Chapter 228: Getting Used to Advancement

“Finally!” He heard Reinera yell out to him before he had even approached her.

He waved at her as she approached. The first thing he noticed was her aura. It was still restrained by whatever enchantments her disguising item had activated, but it didn’t hide the powerful feeling he got by looking at her.

“What took you so long? Did you have any problems?” She asked once she got within arms reach.

He nodded at her. “I did, but eventually got over it. What about you? How was your advancement?”

“It all went as expected. I wish Amelia was here to see it though. She is going to be mad at me for advancing without her,” she said to him, wincing at the thought of Amelia’s anger.

Julius winced alongside her. He could already predict Amelia’s anger when she found out Reinera advanced without her.

Maybe, I will brag to her that I was here. I bet that would make her really jealous, Julius thought with a smile. While he and Amelia had developed a much more courteous relationship, he still made sure to give her a hard time as much as she gave him a hard time.

It was only fair after all.

“Have you tested your ability to use ambient mana yet?” She asked.

He shook his head. “Not yet, is it that much of an improvement?” He knew that Tier 3 was the first step for people to actually manipulate ambient mana with a sense of control but didn’t have the chance to test it out yet.

“Yeah! You should try it out! Look at what I can do,” she excitedly told him, practically jumping up and down with barely contained joy.

He watched as she closed her eyes and concentrated. At first, he had no idea what she was planning to do, but he noticed that the mana all around them started to come together. It didn’t matter what kind of mana it was, it all was gathered up vortex of mana.

Julius was impressed. He couldn’t help but wonder how much time she had been playing around with ambient mana since she advanced.

Once she was happy with the vortex she had, he felt her reach out to something. It was hard to tell what it was and he probably wouldn’t have known if he wasn’t already aware that she had a Light Concept. But she managed to infuse her Light Concept into this vortex of mana slowly.

As this was happening the swirling vortex of invisible mana slowly became visible to his eyes. It was a wonderful medley of various colors of the rainbow. All of it spiraled together before dissipating into the air with a shimmer.

“Now you try it!” She said while grabbing his arm. “I want to see what kind of things you can do with…” She trailed off as she stared at him.

“What? Is something wrong?” He asked.

“Your eyes,” she said with a weird expression.

“My eyes?” He asked worried, reaching for them instinctively. He recalled the weird sensation that lasted for a while, but he didn’t know if that had any more permanent effects.

“They are different,” she said slowly while also getting closer to him, examining his face.

Different? What does she mean by different? Are they a different color or something? If so why didn’t the Marquis say anything?

“How are they different?” He asked her while grabbing her shoulders.

“Look for yourself,” she said as she held out a mirror she removed from her storage ring.

Julius took the mirror with a nervous expression. But sighed when he saw what she was talking about.

His eyes were different. But they were barely different. They were still primarily black eyes but the only thing that had changed was that there was a very thin ring of red surrounding his irises.

It was barely noticeable and only upon closer examination would someone see it.

“It’s not that bad. You made me think that I had some type of deformity,” he accused her.

“No, I noticed them because I saw something flash within them,” she argued.

“Something flashed within them?” He asked confused.

“Yeah, there was a burst of red, almost like a small flame flicker in them. But it was gone after a moment.”

That was weird. She said that something red flickered in them, but he also didn’t know what she meant by that. The only thing he had been doing when she noticed it was when he reached out to his Concept as he was also gathering some ambient mana.

Oh, he realized to himself.

With a quick thought, he touched his Phoenix Concept once more.

“There it is again!” She said while pointing at his face and getting closer to inspect his eyes.

“Interesting,” he muttered. It would seem that his eyes flickered when he used his Phoenix Concept now. However, he couldn’t see the use of something like that or why it was there now.

It would be different if it was some sort of ability but as far as he could tell, he didn’t get any new abilities.

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He checked his status again for good measure.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 3

Skills:

• [Armaments of the Arcane lvl 7] (Epic)
• [Sage of Savagery lvl 7] (Epic)
• [Phoenix Renewal lvl 4] (Epic)
• [Empowerment of Will lvl 19] (Rare+)
• [Barrier of Severance lvl 15] (Rare+)
• [Soul Tempering lvl 6] (Rare+)
• [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)

• [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 19] (Rare)
• [Flash Step lvl 10] (Rare)

Current Skill Slots: 9/11

Concepts:

• [Concept of Sharpness]
• [Severing Will]
• [Concept of Will]
• [Inexorable Resolve]
• [Concept of Phoenix]
• [Ashen Rebirth]

He didn’t spot anything different except for the change to his tier which now said he was officially Tier 3. That little detail did bring a small smile to his face though.

“Do you have any ideas why?” He asked Reinera.

She shrugged. “No clue. A side effect of your advancement perhaps?”