Chapter 776: Void Progress

Void energy was extremely unstable, but it could also become completely stable. It depended on one’s willpower and ability to enforce their will on it. Fortunately for him, he had willpower in spades.

He threw everything at his void energy skills. That, of course, meant literally throwing himself at any undead he saw. What better way to train skills than against a real opponent?

He let out a maniacal laugh as a massive undead the size of a mountain troll slammed its forearm into his sternum, sending him flying backward. In fact, he wasn’t sure it wasn’t an undead mountain troll. It looked like one and certainly smelled like one.

His void energy flickered as he lost concentration slightly. The barrier he had formed in front of himself was disrupted by the sheer quantity of death mana and kinetic energy the undead was releasing.

It seemed a few things could affect his void energy. One of them was opposing Authorities, which in hindsight wasn’t surprising. After all, he had found out for himself how effective his Authority was at handling his void energy. This creature also seemed to have a few concepts that increased the potency of its kinetic-enhanced blows.

Truthfully, he shouldn’t have been fooling around as much. This creature was one of the more dangerous Tier 4 monsters he’d come across. It had several powerful kinetic and death-aspect skills. Combined with its monstrous body and ridiculous endurance, it meant it was quite a threat.

And since he wasn’t using many skills other than his void ones, it meant he was being thrown around like a ragdoll.

Not that he minded. He actually welcomed this change and let himself relax in the soothing experience of getting his teeth kicked in.

He pulled himself out of the rubble he found himself in and let his void energy coalesce around his body again. He quickly shaped it into another panel of void energy.

The undead troll’s fist, which had been swiftly approaching his skull, was intercepted, stopping it dead in its tracks.

The undead’s knuckles sounded like they splintered, but he saw a wisp of black energy ripple through its body, and the broken bones quickly filled in as if nothing had happened. It would appear that even when they were already dead, trolls still healed at a stupid rate.

He also saw that the remnant death-and-kinetic-energy aspected Authority was eating away at the barrier. He let out a frustrated growl, unable to stop it. That was his seventh attempt to create a panel that could stop its Authority from affecting it.

He had played around with the void-energy barrier, and while it was quite effective at mitigating physical forces, there were other things to consider. Authorities, Concepts, domains, special abilities, willpower, curses, disruptive mana-based attacks, soul strikes, and a plethora of other things he needed to test.

At Tier 4 and Tier 5, most fights weren’t just about hitting something harder than the other person. That was only true with Cain or Marcus. Those two brutes seemed to do just fine with smashing anything in their way.

But not everyone or everything fought that way. As he had learned firsthand, plenty of unusual abilities made him wary.

It also didn’t help that he could only make a relatively small and weak-looking panel at the moment. The hexagon hovered like a shard of fragile glass. He wanted something that covered his entire body. But the hexagon shape was a little more difficult.

That being said, he had made some great progress with his other skills.

In fact, he used one to dodge the undead’s meaty hand from snatching him by his throat.

[Void Step] flickered into existence with such speed that it felt weird. He didn’t have to keep it prepared or ready to go. He simply willed it, and the skill activated without pause.

He reappeared twenty feet away, crouching on a wall and staring down at the troll, who was spinning in a circle, trying to figure out where he’d gone. He tapped his cheek as he thought about different ways and ideas he could test. But he was forced to duck when a piece of debris reinforced with death mana streaked for his face.

He used [Void Step] once again, this time focusing on the cost of the skill itself. The skill was extremely powerful and useful. Some of the skill's biggest downsides were its high cost and relatively sluggish activation sequence.

It was fine as long as he was prepared, and the recent acquisition of [Pseudo Void Manipulation] helped a lot with the speed. But unfortunately, unlike [Void Strike], the skill's cost seemed to stay about the same.

He reappeared on top of another wall and quickly reviewed the notifications he received during the past half day since he got those two levels in [Void Strike].

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

[Pseudo Void Manipulation lvl 8 -> lvl 12]

[Void Strike lvl 26 -> lvl 27]

[Void Step lvl 26 -> lvl 27]

To his amazement, his progress with his newest void skill wasn’t slowing down at all. It was still working its way up despite already being past level 10. He thought it would have slowed by now, but apparently not.

He hadn’t seen this kind of growth in a long time. It actually made him tempted to pick up a few rare skills just so he could see their numbers go up. His other skills were all epic and pretty high-level. So the only times he leveled up were when he really pushed himself or got slapped around by Tier 5s.

Compared to that, this seemed much easier and simpler. He sighed and pouted to himself. Why couldn’t all his skills be like this?

That being said, it was clear that he was onto something. He hadn't gotten this many skill levels in his void skills without the pressure of fighting an overwhelming opponent. That meant something. It had to.

But he was still missing something. Something that connected all of these skills together. He was brought out of his reverie when he spotted another object heading for his face.

He teleported away from the flying boulder and appeared behind the source of the attack. The undead troll’s perception wasn’t its best attribute, and so its reaction was delayed. This gave him enough time to gather void energy into his fist and crush a [Void Strike] into its spine.

He felt the void energy spread out and destroy much of the troll’s lower back. Only the extremely condensed nature of its death aura prevented it from being shattered completely.

He stepped back from the blind swipe and landed yet another strike directly where its spleen would have been. Another gaping hole appeared on its stomach. Yet, once again it barely reacted to the wound and let out a savage roar as it attempted to grab him.

He felt its kinetic energy and death mana surrounding his body, as if trying to squeeze him into a pulp. It was similar to his own immobilization technique, which is why it failed so spectacularly.

His willpower shredded its skill apart like a sword tearing through a stalk of wheat. To his fascination, the backlash actually got more of a reaction than his previous strikes did combined. The beast staggered back, as if he’d struck its soul directly. It stumbled over its feet and placed both hands to its face. All the while, all of its wounds were already healed back to their original state.

Julius took a few moments to stare at it as it stumbled into a half-broken building. He waited for it to recover, then went back in with a savage grin. He leaped up and slammed his elbow directly into the troll’s skull. The troll tanked the blow and snarled as its fist sped toward his nose. Julius tried to pull himself out of the way with a bit of void energy, but his control was still developing, and he was half a second too late, so he got clipped in the hip.

He felt his body bow and got shot off into the distance. He careened thirty feet before slamming into the dirt. His broken hip was already healing, but to his disappointment, he could feel his mana dropping fast.

Despite having more mana than any Tier 4 had any right to, the constant healing and void techniques were draining his mana pool. He cursed to himself. This was usually how it worked during these past couple of days. He’d run around experimenting, and just as he was finally having some fun, he’d run out of mana or something else would interrupt.

But instead of pushing forward, he took the time and effort to rein himself in. Lily’s voice echoed in his ear, and with a slightly more serious expression, he watched as the lumbering hunk of death and kinetic energy tore at him.

He used a hint of kinetic energy to shift to the side of a wild overhand blow, siphoning as much kinetic energy from the beast as he could. Then he stepped in, [Primordial Armaments] wove into existence, creating a pair of burning gauntlets around his fists as [Lord of the Dying Sun] was fed a few strands of mana.

He could feel the undead’s unease through its aura. It must have felt some danger from him, and for good reason. He struck out like a viper, his right fist aiming for the troll’s left kneecap.

The gauntlet eviscerated through the troll’s flesh and bone with an ease that even his [Void Strike] couldn’t boast. It barely had time to perceive the damage before his other fist took out the other knee. As it was falling to the ground, his leg snapped out and cratered into the beast’s chest.

He felt the kinetically enhanced bones snap like twigs as it flew several dozen feet into a nearby pillar. He quickly pulled on his void energy and teleported directly onto the monster.

His legendary skills and flames did a much better job of hindering the troll's healing, but it still regenerated with surprising speed. That being said, he had no plans to let it continue.

He stomped on its already damaged chest, his foot piercing its ribcage, and smashed his fists directly where he felt the creature’s core. He held it in place with kinetic energy and pummeled it with a dozen blows in a few seconds, each one more powerful than the last.

Ruinous flames flooded out from his body, blanketing the monster with oppressive fire while also preventing the creature from regenerating the damage. The death aura was slapped to the side while he brutalized the poor undead.

Say what you wanted about it, but it was a sturdy little beast.

Only when he finally felt the core shatter under his fist did he stop his vicious beatdown. He pulled his hand from the monster’s chest and stepped out of its corpse.

He sighed when he realized how covered he was in the disgusting fluids and quickly cleaned himself up.

When he was clean, he took out his blanket and some snacks. But not before he set up a small barrier to shield himself from the death mana.

While the death mana wouldn’t hurt him much, its effect on his food was noticeable, so he created an isolated area where that wouldn’t happen. Once he got everything set up, he finally tucked into his snacks and let his mana recover.

His lack of mana had forced him to defeat the monster before he wanted, but that didn’t mean he didn’t get anything out of it. Rather, it was the opposite. He was getting closer and closer to something important.

That being said, he had at least a couple more weeks inside this rift. During this time, he suspected he would make a few more interesting discoveries. There was no need to rush, and if he learned anything from his mistakes, it was that some of the best things in the world came with patience.