Their boots sloshed in the wet mud as they walked.

The grass turning to mud, ten water the closer they got to Mournwood.

"I guess we're as ready as we're going to be..." John remarked, on his back he carried a sack with some supplies.

"Indeed, twas a long time since I have set foot within the temple..." Bonifacius remarked.

"As far as raids are concerned, tis no a difficult one!"

Pedecree and his cart were following behind them, it was being pulled by large mossback.

"Yeah, it's not too bad," he remarked casually.

Inside dozens of crates and sacks stood lined up, leaving no space for any passengers.

Bromy was desperately trying to light a cigarette, but the rain kept extinguishing it.

"It's pretty wet and slimy thought..." Bromy noted.

Jordan and Alex followed.

"Maybe the bosses are actually friendly since they're sentient now..." Jordan speculated.

"Doubt it..." Alex laughed.

Thal remained silent thinking about his conversation with John the night before...

Revenberry, the Thief, Crown and Foxly walked furthest in the back.

"Do you think I could learn new magic from the raid?" asked the Thief.

"Do you know what a raid is?" asked Crown sarcastically.

"She could find a spell tomb!" Foxly exclaimed.

"Ah yes, the ol' rogue with a spellbook archetype!" Crown remarked.

"So... I could find new magic there!" the Thief exclaimed.

Crown let out a sigh.

"Yeah, sure..."

Curstl sat beside Pedecree in the front of the cart, she was speaking to seemingly nobody, in reality, she communicated with someone from her friend's list.

"Yeah, we're almost in Mournwood..."

"Yeah, through the plains..."

As soon as they set foot in the wet waters of Mournwood, the canopy of the trees shielded them from rain.

They were meant to meet up with the other members of the raid outside the raid entrance.

"Remember, JohnWillStab! Traditionally the raid would be split into several groups, tis up to three to decide how thou will arrange them," Bonifacius said patting John on the back.

John looked visibly stressed out about the raid.

Noticing this Bonifacius spoke once more, "Fear not, friend! There is no one in this world more qualified than thou to strategise, and experience can't come without an attempt, no matter how rough!" Bonifacius said placing a hand on John's shoulder.

JohnWillStab cracked a smile, "...thanks."

"Right... well, there are forty members, I guess groups of five or ten would be ideal..." John thought.

"Mm, thou may need to change the group-size based on the boss in question..." Bonifacius continued.

"Right..." John scratched his head.

"I'll need to see who the members are before I can think of team formation... I guess a tank and a healer per group would be good..." John remarked.

"Plus, it's pretty unlikely all forty people will show up..." John thought.

"You should consider the class of the healers when placing them into groups..." Bromy said giving up on his cigarette and tossing it aside into a water puddle.

"You mean different classes heal differently?" asked John feeling his heart sink in his chest as his lack of knowledge became more evident.

Bromy let out a sigh.

"Basically, a druid like me or Crown are good single-target healers, where a healer-class person would be good with AOE healing," Bromy elaborated.

"Somone with a light-magic-class could do alright in both, but specialise in dispelling curses," he added.

"Indeed, tanks are very similar," Bonifacius agreed.

"As a shield-class, I can soak up a lot of physical damage, though when it comes to magic I am less effective,"

"An enchanter could supplement someone of my class by casting magic-resistance for example,"

"Alright... so shield-classes go well with enchanters when facing magic-using enemies..." John said making a mental note.

"Right, a swordsman or rapier-user will generate a lot of 'threat' or 'aggro' - so placing them in a party without a tank is basically guaranteeing they'll die unless another group's tank deals with the boss..." Bromy agreed.

As John was flooded with information about the different classes and their differences, they were greeted with a familiar figure standing before them.

"Hey, are you guys here for the jGuardian raid?" asked Pandors_T_T, he was wearing leather armour over chainmail, on his back a rifle and spear.

"Oh, subordinate one-thirty-two, good to see you again!" Curstl exclaimed.

Pandors_T_T let out a sigh.

"Hi Curstl... also, just call me Pandors..." he looked around the group and his eyes landed on Bonifacius.

"Hey, it's the tank that got in the way of us arresting the undead!" Pandors laughed though he didn't sound malicious.

"Indeed, tis us! Good to see thou again!" Bonifacius exclaimed.

"I'm actually just here to make sure you guys find us, we're staying at the hill nearby since the temple is crawling with venomous snakes," Pandors explained.

"I see! In that case, let us make haste!" Bonifacius said looking to John who nodded.

They made their way south and found the small camp set up by the people who agreed to go on the first-ever raid of this world.

The group included the following close-range DPSs.

NoPissBottles, the human wielding a mace.

Oheimark, the human swordsman.

Celerious, the wolfman swordswoman.

RedPancake, the rapier-wielding ogre summoner.

Boopnsnootn, the axe-wielding human.

Avocadont, the ogre dagger user.

XsuphicatR, the scythe-wielding vampire.

JohnWillStab.

Curstl.

Alex.

Olivionion.

The Thief.

The group included the following long-range DPSs.

Jordan.

Foxly.

Revenberry.

GarlicBoi, the ogre mage.

Pedecree.

Cabage_san, the undead rifleman.

Mufinski, the bow-using harpy.

BangGanger68, the human axe-thrower.

Pandors_T_T,

WillWillWas, the rune-using wolfman.

Rootin'

Shootin'

There were also the following healers...

Oofgod, the harpy healer.

Kilin_, the healing demon.

MustardiousIntent, the healer wolfman.

Bromy.

Crown.

The only tank was...

Bolst, a heavy armour-wearing swordsman capable of healing.

Pnutbutterjerry, a heavily armoured shield and hammer user.

Bonifacius,

JohnWillStab looked at the group, "That's only thirty-two members all together..." he said re-thinking his grouping.

"Thirty-three, actually." said the unfamiliar voice of a familiar fish-man.

John looked over and saw RuRet standing, dressed fancy as ever with a black cloak and top hat.

"RuRet!" John exclaimed,

"It's good to see you too!" he explained.

"I wasn't going to attend this whole thing, but my dear brother told me you were the one behind this event!" he laughed.

"Thanks, man!" John said bashfully.

"My villainous JohnWillStab will lay siege to an ancient temple, it's like seeing your child grow up, you know!" RuRet felt a tear form in his eye.

"Don't say embarrassing stuff like that!" John exclaimed seeing Bromy and Alex sniggering.

"Greeting! I am Bonifacius!" Bonifacius said extending a hand towards RuRet.

RuRet returned the handshake.

"I'm RuRet, I helped JohnWillStab take over Arlepia!" he explained.

"Alright! there are thirty-three of us... thee-teams of eleven might work, especially since we only have three tanks,"

"We have five healers, but one of the tanks can heal, so that should even things out..." John said looking to all the players.

John split up the teams as best as he could.

Team one...

🔰 - Bonifacius

⚔️ - Curstl

⚔️ - Celerious

⚔️ - Alex

⚔️ - Boopnsnootn

🔮/🔫 - RuRet

🔮/🔫 - Foxly

🔮/🔫 - Revenberry

🔮/🔫 - Pedecree

🔮/🔫 - Rootin'

➕ - Crown

➕ - Bromy

Team two...

🔰 - Bolst

⚔️ - RedPancake

⚔️ - Oheimark

⚔️ - Olivionion

⚔️ - NoPissBottles

🔮/🔫 - Jordan

🔮/🔫 - GarlicBoi

🔮/🔫 - Cabage_san

🔮/🔫 - Mufinski

🔮/🔫 - BangGanger68'

➕ - Oofgod

Team three...

🔰 - Pnutbutterjerry

⚔️ - Avocadont

⚔️ - XsuphicatR

⚔️ - JohnWillStab

⚔️ - The Thief

🔮/🔫 - Shootin'

🔮/🔫 - WillWillWas

🔮/🔫 - Pandors_T_T

➕ - MustardiousIntent

➕ - Kilin

After coming up with this plan, JohnWillStab approached Curstl, "Hey, I have the groups all planned out, you think you could tell everyone about them?" he asked handing her the page.

"Uhm... sure! Why won't you just tell them yourself thought?" she asked.

"Well, I think they're less likely to work with someone who too over all of Arlepia..." John explained avoiding eye contact.

Their attention was grabbed by somebody speaking.

"That's not true!" RuRet exclaimed encouragingly from the back shooting John a thumbs-up.

John looked back to Curstl, "He's definitely an outlier..." John assured her.

"Alright, alright, I don't mind!" she said before reading over the group list.

"Nice!" she remarked seeing her name in the same team as Bonifacius'

After informing everyone about their groups, Curstl explained the item-reward system.

"We still haven't figured out the best way to divide the loot..." she began.

"So we're going to roll for it!" she explained.

Nobody said anything.

"So, let's say a wand drops from a boss, everyone who wants it will roll a dice to see if they get it!" she explained.

Someone in the back raised an arm up.

"Yes?" she asked.

"How exactly do toilet-breaks work in the dungeon?" he asked.

Everyone nodded in agreement at the question.

"Ehmm..." Curstl looked over to John but he was nowhere to be seen so she had to improvise.

"They don't... just hold it in until we're done!" she replied.

Everyone remained silent, seemingly waiting for any indication that she was joking, when that indication didn't come everyone stood up and began to leave.

"W-wait, no! I mean you can just do it wherever!" she exclaimed as a few of the members breathed a sigh of relief before returning to the camp.

Curstl answered a few more questions while JohnWillStab was still missing much to her horror.