Nuoda followed me back to my room, where I began to gather the various materials that I wanted to use for this enchantment. “Just to be sure, but what is your strongest healing skill right now?” I asked, looking over at her.
Nuoda answered right away with a small smile. “So far, my strongest is the Heal spell that I evolved from Light Heal a couple of days ago.”
I couldn’t help but look back at her in surprise. “You’ve already evolved your Light Heal?” I asked, to which she nodded her head. I had heard that healing spells won’t gain any proficiency unless they are cast on an injured target, so healers tend to level their skills more slowly than others.
“That’s right. After your explanation on the mechanics last week, I went to look up information on my own, and learned about skill evolution and how important it would be. After that, I volunteered at the clinic for a day to treat the sick, using my healing spell whenever my burden was lifted. I even convinced my chosen to do the same, so that we could increase our support abilities faster.”
I gave a small nod at that, realizing that it had really been five days already since the last time I saw them, almost a full week. “But wait… you wouldn’t have been able to do that after leaving Brita, would you?” I asked, and she glanced off to the side.
“While we were traveling, we used a different strategy. Ennolf would fight a monster. Whenever my Light Heal was ready, I would use it on Ennolf if he was hurt, otherwise it would go to the monster to prolong the fight. Because of that, I have been using Light Heal almost non stop, aside from when we had to rest.”
I blinked, having never thought about doing it like that. My plan if I ever gained a healing skill was just to use my weapon and injure myself repeatedly. I liked their plan more.
“Right. Anyways…” I handed her the potion that I had made to her. “Do you have anything to act as a quill?”
Udona opened up her inventory, retrieving a large feather. “Will this work?” When I saw that feather, I nodded my head.
“For this enchantment, I want you to channel your Heal skill to your limit. At the same time, inscribe patterns on these gloves that you feel would match the essence of the skill. They can be anything you like, as long as you feel that they match.” As I said that, I took off my gloves, placing them down on the floor. It was… either this, my sword, or my pants, as those were the only two items with free enchantment slots other than my shield. And I wasn’t going to take my pants off in front of another man’s wife after I burnt the normal pants I wore underneath. As for my sword… well, what kind of sword needed a healing enchantment?
After saying that, I pulled out two Magic Stones, placing one on either side of the gloves. “These should increase the success rate to the limit. If you are also increasing the effect with a maximum channel, there shouldn’t be any risk of failure. These gloves also only have one slot left, so…”
Nuoda blinked, before nodding her head and crouching down on the ground. She dipped the tip of the feather into the potion bottle, and began to draw waving patterns along the gloves while a large, white circle of magic appeared beneath her. “Holy spirit, bless the hands of this servant.” She said in a voice that was barely a whisper. “Grant me the strength to bestow your power upon another in need. Walk with him in his journey, and protect him in his darkest times. May your grace never fade, and your mercy know no limits.”
As she ended her incantation, the white magic poured through her arm, lighting the patterns that she had been drawing with a faint glow. I could see the exhaustion immediately visible on her face, her mana circuits burning out with the enchantment. The magic stones shattered, turning into blue dust that began to fade away on either side of the gloves.
Panting for breath, she looked at the gloves. “It’s done… it’s only a six star enchantment, though. Is that good?”
I didn’t know what her level was exactly, so I couldn’t answer that question. “Six stars means that it is an ability considerably above your player level, so I would definitely say that it isn’t bad.” I remarked with a smile. Leaning forward, I appraised the gloves.
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Crystal Mole Gloves – 15s |
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Defense: 5☆↑ |
Durability: 100% |
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Weight: 2☆↓ |
Enchantments: 2/2 |
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Mana Bolt (4☆): Point at a target and activate the enchantment. Shoots an arrow of Arcane Energy in the direction pointed. Mana Burden: 0. |
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Heal (9☆): Heals the target touched by these gloves. Mana Burden: 0. |
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Although it was only six stars for her, it was a full nine for me… Nine stars was in the realm of something that was theoretically impossible for me to achieve at my level, without special circumstances. “Thanks, I owe you majorly for this, Nuoda.” I said with a bright smile. “This will help me a lot with my enchantments. Is there anything you’d like in return?”
“Why do you need this to help with enchantments?” She asked, blinking. I paused at that, realizing that she didn’t know about the ‘special cost’ that I had to pay when enchanting magic skills.
“When I… put magic on an item, the skill I used detonates inside my body. The stronger the skill, the more damage it does to me. Until now, I haven’t had any reliable ways to mitigate this damage, and just had to wait for the healing process.”
Nuoda’s eyes went wide in shock. “How… how many times have you done this?”
“Four?” I thought aloud. “Once for Fire Bolt to train it, turning it into Fireball, and then Fireball on my sword. Once for Mana Bolt to train it on my gloves into Arcane Arrow, and then that on my bow.”
Nuoda’s face went deathly pale at my statements. “Why didn’t you just ask me to enchant something for you when we met last week? I know that my Light Heal at the time wasn’t very useful, but it would be better than nothing.”
“I didn’t have any player equipment at that time.” I said honestly. “My first item that I got dropped from a player who was trying to attack me the next day, and everything else was from a dungeon along the way to this city.”
Nuoda pursed her lips, still clearly dissatisfied with my answer. Honestly, the thought of having someone else enchant a healing skill onto one of my items hadn’t even occurred to me before I saw Ennolf earlier in the day. I had been too focused on getting the healing skill myself. Thankfully, at least this meant that I didn’t have to train it up from nothing.
“As for something that you can do to pay me back…” Nuoda thought about it seriously. “Why don’t you join the guild that Ennolf and I are making?”
I blinked in surprise, not expecting such a condition. “You’ll need to reach the nation’s capital in order to get approval to form a guild.” I pointed out, and she gave an understanding nod.
“We’re on our way there. It’s still a long road ahead, but Ennolf has been lending his skills in taverns wherever we pass, and plans to continue doing so. Hopefully, by the time we reach the capital, we’ll be able to register for the guild.”
There was a moment of hesitation before I asked a rather important question. “What is the purpose of your guild?”
Nuoda paused, looking down. “To help the fallen, especially the so-called ‘failures’. You know that every new player starts with exactly five silver, no more and no less, right?”
When I nodded my head, she continued. “In our world, there are people taking advantage of this system. They have people in different cities around the world waiting to collect. When someone makes a new character, they will take that character to the collection point to drop off their money, and then delete the character.”
I looked confused at that. “It’s just five silver, is it really worth doing that?”
“It’s just five silver, per character.” She corrected. “If a hundred people do this, it is five gold. Although they can’t control their spawn point, and there is an hour delay before you can make a new character, that is still five gold every hour for doing basically nothing. Whenever someone pays in our world, they can have this money sent to them through the mail system.”
“However, the hundreds of ‘failures’ left behind are completely abandoned, without even enough copper left for a piece of stale bread. They can’t die of hunger, but they are still in pain. No matter what talents they have, the gold farmers don’t care. If anything, the ones with excellent talents will be treated more harshly, because they will become permanent chosen of those players, who have no regard for their feelings.”
My eyes widened as Nuoda explained what was happening to me. I had never thought that such a scene could take place. Even the common fallen that took positions as guards or merchants were given enough levels to keep themselves safe.
“How… how is your guild going to keep them safe?” I asked, knowing that was a rather daunting task in itself.
Nuoda, as expected, gave a rueful smile. “We want to build a city for the failures. Anyone is welcome to join it, of course, but it will be especially a haven for the failures. However, before we can build a city, there are a number of requirements.”
“First, we must form a guild. Secondly, we must have one member in our guild above level fifty to act as the city’s lord. Finally, we need to clear the area we want to put the city in ourselves and provide the basic infrastructure. After that, the capital will send an inspector. If the conditions have been properly filled, we can register as an official city under the kingdom.”
I was surprised at how much they had learned about this. “How did you find out in so much detail?” I asked, and she chuckled.
“When we decided on our plan, I went to look up how to do it in the library. There was a red-headed kid there, or a halfling maybe? Anyways, he explained it to me.” That definitely sounded like Karlson.
I closed my eyes, thinking about the request. “I can’t help you satisfy any of the requirements, since I can’t level up. I can agree to join the guild, but I won’t be able to stay in the city you build.”
“That’s totally fine!” Nuoda spoke up, eyes wide and seemingly more energetic all of the sudden. “Ennolf and I had talked about it, and we were hoping to invite you at some point. If you agreed to join, the only thing we really wanted you to do was to direct any fallen in need towards the city once it has been completed.”
“That’s… doable.” I nodded my head. Even if I settled down in their city, I still had to get consistently stronger. Otherwise, my traits were in danger of being taken sooner or later. Thus, it was safer for me to stay on the road and train.
I thanked her again for enchanting my gloves, before throwing away the half-used potion vial. Now that I had a healing skill on my equipment, keeping an herbal healing potion was only a waste of inventory space. Afterwards, I dusted myself off and turned to head for the library.
