Chapter 124: Coming Clean

“Um… I might have forgotten to mention that I ended up acquiring my first Concept today…” Julius slowly said.

Julius felt Lily loosen her grip on his head just a smidge and look down at him with a surprised look. For someone who wasn’t a physically inclined fighter, he was often surprised by how strong Lily was at times. She had the grip strength of a juiced-up gorilla.

Not that he would ever tell her that. He suspected that if he were to say that to her face he would get his mind shredded apart and wake up the next day not knowing his own name or remembering how to wipe his own ass.

“Say that again,” she said slowly.

Julius swallowed his saliva again before repeating himself. “I got a Concept today.”

“You got a Concept?” She asked skeptically.

“Hmhm.”

She looked at him sternly. “And you didn’t think that was important to tell us earlier? When were you going to tell us that? Next month?”

“I forgot! I promise!” Julius argued.

Lily squeezed him a little tighter. “You don’t just forget something that important. Learning a Concept is something that is celebrated by all Houses. It is a very important step on one’s journey.”

Derek grunted in agreement from the side. “I agree. Learning your first Concept is somewhat of a big deal. My family threw an entire celebratory ball when I learned a Concept of Lightning. It’s not something that one would normally just ‘forget’.”

“I’m more offended that he made learning a Concept sound like he was learning how to knit a sweater. It’s been what? A week or two?” Aubrey asked while rolling her eyes.

“I know, it almost feels like he’s rubbing it in. Hell, it took me months of dedicated training. And that was with my grandfather tying me up and throwing me in an artificial lightning storm for several hours a day,” Derek said sourly.

Julius winced at hearing that. That didn’t seem like a fun way to learn a Concept.

Lily loosened her grip again and continued to look down at Julius who was still in between the small petite girl’s armpit. “So what kind of Concept did you learn?”

Before Julius could answer, Aubrey mumbled, “I wouldn’t shocked if he learned two of them.”

Julius looked between the five of them before finally answering. “A Concept of Sharpness.”

“Oh, so you actually ended up learning a Sharpness Concept first? I know that was what you were pursuing, but I was pretty sure that you would actually learn a Fire Concept first,” Edgar said a little surprised. Edgar hadn’t said anything up to this point as he didn’t care much about fancy clothing, but this seemed to bring back his interest.

Julius nodded as best as he could through the headlock he was still captured in. “I thought about it. But I ended up learning a new skill and that seemed to help the process a lot more than I was expecting. I almost learned the Concept right after I got the new skill.”

Edgar scratched his cheek, deep in thought. “You evolved that [Mana Slash] skill?”

“Yep.”

“Didn’t you mention that you were going with [Mana Strike]? I don’t see how that would help you learn a Concept,” Aubrey said to him.

Julius shrugged his shoulders, bumping against Lily’s stomach as he did. “Declan actually advised me to take another skill instead. I was pretty set on taking [Mana Strike] but he was really convincing. He also made a point that [Mana Strike] was a pretty easy skill to learn anyway, so I could always learn it later.”

Derek nodded his head in agreement. “He’s not wrong. It’s a good skill, but if you had a better option available I would have chosen it as well.”

“So what skill did you end up choosing instead?” Aubrey asked him.

Julius finally was able to squeeze his way out of Lily’s straggle. Before, he answered he made sure that Lily’s isolation barrier was still up. “I got a skill called [Barrier of Severance]”

Julius watched as all of them got either confused or interested expressions.

“[Barrier of Severance]?” Edgar asked surprised.

“Severance?” Aubrey asked confused.

“Barrier?” Lily had a perplexed crinkle in her eyes.

“I know. I thought it was a weird-sounding skill, so that was why I discounted it at first. But Declan made it sound like it was a skill with high potential.”

“Yeah, what the hell does severance mean?” Aubrey exclaimed loudly.

Derek turned to her. “That’s what you were confused about?”

“Okay, so I don’t have your extensive vocabulary, bite me,” she shot back at Derek.

“It means to sever or cut something,” Kyle said with a sigh to Aubrey.

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“Oh, okay that makes sense. Thanks, Kyle!” Aubrey said happily while sticking her tongue out at Derek.

Lily ignored the two of them. “I’m more confused about how you got a barrier skill from [Mana Slash]. It doesn’t seem to fit the skill’s natural progression at all,” Lily stated more to herself than anyone.

“Oh, that’s easy. I think that was how he used the skill when he fought me that time,” Aubrey stated confidently. “I was pretty sure that whatever he did to block my [Piercing Light] looked like a similar skill to [Mana Slash].”

Julius chuckled lightly. It was funny, while Aubrey might not have known what severance meant, she didn’t seem to think twice about the reason why he got the skill option in the first place.

Lily turned to look at Julius to see if what Aubrey said was correct. Julius nodded his head and said, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the reason why I got offered the skill.”

Aubrey puffed out her chest and had a proud look on her face.

“I can’t say I have ever heard of the skill before,” Edgar said.

“Me either. But I have heard of similar skills before,” Derek said.

“You have?” Lily asked.

“Yeah, there is a skill that some members of my family have gotten. It is called [Barrier of Lightning] it is a similar skill to [Lightning Barrier], but much more potent. I suspect that Julius’s skill might be a better version of [Slashing Barrier] or something close to it.” Derek looked over at Kyle. “Have you ever heard of [Barrier of Severance]?”

Kyle shook his head. “No, but I have heard of a skill called [Barrier of Disruption]. If Julius’s skill is anything like that then I am pretty confident it is a very very good skill, most likely rare+ as well.”