"Explosive Fire Magic Bullet."

  A wave of slimes, goblins and skeletons were immediately obliterated by a volley of my magic bullets.

  Since I had now managed to fool Flight into being on my side, it would be more beneficial to show abilities to impress him.

  If I seemed weak, he could begin doubting me, so this made sense.

  "This kind of strength at your age... it's amazing."

  He sung me some praises which I accepted humbly.

  "Yeah, but you're not bad yourself, that swordsmanship sure is something, maybe you could teach me once we're done here."

  "Haha, that sounds good."

  His personality had done a complete one-eighty since accepting my words.

  'Well, it's only beneficial for me.'

  One of the women in his party seemed to be staring at me with anger, but I didn't think too much of it.

  The other two seemed fine with me, following their leader's attitude shift.

  As for the lower ranking adventurers, they were already on good terms with me, so there were no issues there.

  All the members in his party were on the same low - moderate threat level, indicating that they were weaker than me but could still pose a threat.

  But since I had earnt their trust, or at least made them not want to attack me, that didn't matter.

  ...

  Over time, the dungeon finally began increasing in difficulty.

  At first, we were just fighting small numbers of weak monsters, but now there were monsters that could be called 'elites.'

  Skeletons warriors of high quality, orcs with powerful regeneration, and goblin warriors with goblin dart shooters to strategically back them up.

  As if that wasn't enough, traps started appearing.

  Out of our fifteen adventurers, technically sixteen when counting the porter, two had died.

  The front vanguard was able to handle monsters well, but nothing could be done about things such as a stray arrow being shot from a wall.

  We had potions, but an arrow through the head or falling into a pit of spikes wasn't exactly something that could be dealt with using such low-level potions.

  The group still marched on fearlessly despite the losses, after all, death was a constant in this kind of profession.

  Even the E ranks in our group knew this well enough, and so they quietly trudged forwards even after their comrades had died.

  For me though, things still seemed pretty easy.

  Out of the remaining twelve, seven were basically just meat shields and fodder who only served to take out lower mobs.

  Me, Flight, and the ladies in his party were able to handle the elites quite well.

  He served as a good tank and melee damage dealer whilst me and two other mages rained spells from afar.

  The final member focused on buffing Flight and casting barriers to protect him, and so we worked efficiently as a party.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Naturally, I still held back a good bit, it would only benefit me if they tired themselves out.

  'Oh?'

  After a while, we came upon something different.

  Up until now, we were following a single straightforward path, but after dealing with another wave of elites, we spotted a small opening in the wall.

  Inside that opening was a chest.

  Immediately, I looked at Flight, who was already staring at me.

  Our shared feature of blue eyes clashed for a moment, before I had a stray thought.

  I quickly looked back at the chest.

  'This ability, it's better than expected.'

  Looking back at Flight, I smiled before speaking.

  "Ah, you've been working pretty hard, so I think that it's only right that you get the chest."

  He seemed surprised by my kindness, but he hastily accepted it before I could change my mind.

  Obviously, the lower rank adventurers around us had no right to try and claim the chest, so their opinions weren't even voiced.

  "Then... there's no going back on that, hah, thanks for this one, you can take the next chest, if one appears."

  I wondered if he'd still think like that after opening the 'chest'.

  I stood back as he greedily approached further.

  For a moment, I watched him fiddle with the locks on the chest before looking back.

  'Is it asleep?'

  "Ehm... I think there's some kind of magical lock on it, Julie, could you help me out?"

  "Y-yes, of course..."

  She quickly hurried over to him with a bright smile on her face.

  I frowned for a moment before observing what happened next.

  Flight stood back a few feet whilst his party member did her work on the chest.

  Click

  After a few minutes, the chest opened.

  "Uh, there's nothing inside?"

  The blonde haired woman voiced her confusion, with Flight also approaching after a moment of hesitation.

  'Wait, is this a double kill?'

  "Oh, wait, Flight, I think there's some kind of cover on the bottom."

  It was a rather large chest, big enough to fit a curled up human, so she had to bend over and stick her torso inside to reach the bottom.

  From the outside, it was actually a rather lewd scene, but knowing what was about to happen next, I couldn't think of it that way.

  "Ew! Flight, it's wet!"

  The woman spoke with disgust, without realising the kind of danger she was in.

  "Wet? Shit, get b-"

  I bit my lip hard, struggling to hold back a smile.

  I had to give Flight some credit, he was a little more competent than I had thought, considering he had quickly realised that it was a mimic.

  But... the woman's body was already half inside the chest, so the outcome was inevitable.

  CHOMP.

  The chest almost instantly closed, revealing its sharp teeth whilst doing so.

  For a moment, there was silence.

  Even for me, the sight was gruesome.

  I had seen my fair share of human deaths, but this was beyond my expectations.

  What remained of her legs slumped over and fell to the ground.

  As for her torso, it was nowhere to be seen.

  'Damn.'

  I couldn't have asked for a better result, honestly speaking.

  "Haaaagh!"

  A golden light, more brilliant than anything than before, enveloped Flight's sword.

  He charged forwards whilst screaming in anger.

  I remained still, simply watching his actions.

  The mimic rumbled slightly before growing a tiny pair of twig like legs.

  Despite its efforts, it was still too slow to avoid the martial prowess of its opponent.

  Flight cleaved off part of the top of the mimic, partially revealing what was inside.

  It was impossible to see from where I was standing, but judging from the way he paused, I could guess it wasn't a pleasant sight.

  'Doesn't look like it'll be able to do much.'

  After his pause, the aura around his blade increased in intensity even further.

  "Sunset."

  Shoom!

  Even to me, it seemed quite impressive.

  As per its name, the golden sword struck downwards like the setting sun.

  The poor mimic couldn't hope to defend itself against such an attack.

  It was instantly cut in half, spilling out a mix of its own... organs, and that of the now deceased Julie.

  I hoped that it would at least be able to injure Flight, but I supposed this also worked.

  It was just a guess, but it was unlikely Flight would be able to use that attack again for a while.

  In other words, he had tired himself out.

  Briefly glancing at his other two party members, they seemed completely distracted, traumatised by what they had just seen.

  'Let's move the plan forward.'

  During the lull after the battle, an orange magic circle appeared at the tip of my finger.