Chapter 24

Bella and I sat down across from the two of them. My instinct is to break the ice by sharing some stuff about myself and trying to spark a conversation from there. Unfortunately, I don’t really know much about myself and even less about the world so that plan seems a little silly. Ah, I have an idea!

I turn to Morrigan, the red eye’d one, “So, Mirianna said that you’re a wild mage. What does that mean? I don’t know a whole lot about magic yet.”

Morrigan had been shy up until that point but once I asked her about magic her mood flipped. “I can’t cast magic from my own pool of mana but I can cast spells by pulling mana from the environment. On one hand it extends my usefulness as a mage in fights, especially long protracted ones, but on the other, what magic I’m able to use depends greatly on the surroundings and it means I don’t often have strong match ups. It’s hard to hurt lava monsters with fire or aquatic monsters with water. But since I don’t spend any of my own resources I can keep using magic until I can’t focus on it anymore. That makes me more akin to a mage that uses stamina rather than one that uses mana.”

“Hmm, that’s pretty interesting. I don’t know a lot about magic but with a little bit of creativity I’m sure you could make that work pretty well. I only had my affinity tested yesterday but I apparently have at least weak affinity with almost all magic types meaning I could have some utility as a ritual mage if I worked on it. Right now, I'm primarily a swordswoman but I'm decently skilled."

They didn't seem to want to jump in so I decided to prompt them a bit. "Why don’t we all talk about our roles in the group so that we can get an idea of how to work together? In this group I guess I’ll primarily be our frontline fighter from the looks of it.” This got a couple of nods from the two catgirls.

Torien decided to speak next, “I’m a scout, my primary role in a party is to locate monsters in the field and set up favorable conditions for combat. In the dungeon, my role is to find and disable traps as well as pick any locks we come across. For combat I primarily use a bow but I also have some training with small knives. I have some training in poison but I don’t think I’ll have the supplies to make use of anything right now.”

We all nod and then look to Morrigan, “Um, I already talked about some of my limitations. Because of the nature of my abilities I may be limited at times but for the most part my job will be to do as much damage as possible from the backline. I’ll usually make use of some form of projectile but I’ll try to inform you ahead of time what I have access to.”

Following the rotation Bella is next, “Hello, I’m primarily a healer but I also have access to some support abilities through nature magic. Most of my healing is regeneration based but because of my skills I think it’ll be surprisingly potent. I have the potential to learn some alteration buffs and some water healing magic but I don’t know any right now, sorry.”

“Don’t be silly, you’re just starting out. Having a healer will be a great help. Right, so next we should probably decide on a party leader, someone who can make calls about how we approach combat.” Suddenly all three of them are looking at me. “W-what?”

Bella is the first to speak, “It’s obvious that I’d follow your lead.”

“The two of us are slaves, it would be appropriate for you to take command,” Morrigan says hesitantly.

“Hold on, I don’t think it’s fair to disqualify you two purely on that.”

After a pause Torien speaks up, “I also think you’d be the best choice. Even if it wasn’t your intention, you naturally took control from the start when the rest of us were hesitant to. Also, the fact you’re even considering our opinions makes me feel comfortable deferring to your judgement.” Everyone was nodding in agreement.

“Ah, well I suppose that’s fine. Alright then, I suppose we’ll talk about our basic formation. First though, Bella are you able to use your healing magic at range or only on touch? Also you said it’s mainly regeneration, does that mean it heals over time?”

“I can use it at range but I’m not exactly sure how far yet. And yes, my healing is mostly healing over time but I can speed it up if I spend more mana on it.”

“Okay then, since we don’t have a proper tank I’ll be up front at the vanguard, Morrigan is our dps so she’ll be in the middle focusing on dealing damage, Torien will either be our rearguard or in ambush position depending on the situation. In combat, your focus is as a secondary dps but you also need to watch for any outside threats like other monsters while we’re fighting. Bella you’re on overwatch, you’ll stand with Morrigan in the middle but since I’m in the vanguard, it will be easier for you to focus on the entire fight better than I will. Your job will be to keep track of enemy positions and call them out if they look like they’ll engage on someone while they’re fighting something else. Use heals and disabling abilities at your discretion, just make sure you save enough mana to heal someone if they take a heavy hit. Any questions?”

“What’s a tank?”

“What’s a dps?”

…shit I didn’t think and just started spouting jargon from video games I’d played. “Uhhh, a tank is a term for a fighter who’s main role in a fight is to soak up hits and protect other teammates in combat. They pull the aggro- er, the focus of enemies so that the other members can deal their damage or heal without having to fight off their own threats. Follow so far?”

Everyone nods so I continue, “Dps stands for Damage per second, it just means that their role is to do as much damage as possible as fast as possible to the enemies. The speed they do damage is measured by their dps or damage per second.”

“...What’s a second?”

I sigh at that, “A second is a measure of time, that’s not important. The point is they just try to kill the monsters as fast as possible while the healers heal and the tank keeps the enemies attention. Everyone get it?”

Everyone nods again so I move on to the next part, “Alright, the only other thing I think I can say before we start fighting for real is our attack priority. The first kind of enemy you should target are healers, if they have healers they need to be killed first, otherwise the fight is going to take forever and we’ll be worn down. If the enemy healer is dead or they don’t have one at all, then we need to kill the people who do the most damage the fastest, or to reiterate, the people with the highest dps. This would usually be the mage, but it could be an archer or even a frontliner if they’re the ones doing the most damage. Ideally we won’t be fighting large groups but if we have to, the priority is always healer, then dps’, then tanks. Tanks will try to force you to engage, defend yourself but try to keep priority off of them if possible. Part of your role, Bella, will be to disable any tanks you can for as long as possible. That’s not to say you all can’t do a finishing blow if you see the opportunity it just means that this is our default plan. Everyone understand?”

While everyone is nodding Torien pipes up, “After hearing that I’m extra glad we went with you as leader, we were told you were new to this but you seem to have lots of experience in tactics.”

I hesitate, “Ehh, not exactly. I guess the best way to explain it is that I’ve read about it but I haven’t really put it into practice much.”

“Still, I wouldn’t have thought about half of the things you said.” I had a wry smile as they all nodded and murmured their agreement. Well, I’m pretty sure I played a lot of video games so in a sense I have lots of tactical experience but at the same time I can’t really recall having ever been in a fight and who knows how useful the experience from games really is. My memory is spotty sure so it’s possible I’ve been in fights before but it was pretty safe to say I wasn’t a boxer or anything.

“I guess the next thing we should think about is what kind of quests we should take. I heard that you weren’t able to take subjugation missions before but I don’t know if I want to take something like that on right away.”

Torien grabbed a small wood tablet that had been off to the side and slid it over to me, “Mirianna said that this mission would be a good mission to take on for the four of us. It’s a surveying mission. We’re supposed to explore an area off the road at the indicated marker, see what kinds of monsters are in the area, and if it’s safe, draw up a rough map of the area with as many landmarks and gathering areas as we can find. If the monsters are too dangerous we can return with just information on the monsters for reward completion but we get paid more if we’re able to make a map, the more detailed the better. It’s expected to be at least a three day mission.”

After listening I reply, “That does seem like a good mission to start out with. A chance to fight if the monsters are a good match but we’re able to complete the mission even if we can’t actually handle the area.”

“We should talk about how you want to split rewards.”

I look back a little puzzled, “Wouldn’t it make sense to just split it evenly?”

Torien looks a little shocked then hesitates before asking, “Are you sure that’s alright with you?”

I look over at Bella who just shrugs at me, I look back and continue. “I’ll be honest, I don’t really know how it’s normally done but I don’t mind splitting it evenly four ways. It’s not like there’s a fifth person to make it more complicated than it needs to be. Do party leaders get paid more or something normally?”

“Uh no its just… Slaves on loan to the guild usually get a smaller cut than normal adventurers…”

My brow knits a little, “That’s dumb, why would that make a difference? Eh either way I think a four way split still makes the most sense. You were talking like you had a large debt, no reason not to help you get it paid off a little bit sooner.”

I could see the two cat girls hold hands under the table. I’m sure I’m missing something in this situation but I still feel like it’s only fair. A fourth of the work for a fourth of the pay right?

“Anyway, pay aside, do you two have everything you need for a trip like this? We bought ourselves some camping gear yesterday but we should probably all have some in case we get stranded somewhere. Also, are we planning on leaving today? Because it’s already around noon, it might make sense to go early in the morning tomorrow.”

Torien seems to speak a lot for the two, it’s her that replies to me once again, “Yeah for the surveying mission it would be better to leave early tomorrow morning. I guess we’ll meet you outside the guild building tomorrow at dawn. It’s noon so we’ll probably still be able to meet our four silver quota gathering herbs if we hurry, we’ll see you then!”

She started to get up but I stopped her. “So if you got four silver the two of you would be free for the rest of the day?” She nodded confused. I pulled four silver from my coin pouch and put it on the table, “Instead of trying to gather enough herbs to make your quota in time, how about you show us which herbs are valuable and what to look for? In exchange we’ll pay you enough to make your quota, you can keep anything you find today and we all will get some more time to get to know each other better. When we get back I’ll even treat you two to dinner at the tavern we’re staying at.”

The two of them looked at the silver then looked back at me. Torien spoke for them again, “Why are you being so nice to us? What are you getting out of this?”

Bella speaks up, “Lilith is nice, I was pretty surprised at how generous she can be too but I promise she isn’t trying to trick you. We just want to get to know you better before we go off into danger together. A long talk isn’t nearly enough to get a sense of each other right?”

Torien looks guarded but agrees. “Alright, it’s a little weird but I guess I’ll trust you. You’d better not try anything funny though. We’re slaves but we’re still allowed to protect ourselves.” She takes the silver on the table and slides it into her bag.

“Don’t worry, I just want to be friends,” I say honestly.