“Yes, I can understand the confusion.” That was an understatement. Matt just joined as an initiate, and he was expected to tag along with a party of established rank adventurers? What could the quest possibly be that needed him?

“Normally a Silver ranked quest would be above your paygrade but you have a unique skill set that may be necessary. A monster that usually lives deeper in the forest and can control tree stalkers has wandered into the outer ring and claimed territory. This is obviously a bad thing, and while we would just send adventurers to handle it the tree stalkers are making it hard to get close enough and take out the monster. We could just upgrade the difficulty, but a silver group wants to try and take care of it before then.”

“And that is where you come in! You are the only Shaper in town right now who can Shape wood, and also the only adventurer below gold who can find the tree stalkers. So while usually this would be too big a challenge for you, you just need to help the party avoid ambushes and hang back while they take care of the monster. Does that seem like something you can do?”

Matt thought about the offer. It would certainly be dangerous to go into a battlefield with something rated above his level, but if he just needed to find tree stalkers before they attacked the group, that should be doable. Especially since he had twice as much range for his perception, and way better equipment.

He usually would be more cautious, but what would happen if he passed this up? He would just find some other easier quest and live his life that way, but was that really the kind of person he wanted to be? His life was the most valuable thing he had, and risking it was not very smart, but he already died once after living a safe life and the thought of that happening again made Matt’s stomach churn.

“I’m interested. What kind of monster is it?” At Matt's acceptance of the quest, Marvin smiled and turned to look into the main hall, holding out a hand and pointing to a group sitting at a booth in the back of the hall.

“If you just go to that back table there, the party you will be accompanying will fill you in. They are quite competent and should take care of you, and you will be a huge help to both them and the guild as a whole.”

Matt nodded and started moving towards the directed party. Stepping past the receptionist area and into the hall, Matt got a better look at the party composition ahead of him. The party had four members, all appearing to be different types of adventurers.

The person closest to him looked to be an older man, maybe in his early forties with short spiky black hair and a bit of scruff around his chin and a toothpick resting in his mouth. His skin was the tan that looked to be the norm for this region, but his facial features were a bit more angular than the other people he had seen. He wore leather armor similar to Matt's jacket that covered his entire body, with the occasional metal plate strapped over his chest and arms. His leather pants and boots were interestingly free of armor.

Leaning against his chair was a large two handed sword, although this one looked relatively normal and not as impractical as some of the wider more fantasy weapons he has seen. Still, he was fairly broad and looked like he could handle the sword quite well. He couldn’t see the blade very well since it was in a black scabbard, but it had a dark leather wrapped ricasso about a hand long before coming to the straight guard and handle that was all dark metal.

He was talking with a person that he still thought of as the dwarven equivalent to this world. The dwarf had very dark skin that reminded him of lava rocks, with stripes of a darker gray looking stone veins moving across his skin in interesting patterns, but nothing uniform and looked very much like natural rock formation.

Matt wasn’t sure if they actually were made of stone, but all of the dwarves looked like living statues that were made by master craftsmen, indistinguishable from real people. They had long hair and beards similar to other dwarves he has seen, but their hair was white and their beard was braided in interesting swirling patterns instead of the more geometric patterns he has seen as common. They did have ornaments in their hair, but instead of metal it looked like obsidian beads that were placed symmetrically throughout their hair. It was very cool.

They were wearing large full plates made of polished gray metal that had similar swirl patterns carved or Shaped into its surface. Under the plate was some kind of black gambeson that was slightly visible. Behind them was both a large shield that Matt would struggle to lift, and a large axe that while possible to lift, Matt would not be able to swing it effectively at all.

Sitting past the two talking adventurers, were two more people dressed in robes. Watching the swordsman and dwarf talk was a woman maybe in her thirties with long, bright red hair that was tied back into a ponytail. She was playing with a wooden wand, passing it back and forth between her hands, made of some smooth dark wood that had a red gem resting on the end and a handle wrapped in red leather.

Her robes were simple mage attire that was a dark maroon color, made of a robe that was tied at the waist with a brighter red sash and a shoulder cape covering the top half of her torso. She also had a mage hat resting on the table in front of her, maroon with a band of bright red. Matt could only wonder what kind of mage she was, as there was absolutely no way to tell.

The other person was an elf reading from a book. They were one of the pale skinned, dark haired variety of elf. It was still hard to tell the gender of the elves, but they had slightly sharper features. They had a pair of rectangular glasses that were pulled down slightly as they read from their book. They were also wearing robes, but they were white and a different style.

Their top layer was a white jacket, similar to Matt, however the body ended just below their chest like a crop top. Under the jacket they had a black shirt under an open white white coat that went down to their knees. They also had a belt sash around their waist, but theirs was white like the rest of their clothes, and they were wearing white pants that Matt could see since the elf was sitting leaned back in their chair with their legs crossed.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Leaning on the wall behind them was a staff made from White wood that was long and straight before ending in a round ring eight inches wide. Strung up within the ring was a web of metal wire with several different colored and shaped crystals suspended in the space, with the biggest gem being a white prism strung up in the center.

As Matt approached, the group all stopped talking and appraised him. Matt felt a bit uncomfortable at the gazes but he tried to appear confident as he stopped before their table. “Um, Hello! Marvin said you guys needed a wood Shaper?”

It was hard to read the dwarves' expression but he watched as their eyes looked over his equipment and nodded slightly, maybe in approval but it was unclear. The elf put down their book and was looking at Matt's armor with what looked like interest but Matt couldn’t tell if there was more than that.

The woman looked excited in a way that made Matt even more nervous. It was the kind of look a friend has when looking into a bonfire that makes you reevaluate your relationship with that person and especially feel unsafe around an open flame. The fact that she was also almost definitely a fire mage made the hair on Matt's neck stand on end in instinctual fear.

And the swordsman had the most apparent expression. His eyes were creased slightly and he had a frown like he was dissatisfied, but Matt could see the corner of his mouth twitch like he really wanted to smile. That gave Matt a bit of confidence as the man spoke up.

“So, you’re the prodigy that Marvin has been talking so highly of?” He asked Matt, standing up and crossing his arms. He was a little shorter than Bishop, maybe six foot two or three, but that was still a bit taller than Matt's own five ten. And while Matt was in good shape and was decently athletic, he would not describe himself as buff.

“I have been described as such, yes.” It was a little embarrassing to agree with calling himself a prodigy but by this world's standards he was a Shaper prodigy thanks to his system, so it rang true in some way.

“Hmm, well unless you got your duds from someone else that is pretty decent Shaper gear, so you’ve got that going for you. Have you ever encountered tree stalkers then?”

“I killed two of them yesterday by myself.” Matt agreed while leaving out how well he did in killing them as well as how one of them likely would have killed him had Bishop not showed up. That fact was both unnecessary to mention and made him look bad.

The swordsman nodded a few times while looking like he was thinking very hard about the decision. “I see. I need to discuss with my party for a moment.” He said while turning his back and forming a huddle with the other members of his party by leaning over the table. They started whispering so Matt couldn’t hear specifically what they were saying, but he caught a bit of the conversation.

Now that his back was turned, the swordsman dropped all facades of disapproval and was nodding often and looked excited about having Matt on board, which makes sense because if he doesn't help then they won’t be able to go in this quest at all.

The red mage was sharing in the excitement and they were whispering back and forth with excitement, with her gesturing with her wand a lot that made Matt nervous, but nobody else was reacting so there probably wouldn’t be any miscasts or anything. Thinking about it, Matt didn’t know how magic spells worked so it probably wasn’t done with just gestures.

The elf and dwarf were more reserved in their agreement, but Matt could see them both try to temper the two humans, which seemed to be working. After a few minutes, the group turned around and faced him. The swordsman continued to look disapproving for a few moments before breaking out into a wide grin.

“Great, we’ve thought it over and decided. Welcome aboard! I’m Karrn, and I am our frontliner.” The swordsman now known as Karrn reached over and shook Matt's hand, taking a second to look over his gauntlet before giving a firm shake Matt felt even through the armor.

“The fiery mage behind me is Janica and she takes care of bombarding our enemies with fire. Don’t worry, she is usually pretty good at keeping the fire off things we don’t want burnt. Usually.” That wasn’t super comforting to Matt's already existing fears, but Janica smiled widely at Matt and waved a bit which he returned nervously.

“The smart one over there is Florven, he is one of the best healing mages I have had the pleasure of working with. You shouldn’t be in any danger, but just in case you can count on him to take care of anything.” Florven gave him a friendly nod while adjusting the side of his glasses.

“Pleasure to meet you Matt, I look forward to working with you.” Florvens voice was gentle yet strong and made him think of a kind librarian that would not tolerate any kind of shenanigans in their domain.

“Me too, excited to work with all of you.”

“And our last but definitely not least is Drost, our shield bearer. Nothing gets past them without paying heavily for it, couldn’t ask for a better wall to hit stuff from behind.” Karrn said with a laugh as he shook Drosts shoulder, which the dwarf just snorted and shook their head, but they were smiling a little bit.

“Happy to work with ya kid, it's been too long since we’ve worked with a Shaper on something.” Drost said. Their voice was low and had a slight gratingness to it, like rocks rubbing against each other, but it wasn’t in an unpleasant way.

“Hopefully I live up to your expectations. Marvin didn’t tell me much about the job other than there was a monster with tree stalkers under its control that I’m supposed to find so they don’t ambush us. What kind of monster can do that?”

“Ah, yes. Makes sense you don’t know much about it if you are new.” Karrn said while pulling out his chair and sitting back down, which the rest of the party also did. Matt looked around and pulled over a chair so he could join the table after setting his pack down next to him. Looking down at the floor, he could see a few other bags under the other adventurers chairs and the table, so having some kind of travel backpack looks like common practice for adventurers.

“The beast we are hunting is called the wood fiend. It is similar to the tree stalker since it can control plant life and has a body partially made of wood and plants, but it's much bigger and can even dominate other creatures, hence the tree stalkers. It hides itself as a barren tree but each branch is a limb and its trunk splits into a nasty maw. They are pretty tough on their own, but this one found a stalker nest or something so the area is pretty infested.”

That sounded pretty dangerous, but it made sense why Matt would be necessary for an easier raid. If the party were ambushed by stalkers all the time before they could get to the wood fiend, they would be slowly whittled down and unable to face the boss at full strength.

“Wow, that sounds pretty tough. When are we going to hunt it?” Matt wasn’t sure what else he could prepare, but there was probably a bit he could do. Maybe make some more rope or buy some supplies he might need? He only had one gold left but it shouldn’t be too expensive to go and find something that he can’t make on his own.

“Since you are here, we will be heading out immediately!” Karrn said resolutely with a big, confident grin on his face. A look that the other members of the party also shared to various degrees. Oh dang…