As he turns to face me directly, I feel a little intimidated.

“So, you and that old man should be of use to us, according to Yorgar” He says. It is slightly unreal. His lips do not move in sync with what he is saying! It’s like watching a bad dub of something transpire in front of me.

Yorgar gives me a nudge in the side. “Ah, greetings, my name is Yos” I say and stick my hand out. He coldly ignores it.

“I only give respect to those, who have earned it” He says. Wow, what a rude dude. “Well, we can always see what you have got. There is still some six weeks until the appointed time to reconvene, and it wouldn’t do, to do nothing in these circumstances. Let’s head to the dungeon!”

He says, marching past us through the door we just passed through. “Eh, shouldn’t we get a request first, if we are going to the dungeon?” I ask.

He immediately turns around and gives me a mean look. “Now look here, when I say stuff, people do as I say. I could stop and explain to you, for example, that I am worth hundreds of thousands of asti and the pity change offered by the guild means nothing to me, or that our storage users are currently not here and I don’t want to bother, but I don’t want to each time, so keep your stupid ideas to yourself” Is he trying to be an asshole?

As we fall in line behind him, Yorgar whispers to me “By God, Yos, what are you thinking? Trying to approach the hero as if he is just another man? Did you forget what I told you about him? He is God’s representative on earth, show some damn respect.” Jesus, overreact much? Then again, I don’t even think this would be weird behavior even if I met with the president of America.

We six people march together towards the dungeon, through the city. Now that I think about it, the only village I have seen had the dungeon outside of it, while all the cities have the dungeons inside. Maybe it’s because they don’t hunt enough in a village to make sure no monsters overrun from it?

Anyway, we are directed towards the dungeon, still with the hero Ahorn in the lead. It is unreal. He simply wields a large stick, and his strike doesn’t seem very powerful, but all the monsters we come across crumble with a single hit. Are souls fragile? I thought I would practically be the strongest man who ever lived by now, but if such terrible powers exist, I may very well still not be on the top of the totem pole.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Once we are down on the sixth floor, Ahorn spins around. “Time for the new guys to show us what they can do.” I don’t think I am ever going to get used to those unsynchronized lip flaps.

I draw my sword from a scabbard on the hip, and withdraw my shield from my back, while Derby readies a spear from his back.

There is a loud scoff from behind me. “What pathetic equipment, I have never seen such a poorly constructed sword and shield before” This guy, I seriously want to smack him. It is pretty poor, only valued at about 10 asti for the sword and a single for the shield. I have heard that a really good sword can cost upwards of a thousand, but this has served my needs well enough.

We take position with me in the lead, Derby behind me. It is kind of reminiscent of my old days hunting with the clan. Though I don’t know how good Derby is, actually. Last time we were in a dungeon, he merely observed me all the way through.

“You want to show off first, or should I?” I ask him. “Give that it is you, give me a chance before running rampant” He knows my level of ability and that he likely wouldn’t get a turn, if I just went all-out from the start.

We quickly find our first monsters with read. I can only as rodent lizards the size of caws. Scaly, with limbs stretched out far besides their body, but with a long head and giant fangs and ears.

They are a group of six, and I let the first few of them charge us, meeting them with the shield, barely moving, to stop their advance while not getting in the way of derby, Just as I learnt with Asger and later Bern.

After Derby took out two of them. Ahorn mutters “not bad”. It lights a fire in me to show my stuff and shut him up a little. I rush forward, closing in on each monster in succession, delivering a fatal blow to all four in a matter of seconds, before turning around. The looks of shock on their faces are great.

“Thi-this is what you meant by specializing in bestowal?” Nimor is flabbergasted. “I never realized it could be so strong. And at such a young age! How much mana did you use?” Oh right, they think this is bestowal. Well, I better set it as a baseline.

“With only this much, I can keep it up for half a day” I say triumphantly. I feel good receiving these praises.

Ahorn is still silent with open mouth. “Eh, Ahorn? Sir?” Nimor tries to reach him.

He closes his mouth and says. “Pretty good, but remember who will always be the superior firepower around here!” This dude just isn’t very amicable, is he?