Chapter 51 Monster Tide: Awakening

While Valyr and the others were making easy work of the monsters that made up the third wave, Damian and Tristan looked at the sight from afar, both of them nodding in satisfaction as it seemed that the second wave of monsters would be gone by the time those fighting against the third wave were around halfway to killing all of the monsters.

"Your men still surprise me with their power as always, Damian." A light smile appeared on Tristan's face, his expression that of slight relief. "If you have more people like that in your ranks, then there will come a time where we don't have to worry about monster tides anymore."

"If only it was that easy to get them to reach that level." Damian bitterly smiled. Nevertheless, a slightly prideful expression still remained on his face. "Most of the people that join the village guards are only there to increase their reputation and meet the status quo. To have more people like those fighting the third wave in our ranks, they would have to be willing to go out of their comfort zone, which they're not."

"Except for one person, that is." Looking at Tristan, it seemed that the two of them had thought of the same person in mind. With that, the two redirected their vision towards the portion of the third wave where they remembered that person was fighting. However, instead of seeing a person struggle somewhat against a large number of monsters, what they saw instead was a person moving through the monsters like it was nothing, his hits all dealing great amounts of damage, especially once that person had aimed for a monster's head.

Bang!

Although the explosion sound they heard was faint due to their distance from it, both Damian and Tristan were both slack-jawed as they looked at Valyr fighting against the monsters with incredulity written all over their faces. What they had just seen was the head of the monster exploding into bits as Valyr landed on the ground, moving onto another monster before repeating the same thing all over again.

With that in mind, the two of them could not help but look at the ground on Valyr's side, their eyes widening as they were left aghast, not expecting Valyr's side to get that bloody. Adding on the chunks of flesh and brain matter that were scattered throughout that portion of the battlefield, it wouldn't be surprising for a person to outright vomit at the sight of it.

As for Tristan and Damian, what was going in their heads was not that. Instead, what they wanted to know was when Valyr had achieved that kind of combat power.

"Are you sure he hasn't ascended to a Rank 1 class yet?" Tristan could not help but look at Damian with a hint of doubt. After all, among the two of them, Damian had been the first one to interact with Valyr.

"I wish I wasn't joking." Damian shook his head, his expression solemn. Nevertheless, his eyes still contained the shock he felt when he watched Valyr kill those monsters without much difficulty. "I used [Analysis] on him when we met up earlier… wanna know what I got?"

"What did you get?" Tristan asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Just like what he's been telling us all this time, he's still Level 10," Damian said in response, making Tristan scratch his head. "However, his stats are a different story. Almost all of them are over 20 points. If not for the fact he's still Level 10, I would've thought he'd chosen to take an all-rounder class for a Rank 1 class."

"Seriously?" Tristan raised his eyebrow before taking a glance once more at Valyr from afar. At this moment, the number of monsters on Valyr's portion of the battlefield was around a couple hundred or so, which was slightly more than those on the other portions. However, unlike the other portions, some of the monsters on Valyr's side started to not even move at this point, just from how brutal Valyr killed the other monsters.

"Where the hell did he get his extra stats, then?" he asked.

In response, Damian could only shrug his shoulders. "I don't know. I only started to notice his presence becoming stronger than the others just recently. If I were to hazard a guess, he might have come across a treasure of some sort that increases his stats."

"Wonder if Valyr is willing to tell us how he increased his stats?" Letting out a light sigh, Tristan looked at Damian with a smile, his eyes conveying a message to the latter.

"I'm pretty sure he won't." Damian shrugged his shoulders once more. "But if it's for the sake of the village…"

"It's worth a shot."

…

While the two were wondering how Valyr had stats comparable to a Rank 1 class holder, Myst looked at the scene unfolding to her left with great bewilderment.

As her Rank 1 class was one that specialized in AGI, the speed at which she killed her share of monsters was significantly faster than the others, allowing her to get a bit of time to rest before going on an onslaught once more. While taking a respite, she decided to take a look at how the others were faring, only for her eyes to widen greatly as she noticed how bloody Valyr's side of the battlefield had become.

"Where did all of the blood come from?" Left aghast, Myst continued to watch Valyr weave through the monsters and fight against them, ignoring the conditions of the others. With that decision, she soon found out the answer to her previous question, which was in the form of one gruesome…

Bang!

Before her eyes, the head of a monster exploded into chunks as its headless body soon fell to the ground with a thud. At this point, her mouth went agape as a thought gradually surfaced into her mind. 'Is this the reason why Damian chose him for the position of deputy leader?'

'Did he allocate all of his points towards strength or something?' she could not help but think. After pondering over it for a bit, she thought it made sense. After all, since she excelled in speed, then there was a need in their section for someone to balance that out, which was Valyr with his superhuman strength.

Of course, such a thought was nowhere near the truth.

…

"Unlocking those advancements have definitely helped increase my killing efficiency, but I still feel like the upgrade to that skill is overkill," Valyr muttered as he rested on a boulder after moving away from the monsters for a bit. "Then again, I would have unlocked them sooner or later."

As he opened his notification screen, he looked at the sight before him, the ground taking on a deep red color due to how it was saturated with the blood of the monsters he had killed. Scratching his head as he wondered if the village would be mad at him for destroying a piece of land by saturating it with blood, he soon focused his attention on the notifications he had received.

Ding!

[You have unlocked the advancements <Basic Knowledge: Spear Lv. 1>, <Basic Techniques: Spear Lv. 1>, <Basic Understanding: Spear Lv. 1>, <Basic Essence: Spear Lv. 1>.]

[As you have unlocked the advancements <Basic Knowledge: Spear>…, the passive skill 'Basic Spear Mastery' has been upgraded with your renewed understanding of the spear.]

[As you have unlocked the advancements <Basic Knowledge: Spear>…, the active skill 'Pierce' has been upgraded with your renewed understanding of the spear, transforming into the active skill 'Strong Pierce'.]

"I had a feeling I'd unlock you sooner or later." Surprisingly, Valyr had glossed over the notifications regarding the upgrades to his combat skills. Instead, his attention was on the string of notifications that had just recently appeared, a light chuckle escaping from his mouth not long after.

Ding!

[The traces of a soul are awakening within your weapon due to how many monsters you've killed with it so far.]

[The weapon yearns for more bloodshed, wanting to utilize the essence from the blood to have these soul traces congregate and form a true soul. However, it knows that it cannot achieve this alone, so it asks for your help.]

[A nascent weapon bond has been made between you and 'Wooden Spear'. Current bond level is 1.]