Jean's day started as most of his days do, with him throwing himself at danger in the hopes of not dying or making a fool of himself.
We find him here, running down a dimly lit hallway away from a giant boulder wishing he had some kind of hat and whip to make the experience more authentic and memorable.
"Why does this always happen to me?!?!" He cried to no one in particular, although mainly because he was the only one currently in the hallway, the rest of his party having known about the trap and stayed clear while he continued on like the airhead he tended to be. He would probably be willing to carry on a conversation while he was running too, he was just that talkative.
Seeing the boulder was slowly catching up to him, he started looking for ways out of his current predicament, seeing a corner ahead he quickly increased his speed as much as he could and rounded the corner relying on kinetic force to keep the boulder from crushing him. A few seconds later the boulder came speeding by and didn't somehow back up and follow him, as with his luck he'd expected to happen.
He kept on walking down the sparsely lit corridor until he found a well light room which looked like the end of the dungeon he and his party had been exploring. At the door to what was probably the boss room he found his party talking amongst themselves as if giddy schoolgirls 'most likely excited for the boss fight' he thought, not knowing that they were actually glad to finally be rid of him. While he was fairly useful in being a ranger, he wasn't a great shot with his bow. To be completely honest he was terrible.
So they had secretly decided that they would get rid of him as this way they wouldn't have to split the loot five ways and could instead go four ways, meaning more money and loot for themselves. Perhaps a selfish decision but nobodies mentality is the same, including loyalty, friendship, and greed.
Jean, unaware of such things took it upon himself to wave at his friends with his regular friendly personality and yelled out to them.
"Hey guys, I made it!! You could've warned me about that trap, I almost died, good thing I'm a great runner then right!" He then laughed along with himself and the encroaching silence and unnoticed by him stiff awkwardness in the air between his party.
The mage turned to look at him first, him being the somewhat short and average looking guy with the blue hooded robe, the hood prevented any amount of his face from being seem, he was holding no weapons to speak of but Jean knew from experience he had a spacial ring on one of the fingers of his right hand, which he used to carry most of the parties loot and supplies. His gaze was followed by the warrior whom was a tall and better than average (but not by much) looking man wearing steel platemail that matched his blue eyes and militaristic cut brown hair. He had a longsword and shield, and a spear on his back as a secondary weapon, all of which he could use well being the battle honed warrior he was.
The two others soon joined in gazing at the late and not dead as they expected ranger, those people being the thief and the cleric. The thief being a small and lolitastic girl wearing leather armour with a washboard sized chest and a rather childlike face that matched the pigtails hairstyle her purple lochs were in, the only thing about her that didn't scream "I'M TWELVE!!!" were the rather wicked looking daggers she had one of on each hip. The cleric being a rather plain looking long haired blonde woman with a rather larger than normal chest under the white priest robes she was wearing she carried a green wooden staff which she used a catalyst for her healing and buff spells as well as her miracles.
The man they were all looking at was Jean of course our protagonist whom now that he was in the light could be seen better, he was a few inches taller than the average person and while not overly lanky wasn't really ripped either, at least he was fit. He wore a dark green cloak which hid his face and clothes underneath, which was also leather armour not unlike the thief. You could see his bow under his cloak but not much else, the most you could see was the bottom half of his face which showed that if the rest of his face followed the set pattern that he was in his late teens like everybody else (yes the loli is only a loli in looks not age) in the party, and not much better than average looking.
"Soooooo," said Jean now being the first and second person to speak "are we gonna fight the boss or what?"
His party members all nodded to each other and pushed open the doors not waiting for him to follow, Jean not being able to see past the door without having to use his night vision skill was still oblivious to what was happening as happily trotted along after his "friends". Everything from there on went about as he'd have expected except with one key difference, as soon as he walked in she door he was impaled with the spear the warrior carried as a ranged and backup weapon.
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Jean looked down at the new addition to his chest with widened but bit yet revealed eyes, the spear had gone straight through and stuck in the wall behind him right next to the door, feeling fairly numb and surprised he slowly slid down the spear and leaned against the wall spear still taking up a large section of where his abdomen was before it traded places with said aforementioned spear.
He looked up to see his party surrounding him and all looking at their handiwork with various expressions.
The mage, Jean assumed, was smiling maniacally or so he felt. He couldn't actually see his face with it still being hidden by his hood but he could still fell the glee practically radiating off of him washing over his numbed senses in waves, or so he felt, once again he still could be illusioned into thinking that, going into shock will do that to a person.
The warrior was giving a cruel smile that spoke of his arrogance and haughtiness, as well as lack of regret of his actions
The cleric at least had the decency to look apologetic though not quite sympathetic.
The thief was the one that hurt Jean the most, emotionally that is. (I can't quite stress the whole not feeling much of anything deal enough) She had a completely bored and indifferent expression. As if what was now happening was just another chore to do or menial task to complete. The same face she often wore when they had to do E-rank missions as newbie adventurers.
Jean couldn't really process what was happening at the moment and settled for going limp on the spear but not dying yet, though definitely moving towards dying at a fast pace. His hood slid off his head finally showing his heart wrenching face, tears streaming out of his silver eyes, his normally well groomed fiery red hair was no longer in its regular pony tail and was a disheveled mess that hung around his shoulders and on parts of his face though not enough to hide the betrayal on his face. His skin was normally well tanned and sun kissed but was now pale due to his large amount of blood loss.
The party only now seeing their resident jokesters face for the first time in the several years they had all worked together, while most had caught glimpses at his face he made sure to never reveal it. He wasn't deformed or ugly or anything he just felt like it was a mildly funny running joke. The cleric looked slightly more apologetic and now somewhat sympathetic, the warrior and mage started laughing or in the mages case cackling, and the thief had her brows slightly raised but not much else had changed. As if to signify she was interested in what was happening but not enough to say anything or much care.
A loud thump had sounded behind them signifying the boss monster of the dungeon had finally arrived, all non speared to a wall members of the party turned to face the beast only to find it wasn't a beast at all, no it was a ten foot tall rock golem with a giant stone bow it was somehow able to draw and use. The most noticeable thing about the golem wasn't it's weapon or size was that it was on fire, not the I'm melting or roast you kind of fire but the, I'm on fire on purpose and am gonna use it to get lit up in here kind of fire.
The mage immediately set about casting water bolts at the golem which stunned it if only momentarily. The cleric followed up by casting a strength buff on the warrior which he assumed was his key to get in and begin his attack. And attack he did he got close to the golem only for it to lash out with a stone boot which clashed strongly against the warriors shield. While the golem was standing on one foot the mage took advantage off his lack of anchored balance and cast a powerful water spell.
"Water slicer!!" He chanted upon his finishing of the casting of the spell. The spell made contact and temporarily doused the fire enough for the party to see the golems battery, a Ruby like red gem was keeping it powered, and semi experienced adventurer knew the battery was the best way to defeat a golem, and everyone in the party being a B-rank adventurer they were well acquainted with the golems easiest weakness. Why anyone had placed it's most glaring weakness in its forehead as if to say "KILL ME!" To the world no-one had even considered in the moment.
The thief was about to throw a dagger when an arrow suddenly Pierced the gem and sent the golem crumbling to dust on the ground.
The party looked back at the only party member that had a bow in surprise that he had actually made a shot and were all again even more surprised to find he was both alive and had launched the arrow.
"Dammit," cursed the tiny thief "The one time he made a decent shot and it steals the boss kill from us when he won't even be alive to gain the specialty skill."
"Well, losses sometimes occur at least we'll probably get some sympathy booze from the other adventurers at the adventurers guild. We should get moving now, the golem didn't drop anything so we're done here." The warrior spoke with finality in his voice that told the rest of the party he wasn't to be argued with, and so the party filed out on their way out of the dungeon the same way they came in, none of them looking back except the cleric whom cast one more apologetic gaze before following her friends.
What they didn't realize at the time(and Jean included, since he had passed out after firing the arrow) was that the skill he had gained would change more than could think possible.