Chapter 49: Start of the Entrance Exam

There were still many people out and about, shopping at stores, Julius saw many other kids his age walking with their parents. He assumed that they were also applying to Goldencrest today.

While they walked, Julius asked Declan about the options he got last night for [Mana Manipulation]. Declan was a little surprised that he had already got it to level 10.

“That was fast. I thought you were training your aura lately, I thought that maybe it would take you a couple of weeks to evolve your [Mana Manipulation].”

“Yeah I made more progress faster than I thought I would,” Julius said offhandedly.

Julius felt Declan’s aura probe, it was much more subtle than the one he used at the gate when Julius first met him. If it wasn’t for his training and his really good perception he didn’t think he would have noticed this time.

Declan knew Julius felt it, and looked at him his gaze asking for an explanation. He knew Julius was hiding something. But Julius knew Declan wouldn’t press unless he was really worried about Julius, he was fine with not knowing all of Julius’s secrets, which Julius respected immensely. Still, he felt bad for keeping it from Declan. Plus, he was leaving soon anyway and Declan wouldn’t be able to stop Julius from practicing at night anymore.

Julius decided to come clean, it would keep his conscious clear in the long run.

“I may have been practicing all night when everyone went to bed,” he admitted to Declan.

“All night? How late were you practicing?” Declan asked concerningly.

“The entire night,” Julius answered.

Declan had stopped walking, Julius felt Declan enforce the barrier of aura that was already around them, protecting their conversation from people who might overhear it.

“Okay, I’m confused, explain,” Declan said.

“You know my healing skill?” Julius asked and Declan nodded in return. “Well, it has a unique effect where it is able to heal fatigue, which also extends to how much sleep I require to function.”

Declan thought on Julius’s words before responding, “Most healing skills, even at rare specialize in one area. Regeneration or healing of injuries is one of them, the other is recovery, which includes fatigue and purification. I have not heard of a skill that allows you to do all of that at high levels and also mitigate sleep.”

“So most healing skills or recovery skills don’t let people go without sleep?” Julius asked him.

“They can, but only for a day or two, and there are usually some bad side effects for doing so. I wonder if that is why your skill is rated as rare+.” Declan added.

“Should I be worried about long-term side effects if I continue to do it? I have been doing it for the past few weeks but I haven’t noticed anything,” Julius informed Declan.

“A few weeks with no sleep?” Declan asked worryingly.

“I did take a couple of naps in between but essentially little to no sleep for weeks,” Julius said.

Declan thought for a while, they had moved off the main road and were standing by an empty alley. “Honestly, I would say yes in most cases. You won’t find many healing skills like that until epic rank, even then they are extremely uncommon. I can see if it was a single skill that focused on lower requirements of sleep, some skills exist like that and are used mainly by researchers but yours sounds very unique. I would be extremely worried if your aura was showing negative signs, but it seems healthy, exceedingly healthy even.”

Julius was relieved, but he was scared for a moment, he thought that he was hurting himself. Sleep deprivation was a real thing in his old world. Luckily Declan believed that Julius wasn’t killing himself so far.

“Do you think it has to do with the fact it is a self-use healing only? Would that restriction impact how effective its healing is?” Julius wanted to know if that was possible.

“I didn’t know you could only use it on yourself. But that would make more sense. Self-buff skills are always more powerful than skills that allow you to buff anyone. It’s as you said, more restrictions but higher potency,” Declan agreed with Julius.

Julius would be careful in the future, he wouldn’t stop completely but he would make sure he did take breaks every now and then. Like how he did last night.

“I promise I will monitor it closely, if anything seems off I will stop using it,” Julius promised Declan.

“That’s all I can ask for, I can’t exactly tell you what to do, especially while you are at the academy but I do hope you will take care of yourself. You are sometimes too mature for your age, but don’t let training suck the enjoyment out of life,” Declan advised him.

Declan never did answer, what skill he should take that is. He said that he should wait until he has the time to research some of the available [Mana Manipulation] options at Goldencrest. Declan told him he would have the resources to get a better idea of what certain skills might do.

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They eventually, made it to the gates of Goldencrest Academy, the gorgeous gold building looming behind the massive gates. There were a lot of kids his age with their parents entering the property. There were many Goldencrest staff members out in front making sure each person had what they needed and directing them to the testing areas.