Chapter 23- Forming A Party

Leaving the church, heading back to the inn, my mind was formulating new ways I could effectively utilize all my new spells and skills, when I hear a guy approach me. Turning I see, a blonde-haired elf, around 5'8 wearing full plate white and green armor.

"Hey, heard you picked the Assassin class at the Crystal back there. My party needs a damage dealer to help us in the dungeon and I thought you'd want to join."

I look at Garbhan, thinking that joining a dungeon hunt would bring unwanted attention to myself and would be a bad idea.

He doesn't say anything or give any type of response, so I decide I'll have to handle this. "I'm already a part of another party but we're taking a break at the moment, so I'll have to run it by them."

"That is totally fine, I can understand and thank you for considering my proposal. Whenever you're ready I'll be at the Guild building to hear your decision." He walks away, clanking in his armor.

I turn back to Garbhan, "What's your advice?"

In a hushed tone as we're still on the street, "I think you should go for it, you'll get some party experience and try a new harder dungeon.

We still have a couple of days left at the inn and I still have business here.

My actual advice is that you keep that you have a subclass to yourself, go about broadcasting Assassin as your main class, and of course, no sage spells.

If you want to take part in the dungeon hunts, you'll have to register with our guild and get a dungeon pass."

"Not that I'm doubting your advice or anything, but are you sure that those guys won't notice?"

He pulls me into a nearby alley away from the almost crowded streets to speak more freely. "If by 'those guys', you mean The Queens Shadows, you have every right to be worried about them right now.

But, you don't have to worry about them noticing an Assassin doing dungeon hunts. They have other more pressing matters to deal with." I didn't know what Garbhan knew about the Queens Shadows or how he knew what they focused on, but I wasn't naive enough to ask.

"Alright, you haven't given me a reason to not trust you yet, so I'll do as you recommended."

I turn around and walk away, not having anything else to say on the matter. I also wasn't naive enough to fully trust Garbhan, but I had no idea what his goal was.

So, my best option was to use Garbhan for knowledge while I could, then be free from him in a year and a half.

I head towards the center of town, where the guild is located, to a four-story wooden building, many people trafficking in and out.

I head inside, tables filled with adventurers, to the right was a board with different posters and above that were nameplates.

Straight ahead was the receptionist desk, where a brown haired male elf stood. Coming up to the desk I say, " I'd like to get a dungeon pass please."

He looks up from what he's doing, " To obtain a dungeon pass you have to be registered to the guild representing Iankia, are you a part of this guild?"

A bit confused I shake my head, the elf pulls out a paper, "It's easy to register but there's a 30-gold fee, and would you like to also like to try for a Monster Dispatch license as well?"

"What does the license do?" I ask as I pay him the gold and grab the sheet.

"Well, it is a known fact that monsters no longer run rampart and are usually contained in dungeons.

However, monsters breaking from dungeons are rare occurrences, therefore, we send adventurers with Monster Dispatch Licenses to dispose of those nuisances.

To obtain a license, you need to take a written exam and battle an instructor, after you pay an additional 30 gold fee of course."

"No the Dungeon Pass will be all."

"Very well, if you are unable to read or write, just inform us and we'll provide assistance." Taking the form at sit at an open table and begin filling out the form.

It just asks basic information like name, age, class, role, and race.

The only weird question was when it asked me if I was planning on choosing Oracle as my subclass.

As I circle no, completing the form, the elf in the armor from earlier approaches my table. "Oh hey, you made it, have you thought about my offer?"

Yeah, I'll take you up on that offer, I had to consult with my other party before I joined yours."

I had no idea how parties worked, but I didn't want him knowing that because you would easily get taken advantage of.

"Well yeah, it would make sense why you couldn't immediately decide. Glad you decided to join us , you won't be disappointed. Come let me introduce you to the rest of the party."

He leads me to the second floor, where it's less crowded with only a couple of different parties waiting at tables.

We went to a table with two female elves were sitting, both with blonde hair but one had a bow in yellow leather armor the other in yellow and white robes.

"Everyone, this is our damage, whose name I never got."

"My name is Eric Budsprout, with the Assassin class, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

The female elf with the bow stifles a laugh, "You found us a proper Assassin? How hilarious." The knight steps forward cutting me off from making a remark,

"Hey there's no need to be rude, remember how hard we struggled without a damage dealer."

She gets more serious, "You're right sorry, it's just the Assassin's I've met have all been edgy, brooding, and quiet. My name is Nerriwyn, a Ranger as the Scout. I'm also this idiots sister."

The robed elf stands, " I'm Orihana, I'm the Healer and the Support role. I've been with this party for about 8 months now."

The knight turns toward me, " My name is Fartumal of the Guardian class as your Tank. Welcome to the party, Company of the Sparrow."

"Well, I'd hate to be that guy, but there's the matter of loot splitting to be addressed as well." So far, they seemed friendly, but that was a part of appearances in negotiations.

Of course, I played my card in this negotiation by letting him set how much he felt I was worth. They might be friendly now, but greed made people different entirely, and I needed to put my foot down now, so there wouldn't be problems later.

"Well we go by the guilds standards of splitting everything evenly amongst party members, any special items go to the best suitable person, or the person who did the most in a fight. That's ok with you right?"

"I agree to those terms. In fact if you didn't suggest it, I would have." Now I know the basic terms to start with for next time.

Unless we were doing the boss or spawn room, only gold could found on roaming monsters. We were a newly formed party so there's no way I'd do the spawn room, much less the boss with them.

I had quite a bit of gold from farming, along with two good items, the odds of getting something else were low.

"We were planning on heading out to the dungeon soon, we can wait on you to get ready." I came directly here from the Crystal so I left my armor in my room, making me regret my decision to not wear it today.

I was almost inclined to tell them to meet me at the dungeon, but if I did I would miss an opportunity to get valuable information while traveling with them. " Yea give me a minute, I'll be back."

I quickly walk back to the inn, trying to not sprint as that would pull too much attention to myself, and head to my room where I throw on my armor.

While heading back to the guild building, I resist the urge to use the dash ability on my new boots to move quicker as there are no rules against movement-based equipment in the city, but decided against, as I never knew who was watching.

I make it back to the guild to find them still waiting, as approach the table Nerriwyn notices me first and rises to her feet. "Nice armor, you look like you know what you're doing."

"Thanks, I guess. Ready to head out whenever you guys are ready." Fartumal stands, " Yea we should go, on the way there we can discuss battle strategies."

As we traveled together I learned that they were all childhood friends born after the Kealen incident.

Fartumal and Nerriwyn weren't blood related but step brother and sister. Until I joined, Nerriwyn was their primary damage dealer but needed assistance as more enemies appear.

Fartumal was the tank who attracted the attention of either the majority of monsters or powerful ones and summons a shield to protect the team.

Orihana stayed in the back and provided healing or different boosting spells that were similar to Sage spells and needed protecting as she didn't have any offensive spells.

They would have Fartumal in front blocking, while Nerriwyn was behind picking off the enemies against his shield, with Orihana behind her, providing healing.

With this formation, they've made slow progress in the dungeon, hunting for fun, rather than getting stronger, avoiding the spawn rooms and the boss room.

I start to hear the sound of waves and we come to a large stone block with a huge ocean standing against the coast of the beach. They explained that they faced humanlike frog monsters that uses a trident, either stabbing or tossing it.

"Well today we'll do what we normally do, you know, to get a feel for our new layout. With some time maybe we can challenge the spawn room, or even the boss itself."

Having said that, our party proceeds before the daunting door, the sound of the ocean ending with the door closing behind us.