Chapter 453: Second Soul Evolution

Julius found himself staring at the beautiful view of the capital from the balcony of Cain and Freya’s house.

“You really think I should?” Julius asked Freya.

“Yeah, I think it would be for the best. I would like to see you complete your second soul evolution before advancing to Tier 4. Getting that skill might be enough to push you over the edge,” she explained to him.

He and Freya were discussing the option of him acquiring [Spirit Fortification]. A skill he had been offered a few months ago. He would have already chosen it if not for the fact that he had been able to create aura-woven mana constructs pretty well so far without the skill to aid him.

He didn’t want to sound too arrogant, but his control of mana and aura was already at a very high level. He didn’t know how much the skill would help him if he chose it.

With that being said, it sounded like Freya thought it was a good idea.

“Why is it important for me to go through my second soul evolution before Tier 4?” He asked her curiously.

Truth be told, he had some concerns about his soul evolution as well. He knew that the requirement to evolve must be much more complicated than the previous evolution, but he had eight epic skills already. Not to mention, three of them were superior epic skills. With his head start, he had believed he would have already satisfied the requirements.

The only reason he could think of was that the advancement to Tier 4 was the only thing strong enough to push him across that line. However, looking back on it, Doren had mentioned that he was already very close to evolving his soul. That was why he hadn’t given Julius a soul-strengthening treasure.

From the way Doren made it sound, Julius was already close to evolving his soul without having to rely on his advancement, and using a treasure would have been a waste.

So what was the reason he hadn’t evolved his soul yet?

“I think with how strong your Authority is bound to become, having as strong a soul as possible will be an excellent idea,” she pointed out.

He agreed with her logic. He would also like to be as well prepared as possible. The advancement to Tier 4 was bound to be rough, especially with what Cain said about the body transformation he would undergo. The acquisition of an Authority was just another thing he had to worry about on top of it.

“Do you think it is a good skill to get?” He asked Freya. He knew he had already asked Savath, and the demon had told him that he should definitely grab the skill. However, Julius also didn’t know if he trusted Savath completely.

For one, the demon had been trying to kill him, but more importantly, Julius didn’t know if the demon’s skills were different from those of humans. What if a skill that was good for demons wasn’t necessarily the same for humans?

“Oh, it is definitely a good skill. From what you explained, it is likely an epic-ranked skill,” she replied.

“Epic rank? Are you sure about that?” Julius asked. He had never received an epic skill right away without having to level it up from rare.

“Not completely, but from what I know about skills that merge both properties of mana and aura, they are usually advanced skills. If it isn’t an epic skill, then it will likely be a superior rare skill. If you take into account your current experience with using a similar technique, you will quickly level it up to epic,” she stated, sounding confident that he would be able to accomplish that despite knowing that normal people sometimes took years to level up their rare skills to epic.

He thought about it, and honestly, he couldn’t find a reason not to acquire the skill. He had a bad habit of being hesitant to grab a skill when offered. A lot of the time, it was because he only had a limited number of skill slots, which made him more wary of being hasty. But he also had put in so much effort to combine [Barrier of Severance] and [Spatial Crack] to increase the number of his available skill slots.

There wasn’t really a reason to keep hesitating. He was just being a wuss about it.

He looked at the floor for a few more moments before coming to a decision. “Okay, I’m going to grab it,” he said to Freya with more confidence than he was feeling.

“Perfect,” she said with a grin.

He nodded his head and brought up the notification once more.

Would you like to learn [Spirit Fortification]?

He gave one last prayer to whatever gods ruled this world and then selected ‘yes’.

Appraising requirements…

Congratulations. Skills requirement met.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Congratulations. Concept requirement met.

Congratulations. Soul requirement met.

Right away, he knew that something was different than his usual skill acquisitions. He subconsciously felt the skill connection he had felt in his soul space start to glow brighter and feel more substantial. Once it fully lit up, he felt the skill snap into place with a powerful boom.

The shockwave was so strong that it literally shook his entire soul. He knew immediately that this skill wasn’t a rare skill. He let the shockwave dissipate and calm down before examining the new skill orb sitting in the middle of his soul.

This new orb was shining a brilliant sapphire blue.

Congratulations, you have learned [Spirit Fortification] (Epic).

The sudden rush of power he experienced took his breath away. He could feel his mana and aura start to act up like unruly children. They were jumping around and constantly banging into one another. This went on for a few minutes, but then this chaotic medley of energies began to slow down and calm down.