'I don't want to go through that ever again.' Doing a few light stretches as he got out of his tent, a relieved expression flitted across Valyr's face as he took a look at the sun up above in the sky. As he could not rest properly last night, he decided to make the most out of the time he had by learning a skill he should have probably learned in the first place.
The Outer Realm Scripture.
…
At first, the process of obtaining the Outer Realm Scripture was more or less similar to any other skill he had comprehended, which was to absorb the skill book and allow it to inundate his memory with information. However, just as he was expecting the archaic-looking book he was holding to disappear, the archaic-looking book instead remained where it was as the information that entered in his mind slightly left him speechless.
'Only true comprehension can allow one to proceed through the scripture.'
With this information continuing to linger in his mind as he tried learning the skill a few more times, only after repeating the process 10 times did the young man finally take heed of the message, opening the book as he began to read through its pages.
From the information he had gotten from the auction and the information he had from his past life, Valyr was expecting to see lines upon lines of undecipherable text all over the pages, thinking that he would have to decipher the text before being able to comprehend it.
Fortunately, even though that was indeed the case, the young man surprised to find out that he could understand what the text meant, gradually beginning to read it in earnest.
"The body is a vessel, a container of one's power. Only with the vessel strengthened could one showcase abilities beyond the comprehensible." As he began to mutter a couple of lines of text here and there, Valyr gradually fell into a trance, feeling as if a world far greater than he had imagined was opened in front of him.
With every line he read, the young man felt like there were over hundreds of ways to interpret it, all of which would eventually lead him down towards the sole path the book wanted him to take. Thankfully, only a couple of hours had passed by the time he was finished reading the book, returning back to normal after a few minutes of silence.
"I see." Taking in a deep breath as he glanced at the archaic-looking book one last time, Valyr stored the book back into his spatial bracelet before sitting cross-legged. Closing his eyes, he let out a long and drawn-out sigh as he began to pull out mana from within him. "This is definitely a peculiar skill."
"Then again, I have a feeling this won't be the last one." Releasing all of the mana that was in his body, the young man went ahead and condensed all of the mana into a series of threads. Then, after sensing that the threads were condensed enough, he willed all of them to head straight towards his body, striking certain parts as he let out a muffled groan.
"Grr…" Though the pain he felt from them gradually increased the more time passed, Valyr composed himself as he soon began to move all of the mana threads at once across his body. Unsurprisingly, a great wave of pain assaulted his senses due to his actions, yet he persevered, feeling a bit of blood oozing out of the paths the threads were making.
Naturally, the paths Valyr was carving on his skin came from reading the Outer Realm Scripture, which comprised of the first three levels due to it being the first volume. Though the reaching the third level of the scripture would only give him a 5% boost to his physical stats at most, the three levels laid a solid foundation for the second and third volume.
In fact, it even hinted in a few of its pages that learning the two other scriptures would become considerably easier with the Outer Realm Scripture comprehended.
By the time the young man was finished carving out all of the paths across his body, the moon was only an hour and a half away from setting into the horizon. Taking in a few deep breaths, the young man wryly smiled as he noticed that his mana had only recovered to a quarter of its original capacity after all this time. It did not help out that the paths he had carved were absorbing some mana from the atmosphere as well.
'If it's already this bad after five of us had ascended to Rank 3, how bad would it have been if we hadn't.' Inwardly letting out an amused sigh at the thought, Valyr went ahead and grabbed a few mana potions from his spatial bracelet, downing them in mere moments.
To no surprise, his mana reserves had returned to peak condition after that, with the extra mana remaining from the potions even going towards the paths he had carved.
Whoosh!
With the paths radiating a faint cyan light, the young man looked as if he had gotten tattoos all over his body. Fortunately, the light from these paths gradually dimmed down, making it seem like nothing had happened to the young man in the first place.
Ding!
[You have upgraded the skill 'Outer Realm Scripture' to the 1st Stage.]
However, with the faint increase in strength he could feel coursing through his body, he knew very well that he had set himself on a path that would give him a great amount of power.
…
"Our plan for today is to head to the plains and set up camp there." Seeing as everyone had not gotten a wink of sleep last night, Valyr went straight to the point on their agendas for the day, giving others the opportunity to rouse their consciousness while they were chowing down on their respective breakfasts.
Having learned a passive skill related to cooking in preparation for the inheritance, Valyr made great use of it during this time, which prompted a couple among the other four to look at him with surprise. One of those surprised was Loreina, who already thought to herself that she was going to be doing most of the cooking during their exploration.
"To make sure all of us would be able to explore this place unscathed, we'll be heading down there in a specific formation," said Valyr. "Hal and I would act as vanguard, while Faulus and Vera would be at the rear. Loreina would be in the middle, providing support to the side that needs it more."
"Hal, is it fine if you take another look at our path ahead?" As everyone nodded in response to Valyr's plan, the latter shifted his attention towards Hal. Seeing as he was the only other person in their group that had a reconnaissance skill, Hal could only acquiesce as he put his remaining breakfast to the side before taking a look at the plains.
However, not even a minute after taking a look through his skill, Hal turned to look at Valyr with a grim expression. "I think you need to see this."
"Hmm?" Raising his eyebrow in curiosity, Valyr shifted his gaze towards the plains with [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] activated to its very limits. It did not take long for him to figure out what Hal wanted to see, letting out a long sigh as he turned around to look back at the others with a grim expression.
"Everyone…"
"Change of plans."
