Chapter 590 Four Pillars: Worst Fears
"What's wrong?" Noticing that both Hal and Valyr's expressions had turned grim at their discovery, the three were incredibly curious as to what the two had discovered.
"Well, it's something that might probably affect the entirety of our journey throughout the inheritance." Returning his attention to his breakfast for a bit, Valyr vividly recalled what he had just seen through the vision granted by [Hunter's Tracking Eyes], ignoring the slight fear and concern creeping up onto the other's faces.
For a short while, the entire landscape making up the inheritance did not show any sort of difference under his vision, prompting him to look at Hal for a bit after he was called. However, knowing that the man was not someone who pulled pranks in serious situations, he proceeded to continue looking with the skill activated, eventually noticing what the man had probably wanted him to see.
From the few times Valyr had used [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] in combat, he was somewhat certain that any being in front of him would have a corresponding pitch-black circle that denoted their weak spot. Whether they may be of a lower rank or of a higher rank, both would show up in front of his vision...
Though there existed a couple of differences.
For one, the size of the circle within his vision grew smaller the higher the rank of the being was. Though Valyr did not know why that was the case at first, he now had a feeling it had something to do with how quick he would be able to defeat the being he was looking at.
After all, with greater strength, more possibilities to capitalize on weak spots arose.
Aside from that, he also noticed that it generally took longer for him to find weak spots on higher-ranked beings or beings of higher strength through the skill. Of course, with how weak spots became easier to exploit if his strength grew greater, then the opposite would naturally apply.
With those differences in mind, the young man realized that the pitch-black circles denoting every enemy they would come across in the inheritance had gotten considerably smaller, taking quite some time for them to appear. In fact, with his vision focused on the center of the city ruins, some of the pitch-black circles had even disappeared, causing him to briefly shudder as he had a foreboding feeling.
"If Hal and I aren't mistaken..." Letting out a low sigh as he took a few bites of his remaining breakfast, Valyr looked at the others with a calm expression. "It seems that the enemies we'll be facing had grown stronger after our ascensions."
"What?!" Naturally, such information struck down on the minds of the other three like a heavy hammer. After all, none of them had expected the inheritance to have a mechanic such as this.
"The two of us will check out the entire thing again after this." Though he had an idea as to why the enemies had grown stronger, Valyr put it aside for the meantime. "For now, focus on your food, clean up camp, and wait for our words."
At those words, the other three could only nod and inwardly let out a sigh. Thoughts related to the words Valyr had uttered began to linger in their minds after that, though one quickly became prevalent only a few minutes after they had finished their breakfasts.
'Guess this inheritance doesn't want us to have an easy time in the first place.'
...
"So, what's the verdict?" After everyone had finished eating their breakfast, Hal and Valyr returned to where they had done their reconnaissance yesterday, looking over everything once more with an inquisitive gaze. In the meantime, the other three began to clean up by storing the items into their spatial bracelets, readying themselves for the journey as they looked at the other two with a hint of worry.
Seeing as both Hal and Valyr walked back to where they were waiting with a somber expression, it was no surprise to the three that their worst fears had been realized. Steeling their minds for the onslaught that they would have to face to explore the inheritance, Loreina decided to speak up for the three to find out more about the current situation from Valyr and Hal.
"I'm somewhat regretting the fact that we listened to Elder Faulerei's words." As the two of them looked at the three with a wry smile, Valyr began to speak. "Anyways, the two of us have confirmed that all of the enemies we'll be facing in this inheritance had gone up slightly above one rank in terms of power."
"Those roaming around the plains now have strengths varying from the middle levels of Rank 4 to the late levels of Rank 4," said Hal as he continued where Valyr left off. "On the other hand, the weakest in the four quadrants are in the peak levels of Rank 4, while the strongest among them are at the middle levels of Rank 5."
"Regarding Intents, almost all of them have comprehended an Intent Seed, though whether or not they'd reached the second stage or culmination stage is something my skill could not detect." Scratching the back of his head, Hal heaved out a low sigh at these words.
"As for the strongest ones in the quadrants, though I didn't really want to say this, all of them have comprehended a full Intent, their grades unknown to the five of us."
Unsurprisingly, the dread the others were feeling from Valyr's words at first only became worse when Hal took over the explanation of their current situation. With how almost every person wanted to obtain an Intent the very moment they gained the capabilities to do so, it was no surprise that everyone in their group knew how much of an increase in difficulty fighting against enemies with Intent was.
Though, with the existence of grades among Intents, that increase could either range from a substantial increase to an increase that even the most talented would have a difficulty surmounting. Similar to how the four phases of an Intent Seed worked, each grade of Intent allowed one's connection with the world to become stronger, increasing the amount of strength they could wield.
However, unlike the four phases, Intent was separated into nine grades. The weakest grade of Intent one could obtain was 9th Grade Intent, while the strongest grade was 1st Grade Intent. Nevertheless, even gaining comprehension of 9th Grade Intent was enough to substantially increase one's strength in the battlefield, with those having 1st Grade Intent akin to becoming gods of destruction.
"Lastly, the center of the city ruins houses enemies that have strengths ranging from the middle levels to the peak of Rank 5." Giving the others time to digest the information they had received, it was only after a couple of minutes did Hal drop the information almost everyone among them dreaded to hear. However, as the young man continued his explanation, they soon found out that it was only the beginning.
"From what my reconnaissance skill has sensed, the strongest among them has comprehended the concepts of a Force," said Hal. "However, according to Valyr's skill, some of the enemies have already broken through the shackles of Rank 5."
"So, we're up against a Myth, huh?" After giving Valyr and Hal the opportunity to explain their current situation, Faulus went ahead and aired out his grievances. "How great. How fucking great."
"I guess Elder Faulerei wanted us to lead ourselves to death by having all of us ascend to Rank 3," said Faulus not long after, prompting the others to look at him as they had similar thoughts in mind. With what they found out from the two, their current problems all stemmed from the fact that they had followed Elder Faulerei's reminder to ascend to the next rank.
However, after mulling over it for a bit, Valyr felt like he now understood why the man did it. "That might not be the case."
"Hmm?" At those words, the other four looked at the young man with curiosity, with Faulus raising his eyebrow in slight doubt. "With how his reminder caused the difficulty of our journey to spike, you really don't think that elder has some malicious intent?"
"I feel like his reminder came from the right place, but from the wrong perspective," replying to Faulus' question, Valyr began to explain his thought process. "From what I know about the inheritance, the amount we can explore in the inheritance depends on the quality of our classes. With that, I've heard that we are the first group to have probably unlocked the entire inheritance, considering that all of us have classes at Mythic grade."
Hearing his words, everyone slightly nodded in response, though Vera seemed to blank out for a bit before doing so.
"Now, think about it. You're a group that's entered the inheritance, but the locations you can explore only extend to... let's say the plains at best," continued the young man. "Armed with the reminders Elder Faulerei gave you, your entire group decided to ascend to the next rank like we did."
Fortunately, around that point, almost everyone understood what Valyr was trying to say.
"So, you're saying he didn't warn us about the increase in difficulty from the ascension since he thinks we're more than capable of clearing it?" asked Faulus after thinking about it for a bit.
"I think so." Valyr nodded. "Surmounting the gap between ranks is difficult, but not hard to do, especially for someone like us."
"I guess he just forgot to account that we'd be exploring the entire inheritance and not only a small part of it." Valyr wryly smiled.
"I still feel like he has malicious intent, but I guess it'll be better if we followed your thought process in the long run." Shrugging his shoulders, Faulus decided to move the topic forward. "Anyways, what now?"
"Well, what else would we be doing?" In response, Valyr let out a wry chuckle. "With none of us knowing how to leave the inheritance..."
"We can only move forward."
