“Light, we’re kicking you out of the party.”
“Huh?”
I was so dumbfounded by what I’d just heard, that meek response was the best I could manage. The party in question, the Concord of the Tribes, was in the process of battling its way through the Abyss, the largest and toughest dungeon so far discovered in the realm, as well as the most notorious. I’d joined the quest as the party’s baggage carrier and gofer, and we were just in the middle of taking a break in a wide-open cavern to prepare ourselves for tackling the middle layer of the Abyss’s dangerous depths when Drago dropped the bombshell on me that I was being kicked out of the party. I let the rucksack I was carrying drop to the floor as I wiped the cold sweat from my brow.
Drago, the leader of the party, was a dragonute: a half-dragon, half-human that walks upright on two legs. Even though he had the outward appearance of a very scary dragon, he was actually a kind, intelligent, and dependable leader. But it was looking like I’d caused trouble for Drago—and the rest of the party, for that matter—and I hadn’t realized until it was too late that I’d made them all angry with me.
I hurriedly bowed my head in shame and blurted out an apology.
“I-I’m so sorry, Mr. Drago! If you have a problem with me, I’ll be sure to fix it right away! Just please, don’t throw me out of the party!”
“Pfft! Heh heh heh! We ain’t got no actual problem wit’cha, kid. We just don’t need ya anymore! We really gotta spell it out for ya?” Garou the wolfman piped up.
“Honestly, I know you’re an inferior race, but I can’t stand how stupid you humans are,” Sasha the elf chimed in.
“Hm, is this lack of understanding the result of your own personal ignorance, or is it characteristic of the entire human race? As a researcher, my curiosity is positively piqued,” Sionne the dark elf mused.
All three of them looked down on me with scorn as I apologized profusely, their words devastating me even more than Drago’s declaration that I was being kicked out of the party.
This realm is made up of nine races: humans, beastfolk, dragonutes, elves, dark elves, dwarves, demonkin, onifolk, and centaurs. Not all races were created equal, however. Humans, for instance, aren’t as strong as beastfolk or onifolk, nor are we as fast as centaurs. We aren’t as magically gifted as dragonutes, elves, or dark elves, nor do we live as long as those races. Humans aren’t as resourceful as dwarves, and we aren’t as clever as demonkin.