Chapter 374: Mysterious Fog

He had to worry about two things when fighting the Ironblood Boar. One was its sharp tusks, and the other was its ability to soak up damage.

While he already knew that monsters often had more impressive endurance and physical bodies, the fact that this Tier 3 monster was taking his punches with such ease was a remarkable feat. Despite blasting the poor thing with kinetic energy over and over, he hadn’t done much.

The boar looked a bit worse for wear, but ultimately it was still fine. The only thing that seemed to have any effect was when he infused his Sharpness Concept into his kinetic energy. Of course, this had its dangers as well. Since he wasn’t looking to waste too much of his energy, he didn’t really want to use this method all that often.

Having to use [Phoenix Renewal] to patch up the damage he did to himself because of this technique wasn’t the most mana-intensive, but it still took enough that it was noticeable. More than he felt comfortable using for a single beast. That was the reason he hadn’t used it all that much. He only used it for a couple of attacks.

Of course, he wasn’t hurting himself as badly as when he first started experimenting, but the fact still remained that it was a high-cost technique.

He likely could have used his constructs and his aura to defeat this thing, but the point of entering this rift was to improve his other abilities.

After smashing another strike into the boar’s body, he leaped back to avoid the retaliatory charge. He didn’t have to use [Void Step] that much either. With [Absolute Spatial Perception] he was able to detect the signs of activation when the boar charged up its mana. This gave him plenty of time to react once he knew what to look for.

He still used [Void Step], if not to just keep practicing it. But it wasn’t necessary. On the bright side, he had slowly managed to lower the cost of the skill with each activation. He was hoping that he would eventually get to the point when the skill cost as much as [Flash Step]. That was a big pipe dream at the moment, but a man could dream.

He slammed the bottom of his heel into the passing by boar for the dozenth time. There was still barely any reaction from the beast.

Fuck it, he sighed to himself.

He wasn’t here to play it safe and keep his mana tucked away. He was here to improve his skills and Concepts. If he needed to spend some of his massive mana pool to do that, then he would.

He nodded his head as he made his decision and without any of his prior worries, he started to crank up his efforts. He grunted as his mind went into overdrive, trying to mix the two abilities. The sensation of razor shards flowing through his body alongside his kinetic energy made him shake his head at his bullheadedness.

It would seem that his style of fighting always needed to find a way to hurt himself more than his opponent. He almost lost control of the energy a couple of times, but he managed to hold on with [Sage of Savagery].

Infusing his Sharpness Concept into something like his kinetic energy was a difficult thing. It likely had to do with the fact that the two energies didn’t match up that well. Kinetic energy wasn’t meant to be ‘sharp’, it was meant to be forceful. He related it more to impact and blunt force.

But perhaps that was where he had been going wrong. Why couldn’t his kinetic energy be sharp? In a weird way, it was. There was this sharpness to how he moved when using kinetic energy. The sudden acceleration and unpredictable movements he was able to make were very sharp and distinct.

He continued to use that feeling as he infused the concept into his kinetic energy, and much to his surprise, he found that it was working right away. It was slight, and if he hadn’t been paying so much attention to how much damage he was doing to his own body, he would have likely not detected it, but he found himself having an easier time infusing the Concept.

Who would have thought that such a simple change of perspective could impact the technique? It was because of this exact same change that he was able to actually use the technique without hurting his body all that much.

And the next time he slammed his fist into the boar, he found the kinetic energy rippling out and into the boar’s hide differently than it had been. There was now a large gash in the side of the monster, something that angered the beast immensely.

The Ironblood Boar let out a deafening roar as a huge flow of aura was released. Julius sensed it activate some kind of skill that reminded him of a berserker skill. A blood-red aura covered it, and its eyes turned scarlet, looking at Julius with hatred.

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However, he couldn’t help but grin because he felt like he was on the verge of discovering something. The boar launched itself at Julius with even more speed than before. Unlike previously, he couldn’t sense when it would charge. The berserker skill masked the mana usage and prevented Julius from getting a heads-up.

It didn’t matter though.

He used a burst of kinetic energy to avoid the boar once more. This time around, the infused Sharpness Concept made his movements faster and sharper. It was like he was using [Flash Step] all over again. Only this time around, it was for his every action, not just his feet or movement. Even the way he cocked back his fist was unnatural in how sudden and sharp it was.

When the boar dashed by him, he used [Void Step] to appear right on top of its back. He then drove an elbow right into the neck of the beast. He tore a gaping wound into the hide and before the boar could throw him off, he used [Void Step] once more.

He appeared right underneath its chin. The monster had no idea where he had gone and was trying to look at its own neck to find him, which gave him the perfect opportunity to slam an uppercut into the throat of the beast.