Chapter 368: Lich Core

Julius tilted his head as he felt the man’s aura pulse anxiously.

“Is something wrong?” He asked.

The man returned his concern with an awkward smile. “It’s nothing. I never got your name, by the way?”

Julius hesitated momentarily and considered whether or not to give out his name, but eventually decided that it wouldn’t hurt to be truthful.

“It’s Julius. And yours?”

“Kuro,” the man said while removing the hood of his cloak. When he removed it, a pale but handsome face appeared with a head of thick brown hair. Julius was somewhat surprised at how young he looked. He knew that age was a weird thing in this world, with the extended lifespans as you advanced through tiers. But this man looked barely older than Derek and the others. Which also meant he had advanced to Tier 4 pretty early.

As Julius was busy in thought, he saw Kuro extending his hand out to him. He quickly reciprocated and they shook hands.

“What were you doing over there?” Julius asked curiously.

Kuro’s eyes glimmered with excitement upon hearing that question and proceeded to explain to Julius about the interesting nature of the room. Most of the things he said went straight over Julius’s head but he understood the basics.

Simply put, the room was made of a bunch of unique materials which allowed for the lich to use soul magic and control such a large number of undead with precision. Which was fascinating for the man because he was a practitioner of soul magic. An uncommon but powerful ability. Although Julius was surprised by the man’s forthcomingness. He didn’t know if he would have told someone about his type of magic upon meeting them.

“What about you? What are you doing here?” Kuro asked while scratching his head awkwardly, realizing that he had been going off on a tangent.

He shrugged. “I was just exploring and came across this rift,” he answered honestly.

“Without anyone to back you up?” Kuro asked with an odd look.

He shrugged again. “No, but I was careful,” he said, but this time he wasn’t being as honest. This man didn’t need to know what he had been doing outside of this room. That Julius had been practically ripping his body into pieces while learning a new way to infuse his Sharpness Concept with his kinetic energy. It would only make Julius seem like a weirdo if he knew the truth.

“Um, so are you going to take care of that lich?” Julius asked after a few moments of silence.

The man snapped his head back at Julius, looking like he had been lost in thought.

“Sorry?”

“Do you have any plans for it?” He asked while pointing at the cage of mana.

“Oh! No, I was just keeping it in there so that I could take my time examining the room. I can take care of it now, though.”

Julius was about to interrupt and request that he handle it himself, but before he could say anything, the man started to compress the mana cage around the lich. A powerful pulse of mana rippled throughout the cage, and he was able to see it light up with complex lines of inscription over its surface as it got smaller and smaller.

There was a slight resistance as the lich’s natural defenses protected it, but it was no use. It was trapped entirely, and like a piece of glass crushed by two boulders, the lich was crushed into little fragments.

Kuro must have sensed his disappointment because he looked over at Julius with a wince. “Sorry, did you want to do something with it?” The man sounded surprisingly nervous of offending Julius considering the fact that he was at the upper end of Tier 4 and Julius was merely a Tier 3.

Julius waved his hand. “No, it’s alright. Probably for the better anyway.”

While he would have liked to fight this lich, it might not have been the best idea considering he would have to do so in front of a live audience or have to ask the man to leave which might bring even more questions. It was saddening that he couldn’t deal with this rift on his lonesome though.

Not long after the lich was crushed to dust, the mana pervading throughout the rift started to shake. A swirling blue portal appeared in front of them. However, before anything else, the man bent down to the broken pieces of the lich and searched through them, eventually standing back up with a glowing green pearl in his hands.

Without saying a word, the man offered the pearl to Julius with a nod.

“What’s this?” Julius asked before making any moves to take it.

“It’s the lich’s core. It’s probably the most valuable thing in the rift and I suspect many people would pay a lot of money to get something like this. While it is only at Tier 3, there is someone out there who can find a good use for it,” Kuro explained.

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“What? You don’t want it for yourself? I thought with your soul magic, you would find it more valuable than me,” Julius pointed out with a frown.

The man shook his head firmly. “No, please, I insist. Also, I am already at Tier 4 and the uses I would have for it are pretty limited.”

Julius, not seeing a reason to reject the gift, took it with a suspicious look toward the Tier 4. He didn’t know why this person was taking such a respectful, borderline subservient attitude with him. It made him feel weird.

From what Julius could gather, Kuro was strong, even for a Tier 4, which made him wonder why he was acting this way toward Julius. It didn’t make much sense.