'Did he head to the Akashic Battlefield these past few days?' Taking a look at the notification he had received, Valyr already knew what kind of message he would read, focusing his attention on the sender's increased level for the meantime. Opening up the chat function in front of him, he then asked Zeik if they could stop for the meantime.
"It's been quite some time since we've ventured the Shadow Plane, brat." Reading the message he had gotten from Noel, the young man faintly let out a chuckle as he subconsciously began to pace back and forth. "I suppose you haven't forgotten the fact you still need to kill a Shadow Serpent to complete the quest I've given you?"
"I have not," said Valyr in response, even though the real answer to the question was the exact opposite. With how preoccupied he was with other stuff while waiting for the day of the tournament to arrive, the reminder of needing to head back to the Shadow Plane to complete some unfinished business gradually disappeared from the back of his head.
"Hey, Zeik." Feeling like the elder would leave him no choice but to head to the Spearman Guild to slay a Shadow Serpent, Valyr decided to give Julian a heads-up as he inwardly let out a faint sigh. "Unfortunately, due to some abrupt changes, I won't be able to head back with you to the Blacksmith Guild. Could you inform the Guildmaster that I'll be heading to the Spearman Guild if he needs me?"
"Alright." Though finding the abrupt change somewhat odd, Zeik eventually nodded in response, casting a few skills on himself that enhanced his movement speed in preparation for his journey back. "Got anything you want me to tell Julian once I get there?"
"Remind him that I'll be waiting for my reward." In response, Valyr let out a bit of laughter, to which Zeik let out some as well.
"Got it. Take care for now, then." Waving farewell to the young man for the meantime, Zeik soon dashed through the flat plains outside the walls of the kingdom, his silhouette disappearing from Valyr's field of vision within seconds.
"Well, let's get this over with." Seeing that he was now alone, Valyr took a look at his current surroundings to find out in the off chance that someone was tracking him. Finding out that there were none, he then went ahead and activated all of the skills in his arsenal that boosted his movement speed, soon heading in the direction of the Spearman Guild at a speed considerably slower than Zeik's.
"Since you haven't forgotten, I suppose now would be a good time for us to enter the Shadow Plane once more, no?" Bringing up the chat function in front of his field of vision once more, Valyr read through the next few messages Noel had sent him, the latter among them leaving him with the feeling of being spied on.
"Especially with the tournament between the inheritance's candidates being over and all."
"…did the Guildmaster inform you?" Swiftly getting over the feeling he had just felt as he took in a few deep breaths, Valyr then thought about the multiple possible ways Noel had come across the knowledge, eventually going with what seemed the most obvious.
"That he did." Fortunately, Noel's response confirmed his most likely hypothesis, prompting Valyr to inwardly let out a sigh of relief as he thought of the elder as someone who could send spies to track him if he wanted to. "Fret not, brat. He only informed me of the tournament, not its purpose."
"Though it definitely won't take me that long to find that out if I wanted to," added the elder on a follow-up message, the feeling of being spied on returning to envelop Valyr's body.
"In any case, with you currently unoccupied with other tasks, and the fact that there's still a lot of sunlight, now is the best chance for you to become a true Shadow Serpentine Lancer once and for all." Letting out a low sigh as he read the elder's final message, Valyr swiftly suppressed the feeling he felt as he selected Julian as the recipient of his message.
"I'll be heading to the Spearman Guild for the meantime to meet up with Elder Noel. Might only be able to come to the Blacksmith Guild tomorrow." Wanting to keep his message brief yet straightforward, Valyr pondered over the words making up his message for a while as he continued to dash through the vast plains surrounding the kingdom.
"Take your time. Would prefer if you came tomorrow anyway." By the time he was about a couple hundred meters away from one of the kingdom gates, Julian had responded back to his message, with the latter portion being somewhat cryptic. Deciding that he would focus on the promotion of his subclass for the meantime, Valyr placed the thought at the back of his head for now as he arrived at the Spearman Guild not long later.
"And here I thought I'd be waiting around for a bit longer." Opening up the door that led to the room where Elder Noel stayed, Valyr was instantly greeted by the voice of a familiar old man, causing a bitter smile to appear on his face.
"I would definitely like to apologize that I've been busy for the past few days," said Valyr in response, to which Noel responded by waving his hands in nonchalance.
"Unlike before, you being busy these past few days isn't really much of a problem," replied Noel, faintly grinning. "Especially with the waves you've set off through the kingdom with what you've achieved. Perhaps, even the empire has already caught wind of your feats."
"Is that so?" Though Valyr was slightly confused at first by what Noel meant, it did not take long for him to put two and two together in his mind, understanding that the old man before him was talking about the artifact he had forged a few days ago. "Has that caused any issues?"
"Not any issues that you or I would need to care about, but definitely some issues have arose for others because of what you did." Saying these words, Noel let out a chuckle before placing his hands on the ground. Then, summoning a portion of his Abyssal Energy, a magic circle was swiftly created, the rift that led to the Shadow Plane appearing above it not long after.
"In any case, let's not think about those matters for the meantime."
"For now, it's time for you to kill a Shadow Serpent."