“Sorry ‘bout that. Nina is really shy, and she’s afraid of talking to people she doesn’t know. However, she’s still the best at her job among the four of us in the party, so please forgive her for any misgivings or flaws in personal relationships.” (Byrne)
“Don’t worry about it. Talking to other people can make me a bit nervous and mentally strained too, so I totally get that. Anyway… you said she was the best at her job? Is Nina-san strong?” (Lewin)
“…..! Not strong.” (Nina)
Branching off Byrne’s words, I took this chance to ask him about Nina, but she shortly denied it with her head still timidly lowered. I couldn’t see her expression, but I could tell from the fact that her ears were flushed bright red that she was blushing in embarrassment. Maybe it was best to not pay too much attention to her so she wouldn’t be uncomfortable?
“Nina-san has a Unique Skill called [Anti-Heal]. Her physical ability is not strong by any means, but thanks to this Unique Skill, she can heal and attack at the same time.” (Porta)
“Yeah yeah! Thanks to our gracious savior Nina-sama, we can save money on potions!” (Lyra)
Those two who were off in their own world, discussing how they were planning to move on Mount Cornello, rejoined the conversation to chip in information about Nina’s abilities.
So Nina was a Unique Skill User?
Unlike Rare Skills, Unique Skills consumed magic power like normal Skills, so they were only similar to each other in that they were both manifested through Gifts. I didn’t know what kind of skill [Anti-Heal] was, but I knew it was probably useful because it was a Unique Skill. The three of them were probably right in the fact that she was the best at her job.
Standing there in front of the bulletin board, I talked with the [Iron Gear] about various things. We went from topics like their strengths and weaknesses to their favorite weapons and battle tactics. Eventually, we even started conversing about things unrelated to the quest commission, like favorite foods and favorite restaurants.
“Whew, that was a ton of fun! I was surprised you were younger than us, Lewin!” (Byrne)
“It’s only a two year difference, but yeah, who would have thought? Anyway, it’s amazing that you guys could become adventurers at such a young age!” (Lewin)
“No, not at all! It’s much more amazing that you can put in a quest commission even though you’re two years younger than us. After all, we’re still currently at the level that we can only eat each day after we finish a quest commission.” (Byrne)
“Yeah, totally… It’s fun, but in the end it’s quite a struggle when it comes to money. (Porta)
Byrne and Porta started complaining to each other. It was true that the four of them had to split the completion reward of 1 gold coin and 5 silver coins. After a four day escort, they’d only end up earning a little more than 4 silver coins per person. Even though they were still the lowest rank party at F-rank, this did seem a little harsh. That was probably why they were so glad to hear that they could gather herbs while on the escort request.
“I could certainly see why having more people in the party could be a bit of a problem. When I heard the price for hiring an F-rank party, I was really surprised how low it was.” (Lewin)
How should I put it? It definitely seemed difficult, but I was somewhat envious of them in a way. I suddenly thought that if I could someday join the [Azure Alliance], I would like to build a relationship like theirs…
“Well, should we end our face-to-face meeting here then? Maybe because our ages were so close, we ended up talking for quite a long time.” (Lewin)
“Sure! This is looking like it’ll be a fun escort commission!” (Lyra)
“Thanks so much for your time. As we discussed earlier, tomorrow is good right?” (Byrne)
“Yup! The sooner the better!” (Lewin)
Back when I was choosing between [Iron Gear] and the [Azure Alliance] in the very first quest commission… if I had chosen [Iron Gear] at that time, I was thinking that I would probably have continued to choose them for the rest of the escort requests I had. If that was the case, I never would have met the [Azure Alliance], and I also never would have gotten caught up in that incident with [White Feiler]. Destiny was really an interesting thing.
With such philosophical ponderings running through my head, I returned back to the rundown inn. It was time to resume my experiments with [Plant Master]. Today’s goal was to investigate the magic power cost for synthesizing Angel Grass. I had just been synthesizing whatever Magical Grass I could before I slept each night, so it had really been a while since I last experimented with my skill. There were so many things that happened lately that I hadn’t had the chance. I finished my preparations for tomorrow’s departure and then got in bed to start synthesizing. Taking into account the market price, I hoped to be able to synthesize at least three Angel Grass…
The first one was synthesized with no problems. When I hit the second one, I was suddenly assaulted with a sensation of weakness. In the end, the results were a mere one piece of Angel Grass. Since my total magic power capacity was 14, that meant that the magic power required to synthesize Angel Grass was at least 8. I didn’t know exactly yet how much magic power was needed though. Speculating over the cost of synthesizing the plant, I drifted off to sleep.