Afternoon.
Stadium of the Sacred Flame.
The afternoon sunlight filtered through the windows into the room, falling on the body of a woman with slightly tanned skin.
The woman had a head of wavy light golden long hair, her long eyelashes trembled slightly in the air, and then she slowly opened her eyes.
"Haa~"
"Slept so comfortably~"
Xilonen yawned and stretched lazily.
After hearing Rios say that he could use the Pyro Archon's name to help block the mouths of other clients, Xilonen had peacefully rested in the Stadium of the Sacred Flame.
The rooms in the Stadium of the Sacred Flame were previously prepared for participants in the Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame and spectators coming to watch the matches.
Recently, the Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame had been suspended, and very few people came to the Stadium of the Sacred Flame anymore, so many rooms were left vacant.
Xilonen had casually found a room to rest in, and no sooner had she closed her eyes than she fell asleep.
"I wonder how long I slept for." Xilonen rubbed her eyes and turned her head to look at the sunlight outside the window.
"The sun hasn't set yet, so probably just a few hours."
How strange.
To make the defense tower, she hadn't slept more than five hours a day for several days straight.
Coming to the Stadium of the Sacred Flame and sleeping just a few hours, and she was already this full of energy?
"Speaking of which, my stomach's so hungry."
Xilonen touched her belly, and after waking up, she felt it was completely empty inside.
Fortunately, there were chefs working in the Stadium of the Sacred Flame, or else she would have had to go back to her tribe to find food.
"Eh, there are even green plants in the room?"
Before leaving, Xilonen noticed that the rooms prepared by the Stadium of the Sacred Flame actually had a few plants placed in them.
Don't misunderstand—Xilonen wasn't thinking of eating them.
"They seem to be growing pretty well; they probably won't die easily if I take care of them, right?"
Xilonen took a cup of water from the room and poured it over these plants, then pursed her lips with a smile: "Although I haven't taken care of them for long, these plants count as ones I raised."
"Finally, I didn't kill the plants."
Xilonen left the room and went to the arena's restaurant to eat a meal.
While eating, someone came to her side and told her to go find Lord Pyro Archon after finishing her meal.
As soon as Xilonen heard that, she knew it definitely meant more work.
"Alright, time to get back to work." Xilonen sighed helplessly.
Although she was full of energy right now and quite liked her current line of work.
But she wasn't SpongeBob working at the Krusty Krab—she really couldn't be full of energy for work every single day.
After finishing her meal, Xilonen went to the office and saw Rios, who was working.
To her surprise, when Rios opened his mouth, he didn't tell her to work but instead asked how her rest had been and if her usual work was tiring.
"I rested pretty well." Xilonen said, "As for work, physical labor isn't really tiring at all; it's mainly the brainwork that's troublesome."
For example, figuring out the client's intentions, thinking about how to meet the client's requirements, and pondering how to persuade the client to give up.
However, when making the defense tower, Xilonen had still been very happy.
Although she had put a lot of thought into completing this thing, she had also learned a great deal from the manufacturing process—it was a case of pain mixed with pleasure.
"Good as long as you're not tired."
Rios smiled and said: "Seeing you sleep straight for two days, if it weren't for seeing that you were still breathing and having Granny Citlali come over to confirm you hadn't had an accident, I would've thought you were dead."
Upon hearing this, Xilonen widened her eyes and let out an "ah": "I slept straight for two days?"
No wonder she was so full of energy—she had slept like a dead pig for two days and two nights.
Rios nodded lightly: "I was even thinking if I'd been squeezing you too hard lately and was considering calling a few more people to help reduce your workload."
He wasn't the type to treat 996 as a blessing, and Xilonen wasn't an ordinary workhorse either—she was Natlan's top craftsman, something to be cherished like a treasure in the palm of his hand, not to be worn out.
"Thank you for your concern, Lord Pyro Archon, but no need."
Xilonen said: "The others don't think quite like I do; if we collaborate before they've fully grasped the techniques, it would instead lower work efficiency due to all sorts of issues."
In short, there was a huge gap between Xilonen and the other craftsmen in Natlan, and communicating with those people would actually delay Xilonen's progress.
Rather than that, it was better to have Xilonen first fully understand these techniques and then teach the other craftsmen how to replicate them.
"Then we'll do it your way."
Before Xilonen left, Rios took out the potions that restored Abyss injuries: "By the way, take these potions back with you."
"This is?" Xilonen picked up a potion, somewhat puzzled.
After Rios explained the potion's effects, Xilonen realized just how miraculous the thing in her hand was, and a flash of brightness passed through her eyes.
"Lord Pyro Archon, can this potion treat people who lost their memories due to the Abyss?" Xilonen looked over with a tense expression.
"In theory, yes." Rios said.
"That's good then." Xilonen relaxed with a smile, "My aunt's daughter lost all her past memories a few years ago due to an Abyss attack, and my aunt was so devastated by it that she even gave up her own career."
"If the potion can really restore the child's memories, my aunt will definitely be very happy."
Thanks to Xilonen's reminder, Rios suddenly remembered that this was the tribal chronicle of the "Children of Echoes," or rather, Xilonen's legend quest.
The story's antagonist was Xilonen's aunt.
Back when the Abyss attacked the "Children of Echoes," Xilonen's aunt had gone with the tribe's warriors to confront the Abyss monsters but forgot that her daughter was playing outside at the time.
By the time she found her daughter, the girl was already severely injured and had lost all her past memories due to the Abyss's influence.
But this was actually a lie the aunt told to the outside world.
Her daughter had actually died at the hands of the Abyss monsters. To alleviate her grief, she adopted an orphaned girl who had lost her parents due to monster invasion.
That orphan was the same age as her daughter and even shared the same birthday.
As she watched the adopted daughter gradually grow up, the aunt increasingly felt that it should have been her daughter who lived, so she wanted to collect memories of her daughter from others and implant all those memories into the adopted daughter's body, thereby reviving her daughter's soul in the adopted daughter's body.
By the timeline, the aunt's plan should have already begun, so the adopted daughter, as the sacrificial victim, was very likely to be in danger.
"Xilonen, I'll go with you to the 'Children of Echoes'."
Xilonen was a bit puzzled: "Lord Pyro Archon, what are you going to do at the 'Children of Echoes'?"
"Slack off."