"John-Sama, it is time to get up. We are supposed to meet with everyone shortly." Nanael said, shaking John's arm, startling him awake.

  It was just before dawn, the only illumination in their room was the softly burning ntern hanging by the bed. She was already dressed and looked ready to depart, weapons on her hips, and both their bags sitting by the door.

  John yawned, slowly dragging his body out of the warm embrace of the bed. The three hours of sleep he managed was barely enough for him, even with Substance X fueling his body.

  "Good Morning my love. Sorry I didn't come to bed earlier, but-" He started to say but she pressed a finger to his lips, a cute smile on her face.

  "It's fine. I know you were digging into the tomes Kururu gave you." She said then kissed his forehead. "I'll forgive you this time, but don't make it a habit, kay?" She said, tilting her head to the right on that st part, her ears cocked in such a manner that made John smile as well.

  "Of course. Though I did make a breakthrough. Middle Heal!" He said, casting his new spell on his back, the stronger magic spell making him feel amazing. It wasn't a complete fix, but it was obviously doing something. It did take a much rger chunk of his mana pool to cast though.

  After leaving Brod's office, he basically locked himself in his recovery room for the rest of the day, only coming out to dose himself with a massive mug of substance X at dinnertime. He managed to lock the spell down that evening, the more advanced spell following many of the same rules as Heal did.

  He moved onto the next spell tome, which was meant for a D-Ranked healer, and that was when he ran into some difficulties. The spell, Barrier, was a different beast all together, and he kept draining his mana reserves without making much progress. He did find it odd that the spell seemed oriented for combat, yet healers traditionally avoided fighting.

  By the time he had run down his mana for the final time, it was the middle of the night and that bilge water energy drink that was keeping him awake finally wore off. He packed his tomes in his bag, then dragged his ass into bed, cuddling with Nanael for a few minutes before crashing out.

  Getting out of bed, he stood up and stretched, then got dressed in his armour. He quickly grabbed his leathers and the car token from the dresser, stuffing them into the top of his bag. If he needed to return to DEN, he wanted to have his possessions with him this time.

  They moved up to the main hall, which was already crowded with bodies, most adventures already getting ready to head out for the day. A few gave him a side eye, but most called out to them in greeting, which he just returned with a wave. They continued on to the meal hall, where he was finally going to meet his party for the first time.

  "Nervous?" Nanael asked him, a big smile on her face.

  "Only due to someone's recruiting criteria." He said, ruffling her hair up.

  "Hey!" She said, batting his hands way, then punched him lightly on the shoulder causing him to snicker.

  "Actually, I am oddly excited. I prefer to heal people, but killing monsters seems like a way to prevent people from being hurt to begin with." He said, fudging the truth a little bit.

  When he first came to The Great Cleric, he saw that drake flying overhead and it scared him, pushing him in the direction of becoming a healer. Now, with some of the other worlds under his belt and dying in one of them, he wasn't scared anymore. The altercation yesterday showed him that there is something fundamentally wrong in this world, and he needed the power of leveling up to even have a chance at fixing it.

  How do you fix systemic racism though?

  Not to mention he was looking forward to actually being able to cut loose, letting free his aggressive nature in an environment that encouraged that behavior instead of oppressing it. He wasn't an psychopath, but some times you just needed to punch something and modern values considered that inappropriate in most cases.

  "Good. Shall we?" She said, sitting her bag down along the wall and walked into the meal hall.

  He took a breath and followed her.

  The room was full of adventurers, mainly parties eating before taking off for the day. Gulgar was standing behind the counter, serving his customers with his usual jovial smile on his face. He saw them come in, and nodded his head towards a group of adventurers in the corner. John made his way over to the table, and looked at his new party.

  First there was Shallia, the bck haired catfolk woman whom he had spoken to and healed a few times in the st month. She was wearing a dark blue tank top and shorts, one leg covered with a red thigh high legging. She was smiling at him, her yellow eyes almost twinkling. An oak staff was leaning on the side of her chair.

  Then there was Terra, the white haired bearfolk woman. She was wearing grey steel pte mail, a long spear and white kite shield propped up on the wall beside her. Her grey eyes looked nervously at him as they approached.

  The other two, he wasn't sure if he had met them before. One, a dogfolk with long red hair and droopy ears, she had her face cast downwards. She was wearing a simple set of brown leather armour over a tan shirt and pants. An unstrung bow and a couple of quivers were on back of her chair.

  The final one, was in a word, tiny. She was very short, with long blonde hair in a pleated braid of some sort. Her silver eyes peaking out from underneath an oversized wide brimmed purple hat, were looking at him curiously. She was wearing a long purple and bck dress, with a crossbow hanging off the back of her chair.

  He paused at the edge of the table, looking at each of them, trying to put the harem pn out of his mind for the moment. "Good morning everyone. I assume you all know me, but still my name is John, a healer. You all obviously know Nanael, but there are a few of you here I don't know. Do you mind introducing yourselves?"

  "Nya! I'm Shallia, your monk!" she said raising her arms up excitedly. "I'm ready to kick ass and have kittens so lets go!"

  "Terra, your shielder. Umm... gd to meet you again John," Terra said, looking embarrassed at Shallia's outburst.

  "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Evie, a wind mage. I believe this is the first time we've met. Being in the backline I don't usually need your services unless something has gone very wrong." Evie said, smiling at him.

  The final member still hadn't looked up at him, visibly shaking in her seat. Nanael went over to her and whispered something in her ear. She nodded a few times, the vibrations slowing down.

  "I... ah... umm. Iris.... you... you you. YOU ARE HANDSOME! Eeekk!" She squeaked out then spped her hands over her mouth.

  John blinked a few times, the unexpected compliment freezing him up for a moment.

  What am I supposed to say to that?

  "Well Iris, I think you are really cute. I am happy to be working with you." He said, choosing to return the compliment, using the same grandfatherly tone he used on Gasper. He patted her on the head, his touch and calm voice actually reaching the vibrating woman. She visibly rexed after a few moments, his presence calming her nerves.

  He moved away from her, then spoke to everyone. "It is good to meet you all. I am sure there are bunch of questions about me, but lets hold them for now, at least until we get on the road. We have too many ears here." He said, noticing once again, many in the room had stopped their conversations and were focused in on their party.

  "Won't be a problem John. We are ready to go when you are." Terra said, standing up. "We already hitched up the wagon and loaded our packs. Just waiting on you two now."

  "That easy eh? Wait, what wagon?" He replied, looking at Nanael with a questioning look. He was pnning on driving there once they got beyond the sight of the walls.

  "Iris has a wagon to pull her menagerie with. There is plenty of room." Evie said before Nanael had a chance to speak.

  "It...it...it is only a small wagon." The timid dogfolk said quietly, the near whisper barely audible to John.

  "John-Sama, are you okay? I expined this to you yesterday." Nanael said, whispering in his ear.

  John had zero recollection of any logistics discussion yesterday, and that worried him. Not that he thought Nanael was lying, but that his mind was forgetting things. Important things.

  "I am sorry, it must have slipped my mind with how many things that were happening yesterday." He whispered back. He was still hoping to be able to stabilize his brain through DEN, hopefully sooner rather than ter. He turned back to the group and smiled. "Okay then, if we are ready, then lets get on the road."

  They all got up and started filing out of the room. Gulgar met them by the door, handing John a small sack of freshly made sandwiches.

  "Good luck John. We will see you in a few days." Gulgar said, offering his hand to John.

  "Thanks! Keep an eye out on Miss Kururu for me eh?" He replied, grasping the giant chef's hand.

  "Hah, don't worry 'bout it none. She will be safe here, you have my word." The man spped John pyfully on his shoulder, sending a shockwave through his spine. He stood very still, expecting to fall, but for once, his back did not give out from an unexpected assault.

  They made their way outside, moving through another set of doors and down a hall John had not really used before. It brought them to the stables on the far side of the guild, a fairly rge room with many stalls for the animals. A couple other parties were there, getting ready to set out for the day.

  Near the exit, a small covered wagon waited, two brown horses hitched up to it. Brod and Galba were standing beside it, obviously waiting for the party to show up.

  "Good morning." John said, walking up to them, Nanael at his side. The rest of the women hung back a few steps, giving them a little bit of space.

  "Good morning. You have met your team I see." Brod said, standing there with his arms crossed.

  "Yes. They seem like a good group." He replied. Galba dragged Nanael to the side, whispering something to her he could not make out. She kept nodding along, like it was some st minute instructions of some sort.

  "Good. Even though you are the party leader, follow Nanael's lead for now and learn from her. Once you learn what your team are all capable of and how they fight, then you can start assuming your role as their leader." He said then leaned forward. "Now, just a final word of advice. You are weak compared to your party, so don't go and try and stand in front of them to prevent them from taking a hit.

  Even if you get up to their level, most of them will be stronger than you just due to your different csses. Let your fighter types absorb the hits, then heal them afterwards. They are much more capable of taking damage than you will ever be, so don't try and be a hero like you did yesterday, monsters are no joke."

  John ughed a little at that. "Don't worry, my masculinity isn't threatened by letting a woman fight in front of me. I know everyone one of them could probably take me in a fight right now. Saving Nanael from being pelted by rocks when I had armour on is very different than deciding to stand in front of Terra who is wearing pte mail and a shield to absorb an attack instead."

  Brod nodded at that "Good enough. We will see you in a few days then." He turned to John's party then, raising his voice in a commanding tone. "You all know the deal, so protect him with your lives if needed. I expect good things from this party, so don't waste this opportunity. Is that understood?"

  They all replied to him that they did , even Iris nodding, though she kept her head down. With that John moved to throw his pack in the back of the wagon, flipping the canvas covering the back to the side.

  "HISSSSS!" A giant beak filled with serrated tomium ptes hissed at him, causing his to jump back. A huge Canada goose was sitting in back of the wagon, nearly the same size as a grey wolf.

  "ARGH! What the heck?" He yelped, wondering what the fuck was happening here.

  "Quackers! Back!" Iris called out, running up in front of John, spreading her arms out to protect him. "He is a friend!"

  "HISSS! HONK!" The animal replied, still sounding like an angry beast.

  "I know he is a human but he is a good guy." She conversed with it like she understood it and it understood her.

  "Honk?"

  "Yes, he will be traveling with us, along with the other women here." She said, stroking its neck.

  "Honk honk." It replied, then settled back down in the wagon.

  "You can speak with it?" John asked, amazed.

  "Yeah. He doesn't understand my words, but my intent. With my tamer skills I can bond with animals and use them to help me in many ways, like night watch, scouting, and even fighting." She said, her voice steady this time, her attention on the goose.

  "That is pretty cool. You are pretty amazing aren't you?" John said, complementing her again. He wasn't sure what he thought about having an animal fighting for him, but if it was capable of making that decision for itself instead of being forced, he guessed it was okay.

  "Yea- ah... umm... cool" She stuttered, realizing he was talking to her again.

  Opps, over did it. This is going to be rough.

  They all climbed into the wagon then, Iris taking the reigns, Nanael beside her. John sat in the back, tying the canvas up in the back up so he could see out the rear and have some airflow. The goose, Quackers, honked at him once, then tucked its head under its wing.

  Guess I am accepted, for now.

  Two green ducks sat on a crate beside it, cuddled up on a rge straw nest. An grey owl was asleep in a cage beside them, the door open on the enclosure showing it was free to leave whenever it wanted to. John just shook his head, amazed that the animals were this calm and well behaved.

  With a few final goodbyes, they departed the Adventurer's Guild, heading out the Eastern gate and towards this new dungeon and a new adventure.

  Unknown to anyone in the wagon, a crow flew overhead, silently observing their progress.