When I finished my seventh [Wool Fabric], I started to get a bit hungry, so I took out some meat skewers that I saved up in my [Item Box] and munched on them. I would like to say happily, but considering the meals I had lately, they were clearly lacking... Of course it wasn't only a matter of skill, since without having things like salt, pepper and other condiments, there was only so much I could do... speaking of condiments... I should probably go buy some next time we're in town since I now have a stable income to rely on...

By the time I finished eating, the doctor came back in with Trevis in tow. Trevis gave me a hateful look as he entered, but said nothing and obediently followed the doctor. Then following the doctor's instructions, he set up a treatment area next to those who were heavily injured.

Not paying him much mind, I began working on my last [Wool Fabric]... and once I was done, I kind of regretted not asking for more [Wool Yarn] as part of my request... Well there is always the [Cotton Yarn], but that pretty much means I have to start learning from scratch... *sigh*

Taking out my first [Cotton Yarn], I slowly began work on my first fabric....

Cotton Fabric

An average quality cotton fabric. Used in the production of clothes

Quality 5.9173/10.0000

And what do you know... that was far easier than I thought... I guess compared to when I just started [Blacksmithing] and knew absolutely nothing about production in this world, versus now with my [PER] stat reaching a whopping 401, I'm playing a completely different yarn game! hehe

With my enthusiasm and confidence brimming to the max, I quickly started to increase the pace of my knitting!

Before I knew it, all 10 of the [Cotton Yarns] were completed! Thus, I was effectively out of yarn... which again resurfaced my regrets... *sigh*

So I guess only thing left to do now is make some basic equipment out of the Wool and Cotton Fabrics... but before that... *yawn* ... I'm getting a bit sleepy... I guess I'll look into doing that tomorrow... good night...

And just like that, I soundly fell asleep...

...

Only to be woken up by loud clamoring in the background...

"Mmm... What happened?" I muttered as I rubbed my eyes and looked around.

From the looks of things, other than those who were heavily injured, most of the people from the basement were now missing... the only new addition was that Saron was now sleeping a short distance away from Tina, who was still seemingly occupied with reading her book and giving all that commotion no mind.

"What happened?" I asked Tina as I came over.

"Hmm? Probably Ariel did something again... anyways, don't interrupt me, I'm at the best part" Tina replied without even taking her eyes off the book for a second.

Uhm.... okay.... She's been reading that book with full concentration during all this time... I wonder if it's some kind of alchemy book or something?

Feeling a tinge of curiosity... I took a quick peak from the side at what Tina was reading so intensely, that she was going as far as ignoring everything in her surroundings...

...

Uwa-wa-wa!...

I saw nothing... yup! Absolutely nothing! Now that I think about it, I wonder what the commotion outside is all about? Yup! let's go check it out now!

Shaking my head to erase what I just saw from my mind, I rushed upstairs as quickly as possible!

Making it outside of the house, I saw a crowd surrounding what seemed to be two dead bodies of some rather large Lycanthropes. Surprisingly, one of the corpses belonged to the [Infectious Lycanthrope: Alpha] that we were all so worried about. Further in, I could make out the doctor treating a heavily injured man who was covered in some sort of green liquid mixed with blood...

You have acquired a new skill [NP][Poison Resistance] Level 1

Ooh! That looks fairly delicious!

Making my way through the crowd to get a better view, I noticed Harold standing there as well.

Taking a quick peak to make sure THAT monster is not around to ambush me, I made my way over to Harold.

"What's going on?" I inquired.

"Ah, Shiro, good timing! Are you capable of casting anymore heals?" Harold asked.

"Uhm... Sure I guess..." I replied, still mesmerized by the scene.

"You know, you don't have to push yourself if you are not feeling up to it" Harold informed.

"Isn't this like an emergency where his life is at stake?" I questioned, not quite sure where he was getting at...

"That may be the case, but that isn't our problem" Harold nonchalantly responded.

"Eh?!" I exclaimed from being caught off guard, then frantically started looking around the crowd trying to gauge their reactions...

I mean he might as well have just have said 'you can let him die if you want' right in the middle of all these people who clearly care about the injured man...

As though he seemed to have understood my dilemma...

"Since this is probably your first time doing such quests for the Adventurers Guild, let me make something clear. Our mission here is to hand over the [City Core] to safe hands. The only reason why we remained here to guard the [City Core] after its delivery is because there are no safe hands at this point to hand it over to.

Any request that is done independent of our assigned mission is completely optional, and you should never consider taking any such request unless you are 100 percent certain that it will not impact the well-being of you nor your party in any shape or form.

Keep in mind that a healer that can use Holy Magic is a privilege, not a right. So you are under no obligation to do anything unless you are feeling up for it. Everyone here is a professional and despite their personal feelings on the matter, they full well understand that if you collapse due to over-healing and are not able to heal your party in case of an emergency, that would be like putting the cart before the horse. Think very carefully before you make a decision.

If you are feeling any headaches or anything of the like due to the healing you did prior, you don't need to step up" Harold lectured with a stern expression.

"Uhm... No, I feel totally fine..." I assured.

At least I think I'm fine... I was a bit mentally worn out when I did the healing, but as-is I should be okay... probably?

"Is that so? Alright then... Doctor Mason, we are able to provide supplementary healing when needed" Harold called out.

"That would be really helpful... just give me about 10 more minutes to neutralize most of the toxins..." The Doctor replied while still keeping all of his focus on his patient.

Since there was still some time left till it was my turn, I turned to Harold...

"So... what exactly happened here?" I probed.

"As it stands, I'm not exactly sure on all the details either. Only thing I know is that a few minutes ago, Ariel came back here carrying Allen and dropped him off and alongside the two corpses. Since they were being chased by monsters on the way here, Ariel then turned back to drive them off" Harold explained.

"I see..." I replied while pondering on what could have possibly happened out there...

Well regardless... as long as there is no potential Rank S threat out there, I feel safer already...

Your skill [NP][Poison Resistance] has become Level 2

When the 10 minutes passed, the doctor got up and faced towards us.

"I did everything I could for the time being, I'll leave the rest to you" the doctor said and took a step back.

I gave him a nod and approached Allen... Now that I have the [Doctor: Medical Diagnostics Enhancement] skill, I have a much better understanding on what exactly is going on with Allen, and can treat him much more efficiently as well. While Holy Magic does not need to be as precise as Water Magic, if I focus on the organs that took the most damage rather than the entire body as a whole, I can heal far more efficiently...

"Just in case, take this" Harold interrupted, and handed me another [Mana Potion], "Just remember, if it becomes a burden, you don't need to push yourself" Harold then reminded and got out of the way.

"It's okay, I'll be fine" I answered and got to work...

Chanting the spell, I released a [Light Magic: Holy Light] upon Allen, and once I started running low on mana, I drank the potion and proceeded to cast yet again...

When I was finished, I looked up and noticed the whole crowd was literally staring at me like I'm some rare attraction... Feeling the embarrassment from all the stares, I moved away from Allen and hovered over to Harold by the side.

"I-I'm done!" I declared.

"Good work" Harold replied and petted my head... "Well then go get some rest, we are leaving first thing tomorrow" he then added and walked away towards the basement...

I touched the top of my head as a nostalgic feeling of a sensation I have not felt in a long time took over me...

"H-He is waking up!" someone suddenly exclaimed, causing everyone, including Harold to shift their attention back to Allen.

"Mmmm... Where... am... I?" Allen muttered as he barely opened his eyes.

"You are back at the settlement, everything should be fine now" The doctor assured.

"Is... that so? What... about... Dawn?" Allen inquired.

"He is fine too, just make sure to get some rest. Bring him downstairs, and be extra careful!" The doctor cautioned.

"R-Right away!" the soldiers responded and brought Allen inside.

At that moment, a large wolf suddenly jumped out of the forest shocking everyone, and by reflex all the soldiers drew their weapons in preparations to intercept this new threat. But once they saw that it was Ariel who riding on top of it, they sighed in relief and put them away.

"So what exactly happened out there?" Harold quickly inquired.

"Well... I was hunting down the Lycanthropes left and right, and eventually tracked down their alpha and killed it. At that point, most of the Lycanthropes started to run away so I had to chase them down which was quite a pain... Eventually, I felt a presence of someone and as I headed there, I found a corpse of that other Alpha over there. Putting it in my storage, I proceeded ahead and found that man over there barely holding on for his life while hiding in the middle of a tree... Since he was in such a condition, I had no choice but to rush over here as fast as I could..." Ariel explained.

"Alright then, go get some rest, we'll head out tomorrow" Harold informed.

Like that, we retired for the day. Of course, I made sure to keep as far distance from Ariel as possible...

...

The next day, when Allan got up, he began telling us the full story.

"As you know we left the settlement to try to corner the Alpha and end their coordinated attacks. When we surrounded the Alpha and were about to engage it, we were surprise attacked by another Alpha which had a Unique Class. This Alpha was both stronger and smarter than the first, and unfortunately the Alpha managed to get a good hit onto Dawn, heavily injuring him. Noticing that, I rushed in to save him from being killed, but ended up suffering some light wounds as well...

I was initially planning on retreating with Dawn, but it was at that point my [Monster Analyst] skills kicked in... With them, I was able to identify that the monster had the ability to convert anyone who got injured by that bastard into a Lycanthrope.

Since I was in no position to do a full analyses, I had no choice but to go all out and kill him quickly before his ability took effect. As you know, my combat class is [Monster Slayer], which means I get stronger against monsters the more I know about them, as well as the more I kill them. Since I've been studying and hunting Lycanthropes all year, well let's just say he messed with the wrong adventurer.

Considering I was also throwing away defense to kill him as fast as possible, it didn't take long for me to land a critical blow. Albeit I took quite some damage myself..." Allan narrated.

"Sorry about that... If only I didn't mess up and paid more attention..." Dawn interrupted while feeling quite dejected.

"No worries man, originally you are a support type. It was my fault for letting you get so injured in the first place... If anything, you should be blaming me, man..." Allan apologized.

"How come I can't feel the sincerity in that at all..." Dawn retorted.

"Just your imagination, man.... anyways where was I? Oh right, so I critically injured the bastard and then both Alphas ended up fleeing on me. Dawn already collapsed on me at this point, and I couldn't exactly let the [Infectious Lycanthrope: Alpha] run away. So I had no choice but to leave Dawn to the others, and went to pursue him.

By the time I caught up with the bastard and delivered the finishing blow, I found myself tumbling down a cliff... Luckily I had a perfectly good corpse to mitigate most of the impacts, so I didn't take too much damage from the fall, but it didn't exactly help with my wounds either.

Since I was in no position to move, I did some emergency first aid, covered my scent with herbs and hid in an [Argol Tree], hoping for the best... and well, here I am!" Allen declared.

"I really thought you were a goner back there" Dawn sighed.

"Hey man, don't go killing me off that easily! You won't get rid of me until you pay off that debt you owe me~" Allan shrugged.

"Somehow, I'm already regretting that we didn't lose you back there..." Dawn sighed.

"BWHAHAHAHA~" They both laughed.

During this whole event where everyone was happily smiling and laughing... the only person who had a frown on their face was me... All those delicious sounding skills.... How could you just tempt me with them and not fork them over?!

...

After the short celebration, the negotiations started....

"As per agreement with the Adventurers Guild, we require a proof of completion. But since this mission parameters went outside the normal scope, we would require an additional compensation, are we in agreement?" Harold asked.

"Why do you have to be so stingy? It's not really a big deal!" Ariel interjected.

"Tina, can you please drag Ariel out of here?" Harold requested.

"Alright, let's go then Ariel" Tina said as she walked up to Ariel.

"No way! I'm staying right here and no one is going to change my mind!" Ariel insisted.

"That's really a shame... Oh well..." Tina said, seemingly giving up... she then walked up to me "Let's go then, it seems Ariel is not interested." Tina then said as she grabbed my arm and started leading me out of the basement.

Ha? What does this have to do with me?... Then taking a glance back at Ariel, her eyes were wide in shock!

"W-Wait! I'm coming too!" Ariel suddenly yelled out.

I somehow feel like I'm being used here... but since the amount of commission they negotiate would indirectly affect my share, I wasn't in any position to complain... Plus, It's not like me being outside or inside made any difference as far as safety from Ariel is concerned...

We walked out of the basement with Ariel quickly following behind us. With Ariel so close nearby, I made sure to always keep Tina in between us to prevent any unforeseen life threatening events...

"Why do you keep running away Mayo..." Ariel dejectedly complained.

"Hmph!" I snorted giving her the cold shoulder.

I know how these heroes work, give them an inch, they'll then take a mile!

Then I remembered something...

"Oh right... I was wondering... since yesterday was payday, when will I receive my salary?" I asked Tina.

"Usually when we are in the middle of a request, you'll receive the salary when we make it back to town. At same time, you'll also receive any other commissions you may be owed" Tina explained.

"Is that so..." I muttered in response.

"If you want, I can have Harold give it to you now! Let me go see him this instant!" Ariel proclaimed.

"No thanks! I'll wait! Hmph!" I bluntly rejected.

It's not like I'm in a need for it until I make it to town anyways, and last thing I want is to give that damn hero any false impressions. I need to keep my guard up at all times! Heroes are masters of deception and mind control after all...

We walked back to where we originally left the carriage, and we saw Brian was there putting the reigns back on the wolves and fastening them to the carriage. When he noticed us coming towards him, he quickly picked up the pace and then ran over while wagging his tail.

"Elder sister Ariel, I set up the carriage and we are ready to go whenever!" Brian announced, followed by an attempt to make small talk with Ariel.

Feeling some breathing room, we made some distance between us. Once we got a bit away, I remembered something I wanted to ask.

"By the way... I was wondering... what exactly does Ariel's unique skill do?" I whispered to Tina, being careful not to be heard.

Ever since that whole incident with her guarding the top of the carriage, I was quite curious about the whole ordeal since I never actually felt her leave the carriage... I mean she is a swordsman right? Does she like do a thousand air slashes or something?

"You really want to know~?" Tina questioned back with a bewitching smile.

"N-Not really!" I quickly backtracked after getting a sudden bad vibe...

"Hey Ariel! Mayo here is interested in your Unique Skill!" Tina called out.

"R-Really?!?!" Ariel excitedly called out, pushing Brian aside she quickly caught up to us "Well then, let me show you just how awesome my Unique Skill really is!" she then exclaimed with enthusiasm.

"Oh no you don't!" yelled a voice from behind.

Turning around, we saw Harold and Saron coming our way.

"We can't afford you to waste any more swords while we are short on supply. Not to mention, due to this whole incident, we are already behind schedule. Everyone inside, we are leaving. Also, Ariel and Tina, this time it's your turn to be in the front" Harold announced.

"No! Mayo will sit in the front with me!" Ariel declared.

My face went totally pale from that declaration and I swung my head back and forth hoping Harold will get the message!

"No can do, I have something I need to discuss with her" Harold denied.

Whew...

"What?!?! But I want to be with Mayo!" Ariel complained.

"You only have yourself to blame for skipping out the last few times. If you are not going to do it, then I'm going make sure Mayo will always be on the opposite side of the carriage from you going forward" Harold threatened.

"Why is everyone keep calling me Mayo?! My name is Shiro!" I grouchily interrupted, though inwardly wished with all my heart that Ariel would be kept away from me forever and ever!

"Yes, yes, go on ahead with Tina" Harold ignored me and prompted me to leave.

Seeing there was no room for me in this conversation, I gave in and got in the back of the carriage.

"Fine! But next time, Mayo will be with me okay?" Ariel demanded.

"Sure, that's fine by me. Now let's go, we have a schedule to meet" Harold agreed and then also made his way into the carriage.

Wha?! Grrrr! I gave a Harold a disapproving glare, but unfortunately I had little choice in the matter...

Like that, we set off towards our next destination...