Jax walked back to the northern section of the village and saw the two waiting for him already.
Both Lucy and Ning had arrived long before him. Looking at them, he couldn’t help but wonder just what it was that they had co here for.
What were their wishes?
"Ah! You finally ca. So many left already. We might be late," Ning said.
"Don’t worry. This forest is massive. We won’t run out of monsters to hunt," Jax said. "Have you not found any party mbers?"
Ning gave an embarrassed look. "We were waiting on you, actually. We didn’t want to start without you."
"Oh!" Jax said. "Then... Do you want to try it out by yourself today?"
"By ourselves?" Lucy asked in surprise. "Would that be fine?"
"It’s absolutely fine. As long as we don’t co across Bosses or Elite monsters, I can deal with all the other monsters," Jax said.
"That wasn’t what I ant," Lucy said. "We know we can take the monsters on easily. But we have to get a party mber anyhow. Will it be alright to not begin searching right from the start?"
Jax thought for a bit and shrugged. "Let us just do it with the three of us today. Understand each other more. I’m sure both of you have things you would not want so random person to know about, so until we’re comfortable with what we want to share and what we don’t, we should try it out by ourselves."
Lucy saw logic in that approach, and Ning simply didn’t care how they did things as long as things were happening. So, the three of them decided to simply hunt as a party of 3.
"Alright, now the important part. Who is the leader of this group?" Jax asked.
"Not ," Ning said almost imdiately. He didn’t even let the question linger before answering. He shrugged when the two turned their eyes toward him. "I don’t like working as a leader. I do my work well when I’m focused on fighting."
Lucy thought for a mont and nodded. "We can’t have people who actively fight in the front line be the leader. It has to be soone who is at the back most of the ti and can see the entire situation with a wider point of view."
She continued. "Most of the leaders I know are usually people who aren’t physically active at all tis, like Sorcerers, Controllers, Defense, Healers, Archers. So in our group, it should obviously be..."
Her eyes went to Ning with his spear and Jax with his axe. "...." She seed surprised to realize that. "Wait, I won’t do so well as a leader."
"As you said, we need soone who isn’t focused on fighting in the front line," Ning said. "So until we get soone else to help, I’m afraid you are the only one who can be our leader."
"Wait no, but..." Lucy flustered as she tried to co up with an argunt why she shouldn’t be the leader, but no argunt she ca up with was better than argunts as to why the other two shouldn’t be one.
In the end, she had fallen victim to her own understanding of the dynamics of a proper party, and realized that she had to beco the leader.
"Fine, I’ll be the leader for now. I will let soone else take the helm if we co across another individual that is better at it than ."
"Works for ," Ning said.
"I can accept that arrangent," Jax answered.
Having decided as much, the three left for the forest. It wasn’t long before they encountered the first monster, a Cinder Ant.
The two others were struck with curiosity about this monster since they hadn’t yet seen it before. Jax took the mont and explained to them about the Cinder Ants and what they did.
"Don’t let your skin touch its body for too long or you will burn severely. I cannot use my binding skill on it since my threads will burn, so we have to fight without any skill from ."
Lucy hesitated for a mont before speaking. "I should have ntioned this before, but I cannot use any spells at all."
Jax frowned the mont he heard that. "You cannot use any spells? Not a single one? But you’re a Sorcerer."
He wondered for a second if she had the restriction of a Single Spell Sorcerer, just like he did. But then, he rembered the state of the forest where sothing had clearly exploded, so he quickly got rid of that thought.
Sothing else had to be the case here.
"Let rephrase that," Lucy said. "I have many spells, but I cannot use them right now. My spells are... problematic."
"How so?" Ning asked.
The woman hesitated for a mont and sighed. "My spells take forever to take effect."
"Huh?" Jax stared with a confused look.
"Every spell has 2 things happening. First, you spend your Navi to activate it. And when it activates, it takes effect. In my case, however, it takes my Navi but won’t activate. There is a delay in activation, and I can never tell how long that delay is."
"So, if I were to use my spell here, I cannot guarantee when it will co into effect, which could be in the middle of you guys fighting, and you may be caught in it."
"That’s... an annoying restriction," Jax said. "I’m surprised you managed to get this far at all."
"It is annoying, but it works for ," she said.
"Alright, then let fight the monster," Ning said. "I can already see two of its critical spots. If I search around, I may be able to find the other one as well."
A bone-white spear appeared in his hands as he walked away from the two and toward the Cinder Ant.
The Cinder Ant noticed his arrival and got ready for battle, imdiately charging toward Ning.
Ning smiled and spun his spear, falling into a stance as he too dashed toward the Cinder Ant to fight it.
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