Julius found himself standing alone in the empty room. His discussion with Savath had been more illuminating than expected. He had been able to learn a lot about this rift, got some advice, and even discovered that there was another continent other than this one.

Of course, he already had some theories about that, but it also hadn't been confirmed. Coming from a world that had access to such advanced technology, he found it hard to believe that this world was isolated to just a single continent. He was pretty confident that there were other places beyond this continent and perhaps even planets beyond this one.

He probably could have asked someone who might have known about it, but he honestly hadn't even thought about it at the time. Still, it was nice to clear up some of the mystery.

He let out a deep sigh. For some reason, he felt kind of sad about the demon's death. He couldn't help but empathize with him. A copy that knows it is a copy wasn't something that Julius ever wished to experience.

He shook his head to clear these thoughts. There was nothing he could do about it now. All he could do was move forward.

That was why he distracted himself by looking at the notifications he had ignored for several floors. Although most of them were from this fight, which made sense considering the ridiculous increase in difficulty.

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 14 - lvl 16]

[Sage of Savagery lvl 17 - lvl 18]

[Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 11 - lvl 13]

[Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 13 - lvl 14]

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 16 - lvl 17]

[Absolute Spatial Perception lvl 4 - lvl 6]

[Void Step lvl 4 - lvl 6]

He released a small chuckle of excitement. This was one of, if not the most, he had ever earned from one battle. It wasn't like he was leveling up rare skills either. These were all epic-ranked skills that took far more effort to improve.

Thus, seeing that he had gained two levels in [Phoenix Renewal], [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin], [Absolute Spatial Perception], and [Void Step] was a significant improvement.

With that being said, he couldn't be too surprised to see some of the level-ups. He had pushed his healing skill pretty hard. He didn't think he had ever gotten that close to actually dying in a long time. Even when he fought against the Tier 5, the man had been toying with Julius. He hadn't really taken him seriously at the time.

He wasn't surprised that his body enhancement skill had also gained some levels. There was no doubt that the skill wasn't meant to take that much energy at one time. There was a limit to how much the skill was able to help him handle. The rest relied on his pure willpower, grit, and overpowered healing skill.

He was somewhat surprised to see that his perception skill had gained two levels, though. He had learned from the previous version that a perception skill was much harder to level than an active skill like his healing skill. Yet, it also saw massive growth. Of course, its relatively low level likely helped matters.

[Void Step] wasn't a surprise either. It had been the entire reason he hadn't been killed right away when he was immobilized. Without that skill, he would have been trapped and ripped into pieces. It didn't matter how much healing he was able to do if his opponent kept attacking him without being hindered. Eventually, his mana would have run out and he would have been screwed.

Thankfully, the unique nature of the skill came in clutch. Just like Alice told him, it was hard for his enemies to block his teleportation even if they had some kind of dedicated skill or technique. He was very glad that he chose [Void Step].

Despite its massive cost, it really showed its worth. Plus, he quickly figured out ways to lower the cost as time passed. Each level increase seemed to reduce the cost of activation dramatically. He believed that given enough time and effort, he would be able to use the skill with much more freedom.

He also took this time to look at his status. He was doing this to see his progress. It definitely didn't have to do with wanting to admire it. That would be childish.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 3

Skills:

[Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 13] (Epic+)

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 17] (Epic)

[Sage of Savagery lvl 18] (Epic)

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 16] (Epic)

[Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 14] (Epic)

[Absolute Spatial Perception lvl 6] (Epic)

[Void Step lvl 6] (Epic+)

[Barrier of Severance lvl 19] (Rare+)

[Spatial Crack lvl 12] (Rare)

Current Skill Slots: 9/11

Concepts:

[Concept of Sharpness]

[Pure Severance]

[Concept of Will]

[Inexorable Resolve]

[Concept of Phoenix]

[Ashen Rebirth]

[Concept of Force]

[Resonating Burst]

[Concept of Space]

[Chaotic Space]

Every one of his epic skills was making good progress. Even his recently acquired ones were showing rapid growth. The only skills that were lagging behind were [Spatial Crack] and [Barrier of Severance].

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However, he had a feeling that the reason the latter hadn't evolved was because of his own reluctance. He could feel that the skill had enough experience to evolve, but he was subconsciously holding it back.

When he first gained the skill, he believed it to be amazing since it was a superior skill. And in many ways, it was. The skill was powerful and worked in unique applications. But there were some problems.

First off, it was a skill based off of his old Sharpness Concept. Initially, he had believed that if he just evolved his Sharpness Concept, it would solve things. But after he had actually done it, he realized that the skill no longer worked as well with the Concept. They had taken two separate paths, diverging in slight, but noticeable ways.

His old Concept, Severing Will, was very good at severing connections between his enemies' skills and attacks. However, it wasn't as powerful when it came to offensive attacks. His new Pure Severance Concept seemed much more inclined to cut things. It also retained some of the old Concept's strengths, but made improvements across the entire board.

It was why he had decided that he wanted to see if he could somehow change or combine [Barrier of Severance] with [Spatial Crack]. The spatial skill was a downgraded version of [Spatial Tear], which sounded exactly what he was looking for in an offensive skill. If he could combine the properties of cutting through space and his Sharpness Concept, he might get a really good skill.

The problem was that he had no clue how to do this, and he also had little time to test it out. He would need to do some experimenting before he could get an idea of whether it was possible.

He was also tempted to get [Spirit Fortification] right away. According to Savath, his aura-weaving mana technique was something very impressive, and he should lean into it. However, he stopped himself before he got too hasty. As much as he wanted to take the demon at his word, the fact remained that Savath had literally tried to kill Julius just moments ago.

He would like to get a second opinion before he took up one of his two remaining skill slots.

While he examined his status and thought about the future of his skills, he took the time to recover. He was already regenerating mana at a decent rate. The high amount of ambient mana helped him with this. He also took one more mana potion to help him along. However, he knew right away that taking a third one would be detrimental to his health. His healing skill was already pushed to its limit, and he didn't want to take any more unnecessary risks.

Still, that wasn't what he was worried about. His soul was his real worry. He had almost pushed it beyond the safe point during the previous floors when he acquired his new Concept, but this most recent floor had really pushed it beyond that point. If not for it already being used to such stress, his soul might have already collapsed like a house of cards.

He was well aware of the dangers of that, which was why he was already prepared to exit the rift at the first moment of trouble. He had gotten what he needed. A reward or two wouldn't matter. After all, it was the experience that he had been after, not the rewards.

Honestly, he was surprised at how long he was able to recover for. He received no message about the next floor or what was happening. Thus, he just sat there in silence.

He almost fell asleep as he waited, but suddenly he felt the familiar tug from the rift and let himself get wrapped up in teleportation.

Congratulations, you have entered the tenth floor.

He was met by a message upon his arrival. Unlike the usual notices, this one didn't explain a condition to clear. It had merely congratulated him on entering the floor. That was weird in itself.

He immediately inspected the area around him, and the first thing he noticed was the beautiful garden he was standing in. It was actually more accurate to call it a small glade surrounded by colorful flowers of every kind. There was also an elegant white garden pavilion directly in this glade's center. However, what caught his attention was the man sitting in one of the chairs.

The man was handsome, with blonde hair tied up in a bun behind his head. A fancy hairpin made of iridescent metal glimmered in the light. The man also wore glasses on his face, and Julius could sense some mana being channeled through them.

Julius didn't choose to say anything, instead, he calmly stared at this man. He wasn't able to detect how strong the man was, which said enough as is.

"Not what you were expecting?" The man finally looked over at Julius and spoke to him.

The man's eyes were a brilliant blue and were definitely not the natural eyes he was born with. They were swirling with energy, and the pattern changed every second.

Julius was wary, but he also couldn't sense any hostility in the man's tone, which was a good sign. He wasn't able to feel the man's aura, though. He forced himself to relax, reminding himself that if this man wanted Julius dead, it would be as simple as snapping his fingers.

Thus, he decided to treat this unknown man with the same respect he showed toward all the other powerful people he had come across.

"Not exactly, I was half expecting an even stronger monster to show up," Julius admitted with a shrug before realizing something. "Actually, on second thought, I think I was correct."

This seemed to amuse the man. "Oh? What makes you say that?" There was a teasing tone to the man's voice.

"Just a hunch," Julius replied blankly.

Instead of replying like Julius thought he would, the man didn't and simply stared at Julius with the same amused look.

Julius calmly remained standing there. On the other hand, he was glad that his belief that a person or some other entity created this rift seemed more plausible by the minute.

While he was waiting, he discreetly checked out the man's glasses using his perception skills.

"That's quite rude," the man said quietly, but Julius suddenly felt a wave of power come from him. Just this small amount of aura and mana was enough to have Julius almost buckle to his knees.

Julius immediately stopped what he was doing and bowed his head. "Apologies, I didn't mean to offend. I was merely curious."

The man stared at Julius for a long second and grinned. "Sorry, that was mean. A joke made in bad taste. It's not that rude, and while some people might still take offense, you don't have to worry about me."

Julius released a small sigh of relief.

"Do you know why you are here?" The man asked.

Julius shook his head. "Not really."

"Take a guess."

Julius frowned and thought for a moment before going with the obvious answer. "Because I cleared the ninth floor?"

The man nodded. "Partially correct. Why else?" Julius felt like there was something else behind that question.

Julius actually took some time to think about it. After a little bit of time he could only come up with a couple possible reasons and so he went with the most likely one.

"Did it have anything to do with the weird change on the ninth floor?"

"Getting closer, but in short, yes."

"What caused such a change?" He asked curiously.

"Because I decided to," the man said bluntly, staring at Julius with a serious gaze.

Julius did his best to hide the glare from showing on his face. He knew that something had been weird with the whole situation, but finding out that a stranger had just tried to kill him made him annoyed, if not angry.

However, he kept a neutral look on his face and did his best to calm himself. If he wanted some answers, staying calm would be better. He also didn't think it would be a good idea to start yelling at someone who could wipe him from existence with a swipe of his hand. He would at least give this man the benefit of the doubt.