Jack woke up early for a change. As he slowly woke up and took a look around he noticed a new spiderweb in the corner above his bed. Looking at the little spider nest reminded him of the past. He woke up one morning and found a similar but smaller nest above his bed. He'd been perhaps seven at the time? When the little black spider spooled down from her nest on a thread he'd been delighted and ran to show his parents. His parents were less delighted, they promptly threw the little spider outside. When she showed back up the next day he didn't bother his parents. They'd been together ever since, went through everything together. Nox and Dandelion were Jack's only real family now.
Nox woke up and scurried down a thread to Jack's shoulder awakening him from his reminiscing and setting him into motion. He got up, took a shower, got dressed, and had a bite to eat before making sure the survival and camping kits the Academy provided were properly stored in his Bracelet.
When the Academy sorted the parties in fourth year they also sent them on a field trip to forcefully build trust and teamwork. They'd dump the new parties in the middle of the Wild Region. The Wild Region was a large stretch of forestland surrounding the Remnant. It was a moderately dangerous place filled with Wild creatures but it was still part of the Remnant's territory and as such it was routinely patrolled by the Border Defense force who hunted down any rogue Magick Beasts. As such it was theoretically safe.
Every year the new parties were dropped into the forest and required to walk back to the Remnant's cleared land. There were always a few casualties but rarely any fatalities. The field trip was mostly safe and incredibly effective at building trust so even when there were a few fatalities every couple decades the field trips continued as normal.
After confirming that all of the Academy's supplies were accounted for and that he didn't have any external food, water, or medical supplies Jack let the Rabbit and Lynxet out, put on a long overcoat, beckoned Nox to climb into his pocket, and left locking the door behind him. He'd be gone for nearly a month if the field trip went as planned.
As Jack walked towards the Academy's airfield he opened the communications function on his Bracelet. He briefly skimmed the party assignment message. Nothing unexpected, he was assigned the Party no. 1,000 unofficially the 'party of failures'. They were to board shuttle 13 in half an hour and would immediately head towards the western Wild zone. Shuttle 13 would be carrying three other teams who would be dropped off along the way. The Field Trip Guidelines was sent along with the notification.
The Field Trip Guideline contained the rules the students would need to follow, the punishment for not following the rules, the general goal of the trip, the scoring system, and a very basic map displaying topography and the starting and ending points. It was all very clear and concise though a bit long with all the lists.
Jack arrived a quarter hour early and boarded shuttle 13. He wasn't the first person, in fact he was one of the last few. The shuttle was nearly full, all parties except his accounted for. Jack knew Rust was likely to arrive at the last minute but the rest of the party seemed like they would as well. This was ... somewhat unexpected. Jack took the second seat from the end of a row and started actually reading through the guide to pass the time.
The rules didn't contain anything too surprising students weren't allowed to attack one another the penalties of doing so depended on the severity of the injuries dealt. Injuries dealt in self-defense were punished the same removing the possibility of parties faking self-defense. The punishment for anything short of crippling injuries was reduction of score at the end of the exam, crippling injuries would be punished with immediate expulsion from the academy and blacklisting from all military and government jobs. Attacks resulting in death were met with a military tribunal and various extremely harsh punishments in addition to blacklisting. Parties were also required to render assistance to any of their peers in dire situations, but were not allowed to provide undue assistance.
There were also behavioral guidelines that were to be observed during the field trip, inappropriate interactions were heavily discouraged with a variety of potential punishments. Romantic relationships in a party were a large taboo, however it was also one of the most broken.
The scoring for the field trip had two main sections as well as a few minor clauses. The main section was based on the order that the students returned in first place receiving a special reward in addition to the points. The second part was scoring based on performance during the field trip. There was a massive list of monsters and the points the were worth as well as the list of parts to bring back as proof, talons, fangs, and such. As he was scrolling through the list of Wild creatures the rest of his party arrived.
Rust immediately claimed the seat at the end of the row, next to Jack and the rest of the party sat in whatever seats were left. The shuttle took off as soon as all of the seats were filled. The flight took nearly two hours during which they dropped off all of the parties save no. 1,000 they were the last for this trip. As they approached their starting point they all received messages on their ID Bracelets instructing them to ensure all of their gear was in order and to prepare to disembark. Jack and co. checked their gear and walked over to the door. Shortly after they received the order to disembark and the door opened.
Shuttle 13 was cruising above the clouds and the depressurization buffeted the party and they took a second to stabilize themselves before filing out. They had been provided standard issue parachutes for the sake of efficiency. The shuttles had a lot of trips to make and they couldn't be bothered to land to drop off parties. All of the parties had been properly trained on how to use parachutes, they calmly deployed them and aimed for the clearing designated as their starting point.
Party no. 1,000 touched down safely in their starting point around a minute earlier than expected. They disentangled themselves from their parachutes and put the whole mess into the designated box at the edge of the clearing. The Academy would send people to collect all the parachutes after the field trip was over.
Jack took a few moments to examine his new party mates, he'd read their names on the party assignment message, but he didn't know much about the fighter and the rogue. He was of course familiar with the wizard, Rust and he'd heard about the healer from Rust as well.
The fighter was a young man half a head taller than Jack with short brown hair and blue eyes. He carried a sword strapped to his waist but no shield. Jack noticed he had a lightning rune on the back of his left hand and a strengthening rune on his right.
The healer was half a head shorter than Jack and had a unique rune inscribed on her face in the shape of tears. She had long brown hair and green eyes. She carried a small shield strapped to her left arm and had both a short-sword and dagger strapped to her waist. From what Rust had told him she was moving away from the standard path of a healer and trying to become a druid.
The rogue was a full head shorter than him and had gray hair and eyes. She was carrying a plethora of daggers and knives. She had an odd rune engraved on her mouth, it looked something like an absorption rune with a few fragments of an assimilation rune scattered around it, overall it was a mess Jack was surprised it functioned at all and didn't just explode when it'd been engraved.
Rust when she wasn't slouching around was actually around the same height as Jack. His examination of his party mates was abruptly interrupted by the fighter.
"So you're the last member of our party, the summoner Jack was it? I heard you failed spectacularly with your first summon. Not to worry though the Party of Failures welcomes you, we were all considered failures although we've all made the best of it maybe we can use your cow as emergency rations eh?" Jack sighed and Rust facepalmed. The rogue was paying no attention to any of this and was currently munching on some rations.
"Let me introduce you to the party, Jack." He gestured to the healer, "This here is our healer, the Weeping Druid Amber Zinia. She got put here because she's terrible in a crisis, any time someones injured she cries uncontrollably. She's got a custom rune that imbues her tears with healing magick courtesy of our wizard."
Jack glanced over at Rust who nodded at him and whispered,
"It was while you were busy with your summoning rune." Jack nodded understanding, while Rust and he usually shared all their research on runes Rust was introverted and uncommunicative at the best of times and most definitely wouldn't bother someone who was busy even for a matter of mutual interest.
The fighter walked over to the rogue and continued, "This is our rogue the Venomous Glutton Iris Gold she has a hefty natural immunity to all kinds of toxins, venoms, and poisons. Unfortunately she had a mishap with her first rune, she tried to make one that would boost her immunity and allow her to devour poisonous substances. It more or less worked ... but now she has to more or less continuously eat. She could probably eat your whole cow on her own."
He moved on over to Rust. "Our wizard the Silenced Mage Rust Vermilion. She doesn't have any spells and I'm not entirely sure she isn't actually mute."
He walked over to Jack and stuck out his hand, "And finally me the party leader Thundersword Clay Marigold, welcome the the team."