In the garden area, Sol was seen trimming and watering the flowers, during this time, some of the demon guards threw stones at him just for fun to annoy him. Naturally, Sol didn't want to get locked up in the underground prison for causing trouble, so he ignored the guards and let them do whatever they wanted.
"Hahaha! Look at him, he's so scared of getting punished."
The demon guards continued to trash talk and threw stones at Sol, and once again, Sol didn't care, in fact, he was already used to it since this wasn't the first time he had gone through such bullying.
A few weeks passed…
One day, when Sol was cleaning Terasia's bedroom, he sensed someone was watching him.
"Who goes there?!!"
A few seconds later, hiding in the shadows, Luna slowly revealed herself to Sol.
"Wow! I can't believe you were able to discover me despite my perfect stealth skill." [Luna]
"L-Luna?!"
"Yeah, it's me, long time no see."
"What are you doing here?!"
"Nothing, I was just bored of waiting so I decided to leave the dungeon."
It was at this moment, Terasia entered the room.
WHOOSH!
In a blink of an eye, Luna vanished and was nowhere to be seen.
Luna is a Diamond-Rank Assassin, and killing the 9 Elite Demons is a piece of cake for her since those Elite Demons were only Platinum-Rank. In this world, just by being one rank higher is almost like a lion vs a mouse, that's how big the gap is.
You may ask why Luna hesitated to kill the 9 Elite Demons? Well, she just didn't want to risk it. She fears if she did that, it might alert those Diamond-Rank demons about her presence in this continent. Furthermore, she lacks the confidence to do it due to her past trauma, and she's also paranoid.
"Welcome back, master!" [Sol]
"Is my breakfast ready?" [Terasia]
"Yes, please have a seat first while I go to the kitchen to bring the food for you."
"Alright, better hurry up because I'm really hungry."
"Yes, master! Right away."
Seeing what was going on, Luna couldn't help but laugh inside her heart.
'How did he go from killing those Diamond-Rank monsters to serving a Platinum-Rank demon? That makes no sense as Diamond-Rank monsters are many times stronger than a Platinum-Rank demon.' Luna thought.
Only reason Sol was able to kill those Diamond-Rank monsters was because those monsters were dumb, thus his strategy of exhausting his opponent worked, but not against the demons since they already knew about his fighting strategy. After all, being strong isn't the only way to win in a fight as intelligence also plays a role.
Eventually, night time arrived and it was time to go to bed.
Since Sol was a butler now, therefore the Elite demons gave him a proper room to sleep.
Lying in his bed and looking up at the ceiling, Sol was looking rather annoyed.
"Are you going to spy on me while I'm sleeping?"
That was when Luna stopped hiding and came out.
"What's wrong? I thought you were going to get rid of all the demons in this world, so why are you here serving the demons instead?"
Luna was curious and wanted to know.
"Idiot, I'm only doing this because I lost my power."
"You lost your power?"
"Forget it, I don't wanna talk about it."
"Why not?"
"Because it pisses me off the more I think about it." [Sol]
'If only this stupid debuff didn't exist.' Sol sighed.
"Well, I don't know what happened to you, but aren't you forgetting something? Especially me?"
When Sol heard that, he suddenly wanted to slap himself in the face hard for forgetting something so obvious.
'Right, I totally forgot that Luna is a Diamond-Rank Assassin. And if it's her, it shouldn't be an issue getting out of here.'
Looking at Luna, Sol said, "So you're saying you will help me get out of here?"
"Isn't that obvious since we're friends?"
After giving some thought, Sol made up his mind and said, "Looks like I don't have a choice after all even though it hurts my pride to ask for your help. Very well, if that's the case, I'll be in your care then."
With that said, Sol got up from his bed and together, they both shook their hands as a way to celebrate their friendship.
The next day, early in the morning…
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
A demon guard knocked on Sol's room.
"Hey! Wake up you, dog! Don't you know it's time to get to work?!"
Naturally, there was no response because Sol had already escaped since last night.
When there was no response, the guard got mad and crashed into Sol's room forcefully.
"Bastard! Do you want to get punished again and sent to the underground prison?!"
It took a few seconds before the guard realized Sol was nowhere to be seen.
"What the hell? Where did that fucker go?"
Just like that, the news spread all over Darcia castle regarding Sol's disappearance.
Meanwhile, far away from Darcia city, deep in the forest, Luna who was carrying Sol and running the whole time finally stopped once they realized they were far enough to be called safe.
"We should be fine now as this is far enough." [Luna]
"Thank you. You can put me down now." [Sol]
With that, Luna gently put Sol down on the ground.
The moment Sol's feet touched the ground, out of nowhere, he received a notification from the system:
Ding!
[A new side quest has appeared!]
[Side Quest: Without the help of Luna, kill all the 9 Elite Demons.]
[Reward: 1 Red Crystal]
'I have to kill the 9 Elite Demons by myself? Fuck, looks like the side quest this time is going to be difficult to clear… Oh well, no point thinking about it too much, looks like I have to come up with a plan for this one.'
Seeing Sol was spacing out, Luna couldn't help but wonder what Sol was thinking about.
"Hellooo? What are you thinking about?" Luna asked curiously.
Unlike Luna, only Sol could see the hologram screen in front of him.
"Nothing much. By the way, I think I'm good here. Once again, thanks for the help, I truly appreciate it."
"You're welcome, and what do you mean you're good here?"
"It means I don't need your help anymore, so you can go now. Sorry, I'm not trying to get rid of you or anything, it's just I cannot guarantee that you will be safe as long as you're with me. So please do me a favor and go to the Xenon Continent, I'm sure you will be safer there."
Sol knew that as long as Luna remained in this continent, there would be a risk of her running into those Diamond-Rank demons and if that happened, it would be the end of her. In short, Sol just wanted to play safe and not take any risk.
"You sure you really don't need my help?" [Luna]
"Yes, I've already made up my mind."
"Fine… then can you promise me one thing before I go?"
"What is it?"
"Can you please stay alive until we meet again in the Xenon Continent?"
"Of course, you think I'm the type that would die easily? I'm sure by now you already know that I'm a tank that cannot be killed no matter what they do."
"Alright then, one more thing, can you please close your eyes for a second?"
"Huh, what for?"
"Just do as I say or else I won't leave."
"Err… Fine…"
The moment Sol closed his eyes, in an instant, Luna kissed Sol's left cheek.
"Okay, you can open your eyes now."
"Wait… did you just—?"
When Sol opened his eyes as instructed, Luna had already disappeared and no matter where he looked around, he couldn't find Luna at all.
"The hell? Where did she go?"
The reason Luna left suddenly was because she was too embarrassed to face Sol, especially after kissing him on the cheek.
Far away from where Sol was standing, Luna was blushing as she ran as far as she could.
"Welp, I guess she must've really liked me…"
Sol didn't blush at all, in his mind, he wasn't in the mood for romance because getting his power back first was his first priority over anything else.
A few weeks later…
Standing outside of the Carrot Dungeon's entrance, Sol smiled as he was glad to be back here again.
'For now, I'll stay inside this dungeon for safety. Hehe, they will never be able to find me here.'
During this whole time, Sol had already come up with a plan, and that's by collecting poison from Diamond-Rank monsters.
There are all kinds of monsters inside the Carrot Dungeon, he just needs to search for the ones that are poisonous or venomous, and that should be good enough to use it to kill the Elite Demons.
Without any delay, Sol entered the Carrot Dungeon and the moment he was inside, he felt relieved because he was now safe and the demons will never be able to find him here.
"Hahahaha! Just you wait, Valor! I'll make sure to avenge your death and kill them all! This way your death won't go in vain."
Just by thinking about getting revenge, Sol was already feeling pumped and motivated.
Just like that, his mission to search for poisonous monsters began.