"Master?" Hearing someone respond to his statement out of nowhere, and in such a somewhat odd way at that, Valyr swiftly look around his surroundings, wondering if someone from the Imperial Production Guild had decided to enter the private workshop since it was already late into the night. After all, there was a limit as to how long he could stay within the guild as a non-member.
However, after looking around the private workshop for a couple minutes, Valyr was unable to find any other person inside other than himself. Even releasing a bit of his mana into the surroundings to act as a rough detector for life did not yield any results whatsoever, with the only other things to accompany him within the workshop being inanimate.
"I swear I must've heard someone talk." Scratching his head for a bit, he eventually returned to the anvil and finished enhancing his spear to the highest level it could go, the words from earlier still lingering in his mind. "I think I should really take a break."
Pondering over his current condition for a bit in relation to the response he had heard earlier, Valyr thought that he was now beginning to hallucinate since it had been quite some time since he had eaten what he considered to be his breakfast and lunch, with dinner still nowhere near in sight for the current him. Aside from that, he had pushed his body and mind to its utmost limits during the upgrade process for his set of armor, as well as during the enhancement and refinement process.
Of course, he had pushed his body and mind even further in the past, with the time he had forged a set of weapons for Braum and his group being the most recent example of when he had done such a thing. However, unlike when he was forging the weapons, he felt like his mind was running on overdrive ever since he had begun the upgrading process, causing him to feel far more tired than usual even though he had spent around the same amount of time when compared to the time he had spent forging those weapons.
Deciding that he would wrap up work as soon as possible and get his body the nutrients and rest it sorely needed, Valyr slightly sped up his movements while enhancing his spear's level, making sure that each level that he applied was still successful.
By the time around 15 minutes had passed since he had returned to working on his spear, Valyr let out a long sigh of relief as he looked at the newly enhanced spear on the anvil, the expression on his face that of a faint bitter smile as he affixed his spear to his back before proceeding to insert a bit of mana into the furnace to finally shut it off.
"I'll leave it up to Braum to take care of this." After shutting off the magic-powered furnace, he then took a look at the state of the private workshop he had been using for the entire day, noticing that there was quite a decent amount of random stuff scattered all throughout the workshop, with none of them even being remotely useful to him.
Though, just as he thought about cleaning up the workshop a bit before he left to return to the inn, the wave of tiredness he had been suppressing all this time finally washed over him, causing him to inwardly apologize to the man who had helped him procure the items he had used in his upgrades as he made his way out of the Imperial Production Guild, thankful that there was still an exit he could use to leave the premises.
"I'll have to make it up to him one way or another." Murmuring to himself as he finally left the Imperial Production Guild, Valyr felt his mind start to gradually recover its energy, allowing him to regain his somewhat lost sense of clarity as he thought about getting a light meal to eat along the way before returning to the inn to get a good night's rest.
With that, he began to take a detour to a nearby restaurant he had noted down a couple of days ago as he allowed his mind to wander off for a bit, noticing that his mind still felt like it was immensely focused on a certain aspect for some reason. Though he now had an idea of what was causing it now that he was out of the guild, Valyr decided to leave it be, seeing that he would have to find a way to keep it constantly active at some point in the future anyway.
While making his way to the restaurant, Valyr thought back to the statement he had heard from earlier, now being able to give the statement a bit more thought to it than he was able to earlier. Surprisingly, he had come to the conclusion that he was not hallucinating and that there was indeed someone else who was listening in on his brief brainstorming.
"But who could it be?" Pondering over it for a bit more, he then tried to recall the characteristics of the voice he had earlier, quickly remembering that the voice was somewhat feminine in terms of pitch and tone. Aside from that, he felt that the voice had become soft when it had mentioned the word 'Master', which Valyr had no choice but to think that the word was pertaining to him.
"Hmm…" Allowing the thoughts in his mind to linger, Valyr found his mind's currently abnormal state to be helping him out in this regard, quickly removing all of the what-ifs in his mind as he felt himself get closer to the answer he was finding. Fortunately, a bit of thinking outside the box was the only thing stopping him from getting his needed answer as he stopped in his tracks and slowly gazed at the spear behind his back.
"Can you hear me?" Taking in a deep breath, Valyr softly asked a question through his spear, taking into consideration the current circumstances he was in. Aside from that, he had also voiced out the same question in his mind, considering that the connection that he and his spear had was rooted in his soul.
Amidst the silence after his question, Valyr composed his emotions as he continued to look at the spear behind his back. Thankfully, it did not take long for the young man to get the response he wanted to get.
"…Yes."
"Is there something I can help you with?"
"Master?"
