As a notification sound resounded in his mind, Valyr went ahead and opened up a notification screen in front of him. On the other hand, seeing that he had become preoccupied, Damian decided to leave Valyr off to his own devices as he continued on his merry way to where Tristan was.
[You have killed 289 monsters in total during the monster tide.]
[You have been rewarded 14,450 XP.]
[You have been rewarded 14,450 contribution points.]
[You have been rewarded 7225 merit points. You have been promoted to [Guard Captain]. Earn 17,455 more merit points to raise your rank to [Guard Leader].]
[Your reputation in Astarto Village has increased by 500 points. Current reputation: Legend (MAX).]
[As your reputation in Astarto Village has reached the maximum level, any excess reputation shall be converted to Planetary Reputation (Veldanyr) at a ratio of 10:1.]
[Your Planetary Reputation (Veldanyr) has increased by 5 points. Current reputation: No-name.]
Reading through the string of notifications he had received, Valyr could not help but clench his fists in excitement, taking note of how much contribution points he now had at the moment. "Thanks to the monster tide, I now have more than enough contribution points to buy those two skills from the shop. On top of that, I could buy a few more things there that could help out in the long run."
"My position in the organization has changed to [Guard Captain], huh?" Focusing his attention on how much merit points he had obtained from one monster tide, Valyr could not help but think it was possible for him to reach the highest position during the next tide once he gained more strength. "I remember a couple skills I've looked at in the past needing my position to be [Veteran Guard] or higher before I could buy them. I should also take a look at those sometime."
"Speaking of which, I've finally started gaining Planetary Reputation." Not expecting his reputation in the village to reach the maximum of 1000 points and even surpass that slightly, Valyr found these notifications a welcome surprise, recalling that there were only a few ways one could directly increase their Planetary Reputation during the early stages of the game. After all, a high enough Planetary Reputation was enough for one to move unhindered, with kingdoms and empires bowing down to a person because of it. "Then again, it's not like I could do much with it at the moment."
"In any case, I'm quite satisfied." Closing the notification screen, Valyr went ahead and did what he originally planned to do in the battlefield, belatedly noticing the fact that Damian was already gone. Shrugging his shoulders at the realization, he utilized the entirety of his AGI to scour through the entire area, which resulted in him only finding one corpse after checking every nook and cranny twice.
Paying his respects to the somewhat disfigured corpse in silence, Valyr then turned around and headed back to the village, hastening his steps after noticing that it was gradually getting darker by the minute. Though, by the time he had returned to the village, the sun had already set.
Nevertheless, even though the sun had set, the village was still filled with bright lights, the joyous atmosphere from when they had arrived now more intense than ever.
Passing through the village gates, Valyr gasped for a bit of air, only to stop in his tracks as he noticed Vera leaning on the side of the gate, seemingly waiting for him.
As it had been quite some time since he had left, Vera's gaze was currently fixated out into the horizon, not even noticing the fact that the man she had been looking for was already in front of her. With that in mind, Valyr tapped on her shoulder, snapping Vera out of her daze as she wondered which person tapped on her shoulder. Quickly realizing that it was the man she was waiting for, a wry smile appeared on her face.
"So, how many casualties did we have during the tide?" Scratching her cheek, Vera went ahead and opened her mouth, her tone becoming somewhat somber as she remembered what she asked him to do.
"Around 17 people." Responding to the question, Valyr could not help but let out a light sigh. In response, Vera looked down at the ground for a bit in silence, feeling the atmosphere surrounding the two of them becoming tense.
"Have you finished tending to the injured already?" Of course, noticing this, Valyr went ahead and decided to change the topic to a more lighthearted one. Because of that, a light smile with a hint of gratitude on it appeared on Vera's face when she looked back at him.
"Yeah, I have." Vera nodded in response to his question. "However, there's still one more person I have to tend to before I can say my job is done."
"And that would be…?" Curious, Valyr decided to ask. Though, this curiosity turned into confusion as Vera pointed at him. "Me?"
As Valyr realized what Vera meant by her pointing at him, the latter rummaged out yet another healing potion from the pockets on her robe, giving the vial to the former. "Drinking another Inferior Rejuvenation Potion is enough for the wound on your chest to fully heal. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about the scar on your chest. Sorry about that."
While an apologetic smile adorned Vera's face, Valyr pulled out the stopper from the vial given to him and swiftly downed its contents, feeling the soothing energy from before wash over his body yet again. As this soothing energy congregated around his chest, closing up the remaining parts of the wound on his chest, Valyr gave back the emptied vial to Vera as he waved his hand in slight nonchalance. "It's fine, it's fine. It's not like a lot of people would see the scar anyway."
"Plus, it's a good reminder that I still have a long way to go to be able to protect the village properly."
Hearing the words that came out of Valyr's mouth, a light chuckle could not help but escape Vera's mouth, finding his words somewhat ironic. "If only you knew how many people in the village have been talking about your feats during the tide. People would probably look at you in shock if you said the same words to them."
Naturally, Valyr was confused what Vera meant by that, slightly tilting his head to the side in confusion. With that, Vera urged him to come along with her to the village inn, telling him that almost everyone was there celebrating the village's survival of yet another tide. Although this only left him more confused, Valyr accepted the offer, with the two arriving at the inn a couple minutes later.
"Hey guys! The Tidebreaker's here!" Unexpectedly, once Vera and Valyr had arrived at the inn, a voice exclaimed out all of a sudden, prompting everyone to go silent before erupting in loud cheers as they uttered the word 'Tidebreaker' and phrases that had something to do with it.
"Tidebreaker? What's that?" Of course, Valyr was clueless as to what they meant by that. Fortunately, Vera was eager to clarify everything to him.
"The Tidebreaker's not a what, it's a who." She giggled. "And just in case you're wondering, that who is you."
[Congratulations! Your reputation in Astarto Village has crystallized to form a village legend: The Legend of the Tidebreaker.]
[You have gained the title 'Astarto's Tidebreaker'.]