The cloaked man did not speak, yet his silence was thunderous to the ears of the spectators. If he had been arrogant enough to point fingers and ridicule his opponents, it would have lowered his position a little and made him look like a troublemaker despite his skill.
However, to remain stoic and composed like this, it was clear that he had not come here to cause trouble but to measure himself against the best. What stung was that they all fell short off the mark. This would have been a disappointment to any guild, but they were Umbra, the famed number one guild in all of Boundless!
Happy Saint and Noble Writer looked like they were on the verge of a serious loss, which made Draco's expression harden. Immediately, he harrumphed coldly and descended from the sky with Eva in tow.
Once the crowd saw him arrive, they burst into cheer and excitement. Happy Saint and Noble Writer who had been struggling not to fail up until now sighed with relief and let their work come to an end even if it meant that the result became sub-par.
Rather, they had slight smiles poking on the side of their lips as if they were about to watch a good show. The rest of the core members also adopted similar expressions, while the other members of Umbra cheered freely.
The Guildmaster was here! The Lady Boss was here!
Hahaha, freak in the edgy cloak, quickly write your will while there is time, otherwise you might never get a chance to!
They didn't even consider the possibility of Draco or Eva losing because in their eyes the White-Haired Duo were equivalent to living Gods. They would start to believe that the earth was held up by four giant elephants on the back of a giant turtle flying in space, before ever entertaining that one of the two could take a loss.
The fellow in the cloak turned to see Draco had appeared, and everyone could see that this made him shudder strongly. Thinking he was cowed by the aura and might of their Guildmaster, their eyes turned into crescents and their noses puffed steam from arrogance.
"So, I finally managed to lure you out…" The fellow in the cloak murmured in surprise.
Draco himself did not even gaze at the cloaked fellow, adopting an arrogant demeanor as he replied. "That's right, how great a job you did beating my guild members and those residing in my city."
"Oh them? Nothing more than a passing trifle in my goal of meeting you." The fellow chuckled as he removed his cloak, exposing his looks to the world for the first time.
Draco and Eva were not surprised as they had already guessed his identity beforehand. The rest though, were shocked by the bizarre coloration of this fellow's general appearance.
He had spiky white hair that was similar to Draco's, but within his were purple highlights that streaked like lines across the strands and even sometimes congealed at the tips of his hair.
On his forehead was a dark silver circlet with purple amethysts loaded within that glowed strangely. The fellow was quite short, standing at around 5"4, but his body was tight and well-defined, similar to Draco in his Horned Demon Form.
His skin tone was a light tan, and his sharp, piercing eyes were purple, just like his hair, which gave others a strange feeling. What was even stranger was that there were permanent black rings around his eyes as if he hadn't slept for ages.
His nose and lips were small, but his entire face was shaped angularly, similar to Draco once again.
He wore a battlesuit made of exotic hide and a unique design that Draco knew would become his trademark in the future. The vest was a lovely dark blue color, the arms, and legs dark black. He wore thick white gloves on each hand – like Vegeta or Sonic's gloves – and a thick royal purple cape billowed out behind him.
The crowd looked on with shock and a bit of interest brewed in their hearts, which made Draco's face awful. Harrumph, even in this timeline, this fellow was too gaudy and flashy!
Didn't he know that this would bring danger? It was better to be low-profile than to cause eyes to turn wherever he went!
Hearing Draco's jealous thoughts, Eva's smile widened slightly. The number of people that had been able to make Draco feel comfortable enough to show his true self in the previous timeline could be counted on one hand.
One was Rambunctious who would forever be Draco's best friend, even though he regrettably hadn't been able to spend too much time with him in this timeline, and the other was this fellow before them, Armonia Pendray, his eternal rival in Tradeskills! The two of them had battled for years in Boundless and this was during Draco's edgy phase.
It was only when he had been fighting Armonia that Draco had been able to subconsciously forget to act dark and hateful, rather being filled with a boyish rivalry that made him absolutely cute to Eva.
She would know of course, as she had been stalking Draco during that time to feed off his cuteness during such moments to nurture her will to live. Sigh, such good times, she slightly missed being able to stalk Draco for weeks on end when they weren't fighting.
Being by his side and the only one in his heart was the dream, but it meant she couldn't have a good stalking session anymore…
Armonia's in-game handle was Intellectual Monkey, a nickname he had received from his parents due to his great talent and his affinity with the various simian creatures he had been playing with, whenever his parents had taken him to their lab.
Draco smiled thinly and spoke. "Well, now I am here. What do you want to do?"
Armonia smiled and walked over slowly with his hands folded behind his back. Many in the crowd just noticed that he had shark-like teeth, which made him seem quite interesting to look at given his overall appearance, instead of creepy or disturbing.
When Draco and Eva saw him walk over, they tensed up. So too did the crowd, their faces going solemn as they were prepared for the next scene.
Armonia spoke as he came over. "What do I want to do? Well…"
The moment Armonia arrived before Draco, he retracted his grin and spoke solemnly, lowering his upper body in a bow.
"I want to take you as my teacher."
His noble bow was done with poise and elegance, showing that he likely had a powerful background, which Draco and Eva knew to be true. After all, Armonia's family were the ones who owned the largest company in the world, and were also the ones who invented the NuSmoothie!
However, that wasn't even the biggest deal. While the crowd were shocked at this sudden twist as they had not expected this challenger who seemingly had caused so much trouble to just pull Draco over to make this request, Draco and Eva had different expressions.
Draco was horrified, his body shivering while Eva's eyes were bulging so widely that they might pop out.
Their reaction was not exaggerated. After all, what was occurring right now was the equivalent of Goku going back in time to the first moment where he had fought Vegeta, only for the Prince of All Saiyans humbly request for his beloved Kakarot to teach him his ways.
Putting aside how Goku would feel, how would viewers feel? One would be left shivering from the horror they had witnessed that broke all laws of reason. This was something that not even the most daring fanfiction writer would dare to develop, but it was happening to Draco live and colored!
Eva's lips twitched heavily, so strongly that she directly teleported away so she could bellow with laughter that shook her whole body. The Celestial Maiden was currently rolling on the floor, laughing like the madwoman she was.
Draco, who had been left behind, could sense Eva's emotions and for once was at a loss for words. He opened his mouth many times to speak, but nothing could come out.
Yes or no?
Yes, and he would earn the allegiance of someone who was supposed to become the most talented Tradeskill player, someone who was no less than himself, yet it would forever mean that Draco would be above him. There would be no chance to return to the dynamic he had once enjoyed.
No, and the fellow might turn away what was his best bet to create a Tradeskill empire with the help of Armonia, all because of discomfort.
It was a tough situation. However, just as he was hesitating, a loud roar that sounded majestic and overbearing shook the entire stage. Many looked around with fear, feeling suppressed by this roar.
They noticed that it got closer and closer rapidly, sounding like it was coming from above?
When the dust settled, everyone saw a large lion with healthy fur and a majestic mane that billowed in the wind standing there proudly, his head tilted up and his c.h.e.s.t bared forward.
In the silence, he roared once more, a sound that made all of them shiver a little from fear. Who was this? It looked similar to Qiong Qi, but there was no way for the members of Umbra to reconcile that dumbass lion with this badass one.
However, their doubt was soon cleared the moment the fellow began speaking.
"F.u.c.k! I AM TOO COOL!"
He could no longer hold it in as he cried out, venting his belief that he was number 1 under heaven. He wondered just how many in the crowd were now willing to worship him, but when he looked over, apart from one feel still bowing, everyone else was looking away.
Seeing this, Qiong Qi was greatly displeased, but as he gazed at Armonia, his face showed a gratified smile.
"Hahaha, youngster you want to become my disciple?" Qiong Qi asked as he walked over to Armonia.
The young man was surprised to see a talking lion right before him, and even more so that the lion was talking to him.
"But I never said-" Armonia began as he tilted his head with confusion.
"Hahaha, youngster do no worry. The crowd may look on, but you can be safe in your decision, for they are only filled with envy!" Qiong Qi interrupted with glee.
Armonia gazed around him and saw that rather than envy, all were gazing at him with pity. Armonia tried to resist, but found that his strength could not match this Rank 3 lion as he himself was still Rank 1 at this time.
Qiong Qi began dragging him away, which made the fellow gaze around with a helpless look, only to see that everyone was purposefully looking away. Even Draco was looking at the sky with a solemn glance, as if the secrets to become an Eternal God were hidden there.
Armonia was left speechless and just let things happen. Anyway, he had already posed the request to Draco who hadn't denied his request immediately as he had feared, so he could find the answer later. He was calm enough to not get panicked by this little event and even found that it might be interesting.
After all, more than a Tradeskill crafter, he was a researcher and scientist first and foremost. New things never turned him off, for there was always something new that could be found in them. It was through this philosophy that Armonia had repeatedly been one step ahead of Draco in the previous timeline, whopping him over and over until Draco could only weep behind a waterfall.
Draco sighed with relief as Armonia had been taken away. He then summoned the still baffled core members to him and instructed them that Armonia should be quickly admitted among them, given access to the Tradeskill Library in the core area, as well as the Tradeskill altars and the various resources they had freely.
The core members were not surprised by this as it was the most logical action. What a joke, what was the point of keeping all those resources if they didn't use them to develop talents like that?
Someone like Armonia could even get to use some of the Divine materials if he wanted, much less what existed below that.
At this time, Draco noticed Vadoma and Vano walking over with smiles on their faces. Roma trailed behind slightly with a strange expression on her face. After all, in Vadoma's hands was little Rosella who was gazing at her grandmother with interest.
When she looked and saw her father, Rosella cooed lightly, making Draco smile.
"Mother-in-law, what's up?" Draco asked Vadoma respectfully.
Being referred to like this made Vadoma smile so widely that her eyes could no longer be seen. "Nothing much, I just sensed that there was a pivotal event about to occur here so I came over."
Draco nodded. Even without her Eyes of Divination, Vadoma still had the ability to prophesize, only that it was no longer as precise as before. As she herself said, she had felt like something pivotal would happen.
As to what would happen, what it could affect, and how big it would be, she did not know. It wasn't a bad price to pay to be able to see her granddaughter grow, so Vadoma wasn't bothered.
Draco understood that she was most likely referring to the appearance of Armonia and his subsequent joining of Umbra. Well, he didn't need divination to be able to tell how big this would be for the guild in both reality and within the game, otherwise he wouldn't have unhesitatingly opened up everything to Armonia.
He then chatted with Vadoma for a bit while allowing Rosella to play with his finger by biting them and pulling them up and down. Despite his firstborn daughter being smarter than she should be given her age, she had not been able to get rid of her many childish tendencies yet. Then again, age-wise she was still a baby about to become a toddler.
Seeing this scene, Roma smiled warmly. Her family was back and united, her daughter, mother, brother, and beloved husband all together like this brought tears to her eyes. She was extremely grateful to Hikari and the others for this.
At the same time, Roma was deeply saddened by the fact that Hikari could not seek her own happiness by reviving her own family since they had died too long ago for her power to reach.
However, Roma's expression firmed up. She had been working on a way to achieve just that ever since Hikari had brought her family back, and through certain unique events and loopholes, Roma had found a way to achieve this.
Right now, what she needed was a bit more time and for everyone to power up a bit more so they could provide more help when the time came to execute it.
Right at that moment, while there was a picture of happiness and familial love going on, at the side there was something far more profound and debaucherous ongoing.
Upon arrival here, Vano had been focused on Draco who he still wished to have himself ravaged by, but just as he was lost in his unholy fantasies, his eyes landed on one person in the crowd, Cobra.
The moment Vano laid eyes on Cobra, his whole body shook as his heart began to pound in his c.h.e.s.t. For that matter, Cobra sensed an intense glance on his person and checked who it was with a frown.
When he looked at Vano, Cobra was at first impressed that such a cute woman could have such wide h.i.p.s, almost to the level of Zaine. However, when he gazed at Vano deeply, he saw that he wore no earrings nor did he wear feminine attire.
Rather, he wore a male set of black skin-tight leather that, because of his suspiciously curvy body, made him look female. But Cobra had been in this business long enough to notice subtle differences.
As such, he too began to shudder in disbelief when he realized that this beauty before him was a man!
His gaze towards Vano changed from annoyance and slight approval to raw l.u.s.t, which Vano received with a light m.o.a.n. Immediately, the duo seemed to have read each other minds as they left the arena together.
What happened next made Jesus Christ leave the chat, with Satan rushing out with a red face behind him after just 2 minutes.
After the crowd dispersed, Draco and Eva spend the rest of the week in the Inner Universe. Draco used the energy here to continuously produce resources that he would then toss into the Guild Warehouse – which was still accessible here, though he could not access the Kingdom one as it was grounded in reality – which would then be sent to the Rank 7 Warehouse which would be processed by the Refinery.
Draco didn't need to produce raw materials and could just make the semi-finished stuff directly, but why not? The Rank 7 Refinery was there and it cost nothing for it to operate since it used Worldly Energy anyway.
Besides, it produced Perfect Grade materials all the time, and that was better than anything less. Draco mostly focused on Common to Rare Rank resources that took him one second to produce in batches, then tossed them out.
Umbra was going to open the fourth wave of recruitment for Umbra to recruit up to 10,000 talented Tradeskill masters, so they would need more resources for them to work with apart from what he got from Norma's place.
After all, the Goddess Descendants too needed to use such resources to do their work, so Draco couldn't prioritize one over the other.
Hence the current situation.
At this point, he slapped his t.h.i.g.hs and sighed. "After spending so long with this, I'm kinda tired. I'll bring it to an end here, so what's up next on the agenda?"
Eva, who was currently stroking Draco's hair while he leaned into her c.h.e.s.t, smiled. "Now, we go and challenge the Tower of Babylon. We've put it off long enough because I know you want to spend more time here, but you have to understand, the Inner Universe negates all your worries."
"It won't be like before where you had to leave us all behind. No matter what, we will be with you."
Draco understood this, but there was a look of hesitation on his face. "What if the AI blocks me from letting you all out?"
Eva chuckled. "Well, you can come in and see us. I'd like to see how a mere Divine Tower can block out an Origin/Eternal power."
