Getting 50 strangers, well, 49 because the kind man was still unconscious, to have an orderly discussion would normally be a monumental task, but the play Lucas had just put on wasn't just for show.
It might've been only a few moments after being summoned, but the seed of trust was begging to be placed in each of the summoned.
Axel just observed the group while they theorized about the stone and tested different things. They tried to break it, absorb it(?), and when all hope seemed lost of finding its use if it had one, someone suggested trying to eat it.
Mikhail, a man with shaggy, dirty blond hair that reached his shoulders, confidently stepped forward and received the stone from Lucas. He brought the gleaming stone coated in goblin blood to the edge of his mouth and dropped it in.
Not even a second later, he dropped to his knees in a fit of coughs and spat it back out, and screamed:
"What the hell! It felt like an arrow just shot through my chest or something!"
Mikhail continued his coughing fit, and after that show Lucas decided to just keep the stone in his pocket and deal with it later.
With that fiasco over, the Summoned all split into their groups to get acquainted with each other before they head off on their respective missions.
Axel studied the jacket wrapped around his own arm. The pain had somewhat subsided, but it still stung. The bleeding seemed like it was stopping, but Axel decided it was best to keep the jacket on.
Axel looked down at the man on the ground.
"How could someone be so tough?"
Axel couldn't help but compare his arm injury to the kind man and thought to himself that he would have given up in seconds.
At the same moment, Axel also caught himself; he was becoming obsessed with the guy, a little too much.
Axel found himself questioning how he was so unafraid of death. How was he able to deal with the pain of a limb being cut off?
Obsession—it was a problem of Axel's, but it was also his greatest asset.
While, due to hyperthymesia, Axel couldn't forget what he wanted to forget, he could at least suppress bad memories by creating a memory of greater value, even if only temporarily. He just replayed something in his mind over and over, tricking himself into overvaluing it and overshadowing the truly bad memories. The form of his self-trickery just so happened to manifest in the form of creating a savior. Then, when otherwise his mind would have wandered and he would have thought of the past, he just focused all my thoughts on the savior.
The problem was just how obsessed he would get sometimes…
Axel suppressed his wandering thoughts and looked around at quite an interesting line-up surrounding him. His group looked unique, to say the least. In total, there were eight of them who all stood in a circle and just stared at each other.
For some reason, the only one who seemed truly afraid and nervous about the situation and mission was a short girl who rapidly craned her neck from side to side and twiddled her thumbs.
Axel waited for someone, anyone, to take charge while awkwardly panning and assessing his group.
After waiting a minute in the deafening silence, Axel decided to bite the bullet and start the icebreakers. Even worse, he'd probably have to lead the squad.
'Curse Lucas and his unnecessarily hasty decision-making! Could you not have ordered strangers to scout a mysterious land moments after being abducted from their homes?!'
"Seeing as no one is talking, I'll take charge if there are no objections."
Axel still hoped someone would interject and take the role from him, but in the end he drew the short straw. Axel couldn't help but wonder how off someone had to be to confidently stand in front of 49 strangers and declare themselves a leader.
"We should introduce ourselves."
Axel rested his hand on his chest and was suddenly reminded he wasn't wearing a shirt.
'This was embarrassing! Why was it so warm in December?!'
Trying to hide his surprise at this sudden realization, Axel hastily continued:
"I'm Axel Hart. I'm twenty years old, and before this, I worked as an IT assistant for a software development company. I didn't have much experience outdoors, but I knew some of the basics from when I went camping as a kid with my dad."
IT assistance for a tech company might have seemed like a useless job, but one would be surprised how many people knew how to code but were clueless when a problem on their PC emerged. One time, Axel got called when someone accidentally unplugged their monitor and thought their entire desktop had broken because the screen "wouldn't turn on."
People who knew how to code seemed to only know how to code sometimes. That's what happens when someone dedicates their life to developing one skill. There are also many reasonable cases, but it was the dumb and trivial things that stood out.
After Axel's introduction, the shy girl whose face was half hidden by her bushy brown hair and who wore a zebra-striped long-sleeved shirt and egg-white corduroy pants stepped forward.
"Um, I'm Claire Thompson…"
Axel had been relieved that another stepped up to speak, but… was that it?
Axel thought for a moment that she had confidence that betrayed her appearance, but that didn't appear to be the case after all.
"Um, I um, am nineteen and um... am... um... ummm... a college student. And umm… also on the… umm… American Olympic archery team… umm. T-that's it."
'Oh god.'
She was way too scared. She didn't look this spooked before she started speaking.
It only became apparent after she started speaking that her fear was not entirely from the situation, but more so social anxiety.
Axel nearly hung his head in surrender at the fact that this girl was the second one who spoke, and none of the others. He was quickly losing faith in his group.
But, at the very least, if they found a bow, they knew who to give it to. With how developed her shoulder muscles were to the point they stuck out through her shirt, it was clear she was telling the truth.
To spare her from the spotlight any longer, Axel gestured for the big buff guy to go next. Thankfully, he understood.
"I'm Connor Manney, and didn't do much before this. My parents forced me to do Boy Scouts up until I became an Eagle Scout. I'm also a herbalist."
Connor began to twirl his mustache.
'Are you dumb? Why the hell were you with us? Someone, please, anyone, call him out! No? None of us? I mean, I wasn't gonna do it. Seriously, one of you three, call this guy out. Some poor girl with little experience was forced to lead the hunting/gathering group, and you got to do scouting duty with us. What the hell!'
"I'm Ryon!..."
'Yup, I guess we were letting Connor get away with it.'
"Twenty-one, single, and before this, I worked as a volunteer firefighter."
Ryon spoke with such confidence that Axel almost forgot he refused to speak until after the meek girl. Even more, he didn't have the confidence to question the dude about why he didn't lead the hunting group… while this wasn't Earth, a base level of botany knowledge would help, right?
Axel felt like this all had to be a bad nightmare. First, he was kidnapped and his arm sliced open by unknown means. He had to sacrifice his shirt, a stranger almost died saving him, and now he's being forced to lead some ragtag group into a forest that looks pulled straight out of a Stephen King novel!
…All Axel wanted was a damned shirt.
Thankfully, the rest of the introductions started to move smoothly.
"I'm Mikhail, 19. Before I was summoned, I was a Uni student at South Ural State studying mechanical engineering."
Axel felt bad for Mikhail because it didn't seem like he was fully over his coughing fit yet.
"What's up! I'm as cheery as one can be after being summoned to their deaths! Names Leora, nice to meet y'all."
The grim, cheery… grimcheery(?) beautiful woman with long blonde hair gave a foxy smile, signaling that's all she was willing to share about herself.
"I'm Huang Gao… nice to meet you all."
The man spoke with such authority that none dared to question or ask more about him. It was almost alluring the way he carried himself.
Still, Axel would never shake it from his mind that all of these people are speaking after the girl with social anxiety.
Axel stared at the last group member who'd been completely ignoring everyone, too engrossed in admiring his tattoo. But, for some reason, he felt familiar to Axel. Like he was a good friend, but also scary. Maybe he was a friend in the past he'd forgotten. Axel didn't forget faces. The only way I would is if it had to do with this memory fragment stuff.
He would only truly know why he got that feeling when looking at this man when he got his memories back…
But seriously, why in the hell had he been staring at his tattoo since they first grouped up? Pay attention!
'Next, next!'
Axel begged in his mind.
'Please don't make me speak up. You knew you were next; you were the last one! Oh god, was he an edgelord? Did he want to be all mysterious?!'
"And you?"
Axel tried to sound cool and calm.
"...Zayn Gatlin."
'And…? Come on, there had to be more. Please! No! Don't just go back to observing your tattoo! Talk!'
There was no way they were friends in his past life! That task seemed nigh impossible!