Eyes Opened

"It only went up by one, huh?" Russ mused, seeing his new threat level of two. The sudden appearance of special abilities put him over the moon, but he couldn't help but point out the sad increase in danger level.

"Mines thirty-two now!" Fitz brandished her new card with a huge smile. The skin on the left side of her face as well as along her left arm was a light pink, as a result of the attack that she had suffered several days prior. 

Although Fitz only received one special ability from the stange ordeal with Redman Frank, he threat level sky rocketed in comparison to Russ's. Her new card looked as follows.

Name: Fitz Ne Ryhnd

Rank: 1

Special Abilities: [Scout]

Party Members: Russ Skiler, Ona

Threat Level: 32

According to the guild, the average man has a threat level of ten, while a trained soldier would be around fifteen to twenty. Having two members whose threat level was distinctly lower than the average is exactly what brought Pharon to think Silent Voice would never make it to be rank 2 adventurers. Starting at the second rank, all quests were given their own threat level in hopes of parties not taking on a task that was too difficult. First rank tasks could be done by practically anyone, so no-one bothered to put a threat rating on them. 

Discovering that Fitz was now roughly as much of a threat as three average men was disheartening to Russ, whose own threat level lay exactly thirty points below hers. He scolded himself mentally, reminding himself that this was just a job and that he only needed the money from it.

"So..." Russ gained the attention of his two party members, "Do you know what happened Fitz?"

The singed haired girl looked at him for a moment, thinking. "I've talked to the guild people, but they aren't sure what happened either. From what I've heard, Ona ran to get help after we went down..." Her cheeks flushed, "Thank you for saving me by the way."

Russ just nodded, and she continued. 

"Anyway, after we went down Ona went to get help. By the time she was able to return with a group of adventurers there was no sign of Frank and we were out cold on the ground."

"I doubt we were cold." Russ couldn't hold back the remark. 

Both Ona and Fitz looked at him drily and he held up his hands in resignation.

"Who exactly is this Frank guy anyway? Pharon made it sound like he was some big shot." Russ asked.

"Turns out that he is a mercenary. The information on the guild quest had been tampered with whenever it was put on the rank one board. That quest was originally supposed to be a rank six quest with a threat level of a hundred and fifty."

"What?!" Russ cried out. "We had a combined threat level of 2 plus whatever the heck Ona is, going into that. Which makes me even more grateful I'm alive. What was he doing in town anyway? And why did he run when you called out?"

"Who knows." Fitz shrugged, followed by Ona.

Then Russ's face tightened, getting serious. "There is something we need to discuss though. This party has to change if we are going to stay together."

The girls looked at him in concern.

"What is it?" Fitz asked, taken aback by his seriousness. 

Russ looked around. "It would be best to discuss it when it's just us."

Ona studied his face, then licked her lips and nodded. 

There was an ominous air as the members of Silent Voice settled into the wooden chairs of Fitz's apartment. Fitz didn't dare to say a word. Her and Ona only waited quietly for Russ to speak.

"We aren't making money." He said simply but with weight in his voice. The solemn air broke almost at once. Fitz rolled her eyes.

"I told you that it isn't all about the-"

"Stop!" Russ held up his hand and Fitz froze at the iciness of his voice. "It isn't only that we aren't making money, which is crucial to our survival, but we almost lost a member of our party. Heck, with what happened out there, we could have lost our whole party."

Fitz and Ona both looked at the ground like children who were being scolded. 

"This isn't working." Russ started.

"But-"

"Let me finish." Russ didn't let Fitz speak. "How things currently are is not working," he restated. "If we want to continue to function then it has to be as a party. Right now we are like friendly coworkers, but that puts us all at danger. We are adventurers. If we want to make money, if we want to survive then we have to act like it. That goes, even if we are only rank one adventurers, but why should we stop at rank one? Let's become a real party of real adventurers and make real money!"

"Yeah, that sounds great," Fitz said in a voice softer than usual, "But how do we do that?"

"First things first, we need a leader." Russ said, calmly.

"A leader." Fitz parroted thoughtfully.

"Yes. We need someone who can give orders without being questioned while being trusted to take into consideration the party over themselves. Someone with a good head on their shoulders." Russ explained. 

"It's not hard to see where this is going." Fitz said, "Ona can't be the leader because her communication is limited and I led us to what very well could have been our deaths just a couple days ago, so the leader should be you, right?"

Russ hesitated for a moment, surprised that she had thought it through in such a fashion. "If the group is in agreement, then I will take a probational role as the leader until further notice."

The two girls nodded in affirmation. 

"What else is it that we need to become a real party?" Fitz enquired after the other things that Russ had hinted at. 

"We need to know each others strengths and weakness, so that we can plan accordingly. We also need trust and teamwork, but that comes with time and experience." Russ answered. 

"If that's it, then..." Fitz began, "Hi! I'm Fitz Ne Rhynd, disowned daughter of the Rhynderock noble family. My strengths personality-wise are my determination and nose for erm, finding 'interesting' things. Though my dad would say finding trouble instead. I get frustrated easily though and most times I dive straight in without thinking. Adding on to acting without thinking, I am protective of my friends, so you can count on me to fight for you, even if pick at you. As far as physically... I am pathetically weak like my threat level used to reflect. I don't know what my special ability [Scout] does yet or why it increased my threat level so much. So, put me in a position to dig stuff up and I won't let you down." She concluded.

Ona clapped at the initiative Fitz took.

"What a great start." Russ said, unsarcastically. "Thanks for showing that you actually care about this, Fitz."

"Of course, captain!" She said with a huge smile.

"Captain? You can still call me... wait. Did you... did you say that you were the disowned daughter of the Rhynderock noble family?" Russ rubbed his temple. "How can you say something like that right now for the first time and so offhandedly too?"

"It wasn't important before, and making a big deal out of it is just awkward." She sighed. 

'Great.' Russ thought to himself. 'I have a mute girl and a disgraced noble in my party. This is great.'