One week since Icarus arrived back on Temploria soil.

  The town came into view at last. It was not big, probably only around 20 buildings, yet it was still the most humans he had seen in a long time and the only ones that weren't trying to kill him.

  .

  .

  .

  It was quite surreal, and he wandered throughout the buildings just looking around until he noticed strange looks from some neighboring villagers.

  He sighed and went inside the largest building in town, which bore a sign reading: "Bushback Inn."

  Making his way inside, he saw there was actually a decent amount of passersby, just like him, including three adventurers talking to the lady behind the counter.

  She looked flustered and glanced between the three who were crowding her and talking. Icarus stepped in to see what they were saying.

  "I reserved a spot for the raid a week ago!"

  "I'm sorry, there must have been some mistake! The only spots available a week ago were for mages, none of you are a mage, so you couldn't have done as you claimed."

  "Where are these mages?! I would certainly like to have a word with them!"

  "They are all already at the entrance of the dungeon in case of a dungeon break, well, erm..."

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  The male fighter adventurer, who had a sword and shield strapped to his back and was the only one in his party who had been arguing with the clerk, pounced on her hesitation.

  "Oh? Speak up then! Where are they!? If one mage is missing, surely you can find space for me in the raid party?"

  Icarus smiled and stepped past the man faster than he could see and spoke up.

  "Ah, I'm sorry, miss. Seems I'm a bit late, hopefully this is enough to make up for the trouble I've caused."

  Icarus had instantly decided to check out the dungeon raid as soon as he heard about it. He had put on the table a large bag of silver taken from dead or unconscious bandits back in the shattered lands.

  The two companions of the fighter, a Spearman evidently from the eastern lands due to his darker complexion, and a young woman with fair hair who appeared to be some type of cleric.

  Icarus turned back to the clerk and smiled slightly, and she graciously accepted the coin purse with a slight blush on her face.

  "Y-yes, there is no problem, just follow the wisps to the outside of the village."

  Icarus nodded and turned to leave, but was stopped by a large hand.

  "Hold up, how do we even know who this guy is? Isn't anyone else concerned by that? I mean, he shows up out of nowhere with a ton of cash and wants to do a dungeon raid, who does that?!"

  Icarus nearly coughed aloud at this extremely astute observation; however, he caught himself, and before anyone else could say a word, he grabbed the man's wrist.

  "I would ask you to kindly remove your hand."

  Chills ran up the man's spine, as Icarus' eyes met his, it was clear to him that those weren't the eyes of some rich kid trying to get in on a dungeon raid for fun or to rebel against his parents.

  They were the eyes of someone who had stabbed someone through the throat and silenced them as they died.

  However, there was no way to prove this theory of his.

  So he simply let his arm go limp and drop before Icarus walked out of the inn.

  He sighed and pulled his hood up. He usually didn't like to show that side of himself anymore; however, to just one person and in such a situation where he could be exposed as a fraud, he had decided it was necessary.

  Now his next problem was finding what a wisp was.

  He figured he couldn't ask back at the inn, as it might blow his cover.

  However, now he faced the problem of having no clue how to 'follow' or even find these "wisps."

  He muttered in annoyance and decided that maybe it was a type of ghost that showed up at night, so waiting for the night, which was almost upon him already, was the clear option.

  .

  .

  .

  As night fell, he sighed and looked around. There was still nothing in sight, he felt like a fool but couldn't really do much other than wait.

  "Maybe I should have let that guy go..."

  "EAAAAAAAAAKK"

  A piercing scream ripped through the night, followed by several shouts and sounds of swords clashing and magic firing off.

  Icarus smiled.

  Instantly, he shot off in the direction of the noise without a second thought.

  Seems the dungeon had broken before the raid party

  assembled fully.

  A disaster for them, but yet another stroke of luck.

  "For me!"