In front of our party stood a group of ten skeleton soldiers wearing light armor and armed with a variety of weapons.

  To be honest, they were complete fodder.

  "I'll handle this."

  Flight, the swordsman standing as the vanguard of our party, unsheathed his blade and moved swiftly.

  Fwoom!

  A golden aura seemed to emanate from his blade, giving it a magical gleam.

  Within seconds, he managed to reduce the group into a pile of bones.

  'Direct confrontation would be impossible.'

  His martial techniques weren't anything impressive, but his physical specs were still above mine.

  That meant that if I stood too close to him and tried to attack him, there would be a high chance he'd be able to counterattack.

  'It's too early to think about this.'

  My best chance to deal damage to his party would be to wait for the dungeon to send out something more powerful.

  Those skeletons were clearly just grunts, so perhaps a group of elites or the sub boss would give me a proper chance.

  I glanced behind myself, meeting the gaze of two women.

  These two were members of the... Rising Golden Sun? Whatever the party was called.

  I felt uncomfortable having my back watched over, but they had insisted that someone as young as me shouldn't be made to stay at the back where possible sneak attacks could occur.

  Rather than that, it was clearly an easy way to keep an eye over me.

  Although I lacked solid evidence, I had already come to the conclusion that the expedition leader, Corsen, and this party had come to some kind of agreement.

  An agreement which probably wasn't in my best interests.

  Now I had no idea what problems they had with me, seeing that I had literally never spoken to them before this expedition, but I must have done something pretty bad to make them this mad.

  I increased my pace a little bit, walking side by side with a few of the lower rank adventurers.

  These were adventurers that I had spoken to previously over the two day journey, meaning that they'd probably be a bit more agreeable to whatever I said.

  I wasn't planning some sort of revolution or anything, rather than that I was just trying to get them on my side.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "It's been pretty easy so far, right?"

  "Oh, yeah! With C rankers like you this should be smooth sailing."

  We quietly made some idle chatter, briefly stopping whenever some grunt monsters appeared in our way.

  Whenever they appeared, I threw out a few magic bullets, although they were far from what I was fully capable of.

  Honestly speaking, I was currently in a disadvantageous position.

  I was surrounded both front and back by enemies who most likely had information on me.

  Even if I was friendly with the lower rank adventurers, there was no chance they'd stick their necks out for me if the time came.

  My only advantage was that they did not know how strong I was.

  I had never partied with anyone since arriving in Babel, so my abilities were largely unknown outside of what I had done in the initial exam.

  But even if they didn't know the extent of my abilities, I could already tell that they were cautious towards me.

  Flight and one of his other party members staying near the vanguard occasionally took glances at me.

  As for the ones behind me, I could constantly feel them watching me.

  In an ideal scenario where they weren't against me, I'd just hang around in the backline and shoot them all down at an opportune time, but considering they're already guarded against me, I'd have to wait for a distraction.

  I continued thinking of all sorts of methods before coming to a realisation.

  'Violence... that doesn't have to be the only way, right?'

  "Uh, hey, Flight... Sir? Could we slow down for a bit?"

  A few hours had already passed since entering the dungeon.

  Flight looked back at the adventurer who had called out his name.

  Briefly thinking for a moment, he first looked at the woman standing by his side and then at the two standing at the back of the party.

  Although he himself was fine, since the ladies in his party were magicians, it was expected that they'd be a bit tired.

  As a gentleman, he had to keep their feelings in mind.

  "Right, let's rest and eat for a while."

  'This dungeon is already in the bag anyway.'

  So far, only weak monsters such as skeletons and slimes had come out, so he had no problem resting for a while and moving at a leisurely pace.

  A small resting area quickly formed as the adventurers sat down against the dungeon tunnel's walls.

  A single unlucky porter who had been dragged along rather than staying outside the dungeon began cooking over a small fire.

  From Flight's eyes, the man seemed rather well built for a porter.

  'Well, if he's a porter, the poor bastard probably has no talent.'

  He chuckled for a moment before one of the women sitting next to him spoke.

  "Flight, what's so funny?"

  "Ah, Julie, it's nothing."

  "Hey, come on, tell me, please..."

  'Damn, she's already started sulking.'

  Flight felt love towards all three of the women in his party, but he honestly didn't appreciate Julie's overly clingy behaviour.

  Even when he had asked her to stay back to watch over the kid, she insisted on staying with him.

  He much preferred the obedience of the other two.

  Smoothly making up some nonsense to console Julie, he thought about what Corsen had told him in private.

  'Tch, that guy looks good on the outside, but who knew he'd be so rotten?'

  He had been told to find a way to ensure that the kid with blue eyes, Outis, faced a serious injury.

  It wasn't something he'd prefer to do, but Corsen had said he'd get their party into Flame if he managed to accomplish the task.

  It was far too enticing of an offer to refuse.

  He had been working so damn hard to get noticed by a guild, and now all he had to do was fuck up some kid.

  The decision was obvious.

  Still, he felt slightly nervous.

  With his adventurer's intuition, he could tell that the scenario was quite fishy.

  What was the point of crippling a kid?

  Why would a guild want that in the first place?

  And whenever he looked at the kid, he felt as if his intentions were totally seen through.

  He signalled for his other two party members to come over before questioning them.

  "So, what do you think?"

  "Hm, he's already cautious of us..."

  "I don't see why we have to act like this, why can't we just-"

  "Alright, I got it."

  Flight closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  Looking at the one in question, his heart skipped a beat.