After Jason’s declaration Courtney can only shake her head, “Fine, whatever. Stick around if you want. Just remember she was my friend first.” She then grabs Rosha and forces her to sit back down at the table.

With a slight blush from that small kerfuffle Rosha gestures for Jason to join them. He sits down and they start to hash out their plans for the future. Though inevitably James is the first thing that comes up. Jason starts the conversation off with how he hasn’t received notification of James leaving the party.

Courtney is actually the first to speak up, “He might use it to manipulate you two. Until he is kicked out, there is still that last connection.” Rosha shakes her head at this suggestion, “He probably only forgot to remove himself. I had forgotten that I was still in the team till it was brought up. We still need to kick him out though.” Courtney backs her up on this and explains, “He can’t do anything directly by being in the same team. However you could take a reputation hit if he does something stupid like try to spread his cult.”

Jason nods, “Plus we need to add you to the group anyway, so first thing tomorrow we should hit up the guild. After that I need to pick up throwing knives or some such.” Rosha tilts her head, “But you don’t use weapons? Like, that is your defining trait. We went on that whole quest because of it in fact. You know, the source of all our troubles?”

Jason waves his hand around dismissively and explains, “I had a contract with the guy who sold me my beginner gear. He was certain I wouldn’t be able to make it to level ten without a weapon. In exchange for a cheaper price for not buying a weapon with the clothes I would have to pay him back if I used one to do it. Looking back, he was probably trying to scam me with that deal. He ‘knew’ you couldn’t reach level ten without a weapon and I didn’t see him around town afterwards. The guy probably skipped town and was planning to show up after I broke through. With how money changes for travellers he would make ten times the amount in cash he can spend however he wanted.”

Courtney facepalms, “Yah think? Those traders basically make nothing with that job. I could almost compare it to being an unpaid intern position. Sure the actually companies behind them make good money on it but that is because they have the supply. They can use newb money to make large profits and then turn around and launder it into actual gold. Anyway, you sort of skipped the part where I agree to join your group and why is it ‘your’ group in the first place?”

Rosha smirks, “So you aren’t going to continue following us?” Courtney waves her comment off, “That still leaves the second part. Why isn’t it Rosha’s group or even just ‘the group’?” Both Jason and Rosha lapse into silence as they try to remember the answer.

It takes a moment but Jason remembers, “It ended up being my group because we formed it for my quest. Andrew, Shinefish’s crazy researcher, gave me a quest with a System provided weapon. Since it was my quest I formed the group and was the leader. We had meant it as a more temporary thing but well, yeah, stuff happened.”

Rosha nods in agreement, “It wasn’t really a planned thing. But hey, at least it wasn’t Jame’s group, right? That would be awkward. Besides that we really need to talk about our actual plans. We gathered here at this trading hub. There are quests to go places but the local area is locked down. All those trading caravans pay more than enough to keep it that way and there is no chance for us to get a piece of that pie.”

Another moment of silence happens. Courtney doesn’t let it last though. She slaps the table, “neither of you had any plan for this did you? Just showed up and expected the other to know what to do?” She throws her hands up, “argh, I should have expected this. Here I was expecting to join a group and instead I get to drive a clown car. That’s right, look down at the table in silence. Let me grab my map out and plan this road trip. Jason, I assume your level ten still. Don’t answer, Rosha told me enough to have expected it. She is level 12 because she wanted to get out here and I am right between the two of you as I spent most of my time looking for her.”

She spreads out a rough map of the area on the table while the other two just get out of her way. Courtney stabs the map with her finger, “This is where we are. The town of Passthrough. Set on a major road with a bunch of minor paths branching off from it. Developed because of its location directly between two other major cities. We came from this direction over here. Both the newb dungeons and Wasteland’s Edge with this place form a triangle. Since some people didn’t plan anything we might as well take that as an arrow pointing us on where to go.”

Jason speaks up at this point, “we can’t really go in that direction because”, Courtney stops him right there. A glare to keep him quiet and she continues, “Yes, I know about the groups little trouble with that kin kingdom. If you actually would trace out the path notice how we never actually enter there. We clip the edge here but a short detour will keep a safe distance from the border. Past that though we head into a third kingdom. This one is nice for a human centric place. However if you will notice most of this party isn’t human. Despite pissing off the nobility of one kin centric kingdom that doesn’t really limit us. Especially now that you aren’t dragging a dwarf around. This next country will be perfect for us. Ruled by a council of elves and kitsune we should have a good time there. Most of the population is made of foxkin and humans while at the center is a massive forest populated more so by elves. Go figure right?”

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters free on my Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/dragonheartednovels ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).