Mash approached the group; he was a step behind Red who had begun speaking in a placating manner. She sounded convincing to him, and he was impressed by how much she was able to change her tone to fit the situation.
“Hello, we are adventurers, merely looking for a way out of the desert. We do not want to fight. We only want to share information. Are you locals or adventurers?”
Her voice easily carried in the empty desert, though no response came from the group. When that happened, Mash guessed that they didn’t understand and considered using mental magic to get the message across. However, he stopped when he caught them passing hand signals to one another. They were probably deciding what to do about the situation.
[They are using hand signals to talk. I think we just need to wait.]
Mash sent the message to the others. Once he could make the connection both ways, he could set up communications through the magic but for now, he trusted that they would react appropriately. In this situation that meant to wait patiently, as Red seemed content to let the other group figure out their response. Patiently waiting was annoying, and Mash realized part of that was because of their initial distrust. While the vehicle they had been riding looked a little ominous, he didn’t think it warranted this much of a reaction. Eventually, they earned a response. It was the elven lady who spoke, her voice oddly deep.
“Hello, we are adventurers, and we would agree to an exchange of information.”
With that, the group lowered their weapons and Mash went and took a seat at their fire. He did it casually, and Red obviously looked a little dissatisfied with his casualness. Luke and Jill didn’t seem to mind and joined him quickly. Jill just teleported beside him sitting comfortably by the fire. Luke sat down closer to the flame, leaning into it for heat. Seeing that the flame would probably go out soon, Mash formed some wood in his hand and weakened it with lightning. The show of magic obviously surprised the others though he didn’t mind and just tossed the piece of wood into the flame. The temperature noticeable rose and Mash let them know what he had done.
“Should burn longer and hotter than normal wood. Where did you get that anyway?”
The guy wearing animal pelts waved his hands in a dismissive manner, speaking quickly shortly after that.
“Nah, I can just make a bit of fire, so I always carry some firewood on me. Though having an ability like yours sure seems convenient. I’m Brock by the way.”
His voice was somewhat gravelly, and a fire appeared on his hands as he spoke. Tossing it toward the already lit flame didn’t do much, but it was interesting to see. It actually moved like it was a solid object rather than a flame. The next few moments passed with everyone introducing themselves. The other man was called Gerard and was Brock’s brother. The elven girl was called Safa, though she didn’t seem to like him very much. He didn’t know why but just wrote it off as harmless. The final two girls were Chloe and Zoe, and they were twins. They didn’t look alike though that was less common considering how classes could change someone.
After an introduction, they started exchanging some information. At first, they started with relevant topics about the dungeon, and what they had seen upon entering. Mash didn’t find much of the conversation to be of interest but was surprised when the discussion of the worms started.
“We ran into one of these strange worm-like creatures and our magic kept braking before it could land. Managed to kill one but needed to run from the rest. Nasty creatures, and a high level too. Zoe estimated it to be around 140. Judging by the direction you came you should have seen them.”
Brock was talking about the fight with obvious pride. He probably expected them to ask for more details, looking for an opportunity to brag. Mash smirked, ready to give them an even better tale. They hadn’t needed to flee from the pack of worms after all. He was surprised to hear that they estimated the level to be so high. He wondered if they had a skill for appraising strength or were guessing blindly. He wanted to ask for more, and brag about his own fight. Before he could do so, Red started telling them of their encounter.
“We ran into those as well, managed to kill one as well. It’s weak to a large number of attacks. The warping effect can sometimes make magic stronger, so the number is more important than the strength.”
She didn’t hide any relevant information but managed to hide their relative strength. The caution seemed unwarranted, and Mash didn’t like the half-truths. He didn’t want to correct Red either though as that would only make them seem less trustworthy. He understood her hesitation and had seen it in the others too. Ever since the situation with Leah, they had all become more careful about being open with strangers. Even Mash rarely used more than wood or lightning in front of others. Those had been the abilities he showcased at the tournament and felt no need to hide them now.
“Well, did you guys run into anything else? So far all we’ve seen is sand or the worms.”
Jill spoke not letting any suspicious silence linger after Red’s comment. Mash and Luke didn’t know how to follow Red’s lie. Plus, he didn’t want to either. The question was good though, as he really hadn’t seen anything outside of the worms. He was hoping for some direction. Even with just a little direction, they should be able to avoid the ground that this group had already tread. The question did prompt an interesting response.
“Sure, here let me show you.”
While it was Gerard who spoke, it was actually the elf who reacted. She pulled out a large piece of paper that was instantly recognizable as a map. There weren’t many locations listed, but he did see that they had found another source of water. The map made it seem like they had been moving in a spiral starting from the entrance. That was curious as it would take weeks to complete the dungeon.
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“Why are you guys… taking such a roundabout path?”
Mash almost said, “wasting your time” but managed to change his words into a stupid joke. Either they didn’t notice or didn’t mind and the other twin, Chloe, was the one to answer.
“Oh, Safa has a class that is capable of mapping out places she’s in. So we only really needed to travel half as fa-“
She cut off from a glare that the aforementioned elf was giving her. It was obviously not something that she was supposed to mention, though her reaction was a little odd. Hiding a skill like that didn’t really seem all that valuable. Sure, the skill sounded useful and there was probably good money in mapping some dungeons, but it wasn’t anything worth hiding.
The tension that was hovering around their conversation was becoming cumbersome. Neither group really felt like they could trust the other, and the members that didn’t care as much needed to act uncomfortably. Luke ended up being the saving grace.
“Thanks for showing us your map. We just wanted to make sure we didn’t retrace your steps pointlessly. By the way, when you guys were in town did you check out the music shop? We all grabbed this weird instrument, though Jill is probably the only one who could play it.”
Mash was surprised at the sudden change of topic, but Luke’s intentions were obvious. He was just trying to make the topic less important and get everyone to relax. It seemed to work as Chloe shook her head in the negative. Her eyes glinted with interest as Luke opened his storage space and grabbed the harmonica. The small metal device was quite impressive, and Luke made a poor attempt at playing the instrument. The sounds were a bit loud, and he didn’t do much other than display the wide range of the metal. It was enough though, and the group relaxed as the topics moved on to everyone’s hobbies.
This conversation carried on for a few minutes, but the tension returned once the conversation moved back to which direction they were headed. Mash didn’t really care, but it was obvious that Safa didn’t trust them. Red seemed to have some distaste for the woman as well, and they both started bickering about which direction they wanted to go. It seemed arbitrary and Mash realized that there had to be another reason for the argument.
[What are you doing?]
The message wasn’t really for a response. He only sent it to Red to shake her from the pointless argument. It turned out to be the wrong move, and she turned to face him. Her eyes narrowed the irises darkening into a swirling mass of blood. Mash rolled his own strange eyes at her, but it didn’t go anywhere as Jill elbowed him. It was hard enough that he winced from the surprise blow. While his stats were higher, it wasn’t such a huge difference that he could just ignore an action like this. He had seen the attack within his domain but had not been preparing for the attack. It had caught him off guard, and he wasn’t able to avoid the attack.
An instant later she appeared beside Red and struck her as well. Even though Red had the time to react, she still didn’t want to reveal her abilities and stubbornly didn’t avoid the attack. She could’ve easily turned partially to blood and avoided the attack, but instead, she just let the elbow land in her side. Mash noticed that it wasn’t as hard as the one he received, but it still got Red to wince once. She did relent though, and Jill just pointed in a random direction.
“That’s the direction we will be heading.”
It made sure that they wouldn’t backtrack and ended the argument abruptly. Safa seemed like she wanted to protest, but several of her teammates looked just as irritated as Jill. With that finally settled, Mash decided to offer them something in the way of easing things. He liked most of the people on the other team and didn’t want to ruin things because of the awkwardness between Red and Safa.
“Do you guys need any food or water? We got plenty of both.”
Mash’s words seemed to get their attention, and they held another silent conversation. This time they didn’t use hand signals and only passed some glances between them. Finally, Gerard spoke, his voice seeming firm.
“We’ll take any water, but are you sure? It's pretty hard to come by, and the magic items for it don’t work in the desert.”
The warning made Mash more confident of his trust in the man, and he just waved off his concern. It wasn’t something he was too worried about, as they should be able to get out of the dessert pretty soon. Maybe they could start flying. It would certainly cut a lot of time off of their journey.
“It’s not a big deal, we have a lot of water.”
As he finished speaking, he opened up his storage space to show them. Gerard’s eyes widened as the doorway appeared. He could easily see inside of the storage space and see all of the water inside. As Mash stepped inside to grab one, he realized that he might have gone a bit overboard with the water. Even if they weren’t conservative with it, the water would still last them months. Maybe even a year if they pushed it. he grabbed one of the many barrels and brought it out for the other group. Only Safa had a storage space large enough to fit one of the barrels, and they had to make some adjustments to fit it. The conversations died after he gave them the water, and they soon left in their own direction. It felt strangely abrupt, and Mash wondered if he had made a mistake by offering them some water.