Farraway Coliseum.
“That’s a lot of people.” Just as Arcenne had arrived at the coliseum’s seating area, she was instantly greeted by the sight of thousands of people with varying expressions on their faces. Nevertheless, all of them were eager to watch the life and death duel unfold on the battleground below.
Taking a brief look at the empty battleground at the center of the coliseum, a light frown appeared on Arcenne’s mouth as she made her way through the seating area, eventually arriving at an area that was nearest to the battleground. Sitting down on her designated seat, the frown on her face deepened as she thought about the life and death duel that was going to unfold sometime later.
‘I know you’re confident in winning the duel with that armor of yours, but I just can’t help but get the feeling that something bad is going to happen.’ With this thought lingering in her mind, the level of worry Arcenne felt towards Valyr shot up, twiddling her thumbs to distract herself from her worries, gradually returning her train of thoughts to the confidence Valyr exuded yesterday.
In fact, the confidence Valyr had in winning the duel today was the main reason Arcenne had come to the coliseum, thinking that she might get to see another side of Valyr in action, a side that even she, during their spar at the combat training hall, had not seen.
However, now that she had arrived at the coliseum, only then did that feeling start to falter, causing her to have second thoughts in coming. After all, if things went awry for Valyr, she wouldn’t witness her friend become victorious in the duel.
She would instead witness how her friend was mercilessly killed.
‘Hmm? Isn’t that guy…?’ Amidst the process of distracting herself from the worry she felt towards Valyr, her gaze landed near the entrance to the seating arena at some point, her attention focused on a young man with messy auburn hair. Recalling that the young man was a friend of Valyr’s, as well as a person she usually saw in his smithy, she waved her hand back and forth, hoping to catch the young man’s attention.
“Hmm?” Fortunately, Wells did notice Arcenne waving her hand back and forth at him, a confused expression briefly gracing his face as he wondered why she was waving at him. Thankfully, it did not take long for things to click in his mind, recalling that the woman was a friend of Valyr’s.
With that, he gradually made his way to where Arcenne was seated, stealing glances at the still empty battleground every once in a while, his body filled to the brim with worry for Valyr as well.
Just like Arcenne, Valyr’s confidence in winning the duel infected him to the point he had accompanied the man to the coliseum. However, even though he knew what the man’s armor could do, Wells also started having second thoughts once he made his way to the seating area, coming face to face with the thousands of people that were there to more or less watch Valyr’s possible demise.
“A friend of Valyr’s?” By the time he sat beside Arcenne, Wells asked the latter a question to make sure. As Arcenne nodded in response to his question, Wells inwardly let out a sigh of relief, thankful that he didn’t sit beside a stranger that was waving at someone else.
“The name’s Arcenne. Arcenne Stelyra.” With Arcenne extending her hand for a handshake, Wells was taken aback as he focused on the woman’s surname, wondering to himself how Valyr had made someone from a big noble clan his friend.
“Wells. Wells Anadhar.” Nevertheless, Wells responded in kind, receiving the handshake as Arcenne’s eyes briefly widened in interest before returning to normal. To her, it was more surprising that someone from a smaller noble clan was a friend of Valyr’s, taking into consideration that most, if not all of the large noble clans wanted to curry favor with people from the Zeihardt clan no matter what.
‘I guess Valyr’s really shut himself in the clan.’ With this thought in mind, Arcenne shifted her gaze at the empty battleground for a bit, taking in the clamor that was faintly bubbling throughout the seating area before returning her attention to Wells. “Do you think Valyr can win?”
“At this point, I don’t know.” As Wells responded to the question, he spared a glance at the battleground as well, faintly hoping that the life and death duel would be canceled due to some random reason. Shrugging his shoulders, he looked back at Arcenne. “You?”
“No clue either.” Arcenne also shrugged her shoulders in response. “He does have that armor of his, so…”
“Yeah. That’s pretty much the reason why I was confident in him.” Wells nodded. “But now…”
“We can only believe that he’ll stick to his words at this point.” In response, Arcenne let out a light sigh before shifting her gaze back to the battleground. After looking at Arcenne for a bit, Wells focused his gaze towards the battleground as well, letting out a sigh of his own soon after.
“I guess that’s the only thing we can do.”
…𝑂𝓋𝐥xt.𝗇𝓔t
“Wearing it doesn’t feel half bad.” After putting on the helmet piece of the Half Wyvern Armor on top of his head, Valyr moved around for a bit to get a better feel of the armor, as well as find out the limit for his movements. While testing his armor out, he spared a glance at Leron, who was in the process of wearing his own set of armor, a calm, somewhat nonchalant expression adorning the man’s face.
Making a mental note to use [Analysis] on Leron before they fought against each other, Valyr then decided to test the armor out while wielding his trusty weapon. Grabbing the True Tideblood Spear he had placed on the seat before putting on the armor, a notification sound resounded in his mind just as he was about to make a move, prompting him to stop in his tracks and find out what the notification was.
“Hmm? Ah.” Taking a look at the notification he had received, Valyr swiftly understood what was going on, bringing up a screen beside it soon after, which contained the description of a certain skill. “Now that I think about it, I guess I did meet the minimum requirements.”
Ding!
[Due to all of the items you currently have equipped are modified or forged by you, and are all at least Uncommon grade, the effect of ‘True Prodigious Equipment Resonance’ has activated, boosting your Attack and Defense stat by 5%.]
Ding!
————
[True Prodigious Equipment Resonance] (Level 1/10)
Rarity: Common
As a true prodigy, you have wholeheartedly put your all into everything you create. Because of that, a small part of yourself integrates into those that you forge, into those that you modify, into those that you create. Unknowingly, these small parts resonate with one another, bringing miraculous effects about once those items are close to each other.
However, the only one who can tap into that resonance is none other than you.
As long as the user has a full set of armor and a weapon equipped that has been forged, modified, or brought about by the user, a resonance occurs between the items, increasing parts of the user’s stats depending on the overall rarity of the items.
Effects:
> Uncommon grade – Attack and Defense +5% (Activated)
> Uncommon+ grade – Attack and Defense +8%
> Rare grade – Attack and Defense +10%, STR +3%
> …
————
“It’s quite a shame my spear isn’t Uncommon+ grade, but oh well.” Closing the screens that had appeared before him, Valyr continued to test how his armor felt while he wielded the spear, lightly nodding once he noticed that most, if not all of the movements he usually did with the spear were only slightly hampered by the armor.
Affixing his spear to his back, he sat back down for now as he waited for him and Leron to be called to the battleground, recalling the guard’s earlier words to him as they made their way to the area he was currently in.
Though, at some point, a question popped up in his mind while waiting for the coliseum’s signal. Deciding to find that out while he still had the time, Valyr soon commanded the system to bring up his status screen.
“Now that I have the armor on…”
“How much have my stats changed?”