Chapter 140: Sneaking Suspicion

The boy was breathing much more roughly than he had in the beginning, but he was able to take down the monster without getting injured, so that was a notable accomplishment. There were definitely some reasons for the boy’s initial confidence.

Of course, there were still things that he could work on. But his swordsmanship and physical enhancement skills were pretty good. He had completely outclassed the deer in sheer physical prowess. Also, he didn’t need to use his mana conduit to activate his enhancement skill.

Despite still relying on the skill for the majority of the work, Julius could feel that the boy was making some adjustments on his own. Manually empowering a leg or an arm when delivering a certain strike was a good sign of familiarity with the skill.

The boy wasn’t the only one to make a decent showing either. Some of the other students in his group showed some very nice skills and abilities. It was surprising to see that not a single student failed to defeat their monster. A part of him had been expecting some kids not to be able to handle a monster, but while some weren’t as good as others, at least nobody failed.

One of the more interesting students was a girl who had some sort of off-branch life affinity. It wasn’t like Julius’s own life affinity. Her affinity focused more on living flora. He suspected that she had a plant affinity or something very close, like a wood affinity.

However, she showed remarkable control of the intricate branches and vines that managed to ensnare her opponent. It wasn’t the most flashy performance, but it was the one that impressed him the most.

Her monster had been a larger bovine monster, also around Tier 2. Where the deer had agility and speed, the bovine was sturdy and strong. Yet, the branches still managed to hold the bovine in place even as the girl’s other skills activated, using the branches as mediums.

There was one skill that empowered the branches and vines to strangle the monster. Another one that poisoned it. And then there was one that seemingly drained whatever life energy and mana to bolster the girl and the plants themselves.

Although she was noticeably nervous, her control and power of her skills were undeniable. Sure, she had a bracelet that Julius felt acted as a conduit, but she didn’t rely on it like the other boy had. She used it as Julius would have. It was basically just an extra battery and a way to channel more mana than she could comfortably control.

He wasn’t the only one to appreciate the girl’s performance. The male assistant had given her a nod of appreciation. “Well done, Tia. That was a good showing.”

Julius noticed that the first boy who volunteered looked over at Tia with envious eyes. He hadn’t received any praise after his turn.

Eventually, it was Julius’s turn. He confidently strode into the sectioned-off area and activated his bracelet. The familiar light blue runes activated and with a flash of brilliant light stood a monster that looked like a mixture between a cat and a reptile. However, what stood out the most was its size.

It was quite small. At least in comparison to the other student’s monsters. The smallest monster that had been summoned so far was still almost twice the size of this creature. This cat-reptile thing only sat around the height of his waist. It was probably six feet long, from head to tail. But the tail was a third of that length.

The scales wrapped around its body were slightly iridescent and glimmered in the light beautifully. Its sparkling eyes were glinting with some hints of intelligence as well. He didn’t know what kind of monster it was, but a part of him kind of wanted one.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to appreciate its beauty for very long. Almost immediately the creature launched itself at Julius with no warning.

He was slightly surprised to see how fast it was. Whatever enhancement skill it had was tailored for speed, that much was certain. It was by far the fastest creature that had been summoned today. However, that was kind of perfect for his own plans.

[Quick Step] required him to focus on cramming as much mana into his legs and using that mana to propel him across a short distance. So having a fast opponent would put more pressure on him to succeed and hopefully let him learn the skill.

He took control of some ambient mana and controlled it so it infused into his legs. Once he felt like he had enough mana, he released it in an explosive burst while lunging to the side. The scaly cat missed him by a hair, he could feel its claws swiping the air by his chest.

It truly was fast for a Tier 2. He would estimate it to be on par with many other Tier 3s when it came to pure speed. He could also sense a collection of mana around its sharp claws. He assumed that it had something similar to [Mana Slash] that could really hurt him if he let it cut him. He didn’t have any constructs or [Barrier of Severance] to protect him after all.

However, just as quickly as it missed, it was already in the middle of attacking him again. He had to send another burst of mana through his legs to avoid its slashing claws.

For the next couple of minutes, he played a game of keep away with the monster, not even attempting to attack it or punish it.

It was fast, it was ferocious, and it was perfect for training [Quick Step]. He made more progress in a couple of minutes than he had in a couple of hours in the training room. The added pressure of not getting hit gave him a nice incentive for his progress.

He made sure not to accidentally use any fire mana or kinetic energy. He had already made that mistake last night.

Funnily enough, it was much easier getting a movement skill that was based on his affinities. When he had used fire mana, it had been called [Fire Dash]. Then when he had used kinetic energy instead, he got offered the [Charged Rush] skill. Both weren’t what he had been looking for.

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While they each had very similar functions, Julius had been told by Gabriel that [Quick Step] is an overall better skill for Julius.

If he were to choose either [Fire Dash] or [Charged Rush] he would have been limiting the options for his potential evolutions. Also for someone who used three different types of mana, he was potentially losing out on some interesting skills.

Not to mention that the advanced rare and epic ranked movement skills for fire and kinetic didn’t always touch on the aspects of spatial movement. However, [Quick Step] did, at least that was how Gabriel had learned [Instantaneous Step]. It was the general progression skill for the [Quick Step] skill and used spatial aspects within the skill.

Julius could appreciate being able to move fast. But being able to teleport was every kid’s dream. That was why even if getting one of the other skills would be easier, he was still trying to get [Quick Step].

He launched himself out of the way of the persistent cat-reptile monster once more. However, this time he didn’t allow it to come to him. No, what he had realized was that [Quick Step] wasn’t just for avoiding attacks, it was also to close the distance between his opponents.

So with a jerk of mana, he burst toward the monster. It wasn’t ideal. His application of mana wasn’t as efficient or effective as using kinetic energy would have been. Which was the reason he missed the creature by a good amount.