I arrived at the dungeon at around 5 pm. There were injured adventurers lined up near the entrance with healers casting healing magic on their wounds. I listened to their chatter.

“Damn the monsters were really strong this time, especially the greater kobolds on the third floor,”

“Yeah, half of the adventurers got injured by them. Only one A-rank party remained to clear the floor.”

“True, they were pretty good. Weren’t they heroes or something?”

“Yup, If I’m not wrong. They were heroes from the country of Elxenroe.”

A hero party in the dungeon? This was news to me. I’ve never seen heroes before, this could be interesting. I started to make my way into the dungeon entrance.

”Excuse me, adventurer, this dungeon is pretty dangerous. I don’t think you should enter alone!” A flustered cleric girl stopped me.

“Thanks for the warning but I’ll think I’m fine.” I coolly replied.

“At least take this health potion first!” She kindly suggested.

Ughhh, I have no need for potions but it seems like she won’t let me pass through if I don’t accept it.

“I see, thank you,” I accepted the vial with a red liquid.

I stepped into the dungeon, looks like most of the monster have been killed. Corpses of monsters were strewn across the dungeon floor. Up ahead in the distance, I heard a munching sound. A hobgoblin was eating the corpse of a beheaded goblin. Nonchalantly, I walked forward, not minding the monster which was a stone’s throw away from me.

“Gurggggghh” The hobgoblin looked up and noticed my presence, its face was smeared with the blood of the goblin it was eating. From a crouching position, it stood up and ran maniacally towards me.

“Damn, that’s creepy as hell,” I said as I pulverized it with a light kick to its face. In an instant, it became a bloody mess and dropped a small crystal. I picked it up and went deeper into the dungeon.

There were a few more monsters that came at me but I killed them easily. They’re not even worth for me to use my weapons. Ever since I came to Cuntersia, I didn’t have to unsheathe my double-bladed swords even once.

I reached the third floor of the dungeon with much ease. Surprisingly, it was empty. The hero party have probably cleared this level and is in the 4th-floor. I noticed that there were small drops of blood leading deeper into the dungeon.

I reached the 4th floor. There were people screaming near the middle of the area.

“Die foul beast!”

“We have to get help Estria’s injured!”

“We can’t do anything until we kill this monster.”

Oh look, the hero’s party is in trouble. Seems like they weren’t as strong as I thought they would be. I then walked towards the source of the noise. Two girls were at the back, it seems one of them is injured. A man with a magic sword was fighting a minotaur, looks like he’s losing though. I guess this is where I make my appearance.

*Cue dramatic music*

For the first time, I unsheathed my double-bladed swords. I crouched with my swords pointed to the beast. And then with all my strength, I kicked the floor and flew at a breakneck speed towards the Minotaur.

The man fell to the ground as he tried to evade the minotaur’s attack. It then raised it gigantic arms and was starting to rain hell into the man. “Is this where I die?” he muttered with fear and grief.

All of a sudden, A black shadow passed through the minotaur. Like the angel of death with a pair of bladed swords, moving at the speed of sonic the hedgehog. The minotaur was sliced into two pieces and fell backwards.

“Huh?” All three of the party members began to voice out in surprise, they could barely just see what happened.

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A loud “BOOM” emanated from the dungeon wall beside where the minotaur once stood. Bob was going too fast, sliced the bull in half and crashed into the wall. Talk about anti-climactic.

“Fuck, I failed the landing,” Bob said to himself as he walked towards the hero’s party.

“So embarrassing, I’ll just have to wing it then.” He muttered to himself again.

He looked at the party, a magic swordsman, a mage, and a cleric. Quite a balanced team, may I say.

“Did you just one-shot the minotaur? That’s an S-Class monster! Who are you?” The man asked.

“Shouldn’t you introduce yourself first before asking for my name?” I reminded him.

“Oh, please forgive my insolence. My name is Luther and this is my companions Estria and Sophia. We are heroes from Elxenroe.” Luther introduced themselves.

“I see, you can call me Shadow. I’m currently a mercenary hired by the Cuntersia kingdom.” I replied.

“I see, nice to meet you,” Luther said.

“Likewise,” I told him with no emotion in my voice.

“Excuse me Shadow! My friend Estria is injured, are you able to help her?” Linda the mage called out to me with pleading eyes.

“You should really do a better job at protecting your healer. They one of the most important members of every party,” I told them as I handed Estria the health potion given to me earlier.

“T-thank you,” Estria weakly muttered to me as she drank the potion.

The potion worked wonderfully, within 5 minutes, all her wounds were healed and she was fully healed.

“Alright, I’ll be taking my leave here. Be sure to protect your healer properly if you don’t want to die early,” I told them as I head to the exit. I have no interest in clearing this dungeon.

“Wait, here’s the magic crystal dropped from the minotaur. You should take it since you are the one who killed it. You can exchange it for cash at the guild.” Linda placed the crystal in my hand.

“Oh, okay thanks,” I said as I continued to walk towards the exit.

“One more thing,” She said again.

I turned back. “Thanks for saving me, I’ll definitely repay the favour sometime soon,” She shyly told me.

I acknowledged her words and exited the place. I have no expectations of her though. I headed back to the guild, exchanged the magic crystal for money and I went back to my tavern room and slept.

At the end of the day, I got 3250 gold pieces richer and became an adventurer. What a tiring day.

[Selestina’s POV. (Same timing as when Shadow went into the dungeon)]

Wow, that was a really scary ordeal. Shadow losing his temper was unexpected considering he has been pretty docile these past few days. I should make a mental note not to anger him. Also, I have to admit the mistake of not remembering his terms of the deal. “All of his expenses are to be paid by the nation and giving him what he wants as long as it is nothing unreasonable,” I made a mental note.

Now was the time to meet the royal messenger of the king, Tim. He was waiting in the tavern where the other ShadowChasers were at. I entered the tavern and walked towards Tim who was having a drink alone, he noticed me and immediately stood up, “ Good afternoon, Your Highness. Please give me a status report on your mission”.

“We have successfully pulled “The Shadow Rogue” to our side. He will fight for us if we pay for all of his expenses and giving him what he wants as long as it's not unreasonable.”

“So the mission was a success then? Were there any things we should take note of?”

“Try not to make him angry. I’ve had the displeasure of being in the same room as him when he got mad. Even if the anger was not directed at me, I still felt the severity of his anger.”

“Well, that is to be expected since he is at an impossibly high level as what the guild leader has told me. As long as we honour our agreement, there should be no problem. Well then, I’m off. I have to deliver this status report to the king by tomorrow morning.” Tim stood up, bowed to Selestina and made his way to the exit.

Now, time to meet up with the others. Blaggr, Eleonora, and Rindwom were at the far corner of the inn having a drink.

“Rough day?” Rindwom asked me as I took a seat with them.

“OH YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW. I ALMOST THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE TODAY!” I vented my frustrations.

“Get us more drinks!” Blaggr told the waiter, he knew this was going to be a good story.

“Is this about Shadow? I noticed he’s not with you,” Eleonora.

“Who else would I be stressed about?” I replied.

“There’s not many things that can stress the mighty knight of Cuntersia. So this is intriguing to listen to,” Blaggr said as he motioned the oncoming waiter to place the drinks on the table.

Selestina accepted the drink from Blaggr. And with a deep breath, she emptied the mug.

The others looked at Selestina in shock.

“That was the fastest speed-drinking timing!” A voice emanated from the back.\

“Shut the fuck up! Let her continue the story!” a gruff voice shouted.

“You want to take this outside, you punk?”

“Are you picking a fight with me? You wanna focking go m8? I’ll rip ye focking head off, I swear on me mum!”

“You focking wot now? Rippin’ me head? I’ll rip ye a brand new one if you keep on being a cheeky bugger!”

A typical bar fight ensued. The ShadowChasers were forced to continue their conversation in Eleonora’s tavern room.

“And so that was what happened” Selestina had just finished telling them about her day.

“Woah, you certainly had a rough day,” Eleonora reacted.

“ Man, I would have pissed my pants if I saw Shadow getting mad. That guy’s dangerous!” Blaggr told the others.

“Ah true, we already saw him release his bloodthirsty aura at the mountain. I can only imagine how Selestina felt when Shadow was actually angry.” Rindwom added.

“Selestina, I could switch places with you, you know. I’ll sleep in the same room as Shadow and you can sleep here.” Eleonora offered.

“Thanks for the offer but I wouldn’t be fit to be called a knight if I can’t deal with something like this by myself!” Selestina steeled her resolve and went straight to the “Popular Tavern” where Shadow and Selestina were staying at.