Their group, under Boyd's watchful eye, set out to killing slimes. "This is... This is dull." Andrew said aloud. But Ozlo disagreed. Having grown up in an orphanage and with a weighty debt looming over his head, all Ozlo could think was. "Man, this is easy money. Why don't more people do this?"

"AAGGH!" Snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of John screaming, Ozlo ran over to see what the problem was. "I've been stabbed! Someone, bandages, healer!" John shouted and flailed and before long Boyd came walking over slowly. "Alright boys, let this be a lesson to you. Remember what I said about the pointy end? Well look at John's shin there. Slimes are viscous and not exactly sturdy, so if you overextend... Well, this happens."

John sat on the ground holding his leg while the rest of the squad gathered around. Upon closer inspection there was shallow, but long cut across of his leg. Boyd firmly gripped Johns shoulders and held him down. "And this is the fun part. One of you apply an ointment to clean the wound while I hold John down. I have it on good authority that it burns quite a bit."

Hearing this, John went pale while the Andrew rolled up his now damaged pant-leg. Thankfully, everything went smoothly from there. Andrew smeared a liberal amount of ointment onto John's wounds and Ozlo firmly wrapped some bandages around his leg.

"And well done. Thank you John for hurting yourself, you've my job that much easier. A good friend of mine would call this a "teachable moment", meaning that while you suffer, we learn." Boyd helped John up and leaned him against a rock. "And now you're going to learn what it's like to watch your teammates fight without you. Thankfully today the stakes aren't so high, but who knows. Maybe next time, or the time after that."

John sat sullenly, watching the two boys go about killing slimes but Boyd was right, there wasn't much he could do about it. After the last slime had been defeated Boyd clapped his hands together. "Alright, gather your shards and we'll split them up. Come now, don't take all day. We have a long walk home."

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Eager to gather their earnings the two boys scrounged around in the dirt and tall grass until they were confident that they had found them all. "Fifteen, sixteen. I killed sixteen of these things, not that it was too difficult".

Having gathered all the shards the boys sat in a circle while Boyd counted them up. "Thirty two, that makes sixteen from Ozlo, twelve from Andrew, and the rest from John. Now, can anyone explain why Ozlo got the most shards? Is he just some natural killing machine?"

Andrew piped up. "He's using the spear! I have a short-sword, it takes me almost twice as long to kill these things." Boyd looked Andrew in the eye before continuing. "Are you sure? Ozlo here could be the next great monster hunter you know."

This caused all of the boys to have a small chuckle, even John, who was being careful not to move too much while his wound scabbed over. "And that brings us to the fun part. Ten shards a piece and two to me so you lads don't fight over them. Were I a nicer man I'd pitch one of my own in so you could have eleven a piece. But alas, I'm a greedy old bastard."

The boys dispensed their shards when a sudden realization seemed to dawn on them. John, being the most affected, was the first to speak up. "Uh, Boyd. How am I getting home? I don't think I can walk on this leg that well."

Boyd merely smiled and handed the boy a small glass vial filled with a thin red liquid. "Bottoms up boy, and thank me later."

John seemed suspicious but went ahead and did as the captain said. "Whoa, I feel... I feel fine. My leg doesn't hurt. Wait... Was that-"

"Healing potions boys, never leave without them. They're expensive, have a short shelf life, aren't easy to transport and honestly, some think they're more trouble than they're worth. But you'll wish you had one when you need it. And like my Ma always said, better to have and not need than need and not have."

Boyd started marching the group home, their adventure coming to an end, when John spoke up. "Wait... If you had this thing the whole time, then why did I-"

Boyd spun around and gave the boy a big smile. "Like I said, teachable moments!"