“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.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  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.”

  Julius wasn’t lying either. Liam’s eagle had shown a level of control and complexity that Julius didn’t think he could replicate until he advanced to Tier 4 or evolved [Armaments of the Arcane]. He didn’t like to admit it, but he was a little jealous.

  Cassian shrugged uncaringly. “Perhaps, but they are also a singular, specialized skill. I know that Valis’s disciple has a mana skill that is so powerful for an epic rank that it prevents him from getting many other skills; otherwise, his mind and soul would break down from the sheer overload. As for that Abram’s kid, that skill is more of a trick using the system to aid its creation than anything else. It will only show its true potential once it gets past level 20 or when it evolves to legendary rank.”

  Cassian jammed a finger in his direction. “But as I said, you have combined several weird skills in such a way that shouldn’t be possible.”

  Julius frowned as he ignored the man for a moment. He still thought Cassian was being a bit dramatic. But he was focused on what he just said.

  “System?”

  Cassian tilted his head. “Huh?” The man was clearly taken aback by this change of topic.

  “You said that his skill relied on the system,” Julius repeated.

  “Oh, that! It’s not anything weird. The Alliance of the Morning Sun uses that term to describe the ‘system’ that our status and skills use. The Empire and Corvus use ‘Words of the World’. I know some other places use nonsensical ones like ‘God’s Scripture’. I tend to call it the system, but it's all the same.”

  Hmm. Julius didn’t even know that.

  “So what do you say?” Cassian probed.

  “You just want to examine my technique?” Julius asked with a skeptical look.

  “Among other things, yes,” Cassian said with an excited nod.

  “I don’t mind, of course, you will have to offer me something in return,” Julius said with a smile of his own.

  “Naturally,” Cassian said, and outstretched his hand. “So we have a deal?”

  Julius looked at the hand for a few long moments before reaching out and shaking it. “For now.”

  ***

  They ironed out some details, but they both agreed that it should wait until he was done with the tournament. Julius was just too busy.

  He told Cain and Freya immediately upon his return to the estate. They had been staying at House Zenith’s estate for the past couple of weeks since it was easier that way.

  Neither of them was surprised, and despite Freya’s previous disapproving stance, she was now on board for some reason. He wondered what had changed and what Cassian had said to her that had changed her mind.

  The past few days have been relatively peaceful. He had spent the majority of it training nonstop. Oliver had even stopped by and sparred with him. The result?

  About the same as last time. He was left completely drained of mana and unable to move from the hole he had been smashed into.

  He did gain a few levels during these few days, though.

  [Kinetic Shell lvl 9 -> lvl 12]

  [Graveforce Impact lvl 1 -> lvl 4]

  [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 22 -> lvl 23]

  He also began combining his three kinetic skills. He was actually progressing very well. He had already started with [Kinetic Shell] and [Kinetic Energy Refinement], so integrating [Graveforce Impact] wasn’t too difficult.

  The biggest issue he had was making sure he developed them so that his combined skill set would be what he wanted.

  He wanted a domain skill that also served as a defensive skill. It was a little tricky, but he could start to see the initial stages of it developing. [Kinetic Shell] acted as the base. He could see why Cain had told him the skill was good. It really was.

  While the skill wasn’t that powerful yet, the sheer versatility made it worthwhile. With [Kinetic Shell] as the base, he added [Graveforce Impact] to the mix as well. This not only made whatever attacks he used with [Kinetic Shell] stronger, but also helped absorb kinetic energy more efficiently.

  He always had an issue with siphoning energy too slowly, but this new skill was helping out quite a bit. Another issue was the range. [Kinetic Shell] was currently limited to his body and anything within a few feet. Anything beyond that was unaffected. However, that meant sparring helped gain some nice levels.

  He would have liked to shove himself into a dark room and keep at it, but his match day had already arrived. It was his top sixteen match as well. With so few individuals left in the tournament, people were frantically trying to make bets with one another about who would win.

  Julius didn’t care about that stuff. He simply wanted to get back to his training. In fact, he was a little annoyed because he had thought of something he wanted to try. Perhaps, he would get this match done quickly so he could get back to his work.

  Not too long after he arrived at the stadium, he found himself walking onto the stage. The stadium was packed to the brim.

  Large screens adorned every corner, and he could hear the crowd’s cheer through the barrier. The stadium literally shook as the spectators clamored.

  He looked over at his opponent. Lance was his name, if he recalled. Lily had told him a couple of days ago, but he hadn’t been listening that well since Cain had just put his face through a wall minutes prior to that.

  Still, he could tell that he was pretty skilled right from the jump. The way the guy’s aura fluctuated showed a great deal of discipline, but perhaps wasn’t as impressive as Liam’s.

  Julius gave the man one last long glance, feeling his mana start to rumble excitedly. However, he wanted to test a few things real quick.

  Sadly, he wasn’t given enough space, and before Julius could make his other preparations, the young man rushed at him, sword in hand.

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