Hearing a couple notification sounds resound in his mind all of a sudden, Valyr was greatly bewildered, wondering about the reason why the word 'Tidebreaker' had been attributed to him. Though, just as he was about to check the title he had obtained and ask the others about what they meant by it, an intrusive thought soon surfaced in his mind. Thinking about the thought, an expression of slight fear appeared on his face as he recalled something he had forgotten earlier.
"Vera, remember the chestplate I placed near where you were earlier?" Seeing as she was the only other person to know where the chestplate was, Valyr looked at her and asked.
"Yeah? I've actually got it here with me." In response, Vera nodded as she rummaged inside her robe, bringing out the damaged chestplate Valyr wore earlier for everyone in the inn to see. Naturally, once Vera brought it out, loud gasps and yells quickly spread throughout the inn as they were left aghast by the gruesome damage inflicted on the chestplate.
However, not long after, these sounds were quickly drowned out by another wave of cheers, the words coming out of their mouth more or less talking about the grievous injury inflicted by the Inferior Tidespawn to Valyr, damaging the chestplate he wore in the process. Because of that, Valyr quickly got the gist of how the Tidebreaker name came to be and how it became associated to him.
Scratching his head, he then asked Vera to give the damaged chestplate to him, which the latter readily did. Thanking her for safekeeping it, as well as giving it back, the two then sat themselves in front of a somewhat vacant table, with the other seats being taken up by people Valyr knew very well.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Valyr the Tidebreaker." Hearing a familiar voice say those words, Valyr could not help but glance in the direction of the voice's origin, only to be greeted by the sight of three people looking at him with grins on their faces.
Naturally, Valyr could not help but grin as well, inwardly letting out a long sigh of relief that the three weren't part of the casualties he had tallied. "Leon, Jonas, Louie. It's been a while."
"Definitely has been." Leon nodded in agreement. "What took you so long to come to the inn anyway? Had trouble with people blocking your way to the inn to get a closer look at you?"
"To be honest, I didn't even know I'd gain this huge of a reputation." Shaking his head, Valyr pointed at Vera beside her. "Instead, I was out helping miss Vera here with a couple tasks regarding the monster tide."
"Truly an idol of the masses," Jonas could not help but say, eliciting a peal of laughter from the other two. Nevertheless, their attention had been shifted to Vera, who they maintained a modicum of respect around, considering she was the village's only doctor. "Miss Vera, is it fine if we could find out what you had Valyr do?"
"I had him tally up the deaths during this monster tide." Hearing such grim words come out of such a young woman's mouth, a couple people eavesdropping into the conversation could not help but sharply inhale on a bit of air, while the trio could not help but look at Valyr with slightly darkened expressions on their faces. Noticing their expression, Valyr could only bitterly smile.
"Someone would have to do it sooner or later." Valyr shrugged his shoulders, telling them soon after that it's better for them to not think what they could've done to reduce the casualties and instead think about what they could do to reduce it in the future. Gradually, the atmosphere surrounding them returned to normal as the tales of the Tidebreaker was narrated all throughout the inn.
…
"With great fervor, the Tidebreaker called upon the masses and led them with his trusty spear, rekindling the courage they once had to vanquish the Tidespawn that had appeared before them once and for all." As narrations similar to these continued to echo throughout the inn, a great portion of the people ate and drank their fill, including Valyr.
After fighting nonstop during the monster tide, as well as the fact that he had drank two Inferior Rejuvenation Potions, his fuel tank ran on empty for hours already. With that, he took great delight in the fact that he could eat as much as he wanted thanks to the abundance of monster corpses brought into the village from the monster tide.
Of course, due to his newfound fame thanks to his seemingly impossible feat of bridging the level gap between him and the Inferior Tidespawn, and killing it in three hits on top of that, a portion of the people in the inn came up to him and interrupted him from time to time while he was eating. Fortunately, with Leon and the other two around, this interruption was reduced to a minimum.
"It only felt like yesterday that us four were patrolling the village at night, idly chatting about our aspirations in life." While continuing to watch Valyr eat, Leon could not help but let out a sigh, taking a bite of the food on his plate. "Now, our friend Valyr here has become a legend, becoming the Tidebreaker everyone aspires to be."
"Well, us four did do the night patrol the previous night, so you're not wrong on that regard." Hearing Leon's words, Valyr quipped back, making a wry smile appear on Leon's face.
"You do know what I'm trying to do, right? It's a saying, Valyr. A saying." Wondering if his friend was dense when it came to jokes, Leon decided to ask.
"Of course. I'm not that stupid, you know?" Valyr replied back as he took a large bite of the meat on his plate. While he did so, the three could not help but let out a chuckle as they were reminded that they were still talking to the same Valyr they knew.
"We're just happy for you, man. After all, it's been like, what… almost three weeks since you've arrived in this village?" Louie opened his mouth after Valyr was finished talking. "In almost three weeks, you've already become famous in the village. In fact, I can't help but find that slightly absurd."
"So do we." Leon and Jonas nodded in agreement.
"Well, if you frame it like that, then I can't help but agree as well." Hearing Louie's words, Valyr also nodded in agreement.
However, just as they were about to continue their conversation, a pair of people had appeared at the entrance of the inn, with one of them carrying a box filled to the brim with items. Seeing these two appear, the people in the inn went silent for a bit before erupting into a round of cheers. After all, these two people were part of the village's strongest combat force.
Surprisingly, rather than make their way to an empty table and eat and drink their fill, they instead headed to where Valyr were, both of them lightly smiling as they looked at him.
"Is there something I can help you two with?" Naturally, Valyr could not help but be slightly weirded out by the sight of the two smiling, especially the other one since he had only seen the man smile a couple of times.
In response, they placed the box they brought to the floor before letting out a light sigh of relief. Returning to his previous solemn expression, Damian looked once more at Valyr. "Feel free to continue eating, Valyr. We just have something to announce."
Slightly confused but still agreeing to Damian's words, Valyr went ahead and continued eating as Damian's voice echoed throughout the entire inn. "As one of the greatest contributors to this monster tide, I, Damian Waters, shall be awarding Valyr Zeihardt, our Tidebreaker, a couple important spoils from the tide. Does anyone have any complaints with that?"
Surprisingly, everyone shook their heads at the question. In fact, some of them even urged Damian to be quicker with bestowing the rewards to Valyr, allowing their imagination of how the Tidebreaker fought to linger in their minds. Of course, Valyr's eyes widened in surprise at the announcement, making him look at the two with his mouth slightly agape.
Seeing Valyr's bewildered expression, Tristan could not help but let out a light chuckle as he retrieved an item from the box before giving it to Valyr. "Did you really think the only rewards you'd be getting from this would be the rewards from the emergency quest? With the performance you pulled off during the monster tide?"
"Naturally, your rewards don't end there. Here you go."
"You deserve it."