Chapter 394: Powerful Attack

“You really want me to punch you?” Julius repeated with confusion.

“What? I am curious,” Doren said with an excited grin.

Julius couldn’t deny that he was curious as well. He wanted to see just how much stronger someone like Doren was. If Julius’s instincts were right, and they usually were, then this man was beyond Tier 6. Meaning that, other than Jasper, this man was the strongest person Julius had come across.

However, when he had met Jasper, Julius hadn’t even been Tier 2 yet. He wasn’t able to appreciate or even begin to realize how powerful Jasper was.

This would be his chance to see just what made someone stronger than Tier 6 different. How vast was that gap? And how could he make that step himself?

“Okay,” he said with a firm nod.

“Amazing! I won’t even bother activating any of my skills. Just punch me as hard as you can, alright? Actually, you can use any attack you wish, prepare some of those little constructs if you wish. They might stand a better chance at hurting me than your physical attacks,” Doren said with a teasing grin.

Julius knew that the man was much more powerful than he was, but for some reason, he was a little annoyed at how unserious he was. Although Julius fully understood that he wouldn’t likely be able to break through, he didn’t like being treated like a weakling. Not when he had put so much effort into getting stronger.

A tiny fire was lit in his stomach. His pride was challenged, and he was going to reply in the only way he knew.

Despite not being in the best shape, Julius went all out from the jump. If Doren was going to give Julius as much time as he wished, then Julius would gladly take the opportunity to build an attack.

During a real battle, he rarely had the chance to accumulate enough power for a large attack. Since he was usually on his own, he had to focus on quick and explosive attacks. Perhaps if he teamed up with his friends, he might have had time to gather mana like other mages were able to.

Speaking of mana, he took a quick look at his reserves and was surprised at how much he had regenerated since he had arrived on this floor. He had been so distracted by Doren and his arrival that he failed to realize just how much mana was present on the floor.

There was a far greater concentration of mana here than on any other floor. It barely took any effort for him to absorb this mana. However, this also meant that he had to make this mana his own, which was the real danger. Just because he could absorb it, didn’t mean he could without risk of harming himself.

He had taken his own method of cycling mana for granted at times. Not everyone had a person like Edwin or Lukas helping them learn the basics. If someone without the proper skill of mana cycling came to this floor, they might have been overwhelmed by the sheer amount and intensity of mana.

Luckily, in his case, he was pretty skilled in it and was able to take advantage of the large amount of mana to regenerate his own stores. Since he had so much extra mana now, he decided to put a little more power into his healing skill.

The wounds, which weren’t that severe and thus he had decided not to use [Phoenix Renewal] on them, were now fully healed over in a matter of seconds. Then he focused a lot of the energy into his soul, which was the most worrying damage he had received.

Soul damage was tricky to deal with. He couldn’t brute force it like he did with his other injuries. He needed to slowly revitalize it, allowing his soul to do the brunt of the work while his healing skill simply aided the natural process.

However, as he was doing this, he suddenly felt a foreign mana weave itself into his own workings. There was nothing he could do as this mana supplanted itself. While he was surprised at first, he quickly understood that it was simply Doren’s mana.

He had no idea what the man was doing, but he also knew it wasn’t harming him. On the contrary, it was helping his skill heal his soul. The addition of Doren’s help hastened his soul’s otherwise slow healing process.

Something that would have taken at least a whole day was accomplished in a matter of a few minutes. There wasn’t even any additional stress on his soul either. It was amazing.

While his soul wasn’t in top shape, it was more than enough to let him release the fatigued breath he had been holding since he injured it.

“How did you do that?” He turned to ask Doren with wide eyes.

“Don’t look so impressed. It wasn’t anything special or hard. I merely aided your own skill to do what you would have done over a longer period. Even someone like me cannot fix someone’s soul without specialized tools or skills. It was only possible because you have the unique ability to heal your own,” Doren explained.

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“Still, thank you,” Julius said gratefully.

“If you want to thank me, you can perhaps tell me how you managed to mangle your soul that badly in the first place? I don’t think I have seen quite a unique soul like that in a while,” Doren said with a look that seemed both curious and judgmental at the same time.

Julius sighed. “It’s a long story. Like I said, I am trying to do better.”

“I can’t judge you too harshly since I used to be the same way. Still, let me know how that works out for you,” Doren said with a shake of his head before gesturing at Julius.