Weeks run by quickly. I haven't learned much from Jade nor did the books tell me much about the Adversary. Other than him being heinous towards the residents of Mythos and the enemy of all existence, there isn’t any literature about him. From what Jade told me I gathered he’s the kind to run dangerous and mean ‘pranks’. Jade and Pio only managed to escape an encounter with him only due to his humorous nature.

In another area, preparing for the play-dungeon we settled ourselves in groups of five. Grey and Delvin who were spending plenty of time together making friends, Albi never leaves Delvin’s side but also never talks, Darsh who knows Delvin and albi a bit since they are all from Red Wings, and myself of course.

We spent quite some time preparing for the play dungeon, bought some CandleStalkers and ice crystal bombs. CandleStalkers are magical crystals that, when broken, release a candle-like light that follows the one who broke it for a while. It ought to be useful inside the cave and the Vahts normally flee from warm lights. The ice bombs are going to be nice against the monk lizards in a pinch, it’ll slow them down if we’re ever overrun. The Murks are supposed to be rare but just in case we did buy one fire crystal bomb for Darsh to carry, since he is the least talented at magic and physical attacks are ill-advised against Murks.

We’ve all been hanging out together and going to the library or the shops to buy supplies. It's a nice experience but it feels a bit like I’m not as close to Grey as I used to be. He’s not particularly cold, he’s very social and blends with everyone in class, I guess I don’t feel special anymore and that bugs me, we had a couple of adventures together but now he’s a lot closer to Delvin than me. I don’t resent Delvin for it though. Maybe it’s just the natural way of things, that an outsider and a priest of Mythos can’t be friends, it only makes sense…

“Fren, are you paying attention?!” Luxios brings me back to the present, we’re in class and just about to head out to the big cart to take us all to the place of the play dungeon.

“Yes, I was just… thinking about the supplies.” I answer him to get out of trouble.

Luxios makes a face as if to say ‘I don’t believe you’ and gestures with his hands to take the attention from everyone else who might have lost attention.

“We will now be moving out to the Cart to take us there, follow me.” He leads us out of the guild building and into the streets, from there to the gate and we find a big long cart big enough for all of us.

We all find a place in the cart and it starts moving slowly with the horses groaning. The sound of the wooden wheels rolling on the road would be calming if it were not accompanied by the shaking of the cart.

“Alright, it’s all fine, let’s go over the teams and team leaders again, shall we?” Luxios announces as the town of Mandoza starts to dissapear from the horizon… wait-

“Umm- Luxios sir, we don’t have a team leader.” Delvin tells Luxios what we all just realized.

“That’s not good, you formed a party of five, that party must have a leader that directs the party.” Luxios answers and directs his voice to the others too, one other party also didn’t choose a leader yet. “You can do it now while we’re on our way, we should arrive in half a day or less. Plenty of time to decide on a leader.”

With that the five of our party huddle up. Grey, Delvin, Darsh, Myself, and Albi is not quite huddling but her too I guess.

“So… how do we decide who gets to be the leader?” Delvin asks.

“We can draw straws, it’s all the same to me.” Grey answers.

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“It should be the strongest amongst us, that’s for sure. Can you imagine? A leader that’s weaker than his subordinates?” Darsh is once again using brute force logic.

“It’s not about being the strongest, it’s about directing the party, like Luxios said. It’s better if it’s someone wise.” I give my humble opinion.

“Even if we choose someone smart, he might be wrong sometimes, we don’t have to give such weight to being party leader.” Grey gives his own opinion too. It makes sense when you take into account the adventure with Guy, even though he was supposed to lead the priests he wasn’t all knowing.

“I think we should hold a vote.” Delvin says.

“Right, I’ll start.” Darsh, eager to share his mind, starts voting. You could hear he has conviction about the way things should go. “I vote Fren to be leader, he's the strongest here. Stronger than me! Least likely to fall and leave the party leaderless.” I can’t say I don’t feel complimented, he brings up a valid point too.

“I vote for myself.” Delvin says “I think I can do a great job directing the party. Not to discredit Fren or anything, but he’s been looking flaky today.” uhh… that’s not wrong, but a bit harsh for me to hear. I can’t blame him for having self confidence and voting for himself.

“Albi, who do you vote for?” Darsh asks her, she silently grabs Delvins shoulder and looks at him. It was clear she’s voting for him, even before Darsh asked her. Delvin is probably the only person she trusts.

“You?” Darsh has a slightly hard time accepting a different opinion. “What if you get hurt? There won’t be anyone to tell us what to do. We need someone with endurance.”

“I’m providing magical assistance, I’ll be in the back. Where I can better see the entire battle.” Delving answers him, and Albi stands, as if to say ‘I’ll protect him’.

It’s a good point. In the bandit skirmish I was overwhelmed by the bandits and couldn't even move. It would be a disaster if I can’t lead the party because I’m too much in the front line.

“What about you, Grey?” Delvin asks him, moving the attention to him before Darsh starts a big debate. “It’s pretty much down to you.” He tells Grey. I didn’t get to vote, but considering I would vote for myself, it really is down to Grey.

“Umm… I don’t know.” Grey has a contemplating look. He peeks out the cart to see the scenery. “It’s up to me?”

I didn’t really care, I still don’t really mind the position of leader, but with it coming down to between me and Delvin, it feels a bit more significant.

“The leader does need to see the battle… does that mean he’ll be less active?” Grey is thinking out loud. He looks at me and then at Delvin. Then, he finally says hesitantly “I guess Delvin would be slightly better for it…”

I feel like I’ve lost, it’s not a big loss, it’s just being party leader for the play dungeon, it’s not a big deal. I don’t know why I feel so bad about it.

“Sorry, Fren.” Grey tells me.

“Nothing to apologize for, it’s just party leader.” I say to him, is my face telling a different thing? I don’t know. It’s not a big deal. So what? I don’t care, And I think neither does Grey. So I shouldn’t be upset, right? “Forget about that, let’s make sure we’re prepared.”

I should just focus on passing the test. Let’s see, three CandleStalkers for each, one ice crystal bomb each, and the fire crystal bomb for Darsh, we got that one on sale so I hope it works. My sword, my armor. Darsh’s weapon of choice is an axe, he says he likes the weight of it. Grey came in with the priest robes, apparently it’s supposed to help with magic or prayer magic. Delvin and Albi came in with some leather armor, although Albi took a more armored leather approach, since she’s a frontliner she’s going to need it more. Most of the supplies like ropes, bandaged and such are on Grey to carry, but we all carry some useful items too.

“We’re here!” Luxios yells and everyone get’s off the cart and stand in front of a big mountainside cave. “Some quests you’ll face are ingredient quests, where you need to go out and hunt some monsters and bring back their supplies. Try to bring as many reverse scales from the monk lizards and teeth from the vahts, you can avoid the murks since they often don’t leave their membrane at all after death.” Feels like we came outside just to get another lesson in the mountains.

“It’s large enough for all four groups to be there at the same time. Don’t fight amongst yourselves. If you don’t come back out after a few hours I will go in myself to pull you out, but it will damage your score. First up, Delvin and his party will enter, after a few minutes the next one will enter. Good luck.”