Sharpness Concept was angrily pulsing outward. Small ripples and tears would appear on its surface as well. He wasn't an expert by any means, but he believed that this was likely the reason why he was experiencing this pain.

It was just his Sharpness Concept screaming into the void. The pulsing slowed down, and he examined it as it began to shake violently. Then suddenly, it stopped, and the layers of the orb representing the Concept started to peel away.

It was like someone who had a really bad sunburn and had their skin peeling off. Only this was something inside his soul, which made it hurt all the more intensely. Not even [Sage of Savagery] was able to numb all of the pain.

His healing skill also wasn't able to fix whatever was wrong. It would appear that he could do nothing but watch.

At least that was what he initially believed. Out of nowhere, he felt other parts of his soul come together and surround the orb. Energy from all of his skills and Concepts leaked into the orb of his Sharpness Concept.

It would appear that they were trying to resolve this issue on their own. While his other Concepts and skills bound together to support him, he noticed something odd. It was almost like his Space Concept was trying to connect with his Sharpness Concept. Even compared to his other orbs, his space orb had a deeper connection than the rest of them.

He wondered if this was a sign of something or if it was just a coincidence.

However, just when he thought it would never end, everything just stopped. It was like the pain was never there in the first place, and what he was left with was a slightly tender but healthy soul.

He let out a sigh of relief, but suddenly felt a wave of tiredness wash over him. He tried to use [Phoenix Renewal] to prevent it, but he could do nothing as he fell into the darkness of sleep.

***

When he awoke, he leapt to his feet and powered his skills to the max. Falling asleep in the middle of a rift, not to mention at the end of a floor, was problematic.

However, to his immense relief, he didn't sense any danger around him. It would appear he was lucky and was safe for the time being.

He read the messages that he missed when he was unconscious.

Congratulations, Fourth Floor Cleared. You will be transported to the fifth floor automatically in ten minutes or if you would like to immediately head to the fifth floor, just say "Next Floor" out loud.

He had apparently cleared the fourth floor and was already on the fifth floor.

Fifth Floor Clear Condition: Climb to the top.

He just had no idea how long he had been asleep for. It was too hard to tell inside this rift. Not to mention that the condition for this rift was very weird. What did it mean by climb to the top?

He looked around him and was able to discern what the message meant pretty easily. It wasn't hard to figure out what it wanted him to climb when there was a massive staircase placed in front of him.

Still, what were the requirements of success? Did it mean he merely needed to get to the top to complete the floor? That seemed a bit easy.

He shook his head. He could think about this later. Instead, he took this time to get himself clean from all of the green blood he found himself covered in. He was a little battered and tired, but nothing that a little [Phoenix Renewal] couldn't handle.

He also took some time to relax and unwind and review some of the notifications he received during the fight with the trolls. However, when he started to read them, he couldn't help but grin like an idiot.

Notice: Detecting resonance…

Evaluating…

Evolution path recognized.

Appraising requirements…

Previous acquisition of a Concept of Sharpness detected.

Requirement of advanced utilization met.

Soul requirement… satisfied.

Concept requirement… satisfied.

Congratulations. You have evolved your Concept of Sharpness: Severing Will into the Concept of Sharpness: Pure Severance.

It would seem that all of that mess involving his soul was for a good reason.