291 Chapter 237: Back to Training

Joshua pulled up his information so that he could look at all of his stats and he was pleasantly surprised at what he saw.

Level 70

Job – Aura User

Soul Beast – Fenrir

Stats (parenthesis number is the bonus stats from levels and Job) [Bracket numbers are skill modifiers]

Strength: 1950 (189) = 2139 x [1.3] = 2780.7

Vitality: 1950 (189) = 2139 x [1.3] = 2780.7 (5989.2 with aura hardening)

Dexterity: 1950(189) = 2139 x [1.3] = 2780.7

Intelligence: 1950 (189) = 2139 x [1.3] = 2780.7

Wisdom: 1950 (189) = 2139 x [1.3] = 2780.7

Will: 3150 (309) = 3459 x [1.3] = 4496.7

Luck 108 (0) = 108

He could feel that he was gaining a lot of strength and with the boost he was starting to gain from his concentrated aura he knew that he was probably a good twenty percent stronger than his stats showed while using his full blown aura offensively. Having Lilly there to boost his strengths as well was a good thing to remember while looking over his stats. Even so Joshua knew that he was going to need to get used to controlling that new ability he had used with his aura during the final boss fight of the canyon dungeon.

The feeling was different from how he usually used his aura. When he normally used his aura it felt like a shroud that empowered him but that was all. It was similar to when Flutter boosted his strength in some regards. He had full control over that strength boost and it wasn't very taxing on his body at all. In fact at this point it felt second nature for Joshua to empower himself with his aura cloak or aura hardening. What he felt during the final boss wasn't the same feeling. It was as if his aura was following his will. He wanted to be able to see the boss more clearly so his will improved his aura sense drastically to the point where he could see everything clearly. He wanted to be able to damage the boss enough to get to its core so his will responded by sharpening the aura around his blade making all of his swings far more powerful and sharp. He wanted the boss's regeneration to slow down so the aura left remnants in the beast body to prevent it from healing quickly.

During the final boss he was desperate to find a way too actually kill it so he had no choice, but to keep pushing through the draining feeling from over exerting his aura, but if he could find a way to use it in small amounts at a time while fighting then things would go a lot smoother. He would have to figure out the proper timing when it came to using the aura. For example the aura eye sight allowed him to see the movements of his enemies far more clearly. It was as if he could see their aura surge throughout their body allowing him to understand what type of attack they were going to use before they even did it. Using such an ability for such a long period of time was incredibly draining on Joshua, but if he could do it for seconds at a time as he observed his enemies movements that would be more than enough to react in time to any attacks.

When it came to using his aura in an offensive sense he was going to have to regulate the timing to an even smaller scale if he didn't want to burn through his aura reserves within minutes while fighting. He could only hold on for three minutes tops while using his aura to drastically increase his attack efficiency through his will. If he could train himself to only do such things at the impact of one of his attacks then that three minutes could be spread out over hours of fighting. It all came down to timing and perfecting his control over his aura which was something that was going to take lots of practice.

Joshua sighed when he thought about how exhausting the process of training his aura to that extent was going to be, but it was something he was going to need to do going forward. He didn't want to end up being in a similar situation to last time where he ran out of steam just at the end of the fight. The haze boss was going to be on another level considering the fact that it will have the haze to draw upon extra strength or regeneration abilities. Joshua wasn't going to be able to take down such a creature in a matter of minutes and he knew it. He only had two weeks to improve his control in using his will to amplify his aura, but he had a good feeling that he'd be able to get a good start in that amount of time.

There was one other form of training that Joshua felt would be a good thing for him to go through soon, but at the moment mastering his will over his aura was the top priority. The other form of training involved preparing for his next scale blade. He knew he was still a ways away from finding all the materials he would need to create the weapon since it was a higher tier weapon than the scale blade he was currently using, but he would need to learn how to use other types of swords and weapons if he wanted to get the most out of the new scale blade. He would need to get used to dual wielding, using smaller sized blades, and even a simple club in combat since they were all forms that the new scale blade could shift into. He planned on focusing on that after the large town expedition so that he wouldn't end up swinging around the different parts of the new scale blade like a rookie the moment he got it made.

'Alright, well then I guess this is as good a time as any to get things started.' Joshua thought as he made his way over to the waterfall to begin training in the new form of using his aura. When he reached the river he looked down at the surface and could see his own reflection looking back up at him. He was far enough away from the waterfall that the ripples weren't strong enough to effect the image he could see in the water. He noticed his facial features were becoming slightly more striking and resembled that of a wolf in some regards, but it wasn't to the extent that he wasn't able to recognize himself. His hair was also becoming a bit wilder looking in nature with some silver strands of hair that became more obvious whenever he used his aura.

He stopped worrying about his looks and started focusing on the aura that he was pouring out in regulated amounts. He pushed himself into the state where his aura surrounded his entire body and strengthen it. Since he wasn't using his aura cloak at the moment it wasn't as obvious as usual, but he could see the silver like aura surrounding his body. 'Now let's test out aura sight first to see what it looks like.' Joshua thought as he focused his aura and willed it to allow him to see the aura in his surroundings more clearly. He noticed the difference right away in his reflection as his eyes seemed to gleam with a silver light as he could feel the drain on his aura. His surroundings became far clearer to him as he could see the aura of all the trees and plants around him flow smoothly. It was a different level of sight that allowed him to notice so much more than his usual aura sense that just allowed him to feel the location of things in his surroundings to an extent.

After a few minutes when the stress on his eyes started piling up Joshua deactivated the state and sat down next to the river to regain some of his aura. He realized that his aura was draining so fast that within five minutes he had lost nearly half his aura. The drain he felt while using aura sight was just too much to handle for long stretches of time so he'd have to get used to using it in small burst at a time while fighting. He waited for about fifteen minutes as his aura replenished itself before standing back up and moving on to the next thing he wanted to try out.

This time around Joshua took out his scale blade from his inventory and stood next to the river. With his aura back to full he was prepared to try the other form of aura usage out. He let his aura surround him once more before willing his aura to sharpen around his scale blade like he did when facing the final boss. He could immediately feel the massive drain on his aura reserves the second he started and it was far harsher than just using his aura sight. He could see how the aura around the scale blade thickened up drastically. It looked as if razor winds were swirling around the blade.

Joshua rushed over to the waterfall and gave the blade a simple swing as he watched the waterfall get split in half from the force of the strike. He knew that if he had added an aura blast or energy slash to that swing then he might just cut through the cliff behind the waterfall from the sharpness and power alone. He quickly let his aura fade before it caused an effect on his body since he was already heavily breathing after only using so much aura for such a short amount of time. It had only been a little over a minute and he had used up about half of his aura. He knew it would have been even worse if he used an aura blast or energy slash alongside the attack.

With the testing done Joshua was starting to understand why his will stat was his highest stat as an aura user. It was far more important than any other stat for someone in the profession in the end. He knew the only reason he was able to control his aura in such a way was because of his enormous amount of will. At first he thought will was just a stat that was good for fending off killing intent or pushing through damaging status effects on the body, but it meant so much more for an aura user. Joshua still didn't know exactly to what extent will could be used to mess with his aura, but he didn't mind spending a lot of time to find out his limits.

He once again took a seat next to the river as he thought things over. He needed to figure out what would be the best way to proceed in learning how to better control his aura, but he was suddenly interrupted from his thoughts when he felt a familiar aura entering his training grounds. It was an aura that seemed to make all of the plants in the surroundings sing with joy which gave the intruders identity away.