Naturally, I apologised to Masa for staring at him after that, and then thanked him for his advice on how to get Inspect 4. He scratched his head and his ears were slightly red, although he just nodded and said it hadn't really been bothering him when it obviously had. Noooo! You can't act like a tsundere at this point! I turned away quickly and drank a gulp of water to calm myself down. Ugh, he probably thought I was creepy now. I tried to console myself with the fact I had levelled up the Skill, but had it really been worth it? Really?
Regardless of my personal issues, we managed to return to Nevda Town without any problems. We headed directly to the Adventurers' Guild to inform them of our quest completion and collect our rewards. As usual, they scanned our cards to confirm and the rewards were transferred directly to the cards. Daryl and Crystie gave each other high-fives and were almost crying tears of joy at the sight. Uh...okay. I was also glad for some spending money, but I guess they had really needed money, huh.
After everything was done, Crystie gathered up her courage to ask the guild staff about employment opportunities. The young woman exchanged glances with her colleague, then told us to sit down and wait while she went to discuss things with the guildmaster. We obediently sat down in a corner with chairs to wait. Crystie clenched and unclenched her hands, then kept curling her long hair around her fingers.
Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long before the woman returned and told Crystie that the guildmaster wanted to have an interview with her. We all stood, but the guild employee told us that he only wanted to talk to Crystie. We exchanged glances and then gave her words of encouragement as she followed the young woman down the hall to the guildmaster's office. After that, we settled down to wait again, but I decided to make better use of my time by examining the request board. Masa and Daryl followed, since they also had nothing to do while waiting.
We looked over the requests, but there were only a couple of new ones that involved odd jobs helping people in town. I wouldn't mind helping to weed someone's garden, but clearing out a clogged drain was a bit too unglamorous for my tastes. Sure, the reward was on the high side since it was a troublesome and dirty job, but still…
Before long, Masa was sucked into the bird reference book again while I picked up one on mammals. Daryl flipped through a couple of reference books, but soon put them down and went to talk with a staff member he was acquainted with. We had returned earlier in the afternoon so that we wouldn't have to queue up during the peak hour when most of the other adventurers returned. But that also meant there were few people in the guild building. Or was it called a guild house? The latter sounded more homey, so I decided to call it that until I learnt otherwise.
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Anyway, the guild house was pretty quiet with the other employees doing paperwork and just us flipping through the reference books. So nearly all of us jumped when the front door slammed open with a bang. A tall adventurer stood there panting to catch his breath, and when he was done, he shouted, "We need help! Is there a Priest or Priestess around? Our party member is badly injured!"
Behind him were two other men supporting a third person between them. All four of them had deep gashes here and there, but the one being supported was covered in blood and looked like he was barely alive. My breath caught in my throat and I froze at the sight. I had only seen a person bleeding so much in movies, and that was fake anyway. I did have some basic knowledge of first aid, but no practical experience. Besides, I wasn't sure if using magic would be more applicable in this case. Better to leave it to the experts…
While I was busy rationalising my inaction, the guild staff were already moving. Several brought a first-aid kit from somewhere and a couple of them started healing him. My eyes were glued to what they were doing, since I hadn't seen Light magic being performed before. I usually closed my eyes when I did healing, so I didn't realise it glowed so much. Was that why it was called "Light" magic? Come to think about it, we hadn't witnessed any of the locals doing any type of magic until now, had we? Maybe it was because we hadn't interacted with that many people here yet.
Intent as I was on being an observer, I nearly jumped out of my skin when Masa tapped me on the shoulder. "Don't you have the Light affinity too?" he whispered.
"Y-yes, but I'm only a Class 1, surely these others would do a better job?" I replied in a low voice.
He blinked and tilted his head. "As far as I can tell, they're going to need all the help they can get. Besides, won't using your magic more often raise your class level too?"
I hesitated. I did want to help if I could, but I didn't want to get in the way either. Masa seemed to understand, and he held out his hand. "Here, I'll go with you for moral support," he said with a smile. "Maybe there's some way for me to help too. They might need fire to sterilise things or water to clean the wounds."
Shyly taking his hand, I nodded and we approached the injured party. "My friend can heal too, how can she help?" asked Masa.
"Over here," called a male guild staff. "We've just finished cleaning this leg wound. Could you heal it?"
"I-I'm not very good, but I'll try," I told him, putting on a brave smile.