Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Nine - Superego

The team couldn't exactly leave right away. Instead, Jean-Piere led us out of the forest and back towards the sorta-cliffside where I'd come into the floor from. We crossed the sign by the entrance, then paused.

"Did you encounter anything on ze first floor?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. Some monsters that repeated anything I said. Mimicry murlocks? They were kind of creepy? Not very strong, though."

He nodded. "I knew zere were a few left. If you took more out, zen ze return will be zat much easier. Alright. I'll take point, if you don't mind. Seeing as how you're not one of the new recruits, I suppose you can do what you want."

I blinked, but I supposed that made some sense.

The Exploration Guild's field test was meant to see if people were competent enough to join. If someone passed, and if they, for example, were sent on quick missions by the Guild Master, then it was probably safe to say that they were at least somewhat good at the whole exploration thing.

And Jean-Pierre seemed willing to assume that much about me.

It was actually kind of nice. I didn't mind people underestimating me, or seeing if I needed help with something. I wasn't the sort of bun to be insulted so easily. But it was nice to have someone that was a professional just assume that I was capable as well.

I moved a bit closer to Jean-Pierre, leaning down because of the difference in height between the two of us so that the others wouldn't overhear as easily. "How far along in the testing have you gotten?" I asked, under my breath.

He smiled. "Hmm. Not zat far, but enough to get a feel for some of zese recruit's potentials."

"Can I help? The mission was kind of cut short and all."

He rubbed at his chin. "I suppose I wouldn't mind ze help. Would you say you're a good judge of character?"

"I'd like to think so," I said. "And I have a few skills that help with that."

"Ah, right. An airship captain would want a few skills to manage zeir crew... how many are zere, on your ship?"

"Uh, myself, the first mate, Awen over there is our mechanic, and Calamity is from our... away party? After that, there's six more, and one permanent stowaway. Oh, and the ship's cat."

He nodded, and I was thankful he made no comment, because calling Caprica a permanent stowaway probably wasn't very flattering, even if it was technically true. "Okay. Good enough. If you could talk with everyone, see what zeir like. Zat might help. Part of being a good member of the guild is being able to work with others, forming... if not friendships, zen at least professional relationships."

"That makes perfect sense," I said. "I'm not sure how much I'll learn between here and Rockstack, but I'll do what I can! Oh, uh, but it wouldn't be too fair to judge my own friends."

He shrugged. "Calamity is a shoe-in. Good hunter skills translate well. He's good enough with others too. Awen is a little less... field-ready, but her skills for dungeoneering are decent enough. She's not a whining noble brat. And at ze same time... her family name?"

"Ah, Bristlecone?" I asked. "You're wondering about Abraham."

"Any relation?"

"He's her uncle," I said. "We actually came to Port Royal with him."

"Ah, ze famous niece. Well, I zink I would have a hard time not accepting her. It's good zat she seems competent enough, because it'll save me having to argue with zat man."

"I don't think Awen would want to be treated special because of her family," I said.

"Zat speaks well of her character too," he said. "Right, let's not linger too much longer. Ze recruits seem to have caught zeir breath."

Was that why we stopped? I looked back and saw that Calamity and Awen were both fine, but at least three of the recruits looked a little winded, and some of the others weren't in top form.

I'd never been anything exceptional back on Earth, and ever since arriving on Dirt, I'd always felt the need to push hard to keep up with all the strong people around me. However ... I was starting to get the feeling that my friends and I weren't quite normal, anymore, at least compared to the average person. We weren't super high-levelled or anything, but we did have classes and skills that were handy for adventuring.

"Alright everyone, enough sitting around. Let's head out. Miss Bunch will be chatting with each team, to make sure you're all doing well."

I nodded along, confirming what he said, then I watched as the group started to move. I let them move on ahead of me, with Awen and Calamity right behind Jean-Pierre. I waved them on, and my friends didn't seem to mind my new sorta-job.

The next team was the one with two grenoil gentlemen, then the team with the human and the person in the mage's robes, and finally the team with the two younger grenoil.

I slipped in next to them. "Hi!" I said. "I'm Broccoli."

"Uh," the grenoil boy said. "Hey. Nice to meet you?"

"You're a full-fledged member?" the girl asked, sounding maybe a tough suspicious.

"I am! Something came up, and we need Jean-Pierre back in Port Royal. So I guess the exercise will be cut a little short. Sorry?"

"No, it's fine," the girl said. She didn't sound like she thought it was fine though. She frowned, and cast her eyes down.

"So, what are your names?" I asked. That seemed like a nice neutral ground to start with.

"I'm Davis," the boy said. He gestured to the grenoil girl. "This is Hannah."

"Hello, Davis and Hannah," I said. "Is this your first time in a dungeon?"

These two, of all the new recruits, seemed the least prepared. They had big backpacks, and it looked like Hannah was carrying half of a household's worth of stuff, but it wasn't all that well packed, and I couldn't imagine it all being useful. Plus, it was covered in mud and looked wet. It was no wonder she, at least, needed a small break.

The rest of their gear wasn't great either. Two spears, and even if I wasn't an expert of any sort, it didn't look like either of them were too used to carrying them. The knives by their hips looked better used.

"Is it that obvious?" Hannah asked. She sounded worried about it.

"We're both at the level cap," Davis said. "We can manage a dungeon, I'm sure."

I nodded along. "I'm sure! Your first is a little tricky. I'm sorry we won't be going all the way to the end of this one. But now you know a little more of what to expect. At least from this one, specifically."

"Have you done a lot of them?" Hannah asked.

"Uh... a few?" I tried. "Let's see... I can't remember all of their names, but there was one near... nevermind that one. Then two in Mattergrove, then two on the way south, one in sylphfree, then another up north. I think I've gone through seven dungeons so far?"

Davis looked a little stunned, and Hannah a little awed.

I scratched at the side of my neck. It felt kinda embarrassing.

The other two teams, the ones with the human and the mage, and the two grenoil, were moving a lot faster, so I gestured to them. "We should try to keep up," I said. "But if you have any questions about dungeons, I'd love to help. At least, as much as I can!"

"Uh, do they always have... things in them? Like the flies?" Davis asked.

"You mean monsters?" I asked.

"Yeah."

I nodded. "Almost all dungeons have monsters, although the mixture varies. Some have a lot of monster types, others have only one. Though ... there was dungeon we went through that had almost no monsters. That one was weird."

"Why was that weird?" Hannah asked.

"There were a bunch of traps instead of monsters. And the dungeon was a huge, huge tree," I said. I smiled at Hannah's impressed look, then remembered that I was supposed to be learning about these two, not impressing them with my vast experience stumbling through dungeons. "But enough about me. Have you had trouble so far? I hope the mimicry murlocks weren't too annoying."

Davis nodded. "They were a bit, yeah. Hard to find when they weren't copying us. I think we could have dealt with them easier, but... yeah. I don't know if we were really ready for them."

"We're... not fighters," Hannah said. "Well, not this kind of fighter. There's lots of fighting back home, but not like in here."

"Where are you from?" I asked.

Hannah and Davis glanced at each other before Hannah answered. She almost sounded ashamed about it. "Port Royal. Not the nice parts of the city."

"Oh," I said. It didn't take much to understand what she was trying to say. It was hard not to feel for them. "What are your classes?" I asked.

"We're both level ten, we hit the level cap last winter," Davis said, and that was all he said.

Maybe drawing things out of these two would be trickier than I'd thought.

***