Julius found himself staring at the beautiful view of the capital from the balcony of Cain and Freya's house.

"You really think I should?" Julius asked Freya.

"Yeah, I think it would be for the best. I would like to see you complete your second soul evolution before advancing to Tier 4. Getting that skill might be enough to push you over the edge," she explained to him.

He and Freya were discussing the option of him acquiring [Spirit Fortification]. A skill he had been offered a few months ago. He would have already chosen it if not for the fact that he had been able to create aura-woven mana constructs pretty well so far without the skill to aid him.

He didn't want to sound too arrogant, but his control of mana and aura was already at a very high level. He didn't know how much the skill would help him if he chose it.

With that being said, it sounded like Freya thought it was a good idea.

"Why is it important for me to go through my second soul evolution before Tier 4?" He asked her curiously.

Truth be told, he had some concerns about his soul evolution as well. He knew that the requirement to evolve must be much more complicated than the previous evolution, but he had eight epic skills already. Not to mention, three of them were superior epic skills. With his head start, he had believed he would have already satisfied the requirements.

The only reason he could think of was that the advancement to Tier 4 was the only thing strong enough to push him across that line. However, looking back on it, Doren had mentioned that he was already very close to evolving his soul. That was why he hadn't given Julius a soul-strengthening treasure.

From the way Doren made it sound, Julius was already close to evolving his soul without having to rely on his advancement, and using a treasure would have been a waste.

So what was the reason he hadn't evolved his soul yet?

"I think with how strong your Authority is bound to become, having as strong a soul as possible will be an excellent idea," she pointed out.

He agreed with her logic. He would also like to be as well prepared as possible. The advancement to Tier 4 was bound to be rough, especially with what Cain said about the body transformation he would undergo. The acquisition of an Authority was just another thing he had to worry about on top of it.

"Do you think it is a good skill to get?" He asked Freya. He knew he had already asked Savath, and the demon had told him that he should definitely grab the skill. However, Julius also didn't know if he trusted Savath completely.

For one, the demon had been trying to kill him, but more importantly, Julius didn't know if the demon's skills were different from those of humans. What if a skill that was good for demons wasn't necessarily the same for humans?

"Oh, it is definitely a good skill. From what you explained, it is likely an epic-ranked skill," she replied.

"Epic rank? Are you sure about that?" Julius asked. He had never received an epic skill right away without having to level it up from rare.

"Not completely, but from what I know about skills that merge both properties of mana and aura, they are usually advanced skills. If it isn't an epic skill, then it will likely be a superior rare skill. If you take into account your current experience with using a similar technique, you will quickly level it up to epic," she stated, sounding confident that he would be able to accomplish that despite knowing that normal people sometimes took years to level up their rare skills to epic.

He thought about it, and honestly, he couldn't find a reason not to acquire the skill. He had a bad habit of being hesitant to grab a skill when offered. A lot of the time, it was because he only had a limited number of skill slots, which made him more wary of being hasty. But he also had put in so much effort to combine [Barrier of Severance] and [Spatial Crack] to increase the number of his available skill slots.

There wasn't really a reason to keep hesitating. He was just being a wuss about it.

He looked at the floor for a few more moments before coming to a decision. "Okay, I'm going to grab it," he said to Freya with more confidence than he was feeling.

"Perfect," she said with a grin.

He nodded his head and brought up the notification once more.

Would you like to learn [Spirit Fortification]?

He gave one last prayer to whatever gods ruled this world and then selected 'yes'.

Appraising requirements…

Congratulations. Skills requirement met.

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Congratulations. Concept requirement met.

Congratulations. Soul requirement met.

Right away, he knew that something was different than his usual skill acquisitions. He subconsciously felt the skill connection he had felt in his soul space start to glow brighter and feel more substantial. Once it fully lit up, he felt the skill snap into place with a powerful boom.

The shockwave was so strong that it literally shook his entire soul. He knew immediately that this skill wasn't a rare skill. He let the shockwave dissipate and calm down before examining the new skill orb sitting in the middle of his soul.

This new orb was shining a brilliant sapphire blue.

Congratulations, you have learned [Spirit Fortification] (Epic).

The sudden rush of power he experienced took his breath away. He could feel his mana and aura start to act up like unruly children. They were jumping around and constantly banging into one another. This went on for a few minutes, but then this chaotic medley of energies began to slow down and calm down.

Once it slowed down, two different energies began to swirl together in a beautiful dance of colors. His mana and aura seeped into one another, infusing specific aspects into the other. The distinction between mana and aura was more blurred than ever.

On top of this, there was this feeling that both his mana and aura were being cleansed of all impurities.

That wasn't the end of it either. His mana and aura started to make their way throughout his body. It was very similar to what he had felt with his kinetic energy when he had learned [Kinetic Energy Refinement].

Only this time around, it didn't cause him extreme amounts of pain. Instead, it felt amazing. It was like his entire body and soul were being revitalized with pure energy. There was a slight tingling in his eyes as the energy channeled through them as well.

He wanted to savor this for as long as he could and kept his eyes closed as he let the lingering sensation fade.

"Are you okay?" He heard Freya ask worriedly.

"Yeah, I am fine," he said with a smile.

"Do you feel anything happening with your soul?"

He took some time to delve deep into his soul and see if anything was happening. But truthfully, it was hard to tell. With the new skill acquisition, his soul was in a constant state of flux as it adapted to the latest change.

He shrugged. "I am not sure."

"Was the skill epic-ranked?" She asked him.

He bobbed his head. "Yep, though it wasn't a superior skill like I had hoped," he said sadly.

He hadn't wanted to get his hopes up, but he had really been praying it would be a superior skill like [Void Strike] and [Void Step] had been. However, it would appear he wasn't that lucky.

"That's not that big of a deal. The fact that you already have three is a good sign. It demonstrates that you have already satisfied some of the requirements necessary to reach legendary rank and Tier 5. It's not like superior skills are necessarily better anyway. I would much rather you get a skill that suits your path rather than a more 'powerful' skill," she explained to him casually.

He nodded as he listened to her explanation. He had long suspected that was the case, but it was nice to hear someone as strong as her confirm it.

He also suspected that [Void Step] and [Void Strike] were quite unique skills in the first place. He didn't know what part of the skill satisfied the requirements, but it was nice that he wouldn't have to worry about them later on. He mainly needed to focus on getting them to level 25.

Actually, on second thought, he didn't even know if he needed to get to level 25 to advance his epic skills to legendary rank. He had just assumed that was the case because, so far, all of his skills had been in stages of five extra levels each rank. For all he knew, that was entirely different for epic rank.

Luckily for him, he had someone who could help him out with that.

"Hey, just a random question, but what is the skill level threshold for epic-ranked skills?" He asked Freya with a curious tilt of his head.

"You have to reach level 30."

"Level 30?" He asked with a disappointed groan.

"What? Did you think it was so easy to get a skill to legendary rank?" She asked him with a scoff.

"No, but a man can dream," he muttered sadly.

"Well, knowing you, it probably won't take you that long, so don't worry. Just make sure you don't kill yourself when you try to get there," she said pointedly.

He looked away from her. "I don't know what you mean by that," he murmured.

"Sure, sure."

"But on another note, do you think—" He halted mid-sentence as he suddenly experienced a wave of vertigo and fell to his knees. He tried to maintain his balance with kinetic energy, but he was so disoriented that all he managed to do was blow a hole in the floor. It wasn't just his body that felt weird, but everything. Even his mind wasn't reacting.

He staggered a few times and eventually just laid on the ground as extreme waves of vertigo washed over him. He wanted to throw up, but nothing came up to his throat.

Thankfully, Freya was right by his side the moment he dropped to the floor. She immediately started to pour life mana into him. The refreshing coolness made its way all to his soul. However, not even her magic was able to alleviate all of it.

There was only so much she could do for him, and he knew the reason why as well.

Another wave of nausea hit him, but this time around, he felt some energy from his soul ripple throughout his body. This made him convulse uncontrollably, and he groaned as he was forced to wait and let it die out on its own.

There was this odd disconnect between his body, mind, and soul. This caused him to lose the careful control he had trained all these years. His mana and kinetic energy went wild. Random blasts of fire and force wreaked havoc across the room. He could barely recognize it when Freya created a sturdy barrier to contain the damage.

Then came the pain. It was like his aura had turned against him and started to rush through his body, trying to destroy every inch of it. There wasn't anything he could do either. He was helpless as he watched his aura do its very best to kill him.

He let loose a silent scream as his aura tore apart his lungs and made its way up to his head. He wanted to ask for help, but he also knew it would be for naught.

This was his tribulation to withstand. His soul's challenge to overcome. So he gritted his teeth as another excruciating wave of pain flowed through him and prepared for the worst to come.

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