Chapter 284: Who’s That?

Julius had found himself quickly swarmed by Edgar and Kyle as well. Thankfully, Edgar and Kyle were a bit more reserved than Lily and Aubrey had been.

They were just glad he was back safe and sound, though they had some questions of their own.

He did his best to answer them, also further explaining to them about the plan against the princess and how he had been dragged into it. With that being said, he didn’t mention that Reinera had been the one who physically dragged him along with her. He didn’t need them to blame the girl more than they might already be.

Edgar seemed very fascinated by the fact that he had been taken to a labyrinth-type rift and seemed somewhat disappointed with the fact that Julius didn’t fully explore it. He remembered the general vicinity of the rift, though, so if there was ever a time he went back to that area, he might try to rediscover it.

“What is up with your aura? It’s very shrouded but it also feels… different,” Kyle said interestingly.

“Oh yeah, I noticed the same thing, but he wouldn’t answer me. He told me to wait until all of us were together,” Lily said to Kyle before turning to look at Julius. “Now that we are all together, can you answer my previous question?”

Julius pressed his lips together and thought about how he wanted to share the news to explain what had happened. A lot of things happened that contributed to his newfound aura. So much that he didn’t remember everything.

Did he tell them about the Challenge Rift? Because he kind of thought that he should keep that little bit a secret, it wasn’t entirely his own secret to share.

However, instead of harping about it for too long, he eventually decided that he would just let his aura shroud drop and just show them.

So with a gentle control of his aura, he slowly released his aura, careful to not let it attack the others with its ruinous effects. He didn’t need to hurt his friends when he just came back.

At first, they merely looked confused more than anything but that slowly changed. Lily was the first to notice something because her face morphed from curiosity to surprise, eventually settling into concern.

“Wait, have you advanced to Tier 3?” She asked in shock, walking over to Julius and using her aura senses to probe his aura.

“Huh, Tier 3!?” Aubrey exclaimed.

“Yeah, I advanced to Tier 3 while I was gone,” he said with a grin, not realizing that this would be the first thing they would notice.

“Aren’t you worried that you might have advanced a bit too hastily?” Derek asked concerningly.

“I don’t think he really needs to worry about that. Before he disappeared, he already had a Concept and many highly ranked skills. If it’s his foundation you are worried about, I don’t think we have much to be concerned about,” Edgar commented with a chuckle.

The big fourth-year came on over to Julius with a wide smile. “I’m sure you had your reasons. Actually, I am more interested in that body enhancement skill you have running in the background,” Edgar noted.

“Ah, you noticed that huh?” Julius asked with a smile of his own. It wasn’t surprising that Edgar was the first to notice. After all, he had been deeply influenced by Edgar’s own enhancement skill when he created his.

“Hard not to. Is the skill always passively running? Or are you just keeping your focus on it the entire time?” Edgar asked curiously.

Julius got a little excited when he noticed this detail. “It’s always running and it takes no real focus to keep running passively,” he said with a proud nod.

“Wait, so that means that you can probably increase its intensity with little concentration or time,” Edgar realized with widened eyes.

“Oh yeah,” he said with a smug grin. “It doesn’t take much to have it fully activated, it makes it much easier to react to threats in an instant.”

Edgar heard Julius’s words and put his hand on his chin, clearly in thought about something. One of the hardest and most annoying aspects of having an enhancement ability was the fact that it took time to activate. It wasn’t like a person was that physically powerful at all times, it required a large influx of mana or energy to empower oneself. What Julius basically had was a shortcut to increasing his physical abilities. He suspected that Edgar was thinking about incorporating this feature into his own skill.

It was funny because when he first learned the skill was passive, he thought Edgar would be very interested in it as well.

It would seem he was right.

Edgar walked over to Julius and wrapped one of his massive arms around his shoulder. “Would you mind if I could see the skill in action?” Edgar asked enthusiastically.

“Hold up,” Lily interjected loudly. “Why does your aura have a different… flavor?” She asked with a frown.

“I’m curious about that too. It’s like your aura underwent a drastic change. I would have thought you were a totally different person or even an imposter if I didn’t know better,” Kyle added.

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“That’s what I said!” Aubrey exclaimed.

Julius gave her a blank look. “Yeah, but that wasn’t why you thought that. You just didn’t trust that it was me because you didn’t want to.”

“That’s not true! I thought you seemed different is all. Which actually might be explained by your aura,” she argued.

“You are Julius, right?” Kyle asked hesitantly.

He groaned. “Yes, I am Julius. Aubrey has already asked me questions to make sure I am. What? Is my aura that different?”

He knew that his aura had undergone some massive changes, but he thought that its core remained the same. Or at least that was what he was hoping for.

“Previously, your aura seemed much more gentle, which might have had something to do with your life affinity, but now your aura almost exudes this aspect of destruction and death,” Lily noted with a concerned look.

Aubrey gave Lily a meaningful look. “Who knows? Maybe he really isn’t Julius, Lils.”

“What? I thought you determined that I wasn’t an imposter,” he blurted out.

“Yeah, but I think you could have fooled me with that orb,” Aubrey said with narrowed eyes.

“For heaven’s sake,” he muttered, not believing that she was doing this again.

Thankfully, he knew exactly what would finally convince her that he was the genuine Julius. After a quick thought, he connected with Drasil, who was relaxing in his soul space, and found the little guy sleeping like usual.