Ryn

Chapter 264

He kept his back toward the assassin. He did so for good reason though. He was purposely luring the man to attack. Perhaps he would think that Julius would have his guard down and make some mistake.

Sadly, he didn’t fall for it and kept his distance.

“So you’re saying that the Conclave is not working for or with any Houses?” Julius asked in a tone that plainly revealed his skepticism.

“Nope,” the man said with another grin, not disclosing anything to him.

T...

Chapter 263

Julius was honestly surprised by how easily they allowed him to bombard them with attacks. He didn’t know what they were thinking, but only one of them created a barrier to stop his attacks. 

Maybe they thought that since the constructs that resembled shotgun shells were quite small, they didn’t need to worry about them. Or perhaps it was that he was the only person attacking. 

Still, it was a mistake that cost them dearly. Chaos was rampaging across the field, but h...

Chapter 262

Stephanie POV

She was a bit taken aback by the drastic change in Julius’s attitude. It wasn’t anything like the smiley and slightly meek boy she had gotten to know during this past week. Instead, she was presented with a boy who exuded confidence bordering on downright arrogance.

Even his posture shifted. It had become much more relaxed but she could also see signs of his muscles coiling like a snake. As if any moment he could strike.

Then George screame...

Chapter 261

Unlike most skill acquisitions, this one felt different. 

This time the process felt more personal and affected something on a spiritual level. His aura, which had been purposefully stifled, underwent a transformation of a sort.

What had once been an unruly child throwing a temper tantrum with no rhyme or reason, gradually mellowed out. With this, Julius’s tight grip over his aura also slightly loosened. He already instinctively understood that he no longer needed such a fi...

Chapter 260

Stephanie POV

She let the fake smile slide from her face as they finished up celebrating and were getting ready to hit the sack. 

She was angry. More angry than she has been at one of her teammates in a while. It took her using her focus skill to calm her emotions. 

They were on a mission, so it would not be proper if she freaked out in front of everyone. But she was still going to get some answers and depending on his response, she would decide wh...

Chapter 259

It was extraordinarily difficult to keep control of his aura during all of this chaos. 

He did feel the mana absorption that Beck and Stephanie had been trying to warn him about. It was a fascinating technique. If he was right, it worked so well because there was some sort of Concept backing it. 

He had no idea what the exact Concept was, but it helped whatever skill that was trying to suck away his mana. Too bad for the monsters that he had an Emblem which made it impos...

Chapter 258

The caravan didn’t actually need to head into Willow’s Front as he had originally believed. In fact, they didn’t even get within the smaller walls surrounding the town. Instead, only a few wagons ended going through the inspection guards and unloading their goods. While the rest of them continued on their way to Aspinith, the next town on their route.

So far they had not run into many other problems. Other than the occasional group of monsters, it was quite peaceful. Even the mons...

Chapter 257

It would seem that they weren’t the only ones who had sensed it. There was a signal to halt all of the wagons resounding throughout the caravan. 

All of the wagons swiftly came to a stop and as they did, everyone except for the merchants got out of the wagon. Matt’s entire team had taken their weapons out and prepared their equipment very quickly, jumping out of the wagon with serious faces. The previous joking atmosphere was no longer present. 

Julius was not surpri...

Chapter 256

After Julius talked to Rolus, he found himself sitting inside one of the wagons just as Rolus recommended he do. They had taken off from Blumand not too long ago and would be traveling to Greenwich for the next couple of weeks.

The route would take them through several other towns and cities before they made it to the end of their trip. Which would mean Julius would have the opportunity to see some new things as well. 

He looked around the surprisingly spacious wagon with cur...

Chapter 255

Julius was completely overwhelmed. There were so many people running around that his [Spatial Perception] was running in overdrive trying to keep up, trying to inspect every person within its reach. It got so bad that he didn’t even attempt to find this Rolus person with the skill. Instead, he used the old-fashioned way. 

His eyes.

Sadly, that didn’t exactly make things easier. He still wasn’t able to find Rolus in this mess. Thankfully, he managed to come across some n...

Chapter 254

“Do you have everything you need?” Richard asked.

“I think so, I made sure to pack plenty of yummy food,” he said proudly.

Rebecca, who was off to the side gave him a small flick to the back of the head. “That’s not what he meant and you know it. How come all you ever think of is food or training?”

Julius shrugged his shoulders. “What can I say? I am a simple man,” he said happily.

The older woman frowned at him and was about to flick him again but he...

Chapter 253

The next couple of weeks were spent preparing for his mission as bait. 

When he wasn’t practicing his new skill, he was training his aura control, which had become exponentially harder to tame after his new enhancement skill, especially when it was active.

He had gotten pretty comfortable with keeping his aura under wraps when he wasn’t using the skill actively, but once it was turned up, it became a whole other issue.

The first time, he really pumped his skill was ...

Chapter 252

Julius was still having a hard time controlling this newfound aura effect he was emitting. It was so bad that he wasn’t able to leave the room without feeling like he was putting other people at risk.

The only way he was able to leave, was if Richard or Rebecca were with him. Only their domains were capable of managing the aura. 

Funnily enough, Drasil wasn’t affected by his aura at all. He had taken the little life spirit out during one of his breaks from training and no...

Chapter 251

He looked at all of them with a worried glance. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked nervously, almost afraid to hear the answer.

Richard, who also had a slightly anxious look must have saw his facial expression and quickly came over to Julius with a swift teleport. The man laid an arm on his shoulder and said to Julius with a serious look. 

"Don't be alarmed, try to remain calm."

Seeing the man’s unusual seriousness, Julius was even more confused.

“Can ...

Chapter 250

Skill Combination Token consumed…

Julius watched in awe as the token dissolved into dust and felt a powerful feeling surge through him. 

It wasn’t like he was feeling it through his body either. It was like a burst of energy was funneled directly into his soul. 

There weren’t any options for him to choose which skills he wanted to merge either. It was like the token already knew exactly what he was looking for because he felt the token connec...

Chapter 249

There weren't any bright lights or flashes of mana. When he selected it, one moment he had empty hands and the next he was holding a small item the size of a coin in the palm of his right hand.

It was a plain token with only a weird looking sigil on one side and another similar looking sigil on the other side. He had zero idea what this sigil meant but was quite curious.

While he was turning the token over in his hands, he could feel that he was able to use the token whenever he w...

Chapter 248

Julius watched the creature's remnants disappear into particles of light and let out a tired sigh.

That had been more difficult than he first thought when he planned to take on this Challenge Rift. He had really underestimated how dangerous it was.

But in the end, he still came out on top so it was worth it.

Tenth Wave completed… Congratulations, you have completed the Challenge with superior marks. Please wait as your reward is generated…

He could...

Chapter 247

The big scary giant decided that it wasn’t just going to sit there and let Julius do what he wanted. 

Julius sensed mana converging around the giant in a powerful swirl and a second later a stone slab the size of a car zipped toward him.

What? It even has long-range options too?

Julius managed to side step it, but doing so left him directly into the charging giant’s sword. He created a construct barrier in front of himself just in time to deflect the sword ...

Chapter 246

Julius once more watched as the hundreds of bodies around him dissipated into light particles. Even the blood that he was absolutely covered in was gone like it was never there.

He only had one more wave to go and made sure to check his mana before he did. 

He frowned when he noticed how much mana he had ended up using. He only had around half of his mana left and that was without him using his more cost intensive skills, it was less than he was hoping for. 

Althou...

Chapter 245

Reinera POV

She screamed out as she sent out one last blast of light at the remaining golem, making sure her Concept was infused with it. 

Thankfully, she managed to take it out with that last attack and fell back onto her butt as she was exhausted.

Tenth Wave completed… Congratulations, you have completed the Challenge with high marks. Please wait as your reward is generated…

She smiled as she read the message. She had done w...

Chapter 244

Happy New Year!!! Thank you all for supporting and reading my story! It has been quite a magical year. Never in a million years would I think I would be in this position if you had asked me several months ago when I quit my job and started out writing full-time.

It's wild to see how many people enjoy my story enough that you are willing to actually financially support me. It is both humbling and heartwarming to know that I have got such amazing readers!

I hope you all have an am...

Chapter 243

The eighth wave arrived right on time. However, he was surprised when it wasn’t another group of hobgoblins. The rift must have decided to change things up for him. In their place was something he had been praying not to show up.

Something he had thought wouldn’t show up this late in the waves.

All around him, gathered on every side of the hill was a countless horde of ants the size of small dogs.

There were so many he couldn’t even begin to count.

It was just a ...

Chapter 242

Seeing the fully healed hobgoblin stand back up as if nothing happened annoyed him. 

That wasn't fair, he was the only one who could heal like that. That was his thing and this monster was stealing it from him.

He let out another breath of air. The seventh wave was proving to be the hardest wave so far, still, that was within expectations. He didn’t think he would be able to finish the tenth wave without exerting himself a little bit.

Regardless, he narrowed his eyes ...

Chapter 241

Ten minutes was more than enough for him to recover all of the mana he expended.

The wave wasn’t hard, it had only taken a couple of minutes and that was with him being stingy with his mana usage.

However, one thing did bother him. Are all hard-difficulty challengers supposed to be able to beat ten Tier 3 monsters on their own?

Especially for the ones who don’t have Concepts yet, it was hard to see people like that being able to take on the wave he had just finished.

Chapter 240

He was able to tell right away that these goblins weren’t even Tier 3 yet. It seemed that all of them were around Tier 2 and that the main threat they posed was their numbers.

Not even because he was afraid they would overwhelm him, but because he believed that taking care of all of them without expending a lot of energy would be kind of difficult. 

He didn’t feel threatened but he couldn’t help but feel wary about the first wave having so many enemies.

He had bee...

Chapter 239

Today was the day. After putting it off multiple times, they finally decided to enter the Challenge Rift.

It had been about a week after he got [Aura Burn] and unfortunately during that time, he hadn’t found a way to merge the skills into a single skill. 

On the bright side, he got a few more levels to add to the skill as well as [Thermal Empowerment].

[Thermal Empowerment lvl 11 -> 13]

[Aura Burn lvl 1 -> lvl 7]

It ...

Chapter 238

Merry Christmas!

***

It surprisingly wasn’t difficult at all to get a skill. In all honesty, it was very disappointing. 

The monsters weren’t even that strong. Even the leader, who was the only one Julius was able to sense a Concept from, was not very extraordinary. It was about the same level as the scaled monster he beat down earlier.

He was able to walk up to the pack of monsters and use his kinetic energy to immobilize each one of them. 

The onl...

Chapter 237

Richard POV

Richard had taken out a folder with some documents he had to go over as he waited for Julius to finish up. The boy was probably taking his time and acclimating to his new skill. 

There was a large selection of monsters to choose from in this specific rift. Julius would be able to take it slow and get comfortable with his [Thermal Empowerment] skill.

He did a double take as he read a certain paragraph from the report, making sure to reread it...

Chapter 236

The scaly fellow wasn’t the only one that was showing signs of aggression. There were other monsters who were waiting with tense auras. They were simply waiting to see if anyone else was going to make the first move.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait for long for one of the monsters to get impatient.

He pivoted to his right and grabbed the stone missile out of the air. A winged monster hiding up in a tree had shot it at him. 

It wasn’t that powerful and compared ...

Chapter 235

Author Note: I just wanted to give you guys a heads up but sadly there won't be a chapter tomorrow. At the time this goes up I will be on a week-long family trip but I still managed to get enough chapters ahead that I could give you five chapters this week.

Like always, I appreciate your support and Happy Holidays!

***

The two-headed bear charged at him, swinging wildly and without much grace. It was pure power and brute force, but that was in its own way, a very dangerous ...