“What? When did this happen? I thought it would take longer than a month,” Aubrey exclaimed.

“What can I say? I guess I am just an overachiever,” Julius said smugly to her. She gave him a hard nudge on the shoulders in return but had a hidden grin on her face.

All six of them were walking down the beach after they ate dinner. He had been explaining the general gist of what happened while all of them had been walking. He hadn’t had the opportunity yesterday when he was coming back from Dante’s. Then today the other’s had been busy with classes and such.

“So you actually managed to get your already overpowered healing skill to epic?” Derek asked.

“Yep,” Julius said, emphasizing the last syllable with a pop. He felt Aubrey grab his shoulder and pull him closer to her.

“So what kind of skill is it? Did you get some sort of healing skill that is even more overpowered now? Maybe one that gives you immortality?” She asked jokingly.

He gave her a push and got out of her grip. “No, nothing like that. I got the general upgrade option,” he paused. “Though I did get offered a skill that would allow me to revive, or so I think it would’ve.”

Aubrey and the rest of them paused in their tracks, leaving Julius walking all alone for a moment. He turned back wondering why they stopped and saw all of their faces look at him with various expressions.

Lily, and Derek all had looks on their faces like Julius was crazy or something. While Aubrey, Edgar, and Kyle had more interesting countenances on their face.

“What?” He asked them.

“Why didn’t you get that skill?” Lily asked loudly.

“You think I should have gotten it?” Julius asked, a little surprised at her reaction.

Derek looked at him with a blank stare. “Of course. Personally, my family has been trying for me to get a similar skill. Resurrection skills are niche, but almost always come in handy. For someone with a lightning affinity like me, it is much harder as resurrection skills usually come with life, death, or light affinities, but there are outliers. Such as a skill called [Avatar of Lightning].”

“I thought [Avatar of Lightning] wasn’t a resurrection skill?” Aubrey asked.

Derek nodded at her. “You’re technically correct. It’s not really a resurrection skill so much as a skill that allows me to store a fragment of my soul somewhere safe. However, with the right resources and preparations, it should give me a second chance if something happens to me.”

Lily and Derek really seem to believe that I should have taken the [Revival of Ash] skill. Why would Alice and Dante believe otherwise then?

Kyle interrupted before anyone else could say anything else. “I actually disagree.”

“Oh?” Julius asked.

“Why would you disagree? Aren’t your parents also trying for you to get a resurrection skill?” Lily asked curiously.

“They are, but that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to get one. It’s just something a lot of noble families do for their children to give them a better chance of survival. I want to get one just in case one of my experiments goes wrong. There are too many of my family members who have died because of an ‘unfortunate’ accident. However, that’s not the point. The point is that I can see why Julius would choose the general upgrade,” Kyle explained.

“What do you mean?” Derek asked Kyle.

Kyle gave him an exasperated look. “I mean, you just said it a few moments ago. You called his healing skill overpowered. So why would he give up such a powerful skill for a resurrection skill? A skill that would not be able to heal him like his current skill would.”

“He can always get another healing skill though,” Lily interjected.

“Can he?” Kyle asked knowingly as if there was a trick question behind it.

Lily seemed to go quiet at that.

“It would still be easier than getting the opportunity to learn another resurrection skill, that much is true,” Derek argued, not seeing Lily’s reaction.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Kyle said vaguely.

“Why?”

Kyle turned to Julius and gave him a questioning look. “Can I tell them?”

Does he really know? I haven’t told the others except for Lily the exact name of my skill.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

However, he didn’t see a reason not to trust them. They haven’t been anything but dependable and trustworthy friends. Plus, he at least had the courtesy to ask for permission. Julius gave Kyle a short nod, he wanted to see if Kyle knew what it was.

Kyle gave him a grateful smile. “Have you ever wondered why Julius’s healing skill has both life and fire aspects to it?” Kyle asked Derek.

“Of course, but there are a lot of healing skills that have fire and life aspects. It's not the most common but still seen enough to not be extremely rare,” Derek said.

“And how many of those skills have the power that Julius has at rare rank?” Kyle asked.

At that Derek seemed to pause. He looked over at Julius who had put on an innocent expression, pretending to be unaware of the conversation. However, that only seemed to make Derek even more suspicious of Julius.

“What are you trying to say?” Derek slowly asked his friend.

Kyle started to pace around in the sand. “I thought it was two different skills at first. How often can a skill heal with such a wide range and also with such intensity? But I learned I was wrong. It is really just one skill.”

“Can you just say what it is already?” Aubrey said impatiently.

“I think Julius’s healing skill has a Phoenix Fragment,” Kyle said to them.

Wow, leave it to Kyle to hit the nail right on the head. I can’t say I should be surprised though, the guy is unnervingly accurate about these things.

“What? Why would you think that? Phoenix skills are one in a billion,” Aubrey stated firmly.

“And would you really be that surprised if Julius got one?” Kyle asked deliberately. Aubrey didn’t say anything in response, she just stood there thinking silently.

“What makes you believe that though? Just because his skill is powerful and has affinities to fire and life?” Derek asked.

“Not just that. But it is unusually extensive range shows that it is a skill that ranks high compared to other rare skills. That makes the list very small, but when Julius said he might be able to heal his soul by evolving his healing skill, I felt pretty confident about what kind of skill he had,” Kyle explained.

They all turned to look at him, expecting an answer or confirmation about Kyle’s claim. He gave them a slight smirk. “My old healing skill was called [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal].” He kind of enjoyed the dropped jaws from some of them.

“How the hell did you get a Phoenix healing skill at rare?” Aubrey exclaimed loudly. Luckily Lily had set up her barrier, otherwise, Julius thought the entire school might have heard Aubrey.

“Pseudo-Phoenix,” Julius corrected her.

“Shut up.”

He just gave her a smug smile. However, before she could try to punch him Edgar interrupted. “Does that mean you got a Phoenix Concept to evolve your epic skill?” Edgar asked a little breathlessly.

He looked over at the big guy with a surprised grin. “Yeah, that’s actually what I wanted to tell you guys.”

“That’s why you were so confident in learning a skill that could heal soul damage at epic,” Derek said like it finally made sense. He had a face of wonder but it quickly turned back to confusion. “Though, I still don’t see why you didn’t choose a resurrection skill.

“He has a Concept of Phoenix, Derek. I don’t think he is going to have a hard time learning a skill that a Phoenix is most well known for,” Aubrey reminded him.

“I guess not,” Derek admitted. The handsome blonde boy turned to Lily. “Why don’t you seem as surprised as the others? Kyle I get, but you don’t seem surprised.”

“Probably because she’s known for a while,” Aubrey said, pouting.

“I was under oath,” Lily told them like it explained everything.

“But you still thought that he should have gotten the resurrection skill?” Kyle asked questioningly.

Lily gave Julius an exasperated look. “I think he should have gotten that skill because I don’t want to see him dead. And knowing how he doesn’t have any self-preservation skills, I think it is still a mistake,” she said plainly.

“That’s hurtful,” Julius grumbled quietly, but obviously not quiet enough.

Lily turned the full force of her glare at Julius. “Oh yeah? What were you doing to learn your Concept of Phoenix, huh? You don’t think Alice wouldn’t tell me?”

His wide mouth and silence were the only answer he could come up with. Alice told her? I’m not mad, I’m just kind of shocked. If Lily knew then I would have thought she would have confronted me earlier by now.

Lily just shook her head. “That’s what I thought. I didn’t say anything because she promised me it would be okay, but that doesn’t change how stupidly dangerous it was,” Lily said angrily.

“What did he do?” Aubrey asked.

“Nothing,” he quickly stated.

“He torched himself alive,” Lily said disgruntledly.

Every single one of them turned to look at Julius with open mouths again. However, instead of awe, they had disturbed and worried expressions. Even Edgar, his usual supporter of his extreme training regime was lost for words.

“Why?” Derek asked

“It worked?” Kyle questioned a little more excited than the rest.

“What a stupid idea,” Aubrey insulted him.

Julius ignored Aubrey and Derek, saying to Kyle, “No, it unfortunately didn’t work. However, it did work for getting my Fire Concept.” That last bit he added on hoping it would help defend his actions.

It didn’t, the judgemental stares didn’t stop.

Julius put his hands up pleadingly. “In my defense, I got the idea from Derek,” he said trying to shift the attention from himself to the other boy.

It funnily enough worked pretty well. Lily and Aubrey’s look of disgust turned to blame Derek.

“When did I give you that idea?” Derek asked frantically, trying to remove himself from the line of fire.

“When you said your grandfather put you inside of a lightning storm to help you learn your Concept,” Julius told him truthfully.

Derek facepalmed his own face. “I didn’t actually hurt myself to do that. He set up an artificial storm that mimicked the environment, but it wasn’t like I was actually getting struck by lightning. I was completely safe.”

“Oh,” he said plainly.

I didn’t even think of that. So my ‘brilliant’ idea came from a misunderstanding?

“You see why I wished he got the resurrection skill now?” Lily asked knowingly.

Kyle gave Julius a complicated look. “Yeah, maybe the resurrection skill would have been a better choice.”