World Sphere - 67 - Team Building

Chapter 67: Team Building

When I entered the adventurer’s hall, it was noticeably busier than the last time with men and women lounging in groups, laughing and drinking. I made my way to the small bar and asked the barkeep what was going on. “The dungeons are shut down for now,” he said, wiping a mug. “Delve teams from the Skyholme capital are monopolizing them for the next two days.”

“Is this was common?” I asked since I was unfamiliar with politics.

“More than you’d think,” he replied. “Whenever a high-value reward gets posted on a dungeon arch, they swoop in. Especially the Triumvirate families. They’ve got their own teams and don’t wait in line like everyone else.”

I remembered then: sometimes, when too many teams failed to clear a dungeon completely, it would post a spontaneous incentive for full completion, usually something substantial enough to tempt. This time, the prize was a tier 2 dungeon essence ability. The arch didn’t list which essence, but it didn’t need to. Any tier 2 was worth the risk.

I headed deeper into the hall and found the training room where my team had been practicing. I knocked loudly on the large wooden door. A moment later, it cracked open, and Remy peeked out before letting me in. Remy exhaled in visible relief when he saw me.

Gimble looked exhausted, sweat soaking through his tunic. Gareth was caked in grime but grinning from ear to ear. Sammie was cradling her arm and it looked broken. Lana sat cross-legged in the corner, quietly studying her dimensional closet spellbook.

I paused in the room and pointed at Sammie for an explanation. Remy answered, “Just waiting for me to get enough aether to heal her.”

“Who broke her arm?”  I asked, but I was already guessing it was Gareth. It was affirmed when Sammie pointed at him with her good arm with no malice on her face.

Gareth defended himself, “It was three on-one. I didn’t mean to break it when I threw her. She cut open my bicep in the last round.” I shook my head slowly in disbelief as they all seemed to be having have.

“Gimble, how are things going? What is your honest assessment if Gareth can fit in on your team.” I asked the mature elf. I had thought Gareth might attempt to displace Gimble.

Gimble’s response caught me off guard as he looked in rough shape. “Fairly good. Gareth listens well. After he beat me in melee duels, I shifted our focus and started training with Sammie and Remy on team tactics. Sammie is reckless and honestly does better on her own. Remy was using his slingshot to distract Gareth, but his timing was still off.”

He pointed toward Lana. “She has zero offensive capability. And it is probably better only to enter a dungeon after it has been cleared.” I nodded and thought maybe I should’ve picked up the Phantom Fighter spell instead for her. But I wasn’t eager to blow more coin at the magic shop.

I walked over to Lana and held out a spellbook. “This one’s for after that. Store it away. Don’t look at it until you’ve finished learning Dimensional Closet.”

She nodded, but her jaw dropped as soon as she read the title on the cover. Without a word, she started flipping through it, eyes wide with wonder. I gave her a look. Sheepishly, she stopped and tucked the book into her storage space.

Turning to the group, I said, “I was planning to head back to Hen’s Hollow, but I have time for a workout.” A staff appeared in my hand. I spun it lazily. Gareth’s eyes narrowed with eagerness. “I’ll take Remy’s place,” I said. From the corner, Remy let out a massive sigh of relief. “Once Remy finishes healing Sammie, you three can try to bring me down. It'll be good practice for your coordination.”

Gareth blinked, confused. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to be the target?” Gareth was eager to test himself against multiple opponents, certain he was the best fighter in the room.

“No,” I said, smirking. “You three need to learn to work together. Don’t worry, I’ll go easy, and I can heal you if needed.”

Remy’s voice squeaked from behind me. “Wait, you can heal?”

“Only flesh wounds. No bone mending yet.” I turned to face the trio. “No head blows or puncture strikes.”

Remy took about ten minutes to finish healing Sammie. Gareth looked smug, brimming with confidence. Gimble was watching me carefully.

I launched myself at Sammie, landing two quick strikes before Gareth and Gimble closed on me. Gareth’s blow glanced off my aether shield, and his moment of confusion gave me the opening to drive my knee toward his groin. He blocked instinctively with his hand, softening the hit, but it still forced him back.

Gimble moved in on my flank, but my other aether shield held him off just long enough for me to tag Sammie with two more strikes. She collapsed, groaning.

Gareth stepped in again, but I dismissed the shield, holding off Gimble, and shifted the shield to contain Gareth. That gave me a chance to face Gimble briefly alone.

Gimble was better than I expected. I was tempted to activate Lightning Reflexes, but I’d already revealed enough by using two aether shields.

I pushed Gimble back, but Gareth flanked after navigating around the aether shields. I deactivated one shield and then reactivated it as a platform. Sprinting, I vaulted off it, flipping over Gareth’s head and catching him off guard. He swung as I passed over him, and although I blocked midair, the force of his strike spun my body. My landing was going to be rough.

Still airborne, I flicked my staff and struck Gareth’s elbow in mild retaliation. At the last second, I activated Lightning Reflexes, using the advantage of the spell to negate the hard landing safely. I canceled the spell as my boots hit the ground in a perfect landing. I blinked. That had worked better than expected, and a big smile appeared on my face.

Gareth’s mouth hung open. Lana stared, eyes wide. Gimble’s face was unreadable, his mind clearly churning. I didn’t turn, but I knew Remy was somewhere behind me.

“Sammie, can you stand?” Gimble asked.

She groaned, then pushed herself to one knee. I had broken the other knee cap. “Barely. Give me a second,” she rasped. I waited until she rejoined Gareth and Gimble.

Gareth finally broke the silence. “What the hell, Stormy? You’ve definitely been practicing. And that new spell…are we keeping secrets from each other now?” His grin said he was teasing, but the jab was real.

Gimble gave a hand signal. Gareth nodded and moved to my left, Sammie charged from the front when he was set, and Gimble angled in from the right. I moved toward Gareth, leaving my aether shields low this time, setting invisible tripping hazards for Sammie and Gimble. Fighting Elijah and Elora had taught me plenty of tricks.

Sammie encountered one and stumbled, crashing into Gimble’s path. I turned and engaged Gareth alone. He won the exchange, forcing me backward on the defensive.

From there, it became a game of cat and mouse. I used and recast my aether shields liberally, dancing around the edges of their coordination. But eventually, Gareth figured out the flaw: if one of them destroyed a shield, I had a short cooldown of maybe three seconds before I could recast it. That was all the time a trio needed to overwhelm me. I conceded and sat down hard, catching my breath.

“Two-on-one drills from here,” Gimble said, rubbing his chest from one of my kicks. We rotated, with each round pairing two attackers against one defender while one person rested. Gimble adapted quickly once he learned my tricks, offering clear commands and sharp advice. Gareth began to pick up on it too, as his superior abilities and training quickly adjusted. Maybe adding Gareth wasn’t such a bad idea.

Three hours later, I collapsed to the floor, caked in dried blood, sweat, and dirt. I cast my cleanliness spell and healed the recent minor bruises and cuts. Gareth dropped beside me, guzzling water from a waterskin.

“Admit it, Stormy,” he said between gulps. “You enjoyed that. And when the hell did you get so good?”

I smiled. “Yeah, it was fun. I’ve been taking a few private lessons. Let’s just say I’ve grown used to catching throwing axes in the thigh and staffs to the back of my head.”

His eyes bulged. “Wait—you’re training with Elijah and Elora?! And you didn’t invite me? I don’t know if we can be friends anymore.” He pushed me away lazily.

“Gareth,” I said with mock offense, “you train with them every day.”

“Not the same,” he replied, looking genuinely betrayed. “Private lessons with your best friend? That’s sacred!”

Gimble walked over to us, amused at our antics, and cut in. “Sammie’s improving fast, but I think it’s time to get her some real armor and gear.”

I reached into my pocket, pulled a shiny platinum coin, and handed it to him. He examined it, then looked at me blankly before silently pocketing it.

I stood and changed shirts since my old one was riddled with small holes. “Heading back to the barracks?” I asked Gareth. “We can still catch the last transport if we leave now.”

He hesitated, glancing at Gimble and Sammie, torn. “Yeah,” Gareth moved to join me, “can I come and practice with them on the 7th day?  Is Aelyn coming?”

“Gareth, it is your decision. Just remember, Gimble is in charge.” I left my dungeon team in the training room with Gareth beside me.

As we left the adventurer’s hall, Gareth started questioning me about the team. “If Sammie and I are the front liners, and Aelyn and Gimble are the scouts, who are going to be the support and ranged?” This is exactly what I didn’t want to get into with Gareth. Party composition and logistics. Gareth started telling me what I should do. “I don’t think Lana and Remy are good to bring into a dungeon.”

Gareth kept talking, and I finally got annoyed enough to answer. “I have a combat mage. She is strong and Lana will eventually be more powerful than her is she imprints a diverse spell list on her matrix. Remy has experience delving and will be light healing support. I don’t plan to do much other than harvest resources the first few months to allow the team to get accustomed to each other.”

Gareth failed to pick up my agitation. “You said she? Do I know this combat mage? What does she look like?” Gareth’s focus was now on another woman in the dungeon team. I started to think that allowing Gareth into the team was a mistake. What if he alienated every female member of the team? We stopped for some meat on a stick. It was expensive in this part of the city, but at least you were certain what type of meat it was.

We had an hour before the skyship departed, so we stopped at the warehouse again. Gareth paused to study the succubus painting, probably burning the image into his mind. I went to the warehouse side and checked on things there. It was full of furniture and crates. The guards at least stopped me until two of them remembered me from a few weeks ago. I went to the pile of growing copper bars.

I started practicing my metal shaping ability. When one of the guards curiously asked about my skill, I said I had learned a new metal shaping spell and was practicing. I gave him a pointed look until he went and returned to his post. Although I was paying these guards, I was sure they would talk.

I made 10-foot-long copper pipes about the size of my thumb. I was probably making them too thick, but I didn’t know what was needed. I made 12 copper pipes and then decided I should stop and pretend I was completely exhausted. I had barely used 50 units of aether in my estimate, but I wasn’t sure what these Miaden guards would report to their superiors.

I found Gareth talking with my artist. They were having a lively conversation over some of his sketches. I could see why Gareth was involved. Three sketches were laid out. A Seraphin, with her wings spread behind her, wielding a sword against a demon.

The second image was of a pale female vampire posing on a white horse in a black dress. Both the horse and vampire had blood red eyes. The platinum coin was part of the bridle on the horse.

The third image was a female Lamia watching over her children in a woodland scene. Her halter top had a platinum coin between her breasts. Gareth was trying to convince the artist, Tatem, to make the angel’s armor less concealing when I started listening in. She was wearing a fitted steel cuirass breastplate and had armor covering most of her flesh.

I groaned inwardly. “Gareth, the images are already approved as they are by Isla. It is time to go,” I was shaking my head at my friend. I repeated myself. “Let’s go.” I walked away, and Gareth followed after a brief hesitation.

“Stormy, you should consider what your patrons want to see in our restaurant. I could stare at that succubus for hours. If all the other images were just as enticing, this place would be packed every day!”  Gareth was doing his best to persuade me.

“Our restaurant?”  I asked, referring to his description of the place.

“Yeah, I remember you saying you would buy me a restaurant one day. I am assuming this is it,” his bright smile looked down on me with not an ounce of seriousness.

I tried to recall the conversation, “I think I remember the conversation. I believe I said I would buy myself a restaurant, and you could eat for free whenever you wanted.” He slapped me on the hard back and grinned.

“Glad you remember! When do I get to look at the menu?”  he teased me as we walked. I was laughing internally because, since I was letting him join the dungeon team, he was already going to receive meals for free.

“Consider it done, my friend. But you still need to tip the servers when you eat. The menu is a work in progress. I tasked Isla with researching wages so I can start to hire cooks and waiters.” I said as we climbed on board our transport handing over the purchased tokens.

I went to the railing while Gareth excused himself to talk with a young woman who appeared to be alone. Although this transport was headed to Hen’s Hollow, many people from Solaris City used it because it was slightly cheaper. Most passengers didn’t mind the walk to the city to save a few large coppers.

I looked at the warehouse as we lifted off. It had transformed from an eyesore to something else entirely. I needed to start working on the enchantments for the apartments and the restaurant soon. I checked my aether and created two platinum coins directly in my dimensional closet. Even after a long day of spell use, this left my aether core about a third full. I needed to temper my nightly training this week so I could give Wynna some coins to finish the Shiny Platinum.

I checked on Gareth, and he was talking to the young woman now, and she was smiling and giggling at his attention. Gareth’s confidence and boldness had grown since winning the pre-academy Annuals tournament. He was larger than most grown men, and his youthful face made him attractive. I was over 6’2” in height, and Gareth was still half a head taller than me. I was glad he was on my side in a fight and my friend, no matter his wandering priorities.

The ship landed in Hen’s Hollow, and the crowd moved down the road to Solaris while Gareth escorted his new acquaintance briefly before peeling off for his parent’s house. Monty came bounding up the steps and bowled into me. Freya was a few steps behind him, and she must have been waiting us. She gave me a monstrous hug. “Why didn’t you ask me to go to Aegis City today? We barely spend any time together.”

I said incredulously, “I see you every day at breakfast and lunch!”

She whined, “That doesn’t count! I am serving and cleaning up!” I felt she was about to ask a favor of me for this ambush as she was trying to make me feel guilty. And it came with her next sentence, “Do you think Wynna and Ennet can do a reading on me?”

“You awakened before your twelfth birthday?  That is amazing!”  I said with excitement.

She kicked the dirt, not making eye contact. “No, but they should be strong enough to read my core. I know most readers can not until a person awakens, but…”

“Did you ask them?” I stopped her pleading.

“They said they would do it after I awakened, but you could convince them to do it for me now.”  She looked up with her wide pleading eyes, and Monty was licking my hand in support of Freya.

I asked her as I started to walk towards the barracks. “What is the rush, Freya? Your business empire is doing well, and you are happy.” She fell in step, and Monty obediently walked at her side.

She kicked some stones as we walked. “If I know what my awakening will be, I can make plans. I don’t want you to get too far ahead,” she mumbled. It was sweet that she thought she was losing her brother and wanted to try and keep up, but she didn’t know the full extent of my abilities by a long shot.

“Don’t worry, Freya. I will always be here for you. How about I include you in my restaurant business?” I said with a smile.

“Could I be a cook? No, I could be your top waitress!” She shrieked in joy, thinking she was coming with me to the big city.

“No. Something even better. You can be my intermediary for food supplies for the restaurant. I want to source as much as I can from the farmers around Hen’s Hollow. The Gaskils wanted to raise cows, and I need steaks to grind into hamburger meat.” Monty barked as meat was a trigger word for him. Freya narrowed her eyes and I couldn’t tell if she was upset.

“What is my cut?”  She went all business-like, no longer my helpful sister.

“Five percent commission,” I said, thinking that was probably too much.

“Fifteen,” she countered without a second pause.

I grinned and said, “Maybe Gwen would be interested …”

Freya looked hurt. “Fine! Five percent, but I can bring home samples to test their quality.”

I chuckled at her efforts to scam her brother. If the restaurant did well, I assumed we would buy 20 to 25 gold products from Hen’s Hollow every month. From what I saw of prices in the city, I should be paying half what other restaurants were.

It also meant over a gold worth of income for Freya which would give her the same income as our father. “I will get you a list, Freya, and you can negotiate with the farmers. Also you should talk with father about shipping procedures and schedules from Hen’s Hollow to Aegis City.” Of course, she wanted to get started immediately.

We went to a classroom, and I used one of the chalkboards to put up estimates. I decided to stay on the low end. The list wasn’t too long as the 23 menu items were just going to be various burgers and chicken sandwiches. To facilitate Freya's bargaining in good faith with the farmers, I provided her with ten gold coins and one large gold coin.

The large gold was for the Gaskils to purchase a few cows and the permits to get a herd started. Due to limited open space on the islands, raising large livestock was regulated. With the dungeon harvests, large livestock was not really needed, which I assumed was a reason for tighter regulations. Freya was to approach Mera and Fera and not go straight to their father.

Freya had wide eyes at the large gold coins, but the regular-sized gold coins hadn’t fazed her as she was making almost a gold a month on her own. I spent twenty minutes talking to her about Gareth’s and my experiences in flashing wealth around and the trouble it could bring.

At least she seemed to take my warnings seriously. Freya left with a spring in her step, and Monty trotted circles around her, feeding off her enthusiasm. Hen’s Hollow was a tight-knit community, and I didn’t have to worry about her handling that much coin here.

I wasn’t surprised Gareth wasn’t in our room. I activated my privacy bubble and alarm wards, then sat down to begin imprinting my new spell: Lesser Restoration. It was powerful, though limited in scope. The spell restored damage in a specific region of the body, reverting it to its condition one day before casting. It required direct contact, and unless evolved, it could only be cast on yourself. Still, for combat healing, it was as good a tier 2 spell you could imprint. With the proper evolutions, its utility rose quickly. Before heading to bed, I drained the rest of my aether, creating three platinum coins.

I woke to my alarm spell going off as Gareth was returning. I dismissed the privacy screen as he stepped in, casually announcing he'd spent the night at his parents’ place after dinner. He also felt the need to talk about the woman he met on the skyship with me. She was a seamstress headed to Aegis City for training with a master tailor. Curious, I asked how this new acquaintance fit into his complicated lifestyle.

“The twins are still sort of mad at me and Brianne is sweet on someone else at the moment,” he said, clearly avoiding the details and getting ready for bed. I reset my alarm and privacy screen so we could both get some rest.

Conditioning the following morning with Aelyn was actually fun. We played a fast-paced game with a ball and small goal. There was no goalie and teams were six-on-six. Gareth’s team won, earning a full day off from tomorrow’s conditioning. I knew Gareth would still show up, but the rest of his team would probably sleep in. If I’d known there was a reward on the line, I might have tried a bit harder.

Mia and Fera had been on my team, and neither was thrilled about the loss. Probably more so since Gareth’s team had won.

At breakfast, Callem addressed the cohort. “We have two weeks left in the first semester,” he began. “Starting next week, instructors will begin administering practical exams for each course. If you fail a practical, you’ll have the following week to retake it and pass.” Ripples of nervousness went through the tables, but I was fairly certain everyone would pass on the second test. It was just a way to motivate everyone.

“You also needed to select our schedules for next semester!” Callem announced energetically. “See one of the instructors after dinner, and we can slot you in to your preferred classes.”  

My schedule was already fixed for the second semester:

Morning: Enchanting and Artificing with Instructor Aethon

Post-lunch: One-on-one spellcraft with Selina

Afternoon: Group spellcraft session with peers

Evening: Mandatory Skyholme History and Law

I had also committed to continuing my staff training during the night, which would likely be at Twin Rocks, so it wouldn’t cut into my other lessons.

I was looking forward to wrapping up these last two weeks of Academy. After testing, we had a full week off, which lined up perfectly with the final phase of construction of the Shiny Platinum. Soon, the team would be ready, the restaurant open—and I could finally begin gathering materials for my skyship.

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