Chapter 44: Advent of the Tide

Looking at the deformed dagger that was given to him, Tristan could not help but have a light frown on his face as he tried to assess Valyr's first attempt at forging. Trying to find the right words to say, he went silent for a couple of minutes before eventually opening his mouth. "Well, for your first attempt at forging something, I'd say this is pretty good."

Hearing that, Valyr could not help but lightly smile in response, nodding. Though, while he listened to Tristan talk, he inwardly thought, 'If only successfully forging something on the first try wasn't suspicious. Sure, I could tell Tristan that me successfully forging the dagger on the first try was a fluke, but he'd definitely catch on that I have experience in the long run.'

"To be honest, your form at the start was superb," Tristan continued. "You had a stable rhythm going on. At the same time, you hammered down on the metal with great purpose and intent, something all blacksmiths should aim to achieve during forging."

Then, he let out a light sigh. "However, as time passed, it was as if I was watching another person hammering the metal entirely. You became sloppier, your rhythm became slower, your control over your strength became messier, in short, everything became worse."

"If you stuck with your form at the start till the very end, then I would've been holding a complete copper dagger at the moment," Tristan said, prompting Valyr to look down. "Of course, there's still a few more processes after that to truly make it a dagger, but you know what I mean."

"At the start, I thought I was onto something, so I kept at it," Valyr said sometime later, quickly coming up with an excuse for his gradually worsening performance. "Though, as time passed, I became more and more unsure if what I was doing was correct, so I tried correcting myself. Near the end, I didn't know if what I was doing was right anymore."

As Valyr let out a sigh, Tristan looked at the dagger he was given once more before looking back at the man before him. After looking back and forth between the two for a while, he eventually gave Valyr a bit of advice. "Here's the thing, Valyr. It's impossible for us blacksmiths to not second guess whether what we're doing is wrong or right."

"However, what separates true blacksmiths from amateurs is the fact that true blacksmiths don't let their doubts waver them. They keep their doubts in mind, but they don't act upon them. Instead, they follow through with their actions till they reach the end." Tristan looked at Valyr directly in the eye. Then, with a solemn expression, he told him, "What I'm saying is, have a bit more confidence in yourself, Valyr. Don't let your doubts affect what you're doing. Follow through your actions and see it to the end."

As he listened to these words, Valyr could not help but nod in agreement, recalling the many other times he had heard these same words said to him in the past. Even though it seemed like such a piece of advice could come naturally to any person, this part was what eluded most amateur blacksmiths from becoming blacksmiths of their own right. In fact, it took Valyr a few months in his past life to fully understand this quote, committing mistakes in the hundreds before his mind finally got into the right mindset.

Unsurprisingly, with his vigor renewed by such advice, Valyr was eager to try his hand at forging once more. However, noticing the enthusiasm writing all over Valyr's face, Tristan shook his head. "Although I'd like to have you practice your forging skills, we can't really do that in the meantime."

"Why's that?" Valyr asked, wondering what was stopping Tristan from having him continue practicing.

"Have you forgotten what's gonna happen a few days from now?" In response, Tristan looked at him with a hint of confusion. "The monster tide? You're not gonna sharpen your combat skills or anything?"

"Ah…" Rather than get a surprised expression from Valyr, what Tristan got instead was his indifference. "But that's not really a reason to stop me from giving it a second shot, no?"

"Valyr, there's no time limit to your quest," Tristan reminded him. "You could focus on the quest after the monster tide, or if you want, pick it up after a month, I don't care."

"For now, we gotta focus on the upcoming monster tide. After all, what's the point of your quest if there's no smithy to come back to after it?"

Hearing those words, it was a switch had been flipped on inside Valyr's mind. Letting out a sigh, he looked at Tristan, his gaze somewhat pleading the latter to give him a second shot. Unfortunately for him, Tristan was adamant, shaking his head in refusal. With that, Valyr stood up from his seat and turned around to leave the smithy, his gait despondent.

Of course, as Tristan watched Valyr walk out of the smithy in low spirits, he could not help but feel a bit bad for the guy's enthusiasm. Eventually, with a light sigh and a scratch of his head, he told him, "How about this? I give you one attempt at forging every day until the monster tide. Then, once the monster tide passes and the smithy survives, you're free to try your hand at forging as much as you want?"

In that instant, the somewhat listless gaze on Valyr's face from before had disappeared, turning into one filled with determination and perseverance as he looked back at Tristan with renewed vigor. "Deal!"

Whoosh!

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With that, he left the smithy to return to the barracks, leaving a somewhat speechless Tristan alone in the smithy. For some reason, he could not help but feel like he had been played with by Valyr.

"Well, as long as it helps out defending the village against the monster tide, I don't mind." Shrugging his shoulders soon after, he then went to pick up the blade he had tempered before placing it on top of the anvil. Now that the hard part was over, it was time for him to turn the blade into an actual weapon.

…

Once Valyr had returned to the barracks, he headed to the cafeteria to get some lunch. After he was done eating, he headed into the training field to hone his control over his spear, noticing that there were a lot more people than usual. Fortunately, it did not take long for him to realize that these were other people trying to get as much as improvement out of their combat skills as possible before the monster tide arrived.

After a couple of hours in the training field, he then went to his dormitory and rested, only to get up for the night patrol later that night.

All in all, that was Valyr's routine for the next four days. In the morning, he would head to the smithy and get an attempt at forging a dagger, then after some time, he would return to the barracks and spend some time in the training field before heading out on a patrol later that night.

On the night before the supposed monster tide, Valyr checked his status screen and noticed that he still had about 10,000 XP left over. Recalling the rewards he would obtain from the quest related to the monster tide, while at the same time thinking about how every ounce of power helped in making sure the smithy would be left unscathed, Valyr went ahead and upgraded the two combat skills he had.

Ding!

[Would you like to spend 4433 XP to upgrade 'Pierce' to Level 5?]

[Would you like to spend 4433 XP to upgrade 'Basic Spear Mastery' to Level 5?]

"Yes." After accepting the two prompts that had appeared before him, Valyr went ahead and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep in preparation for the onslaught that was about to come.

…

…

…

Ding!

[The emergency quest 'Monster Tide' has been activated!]

[Head to the Astarto Village's walls as soon as possible!]

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