Fortunately, this venue for round 1 wasn’t too far from the Firefly City.
The trio returned after two hours and freshened up before sitting in the living hall on the couches and started TV to watch Round 1 of Gold-rank Adventurers.
Roken didn’t bother participating because he knew he wouldn’t qualify for the round 2, so he was training his smithing in the backyard.
Almond ordered snacks and drinks as well while his summons were enjoying outdoor activities.
‘I have plenty of time today, so I should finalize my 9th summon and start the cooking process of the 10th summon in Spirit Kodoku.’
“Babe, you ordered food?” Lily arrived with wet hair and a simple two-piece outfit—shorts and a baggy t-shirt as she snuggled beside Almond.
“Yeah.”
Natalia jumped on another couch and said, “I hope you didn’t forget my special Veggie Patties.”
“I didn’t. Anyway, the round 1 has started. It’s different from ours,” Almond smiled.
“Eh? Are they in a dungeon?”
“Yep. Their round is a race. The first one hundred Adventurers to reach the end of the dungeon win, but this dungeon has some extreme climate, so they’ll have a lot of obstacles.”
“This is fun,” Lily’s eyes sparkled. “Wish we had this in our first round.”
“No thanks,” Natalia rolled her eyes.
“Pussy,” Lily snorted.
“That I am,” Natalia smugly smiled.
“…”
…
The trio watched the TV while Almond was cooking up his 9th spirit wraith.
[Wintersun Lady Nyssara]
-Disposition: Noble lady knight. Calculative and cold mostly, but shifts friendly and exuberant around trustworthy people. She revels in fighting with her unique knightly grace of a mage and sculpting, her main weapon being a war hammer and a hand fan.
Almond thought of a backstory about her in his mind after that and then finally summoned the spirit wraith from the Spirit Kodoku pocket.
Lily and Natalia felt something and soon saw sparks materialize in front of them, blocking the TV.
The sparks formed an icy lady almost six feet tall with a gorgeous long dress adorned with crystal blue and golden embroidery, a noble hat on her head, and a handfan in her hand, which had symbols of the hammer in its folds.
“Welcome home, Nyssara,” Almond smiled.
“Woah, your new summon? She looks awesome,” Natalia exclaimed.
“She is gorgeous,” Lily blinked.
“Master,” Nyssara smiled widely.
[Wintersun Lady Nyssara]
-Rank: Silver
-Level: 10
-Stats: 57 unassigned points.
— Physical:
↳ [Strength: 50 | Health: 50 | Stamina: 50]
— Mental:
↳ [Mana: 65 | Focus: 70 | Perception: 55 ]
-Skills:
— Ice and Light Mastery (S)
— Luminous Squall (S)
— Frostbound Radiance (S)
— Glacial Light Nova (A)
— Shimmering Ice Veil (A)
— Arctic Dawn (A)
— Crystal Halo (A)
— Radiant Ice Prism (S)
— Winterbind Chains (A)
-Quirk(s):
— Crystal Sculptor: Nysarra loved to sculpt as she had an ice affinity from childhood. This hobby turned deadly as she learned to sculpt weapons with her ice and fuel them with light. Nyssara can create crystal weapons with low durability that boost her skills and imbue her skills into them, though they are destroyed upon use. Crystal Armory [0/10].
— Knight’s Cold Grace: As she was trained by her powerful knight father to excel on the battlefield with the calculative shortest path and merciless eradication of the enemy, Nyssara gains Cold Tempest of the Battlefield status during fights, in which her stats increase by 5% per the number of enemies within her radar, stacking up to 50% of the increase, and her movement speed doubles upon reaching maximum stacks.
“Another one,” Natalia was speechless. “So powerful!”
“Ice and Light, huh…nice,” Lily’s eyes sparkled. “Her backstory gave her solid quirks.”
“Yep,” Almond grinned. “These quirks are really good. I gotta think of another solid backstory for my next spirit wraith. Anyway, Nyssara, why don’t you go out and meet with your fellow spirit wraiths?”
“You can also do other things, anything you want, like sculpting to create your weapons.”
Nyssara’s eyes sparkled as she excitedly said, “Thank you, master. I will go meet with the others and make their sculptures and yours, too.”
“And may I kill the enemies if I find them?” Nyssara’s vibe changed as she spoke, her already icy eyes turning frigid cold.
Almond wryly smiled, “There won’t be enemies here, but don’t kill anyone or hurt anyone even if you find them suspicious. Just report to me.”
“Understood,” Nyssara smiled and bowed as she grabbed both sides of her dress. “Then I shall take my leave, Master.”
…
“Hi, I am Nyssara, nice to meet you,” Nyssara greeted Sylvia with a smile. “Is this your garden? It’s so beautiful.”
Sylvia blinked and shook hands at this new frosty lady. She could feel the same connection as she had with other summons, so she knew Nyssara was the same as her.
Smiling, Sylvia said, “Hello, I am Sylvia. Nice to meet you.”
“Can I call you Syl?”
“Hehe, sure. Then I will call you Nys.”
“Of course, I’d be happy. Now, I will go meet others, and then I will have my garden next to yours. A crystal garden filled with crystal sculptures.”
“Ohh…you can do that? Then make a statue of Master in my garden later.”
“Alright, deal.”
Nyssara went to the others and greeted them one by one.
…
A day passed by with fun and joy for the spirit wraiths while Almond, Lily, and Natalia just chilled the entire day.
However, the whispers in the dark at some places in the world were active again.
“Tournament has started. How is the information coming along?”
Enjoy new chapters from empire
“I got information from the Proximax Guild master about the 10th Floor’s layout.”
“Same, Rudra’s son is rather close with my daughter after finding that she was pregnant with his child. I met him yesterday and found things I didn’t find myself on the 10th Floor.”
“Wilmort Family’s head might get suspicious of me, so I am not probing him further. He is powerful and trusts his guts like Rudra, so I am distancing my family dealings with them and himself.”
“But maintain your relationship with him cordially, or you’ll attract more suspicion.”
“I got…”
The voices exchanged information they had gotten from top guilds and other forces for their preparation 4 days later.
“Emissary had given us information, but we still needed more. Now, it’ll be easier for us to fulfill the requirement and make it such that the Floor Boss is triggered the moment 15th November arrives and Labyrinth opens. You all, don’t mess up and stay low. We need to enter together to succeed fast and without endangering ourselves on the floor.”
***
[A/N: Give me reviews Q_Q, once we get 10 reviews, I’ll drop a bonus chapter!]