Nfirea did not hesitate. He seemed very interested in Aaron, who was about the same age as he was. "I need to discuss this with my grandmother. You can all come with me first."
With that,
Nfirea turned and quickly ran toward the Adventurer Guild's main doors.
"Let's go too. We should meet the client properly," said Dosari, the party leader, to the other three members. Then he looked at Aaron and added with a hearty smile, "Coming?"
Aaron nodded lightly.
Dosari walked beside Aaron as they headed out of the hall, while the other three followed close behind, almost as if forming a loose protective ring around him.
Ever since Aaron had revealed his healing magic, more than a few adventurer parties had been itching to make a move.
Now,
the way Rock moved together drew some silent curses from several nearby parties.
At the reception counter,
the brown-haired girl, Daya, watched Aaron leave with the Rock party, a trace of envy and melancholy flickering in her brown eyes.
"He's really amazing. Never would've guessed from his looks that he'd be a divine caster. If only my little brother…"
She muttered under her breath, but soon her face returned to its professional smile as she went back to serving other adventurers.
Outside the Adventurer Guild,
a cargo wagon was parked out front. The old wooden bed was piled high with goods: mismatched wooden crates on the bottom, covered by a layer of dried, straw-like plants.
The air around the wagon was thick with a pungent herbal smell.
On the front bench sat an old woman with a whip in hand, a light-green headscarf wrapped around her pale hair. It was Nfirea's grandmother, Lizzie.
When Aaron and the Rock party stepped out, they saw Nfirea speaking with Lizzie, clearly telling her what had just happened inside the guild.
Aaron and the others did not walk up immediately, instead waiting near the back of the wagon.
They did not have to wait long.
Nfirea came over with a happy look on his face.
"Grandmother agreed. Aaron, you can come with us."
"But she wants you to show her your healing magic in person," Nfirea added with a smile.
"No problem," Aaron replied softly.
Compared to going with some random caravan or unknown adventurer party to E-Rantel, traveling with this grandmother–grandson pair he already knew was much more reassuring.
All the more because—
Nfirea's grandmother Lizzie was a magic caster capable of using third-tier spells.
Following Nfirea, Aaron walked up to Lizzie.
Her wrinkled face and white hair made her look very old, and her expressionless features, along with slightly protruding jawbones, gave the impression of someone not easy to get along with.
In reality,
anyone who had raised someone as mild and gentle as Nfirea could not have that bad a personality.
"Where are you from? Black hair and dark brown eyes are rare in this kingdom," Lizzie said, looking at Aaron without expression.
Those words
made Aaron pause. That was not an easy question to answer.
"Forget it. Not important. Cast your healing magic on my horse."
Lizzie narrowed her eyes slightly and pointed at the black horse hitched to the wagon.
The horse looked a bit old. The area along its back and neck had visible dips from years of pulling loads.
The hair on its rump was thin, and a few reddish welts could be seen faintly.
"Alright."
Without wasting words, Aaron raised his hand toward the horse. "Light Wounds Healing."
He could clearly feel most of the mana in his body being drained again.
Soft white light spread out to envelop the black horse. The reddish welts on its rump quickly vanished and the skin returned to normal.
"Snort!"
The horse tossed its head and snorted loudly, clearly feeling much better.
Phew—
Aaron let out a breath.
He did not feel tired, but his mana was nearly spent.
The first-tier spell Light Wounds Healing consumed 5 MP per cast. Counting the one he had used in the guild hall, this was his second time.
And he only had 13 MP to begin with. Even if he wanted to cast it again right now, he could not.
Aaron glanced at the status panel. From the first cast until now, his MP had still not recovered a single point.
His mana regeneration was even slower than he had expected.
It might be because he did not actually have any magic class yet.
While the Genius class could convert into any basic class, it clearly did not come with the stat boosts or special effects those real classes granted.
"Hm." Lizzie finally nodded, and a smile creased her wrinkled cheeks. "Looks like we can speed up the trip back to E-Rantel. Let's be on our way."
With that,
she stopped paying attention to Aaron and called out to Nfirea. Once he had climbed onto the bench and sat beside her,
Crack!
The lash of the whip struck the horse's back.
With a creak and rattle of wooden wheels over stone,
the wagon began to move.
Aaron and the Rock party could only follow closely behind. Clearly, no one intended to invite them to ride on the wagon.
Fortunately,
the wagon was already loaded to capacity and could not go fast anyway.
Year -4 of the Public Calendar, May 17.
On the second day after his transmigration, Aaron left the royal capital.
Most of the Re-Estize Kingdom's territory was flat plains. The north and west bordered the sea and had two large port cities.
Humans were the overwhelming majority in the kingdom, with very few demi-humans. That had a lot to do with the populace's ingrained dislike of other races.
In recent years,
the Slane Theocracy to the south had been at war with the Elf Kingdom further south. From time to time, forest elves were sold into the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire.
Their price was extremely high, commonly over 300 gold coins.
And that was just for ordinary forest elves. Those who possessed job skills could fetch more than 1,000 gold coins.
Such forest elves were treated as "living magic items" to be bought and sold.
Three days had passed since they left the capital, and Aaron had learned all this through chatting with the Rock party.
The members of Rock seemed to be deliberately trying to get closer to Aaron, so they answered almost any simple question he asked.
As a result,
Aaron had indirectly picked up some basic knowledge and common sense about this world.
Nothing dangerous had happened along the road so far, likely because they were still traveling through the kingdom's central regions.
After several days together,
beyond simply becoming familiar with each other, Aaron had finally learned why Lizzie, despite being capable of third-tier magic, had still hired adventurers.
She needed labor.
The wagon was fully loaded with medicinal herbs that had to be laid out to dry for a while every day.
The work of loading and unloading naturally fell to the Rock party. Dosari had privately complained to Aaron about it more than once.
As for Aaron,
he had not been idle either. During herb-drying time and in the evenings when they rested, he had to cast healing magic on the horses.
Not just to treat the shallow whip marks.
According to Lizzie, healing magic could not only restore wounds, but also recover part of the target's stamina.
That revelation made Aaron realize that skills behaved somewhat differently in reality than they did in the game.
At the same time, repeatedly draining his mana
let Aaron observe his MP regeneration: roughly 1 point per hour.