Chapter 580: Morning Pastries

It was the morning after the fight he had with Eren. He was still a little tired, more than he had been expecting when he found out he would be fighting Eren. He had been comparing Eren to the likes of Riven. The mage was clearly talented and skilled; that much was clear. However, Julius didn’t have much trouble beating Riven.

It had been a hard fight, especially figuring out how to deal with the large, complicated works of magic, but he had a number of skills that worked particularly well against Riven. Another thing Riven lacked was an actual means of threatening Julius.

Sure, his magic was very scary. Specifically, the ones such as the firestorm that almost burnt Julius to a crisp. But Eren’s sword light, or rather sword intent, according to Freya, had been truly a dangerous ability.

He hadn’t come across many things that could pierce his barriers with such ease. The fact that it almost took his head off and actually took his hand off was quite the surprise. It was the first time that Julius almost lost in this tournament.

He was currently walking down the streets of the inner district with a grin. It was quite busy considering how early it was. His match wouldn’t be until later in the day, so he had plenty of time to chill out and feel better.

Consuming and destroying the sword intent was quite the task for his aura and his mind. That was the only reason he still felt a little tired despite having a healing skill like [Phoenix Renewal]. However, he knew what would make him feel better and immediately headed to a cafe he had found a couple of weeks ago with Lily. They sold the most delicious pastries, and he already had plans to pick up a few for himself and his friends when they woke up.

It probably wouldn’t be for a while. Lily wasn’t a morning person, and Aubrey had stayed up late at night with him, practicing a new idea she had for an offensive skill. Edgar was probably getting up around now. He was a morning person like Julius, but he also liked to stay at home rather than go out.

As he strolled down the streets, carefully maneuvering past several bustling merchants, he thought about what Freya had told him after his match. She had told him that she had confronted Cassian on his behalf and negotiated something else in addition to their previous arrangement. Julius wondered what it could have been, but she simply smiled at him and said it was a surprise.

Julius hated surprises and begged her to tell him. But she remained stubbornly adamant and stayed silent despite his pleading. He sighed and pouted, kicking a stray pebble in front of him.

His match later today would be against Isaac of all people. It wasn’t that shocking. Julius already knew that Riven or Isaac would likely be in the finals alongside him. They were clear favorites above anyone else. However, their match was quite interesting.

He recalled that Riven had told Isaac they had fought previously. According to Riven, no winner had been decided. Riven wasn’t able to put Isaac down, and Isaac wasn’t able to pin down Riven long enough to finish him off either.

However, the arena’s limited size was clearly a major factor in the match. Riven had less space than he would have in an open area fight, and Isaac capitalized on it. The large teen was absolutely relentless, chasing Riven all over the field, slowly cornering the mage with monstrous swings of his fists.

What really decided the fight was Isaac’s ability to absorb mana and use this mana to heal himself. Riven obviously knew that Isaac had this ability, which was why he couldn’t use his normal set of skills.

The hurricane he had used against Julius and Derek would not have been a good decision. Isaac would have simply used this mana to his advantage. However, with the limited space, there wasn’t enough room to outmaneuver Isaac with his flight or teleportation.

Isaac hunted Riven down with pure aggression. Of course, Riven had several other attacks that countered Isaac’s mana-absorbing ability. The mage clearly remembered their previous fight and made some preparations. Unfortunately, Isaac also had his own preparations.

He defended himself against all of Riven’s non-mana attacks. He must have evolved or gained a new skill after that chimera fight, because Julius didn’t recognize the new layer of protection covering Isaac’s body.

Julius suspected that Isaac gained this skill because the chimera had almost killed him with that unusual attack. It was likely the reason why Isaac had been throwing his body against the chimera without care.

He didn’t know whether he liked how similar their thought processes were when learning new skills. On one hand, it made him feel like a simple brute like Isaac. But on the other hand, it clearly worked to some extent, so he couldn’t say that it was completely stupid.

Ultimately, this new skill of Isaac’s was enough to deal with Riven and come out as the victor. It wasn’t without cost, but to someone like Isaac, several broken bones and a missing arm weren’t anything to worry about.

He sighed again, thinking about how to deal with Isaac. Honestly, his best bet would be to meet Isaac head-on. That, as well as utilizing his ruinous flames to stymie his healing skill. Julius was already expecting a slugfest and, surprisingly, wasn’t feeling all that excited for it.

He already knew that if it came down to this, he would be forced to reveal his healing skill in front of everyone. There was no way he could keep up with someone like Isaac without having to rely on his healing skill from time to time. He was too fast, too strong, too tough, and with that new skill, it would be even more difficult to put him down.

He had a feeling he would get a headache later today.

He blew out a puff of air, but perked up when he spotted the cafe across the street. There was already a large line out of the door, but he didn’t mind and immediately slid into the line right behind an older couple.

He smiled when he saw the husband lean over and kiss his wife on the cheek. They were talking about what kind of pastries they were going to get. Julius was eavesdropping, trying to hear if they had any tasty-sounding recommendations.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

They sounded so sweet to each other. They were only at Tier 3, but he reminded himself that not everyone wanted to fight monsters and delve into rifts as he did. Most people were satisfied with living a normal life.

The line slowly progressed, and eventually it was almost Julius’s turn. He waited behind the older couple as ordered. While they ordered, he leaned over at the case to inspect all of the goodies. There were so many options, and he was tempted to just grab one of every type.

But to be honest, that ruined some of the fun. It was sort of exciting being forced to choose something good. If he got one of everything, then it didn’t feel as satisfying when he found one he really liked. But if he had a selection of three dozen options and could only choose a small number, then it felt like more of an accomplishment if he managed to find some of the best ones due to his ‘discerning’ eye or nose.

At the moment, he was torn between what kind of croissants he wanted to get. There were so many variations, but he didn’t want to get too many. So he limited himself to choosing just three croissants. He was going to get the plain one, mainly because Edgar had loved that one the most.