Rell arrived early.  They had decided to meet at the fountain.

He sat on the side of the fountain to wait.  

“Hey, looks like we’ve got fresh meat.”

It is very hard to tell a monk from a fairly new player with mediocre clothes and no armor.

“You should join my guild.  We only take a very small amount of your earnings and you get all the protection of being a member of Mercury.  My name’s Pasko”

Rell had to keep himself from laughing.

“I can see why you guys might need protection.”

“We don’t need protection, you do.”

“I’ll pass.  Protection is its own weakness.”

Rell was proud of himself when he said that.  He was beginning to sound like a real cryptic monk.

“Heh, okay kid.  Good luck with that.  But if you don’t have a guild to help you level…”

A voice behind them spoke.

“You might actually learn something useful?”

“Hello Paella.”  Rell was happy to see one of the gang.  “It’s been a while.”

“I don’t suppose you want to join then?”  

The guild recruiter seemed to find their reactions hilarious.

“I would rather light myself on fire.”

“Here comes Aurora.”

“Aurora!  Say something for the guild man here!”

“I will cut down up.”

“Perfect.”

The guild recruiter looked at the three kids.  He knew the type, looking for the pure experience.  Not wanting to treat it, well, like a game.  He respected that.  He was that type too.  He recruited by offering the standard power leveling, but he had never done it himself.  Even if more of them came, they wouldn’t accept the deal, so he moved on.  

“Rell, Paella, here comes Aesh.”

“Hey Rell, ladies.  Looks like I timed it wrong.  I wanted to show up last.”

Rell replied, “You did.”

“What about Dali.”

“Oh, he got here first.”

The other three looked at him is surprise.

“Oy, Dali!”

Dali sat up.  He had been in the fountain.

“Oh, you’re all here.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Pealla said, “what were you doing.”

“Practicing holding my breath.”

They looked at him questioningly.

“It was a dare,” he explained.  “Where to?”

“Well,” Rell began, “First we should reassess each others roles in the party.  There’s a large party quest happening a few towns over.  I think we should try to join.”

Rell wanted a fight against multiple opponents.  That was, after all, his specialty.

They followed Rell, as they always did, until they reached the meeting place.  

“We were wondering if we could join the quest.”

“We aren’t accepting anyone for another few days.  We want people who can fight, not people who happened to be nearby.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

So they waited for a three days.  

They practiced their out of combat skills.  Rell, for example, had learned Tailoring.  

As Rell sewed, he thought that he should have a trademark.  A symbol he would sew into all of his creations.  He would have to think about that.  He liked the idea of them each having one.  

He looked up as the crowds began to form and smiled.

It was time.  The party gathered.  

“Alright you five.  State your levels.”

“Level 11.”  He didn’t plan on telling them his class even if they had asked.  Traceur?  He was pretty sure they wouldn’t even know what it meant.”

“Level 13.”  Rell was happy he was still higher level than Dali.

“Level 10.”  Paella hadn’t leveled up since they had last seen each other.

“Level 10.”  Aesh was also in roughly the same place.

“Level 55.”  They all stared at Aurora in shock.

“Well, she can join the quest, but the four of you are too low level.”

“Hey, Lann!”

The person turning them down turned to look at who called his name”

“Hey, Pasko.”  

“Could you do me a favor?”

“Well that depends what it is.”

“Could you let them into the quest?”

“I can’t let them in just because they’re in your guild.”

“In that case, you can let them in because they’re not in my guild!”

“...What?”

“They’re not part of my guild.  I just think that we should let them in.  I’ll take full responsibility.  At my level I should make up for it anyway, and I think these kids have got something.”  

“Even so I can’t just-”

“I’ll let you take out my sister.”

“Welcome to the team you five!”

[p=center]* * *[/p]

“So Rell, what exactly is this mission?”

“You didn’t know Paella?  I’m surprised.”

“No comments.  I just want to know.”

“Bunch of creepy crawlies making an army.  We get to kill them.  Pretty average stuff.  Happens all the time.”

“Really?”  

“Yeah.  A group of weak monsters band together, a strong monster decides to rule, it’s very common.  That’s where we come in.”

“So we fight off the monsters.”

“Not really.  We don’t fight them off.  We just fight them until the people who got the quest kills whomever they are supposed to.”

“What happens if we wipe out the army first?” Dali interrupted.  

“Maybe we can find out.”

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