Conditional Trust Exercise

Come on, you guys are supposed to be a party.

The first volume of Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers will Save the World (cripes, these manga titles) sees four people who have each lost the ability to trust try to form an adventuring party on, essentially, the basis of each for their own. As to why they'd bother, well, in their depression after their respective betrayals, each fell prey to a vice that has depleted their finances.

Nick is the lead character, the one whose perspective the manga (and presumably the novels its based on) follows the most. Nick was booted from his party because he was basically too skilled and too professional. Most of the others guys were mediocre losers, but the leader wouldn't cast them aside to rise in the ranks (bigger risk but bigger rewards), so Nick had to go. Then he learned his girlfriend was just using him and now he's useless, so he gets dumped.

Nick's written as meticulous and pragmatic. He accepts the others will have trust issues, and tries to make plans that account for that without forcing them out of their comfort zone. So he sets it up so one person keeps the safe for their funds, another keeps the key, he keeps the ledger, and the fourth will check to make sure everything matches. Each person only has to trust themselves, because any thief will get caught.

The other three get varying degrees of focus, with Karan, a dragonian warrior, getting the most. Karan is the other experienced adventurer, but her party set her up and left her to die at the bottom of a dungeon. So she's extremely skittish, unwilling to share her strengths and weaknesses with the others, and quick to assume ill intent when she's nearly hit with friendly fire during their first mission into a labyrinth.

The first volume doesn't get much further than that, as the final chapter shows exactly what happened to Karan, and why she has mixed feelings about a pendant Nick makes sure she doesn't lose after the labyrinth. It also highlights some of the differences between Nick and her old party leader, who treated her more like a child and didn't ask anything of her but to go kill monsters.