Chapter 413: Kinetic Energy Control

He peeled himself off the floor with a tired groan. He subconsciously activated his healing skill out of pure instinct. But let out a sigh when the restrictive item prevented it from working.

It had been over a week since he arrived, and he had already made some progress. His kinetic energy control has slowly transformed during this short period. It helped that the other students pushed him to improve.

It was amazing how much motivation he got when Bilbo was beating his ass into the ground every day for the past week. The little prick might have been an ass, but he could back up his talk. Julius couldn’t help but admit that Bilbo’s skill with kinetic energy was far beyond that of Julius.

It was both humbling and motivating.

He was even offered a skill for his efforts. One that he had expected long ago, but for some reason never had the chance to acquire it.

Would you like to learn [Kinetic Energy Control]?

He hadn’t chosen it yet, despite Cain advising him that he should. He still wanted to grab that [Spirit Fortification] skill that he had been offered. That was the skill that Savath mentioned was quite powerful.

On the other hand, Cain insisted that having mastery of kinetic energy would help him a lot. He made some valid points as well. Julius already had other skills that implemented his affinities. He had a healing skill for his life mana. He had his construct creation skill for his fire mana, as well as other skills.

But other than his body enhancement skill, he didn’t have a dedicated kinetic skill. Furthermore, [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] was a skill that combined several different aspects into one. Thus, it wasn’t exactly a bad idea if Julius got a skill that focused on one of his more commonly used affinities.

Speaking of his body skill, while he hadn’t gained a level since he arrived, he had felt some changes in his skill. The way the kinetic energy flowed through the skill was much more fluid.

It was less jerky and was more graceful. This actually helped him in several ways. One of the more apparent benefits was how much easier it was to control his kinetic energy over prolonged periods. By being calmer and graceful, he was able to handle his kinetic energy with a bit more deftness.

It has shown in his fighting as well. With that being said, he was still getting pounded into the mat, but nobody could deny that he was improving. Even Bilbo had stopped mocking him as frequently.

During their first matches, Bilbo had tossed him around and made a point to mock Julius as much as possible. However, he wasn’t able to do that as easily. Now, the other boy had to put in some effort to take Julius down. If he didn’t, he was at risk of losing himself.

Julius was surprised at the quality of students under Cain and Freya. From what he had seen so far, each one of them was talented. Bilbo and his buddies, despite their questionable personalities, were all strong kinetic fighters.

Bilbo was generally considered one of the best fighters in the class and had only recently advanced to Tier 3. There was no doubt that he would be transferring to the more advanced group pretty soon.

As he was heading back to the line to receive feedback from one of the instructors, he heard the annoying brat call out to him.

“You should really stop using that Sharpness Concept for your kinetic abilities.”

Julius shot a dark look back at the arrogant brat but held his tongue. It was mainly because, unlike his usual mocking, this sounded like genuine advice. Thus, Julius entertained the dumb boy for a brief moment.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked as patiently as he could muster.

Bilbo rolled his eyes. “I mean that you are clearly overrelying on it to do a lot of the work. It makes your movements and kinetic energy sharper, yes. But it also means you aren’t manually controlling your kinetic energy to make it sharp. It’s impossible to always infuse your kinetic energy all the time, and I can tell when you aren’t infusing it. When you aren’t there is a massive difference, which is why I am still beating you so easily,” the other boy explained quite extensively.

Julius tried not to get offended and took the criticism to heart. Once he thought about it and pushed aside his feelings about Bilbo, he realized that it was true. He had been relying so much on his new Sharpness Concept to help his kinetic energy that he didn’t focus on being as sharp and sudden.

He looked up at him and nodded gratefully. “Thanks, Bilbo.”

The boy looked at Julius, both confused and insulted. “Bilbo? My name is not Bilbo,” he said pointedly.

Julius nodded and walked in the other direction without responding or acknowledging him.

He heard Bilbo stutter out something, but Julius had already tuned him out. He had just gotten some good advice from an unlikely person and was going to test it out.

***

He was bashed into the wall for the hundredth time and grunted in frustration. The only good thing about getting his teeth kicked in like this was that he was finally free of the restrictions. The end of the day was one of the few occasions he could use his kinetic energy and healing skill unfettered.

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“You’ve improved,” Cain said happily.

“Oh, you think so? Because it certainly doesn’t feel like it,” Julius groaned out sarcastically

“Absolutely, I am glad that you are listening to Barath’s advice. Your overreliance on your Sharpness Concept is holding you back.”

“If you knew, why didn’t you say something earlier?” Julius asked accusingly.

“Sometimes it is better for you to find your own answers and solutions,” Cain said easily.

Julius couldn’t deny the man’s logic. There was some truth that solutions found on his own internalized better.

“Do you really think I should grab that skill?” Julius asked Cain as they went through another step of exercises.

Cain pressed forward and gently punished Julius’s open guard. He said gently, but to someone like Cain, that just meant he wasn’t splattered on the ground. The force of the blow had him gasping from a crater-sized hole. “How many open skill slots do you have left?” He asked as Julius peeled himself from the floor once again.