"..." Remaining silent as the words Julian told him lingered in his mind, Valyr thought back to the small tidbit he had recalled earlier, the same one that prompted him to ask the question.
Though she had successfully left the inheritance and went on to create legendary pieces that allowed the human side to regain some of their advantages, it was known by almost everyone even before then that the young woman did not have much left to live.
Growing up as an orphan in Cappe Village, people gradually came to find out that the reason why she had become one was due to a defect that she had been born with, a defect that befuddled even the greatest of doctors.
Whenever she exerted effort, her lifespan would decrease.
Of course, with there no being proper facility for orphans in the village, Loreina had to move out and about in order to get by every passing day, taking on any sort of menial work just to get some food.
Unsurprisingly, this action she had done for survival unknowingly began to eat on her lifespan, with doctors being left at a loss for words when they did a detailed check-up on her by the time she was 10 years old, the same time people began to discover her innate defect.
After all, they found out that she only had 30 years left to live at that point.
Naturally, after people came to find out her condition, more people began to help her out, even going so far as to aid her in ascending the ranks in order to prolong her lifespan. However, as if the heavens did not want her to live for long, each action reduced more of her lifespan in proportion to her current class rank, causing her to fall into a spiral of depression for many years.
Fortunately, during that time, someone had introduced the path of tailoring to the young woman, a skill that did not take that much effort, yet still did a lot in the grand scheme of things. Because of that, her talent in tailoring was gradually discovered, allowing her to become the person Julian was introducing to the young man.
However, what Julian did not know was that in Valyr's past timeline, the young woman would eventually succumb to the curse of the heavens just a year after leaving the inheritance, something that the entire human race deeply wished not to happen, especially in the midst of war.
"Have they tried giving her the Panacea yet?" Inwardly letting out a long sigh as he felt pity for the young woman, Valyr eventually asked a question to Julian, who responded to the young man's words with a slightly bitter smile.
"They have." Julian nodded. "However, even that did not remove the root cause of her weakness. At most, it only prolonged the time she has left to live."
"I see." Nodding in response, Valyr finally let out an audible sigh, causing Julian to let out a sigh of his own not long after.
"Alright." Wallowing in the somber mood for a while, Julian eventually changed the topic, returning to the atmosphere surrounding them to what it was before. "Let's move onto the final member of this four man group."
"The sage."
"In terms of combat ability, it has been said that you are only second to him," said Julian soon after. "Then again, that was back when Zeik had tested you while you had just ascended to Rank 1. If anything, I'm quite curious as to who between the two of you is stronger."
"Wait... are you talking about Hal?" Realizing who the man was talking about, Valyr posed a question to the man as his thoughts whirred regarding the final member of the group.
Back when Zeik had mentioned the name Hal to him, no such memories of a person having that name appeared in the young man's mind. However, now that he thought about it more during his conversation with Julian...
Wouldn't Hal be more fitting as a nickname?
"Yes." Julian nodded. "Hal, or more well-known by the higher-ups of the guilds as Vylhalteinn Impyris, is a part of the noble Impyris clan, as well as a True Honorary Elder of the Sage Guild at the young age of 16."
'I knew it had to be that guy.' With Julian's words confirming his suspicions, Valyr continued to listen to the former, committing every word to memory.
"With True Prodigious Sage as his main class, he has made leaps and bounds in progress in multiple fields, though most of it is in the field involving skill optimization and innovation," Julian told Valyr.
"It is because of his contribution to that field that his combat ability is considered monstrous even to those that have class ranks higher than him, certain that he would become a strong pillar of the human race in the times to come."
"Of course, as the sage class is a scholarly profession, he has also dabbled in many other classes, the three production classes participating in the inheritance also being included in those." At those words, Julian briefly shrugged his shoulders.
"Though his ability in those fields is considerably lacking compared to his main profession, he still has enough talent to be considered an elite in that field, causing people to call him the Lord of All Trades."
'I'm surprised that I'm not surprised to hear that.' Trying to recall more and more memories of Hal in the past, the young man gradually recalled the feats he had accomplished during the War of the Three Sovereignties, all of which had revolutionized the processes for many fields.
Unbeknownst to Hal at the time, this series of revolutions had brought the level of technology in Veldanyr forward by a couple of centuries, with combat technology being most affected by it, being brought forward over a few centuries.
Near the end of the war, rather than fighting against the orcs and elves with cold weapons and magic, some humans began to fight them using crude rifles and pistols, with some even forming battalions around the weapon.
In fact, it could be said that if not for the discovery of the rifle and pistol, the human race would not have a dominant spot after the War of the Three Sovereignties. It was also due to that same reason that Hal had eventually become known by many under another name.
The Monarch of Innovation.
