The market stalls on the Main Street of Dregmoor were at their peak business hours, Friday at noon. The villagers had received their biweekly pay and were splurging on treats they would come to regret in 10 days when looking at their empty fridge, but they indulged nonetheless. Jordan weaved through the bustling crowd, looking for the feathered head of his friend.

“Bryn! Bryn I’m lost and I need an adult!” Jordan shouted, as the demons around him looked at the clearly adult man with confusion. After a few moments Bryn appeared out of the crowd, smacking Jordan’s head as he walked up from behind.

“I hate how nothing I can say would make you think this isn’t hilarious” he said, shaking his head as the pair walked together through the bustling street.

“No you hate that you find it endearing. I’m hungry have you had the Satan pears yet?” Jordan asked, staring at the red fruit, its black horns protruding on either side of its stem.

“No I’ve been sticking to the all bacon diet. I haven’t had a calm trip to the bathroom in the last 3 weeks, but I’m even more scared of what the fruit here will do to me” Bryn said.

The pair had taken it easy since defeating the trip toads, keeping their daily routines to patrols and scouting. The plant growth had remained steady, however the maintenance being performed on it was enough to prevent it from causing any real issues.

No attacks from the bandit camp had taken place since the elf barbarian, but the sounds of drunken partying that echoed through the night confirmed their continued presence at the fortress south of the town.

“I’m gonna try it, most of the fun of traveling is trying the local cuisine and broadening your horizons.” Jordan said, approaching the gnome vendor and purchasing a pair of the demonic pears. He shoved one into Bryn’s hand and held his up.

“To new experiences” Jordan said, attempting to cheers the pear. Simply wanting the experience to be over, Bryn extended his pear in defeat. After toasting to the power of friendship, Jordan took an ambitiously large bite while Bryn dropped the pear and kicked it. He could have sworn he heard a hiss from the gnome but didn’t have the courage to turn around.

Jordan chewed expecting some sort of sweetness, but was instead met with a meaty texture. Looking down into what he just bit into, he saw that the inside of the fruit was dripping with what appeared to be ground beef. It did not taste bad, in fact it tasted like quality meat. Jordan looked up at the gnome, a look of curiosity on his beef covered face.

“Mr beef pear salesman, my good man. Where do you get your produce from?” Jordan asked, holding up the fruit.

“Hunt em” the gnome grumbled in a voice that sounded far older than his youthful appearance would suggest.

“You hunt them? Is fruit a form of animal in Morten?” Jordan asked, but before the vendor could answer he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see Vince, wearing a traditional cleric robe and carrying what appeared to be a storage bag.

“Can I talk to you?” Vince asked Jordan, his tone quiet but firm. Jordan pondered his answer for a moment, his mind stuck on the pear based mystery he was in the middle of uncovering. Eventually his better judgement won out, and the three of them grabbed a table at the now familiar Donkey Diner. Sitting at the booth in the corner of the restaurant, Vince sighed deeply before speaking.

“I want to be better at this job but I don’t know how to do it. Can you teach me?” He asked.

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Jordan stared for a moment before looking over at Bryn in confusion. He shrugged and the pair both looked at Vince, who was sitting nervously but making firm eye contact. He appeared to be serious so Jordan spoke up.

“That’s a little broad there Vince, what exactly do you mean by that? You want like a pamphlet or something?” Jordan said, his attempt at sarcasm failing to lighten the mood.

“When I heard you guys killed those toads I knew I needed to come to you. I’m barely an adventurer, the only reason I’m even level 3 is because I was in a party that was carried by some other guys. I had the excuse to go back home so they never officially fired me, but it was coming and I deserved it. I was never able to contribute and just threw out heals because that couldn’t fail.” Vince said, having to stop himself for a moment to calm down. Bryn could see his frustration, remembering the time before he met Jordan and was doing solo gathering quests.

“That’s unfortunate and I feel for you ,but what exactly do you want from us?” Bryn asked with his eyebrow raised. Though he didn’t have anything against Vince, he was not willing to dedicate his time for free when a fortress of bandits was still active outside town.

“Let me join in on the rest of the quest. You don’t need to pay me and I’ll bring my own supplies, I just want to see you work and to receive instruction on how to make the best use of my abilities.” Vince said, his eyes pleading with the two of them.

Bryn looked over at Jordan, who shrugged and leaned forward as he stabbed a sausage link with his fork. He picked it up and waved it in the air as he spoke.

“Well why do you want to be an adventurer Vince? This job has its perks but it’s also extremely dangerous and has a petty hierarchy. It’s going to be a lot of hard work for a support class like yours to get recognition. Even if you were in our party for example, we were living in a studio apartment in a bad neighborhood before we came here.

So before you think of us as the ones who have it together, you need to establish your own expectations for what you want to get from this kind of lifestyle.”

Jordan said, nodding his head confidently as he munched on a piece of sausage. A small burp came out immediately, and Jordan wondered if this heartburn would be his most dangerous foe.

Vince reached into his bag upon hearing the question, and pulled out a viewing stone. After placing it in the middle of the table, he channeled his den into it, activating the screen that showed his skills.

11/11/1 1:00 pm

Name: Vince Cargile

Race: Demon

Class: Cleric

Level: 3

Guild Score: 800

Skills

Holy Light

Heal

Realm Connection

Peculiar Skill:

Wanderlust

Obviously what popped out the most to Jordan and Bryn was the presence of a peculiar skill.

“How peculiar are these skills if people keep getting them?” Jordan asked, Bryn giving a slight chuckle to that comment.

“Do you know what the peculiar skill does?” Bryn asked, knowing from experience that was not a given.

“I do, I’m the third confirmed owner of this skill. Apparently it gets assigned randomly to people who have traveled a lot before joining the guild, and my dad had a delivery business that took him all over Morten.

When I asked the quiet Dragon lady at Everwatch about it, she said it’s a skill that grows as I explore the world. I need to try and make the people who live in Dregmoor as safe as possible before I go, but I will eventually leave again and see the rest of the world.” Vince said confidently.

“Yeah unless you die immediately because you don’t know the first thing about strategy or working with a team. Also the fashion is atrocious, you look like a snowman” Jordan said condescendingly. Vince’s face fell, and Bryn looked over at Jordan.

“Little harsh bud, going after a man’s admittedly poor fashion like that.” He said as he attempted to fight the acid reflux that was invading his body.

“That’s the reality though. The last time he was involved in combat with us it caused more problems than it solved. We would have been able to take out that elf guy much faster and with less risk if he butted out.” Jordan said pointing at Vince.

He turned his head so they were making eye contact across the table. “So when you’re in our party, you need to listen to us and follow what we do until you get your footing with how we do things. Also I swear to god if you look cooler than me in a fight I’ll be really passive aggressive for a few days until I move onto something else” Jordan said, smiling as he put his hand down. Bryn laughed as he looked over at Vince who looked confused.

“You seem like you want to get better, and we did need to find another party member anyways, so let’s consider this a trial run. You can work with us in Dregmoor, since the goal for all three of us is making the town safer for the citizens, we might as well.

Once our time here is up, we’ll decide if we want to invite you on permanently. Deal?” Bryn said, extending his hand across the table. Vince’s stressed expression turned to one of relieved happiness, and he excitedly shook Bryn’s hand.

“Thank you guys, thank you both for this opportunity. I swear I’ll listen and be of help to you both, you won’t regret this” Vince said excitedly. “So what are we going to do first?” He asked, his blue face alight with anticipation.

Jordan paused for a moment as he let out a burp that was slightly too wet. “Well we have to go figure out how we’re going to kill a fortress of 50 plus adventurers with the 3 of us, so that should be fun” he said as he grabbed a much needed toothpick.