?


    "I did." Hearing Valyr''s words, Wells nodded in agreement before chuckling and grinning as if he had just yed a prank on his good friend.


    "When did you ascend?" Of course, as his friend, Valyr was d that Wells had ascended to the next ss rank, considering the many benefits that ascending offered aside from an increase in strength.


    If anything, the only reason why he had realized his friend had ascended through sensing his aura was because of the same feeling Wells'' aura gave him while he was interacting with Hal and the others earlier.


    "While you were away, actually." Hearing this answer from Wells, Valyr''s eyes widened in slight surprise, expecting the former to have thought about ascending to the next ss rank for quite some time. Fortunately, Wells'' reasoning behind his ascension while Valyr was away was more than enough for thetter to realize that his friend had indeed put a lot of thought into it.


    However, he was not expecting himself to be one of the reasons why Wells had ascended to Rank 2.


    "With how much fighting you''ve been doingtely, I feel like there''ll eventuallye a day where you need to fight, but you couldn''t due to how hard you''ve pushed yourself. Because of that, I thought that I needed to improve my strength somehow, even if the level of strength I achieve isn''t the same as yours. At the very least, I hope to ease your burdens through me."


    Though hearing Wells'' words made him feel like he was talking to a close family member than a friend, Valyr greatly appreciated that the man was caring for his wellbeing, feeling his heart warm up as he firmly embraced his good friend.


    "Thanks."


    Feeling a bit surprised at first from the sudden hug, Wells eventually returned the hug back with a smile, telling Valyr that it was the least he could do as he was the reason why he was free to aim for the zenith of spearmanship.


    "Speaking of which, what kind of ascension did you go for?" After letting go of each other, Valyr''s curiosity took over as he asked the young man as to what species and ss he had ascended to. Unsurprisingly, Wells'' choice for his species evolution was Human (2nd Unsealing).


    His ss evolution, on the other hand…


    "True Spear Schr," said Wells to Valyr, prompting thetter to raise an eyebrow as he waited for the former to exin.


    "Though it''s simr to the Spear Schr ss you''ve allowed me to ascend to Rank 1 in terms of skill set, the True Spear Schr ss is better than it in many ways."


    "For one, instead of the ss being Epic rarity, the True Spear Schr ss is considered Legendary rarity by the system." Hearing these words from Wells, Valyr''s eyes widened in interest as his friend continued to list down the perks brought by the improved ss.


    Though, in short, the True Spear Schr ss had onlye about due to Wells'' intense focus towards a single goal, which was the zenith of spearmanship, while sacrificing other things in exchange. At those words, Valyr realized that Wells tended to seclude himself more often than not, causing him to apologize to the young man after that.


    In response, Wells let out a chuckle as he told Valyr that it was fine, assuring him that he did not seclude himself because he needed to, but because he chose to.


    After that, the two of them talked about what each other did during the day, with Valyr talking about the improved subss he had gotten to Wells in considerable detail, even going so far as telling the young man that it was a hybrid subss of sorts.


    Unsurprisingly, with Valyr talking about his subss, Wells soon brought up the topic of his own subss into their conversation, or more specifically, theck thereof.


    Listening to the possiblebinations Wells hade up with that he felt would synergize with the True Spear Schr ss, Valyr eventually told Wells that he might have a subss that would achieve a great level of synergy with his main ss. Though, not wanting to get the young man''s hopes up that much, he told him that he would check the Myriad Archives first to make sure that the subss he had in mind did synergize with it.


    With Wells'' response towards the bit of information regarding having to look through the Myriad Archives being positive than negative, the two of them eventually ate their dinner at a restaurant near the inn before returning to their respective portions of the room, with Valyr letting out a long sigh of relief as he lied down in bed.


    "There''s no greater feeling in life than to finally lie down in bed after an exhausting day," muttered Valyr to himself, only to correct himself soon after.


    "On second thought, close to three exhausting days."


    "Speaking of which, I should go check the skills that were upgraded by the subss." Briefly doing a light stretch in bed, which gave Valyr an immense amount of relief, the young man soon brought up a couple of the skills that were upgraded by the Shadow Serpentine Manncer subss, saving [Shadow Energy Mark] forst after remembering the notifications he had gotten about it after killing the Juvenile Shadow Serpent.


    Ding! Ding!


    "Hmm… the boost to PER has increased by an additional 5% on [Shadow Eye] after the subss was upgraded." Nodding as he read through the updated description of the skill, Valyr soon pushed his perception to its limits to see if that was the case.


    "Huh. The boost to efficacy [Shadow Energy Empowerment] offers to both [Shadow Serpent Combat Style] and [Shadow Serpent Movement Style] has improved by a further 10%." With the changes to [Shadow Eye] being minimal after the upgrade, Valyr then moved onto the next skill affected by his upgraded subss, his eyebrows slightly raising in interest as he continued to read.


    "It also affects [Shadow Serpent Magic Style], as well as [Basic Shadow Energy Maniption]. Neat."


    "Let''s move onto the various styles," muttered Valyr to himself, closing the screen that contained [Shadow Energy Empowerment]''s description as hemanded the system to bring up the description of all three styles rted to the subss.


    However, just as he was about to go through them to take a look at their changes…


    Ding!


    [Julian Pyrrhia (Lvl. 96) has sent you a message.]


    …


    …


    …


    "Come to the cksmith Guild tomorrow before the sun rises."


    "I''ll tell you more about it when you get here."