The next morning Elodie woke up early. The early morning sunlight shone through the windows behind her bunk, lighting up the long room. The barracks had filled up during the night. At least half of the beds were now occupied. She made sure to be quiet as she stretched and started getting dressed.

  Soon she was heading back downstairs and across the guild to reach the mess hall and hopefully some breakfast. Most of the guild seemed to still be asleep as she made her way through the guildhall. She only came across a few individuals on her way to the mess hall. And a few more in the mess hall itself, most sitting down in small groups sipping coffee or tea while enjoying their early morning breakfasts.

  Elodie took a look around, not quite sure how things were supposed to work. On the far side of the room, she noticed someone making their way down a counter collecting items onto a pte. She made her way over to the counter and grabbed her own pte. She grabbed some fruit and pastries. Nothing heavy. At the end of the counter she poured herself a cup of tea. She’d never enjoyed the bitterness of coffee. Then she headed to an empty table.

  The food was delicious. The fruit were ripe, the pastries were soft and fkey. It didn’t take her long to work her way through her meal. When she finished her tea she picked up her dishes and followed another person to a small alcove on one of the walls where she dropped them off.

  She did her best to take her time walking back to the main hall. She didn’t want to look like an overeager puppy. Though she wouldn’t mind a head pat and being called a good girl. Where did that thought come from? No time to open that can of worms, the clerks counter was just ahead and there was Delih at the registration counter.

  Elodie marched over with as much confidence as she could muster, her shoulders back, head high. Tripping over her own shadow right as their eyes met. Why did this always happen? It felt like she was always either stumbling over her words or her feet in front of pretty girls.

  She only stumbled for a few steps, but it was enough to break her confidence and cause a blush to spread all the way to her ears. She moved much more sheepishly toward the counter. Delih’s smile was much more teasing as she walked up.

  “Just the girl I wanted to see. Gd you’re an early riser. There’s a group that is down their tank and looking for someone temporary to fill in for the next few days. They’re a little above your level, but their all still low-tier, so there shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” Delih jumped into business right away. Elodie wasn’t disappointed that she didn’t want to flirt a little first. Pffft. Nah.

  “Oh, that’s great. Where can I meet them?” Elodie asked.

  “They’re in meeting room 2-C,” Delih proceeded to give her directions on how to find the room. “I told them I had someone in mind and would send you over as soon as I found you. So, they’re expecting you.” She ended with a charming smile.

  “R-really? Me?”

  “Yeah. You seem capable and something tells me that you’ll get along with their party pretty well.” She winked. Actually winked at Elodie.

  “Oh, um ok. Thank you.” She was a little confused and flustered with the whole situation, but if she could find a team to delve the dungeon with, even temporarily, she needed to jump on it. She needed to level up to work her way onto good parties.

  Elodie made her way back across the hall to the west wing. She skirted past the mess hall and after a few twists and turns she found herself in front of meeting room 2-C. Her hand shook with nervousness as she raised it. She took a deep breath to steady herself and then knocked.

  A voice called out to come in. Elodie opened the door and stepped inside the room. There were four women sitting around a conference table. They all looked like they were in their early thirties. Definitely more mature than Elodie, but Delih had said they were low-tier. Must be on the upper end of low-tier. Which was too bad. She wouldn’t be able to ever be more than a temporary party member, they would probably be leveling up to the mid-tier pretty soon, effectively leaving Elodie behind.

  And that would be a real shame, because all four women were gorgeous. They stared back at Elodie expectantly. It took her a moment to realize she’d been standing there staring a little too long. Her face heated up as she stammered, “D-Delih said that you might be looking for a t-temporary tank?”

  “Come in and sit down, let’s talk before we make any decisions,” a rather tall felyn woman commanded. Most felyn tended toward being small and petite. This woman was probably almost as tall as Elodie. She was solidly built while not leaning into rge muscles unlike Elodie. The bright orange cat ears poking through her ginger hair had bck tips and were a little more rounded than most felyns as well. Her vertically slit eyes were a rich amber that was kind of breathtaking. As her bck striped tail flicked out from behind her, it hit Elodie that this woman was more than just a felyn, she was more than likely from the legendary tiger felyn cn.

  They were known to be fierce warriors and mages who focused almost exclusively on offensive techniques. It was often enough to overcome their ck of defense as they would simply overwhelm their opponents. Some viewed them as gss cannons though. Devastating and powerful until they took a hit or two.

  Elodie did her best to calmly sit down in the nearest chair. No matter what happened, this was just an opportunity and if they didn’t think she’d fit then there would be plenty of other teams. Or she could delve solo. It was more dangerous obviously, but doable if one was careful and stuck close to the entrance of the dungeon where monsters tended to be fewer in number. There was no reason to be nervous.

  She took a moment to look around the table and get an idea of the women in the group. The tiger felyn woman was sitting on the far right. Next to her was an even taller red skinned oni woman with a single, offset horn rising from her forehead. She was quite slender for an oni who were known for being rge, muscur behemoths. Even the women. She had rge, icy blue eyes and a shy smile on her lips.

  It was a little surprising to find an oni here. Despite being built like the perfect tank, most oni eschewed dungeon delving and the technology monster cores provided. They often lived peacefully in small vilges and temples up in the mountains simirly to how they had been for thousands of years.

  On her left sat a slender vulpyn woman. Her tall grey fox ears poking through her silver hair gave her a little more height, but even with them she probably wouldn’t come up higher than Elodie’s shoulders. She was pying with her fluffy grey tail in her p, brushing it absently. She didn’t have a lot of muscle on her, and Elodie pegged her as part of the backline of the group. She smiled kindly at Elodie and her green eyes sparkled with warmth.

  The final member of the party was a dark eggpnt-purple skinned drow woman. Her white hair was tied up in a bun, highlighting her undercut. She was built like a runner or a fencer. Thin with wiry muscle. Her red eyes stared aggressively into Elodie’s when they met, her full lips pinched into a bit of a frown. She was a long way from the nearest drow community in the northern mountains.

  The tiger felyn cleared her throat, “My name is Farrah. This is Ophelia,” the oni. “Victoria,” the vulpyn. “And Devlyn,” the drow. She turned her attention back to Elodie and raised a brow.

  “Oh, I’m Elodie.” The rest of the party continued to look at her, obviously waiting for something.

  After a few minutes of everyone staring, Devlyn rolled her eyes, “Dark goddess, did Delih really have to send us a newb?” Elodie cringed. With a sigh, “What’s your level and your ranks? Let’s start with that.”

  Elodie checked her [status] to be sure before answering, even though they were practically burnt into her mind at this point. “Right. I’m first level. [Brawn] and [cunning] are E ranked. [Intellect] and [agility] are F ranked.”

  “Hmmmm,” Ophelia hummed and turned to the rest of the party. “Being first level might be a little problematic, but an E rank in [brawn] as a tank might make up for the level difference. At least for the short term.”

  “What can you tell us about your css?” Farrah asked.

  “Isn’t that a little rude?” Victoria interjected.

  “We don’t need to know exactly what her css or skills are, but like a general idea of what kind of tanking she’d be doing would be helpful,” Farrah turned back to Elodie. “I’m a kind of brawler, and Devlyn is more of a swashbuckler. We’re both pretty mobile. Ophelia is our mage, and Victoria is our healer.”

  “O-ok. I’m a padin, but I don’t have any healing abilities at the moment.”

  “That’s alright, I’ll take care of that,” Victoria smiled at her.

  Devlyn hummed, “That could work. Padins are usually pretty versatile.” The others nodded or grunted in agreement. “And if she doesn’t have a healing power, she should have a buff, debuff, or AoE to help round her out. Right?” She turned back to Elodie.

  “Uh, yeah. I have a buff for one and a half times attack power for a minute.”

  “Excellent. Self or targeted?” Devlyn fired back.

  “Both,” Elodie’s voice rose up in question at the end.

  The women all looked at each other. Some kind of silent conversation was going on between them all that Elodie couldn’t dream of comprehending. After a few tense moments they all turned back to Elodie. Farrah was the one to speak though, “We’re short our usual tank. She got jailed for a bar brawl…or something. Doesn’t matter, magistrate won’t release her for at least three days until she can be seen by a judge. We,” she waved her hand toward her companions, “have a contract to collect ten level three monster cores. Due by the end of the week. See our dilemma?”

  “The end of the week as in two days from now?” Elodie asked armed. Ten level three monster cores in two days was basically impossible. Who would take a contract like that in the first pce? Not all monsters contained cores, but you couldn’t know until you butchered the monster after defeating it. While higher level monsters were more likely to have a core, by level three that only meant one in every twenty instead of one for every fifty like from a first level monster.

  “Yes, but don’t worry. We’ve already collected six cores. We only need to collect four more,” Farrah answered.

  “Oh, so only need to kill an average of forty level three monsters a day,” Elodie snarked back.

  “Yeah, well we lost a day trying to figure out what happened to our tank. And with us,” Farrah indicated the women at her side, “we can zip through the lower levels to reach the level threes.”

  They spent the next twenty minutes negotiating and pnning things out. At the end of it, Farrah, Ophelia, Victoria, and Devlyn all agreed to take Elodie on as their tank. They headed down to register it with the guild with Delih before heading out.

  “Now, remember we’re pnning on staying in the dungeon overnight to get the most out of this. So, get yourself some provisions and meet us back here in an hour,” Farrah told Elodie.

  Elodie agreed and headed off to the closest market after getting directions. With her ring she could store fresh meals that would come out of the ring again as hot and fresh as when she put them in. She pnned on taking advantage of that as much as possible. She might even splurge a little and get a few things for her new party. It never hurt to cultivate friendships, especially with beautiful women.

  With a spring in her step, Elodie headed out of the guildhall and down the street. She needed to be quick to make it back in time.