Chapter 153: Seeing How He Does

He stood up and wiped off the crumbs from the pastry he had been munching on from his clothes. The black cloth made it more difficult to eat, and he ended up with buttery flakes all over it, but it was worth it. It would have been a crime to waste such a delicious treat.

Julius activated [Sage of Savagery] just a little so that he wasn’t affected by their presence. There was an immediate difference. The weight that he felt sitting on his chest was no more and he felt completely comfortable as they walked by him.

They didn’t give him a second look, but their eyes did land on Declan for a long while. One guy in particular seemed to recognize Declan.

After they exited the portal, he and Declan were free to enter whenever they wished. He saw some envious glances from the group on the other side of the room, but he didn’t pay them much care.

He didn’t say anything when he walked by but Julius noticed the two men instantly went more on guard when they strode past them, toward a section where another guard was waiting for them.

He walked over and touched the rift with his palm.

Notice: Would you like to enter the rift?

He mentally selected yes, and was dragged through the rift along with Declan.

In a bright flash of blue light, he found himself standing on a craggy rock surface. However, what really caught his attention was the large breezes of wind that smashed into him. Since he wasn’t expecting such a welcome, he almost was tossed right off his feet.

He looked around and saw that he was somewhere with large canyon walls. The rocky material was sleek gray and had a lot of flora growing out of the rock.

Off in the distance, he could see a waterfall crashing down the side of the canyon, where it opened up to a large field.

According to the information about the rift, the natural environment changed a lot depending on which area you entered. It also mentioned that, unlike the rifts that Julius had done already, this rift doesn’t only have one monster species.

Many varieties of species came together to form an actual ecosystem. Whether that came to be because of the amount of time that this rift had been cultivated or whether it was just random chance, he didn’t know.

He did know, however, that there would be a snake-like creature that used camouflage to hide in the gray slate rock. In fact, he had already spotted one hiding a hundred paces ahead.

However, he ignored it for now and turned to Declan who was standing next to him with a questioning look.

“So what’s the plan?” He asked.

***

Declan POV

Declan scratched his chin and gave Julius an assessing look. To be honest, he didn’t really know what he was going to do. The logical side of him wanted to safely test Julius one monster at a time, making sure that the boy had a good grasp on vigilance.

However, there was nothing logical about Julius. The boy was a walking contradiction. Proof of a person who went against all norms.

Otherwise, what kind of person would be as powerful as Julius was as a Tier 2? Not only that, but Declan was able to sense a subtle weight to Julius’s soul that hadn’t been there when he last saw him. It almost felt like the weight of a Tier 3 soul. If he didn’t know better, he would have guessed that Julius had gone through his soul evolution already.

However, that was ridiculous, he knew that Julius was working toward an epic skill, but even if he were to achieve that, there was no way that would have been enough. Despite the plethora of rare skills Julius undoubtedly had, the only way he should have been able to go through a soul evolution, was if he already had a powerful soul.

Declan paused at that thought. Ah, that’s it, he realized.

It was then that he remembered that he had made that same observation when he first met Julius.

Now that he was beginning to put together the pieces, he was pretty confident that Julius had already gone through his soul evolution.

That changed things a lot. He admittedly already had a plan, but that plan was for the Julius he believed he was going to see. This Julius was different. More powerful, despite it only being a couple of weeks since he last saw him.

On top of that, he picked up on something that stood out to him. He felt a sense of resoluteness and perseverance come off of Julius which was dense and unyielding.

Was it another Concept? Perhaps, a Concept of Will? I wouldn’t be surprised, the boy’s seemingly endless drive to improve is the perfect catalyst to acquire a Concept of Will, Declan thought to himself. His own Concept of Will seemingly resonated with something inside of Julius.

“Earth to Declan?” Julius asked while waving his hand in front of Declan’s face.

He looked down at the short crazy boy. “I’m still thinking. Don’t be so impatient,” he told him.

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He heard a humph from Julius, but the boy remained silent.

Finally, Declan made some adjustments to how they would proceed. He would try to see how well Julius could handle this rift all on his own. At first, he had been planning to help out in the initial stages and step in when he thought it was getting dicey.

But now that Julius was stronger than a few weeks ago, he wanted to see where the boy was at.

He turned to Julius who was still staring at him with expectant eyes. “Do what you want. I will just follow behind. Your overall goal is to take down as many monsters as safely as possible.”