Infinite Realm

After they were done cleaning up the workshop, Sato and Meson left for the main hall, which was that very room that held the statues of the Achievers. Just like Sato, Xue Yan had been teleported thereafter her Trials had come to an end.

As he was walking, Sato sent her a message to wait for him there. At the same time, he also sent the other 5 a message, requesting them to head back here.

20 seconds later, Sato and Meson had reached the main hall. Immediately he entered, Sato felt the mana here was a bit more active than before. He also felt that the fire elemental mana was richer and much violent than before. This was because the temperature of the entire place had increased by a few degrees, making it a bit unbearable for a regular human. Luckily, this was just a game and as Sato was much stronger than before, his body was capable of handling this little heat.

After being surprised by the slight increase in temperature, Sato noticed a thin red mist at the centre of the hall with a figure within it, staring in another direction. The main hall was extremely large so Sato could barely make it out the figure within the mist much less discern who it was. The figure looked to be entranced by the statue as it didn't seem to sense Sato's appearance.

"Do you know who that is?" Sato asked Meson who stood behind him.

Meson scrunched his face as he tried to remember any persona who carried with them such a phenomenon but in the end, he shook his head.

"No. I don't recall any one of us looking like this nor do I remember any of the Caventry who looks like this."

Meson wasn't a Caventry but the same as Saimon, one of the 'butlers' of the Caventry.

"Also... I think it's a female." Meson hesitated before saying. He knew that the person Sato was looking for was a lady but he didn't know how she looked.

'Could it be?' Sato displayed a surprised look on his face as he thought of an incredulous assumption.

He then proceeded to walk towards the red figure.

The appearance of the red-figure had not only increased the temperature in the hall but also increased the concentration of fire elemental mana. Because of this, a thin red mist had appeared in the hall due to increased mana particles. The closer Sato got to the figure, the thicker the red mist became. However, even at its thickest, the red mist was only hazy so Sato was able to discern the figure's appearance. Sato was able to see that the red on the figure was actually a crimson cloak with stylish gold patterns that they wore.

When Sato and Meson were about 30 metres away, the figure seemed to have sensed their existence as they turned around to glance at them. As the figure turned around, the appealing face of an elegant yet graceful young lady revealed itself.

Faint crimson marks streaked her face like the tribal marks of certain locals or the strokes of a calligraphy master. Despite the out of the ordinary imprints, she didn't look one less ugly. On the contrary, the crimson marks seemed to highlight her beauty to a whole different level, giving it a mystical sensation and taste.

"Sato..." The beauty smiled at him.

As she did so, the fiery aura around her converged into her body. The hazy red also gathered towards her as the temperature in the hall dropped back to normal.

"Looks like you had a big harvest." Sato smiled back at Xue Yan.

Just from the phenomenon her appearance had brought alone, Sato felt that the reward Xue Yan received from the Trials wouldn't be much less than his. For a second, he even guessed that she might have passed the final challenge.

"Hmm." Xue Yan nodded as her face blossomed with a smile.

Ever since life had gotten bad for her, there were only a few people that could see her smile. Having spent a lot of time with Sato, she inevitably accepted him as one of them.

"Sadly, I wasn't able to pass the last challenge." Xue Yan sighed.

The Main Trials of the Caventry wasn't a simple smelting trial or a summer vacation camp. It was a trial that was used to not only train the toughest of the race but also decide the inheritor of their legacy. If anyone could easily pass it, then it wasn't worthy of such functions.

The other two challenges might not be all that difficult for some, but the final challenge, which acted as the ultimate decider, was a whole different story. Even Sato had a hard time defeating his mirror image and only pulled through by a bout of inspiration, much less Xue Yan who had much less battle experience than Sato. Even if the [Puzzle of Cryptics] challenge improved her strength while the [Battle of Ten Thousand] helped her gain more fighting experience, it still wasn't enough to defeat her clone who had the battle sense and skills of a Grandmaster for the template design.

"Don't worry about it. As long as you had enough gains to balance out the time spent, then it was well worth it." Sato comforted her.

Xue Yan nodded with a smile as Sato's words seem to have cheered her up a bit.

"Who is he?" Xue Yan then glanced at Meson who stood a step behind Sato.

'You could say he's one of my rewards.' was what Sato originally wanted to say. But recalling that the NPCs here had their own personalities and thoughts, and not some programmed scripts or words, he replied.

"He's a helper that was assigned to me by Lord Worrus."

"Lord Worrus?" Xue Yan asked.

"Don't you know? The Achiever who created the foundational world that holds the Main Trials, Versuchsgründe. He was with Saimon a majority of the time though he was hidden in space. Didn't you see or rather, sense him?" Sato explained with a confused face.

Xue Yan shook her head.

"I didn't see Saimon only till the end of the Trail. As for the Lord Worrus you speak about, while I do recall Saimon's description of him, I didn't see him. The only Achiever present at the spot was Lord Vulgia."

Sato didn't know who that was but he felt confused as to why Saimon and Worrus didn't meet Xue Yan. He had finished his Trials way before her so they should have been able to meet up with her.

'Don't tell me those two are a sexist?' Sato began thinking wildly. He even had the insane thought, though jokingly, that the entire Caventry was made up of males, after all, he had yet to see a female Achiever.

However, Sato was overthinking things. Worrus and Saimon weren't sexist nor did they purposely avoid Xue Yan because she was a female. Contradictory to that, they had been paying attention to her progress through the display screen from before. The only reason the two focused on Sato was that he was progressing much faster than Xue Yan was in the Trials.

As for why they didn't meet her later on, Saimon had to take charge of the entire facility so he could barely make out any more time. As for Worrus, his 'form' was about to fall apart so he had to enter stasis mode once again. Even during the Entry Trials, Worrus didn't pay much attention to any of them as he had to stabilise his body lest it reacts adversely with the outside world leading to his aura leaking out and inadvertently killing those around him.

Since the two turned out to be busy at the time, another Achiever of similar rank to Worrus took over. In a way, this could be said to have been a good thing for Xue Yan as the Achiever who took over was also an [Elementalist] of the fire element and a [Scribe]. In the end, Xue Yan had won his admiration and had received more rewards than she would normally have. But neither of them knew this.

Infinite Realm, though a game, didn't follow the standards of regular games. Because the NPCs were more 'alive', changes could be made to the plot of the world as well as the mission a player would receive and the rewards attached to it. Not only did this make the game more realistic than others but it also made it much harder to play.

"So, how was it?"