“Yo... What the fuck is happening?” Noah asked with a wry smile as he looked up the rock-wall in front of him. Mari looked down and quickly explained, “Ah, it kind of works like a bag of holding! But don’t mind that for now, just try and come back up!”

“That’s what I’m trying to do right now, obviously! I need the bandages in here...”

“Hm, there should be some directly next to the lid on the inside... Just feel around a bit, you should feel a small box. Pull on it, and it’s going to come loose.” Mari explained, and Noah slightly pulled his arm out. He soon felt the box that Mari was talking about. With a light tug, it came off. Noah opened it up and looked into this small first-aid kit. Luckily there really were some bandages in here. Ayden threw a waterskin down to him so that Noah could clean his wounds out, and then quickly put the bandages on there.

Noah placed the small box back into the barrel, and pushed his arm through the straps. After tightening them a bit, they fit snugly around his upper arm. Noah managed to get a rope out of there as well, so he quickly threw that up to Ayden and Mari, tying the other end around his waist. This time, he wanted to be safe after all, with his hands injured like this.

Getting back up onto where Mari and Ayden were waiting went pretty smoothly this time. With a smile on his face, he handed the barrel to Ness, who looked at it with a broad grin, “Ness is impressed! The human brought it back to Ness in perfect condition!”

Noah smirked a bit, but he was just rather surprised when Ness opened up the lid and proceeded to dive right into the small barrel. The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard from inside there. Noah and Ayden looked at Mari confused, who was scratching her cheek.

“Well... That thing isn’t just his backpack, but his workshop as well. He stays in there a lot, so I’m the one that ends up carrying that a lot. Which is why...” Mari said as she knelt down. She twisted something on the top of the right strap and the bottom of the other, before the straps were detached in those places. Mari pressed the metal bits of the straps’ loose ends together, quickly connecting them before she threw the barrel onto her back next to her regular bag.

“Let’s keep on going. Ness is definitely going to spend the next little while cleaning everything up in there... And napping on the money.” With a wry smile, Mari continued walking with Noah and Ayden following right behind her.

Ayden looked at Noah as he pulled his friend’s hands toward himself, removing the bandages to see the wounds on Noah’s hands, “Next time, just be more careful. You could have died back there.”

“So? Wouldn’t be the first time.” Noah said with a bit of a smirk, whispering back to Ayden.

“Don’t make jokes about that, I still get shivers thinking about it.”

“...I’ll listen better next time, don’t worry. I promise.” Noah assured Ayden, who slowly turned away, “Fine. I’m still angry about what just happened, though.”

“I get it, I get it...” With a wry smile, Noah proceeded next to Ayden. The wounds on Noah’s hands were covered not only with new bandages, but Ayden even figured that he should try something else out.

He quickly looked around, “I swear I just saw some that looked like it...” Ayden muttered, taking out the book about medicine and cures for different ailments he had with him, and flipped to the page about wound-treatment. On that page were a few reference sketches for plants that can be turned into a simple paste that can aid healing.

Ayden grabbed the knife that he had with him and scuttered around the area, cutting away at different plants that he saw growing by the sides of the path. He grabbed the wooden bowl that he had in his backpack and placed the ripped-up herbs into there, filling it up with a little bit of water as well. As they continued walking, Ayden let the herbs soak up some of the water, before he used a wooden spoon to smash them into a bit more of a paste. It wasn’t perfect, by any means, but it should be fine for now.

With the spoon, Ayden put the makeshift paste onto the cuts on a piece of cloth that he pressed onto Noah’s wound, before then re-wrapping his bandages. And that was when a message appeared in front of his eyes.

---

[You have met the requirements for the Class!]

[You can now start the Class acquisition quest!]

---

“Oh. I just met the requirements for the ‘Apothecarist’ class.” Ayden said as he turned toward Noah, whose face twisted a bit in pain as the paste pressed into his cuts.

“Huh, nice. Wanna take it? Seems like a good fit for you.” Noah pointed out, but Ayden wasn’t quite so sure just yet, “Maybe. I don’t think it’s going to disappear anytime soon anyway.”

“Wait, what’re you two talking about?” Mari asked, “You can get a new class?”

“Mhm. Apothecarist.” Ayden quickly replied, and Mari seemed quite surprised to hear that, “It looked like you know what you’re doing already though, so why only now?”

“I know the theory, I just never applied it. Maybe that’s why.”

“Huh.” Mari muttered, “By the way, what are your classes right now?”

“Mine is ‘Heart Seer’, his is ‘Medium’. What about you two?” Noah asked, also pretty curious about this himself.

Mari looked at the two of them with a confused expression, “You only have one class each? Well, I’m an Archer, big surprise, a Wanderer, and an... Heir Presumptive...”

“The fuck’s that last one?”

Ayden looked at Noah and sighed, “An Heir Presumptive is the heir to a noble household, but the heir can still change when a more suitable heir is born...” Ayden explained, “You know, as in... when a guy is born in the family?”

“What, that’s fucked up. Why can’t she just take it over even when a dude’s born?” Noah asked, and Ayden stopped in his track and stared at his friend for a few moments until Noah smiled wrily, “Right, the patriarchy... makes sense...”

“Y’know, I noticed, the way you two talk is pretty weird sometimes.” Mari pointed out. Ayden’s heart instantly skipped a beat, while Noah just scoffed as if nothing was wrong in the slightest.

“Hah, right. Judge the way we speak while you have a Kobold that speaks in third person in that magical barrel.” Noah smirked, and Mari glared back, “Alright, alright, that’s fair. You win this time, but I’ll figure it out at some point.”

“Sure you will.” And just like that, Noah, Ayden, and Mari continued climbing up the mountain while Ness was cleaning up the inside of the barrel. Every once in a while, the sound of metal hitting against metal could be heard, accompanied by a loud groan or screech that obviously came from Ness himself.

It didn’t take long until the dirt path once more became paved with stone bricks, and the group stood in front of a stone archway.

When they got there, Ness came out of the barrel and turned it into a backpack again so that he could carry himself.

“Sorry, is this it?” Ayden asked confused, since Mari suddenly stopped in front of Noah and him. She slowly turned around and nodded her head as she took a step closer toward the archway. Mari pressed her hand forward, until her fingertips touched an invisible wall. Something like waves spreading out from a still water-surface appeared, covering a large part of the barrier. Ayden wasn’t entirely sure, but it seemed like this barrier covered the entirety of the mountain. That meant that they wouldn’t find any other way in than here. This was clearly supposed to be an entrance of sort, after all.

Noah and Ayden looked at each other for a moment and then stepped forward as well to try and feel the barrier. Of course, it also stopped them.

“So, how are we gonna do this, then? Yell until whoever’s living here hears us? Or maybe we can brute-force our way in.” Noah suggested, while Mari immediately shook her head.

“Go ahead and try. If you manage, I’ll be impressed.”

“Bet.” With a grin on his face, Noah held one of the tusks he had with him forward. With as much force as he could muster, he pressed the tusk forward and hit the barrier. In heavy, quick waves, the force handed over to the barrier spread through it.

And in the next moment, Noah let go of the tusk.

“Holy... fucking... shiiiit!” He screamed out, looking down at his hands in immense pain, “What the fuck is wrong with me?! Why did I just do that when my hands are like this?”

Ayden rolled his eyes, already having expected this outcome before Noah even suggesting that they could brute-force their way through. And so, he was taking a closer look at the archway. There was no reason for it to be here. There wasn’t even a wall beside it, so this archway had to have something to do with the construction of the barrier, at least to some extent.

He pressed his hand onto the stone bricks, pulling away some of the moss and roots that had grown on it. And what he found was surprising, but at the same time expected.

“Ness.” He said, “Come take a look at this.” Ayden stretched out his arm, before Ness looked at him suspiciously, taking a break from laughing at Noah, and climbed up his arm.

“What is it, human?” Ness asked, climbing up to Ayden’s shoulders, before the young man pointed at the runic letters on the stone bricks in front of him, “Can you read this?”

Ness turned his head and looked at the letters. Immediately, he nodded his head, “Of course Ness can read them!” The Kobold looked at the runic letters and quickly read, “Hlíf kastali, mikill flaki...”

“Could you translate it so I understand as well?” Ayden asked, and Ness simply rolled his eyes, “Annoying human... But Ness understands, the human is not nearly as smart as Ness, so Ness has to put up with it. This writing says ‘Protect the castle, a powerful barrier, reject intruders’.” Ness translated, and it was practically already confirmed for Ayden that these runes were part of what helped construct this barrier. He walked around the archway and looked at the place where the barrier hit the ground, seeing similar patterns.

And then, on the ground in the middle of the archway were other runes, which Ness once more read out, “These ones mean ‘open gate’.” The kobold explained, and Ayden got an idea.

“Noah, come over here. Try kicking the rock of the archway.” Ayden told his friend, who walked over a bit confused, “Ehh... I doubt it’s gonna be that easy to destroy the barrier, dude.”

“Of course. Because that’s not what we’re trying to do. This is a gate through which people can enter the area inside the barrier, so whoever made this is most likely keeping an eye on this. Especially when someone is aggressively trying to destroy it.” After Ayden’s explanation, Noah couldn’t help himself but grin broadly.

“Heh, I get it. The old ‘violence to save the day’ plan.” Noah said, setting himself up into a proper position, while Ness and Mari looked at the two friends a bit nervous.

“Erm... I don’t know if that’s a good idea... When those kinds of magical inscriptions are damaged, they...”

“Mari. Don’t worry about it. We got this.” Ayden said reassuringly, and before Mari could say anything, Noah began to hit and kick at the wall, specifically at the runes, with everything that his body could muster.