Infinite Realm

"That reminds me, what level are you?" Sato suddenly asked.

"Level 11." Xue Yan said with a light smug on her face. "A little bit more and I will be level 12."

'As expected.'

Sato was a bit surprised but not too much after all, he too had gone through the Trials. So long as one's performance wasn't bad and they were able to pass the first challenge, their Experience points reward would be massive; at least more than a week's worth of field hunting.

"What's yours?" Seeing that Sato wasn't too surprised by her words, Xue Yan began to wonder what Sato's level was.

"Level 14." Sato lied. It would be too shocking for her if she knew that he was level 15. It would even be too shocking for every single player in IR if they knew this.

"Level…14?!" Xue Yan widened her eyes. 

Xue Yan already thought that her level 11 was impressive and even if Sato had completed the Trials, she guessed that he would be level 12 or 13 after all, levelling up in IR was extremely difficult. She never thought that he would actually be level 14. This was already 3 levels ahead of her, the next highest levelled player, and 5 levels ahead of the next set of players. In other words, the current Sato could finish off any player, excluding her, in 1 or 2 moves. For her, however, it would take 4 or 5 more because of the qualitative change that came about and raised her HP value. 

"Don't think too much about it. You're already pretty strong so you should be proud of yourself." 

Sato tried to comfort her but this time around, it didn't work. Xue Yan tried her best to improve during this Trial so that Sato wouldn't need to keep protecting her in troublesome times, but it turned out that she couldn't even reach him one bit. Rather than getting close to him, she realised that the gap between the two of them was just increasing.

"The system description says you have decided to follow Lord Vulgia's legacy, what's that all about." Sato tried to change the topic.

"Oh that. Well, Lord Vulgia was pleased with my performance and said that I have a great amount of potential. Following that, he asked me whether I want to be his legacy holder which I agreed. Then he gave me the staff as well as my new equipment saying that his disciple has to look fashionable and strong." Xue Yan explained.

'What the heck?' Sato's lips twitched.

As the staff was a low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon, Sato didn't doubt that the equipment would be the same; it might even be a growth-type like the staff too. For an NPC to suddenly reward a player with such powerful equipment just to make them look 'fashionable' would make any player who hears of this cry in pain and envy. Some might even conclude that the NPC was smitten by Xue Yan's good looks and rewarded her just for looking good. They would scream at the heavens for not making them appealing enough to NPCs while the envious ones would drag the game company's name to the mud.

"If anyone asks you just give them a different story, okay?" 

"Okay." Xue Yan didn't ask why but outrightly agreed to his words.

Sato then forged up a suitable story for Xue Yan to repeat to anyone else just in case they ask how she had gotten her equipment and she couldn't refuse to tell them. 

The reason for this was that if she told the truth, some may presume that she was rewarded for her looks and not her strength and this could in turn drag Xue Yan's name into the mud as well as damage the game's integrity. 

In the business of VR gaming, where there were so many competitors, anything was possible. A rival game company could even use this opportunity to target IR and that would make the game lose popularity as well as some of its players. If that were to happen, the game managers would strip Xue Yan of her equipment and weapons in order to console the crowd. It was best to avoid this as soon as possible lest they get dragged into deep sh*t.

"That reminds me, this is Lord Vulgia." Xue Yan pointed at a statue by the side.

Sato glanced in that direction and saw a 30 metres tall statue of a hooded figure with a staff that looked a lot like [Aoefir]. it was then that Sato remembered that just as he entered the main hall, Xue Yan had her attention focused on this statue and almost didn't notice him.

As if she had read his kind, Xue Yan explained.

"Back before you had arrived, I was still in the process of receiving the legacy from him. It included a few skills, knowledge on [Aoefir], and a bunch of other historical knowledge about the world and Caventry. It also had a map of the entire hall as well as the location of Lord Vulgia's palace and a few of his resources."

"You really had a big harvest, didn't you? I'm kind of envying you right now." Sato sighed.

Despite being the inheritor of the Caventry, it looked like what he got was less than Xue Yan's. Nonetheless, Sato wasn't the kind to easily get jealous or let something like this get in between them.

*Ding*

[[System notification : You have new mail]

Glancing at his interface, Sato opened up the mail with a thought and read it quickly.

The message was from Fudo and had his usual tone and taste of words. Apart from the regular fooling around, it stated that the others were close to Black Grill's cave and would be there in 2 minutes. If one didn't know any better, they would simply think that Fudo was informing Sato of his return but Sato knew the truth. They were trying to say that he and Xue Yan should wrap up their 'honeymoon' before they arrived.

'Those guys…' Sato knew that the others were probably involved in this as well.

While he did think of Xue Yan as a nice girl, he currently had no feelings for her so Sato wasn't too bothered by this message.

"Looks like the others are here already. Let's go meet them." Sato said to Xue Yan after noticing her inquiring look.

"Okay."

The two then walked towards the entrance of the hall, which was way on the other side. Along the way, Sato described his own experience as well as his reward to her.. Since Xue Yan had told him hers, he only felt it was right to do the same.