"Mnnh…" Still in the midst of traveling the far expanses of dream land, Valyr was forced to cut off his journey short as the sound of loud sirens blared in his mind, leaving him no choice but to return to reality as his immediate sight was greeted by screens filled with large texts in red in front of him.
Ding!
[You have received the emergency quest: Astarto Monster Tide.]
[Proceed to the outskirts of the Astarto Village as quickly as possible.]
Scratching the back of his head as he gave his consciousness time to adjust to his current surroundings, Valyr let out a low sigh as he removed all of the screens that had popped up in front of his field of vision, getting out of bed to go through his usual morning routine.
While doing so, he took a look at the emergency quest he had received, checking to see the difference between the quest he had gotten now and the quest he had gotten back then now that he was more alert.
"Hmm… I see." Allowing the cold water to flow down his body as he took a quick shower to fully wake himself up, Valyr faintly nodded in understanding as he was finished reading through the description of the quest. "The objective has remained the same, but the rewards for participating in the monster tide has increased."
"Then again, why would it not increase? After all, we're up against a medium-scale monster tide this time around."
Getting out of the bathroom, Valyr swiftly dried himself off before putting on a set of loose clothes, which he thought would act as a sort of undergarment for what he was going to put on next.
Whoosh!
Infusing a bit of mana into the spatial bracelet Braum had given to him for the journey, the pieces making up the newly enhanced Nascent Wyvern Armor set appeared out of thin air before falling on top of Valyr's bed. Seeing as the scales covering the outer surface of the armor pieces slightly tore up the sheet covering the mattress, a bitter smile briefly appeared on his face as he scratched his head, wondering how he would explain to Damian later what happened to his bed.
"I'll think about that later." Of course, as this thought lingered in his mind, he went ahead and put on the Nascent Wyvern Armor set, feeling the power contained within the armor fusing with the immensely high combat power he already had as a Rank 2 class holder.
A Mythic Rank 2 class holder.
As this was the first time he had put the entire Nascent Wyvern Armor set on, Valyr took a couple of minutes to familiarize himself with the feeling of newfound strength the armor set had given him. With that, he did a few basic movements with the armor on, inwardly glad that the armor set still did not hamper his movements that much, just like its previous version did.
Once he was done with the basic movements, he then moved onto movements that were a bit more intense, such as combat stances and a couple movements used in basic combat. After that doing for a bit, Valyr eventually thought that it was time for him to head to where the others were, affixed Sana behind his back as he sent a message to his spear.
'Ready to become stronger?'
'I'm always ready, Master.' In response, an eager voice resounded within Valyr's mind, causing him to let out a chuckle as he finally made his way out of his room and towards the outskirts of the village.
…
"You're finally here." Sensing an entity radiating an aura that far surpassed his gradually getting closer to him, Damian turned around to see who had such an aura, only for a faint smile to appear on his face as he greeted the young man that had appeared before him. "Did you eat breakfast before coming here?"
"Why would I not?" Taking off his helmet, Valyr flashed a slight grin at Damian as he let out a chuckle not long after. "It's probably the only thing inside the village that's reminding we're up against a monster tide."
"In any case, there's quite a lot more people helping the village defend the monster tide this time around," said Valyr after that, shifting his gaze towards the great number of people that surrounded both him and Damian. Turning his head to look back at the man beside him, he then asked, "How many people are we looking at here? A hundred or so?"
"Around a hundred and fifty, actually," answered Damian in response, causing Valyr's eyes to briefly widen in surprise, only for it to return to normal not long after as he had an idea why that was the case. "It's all thanks to the Basic Reinforcement Elixir recipe you've given us that we could have this many people defending the village this time around."
"I had a feeling that was the case." With Damian's words confirming his thoughts, Valyr turned his attention back to the people that surrounded them, noticing that only a small number of them gave off an aura that was at the level of someone below the peak of Rank 0.
In contrast, most of the people that had participated to defend against the upcoming monster tide either gave off the aura of someone at the peak of Rank 0 or someone at the early levels of Rank 1, prompting Valyr to inwardly nod in satisfaction as he took a look at the wave of monsters they would be fighting up against, seeing that the first wave of monsters more or less matched the strength of the majority that had participated.
Of course, Valyr also noticed that quite a few people gave off the energy of someone at the middle and later levels of Rank 1, causing him to look back at Damian as he wondered what he would have these people during the monster tide. 'Some of them will probably end up as leaders and deputy leaders of a couple teams. Probably.'
"Now that I think about it, where are Tristan and Myst?" As Valyr asked this question to Damian, the former recalled that Tristan was still busy forging a piece of equipment the previous day, while Myst had returned from the Experience Pits around the afternoon of the same day.
"Tristan told me that he's on his way pretty soon, while Myst is at the makeshift cafeteria, getting some breakfast before heading here." Hearing those words from Damian's mouth, Valyr nodded in response before shifting his gaze towards the monster tide out on the horizon.
Looking at what they were up against in silence for a short bit, a thought eventually surfaced in Valyr's mind, causing him to ask a question to the man beside him.
"Say, Damian."
"What is it?"
"Is it possible for me to lead the first wave?"
"Alone?"
