Fortunately for Valyr, it did not take long for him to find Tristan, who was loitering around near the entrance of the Blacksmith Guild, waiting for the latter to come out. Seeing Valyr come out of the building, a grin appeared on Tristan's face as he came closer to the man. "So, how did it go?"
"Got all of the rewards," said Valyr in response, smiling as he brought out his new and improved identification badge. Looking at the copper identification badge Valyr brandished in front of him, Tristan could not help but chuckle as he wrapped his arm around his shoulders as the two of them decided to eat some dinner before traveling back to the village.
"Say, Valyr. Who taught you how to do all of the stuff you did during the tournament?" While they were eating their dinner, Tristan decided to ask this question to Valyr opposite him. Of course, Valyr could not help but choke a bit on the food in his mouth, coughing as he sipped a bit of water soon after.
"What's with the question all of a sudden?" Naturally, not expecting such a question to be thrown at him during such a time, Valyr decided to throw a question back.
"Well, if you think about it, I haven't really taught you anything about the main techniques related to forging." Tristan looked at Valyr for a bit before continuing to eat the food on his plate. "If anything, I've only shown you what the Technology Tree was and how to access it, as well as given you a place to try your hand at forging. Other than that, I haven't taught you anything else."
"Which begs the question… who taught you?" With this question, Valyr could not help but go silent, feeling like the best course of action was to use the same excuse he had already used for Tristan's past questions. However, he had a feeling that, if he did use it, Tristan's impression of him would change.
'Should I just tell him I already have knowledge on forging beforehand?' Valyr thought to himself, thinking that it would be a good idea since that meant he was being true to him. Though, considering what he had shown Tristan before the tournament, that would make Valyr seem disingenuous, which was something he did not want Tristan to think of him.
Eventually, his thoughts had come to a compromise, letting out a light sigh as he looked at Tristan with an apologetic smile. "Would it be fine if I told you about it some other time? Apologies if I got your hopes up."
As these words came out of Valyr's mouth, he could not help but inwardly let out a long sigh. 'At moments like these, I can't help but wonder why I even thought of keeping what I know to myself in the first place. But since I've already gotten this far…'
'Just to ease my mind, I'll tell Tristan and the others of the knowledge I have before I leave the village. They deserve to know that after everything they've done for me.' Expecting Tristan to have a negative reaction to his words, Valyr had a blank expression on his face once he saw Tristan nod at his response.
"It's fine if you don't tell me right now, or if you don't tell me at all. We all have our own secrets, after all. I'm not gonna go out of my way to force you to tell me. That was just my curiosity speaking," Tristan said soon after, which made Valyr feel conflicting emotions in his body. Inwardly thanking the man before him for not pressuring him into telling him the truth, the two of them continued to eat their dinners, eventually finishing before setting out to leave the town on the carriage half an hour later.
…
While Tristan and Valyr had already left the town on the carriage, planning to travel a bit of the distance back to the village under the veil of the night, two shadowy figures seemed to be following them from behind, making sure that the two of them wouldn't be caught.
Hiding behind a large bush, the two of them stopped for a bit, seeing that the carriage they were following had slowed down its pace. Letting out light sighs of relief, one of the shadowy figures, a tall man, looked at the other person beside him. "Are you sure we're following the right target?"
"I mean… he's the only one among the top ten in the earlier tournament to be not from town." In response to the question, the other shadowy figure answered back. "Plus, those from the Blacksmith Guild gave us a picture of his appearance. I passed by the two of them earlier and noticed our target hopping on the carriage."
"Do we really have to do this?" the tall man asked with a sigh. "I mean… can't the Blacksmith Guild just approach the guy normally?"
"Just so you know, I don't know what's going on in the minds of the higher-ups either." The man beside him shrugged. "All I know is that we're getting paid with a platinum coin if we do our jobs successfully. That's worth a thousand gold coins right there!"
"To think this is how the guild tests people they deem eligible for the inheritance…" Letting out a sigh, the two shadowy figures soon darted out of the bushes, hastily making their way to where the carriage was, noticing that its pace had slowed down considerably.
…
Seeing as their carriage had traversed a considerable amount of distance from Danyhris Town, the two of them decided to set up camp in the vicinity, hopping down from the carriage to assess their surroundings. While in the midst of assessment, both Tristan and Valyr could not help but look at each other, getting a foreboding feeling that something might befall them sometime soon.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Just as they had asked each other if they were feeling the same thing, two shadowy figures had appeared in front of them, both of which sent out punches that made Tristan and Valyr go flying for a few meters.
As the two shadowy figures looked at where the two were going to land, the tall man gave a heads-up to the other person that came along with him. "You stall the other one. I'll go for the target."
"You better be quick." Nodding in response, the other shadowy figure, a man that was about a head shorter than the tall man, bent his knees before dashing towards where Tristan was, soon engaging in a fistfight with him. As for the tall man that remained, he took in a deep breath before running to where Valyr was.
"Gah…" Landing on his back, Valyr could not help but loudly hiss from the pain he was feeling, finding it somewhat difficult to stand up. However, just as he was about to check out who attacked the two of them, one of the assailants appeared in front of him, forcing him to retrieve the spear on his back as he blocked the fist coming straight at his face.
Pah!
Using all of his strength on the block, Valyr was surprised to find out that he had only moved the fist from the assailant by a few centimeters. With his eyes widening in surprise, he swerved his body to the side, avoiding the fist that had generated a gust of wind as it passed by.
Seeing that the assailant was wide open, Valyr retaliated without hesitation, getting into a battle stance before thrusting his spear forward.
"[Strong Pierce]!"
Thud!
In less than an instant, Valyr's spear had made contact with the assailant, his goal to disable the person by aiming for one of the person's arms. However, rather than pierce deeper into the assailant's flesh and meet bone, the tip of the spear only dug a couple centimeters into the assailant's flesh.
"Hoh… not bad." Sensing the injury Valyr had inflicted on him, the tall man retracted his extended fist as he gave Valyr a couple words of praise, though to Valyr, it seemed more like words laced with mockery. Considering the disparity in level between the two of them, inflicting a superficial injury was already achievement for a Rank 1 class holder like Valyr.
But of course, Valyr did not know that.
Bang!
Being distracted from the shock he felt from his spear only dealing that much damage, the tall man went ahead and sent an uppercut towards Valyr's chest, prompting the latter to go flying once more. While that was happening, the tall man made his way to where he thought Valyr was going to land, grabbing the latter at the very last second as Valyr felt indignance at the current situation.
"Finally getting mad, are we?" the tall man said to Valyr, who responded by sending a hook towards the former's face. In response to the attack, the tall man stopped it before it could even land, even gripping on it tightly to the point Valyr slightly cried out in pain.
"Then again, it wouldn't be interesting if you didn't get mad."
"Show me what you've got."
