After making a slight detour to the nearby tailor shop to buy a decent amount of clothes he could change to once he was done eating, Valyr spent the remainder of his day recuperating, allowing his body to naturally heal from the soreness brought about by overexerting himself on the day.
Though, that did not mean that he spent it idling around in his room. Around the afternoon, he made his way to the training field in one of his newly bought clothes, striking against one of the training dummies with his wooden spear in order to recall more of his combat experience. An hour later, he left the field, satisfied with what he had recalled, as well as the fact that he got his blood boiling.
By the time night fell, he met up with Leon and the others in the cafeteria, conversing about various topics as they ate. At some point, Valyr brought up the topic of finding an alchemist, which quickly piqued the others' interest.
"So, do you guys know if we have an alchemist in this village?" Valyr asked, looking at the others' expressions to see if they knew anything.
"Well, you could always try checking the village clinic," Louie said in response, putting a spoonful of the stew he ordered in his mouth. "That's probably the best place to start looking for an alchemist."
"They do sell a lot of basic alchemical concoctions, so I'd say head to the clinic first as well," said Jonas soon after.
"There's also the off chance that all of those alchemical concoctions they sell come from one of their connections. If that's the case, try getting their information from the clinic. It might lead you to an alchemist," Leon said after he finished chewing on his food. "Worst-case scenario, just head to Concaux Town. Pretty sure you could hire an alchemist's services for a fee."
"In any case, why are you looking for an alchemist?" Louie asked the young man at some point. "You need a specific concoction made?"
"Pretty much." Valyr nodded, prompting the others to look at him with interest, wondering if he would tell them what he exactly wanted to be concocted.
Unfortunately for them, a light chuckle was the only response they got from him, which naturally elicited multiple frowns and tongue clicks from the others. Seeing their response, Valyr's chuckle eventually turned into laughter. "Although I really can't say anything about it for now, just know that you'll be in for a surprise within the following week or two."
With only those words to work off of, the others begrudgingly finish their dinners, giving Valyr a cold glare before they left. In response to those glares, he could only wryly smile. 'Well, if they knew what I wanted to get concocted, they'd probably lose their minds.'
'It's better if I keep it to myself for now.'
…
Waking up from a good night's sleep, Valyr felt that his body had been reborn, with the soreness from two days ago completely gone, as if it wasn't there in the first place. Feeling revitalized, he went ahead and washed up his face before taking a quick shower, changing into a set of loose fitting clothes once he had gotten out.
Affixing his trusty wooden spear to his back, he grabbed a quick breakfast from the cafeteria before making his way to the barracks' entrance sometime later. However, rather than stay around the entrance, giving off the feeling that he was waiting for the other guards to start their patrol, he instead walked past it, making his way to the village outskirts to find some monsters to kill.
Indeed, his plan was now in motion.
Now that he was Level 2, that meant that the ideal targets for him had changed from Level 1 monsters to Level 2 ones. However, curious as to how vast the difference an increase of a single point on all stat was, he decided to start off the day with a Level 1 monster, quickly finding one after searching around the periphery of the village around 10 minutes later.
Ding!
[You have slain a Level 1 Boar. You have gained 10 XP.]
"Huh. Didn't think the XP reduction system would apply this early on," muttered Valyr as he recalled the fight that had transpired earlier. Though, it would be more accurate to call it a one-sided beating, given how he had not given the boar he fought even a single opportunity to retaliate.
"Anyways, let's move onto some actual opponents." With that, Valyr searched for monsters around the same level, eventually killing 20 of them by the time the sun had reached its zenith. Feeling his stomach rumble in hunger, Valyr went ahead and grabbed two of the monster corpses, lifting both on each shoulder as he returned to the village. "This makes for some good endurance training."
After some time, he had arrived in front of the tailor shop he bought his clothes from, plopping down the monster corpses on the ground as he asked the tailor if he wanted to buy the hides from the monsters he brought. Leaving with skinned corpses and a decent amount of coins, he then made his way to the village inn, where he sold the corpses for them to use as meat for their meals.
Getting yet another decent chunk of money out of the exchange, Valyr then left the inn, making his way back to the barracks as he summed up everything that had transpired so far. "So, each Level 2 monster gives me 20 XP per kill. I killed 20 monsters earlier, so that means I have 400 and some XP I could use. I'll use some of it to increase my level to Level 3, which will allow me to start fighting against Level 3 monsters, thereby increasing the amount of XP I get."
"Aside from that, hauling along those two corpses back gave me a total of 100 copper coins, which is equivalent to one silver coin. Considering that I spent half of what Tryndall gave me on clothes yesterday, I currently have one and a half silver coins to my name."
Chuckling at how poor he was, Valyr was satisfied with the routine he had going on, deciding to stick to it as he made his way to the cafeteria to get some lunch, only to head to the training field around an hour later. Once night fell, he participated in the night patrol, coordinating with the other guards to make sure the people of the village got back to their homes respectively.
And with that, Valyr kept up the routine the following day, heading outside the village to kill a bunch of monsters before hauling a couple back to the village to sell. After that, he would spend his time in the barracks either talking with the other guards or training in the training field, only to change into his guard uniform once it was time for him to begin his night patrol.
Unexpectedly, a week had passed in this fashion, with Valyr being none the wiser.