### Chapter 296: Contact
Yuliya spent the entire day wandering around the forest.
I mean, who else is going to be at home in reality? When night comes, she might as well just stay online. If she got tired, she’d just rest in the game.
Following rumors from the forum, she searched for the most dangerous and bizarre spots.
She had absolutely zero interest in any place that seemed too normal.
And so, she had a blast all day long.
Unfortunately, the so-called dangers and oddities were just a result of the players’ incompetence.
As long as you were strong enough, you could send any monsters packing!
So yeah, all pretty boring stuff.
However, after analyzing the messages from the player forum, she did come up with a little conclusion.
Some paranormal happenings in the Verdant Empire seemed to correspond with certain events across in Guldrik.
Other players might find that normal.
I mean, it’s a game, right? Drawing from real-world settings and legends makes it feel way more realistic!
But the thing is, this isn’t just a game—it’s reality too!
By the time Yuliya arrived at the rendezvous point, she figured it was about time she met with the carriage.
And what do you know?
The driver showed up early! Impressive time management skills!
Yuliya approached him and greeted, “Hey there, Uncle Driver! You’re very punctual! Let me pay you a bit extra for this trip.”
“No… no need…” The driver seemed a bit anxious.
Excited, maybe?
Yuliya didn’t quite get it but shrugged it off and skipped toward the carriage.
She opened the door and then…
“Uh… M-Master…”
Edward was just sitting there in the carriage, staring at Yuliya, not saying a word.
“…”
Alisa waved her hand, “Yuliya, little sister! Get in, we’re heading back!”
“Ah? Oh, okay…”
Edward remained quiet, with only Alisa speaking to Yuliya.
“Why did you leave the city? Didn’t you say you were just going to poke around the inner city?”
“I…” Yuliya glanced at Edward, then awkwardly added, “I went to the forest… to pick mushrooms.”
Totally makes sense, right?
“Uh…” Alisa was momentarily speechless.
“Then why took you so long to return?”
“I got lost.”
“…”
Got lost as night fell, took forever to find her way back out when morning came. Sounds reasonable, right?
“Then…” Alisa pondered, looking over at Edward, then leaned in close to Yuliya, using hand gestures and lip movements to convey, “Is everything over there really okay?”
“It should be fine, probably about 80%.”
“It’s alright. If there’s a problem, I’ll help you.”
“Okay!”
“We’re BFFs, right?”
“Right!”
The two allied once more.
Edward watched the two loudly conspire, his expression still blank.
But inside, he sighed heavily.
Great, bringing this girl around the kingdoms is bound to ruffle some feathers.
Do the Crimson Empire and the Dune Empire even have any underage princesses, or just those who recently turned adult?
It seems like they do!
Are those old geezers going to want to poke me with pitchforks later?
By the time they returned to the royal city, Edward had mostly calmed down, yet he still feigned seriousness and asked, “Did you have enough fun?”
“No… Ah, I mean, I wasn’t playing! I was working on serious business!”
“Then tell me, what serious business? Picking mushrooms? How many did you pick?”
“I went to the Hero Trials Tower, then investigated some Outsider matters. Of course, I had to go outside to investigate Outsiders!”
Completely skipping the fact that she had a feast spread before her for the original purpose of sharing with her teacher and devoured it all instead, not to mention her so-called investigation only took two hours. The rest of the time? Who knows.
Edward got a bit serious, “Results?”
“I found something! I think the Outsiders are definitely connected to the Verdant Empire. And then…”
“Knock knock!”
A knock on the door interrupted Yuliya, followed by a shout.
“Alisa, is my good daughter there?”
Edward sighed. This guy must’ve gotten wind of their return and rushed over.
But he still had to respond to the knock, “Your Majesty, come on in, we’re all here.”
In the next moment, Griphis appeared inside, “Alisa, my good daughter, I’m so glad you’re safe!”
He made a move to hug his daughter, only to be pushed away by Alisa with a look of disdain, “Get off me!”
But Griphis wasn’t angry at all; instead, he smoothly turned and slid over to Yuliya.
“Oh, Princess Yuliya, I’m so relieved you’re okay!”
Yuliya instantly switched to business mode, “Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I am doing well. You too, as dashing as ever, just like yesterday!”
“Hahaha, Yuliya is truly polite and has the poise of a young lady!”
Edward: …
Alisa: …
What are they even talking about? I can’t understand a thing!
It’s kind of disgusting, to be honest.
“Ahem!” Edward cleared his throat, “Your Majesty, you’re a busy man, but you’ve come all this way, so I imagine there’s something important on your mind?”
The underlying message being: if you have something to say, say it; if not, skedaddle.
“Indeed, let’s get to the point.”
Griphis didn’t care about his eye-rolling daughter or his friend’s sarcastic banter and continued addressing Yuliya.
“Yuliya, after analyzing the information collected by the ministers yesterday, I found that there are some rather unusual aspects about the Outsiders.”
Upon hearing this, both Edward and Alisa became serious.
Looks like it wasn’t just a visit to sh**t the breeze.
“Please, Your Majesty, go on.” Yuliya also became serious, her business mode no longer quite so business-like.
Griphis started detailing some phenomena and analyses, but to Yuliya’s ears, it went in one ear and out the other.
From her perspective, those phenomena were perfectly understandable and pretty normal.
Until…
“Based on our analysis, it appears that the Outsiders have quite the impressive inheritance system, and this system has a strong inclusivity.”
Yuliya ignored the first half of the statement and latched onto the second half, “Inclusivity? How so?”
“We found that some of the inherited skills within the Verdant Empire can actually be learned by the Outsiders. Previously, these skills should only have been learnable by our pure native residents.”
Yuliya’s eyes lit up; she seemed to have caught onto something crucial, “Which skills?! Can I take a look?”
“This one. It’s simple and not too powerful, but it is indeed a specific inherited skill from the Verdant Empire.”
Yuliya took the skill book and took a look.
It was a wood-based magic called Thorn Bind.
Yuliya tried it out and received the notification that she couldn’t learn it.
She quietly switched to player mode and tried again.
Three seconds later, still unable to learn.
“There are others; this skill is the simplest and most representative.”
(Chapter three to be completed tomorrow.)
