Following him, El was taken to a table occupied by four other people, all looking relaxed.

There were two men, and two women in the table, all looking at him.

One of the men was clearly a dwarf, for he was much smaller than the others, but had muscles that could have perhaps been almost comparable to the Guild Master.

Like most stereotypical dwarves, he had a beard almost to his chest, braided so that it wouldn’t get in his way. He had a head full of hair, dark in color like his beard. The other man was taller, without many noticeable features, other than the staff he carried, which was a standard staff with a red gem shard embedded in it. He, like the dwarf had dark hair, with a clean-shaven look. He had a sharp nose, and brown eyes.

The women in the team had different builds as well. One was tall. Taller than anyone else in the team, and while she was not muscly, she looked like she could stop a train with just her hands. She had green hair, flowing down like vines, and green eyes complimenting her hair. She wore no shoes, unlike the others and she had no cloak. The last lady was small in build, with black hair, cut short down to her shoulders. She had a small dagger in her side, which was the only visible weapon on anyone on the team.

After seeing the two arrive, the lean man stated, “This must be Elephon”.

“You can call me El.” El replied, confirming the mans thoughts.

Without waiting for more pleasantries, the man that brought El over said, “The shards are dead”.

This immediately put a damper on the jovial faces of the teams, and the lean man asked, “How?”

“A dungeon” was the sort reply from the team leader. “We only have two silvers, and three irons” he added.

There was a groan from everyone on the team, and the short women stared cursing.

“well, this is going to be fun”, the dwarf remarked sarcastically as he imbibed the alcohol in front of him.

While waiting for the merchant to get ready, El was introduced to everyone on the team. The man that was at the meeting was the leader of the Iron roses, a summoner named Respen. The dwarf, Bruden Brightshaper, was a smith and a tank. Soril, the man with the staff was a healer, a precious commodity for all adventurers. The two women were Acalphya, a dryad, and Brina, a scout.

It was evident that their position on the team was as equals, and that there was trust amongst the members, otherwise becoming a silver ranked team would have been impossible.

The merchant, after getting everything ready, came to the guild, and met with the five captains, after which everyone was prepared to leave.

The Mystic eagles, who were the other silver team, were in the first wagon, with the LampLighters, an Iron team. The middle wagon was occupied by the merchants men and the Wydall cloaks, who were to be scouts for this expedition. The last wagon carried the Silver Builders, El, and the Iron Roses.

After hours of discussing, the expedition was finally ready to leave. It was to be noted that the adventurers did not go inside the wagon itself, instead they either sat on the overhang on the wagon, or walked along with the wagons, since the wagons were meant for carrying heavy cargo, not for speed.

The rest of the first day was uneventful, since the area around the city had been cleared of all foliage so as to make any beast attacks visible.

At the end of the first day, the procession stopped, and the beasts of burden were fed. Each team were to build their own campfire, and cook their own food, but the merchant, knowing that El hadn’t brought anything himself, had instructed his men to cook for him, believing that some food today would be the seed for a successful relationship with a magus in the future.

It was a simple meal they had, with hard bread and some form of soup. There was little meat in it, for meat didn’t last long and transporting meat would require a lot of space, especially for a journey that would take months.

There were some teams that had brought meat, since it wouldn’t go bad in the first day, and they did not share, as foresight was something one ought to have in their business.

While talking to the Iron Roses, it was evident to them that El was not a fighter, and so it was decided that they would pass some time by teaching him how to defend himself if anything were to happen.

One problem they faced was that El was not fit. He was not fat by any sense of the word, as it was almost impossible to eat too much in this world, but he was not in a physical shape ideal for a long journey

. It was decided by the whole team that El would not be allowed to ride in the wagons, and that he would have to improve his physicality for his own survival. The first few days passed like this, where there was little trouble. The first thing El would do after breaking fast was to practice with Soril, since he was the worst with weapons. Having him practice with Brina, who was an expert in daggers, would be akin to teaching a newborn to walk. The rest of the day would be spent with him walking besides the wagons, while the adventurers played some sort of a card game, and the nights would be practice again.

The first day was the worst for El as someone not used to walking so much. He had not been allowed to sit down while the wagons were moving, which was most of the day. Then, after all that, with burning legs, and fatigue so deep that he thought he might never wake again, he had been forced to fight.

He had asked why they were training him, because it would have been too good to believe that a silver team would help for free, and the response he had gotten was that the Academy only accepted those level 10 or above, and that they had been paid to get him to the Academy at level 10 at least. If they were not level 10, the academy would usually have adventuring teams help with leveling.

This was tricky, since actual help would greatly reduce the mana gained from the kill, and yet not helping would take forever to level. The intermediate solution they had found was that the adventurers would isolate a monster that the person could beat and killing those monsters would give mana. This was not needed yet in El’s case, since physical exercise was usually enough to level a person up till level 4 if done right.