Ding!
Hearing the ever familiar notification sound resound in his mind, Valyr viewed the entirety of his status screen for once, making sure that Leron would not be able to see it by opening it in his mind. Though, once he was finished looking through it, he was left staring at the screen with his mouth agape, speechless at how much his stats had improved.
[Valyr Zeihardt]
Class: True Prodigious Blacksmith (Rank 1 — Mythic)
Species: Human (1st Unsealing)
Level: 18
Power Level: 1,399 (B)
Unused XP: 124,789
————
HP: 1,748/1,748
MP: 1,498/1,498
Attack: 262 - 296
Defense: 293 - 406
Stats: 104 VIT, 83 STR, 72 AGI, 128 DEX, 104 INT, 55 WIS, 79 PER, 34 LUK (0 unassigned points)
Remarks: Compared to other Rank 1 class holders… you're scary.
'I'm pretty sure most of the increase in my stats are all thanks to that attribute awakening skill.' Closing the status screen as he took in a couple of deep breaths to compose himself, Valyr instantly thought about [True Prodigious Equipment Attribute Awakening], only now realizing how overpowered such a skill was when every piece of equipment was awakened to the limit.
Naturally, he also thought about the various titles and skills he had obtained along the way that bolstered his stats even further, as well as the set effects of the Half Wyvern Armor he currently had equipped. With that in mind, he knew for a fact that at this moment, he was near his strongest state, which would only be achievable if he activated all of his buffing skills at once.
Nevertheless, even without the buffing skills activated, he had a feeling that early Rank 2 class holders would be nowhere near to achieving his current level of strength. To him, only middle Rank 2 or peak Rank 2 class holders would be able to do so.
Feeling a couple of heavy weights being removed off his shoulders now that he found out he had more than enough combat power to salvage a terrible situation, Valyr went ahead and looked through his skill list to see if he could upgrade any more skills to bolster this advantage even further. After all, he still had over a hundred thousand XP left unused.
Thankfully, it did not take long for Valyr to come to a decision, upgrading [Basic Crimson Flame Manipulation] to Level 6 and [Intermediate Combat Mastery] to Level 10, reducing the XP he could still allocate down to almost 30,000.
Pondering over which skill he could use the remaining XP on, he eventually settled on upgrading [Offense Aura] and [Defense Aura] to Level 7, recalling how both of the skills were indispensable during the fight against Riekan, allowing him to deal enough damage, as well as tank enough damage.
After pondering in silence for a bit more, he allocated a bit more of his remaining XP towards upgrading [Serpent Steps Movement Style] to Level 7, noticing in its description that he had inadvertently unlocked the skill's second move due to his current AGI stat. With that, he decided to check on [Serpent Spear Combat Style] to see if he had also unlocked another move.
Unsurprisingly, with how much his DEX stat had improved, he noticed that another move was available for him to use aside from [Descending Fang] and [Venomous Strike], eliciting a wide grin to appear on his face as he imagined multiple scenarios where he would combine this new move alongside the second move from the movement style.
With only less than four thousand XP remaining after the small upgrading spree he did, Valyr thought that he had done more or less everything he could to increase his advantage during the duel as much as possible.
At some point, he turned his head to look at Leron for a bit, only to see the man sharpening his blade once more. However, unlike before, Leron was now donning a set of dark gray leather armor as a piece of dark fabric covered the lower portion of his face.
In a way, it reminded Valyr of what he wore whenever he aided Tryndall in their operation to find out more regarding the Clossbay Killer incident.
Nevertheless, the two of them did not speak to each other during the entire time they waited for their signal to head to the battleground, deciding to confide in silence instead as they mentally prepared themselves for what was about to come.
"You're up." Eventually, a guard appeared within the area the two were waiting in, informing both Valyr and Leron that they were told to head to the coliseum's battleground.
Looking at each other for a bit, the two then followed the guard to where they had to head, with Valyr being led to one of the multiple gates lining the walls of the battleground. After waiting for a while, he noticed Leron appear on the other side, behind one of the gates on the opposing side of where he was.
Surprisingly, at the very moment both he and Leron showed themselves behind the gates, the clamor that covered the entire coliseum had reached an all-time high, with everyone in the seating areas cheering their hearts out for something that was considered a rare occurrence in their city.
However, once a man in slightly formal get-up appeared at the center of the battleground all of a sudden, this cacophony swiftly settled down, with everyone's attention now focused on the man that had just appeared.
"Ehem." Clearing his throat, the man that had just appeared took in a deep breath, his voice swiftly reverberating throughout the coliseum with great loudness soon after. "Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls!"
"Welcome to the Farraway Coliseum!"
In response to the man's words, a wave of cheers and applause swept throughout the whole coliseum, causing a light smile to briefly appear on the man's face as he allowed the excitement of the audience to die down.
"My name is Natsu Farraway, the eldest son of the Farraway family, and I shall be your announcer for today's event." With his voice resounding throughout the coliseum once more, the announcer swiftly introduced the reason why everyone in the audience had arrived at the coliseum.
"I'm sure everyone here knows of the Crimson Forge, the smithy that has taken the city by storm thanks to its reputation of selling quality wares at considerably low prices. In fact, I'm certain that a great portion of the people that have attended today's event have visited the Crimson Forge at one point in time." At these words, some of the people in the audience nodded, agreeing with the announcer's words.
"With that in mind, I'm also certain that everyone has also heard of the situation that had been brewing between the Crimson Forge and the Hekaetos Forging Emporium, with the latter requesting a forging duel against the owner of the Crimson Forge to find out which among the two smithies were better."
"Unfortunately for the Hekaetos Forging Emporium, no matter how adamant they were in having the Crimson Forge accept their duel, the latter did not relent, instead denying the forging emporium the favor of having a forging duel against both smithies."
"Now, you might be wondering why I'm talking about such an incident." As the announcer asked this rhetorical question to the audience, part of the audience nodded in anticipation of the man's next words. Though, once they heard of the man's reasoning, some of them let out a light gasp in surprise.
"Well, that's because today's event has everything to do with that incident," said the announcer, giving the audience time to process what they had just heard before continuing. "The Hekaetos Forging Emporium decided that enough was enough and took matters into their own hands, deciding that a life and death duel with the Crimson Forge was the best course of action."
"With all of that said, let me introduce everyone to the two competitors that shall represent their respective smithies in this life and death duel!"
