He and Freya did end up getting along pretty well, much to his relief. That didn't mean Doren got the same treatment. For some reason, the woman had a grudge against Doren, which was somewhat surprising since it was Doren's idea to bring Julius here.

He was curious about what had happened two years ago.

"You want me to train him? Some gift that is," Freya said lazily from her lounging position. She had taken them to a secluded area to talk.

"Eh, more like give some advice to a promising young man," Doren offered.

"I don't have the time for such things. I am a busy person," she said as she was eating some fruit, which made her argument seem less convincing.

"He has a Phoenix Concept," Doren said to her, making Julius whip his head toward the man with betrayal deep in his eyes.

"What the hell? You're not supposed to tell random people that," he said with an angry scowl that turned into one of confusion. "Actually, how did you manage to say it anyway? You said that you were unable to speak about the things you learned in the rift?" Julius was confused. He was reasonably certain that he hadn't misheard him.

Doren shrugged at Julius. "I might have been misleading," he said simply and turned back to Freya. "Does that gain your attention now?"

Julius was stunned and looked at Doren. He was tempted to try and hit him in the face like Freya had just done minutes prior.

Speaking of Freya, the woman who had been lounging was now standing up, and in a flash, she was next to Julius, her beautiful face close to his.

"So you do have a Phoenix Concept?" She asked, looking genuinely curious and excited.

"Maybe," he answered non-committedly and gave another evil look toward the loud-mouthed researcher.

"Don't worry, Julius. She also has a Phoenix Concept. However, instead of fire like you, she uses ice," Doren said, barely dodging the shard of ice that tore at his head. Julius saw the shard miss and smash into one of the pillars.

Surprisingly, the pillar held up pretty well. It was missing a large chunk, but coming from someone who was powerful enough to speak carelessly to Doren, it must be pretty strong. Julius still didn't know if Doren was at Tier 6 or Tier 7.

He was definitely stronger than Dante and Alice, but that could just mean he was toward the upper rank of Tier 6. He knew from talking to both Dante and Alice that the two of them were relatively new Tier 6s.

He looked at Freya with wide eyes. "You have a Phoenix Concept as well?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, however, unlike you, I only got it when I reached Tier 5. I don't think I have ever seen someone at your tier get a Phoenix Concept."

He didn't share with her that he had actually gotten his Concept earlier than that. He had acquired it when he was still Tier 2.

"Is it any different than yours? Doren said that you use ice for yours. How does that work?" He asked her, extremely curious about how that worked.

"There are multiple types of a Phoenix. You seem to have the more common variation, which is fire. I happen to gain an Ice Phoenix variation. It is pretty similar to yours. The main distinction is that it uses ice instead of fire. However, I wouldn't worry too much about the differences for the time being. I will show you some more important things later on," she explained to him, making it sound like she was already planning to help him as if it were a done deal.

Before he could ask her more questions, she spoke to Doren. "What do you want for this?"

"Why would you assume I am doing this for something?" Doren asked with a bit of hurt in his voice.

She didn't flinch. "Because I know you. You would not do this if you didn't receive something in return," she said with total confidence.

Doren held his chest. "I am offended you think that way about me."

"What is it, Doren?" Freya asked, sounding impatient.

Doren grinned. "I want you to help me with an experiment of mine. I need someone with powerful healing magic for it to work."

She looked at him suspiciously. "You're not playing around with necromancy again, are you?"

Julius shot an alarmed look at Doren. "Necromancy?" he asked with a worried frown.

"It wasn't as bad as she makes it sound," he brushed his concern aside.

However, Freya shook her head. "Don't listen to him. He was playing with death and soul magic, then accidentally lost control of his experiment." She looked at Doren with a glare. "How many people died again?"

"It wasn't entirely my fault. Someone messed with it, and it went wrong," Doren defended himself.

However, Julius was already distancing himself from him. He didn't like the sound of that.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Doren gestured at him. "Most of the people weren't even that innocent. They were a bunch of bandits who got too curious for their own good," Doren tried to explain to Julius. With that being said, Julius was still going to maintain his distance. He had not had the best experience with the undead.

"Okay, as long as it doesn't have to do with any dead bodies, I will help you," Freya agreed. However, they both saw the weird expression on Doren's face.

"What now? Tell me the truth, is it actually necromancy?" Freya asked seriously.

"No, but it does involve a corpse of some sort," he explained with a bright smile.

She sighed. "Fine, I will decide later after you tell me more. In the meantime, you can shoo away. I have had enough of your presence for the day," she said while waving at him to leave.

"So you are going to train him?"

She shook her head. "Maybe I gotta do my own examination before I decide. Now get, before I activate some of the defensive enchantments," she said impatiently.

"You weren't the only person I wanted to speak to," Doren added.

Freya looked confused. "Who? Cain?" She asked.

"Yes, I wanted to see if he could help the boy as well," Doren explained.

"What do you mean? How could my meathead of a husband help his boy? Isn't he a healer?" Freya asked Doren, looking over at Julius with a quick look. Julius chuckled lightly when he heard. It was also nice to verify that she was indeed the wife of Cain, something he thought he had heard Doren mention previously.

"No, he doesn't use his healing to heal others. He only uses it to heal himself," Doren explained to her.

It was Julius's turn to receive a scowl from the woman. "Why the hell not? What is the point of acquiring such a valuable concept only to use it for yourself? It is stupidly wasteful," she stated, disgusted that he would do such a thing.

"My skill has mainly been for myself since I got it," he told her truthfully.

"Yeah, but that shouldn't stop you from using it on other people. I don't know a single organization that wouldn't give you a mountain of gold to work for them if you had that ability," she said with a disappointed shake of her head.

"I have never really needed to," he admitted. "I normally delve on my own, so it has never really come up."

"Well, that is the first thing we are going to do then," she said with finality, brokering no room for arguing.

"He uses kinetic energy, and his healing skill fuels his borderline stupid ideas," Doren said bluntly.

"They work," Julius argued.

"Until they don't."

"So you want my husband to help train him as well?" Freya asked with a shake of her head.

"He could use some help in both areas. Some more than others, that is for sure."

"I will help him, but I can't say for certain that Cain will," she said.

"I know, that's why I was going to ask him myself," Doren stated confidently.

"That would probably just make things worse."

"Why?" Doren asked, genuinely looking confused. This was odd because even Julius was able to put two and two together. If Freya hadn't been pleased to see Doren, then it would make sense that her husband wouldn't be happy either.

"He might punch your head off from your shoulders," Freya told him straight up.

"He's still upset about that as well?" Doren said softly.

"Of course, if what you did wasn't bad enough, you ruined his favorite bath house on top of it. What do you think was going to happen? Greet you with open arms?" She said with a sarcastic laugh.

"So what should I do?" Doren asked for advice.

"Just leave it to me. I will see if he is willing to help out this young boy here. But if you ask him directly, then it will just make things much harder," Freya said with a dazzling smile, but there was a hidden threat beneath it.

Doren wasn't stupid, though, and understood it quickly. "Okay, but let me know if he doesn't accept."

"Gotcha, now get out of here before he comes back," she shooed him away.

Doren sighed in defeat. "Okay." Then he turned to Julius and passed him something. "If you need anything, break this token. I will be there in a split second," he said before heading off back to the gate. He didn't even give Julius the time to argue that he hadn't agreed to stay.

"Wait, how the hell is this an equal exchange?" Julius asked as he turned towards Freya. "No offense, but it seems like you are doing all of the work here."

Before she could reply, Doren turned back around and answered for her. "Don't worry. Just as having someone with a Phoenix Concept will help you learn. She will gain insights from examining you. In fact, she will likely gain more out of it than you will. So, it's a pretty good deal for her," he explained before taking another shard of ice to the face.

"Well, I guess that is my cue. Have fun and don't let Cain kill you!" Doren said as he retreated out of the courtyard.

He let out a sigh. These two had decided for Julius all on their own. However, he wasn't that upset because the moment he heard that Freya had a Phoenix Concept, he had already been intrigued, and there was still Cain he had to meet.

***

Once Doren left, she stood up from her chair and motioned him to follow her.

She took him down a path, and he took note of the several groups of young people walking around. However, they didn't seem to notice them at all. It was likely due to the barrier that Freya erected around them.

These people all wore the same white and blue robes. Only a few of them wore robes that had a slightly darker tone of blue. He had a feeling that this signified something, but he had no clue what it might be.

She took him into one of the buildings, and he realized that this entire complex had some kind of spatial enchantment around it. The area was much larger than what he had seen from the outside. The architecture was still just as beautiful as the rest of the city, the wood was radiating powerful mana and the mana lamps illuminated the metal accents tastefully.

They arrived at a door and Freya opened it, beckoning him to enter as well. When they walked through, he was greeted by a large gymnasium. Filling this gym were several dozen people dressed in the same robes that he had seen before.

It was almost like a class, and standing off to the side was a massive man. He was just as big as Gabriel and sported a clean-shaven face. His hair was cut to a buzz cut, and he only wore a simple t-shirt and pants.

He was fairly certain that this person was Cain because, even though the man was holding back his aura, Julius felt a slight pressure just by looking at him.

He also took the time to look at what he assumed were students. They wore darker blue robes, which led him to believe that this class was an advanced one. They were all doing exercises with several other older adults going around to help those who needed it.

Cain, on the other hand, just sat there impassively, looking like he was staring at the wall, but as they got closer, the man looked over and spotted Freya. His previously stern demeanor changed to one of elation very swiftly. However, for some reason, when the man's gaze panned over to Julius, he felt a weird chill go down his back.