At the entrance of the Imperial Production Guild.
"You did remind Valyr that he had to come here early in the morning, right?" As both Braum and Madeline waited for Valyr to appear in front of him, the former slightly doubted that the latter had done her job properly, causing him to pose a question to her in response.
"Of course! Why would I forget something like that?" In response, a light frown appeared on Madeline's face as she felt slightly offended at the fact that Braum thought that she would forget something as simple as reminding Valyr of their meeting.
However, just a few seconds later, she tried to recall what she had done last night, not remembering mentioning to Valyr the meeting that they had to attend today. With that in mind, she began to doubt herself, muttering, "Wait… did I actually forget?"
"I sure hope you didn't." Letting out a soft sigh, Braum tried his best not to let the faint nervousness creeping up on him show on his face, taking in a deep breath every once in a while to keep himself calm. "After all, you know how hard it is to get everyone from the Ancestral Council to gather together, especially for an occasion like this."
"Ah! Valyr's friend is here!" Though the frown on Madeline's face did not disappear after listening to Braum's words, once she noticed that Wells was heading to where they were, the expression on her face changed into a composed smile. However, after looking at Wells for a while, expecting to see Valyr beside him, what Madeline saw instead was a man neither she nor Braum had met before accompanying him, prompting her to speculate on what might have caused the current situation.
"Is his friend going to tell us that Valyr can't come due to some unforeseen reason?" Looking at Braum beside her, Madeline brought up the possibility that seemed most likely in her mind to the former. Sucking in a bit of cold air, Braum contemplated over Madeline's words in silence for a bit before eventually shrugging her shoulders.
"I really hope that isn't the case."
"Braum. Madeline. Good morning to you both." Finally arriving to where Braum and Madeline were, Wells greeted the two with a smile as the man accompanying him stood a few steps away from the trio, seemingly minding his own business.
"Good morning to you as well." Nodding back in response, Braum and Madeline reciprocated the greeting Wells had given them, only for their expressions to turn solemn as Braum looked at the latter before posing a question to him. "Do you know where Valyr is at the moment? I don't know if Madeline had informed you aside from Valyr the previous night, but your friend has to attend a meeting at the guild today."
"Yeah. Madeline did indeed tell us." As Wells nodded in agreement to Braum's words, Madeline let out a faint sigh of relief from the fact that she had not forgotten to remind Valyr of the meeting that was going to happen today. However, the relief on her face was quickly turned into confusion as both her and Braum became perplexed after Wells' next words.
"As for where Valyr is, you don't have to worry about that." Wells had a light smirk on his face. "In fact, Valyr came along with me because he knew he had a meeting to attend within the Imperial Production Guild."
"He's here? I don't see him anywhere." Unsurprisingly, the two quickly became skeptical of Wells' claim as they focused on their gazes on the man that had been accompanying Wells.
However, just as Braum was about to ask why the man behind Wells was accompanying the latter, a thought swiftly surfaced in his mind as he recalled a certain statement he had mentioned to a certain someone the previous day. His eyes widening in realization, Braum slowly pointed at the man behind Wells before asking in a slightly doubtful tone, "Valyr…?"
"Took you a while to figure out." In response to the question, the man behind Wells let out a deep chuckle as many of the man's features started to gradually transform into something else. What was previously a head of dark brown hair that reached the man's shoulders, a head of short black hair took its place as the proportion of the man's face gradually took on the features of a man the others knew quite well.
Humming out a single tone that was being accompanied by a voice that sounded gravelly, the man's voice gradually increased in pitch, with the man's voice eventually transforming into something that all of them could easily recognize.
Aside from the fact that the color of the man's irises remain the same as they were, taking on a shade of dark blue, Braum and Madeline had no doubts anymore that the man accompanying Wells was not Valyr, especially after they had briefly identified him with [Analysis].
Seeing as how they felt that the man accompanying Wells earlier was another person altogether, both Braum and Madeline were quite surprised with how Valyr went out of his way to disguise his identity as much as possible, with both of them even getting the feeling that he had even picked up a skill that allowed him to mask his own energy.
Though oblivious as to what was going on in the minds of the two, it did not take long for Valyr to get an idea of what the two were thinking, a light smirk adorning his face as he now had an idea of how effective [Enhanced Polymorph] was in hiding his identity.
After getting out of the shower earlier after making an impulsive decision to raise his level to the peak of Rank 1, Valyr went ahead and tested [Enhanced Polymorph] in front of Wells, which left the latter astounded since the concealment of his original identity was incredibly thorough. It was to the point that, if Wells had not been around to see Valyr take on a different identity, he would have thought that a random person had barged into their room.
With that, he upgraded [Enhanced Polymorph] to Level 10 without hesitation, reducing the amount of mana consumed every minute to keep up the morph, as well as increase the level of control he had over the morph.
"I guess we should head inside the guild, then?" Feeling as if the two in front of him had gotten lost in their thoughts, Valyr snapped the two back into reality with a simple question, prompting them to respond with a light nod as they beckoned Valyr to follow them into the inside of the guild.
Nodding back in response, Valyr looked back at Wells with a light smile before bidding him farewell for the meantime. "I'll be seeing you later, then."
"Hopefully everything goes well on your end." With these words escaping Wells' mouth as they went their separate ways, Valyr and the two went ahead and continued heading deeper into the guild, eventually arriving in front of an intricate double door.
