Chapter 338 - 306: Now This Is Treasure Hunting

Chapter 338: Chapter 306: Now This Is Treasure Hunting

"That makes sense..."

Zelir nodded thoughtfully. He pushed aside the fern leaves blocking their path as he walked.

Valles’s explanation did indeed fit the nature of Magic.

Bursts of knowledge require communication and collision, while isolation often leads to stagnation and decline.

For a complex discipline like Magic, talent alone wasn’t enough.

It also required vast resources and the inherited wisdom of predecessors. Only by standing on the shoulders of giants could it be gradually advanced and glorified.

"What about Assassins, then?"

Hill asked with great interest.

"Based on their traits, isn’t the Elf Race pretty well-suited for being Assassins?"

"Besides, Elves already hate humans. Getting paid to kill them? Where else would you find a deal that good?"

"Hating is one thing, but killing is another matter entirely..."

Valles waved his hand weakly. "Generally speaking, very few Elves would choose to become Assassins."

"Oooh-ooh-ahh-ahh..." Gray said to Valles.

"What are you doing?" Valles asked, confused.

"Mmm-gooloo-jeelie-wah," Gray said again.

"Have you lost your mind?" Valles frowned at Gray.

"Nope."

Gray scratched his head. "I was just imitating the Elven Language you were speaking with Aidi earlier... Was it close?"

"Sounded a lot like the goblin language," Zelir said.

Hill, who was standing nearby, laughed out loud.

"Actually, I’m pretty curious, Valles. What exactly did you and Aidi talk about?" Gray asked.

It was the first time he had ever seen that kind of gratified smile on Valles’s face... It really made him wonder.

"Sigh... It was nothing much. I just asked if there had been any changes in Cloud Sleep Valley, and about my family," Valles said, shaking his head gently.

"You have a family?" Gray asked, surprised.

Valles shot Gray a sideways glance.

"What kind of thing is that to say?" Marcus smacked Gray on the head.

"I didn’t mean it like that... It’s just that you, Valles, always look like you’re carrying some deep-seated hatred."

Gray clutched his head. "It’s hard not to think you’re nursing some kind of blood feud."

"You’ve probably been listening to too many Minstrel stories, haven’t you?"

Valles clicked his tongue. "Tch. My mom is perfectly fine at home."

"What about you, Zelir?" Gray turned to Zelir.

"Resting in peace," Zelir said with a shrug.

"Hill?" Gray’s gaze shifted again.

Hill just shrugged and said nothing.

The meaning was obvious, though.

’An Assassin who’s always dancing on the edge of a blade probably wouldn’t have attachments like family.’

"Marcus, you’re not also..." Gray began.

"Don’t. Keep your jinxes to yourself. My parents are doing just fine."

Marcus shot Gray a glare. "I even have someone send money back home every month."

Zelir couldn’t be bothered to deal with this nonsensical guy, Gray.

Judging by all the things his father had done to him, Gray probably didn’t have much affection for his own relatives.

To Gray, it didn’t matter whether his family was alive or dead.

Zelir looked at Valles. "You just said your mom is fine at home... so what about your dad?"

"He disappeared, I guess? Or maybe he died. It has nothing to do with me, anyway."

Valles’s tone was flat, as if he were talking about a stranger.

But one could tell he clearly held some resentment toward the role of "father."

Zelir recalled his first impression of Valles.

His eyes always held an icy coldness that pushed people away, making him seem very difficult to get along with.

It wasn’t simple arrogance, but more like... loneliness? The kind that comes from being cut off from the world of normal people.

Because of that loneliness, he treated others with a resistant, defensive attitude.

He’d get prickly from time to time.

"Your father... he’s human, isn’t he?" Zelir asked tentatively.

"Yeah... but I’ve never met him."

Valles said, "The only things I know about him are snippets I’ve heard from the other Elves in the village."

"Some say he was a lost Adventurer. Others say he was a con man, a slave trader."

"I don’t want to ask my mom about it... Anyway, I’ve just pieced together these random bits, and in the end, I still don’t know what he was really like."

"But it doesn’t matter anymore... When you think about it, he was definitely a fickle, irresponsible man."

At the mention of his father, the corner of Valles’s eye twitched almost imperceptibly.

"A man who abandoned my mother and me to run off on his own... what good could he possibly be?"

"Sounds like you had a pretty unhappy childhood," Gray said, his tone serious for once.

"I wouldn’t call it unhappy. I had enough to eat and wear... It wasn’t that tragic."

Valles sighed and, for a rare moment, began to open up.

"But I definitely got my fair share of cold shoulders."

"My mother is a Pure-blood Elf, and her status in the clan is quite high."

"So even though she had been with a human, the other Elves wouldn’t openly give her a hard time... but toward me, their attitude was always tinged with contempt."

"My face, my hair color, my eyes, and my mismatched ears—in their eyes, they were all an insult to the Elf Race."

"When we were kids playing together, the moment I walked over, the crowd would automatically disperse... as if they had just seen some kind of Demon."

"I was young then, and when I realized they were ostracizing me, I really felt like my world was collapsing... But now that I’m older and look back on it, heh... it’s not that big of a deal."

"Didn’t your mother do anything?" Zelir asked.

"She did, of course she did."

As he spoke of his mother, Valles’s gaze softened again.

"Whenever the other Elves nitpicked or gave me a hard time, Mom would stand up for me."

"She was normally such a gentle person, but when she got angry, she was like a lion or a tiger... Sometimes, even I would be startled."

"But the arguments never led to anything. They just left everyone upset. In the end, I just started avoiding them altogether."