A few days after Cerise gained her Staves skill, they spotted a merchant train on the road. The wagons all looked very similar and the men and women with weapons on their belts walking beside the wagons had a sameness to their kit and clothes that suggested they were part of a more prosperous guild or company. They might even be guards belonging to a consortium. The wagons were headed in the same direction as they were, so it surprised Cerise that they caught up to a professional looking caravan.
When she said as much, her father gave her a wry look. "We were very much in a hurry to be away from the cyrlands, and we all got the Quick Stepping skill. I doubt they all have that skill, or something like it, and who knows what difference it makes to have their cattle pulling those loads. Don't go assuming what you have is common to all, even if the skill is a Common grade skill."
Cerise took the gentle chastisement in stride. As they neared, though, one of the armed guards headed toward them.
"Hail, travelers!" He called out. Cerise felt a press of mana wash over her
Her mother stepped up. "Hail to you and yours. We're passing by and want no trouble."
"Two [Laborers], a [Healer], and a [Scout]? What troubles have you traveling together?" The guard asked, looking nervous.
"We are a family. We would be traveling with more to our name, but disaster struck our village and now it is no more. We decided that as we need to move anyhow, we may as well head down to the new dungeon in the Velton Hirselland." Cerise's mother stuck to the truth as they knew it. She had warned Cerise before that there were skills to detect lies.
The guard did not look any less concerned. "What village was this?"
"None near here. We've been traveling, what, three or four seven-days now?" Cerise's father nodded to confirm her mother's guess.
That did make the guard relax. He turned his gaze to Cerise. "So you're a Novice rank [Healer]? Do you have any Treat skills yet?"
Instead of answering the rude question, Cerise asked, "Do you have someone hurt?"
"One of my men took a fall, and his arm has been sore since. You can look at him for the experience, if you can use it yet," the guard said, his expression bland.
Cerise smiled. "Looking is free, but anything that costs me in Pool use I'll take payment in travel food, and jerky preferred. We lost our larder and though the forage has been good, I miss the taste of meat."
A trace of sympathy crossed the guard's face. He nodded. "Fair enough. The fellow's this way." He waved them to follow. As they got closer to the caravan, Cerise's Triage Aura began feeding her information.
They passed the rear wagon, and Cerise called over to the [Wagoneer], "There's a small stone in your lead ox's left forefoot. If you get it now, he'll have his full Health back by evening."
Again, she felt oppressive mana move over her. She guessed it was an Identify type skill. The [Wagoneer] mumbled something, but stopped and jumped down. The guard paused them to watch. They saw the [Wagoneer] lift the ox's indicated hoof and pick out a stone about the size of Cerise's pinky's end-joint.
"Grateful to you, Missy," the [Wagoneer] said, getting back onto his driving bench.
The guard seemed more confident as he resumed leading them up the side of the wagon train. "You have a detection skill, then?"
"Triage Aura," Cerise agreed. "I'm not sure if I'll get Diagnose at the next level or something that can prevent infections. The more I rank up Triage, the stronger sense I get that Diagnose will be a good synergy with it. Triage tells me the broad strokes of what's wrong, but I get the sense that Diagnose will be able to help me learn how to tend to ailments that I haven't seen before. If I can get that added to my Triage Aura then if there are a lot of people to help, I can direct helpers in how to stabilize people while I heal the worst that I can help."
The guard smiled at her. "You have a good head on your shoulders, Miss. Infections can be treated with boiled saltwater and alchemical potions, but what you don't know is always more trouble than what you don't have. Just a thought from a graybeard caravan guard."
Cerise nodded, then said, "But I don't see any gray in your beard, Mister Guard."
He laughed. Before he could explain, Mykhal said, "It means he's been a guard for over ten years, not that he's actually old. Just experienced."
The guard shot a look to Mykhal. "I see someone likes to talk to caravaneers."
"Yes, Mister," he said, managing to bite back the eager words brightening his gaze.
"Jens! Over here!" The guard abruptly yelled.
A pale faced man at the end of his last growth spurt trotted over, holding his arm close to his belly. "Yes, guard sergeant!" he said.
Cerise instantly frowned when he entered her aura. "Dislocated wrist, a lot of swelling. I don't know if I have the Might to pull it back into place, but I can reduce the swelling to make it easier, and then Heal it, but that will take most of my Pool."
The guard sergeant nodded. "You do that, and I can pull enough for you to align the bones back in place. If it all works out, I'll see if the caravan master will let you travel with us, meals provided. At least, I'll send you off with four panniers of trail food. Agreed?"
Cerise looked to her parents. They nodded. Her mother added, "We would, of course, be happy to pitch in where ever needed if we travel with you."
"Okay," said Cerise said. She extended her hand toward Guard Jens. "May I use my Heal Wounds skill on you?"
His eyes rounded, and he said, "Please!"
Cerise concentrated and activated Heal Wounds. Her eyes shone with a pale blue sheen, and her skill directed her in where to move her fingers to most directly, and efficiently, apply her mana. The guard's wrist shrunk back down to its normal proportions, save for the displaced bone. The guard sergeant took hold of Jens's hand and called another guard over to brace Jens against his pull. Jens screamed, and Cerise reflexively activated Stabilize to help him with the pain shock even as her fingers moved to guide the dislocation back to its proper alignment.
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"Release!" She ordered as soon as it was ready, and then she pushed more of her Mana Pool into healing the abused tendons and cartilage. When her skill released her, Cerise was drenched in sweat and swaying where she stood.
[Heal Wounds] advances to Beginner-2.
[Arcane Healer Novice] levels to 7.
Mykhal caught her and guided her to sit down at the side of the road. Jens was laughing with relief while the guard sergeant examined his newly healed hand.
The guard sergeant smiled at Cerise when he finished his examination. "I'll go talk to the caravan master. When you're ready, just start walking with Jens here." Turning to Jens, he said, "You stick with them until I get back."
"Yes, Sergeant," Jens agreed, still beaming at his fixed hand.
"Oh! And what are your names?" The guard sergeant asked "I'm Gohren."
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Gohren had been a guard sergeant for the Nykimopia Consortium for three years now, and had been a guardsman for them five years before that, with a bit more time as a guardsman for a smaller cooperative. He knew the value of a [Healer], even a Novice ranked one, and one with a Heal skill -- not just Treat, but Heal -- was several tiers greater. If he could get one to join them for the price of eight meals a day, he would pay that from his own pocket.
Fortuna smiled on him, however, because the caravan master was also aware of that value.
"Miss Sanyel! Good news!" he said on approaching the caravan master's wagon.
She nodded her chin at him in greeting. "Has to do with the quartet you walked by me just now, I would guess. What's the Novice pair doing with the [Laborers]?"
"Family, traveling to Velton's new dungeon. They've been a month on the road already, survived the death of their village, but lost even their larder. If we feed them, they'll travel with us. The girl's got a Triage Aura skill, she called it, picks up on broad problems. She prevented Tamrin's lead ox going lame by catching on to a stone in his shoe before the beast was limping. And she has a Heal skill. She fixed Jens's wrist as if he never fell on it. They don't know her worth and volunteered to lend a hand where needed for the travel spot with meals. It's your caravan."
Miss Sanyel laughed. "I'm no fool! Kit them out from spares. Use your best judgment. They walk; I won't risk the cargo. If you can use the [Scout Novice], he can earn half pay. They may not know how valuable a [Healer] is now, but they will learn, and I would rather be on good terms with her then."
That kind of thinking was what kept Gohren loyal.
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Cerise recovered enough to walk at the wagons' pace within a few minutes, and they soon come back up to the trailing teams. Jens's pallor receded quickly once he no longer had to contend with the pain of his injury, and he flirted with her in a cheerful way that earned him glares from both Mykhal and her father.
Cerise didn't care, but it made her laugh to see her father pouting.
Her mother, with a roll of her eyes, stepped in and turned the conversation to the matters of the caravan. They learned it was a consortium caravan. They had not heard of the Nykimopia Consortium in the Kelm cyrlands, but Cerise's family had known they were on the border with little but ore to trade. The Nykimopians dealt more in alchemical goods and spices.
That immediately turned the conversation to Cerise's mother's favorite subject. "Do they sell to food halls then? Or just nobles? The spices, I mean," her mother asked.
Jens grinned. "Food halls? Are those like restaurants, or taverns, or inns? Because yes to all of those, though most of the fancier spices go to the noble houses still."
"I heard a food hall was a place where people came to buy hot meals or ones ready to be eaten later in the day," her mother said.
"Ah!" Jens nodded in recognition. "You can do that at restaurants and taverns. Inns will often have a tavern attached, but they mostly sell to the people staying in their rooms. Restaurants are posher places, and have menus, and the food is cooked after the order is placed. Taverns mostly sell alcohols and food to go with it, so pot-lucks and carved roasts with breads. In the cities, there are also food stalls that sell street food, quick-cook foods, often mostly grease and char. Few food stall owners add aught but salt to their fare as they mostly sell to low level [Laborers], so not a lot of ready coin to be had."
"Dreaming of other people's cooking?" Gohren the guard sergeant asked as he approached them, wearing a broad smile on his face.
Cerise's belly rumbled, which made her blush and the sergeant laugh. He handed her a pouch. "I thought you'd be hungry. There's enough for four to tide you all over to our stop tonight.
"The caravan master, Miss Sanyel, says you can walk and camp with us, and share the guards' cook pot. We didn't budget for a [Healer], but if you're willing to help out like you did for Tamrin's ox we can cobble together a kit for you out of our spares."
He turned to Mykhal. "If you're willing, I can pair you with one of our [Scouts] for an evaluation. If that works out, I can hire you on as a temporary guard, kit and half pay."
"I'm in!" Mykhal said, eyes gleaming.
The sergeant chuckled, and turned to Cerise's parents. "Miss Cerise's help is more than enough reason for us to help you all, but if you want to work, we can always use help setting up camp and tearing it down. And, as Jens just reminded me, if you have a cooking skill above Practiced, we can use the improvement."
Cerise's mother smirked. "It's Advanced, actually."
Gohren and Jens both grinned with anticipation, as if glimpsing the heavens.
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There was still an hour of daylight when they stopped for the night. Gohren took them all to the Quartermaster for the caravan. Cerise's mother left them to sort out the kits while she began her duties as a Cook's Aide. Gohren was bluntly up-front about the fact they were being under paid, and the reason being that the caravan wasn't budgeted to hire them, but that they were happy to pay what they could squeeze out from the budget they had to afford the very valuable skills Cerise and her mother brought with them.
While her mother was cooking, Gohren took Mykhal to meet his evaluator, and Jens showed Cerise and her father where to set up the two pup tents they were assigned. Those went up quickly, and they helped set up the tents for guards that were currently on duty.
They still had day light left, so Cerise dug into the kit they had been given. Pants, shirt, knife, needle, thread, water bag. Belt and pockets (with flaps), whet stone and a small oil bladder. Small slice of bar soap and a wash rag. A few more odds and ends, but the soap made Cerise smile. They had sweat and travel dirt on them, but less than the caravaneers. Her family had stopped at streams to wash themselves and their clothes, and used soap roots or flowers as they found them.
Honestly, the main reason Cerise wanted Greater Cleanse was that it was an arcane cleaning skill, and she hated that itchy feel of dried sweat on her skin. If she could just magic dirt and grime away, that would make Cerise very happy.
Thinking thusly made her wonder. She had a general skill slot. Why not take Greater Cleanse as a general skill? She would take Diagnose first and then try it, she decided, impulsively opening her profile and triggering the skill selection. Then she triggered her general skill slot selection.
[Basic Cleaning] advances to [Greater Cleanse], Beginner-2.
Her head hurt, but not as bad as when she took her first six class skills at once.
Cerise
Race: Human
Age: 13, Youth
Total Level: 7
Class(es): [Arcane Healer Novice]
Social Strata: Commoner, Freeman
Pools:
Health: Low
Stamina: Low
Mana: Low
Attributes:
Focus: Moderate
[Arcane Healer Novice] (7)
Arcane Healing: B-0
Heal Wounds: B-2
Heal Toxins: B-0
Heal Diseases: B-0
Triage: B-3
Stabilize: B-0
Diagnose: B-0
General Skills
Slots: 1, Used: 1
Acting: P-6 (I-9)
Appraise: P-1
Blades: B-9
Cleanse, Greater *†: B-2
Cooking: P-6 (I-3}
Cyphers: B-7
Drawing: P-4
General Anatomy *: B-5
General Craft *: P-6 (8)
Hunting: B-6
Logic: P-6 (I-3}
Mana Proprioception *: B-9
Natural Weapon Combat: P-2
Oration: P-6 (P-7)
Potion Brewing *: P-2
Quick Stepping: B-8
Research: P-6 (A-4)
Scribing: P-6 (A-8)
Staves: B-0
Stealth: P-0
General Skill Unlocks
Mana Sight
Mana Scent
Mana Hearing