Julius experimented with many things using the new skill. Cain was there to help him as well. The man was more than happy to push the limits of the skill and ensured that Julius was being appropriately challenged.

He also tried using his kinetic energy to fly, which was a fantastic thing just in itself. In contrast to his earlier flight attempts, this time he had much more control. He barely needed his wings to help him either. They were still very useful, but he felt like he could go without them if he really needed to.

But he also didn't want to sacrifice the maneuverability they gave him, so he had no plans of giving them up anytime soon.

He also tested the limits of how well his immobilization technique worked. This was more difficult to compare because he only had Cain there. The man didn't even need to try to resist the skill. The sheer power of the man's advancement had made Julius's skill practically useless.

The main thing he was able to sense was that he felt like he could get a tighter grip on the kinetic energy. He assumed this would translate to how much strength he could exert on his trapped opponents. But he would need to use it on someone else to confirm it.

He did many other tests with the help of Cain. The man was surprisingly very thorough with his ideas. He made sure that Julius explored various exercises. Ones that Julius would have never thought of if left to his own devices.

However, the final experiment went a little… awry. He didn't let it bother him too much. After all, it was bound to happen. It actually felt kind of weird when he emerged from a serious training session completely unscathed.

Did that make him weird?

He shook his head. Him? Weird? That is an outrageous proposition. He was very normal, and he suspected that anyone who had a healing skill like he did would take advantage of it similarly.

He grinned as he got back to his feet. He had gotten some very nice notifications during this period and wanted to see how well he did.

He swung his little arm nubs in excitement as he checked his notifications. The nubs were a stark reminder that he had gotten a little overzealous and used too much kinetic energy at once. Predictably, his arms hadn't been able to handle the massive load and exploded in a big red mess.

However, he had gotten some very nice levels for his effort, so there was that. It also helped that he had been using kinetic energy for a long time, so that was definitely influencing how fast he was gaining levels. Still, it was nice to see a skill leveling up this quickly.

It hadn't happened since he was in Tier 2, which felt like a lifetime ago.

[Kinetic Energy Control lvl 3 - lvl 8]

Eight levels in a couple of hours. That was indeed some significant progress.

He glanced over at Cain, who was standing off to the side with a weirdly proud look on his face as he looked at Julius's little nubs.

"What is it?" Julius asked the large and intimidating man.

"You want to be my disciple?" Cain asked suddenly.

Julius frowned and scrunched his nose. "Sorry?"

"Do you want to be my personal disciple?" Cain asked enthusiastically.

"Where did this come from?" He questioned.

Cain shrugged and came a little closer to Julius, grabbing his arm stump and waving it in the air. Julius hadn't felt the desire to regenerate them yet, which was why they were still bleeding a little bit. Cain didn't care about the blood that splattered everywhere, though; instead, he grinned widely. "You are exactly what I am looking for in a disciple."

Julius pried his arm away from Cain's grasp. "What does that mean? Don't you already have a bunch of students who are already training under you? Why do you want someone like me to become a disciple? You and Freya are already teaching me."

Cain shook his head and backed away, heading over to a chair at the corner of the room to sit. "It is rare to find someone like you. Not many people enjoy fighting as much as you do. Plenty of my students love learning and training their kinetic abilities, but most of them don't have the passion for true life and death battles."

"So you're telling me that you want me as a disciple because I am a maniac?" Julius asked in a deadpan tone, deciphering what Cain meant by that.

"Yes!" Cain said shamelessly.

The honesty startled him, and he took the moment actually to think about the offer. Despite his past relationships with powerful people, he had never been offered an official apprenticeship or discipleship by any one of them.

Dante obviously wasn't going to. The grouchy old man liked his peace and quiet too much to train Julius personally. Alice was much too busy with her work as a space mage. Elder Han seemed like he was interested, but Julius didn't know about attaching himself to such a person. Plus, the man was called the Curse Lord, which likely meant he focused on curses and other related magic. Not something that Julius was particularly well-versed in, and thus not someone who could train him as well as someone like Cain, who had a kinetic affinity of his own.

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Even someone like Doren had not seemed interested in teaching Julius. The man was clearly too focused on his own curiosities and hobbies to take on a student. It was why the man had passed Julius to Freya and Cain so quickly. He had done so because he needed Freya's help.

Therefore, being an official disciple of someone like Cain didn't seem like a bad idea. As a matter of fact, he believed that most of the people in Auraulos would give up their right hand to have this chance.

"What's the difference between what we are doing now and if I become an official disciple? Wouldn't you still be teaching me just like this?"

Cain nodded. "Yes, we would continue these late-night training sessions like we have been doing so far. However, if you officially become a recognized disciple of mine, I will be able to help you more openly. Currently, we are keeping our involvement with you somewhat a secret, but if you agree, Freya and I can offer you much more assistance. More importantly, I can show you off to all of my friends and peers."

Julius listened to the man's reasoning and nodded, ignoring the last unnecessary part. "I understand. Do you mind if I think about it some more?"

"Not at all, think about it all you want. It's not a big deal if you don't accept. But I truly believe that you would gain a lot from it."

Julius smiled gratefully. "I appreciate it."

***

Julius was finally alone. After the little talk with Cain, he went back to his room, where he thought about the man's offer some more. During this time, he also thought about Edwin, someone he had never believed he would see again.

Now that he actually thought about it, he had never been an actual apprentice or disciple to Edwin either. He had never been one to anybody and didn't know what to decide.

He didn't know what was holding him back. There weren't many downsides to accepting. Both Cain and Freya were wonderful people, and no matter what ulterior motives Doren had for bringing him here, Julius was still grateful that he had.

In just over a week, he had improved his kinetic and healing abilities far beyond what he would ever have been able to do by his lonesome. His Phoenix Concept had also made some improvements. It wasn't exactly stronger, but he had a better command over it than ever before, and it was all because of Freya and Cain.

So what was stopping him?

He had less than two months until the Empire's Tier 3 Tournament. Would accepting mean he wouldn't be able to attend? He shook his head. He didn't think that either of them would prevent him from attending. They both already knew about it and understood that he would be going.

He pushed aside this for now and let it stew in the back of his mind. In the meantime, he needed to do something that he had been ignoring for too long.

He pulled up his status.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 3

Skills:

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 18] (Epic)

[Sage of Savagery lvl 19] (Epic)

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 16] (Epic)

[Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 14] (Epic+)

[Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 15] (Epic)

[Absolute Spatial Perception lvl 7] (Epic)

[Void Step lvl 7] (Epic+)

[Barrier of Severance lvl 19] (Rare+)

[Spatial Crack lvl 12] (Rare)

[Kinetic Energy Control lvl 8] (Uncommon)

Current Skill Slots: 10/11

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]

There were two skills on the list that were outdated. Firstly, [Barrier of Severance] wasn't a skill that Julius used all that often. His regular shields with mana were far better protection than the skill could offer. Even the skill's benefit of disrupting attacks that hit the barrier lagged behind what his aura could do on its own.

His ruinous aura was much more potent, and on top of that, it was able to extend beyond the form of a barrier. It didn't require the attacks to come to him. He could take care of them before they got close.

[Spatial Crack] was a weird one, though. He was very excited to get [Spatial Tear], but the current version of the skill didn't offer many opportunities to use it during combat. He also had [Void Step], which rendered the skill kind of useless in terms of movement. There weren't many reasons to rip open a hole in space, regardless of the circumstances.

Thus, he was going to attempt something that he had no idea would work or not. He was going to try to combine the two skills. [Barrier of Severance] was already on the cusp of evolving, and the only reason it hadn't was because he had intentionally held it back; thus, if he could somehow merge the two skills together, he would hopefully get a better skill.

This was possibly good for multiple reasons. For one, he would gain an extra skill slot. Something that always seemed to be in short supply. Furthermore, he had a feeling that the two skills had good synergy.

He didn't see a reason not to try. If worse comes to pass, he would simply rip it out of his soul. With his own healing skill and Freya's help, he felt more comfortable doing this.

Thus, without further ado, he activated both skills at the same time. However, he made sure to use [Spatial Crack] first before he added [Barrier of Severance] to the mix.

Unlike his earliest attempts, his control over his Space Concept had improved along with [Void Step]. This led to him being able to open a crack with more ease than before. Once he opened it, he focused to keep it steady.

Once it was good, he started to infuse the crack with [Barrier of Severance].

Unfortunately, this was where he met an issue right away. Instead of wrapping the crack with a barrier, the crack sucked in the skill like a vacuum. All of the sharpness aspect mana was swallowed before it was even allowed to form.

This had another unfortunate consequence. Because he quickly learned that [Spatial Crack] didn't like this energy, and before he could do anything to prevent it, the crack split right down the middle. The now destabilized crack created fractures in the surrounding space, and no matter how much willpower he expended to keep it together, it was for nought. The resulting explosion blew up in Julius's face, sending him flying into the nearest wall with a dull thud.