Chapter 119: Typical Julius

Declan put his hands out to calm Julius down. “I did say he was an anti-mage fighter. But I didn’t mention that he was a paid assassin.”

Julius threw his hands in the air. “Oh, that’s even better. You want me to acquire a skill from a dead assassin. A person who failed at his job?”

Julius did not like assassins. After the night at the manor, he found himself having an intense dislike for anything that involved them.

Declan tilted his head and squinted his eyes. “Technically, he didn’t fail his job. If anything he got killed because he succeeded at his job.”

“How does that make any sense?” Julius asked the man.

“As you might expect, being a paid killer has some downsides. One of them is that people don’t take kindly to them in general, especially the ones who were on the receiving end of their work.”

“Yeah, that is quite expected,” Julius said like it was obvious. “How did he get killed?” He asked.

Declan gave a little frown. “As far as I know. The Ghostblade took a job to kill a young man. He succeeded, but what the people who hired him failed to tell him, was that the man’s parents were both Tier 6.” Declan looked at Julius expectantly. “As you can guess, they weren’t too pleased when they found out.”

Yeah, Julius could only imagine the shit the assassin was in after they found out. “I’m guessing they hunted him down.”

Declan nodded. “Oh yeah. Hunted down to the little hole they found him hiding in. To the Ghostblade’s credit, he survived much longer than anyone expected and put up a remarkable fight against the two powerhouses as a Tier 5.”

“Still, you want me to get an assassin’s skill?” Julius asked.

Declan walked up to Julius and put his hand on his shoulder. “The skill was used by an assassin, but that doesn’t make it an assassin’s skill,” he said seriously.

When he saw that Julius didn’t look convinced he continued.

“Hypothetically, a raging monster kills thousands of people with [Mana Strike]. Does that make [Mana Strike] a murderer’s skill?” Julius shook his head. “No, of course not. The skill is merely a tool. How you use it and the type of person you are when you use, depend entirely on your choices and the person you are.”

He has a point, Julius admitted to himself.

He couldn’t discount a skill just because it was used by a person of dubious character. He couldn’t afford not to take all the opportunities to get stronger. Not yet. He still needed to get much stronger.

Julius turned to look at Declan. “So you really think I should get his [Barrier of Severance] skill?”

“Yes, I think the likelihood that it’s a rare+ skill is high. You might regret not getting it now while you can. Who knows if you will have the chance to learn it again. [Mana Strike], while a very good skill, is still a common skill. I am sure that you will be able to learn it another way with another evolution if you still want to get it.”

Julius nodded in understanding. Declan had a point. [Mana Strike] could be learned by a large number of mana attack skills. Going with that same reasoning, why would he not take the opportunity to learn a potentially amazing skill? If [Barrier of Severance] had half of the potential that Declan told him, then Julius should take the skill.

“What about my epic skill then? Will not having the [Mana Strike] skill make it weaker?”

“Not necessarily. You might not have the extra damage in the initial stages, but take a step back and look at how much damage you are already putting out. I don’t think you are in any need of extra damage right now. One-shotting golems at the same Tier is unheard of. Even if you are, there are always ways to add skills later down the path. Not to mention that you can always use [Barrier of Severance] or a similar skill to boost it,” Declan told him.

Declan was making more and more sense. Julius felt himself being convinced of the time that passed. He did have a question for Declan that he still wanted to know.

“What about the Concept of Sharpness?” He asked.

“What about it?” Declan asked confused.

“Will I need to learn another Concept that fits the epic skill better if I am not adding [Mana Strike]?” Julius explained.

Declan chuckled and said, “No, the Sharpness Concept will still be a good Concept for an attack-based skill. Whatever epic skill you might be offered should be able to use the Concept easily.”

“And having Sharpness as the first Concept added to a skill won’t influence negatively in the long run?” Julius questioned further.

“In the long run no. In the short term, the skill will be more focused on being sharp and cutting through things. But epic skills are more fluid than rare skills are. They change with time and are affected by new Concepts that are added later on.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Julius took time to contemplate. He stared around at the large cavern that they were standing in. He was half surprised that no golems had come over and disrupted them.

Then he turned back to Declan.“You really think that this skill will be as good as this Ghostblade’s skill?”

Declan smiled at him. “No. I don’t think your skill will be just as good.” Declan gave a dramatic pause. “I think it will be even better.”