After waking up from my rest I do not waste time. Shortly after I feel that I’ve worked out the worst of the vestiges of sleep, I attempt to use my spell release. It fails on my first try and succeeds on my second. Joaqims breathing eases significantly, but he is still in a coma. I expend my third spell release for the day and am fortunate enough that this also succeeds. The difference in difficulty attempting this at level 2 compared to level 1 isn’t dramatic, I will still fail more often than I succeed and am merely lucky to have had 2 successes on the same day, but I’ll take it.

Joaqim is out of sorts. Having had most of your face and everything else melted is a bit… Troublesome, to say the least. But unlike me, he is an actual healer. He has double the number of spells per day that I have, he has a 100% success rate rather than the somewhere around 30% success rate I have now, and each of his spells takes about one tenth as long to cast as each of my own attempts do. The difference between my healing efforts versus his are night and day. It is not yet dawn, but he tops off his own health followed by Buckys. Once Regina has finished getting her rest, the only reason we would have to delay is because we are almost completely out of magical power. Which, to be clear, is a very good reason. We're not safe to move forward, we're not safe to fall back, we're not safe to do anything, so we try and keep a low profile and stay where we're at.

The next order of business for me is to check over Jim for any valuables. He still has almost all the gold we had earned on our way to Diamond Lake, but little else. It seems unlikely that I will be able to find his family to give them the money he earned, but I set that money aside so that I can at least make the attempt at some distant future point. I will not be taking any of it for myself, and I will not tolerate anyone else trying to take it for themselves either. Not that anyone even tries. I take what is left of his armor and add it to my crafting supplies. It may seem cold and heartless, but I am cold blooded in a literal sense. Money going to next of kin is one thing, but anything that helps us stay alive to meet that next of kin I will use without hesitation. If I were not a human in my past life, I would probably even want to eat him so as to not waste the meat. Speaking of meat, the little dragon is next.

I do my best to peel off the scales, to separate the skin and tan it, and to generally treat the entire body like it is some giant prize which we must be careful not to waste even the smallest piece of. Most of the meat itself will spoil and there is nothing I can do to prevent that, but despite that I try my best to get value out of it. For instance, I fill up several of the waterskins I've made along the way here with dragon’s blood. Is dragon’s blood valuable? I have read many novels where it was, so I hope so. And the heart? Every wuxia novel I’ve ever read says yes, it is very valuable indeed, so I do the sane and reasonable thing and I eat the dragon's heart raw.

As far as I can tell eating a raw dragons heart did not give me any powerups, but I would rather be safe than sorry on that count. The heart would have just rotted if I left it out, and if I tried cooking it that I believe it would probably have ruined any enhancements it could have provided. I cannot rule out that I merely misused it; but I suspect that if a dragon’s heart is an ingredient in some special elixir or something that grants godlike powers, the preparatory step would not be to smoke it or roast it over a spit.

Later that day, once Regina is awake, we decapitate and burn Jim. It feels like an inadequate sendoff but trying not to let him turn into an undead is the best we can really offer him right now. Maybe at some distant future point we can bring him back to life; but the cost to do so is far beyond our present means.

The rest of the group helps me finish butchering the dragon; it is quite a lot of work, but since we are not planning to move today anyhow, we even take the time to smoke and preserve as much of the meat as we can. None of us say it, but I think we are all determined to get everything we can out of this fight, even more so than we normally would. Not a scrap of this creature is to be wasted. Claws? We’re keeping them. Bones? Clean em and keep em.

This fight cost us a team member. He may or may not have been the most powerful person in our group, Regina puts that into question, but despite being slow to warm up to me, every one of us genuinely liked him. Beyond that, Jim was a mage. Mages are significantly less common than fighters; if he hadn’t been with us Regina never would have joined us in the first place, and we would have all died when we ran into this baby dragon. Regina may have struck the killing blow, but that was only possible because Jims acid opened a hole in its defense and allowed the arrow to sever its trachea.

Speaking of which? I've revised my initial opinion. I don’t feel the least bit guilty about killing this creature. Sentient or not, baby or not, it was ridiculously dangerous, and it attacked first.

The next morning we move into the monastery proper, and we discover that the baby dragon has been busy. The trope about dragon hoards? It appears to carry some truth to it. Our discovery is a very long way shy of Smaug, this was just a baby after all, but this Dragon was loaded. There is a superior quality lance, a magical potion, numerous gems ranging in value and worth anywhere from 10 gold pieces to a gorgeous white opal that I think is probably worth about 1400 gold, and almost 2 thousand gold coins. No silver, no copper, just gold. Apparently even baby dragons are discerning. When I total it up my best estimate on the value of this hoard is about 3900 gold coins. I do not think it makes up for losing Jim, but it is a lot of money.

Rationally speaking I know that Jim was going to be leaving soon anyhow, probably right after this score if I am being honest with myself. I know that. But that just isn’t what it feels like. It feels like he would have stayed with us much longer… And I certainly would've preferred being able to believe that he had made it home safely to his family, than knowing that he'll never see them again.

After thoroughly looting the monastery we begin the long trip back to Diamond Lake. Naturally, I spend time crafting along the trip, and Regina is once again able to ensure that the fights we engage in are overwhelming victories for us. I complete my assorted tools that I expect to be of use picking locks or cracking traps, I rework mine and Bucky’s shields, heavy wooden shields this time, as well as his bow, this time producing standard quality gear. The smaller encounters along the way are enough to bring Bucky up to level 2, a point which he enthusiastically ensures we are all, thoroughly, aware of. Believe it or not, even after losing someone life moves on, and most people will be smiling or laughing again within a day or two. It doesn't mean you've forgotten, just that you are still alive.

Although this expedition was costly, when we get back to town, we agree that we would like to meet back up and try for another adventure. To my surprise, Regina agrees to a second trip as well. Given that Jim was the only reason she was willing to tolerate my presence when we left, I try to tactfully ask her what her reasoning on wanting to go with us again is, and her answer surprises me.

“I thought you were only here because of Jim? I would certainly be glad to have you continue watching out for us, I just didn’t expect it?” I say.

“You‘re right about Jim being the reason I was willing to join this group in the first place. But we’ve been together for over a month now, and honestly… I didn’t think we’d do so well. We are alive in large part due to Jim, but he’s not the only reason. Bucky is one of the most naturally talented fighters I’ve ever seen, he just needs a few more levels to be able to back that talent up with power. Joaqim is steady, and his judgement is sound. And you? I still think you are in the wrong field and you shouldn’t be with us. I do. But I am not the one that saved Joaqim and Bucky. You did. And I have a sneaking suspicion that if he hadn’t been killed outright, you would’ve found a way to save Jim, too. Your class is weird and seems to be mostly useless for what we are doing, but I would not have been able to keep those two alive. I am trained in nonmagical healing, but those injuries? That’s the stuff nightmares are made out of. And you managed to save them. That’s why. It may not be the best reason, but it is the truth. You're very brave, Braza, and you're the reason we didn't lose the rest of the team. I know what I said before. I remember. But the next time you go out, I'd be honored to be able to accompany you. I can accept new people into this team, I know it's important to have all of the roles filled, but I want this team to be my team.”

“Oh, and before I forget,” she continues, “Here are the herbs I was able to collect along the way. Hopefully it helps.”

“Thanks…”

I really do not know what to say. Her reply kind of floored me a little. Honestly, it sounds like she has somehow become even more loyal to this group than I am. I still take the herbs though. I have no idea what to do with them; I asked for them, but frankly now that I have them I don't know how to process them. I know how to make the potions themselves, but I don't understand the ingredients at all. I’ll certainly try and start figuring out what to do to make this happen. The class quality is there, so it should become obvious with just a little bit of trial and error… I think. Probably. I really do need to learn the basic process though, because right now I’m just flailing around guessing about what might eventually manifest as a potion of healing. Maybe the library has something that can help?