“Any idea on why Tristan had us wait at my office?” Deciding to do some of the paperwork that had piled up on his desk as he waited for the man that made the two of them wait at his office, Damian posed a question to the woman that had a slightly bored expression on her face, her gaze darting around the entire room as she sat near the door.

“Not a clue.” Alfaera shook her head. “Then again, since he’s gone outside the village to take a look at where the monster tide is currently at, it’s probably something related to that.”

“Probably.” Briefly shrugging his shoulders at her words, Damian soon returned his attention to the document he was looking through, only to place it down once he noticed that the door had been swung open.

With both Damian and Alfaera focusing their sights onto the being that opened the door, the two of them did not expect Tristan to bring along another person with him, the aura the other person emanated giving off the feeling to the two that his strength far surpassed theirs in every aspect.

Sporting a set of short ash gray hair, the other person that came along with Tristan seemed to be in his early forties, with wrinkles and dark spots occupying a few spots on his face as these features told the two that the man was already his prime age. Nevertheless, this feeling was quickly canceled out by the few scars that littered the sides of the man’s face, with a deep one running down from the left side of his forehead to his left cheek.

Even though the man was wearing casual clothes, these features instead made both Damian and Alfaera think that they were looking at a battle-hardened warrior, the aura they felt from him earlier only making them even more certain of that fact.

“Is he the reason why you called us out here, Tristan?” Seemingly getting an idea of why Tristan had called the two of them, Damian went ahead and initiated the conversation, proceeding to ask a question to his good friend.

In response, Tristan’s eyes widened for a bit, not expecting his friend to catch on so quickly. Soon after, he nodded before replying, “Yeah. While I was taking a look at the monster tide from afar, this man appeared out of nowhere, telling me that he was on a mission to help villages defend against monster tides.”

Noticing that both Damian and Alfaera had slightly doubtful expressions on their faces as he said this, Tristan went ahead and explained himself. “At first, I was skeptical, just like the two of you right now. However, after he had showed me a few of his moves, I can tell you without a doubt that he has the same level of power as you and I, Damian. He’ll be of great help in the upcoming monster tide.”

“Is that so?” Still skeptical, Damian decided to focus his gaze on the middle-aged man behind Tristan and ask the man a few questions of his own. “Would it be possible to know your name?”

“Aidan.” The middle-aged man responded succinctly, instantly giving Damian the feeling that he was a man of a few words.

“What is your current class rank?”

“Rank 2.”

“What weapon do you use in combat?”

“The spear.”

“Are you really on a mission to help villages defend against monster tides?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not doing this for anything else in exchange?”

“I am not.”

“Hmm…” Though Damian had asked what he thought to be all of the questions he needed to ask to ascertain whether the man’s motive was legitimate or not, he still felt like something was off.

“Why not have him show his skills in front of us?” Noticing the hesitation on Damian’s face whether to accept the help or not, Alfaera stepped forward and gave him a suggestion. “After all, Tristan had already seen his skills, so our doubts might disappear once we see them as well.”

Briefly scratching his head for a bit as he pondered over it, Damian eventually nodded as he let out a faint sigh, proceeding to talk with Alfaera regarding areas where the man could showcase his skills in front of them. Surprisingly, in the midst of the conversation between the two, Tristan let out a faint giggle, causing the two to look at him as they asked him what was funny.

Though he tried his best to suppress it, Tristan instead let out a bit more laughter in response to the question, with the middle-aged man accompanying him laughing soon after. At this point, both Damian and Alfaera both had somewhat grim expressions on their faces as they felt confused as to what was going on. Thankfully, the confusion they felt would swiftly disappear as Tristan said not long after, “Alright, alright. Let’s stop here.”

“Mind revealing your true identity, Aidan?”

“I was waiting for you to say that.” Grinning, the man’s appearance started to morph into something else, causing both Damian and Alfaera to stare at the man as they gradually found the man’s original appearance to be familiar. By the time the man was done, Alfaera and Damian had their mouths open so wide that it seemed like eggs could fit inside them, their eyes seemingly bursting out of their sockets.

“That face never gets old to me for some reason.” Seeing the faces Damian and Alfaera were making, the man laughed for a short while before letting out a relieved sigh.

“In any case, it’s definitely nice to see you again.”

…

“And that pretty much sums everything up, I think.” After both Damian and Alfaera had gotten over the shock of seeing Valyr in front of them, the two of them had gotten furious at Tristan and Valyr, prompting the latter two to apologize in response, even though they were still laughing their hearts out.

Fortunately, it did not take long for them to calm down, prompting Valyr to bring Damian and Alfaera up to speed on what he had been up to after he left the village, as well as how he had appeared beside Tristan before meeting up with them. Naturally, he still omitted mentioning about things that he felt were unimportant to the upcoming monster tide, such as the World Quest he had and the like.

Of course, Valyr had also mentioned to them that he had ascended to Rank 2, which prompted Damian to ask on behalf of Alfaera on how he had amassed so much XP to ascend to the next rank so quickly. In response, Valyr told them about the Experience Pit that was located in Clossbay City, telling them that it was the best place to earn XP as long as they found the time to head there.

Surprisingly, only Alfaera seemed to have committed the new piece of information Valyr had shared to memory, with Damian and Tristan nodding instead in agreement with his words, as if they already knew of the existence of Experience Pits. With that, Valyr went ahead and asked the two if they knew what he was talking about, to which they responded that they did.

“Well, moving past the topic of earning a ton of XP in a short time for now, is the village prepared to face against the monster tide?” Shrugging his shoulders in response to the two’s answers, Valyr posed a question to the trio. “From what Tristan told me earlier, we’re very likely to be up against a medium-scale monster tide.”

“We’re more or less prepared against such a monster tide,” said Damian in response. “Thanks to the Basic Reinforcement Elixir recipe you’ve given us, even though a lot of the guards are still at the late stages of Rank 0, their combat power is equivalent to someone at the early stages of a common Rank 1 class, which is more than enough to ensure that the village won’t be fully destroyed by the tide at the very least.”

“Of course, there’s still you, me, Tristan, and Myst at the helm of this defense, so it would be better to say the chances of us successfully defending against the upcoming monster tide is quite high.”

“I see.” Listening to Damian’s words, Valyr nodded before going silent for a bit. After that, he grabbed their attention before asking a question to the trio that left all of them in a confused yet pensive expression in response.

“Though I’m glad to hear that the village is more than ready to face the upcoming monster tide without worries…”

“Is it possible for me to take charge of the whole operation when the time comes?”𝑂𝓋𝒍xt.𝑐𝐎𝓜