“Did you…” With everyone continuing to remain at a loss for words as the large number that appeared above the Tidemother’s head still vividly lingered within their minds, Tristan was the first to break the silence that quickly covered the surroundings, shifting his gaze to Valyr as he posed a question to the latter. “Did you just…”

“…” In response to the question, a bitter smile adorned Valyr’s face, silently telling the man that had just asked the question that he had indeed done what the man was thinking. Seeing the bitter smile on the young man’s face, Tristan looked at him for a bit before shaking his head with a bitter smile on his face as well, letting out a low sigh not long after.

“To think you were already dealing a lot of damage back then at Level 10. Then again, you could only aid the main force during the monster tide,” said Tristan, only to let out a bit of laughter soon after. “And now, the roles have been reversed, with you becoming the main force of the monster tide.”

“Time flies really quickly, don’t you think?” Letting out another faint sigh, Tristan laughed once more as everyone eventually snapped back to reality, finally coming to terms that the situation that had unfolded just a while ago had indeed happened. To no surprise, Myst and Lythia swiftly moved to where Valyr was and quickly bombarded him with questions regarding how he was able to dish out that amount of damage.

As for Tristan and Damian, the former watched the scene before him with a smile while the latter appeared beside him, nodding at Tristan before proceeding to look at Valyr and the others as well. However, unlike the smile that adorned his good friend’s face, the expression on Damian’s face was neutral, his gaze focused on Valyr as multiple thoughts lingered within his mind, a hint of greed briefly flashing through his eyes.

Eventually, at some point, the five of them gathered together as they talked about what each of them would do now that the monster tide was officially done. Without hesitation, Lythia took the initiative to head back to the village to tell everyone of the good news, with Myst deciding not long after to accompany Lythia in informing everyone about it.

Soon after, Damian decided that he would also accompany the two women back to the village, saying that he would have to manage a lot of things with Alfaera in preparation for the feast the village had every successful monster tide clearing. With that, Tristan and Valyr were the only ones left within the group that had not made a decision on what they would do.

“Well, as the village blacksmith, you know very well that I harvest the parts of the Tidemother since I could use it in my equipment.” As the three bade their farewell to Tristan and Valyr, Tristan looked at the latter before opening his mouth. “With that being said, I’ll be here at the Tidemother for the next couple of hours since there’s a lot of precious materials to harvest, especially with how large this Tidemother is.”

“How about you, Valyr? What do you plan on doing?” As this question left Tristan’s mouth, the expression on Valyr’s face contorted into a bitter smile as he asked a question of his own.

“How do I go about saying this…”

“Er… is it fine if I take the corpse of the Tidemother for myself?”

“And here I thought I’d finally be able to experiment with some more precious stuff.” In response to Valyr’s question, a bitter smile adorned Tristan’s face as he pondered over it for a bit in silence. Letting out a faint sigh not long after, the bitter smile on the man’s face only widened as he said, “Then again, you did do most of the work out of all of us in this monster tide, plus I still have a lot of materials from the past Tidemothers to work with…”

“I don’t plan on taking all of it,” said Valyr in response, feeling a bit of guilt at taking away Tristan’s excitement. “You could have the equipment that comes with the Tidemother and uh… 10 vials of its blood, I guess?”

“Make that 30 vials of blood.” Surprisingly, Tristan quickly bit onto the offer, haggling with Valyr to get a better deal.

“12 vials.” Of course, Valyr wouldn’t back down that easily.

“25.”

“15.”

“22.”

“18.”𝗈𝗏𝒍xt.𝑪𝐎𝓂

“20 it is, then?” Finding their haggling somewhat hilarious as they still ended up arriving at the middle ground, Tristan let out a faint chuckle, only for Valyr to let out a chuckle as well soon after. “Why did we even have to do that if we were going to end up at 20 vials anyway?”

“Just go and get your stuff, will you?” Playfully kicking Tristan in his rear in response, Valyr told Tristan to grab the materials he needed as quickly as possible, even going so far as to cast a movement speed buffing skill on the latter to speed up his gathering process.

After a few minutes of waiting by the corpse, Tristan eventually arrived in front of Valyr once more with a small box of empty glass vials, nodding at the young man as the two of them quickly scaled up the monster’s body with the box in tow. Brandishing a blade he had brought along to speed up the collection process, Tristan went ahead and made a wide incision on the Tidemother’s back, allowing Valyr to get a closer look at the insides of the Tidemother for once.

Seeing Tristan jam his hands into the incision he had made quickly made Valyr feel an urge to vomit, though this quickly disappeared once the former eventually retrieved a pair of dark crimson vambraces from the Tidemother’s insides.

“Well then. A pair of Uncommon grade vambraces at Level 25.” Quickly using Analysis on the vambraces, a grin soon adorned Tristan’s face as he placed the vambraces in the box, only to grab the glass vials from the box soon after before shoving them into the incision to gather the Tidemother’s blood.

Watching Tristan obtain the Tidemother’s blood through what he considered was a barbaric method, Valyr eventually parted ways with the man as the former held up his part of the deal, only grabbing 20 vials of blood from the Tidemother before heading back to the village.

Waving farewell at the man, Valyr watched the man’s silhouette for a bit before it eventually disappeared from his field of vision, prompting him to focus his sight on the incision Tristan had made before retrieving his spear behind his back.

‘You ready to undergo an upgrade?’ Asking a question to his spear, Valyr sent a message through his mind.

‘As ready as I ever will be, Master.’ In response, Sana replied back, the feeling of excitement and expectation filling the young man’s mind.