MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith-Chapter 1758: What is a Mystic Rune? (2)

'…Meyers.'

Hearing Valyr's voice echo in his mind all of a sudden, Ataraxia opened his eyes to look in front of him as he paused for a bit.

Seeing that the construct he made out of Mystic Energy still remained whole amidst the interruption, the young man inwardly let out a sigh of relief before turning to look at his other self soon after.

"What is it?"

"Just wanted to give you a heads-up that I'm about to leave soon," replied Valyr, briefly flashing a look of apology at the young man after noticing the construct. "I… didn't disturb you, did I?"

"Kind of, but I still have everything under control thankfully," responded Ataraxia with a slightly wry smile, only to then go over the former's words in his head. "Anyways, enough about me. How far did you upgrade the subclass?"

"Also, how much time has passed since we first came here?" he asked soon after.

"Well…" Going silent for a bit, Valyr spent a bit of time finding the right words to say. "For the subclass, I was able to upgrade it to Legendary before I felt like I'd upgraded it far enough."

"Wow." Ataraxia whistled in response. "Didn't you say you planned to stop upgrading it once you pushed it to Epic grade, though?"

"I did, but Mystia brought out a lot more resources than I thought." The former shrugged his shoulders. "With that, as well as the alchemical recipes she gave, I was able to push the subclass to that extent."

"I see." Ataraxia faintly nodded in understanding. "Why not push it to Mythic grade, though? Lack of resources?"

"Lack of resources," Valyr confirmed with a nod. "Specifically, lack of high-rarity resources. Those items usually serve as the foundation for incredibly rare elixirs, but Mystia didn't bring out any of them."

"Then again, it's not like it's difficult to come up with a recipe that substitutes that rarity for a number of less rare items instead," he added, a subtle yet confident smile tracing the edge of his lips. "I think I've come up with like 10 new recipes already."

"Ah." Realizing that he was going off on a tangent, Valyr paused for a bit as he spent a bit of time tracing back through their conversation. "Right. You wanted to know how much time has passed, right?"

Ataraxia nodded, his gaze briefly landing on the construct that remained stable beside them.

After Marcus explained to him the entire process that led to the birth of the rune that powered the Mystic Rune Alchemist subclass, the man left Ataraxia to his own devices, letting the latter explore the extent of what was possible with the rune he created.

Though he had made quite a lot of progress when it came to breaking down the Mystic Rune into more basic components, the young man knew that there was still a long road ahead of him.

Especially if he wanted to make use of those basic components to create brand new runes from scratch.

"Two months," said Valyr after sensing that Ataraxia was done traversing his current train of thought. "We've been in this place for two months already."

"Two months…" Although he nodded at the answer his other self gave him, the latter could not help but think about how much time remained until the upcoming tournament. "Surely that's not a lot of time outside, no?"

"It's not." Valyr reassured him, allowing him to let out a sigh of relief. "From what Marcus told me, the upgrade to the concept plane pushed the time difference between here and Veldanyr from 6:1 to 8:1."

"In other words, only a week or so has passed back in Veldanyr," he continued, knowing that his other self would be doing math in his head after hearing what he said.

"I see." Letting out a wider sigh of relief at those words, Ataraxia manipulated the Mystic Energy coursing throughout the construct, prompting it to gradually change form.

While keeping an eye on the changes that were happening, he looked back at Valyr and asked, "Are you gonna head to the Meltierre Killing Grounds after this?"

"Yeah." The latter nodded, briefly glancing at the construct his other self was controlling. "I also have to go outside to coordinate with Mystia in regards to the fight with the Rank 7 being."

"Now that you mention it… where is she?" asked Ataraxia in return as he looked around the area. "Pretty sure I still saw her while Marcus was teaching me about the rune."

"She left just as your lesson with Marcus ended," replied Valyr. "That was like… a month and a half ago?"

"And I still haven't made any headway into cracking the code behind these runes after that much time?"

With the fear of missing the tournament gone from his head, Ataraxia instead felt disappointment towards himself after hearing how much time had passed since he embarked on his endeavor.

Fortunately, his other self was there to remind him of a couple things.

"Keep in mind that you're basically treading through uncharted waters at this moment," said Valyr to him. "Even Marcus was surprised to hear your plans with the runes after hearing them from me."

"Also, two months isn't really that much time," he continued, letting out a wry chuckle. "Remember we spent around a year in total pushing our Intents to where they are today."

"Plus, keep in mind that I spent two years back in the Four Pillars' Inheritance just to learn how to control Azure Energy."

"Not gonna lie, if I had my current comprehension rate back then, it would have probably only taken me three months to get it." Valyr let out yet another chuckle as he slightly shook his head. "In any case, there's still plenty of time until the tournament."

"If anything, all of the heavy lifting we need to do before the tournament will be done by me… except for the killing the Rank 7 being part, of course."

"Now you're just making me feel like I'm not doing anything significant." Though he remained silent throughout everything his other self told him, Ataraxia still felt his heart warm after hearing all of it.

"It's not that you're not doing anything significant," Valyr corrected him. "You're just gearing up to surprise the entire world with your actions."

"Let's hope cracking the code behind these runes actually surprises the entire world," responded Ataraxia with a chuckle. "You should get going now. You won't get [Anathema of the Ascended] if you keep staying here."

"Just inform me of any progress through our connection," said Valyr in response, only to then open up a rift that led back to Veldanyr after that.

"I hope to see you soon."

Whoosh!

Watching his other self go through the rift and disappear from his field of vision, Ataraxia stared off into the distance for a bit before returning his attention back to the construct he was controlling.

"…"

"…What is a Mystic Rune anyway?"