Days after the adventurers were attacked by Ryu, Daniel, the guild master, was perplexed.

More than a dozen adventurers had vanished. This meant that most of the adventurers who participated in the raid were gone. (Many others had left town voluntarily.)

Initially, Daniel thought they were busy with requests from the Merchant's Guild, which is why they hadn't been frequenting the Adventurer's Guild. But that didn't seem to be the case.

Rumors were swirling about Ryu seeking revenge on the adventurers, harboring a grudge against them.

At the same time, Daniel knew that Yorm and his group were planning something against Ryu.

If Yorm were to eliminate Ryu, it would be for the best. Daniel assumed there was no way they would be defeated by him, with their sheer numbers.

But, could it be...?

Since then, Ryu had continued to show up at the guild every day. Yorm and his group had disappeared.

Did this mean…?

Even though the Adventurer's Guild had lost a significant number of adventurers, thankfully, or rather unfortunately, the number of requests had also dramatically decreased. No major issues had arisen as a result.

Plus, the A-rank party "Red Meteor" was currently staying in town. If they were successful, the Adventurer's Guild's reputation would rise again, and things would improve. Daniel held onto that vague hope.

"Red Meteor" consisted of four members: Amira and Jojo, both A-rank adventurers, Chacha who was B-rank, and Big, the leader, a noble.

Despite being an A-rank party, Big's actual rank was B. The party was categorized as A-rank because of the presence of two A-rank adventurers, Amira and Jojo, and due to the influence of the noble.

Moreover, Big's B-rank was also secured through his noble connections. In reality, Big's true skill was equivalent to a D-rank adventurer.

The truth was that Big's father had paid a hefty sum to hire Amira and Jojo's previous A-rank party, "Meteor," to form this new party.

"Red Meteor" was currently gathering information about the dungeon. They planned to start the dungeon conquest soon, but on that day, the members of "Red Meteor" were waiting for someone in the tavern attached to the Adventurer's Guild.

(Recently, the Merchant's Guild had also started a tavern. Adventurers who finished requests given by the Merchant's Guild would stay and drink there, making the Adventurer's Guild tavern quite deserted.)

As usual, Ryu appeared at the Adventurer's Guild.

He glanced at the request board, confirming that nothing had changed, and was about to head towards the buyback counter when Big, the leader of "Red Meteor," called out to him.

Ryu was the person Big's group had been waiting for.

"Hey Ryu, how are you doing?"

"..."

Ryu attempted to ignore Big and walk away, but Big grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Wait a minute, Ryu. We're friends, you know. Don't ignore me."

"I don't recall ever being friends with you. I'm busy, so don't bother me."

Ryu shook off Big's hand and went to the buyback counter.

As usual, he headed to the warehouse to collect dismantled materials and receive new dismantling requests.

Recently, Ryu had been carrying a large bag, using it to transport materials.

Well, he was making it look like he was transporting them.

Since his storage magic was so rare, people would be curious and ask him questions everywhere he went. He was constantly being harassed with insistent recruitment attempts, so he grew tired of it.

Therefore, he decided to pretend that the bag had internal space expansion, a "magic bag," by making it appear as if he was taking things in and out of the bag.

Of course, the bag wasn't a magical item or anything like that. It was just a regular bag. Ryu would act as though he was taking things in and out of the bag while actually pulling them out of his subspace storage.

Those who had seen Ryu using subspace storage knew the truth, but he had warned them to keep quiet.

Everyone understood that if it were to be discovered, someone with the ability to use subspace storage magic was extremely rare, and a commotion would undoubtedly occur. It became an unspoken secret.

Thanks to this, those he had met later were under the impression that Ryu had a high-performance magic bag.

Anyone who observed carefully would realize that things weren't actually being taken in and out of the bag. However, there weren't that many people who had the chance to see Ryu putting things in and out of it, nor would they stare closely at him long enough to notice. So, at first glance, it seemed to work.

Consequently, people would occasionally try to steal the bag.

However, Ryu could sense the bad intentions of others.

He could read their minds with his Divine Eye ability. He also had the ability of proximity future prediction to sense danger. (It was a power he had requested from the goddess at the time of his reincarnation, to avoid being deceived by malicious people.)

While he could detect the malice, they hadn't committed any crimes at that point, so he couldn't punish them according to the rules of human society.

However, if they actually attempted to steal, he could rightfully arrest them or even kill them if necessary.

Ryu intentionally handled the bag carelessly, leaving plenty of openings, because it was a trap of his own making.

While he was taking materials in and out of the warehouse, Ryu was aware that Big and the other members of "Red Meteor" were observing him from the shadows. He purposely placed himself in a position where his bag was in the shadows when he took the materials out.

"This is amazing..."

Big and the others were impressed by the power of Ryu's magic bag. They seemed very interested in it.

Then, Big approached Ryu and said,

"Hey, how about you join us to conquer the dungeon?"

They weren't inviting Ryu to join their party, but they wanted to hire him temporarily as a transporter (porter).

Ryu's magic bag would allow them to carry a large amount of supplies into the dungeon. The more supplies they had, the longer they could stay in the dungeon. If they could carry a lot of supplies in one bag with ease, it would be a significant help in conquering the dungeon.

Ryu had no intention of befriending Big (after all, Ryu could conquer the dungeon by himself), but he decided to accept the offer, having sensed the malice lurking beneath Big's courteous demeanor.