Two men and a woman. All Cryim elves. It’s pretty obvious who is who from Jeriyan’s message. Each of them looked at me, studying me as I was studying them.

  The largest of the three, standing next to Lorisa, was wearing shining plate armor. That was the style, but this was armor from a different world, so looked pretty different compared to the plate armor I was used to. The plates were made from a metal I wasn’t familiar with, thinner and overlapping plates that looked like they’d allow for a lot of movement. They were more angled than rounded. His long blond hair was done up in a manbun, which was an instant mark against him. Two curved swords were hung at his waist.

  “Yoric Tureli,” Jeriyan introduced him.

  A dual wielder. I couldn’t tell what his Essences were but probably speed and power increases.

  The next man was as tall but thinner, more athletic. He wore leather armor with a single sword at his waist and a staff in hand. His hair, hanging loose, had a green tint to the brown, his eyes a bark-like gray color. The leather was a mix of brown and green. He stood a little easier than Yoric, who was tall and straight, at attention. This elf kind of leaned against the high back of the chair, looking more casual. He was the Ranged Controller. No bow or other ranged DPS weapon, so he was more of a spellcaster kind of Controller. The sword was for defense as he’d probably use the staff as the channel for his control Abilities.

  “Sunie Teralei,” Jeriyan said.

  The last was the only woman. She wasn’t as stiff as Yoric or as casual as Sunie. She oozed attitude, kind of looking down her nose at me. There was an arrogance to her stance. Beautiful, but in a cold way. Not the girl next door, but more daddy’s little princess. Long straight almost silver hair hung past her shoulders. Her light blue robes were covered in runes and trimming, lined with fur at the neck and sleeves. In one hand she held a gnarled staff, wands set into her leather belt.

  How she held herself reminded me of all healers that I’d met. They all had this arrogance that came with the job. They knew they were important, everyone knew they were important, so most healers tended to develop that arrogance.

  “Gracia Hunilo,” Jeriyan said.

  “Hello,” I said, nodding to each of them. “I’m Nick Howell.”

  They each nodded, Gracia’s nod as if it was forced out. Yoric’s is stiff and formal. Sunie’s is light, just a friendly greeting. All three take their seats, Sunie immediately grabbing the mug in front of him and taking a long drink. Yoric took a small sip before placing the mug back on the table. Gracia picked hers up, sniffed at the contents and placed it back down without drinking.

  “These three Adventurer’s are junior members of the Sunrise Formation,” Mashio said, leaning forward a bit and looking at the three. “All are among the Formation’s elites for their Levels. They are new to the Infinite Tower and have entered it a handful of times. If you want, you can view their rankings.”

  “Maybe later,” I said, looking at the three.

  I really wasn’t concerned about their rankings. That would be variable. I was more concerned with which of them I could work with.

  Mashio nodded, continuing.

  “None have formed parties yet,” he says. “It is the way for the Formation to have our Adventurers not form permanent parties but instead learn to work with others and all different styles.”

  “That’s a good idea,” I said, leaning forward and glancing at Tammy.

  She nods, eyes kind of glazing over as she makes a mental note.

  “It makes a lot of sense. A party that advances together can be strong, but if…,” I pause, not wanting to say it but everyone at that table knows what I left unspoken. “It can be hard to integrate a new member.”

  “Indeed. It is that way,” Mashio said, eyes glazing over but not from looking at an interface. Instead he was lost in memories for a bit. Shaking his head slightly, he kept speaking. “All three are willing to work with someone not of the Sunrise Formation,” he said, glancing at Glacia.

  I looked at her and saw a tightening in her eyes. It seems she wasn’t as open to working with non-elves as Mashio implies. I didn’t need to even talk to her and she’s already been knocked off the list. I’ll still go through the motions though.

  “I’m used to mostly soloing,” I started, focusing on the three. “It’s mostly because of the nature of my Abilities but I tended to outlevel everyone in my area back home.”

  “What’s your style?” Sunie asked.

  “He punches things,” Tammy answered.

  Everyone looks at her and she shrugs. I laugh, making everyone look at me.

  “It’s true,” I tell them. “One of my Essence is Interia. I’m able to absorb kinetic energy and make myself faster or hit harder. I can also absorb some of the impacts, so I tend to not work with a tank.”

  I paused, seeing the confused looks from the elves.

  “Defender,” I clarify. “Sorry. Tank is an old term that we use on Terra.”

  “You need to be hit,” Yoric says. I nod. “So you can absorb the energy and use it.”

  “Yep.”

  “I would imagine that kind of fighting would require a lot of movement?” Yoric asks.

  “Yeah, I tend to jump around and keep moving. Makes it harder on a defender.”

  “I do not think that would work with my style,” Yoric says, taking another small drink. “I require the target I’m facing to stay in front of me. I am not technically a Defender but like you, I do require some attacks against myself for my Abilities to work properly.”

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  “Yeah, not sure how that would work for both of us if we’re facing one opponent. Even an Elite, where both of us need to be hit by it to be at our most efficient.”

  I glanced at the other two, waiting for their comments. Gracia looked bored. I assumed it was her way of checking out of the conversation. I focused on Sunie. He was smiling, but frowned quickly when looking down into his empty mug. He glanced at Gracia and then her cup, eyes raised in a question. With a roll of her eyes, she pushed her mug over at him. He nodded his thanks, smiling again.

  “I think we could work well together,” he says. “My Abilities are focused on slowing down and hindering the movements of a lot of monsters, leaving you to deal with one or two while I handle the rest until you’re ready. My offensive Abilities are fairly targetable but with experience we’d get the timing down so I wouldn’t hit you with them.” He took a long drink, smiling at me. “Often.”

  I laughed. I already knew I liked Sunie, the joke just cemented it.

  I was going to choose him. Even if we didn’t work out as teammates, I had a feeling the two of us would have a lot of fun and get into a lot of trouble.

  “What about you?” I asked Gracia.

  “I suppose we could learn to work together,” she replied.

  Her hands were clasped in front of her, but I could imagine her like the head cheerleader from school, looking down her arms and at the fingernails she’d just painted. Arrogance just oozed off the woman. I had to wonder why Mashio had chosen her. He had to know she wouldn’t fit in.

  “No thanks,” I said, looking away from her.

  I knew the response wasn’t diplomatic, but I couldn’t stand her attitude. I didn’t look at her, but I could sense the shock in her face. How dare I not want to work with her. As a teammate, healers were invaluable, no one would willingly turn down having one join their team. She had faith in her Abilities, as everyone should, and probably thought she was something special. Still not someone that I wanted to deal with.

  I ignored Gracia completely, focusing back on Yoric and Sunie.

  “I bet we could learn to work together,” I told Yoric. “But I tend to agree that we wouldn’t be as efficient together.”

  Yoric nodded. He didn’t look disappointed or excited. It’s just the way things fell. I wondered how much emotion the guy let himself have because he hadn’t shown much.

  I turned to Sunie and pointed at him.

  “You though, I think the two of us could wreck this place.”

  Sunie smiled, leaning forward, holding out his mug to bang against mine. I lifted mine up and banged it hard against his, some liquid falling out onto the table.

  “Sounds like fun,” he said, draining it.

  I did the same.

  ***

  The three Sunrise Formation Adventurers left. Sunie and I exchanged contact info and agreed to meet up in a couple of days for a trial run to see if we really can work together. There’s a last round of drinks as the original six of us finish up our conversations.

  “Thank you,” I tell Mashio. “I appreciate everything the Sunrise Formation is helping us with.”

  “I hope that we all do great things together,” he says.

  The six of us stand up, the meeting finishing up.

  “If you can’t tell, I’m not really the business guy,” I tell them, turning to Jeriyan and holding out a hand. He takes it. “I look forward to working with you but any further business ends can be sent directly to Micheal,” I say, releasing the clasp and pointing at Fields. I can see his eyes widen in surprise but quickly hides it. “He has my full trust in those matters and is far better at it than I am.”

  Jeriyan nods, then smiles.

  “And you’ll be too busy in the Tower?”

  “Yep. I like to punch things.”

  That gets a laugh from Jeriyan, Lorisa and Fields. Mashio smiles. Tammy rolls her eyes, but has a slight smile.

  We say our goodbyes and us three humans head downstairs. The streets outside are busy, lots of different species walking around. Some that we’d seen before and some I hadn’t. There are some demon looking humanoids. They had orange or magenta skin, a wide variety of horns and tails. The women were interesting. One of them caught me staring and gave me a wink. I waved back. She had a light magenta skin, black eyes and horns that curled across the sides of her head, the points angling up. Long, dangling earrings hung from her pointed ears, the ends of the earrings a round green stone. She wore light green robes, slit on the sides with leather pants underneath and tall black leather boots.

  Tammy thumped my arm and I turned away from the interesting woman.

  “Eyes in your head,” she mutters.

  I chuckle.

  Fields clears his throat, drawing my attention. He’s looking at me, not as confident as he normally is. More shy and kind of embarrassed.

  “Uhm… thank you,” he says finally.

  “For what?” I ask, genuinely confused.

  “For what you said to the elves. That you have full trust in me.”

  I shrug, still confused.

  “Of course I do. You’ve done a lot for Solace. You’ve had opportunities to go somewhere else, probably somewhere better, but you’ve stuck with Solace. I know that kind of holds you back from what you could do. You’ve earned that trust and you’re far better at this business stuff than I am.”

  Fields holds out a hand. I take it and we shake in the way of warriors.

  “I still appreciate it.”

  “No problem,” I said, smiling. “Just don’t let anyone screw us over.”

  He laughs.

  “I can guarantee that won’t happen.”

  We all laugh.

  “You two ready to head back home?” I ask.

  “I’d like to see our shop location,” Fields replies.

  I’d forgotten that we get a default location as soon as I stepped into Crossroads. That probably is something we should have checked out earlier.

  “Yeah, let’s go.”