It was a bit galling to Greg that he wasn't able to come up with the solution to this dungeon on his own. This feeling was only amplified ten times over when Athalia went ahead to show him that the answer to his conundrum was not only obvious, but had been staring him in the face all this time. When he first attempted this dungeon, Greg's main problem had been that he wasn't strong enough to survive the bandit attack. After dissolving on his teacher's mana pathways, however, that had ceased to be an issue. The reinforcement that his body received from fortifying itself with tier-seven mana made dealing with the bandits little more than a walk in the park. The problem went from being one of power to one of how cunning Greg could be. He needed to find a way to eliminate the bandits without arousing the suspicion of the Krethna, the caravan head. Failure to achieve this first objective, then he needed to figure out a way to take charge of the caravan without the mages leaving and everyon

While your elite regiment of guards protects you, the rest of your caravan is protected by this sorry lot. Look at them, I'd wager that more than half have never been in a fist fight, let alone taken a man's life. A few among them are decent, but the rest probably don't even know which side of the sword to hold. Some don't even have armor in and most of those who do aren't even wearing it right. And even if one were to momentarily forget that this is supposed to be a fighting force and just consider them escorts, look at the footwear they have on! By the time midday comes along, half of them will have raw feet from sand finding its way into their shoes. Anyone who fields this force to protect your caravan is either a fool themselves, or considers you a fool," Greg laid out without holding anything back. Were his words harsh? Yes. However, he had seen this group of guards decimated by the bandits enough times that he had zero inclination to sugarcoat his words. He found himself in the

It was almost laughable just how easy the fight against the bandits became. Greg had only implemented two changes and they were enough to shift the whole course of the battle. The rookies weren't left to fend for themselves, and a large percentage of the guards were now wearing greaves to protect their Achilles tendons from the opening move of the bandits. With the heat of the desert, metal armor was simply impractical. Still, whatever beast the hide that was used to make the greaves came from was likely one tough bastard. Of those wearing the protective piece, not a single person went down. Among the twenty or so who refused to get one, about eighteen paid for it with a slit tendon. Still, asking the veterans to share their insights on bandit attacks and how to best face off against them paid dividends as more than half had enough presence of mind not to let themselves fall fully to the ground. In other words, they went from losing almost ninety guards with the bandits' opening move

The caravan head had quietly tested Greg trying to see which way he would go and possibly from that, try to deduce what Greg was actually after. Rather than pick one of the anticipated paths, he'd done the equivalent of growing wings and flying up into the sky. A burst of laughter left the man, Greg's answer having surpassed all his expectations and in a way, assuaged most of the Krethna's fears as Greg didn't seem to be after anything in particular to do with the caravan. "A true warrior," The Krethna boomed with clear amusement and some approval. "I offer him a reward and rather than ask for riches, he asks for more training! Well then, Fahn, speak your mind, will you train him?" the man asked, turning to the archer. It spoke to the higher rank that the elite guards occupied that the Krethna asked for Fahn's opinion rather than just ordering him like he would with any other guard. The archer reached up and stroked his braided beard contemplatively. "To have one's enemies look up a

It was to the point that Greg had to moderate the amount of strength he revealed to his teacher to keep him, and the Krethna in turn, from growing suspicious of him. He'd already messed up enough delves by revealing too much of his power, Greg didn't want a repeat of the same. Comfortable with the amount of strength Greg displayed, his teacher gave him a two-finger archery glove, a longbow, and no arrows. They weren't about to start shooting at anything yet. Instead, Greg was going to learn proper form when shooting. When his teacher told him that he'd only have to draw and release the bow a hundred times, Greg thought it was too easy a task. Little did he know that he was in for the most miserable two hours of training he'd had in this life. Proper form for his teacher wasn't just about how Greg was standing or how he pulled on the bow. No, Greg had to orient his feet correctly, have his torso facing off to the side, not forward like he was about to run after the arrow. He couldn't