Q.U.E.S.T

"Are you sure this is enough?"

"You two did great; of course it's enough."

"Well then hurry the Hells up if we did so grand!"

The entire party is gathered in the dining hall, patiently waiting to find what I had called them for. The jitters of excitement from the upgraded Domain were still high in a few; namely, a certain slime girl who was practically bouncing out of her seat. I clear my throat, and exit the kitchen; the other two remaining hidden for now.

"Hello, everyone." I say, a familiar frog reappearing in my throat all of a sudden; I evict him and his family with a cough. "Ahem. I'll be frank about this. We're a mess. We've been so disorganized that it's put us through the wringer several times now; some of us have nearly been killed, or... worse."

I instinctively look to Zana, who tips her hat over ever-shifting her eyes as I continue.

"I haven't exactly been helping the issue, letting so many of you join up right off the bat with no consideration of how that effects the rest. So, I've decided organize us properly... well, not me particularly. I might be able to punch really hard, and breathe fire, but I'm not exactly the best at... well, anything else. So, I asked for some help."

Cilla and Trixie leave the kitchen; the former looking like a giddy schoolgirl as she desperately flops her stacks of graphs and diagrams onto the center-most table.

My dear Handler takes a deep, calm breath; then loses herself in her favorite thing to do.

Explaining things.

"Ok, so, looking at these five-point diagrams here, you will see five different letters; each designating a different-"

"Woah, Lass! Let's not charge in with the pictures and big words!" Trixie says, landing on her shoulder. "Some of us here have jelly-for-brains, or wear glasses; or just bore easily."

Scott and Kaki seem somewhat offended by the wee-fairy's words; while Sammy just seems hungry for jelly.

"Ugh... fine." Cilla pulls out a few copies of her newest draft; handing them out.

"This is the Q.U.E.S.T. System; a way for us to create smaller parties for venturing out from the Lamp-Chop. Our parties will consist of no more than five people; with each member given a designated grade with this system."

Cilla holds out the basic diagram; a set of five differently sized pentagon inside of each other, each connected at their points with lines leading to the center.

"You will see letters at each point of the outer pentagon; these represent what qualities that line covers. Each pentagon is a level, with the smallest being 'Level One', and the largest being 'Level Five.'"

"Ooo, sounds like Earth stuff." Ariel's voice comes from his Alma. "Those weird games you guys have; or was it... cartoons?"

"Both, yah eejit-" Trixie flies across the room, and bonks the jewel atop Gabbie's staff. "-and it's called anime, not cartoons! Cartoons are for wee-things and man-children!"

Cilla huffs. "As I was saying... each level denotes a higher amount of one quality. Now for the qualities themselves."

"Quirks. The first quality. Some of us here have some... drawbacks, to being in a party; ****-curses, speaking backwards, and lack of legs aside, there are situations where some of us may be bad for job. Let's say... we're on a quest to kill a giant spider."

Ashes nearly falls out of her seat. "Nope! Nope!"

"Exactly. So, for that quest, we'd mark you as a Level Five in Quirks during consideration."

"Next, Utility. Being small enough to go unnoticed, or being able to slip through cracks in walls; these sorts of perks are essential in some situations, such as infiltrating an area for information. Other times, we'll need someone who can put all of our bones back in their proper places after a particularly rough fight... so Gabbie. Just Gabbie. She's the reason I nearly added a sixth level to this thing."

"Aw, you're too kind." Our healer says, covering a blush.

"Now, Endurance. This is a measure of your ability to continue on the quest for prolonged periods of time without stopping; as well as your ability to help others do the same."

Scott groans, whispering under his breath. "I knew something like that would come up; I'm definitely getting a low score there..."

"Now for Strength. Not just the physical kind either. This quality is all about putting an enemy out of the fight; physical attacks, magical spells, mental assaults, ect."

Oro flicks her tongue a few times, dragging her finger across her copy of the diagram. "Does poisoning someone's food count as strength, or utility?"

Everyone gives our new chef a wide-eyed stare; Cilla clears her throat. "Strength, I suppose?"

The snake-woman smiles most maliciously at the news.

"Ok, either way. Last is Teamwork. Some of us here may not have the best of synergy between our abilities; especially for some quests. Let's say Eve summons several vines, only for Monster to burn them to cinders by accident-"

I cross my arms, offended. "I thought we said we weren't using that example..."

"Oh shush. Either way; this is not just for abilities, but for cohesion as well. There may come a time where one of you is upset with someone else in our group. Obviously, sending you out to scout an area when you can't stop screaming at each other would be an issue."

"So... just you?" Kaki says, smiling coyly, doodling on her copy of the diagram with her ink.

Cilla snatches the paper away; looking as if she was about to prove the Inky-Oni right.

She slowly, calmly begins to exhale. "So... any questions?"

Sammy raises her arm, then another; then grows several more goopy arms to raise in the air. Presumably, one for each question. My Handler seems seconds from snapping; still searing at that earlier burn. She grabs me by the collar of my shirt, and chucks me at the problem; my rear end slamming into a seat next to Sammy so hard I feared my tail may snap right off.

The Goo-Girl retracts the goopy arms, returning her surface to it's new natural peachy-skinned coloration.

"What's a pentagon?"

Cilla audibly slaps herself in the face; oh thank the Gods, it wasn't my face for once.

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(Hello. Updating everyone who's been missing this story-thread. This is about big change in how I write Monster Isekai: An Accident from here on out. No more rolling Dice... mostly. While it's been fun to roll for all kinds of interesting encounters and plot-twists, it's also made it much harder to write the story, and I want to be able to actually finish this some day! From now on, Dice will be exclusively for non-plot related things, like side-quests for cash, or loot from a dungeon.)