The Manaverse

Slatewell Safe Zone

Granite City

Jut scowled again as he walked towards the Orphanage. He had his Quest Log open and was reviewing the quest from Ophelia to get answers regarding the Monster Wave.

You have been granted a multipart [Quest].

Quest: Find Out What Happened

Objective: Discover why the Monsters awaiting redistribution attacked the Slatewell Safe Zone.

Rank: Divine

Rarity: Unique

Difficulty: Very Hard

Description: You have asked the Goddess, Ophelia, why your Safe Zone was attacked. It is up to you to claim your answers, with a little guidance.

Objectives:

Speak to Randel Ashton. (Complete).

Speak to Daniel Carry. (Failed).

Speak to Clara Shaffer

Rewards:

1 General Skill Upgrade Token - Stone Rank.

Lore of the Monster Wave

Why is Dan's name crossed out? With him standing me up for lunch, it's troubling. Jut thought more to himself than Alex, but the latter still responded.

Your Lore suggests you didn't really care for this Daniel Carry person. Why does the possibility of him being in trouble or worse afflict you so much?

Jut nearly choked on his tongue. People possibly dying is bad. And just because I didn't like him doesn't mean I wish him harm. Those two things aren't mutually exclusive.

Still...you seem to be more upset the quest has stalled. I don't understand why you also feel bad for him personally. You thought he was a kiss ass.

Jut sighed. Again. They are not mutually exclusive emotions. I can be upset about both things.

You Ascendant Beings and your emotions are so strange.

Alex's chat log disappeared after that and the orphanage came into view. Jut noticed the damaged building the orphanage was originally housed in had been fully demolished from the balcony on the penthouse and he wanted to see what was going on. Since he wasn't going to meet with Dan, he wanted to do something before the meeting with the Crusaders that was in about an hour or so. He had saved all of his notifications from the Dungeon run for the meeting, just in case any of them added any insight to what they needed to improve upon.

The plot of land the damaged building had sat on was clear of all rubble and debris and a few people were milling around the site, namely Derrick, who was holding a clipboard and directing workers who were dragging wood and other materials into place.

"Derrick. What's good, my man?" Jut asked as he approached the former barkeep.

Derrick looked up from his clipboard and smiled at a Jut. They shook hands. "It's going well. Here to see Magatha?"

Jut stepped back from their handshake, shaking his head before he gestured behind him to his Residential Tower. "While I was here I was going to stop in, but no. I actually saw the bisected building was missing and wanted to check it out. I had a feeling it was you. What are you putting up?"

Derrick turned into his professional persona and went over his plans like he was making a sales pitch.

"Unfortunately, I can't build anything more than a single-room building for now. However, I can add another single room to the structure. We'll start with the first and add on what we can. It'll be more like a quad-plex than a single building when we are done, but Magtha and I figured we could turn them into boys' and girls' dorms and some common rooms for the older kids."

Jut nodded, seeing a mental picture as Derrick continued to point out what would be where. His thoughts kept turning to Dan and his name being crossed out. When the conversation opened to a point where he felt he could take charge, Jut interjected.

"Have you heard of a person named Clara Shaffer?"

Derrick put his hand to his chin, thinking. "Clara...Shaffer? Can't say that I have. Why? What's up?"

"It's for a quest. No worries. I'll keep looking elsewhere. Need anything from the Guild for this project?"

Derrick shook his head. "No, sir. About Ms. Shaffer, I'll put out some feelers and get back to you. When will we have another meeting?"

Just shrugged. "After we find out if we can open a shop or not. I'll let you know."

The two shook hands again and Jut left Derrick to his work. If building was anything like smithing, Jut knew the man would progress quickly. Derrick would report to him if anything came up he could help with. Past that, it was best to stay out of the man's way.

Jut was about to go in and speak to Magatha but he received a message from Brick that Alex opened for him.

Brick Almight: Think we could start early? Everyone is here and wants to get it over with.

Jut sighed and turned around, heading back to the penthouse.

Getting off the elevator, Jut noticed Brick was right. Everyone was there and the mood was tense. It became even more so when it registered with everyone he had arrived.

Joy sat on the couch in the furthest seat and was looking out the window.

Brick sat at one end of the table talking to Isabella who sat next to him. The latter had Lily curled up on her lap and was stroking the tabby's fur gently. Jut could hear the cat purr from the door.

Diggy was sitting across from Isabelle. He waved at Jut. Jut waved back.

"Hey, everyone." Jut decided to rip off the band-aid.

Brick moved and sat next to Diggy, also giving Jut a wave. "Welcome back, man. How did the lunch go? Find out anything from that Dan guy?"

Joy moved to sit next to Isabelle. They both mumbled a hello when Brick did. It was the same arrangement from their first meeting, like they had assigned seating.

Jut held back a sigh and sat at the head of the table. Everyone except Joy looked at him with anticipation.

"No. Dan was a no show. His name is also scratched out and it says failed next to it in the Quest details."

Everyone tensed up and the mood felt heavier. Jut had told Brick about the quest and they agreed they would tell everyone about it as well. The ominous change hit everyone differently. It was clear that all thought something bad had happened to Dan.

"Yeah. That's what I thought, too. However, there is a new name in the quest. Anyone know a Clara Shaffer?" Jut asked, looking around.

He received a flurry of head shakes and nos.

"Then, unless anyone wants to talk about anything specific, I say we jump into the dungeon review. Did anyone besides me save your notifications?"

Brick and Diggy had while Joy and Isabelle had not.

"There wasn't anything besides the usual kill notifications and the failure notice for me." Joy offered.

"Same for me." Isabelle added.

"Do you mind if we check ours real quick?" Jut asked. "There might be something useful in there. It's likely all the same ones you two had, but I just wanted to make sure."

"It's fine. We'll just chat." Joy said, instantly turning to Isabelle who didn't hesitate to turn to her as well.

Thanks to Alex's capability to manipulate his notifications, the similar ones were grouped up, so Jut didn't have to sit through and dismiss each one. They did show their progression through the dungeon in "party mode", as he liked to call it, very well.

Human - Monster, level 0 x 23 has died.

You gain Skill Experience

You gain Experience.

Human - Elite Monster, leave 0 × 5 has died.

You gain Skill Experience

You gain Experience.

Human - Monster, level 1 x 23 has died.

You gain Skill Experience

You gain Experience.

Human - Elite Monster, level 1 x 5 has died.

You gain Skill Experience

You gain Experience.

Human - Monster, level 1 x 14 has died.

You gain Skill Experience

You gain Experience.

Jut instinctively knew that he received less experience from a kill someone else made, but didn't know by how much. It was the following notifications and two quests that made him excited and changed the way this meeting would go, even if it would still be uncomfortable for everyone.

Your party has died and failed to clear the Crypts.

-1/2 Experience Gained in the Dungeon.

-1/2 Loot Collected in the Dungeon.

+ 12:00:00 penalty until you may re-enter the Crypts.

Magical Strikes has reached Level 1

You gain Experience

+1 Wisdom

You have been granted a [Quest].

Quest: Elemental Power

Objective: Choose an Affinity to Bond to your Secondary Path Skill Bar.

Rank: Stone

Rarity: Abundant

Difficulty: Very Easy

Description: Choose one of your Affinities to bond to your Secondary Path Skill Bar. 0/1

Reward: 1 Secondary Path Skill Upgrade Token.

This [Quest] is not voluntary and has been accepted on your behalf.

You have been granted a [Quest].

Quest: Upgrade Your Skills

Objective: Upgrade You Equipped Skills to Stone Rank.

Rank: Stone

Rarity: Abundant

Difficulty: Hard

Description: Upgrade your equipped skills to Stone Rank before you ascend to Copper Rank. 1/5

Check Point Objectives:

Collect 3 Mana Stones. 0/3.

Perform the Ritual of Conversion on 3 Mana Stones. 0/3.

Collect 3 Equipped Skill Upgrade Tokens. 0/3.

Reward: 1 Mana Gem.

Accept this Quest?

Yes/No

Jut read over each window carefully. He loved that his Skills leveling up would give him stat points. Getting as many of those as he could was now a priority. He did his best to restrain his renewed excitement. This next part of the meeting would be rough regardless of what the news meant. Depending on how everyone reacted to his words, they might hit a wall in group power growth real fast.

"Let me know when everyone is ready." Jut said aloud, putting his focus back on the group. Based on the smile Brick was sporting, one of his skills must have leveled up too.

"I'm good." Brick said with a wave.

Diggy gave a go ahead gesture.

"I'm going to be blunt as Hell for a moment but please let me get through it." Jut said before pausing to add gravity to his next words. "That was an absolute garbage run and it was everyone's fault in one way or another."

Clearly, everyone had an opinion on that as they all either leaned forward and spoke, scowled, or reacted negatively in some way. Jut's raised his hands, palms out, and it made everyone quiet down.

"Hold on. Save your ire and comments for what's next. Now, while that is all true, we are granted an opportunity to review why it was a hot mess and fix it. If that run had been out there." Jut pointed to the window, indicating outside of the Safe Zone. "We would all be dead and burned at the Graveyard and that's if someone can get our bodies back after. I bet the Dungeons consume them."

When no one spoke and everyone's expressions turned contemplative, even Joy's, Jut continued.

"To be a true team, we need to know we can count on one another. That also means we will see each other's best and worst. So, we should communicate those issues to each other from an outside perspective. We will go around the room, one person at a time, and each of the others will say the good things they noticed in that person's performance. They will also point out something they think the person should work on. However, non-constructive comments will not be tolerated. Then, the person being evaluated will confirm their desire to remain in the Guild and the next person will be in the hot seat. I will go first. Who wants to take the first wack?"

All four of his teammates looked at him with confused expressions and no one wanted to speak up first. After a long moment, Joy leaned in and met his gaze.

"You really need to work on your sword fighting skills. I feel like you swing your weapon like Brick swings his club. I think it also lowers your damage output a lot."

Jut nodded. "Valid. If anyone knows the proper way to use a sword, I will gladly take any advice they have. Until I find a coach, I will keep trying new things. What else?"

Joy shrugged. "I can tell a difference in how fast you can move with your buffs and you had no problems stepping onto the front line, so that was good."

Jut smiled. "Thank you. What about you?" Jut pointed to Brick, who he knew would be direct.

"I was too busy trying to keep the Monsters' attention to see too much. However, I could tell a difference when a creature had your vulnerable debuff. My club would do a noticeable amount of extra damage. Maybe we should put some metal armor on you and have you take more hits?" Brick offered before sitting back once more.

"Maybe I should consider a shield too." Jut said, nodding in agreement. "I think Consequence can trigger with a shield block. Isabelle?"

Isabelle looked thoughtful for a long moment before she asked a question. "How often can you use that wind magic attack that phases through the party, and does it give you a stack of Haste?"

Jut nodded. "One stack per enemy hit and I can use it fairly often. Why? What you thinkin'?"

"Until you can actually keep up on DPS, it might be a good idea for you to get as many stacks of haste as you can and charge in for some burst damage. When you did that, it seemed effective. At least, in that situation." Isabelle answered. "Past that, you need a way to share your buffs. That's like the support basics, right?"

Jut shrugged. "I will go and see how many Support Orbs I can get and if there is a maximum Skill limit." He turned to the final group member. "Diggy? Anything to add?"

Diggy gave him and apologetic smile. "Yeah... are you actually going to be the party leader, or not?"

"I-" Jut said but was drowned out by everyone else agreeing with Diggy. The Minotaur continued which had everyone quiet down again.

"You have multiple comments about everyone's performance, your own included I am sure. How many of those could have been avoided if you had provided direction sooner? I don't think I heard you give one order until we cleared the first hall."

Jut felt himself flush because that was his biggest complaint about himself too, besides his full agreement over his lack of damage output. "Quite a few..." Jut agreed. He believed it was that, more than anything, that stopped anyone from adding to Diggy's words. Jut smiled at the group genuinely. "I want to hold a meeting like this every month and I confirm my desire to be in this Guild. As for being the leader. I will work on it and will take any suggestions people have. However, let's go over that after we get past this part."

Everyone nodded and looked at him expectantly.

"I want Joy then DIggy to go next." Brick said.

"Why us?" Diggy asked defensively.

"Why me first?" Joy asked furiously.

"Because Jut is right and both of you made my role much harder." Brick said bluntly.

Jut jumped in. "We will all get a turn. So, Brick, you have beef, start with Joy and air it out... constructively." He emphasized the last word carefully.

Brick nodded. "Are you a Dodge Tank or a Damage Dealer?"

Jut was surprised Brick used the gaming terms, but then again, he had asked Jut what kinds of tanks there were earlier that day.

"I want to deal damage, why?" Joy said, almost defensively.

"Then I would like to ask you to turn your damage down a little bit. You are burning through your resources too fast and you often pull too many monsters away from me. I think if you managed to avoid that, you would deal even more damage in the long run and take less damage too." Brick said calmly with an encouraging smile.

Jut felt Brick was genuine about he comments. A dodge tank was meant to hold an enemies attention and not get hit as often as possible. But Joy wasn't geared to take hits any at all.

Jut decided to show that this was meant to be more of an open forum instead of firing squad. He also needed the biggest pink elephant tackled sooner rather than later and Joy was the hottest tempered one of the group. Getting her past her initial blow up seemed wisest.

"I'll have words with him next, but I also want to know if this will be too hard for you." Jut gestured towards Diggy.

The range of emotions Joy showed was a sign of how mature she actually was and how everyone was affected by the arrival of the system in traumatic ways. She went from slightly angry looking, to extremely pissed, to contemplative and scowling, ending on grudging acceptance.

"It won't be too much for me, Jut. I can handle it, but," Joy said through clenched teeth then she looked at Diggy. "I did make a few mistakes because I was avoiding standing too close to you. I'm sorry." She then nodded to Brick. "I will work on my aggro." She looked around the group. "I confirm my desire to remain as part of the team. I want to get stronger and if the run showed me anything, it's that I won't be able to do so alone. I know I need to work on my teamwork. Is there anything else I should work on?"

"They covered my observations well enough." Isabelle said.

Diggy didn't add anything.

Jut turned to Diggy. "My turn to be "that guy" for you pal."

Diggy nodded and gave an exaggerated performance of bracing himself that made a few people chuckle. "I can take it. Go ahead, boss man."

Jut nodded and suppressed his grin. "Two points I saw. What the hell was up with that missed swing that almost killed Brick? And, Joy wasn't the only one who was feeding into that drama down there. Every time she seemed like she was cooling down, you would make a snarky comment."

Isabelle jumped in too. "I agree with those. Also, you stay in the heat of combat too long and return to safety with too much damage. I noticed you were trying to ease the burden on the other DPS, but it wasn't helping. Brick is the tank. If he needs you to hop in and take over, he should call on you."

Brick nodded and Joy stayed silent. No doubt she was trying to keep to her word and not make a rude, nonconstructive comment.

Diggy did exactly what Jut expected. He turned inward and acted a bit withdrawn.

"I-" Diggy started but faltered. He took a short breath and started again. "I wasn't thinking when I almost took Brick out. My mind has a hard time not comparing all of this to Prime and in that game you can stand on top of one another. We also never fought in confined spaces before the Lock Down. I'll work on that." Then his cheeks colored a bit before he forced himself to look at Joy. "I guess I am more resentful then I thought I was. I was being childish and I'm sorry. I, too, will not let it be a problem for the group." Then Diggy looked at everyone. "I will also reconfirm and stay in the group."

Everyone looked at Brick next.

"What? Why me? Why not the healer next?" Brick asked, putting his hands up in a mock defense.

"Because she has the least to work on." Jut said back.

"How so?" Brick asked, nearly sounding offended.

"We will get to that. After you." Jut said with a grin that made the soldier's facade fade.

"Okay, okay. Lay it on me. I know I am least experienced at this RPG thing compared to the rest of you."

To everyone's shock, it was Isabelle who spoke up first. "You do the standing in one place thing just fine. And you definitely deal the damage you need to. I think you just need to use your aggro Skill more. I only saw you use your Battle Cry once. Does it have a twenty-four hour cool down or something?"

"Well, no. But it's kind of silly, isn't it? I just yell and the monsters attack me? I don't get it." Brick answered sullenly.

Isabelle crossed her arms. "You should have it on cool down always, especially during mob pulls. There were at least six times in the regular monster fights where Joy, Jut, and Diggy all took excess damage, that I had to heal, where you could have avoided it by taunting the enemy. Looking silly, or not, is a bad reason to not use your Skills. Do you have any other Skills besides the three you have equipped? The rest of us used non-equipped skills at least once, even Joy. If I hadn't, you would have died first, not last."

"I do, actually. Yeah, my bad. I guess I could have held more of their attention. It just gets pretty intense, you know? Being the center of the Monsters' attention. However, I know it is my job, so I will work on it." Brick looked abashed for the first time Jut had seen since he met the man. "I will also reconfirm and will be apart of this group." He looked at Jut with a speculative grin. "Now, what do you mean "Isabelle has the least to work on"? Are you playing favorites because she is hot?"

Jut looked at Isabelle who flushed. He shook his head. "Her appearance has nothing to do with my statement. She literally did her job to a T. She attacked the enemies when she didn't need to heal, kept her aggro low enough to not pull monsters, and didn't over heal. She even tried to direct others when she could. Does anyone disagree with my assessment? If so, speak up."

"I wasn't that good and I need to work on a lot-" Isabelle started but was cut off by the others.

"I was pissed she didn't heal me when I wanted it, but after the run I thought about it and you are right. I didn't need to be healed just then. If I had moderated my attacks a bit, I probably wouldn't have had to fight so many at once." Joy said.

"Yeah, I have no disagreement with your comments, Boss. She did as best she could with all of our shenanigans." Diggy added.

"Fair points. She did do her job." Brick nodded.

Isabelle was nearly crimson and couldn't find words for a long time. When she did, everyone listened attentively. "I could have dealt more damage, and I did over heal Brick a time or two..."

Joy's hand landed on her back gently. "Nah, girl. You did great. No need to drag yourself down to our levels."

"Well, I am flattered you all think so. I... I under estimated the struggles you hunters had when I was only healing for the Safe Zone. Seeing the actual fighting, even if it was a false, safe experience, it got me thinking about how different this life is now. I'm sorry for that and I will work on improving my performance. I also would like to stay in the group."

Jut nodded and took over again. "Great job, team. The hard part is over. Can anyone guess our teams number one problem, past the rough patches we just discussed?"

The four all looked at each other and shrugged, not sure how to answer his question. Joy took a stab.

"We don't do enough damage, like over all?"

Jut smiled widely. "That is exactly it. Anyone want to guess why that is?"

Brick, who had started grinning, answered. "Our skills are Normal Rank. I noticed that my special attack deals the same amount damage at Stone Rank, to the Stone Rank enemies, as it did to the Normal Rankers when the Skill was Normal Rank."

Jut nodded. "Yes. While we are Stone Rank, it's like our skills don't do as much damage as they could. Whether that is because we are inexperienced, or because there is rank disparity, I am not sure. The best way to change that is to upgrade our Skills. Let me tell you all about the Quests I just received."

The group all listened eagerly as he explained his quests and Brick confirmed his were the same. Jut couldn't help but grin. He was so glad no one had stormed out. He wouldn't have blamed them if they had. Next came the planning phase. He just hoped every meeting went this well in the future.