Hero looked confused, pushing Rogier away. "Pleasure, and... look, I don't mind, I-- does everyone else?"

Silence permeated around them for a moment before Emma's hand was slowly raised into the air.

"Anyhow!" Ignoring Emma, he spun around, standing up straight. "What were you all talkin' about?"

Viana, eyes half-lidded, spoke. "We were discussing who we'd want as a leader, and agreed upon having a trial period for anyone who wanted to be a leader first."

"Oh?"

"We'd be relying on a vote for whoever gets to be leader first."

"That sounds like a game that I'd wanna be a part of! Look 'ere! Look 'ere! I know I may not look to be the most reliable chap around, but I swear to it that I'll bring us straight to the top in grades throughout the entire Academy in the span of a few weeks, and you know what that means, don't ya'll?"

A beat, Dahlia speaking up to break the silence. "What...?"

"It means, by then, we all ain't gotta worry about shit! Get your grades high enough, and the Academy becomes a breeze, y'get me!? If you catch my drift, I can lead us straight there."

Emma threw her hands in the air. "And how the hell would we do that?"

"Easy! But... risky! You don't want to keep me as leader, mind you! I'm just asking for this single, trial period to be offered to our first trial period!"

"Risky?"

"Taking the hardest quests, that's how. Take one hard quest, and the rest become a breeze~! On our second quest, we'd have a damn S-Rank in our Quests, and we could just focus all our time relaxing, or on more important shit, y'get me!? So I ask just this once, okay?"

"R-What are you saying? We're only level 1, we shouldn't..." Emma shut herself up to let Rogier continue.

"Think about the money, think about the fame! And think about not having to do jack shit afterwards!"

Viana chimed in with a question of her own. "What level would the quest be?"

"We'd start with a level 2 quest. If we play it carefully, nothing will go wrong! Hard enough to make us sweat, but not hard enough to where it's impossible, y'get me?" Rogier connected his palms, almost in a pleading motion. "Just this once, I swear it'll go well!" He pointed excitedly to Emma's automaton, Rider. "We also got an extra body! Way more than a normal party, y'know!?"

They all look at him for a moment, their faces filled with questioning expressions. They all then look back at each other, and then back at Rogier.

***

Emma, hair down, rested the back of her head on a bench in one of the many courtyards in the Academy. "Fuck... what were we even thinking?"

The lowest level of quests is quests of the -4 ranking, which means that the quest is simple enough not to pose a physical or mental threat to a person. These quests are typically associated with carrying objects from one point to another or simply finding a lost item.

-3 or -2 quests meant that there were minor to significant amounts of physical labor, and had no notable threats to one's life.

-1 meant that there is one, singular possibility of a threat to one's life. Primarily dealing with a single individual who was being too rowdy, or a generally small interpersonal conflict between two people of interests, most of the time, some domestic call of sorts, or a random drunk pissing people off.

These are the quests typically taken by level 1 parties-- starting themselves off onto something significantly simpler as they slowly rise the ranks to level 2, which is when they begin involving themselves in more dangerous predicaments, more physical confrontations, monsters, or otherwise.

A Level 1 quest means that there are at least two targets that are simple to take out in a whole party, generally, nothing that parties typically have to worry about. As a Level 2 party, it becomes a negligible encounter that wouldn't yield much progress towards the party's strengths.

Level 2 quests are typically perfect for Level 2 or 3 parties. The challenge is significant enough for them to make progress, but easy enough that the possibility of death is something that comes across as more of an afterthought than a serious consideration.

For a Level 1 party, though, a Level 2 quest was no simple endeavor. Quests are more than meets the eye after all, and all quests above -1 have considerably more unpredictable factors. At level 2, you have some assurance to fall back on as you are more experienced compared to your predecessors, whilst at Level 3, you're most likely significantly stronger than the threats you could even find in a Level 2 quest to begin with, so much so that unpredictable factors shouldn't even be taken into consideration to begin with.

As a Level 1 party, however, though a Level 2 quest is possible, there is practically nothing that they can fall back on, and death is a very real possibility. It isn't impossible, though... that's the most essential fact. It isn't impossible... Emma thought to herself, focused on the blue sky above her, eyes narrowed.

What have I gotten myself into...? Emma groaned, blinking hard as if trying to wake herself up from a bad dream. With the third blink, a shadow is cast over her, causing her to jump away like a cornered animal.

The figure recoiled as well, revealed soon to be Dahlia, the Barbarian of their party. "I-I'm sorry! Did I scare you!?"

Emma blinked. "Uh... N-No, no... uh... no. Sorry..."

"N-No! I'm s-sorry." Dahlia chuckled, palms facing Emma in surrender.

A moment of silence, both at a pseudo-standoff, staring at each other. Emma licked her lips, brow cocked. "Uh... do you need something?"

Dahlia panicked, looking around frantically before loudly yelling, "W-Would you like to be friends!?"

"Huh?"

"Would you like to be friends?" Dahlia repeated in a softer tone.

Emma swallowed, eyes flickering across Dahlia, a curious expression on her face. "Um... okay... sure."

Dahlia's face brightened almost immediately, hugging Emma and spinning around excitedly, both screaming, the other in joy, and the other, overwhelmed by the current circumstances. 

After Dahlia finally stopped spinning, Emma collapsed onto the ground, clutching their back.