Side Story 6: The Gathering of the Misfits. [Release Version] (Patreon)

“Nervous, Tatsuya?” While walking with me, my best friend Kyouya tried to strike up a conversation.

“Why are you asking me that now?” I glared at Kyouya for his redundant question. “We promised Aiko so there’s nothing to be nervous about. Besides, shouldn’t you be asking her?”

I pointed to the girl whoe was walking beside us, visibly shrinking her body while she stayed in the middle of our three-man group. This girl was Haruka Sakamoto, the youngest girl in our class. She was, like Kyouya, a member of the party which I will soon belong to.

“Haha, I guess that’s true,” Kyouya laughed it off before directing his eyes down to Sakamoto, reassuring her with a friendly smile. “Call for us if you need help, Sakamoto-san.”

“Mhmm, thank you very much. Please, take care of me.” With a nod, she gave him a reserved smile.

Charismatic fucker…

It has been four months now since we were summoned into this world called Peolynca. Using the calendar from this world, the date should be the fourth of SpringSun in the year 2678.

As I was told about a month ago, the church had organized for us to enter a dungeon so we could finally start leveling up after learning how to use weapons and cast spells. We would form parties with our classmates and then fight together.

Today would be the day where our party would be introduced to the knight who would supervise our party for the trip. In essence, he was our church watchdog, probably to make sure we didn’t embrasse them or flee, or whatever.

Admittedly, I might have said party, but… to be honest, we haven’t actually met yet. Besides Kyouya and Sakamoto, the two other members of our group didn’t want to meet up at all.

One simply said, “I have better things to do than to talk with you guys! Like training under a powerful mage!" and the other said, "What do we even have to talk about anyway? Go fuck off and leave me alone."

We barely talked when we were on Earth, but I knew them long enough where I shouldn’t have been surprised by their responses. I still held on to some hope, though. I thought, maybe the fact we had to work together to make it back to Earth, away from this place, would motivate them to cooperate, but that seemed to have been too optimistic.

Haaa, this will be such a nightmare. I bet it on my thermos… not like I have it with me anymore, though.

As we promised Aiko and Tsuji,  Kyouya and I were currently walking with Sakamoto to the meeting spot. We were introduced to her by the girls after we had that talk in the dining hall.

Sakamoto was not only short, but she was also pretty shy. Our relationship on Earth was merely limited to classmates, so it couldn’t be called a proper friendship. She had always been reserved around boys, so I barely knew anything about her outside of her being really good with math and that our fathers sometimes did business together.

She seemed to have gotten a bit closer with Kyouya, though, but nothing to send home about. He had been trying to open Sakamoto up to us, always finding some excuse for us to spend more time together to build some rapport.

Standing next to her, we really looked like two bodyguards. It also didn’t help that she was 154 cm tall (5’1 feet) and we were 173(5’7) and 186(6’1), respectively. Kyouya had always been taller than me, but ever since he began working out a ton, he just exploded in growth. It certainly made him reliable.

“We should hurry up,” I opened my mouth without turning my head. “Everybody is looking at us.”

I pointed out the fact every priest and shrine maiden who we walked past was looking at us. They were giving us a quick prayer and acting pretty polite, so we had to reciprocate, but I found it a bit too suffocating. Some of them I recognize speaking behind our backs, and sometimes they didn’t talk in a very church-like manner. They acted more like power-hungry politicians.

Our trip to the meeting spot was relatively uneventful and silent. Winter season was over now and the temperature had gone back up to an acceptable degree. Thankfully, as the meeting spot was outside the church knight’s garrison.

Once we were outside the main cathedral, we went to the knight order’s training field, located behind the order’s headquarters around a block away from the main church area. The whole church ground was designed in a campus-like manner, and from my frequent walks, I believed it was probably large enough to probably rival even the largest universities.

You had a whole section reserved for the grey priests and their lodging, while there was an area to separate the common-born and noble-born white-robes.

It was huge, in other words.

As we arrived at the training field, there we saw the silhouette of somebody waving his staff around like a freaking idiot.

“Ha! Too slow!” The moment he saw us, the piece of god knows smirked and began shouting in a boastful manner. “I can’t believe I have to party with four slowpokes. Come earlier, or don’t!”

I want to slap him.

Donning a robe fitting for a mage, the spectacled guy continued speaking, “At least, I got [Ardent Defender] from this deal. Be my shield and I’ll power level you up, Ishigami-kun.”

“Can’t you shut up for once, Mikami?” I said, disdain slipping through my lips.

The guy leering at me now was Daichi Mikami… my classmate and, now, a party member. He was your typical anti-social gamer who was so driven by his competitive nature to the point his toxic behavior leaked out to the real world.

Kyouya and I knew this as we met him quite often at PC bangs. Sure, he was only mildly infuriating when he was on our team and we won together, but anything but that meant he would just start cursing everything. Gaming was an outlet, and gaming inside a PC bang, instead of at home, was so we could go ham without our parents listening to us, but Mikami just took it too far.

I was competitive myself, but I knew where to draw the line and not let it affect me at school or at home. This guy, however, was a sore loser and bad winner. So unsportsmanlike that playing with him would drain me mentally.

“… Hope you’re good with using that shield of yours, Nagata,” he said, reproachfully now that any pretense was shoved out of the window. “The party bracelet might share experience, but I want the lion share, alright? As a fire mage and our main DPS, you need to get me leveled up with our tank and healer.”

My eyes started to twitch uncontrollably from hearing those words. “… Be the only source of damage, then. Be my guest and kill yourself with arcane corruption. Tsk, reality to Mikami, we aren’t in a game, you idiot. Learn to cooperate. Even with your [Kamikaze] skill, you still need to rely on others, otherwise, you'll end up meeting your maker earlier than expected."

<Kamikaze: A skill that unleashes the owner's maximum firepower upon the world, disregarding the safety of the user. Upon activating this skill, [Kamikaze] is applied, temporarily increasing Intelligence, and the power and effectiveness of all spells. While [Kamikaze] is active, the user can not be affected by [Arcane Fever] of any stage, however, once deactivated, all arcane corruption inside the user's body will be unleashed, enabling [Arcane Fever] if the requirement is fulfilled. The skills combined are [Mana Efficiency Lv. 10] and [Arcane Corruption Resistance Lv. 10]. Cripples the user's Vitality and Wisdom growths, incapable of learning any stat growth or boosting skills for Vitality and Wisdom. Amount increase: ([Kamikaze] Level /10) * 3>

Against my warning, Mikami simply ignored it and laughed provokingly. “Of course, I’ve learned to work with the team. I’ll just stand behind you and see you die. Perfect teamwork, hahaha!”

Kuck! Hold it in, Tatsuya Nagata… murder is not an option! Even if his face is in my punching range.

“Ahahaha…” From the side, Kyouya tittered nervously to diffuse the situation. “Can you guys please not kill each other? I think the church wouldn’t be too happy about that.”

“You’re right, Ishigami-kun!” Mikami’s head instantly turned towards Kyouya and placed a hand on his shoulder. “The church is planning to support us with our Quest, so we oughta get some results in. Party discord would ruin that, right?”

Mikami’s whole demeanor made a complete flip. His boastful smirk turned into an enthusiastic grin and he clenched his hand into a fist and placed it in front of Kyouya, asking him for a fist bump.

Kyouya awkwardly looked at it, not knowing if he should accept it or not. On one hand, he diffused the situation, but on the other hand, he was now the target of Mikami’s over the top personality.

“Even if we are the ‘leftovers,’ I think we got a good team, yeah? Sakamoto will scout our enemies with [Foxian Slyness] and I'll bombard everything from afar with my spells, while you protect us all with your amazing defenses. Hanazawa can keep us alive with her healing spells, and Nagata can just die somewhere so he doesn’t leech our EXP,” Mikami’s suddenly blindsided me just like that. This guy was impossible!

“Hey,” I grabbed Mikami’s arm and peeled it off from Kyouya’s shoulder. Unable to control myself, I tightened my grip, showing this mage the difference between my Strenght and his Vitality. “Keep your hands off my best friend, you ass kisser.”

Mikami was struggling against my grip but it was to no avail. I wasn’t letting him go, not when his pained face was making me feel better right now. The euphoria of this small act of revenge surged through my whole body, enough to replace all the rage his toxic comments caused me.

The feeling of fulfillment was enough to hold off my urge for coffee today. My elation visibly seeped out of me with a chuckle as I released Mikami’s wrist. The reddened mark on his arm was proof of the consequences of his actions.

“Grk. Ishigami-kun, I got a proposal.” As if he didn’t learn anything at all, Mikami gave his aching wrist a short massage and then went back to plotting. “Vote me in to become the party leader once the knight arrives. I’ll make sure that you get most of the experience…”

Mikami quickly glanced in the direction of Sakamoto who was standing behind Kyouya, before resuming his scheming. “… and Sakamoto, too. You’ll like that, right?”

He mumbled that last part with a sly smile. It was almost inaudible… were it not for our skills.

<Foxian Slyness: A skill that embodies the quality of the Foxians. Improves the effectiveness of stealth related skills and [Identify Blocker]. Grants the user the ability to completely ignore [Identify Blocker] when using [Identify], revealing all information. Gives the user the smell of a Foxian and some of their improved senses>

Sakamoto’s unique skill [Foxian Slyness] gave her improved hearing, and I already had [Enhanced Auditory Sense Lv. 3].

Once Mikami was finished, both Kyouya’s and Sakamoto’s faces lost most of the good will they had for him, replaced by glares looking at him as if he was trash. It seemed like the pompous bootlicker misunderstood their relationship.

His face tensed up from the amount of negativity, backing away from them while stating, “Give it a thought, ok?”

This awkward situation stuck around in the air even after we dissolved the situation. Everybody silently kept to themselves as we let time past us, waiting for our last party member and our overseeing knight.

What the hell is taking them so long? I would have drifted off to sleep by now, were it not for the atmosphere.

In my boredom, I sat down on the ground and stared at the shuffling and day-to-day life of the grey-robed priests. These guys were fervently working, praying, and seemingly enjoying their lives in this church.

I had no idea how they could. Besides training and competing with Kyouya, there wasn't much to kill time here. Maybe I was being a bit too inflexible with adapting to this world, but if you weren't a religious nut, nothing inside the church would have been interesting.

If only I could have a cup of coffee each day. Oh, I would be content even with watching paint dry on the wall.

Eventually, four people appeared from behind the knight order’s building. One belonged to an adolescent girl wearing a white robe similar to Aiko’s, while the other three were decked out in spotless white armor.

“I do apologize for our late coming, venerable heroes.” The armored person in the middle talked to us when they came close, taking off his helmet to reveal a man with bright blonde hair. His face showed his youth, but his polite smile showed his experience with putting on a mask. His blue eyes showed some eagerness, but they weren’t smiling.

He gave a slight bow and scraped his left foot behind himself, before continuing, "We encountered a slight problem while escorting Lady Asaka. I do hope we did not inconvenience you too much."

You made us wait for over a bell! I complained inside my head. Looking over at my three party members, it seems they had a similar thought. While the knight seemed very polite, his indirect way to excuse himself from all blame was quite shameless.

According to the position of the sun, the church’s bell would be rung. Each bell signaled an hour had passed, essentially. We waited here, in an awkward silence for almost an hour. Nobody would like that.

I looked over at the girl who was averting her gaze from us while crossing her arms.

This girl was also my classmate and, soon to be, party member. Her blue-tinted hair easily fused together with her natural black hair to create a mesmerizing look that captivated my eyes immediately.

She was frowning deeply. It looked like she couldn’t be bothered to look invested in anything, right now. I couldn’t really say anything about it, but her attitude was pissing me off. She technically had all rights to be sour like this, for once.

“Oh, where are my manners.” With the wave of his hand, the two knights behind him excused themselves from us, before resuming his introduction with a bow. “I am Elrick von Karstein, second son of the Karstein family, a loyal noble from the Empire. I was recently promoted and accepted into the prestigious ranks of the Knights of Aurena. Henceforth, I will serve as both your instructor and protector for the days to come.”

He looks pretty young. Probably still in his early twenties?

While I was wondering why the church was assigning a relatively young dude to us, Kyouya politely smiled and bowed at a 30-degree angle. “It is a pleasure to have made your acquaintance, Sir Elrick. My name is Kyouya Ishigami.”

“My name is Haruka Sakamoto. Please, we will be in your care, Sir Elrick.” Sakamoto elegantly curtseyed while she timidly introduced herself with a shy smile. Instead of a skirt, she pinched up the hem of her trench coat to perform the gesture as she was wearing pants. She probably chose to curtsey instead of bowing because of the culture of this place.

“Daichi Mikami, legitimate son of the Mikami family, a dutiful house of the country Japan. It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Sir Elrick.” Mikami, as expected, went the extra mile with his introduction, doing it as if he was in a business meeting or something. And, as always, it was filled to the brim with sycophant tendencies.

Our school was a private school for wealthy or talented kids, after all. Kyouya, Sakamoto, and I had CEOs for dads, while Mikami’s parents were part of a tech conglomerate. He knew how to act normally, which was why I found it extra disgusting how he would hide his terrible personality behind his etiquette.

As if it was peer pressure, I chose to follow their lead and bowed my body at a 30-degree angle similar to Kyouya and Mikami. “My name is Tatsuya Nagata. It is a pleasure to have made your acquaintance, Sir Elrick.”

Elrick smiled, satisfied with our responses and turned towards the girl next to him, almost prompting her to introduce herself. She was the second [Saint Candidate] nominated the moment we were kidnapped to this world. For some ungodly reason, honestly.

“What? They already know me. There isn’t a need for an introduction,” the girl scoffed at Elrick’s attempt to keep up the happy atmosphere.

“That may be true, Lady Asaka. However, is it not polite to reciprocate everyone’s introduction?” Still keeping a calm smile, Elrick insisted her to listen to him.

Her glare met Elrick’s, seemingly piercing him with them before sighing in resignation as it was showing no effect. Compared to us four, Hanazawa simply waved her hand indifferently. “My name is Asaka Hanazawa. Let’s get along well, or whatever.”

… Typical Hanazawa.

“Thank you very much, Lady Asaska. May the Goddess bless you with her light until the day you receive your first Divine Quest.” He pressed his hands together into a prayer.  Hanazawa averted her face from him, cringing.

Once he was finished, he directed his open palm towards the knight’s garrison, inviting us inside. “Now, please. We must create your identification cards and form your party.”

We were guided into the large white building where the church’s knights were stationed. Once we entered the pristine-looking base, we were welcomed by the lounge. The floor and ceiling were made from sublime marble, sparkling and shining immaculately.

On the right side, the room was adorned with delicately painted art and extravagant statues, while the fine wooden tables and cozy couches gave the place a comfortable feeling.

Comparatively, the left side was relatively barren with only plant vases decorating the different entrances.

The duality of this lounge was intriguing, but I wasn’t sure why it was like that.

We went to the right side of the room and entered through a door that led us to a room similarly decorated to the before-mentioned right side of the lounge. Entering, we were quickly greeted by multiple grey-robed priests.

Elrick nonchalantly continued walking without giving them even a bit of his attention, only stopping before a counter. Behind it, a woman in white-red robes was working through documents of paper at a steady and unwavering pace.

Elrick waited for a bit but spoke once it was clear the woman wasn't aware of our presence. “Greetings, Lady Amalee. How do you do on this fine day, honoring the God of darkness?”

Darkday? So today is Saturday, huh.

“Oh, Sir Elrick!” Like she was spooked by seeing him, she jumped in shock, putting the feather pen down to speak. “I apologize for my inattentiveness.”

Once her head was no longer staring at the documents, she quickly noticed us, the entourage behind Elrick. "Oh my, my apologies, dear heroes. I have been extremely rude to you."

The woman seemed to recognize us. Most white-robed priests should, since we would sometimes tag along to one of the church’s rituals.

“Uhm, where are my manners.” With that said, she quickly curtsied and spoke, “I am a daughter of house Baltalz, Amalee von Baltalz. I currently serve as a shrine maiden for the church of Aurena.”

White-golden robes identified the priests and priestesses, while a white-red belonged to the shrine maiden alone. To be honest, the latter reminded me of white mages from a particular game.

“Besides her duties to the clergy, Lady Amalee also serves as the secretary of the Knight-Commander. We are currently in the waiting lobby for important personages, so they may bid their time until their scheduled meeting or if they required a particular document,” Elrick went into more detail about Amalee’s job.

“Yes, that may be true, but I’ve also been doing work outside what I agreed upon. Sir Elrick, when will the next Quartermaster be inaugurated?” She was narrowing her orange-colored eyes as she asked Elrick a question, swaying her similarly-colored hair to the side.

Seeing her hair swing around, I was reminded of how orange-colored hair was pretty unusual on Earth. If was hard to get it naturally, and most people I saw with that color had them colored.

However, in Peolynca, orange was as normal of a hair color as black or brown. Due to the mana of this world and the fact the six elements ruled everything, it was possible for people to have purple, red, or even silver as a natural hair color. The same also implied with their eye color.

Damn, must be hard to recognize when your wife made out with somebody else, huh? I thought, wondering if this made hair color genes redundant in this world.

"I apologize, we've been giving you far too much work," Elrick said with an apologetic smile. "However, I must ask you to endure for a little longer."

Amalee gave a silent sigh but then shook it off, now directing her gaze back to us, or more specifically, Hanazawa. “Saint candidate Asaka, I humbly apologize for making you wait this long. I—”

“Don’t call me ‘Saint Candidate’ or ‘Saintess,’” Hanazawa interrupted Amalee bluntly. “Don’t call me by that annoying title.”

Amalee’s expression froze, clearly surprised by Hanazawa’s rude behavior. She only managed to close her mouth once Elrick spoke to her, “I apologize for Lady Asaka’s rude conduct. It is my fault for not informing you how she wishes to not be addressed by her title.”

Once Amalee apologized to Hanazawa, Elrick further added, “I would also like to apologize for coming this late. We had some complications when we escorted Lady Asaka.”

It seemed like the reason why Amalee was so inattentive when we entered the room was that she wasn’t expecting us to come anymore. We made her wait so long that she chose to work on some unfinished documents.

She was so fully immersed with her work that she wasn’t able to hear her grey-robed priestesses calling for her. As they were servants, they were unsure if they should’ve interrupted her. When she heard of that of Elrick, Amalee's face reddened up and prompted her to us her fan to hide it.

Great work making everybody’s lives worse, Hanazawa.

“Ok, I believe we have talked enough.” Elrick clapped his hands together, echoing the crashing metal from his gauntlets. He was right, we weren’t here to chit-chat. “Lady Amalee, please bring out the Crystal of the Divine System. We must finish the ID creation today.”

With an instant shift in her demeanor, Amalee’s flush disappeared, and she gave a quick and professional acknowledging nod. From the bottom of her desk, she took out a crystal similar to the ones you would see in fortune-teller tents, a manatech in the shape of a printer’s scanner, and five white cards.

“Please, put your hand on the crystal so we may begin the process.”

One by one, each of us began doing what she said. First Kyouya, then me, then Mikami, then Sakamoto, and lastly, also reluctantly, Hanazawa.

With each hand pressed against it, the crystal stole some of our mana until it shone white, and then projected a blue screen in front of Amalee. She then attached a cord from the scanner-looking-thing into an open slot of the crystal, placed the card under the scanner, and with some button mashing, the card was finished.

Once all five IDs were made, she gave us our respective ones.

The white rectangle-shaped card had a golden-colored frame. It was split into two sides, the right side with my information and the left with a symbol.

The right side showed my name, level, job, and age. It was so simple I questioned how you could make sure you were the person depicted on the card, but then I remembered the [Crystal of the Divine System]. It could extract your profile and this ID card was linked to your mana. There were probably numerous ways to prove your identity.

On the left side of the card was a large emblem in the form of a sun reaching its hand towards the ground. The hand was clearly that of a woman. This was the religious emblem of the church of Aurena.

The emblem reminded me of the one that was etched into the middle of my party bracelet. The church really wanted to make us theirs. With these two items, it made me feel we were just collared up like a bunch of dogs.

In any case, I whipped my party bracelet I was wearing and attached the ID card on the bracelet’s chain. I activated the party bracelet and a blue screen appeared before me. I clicked the icon in the shape of an ID card and something new appeared on it.

Hmm, ooooh, everything seems to be correct.

Name: Tatsuya Nagata  Level: 0   Race: Human

Age: 18 Years   Job: Fighter

Status:     Health: 341/341   Mana: 79/79

Strength: 131                           Intelligence: 56

Vitality: 97   Wisdom: 91

Agility: 100    Stamina: 205/205

Effects: None

Skill Points: 0

Unique Skill: [Rush Hour Lv. 1]

Skill:  Magic skills and related:

[Mana Control Lv. 1]

Physical skills and related:

[Spear Technique Lv. 3] [Spear Mastery Lv. 3] [Shield Technique Lv. 2]

[Mana Strike Lv. 1] [Stamina Strike Lv. 1]

[Sundering Enhancement Lv. 1]

[Piercing Enhancement Lv. 2] [Crushing Enhancement Lv. 2]

Senses and movement skills:

[Concentration Lv. 1] [Stealth Lv. 1] [Accuracy Correction Lv. 2]

[Prediction Lv. 1] [Probability Correction Lv. 1]

[Enhanced Auditory Sense Lv. 3] [Enhanced Olfactory Sense Lv. 1]

[Enhanced Vision Lv. 2] [Evasion Lv. 2] [Acrobatic Lv. 1]

Stat growths and related:

[Enhanced Health Capacity Lv. 1] [Enhanced Strength Growth Lv. 1]

Resistances:

[Physical Resistance Lv. 1] [Pain Resistance Lv. 1]

Others:

[Royal Etiquette Lv. 1]

Ability List: Spear Ability:

[Pierce] [Flash Spiral] [Sweeping Farewell]

Shield Ability:

[Guard] [Shield Bash]

Titles: [Otherworldly Visitor]

Mhmmm, yup, those are my stats alright!

“Yo, Kyouya,” I called over for my friend as we were checking out our profiles. The both of us promised to not tell the other our profiles until we got our IDs. This was so we could compare the growths between us ever since we started training properly.

“The time has come. Show it to me. You aren’t gonna pussy out, right?” I smirked gleefully, only for him to reply with a confident smile to my cajoling.

“Oh, I won’t be the one to pussy out once everything is on the table, dude. Bet is on now!”

We exchanged our ID cards and then attached each other’s card on our party bracelets.

Name: Kyouya Ishigami  Level: 0   Race: Human

Age: 18 Years   Job: Fighter

Status:    Health: 413/413  Mana: 87/87

Strength: 154                           Intelligence: 63

Vitality: 145   Wisdom: 134

Agility: 121    Stamina: 317/317

Effects: None

Skill Points: 0

Unique Skill: [Ardent Defender Lv. 1]

Skill:  Magic skills and related:

[Mana Control Lv. 1]

Physical skills and related:

[Sword Technique Lv. 2] [Sword Mastery Lv. 2] [Shield Technique Lv. 3]

[Shield Mastery Lv. 2] [Mana Strike Lv. 1] [Stamina Strike Lv. 1]

[Sundering Enhancement Lv. 2]

[Piercing Enhancement Lv. 1] [Crushing Enhancement Lv. 2]

Senses and movement skills:

[Concentration Lv. 1] [Stealth Lv. 1] [Accuracy Correction Lv. 2]

[Prediction Lv. 1] [Probability Correction Lv. 1]

[Enhanced Auditory Sense Lv. 2] [Enhanced Olfactory Sense Lv. 1]

[Enhanced Vision Lv. 2] [Evasion Lv. 2] [Acrobatic Lv. 1]

[Ally Defender Lv. 1]

Stat growths and related:

[Enhanced Health Capacity Lv. 1] [Enhanced Strength Growth Lv. 1]

Resistances:

[Physical Resistance Lv. 2] [Pain Resistance Lv. 2] [Holy Resistance Lv. 1]

[Fire Resistance Lv. 1] [Earth Resistance Lv. 1] [Wind Resistance Lv. 1]

[Water Resistance Lv. 1]

Others:

[Royal Etiquette Lv. 1]

Ability List: Sword Ability:

[Slash] [Swift Cut]

Shield Ability:

[Guard] [Shield Bash] [Shield Wall]

Titles: [Otherworldly Visitor]

…

I froze in place.

“Mhmm, yeeeaaaaah, soooo. Dude, got anything to say?” Wrapping his arm over my shoulder, Kyouya leaned on me as he checked on what I was looking at. The grin he had on was causing me headaches. “Higher Strength. Mhmm, yeah. Vitality, nice. I'm a tank. Yup. Yup.”

He then smacked me in my back, thawing me as he began his victory lap. “I was part of the athletic club, you idiot! Hahaha, don’t forget I had a whole month of training more than you, just because you were down bad from your coffee addiction. As if you could have beaten me, ha!”

My head felt warmer as I tried to respond to Kyouya’s boast, however, nothing besides stuttering words came out of my mouth. To stop embarrassing myself, I shut my mouth tight and just accepted my loss.

“You’ll give up your share of our first Quest reward, right?”

I nodded. That was our bet, and now I lost my chance to celebrate my first time making money and finishing a Quest. I ruined it.

He even beat me in Agility! He’s the tank, for hell’s sake!

“Alright, please make sure to keep your ID card safe at all times.” After we were done looking at our cards, Elrick drew our attention with another clap of his gauntlets. “It would be problematic if you lost them.”

He also told us that the card will update our profiles when we pour in some of our mana. This manatech would only accept the mana of its original holder, so we didn't need to worry about somebody overriding our ownership. Not even the government could.

He then went and explained to us about the party system and the party member search functions.

“Lady Asaka.” He looked over at Hanazawa, “Please, form the party.”

“““Huh?”” Three of us suddenly let out a dumb noise.

“Sir Elrick, p-please wait. Shouldn’t this be a majority decision for who should become the leader? The best one suited!” One of them was Mikami, who personally wanted to be the leader.

“Mikami is right, Sir Elrick. Besides, how could we have a leader as irresponsible as Hanazawa?" The second person was I. I knew Hanazawa's attitude from Earth and she was the last person you would want to give something as important as the role of a leader.

“Fuck off you two.” Hanazawa wouldn’t let us bad-mouth her. “ But they’re right! Why do I have to be the leader, Elrick?!”

Elrick quietly chastised Hanazawa’s crude behavior, before explaining his decision, “Lady Asaka is a [Saint Candidate] and the church wishes for her to assume a leadership role to develop her potential. I apologize but this is unnegotiable.”

I clicked my tongue, but I accepted it without further argument. This was a church order, so who was I to say no? Even if we were “heroes,” we were more hostages, really.

Besides, even if Hanazawa was the leader, it probably wouldn’t be that bad. Now that I thought about it, even if she didn’t want the responsibility of being a leader, she could just delegate the job to one of us. All she needed to do was keep the experience fair and square.

She can slack off wherever the hell she wanted, and we would be good. We can do the heavy lifting of this “delinquent.” Besides, having Hanazawa be the leader seemed to fit with the name some of our classmates have been giving our party.

The Misfits… and Kyouya and Sakamoto.

Seriously, it seemed like everybody wanted Kyouya and nobody was trash-talking Sakamoto because she was the youngest amongst us. Most of the comments were directed at Mikami, Hanazawa, and me!

I. AM. NOT. LIKE. THOSE. TWO!

Back to reality, Mikami’s façade disappeared for a second but he quietly accepted it, mumbling, “If I can get to level up then, whatever.”

I guess we had the same thoughts. All we needed from her was to enable the experience sharing function and we could all be a happy-go-lucky party, despite a single useless member.

With that decided, all four of us sent a party invitation to Hanazawa and waited for her to accept them.

Asaka Hanazawa has declined your party admission

Huh?

"Fuck you, Elrick!" Without any warning, Hanazawa blew up at Elrick. "I told you this time and time again! I don’t want any of this! All this crap you and your damn church have been piling up on me as if I was some rug! I want to have nothing to do with the responsibility of a damn saint!”

This girl…!