“Of course. Hang in there, okay?”
“Um, could I ask a question?” If ever there was a time, it was now. She tilted her head inquisitively. “So, how many times a day is food brought? There’s no clock in here, and I’d like to have a general handle on the time of day.”
“Twice a day. At six o’clock in the morning and six at night.”
“I see. Would you mind answering any other questions I come up with?”
“Not at all. Feel free to ask any time.” She placed my food on the table before leaving.
“And...of course I forgot to ask her name. But holy cow, is everyone that lives in this world insanely attractive? Not sure how saying that helps me, though, so I’ll just eat my food and stop thinking about all that.”
Tonight would be the same as the last.
That evening, Kururu brought my food again. Then, on the third day before breakfast, my two hundred-something cast of Heal emitted a pale light from my hands. It soon dissipated, but I knew without a doubt that I had successfully managed healing magic.
“Nice! I bet no one expected me to get the hang of it this quickly. I knew all that hard work wasn’t for nothing.” I couldn’t wait to see what sort of flattery everyone would greet me with. “I need to thank Lumina, and Kururu, too.”
The high probability that today would be the day I left this wonderfully safe and productive space, healing in hand, saddened me to an extent. The fear I’d felt when I bumped into those adventurers was not easily forgotten. Jumping head first into a world where such people existed was just asking for trouble.
Anxiety swirled around inside me.
“Maybe I should ask the receptionists if I can stay here until I find a place to work? Scratch that, I’d like to get my Holy Magic up to at least level two.”
I made my decision. I would impose upon the Healer’s Guild and put everything I had into training.
Breakfast today was brought not by Kururu, but the beautiful chestnut-haired girl. Monica, Kururu had said her name was. Which was all well and good, but every time she arrived I was doubled over from magical exhaustion, so my chances to get to know her were rather slim.
This didn’t dampen my spirits, though. Before anything else, including romance and work, the goal of not dying took precedence. My training proceeded with that as my motto. As proof of its success, Assess Mastery reported that I’d successfully acquired the Meditation, Focus, and Magic Recovery skills after much labor.
Then, one week after my arrival at this sanctuary, the time came for me to emerge from my cave. At the receptionist’s desk stood Monica.
“Monica, I’ve finally got Holy Magic down!” I declared.
“Congratulations, Mister Luciel. Can I borrow your card for a moment?”
I handed it over as requested and she set about the formalities with a smile. I’d learned earlier that the whole “mister,” “miss” thing the guild did was because, to them, the healers were their patrons. Aside from how Kururu spoke to me, which was a special case, the staff referring to healers this way was basic guild etiquette.
I took my card back from Monica, which now had Holy Magic, Meditation, Focus, and Magic Recovery listed as skills.
“Congratulations again. You’ve worked hard, I see.” She grinned. “Now, that will be one silver.”
Er, this costs money?
On second thought, one silver for a week’s stay in a private room was a pretty good deal, so I paid up with a quiet sigh of relief that I actually had the money on hand.
“So, what should I do now? Kururu doesn’t seem to be here. Should I try looking for Miss Lumina?”
“Oh, my, you were the one Miss Lumina brought? My deepest apologies, this silver is yours.” She returned the coin. “Miss Lumina requested that we reserve a room for you, to be used for ten days of magic training, so there will be no charge.”
“Really? She did? She looks so young but she must carry quite a bit of weight around here.”
“She most certainly does. After all, she’s the captain of the Church’s newly formed female paladin regiment.”
What good fortune it must have been, then, for me to happen upon such an elegant and delicate-looking yet capable and distinguished person when I first arrived at the city gates. Monster Luck sure was putting in its share of work. I’d better start calling it Monsieur Luck at this point.
At any rate, Monica said the room was mine for ten days, courtesy of Lumina. From there, I put on my business face. “So, you can lend me the room for three more days, correct?”
“That’s right, if that’s what you wish. The guild has no problem offering help to someone as dedicated as you.”
With that, Monica concluded our negotiation, if you could call it that, with a smile. Her willingness to accommodate made me extremely happy, but my future was still as empty as blank paper. I wanted to have them introduce me to a clinic, but before any of that, I realized that I knew very little about the guild itself, and thought I should take the opportunity to ask about it in detail.
“Thank you, that’s very kind of you. By the way, I didn’t get a chance to ask when I first registered, but I’m a little unclear about exactly what the Healer’s Guild does, if you wouldn’t mind giving me a bit of background.”
“Oh? No, not at all. The Healer’s Guild is an organization formed for the sole purpose of healing others. It’s organized into a ten rank system based on your Holy Magic skill, which, in increasing order, includes ranks G, F, E, D, C, B, A, AA, AAA, and S,” she explained. “The common practice is to build up your skills and expertise at a clinic in town, and many go on to start their own clinics from there. On the rare occasion where guild transfer requests are received, the healer in question may choose to accept and move, or decline.
“Furthermore,” she continued, “if a healer is unable to find a clinic on their own, the guild will act as an intermediary, so you can rest easy on that point. We also provide financial support to those seeking to set up their own independent practices, so please come by for advice if you’re ever looking to do the same.”
Monica outlined the main points for me in a lengthy but easily understood explanation without faltering. I went ahead and used the chance to ask something else that had been on my mind.
“Thank you for such a great explanation. Also, is it possible to register with both the Healer’s Guild and the Adventurer’s Guild?”
“It is indeed, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” she said. “Healers aren’t well suited to acquiring attack-based skills, and splitting off to a new job requires the appropriate experience to increase the level of that job. Additionally, you must be level six or above in a particular trade before you can change or take on multiple positions, meaning that because healers gain experience by healing, they will have a much harder time leveling up in combat-based jobs without having trained in the use of related skills.”
Wow, she really has all this down pat.
“But once your level does go up, you should be able to do more, right?”
“Yes, but progressing as an adventurer requires defeating monsters to increase your overall level, which I think would be quite difficult for a healer to manage.”
Hmm, it didn’t sound like putting myself in that sort of danger would teach me much about defending myself from other adventurers.
“I see. So can a healer make a living with just the Heal spell?”
“I can’t speak to your standards, so that’s hard for me to judge, but based on the going rate for healing, I might put one silver per cast at a fair price.”
“A whole silver?!” I shouted. If that and my god-given knowledge were true, this job seriously had it made.
Monica smiled at my shock and continued. “Just to be clear, the guild collects dues from all its members, based on rank. To maintain the rank of G, a yearly amount of twelve silver pieces must be paid. Please be aware that failure to pay means you will be found in violation of the guild’s terms and banned from practicing healing.”
So even a street healer would need to be registered with the guild? Or was this all under the assumption that one would be working at a clinic? It was hard to say.
Monica carried on with her explanation. She told me that with each promotion in rank, my yearly dues would increase by another twelve silver, but grimoires with more powerful healing magic could be bought for less at higher ranks. She also mentioned that these superior spells could cover a year’s worth of taxes in a single cast, which I took with a grain of salt.
“Of course, some people reach the limits of their abilities and may find themselves unable to turn a profit, even when working at a clinic,” she added.
I sensed a hint of caution in her words. These profitless healers sounded awfully similar to the corporate drone archetype.
“One last thing, and I hesitate to tell this to a new healer like you, but the guild currently holds no power over the actions of its members or clinics.”
“What do you mean?”
“When clinics or healers charge unlawful prices or find themselves in conflict too often, the guild’s head branch dispatches personnel. In the event that the practice is judged to be corrupt, the guild may revoke that clinic’s license.” She paused for a moment, then went on. “Unfortunately, their schemes have become so sophisticated as of late that we cannot act and they are going unpunished.”
“Can the laws not be revised?” I asked.
“Until the head branch acts, we can do nothing, no matter how many petitions we send.”
“That certainly sounds like a headache. In that case, let me promise you this: I will never become a crooked healer.”
“You’d better not,” she giggled.
After thanking her for her time, I paid a silver for the month’s dues, steeled myself for what lay ahead, and left for the streets of Merratoni.