With the introductions done, now comes the preparations. Dungeons were dangerous places, and preparation is key to survival. If he couldn't survive a measly C to B ranked dungeon, how would Kayden become the God of Thieves? Thus, he took preparations very seriously.
They were three things that they had to do. Firstly, they had to go to the blacksmith. Louis had his enchanted greatsword undergo maintenance from the local blacksmith and needed to go collect it himself, while both Kayden and Ezekiel needed to restock on their projectiles. After the fight with Brandon, their supply of knives and arrows had dwindled to pitiful numbers.
The next thing they had to do was get the basic supplies like food, water, camping equipment, and more. Dungeons are not typically cleared in a day unless they were super tiny, but then they wouldn't be classified as dungeons by the Adventurer's Guild in the first place. Thus, they needed to bring with them necessities to ensure they won't die of thirst or starvation, for that would be an embarrassing way to go out. Not to mention, traveling to the dungeon itself would be a long journey…
Which brings us to the last item to prepare. Transportation! There were multiple modes of transportation, but the most common of all would be horses. Ah, good old horses. Horses had good stamina and speed, as well as the endurance and strength to carry heavy loads that a human could not. This made them the perfect transportation animal, vehicle, beast of burden, whatever you want to call it.
There are many different ways an adventurer could obtain a horse for transportation as purchasing one straight up would be very costly. Adventurers are usually very broke, after all. To save on gold, they can join merchant caravans, or share horses with other adventurers that have them, though these methods were for the incredibly poor or desperate. The more common method would be to rent! Renting horses ensures that adventurers wouldn't have to worry about the long-term feeding of horses, nor about the money to be able to afford one.
'Renting is such a great business opportunity! Just think of the amount of money you can make from just lending horses!'
If they wanted maximum cost efficiency, having two people share one horse would be the best, but since they had an odd number of people in the party, more money had to be spent. Thankfully, there were people to split the cost with, so he didn't need to pay as much. He was buried under a mountain of debt, after all.
He had briefly considered the idea of having his master directly teleport him there, which would save him the travel money, but he wasn't very sure if Morgan had placed a marker near the area they needed to go to. To reach the Kelekona mountains where the dungeon was found, the party would have to travel for two days on horses or one day straight without rest.
"Four days."
"… What?"
"Don't look at me like that! Ezekiel said that we'll be walking, so no horses." Alice folded her arms, evidently dissatisfied with the arrangement.
Kayden was equally dissatisfied. "If we take too long, won't the other adventurers get a head start? That's four days we're talking about! The dungeon will be wiped clean by then!"
He looked to the front where the ranger was leading the party to their next destinations. Ezekiel was decisive as he spoke.
"No."
"No…?"
"I received some intel that the adventurers have hit a roadblock in the explorations. There's a massive magical barrier that prevents the gates from opening, and none of their magic can break through it, so they're attempting to backdoor the whole thing by drilling a new entrance."
Louis, who was taking leisurely strides at the back, laughed. "As expected of the Galians! Brute force is their solution to everything!"
His words were loud and could be heard by any passerby, who so happened to be Galians. Kayden could see that they were on the verge of picking a fight. However, none of them dared to do or say anything, since the Adventurer's card tied to a necklace on his neck proved his B ranked status.
Kayden thought it was fine since if they had acted on their impulses and attacked, they would simply be proving Louis right.
The two Galians in the party were a little peeved as well. Cathy had on a complicated expression while Alice looked visibly frustrated. Using the blunt end of her staff, she poked Kayden in the sides.
"Tch! Hey, are you just going to let him run his mouth? Do something!"
Kayden stared at her in confusion. He was more upset about the fact that they weren't riding horses to care about some off-handed comment that Louis made.
"Why me?"
"You're from this continent too! Aren't you mad?"
He gave a mysterious smile. "What made you get that idea? Besides, I fully agree. Galians do have a tendency to use violence first."
Kayden knew for he had experience regarding this. The recent attack on him from Brandon was proof of this. Instead of talking it out or negotiating like civilized people, he attacked him, and what for? A small hit to his pride? Matou was also not an exception to this, as he had also used violence, though more understandably so since it was from the perspective of the side of justice. The worst of them all was Alice, who was getting a little bit too comfortable with hitting him.
"Wha—Ugh, nevermind." Alice looked even more peeved than before and turned her head away.
Cathy, who was waiting for everyone to finish speaking, quickly asked Ezekiel a question.
"Hey, Ezekiel… About the topic from before...Do you perhaps think that—"
"It's possible. While your ability won't be able to break the whole barrier, it might allow us to temporarily disable it and break in." As if he could read minds, Ezekiel answered the unfinished question.
It was at this moment that Kayden realized something. Louis wasn't the party leader, but rather it was Ezekiel instead. As far as how the party dynamics are for this party, Ezekiel acted more like the leader than Louis did. In fact, it had been very obvious since the beginning.
It was Ezekiel that insisted the party wait for a rogue, him that tested Kayden for his capabilities, and finally, he was also the one who answered most questions and did the behind-the-scenes work like gathering intelligence. Even now, he was leading the party at the front.
'He's more capable than I thought he was, especially at first glance. Just having power doesn't gather trust, it is the personal qualities you have. Maybe I should give him the respect he deserves…'
'Nah.'
Deliberately mispronouncing his name had been funny, and Ezekiel had tried to get him to disarm explosive traps for a test. It was pretty petty of him but still better than those who first resorted to violence.
"Alright, we're here."
Ezekiel stopped in front of a stone building with some kind of open porch where several weapons were displayed on racks. At a glance, one could tell that the craftsmanship was of very high quality. However, Kayden didn't fall for this trick. It was obvious that the blacksmith would display their best pieces at the front while making mediocre quality items most of the time.
"Ah, I forgot that you guys aren't locals. This place isn't the best place for high-end equipment," he said as he knocked on his head. "The one by the castle in the inner city is much better than this one."
He would know, as he had been to both before. The blacksmith that they were at offered cheap decent equipment, while the one in the inner city offered expensive higher quality equipment. He knew that Louis had an enchanted greatsword, which would have been better maintained at the other place rather than this one.
Since Kayden's knives were pretty much disposable, he generally preferred this one as to him, the quality wasn't nearly as important as quantity. More importantly, they were cheaper.
"I knew that," Ezekiel replied. "Most of the damage I do comes from my ability anyway. I just needed to restock my arrows. As for Louis…"
They all turned around to see a horrified expression on his face. "I didn't know that…" He stared wide-eyed and mouth-open at Kayden. "Why didn't you tell me before you left?"
"… You didn't ask."
"Oh no no nononono…" With panicked footsteps, he ran towards the blacksmith and slammed the door open. Kayden heard the familiar greetings from the blacksmith before it was rudely interrupted by urgent shouting.
"Hoho! Welcome to—"
"Sword! My precious sword! Where is it? Return it to me, quick!"
With a wide range of expressions on their faces, they made their way into the blacksmith together.
***
Since young, Ryan always had great stamina, strength, and speed, which was how he could carry the heavy Brandon across long distances. This was all thanks to his blessing, Blessings of the Giant Venomous Lizard.
… He wasn't the man who came up with that name. The wizards of the west did.
This blessing sounded like one of those throwaway or useless ones, like the Blessings of a Chicken or Cow, but it was far from it actually. Giant venomous lizards were just a term for exactly that, giant venomous lizards, and he had obtained similar powers to that species.
That included increased physical and regenerative abilities, venomous claws and teeth, as well as the ability to camouflage and climb walls. On the power spectrum of B-ranked adventurers, he was surprisingly very high up there. In fact, contrary to what it seemed, he could very easily defeat Brandon.
However, his blessing came with a fatal flaw. He had the face of a lizard. With his venomous spit, no woman would want to kiss him, much less even consider him a potential partner. Indeed, this was a sore spot for him, so much so that sometimes he wished his ability modified his taste to prefer reptilian beastpeople. Those that he had met even hit on him sometimes.
"Sigh," He looked around at his surroundings and found a suitable spot to rest. After gently placing down the still unconscious Brandon, he found a nice rock and sat down. "You idiot, don't say I didn't warn you. You're lucky you have me to save you, just like many times before…"
He had known Brandon for nearly eight years now since their first meeting during their C-ranked adventurer days. With Brandon's natural ability to withstand attacks, he was always at the forefront of danger, and it was up to Ryan to consistently rescue him from those sticky situations. Although Brandon constantly referred to him as his lackey, they were more comrade-in-arms.
He reached into a pouch that hung on his belt and pulled out a potion. A bright green liquid was held within the thin glass tube and a stopper, and from a glance, one might think it was acid. Popping off the stopper, he poured the gooey liquid over any wounds he could spot. The contents seeped into the countless slash marks and the wounds closed at a visible pace.
This was a healing potion, but not your typical store-bought red kind. Thanks to his venom and regeneration abilities, Ryan became an alchemist himself and could brew his concoctions. He specialized in healing and poisonous stuff, and they were made with ingredients he procured from himself. No, he did not go out to collect it, he literally collected it from himself, both deadly venom and regenerative tissue.
This meant that Brandon couldn't know how he obtained these potions, for if he did, he would vehemently reject the concoctions that had saved his life so many times before.
'Actually, maybe that would encourage him to be less reckless?' Ryan didn't know what to think.
Brandon's breathing eased as what looked like steam rose from his wounds. Indeed, while his strength could not match up to Brandon, his speed, utility, and venom more than made up for it. He was sure from what he had seen that, if he had been the one to fight Kayden, he would for sure come up on top.
After all, their abilities weren't so different. His camouflage to his invisibility. His venom infliction to his bleeding knife wounds. And of course, speed vs speed. However, there was a reason he was a B-ranked adventurer and not Kayden. Even if he had less powerful abilities, there was a factor not yet accounted for, and that was the difference in experience.
"Brandon is probably never going to live this down. If he does not get his revenge, it will lead to his eventual destruction. The easiest way out of this would be to kill the boy, satisfy Brandon, and leave."
He had noticed that throughout the fight, the A-ranked adventurer never appeared, even when the thief was on the verge of dying. It was a calculated guess, but he thought that he would most likely be safe even if they went after him, though they might have to go into hiding for a while afterward.
"Let's see you try to fight both of us at once!" With his sharp teeth, a fiendish grin formed on his reptilian face.