Whoosh!

    Appearing at the Mage Guild''s Teleportation Hall, Valyr briefly looked around for a bit, only to notice that the attendant manning the hall looked at him with a hint of vigilance.

    In response, the young man faintly nodded back at him before giving the attendant his identification card.

    "Ah! It''s Sir Ataraxia," said the attendant, his tone a mix of relief and excitement.

    Giving Valyr a slightly apologetic expression, he then continued, "If you don''t mind me asking... are you here for the tournament?"

    "That''ll have to be a secret for now," replied the young man with a chuckle, his tone telling the attendant all he needed to know.

    Retrieving his identification card back from the attendant, he then made his way to the main hall of the guild, sending both Dalton and Aster a message that he was at the guild along the way.

    Unsurprisingly, with the tournament about to happen in just a couple of days, the two hastily responded back to his message, telling him that they''d meet up with him as soon as possible.

    However, with both of them being leaders of their own respective factions, the two would still take some time to get there.

    Wanting to pass the time while they were waiting, Valyr decided to walk along the various corridors of the Mage Guild for the meantime, causing him to think back to the wild idea he had after making a massive profit from the Reinforcement Elixirs.

    ''Is it really a good idea to get a building for the guild?'' asked the young man to himself inwardly, recalling that the profits they earned from it were enough to buy a two-floor office space if they were to convert all of it.

    Though this made Thomas and the other three believe that it was a walk in the park to earn so much money in Greater Beyond, the five eventually made the beneficial decision to reinvest most of it into their guild, allowing the Azure Coalition to become what it was today.

    Of course, that did not mean that they didn''t take their own cut of the profits.

    Although the cut they took was just a small piece of the massive pie, the cut still amounted to around 2,000 Deltas each, prompting the five to show no hesitation in converting the coins to Deltas.

    "Are you ready for the tournament?"

    "As ready as I''ll ever be," replied Valyr, only to then release the aura he''d been suppressing in its entirety.

    Whoosh!

    Sensing the great amounts of strength contained in his aura, both Aster and Dalton looked at Valyr in disbelief after that, wondering to themselves how the young man had become even more monstrous after not seeing him for a while.

    Then again, the strong aura Valyr showed off to them also made the two excited and expectant at the same time, confident that the young man in front of him would place highly in the upcoming tournament without any issues.

    And if there weren''t any other dark horses in the tournament like him, then it was even possible for Valyr to become one of the nine prodigies to move onto the Myriad Prodigies Tournament.

    Letting their imaginations run wild for a bit more, the two eventually calmed themselves down, even though the anticipation and excitement they felt was still evident on their faces.

    "How did you get this strong, exactly?" Taking in a deep breath to compose himself, Dalton went ahead and asked Valyr a question, its contents causing Aster to nod in agreement.

    "Well, for one, the guild I created now gives a lot of stat boosts," replied the young man with a slight smile, finding no need to keep his guild''s existence a secret. "It took a while to get it there, though."

    "What tier is the guild hall currently at?" asked Aster in response.

    "Intermediate," Valyr responded.

    "...That definitely explains it a bit," said Dalton after that, only to look at the young man with curiosity. "But that doesn''t really explain how your strength increased by this much."

    In response, Valyr merely smiled. "Let''s just say it has something to do with my ascension to Rank 2."

    Specifically, a skill he gained from his ascension.