"I don't know how long I'll be out to explore the inheritance, but do take care of Edward while I'm gone." Seeing that their conversation was over, Valyr took a look outside one of the room's windows to check the time, only for his eyes to widen in surprise as he found out a couple of hours had passed.
Taking opportunity of the fact that the two had pretty much said everything they needed to say, the young man placed the primitive gun he had forged into his part of the room before bidding farewell to his friend to the meantime, telling him that he was heading to the Boundless Skill Pavilion.
In response, Wells told him to take care of himself while he was out, to which the young man responded in a nod as the door leading out their room was eventually closed.
Staring at the closed door for a while, the expression on Wells' face changed multiple times. By the end of it, he let out a sigh as he headed back to his part of the room, the thoughts currently swirling in his mind unknown to the others.
As for Valyr, after leaving the inn the three of them were staying in, the young man swiftly made his way to the Boundless Skill Pavilion to grab some skills he felt were essential during his exploration of the Four Pillars' Inheritance.
Considering that he would still return to the inn once he was finished with his shopping spree, he did not bother wearing his upgraded armor set, only making sure that [Enhanced Polymorph] was active along the way.
Once there, one of the attendants came up to him and asked him as to what kind of skills he wanted to buy from the pavilion. Knowing exactly what skills he would need for the inheritance tomorrow, the young man directly told the attendant helping him the names of the skills, prompting the attendant to go silent for a bit.
"Please follow me, sir." Thankfully, it did not take long for the attendant to give Valyr a response, urging the latter to follow them as they traversed a considerable portion of the Boundless Skill Pavilion. Eventually, the two of them arrived at a part of the pavilion the young man was familiar with, which was the section containing passive skill books.
'It's a shame I can't comprehend the original skills again after combining them into a new skill,' thought the young man himself as he searched through the various bookshelves before him. 'If I could, I would've bought those passive skills again. Imagine how strong I would become if those skills stacked with [Unearthed Innate Potential]?'
Allowing his mind to briefly daydream about such possibilities, Valyr went ahead and grabbed [Innate Regeneration] and [Innate Energy Regeneration] from one of the bookshelves in front of him. Unlike the other passive skills in the past with the word 'Innate' on them, these two skills had not been part of the combination, allowing its effects to stack with the boosted regeneration brought by [Unearthed Innate Potential].
Heading to another part of the passive skill book section, the young man then shifted his thoughts to skills that went beyond combat. Considering that he and the others would be probably be exploring the inheritance for quite a long time, Valyr thought that it wouldn't be bad to complement his current skill set with lifestyle skills.
With that, he went ahead and grabbed [Basic Cooking], [Basic First Aid], and [Basic Mending]. Thinking about whether or not there were other lifestyle skills he had missed, the young man eventually thought that he had pretty much grabbed all of the passive skills he deemed necessary for this journey, prompting him and the attendant to head to the active skill book section.
…
'Hmm… now that I think about it, I don't really have a lot of defensive skills in my arsenal.' Arriving at another part of the Boundless Skill Pavilion, the thought arose in the young man's mind. Though he did have skills that bolstered his defense, such as [Defense Aura+], it was not a skill that truly defended against an attack.
Of course, he did have [Dark Serpentine Repulsion] from [Shadow Serpent Combat Style], which was a defensive skill in every sense of the word. However, with how his strength would weaken the longer he used the spear in combat, he considered the skill as something he'd only use when extremely needed.
With that, he felt like he had to obtain a couple of actual defensive skills, even though he had no need on it so far. Having no knowledge of what the inheritance might contain, he wanted to be safe than sorry, knowing that the walls he would conjure from the ground could only defend him from so much.
'I should also expand my arsenal of healing skills, considering that those skills finally scale accordingly to my INT stat.' While looking through the active skill book section for defensive skills he might have use for, a similar thought popped up in the young man's mind soon after, increasing the number of skills he had to find.
By the end of his perusal through the pavilion's active skill book section, Valyr had picked up a total of three defensive skills. Two of the defensive skills were based on his mastery of mana, which were named [Mana Barrier] and [Mana Shield], while the remaining defensive skill was based on the strength of his vitality, which was named [Bulwark of Life].
While the first two defensive skills were self-explanatory, [Bulwark of Life] would create a layer of invisible armor above Valyr's skin, reducing the amount of damage he would take based on how high his VIT and Vigor stat was. The only downsides to it were the fact that it consumed a lot of mana to create and it took a lot of time for him to be able to activate after dispelling it.
As for healing skills, he had only obtained two, which were [Inferior Regeneration] and [Inferior Group Heal]. With [Lesser Heal] already under his belt, he had more or less covered every possible scenario that needed healing, with the only scenario to be exempted from that being instant death.
Seeing as he had already grabbed defensive and healing skills to fill out his arsenal, the young man eventually decided to grab some support skills as well, allowing him to truly round out his abilities. Knowing that the others had support skills of their own that would greatly buffed their combat strengths, he decided to grab some skills that would allow their exploration of the inheritance to become a bit easier.
"[Feather Steps] and [Inferior Lightweight]." Grabbing these two skills, Valyr nodded in satisfaction as he felt like he had grabbed all of the skills he would need for the journey. Unlike [Fleeting Feet], which had become a part of [Limit Break], [Feather Steps] increased a person's movement speed by a considerable degree proportional to their AGI. As for [Inferior Lightweight], it allowed one's body to feel lighter, which would reduce the amount of stamina they would consume during their journey.
'Hmm… should I grab some debuff skills as well?' Going through all of the skills he had grabbed so far, the question popped up into the young man's mind. After all, even though all of them participating in the inheritance were strong in their own right, that did not mean that they would not come across an unbeatable enemy in the inheritance, where a debuff skill would make it easier.
'Nah.' However, after thinking about it for a bit, he decided not to do so, feeling like debuff skills were not his style. Plus, with [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] in his arsenal, he had no need for debuff skills whatsoever.
After all, he could just strike the enemy at their weakest.
With that, the young man turned to look at the attendant and told them that he was ready to check out. Nodding in response, the latter led the Valyr to the checkout section, arriving there a few minutes later.
…
"As you've grabbed a total of 12 skill books at Common grade, your total is 600 gold coins." Recording the skill books Valyr had grabbed from the pavilion, the cashier faintly nodded after making sure his records were not wrong.
"Here you go." Nodding in response to the price, Valyr went ahead and brought out his money pouch, taking out six platinum coins from it before placing them on the counter. After that, a moment of realization hit him, prompting him to take out a card from his spatial bracelet soon after. "I have to show this during checkout, right?"
"To think it would be an esteemed customer! My apologies!" Seeing the card Valyr had brought out, the cashier instantly became more polite, giving the young man a respectful bow.
Looking at Valyr to see if he was angry at him, the cashier inwardly let out a sigh of relief after seeing the young man not take offense to his earlier actions. Recovering from the surprise brought about by Valyr's card, the cashier took in a deep breath before nodding.
"To answer sir's question, that would be correct. As you're considered a Basic-level VIP member of the pavilion, the final price of your purchase shall be reduced by 10%, only needing you to pay 540 gold coins instead," said the cashier.
"I see." Nodding in understanding after the explanation, Valyr let the cashier do what he needed to do, placing all of the skill books he had bought into his spatial bracelet once the latter grabbed his money. Obtaining 60 gold coins as change, the young man stored the card back into his spatial bracelet as he prepared to leave.
"Thank you for patronizing the Boundless Skill Pavilion once again, esteemed customer!" Once the cashier had given Valyr his change, he gave the young man yet another respectful bow, which slightly annoyed the latter. However, this annoyance he felt swiftly disappeared once he heard the cashier's next words.
"If there's anything else the Boundless Skill Pavilion can do to help the esteemed customer out, we'll be glad to do so."
"Anything, you say?" At those words, a thought from a few days ago surfaced on the young man's mind, causing a slight grin to appear on Valyr's face. With the grin growing even wider, the man looked at the cashier before asking, "If that's the case…"
"Is it fine if I buy a spatial bracelet from your pavilion?"
