Monster Tide: The First Wave

While Damian was preparing all of those in the center section to fight against the monsters of the first wave, Valyr had just arrived at the east section. Unsurprisingly, all of the people that were already there looked at him with curious expressions, wondering what his purpose was for coming to their section.

Gasping for a bit of air, Valyr looked around to see who the guard captain Damian mentioned earlier was, only to notice a familiar face among the people. With a light smile, he moved closer to the person. "I didn't expect to see you here, Leon."

"Were you assigned to this section as well?" In response, Leon flashed a light grin before embracing him.

Valyr nodded. "Yeah, Damian told me to head here. According to him, I'll be the deputy leader of the team or something?"

Hearing the term 'deputy leader' come out of Valyr's mouth, some of the people could not help but talk to each other in a murmur, wondering how the young man before them was assigned deputy leader, even though appearance-wise, he did not seem to have the qualifications for such a position.

As for Leon, when he heard the same term come out of his friend's mouth, his eyes could not help but widen in surprise. "Seriously? Damian actually told you that? What the hell have you been doing since the last time I saw you for Damian to give you that much responsibility?"

Just as Valyr was about to answer his question, a woman had appeared in between the two of them, emanating a chilling aura throughout the immediate surroundings that made a couple people shudder before taking a few steps back. Surprisingly, even Leon had taken a few steps back as he looked at the woman with a hint of fear on his face. Noticing this, Valyr looked at the woman before him in silence.

If one were to exclude the chilling aura she currently exuded, Valyr was certain that a lot of players would fall head over heels for her appearance once Greater Beyond was released to the public. Her long silver-gray hair was neatly tied into a ponytail, accentuating the overall shape of her face. In contrast, her irises were a vibrant light green, giving off a refreshing feeling if one looked into it.

Nevertheless, this refreshing feeling was negated by the dark gray garbs she wore, with a leather breastplate and arm guards being her only source of defense aside from her clothing. Overall, the feeling she gave Valyr was that she had chosen a class focused on high AGI. Curious to see whether his hypothesis was correct, he went ahead and used [Analysis] on her, the result of which appeared in his mind.

Ding!

————

[Myst Verielle] (Level 18)

Class: Gale Blade (Rank 1 — Uncommon)

HP: 312/312

MP: 216/216

Stats: 26 VIT, 26 STR, 61 AGI, 45 DEX, 18 INT, 18 WIS, 18 PER, 18 LUK

Remarks: I'd get on her good sides if I were you.

————

At the very moment he looked through her stats, Valyr could not help but inwardly suck in a lot of cold air in his mind, getting a firsthand look at how drastic the difference was between his stats and the stats of a bona fide Rank 1 class holder. Her AGI was already more than double his current AGI.

And she hadn't even reached the peak of Rank 1 yet!

While Valyr had renewed his impression of the woman before him, the woman went ahead and asked Valyr a question. "Are you the one Damian sent to be the deputy leader of this section?"

"That would be me." Valyr nodded in response. "Would you perhaps be the guard captain Damian told me earlier?"

"Correct." The woman nodded back, extending her hand soon after. "Myst Verielle, Rank 1 Gale Blade."

"Valyr Zeihardt." Seeing her extend her hand out, Valyr received it and gave a firm handshake. "Rank 0 Civilian."

Hearing Valyr's last few words, a small clamor arose in the surroundings, making them wonder once more how someone at the same level as them had gotten such an important position. In response to that, Myst looked at Valyr in the eye, to which Valyr surprisingly understood in an instant as he emanated the entirety of his aura.

Whoosh!

In an instant, an aura far stronger than what any of the others could exude appeared around Valyr, prompting all of them to go silent. Even Myst, who wasn't really expecting much from the show of force, could not help but slightly widen her eyes in surprise at the scene. A few seconds later, Valyr retracted his aura as silence enveloped the entirety of the east section.

"Alright." Taking advantage of the silence, Myst went ahead and spoke up. Glancing at the monsters that were coming ever closer to their section, she said, "Since all of the people defending this section are here, let me go over what I've mentioned before."

"For the first wave, all those Level 8 and below shall proceed to the frontlines. Those at Level 9 and above shall stay at behind the defensive line, only to move when someone in the frontlines is in danger." As she said this, Myst commanded a few people to move forward. "For the second wave and every subsequent wave after that, we'll formulate a plan once we find out who our opponents are. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!" everyone exclaimed in unison, getting into their respective positions as they prepared for the wave of monsters that were about to head their way. As for Valyr, he looked at everything that was going on for a bit in silence, only for his attention to be caught by Myst, who was snapping her fingers at him.

"Come with me, Valyr," she said, prompting Valyr to nod in response as he hastily made his way to where she was.

After that, the two of them walked for a bit, with Myst rearranging people as she deemed fit while Valyr continued to watch on in silence. Eventually, after a couple minutes of Myst changing the arrangement of people in their section, Valyr could not help but ask, "Why did you ask those with the low levels to act as the frontlines for the first wave? Wouldn't it make more sense to have us as the frontlines?"

From what he could remember in his past life regarding monster tides, most of the time, high-leveled players were the ones that made up the bulk of the frontlines. Then, the farther one went from the front, the lower the levels got, with those at the rear lines having the lowest levels among those participating in the monster tide.

Of course, Valyr knew that the reason why high-leveled players were at the front was because they would be able to get more XP that way. However, he didn't know why the village didn't employ the same tactic, considering that it was incredibly effective.

Fortunately, Myst had an answer to that. "It's to give them the chance to gain enough XP to raise their levels. The more high-leveled people we have in the village, the better we can protect the village in the long run. Aside from that, we don't have enough high-leveled people to do that. Though, at some point, our positions will be swapped, where they're behind the defensive lines while we're at the frontlines."

"In any case, always keep an eye out if you see someone struggling against a monster," she said, renewing Valyr's impression of Myst once more. 'It may seem like she's aloof and cold-hearted, but in fact, she's the exact opposite.'

Rumble…

By the time the two of them had finished their conversation, a crescendoing rumble echoed throughout the surroundings, prompting everyone in the east section to look in front of them as a swarm of monsters were swiftly heading their way. With that, everyone gripped tightly onto their weapons as Myst's expression turned aloof once more.

"Frontlines…"

"Advance!"