Chapter Four Hundred and Fifty-One - Personality Quiz

I didn't want to run out of time, so after I felt I had a decent grasp of Jake and Kerri, I shifted my attention to the last pair of adventurers. We were halfway back across the first floor--still without meeting any of those Murlocks--when I moved up and next to the two grenoils.

"Hello," I said.

They both eyed me, but it was the shorter of the two that spoke up first. "Hello," he said. "Is it our turn to be interviewed?"

"Ah... I guess? I wasn't being very subtle about it, was I?"

"If you were, then giving it away just now certainly didn't help," he replied.

I flushed a bit, then giggled at my own mistake. "Ah, I guess so! Well, it's not so much an interview as it is a... okay, so I guess it sort of is an interview, but you don't need to be too nervous or anything. Jean-Pierre only really needs me to make sure that everyone is more or less on the same page."

"That makes some sense," he replied. "I'm Guy. This is Harrison."

"Greetings, Captain," Harrison said with a nod. "So, what kind of questions does this interview ask?"

I blinked, then shrugged. "Nothing too complicated. I think it's mostly for me to get a feel for how well you'd fit into the Exploration Guild. The guild is very good at encouraging people to work together. I've made some of my best friends there. I don't know if someone needs to have a certain kind of... maturity in order to be part of that, but it wouldn't hurt."

Guy nodded along. "That makes some sense. A lot of the guild's work will have experts in different fields forming temporary teams, won't it?"

"I guess so. Ah, my experience is a little different, I guess? The Beaver Cleaver, that is, my ship, is kind of an exploration vessel."

"So the crew is entirely composed of members of the guild?" Harrison asked.

"No, just... well, if things go well, four of us. Plus we sometimes have other members onboard. Abraham Bristlecone and one of his friends were with us for part of the trip back, for example."

They both seemed to nod at that, but I wasn't sure I'd convinced them of anything. Or did I have to convince them to begin with? Harrison and Guy weren't being aggressive, but it felt like I was the one on the hotseat.

"Anyway! I was wondering, why do the two of you want to join the guild?"

Harrison and Guy glanced at each other, and after a few moments, Guy sighed. "We want to become more... independent. Our families have strong ties in Deepmarsh. Still, we don't want to leave the country. Port Royal seemed like as good a place as any to call home without being in the same city as our family, and within Port Royal, the Exploration Guild doesn't seem like a bad option. It's prestigious, and it comes with the ability to travel, which we're both interested in."

Harrison hummed. "And it doesn't hurt that we'll get away from grenoil who are entrenched in the old ways."

I nodded along, because that made a lot of sense.

"I see," I said before I pointed to the gun on his back. It was almost as long as my arm, with a funnel-shaped end on the barrel, and a wooden stock with careful engravings. "Is that a blunderbuss?"

"It is," Harrison said. "I'm surprised you recognize it. Most people wouldn't know the difference. I don't think most people are even familiar with what a gun is, much less what they look like."

"We have them back where I'm from," I said.

He raised an eyebrow, and the expression looked kind of odd on his round face. "Really? I didn't know that buns were that advanced."

"Well, less buns more... anyway, I haven't seen anyone using guns, or even canons. Are they uncommon?"

"Canons aren't that useful unless you have a fortified location for them. They're too heavy to carry around with anything less than a train of horses," Harrison said. "As for guns, well, they're difficult to make, the powder is expensive, and it's a bit of a mess to use them. Most don't really have the right materials or craftsmen to make them."

"Are they better than bows?" I asked.

Harrison's chest puffed out. "Bows? Please. Arrows don't fly nearly as far. They don't hit as hard either. No, guns are much, much better."

I was pretty sure that that's how things had worked out on Earth, but I didn't know if they would match up favourably against magic. Or even a bow bolstered by relevant skills. Calamity could hit a fly from a hundred metres away. And with a moment, he could make his arrows catch fire, or explode on impact.

I wondered how he'd feel about guns.

"That's neat," I said. "Does it get hot when you fire it?"

Harrison nodded. "Hot enough to burn if you're not careful. I don't know about it being hot enough to light a fire, however. It doesn't reach those kinds of degrees."

Those kinds of degrees... did he mean in Celsius or Fahrenheit? Well, it didn't matter. "What about you, Guy, what's your class? If you don't mind sharing, that is."

"Oh, I don't mind. It's not a very exciting class. I'm an Alchemist. I have some skill with chemistry."

"An Alchemist! That's neat," I said. "That must be super useful as an explorer too. You can make all kinds of cool potions and stuff."

He shrugged. "Potions are expensive. And while they're handy, they do have some deficiencies. There are skills and spells for that kind of thing. But, where you'd need specialised healers and buff-givers, a single well-stocked alchemist can keep a team going on their own." He reached to his belt, which I noticed had several big pouches running all around it. Opening a flap, he revealed a set of small finger-width potion bottles in little straps.

"Neat!" I said. "And you can make the potions yourself, right?"

"Right. I'm not great at it, but it's a nice sideline to have. And some things are easier to make yourself. Like... ah, a healing potion is pretty easy, and so are a few poisons."

"Oh, so you can make poisons!" I said. That seemed very handy for someone working through dungeons. It was probably not as directly strong as a fighter or mage kind of class, and using poisons didn't seem... very friendly.

"Not as much as I'd like," he said.

"Oh," I replied. "I think it's neat. What kind of things do you like to work on?"

Guy smiled a little, and he started expounding on a few of the potions he was trying to make. He'd been hoping to get to some of the lower floors of this dungeon--there were rarer ingredients down there which he wanted to experiment on.

I couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying, but he was very enthusiastic about his hobby.

By the time we got to the exit, Guy had calmed down and was back to a more neutral expression, and Harrison looked like he was a little less on edge.

"I need to run ahead," I said. "Thanks for the chat!"

I waved goodbye to the two, then hopped past my friends, stopping for only a moment to give Awen a quick surprise hug and then a less-surprising hug to Calamity too before I reached Jean-Pierre.

The elderly grenoil glanced at me. "I assume ze lot have passed?" he asked.

"Yes. they're all competent, and they get along well. Some of them seem a lot newer. Jake and Kerri have some experience, but not much formal training I think. Hannah and Davis... could use more experience and training. I don't think either would have much trouble adjusting to the guild," I said. "They're a little reserved, but once you get them talking they're not so bad!"

"Hmm. Keep in mind zat you have social skills. It'll be harder for others to get people to open up. But still, most team leads have a few leadership skills too."

I blinked. Wait, did that make social skills kind of bad? Or at least manipulative?

I was thinking about that when the older grenoil stopped in front of the exit. "We'll be stopping here," he said. "It's a little early, but zis is the only place we can camp."

"Camp?" I asked.

"Mmm. Yes. Get some lunch into these people before the walk back to Rockstack."

"But Booksie... aren't things a little too urgent for lunch breaks?" I asked.

Jean-Pierre glanced my way, and his gaze was a little sad. "Maybe. But zese people are not soldiers. Zey're explorers. It's important zat we respect zat."

"Oh," I said. That made some sense. At the same time... "I think I'll be going ahead, then," I said. "I can't sit around and wait while Booksie might be in trouble." My tummy growled, and Jean-Pierre gave me a look. "Even if I'm hungry."

"You're not going alone, are you?" Awen asked as she came up behind us. Calamity nodded next to her.

Jean-Pierre hummed, then shrugged. "I won't stop you, but make sure you know what you're doing. We'll be leaving once ze sun reaches midday."

"I think I'll head out as soon as I can, then," I said. "Thank you for your help."

***