n

n

n

n“Guess we’ll have to wait and see.” Letting out a bit of laughter, Valyr grinned at Hal as he responded, signaling the start of their break as the four recuperated all of the energy they had wasted during their fights.

nThough he was the first one to fight in the tournament and had expended a great amount of his mana and stamina during his fight, Faulus took the initiative to speed up their recovery, taking out a cauldron from a spatial bracelet attached to his waist before putting it down a considerable distance away from the crater.

nSeeing as Faulus had retrieved a few sets of alchemical materials from his bracelet not long after, Valyr decided to leave the young man be for the meantime, reminding himself that immense concentration was needed for one to successfully concoct something through alchemy.

nWith that, he decided to head to where Loreina sat for the meantime as the young woman’s personality during the fight remained vivid in his mind.

nWaving at the young woman as a greeting before exchanging a couple of words to initiate the conversation, the young man eventually changed the topic of their conversation to the thought that lingered in his mind.

n“You know, I’ve been curious about something while the two of you fought,” Valyr told Loreina.

n“Is it perhaps the drastic change in personality I undergo during fights?” Already having a faint idea of what the young man wanted to ask, a slightly bitter smile appeared on Loreina’s face as she asked.

n“Well… I understand if you don’t want to tell me the reason behind it.” Feeling as if he had been found out even before he began talking, an awkward smile adorned Valyr’s face as he responded. “After all, from how you’re talking about it, it feels like there’s more to it than it seems.”

n“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Loreina assured Valyr that it was alright to talk about it. “It’s something quite a lot of people know already, so there really isn’t any problem with me sharing it.”

n“Though, before I explain the reason… you do know where I came from, right?” she asked not long after.

n“It’s in your name, no?” Valyr faintly nodded. “Cappe Village, if my memory serves me correctly.”

n“Yeah.” Loreina nodded in response.

n“Well, in short, the reason for my change in personality is due to my upbringing in the village,” said the young woman soon after, flashing a wry smile at Valyr as she continued, “Hopefully, that answer is more than enough for you.”

n“I think I have an idea.” Though he really wanted the young woman to explain more about it, Valyr understood that obtaining this kind of information was already a lot, considering that the two weren’t even acquaintances to begin with. With that, he decided to work with the information he already had about Loreina from the past, thanking the young woman as he sat on a portion of the crater’s edge far away from the others.

n“Huu…” Taking in a few deep breaths as he began to delve deep into the recesses of his mind, memories he had regarding Loreina’s upbringing began to surface, reminding Valyr that the young woman was an orphan when she grew up.

n‘Well, it wouldn’t be surprising if the change in personality was a defense mechanism for her back then.’ Mulling over the thought, the young man let out a low sigh as he quickly felt like his first assumption seemed the most likely.

nAs a young orphan in the village, it wasn’t surprising for people to exploit that kind of status, especially if they knew they wouldn’t receive some kind of repercussion from it. Unsurprisingly, a few dark thoughts related to the situation appeared in Valyr’s mind, causing him to feel a bit of anger towards those who had malicious intent towards Loreina in the past.

nThough, after taking in a few more deep breaths, these dark thoughts gradually disappeared, reminding himself that the situations he had come up were only theoretical at most, all of them easily considered worst-case scenarios.

nNevertheless, the amount of pity Valyr felt towards Loreina’s current condition only increased after obtaining that idea, though he would make sure that he would never show it to the young woman. With how the young woman generally wanted to act on her own, judging from how she fought against Hal, Valyr felt like Loreina would treat his actions out of pity as some sort of offensive remark.𝒪𝗏𝑙xt.𝐂𝞸𝑚

n‘In any case, I never expected I’d come across these figures I used to admire in the past and interact with them as equals.’ Standing up as he noticed that Faulus had concocted a series of potions for all of them, Valyr made his way to where the young man was as the thought lingered in his mind.

nWith how much time he had invested into Greater Beyond in his previous life, he knew the feats and strengths of the three as if it were the back of his hand, feeling great excitement from his inner player at the fact that he would become one of those legends as well.

n‘Still, to think most of the people I’ve interacted with so far are NPCs,’ thought Valyr to himself as he let out a faint chuckle. ‘It seriously doesn’t feel like it.’

n“Get some potions before we continue with the next few fights.” Handing out freshly concocted potions to Loreina and the others, Faulus watched the three drink his potions with a proud smile on his face, the arrogance he had shown Valyr earlier nowhere to be found.

n“Woah.” With stamina being the resource he had expended the most, Valyr grabbed a stamina potion for himself and chugged the contents down, only to feel like his body was bursting with energy a few seconds later.

n“As expected from the Lord of Medicine.” Unsurprisingly, Hal and Loreina had the same reaction as Valyr as they drank mana potions, their mana reserves swiftly being topped off just from a single potion.

n“I did mention earlier that alchemy is my specialty.” Feeling a bit giddy at having his efforts be recognized, Faulus rubbed his nose as he chuckled. With his potions, the four of them focus on resting their minds as much as possible with the remaining time they had for their break, keeping in mind that they were already in their peak condition physically.

n…

n“So, seeing as we’ve all returned to our peak conditions…” With all of them gathered around during the remainder of their break, Hal stood up as he announced the end of their break, looking at Valyr with a knowing grin.

n“I suppose it wouldn’t be a problem for you to choose your opponent now, Ylvar?”

n“I’ve definitely rested enough.” Valyr smiled as he stood up, turning to look at Hal before asking, “I suppose I can’t fight against Faulus anymore, no?”

n“You really want to fight me again?” Hearing Valyr’s question, Faulus felt a bit of indignance as he complained.

n“Of course not.” Smiling at Faulus’ words, Hal looked at Valyr and shook his head in response. “After all, we already know who’s stronger between the two of you.”

n“So, that leaves either you and Loreina, then.” Nodding in response, Valyr looked at the two other candidates he hadn’t fought against, calculating the chances in his mind that he would’ve triumphed against them. Eventually, after a minute or so of silence, the young man had made his decision, making his way to the depths of the crater in an unhurried pace.

n“Which among the two of us are you going to fight against?” Seeing Valyr already making his way to the crater, Hal asked the former once more, only to be met by echoing laughter.

n“Isn’t it already obvious by now?” Turning around to look at the three as he continued to walk, Valyr had a playful grin on his face as he pointed at Hal. “Ever since I fought against Faulus, I’ve already noticed your intent to fight against me.”

n“Unless… you want me to fight against Loreina for now?” Tilting his head as he questioned Hal, the grin on Valyr’s face became wider.

n“Well, if you insist…” Laughing in response to Valyr’s words, Hal swiftly made his way to the crater, appearing at its depths before Valyr had even gotten to its center.

n“How eager.” With his expression returning to a faint, confident smile, Valyr eventually stood at the center of the crater, the distance separating him and his opponent only being a few meters.

n“Vylhalteinn Impyris.” Wanting to see if the feeling he had earlier was correct, Hal took the initiative to go over his specialties, leaving Valyr no choice but to listen with rapt attention. “General specialties are in the scholarly arts and in divination, while my combat specialties lie in cold weapons, magic, summoning, and archery.”

n“Ylvar,” Valyr responded with a nod. “General specialties are in blacksmithing, with other things I consider specialties not really important. As for my combat specialties…”

n“What if I told you magic was only one of them?”

n

n