"Thanks for bringing them over, and for not killing all of them." A guard said to Lyle and Adam as he bowed slightly. The guard was a Bronze Knight, but after Lyle had shown him the crest of the Song family that was in his possession, the guard didn't dare to put on any airs.
The three intruders were taken into custody, but after interrogating them for a bit, both the guards and the duo of Lyle and Adam were able to find out that there was nobody that had been pulling the strings of the four, nor did any of them have any master plan.
They had simply been in the inn when Lyle and Adam had arrived.
Upon seeing the two young men who were enjoying their food and drinks, the four decided to observe them a bit.
Lyle had a feeling that someone was watching them, but they were in an inn that was filled with people, that much was normal. Usually, nobody would dare attack somebody in an inn, not to mention inside Linston which was a heavily fortified city where thousands of soldiers were located in.
Thieves, robbers, murderers, and such scum had long been eradicated in the city, but of course, some still manage to survive.
To dare attack somebody in an inn that was filled with adventurers was a dumb move, one that the four men believed would be easy since they expected Lyle and Adam to be weak thanks to their young age.
They had seen Lyle paying in the inn, he had given the waitress two gold coins even though the cost of the food was barely above 1 gold coin.
Such spending was definitely not something a normal adventurer would do.
They, thanks to their great intellect, believed that Lyle and Adam were some minor nobles that were going around and pretending they were adventurers for fun. They thought they would easily be able to sneak in and take their things, especially the spatial ring that Lyle was wearing.
A spatial ring was incredibly expensive and mostly it was adventurers that had reached the realm of Golden Knight that had them. Even adventurers of the Silver Knight realm didn't necessarily have them thanks to the expense.
Compared to assassins, merchants, and captains of the army, the adventurers were much poorer on average.
They had to take care of their equipment, buy new ones, stock up on potions and traps, and more.
That led to them usually being short on funds, even those that were higher ranked. At least that's what the adventurers believed the reason for their lack of funds was.
Seeing adventurers that hadn't broken through the Bronze Knight realm having expensive items such as that one made the four greedy and they sought to steal from Adam and Lyle, a grave mistake that cost one of them his life, while the other three were now prisoners.
It didn't even take much for the guards to get the information. The three were scared to the fullest by what occurred in the room.
The easy targets they believed would be unable to even notice them turned out to be two fierce fighters that took them down without any issues.
One was dead, another had a deep cut around his neck, while the third had most of his ribs broken, a broken arm, and a fractured jaw.
Upon learning of why the three had targeted them, Lyle and Adam simply shook their heads before leaving and going back to the inn. Lyle didn't wish to bother himself with the three at all and simply wanted the next day to come so that they could visit more dungeons before finally making their way back to Orsvald.
Upon reaching the inn, they were first stopped by the innkeeper who apologized for something like this happening and actually even returned Lyle the money that was used to pay for the accommodation.
They would stay in the inn for free, that was the apology that the innkeeper was giving them.
Even though it was not his fault that four targeted them, he still felt partly responsible as he was the one to allow four adventurers that were well known for stealing and causing trouble to enter his property.
The four had been coming to the inn quite regularly for the last month and they never bothered anyone, nor did anybody have any sort of issues with them.
That led the innkeeper to believe that the four might have changed, they had always run into trouble because they pickpocketed and occasionally tricked other adventurers, but nothing like this had ever happened before.
Lyle accepted the coins and thanked the innkeeper, once again mentioning how it was not his fault and that paying them back was unnecessary. The innkeeper simply shook his head before telling them goodnight and going back behind the bar.
The inn worked all night and it was usually the innkeeper, who was a retired adventurer, that worked at night. He was a Silver Knight, and even though his skills were rusty and he was no match for young and powerful new Silver Knights, he was more than enough to deter any troublemakers from coming to his inn.
Lyle and Adam returned to their rooms and went back to sleep as if nothing at all had happened.
Early in the morning, they woke up and went down to have breakfast before going to another dungeon.
Upon hearing what had happened last night, all the adventurers that were there had surprised expressions on their faces as they glanced at the two from time to time.
Defeating the four was nothing special as most of the squads could have done the same. They were better known for tricking people and stealing than for their battle prowess. But being attacked in the middle of the night and still being able to not only defend yourself but defeat the enemy in mere seconds, that was something that was surprising for everybody.
Lyle and Adam were newcomers that had just arrived yesterday. Nobody had seen them before, nobody had fought against or with them, and nobody knew just how powerful they were.
Some had seen Lyle showing his adventurer badge, but it was hard to believe that an adventurer that held a plain badge with three stripes that represented that he was a high-leveled adventurer below the Bronze Knight realm, was able to do something that he did last night.
The adventurers made mental notes to not mess with Adam and Lyle as they were still unable to gauge how powerful the two were.
Lyle and Adam had breakfast before leaving the bustling inn. They first took a walk around the city and looked to see if there was anything interesting happening, maybe there were some items that somebody was selling by mistake, but unfortunately for them, that did not happen.
The two then simply went to the city gate, went out after showing their badges and made their way to a dungeon.
The dungeon that Lyle planned for them to visit was one that was about the same difficulty as the previous one. The enemies this time, however, would be fewer in numbers, but more powerful compared to the kobolds.
Ogres.
Powerful monsters that were barely intelligent but possessed powerful bodies. Their regenerative powers, strong body, and great strength made them a nightmare for most adventurers.
Their tough skin was hard to penetrate and blunt weapons usually did not work well against them. Their speed was below average, but one hit was usually enough to heavily injure someone, making the ogres incredibly feared.
Adventurers didn't come to this dungeon often, as being attacked by multiple ogres was incredibly difficult to withstand, but for Lyle and Adam, this would make a perfect training spot.
Lyle was going to have Adam fight against multiple ogres. He would observe from the sides and would block any more ogres from joining the fight as he wanted to push Adam to the fullest.
The battle against the kobolds was a good learning experience for Adam, but Lyle was still not fully satisfied. Adam had not yet had a true life-and-death battle, except for back in the goblin hideout when he almost died from using too much mana and being heavily wounded.
The best way to squeeze out someone's potential was to have them fight hard battles that would challenge them and force them to use everything they had.
Adam had great potential, and Lyle was not going to let it go to waste by keeping him out of harm's way.
Even he was forced to fight numerous battles where he almost died back when he joined the organization for the first time. It was an unforgiving place where the weak would be weeded out even if they had great potential.
There would always be people that had potential but would never amount to anything thanks to never being pushed by others. One needed to face danger constantly in order to temper himself and reach his true potential.
As they arrived in front of the dungeon, a surprising sight awaited the two of them.