Chapter 67: Hand-to-Hand Combat

After Julius finished Professor Hashen’s class, he was tired. He hadn’t used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] all day, he wanted to see how far he could push himself before he wore out. He was starting to feel the soreness from his Physical Training class and the last ten minutes of his sword-fighting class had been a struggle.

Now that he had stopped using [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] Julius realized that he had quite poor conditioning. It had only been due to [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and his prior healing skill that he was able to keep up with the trolls, otherwise he might have collapsed from exhaustion within the first few days. It was something that he definitely wanted to work on. That was the reason why he hadn’t healed himself back to full health.

However, now that he had reached close to his limit, he felt like he could heal himself. He took a deep breath and found himself in a secluded area where nobody was around and activated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. Julius released a loud sigh of relief as he felt the life and fire mana flow through his body.

His skin was covered in a warm fiery glow as the skill healed his muscles, fatigue, and mental exhaustion from the day. Within a few seconds, he was already feeling completely better. He no longer had the stiffness and heaviness in his limbs that had made swinging a sword difficult. It made him appreciate his skill.

It was such a good skill, it was probably his most powerful one. However, that was also the reason why he wanted to stop over-relying on it. He felt himself building bad habits because he had an overpowered healing skill to fall back on. He would sometimes be careless or stupid because he knew if he lost an arm or got critically injured he could heal himself back to perfect health.

His poor conditioning was a perfect example of a weakness caused by his skill. He never had to push himself to the brink of exhaustion unless he didn’t have any more life mana, and if it ever reached that point, he was already practically dead.

Even against the trolls, no matter how hard it had been at times, he didn’t remember feeling too exhausted to continue. So he decided that he would need to work on his conditioning. Because he believed that the more endurance he had, the less life mana he would have to use to keep himself in fighting shape. He would be able to use that mana to heal himself of injuries or to save his own life. He had a lot of mana, so sometimes he didn’t pay attention to how much he used. But looking back, he had been extraordinarily wasteful. Close to half of his life mana had been used to keep him from getting tired. Something that he could easily work on with just some time and patience.

Now that he was no longer dead tired, he was ready for his next class. Hand-to-hand with Gabriel might be the most anticipated class for him. He had already gotten a good idea of what Gabriel had to offer firsthand. Julius felt like he would be able to learn many crucial things from him.

Sword fighting was nice and all, but Julius didn’t really use a sword. He might in the future, that was why he had training with one, but at the end of the day, Julius really liked the feeling of hitting something with his own two fists.

There was something very satisfying about smashing his knuckles into a monster’s face or getting up close and personal, knowing that a single misstep could kill you. When you fought barehanded, there wasn’t a sword or spear you could hide behind. There was no weapon that gave you a reach advantage, just you and your opponent.

The class would take place in the main training facility that most upperclassmen used. It was also where most of the larger classes took place. Julius didn’t know how many spots were available for this class, but he wouldn’t be surprised if there were more people in this one than any other of his classes.

When he entered the facility he was amazed at how different it looked than the other buildings he had gone to today. Everything was just bigger, the rooms, the space, the equipment, and even the doors were larger.

Julius noticed there were already close to fifty students there and it was still a good ten to fifteen minutes before class even started. Most of the students were older classmates. He only saw a handful of first-years standing in the large open room.

He did see the red-headed girl and tall guy who were in his Physical Training class. They stood out with their first-year uniform and Tier 2 aura. However, Julius also saw Edgar’s large figure standing off the side. Next to him were Aubrey and surprisingly Lily. He knew that Aubrey had gone to sign up in the morning after Edgar and he did, but he didn’t remember Lily mentioning signing up too.

He knew from some clues that Lily had a mental affinity but he didn’t know she was interested in fighting barehanded. It hadn’t just been Julius who noticed him, Lily also saw him and tapped the others on their shoulders, letting them know he was there.

Julius made his way to them, maneuvering around the crowd of students.

Edgar smiled while reaching over and giving Julius a heavy pat on his back when he got to them.

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“So how was your first day?” Lily asked excitedly.

Julius smiled at her enthusiasm. “It was a lot less eventful than I thought it would be.”

“Yeah, most first day of classes consist of the professors talking for most of it. It can be really boring at times,” Aubrey said to him.

“It was definitely not the kind of excitement I was expecting. Though I did like Professor Youma, Professor Rowe, and Professor Hashen,” Julius informed them

“Not Professor Stewart and… who was your Physical Training professor again?” Aubrey asked.

“I think he said it was Professor Edwards, if I remember correctly he was an assistant professor last year,” Edgar added.

“Yeah, that was it, Professor Edwards. Why didn’t you like them?” Aubrey asked.