Chapter 454: Soul Rewards

Freya POV

Freya had been hoping that by acquiring another powerful skill, Julius would initiate his soul evolution. She happened to be correct on that assumption, but she also felt like it might have been a mistake.

While she had some experience with healing soul damage, she would by no means call herself an expert on soul magic. There were only a few people she knew who had such expertise. Most of them were likely locked away in some room, spending all of their time researching.

Now she felt like she should have taken Julius to one of these people. The first and second soul evolutions weren’t usually a concern. They were natural progressions of one’s soul as they climbed up the tiers.

The first soul evolution was typically experienced when you were around Tier 2 or advancing to Tier 3, depending on your circumstances. Some people might evolve in Tier 2 if they managed to gain powerful skills like Julius had done. Or for some people who consumed expensive soul-strengthening treasures, they might also evolve in Tier 2.

This evolution primarily focused on strengthening one’s soul in preparation for future development and laid a solid foundation. It was a straightforward overall enhancement with minimal specifications.

The second soul evolution commonly occurs after advancing to Tier 4. That barrier was much more challenging to cross early than the first soul evolution. It was natural, considering the increased power required.

Yet, there were still cases when people experienced it early. Many of these individuals often specialized in the soul or had consumed a unique treasure at some point to facilitate the process.

Julius had done neither. However, he had a special case where he had evolved his soul while at Tier 2 and possessed a large number of epic-rank skills, which would have hastened the evolution. It was also worth mentioning that he had a much more powerful soul than an average person.

All of these factors were why she believed he could evolve his soul. It was a great thing as well because she had been concerned about his soul’s ability to withstand the advancement to Tier 4.

While most people got their soul evolution after advancement, she was worried that Julius would need the improved soul to handle the advancement. Cain agreed with her as well.

That was why she had pushed him to get that skill he had been holding off on. However, she might come to regret that decision. Especially seeing Julius undergo his soul evolution right before her eyes.

He was on the ground in a fetal position, constantly in and out of consciousness, silently screaming out in pain. Her heart ached seeing him in that state, but she knew that she couldn’t intervene too much.

Typically, the second soul evolution was a more forceful version of the first evolution. It didn’t require the person to experience the growth and changes one would experience during their third evolution.

Yet, from what she saw of Julius, she suspected that something was wrong with his evolution. She had been convinced that there had to be some reason why Julius’s soul hadn’t already evolved and had come up with several hypotheses.

The first one was that his soul damage had made lasting impacts on his soul and was the reason he wasn’t able to cross that threshold without a much more powerful nudge.

Another hypothesis was that he had such a powerful soul that he simply required an extreme amount of power and time to fill it up completely.

She also thought he might have had a mutated or uniquely designed soul, which caused it not to act like a normal one. This wasn’t uncommon, especially in monsters. She had come across many creatures with unique souls and had developed abilities around such phenomena.

Just a few years ago, she had come across a variation of a Windstriker Crow whose soul had somehow merged or consumed a Wind Elemental’s soul. This combination had led to the Windstriker Crow becoming extraordinarily powerful. A gust of its wings was enough to wreak havoc on a nearby village, as if a tornado blew right through their homes.

However, the hypothesis that she leaned toward the most was that it was a combination of all three of these things. It was very likely that the drastic damage to his soul had caused some irreversible changes. It was also possible that he had a soul so powerful that it required a monstrous stimulus. Furthermore, she had noticed that his soul was slightly different than the ones she had examined before.

She didn’t know if it was quite mutated or if it was the soul damage, but Julius’s soul was different from other human souls she had inspected in the past.

Usually, it was only when you reached your third soul evolution that things became more complicated. It was during that time that you finally began to acquire soul traits that would impact the rest of your path.

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She didn’t think he would quite get to that point, but she wouldn’t be shocked if he started exploring some of those more esoteric abilities.

She halted her musing when she saw him start to convulse again. She quickly sent some of her healing magic through him. There wasn’t much she could do, but she should be able to alleviate some of the immediate concerns.

For example, now that he was barely conscious, some of his other abilities were going out of control. The previously tight control he had over his kinetic energy was nowhere to be seen. Large pulses of crushing kinetic energy were being blasted outward from his body.

The pulses were so intense that she suspected some Tier 3s would have died from being exposed to them. That was how scary strong he was for his tier.

If that wasn’t bad enough, his other skills showed signs of acting out of control. She had always been impressed by his degree of control over his mana and aura, but for the first time, she started to see it lashing out without any control.

Large swaths of fire started to flare outward. His unique blue flames were hotter than ever. She normally didn’t grasp how hot his fire was because he usually used his fire mana to create hardened constructs, but the fire mana was really quite scorching.