Chapter 164: Treated Like a Troublesome Toddler

Lily POV

“First off, I need to know what Concepts you have acquired so far,” Alice said to Julius.

Lily watched as Julius paused for a moment, probably thinking about sharing his Concepts. He finally seemed to come to a decision and answered Alice. “I have three. I have a Sharpness Concept, a Will Concept, and a Fire Concept,” he told them.

Say again…? Lily couldn’t have heard that correctly. She distinctly remembered that he had only gotten his first one not that long ago. The fact that he already had two more was equally impressive and alarming.

Alice however, didn’t seem to miss a beat. It was like she had already expected a similar answer.

She could probably already sense his Concepts with her Domain, Lily reasoned to herself.

Lily still couldn’t believe that Alice was here at the moment. The normally recluse and secretive woman was someone Lily had known for most of her life. Alice was a person that Lily had seen at home on occasions for celebrations or when she was doing a job for her grandfather.

Since her family was pretty much a mercantile family, they always had a use for a powerful space mage like Alice. It just so happened that her family liked Alice and were good friends with her.

But what were the odds that Julius would meet her?

However, Lily was just grateful that he did. Without Alice, who knew how long it would have taken Julius to talk with her or the others. He could have gone through so much worse if nobody intervened.

She was still very angry with the younger boy. She could not believe how badly Alice had described the condition of his soul. She knew that Julius could be single-minded and sometimes stupid, but she never would have thought that he would literally train until his soul couldn’t take it.

She had heard stories of scions being forced to train since they could walk. It never ended well. The pressure on a soul that young from acquiring many skills would normally kill the child. Not to mention the children who got a Concept before Tier 2 always died. Their souls couldn’t handle the strain.

Noble families quickly stopped this cruel practice and it became common sense to wait until your child became Tier 1 until they could really train.

And yet, Julius didn’t seem to fit that same mold. Not only did he have an astonishing three Concepts, but she knew that he had several very high-ranked skills if her and Aubrey’s estimate was correct.

Ironically, that was another one of Alice’s questions.

“How many skills do you have and where are they at in terms of rank”

Julius put a hand on his chin in thought. His cute boyish features frowning in concentration. “I have eight skills. Two at Epic and the rest at rare,” he told them.

Lily tried not to feel that surprised by that admission. She had already suspected it, but it was still surprising to hear that he didn’t have a single uncommon skill. Even Lily herself had two skills still at uncommon. Granted both of them weren’t staple skills but nonetheless, it was already impressive for Lily to only have two uncommon skills at her age.

Alice continued to question Julius and each time he answered her questions, Lily felt less surprised and more confused. She was starting to see how Julius’s soul was falling apart. How strong was his soul in the first place to handle this level of improvement? There was no way he had made all of this progress after he got to Tier 2, she remembered that he was already strong before he reached it.

It just seemed like she didn’t really understand how strong Julius was. It was no wonder why he was able to beat Aubrey, even with his advantage over the other girl’s skills. Three Concepts, two epic skills, three superior skills all at the later stage of rare, and three more rare skills that all except for one, were at their final level.

It was becoming abundantly clear that the boy was holding back against Edgar during their spars. Just like Edgar had told Lily and Aubrey one day after Julius had left their session.

Her large friend seemed to understand Julius’s real ability more than they did. Lily didn’t believe Edgar at the time, she thought he was just excited for Julius, but now she was seriously reconsidering the validity of his opinion.

She wasn’t going to lie, a part of her was jealous. She was jealous of Julius’s talent. While she didn’t care about combat strength like some of the others did, she understood that she was the cream of the crop when it came to people her age. But hearing Julius explain all of the details of his abilities to Alice, made her feel a little bit envious of him. He was a Tier 2, yet there was no doubt that in a straight-up fight, Julius would win nine times out of ten.

It kind of stung, to realize that that someone a full tier below her was that much stronger. But her envy was overwhelmed by her concern for the person she had quickly come to treat as one of her closest friends.

***

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Julius POV

When he was done answering all of Alice’s questions, he had to take a deep breath. The lady was thorough. However, she had been particularly interested in his healing skill and his Concept of Will. When he had mentioned the name of his healing skill, she had gotten a brilliant gleam in her eyes.

“I think I have an idea about how I am going to help you,” Alice finally said.

“Really?” He asked with a smile.

“Yep, but I am still worried about how well your soul is going to hold up,” she said a little uncertain.

“Why? Does it involve me learning another skill or Concept?”

“Yes, it will revolve around you learning another skill. You won’t necessarily need to learn another Concept, but you will have to evolve your Fire Concept as well,” she said tentatively.

“Well let’s do it!” Julius said excitedly.

Alice gave him a disapproving look. “It’s not as simple as that,” she said to him, dowsing his excitement.