Hero Beowulf had just left the palace, with his prize safely stashed in the bag. He had an urge to just leave and devour the pemadra right away, but it would be something very strange to do in broad daylight and the King's spies that were tailing him.

But he was marveled at the vaults. Tons of armor and weapons, amulets and magical rings. Bows, staves, and trophies from several monsters adorned those underground halls. Of course Beowulf had zero interest in those trinkets. What he was really interested in was a box of seven A-rank pemadra that were on display. Those precious and delicious pemadras were in that vault just gathering dust. When he asked the minister, he was informed that these weapons and trophies were from the current King's great grandfather era. But the minister also hinted that Beowulf were expected to surpass those great deeds. The hero bashfully accepted the praise and promised to do his best.

Of course he was no idiot. What the minister really meant was that he was to be used as a tool to fulfill the kindom's goals, and when he was no longer needed, sent into some suicide mission. Beowulf already knew how the Kindom treated "dangerous individuals" - anyone with strength and skill surpassing the norm.

After all, those 'Shining Blades' were the former generation of heroes. And Beowulf knew very well how they ended up.

Saddened by the cruel reality, the Hero went to the inn and entered his room. The king offered quarters in the palace's guest ward, but the Hero refused saying that the palace was no place for commoners. And it would be unfair to place any further burden on the Kindom's coffers. Therefore because he was generously rewarded, he felt it was the best to put that gold back into the Kindom by spending it at the best inn the capital had to offer.

"Oh, it seems a nice inn to spend a holiday."

"I'll take you there someday."

Hero Beowulf then removed his armor, and carefully laid his bag on the table. He looked through the window, and surely he could feel the presence of the spies. He had honed the same skillset after all. But he was one step ahead of them. He had ordered a huge bowl of nuts for dinner. Walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, and some exotic nuts he had no idea what they were. Fact was, all of them were very crunchy. He then proceeded to ate his cruncy meal. He ate the yellow round shiny nuts, the blue spindle nuts, the black dull nuts, and all of them were delicious.

Skill Loot Crate Maniac level 4 acquired. [17,987 / 50,000]

Beowulf smiled when the message appeared before him. Not only he could now get a discount on the cost of his crates, it would also increase the length of the transformation. He finished eating all of his 'nuts', and then stored the other, plant-based nuts in the bag. What would he do now? Could he sleep on that fluffy bed that barely had any bugs in it? Of course not. The spies were all over the roof and in the next building. They even rented the room next to him, and were probably eavesdropping on everything he did. The hero laid on his bed, and pretended to sleep.

Soon someone broke into his room. Beowulf did not need to open his eyes to know they were the king's spies. They opened his pack and were looking inside. There were three sacks inside his pack. The small one had the coins he received from the king, the middle one had the nuts, and the big ones his 'other self' clothes. Seizing a moment of distraction from the intruders, the hero approached from behind and quickly dealt with these. They were already with the coin bag.

The hero stripped the spies, took his stuff back, and checked the cards they had. C-rank adventurers, but the cards were marked inactive. They also had royal guard insignias. Beowulf tied those two up and called the inn security. They were taken into custody as common burglars. He had no doubt the King would bail them out in no time, but for the moment those two were out of the game.

The next day, he left early. Before even the innkeeper had set the breakfast. When asked what he was going to do, Hero Beowulf nonchalantly revealed his plan. He would run three laps around the city walls. One lap on top of each one of them. Before leaving he asked the innkeeper to save a triple breakfast for him. Surely all this running around would make him as hungry as a monster.

"Marcy!"

And there he went. Running like the wind. Jumping over the wall towers. A guard shouted "Who goes there?" but the hero was already away on the "go". He needed to shake his pursuers. Eventually even the most athletic spy gave up, and returned to the inn to wait for the hero. But they left sentries around the walls to watch him. And then Beowulf had no choice but complete his self-imposed ordeal. He returned to the inn and ate all the huge pile of food set aside for him. Truly a heroic apetite.

He then paid the innkeeper his due fare, and left the inn. Before long, the southern gate was behind him. His adventure was about to begin. When questioned by the gate guard where was his weapon, he showed his fists. Off into the wilderness the Hero faced several monsters. Wolves soon learned to respect the ferocity of this iron-fisted boy. The lizard-kin of the south marshes that ventured too far into the land of humans had fear engraved in their racial memory. Man-eating mantis with their deadly scythes were also pummeled into insect goo. Of all those monsters, the Hero only took the proof of subjugation and the pemadra. He departed, but thought back and returned to collect the mantis' scythes. They were hard and sharp enought to cut a knight's armor.

Of course the spies were still tailing him in the marshes. They were atop some trees while the Hero battled the ferocious Rawlrlululurlocks, vicious fish-men that could hypnotize people with their Rawlring. The spies were behind bushes while he was bashing heads against the swamp buffallos. They were inside clouds of noxious fumes reeking and wasting their lunch while the hero gave knots on the tentacles of the filth-eaters in the deep marshes. And that was all the Hero wanted. Finally he could shake those sticky spies. He left the marshes and ran west.

"Oh, what a downer. Why didn't he just finish the spies?"

"There was no merit in killing the spies. It would only mark him as an even more dangerous target."

"Why?"

"Those spies were top class. They wouldn't lose to any of those monsters. What would the King think if none of them returned?"

"Ah, I got it."

And it was just in time. A couple hours after ditching the humans tailing him, he had to ditch his human... form. The timer in his skill's effect wore off, and he was forcefully transformed into his alter ego, the Troll Grendel. He opened his bag, switched his clothes and ate the plant nuts he saved from yesterday. He shredded the clothes, shredded the bag, and ran north spreading the pieces of cloth and leather all around.

When he approached the capital, it was already night once again. Despite his huge size, Grendel moved without making a sound. This was the worst nightmare of the human realm: a monster that focused his entire will into getting inside those walls. The creature only cared about his goals. He needed... no, he wanted those A-rank pemadras. He coveted those. Also there was the payback for trying to rob him. Grendel waited for the right time, climbed the wall and incapacitated one guard with a punch to the helmet. The helmet was bent in a strange way, but the guard was breathing. He then leapt down into the quiet night streets. Creeping through the city towards the castle ward in that moonless night, he was but a silent shadow.

Running around the walls served another purpose. He had scouted the castle, and had found a unused service entrance. He got there, broke the lock with his claws and entered the palace. His [Presence Detection] skill could pinpoint the location of the guards, that trusted so much on their three layers of walls some of them were sleeping on the job. He backtracked the path to the treasury, breaking all the gates in his path. Unfortunately for some guards, they spotted the 11 feet tall monster, and were quickly killed.

Grendel was then face-to-face with the huge double iron doors that led to the teasure chambers. He looked at the doors, but was a rather ordinary double door. When he came across this door the day before, the minister had opened it with a key, but now he could not even find the keyhole. He decided to break the door, but he could not leave a scratch on the iron surface. He feared the door was enchanted. Would this lump of dumb iron prevent him from getting his prize? Of course no.

It was time to show this door who was the boss. And the boss was the monster with an SS skill, [Emperor's Might].

"SS? What is that?"

"The skill's rank. Take your [All Elemental Magic] for example. That is a B grade skill, promoted from the combination of the four E grade elemental magic."

"SS should be awesomely strong, right?"

"Yes it is. Check it out."

Grendel triggered his skill, and with a running start, rammed the wall next to the door.

"Heck, the WALL?"

"Why the wall?"

Grendel suspected that the iron door was heavily reinforced with magic. He tried scratching the door, it wouldn't even let sparks. However, the wall next to the door was not enchanted. Whomever enchanted the door, forgot that doors are meant to rest inside walls. A door can be only as strong as the wall it was set on. And he could sense no magic in the wall. And some dumb stone wall was no match for a greedy troll. He broke through. And then the iron door decided to work as an alarm by slamming the floor as strong as it could. Without the support of the wall, the door that was slightly leaning forward became enraptured by the gravity and just fell.

Grendel had little time. The whole castle heard the echoing sounds of the door falling inside its belly. He ran inside, and looked for the box of pemadras. He took a heavy mace, and smashed the glass case that dared stand beween him and his loot. He devoured the pemadras on the spot.

Skill Loot Crate Maniac level 5 acquired. [144,564 / 250,000]

He then reached for the less fancy box with other B and C ranked pemaras, and gobbled all of those too. It was a banquet. The monster was so engorged in his meal that he forgot he was an intruder. He sat there on the patterned treasure room floor and emptied box after box of pemadras. Track of time was completely lost.

He was going for the barrel labeled 'E rank' when he was reminded of being an intruder by means of a sharp spear stab. He looked to the side, and several knights in polished armor where brandishing their spears at him. Grendel roared in fury. How dare those puny humans stop his pemadra banquet? Most of the soldiers at least flinshed at that ferocious roar full of killing intent. The ones in front thought themselves already dead.

But the monster went to the back of the room, where the weapons were. He took a jeweled glaive with lightning motifs, and charged the knights. This gave the knights time to recover, but they were so afraid of the mountain of muscle and malice running at them that their formation broke. Grendel's fearsome charge brought him to the middle of the knights and on top of some unfortunately one that had a dented brestplate with a foot autograph. He was stabbed by several spears, but he did not care. And then he used his technique, {Spinning Slash}. Some of the knights were able to dodge, and one or two had a tougher composition or the right height. Since the slash was aimed at the necks of the knights, those could escape. The short ones swore never again to complain of being bullied for their stature. Blood spurted from the knights' severed necks, painting the whole room red.

Then he heard someone scream "Not you again!" This was very curious for the monster, because he had very little contact with people. He looked at the owner of that voice, and saw one short boy with a pretty face and brown hair. He was one of the short ones that escaped the glaive. Where did he meet him before?

"Julius? What happened to him?"

"Julius was at the palace? Why?"

The monster had no idea until a few months later. He freed himself from the spears, and ran past the knights into the palace halls, leaving bloody footprints on the stone floor. He fought guards and knights in the halls, and found himself in the same room as the King. The king was aghast at the blood soaked monstrosity in front of him, and all the knights formed a threatening iron wall separating both. Court mages were preparing fire magic. Grendel saw that and remembered that he was supposed to be afraid of fire. It ran away into a balcony, and dove into the palace moat as balls of fire flew after him. He swam into a canal, broke the drain and left the palace.

"Don't make that face. I did not touch Julius. Shorty should be glad the glaive only claimed his helmet's plume. But I had no way of knowing he was in that knight squad. I won't hurt Helen's or Marcy's friends. So long they remain your friends."

"Why was Julius in the palace?"

"I don't know, Marcy, but I think we will find out sooner or later."

"Is there anyting else on that story?" Helen seems tired.

"No. I just got over the walls and ran to the wilderness. Afterwards I came north to find you."

"Then can we sleep? It was a sad story. You did bad things, Grendel." And she is also sad. And angry at me.

I am laying on my side, facing the campfire. The two girls set their bedrolls between me and the fire, and quiet down to sleep.

I know I did a bad thing stealing from the king, but sending those guys to steal back my gold was really a bad move. Sending those guys to tail me in the marsh was a bad move. Maybe if I told the girls they were carrying rock scorpion venom daggers when they broke into my room would help them understand me better but now it is too late.

If I ever meet King Hrothgar as Beowulf and he somehow makes the connection on me asking for cores, I have the perfect excuse. I hope I won't need it though.

Good night, Marcy. Good night, my angel.

I also didn't tell that this little heist granted me a new title:

Title Robber Duke [C] awarded!

Those that steal a priceless item from a maximum security place.

Allows [Presence Detection] to sense treasures.

And what is a treasure and what is not becomes a completely subjective concept. To me? Pemadras. I've got a pemadra radar. I can tell at a glance if something is a monster or not. And boy, was I surprised.