Chapter 148: Not What He Expected

Congratulations. You have acquired the Concept of Will: Inexorable Resolve.

The first feeling that Julius felt was overwhelming joy. It was the joy of achieving something after putting in so much effort. The culmination of his dedication.

However, the next immediate feeling he felt was confusion.

What the hell?! After all of that, it still didn’t work? He didn’t understand.

He hadn’t actually gotten a Fire Concept. He had gotten a Concept of Will instead, which was equal parts interesting and annoying. After all, he had been going for a Fire Concept and still didn’t get one in the end.

Although, he did wonder about what his new Concept was all about.

Inexorable Resolve sounded pretty cool and seemed like it would fit a couple of his skills well for when he upgraded them to epic. He was thinking about [Savage Dance] and [Empowerment of Will] specifically. Those two skills would probably be good selections for skills that could benefit from the new Concept.

A piece of him was still disappointed that he didn’t have a Fire Concept, but the other more rational part of him reassured himself that learning a single Concept was better than nothing. In fact, a Will Concept might have been a better Concept to learn anyway. A Fire Concept wouldn’t have gone well with some of his other skills that still needed to evolve to epic.

At least this way, he had at the minimum two possible skills that should easily advance with the Concept of Inexorable Resolve.

He hadn’t realized it until now, but he had already been setting himself on fire for a while at this point. He must have been so concentrated that he lost track of time.

While he hadn’t gotten exactly what he had been trying to get, he got something very nice instead. He thought that was a good way to leave things. He stood up and dusted off the remaining ashes from his skin, using aura to help cleanse all of the small flakes of it from his body.

It was actually a good way of training his aura. It required him to encapsulate his entire body. He would have to remember that for the next time, he got covered in grime.

Once he got cleaned up, he stood up and put on his clothing before he left the room. He didn’t need to scar some random student for life because he forgot to put on a set of clothes.

However, as he was just about to place his hand on the door, something stopped him. He looked over his shoulder to where he had been sitting on the floor. Small scorch marks still lightly singed the spot where he was setting himself on fire.

“…”

With a frustrated groan, Julius rubbed his face with both hands. He looked back and forth from the door to the spot on the ground with a conflicted expression.

He sighed in defeat and found himself walking away from the door and trudgin back to the exact spot where he had been torturing himself. He shrugged off the clothing that he had just put on and sat back down.

Sometimes he hated how stubborn he could be.

His plan had been for him to leave the room and go find a nice spot to eat the other cake he saved for himself. He had purposefully not eaten the cake and wanted to wait until he had learned a Fire Concept.

And while he had learned a Concept, it still wasn’t a Fire Concept. He felt like if he were to stop now after going so far as burning himself alive, it would be incomplete.

He still had several more hours until sunrise and he tried to convince himself that it was still possible that he could still get a Fire Concept. And the least he could do was try.

Before he could pull out or somehow dissuade himself, putting it off for another night. He ignited the fire mana and engulfed himself in violet flames.

The searing pain was familiar and after the brief respite, it felt way more intense. He was no longer in that state of mind where the pain faded in the background. He was no longer as desensitized to the pain. It was as if the break had made the pain worse.

He choked on his own tongue as he tried to prevent himself from screaming in agony. He was hating himself for being so hardheaded.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, Julius repeatedly and angrily insulted himself.

[Savage Dance] was running on full power. He was pumping as much as he could to the skill. However, it wasn’t enough and he instinctually reached out to his new Concept.

It wasn’t that hard to get a grasp of. While the process wasn’t as similar as his Sharpness Concept, the way he could use it was.

His newly learned Concept of Will: Inexorable Resolve, flowed through Julius’s soul and gave it a jolt of energy. The power of the Concept surged throughout his soul, body, and mind. It was almost instantly that the pain went down a few tones.

Just touching upon his Concept of Inexorable Will tuned the sensation of burning flesh and nerve endings down a notch. It wasn’t enough to magically make the pain go away but when you were in as much pain as Julius was in, every bit helped.

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[Savage Dance] was working overtime, keeping his focus razor-sharp. However, Julius was able to sense that the skill latched onto something inside of Julius’s soul. It was almost like steel marble being drawn to a magnet.

Suddenly, [Savage Dance] grabbed ahold of his Concept of Inexorable Will and infused it within its structure. The effect was much more dramatic than just touching upon his Concept of Will. It wasn’t like the skill had evolved yet, but it was almost there. Julius could feel that it only needed a small push.

On the other hand, his concentration skill had suddenly elevated to a point beyond its normal strength. It changed enough that not even [Empowerment of Will] was able to keep up with it. It was as if the aura skill was no longer on the same level as [Savage Dance]. It still managed to help a bit, but there was a chasm between the two skills that hadn’t existed before.

It was like his mind and soul had been fortified and nothing could prevent him from his goals. And his goal at the moment was to try to get a Fire Concept before the night was over.