Lorn's little vacation ended in two days. During the time, he visited Irene, and then he had Yara come over to play and drink a bit. She was surprised to see how well Lorn lived, to which he replied that the better you do in the One World, the better you were treated.
Yara said it was too much trouble, but she still looked convinced. Lorn asked her how she ended up as a guinea pig, but she seemed unwilling to talk about it.
She soon went home. Lorn had a few more drinks by himself and soon went to sleep.
Back in the One World, Lorn did not experience of someone breaking into their house and a missing Sybil. As it was early morning, she was cooking breakfast in the kitchen and although she was slightly startled with Lorn appearing out of nowhere, she was happy to see him.
She also informed him that a warrior and a rogue was decided to accompany them. She also seemed slightly worried about Lorn's opinion on the matter. Lorn soon found out why.
"It's a bit of an awkward reunion, but hello again."
A rogue with a blonde, wavy hair was speaking in front of Lorn. The sly grin was gone from his face, replaced by a confused, uncomfortable smile. He was also staying the night at Sybil and his house.
"Hello," Lorn replied. "It seems we'll be going on a journey together."
"Yes. There'll also be a Warrior with me. He seems like the reliable type, so we'll have nothing to fear."
"Okay. Can you go get them for us? We'll be waiting at the town gates."
"Sure. Okay. We'll be there in a minute. Half an hour actually."
As Danton walked away Sybil came over to Lorn.
"You don't seem so wary of him. Thought you would disagree."
"Pretty sure it was mostly Jabber behind that whole incident in Silt, anyway. I can sit here and judge Danton for meekly obeying the big rogue, but every time I saw him, he looked like he didn't want to do anything with the whole thing."
Sybil looked impressed.
"You're kinda cool sometimes, you know?"
"I mean, isn't that why you're okay with this as well?"
"Well, it's mostly because Danton also knows about Spirit Bonds and I wanted to keep him close. He also seemed desperate to join us. Some rumors about his betrayal with Jabber resurfaced so no one really wanted him in their team. With all that, it would be dumb for him to betray us again."
Lorn hummed. "You know anything about the warrior?"
"Ms. Freida said that it was a Vanguard Warrior. Since the team has two Manipulators, we don't really need more firepower. He's also a mid-tier C-rank experienced with hunting so he'll be the party's leader. It's a pretty good team overall."
Lorn felt it was fine as well, and the two gathered their stuff and headed to the town gates.
But the others took much longer than thirty minutes to come meet them there. As Lorn and Sybil were wondering if they should go check up on them, they saw the rest of the team coming from the distance. There was Danton carrying all his gadgets on his body, the warrior, a bald, dark-skinned man with a gentle touch to his face. He was wearing a full-plate armor that seemed to weigh a ton on his body and a giant metal shield the size of his own height.
Every time he took a step, the ground seemed to shake a bit at his sheer weight.
But Lorn also noticed two other people who seemed to belong to the party, running just behind them. One was a soulless. And the other was a red-haired girl, who was curiously looking around her surroundings. When she saw Lorn, she excitedly ran at him.
"Lorn!" she shouted, throwing herself into his arms. "Didn't expect to see me so soon, did you?"
Lorn could only think of one reason she was here.
"Are you joining the party?"
"Yeah. I went and bothered the Guildmaster all day about it, and finally got her permission. I got bonded to the big fella over there. There's a joke in there somewhere, a towering black man and a pale little redhead chibi unifying their spirits… but I can't seem to find any."
Lorn flicked her on the head and greeted the warrior.
"I'm Lorn and this is Sybil," he said. "It's nice to meet you."
"Name's Adrian," he replied. "Thanks for having me. And Yara, keep your shield on you at all times."
Although Adrian was acting relatively politely, his eyes were busy judging Lorn. 'Am I really stuck with this guy?' he seemed to think. He also seemed pissed about something, so Lorn was careful not to antagonize him.
"We'll take the standard route to the Capital, right?" Sybil spoke up.
"No. We'll search for some easy hunts on the way. The Guildmaster asked me to level you two up to the best of my capabilities. So, we'll take a small detour at the half mark of the trip."
"Uh, do I need to add more supplies…"
Sybil and Adrian went on to discuss their plans for the trip.
"He's a bit mad he was stuck bonding with me," Yara said from the side. "There was a big argument with him and the Guildmaster… It was mom and dad all over again."
"What skills did you get, then?"
"Metal Affinity, Shield Telekinesis and Spatial Sense."
"What do they do?"
"It's easy for me to use metal things, I can control shields with my mind, and I can know exactly where me, my teammates and my enemies are relative to me. Haven't really tested them out, so I can't be sure."
"Practice a lot and you'll get stronger in no time. And hope to god you'll get some spirit-recovery spell at some point."
Lorn noticed Danton standing awkwardly at the side, unsure of something. Lorn hoped the man would blend in with time and continued his talk with Yara.
Soon enough, Sybil and Adrian finished their discussion and the group headed towards the Capital. Once again, Lorn got to enjoy the fresh nature of the One World. There was something nostalgic about the whole scenery, making him feel old again all of a sudden.
After three days of monotonous travel where even Yara's jokes started to become stale, one morning, Adrian decided to let Danton take the lead. The rogue tracker did his job and navigated the group through a land filled with Possessed.
Lorn never seeing the danger, but half a day into the trip, Danton informed the group that a fight with a pack of Possessed wolves was inevitable. When he saw a whole pack of them salivating, mad hyenas, he was convinced that near the capital, the situation was much more dire than he expected.
But even so, Lorn and Yara were excited to fight. It was the fastest way for them to grow, after all. But the two noticed that the natives weren't so keen to fight. 'Anything can happen during these skirmishes…' Sybil explained. People really weren't so willing to try their luck in the wild, especially the natives. For Lorn and Yara, this was at most a slightly dangerous game, but for Sybil and Adrian, it was a matter of life and death.
The seriousness passed on to the two.
When the fight occurred, the two Undying diligently followed their leaders orders, always careful not to fuck up in some way.
While Adrian was busy attracting most of the enemies' attention, Danton and Sybil would cull the enemy numbers. Lorn was tasked with keeping Yara safe. He would pull metal objects towards him when he could hit an enemy with it, or to use Strengthening to slash at them when they got close.
Yara sometimes contributed by slamming enemies with her shield, but each time, her spirit would be drained, so she could only wait patiently for it to refill.
Thankfully, there wasn't much incident to these fights. Lorn was bitten once by a wolf, but aside from that, there were no serious injuries to the group.
Adrian's stern expression also softened somewhat. On the fifth day of the trip, he decided that the group was ready to hunt its first monster.