Chronos Rose (The Rising Of The Shield Hero x male reader)

The Beginning of a Journey

I woke up much later than yesterday, I suppose it makes sense, I was completely exhausted. My whole body was still in pain, resulting in pain whenever I moved. At least I leveled up a lot because of that dungeon, the amount of experience I gained there was unusually high.
I wonder why, I'll simply try to find out next time I go there.

I got up from my bed and looked outside the window, the only sound that I could hear were birds chirping, this silence was comforting for me, I never was a fan of loud things or anything of the sort. I left my room, locked it and gave the key back to the owner of the inn.

I definitely didn't want to go back to the dungeon, not soon at least. If something that strong was on the fifth floor, I'd rather not know what kind of monsters there were deeper down.

Then, I remembered something. Naofumi said that he was going to travel around Melomarc,
If I travelled for some time, I probably could find some useful materials for my knife, besides it probably would be rather peaceful. I decided to walk out of the capital with the intention to escape from any sort of battle, my body was already badly hurt, I didn't need any more pain.

I decided to simply walk along the road, since it was the road, monsters shouldn't appear here as often as they do in other places.

After a while of walking, I heard the sound of battle coming from the forest nearby, I decided to ignore it until...

???: Somebody help me!

I instantly started running at the direction where I heard the call for help. After a short while I saw a knight surrounded by numerous monsters. He was clearly struggling.

I took out my submachine gun and fired at them, after firing out a whole ammunition magazine none were left. I decided to walk up to the knight who was still shocked by what just happened.

Y/n: Are you alright? You should fight monsters with a party, its easier.

Knight: I know, but they left me behind.

He had a sad look on his face, just what kind of person abandons a party member?

Y/n: Why did they abandon you?

Knight: I was in the bow hero's party, we were hunting monsters to get stronger, I was weaker compared to everyone else. The other party members convinced the bow hero to leave me behind. The bow hero lost an accessory a while ago, they accused me of stealing it, even though I didn't.

I could see that he really liked being with the bow hero, kicking someone out because they aren't as strong as you can't be justified.

Y/n: That bow hero really doesn't seem worthy of his title.

Knight: He is! It's just that, he trusts his party so he probably really believed that I stole his accessory.

The fact that he looks up to him so much makes it even worse.

Y/n: The road to the capital isn't far away, I can show you where it is so you can come back to the city.

Knight: You know, I'm really grateful that you helped me, would it be a problem if I joined your party?

Personally, I really wouldn't mind taking him with me, although the Assassin hero cannot form a party with anyone.

Y/n: Can you give me a moment to think?

He nodded at my response. Instead of thinking I was going through the rules in my menu checking whether or not there is a way to bypass the restriction.
And then I found it:

...because of the difficulty of the waves, the Assassin hero can form a party with one person once they reach level 30, and can form a party with two people once they reach level 70...