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Zenom set out some basic rules.

One. Every party needed to bring three fruits per member. If you had five members, you had to bring in 15 fruits. If you had six, you had to bring in eighteen and etcetera. If you failed, you had two more chances to leave for the hunt. But the catch was that you still had to make up the quota from the previous day, on top of that day’s quota. Parties who failed to meet the quota would be held back and stuck on guard duty.

In my opinion it was more than fair. The Special Field effect of this island, plus the limited number of fruits we had in stock meant that we couldn’t afford to waste precious resources on parties that couldn’t pull their own weight. Of course, there had been complains from the other parties but in the end everyone begrudgingly admitted that it was the most fair way.

Zenom had officially made this into a competition. There could only be so many fruits on the island. Every party would have to make judgments on the fly. They’d have to figure out which area had the greatest concentration of fruits, as well as having a monster lair nearby that was worth hunting. We could all aim at the weaker monsters and get fruits, but at this level, people were hunting for two things. Cores and Equipment. Lower grade wouldn’t offer much of a yield.

I doubted anyone except me wanted EXP.

Why, you ask?

Why the hell would I focus on getting equipment like these chumps when the freaking Master Smithlay right underneath our noses? I could just get one made from him.

I also doubted this island had a Core we could use. Oh sure, if I happened upon a Core which could prove useful, I’d be more than happy to have one of my party members gobble it up. But it didn’t necessarily have to be here. After all, we would be heading to the island with the Trader’s League right after. With the Dimension Rings I scavenged from the Scavengers, and the sizable loot I had just gotten from my own training spree earlier…

‘We might be able to enter the Auction.’

The Auction.

Similar to how the Samak Horde had done, there would be the same one in the Trader’s League Islands.

Of course, without the slaves.

Zenom had a second condition.

For those parties without a healer, we were being forced to have a priest accompany us.

Which brings us to the current situation.

We were in my party tent, discussing which of the Priests we could take. I hadn’t spent much time with the Priests or Priestesses so I had been asking Skaris, Kyrian, Aurora and Stole for their thoughts. Stole then left and returned, bringing a young boy in tow –someone I recognized from before.

Darwin. The priest with the Downs Syndrome.

“Stole, this isn’t a good idea.” Kyrian looked to me for help, but I was too busy trying to make sense of the situation.

Stole and Darwin stood in front of us, Darwin looking down on the ground and shy. He clung to Stole’s cloak with one hand, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Stole argued on the boy’s behalf.

“Oh come on! Please, Kyrian! He knows how to heal now! Right, Drawin? Show him!” Stole then took out a dagger, reaching towards her forearm.

“Sssstop it, Whelp.” Skaris snapped. “Do not ssssshed uselesssss blood.”

Surprisingly, Stole actually listened and obeyed. Though it didn’t stop her from scowling at the 7-feet tall Beastman. She stuck out her tongue at him, before appealing to Aurora. “Sis Aurora. You were there! You saw him heal, didn’t you? Tell them!”

Aurora glanced at Kyrian. “She… Mr. Darwin did manage to learn the most basic spell.” When Kyrian glared at her, she added, “Though I do have doubts about his ability in the field.”

Kyrian shot me an exasperated look. “Lock, stop her.”

I wasn’t sure what to respond to Kyrian because I was actually weighing the pros and cons of bringing Darwin.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Kyrian rounded on me, changing targets from Stole to me. Yay. “You’re actually considering this?”

“It’s… not the worst idea.” I shrugged.

Skaris made a face that I didn’t know he could make. On the other hand, Darwin suddenly looked up from the ground at me. His brown eyes shimmered, mouth slightly open in a stupefied expression. He looked at Stole who smirked at him and then continued to look at me.

“Mr. Lock? Please?!” Stole muttered.

It wasn’t the worst idea. It really wasn’t. But I also knew what Kyrian was worried about. All too well. This wasn’t a field trip we were going on. It was a legitimate expedition and I knew that there were more powerful monsters than Grade-7 lurking around the island. Perhaps even stronger than the Grade-4 Myung-sa.

“I need to think about it a little more.” I sat on a chair, looking at the list of things we needed before heading out. I passed it to Stole. “You know where the Quartermaster is? Go get us these things.”

Stole narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

What the heck. Stole never got like that. Yes, the girl had a rebellious streak but since when did she question my orders like that?

Well, given the circumstances, I could understand why. It was better to come clean with her.

“You’re too emotionally vested.” I said truthfully, “I don’t want you in this conversation. But you’re vote will still count.”

Darwin understood what I was saying because he tugged on Stole’s cloak. “Les’ go, S,Stowle.” He said in that slurred, stunted speech of his.

“And get some lunch while you’re at it. We won’t be able to eat out there, not unless we want to maximize our time.” I managed to get my words out, just as Stole left. And of course, she was glaring at me the entire time.

I sighed and gestured to Kyrian. He shrugged and drew sigils in the air with his hands, muttering a spell under his breath. In a second, it felt like my mind was somewhere else though I was still inside the tent. It was accompanied by the sense that I was inside a tightly sealed bottle, air pressing in on my ears and mouth and even nose. Like I was too high up in the mountains.

“Now no one else can hear us, except us.” Kyrian explained.

I had no idea this spell existed until recently, until I overheard some of the other parties talking about it. It basically allowed Kyrian to cast a spell that allows our party to communicate only amongst each other and couldn’t be broken, unless interfered with by another mage.

Kyrian told me the spell is called [Secret Speech]. I personally like to call it [Team Chat] or [Party Chat].

Since Kyrian and Skaris know about my Player background already, maybe I could suggest it to them. Not that they’d understand anyways.

“I told you guys,” I began to explain. “That we need a Priest who can keep his mouth shut. Who won’t sell out information, even if the other party waved a bag of gold in front of them. And in this case…” I gestured over towards the tent flap through which Darwin and Stole had exited. “It’s not a bad choice.”

Skaris looked at Darwin. “The boy issss disssabled. He cannot fight.”

I wasn’t sure how old Darwin was and it was strange to hear Skaris calling him ‘boy’. Darwin was definitely a teenager. Maybe one of those teenagers who grow up too fast. He was well over six-feet tall with hunched shoulders and a rounded frame. But he still hid behind Stole like a child.

“He can’t cast healing spells.” Kyrian chimed in.

I gestured to Aurora, inviting her to say her piece. Aurora said nothing, her expression strained.

“Aurora?” I said to her. “You’re going to have to say something.”

“Must I?” she said softly.

“Speak freely. No one will hold it against you, no matter the decision. This is our party after all.”

“Stole…” Aurora spoke slowly, but picked up speed once she began. “Please correct me if I’m wrong or am out of line, have you three been watching Stole at all? Paying attention to her?”

Kyrian and Skaris looked at each other, then at me.

I frowned. “Explain.”

“Mr. Lock. She is young. Even for an adventurer she is young.” Aurora looked right at me as she spoke. “She came here, trusting only in your invitation, Mr. Lock. Oh yes, she likes Mr. Kyrian and Mr. Skaris well enough. And I am not saying that you have mistreated her in anyway. And given your position as our Party Leader and the responsibilities you hold on this Expedition, I do not doubt you are busy.”

“But apart from all that, have you checked in on Stole? A young girl, on her first expedition, away from home for the first time? Surrounded by older adventurers who are all more powerful and more experienced than her?”

Briefly, I wondered if Aurora somehow knew Stole’s age. In the party, the person that Stole spoke to the most was Aurora. The two shared rooms and as a Tank and Wayfinder, they worked close together even in combat. Besides, Aurora was everything that Stole admired in an adventurer. Beautiful, capable and powerful enough to hold her own against her male counterparts, as well as earn their respect. Stole followed her around a lot.

After that came a little bit of guilt. Aurora was right. Stole was here because of me and I couldn’t answer Aurora’s question; that I indeed did check in on Stole from time to time. Because to be honest, I kind of pushed that responsibility off to the rest of them.

Yay, me.

Yes, I was busy but it wasn’t fair to just expect Kyrian, Skaris and Aurora to take care of her. I had invited Stole, and out of everyone here, I alone knew Stole’s true age and her background. Yet, I’d kind of left her alone, expecting everyone else to fulfill the role that was rightfully mine.

“She does not blame you, Mr. Lock.” Aurora spoke quickly, “But these are my own observations. Left to her own devices, Stole has tried to make friends with some of the priestesses that are around her in age.”

“You mean the ones in training?” Kyrian asked, shocked.

Skaris hissed in sympathy.

“Yes. And each time, they reject her. There is no other way to say it.” Aurora looked at me. “Those young priestesses, they have not yet had much experience in seeing the world. For some of them, it might be the first time that they are seeing a Beastman not in chains, or an Elf. Many of them… rebuffed Stole’s advances with… well, rudely.”

“It’s only expected. She’s still… young.” Kyrian said. “She’s going to want friends. Companionship. Now she knows better.”

“You cannot just write this off as a lesson learned, Mr. Kyrian and hope that Stole is all the better for it.” Aurora said sternly, snapping at Kyrian. Kyrian opened his mouth to argue, but Aurora spoke over him. “What I mean to say is that this Party has been negligent in our duty. The fact is, we should be the ones teaching her and guiding her. Yet, it seems to me that I was the only one who took this duty seriously.”

“Whelpssss learn bessst on the field-”

“Mr. Skaris, with all due respect, Stole is not from Zimmskar. She was born in Jayu. She is different from the rest of your people, who grew up with your people’s Old Ways.”

Skaris said something guttural, a curse most likely. Then fell silent, thinking. He finally nodded his head a fraction of an inch. One part apology and one part admittance of his wrong.

Aurora turned back to me. “Fact is, Mr. Lock that we haven’t treated Stole right. None of us have. So she reached outside the party for companionship and even then, couldn’t find anyone. Now, she finally brings someone who she might have a connection with, that she sees as a Peer. Not a mentor, not a leader, not a respected older adventurer, but an equal.”

“...As much as I agree with you,” Kyrian finally butted in. “It’s not that easy. A priest is crucial in an expedition. Lock told us the monsters here are Grade-7 above and possibly swarming with them. The priest’s skills can be between life and death for us here.”

Aurora lowered her voice. “Oh really? Is that what this Party has been all this time? Making the correct, logical choice all the time?”

Kyrian opened his mouth to argue then closed it, thinking better of it. In the ensuing lull, I found all three of them staring at me.

“It will be hard.” I said finally. “A Priest means you have to work that much harder, Aurora.”

“I already have been, Mr. Lock.”

I chewed on my lip. Kyrian saw the look on my face and sighed. Skaris looked like he always did, the space between annoyed, bored and ignoring something beneath his notice.

“Fine.”

Aurora nodded her thanks. Skaris rolled his eyes and Kyrian sighed.

“Ok then, now that that’s settled we can all go get some lunch. We’ll head out right after-”

The flap to our tent opened up and a Priest rushed inside.

Kyrian dispelled the Team Chat spell.

“Your presence is required.” The Priest was sweating, but did his best to sound calm.

Sensing that something was wrong, we ran out of the tent, following the Priest.

He led us towards the Mess Area. Which was nothing more than a large tent designed to serve food with large tables and chairs set around the entire area. Usually, we’d see a line of people waiting for their turn, twisting around the Mess Tent. But today, there was a crowd. The adventurers in the crowd saw me and let me through.

Stole sat on the ground, her arms held behind her back by none other than Lety.

“AGGGGHHHH!” Stole screamed.

Across from her, on the other side of the crowd were two girls –two Priestesses in training.

And their faces were bloody.

Someone –and I had zero doubt who– had gone and beaten the girls to a bloody pulp. Well, a bloody pulp might be exagerating it. One of them had a bloody nose which was pouring freely and I could tell it was broken. The other girl had a black eye and a lump the size of my fist forming on her jaw –I think Stole knocked her freaking tooth out.

And right in front of Stole was Darwin, picking up scraps of food off the ground.

He looked at me, eyes welling with tears.

“What happened here?” I snapped, turning to Stole.

Lety released the youngest member of my Party.

“Those two, those two!” Stole pointed at the two girls who were surrounded by the other young Priests and Priestesses, all around the same age. “They kept on picking on Darwin! I told them to stop! And today, he was walking and they- they just- they stuck their foot out and-”

Maybe it was the attention. Maybe it was the crowd. Maybe it was just anger.

But I’d never seen this before.

Stole’s eyes welled up with tears too.

And her lip was cut.

I’m not stupid. I could guess what happened here.

I turned slowly, seeing Darwing crying and making panicked sounds as he picked up scraps of food off the floor. It wasn’t just his tray that he was picking up, he was picking up food for Stole’s tray too.

One of the priests reached out, grabbing Darwin’s arm. The large boy yelped in surprise and shock. The priest jerked his arm, pulling Darwin away.

“Stop this, you brute.” One of the Priests hissed underneath his breath, though everyone heard it. “Get up off the floor. You’re dishoring the church. You’re an embarrassment to our entire Clergy and-”

Those teenage priests and priestesses, pointing and laughing at Darwin and Stole. The older Priests, clicking their tongue and shaking their heads at them. Every fact made their way into my head like a dizzying storm and I walked over like a man possessed.

We’re not actually supposed to touch the Priests. They’re supposed to be Holy and the Healers of this Expedition. We’re supposed to be on their good side, especially for a party like mine who doesn’t have their own.

Well, fuck that.

Everyone stopped, as I, an adventurer with supernatural strength who can snap him like a twig, grabbed the Priest’s arm. And in this picture frozen still-frame, my voice was the only thing that moved, sweeping through the Mess Area like a lone monster with nothing to lose.

“Get your hands off of my healer.”