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n“Although Shadow Serpent Essence is not that rare, I wonder if they could get their hands on it?” As this thought lingered in Valyr’s mind, he roamed through the streets of Algerie City with a full set of Half Wyvern Armor on, causing some of the people that passed by him to stare at him every once in a while. Nevertheless, he remained oblivious to all of the stares, instead taking in the sights surrounding him as he formed a mental map of all the important places he came across.

nOf course, with him wondering whether the others could get their hands on Shadow Serpent Essence or not, he would stop in front of a store every once in a while before entering, asking if they had any Shadow Serpent Essence. Most of the time, the reply he would get was that they had no Shadow Serpent Essence, informing him that the Mage Guild, Assassin Guild, and Alchemist Guild had a monopoly on it.

nThen, there were times where a store would have Shadow Serpent Essence for sale. However, the amount of Shadow Serpent Essence they would offer was far from enough for what Valyr was planning to do.

nWith the added fact that they would try to extort as much money out of Valyr as possible, he knew that he could only rely on the others while he still kept finding a place that sold Shadow Serpent Essence at a cheap price.

n‘Then again, there’s always the chance that Shadow Serpent Essence used to be expensive before the first version released.’ Thinking about why there wasn’t much Shadow Serpent Essence available for him to buy at the moment, Valyr eventually thought that the price and availability of the item might have only gone down after the first version of Greater Beyond was released, though he wasn’t certain if that was truly the case.

n‘Either way, I guess I’ll have to wait for a bit longer to get my subclass.’ Letting out a low sigh, Valyr continued to roam through the streets of the city, stopping at some point to buy some food from a vendor on the side of the street. After that, the thought of the notification from before they arrived at the kingdom popped up in his mind.

nAs he recalled the notifications he had received, a long sigh unexpectedly escaped Valyr’s mouth as he commanded the system to bring up the notification screen in his mind.

n‘And here I thought the first version would begin right away.’

nDing!

nVersion 0.1b of Greater Beyond has finally ended!

nVersion 0.5d of Greater Beyond has begun! Remaining time: 364 days, 18 hours, 12 minutes, 7 seconds.

n“Version 0.5d, huh,” Valyr muttered to himself, his expression a deep frown within the helmet. Though, after pondering over it for a bit, the frown on his face smoothened out. “I guess it wouldn’t be wrong to consider this version the version where the company is making its final push for polish before the public release. After all, the beta players gave feedback on what parts of the game could be improved upon.”

nAs this train of thought continued in his mind, Valyr felt that it made sense. Rummaging through his past memories, he recalled that quite some time had passed after the beta version had ended before Greater Beyond was publicly released to the world. Though, as he thought about it for a bit more, a question soon popped up in his mind.

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n“Would they apply the feedback the beta players gave during this version, or would they apply it all in one go once the public version is released?” Feeling as if trying to answer the question on his own would just be incredibly futile, Valyr decided to place the thought at the back of his head for now as he continued to walk through the streets.

nBy the time lunchtime had arrived, he stopped his sightseeing for the meantime before heading into a small family-owned restaurant, the meals he ordered being served to him within minutes. Recalling the reminder Braum had given to him before they went their separate ways, Valyr let out a low sigh as he opened the hatch at the front of his helmet, slowly but surely getting the food he ordered delivered to his mouth.

nUnsurprisingly, this action of his had earned quite a few stares here and there from some customers, as well as a few people that passed by the small restaurant. Nevertheless, he continued doing it, eventually leaving the restaurant as he felt a greater need to pick up the skills and magic Braum had mentioned earlier.

nWith that in mind, he slightly hastened his pace, stopping a few passerby from time to time as he asked them which place had the largest collection of skill books he could get his hands on. Thanking them for taking the time to answer his queries, Valyr soon continued with his sightseeing, eventually feeling a deep sense of sadness welling up within his body out of nowhere.

nThough slightly surprised at the fact he started to feel sad without knowing the reason why, Valyr did not take long to figure it out, a bitter smile adorning the face within the helmet as he sat on a nearby bench, taking in the sight before him as he took in a deep breath.

n‘Now that I think about it, players wouldn’t be able to see Algerie Kingdom in this state.’ Faintly sighing, Valyr thought about how Algerie Kingdom looked for him back when he was a player.

nAs the entire theme of the first version, specifically for those who decided to start on the world of Veldanyr, was the War of the Three Sovereignties, almost every kingdom, empire, and sovereignty the players went to seemed to have an oppressive atmosphere about them, with parts of their territory even containing the marks of war.

nFrom what he could recall, Algerie Kingdom was considered one of the less important kingdoms of the human race during the war, so the battles they had to defend against were smaller in comparison to the more important kingdoms. With that, they were able to avoid having everything completely obliterated by the opposing side, yet Valyr could see at that point that the kingdom was already a former shell of itself, just barely holding on.

nOf course, everything turned around for the better after the first version had ended, but the Algerie Kingdom of that time was already far different from the Algerie Kingdom Valyr was currently witnessing, with some of the changes the kingdom underwent even being considered incredibly drastic.

nLetting out yet another sigh as he wrapped up reminiscing about the Algerie Kingdom he had been used to, Valyr stood up from the bench before continuing to walk down the streets, eventually finding himself in front of one of the places he decided to go to.

n“I sure hope that man’s recommendation was right.”𝗈𝐕𝒍𝐞xt.𝗇𝓔t

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