Of course, Valyr had put in a lot of thought before coming to that decision. He had even asked the monotonous voice a couple of questions to confirm some of his suspicions.
After all, his remaining rewards weren't something he could easily gloss over. Sure, the rewards he'd already obtained were amazing, but that didn't mean the ones in the Gates of Awakening weren't as important.
The access to the True Blacksmith Archive alone would save Valyr tons of effort. The same could be said for the opportunity the Gates of Awakening had given him for his skills.
Add in the inheritance trove that was the Hall of Legends and Myths, the young man would undoubtedly gain a lot from entering the Gates of Awakening, if not more.
However, there were a couple of things stopping Valyr from obtaining his remaining rewards.
For one, it had been a while since he had last heard from the others.
After getting messages from the other four that they had already left the Gates of Awakening, the young man felt a sense of urgency to clear all of the trials as quickly as possible.
Of course, he knew that the passage of time within the trial grounds and the Gates of Awakening was far slower than in the inheritance proper.
Yet, it was that same reason that spurred him to return to where the others were as soon as possible.
After all, he did not know whether he had only spent a day or two after the others had left or over a week.
In the outside world, that difference was either a couple of weeks or a couple of months.
Aside from that, he had more or less confirmed through the monotonous voice that he could access his remaining rewards anytime he liked.
According to the voice, it was a perk given to him after clearing the second bottleneck. As he had cleared the entire trial, such a perk was more than accessible to him.
And so, with a firm expression and a calm tone, the young man eventually disappeared from the trial grounds.
Whoosh!
Within mere instants, Valyr was returned back to the inheritance proper, prompting him to let out a faint sigh of relief.
Then, after confirming that he could still access the Gates of Awakening whenever he liked, he then took a look at his surroundings to see where he was.
Soon understanding that he was only a fair distance away from their temporary camp, Valyr activated one of his skills, transforming into a blur of Shadow Energy in seconds.
"[Arcane Shadow Drive]."
Activating the upgraded version of [Traceless Slither], it did not take long for the young man to appear at the temporary camp, catching the four by complete surprise.
"Valyr! You're back!"
Though all of them were left at a loss for words because of his sudden appearance, Hal took the initiative to speak up, embracing the young man as he flashed a grin.
In response, Valyr returned the embrace. "Sorry for being late."
At those words, it was only then did the others recover from their daze, their expressions filled with smiles as they watched the scene before them unfold.
After the embrace, the five then proceeded to cook up a couple of dishes, considering that it was already midday.
With him having the [Advanced Cooking] skill, it went without saying that Valyr was the one doing most of the cooking. Of course, the others helped out wherever they could.
While cooking their lunches, the young man began to ask the others how far they got into the nine trials before deciding to concede.
Unsurprisingly, their responses did not differ much from their messages in their party chat, with only Hal being the only one among them aside from him breaking through the second bottleneck.
Naturally, with Valyr bringing up the nine trials, the other four soon became curious how far he got before conceding.
In response, the young man told them that he had cleared all of the trials the Gates of Awakening threw at him, causing some of them to look at him with immense disbelief.
Among those who looked at him with disbelief was Hal.
"How the hell did you pass the Trial of Nine Stars?" asked the scholar. "And here I thought the opponents I fought in the seventh trial were already difficult."
"They were difficult." Valyr agreed with the man's words. "But I think even you could have beaten them with enough preparation."
Thinking about how he'd cleared the Trial of Nine Stars, most of the combat was done all thanks to the fact that he had forged the pistol and upgraded his arquebus.
As for the matches that involved forging, he relied on his experience and memories from his past life, as well as the other skills he had accrued along the way.
Then again, he was overextending the definition if he mentioned that those things were part of his preparation.
In any case, that and a bit of storytelling was more than enough to appease the others, especially after he had cooked them a sumptuous meal.
While scarfing down the food he had cooked, the young man recalled the reason why he had returned to the inheritance.
"Now that I think about it, how long has it been since you guys left the Gates of Awakening?"
"Er… it's been about three days since then, I think," replied Loreina after pondering over the question for a bit.
Biting his lip in slight anxiety, Valyr then asked, "And how long did you guys take to return here?"
"Roughly two days." This time, it was Hal who responded. "Why do you ask?"
Ignoring the man's question, Valyr brought up his status screen and looked at the timer at the very bottom.
After that, he let out a long sigh. "A total of five days, huh."
Hearing his words, the others began to look at him with confusion, not understanding what the man was pointing at.
Thankfully, the young man's words answered their questions soon after.
Though, in exchange, their expressions had become utterly frozen.
"To think we've already been in this inheritance for over half a year already…"
