The remaining iron shards were all removed by Valles using the same method.
By now, Gray’s face had gone pale from the pain, beads of sweat the size of beans constantly seeping from his forehead.
Zelier couldn’t help breaking into a cold sweat on Gray’s behalf.
No anesthesia really could hurt a man to death. He wondered how Second Master had endured having poison scraped from his bone back then… What a man.
Gray weakly pulled the cloth from his mouth.
“If I don’t make it back alive, help me tell Marianne at the tavern that I love her.”
“What nonsense are you spouting? Who told you to take the cloth out?” Valles frowned as he stuffed the cloth back into Gray’s mouth, then wiped the drool off on Gray’s body in disgust.
Wounds caused by these metal fragments had to be disinfected. If they became infected, death was all but certain.
The instant Gray saw the stopper pulled from the bottle of Firethroat Liquor, his expression turned terrified.
This low-end medicinal liquor, with a market price of thirty copper coins a bottle, had nothing else going for it except that it was strong enough—even the dwarves, famous for their heroic drinking capacity, had to think twice before downing it.
Without giving Gray any time to prepare himself mentally, Valles poured the liquor straight over the wound.
“Urghaa…!”
The pungent smell of alcohol mingled with the scent of blood and spread through the air. Gray convulsed from the pain, his legs thrashing and kicking uncontrollably, and it was quite a while before he slowly calmed down.
Watching Gray suffer, Zelier felt somewhat unable to bear it.
“Didn’t you buy any recovery potions or anything before setting out? Wouldn’t those work better?”
“You mean life potions? Those precious things made by holy healers? Who could afford them?”
Valles spoke while wiping Gray’s wound with a white cloth. “One bottle would be enough to buy his life.”
Life potions… were they that expensive? Zelier was taken aback.
It seemed that this world’s healing resources were far scarcer than he had imagined.
The following steps were not so cruel for Gray.
After the wound was washed, a layer of hemostatic powder was applied, then it was wrapped with strips of linen. That counted as treatment complete.
“Done.” Valles clapped his hands.
“I owe you one, Valles,” Gray said weakly.
“All right, don’t say such sappy things. No one owes anyone anything. If you hadn’t held off the mist demon, we wouldn’t have been able to kill this thing either.” Valles stood up.
Zelier covered Gray with a blanket and let him lean against a tree to rest for a while.
A gentle breeze swept past, carrying away the thick fog. The white, hazy scenery around them finally faded, and the appearance of the Graywood Forest emerged once more.
No one would have imagined that such a brutal battle had just broken out in a place like this.
After confirming that there were no more threats, Marcus began collecting the spoils.
He picked up a dagger and carefully carved up the mist demon’s corpse.
The blade sank in, slicing open flesh and skin. An unknown black-red fluid flowed out along the cut, giving off a foul stench.
“Be careful. Don’t let it get on you. It’s corrosive,” Valles reminded him.
There was nothing particularly valuable on the mist demon’s body, only rotten flesh. Its body had been cobbled together from assorted parts in the first place. The truly valuable trophy was the magic core located in its heart.
Marcus cut open the thick chambers of the heart, hooked the crystal with the tip of his knife, and slowly took it out before wiping it clean with a cloth.
“How much is this magic core worth?” Marcus asked.
Valles leaned over and glanced at it.
It was a prism-shaped crystal wreathed in faint mist, with abundant magic power contained within.
A mist demon’s magic core could be used as the core of certain staffs. It could also be used to mix magic potions, or as a material for alchemy. It had many uses.
“I don’t really know how to appraise these things, but with this quality, it should sell for at least fifteen gold coins or more, right?” Valles said.
“Wow…” Zelier raised an eyebrow.
If the few of them split it evenly, he would be able to get almost four gold coins, equivalent to four hundred silver coins. Wasn’t that far more satisfying than the eleven silver coins from the wild wolf commission?
“My beating wasn’t for nothing.” Gray also revealed a gratified smile, and even his pain seemed to lessen considerably.
“Then there’s no problem. We’ll follow the old rules and split it evenly.”
Marcus put away the mist demon core, then patted Zelier on the shoulder.
“I never thought there would come a day when I could kill a mist demon. Recruiting you into the team really was the right choice. Nicely done, kid.”
The professional ranks of warriors were divided more or less the same way as mages, from apprentice to lower, middle, and upper rank. After breaking through the upper rank, they also had to choose a direction for advancement.
Marcus had remained a lower-rank warrior for many years. Because he had been unable to grasp battle aura, he had never managed to break through to middle-rank warrior.
When facing a monster like a mist demon, whose defenses could only be broken by battle aura and magic, he could only keep his distance.
Magic power came from a Source Seed, while battle aura originated from the Heart of Qi.
But the awakening of a mage’s Source Seed required luck and talent, and could not be forced. Cultivating the Heart of Qi, on the other hand, was somewhat more accessible to ordinary people.
Even if your aptitude was dull, if you ground away at it for several decades, it was still possible to advance your Heart of Qi and thereby grasp battle aura.
To a certain extent, battle aura and magic power were somewhat similar; both could greatly increase combat strength.
However, battle aura could usually only be used to strengthen one’s own body, while magic power could be released outward in the form of spells to achieve all kinds of effects.
After the group tidied up briefly, they supported Gray and set out on the road back to town.
There were no further accidents along the way.
The forest gradually grew sparse. The clear, azure sky stretched open above their heads, extending all the way to the end of the horizon. Beneath the heavens, the silhouettes of Blackstone Town’s buildings were clearly outlined.
Traces of human habitation began to appear around them. Quite a few villagers out working cast curious glances toward the team.
Zelier took a deep breath and revealed a relaxed smile from the bottom of his heart.
So this was what it felt like to return after completing a commission. It really was pleasant…
For his first mission, the harvest could be considered quite abundant.
He had obtained four gold and eleven silver coins, unlocked Spell Formula: Heavenly Deduction, risen two levels, and added Great Creation Art and Embrace of Mist Veil to the analysis queue.
An adventure in another world… seemed rather nice, after all.
Blackstone Town, as its name suggested, was a town built around mineral veins.
The blackstone produced locally was a kind of volcanic glass as black as ink. It was a decent craft material and could also be made into arrowheads, which made it very popular among high-rank rangers.
Together with the existence of the Graywood Forest, which provided large amounts of timber and hunting resources for the nearby villages and towns, Blackstone Town was considered relatively prosperous among towns of the same size in the Kingdom of Seir.
After walking for the better part of the day, the team arrived at the outskirts of Blackstone Town.
A simple city wall built from dark logs and massive stones appeared in their field of vision.
A few guards could be seen leaning beside the arrow battlements atop the wall. They wore crude chain mail and looked utterly bored.
There was a line at the town gate, mostly farmers or hunters pushing wheelbarrows, preparing to enter town and sell their goods.