The journey started off clean and neat, with everybody having some chats here and there, none of them breaking in to any fights, which is a good thing for me. The only bad thing I can think of happening to me is that one of them might make a move on me, either the one hostile to me, or those with that kind of fetish.
Only when we first encountered a monster did the group become alert. Not bad if I might have a say, even looking at the hero made me think that he had the qualifications of being a good leader. The monster in question was a pack of goblins, which I haven't seen yet.
'I need one, maybe something good will come out of it when I put the influence of my dungeon onto them.'
"Yanahiro-san, take the front with some warriors and tanks, healers and mages at the back with one tank and two warriors, archers, thieves and assassins support the group!"
With swift commands, the hero gave everybody their roles. Though in the eyes of the bystander (me), just doing this was overkill, I mean, seriously, 5-6 goblins versus a hero party numbering 46… Yup, anyway you put it, it is overkill, not that I mind though.
I brandished my shovel and rushed into the battle, not. Instead what I did was kill steal a dying goblin with my shovel. I made an act like putting in a lot of force to hit the goblin, only to slow down at the last moment. I don't want to be giving the heroes any information about my real strength right now.
As a result, the goblin died from blood loss and with blunt trauma at the head as the finishing blow. The other heroes who were fighting (slaughtering) the goblin gave me a thumb up.
'Huh, weird…'
I didn't think that they would give me a thumb up… I thought they would either worry about me being in a fight, or get angry for stealing their kill. Just then, I heard a sound in my head, something like a bell ringing, and a holographic window appeared in front of me.
[Gren Has Levelled up!]
Adventurer License # FG-117780
Name: Gren
Age: 12
Gender: Male
Level: 1 2
Str: 12 (127) 13 (128)
Vit: 9 (124) 10 (125)
Agi: 18 (133) 20 (135)
Dex: 15 (130) 17 (132)
Int: 11 12
Wis: 10 11
Luc: 24
Titles: N/A
-- Skills --
Passive: [Lightweight Body], [Durable Body], [Enhance Physical Performance], [Weapon Knowledge – Shovel Intermediate], [Weapon Knowledge – Sword Beginner] [Invulnerability]
Active: [Phasing Blade]
On the window, I saw my own status. Come to think of it, I recalled that the receptionist told me to think about status and this will show up. I think I forgot about it because I had other important matters to attend to, anyways…
When I looked at my status, I saw some numbers, as well as my brief description, the numbers being my stats and my adventurer license code. Taking a closer look, some numbers were inside parenthesis. This was probably the doing of the skill [Enhance Physical Performance] from my suit, too bad it didn't influence Int, Wis, and Luc.
I'll investigate more of my status once this quest is over, right now, there is a battle (slaughter) happening. I prompted it for the window to go away and focused my attention to the fight. There was only one goblin left, so I went to the side of the leading hero and asked him a question.
"Isn't this a little bit overkill…?"
"Yes, yes it is…"
Once I got my answer, I went back to silent mode. Once the last goblin was killed, the heroes quickly cut off the right ears of the goblins, probably for proof, or materials.
"Anyway, should we continue?"
The leading hero looked to me with a smile, and I nodded back.
'I guess I can let them tag along… But in the long term, I need to get away from them as far as possible…'
I don't want to be a sacrificial pawn of a kingdom when they say 'Die for the heroes!' or even be the heroes' target as a dungeon master. For now, I'll let them tag along since I cannot get on their bad side.
After walking for a few hours, we came across a group of wounded soldiers. And surprise surprise, they were the soldiers that were attacked by the bandits, and saved by me but got scared of my golem. When the heroes saw them, they quickly entered into serious mode.
"Hey! Are you all alright!? "
The leading hero… Let's just call him Kawasaki… Kawasaki quickly ran to the group of soldiers. The other heroes did as well. I followed along behind them.
The healers quickly went and did their jobs, healing the soldiers while the others maintained their high alert to the surroundings.
"What happened here?"
"Hero, is that you? This is bad, really, really bad. You need to run!"
"Run? But why?"
"A golem, a huge golem that could destroy a town… It's roaming around here, I don't know why, but you still aren't a match for it, not yet."
"A golem…?"
"…"
I stayed silent ultimately because that golem was me, but I won't tell them…
After Kawasaki had his conversation with the soldiers, he split the group into two. Half will go with the soldiers back to the town to report the situation, while the other half will accompany me to my destination, or...
"Gren, if you would please follow the others back to town. I feel like something here is very dangerous. I don't want you to risk your life in this quest where we don't know what might happen."
"That's right brat! Go back to the city or something. we don't have time to babysit the likes of you!"
"Yanahiro-san!"
"…"
I went silent for a bit, before stating my course of action.
"Nope, my quest, my responsibility. Whatever you say, I won't abandon my quest."
"… Fine, just be careful. We might not be able to protect you if worse comes to worst."
And with that, we continued on with half of the group. As we got closer to the area, a sense of uneasiness comes across my being.
'Why is this place familiar…?'
Just then, my memory clicked in. Wounded soldiers, bandit attack, golem, and a somehow familiar scenery…
'Oh fuck… Oh fuck shit fuck… I've done goofed…'
A few more minutes later, we arrived at a pretty familiar bell.
'WHY THE HELL DID LET THE HEROES COME TO MY DUNGEON!?'