Chapter 239: Only One Real Choice

Today was the day. After putting it off multiple times, they finally decided to enter the Challenge Rift.

It had been about a week after he got [Aura Burn] and unfortunately during that time, he hadn’t found a way to merge the skills into a single skill.

On the bright side, he got a few more levels to add to the skill as well as [Thermal Empowerment].

[Thermal Empowerment lvl 11 -> 13]

[Aura Burn lvl 1 -> lvl 7]

It turned out that using his skills against a far superior opponent, especially one that had a debuffing element to it, was good training.

[Aura Burn] in particular was a good skill for this particular situation. It was a skill that relied on clashing his willpower against his opponents. And his opponent’s willpower wasn’t like the monsters he had faced in that rift he had done last week.

He had tried to use his Emblem alongside it, but there was an obvious restriction on how much his Emblem was able to interact with an uncommon skill.

However, both he and Richard believed he was close to something. Whether that was another breakthrough or another merging of his skills, they didn’t really know for certain.

That was one of the reasons why they thought it would be a good idea to go into the Challenge Rift, they were thinking that the rift would give him that extra push he needed.

They were also hoping that since he had filled out his slots, the rift would reward something other than a brand-new skill. Opening up the possibility of the rift rewarding him with a method of combining the skills he wanted.

***

“How are you feeling?” He asked Reinera.

She looked up from where she was sitting on the stone wall and gave him a brief smile.

“I don’t know. A mixture of nervousness and excitement, I guess. You?”

Julius shrugged his shoulders and looked over at the crowd of people who were preparing the rift up ahead. “Kind of the same. I don’t want to perform poorly and get some shitty reward after all this time waiting.”

“Tell me about it. How embarrassing would it be that after all this time we get some standard and boring reward from the rift.” She said with a laugh.

He laughed alongside her. “Please don’t jinx it. I would rather that not happen.”

“Are you two ready?” He heard Rebecca call out to them.

“I am,” he replied before turning to look at Reinera. “How about you?”

“As ready as I am going to be,” she said with a sigh.

Rebecca gave Reinera a gentle pat on the head and a warm smile. “You don’t have to force yourself if you don’t feel like you’re ready. It’s better if you wait until you feel like you are the most prepared.”

The younger girl looked up in surprise. “I thought you were the one who has been pushing me to get ready for exactly this?”

“Grace, I have been pushing you because you clearly need someone to give you a kick in the butt at times. But you have done a good job these past several weeks, there is nothing I can complain about when it comes to the effort you put in. So if you still feel like you need more time, then take it. You won’t get another chance at this Challenge Rift,” Rebecca said softly.

Reinera hesitated for a second and looked over at Julius. He didn’t say anything, letting her know that her decision was completely up to her.

He and Rebecca watched as the girl thought to herself for a few moments, giving her as much time as she needed.

But they both smiled when the hesitative look on her face was slowly washed away and was replaced with one full of vigor and life.

“No, I want to do this,” she said resolutely.

Rebecca nodded at her and had a proud smile on her face. Julius was proud of her as well, he believed that she would do well in the Challenge Rift. She had been doing a lot of work with her willpower training it would help her better compete with other people’s Concepts.

Plus, she had an Emblem as well, which would help her even more.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

He was more worried about what the challenge might be. Rebecca and Richard who had both done it, seemed confident in their success, but they obviously couldn’t give them any hints.

He heard a voice call out from the other side of the room. “We’re ready for them!”

It was one of the people who was helping with setting it all up.

Julius gave Reinera an encouraging smile before they both headed toward the large archway placed at the center of the even larger cavern.

They were below the main estate and reminded him of the underground chamber at House Hyperius.

He took a look at where they would be entering. It was something that was very different from what he was used to.

The rift wasn’t the usual pale blue color, it was a bright white swirling vortex. It was also much larger than the rift portals he had gone through. It took up almost the entire large archway.

He walked past a few people. Richard, Rebecca, and the Patriarch were expectantly there, but there were several more people as well.

There was the person who had called them over, the elder he believed was named Arthur, and another person who hadn’t said anything. He had no idea who that person was but he did notice the man giving both him and Reinera distrustful looks quite often when he thought Julius wasn’t paying attention.