Chapter 937: A Warlord's Strength
With how great the disparity was between Sellifer and Valyr in terms of strength, Sellifer had no difficulties obtaining information on the young man's newly obtained strength, making use of her powers at the Divine level to the fullest.
Stealthily sending out a bit of her energy towards Valyr's body, the woman's eyes slightly widened in surprise as she obtained more detailed information through the process, looking at the young man with a hint of shock.
"It seems Vaughn has treated you well," said Sellifer after a bit of silence, to which Valyr faintly nodded in response.
"Not only have your stats gone up by a lot, but I could also sense that you're on the verge of breaking through to a higher-tier species as well."
"Yeah." Valyr nodded once more, briefly pondering whether or not to tell Sellifer about how that was due to his earlier meeting with the Serpent Maiden.
In the end, the young man did not get the opportunity to do so as the woman before him continued to list down his improvements one by one.
"From what I could sense, it seems that you've also further solidified the concepts you've comprehended," said the woman as she continued to glance at the young man. "I'm guessing Vaughn has something to do with this as well."
At those words, Valyr could only wryly smile, thinking about how he'd done all of the work pushing his Intents up to that level, with Vaughn only giving him the platform to do so.
'Then again, it would've taken me far longer to get to this point if he didn't do a Concept Impartation with those shards,' thought the young man not long after, deciding not to dwell on the matter even further.
'Hmm... it seems his bloodline has finally been fully awakened.' Though she'd become silent after saying those words, Sellifer continued to look at the changes that occurred to the young man after they'd gone their separate ways.
Confirming that the bloodline Valyr had was connected to Vaughn, the woman inwardly let out a chuckle. 'Who knew that feeling I got from him while teaching him how to wield Azure Energy would actually be true?'
Continuing to go over the changes Valyr underwent with her Divine-level powers, Sellifer skimmed over the various improvements to the man's stats and skills, eventually finding herself sensing a more than familiar energy lingering within the young man.
'The Shadow Plane's essence?' Pinpointing this familiar energy to a certain energy she'd come across in the past, Sellifer closed her eyes for a bit as she rummaged through her memories.
Eventually, a certain item surfaced in her mind, prompting her expression to turn solemn as she now began to look at Valyr from a different perspective.
'The Shadowsource...'
'You value the kid that much, Serpent Maiden?'
Taking in a deep breath to calm herself down, Sellifer ended her investigation then and there as she thought about spilling what she knew about the Shadowsource to the young man.
Yet, in the end, she decided that now wasn't the right time to talk about it, considering that Valyr had not arrived at the Shadow Plane on his own.
"You've seriously grown a lot, Valyr," said Sellifer to the young man at some point, letting out an amused chuckle after that. "And to think that it's been only a couple of months since our last meeting."
Hearing those words, the young man looked back at her with a faint smile, feeling a bit of pride from it.
Unfortunately, that feeling of pride was short-lived as the woman began to look at him with a frown combined with a smile filled with malicious intent.
"Yet, within those couple of months, you haven't even thought about improving your Azure Energy to the Echo level. You've already long reached the requirements, no?"
At those words, the faint smile on Valyr's face turned awry, taking on a bitter note as he thought to himself, 'To be honest, I had plans to upgrade it after I return to Veldanyr.'
With his subclass having been changed thanks to the Serpent Maiden, and with him having upgraded it to Epic grade by improving his Shadow Energy reserves, the young man could already feel that the Sign-level Azure Energy was beginning to lag behind.
'Then again, she's right. I've already reached the requirements needed to upgrade it to the Echo level a long time ago,' muttered Valyr to himself inwardly, causing the bitter smile on his face to slightly intensify.
Seeing the expression on the young man's face, Sellifer could only let out a sigh as she faintly shook her head. "Well, it's not like I don't understand your current situation. I'll help you with improving your Azure Energy later."
Indeed, [Four Paths Azure Manifestation] was a summoning skill similar to the [Intermediate Shamanic Summoning Arts] Valyr got from An'xhur.
But, unlike the summoning skill An'xhur gave him, [Four Paths Azure Manifestation] gave him the ability to summon the four beasts corresponding to the Four Azure Paths, each of them fulfilling a specific purpose.
For the Azure Dragon, its specialty revolved around reconnaissance, surveillance, and information gathering, especially with how it favored the Wind element.
On the other hand, the Azure Phoenix focused on pure damage, while the Azure Turtle focused
on pure support.
As for the Azure Tiger, it could be considered to be focused on pure defense. However, it did
have the ability to dish out great amounts of damage like the Azure Phoenix. "It's a shame they don't have the ability to grow just like the ones summoned with [Intermediate Shamanic Summoning Arts]," said Valyr as he dispelled the Azure Dragon he
summoned.
"Then again, with how much my strength has increased since then, I guess it's better for it to
be that way." With him briefly recalling the quest he got from An'xhur after thinking about the [Intermediate Shamanic Summoning Arts], Valyr continued going through his remaining notifications, with the next skill on the list surprisingly a fusion of a few of his skills.
Ding!
[Due to the nature of your subclass, 'Azure Phoenix Elemental Arts', 'Azure Turtle Elemental Arts', 'Azure Tiger Elemental Arts', and 'Azure Dragon Elemental Arts' have fused together to form 'Four Paths Azure Elemental Arts'.]
[Due to the nature of your subclass, 'Basic Azure Phoenix Arts', 'Basic Azure Turtle Arts', 'Basic Azure Tiger Arts', and 'Basic Azure Dragon Arts' have been fused into 'Four Paths Azure Elemental Arts', strengthening its properties.]
Considering that the previous skills were all skills that elevated his manipulation of the four basic elements, it did not take long for Valyr to figure out that [Four Paths Azure Elemental Arts] more or less did the same thing while also improving upon it at the same time.
Of course, the skill did a few things that set it apart from the previous iteration of the skills,
such as the fact that each element now focused on a certain aspect of combat, reminding him of how [Four Paths Azure Manifestation] worked.
"In any case, my combat abilities with this skill have gone up instead of down, just like the others," said Valyr after reading through the skill's description in detail.
Seeing that he only had to go through a couple more notifications, the young man took a deep breath to compose himself before gazing in the direction of where Noel and Sellifer were. After hearing no loud sound coming from their direction for a while, it was only then did Valyr focus his attention on the last few notifications. Surprisingly, as he began reading through them, the young man slowly got the feeling that the skill he gained this time around was significantly different than the ones he just went
through.
Ding!
[Due to the nature of your subclass, 'Great Pierce', 'Tidal Sweep', 'Thunderous Cut', and 'Grand Parry' have fused together to form 'Basic War Spear Arts'.]
[Due to the nature of your subclass, 'Basic War Spear Arts', 'Nine Extremities Combat Style',
and 'Four Paths Azure Spear Arts' have fused together to form 'Four Paths Azure War Arts'.] [Through your combat proficiency, you have realized the path of the spear through war.] [However, to bring out the true power of the Four Paths Azure War Arts, you must also realize
the remaining eight rudimentary forms of combat, paths with myriad variations that all lead
to the pinnacle.]
[Due to your actions and the nature of your subclass, the skill 'Four Paths Azure War Arts' has awakened the transcendental technique 'Four Paths Azure Liberation'.]
[Due to your actions and the nature of your subclass, 'the transcendental technique 'Four Paths Azure Liberation' has awakened the concept of the Unfettered Spear.]