Chapter 5

A new team

Jessica explained the plan as we went, never losing her upbeat tone, “Alright, I know you two know the plan but W here is new so I’ll break it down as we go. Goblins make a few different types of lair. Most commonly, and most important to us since it’s what we will be dealing with, is a small tribe of huts in the woods, otherwise they might hole up in a cave, or clear a low level dungeon and take control, things like that. They hunt local wildlife, deer, rabbit and such, but when they can’t find enough they spread out and look for other sources of food. Farmers in their hunting area usually gather together and pool their coin to offer a reward for clearing them out in order to stop them killing their sheep or cows or whatever. With me so far?”

I nodded

“So these goblins have been stealing from the farms in the area and now we have to clear them out. There are a few ways to do that. The safest ones involve traps and ambushes maybe night raids to burn their huts. We wont be doing that, it would take too long, instead we will attack directly. We’ll use a diamond formation. I will be in front, hacking, slashing, stabbing, all the fun stuff, Claire and Paul will be behind me, Paul will not be burning the woods down but being very careful to only burn the goblins, Claire will be interference, shining light in the goblins eyes and such, as well as making sure none of us bleed to death from goblin spears. Your job is to stand behind them during the fight making sure we don’t get caught from behind or lose our retreat if things turn nasty. Any questions?”

I shook my head

“Say it out loud, I cant hear your brain rattling. This is a low risk contract, but we are a team and need to communicate. I’m looking at you, but if Claire isn’t and you shake your head to a question maybe she thinks you’re hurt and need healing. Then she takes her attention of her task to help you and that puts more strain on someone else. If we can work together properly our team composition should let us take more difficult contracts and make more money and get stronger, sound good?”

“Yeah, sounds good” I replied

“great! What about you two? you gonna ignore our new team member?”

“Ahh no, it’s good meeting you Mr. W, I hope we can work well together” Claire squeaked

Paul just sniffed

And so we walked on and on, leaving the city and following the road out past several farms. The city didn’t have limits as such, instead it just got less and less dense, turned to farms and farmland, then to an odd homestead here and there before petering out altogether. The countryside was very earthlike, the plants all seemed familiar, not that I would be able to spot an odd species of tree or shrub or something. The only things that hinted I was not in Kansas anymore were the people I was with and the lack of any modern features. No asphalt roads scarring the land, no concrete buildings blocking the view, no planes or trains raising a clatter. I had been to quiet out of the way places on earth but ones that could match this were few and far between. The quiet beauty of the world so close to civilization struck me. Advancing technology and society were undeniably good things, but it was hard to remember when surrounded by singing birds and calm breezes rather than sirens and exhaust fumes.

A few hours of companionable marching and we left the road toward some distant woods. I couldn’t tell how but Jessica seemed to know exactly where we were and where we were going at all times. There weren’t many choices when on the road but she had no maps and there were several intersections mostly close to the city itself. I wondered if she had a natural strong sense of direction or I was too reliant on GPS and maps. Then we came to the tree line. The woods weren’t anything out of the ordinary, trees of various types spread enough that plenty of light hit the ground but also dense enough you could only see a couple hundred feet at best.

Jessica stopped us and we all gathered up “ok everyone knows the plan, everyone ready?”

Together we sounded out “Ready”

Jessica nodded, “Follow me”

Our pace slowed significantly, Jessica blazed a trail a good three dozen feet ahead of the other two. Meanwhile I kept an eye behind us and to the sides. The woods grew more dense as we went, and I could only just make out Jessica in front as she weaved through the trees, keeping low and moving with practiced ease through the dense growth. Eventually she stopped and held up a hand in the universal stop sign, then she flashed a five twice and a three once. We hadn’t gone over hand signals but I took that to mean thirteen, hopefully it wasn’t some complex sign telling us a dragon was here and hungry or something.

This must be it, I almost wanted to grow a chest drum so it could race in excitement. She signaled us to wait and hide, taking a spot behind a tree herself. At her nod Claire shone a light through the trees where Jessica was just looking. Paul lobbed a fireball that exploded in the air, it seemed to be more bang than fire, maybe to cause a panic.

The goblins began wailing and scrambling, Jessica let two pass her by, they were going after the clear source of the fire, Paul had flames dancing around his hands as he conjured more. Jessica sprang out at the third cutting it in half before it noticed her. Paul waved a hand and the two that had made it through fell to their knees their faces ablaze. Claire didn’t just maintain her light, but was strobing, and moving it around, keeping the goblins confused. Then the battle was on. Jessica began dashing between goblins far faster than should be possible in that armor. Goblin limbs and heads flew off in every direction. Paul rained fire down among the terrified green monsters, seemingly unable to miss, and each time a burning goblin fell, he made a grasping motion with his hand and the fire went out before it hit the ground. After the initial rush the goblins began to run and cower more than fight, I almost felt bad for them.

A sound to the side snapped my attention to the flanks. Quickly I spotted a goblin among the branches of a tree pulling back an arm ready to launch a spear at Paul. I rushed to his side, just catching the spear with my shield arm. Unfortunately the shield was actually part of my arm and I didn’t remove the nerves, it HURT, but I pulled it free and Paul casually tossed a small ember into the tree. The goblin never hit the ground, fully incinerated on the way down.

The whole fight lasted less than a minute and no one took an injury, unless you count my shield arm. I couldn’t ask for a heal since it was wood and not my arm that was hit, so I shouldn’t be hurt. I only lost five health points so it wasn’t a problem, in fact I would be able to use the recovery to time my healing speed, something I had been meaning to do.

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After making sure there were no more goblins sneaking about, Jessica gathered us up again and spoke, not even winded, ”Alright, acceptable, but I did see several problems, anyone care to guess?”

“I didn’t know your hand signs before and I should have, also it took too long for me to notice the one in the tree.” I offered

Jessica nodded with a slight smile

Claire added “mmm I used too much mana? If someone was seriously hurt at the end it could have been a problem”

Paul remained silent with a scowl.

Jessica then added, “I should have made sure we all knew the hand signs so that is on me, and yes I counted thirteen, but I missed the one in the tree. The flanks are your job and you handled it well so I call that even”

Then she turned to Claire “Having two jobs in a fight can be hard to balance. This is terrible to say but the correct solution is going to be making sure you can handle a major injury after the fighting, even if that means not distracting the enemy and letting that injury occur in the first place. If you spend all your mana on a light show but the enemy manages a lucky hit we are screwed. If you save some mana and the enemy is allowed to make a hit, at least we know we will be able to heal.”

Claire made a sour face but gave a quick nod.

All eyes turned to Paul, “What?”

Jessica glanced at me with a smirk, “No he already owned his mistakes, your turn”

Paul rolled his eyes and sighed, “fine, I should have been paying more attention, thanks W that was a nice save.”

Jessica beamed such a smile I worried Claire would need to heal her face. “Great, now let’s gather anything worth having and get back home.”

As it turns out, the goblins didn’t have anything worth having. Even the hides they took from their game and stolen livestock were so poorly treated they were only rotten skins. Once we made our way back out of the woods Claire pulled a cloth wrapped bundle from her pack, Paul untied a large pot that hung from his and cast a water spell. Jessica took of her helm and gauntlets and started washing in the makeshift sink.

Claire noticed my curiosity and shyly smiled, “lunch”

Paul grunted as he sat next to the picnic that quickly took shape

Jessica translated his grunt, “We work together all the time, we each have our role. Claire is the best cook this side of the Frozen Hell, don’t tell her though, she might get a big head”

Claire glared a moment before taking a seat herself and spreading several dishes out which Paul reheated with magic. Well, as my grandfather used to say, when in a fantasy world adventure, do as the fantasy adventurers do, he definitely said that. I took my seat and eyed the food, maybe I should make taste buds soon.

Jessica Interrupted my thoughts, “Well? You’ve seen how we operate, you’ll get a share of course but, what do you say to joining us long term?”

Paul scoffed, “He may have helped a little but we don’t know him and he doesn’t know us, why should we let him on the team”

“He did perform his role perfectly, even without knowing what was going on” Claire pointed out

Jessica held up a hand, a sense of seriousness falling over her, “I thrust this trip on you suddenly sure, and no we didn’t need help this time, BUT what if we did. We have the people to handle lower level contracts but we are used to a four man group. James who used to be responsible for your spot had to give up adventuring, something happened on his family farm and he had to go home. If we act as a three man group just because we can, we risk running into a situation we can’t handle. What if instead of a single goblin flanking Paul they had a hunting party of goblin riders? Not to mention more man power and a more rounded team lets us take higher paying contracts. I don’t make this offer lightly, we really could use the help and I think W would be a solid choice and a reliable teammate.”

Paul looked between us all for a moment, unable to come up with a reasonable argument he sighed, “you’ll need better gear “

Jessica interrupted again still looking intently at me, “Wait. That is our side Mr. W, what about you? Do you want to be part of this team?”

I considered only briefly, “adventures with friends is kinda my main goal right now so… hell yeah”

Claire gave a squeak of joy before finding something very interesting in her pack and turning away, ears bright red.

Jessica beamed and clapped me on the shoulder, “Great, good to have you aboard, once again for formality, I’m Jessica, call me Jess, melee damage and team leader, that’s Paul magic damage and food warmer, and the red one is Claire, crowd control, healer, spiritual guide, cook, mascot, prude…”

Jess stopped as a glob of mashed potatoes splattered on her cheek and stuck. Her smile didn’t change but suddenly had a much different feeling behind it. The next few minutes saw a battle several times as fierce as the goblin culling earlier.

I was glad that the food war obscured the fact that I didn’t eat any. Mostly because I didn’t want to waste the food when I couldn’t even taste it. Much better that it went to good use as ammo. The trip back went much faster than the trip out had, everyone in high spirits. I got a better idea of my new friends as they each told a bit of their stories.

Jess was a guild trained team leader from a guild in the capital. She ran dungeon dives to map, harvest, or cull them as necessary. She left for a more rural setting when the heads of her guild decided to stop rejecting unqualified applicants and instead use them as fodder when exploring dungeons.

Paul was Jess’s lieutenant in the guild and though he didn’t have the same concern for the injustices of the world, he stuck with her when she left. I couldn’t tell if Paul was only hostile toward a newcomer or just in general but it became clear that Claire and Jess didn’t suffer the same aimless ire as I did. Paul and Jess’s families were connected in some inscrutable way several generations back and Paul seemed to follow Jess as a matter of course.

Claire was added to the team when Paul, Jess, and James were doing a contract near hometown. Livestock began going mad and breaking loose from their pastures, attacking anyone who came near and destroying anything they could get at. It turned out someone had recently traveled from somewhere across the ocean and brought some disease that drove the livestock mad. The team couldn’t figure out how to handle the problem and Paul had actually contracted the disease winding up in bed with a fever. They eventually called for a healer and Claire was the one who came, not only curing Paul but the livestock as well. Jess managed to beg and guilt her into joining them citing the fact that the town had more than enough healers and the team would surely die of something sooner or later.

Now with this goblin raid the team had absorbed me into their ranks. It suited me just fine. My dreams of an iseaki adventure were actually coming together. We made it back to the city and the adventure guild just as the sky began to darken. Jess took me to reception so I could see how claiming rewards was done, meanwhile the other two unpacked the gear in their rooms.

By design or some twist of fate we ended up in front of Margaret again “Well I see you didn’t get him killed”

“Of course not, who do you think I am? Some kind of barbarian?” Jess cried

“Yes” Margaret said, deadpan

Jess blinked for a moment, “Yea ok, no we didn’t kill our newest member. We cleared the goblin camp in the woods reference number 1717-A, fourteen goblins, no riders champions or chiefs, we didn’t find any human remains or signs of stolen goods, at least seven cows and four sheep could be confirmed, possibly more. We spent an hour at the edge of the woods but there was no sign of any scouts, hunting parties, or other hidden stragglers.”

Huh, It seems the picnic wasn’t just for lunch and a fun food fight.

Margaret matched Jess’s seriousness “Understood, if you would like, you get first crack at the follow up sweep contract in a weeks time”

“No thank you, we will be running our newest member through a few different types of contracts in different areas.”

Margaret nodded, “Alright, contract confirmed, that is fifty copper”

A satchel clicked on the counter. Jess nodded and tied it to her pack, “Alright W, come with me, we can divvy up the reward and talk future plans.”