Chapter 97: Concepts

Julius looked at the big bald man who was staring at him with frightening intensity. He knew that he should not have gone missing for two weeks, but it was for a good reason. Still, that didn’t mean he didn’t understand where Gabriel was coming from.

Julius knew that the big guy was just concerned for him. At least in the beginning anyway. Once he was sure that Julius was okay, he looked over the room and saw the big disc that was still stuck in the wall. Julius saw him do a double take, acting like it was a very big deal.

These rooms were meant to take a significant amount of damage. Not to the extreme as the training rooms in the main training facility, but still should have been enough to handle most damage. So seeing Julius puncture the defenses must’ve come as a surprise to Gabriel.

Finally, Gabriel broke his intense stare and silence. “What have you been doing in here?”

Julius didn’t mind answering. It wasn’t a big secret or anything.

“I was trying to evolve a couple of my skills so that I can combine them with some of my other skills.”

“You are telling me that you were trying to evolve some of your skills within a couple of weeks?” Gabriel asked a little skeptically.

Julius just shrugged his shoulders and nodded. He was telling the truth, if Gabriel didn’t want to believe him then it wasn’t his fault.

“Okay, I have never asked you to tell me your skills. I know that you have several very good rare-ranked skills, but would you be willing to tell me about some of your other skills?” Gabriel asked.

Now that, Julius found it a little more difficult to answer. That would require him to tell him more of his skills than he had with anyone else. He hadn’t even told the other five about his skills. He told them about what kind of skills he had, but he hadn’t told them the specifics. They hadn’t told him the specifics of their skills either. They all just explained their builds and that had been enough so far.

“What would you want to know?” Julius asked him.

“That.” Gabriel pointed at the disc protruding from the wall. “I’m guessing you want to create a skill that relates to that construct that is sticking out of the walls and that has damaged the training room.”

Julius had the grace to look a little sheepish. However, he didn’t mind sharing the details about that. He had been thinking that Gabriel had been asking to see his status sheet. But if anything, telling Gabriel about his idea might help him a lot.

So he explained to Gabriel what he was looking for and even told him some of the skills he was planning to combine.

“You are trying to make an epic skill already? I thought you were trying to create another rare skill, but epic is a totally different beast,” Gabriel said taken aback by Julius’s plan.

“What? You don’t think it will work?” Julius was curious as to Gabriel’s opinion on the matter.

“I haven’t heard of [Arcane Construct] before but the idea is solid. The process of creating an epic skill is very different than the previous ranks. It is why people get to Tier 3 before trying to create one. With that being said, you almost have the most difficult part of creating an epic skill already done.”

Julius turned to look directly at Gabriel with a confused look. What most difficult part? Having multiple skills at rare?

Gabriel gave a big-bellied laugh when he saw the look on his face. “You don’t know do you?”

“Know what?” Julius asked with a frown.

“I am not surprised that nobody has told you yet. Epic-ranked skills are typically not acquired until Tier 3, so I’m guessing no one has thought fit to tell you yet.” Gabriel laughed again.

“Why is it so amusing then?” Julius asked a little annoyed.

Gabriel had stopped laughing long enough for him to explain himself, but he was sporting a massive grin. “Because do you know how many people fail at learning a Concept? Do you know how many people are stuck at Tier 3 or are unable to learn an epic skill because they fail to do so? If they knew you have accidentally come across one, they would try to stab you in the face out of envy.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“Look.” Gabriel walked over and stood next to the disc that was still in the process of breaking down. “This here is one hell of an impressive construct on its own. But what caught my attention was the hints of a Sharpness Concept emanating from it.”

Gabriel must’ve seen the bewildered look on Julius’s face because he continued. “Okay, so there are a few things a person must do to progress further along the path. Some mistakenly believe that it takes an epic skill to reach Tier 4, but they are misinterpreting something. They don’t need an epic skill but instead, they need to comprehend a Concept. An epic skill is created by a Concept, but some don’t understand that a Concept is necessary to develop one’s Authority.”

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“A Concept?” Julius pressed for more details.