Alkith Jarvarax held the belief that the sign of a true hero was preparedness, not power. Even the strongest heroes bled, after all, and so long as they can bleed, they can die. That was how Jarvarax lived his life since he was born, and it’s kept him alive so far, so he had no reason to doubt that line of thinking.

But there were some people to whom logic just didn’t apply to. One of those people was the leader of Jarvarax’s party, Kalaman Kampus the Dragonslayer. He was cold and unsociable, so he hardly had any friends outside his party, though he kept saying he didn’t need any. Hell, his party wasn’t even official. He never wanted any party members. They all just chose to follow him wherever he went, and he just decided to tolerate them.

Someone as strong as him didn’t really need teammates, anyways. But Jarvarax had been an adventurer for a long time now. He’s seen heroes come and go, and the one thing he noticed was that even the most indomitable of heroes could fall.

So, Jarvarax took it upon himself to ensure the party was ready at all times. All provisions had to be stocked up, all equipment had to be maintained. When they’d take a quest to unknown territory, he’d make sure to buy a map, or ask around for information. Whenever the party needed something, he made sure to have it. And so far, in the two years he’s been in Kalaman’s party, he’s never lacked anything they needed. At some point, he’s managed to make a name for himself as the “Hero of Contingency”, not that he cared much about it.

But things haven’t been going so smoothly lately. While Jarvarax was able to provide for his team time and time again, the pressure had slowly been weighing on him.

Three months ago, they lost their healer during the Mambhaling civil war. Ques Van Lendi was an exceptional cleric, as well as a good friend. His death took more than its share of toll on Jarvarax, both on manpower and emotion.

In particular, he found himself buying potions a lot recently.

“What’s got ya furrowin’ yer brow, Jar?”

A tiny voice like a bell called out to him. Realizing he’d been lost in thought while sitting on his bed, he focused his attention on the girl in front of him. It was a halfling woman with puffy brown hair tied into twintails. It was their party’s bard, Remina, who had joined the party about the same time as Jarvarax.

“It is nothing to concern yourself with, Remina. I was just doing some inventory.”

“And I’m guessin’ there’s a problem, then? You were lookin’ mighty scary for a second there.”

“Was I? My apologies.” Jarvarax scratched his scales in mild embarrassment. “We are running low on potions, and the apothecary in this town ran out.”

“I heard from the innkeeper that there was a shortage of potions everywhere around here, actually,” off in the corner, the party’s sorceress, Armei, chimed in while she was putting on her equipment. “Something about war brewing against the north. The military’s been buying out all the potion stocks everywhere.”

“That is exactly the problem,” Jarvarax said. “We are heading to one of the most dangerous unexplored continents without enough potions.”

“Aren’t we stoppin’ by Tisah on the way?” Remina asked. “Can’t we try and stock up on potions there?”

“It will be two or three months before our voyage reaches Tisah. By the time we arrive, the war would likely have already started, which means the shortage would only get worse.”

Remina sighed. “We really need a proper healer on our party. I don’t know if my spells can keep up at this rate. You feel the same way too, right, Jar?”

At the moment, Remina and Jarvarax stepped in to do Ques’ job, since they both knew a few healing spells. But since Remina had to save most of her magic to support the party, and since Jarvarax isn’t very skilled with magic to begin with, trying to keep everyone alive with their combined spells was tiresome.

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“It would certainly give us some peace of mind to have a cleric with us, especially with where we’re going. But...”

Both Jarvarax and Remina turned to look at Armei, who noticed their stares and began pouting, her long ears drooping downwards.

“...What?”

“C’mon, Mei, it’s ‘cuz you keep rejecting everyone who tries to join that we’re havin’ this problem!” Remina said.

In response, Armei raised her face and crossed her arms. “Hmph, everyone who’s tried to join so far has been either very suspicious, full of themselves, or just plain dumb. I’m not entrusting Kalaman’s safety to the likes of them.”

They’ve been looking for Ques’ replacement for some time now, but because Armei was incredibly strict about these kinds of things, they haven’t made good progress on it.

“You rejected some of them just ‘cuz they weren’t ‘up to par’! Ques was one-of-a-kind, you know? I don’t think we’ll find anyone as good as him anytime soon, so wouldn’t hirin’ a regular cleric be fine for now?”

“Not only would their help be negligible, but novices would also only slow us down. You know how Kalaman fights. If they’re not able to keep up with him, then they’d be better off being somewhere else.”

“That is enough, you two,” Jarvarax interfered. “At any rate, we will have to subsist on potions for now. So long as we keep up a more offense-oriented strategy, we should be able to get by.”

Jarvarax came up with the idea to rely more on speed and power in their fights to make up for Ques’ absence. The faster they can kill their opponents, the less they’d have to worry about taking damage. That said, it’s a bit easier said than done, since being more aggressive meant they’d have more openings in themselves to account for.

“We’ll just have to buy more potions once we reach Feralter. They have a base of operations there, right? That Raptor’s Roost, or whatever they call it. I’m sure they’ll have potions.” Armei said.

“Jar’s probably thinkin’ somethin’ round the lines of ‘but what if something happens while we’re trying to get there?’” Remina did her best impression of the dragonborn. She wasn’t wrong though. In fact, she was right on the money.

“We cannot be sure if the Roost has any stock, either,” he added. “For all we know, they could be having a shortage of their own. In fact, I would be surprised if they did not. Feralter is unexplored territory, and it is filled to the brim with unknown enemies, so the Raptors must have their hands full quite frequently.”

“When you put it like that, it really does sound like a scary place,” Remina said, pretending to shiver. “Why are we headin’ to such a dangerous land, anyway?”

“Kalaman didn’t say,” Armei said. “He just said he wanted to go there.”

Remina chuckled. “Knowin’ him, it’s probably to fight some strong monsters or somethin’. Seriously, we can’t catch a break ‘cuz of him.”

“He would do that.” Jarvarax looked around, only just now noticing the apparent absence of their leader. “Speaking of which, where is Kalaman?”

“Ah, get this! I saw him wake up at midnight. I asked him where he was goin’, and he said he couldn’t sleep, so he went out to take a walk.”

“And he hasn’t returned yet?” Worry was in Armei’s voice.

“I figure not. Eh, he’ll be fine, though.”

“What if he’s been attacked?!”

“I would be more worried for his enemies, if that is the case,” Jarvarax sighed. “But yes, this is quite the troublesome situation. You should’ve accompanied him last night, Remina, and made sure he got back safely.”

 “It’s cute that you’re such a worrywart! But I think he’ll be fine. It ain’t like he’ll just start a fight...” Remina words trailed off. After a brief pause, she scratched her cheek and nervously laughed. “He would start a fight, wouldn’t he?”

“He would do that, yes.”

The three of them were already well acquainted with how rough their leader can be. Jarvarax remembered a time when a stuck-up party of young adventurers taunted Kalaman. Needless to say, it didn’t take very long for the situation to escalate rapidly.

Armei hastily finished readying her equipment. “I’ll go fetch him—”

Just as the half-elf was about to walk out, the door suddenly opened, and in came a man wearing a worn-out half-plate. His hair was messy, and the bags under his eyes were almost as dark as his eyes themselves. He inspected everyone in the room with cold nonchalance.

“O-oh, Kalaman, we were just about to look for you,” Armei said, flustered by his sudden entrance.

“Everyone’s awake. Let’s go.”

Immediately after saying that, Kalaman left the room without even stepping in. Armei tried to say something else to him, but seeing as he already left, she simply sighed. Remina turned to Jarvarax and shrugged her shoulders, as if to say “Kal’s just being Kal again”.

Then, only five seconds later, Kalaman opened the door again, much to everyone’s surprise.

“We have a cleric now,” he said before leaving again.