"Wait, I don't get it…" Hitch mumbled. His hands shook as he flipped through the pages. "Math was never my strong suit." He murmured.
"No, these writers wrote the explanation shittily. They should learn how to write better!" ( :( ) Nicholas growled as he threw his packet on the ground and began stomping on it with big black boots. It was in shreds in moments.
Oliver snorted before pushing up his glasses. "I'll explain what you idiots need to know." He paused and looked around. Everyone's eyes were trained on him.
He coughed slightly, "We need to acquire as many spirit cores and tames as possible, like normally. However, to maximize the point total, we need to diversify our targets by elements. The more elements, the better. Did any of you read how only the main elements are considered different? So no sub-elements or mixed elements count. It's not like we'll find one anyway." Oliver finished.
Main elements were officially standardized by the King's Court many years ago. Powerful people argued over what should be considered a main element and what shouldn't. There was bribing and deals being made, but after a year of being in session, the court concluded on a set amount of main elements.
Besides the four central elements, of course, being fire, air, water, and earth, a lot of them didn't appear often across the world. Some members of the group nodded in agreement while others listened intently. "So we should try and get the main four elements, right? Balance the multiplication with not spending time looking for rare, stronger spirits." Noah inquired.
"No, that is not what we should be doing. The most points will come from getting the other main elements. Things like electricity or light and darkness spirits. I imagine the easiest to be…uh." Oliver trailed off as he tried to consider the least deadly. "I believe plant might be the best choice." He said.
"Surely light must be easier," Trey commented.
"We'd go blind without the right equipment, and none of us has that equipment." Nicholas snorted. Trey looked a little embarrassed.
"So what's the plan?" Jasper asked. They all looked at each other silently as if waiting for another to speak. After 10 seconds of no one speaking, Jasper sighed. First years were still dispersing into the environment around them. Everyone talked fervently amongst each other. Jasper realized why this team was so low on the leaderboard. They had no group skills. Everyone wanted to do what they wanted to do.
"Maybe we can split up into groups and just gather as many points as possible. If we all get a lot of different elements, we'll get placed pretty high." Nate suggested.
Jasper's eyes narrowed at his words. "What number is pretty high?" He asked.
Nate thought for a moment, "It'd be super hype if we got top 500. We were close once, that one week we got 647th place in the Weekly Challenge."' Noah reminisced. Reflexively, Jasper's hand covered his mouth in surprise. The group noticed his oddness.
"What's that?" Trey asked. His tone quickly turned angry as he thought Jasper was poking at Nate.
Jasper rubbed his temple before responding. "I just thought we were aiming higher. Aiming for 500th as the best case scenario is... weird." He said.
Trey got up in Jasper's face. "What? Your Lordships never lost in his whole life, huh? Not all of us are trained to reach the top." He pushed Jasper slightly.
"I'm saying we should aim to get the highest we can. Being satisfied with top 500 sounds made up." Jasper said. That caused a few members to sour.
"We can't reach the goddamn top. That's not a place for people like us. We're not the top quarter a percent of whatever the fuck." Nate said angrily.
Jasper raised his hands in surrender. 'I'm not explaining myself well.' He thought. "I wasn't saying our position is shameful, I wanted to understand if you've given up, or are still trying to get stronger." He tried to explain.
Pike, who stood slightly away from the group, spoke. "If you've come here to bash our team's ranking, you don't have to. We hate it ourselves. If it bothers you, you should switch groups." He said. He flipped some of the hair out of his eyes.
Jasper shook his head. "I don't want to switch teams; however, I will if anyone in this group is resigned to not reaching the top. To me, you resigned the second you stopped always shooting to win. I know there's a damn small chance we'll be first, or even top 100. But we need as many points as possible to climb the leaderboard. So I intend to shoot to win every time. Barring extreme risk, of course." He explained.
That explanation softened a few faces. The group seemed to at least believe he wanted to win. Whether they thought his intentions were selfish was unclear. Nate scoffed, "Maybe you care for the team's position, but that doesn't prove you care for anything but that. You probably can't even resist it, with your necrotic affinity and everything."
"You'd better not have touched my shit so far. I know you types are partial to emotions." Trey added. Jasper raised an eyebrow at their words. In his head, he rifled through different reactions he could have. He could protect his peace or crash out. He decided to go with a middle-of-the-road reaction.
"When I get more points than both of you combined by the end of this, I want you to feel dumb as fuck. I won't say anything aloud, but know when it happens that I'm thinking about your weak ass spirit taming. I hope your number is at least close to mine." Jasper said to Trey and Nate.
They both were taken aback for a moment before their faces turned red. "To think the Lord's son was so improper. Fuck you too, asshole." Trey swung his fist at Jasper's face. Jasper stepped to the side and let Trey's imbalance make him stumble.
Nate put a hand on Trey's shoulder. "Whatever. Screw all you guys. We're splitting off. Don't let the group down." Nate snorted. He pulled Trey along and began walking away. Trey flipped off the rest of the group with both hands as he walked backward.
Nicholas sighed and muttered to himself. "So dramatic."
Jasper scratched his head. "Sorry about that. I probably never should've said anything about trying for 500th anyway." Jasper said.
"Nah, you can say it. This team can do so much better." Nicolas said. He pulled out a saber and waved it in the air. "Either way, I'm gonna do what I can do. Sitting here in the leaderboard was not what I envisioned." Nicholas paused as he stared at his blade. "I sound like a pussy right now." He said suddenly. He sheathed his blade in one swift motion and started walking away.
Jasper looked to him. "Where are you going?" He asked.
"I'm gonna do my own thing. There's no point for us to work as one if those two aren't going to. I like working alone anyway. I'm going to the fire and air locations." Nicholas shouted over his shoulder. Jasper wanted to ask more questions, but the man was already too far away to shout to. He sighed before turning to the rest of the group.
Pike had disappeared, too. "Where'd Pike go?" Jasper asked.
Hitch pointed toward a mountain, "Pike left while Trey was having that breakdown." He explained. His face conveyed a sense of concern but a larger sense of helplessness. He seemed scared by the intensity of the Weekly Challenge around them. The sounds of battle could be heard in the distance as tamers came upon spirits.
Jasper understood the group dynamics a little more. Trey and Nate were a duo, while Pike and Nicholas were lone wolves. Cory stood on the perimeter and was usually ignored by most of them. Hitch was a little slow and was disregarded as well by the others. Finally, Oliver is the 'by the book' guy who no one takes seriously. This group was never meant to have a leader. Not one of them had the ability to, or was interested in, leading the group.
Spirit tamers were able to have leaderless groups, but those groups had a higher disbandment rate and lower overall success rates. Being the youngest sibling never made Jasper feel like a leader, but now he was in a position that needed one. He was more comfortable with the idea of working under someone who had some of the qualities he didn't have.
He knew some of his siblings had the leadership quality in them. They were some of the most successful of his siblings. He was the least successful, of course. He pressed his lips together before squeezing his fist. 'I need to try and take lead of this group.' He thought.
One day, he wanted to surround himself with people he respected and stood on equal footing with, but for now, his group of spirit tamer misfits lacked a leader. Someone has to take charge, and Jasper's the one who needs to do it.