Matt thought back to his fight with the goblins. He had won the fight, but he had used up most of his MP and ended up losing a lot of blood. if there had been a 4th goblin there, he might have used up all his MP and had to fight with his bare hands. He might be stronger than the average person, but he wasn't too confident in hand-to-hand combat. just one more goblin and he likely would have died.
The thought of dying to a goblin didn't sit well with him. He had to think of a way to get stronger so he wouldn't have to worry about such things. 'Maybe it's not that you aren't strong enough but rather you're missing something.' Emma said as Matt was thinking about ways to get stronger even faster. 'What you're missing, kid, is teammates. you could have every element known to man, but with no one to watch your back, you'll end up getting hit in your blind spots. That's what happened with the goblins, isn't it? They hit you from behind because no one was there to watch your back.'
'what you're saying is true, but what about the fact that I have 4 different elements, and I'm bound to get more in the future. Even the Paragon of Magic, Archmage Eximus, only has 3 elements, how do I explain somehow having more than that?'
'That's actually pretty simple, you have two options, first, you just announce yourself to the world as the greatest genius of all time, I wouldn't recommend this, but it's an option. The other option, and the one I do recommend, is to hide some of your magic, only use two of your elements when fighting alongside your teammates, and if at one point you trust them enough you can show them your true power. I recommend keeping earth and choosing whether you want to use fire or air as your main offensive element, this way you can have both offense and defense.'
'Kind of feels like my work is for nothing if I can't even use my full power, but I guess you're right, the world isn't ready for someone who can potentially use every element of magic. I'll use fire magic, it's currently a higher level than air and with the +10% bonus I got from Luke, it'll only get stronger.' And so Matt had decided what to do, now he just had to find some teammates.
The next day, Matt went by the tavern once again. This time he wasn't looking for a quest, he was looking for some teammates instead. Not knowing how to go about getting a team together, he went to ask someone who probably would, the guild representative. "Oh it's you, have you come for another quest? You know, most people take the day off after a quest, make sure you don't overwork yourself." The man said as Matt approached.
"Actually, I had a question to ask you, I realized yesterday that doing quests alone can be very dangerous. I'm looking for a team to join. Do you know of any teams who are looking for a new member, and if not, do you know how I might go about finding one?" Matt told the guild rep, hoping he had the information he needed.
"I actually do know of a group that is down 1 member. Their old member quit being an adventurer after he took an arrow to the knee. It's those 3 over there. " The man said and pointed at a table with 2 men, one wearing very fancy attire, the other in plate mail armor, and a small hooded figure sitting beside them.
"Thank you once again." Matt said before turning around and heading towards the group. "Hello, I'm Matt, I heard you were looking for a new teammate. Well, I was looking for a team, so I was hoping we could work together and solve both of our problems."
The first to speak up was a young man, who looked to be about Matt's age, with shiny blonde hair and fancy looking clothes. "I am Philip, my father is the Duke of this town. I have remarkable talent with air magic." His haughtiness was so strong, it was almost palpable.
Next, spoke up the armored man next to him. He was an older gentleman, he had tanned skin, curly black hair, and had piercing amber eyes that seemed like they could stare into your soul. "I, am Clark, I'm a retired Knight from the capital. I moved here because I enjoy the feel of a small town. I'm a magic swordsman." Despite his intimidating gaze, Clark spoke in a soft and friendly tone.
Clark then pointed at the hooded one sitting beside him, "This is Blair, they don't like to speak much, they use incantations to cast illusions and disrupt magic." Suddenly, Matt heard a voice whisper in his ear from behind "Hello there, nice to meet you." Matt looked around, trying to see who had sneaked up on him, but there was no one, it almost felt the same as when Emma first spoke to him, except this time he could hear the voice coming from a specific location instead of it coming from inside his head. "Blair, stop that, you're confusing him." Clark said to his hooded companion, the smile on their face disappeared and they started to shrink back into their seat. "Sorry, Matt, Blair doesn't speak very loud, so they use magic to make their voice appear in your ear, you get used to it, but it can be very confusing at first."
"It's fine, just a little disorienting. As I said before, I'm Matt, I use Earth and Fire magic, I'm just a farmer who wanted to become an adventurer. I hope we can work together in the future." Matt introduced himself with a smile. 'They're certainly a unique bunch, sadly none of them have the magic I can copy since I already have air magic and the other 2 are fundamentally different from elemental magic.' Matt thought to himself, forgetting that there was someone else in his mind.
'Well, kid, I for one, think this is the best thing that could happen. Think about it this way, even if you have every element, there are other types of magic out there that you can't use. it's best if you have partners who can use that magic, this will make your team more varied.' Emma had a point, She had told Matt before that he wouldn't be able to use every type of magic in existence, just every type of elemental, or naturally occurring, magic. It made sense to get teammates that have different abilities from him, they could do things he might not be able to.
"Alright, now that introductions are over, were you planning on taking a quest today?" Matt asked the group. "We already have a quest picked, we just needed an extra member, and that's when you showed up." Phillip responded with the same air of importance as before.
"Ok, tell me the details of the quest and we can head out."
"The quest this time is pretty simple. We have to go north, to a lake in this area," Clark pointed at a map set up on their table, "and kill a beast known as the Hydroscale serpent, its scales and fangs are a valuable resource that the quest giver is willing to pay good money for. We were planning to head out tomorrow morning at the break of dawn, as this will be a long journey. meet us here then, and we will take off.