"Three years…" murmured Valyr to himself, trying to wrap his head around the amount of time he'd been given.

Considering how he'd only been in the world of Veldanyr for what felt like a few months at this point, three years to him was an incredibly long time.

Even more so if he was going to dedicate that entire length of time towards honing and polishing his mastery over his skills.

"On top of that, a year is equivalent to a week in the outside world." Deciding to not think too deeply into it, the young man moved onto the next thing of note that the voice told him.

At this point, he was more or less certain that when the voice talked about the outside world, it was talking about the ruins that he and the other two were in.

With that, he began to think about how much time he would be able to spend in this place before the sun would rise in the inheritance once more.

"Excluding the dilation between the inheritance and Veldanyr, there's a significant time dilation between the barren grounds and the inheritance proper," said Valyr to himself.

"Considering how I've spent probably over a month or two in the trial grounds while tackling the Gates of Awakening's nine trials, let's say that the time dilation between the two places is pretty high."

"Now, that begs the question… would that time dilation stack with the time dilation within the Realm of Myriad Experiences?"

Scratching the back of his head as the gears in his mind began to turn, the young man was forced to push such thoughts to the side as the voice spoke up once more.

'You are free to spend as much time as you'd like within the Realm of Myriad Experiences. However, it would be highly preferred if you were to say how long your stay would be.'

'With that being said, how long would you be staying within the Realm of Myriad Experiences?'

"Hmm…" Being greeted by an abrupt silence after the voice's question, the gears in Valyr's mind continued to turn as he wrapped his head around the situation.

Getting a rough idea of the entire thing after a minute or so of silence, the young man then opened up a rift back to the city ruins, only to see that the sky was still pitch-black.

"Just to be on the safe side…" Closing his eyes for a bit, Valyr eventually gave his response. "Let's go with a month for now."

'Understood,' the voice replied. 'A timer has been set for one month. Once time is up, the Realm of Myriad Experiences shall automatically return you to your original place, unless specified otherwise.'

'Your time begins in 3… 2… 1…'

At the very moment the voice was finished counting down, a loud horn resounded throughout the barren ground, giving the young man a slight start.

However, understanding that he was slowly running out of time, Valyr ignored what had just happened and retrieved the spear from his back once more.

"Alright." Taking a deep breath, the young man tightly gripped onto his spear before going through the basic movements.

"This is gonna be an excruciatingly long month, that's for sure."

"Mngh…"

Feeling the warm rays of the sun caress over his body, Hal gradually got up from his bed with a groan, giving his consciousness the time it needed to acclimate.

After getting up from his bed, he then did a few basic stretches before leaving his tent, faintly wondering whether there was breakfast ready.

Seeing that the one that usually cooked their breakfast had not made any yet, the man scratched his head for a bit before looking into the tents to see if the chef of their group was still asleep.

Looking into Vera's tent, the scholar was greeted to the sight of a still somewhat sleepy alchemist, who was jolted awake by Hal's appearance.

Noticing the shock on the young woman's face, Hal apologetically smiled as he explained what he was doing.

In response, Vera nodded in understanding as she decided to follow the man in looking inside Valyr's tent.

Only to find no traces of their leader whatsoever.

"Where… did he go?" Staring at the empty bed before them in confusion, Hal and Vera looked at each other for a bit as questions gradually filled up their minds.

Fortunately, just as they had gone out of the young man's tent to start searching for his whereabouts, the man in question appeared before them out of nowhere.

"Hey there."

Without any sign whatsoever, the leader of their small group stood in front of them, his appearance seemingly tired and worse for wear.

Though, hidden deep beneath that fatigued visage seemed to be a deep well containing vast reserves of immense strength, just waiting to burst out at a moment's notice.

"What… happened to you?" Taking in a few deep breaths to compose himself, Hal went over through a few of his thoughts from earlier before eventually asking Valyr a question out of concern.

Valyr wryly smiled in response. "Decided to fight against some feral humans while you guys were still asleep. Felt like I needed to polish my combat skills some more."

At those words, Hal looked at the young man once more.

Though the man seemed to be covered from head to toe in sweat, there were no signs of scratches, nicks, or any other marks on the young man's armor whatsoever.

'Then again, it's not like he couldn't dodge any of the feral humans' attacks,' thought Hal to himself not long after, saving himself from heading down what felt like a rabbit hole filled with misunderstanding.

Nodding in response to his words, Hal then asked if the young man could give them some information that he might have uncovered while fighting against the feral humans, which the latter obliged.

At the same time, Valyr offered to cook a meal for them, telling them that he had gone out to fight their foes without eating anything yet.

Of course, the two agreed.

Starting a fire in preparation for the meals he was going to cook, Valyr stared at it for a bit as he went through all of the things he had just experienced in his mind.

At some point, a faint smile crept up the edges of his lips, only for him to let out a slight chuckle soon after.

'Well… color me surprised, I guess.'

'That one month was far more fruitful than I thought.'

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