It took a bit of walking before Julius and Declan encountered a golem. Julius was able to pick it up before it was in sight. The golem was a big mound of rock that looked vaguely humanoid in shape. It had two legs and two arms, but that was where the similarities ended.

It was around ten feet tall and the surface of its exterior had a rough and pebbly texture. Though there were no obvious seams other than some of the joints as far as Julius could tell. However, the most noticeable thing was the large concentration of mana, just to the right side of the golem’s chest.

Julius would bet all of the food in his storage ring that this was where the core was located.

He looked on excitedly at his next opponent. He had heard a lot of things about the defensive properties of these creatures. He was expecting that they would prove to be more challenging than the goblins had been.

He gathered mana into a spike with familiar ease. [Composite Mana] had made his life so much easier. The speed at which he was able to create a spike was very satisfying. The added power caused by the interaction and synergy behind the various energies was welcome too.

With a mental command, the spike was sent blasting toward the unsuspecting golem, aimed directly at the spot where he spotted the core. Much to his disappointment the spike absolutely shredded through the stone defenses of the golem. The core didn’t stand a chance. The spike didn’t even have to explode, it just sheered right through its chest and blasted against the back wall.

Julius just froze for a minute. He hadn’t been expecting something like that. Perhaps he should have, but with all the talk about the golem's defensive abilities, he would have thought that it would be able to take at least a couple of attacks. Even at Tier 2.

He turned back to look at Declan who was equally as surprised. However for very different reasons. While Julius was disappointed at how easy it was, Declan was surprised at how easily Julius dispatched it.

Declan knew how powerful Julius was for his Tier and how powerful his constructs were in particular, but he didn’t think that they were quite on this level. They certainly weren’t at this level when Declan first met the boy.

It was fair to mention that Declan didn’t specialize in the same areas as Julius. This meant that he didn’t really have a comprehensive understanding of Julius’s constructs and their destructive capabilities. But he knew what his eyes told him.

He had seen how well Julius had fared against goblins. Julius had a really good perception skill and was able to ambush the goblins without them fighting back. Also, the goblins had very weak defenses. Their biggest advantage was their numbers and aggression. Something that Julius was able to neutralize. He could understand why Julius had such an easy time with the rift. It was a good fit.

But this rift was the opposite in many aspects. It had singular large and powerful enemies versus many weak ones.

It was also worth mentioning that the constructs he used against them were much weaker than what he was showing now. The spike he used on the golem was brutal. Declan didn’t know how he was able to create such a devastating attack, but it wasn’t something he should have been capable of.

Julius continued to look at Declan. Neither of them knew what to do. Both hadn’t expected Julius to just one-shot the golem.

“What now?” Julius finally asked aloud.

“I don’t know. I thought that this rift would be a little more difficult for you,” Declan confessed.

“Yeah, so did I. You and other sources told me that golems were really hard to put down.”

“They are. Almost every single variant has some sort of [Mana Resistance] and other various resistance skills. If you add that on top of their natural physical defenses, it is normally very difficult to one-shot them. Even a Tier 3 would have to put in a lot of effort to one-shot a golem,” Declan said slowly.

“So what does this mean? Do we continue or do we change something?” Julius asked.

Declan put a hand underneath his chin. “How many more of those spikes can you create before running out of mana?”

Julius shrugged his shoulders and placed his palms face up in the air. “I don’t know. You know that of all things I am not lacking in mana. I could most likely create dozens more without issue.”

Declan’s mouth widened and hung open. “Dozens? Like a couple dozen or several dozen?”

“Yeah, depends on how much I use on each one.”

Declan didn’t say anything, he just turned away from Julius and took some time to think. While he was doing that, Julius felt another golem approach them. It must have felt the blast from his spike and came to investigate. Golems weren’t very smart but they knew how to sense mana among other things, such as a big explosion.

Julius quickly created another spike, but this time he didn’t create an explosive version. It was just a pointy spike. Much more boring but also much quieter.

He shot it at the approaching golem and it tore through the thing's chest where the core resided. He used less mana and force this time, but the sharpened mana still tore through the rock like butter.

Declan was still quiet but he took in Julius’s actions.

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Finally, Julius spoke up. “You see why I want to test myself in Tier 3 rifts?”

Declan nodded. “Yeah, I’m starting to see where your confidence is coming from. When you told me you wanted to enter Tier 3 rifts I thought you were just exaggerating your abilities. I know you are strong, but Tier 3 is very different from Tier 2.”

“And now?” Julius asked.

“You certainly have the power to punch through a Tier 3 defense.”

“So does that mean we can head to a Tier 3 rift instead?” Julius asked hopefully.

“No, we might as well get some use out of this one. Next time I will take you to a Tier 3 rift. But they are a little more busy than Tier 2 rifts so I will have to schedule it beforehand.”

Well, that was a bust, Julius sadly thought to himself. He had been looking forward to testing his new skill on actual monsters.

“Do you have an idea what I can still get out of this rift then?” Julius asked Declan.

“Do you have something you want to work on? Any skills that you might want to level up?”

“Not really. However, I have been working on my Concept lately. I haven’t had much luck and I was hoping to find a solution here,” Julius admitted to Declan. He hadn’t told Declan about his plans for this epic skill and his intentions of learning a Sharpness Concept, it just hadn’t come up until now.

Declan chuckled and shook his head. “Of course you are.” He didn’t know why he was still getting surprised by the boy. “What Concept are you working on?”

“Sharpness and maybe fire.”

Declan smiled. “Sharpness huh? I might be able to help you there,” Declan said to Julius’s surprise.

“Why’s that?” Julius curiously asked.

Declan looked at his fingernails casually. “I have a Concept of Penetration and I might be able to share some advice.” Julius watched as the man seemed awfully smug about it. But he didn’t elaborate any further.

Julius waited for the man to say something after but he didn’t. “Well don’t feel pressured to say anything,” Julius sarcastically told him.

Declan just laughed and bent down and picked up a handful of random pebbles. Then he turned and placed them in Julius’s hand.

“What do you want me to do with these?” Julius asked.

“I want you to use them to take down a golem,” Declan explained.

That shouldn’t be too hard, Julius thought to himself. He took one random pebble and begin to create a layer of mana around the rock. He compressed the mana and constructed it so that the pebble was harder than a piece of steel.

Declan put his hand on Julius’s shoulders and shook his head. “No skills other than the [Mana Slash] skill you have.

Julius looked up at the man. “How did you know I have [Mana Slash]?

“It’s kind of obvious. It is one of the more common skills for a reason, though your usage of it is not something I have quite seen. You must have spent a lot of time adapting it.”

“Oh yeah, way too much time,” Julius said while shaking his head. “So what’s the purpose of using only [Mana Slash]?” Julius asked.

“There are a couple of reasons. One is that I want you to focus on using sharpened mana. Only using the single skill will allow you to focus primarily on the Sharpness Concept. Another reason is that it will serve as a good opportunity to level up your skill to rare,” Declan explained.

Declan must have seen the weird look on Julius’s face because he asked Julius, “What’s wrong?”

“I actually finished leveling up [Mana Slash] to level 15 not too long ago. I just hadn’t chosen what skill I wanted to go with,” Julius told Declan about his circumstances.

“Do you have any skills that you are leaning toward?”

“I was going to go with [Mana Strike] because I think there is a good chance that it will fit well with my other skills,” he told Declan.

“What other skills did you get offered?”

Julius thought about telling him and thought that it was worth it if he somehow got some good advice. “I got offered [Mana Strike], [Razor Edge], [Rippling Slice], [Rendering Slash], and [Barrier of Severance],” he told Declan.

“You said you want to combine several skills into an epic skill correct?” Declan asked.

“That’s the plan at least. Why?” Declan made it sound as if he had something in mind.

“How many exactly?”

“Four,” Julius said hesitantly. He was getting more and more confused.

“You should be able to create an epic skill without using [Mana Slash] or without the evolved skill of [Mana Slash]. Three should be enough to have a good mana construct skill,” Declan said eagerly.

“Why? You make it sound like it would be better not to,” Julius looked at Declan with inquisitive eyes.

“I think you should change your mind about adding [Mana Strike] to the skill and instead get the [Barrier of Severance] skill,” Declan said with a grin.

“The reason being?”

Declan paused to get his thoughts together. “I have not heard of the skill [Barrier of Severance] before. However, I have heard of the skill [Barrier of Disruption]. It was used by an anti-mage fighter by the name of Riley, better known as the Ghostblade. He was brutally effective in taking down mages and those who relied on activated skills. While the name is similar to a more common skill, [Disruption Barrier] the effects were much more extreme than it. It was never recorded what his epic evolved skill was, but it was without a doubt the most impressive skill in his arsenal. He was able to disrupt not just mana, but everything,” Declan said excitedly.

Julius looked at Declan with a serious expression. “And you think that this [Barrier of Severance] skill will be just as good? I appreciate your advice, but I have been set on combining these skills for a while. I don’t really see the value in having a defensive skill like that rather than a potent addition to an offensive technique.”

Declan chuckled. “He didn’t just use it as a defensive technique, its real value was how he was able to apply it to practically anything. Even his aura.”

“His aura?” Julius asked amazed.

“Yeah, that was the real danger of that technique. Anybody who got within the influence of his aura was effectively handicapped and was able to use their mana or any other active skills. Mages couldn’t manipulate mana and couldn’t teleport away to protect themselves. They were sitting ducks for him.”

“Where is he now?” Julius asked. He was impressed, this man sounded very skilled and very powerful.

“Yeah about that…” Declan trailed off.

“What?” Julius pressed.

“Well… he was hunted down and killed a while ago,” Declan said while scratching his head awkwardly.

Julius froze and gave Declan a deadpan stare. Really?

“You want me to take a skill that belonged to a person who got himself killed?” Julius asked disbelievingly.