Doren POV

Doren was sipping on his tea and relaxing under the sunlight with a serene smile on his face. Of course, this sunlight was so powerful and intense that it would have burnt anyone below Tier 4, but to him, it was a pleasant sting.

It was partly why he had chosen to create his floating palace all the way up here. It also helped that this sunlight was what helped power the palace in the first place. Still, he basked in the moment, appreciating the time to relax that he didn't get to experience as much anymore.

However, just as he closed his eyes to soak in the sun, he was alerted by something. He was tempted to ignore it for the time being, but after being reprimanded several times by Gale, he decided otherwise.

So with a sigh, he investigated real quick. It took barely a couple of seconds to process the information, and when he was finished, he sat up from his lounge chair with a sharp look in his eyes.

The small experimental rift he created several years ago had a new development. He was already aware that the Adventurer's Guild had taken an interest in it a little while back, but they hadn't sent in anyone worth his attention as of yet. There were a few who were interesting, but nobody whom he truly took a genuine interest in.

So he hadn't paid it much heed. Plus, it was sort of a failed attempt experiment and was already close to destabilizing. Given a year or two, it would be completely inoperable or just collapse.

He didn't particularly care, though. This wasn't the only experiment he had done, and he had honestly forgotten about it. Or at least that was the case before this new development.

Apparently, the guild had brought in a lot of young children to test the rift. And some of them were actually quite fascinating.

Perhaps his experiment might still work out for him. What had been an annoyance just moments ago was now excitement. He would have to keep a close eye on any further developments.

***

Julius POV

The first thing Julius did was use this newly evolved version of his Sharpness Concept. He wanted to see how much it differed from the previous version.

He didn't do anything too complicated. He gently wrapped his Concept around a small shard of mana. However, he noticed a difference right away. Just the mere activation of the Concept was so much more seamless than before.

It used to take a little bit of time to channel, but now that delay has been drastically reduced. The shard of mana was infused with Pure Severance without much issue or time. However, that wasn't what caught his attention.

The light blue tinge that used to represent his Sharpness Concept was no more. It was just a pure white light. Then there was the power of the Concept itself. He could feel how much stronger it was compared to the previous version.

He didn't know if it was quite on the same level as his Phoenix Concept, but it had certainly closed the gap. He didn't believe the Concept could be considered lackluster anymore. However, it was possible that Dante would still tease him about it.

He was curious to see the actual Concept used in action, and so with a tilt of his head, he ran the shard of infused sharpness across his palm to make a small incision. Right away, he was alarmed by how easily it managed to pierce his skin.

While he hadn't used any reinforcement or protection on his skin, the shard was able to cleanly cut through his skin without any problem. Feeling inspired, he activated his body enhancement skill and felt it as his entire body was strengthened beyond its normal functions.

He then sliced the shard across his palm again. There was a slight resistance this time, but it was still able to cut through his skin without much issue. It was almost like the shard was finding the smallest gap between his skin's defenses and targeting that.

Deciding to increase the difficulty, he created a thin layer of mana over his palm. It was the same one he often found himself using nowadays, even without using [Barrier of Severance]. He let the shard of mana crumble away and repurposed the mana to create a blade. He didn't infuse it with any Concepts, leaving it plain as is.

He then tested it out on his skin and then on the barrier. It was able to cut into his skin, but he had to push it pretty hard in order to do so. As for the barrier, the blade wasn't able to pierce through its surface.

Now that he had something to compare it to, he infused the blade with his new Sharpness Concept. He then proceeded to slice his palm with the blade, observing intensely at how the Concept interacted with the barrier.

His eyes widened when he saw the blade tear through the barrier with ease. It barely took any force to do so. It was very reminiscent of what the wraith had done just a couple of floors earlier.

He frowned as he created another barrier around his skin. This time, he let his Concept of Will infuse into the barrier. He usually didn't bother to do this all the time since it rarely increased the defensive properties.

Well, that wasn't completely accurate. He used the Concept, but he often didn't focus on pumping his barriers with it.

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When he normally infused the barriers, it was more of a side effect of his general manipulations. Regardless, he was curious how it would manage to hold up against another opposing Concept.

He then tested out the blade again.

It was actually quite shocking to see how much better the shield was able to hold up. Just a small amount of Will Concept managed to let his barrier hold for a couple of seconds longer compared to before. This made him curious whether or not he had been making a mistake in the past and should have been infusing his Will Concept into his barriers more often.

However, before he could start doubting himself too much, the blade found a gap where the Concept hadn't infused all the way and slid right through, cutting open his palm without much effort.

Sensing something odd, he decided to repeat this experiment. He infused his barrier with his Will Concept and sliced it again. The same thing happened, and it was almost exactly what happened with the wraith.

Wherever there was a gap that his Concept wasn't able to fill, the blade somehow found it and pierced it.

This made him think of his recent aura-weaving technique. He didn't see a reason not to try it out and carefully wove his aura into the barrier. Weaving his aura into the barrier was actually easier than weaving it into a construct.

The barrier was quite thin and required less focus to create. However, as he was doing so, he found that infusing his Concept with the aid of his aura made the process much easier and the barrier much stronger.

His aura appeared to be the perfect vessel to carry out his Concepts, which would make sense considering how integral they were to his soul and how much his aura represented his soul in its entirety.

That said, this whole thing was still new to him, and he would need some time to fully adapt to it. However, it was without question going to be nice to have in addition to his other powerful skills and techniques.

It was also a big reason he started thinking about the recent skill notification he had received with more interest. He wondered if [Spirit Fortification] was something that could help with this whole process.

It was definitely something to think about with more seriousness.

However, he could think about this once he was done with this unique rift. He should really concentrate on this new and weird floor condition before anything else.

He reread the notification once more to ensure that he wasn't missing anything.

Fifth Floor Clear Condition: Climb to the top.

No matter how hard he tried, he wasn't able to see or figure out if there was a hidden message within it. He looked around his surroundings.

For the first time since entering the rift, he noticed that he wasn't in a forest anymore. He was on a stone platform looking upwards at a massive mountain, and leading up to the mountain was a set of stairs.

He wasn't able to see the end of the stairs either. They extended far beyond his eyesight and up into the clouds. He tilted his head in confusion at the condition. Compared to the other floors, this one seemed a bit weird. With that being said, it seemed pretty straightforward. All he was required to do was climb.

He was also glad that this floor seemed to be a reprieve of some sort. Perhaps it was because it was the fifth floor and technically the halfway point, but he wasn't going to complain. He had arrived here unconscious, and that feature likely saved him.

Since he didn't seem to have a time limit, he used this time to relax. His soul was still a bit tender from that entire ordeal, and more importantly, he was starving. He needed some nourishment and still had some delicious snacks Rae gave him before he left.

***

When he was finally done eating, he stood up and stretched out his arms. He felt so much better. While his soul was still not in perfect condition, just eating a good meal was good for it. He would also likely have to wait a couple of days until it fully healed, even with [Phoenix Renewal] helping him, and he wasn't going to do that.

So without any more delays, he made his way toward the beginning of the massive staircase that stretched to the heavens.

He tentatively took the first step and relaxed a little bit when he didn't sense anything. Feeling a little emboldened, he took the next step with more confidence. He still didn't feel anything, and so he continued on his way with an intrigued look on his face.

It wasn't until the tenth step that he actually felt something affect him. It was almost like gravity had increased upon his body. It wasn't too much, but it was enough that he was able to notice the difference. He smiled widely at this.

He wondered how far these stairs would go.

***

About a hundred steps later, he grunted as gravity began to affect his movements. He was forced to start using his kinetic energy to empower his body. Without it, he doubted he would be able to withstand the gravity.

The moment he started using kinetic energy, the pressure was alleviated, and walking became much easier.

He had always been curious about gravity magic. He knew that it existed, but unfortunately, it wasn't one of his affinities. He was aware that it was used in enchantments. There was actually a pretty high chance that the ship they flew in on had some kind of gravity magic to assist it.

It would appear that there was an increase in resistance every ten or so steps. However, he had a feeling that it wouldn't be as hard for him compared to others. If this rift was made for Tier 3s, then he was pretty confident of handling it without much issue.

His physical ability was far beyond normal for a Tier 3. If he couldn't do it, then he doubted that many others would be able to. If they could, he would be extremely impressed with whoever it was.

Honestly, he would most likely do his best to figure out how they managed it.

He managed to reach another hundred steps, or at least that was the estimated number. He didn't know for sure exactly how many he had climbed so far. He had lost count.

However, he quickly found that kinetic energy wasn't enough to get him there. Or rather, his current skill with kinetic energy wasn't enough to support him. To be fair, though, his kinetic energy techniques were much more focused on speeding up his movements rather than empowering his body.

Most of the power that came from his blows was from him detonating whatever charged kinetic energy he had upon impact. There wasn't any real weight behind the blows other than pure kinetic force. It wasn't like when he used [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin], in that it mainly utilized his aura and mana to strengthen his body while his kinetic energy played as support.

Of course, he would have liked it if it could do both. However, he was smart enough to realize the golden opportunity in front of him. This little challenge could be the perfect chance for him to get a little better at empowering his body with just kinetic energy.

He would just need to figure out how to do so. The problem was that it was much easier said than done.