Chapter 659 Four Pillars: Catching Up
Swoosh!
"I will probably never get used to this feeling." Flapping the wings on his back every once in a while as if it were his own limbs, Valyr zoomed through the night skies of the inheritance as he made his way back to the south quadrant.
Though [Traceless Slither] was a skill that pushed his speed on the ground to its utmost limits, [False Wings of the Shadow Wyvern] was on a whole other level, giving him the ability to fly past all of the obstacles that would have normally hampered him.
Aside from that, it gave him a bird's eye view of the inheritance, allowing him to spot a few things that would have normally been impossible to see from the ground.
One example of that would be the ability to see the spots where the leaders in each quadrant gathered, something he had only been able to see after increasing his altitude to an absurd degree.
Looking at these spots for a bit, he eventually shifted his gaze to an illuminated spot far away from the center of the south quadrant.
Feeling a smile gradually creep up onto his face, Valyr decided to send a message to the party chat while he was still mid-flight.
"I'm on my way back. Apologies for not sending a message for quite some time."
Unsurprisingly, at the very moment he had sent that message, it did not take long for the others to send a reply back, all of which made Valyr think that the four let out long sighs of relief after reading his message.
"Not gonna lie, I was expecting you to respond the following morning at the earliest," wrote Hal in his response. "After all, you didn't really give a specific time as to when you'd come back."
"Where have you been, though?" asked Vera in her message. "Does it have something to do with the Gates of Awakening?"
"Not really." Looking at Vera's message for a bit, Valyr eventually decided to send a reply. "The place I checked doesn't have anything to do with it."
"But I do have some information that would help us in entering the Gates of Awakening."
At those words, the four swiftly asked him to share the information over the party chat.
Reading through their hasty responses, Valyr let out a brief chuckle.
"I'll be there sooner than you think." Sending one last message to the party chat for the meantime, Valyr flapped his wings with even greater force, allowing him to propel through the air at greater speeds.
With that, after a couple more minutes of flying, the young man was already above the spot where the other four had set up camp.
"I'm here." As he continued to periodically flap his wings to stay where he was, Valyr went ahead and sent a message to the party chat.
In response, the four began to frantically look around their surroundings for his whereabouts, eliciting a bit of laughter to escape the young man's mouth.
Eventually, after looking around for a while, the four returned to where they sat as Valyr noticed that everyone now had frowns on their faces.
Not long after, Hal sent a question in response to the message he sent.
"Where are you exactly?"
"Look up."
Sending these words to the party chat, Valyr closed the screen in front of his vision as he watched the four look at each other in confusion over his words.
Then, after seeing that the four began to look up at the sky, the young man flashed a grin as he flapped his wings with all the strength he could muster.
Whoosh!
Barreling down from the sky like a shooting star, the four watched an incredibly familiar silhouette with wings swiftly close in on them.
Though, just as it looked as if the silhouette would undoubtedly collide with the ground, it instead redirected its direction at the very last minute, allowing it to land with both of its feet on the ground.
Thud.
"Hey there." Feeling a bit of nausea from the abrupt shift in direction he had done, Valyr looked at the other four with a soft smile, hiding every trace of discomfort he felt from his landing on the outside.
"Hey." In response, Hal returned the greeting, only for his eyes to widen in disbelief as he noticed the wings on Valyr's back. "New movement skill?"
Seeing Hal point towards the dark wings on his back, Valyr faintly nodded as he dispelled both of them. "Kind of."n--o-/v()e).l..b//1(-n
"You really weren't kidding when you said to look up." Watching their leader take a seat beside them, Faulus briefly thought back to what he and the others had just witnessed before offering Valyr a plate.
"Thanks." Accepting the plate from Faulus, it was only then did the young man feel his stomach begin to grumble.
Apologetically smiling as he had Loreina scoop up the dinner she cooked for them on his plate, he thought to himself, 'Exploring the underground has really made me forgotten the fact that I've yet to eat.'
'Nevertheless, with how much I've gained from it, I'd still do it in a heartbeat.' Thanking Loreina after that, the young man briskly chowed down on his food after seeing that the others' plates were already empty.
Watching Valyr devour the food on his plate as if he had not eaten for days, it took a while for Hal to muster up the courage to ask the question that plagued their minds.
"So, Valyr. What made you send us a heads-up to the party chat that you would return late?"
"I'll tell you more about it later." Letting a sigh of satisfaction as he placed his plate to the side, Valyr looked at Hal for a bit before opening his mouth.
"For now, how's everyone's authority level looking?"
Though a frown briefly appeared on Hal's face after hearing Valyr change the conversation to another topic, the man decided not to say anything about it for the meantime after noticing the gaze the young man had given him.
From what he could infer through the young man's gaze, Hal felt like Valyr was telling him that this new topic would eventually answer the question that was on his mind.
With that, he and the others mentioned their authority levels to their leader, prompting the young man to nod in satisfaction after hearing that everyone had already completed the authority level objective.
"So, I'm not wrong in assuming that we'll all be fighting a few hundred more Primitive Humanoids to complete the other objective before fighting a quadrant leader, no?"
Hearing this question from Valyr, the other four nodded even though they knew he was plainly stating the obvious.
Then, just as they were wondering where this conversation would eventually end up, the four were left at a loss for words at Valyr's next few statements.
"Since that's the case, I guess I'll tell you about my findings regarding the quadrant leaders."