บท 56: 56
Arthur came to the Voice Library to sacrifice the paint brush he had just acquired from Lady Myra to Aoide. He called after his patroness but there was no answer. The Voice Library was silent.
Arthur tried again, "Your grace, I sacrifice to thee this artifact of mythical quality." Silence was again his only answer.
It was at this point that the young man had to accept he was not going to get any response from her patroness. This could only mean one of two things, either the paint brush was not of mythical quality or it was not a musical artifact, or both. Either way, since it was of no use to Arthur, he tossed it out of his mind.
Arthur tried to filter out new voices from the sea like how Aoide had taught him at the very beginning but he ended up with nothing. In other words, he did not come across any monsters that utilized the Voice magic during his latest adventure.
While there was no new special power for him to acquire, there was still a smile on Arthur's face because when he tapped into his other status, he found something that surprised him. The ability to upgrade his vocal materialization had been unlocked!
He immediately went ahead to take a closer gander at it.
[Vocal Materialization]
Level: 2
Origin: Elite Phantasm
Voice details: Just like how they have mastered the ability to phase in and out of the physical realm, elite phantasms can apply this unique technique to their voices as well. The phantasm has gained such mastery over this basic skill that the voice they materialize in the real world can be manipulated into any shapes and sizes.
Echoes required to unlock: 2
Arthur was surprised by this new discovery. At the same time, he was thankful because he had just enough Echoes to unlock it, he gained one Echo during his fight with Emile at Armana and the second one was when he was fighting Frankie at the adventurer's guild headquarters at Celestia. The condition was just right.
Since Arthur did not have any other use for the Echoes he had in his possession, he decided to use them to upgrade the skill, Vocal Materialization. This was also Arthur's bread and butter skill in combat so the upgrade was honestly quite welcomed.
With that completed, Arthur exited his meditation and returned to real life.
...
The first thing that returned was the quietness. Even though the city was still quite noisy, it was relatively quiet compared to the echoes within the Voice Library. Arthur opened his ears and the sound of the bird chirping and the people chatting crawled into his ears.
The young man looked around and confirmed he was still sitting inside the clearing.
Arthur reached forward to grab the paint brush that he had left on the ground before him. Try as he might, he failed to stop the disappointment from reaching his face. However, eventually the young man smiled. Even though he did not get a new power at least, he managed to gain an upgrade to his existing one. That was better than nothing.
Arthur waded through the clearing and made his way back to the adventurer's guild. As he stepped through the threshold, Arthur made a beeline to the counter. However, he was only halfway there when something caught his attention.
There was sound of fighting coming from the arena. Arthur moved his feet sideways, alternating between the counter and the arena. There was a frown etched on his face like he was unable to come to a decision.
Arthur ultimately strode towards the arena when a man's voice that was unfamiliar to Arthur said, "So this is the best the latest batch of level D adventurers have to offer?!" Then, he added in a sneer, "What a bunch of losers."
Echoes of laughter erupted following that. At the same time, Arthur could hear the sound of people's teeth gritting from anger. Arthur frowned wondering what was happening when a familiar voice hiss, "This is not over yet! Don't think you can trample all over us just because you're the seniors!"
The sound of fighting ensued. There was a sudden thud like something heavy had fallen on the ground. It was preceded by a painful grunt.
By then, Arthur had arrived at the arena. Inside the ring was a familiar figure fighting a man that Arthur could not recognize.
Frankie picked himself up from the ground and gave himself a running start as he launched at his adversary. The opponent merely smiled a confident smile. Looking from the sidelines, the opponent looked like someone who was having fun toying with Frankie.
Arthur approached one of the adventurers who stood at the side of the ring. The man turned around and his face lit up with surprise when he saw Arthur. "Boss!" Arthur's frown caused him to change that quickly to become, "I mean, Arthur, where have you been for so long? We've not seen you around here..."
Before the man went off a different tangent, Arthur interrupted the man and pulled him right back with a tilt of his head towards the arena. "What's going on there?"
The man's face was scrunched up in anger and he said, "It's the seniors creating trouble for us!"
"The seniors? What do you mean?"
"The man in the ring right now facing off against Frankie, is called Sean and he is the leader for the level D adventurers that passed the test one session before us. Who knows why they are gathered at Celestia and not going around to try to solve quests and advance their ranks?!" Arthur swore the man was about to hack out a spit when he said that. Such was the distaste he had. "We were just minding our own business when Sean came over with his group of lackey and started to order us around and laying down rules that we have to follow simply because we're the juniors.
"Naturally, Frankie could not stand that behavior and one thing led to another..." Before the man could continue, a gale that originated from the arena blasted them. Both of them raised their hands to shield themselves from the howling wind.
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