Chapter 569: Deal

“Do Freya and Cain know you are here?” Julius asked immediately, turning away from Cassian and tucking back inside his hammock with a wiggle.

“Yeah, I talked to Freya earlier. She didn’t want me approaching you,” Cassian admitted.

“So why are you here then?”

“Well, I can be mighty convincing at times and managed to convince that scary woman that I wasn’t a threat to her darling apprentice,” the man said brightly.

Julius swiveled his head to look at the man, giving him a once-over. Cassian Luminous looked like an older male version of Reinera. The same sparkling platinum hair and well-defined facial features. He also looked much younger than he likely was. Going off appearances, Julius would have thought Cassian was only twenty-five years old.

For all he knew, Cassian could have been easily double that age.

“You know that she isn’t my master, right?”

Cassian rolled his eyes. “Yeah, she also mentioned that she wasn’t officially your master. But I think we both know that she basically is.”

Julius didn’t even bother to argue because it was technically true.

“Okay, so what do you want?” He cut straight to the chase.

“I want to have an exchange of sorts,” Cassian said with a serious expression.

“You want to exchange something with me?” Julius asked with a slight laugh. He couldn’t help it. What kind of Tier 6 wanted to exchange anything with him? Freya had already told him a little bit about Cassian Luminous. Apparently, the man wasn’t like other Tier 6s; she evaluated him much higher than the others.

While she mentioned his combat power was exceedingly dangerous. It was his crafting ability that made him stand out. According to Freya, Cassian was sought out by practically every organization on the continent for his creations.

Whether it was weapons or other enchanted items, everyone wanted one. So she had told Julius that if he was ever approached by Cassian, he should at least hear the man out, in case he was offering a special item.

Cassian nodded firmly at Julius. “Yes, an exchange of some kind. Of course, Freya made some things clear and put some restrictions on what I could offer you, but I think you will still be interested.”

“What do you want from me, though? What could I possibly offer you?” That was Julius’s real interest. If someone like Cassian wanted something from him, just how valuable could it be?

“Your mana construct skill,” Cassian said, jumping from his branch to the nearest one next to Julius. There was such fiery passion in his eyes that Julius leaned as far away from the man as possible. Otherwise, he might have been burnt.

“My construct skill?” Julius repeated with confusion. He didn’t get it. He would have understood if the man was interested in his healing skill or his void skills. Maybe even his aura skill. In fact, he had been pretty confident that was what the man wanted from him. So, upon hearing the man ask about his construct skill, he was caught off guard.

“Yes, the one where you weave your unique little aura into your constructs,” Cassian confirmed and pointed at his hammock. “The same one you are using to create that little thing you are lying in.”

Julius frowned and belatedly realized that he shouldn’t be having this conversation while snuggled in his hammock. He unraveled the construct, catching himself and Drasil before they hit the ground. Drasil still wasn’t happy about this change and gave Julius a little whack on the head with his tiny fists. He left Seraphyne in her private hammock. She didn’t care about Cassian’s appearance at all.

While Julius ignored the brutal assault from Drasil, he looked over at Cassian. “Why do you want to know about that? I don’t think it’s that particularly interesting of a skill.”

Cassian scoffed. “That’s because you have no imagination or understanding of what you are doing.”

Julius pressed his lips together. “What does that mean?”

“See? You have no idea.”

“Then enlighten me,” Julius said with a glare.

Cassian laughed and put his palms up. “Okay, okay. Sheesh, so sensitive.”

Julius didn’t laugh and looked at the man expectantly.

Cassian chuckled, then answered him. “I think you are misunderstanding something. I am not interested in that lone construct skill of yours. I wouldn’t even consider it that outstanding, even amongst other epic skills. In my opinion, you would have been better off getting a more specialized fire mana skill since that is basically all you use for your constructs.”

Julius held back a retort upon hearing the criticism of [Armaments of the Arcane]. He disagreed with the man, but he wasn’t going to interrupt.

“However, the way you managed to integrate what appears to be several other skills with the skill is what intrigues me. By my tenuous analysis, you have combined several aura skills when you create your constructs. Your addition of those ruinous flames is another curiosity. Normally, something that is so close to the Concept of Destruction would prevent any forms of complicated construction or forms of structured magic. The pure nature of destruction would collapse it before it could formulate into the natural world.”

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Julius shrugged. “You might be getting the wrong idea. I just crammed them together. I don’t think it’s particularly impressive.”

Cassian smiled at Julius, but unlike the previous smiles, this one seemed a lot more genuine.

“Of course you don’t,” Cassian said to him with a light chuckle. “You don’t quite understand the significance of using both mana and aura to that degree, do you? It’s not just something anyone can pick up on.”

Julius shrugged. Perhaps that was true, but he believed most people didn’t want to bother with it. The main reason he had gotten so good at controlling aura was that he had gotten his ruinous aura skill, and it had become a necessity rather than a choice. That demon had already told Julius that other talented demons could use similar techniques.

“Anyway, what did you mean by natural world?” Julius noted that the man emphasized that. Making it sound like there was a caveat.

Cassian gave him a knowing look but still allowed Julius to change the topic.

“Yeah, considering the special composition of the constructs, you would normally need to create some kind of prepared or curated space where they could shape into existence. In this case, a domain would work just fine. But you are only Tier 3 and clearly don’t have a domain. That’s why it’s such an interesting little thing.”

“I still don’t get why you are fascinated by my constructs. You should see Riven or even Liam’s eagle. Their constructs are arguably more impressive than mine.”