Chapter 327: Time Would Tell

After Alice took the woman and transported her to one of House Violet’s properties, Julius and Lily returned to campus as if nothing had happened.

He got some sleep and woke up after having a weird dream. He typically didn’t dream very much, but he had one of him, Lukas, and Edwin for some reason. The days when Edwin would train him and they would eat meals together afterward.

It was bittersweet.

However, he put the dream to the back of his mind and focused on what he wanted to accomplish for the day. He wanted to find Tristan and find out if he told his father. It didn’t matter if logic pointed toward Tristan breaking his promise to Julius.

Julius firmly believed that the boy was being sincere.

Still, he wanted to find and ask the other boy if he did. The issue was finding Tristan. It wasn’t like Julius knew where the boy’s dorm was, but it was probably a safe bet to head over to the cafeteria and wait there. If Tristan wanted breakfast, then Julius might be able to spot him there. If he wasn’t, then Julius could wait for him when he ate lunch or dinner.

It wasn’t like he had anything planned for today anyway. It was supposed to be a day to relax before the finals. He would wait for as long as he needed to.

***

While he waited for Tristan to show up, he opened the notifications he received last night. He had been a little too tired and drained to check them. He just wanted to get to bed and leave it for the next day.

[Phoenix Renewal lvl 10 -> lvl 11]

[Sage of Savagery lvl 14 -> lvl 15]

[Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 7 -> lvl 8]

[Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 9 -> lvl 10]

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 13 -> lvl 14]

[Spatial Crack lvl 3 -> lvl 5]

As expected from a battle against three Tier 4s, he managed to level a lot of his skills. Truly, a life-or-death battle was the best way to see improvements and skill level increases. He knew that he should have been more upset about the assassination attempt, but if he was being honest, he kind of enjoyed it.

He knew people would call him crazy if he told them that, but he had been missing that fear of death and the unknown consequences should he lose. Life ever since he had come back seemed so… boring.

Of course, this didn’t mean he hadn’t been enjoying his time with his friends, but there was this missing feel of excitement he had gotten used to—the thrill of fighting for his life, the exhilaration of overcoming someone stronger and getting stronger in return.

There was something so addictive about this feeling.

He shook his head and chuckled inwardly. He was indeed a battle maniac, and he wasn’t sure if he actually believed that was a bad thing anymore.

Even when he woke up this morning, he realized that he had gotten the best night’s sleep he had in a while. After the blood stopped pumping through his veins so fiercely, he had experienced this unbelievable serenity and sense of peace.

It didn’t matter if he knew that people still wanted him dead. Last night had been fun, and he couldn’t believe it, but he was kind of hoping it would happen again.

Lily would smack him so hard if she could hear his thoughts right now. He was sure the rest of them would be lining up too.

He laughed once more to himself as he turned his attention to his notifications. He glanced over the one about [Spatial Crack]. He had gotten that notification a while ago and simply had been ignoring it up until now. It had come from his nightly training sessions, and while he hadn’t made any massive breakthroughs, he felt like he was slowly beginning to understand the skill better as time passed.

[Armaments of the Arcane] finally leveled up. It felt like forever since it had, and he was glad that it did. He had been working on the skill on the side for some time, and it was showing results. The skill’s ability to hold more mana in each construct and its ability to contain a payload of his aura were quite useful. It had undoubtedly shown its use during last night’s fight. He was sure that it took more than one of his opponents by surprise.

Of course, there was still so much that he could improve. He felt like he had simply touched the tip of the iceberg. If he continued exploring this new way of creating constructs, he believed he would be able to make some genuinely horrifying attacks.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He also wasn’t that surprised that [Inexorable Aura of Ruin] had leveled up. The skill had been hovering at the edge of advancement for a while and must have only needed that small nudge to push it over.

Regardless, the skill had shown its worth. He would not have been able to incapacitate the woman as quickly as he did if not for the aura. It made disrupting her techniques much easier than it would have been if he hadn’t had it.

It wasn’t surprising to see either [Sage of Savagery] or [Pyrokinetic Augmentation of Ruin] see an increase. Both had been instrumental in his victory. One allowed him to keep his focus fighting three very different fighters and withstand their Authorities. While the other gave him the physical capability to keep up with their Tier 4 bodies.

However, he was most excited about the increased level of his healing skill. [Phoenix Renewal] had some high and difficult requirements to level up. It seemed like each level required him to be hurt even worse than in the past. But the poison must have been quite the little bugger because after he took care of it, he must have be deemed worthy of another skill increase.

He let out a small, victorious fist pump. He knew that he was becoming a little addicted to seeing the numbers go up, but he couldn’t help it. It was just so damn satisfying.

***

After standing outside the cafeteria for a while, he finally spotted Tristan walking in with his friends. The same ones that Julius saw with him the last time he talked with his cousin.

He didn’t walk over immediately, instead he tried to get his cousin’s attention discreetly. But no matter what he did, the other boy didn’t look in his direction. He was too busy laughing and joking around with his friends.