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nFeeling the billowing aura Valyr emanated as the young man released the entirety of his aura for the old man to sense, Noel was left at a slight loss for words as he recalled that the young man only had the ability to go toe-to-toe against Rank 2 class holders almost a week ago. With that in mind, he began to wonder to himself as to how the young man was able to increase his strength so dramatically in such a short span.

n“Do you mind if I use Analysis on you for a bit?” Wanting to know the answer to this question himself, Noel decided to ask Valyr for permission in having his strength be identified. In response, the young man retracted his aura before nodding, telling the elder that he would appreciate it if he only looked at his status screen.

n“Don’t worry. That was my intention to begin with.” Reassuring Valyr that he would only look through the young man’s status screen, Noel soon went ahead and activated his identification skill on Valyr, causing a faint dark blue haze to cover the man’s eyes as Valyr felt that the old man in front of him could see right through him.

n“Superior Analysis.”

nWhoosh!

nNot even a second after Noel had activated his identification skill, a screen containing a great amount of detail regarding Valyr’s status screen appeared in front of the elder’s field of vision, prompting the haze surrounding his eyes to disappear as he focused his attention to the screen before him.

n“That explains everything…” Unsurprisingly, Noel was once more left at a loss for words as he took a look at Valyr’s stats, most of which were only possible for one to achieve at a considerably higher level than what the young man had at the moment.

nOf course, it did not take long for Noel to deduce how the young man’s stats had reached such a level, factoring in the young man’s class, the subclass he had given him, as well as the set of equipment the young man was wearing at the moment, with the equipment Valyr wore giving him the feeling that it had become one with the man.

n“Haah.” Letting out a low sigh as he closed the screen before him, Noel looked at Valyr before asking the latter a question. “You definitely have the strength of a Rank 3 class holder according to your stats, that’s for sure.”

n“But have you tried fighting against a foe at Rank 3 before?” Asking this question, the elder was incredibly certain that the man before him would have only fought against those at the peak of his current class rank at most, basically utilizing his superior strength to defeat weaker enemies.𝒪𝗏𝑙xt.𝗇𝓔t

nHowever, rather than respond to Noel’s question directly, Valyr instead asked the old man a question in response. “Before I respond to that question, have you gone through the three dungeons in the Lesser Meltierre Mountains before, Elder Noel?”

n“The Skill Key dungeons in that region?” In response, Noel nodded. “I have. It’s a good place to grind Common and Uncommon grade Skill Keys in, after all.”

n“Have you cleared the Rare Abyss, then?” Nodding in response to Noel’s answer, Valyr threw another question at the former, to which the man responded with a nod.

n“Since that’s the case, you know of the demilich then.” Expecting to have to nod once more at another question, Noel instead remained silent once he heard Valyr mention the final boss of the Rare Abyss dungeon.

nThough the rooms that made up the entire dungeon was procedurally generated, the mini-bosses that one would have to fight against in the 5th, 10th, and 15th rooms were fixed, all of them being improved versions of the Skeleton Mages one would have to defeat during their run in order to proceed.

n“I’m sure you’ve heard of the demilich, right?” Noticing that Noel had gone silent, a faint grin appeared on Valyr’s face as he continued talking about the Rare Abyss’ final boss. “Demilich Femur? Level 50? A Mythic Elite tier monster many would face difficulty against?”

n“Alright, alright. I get it. You beat the demilich.” Feeling that the young man before him was going to grow more annoying the longer he allowed him to speak, Noel decided to interrupt the young man from continuing, telling him that he already understood what he was hinting at. “And before you say I’m wrong, I can already infer that you beat the demilich without experiencing any difficulty. I did get to see your stats, after all.”

n“That more than proves that I have the combat experience to fight against a Shadow Serpent, right?” Deciding to make sure that he indeed had the qualifications to fight against the monster Noel thought would pose a difficulty to him, as well as wanting to annoy the old man one more time, Valyr posed yet another question to the old man.

n“Yes, yes, yes.” Pinching his forehead as he felt his blood start to boil for some apparent reason, Noel took in a few deep breaths to calm himself down before deciding to look at Valyr yet again. Seeing the young man smile at him in a slightly mocking manner, the elder let out a low sigh before proceeding to pull up a screen in front of him, interacting with it for a bit soon after.

nDing!

nYou have received a subclass promotion quest: Returning to One’s Roots.

nHearing the ever familiar notification sound resound in his mind, Valyr went ahead and took a look at his notification screen, a slight grin adorning his face as he read that he had received a subclass promotion quest from Noel. However, just as he was about to take a look at its description to get a better idea of what he needed to do to complete it, the old man interrupted him from doing so.

n“I’d suggest you save that for later,” said Noel with a serious expression. “Since you’re incredibly determined to kill a Shadow Serpent, we’re now on a race against time.”

nWhoosh!

nTaking in a deep breath, Noel called upon his connection with the Abyssal Energy he had access to thanks to his subclass before chanting a few words that sounded incomprehensible to Valyr, placing his hands on the ground not long after as he coursed the Abyssal Energy through it.

nSwoosh!

nWithin seconds, a magic circle made out of Abyssal Energy appeared on the ground before Noel, prompting Valyr to remain silent as he watched runes made out of the same energy write itself on the edges of the magic circle, only for a rift to appear a couple dozen centimeters above the magic circle some time later.

nFeeling his connection with Shadow Energy surprisingly become stronger the closer he was to the rift, Valyr shifted his gaze to Noel, who was already expecting the former to ask about the rift.

nClearing his throat, he explained. “In relation to the quest I’ve given you, we’ll be heading to the place where Shadow Serpents are aplenty, considering that we’ll be heading to the place where the energy we connect with originates from.”

n“Some call it the realm where darkness resides. Others say it’s a place where all common sense breaks loose.”

n“But to us connected to the place’s energy, it is only known…”

n“…as the Shadow Plane.”

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