Chapter 779: A Julius Shaped Missile

Julius didn’t care to be stealthy at all. He flung himself like a human missile at the giant undead creature. He had finally found the perfect playmate and wasn’t about to let this chance pass him by.

He let out an excited giggle as he smashed headfirst into the undead. He didn’t reinforce his body or anything. He didn’t want to kill it off the rip, but he thought a polite exchange of greetings was appropriate.

He felt his skull fracture upon impact and, to his amazement, the creature tanked the blow like it was nothing. He might as well have crashed straight into a steel mountain. He felt it grunt in slight confusion, but that was about all.

It wasn’t just its massive body and hard exterior that made it that way. He could feel a thick layer of Authority flowing over the undead’s skin. Strong concepts of death and kinetic energy pulsed out in angry waves.

He didn’t enhance his body or use many skills, which was partly why his greeting had been so ineffective, but even by sheer force, it was intense.

He bounced off the ground and rubbed his head as it healed up. The blood covered his eyes, and he used some aura to wipe it away.

The massive undead troll finally stood up and looked over at him. Like its smaller brethren, it was a putrid creature. Its skin barely clung to its bones, and it smelled even worse than the other trolls he’d come across.

He shoved a few quick noseplugs up his nose to help him bear with the stench.

When it finally turned around and saw Julius, he could have sworn it stared at him with apathy. As if it couldn’t even be bothered to react. Or it was so dumb it took a few seconds to finally respond. That was entirely possible as well.

Julius waved his hand at the beast.

“Hi! I was wondering if you could help me with something,” he said warmly.

The undead troll let out an ear-piercing roar right in his face, and spittle flew at him. Julius used a small amount of aura to destroy the spittle before it got close, then nodded with a bright grin.

“Oh, you will? That is mighty kind of you,” he said with a grateful bow. It really was a nice thing to do for him. Good help was difficult to get nowadays.

Even better, it seemed the undead beast was extremely excited to help out. It was already throwing a condensed blast of aura and Authority at him. The death energy was potent, and it actually took some effort for Julius to destroy it before it could harm him. He could tell right away that the creature’s deathly aura wasn’t inferior to his in any way. Which was saying a lot. The only auras he’d come across that matched his ruinous aura came from people at Tier 5.

He hadn’t been able to discern this level of strength from afar, though he hadn’t really bothered to look that hard either. Considering his soul was so much stronger now that he'd evolved it a third time, it should have let him overcome the Tier 4 aura without much trouble. When it didn’t, he scrunched his brows slightly, understanding that this undead wasn’t something he should take lightly.

Aura was a big indicator of one’s ability and strength. If this undead had such a powerful aura, it was likely quite powerful and dangerous.

For a moment, he debated whether to take this seriously and use his regular abilities. Or stick to his current plan. Which was to train his void skills until he learned something new or evolved the skill to epic.

That debate lasted only a moment because the answer was so easy.

He let his void energy flow around him, molding over his skin like a onesie. The extra levels in [Pseudo Void Manipulation] brought greater control. If he compared his control to when he first entered the rift, it would be incomparable.

It was actually insane how much easier it was to command the unruly energy. Whether in speed, strength, or fluidity, he had become quite comfortable with it over these few days.

Of course, he still had plenty of room to grow, but he was satisfied with his performance so far.

He smiled and watched as more aura gathered around the troll. Unlike the other wild blast, he could feel the creature forming something. The aura compressed, and he sensed spirals of death energy wrapped around a core of kinetic energy.

It was a powerful attack, and he watched it shriek through the air and head for his body. He was tempted to take the attack head-on just so he could get a sense of the troll’s power, but he also reminded himself that he needed to be careful about mana. If he wanted to experiment for as long as he wanted, he needed to use his mana smartly.

He couldn’t waste it on healing himself.

So, with a slightly forlorn expression, he teleported out of the way of the aura fusion strike. To his concern, he felt the creature reach out and try to disrupt his void energy with its aura. It did so with a level of skill and power that surprised him.

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Fortunately for Julius, his improvements to his void energy meant he was fast enough to avoid it before it could affect the technique’s structure. He vanished from place and appeared on the other side of the undead.

It detected him immediately and slashed its long, monstrous arm toward him. An extraordinary amount of kinetic energy shot toward him; it was shockingly fast, too. It crossed the distance before Julius could fully realize what it was.

He was a step too late, and though his body subconsciously siphoned some of the force, he felt himself shot into the distance. He looked down and saw that his clothes were ruined. His chest was already turning purple from the impact.

He looked over at the scary undead and couldn’t help but grin a little wider.

This thing is really quite good, he thought, as he teleported away from another kinetic blast.

He appeared at the creature’s back and chucked a void-enhanced fist into its spine. Unlike his first strike, where he'd just chucked himself at the beast, this at least did some damage.

Though it wasn’t much. He left a similar purple bruise on the decaying flesh, but considering the undead was over twelve feet tall and at least half as wide, his fist-sized bruise was barely a speck on its enormous body.

Not only that, but he felt the creature respond immediately. The same deathly aura that had caught him by surprise suddenly suffocated him from all sides. Up close, it was even more powerful, trying to break through his defenses and into his body.

Fortunately, he had a few things that helped with that. His passive healing, aura, and naturally strong body made it very hard for external influence, like an opponent’s aura, to penetrate his body.

Regardless, it wasn’t easy to keep at bay. It required considerable effort to combat this powerful aura.

He teleported away before the undead could try to snatch him from the air. But the aura almost caught him and disrupted his teleportation.

In fact, he started to realize that there was a slightly familiar feeling to this creature’s aura and his own. They weren’t exactly the same, but there were certainly some notable parallels between them.

For one, something lurked beneath the death and kinetic energy. It almost felt like destruction. It wasn’t quite destruction, or at least not like what he had experienced in the past. But some closely related concept, one that operated at the same level of dominance as his ruinous aura.

As much as he wanted to figure it out, he had other things to worry about for the time being. If he wanted to improve his void energy, that was the only thing he needed to focus on.

Fortunately for him, he had a few skills to help. He activated one of them and let it take over his mind.

[Calm Before Ruin] washed over his soul and his mind, letting that sense of balance and focus sharpen his will and thoughts. He immediately recognized the dangerous aura shooting at him and slipped away once again. When he reappeared, he slammed his fist into the troll once again. It was almost the same exact strike at the same exact place. But he had made a few changes to his void energy. He wanted to see what he needed to do to increase the strength of his blows and whether he could somehow penetrate the beast’s defenses.

Once again, his blow barely did any damage. He barely avoided the swift blow coming for him and snapped out with a kick, sending a powerful [Void Strike] straight into the undead’s kneecap. Yet, nothing happened other than the beast letting out a small roar of frustration.

Compared to the other trolls he killed, this one was on a totally different level. Its strength and endurance spoke for itself. But it also moved way faster than anything its size should have. Its kinetic energy was most likely to blame for that.

But its Authority and aura were even more concerning. The way the undead used its aura and Authority wasn’t simple either. It managed to reinforce its entire body with both of them to an absurd degree.

He narrowly avoided the sudden rush of attacks coming at him. Blasts of kinetic energy and insidious bursts of death aura continued to assault him from every direction. He dodged what he could and slapped away the ones he couldn’t.

As the pressure mounted, he finally decided to back off. He also took this time to let his mind wander and figure something out. He needed to break through the beast’s defenses first and foremost. His void energy was clearly not cutting it, and without his other skills, he didn’t know if he could.

His Authority helped quite a bit, but against an equally strong Authority, it didn’t give him much of an overwhelming edge. In fact, he felt himself being pushed back.

Somehow, he found himself on the back foot against something within his own tier. It was quite fascinating.

To be honest, he didn’t even know if using [Primordial Armaments] or [Lord of the Dying Sun] would help all that much. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he learned the troll had a legendary skill of its own. Or an ability that acted on the same level.

That was just how strong this monster was, and it excited him to no end. He had practically given up on finding an actual opponent within Tier 4. And lo and behold, he actually managed to find one.

Sadly, the creature was a little ugly and smelly for his liking, but who was he to judge? Beggars certainly couldn’t be choosers.

He finally allowed himself a small compromise. First, he used [Lord of the Dying Sun] to reinforce his body with only kinetic energy and aura, for the most part. That way he saved on mana. It wouldn’t be as powerful as if he added mana, but he already felt like he was cheating, so he left it at that.

Then he used [Primordial Armaments] to create a very simple sword. That being said, the sword was quite small, especially compared to the creature he was about to use it on. It was about the size of a shortsword, and for a creature that size, it wasn’t suitable at all, but he had a plan in mind.

Once the shortsword was formed, he created a buckler as well.

In the revised plan, he was going to try to improve his use of blunt, piercing, and sharpness-related attacks with void energy. He mainly used it for blunt attacks, but he suspected he was wasting its potential.

And so he hefted his new weapons, looked over at the massive troll running at him with the grace of a young deer, and charged straight in.

Let’s try this again, he said with a mirthful smile.