As the question left Valyr’s mouth, the three simultaneously looked back at him with raised eyebrows, the expressions on their faces easily making their curiosity known to the young man. Nevertheless, even though they all looked back at him with curiosity, if one looked closely at them, one would see a hint of confusion hidden beneath their expressions, as well as thoughts considering the proposition Valyr had given them.

Noticing this confusion underneath their expressions, Valyr decided to clarify his intent behind the request. “Well, to be honest, this request is something that I came up with while talking with you three, so I’d understand if you decline. However, the main idea behind me taking charge of the whole defense against the upcoming monster tide is to get a better sense of my strength now that I’ve ascended to Rank 2.”

“From my perspective, there’s a likely chance that other people would be implicated into what I would be doing during the defense against the tide, so it would be nice if I had such a level of command over everyone at that time.” Listening to Valyr’s words, the confusion hidden beneath everyone’s expressions gradually disappeared, with the three contemplating over the request Valyr had voiced out to them earlier.

Unsurprisingly, as someone who was only participating in the monster tide thanks to his high level of strength as a Rank 2 class holder, Tristan did not take long to end his train of thought as he allowed Damian and Alfaera, the ones who truly had command over the people during the monster tide, to let them ponder over Valyr’s request in silence.

“Do you really need to have command over everyone during the monster tide?” After a minute of silence, Alfaera initiated the new topic by asking Valyr a question. “Can’t you just tell Damian during the monster tide to have everyone fall back while you do your own thing or something?”

“I… haven’t really thought about that, to be honest.” In response to Alfaera’s suggestion, Valyr briefly scratched the back of his head as he flashed a bitter smile. “Hmm… yeah. I think that’ll work as well. All I need is for everyone to move back when I start my testing anyway.”

“If that’s truly the case, then there’s not much of a problem,” said Damian before nodding. “Of course, we’ll talk about it a bit more after we’re done here.”

“Then again, as someone who’s still considered a part of the village’s guard regiment, with a rank of Guard Captain at that, you have the right to command over a large section of the defense anyway. Even more so now that you’re Rank 2.” Hearing these words come out of Damian’s mouth, a light smile crept up onto Valyr’s lips before nodding back in understanding, thanking him soon after.

“Well, with that sorted out, can I ask what are you testing specifically during the monster tide?” Seeing that the leader of the whole defense against the monster tide had sorted everything out with Valyr, Alfaera took the opportunity to ask the latter more about what he wanted to test.

“I know that you want to test out your newfound strength as a Rank 2 during the defense, but do you really need everyone to move out of the way with such a level of strength?”

As Alfaera asked this question to Valyr, she briefly spared a glance towards Tristan, causing Tristan to let out a bit of laughter in response. Not long after, a light smile appeared on Damian’s face as he looked back at his good friend, nodding at one another as they knew the reason behind Valyr’s request, being the only two in the village to know of it, in fact.

On the other hand, a wry smile appeared on Valyr’s face as he noticed the expressions both Tristan and Damian had, shifting his gaze back onto Alfaera not long after as he opened his mouth. “Believe me when I say that it’s for the better if we have everyone move out of the way when I make a move.”

Though Alfaera was still curious as to what basis Valyr had to make such a request, she decided to let it be for now, thinking that she would have to watch them defend against the monster tide when the time came, making sure to focus her full attention on Valyr at that point.

After the details of Valyr’s request were more or less sorted out, the four of them talked a bit more about the village’s plan during the monster tide, as well as how it would impact the progress of the village’s expansion into a town. Surprisingly, it was only through this conversation did Valyr find out the reason why Alfaera had not participated in the previous monster tide, even though her current level was more than enough for her to be part of the main offensive force.

Aside from the fact that she was the leader of the village, she was the one coordinating everything behind the scenes, making sure that every request Damian had in preparation for the upcoming monster tide would be met before they began their defense. She was also the one responsible for the creation of the camps that allowed the defenders to rest and refuel before the monster tide arrived, something Valyr had made use of during the previous monster tide.

However, the most important reason why she hadn’t participated in the previous monster tide was the fact that both her class and subclass were purely non-combat. Of course, her stats were still far greater than the average human due to her being of a higher level, but she did not have the ability to capitalize on these higher stats unlike those with combat classes did.

Naturally, once Valyr heard this, his mind thought about Tristan and himself, people who still took up a combative role even though both of them had a production class as their main class. In the end, he thought that it was a matter of personal choice rather than whether or not she truly did not have the capability to take up a combat role.

After all, it took a lot of effort on his end to become someone capable of filling up a spot in the main offensive force, with Tristan putting even more effort than him.

With that, the four eventually wrapped up their conversation, with all of them having faint smiles on their faces as they were glad to have caught up with one another. Though, just as both Alfaera and Tristan were about to leave the office to do their own thing, Valyr asked the three of them a question all of a sudden that prompted them to stop in their tracks.

“Now that I think about it…”𝑂𝓋𝒍xt.𝑐𝐎𝓜

“Where’s Vera?”