Chapter 19: Is Something Big Coming?
Beside the coastline of Grant Sea.
Shaya stretched as he watched the receding backs of the crowds nervously surrounding Sylvia in the distance, gradually moving towards the Grand Duke’s Mansion.
Lines of blue text information were rapidly scrolling through his mind.
[Novice Quest Stage Three: Increase Grand Duke’s daughter Sylvia’s favorability to over 30 points. Mission objective achieved.]
[Current mission objective favorability: 52/30 (Trust).]
[Mission rewards have been settled.]
[Based on the host’s overall performance in this mission stage, the following mission rewards are issued: 100,500 Free Experience Points, Seed of Skills*3.]
“Regardless, it’s finally done.”
“It wasn’t a waste of the time I spent preparing for this stage of the mission, pouring so much effort into it.”
Shaya rubbed his temples and tossed the thick books, “How to Interact with the Opposite Sex (Beginner’s Guide)” and “Introduction to Psychology,” into his Spatial Pocket.
After all, whether before or after transmigrating, he had never had any experience actively pursuing women. He was a complete passive otaku.
Asking him to actively pursue and conquer female characters was asking too much.
He could only imitate what he read, applying theoretical knowledge to practical situations.
Fortunately, Shaya’s acquired relationship skills, bolstered by his cramming, did not falter. His on-the-spot performance was practically perfect.
Of course, his conversations with Sylvia, though prepared in advance, were also genuinely what he thought.
From the perspective of a transmigrator from the 21st century, atrocities like witch hunts were something Shaya disdained.
His gaze swept over the system notifications, reading the information within.
According to the descriptions on the system panel, a favorability of 30 points was within the realm of “Acquaintance.”
If that were the goal, he could have simply found opportunities to interact more with Sylvia within the Duke’s Mansion, spending a few more days to become familiar with her to achieve the objective.
However, if he had done so, both the mission evaluation and the final mission rewards would have been the minimum possible.
It was for this reason that Shaya had risked facing Twilight contamination to orchestrate this encounter by Grant Sea on a winter night, successfully raising Sylvia’s favorability to the “Trust” stage.
This was a level that simply becoming familiar could never achieve.
If her favorability had been ten points higher, reaching the level of “Confidante,” she would have hesitated before politely refusing even a request for intimate contact.
The final rewards issued by the system did not disappoint Shaya.
The 100,000 Free Experience Points were a given, enough to raise several high-level skills to “Perfect” proficiency with plenty left over.
At this very moment, it could be used to fill in the proficiency gaps of all of Shanda’s other skills.
Furthermore, Shaya was not too far from opening his third Soul Pact, so the addition of 100,000 Free Experience Points was a timely boon.
However, compared to the foreseeable massive amount of Free Experience Points.
The other item in the mission rewards, “Seed of Skills*3,” was what truly surprised Shaya.
The function of the Seed of Skills was not to increase the proficiency of Familiar Skills.
Instead, it allowed familiars to acquire brand-new skills.
Not only could they learn skills across racial limitations.
With enough deduction and practice, they could even create a brand-new skill by themselves.
Shaya had only obtained one Seed of Skills before, and with it, he had allowed Yin to learn “Tsukuyomi,” which formed the foundation of its ability system.
Obtaining three at once this time was an unexpected joy.
“With three Seeds of Skills, Yin’s offensive skills can also be put on the agenda.”
“After all, since it already has ‘Tsukuyomi,’ it feels like a shame not to pair it with ‘Amaterasu’.”
“In addition, there are many practical skills in Shanda’s spatial abilities that are waiting to be learned…”
“But no matter how I compensate for their weaknesses, Shanda and Yin will still be familiars primarily focused on support and control.”
“Thinking about it this way… my third Soul Pact should involve choosing a familiar with sufficient direct combat capability.”
As his thoughts flickered, Shaya noticed a new prompt appearing in his mind.
[Novice Quest Status Updated.]
[Mission Objective Four: Complete the Coming-of-age Ceremony of the Grand Duke of Azure Court’s family and become a core member of the family by passing the ceremony, truly joining Elder Norton’s plan.]
[First node of Historical Echo – “Ancient Azure Court” has been reached.]
[Current historical node is locked. Please choose to exit the Historical Echo or continue to stay and complete the mission objective.]
“As expected, it’s about what I predicted.”
“With Sylvia’s repeated loss of control, Norton, that old double agent, should be getting restless soon.”
Looking at the information on the system panel, Shaya nodded slightly.
“Also, it’s likely time to reach this save point in the ‘Historical Echo’.”
Having spent a few days in the “Historical Echo,” Shaya had a general understanding of this secret realm, unknown to anyone.
It wasn’t just a static recording as he had initially speculated, something one could see but not touch…
Every person appearing in this Historical Echo was indistinguishable from a real being.
Compared to a so-called “reflection in a lake.”
This place felt more like a real world lost in the long river of history.
Of course, this was all Shaya’s speculation, needing further verification.
Shaya did not hesitate and directly chose to leave the Historical Echo.
He had already received information transmitted by Shanda through their Soul Pact. This space-time was beginning to repel him, and he could not stay much longer.
Moreover, the little golden monkey had sensed that this Historical Echo had left a mark on them.
If they wanted to enter again in the future, it should not require being in the Azure Court ruins, but rather could be accessed from anywhere.
On the other hand, with Shaya’s personality, he did not want to rashly challenge the fourth stage of the mission.
He needed time now to digest the harvest from this mission and transform it into his own.
In this world with supernatural powers, if one wanted to live longer, their own strength was the only tangible reliance.
…
With a distorted sense of dizziness, Shaya awoke in the ruins.
He glanced at the mechanical clock he had placed beside him. The clock’s hands showed that only a little over an hour had passed since he entered.
Undoubtedly, the Historical Echo and the real world were two completely separate spaces.
Shaya did not linger and directly used Shanda’s “Blink” to leave the Pale Hills.
He had not forgotten that when the Historical Echo had revived earlier, there had been roaring and shaking, causing quite a stir.
It was likely that strong individuals from the nearby Imperial military would come to investigate soon.
Although his method of obtaining archaeological rights for the Ash White Hills through political donations was traceable to those official powerhouses, Shaya did not wish to interact with official personnel unprepared.
An hour later, as Shaya boarded the steam train leaving Lesa City for the Imperial capital.
He saw a pitch-black dragon speeding across the distant sky.
And the slender figure standing atop the black dragon.
“A Black Scale Lesser Dragon exclusive to the Royal Breeding Institute. Judging by its size, it should have exceeded the Monarch level.”
“An Imperial military Titled Beast Tamer?”
Shaya raised an eyebrow.
The Historical Echo of the Ancient Azure Court.
It seems like he had stirred up some rather important figures.
