Minutes later, Rod and Nol emerged from the bushes. Behind them was Renee who was smiling weirdly.
George walked over to them and spoke in hushed tones.
Rod excused himself from the group as he went to Inna. "You can't imagine how hard it was to plan with a brother who refuses to speak more than two words."
Inna chuckled. "So, what's your plan? Will you be heading out soon?"
She looked at George in the distance, placing things back in his huge backpack.
"Yea, we'll be clearing this camp in a while. It's about time for the beast to come out." Rod said as he put out the campfire. Inna was already dry so she folded the blanket neatly before handing it to Rod.
"Guess I'll have to leave?" Inna said with a smile.
Rod stared at her before saying, "Well, if you want to? But really, it'll be helpful to have another pair of hands to help us with the quest we are doing."
Inna's eyes lit up at that.
Oh my gosh, my first quest!
"I'll join! I'll do it!" She said with enthusiasm.
Rod smiled wider as he shared a look with Nol. Nol nodded slightly and Rod looked again at Inna, his eyes excited.
"Okay, so if you want to help, you need to know about the quest." Rod was about to start when a hand grabbed his shoulder.
"Rod..." George trailed off as he stared at Rod with a warning.
"George, she agreed to it. She said she'll help. If you don't believe me, ask her. You wanted to help, right?" Rod stared at Inna strangely.
Inna was hesitant with how they were making a scene about it. But she really did want to help because they were generous enough to approach her.
So Inna nodded slowly, slightly scared of George's reaction.
George stared at her, with the same expression as before. Like he wanted to say something but he can't. After a moment, George gritted his teeth and roughly removed his hand from Rod's shoulder.
Inna was heavily intrigued by George's weird behavior.
"Inna? Are you listening?" Rod waved a hand in front of her face. This broke her out of her trance as she blinked furiously.
"Hmm?"
"As I was saying, we accepted this hunting quest weeks ago. But the beast we were hunting was so slippery. Anyone who tried to hunt it either never saw it or never returned. And we were short on money so we had no choice but to take this quest. Don't worry, if this becomes a success, we'll split the earning once we finish." Rod said with a broad smile. "The thing is, the beast is called the Golden Bear."
When Rod saw that Inna's face was blank, he knew that she must have no idea what that is. So, he explained, "It's called the Golden Bear because its fur is gold in color. It's not literally a Bear made out of Gold. And the reason behind the gold color is because of its attribute. Its attribute is lightning so its power comes from lightning. So our plan is to enter its cave at dawn. This will be the time where it tries to go out of its cave. So, we plan to meet it halfway through in one of the cave passages. This way, it won't be able to call out any lightning from the skies. Whoever meets it inside the passages, needs to stall it for a few minutes until the rest of the team arrives."
"Now, the problem is... there are 3 passage ways in the cave. And we have only 4 members and 2 can't be left alone. We can't have Renee fight 1-on-1 in an enclosed space since she's a Ranger. All the more, we can't let George fight alone as well since he barely knows any offensive attacks."
George scoffed at Rod but Rod silenced him with a glare. The exchanged wasn't seen by Inna because she was busy analyzing their plan.
"So, what's the division?"
"Well, Nol will be going solo since he can handle it. I'll be going with Renee as per her request. She really doesn't want to be in a closed space with George. For.... special reasons." Rod snickered while George just glared at him.
"You'll be with George. Don't worry, there's less risk for you since he's a healer." Rod beamed.
Inna nodded, saying that she understood. After patting her head, Rod went towards Renee to discuss something while George began packing everything up quickly.