An hour later Zack finally finished reading all the material and signing paperwork. He went back to the main hall area to find Vita. As he opened the door. he saw Vita talking to a younger woman at the counter. She had jet black hair with a medium build. Wearing black leather armor with two small axes attached to her back. She was about 5 feet 8 inches with defined muscular shoulders. Both Vita and the woman looked over at Zack.

Vita smiled and said, “are you done honey? This is my niece, Sophie.”

Zack grinned, “Hello Sophie, my name is Cor, nice to meet you.” Zack extended his hand and Sophie smiled and gave a firm handshake.

Sophie said, “Pleasure to meet you Cor, these are my friends and fellow party members Teesa and Marko.”

Zack greeted Teesa and Marko. “Nice to meet you both.”

Teesa was 6 feet tall wearing green leather armor. She had a bow staff and a longer sword at her hilt. She had long blond braided hair and a kind face with a warm smile.

Marko was built like a tank. He is 5 feet 6 inches tall and over twice as broad as Zack. He reminded him of what a real-life dwarf might look like. He had brown leather armor with a large axe on his back. Deep inset eyes with the beginnings of a scruffy beard. He carried a shield on his arm that had a coat of arms embossed across it.

Sophie said, “aunt Vita says you are looking for an adventuring team to join?

Zack nodded, “yup, I thought it might be more productive and safer to be a part of a team rather than go it alone.”

Vita jumped in, “Why don’t we go back to the lounge area and get acquainted. Sophie your team needs to register as a team with our hall.”

Sophie nodded an all four of them walked back into the room.

Once they were all situated with coffee and snacks Vita kicked off the conversation. “Sophie, I remember you saying you are looking for a rogue and a healer. Cor here is a level nine rogue with a few healing skills.”

Sophie’s eyes lit up as she looked Zack up and down. “Have you ever adventured before.”

Zack replied, “Not exactly, and by that, I mean I have not. I am a bit embarrassed to say this is my first real go at it. I have been in a few fights and survived but actual adventuring is new to me.”

Sophie smiled and said, “well no judgment here, we all just got started here about a month ago.”

Zack asked, “what are you all looking for in terms of a team member?

Sophie looked at Teesa and Marko and back at Zack and said, “Someone who is reliable and will be a part of the team. A little courage and a lot of common sense goes a long way out here.”

Teesa and Marko nodded in approval to Sophie’s comments.

Sophie said, “what are you looking for in a group?”

Zack smiled and said, “honestly before an hour ago it had not occurred to me to join a team. I have been on a long walkabout and figured it might be safer with others. Frankly, it might be nice to make some friends.”

All three of the team members smiled in understanding at Zack’s words.

Zack continued, “after talking with Vita I think I am definitely on the green side of things and could use some help figuring things out. No sense running around like an idiot.

Sophie nodded and said, “Cor, I think we can have you join on a trial basis and see if it is a good fit for you and for us. We are still going to be looking for a healer and possibly an archer. Do you know anyone who might be able to help out?”

Zack smiled and said, “I am excited to join you all and get to work. Sadly, I do not know anyone in the area.”

A prompt appeared:

Invite to join Sophie, Teesa, and Marko on an adventuring team.

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Yes or No

Zack selected yes.

Another prompt appeared:

You have joined the Vinstra (name to be determined later) adventuring team.

Vita handed the group some paperwork. Zack thought, ok this is getting ridiculous, with all this magic do they really need to have this much paperwork?

Once everything had been signed and the group was ready to go Sophie spoke up. Let’s go to the quest board and see what has been posted recently. I would love to get out there today and start our journey. The party agreed. It was clear to Zack that Sophie was the leader of their group.

At the quest board Zack tried to understand what the quests were asking but found the post confusing. Sophie and Vita picked out three possible quests.

Sophie asked them to gather at the counter. “I found three good places to start. The first is a monster quest. The Melina farmstead is being attacked by roving wolf like creatures. Killing off their livestock and terrorizing the families on their compound. It was posted a week ago.”

Sophie continued, “the second is to clear a small forest area of a new pest that has arrived. They are killing the trees and attacking passersby. They have nearly hunted the small game into extinction.”

Teesa asked, “Does it say what the pest is?”

Sophie looked closer with a scrunched-up face she said, “Fricking ring rats. There must be a nest in the forest.”

Marko spoke for the first time, “fuck, they are the worst.”

Zack decided to not put his ignorance on display and mimed a facial expression of agreement with Marko.

Teesa eager to move on asked, “what is the third quest”

Sophie looked at the third sheet, “A small group of goblins have invaded a small hamlet about thirty miles south of here. Looks like about ten families live in the area and are fighting them off.”

The group sat in quiet contemplation for a moment when Sophie spoke up. "The farmstead with the wolf problem is roughly halfway to the hamlet. Let’s deal with the wolves on our way to help the hamlet out with the goblins."

They all nodded their heads. Vita clapped her hands and said, “well this is just marvelous. I am so glad your little group of adventurers is coming together. You can run by my stable and use my horses to get around. If you leave soon, you can be finished with the wolves by sundown.”

Zack appreciated her confidence. He also realized he had never ridden a horse before. How many wolves were there? How do we track and kill a pack of wild wolves? Wait, what does ‘wolf like’ mean?

Zack decided to keep his thoughts and questions to himself at this point. They headed out of Vita’s stables on horseback. Zack was not the only one who didn’t ride horse. Teesa was not comfortable with the horses either. Luck for them all the horses were very tame and relaxed. They were clearly used to novice riders on their backs.

As they rode their horses Sophie and Teesa started to talk about their primary school experience. Marko seemed happy to bring up the rear and avoid conversation. It occurred to Zack he had no idea how he was going to fight without using overwhelming magic. If he just turned the wolves into paste it would be obvious he was not a level nine rogue.

Zack realized this was a good time to take a deep dive into his character stats and formulate a plan.

Cor Tighe

Class: Rogue

Level: Nine Rogue

Age: 29

Race: Human

Intelligence: 14

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 13

Constitution:12

Charisma: 14

Perception: 13

Mana: 135/135

Hit points: 210/225

Allegiance: Vinstra (Name to be determined) Adventuring team

Faith: None

For the first time Zack noticed a button marked Advanced Stats.

He selected it and another window opened in front of him.

Cor Tighe

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Class: Rogue

Level: 9

Age: 26

Aliases: None

Relatives: ????

Team: Unnamed Vinstra adventuring team

Members: Sophie, Teesa, & Marko

Skills:

-Bow staff: novice

-Short sword: novice

-Sword: beginner

-Archery: moderate

Magical skills:

-Healing: novice

-Flying: beginner

-Hearing: beginner

-Endurance: novice

Talents:

-Intuition: novice

-Speed: novice

-Water reading: moderate

-Geometry: moderate

Other: ????

Zack read the stat sheet several times. What is water reading? Apparently, I am good at geometry? On a hunch he selected water reading to see if more information appeared. Much to his surprise another small pop-up window opened.

Water Reading: Proficient in reading bodies of waters including oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and any other place water is gathered. Can hold breath without damage for ten minutes in water. Has a five-minute cool down.

Can detect:

-Magic below the surface

-The contents of the water and it’s make up

-The shape of the ground under the surface.

-Identify living creatures under the surface

-Traps under the surface.

Zack thought, that is amazing. I will be the best angler ever.

Next, he selected geometry.

Geometry: Can instantly estimate angles and trajectories. As the skill evolves so does the size and speed of the estimations.

Uses:

-Estimating ballista

-Accuracy in archery

-Carpentry

Zack was impressed with the build out Paxton had created. It provided some options for him when he fought monsters. Particularly with archery and a high hit point stat for when he screwed up. He wasn’t sure when he would use the water reading skill but did have an overwhelming urge to go fishing. He kept an eye out for lakes and rivers.

Before they rounded the corner to what was supposed to be the Melina Farmstead, they could smell death and decay. When they did round the corner in the road, they saw several people lying in various stages of decay across the property. They were all brutally ripped to shreds. Not one person had their whole body intact. Zack counted twelve maybe thirteen people. It was hard to tell with the states of their bodies. As far as Zack could tell all of them were adults with ten males and two females. At first it was deadly quiet, then they heard the growling.