By the time he had returned to the barracks, it was already in the afternoon. At this point, Valyr’s stomach could not help but lightly rumble, prompting a slightly awkward smile to flash across his face as he unhesitatingly made a detour to the cafeteria.
Expecting all of the people that had participated in the monster tide to have woken up by now, Valyr was quite surprised that the number of people in the cafeteria was more or less the same as the number of people he had seen earlier in the morning. Nevertheless, seeing that a small portion of these people seemed to be still in their sleepwear, he quickly came to the conclusion that the others had already woken up before lunch had begun.
Grabbing a tray of food from the cafeteria workers, he then looked for a vacant spot to sit on, only to notice a familiar man with a slightly groggy expression on his face, yawning as he spooned himself a bit of the soup from the bowl in front of him. Seeing him, Valyr could not help but lightly chuckle as he seated himself opposite the man, causing the latter to look at him for a bit.
Realizing that Valyr was in front of him, a bit of the grogginess the man felt was washed away, making him a bit more alert as a light yet slightly crooked smile appeared on his face. “Well you’re up and early, Valyr.”
“Well, with how you’re currently dressed, it seems that you want to sleep in a bit more, Leon.” Hearing the words that came out of Leon’s mouth, Valyr quipped back, causing the former to lightly chuckle in response before letting out a light sigh.
“To be honest, I pretty much do. Almost every guard that participated in the monster tide yesterday got hammered to bits.” Flashing a bitter smile at Valyr, Leon then went ahead and recounted the experiences that had occurred in the inn after Valyr and Damian had left. Although he had to stop every once in a while, feeling some of the side effects from drinking too much finally kicking in, Leon didn’t hold back while narrating, describing everything in great detail.
Naturally, such a vivid recounting of last night’s happenings in the inn made Valyr laugh to no end, with others joining in on their table as some of them had not been part of the feast held in the inn last night. But just like Valyr, they all let out a bit of laughter thanks to Leon’s narration, allowing a joyous atmosphere to spread throughout the cafeteria as everyone continued to eat their meals.
Eventually, Leon’s narration had come to an end, with everyone’s trays devoid of the food it previously had. Surprisingly, almost everyone there had treated Leon’s narration as entertainment, finding it enjoyable to listen to him recount what had happened in the inn. Because of that, some of them told Leon that he’d become a great storyteller if he wished to pursue that path. In fact, even Valyr was of the same opinion, thinking that Leon was blessed not only with brawns, but brains as well.
Thanking Leon for the entertainment he gave them, everyone headed to the cafeteria workers and gave their trays before they all went their own separate ways. Being Leon’s friend, Valyr was the last one to give his tray to the cafeteria worker, glancing at Leon beside him. “You planning to participate in the night patrol later?”
“Probably not. I feel like a migraine’s gonna pop up if I do.” In response, Leon shook his head, to which Valyr told him to get a ton of rest and get well soon.
With that, the two headed their separate ways, with Leon heading back to his dormitory room. On the other hand, Valyr made his way to the training field, his hands itching to try out the new skills he had obtained.
Due to the fact that most of the people had joined in on the feast celebrating the village surviving yet another monster tide, Valyr only saw a couple people in the training field busying themselves. In fact, one of the people in the training field made him raise his eyebrow in curiosity, wondering whether this person knew anything else other than to be in the training field and train their spear.
Of course, that person was none other than the man he thought of as an oddball during his first day in the village, practicing the ways of the spear in a manner that seemed more like how a scholar would do it rather than a fighter. Naturally, with how much time had passed since then, he had become acquaintances with the man, giving him a perfunctory greeting, to which the man responded in kind.
Nodding in response, Valyr then made his way to a vacant training dummy, retrieving his newly upgraded spear from his back. Feeling his body quiver with excitement, Valyr took a couple deep breaths to calm his nerves, closing his eyes for a bit to ground himself. Feeling as if he had regained control over his body, he then took a few steps back, distancing himself from the dummy in front before thrusting forward.
“[Blood Drive]!”
Whoosh!
At the very instant he had uttered those words, a small jet of blood fired out of the dull end of the spear, instantaneously increasing the speed at which he moved forward as the spear dug deep into the dummy’s body.
Thud!
Before he knew it, the spear had pierced through the dummy, the tip appearing out the other end as a faint thud resounded from the attack. With a hint of incredulity, he retracted his spear, only realizing now how much his strength had improved. Adding on the fact that his spear had undergone an upgrade as well, it was no surprise that his attacks had become more lethal than before.
However, rather than thinking about controlling his strength to not destroy the dummy in front of him, Valyr was instead curious as to how much damage he could deal if he went all out. Taking in yet another deep breath to calm himself down, he distanced himself from the dummy before moving his spear in arcing manner, attacking the dummy from the top rather than from the front.
“[Robust Arms]!”
“[Descending Fang]!”
Bang!
Due to how the spear was positioned during the attack, the spear tip had pierced through the dummy’s head without much problem, even having enough momentum to pierce all the way through its torso. By the time all the momentum in the attack had been used up, the dummy had been destroyed into bits, its broken parts strewn all across the ground within Valyr’s vicinity.
“If it’s already this destructive with the skills still at Level 1, I wonder how destructive they could get once I level them up.” Sharply inhaling air from the destructiveness of the attack, Valyr could not help but lick his lips soon after, eager to allocate the XP he had earned during the monster tide into his skills sometime later.
Satisfied with the results of his quick test, Valyr affixed his spear to his back once more and turned around, thinking about the last two skills he needed for a Rank 1 class. ‘[Astute Eyes] and [Astute Mind]… the closest place I could get those two skills would be from Anadhar City. However, the travel to there and back would take a couple weeks at the earliest.’
Seeing as he had no other way to get those skills other than from that area, he made up his mind to talk to Damian about it sometime later. ‘Well, I’d still have to do it either way if I want to ascend to that Rank 1 class. Any other method that comes to mind is currently far above my reach, after all.’
“Too bad I’ll have to make the journey to Anadhar City on my own, though. It would’ve been nice to have a companion during the journey.” Murmuring those words, Valyr let out a light sigh before heading out the training field, only to be stopped by the person he least expected to stop him.
“I heard you mention Anadhar City, is that correct?” the man before him asked, to which Valyr nodded in response. Nevertheless, he was incredibly confused. After all, the man before him was the man who had a weird way of training with the spear.
Seeing as Valyr nodded to his question, the man’s expression seemed to have grown relaxed as a light smile appeared on his face. “Mind if I accompany you? I was planning to travel to Anadhar City sometime ago, but just needed someone else to keep me company.”
“Well, I don’t mind… but before that, shouldn’t you tell me your name first?” Rather than agree outright, Valyr looked at the man before him with a hint of suspicion. Noticing Valyr becoming slightly suspicious of him, the man went ahead and introduced himself properly to him, giving Valyr a polite half-bow.
“Ah, where are my manners? Let me introduce myself.”
“My name is Wells.”
“Wells Anadhar.”𝒐𝓋𝑳xt.𝗇𝓔t