Chapter 1185 The Night After
"...Haah."
After successfully making the last group of players to visit the shop leave for the day, Valyr let out a wide sigh of relief as he decided to rest by the shop's entrance.
"Who knew managing a shop would get this hectic?" Muttering these words to himself, the young man let out a slight chuckle as he recounted what he went through for almost the entire day.
Considering that it was the first day Greater Beyond was released to the players, it went without saying that Valyr did not make any sales whatsoever.
At most, the players more or less did what Belial and Tianshen did when they visited his shop, which was perusing around the store for items and promising that they'd buy those items in the future.
Then again, Valyr was already expecting that to happen, deciding to approach the players from a long-term perspective.
'As long as word of this shop spreads throughout the player base, then I've more or less achieved what I set out to do by coming here,' thought Valyr to himself, letting out a slight chuckle as he glanced at the orange sky.
With the sun beginning to set, the young man went ahead and began to close up the shop for the day, deciding to limit the amount of time the shop was open after his experience with the players.
"For about the first few hours, talking to them was fine," said Valyr to himself as he double-checked through all of the items on display. "But after that, the number of players in the store grew to a point where I couldn't really interact with each and every person."
"Fortunately, it didn't seem like they minded," he continued with a faint smile, recalling how his usage of [Superior Analysis] caused most of the players to focus their attention onto it.
"Alright." After making sure that the shop wouldn't be intruded during the night, Valyr let out a sigh of relief as he decided to make his way to the village's only restaurant. "Time to reward myself for today."
'Aside from that, I should probably use this time to tie up some loose ends here and there,' thought the young man to himself as he walked along the village's streets. 'Though the players have finally appeared in Veldanyr, there's still a lot that's left for me to do.'
'It's one of the reasons why I decided to disable my disguise skill now that the players are around.' As this thought came to mind, Valyr took a brief look at his current appearance, recalling the conversation he had with William sometime earlier.
Though he led William to believe that his current identity was a different identity he made to hide the fact that he was Ylvar, Valyr decided that he'd gradually stop relying on [Thousand Polymorph] due to the fact that it would confuse the players.
Although he could lean into the skill's properties and make the players think he was some mysterious and enigmatic NPC, the young man only picked up the skill in the first place because of the issues that lingered around his original identity as Valyr Zeihardt.
However, now that his level of strength even went so far as to allow him to fight against Myth-level beings one-on-one, he felt that now was the perfect time to make things right.
As long as the opportunity arose, he would confront the Zeihardt clan, as well as the Nicholas clan, and make sure they treated him not as the person they sought for their own goals...
But as a person they should think twice before messing with.
'The supportive and the rebel faction...'
Briefly thinking about how the two factions of the Zeihardt clan looking for him became the main reason why his journey to power turned out as it did, a wry smile appeared on Valyr's face, remaining there until he arrived at the village's only restaurant.
"I guess it's only a matter of time until I become a hot topic because of it," said Valyr to himself with a slight chuckle, briefly taking a look at the forums almost everyone now had access to.
Though some of the threads talked about his existence and how there were a chance for him to add them as a friend, the young man ignored them for the meantime, instead focusing on the other topics that were being talked about in the forums.
"The Cave of Beginnings, huh... not surprising that some players have already gotten to that level."
In the end, Valyr continued to go through the forums until he arrived at his shop, only to find a familiar face that looked to have been waiting for him all this time.
"You're finally back." Watching Valyr appear in his field of vision, William began to look at him with a relieved smile. "I was wondering where you went."
"William?" Not expecting to see the man at this time, it took a while for Valyr to respond, closing the screen he brought up as he looked at him with a slightly curious expression. "What brings you here?"
"Nothing much." William softly laughed. "Just wanted to thank you again for giving us a heads-up on the Players."
"You don't really have to." Seeing as the man was sitting by his shop's entrance, Valyr decided to sit beside him as well. "Then again, I didn't want the village to be caught fully off guard."
"Which is why I'm thanking you," replied William with a smile. "In any case, it seems like you're not surprised at the number of Players that appeared in the village. Were you expecting something like this to happen beforehand?"
"More or less," said Valyr with a chuckle, deciding to use Scho'doxa yet again as an excuse as to why he knew. "Though, if I were you, I'd be prepared for the following day."
"The following day?" Looking at the young man in slight confusion, William's eyes soon widened in realization as he understood what he meant. "Wait... are you're telling me there's more?"
In response, Valyr could only nod at him with a bitter smile, causing the man to let out a long sigh as he looked at the ground.
"Well then... more work for me, I guess." Staying silent for a bit, William eventually decided to part ways with Valyr after that, wanting to make sure the village was ready for the next influx of players.
With him thanking the young man once more, Valyr watched as William slowly disappeared from his field of vision, forcing the young man to briefly look up at the starry sky above him.
Then, after a bit of silence, the young man stood up just like the man before, seemingly having made up his mind on something.
"...I guess it's only right that I work through the night if the village leader's working as well."
With that in mind, he swiftly activated [Flash of the Azure Dragon], allowing his body to be enveloped with the silhouette of an azure dragon as he flew out of the village.
Briefly taking a look at the various groups of players continuing to fight against the beasts outside the village's walls, Valyr soon headed straight towards a certain direction, wanting to make sure he wouldn't be disturbed whatsoever.
"Next stop..."
"The inheritance."