The B-dungeon that we were raiding was called the Orc Village. It’s one of the known dungeons, like the dragon tombs and others. It’s a property of the Armored Wall guild.

All the guilds have the possibility of purchasing the rights to raid specific dungeons, and the Orc Village was bought three years ago so the awakeners of the guild can keep grinding with no drawbacks.

It consisted of five floors. Each floor was ruled by a mini-boss, and in the final floor resided the chief Iron-Clad Orc.

The monsters inside the dungeon were known, but their positioning and spawning places differed from raid to raid.

To tackle this, the scout who was brought for the raid, Shimura Troboski, was a sound wave user. He could use sound waves to locate living beings. He was positioned at the front of our party to properly pinpoint the location of every enemy.

The frontline of our party consisted of Joshua the guardian alongside Shimura the scout. Behind them were the close fighting warriors, George the melee fighter, and me.

In the middle, Clara and Leo were tasked with protecting the mages in case of a surprise attack, and in the back row, the healers were positioned so they could heal everyone at any given moment.

The first floor was full of goblins and some hobgoblins.

Goblins were not much of a threat, but as a pack, they could even rival a high C-rank monster.

Whenever the scout located a pack of goblins, he changed positions with either me and George or Leo and George so we could kill the enemy and continue. This was an efficient way to keep pushing the upcoming hordes without tiring ourselves.

We didn’t waste much effort with the first mini-boss who was a mage goblin guarded with armed hobgoblins. All it took were a few attacks from the mages and a finishing blow from the guardian.

On the next floor, we started meeting more goblin riders accompanied by hobgoblins.

The guardian drew their attention to him and retreated so Clara and the fire mage can kill them all at once with a rain of arrows and fireballs.

We did the same strategy against all the enemies that we had met on this floor, and we opted to rotate the mages attacking so they could keep replenishing their mana without a problem.

The mini-boss of this floor was an armored hobgoblin riding a giant killer beetle, surrounded by mage goblins who were hidden in different places.

The plan was to first locate their locations using the scout’s skills and keep the attacking party updated on all attacks so they could dodge them while focusing on attacking the mini-boss.

The attacking party consisted of George, Leo, and Joshua, while Clara and I focused on hunting the hidden mages, and our four mages were tasked with dealing the finishing blow to the mini-boss the moment the hobgoblin fell from the killer beetle.

We managed to defeat them after a few dozens of minutes. We healed our injuries, replenished our mana and stamina, then we moved to the next floor.

The third floor was where things started getting a little bit tough.

The third floor was a big open area with a forest-like structure. A lot of trees and vegetation took over the place. It was the perfect place for sneak attacks. There were also some traps, but they were easily located.

The area was inhabited by earth-killer beetles and their various kinfolks. Alongside enraged hobgoblins.

The stairs that we climbed brought us to the middle of the floor.

“If the fifth floor has the strongest monsters of the dungeon, then the third floor has the trickiest field.” Stated George.

To locate the stairs to the next floor, we decided to split into small teams. The scout, the two healers, and the guardian stayed at the start line of this floor. George and the earth mage went north. Leo and the fire mage went south. The other two mages went east, and Clara and I went west.

***

After a few minutes of tree jumping, Clara broke the silence.

“I was really surprised to see how much you grew since we last met. You’re a different person.” Stated Clara.

“Haha, thanks, Clara. The sword gave me some amazing powers and unlocked a growth I could never have dreamt of.” I smiled.

“I think it’s not only because of the sword. You just didn’t try to unlock your hidden potential and kept training only your swordsmanship.” Clara tapped me on my back.

“I think you’re right about that. Even if I still don’t understand why I was chosen and the true meaning behind this, but I’ll uncover the truth sooner or later, I swear to you.”

“That’s the spirit Shiryuu. I’m glad you didn’t change even after acquiring this power.”

“Th-Thanks Clara.” I blushed.

“There is a reading in front of you two. 7 hobgoblins and 4 killer beetles.” Stated Shimura.

“All clear. We’ll kill them right away before they could find us.” I replied. “Clara, do your things,” I added.

"Yes, I’m already ready here.” She winked.

“Okay then”. I smiled.

“Raining arrows”.

Clara launched several arrows into the sky and started raining on the enemy in front of us. They were taken by surprise and were severely damaged.

Before the beetles could dig underground to look for us. I jumped at the confused monsters.

“Ono-ha-Itto-Ryu, tiger hunt slash”.

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I descended on the monsters with several slashes that looked like claw slashes from a vicious animal, cutting them all in the process and killing them.

“I’m always impressed whenever I see your sword skills. I really should take a time off guild activities and find an archery martial art school to learn some advanced techniques.” Impressed Clara.

“Well, this is one of the quirks of being a solo warrior. And you really should do it, I’m sure you will learn a lot.” I stated.

***

We kept looking around while defeating all the monsters we stumbled upon, they were all around C-rank, so we didn’t have much trouble.

There were no traps where we were looking, and there was no sign of the mini-boss nor the stairs to the next floor.

We finished most of the west side when we got a message from the scout.

“The south team stumbled upon what looked like the mini-boss. Everyone go there immediately for support.”

It took us around an hour to reach the south part of the floor.

The area was all burnt down, and at the center of it was Leo, the fire mage and what looked like a fusion between a big killer beetle and a hobgoblin.

The creature had the upper body of a hobgoblin wearing iron armor and a spikey helmet, while the lower body was that of a black killer beetle with sharp eight legs that were similar to swords.

“We need to assist them.” Said Clara. “I’ll shoot a big charged shot. Clear the area and tell Leo my plan. I’ll kill that thing with one shot.” She added.

“Roger. Just concentrate on your attack.” I replied. ‘She became so dependable. Well, that’s what you would expect from a B-rank.’

I run toward the battlefield and took my stance as I stopped near the mage.

“Leo, move away,” I shouted.

When Leo heard me. He jumped on top of the creature and took its attention away from me.

I took my sword with two hands and put it in front of my eyes so the side would be parallel with my view.

“Ono-ha-Itto-Ryu, breathless fang.”

Without making the faintest sound, I dashed towards the body of the monster and slashed.

Violet blood started raining out from the huge wound in its chest and started screaming.

As I finished my move. I saw a red flash coming from behind me. The fire mage launched triple fireballs to keep the damage going and make it easier for Clara to fire her killing shot.

I slipped away from the view of the merged monster and took the chance to tell Leo about the plan.

The fire attack hit the monster head-on and dealt significant damage.

When the monster brushed of the flames, it couldn’t find us anywhere. It started looking left and right, enraged and throwing a tantrum, but it was too late for it.

Clara finished charging her attack with destructive mana.

Not even a few seconds later, the arrow hit the head of the monster and blew it away.

The mini-boss fell on the ground lifeless and the stairs to the next floor appeared next to the dead body.

A few minutes later, the other members arrived and we climbed to the next floor.

***

The fourth floor was similar in settings to the first and second floors. Just stone-paved roads that opened up to open spaces where monsters resided.

It took us some time to clear this floor, with breaks here and there to replenish our mana and stamina. It was a lot harder but we managed to get it through with proper teamwork.

Even if I was a stranger to the Armored Wall guild members, in a sense that I’ve never gone into raids with most of them, except for Leo and Clara, but I fitted so well with them and managed to hold my grounds and keep up with them.

The fifth floor was another story though. All monsters were B-rank.

The first monster we stumbled upon arriving was a scissor arm killer beetle. It attacked us ruthlessly.

The guardian managed to fend off its attack, and the mages prepared a combination attack to finish it off.

It took us all our combined efforts to defeat it and move towards the next challenge.

After traversing a long dark road, we found a trio of battling hobgoblins. Each one used a different type of martial arts from the others, so they were a difficult match-up for us.

During the whole climb, I couldn’t show off the true worth of the dragon sword, so I asked the party leader George to let me handle this alone.

“I sound arrogant, but I want to fight them alone. I want to see the extent of my new powers against strong enemies. And as a martial art user, I want to fight them fair and square.” I Begged George with a firm state of mind.

It was the perfect opportunity to see where I stand compared to others.

“Hmmm, well then if you say so. The guild master trusts you, that’s why he decided to let you join us during this raid. I know this will be too hard for you and you may not defeat them. I want to stop you, but I don’t think I can win in an argument against those eyes of yours, hahaha.” He punched my chest gently and pushed me forward to fight the enemies.

“We shouldn’t let him fight alone leader, it’s too dangerous for him.” Interrupted Clara.

“Trust in your comrade Clara, you shouldn’t stop a man from something he’s keen to do.” Declared George.

“Yeah, we shouldn’t butt in. If he can’t defeat them, then he’s not ready to hold that Mythological Weapon in his hands, and he shouldn’t call himself my rival. This is the least that he can do.” Said Leo.

I didn’t get to hear their little arguing about how much excited I was.

“Your enemy will me be. Come forward.” I said with a grin on my face.

The trio hobgoblins readied their weapons and stances.

The first was wearing a kimono with bandages over his arms and legs. The second was using boxing iron gloves, and the third was holding a fencing sword.

The kimono hobgoblin attacked first. He was going for a grab, but I pushed him off with a swing of my sword and dodged his hands.

Afterward, he turned around with an aerial kick and hit me on my left shoulder.

He didn’t let me recover and attacked with a series of quick punches. I blocked some of them, but the others hit me on different parts of my body, throwing me off and smashing a wall nearby.

He dashed to grab me again, but I used this chance to perform a step slash by using the wall as a launching platform and outspeed the dashing hobgoblin, and my attack landed a direct hit on his chest.

He stumbled for a moment to look at his wound, but I didn’t give him any time to think about the current state of our battle.

I attacked him with a series of slashes, cutting the hobgoblin on several places, but he bore with the pain and countered my attacks with a Gatling of punches.

I couldn’t take any more damage because I still had two more fights after this one, so I decided to finish this off quickly.

I moved several feet to the back, which gave the monster time to prepare his deadly punch, and dashed towards me to finish me off.

As the punch was coming near my stomach to make contact, I turned my sword to the blunt side and pushed his punch to the side with a fluent movement, and I immediately lowered my sword to the other position and slashed the monster cleanly.

It was the parry and counterattacks. I used the power of his punch to divert it and absorbed all the strength that was dissipating when I pushed it and directed it towards a counter slash that finished the kimono hobgoblin off.

The other two hobgoblins were surprised to see their kin slew in front of them, so they charged at me with all their strengths at the same time.

“Haha, this is getting exciting.” I smiled.