While Murr did, whatever he was going to do, I went with Kron to that small clinic in Forestview City’s back alleys. We were not attacked by assassins this time. Actually, there were several high-level adventurers roaming around the area, obviously ready for a fight.

“See, I told you I’d be fine by myself.”

Kron nodded at a fighter who left the clinic’s plain, unadorned door.

“As if I would let our healer come here alone after we almost got our asses ganked by assassins.”

“First of all, ‘ganked’ is a weird word.”

I coughed. That was my previous life’s vocabulary showing through again.

“Secondly, those guys were idiots for doing something here. You don’t mess around in an area where a healer has a clinic. At least not one loved by high-level adventurers. That’s just asking for a beating.”

When we entered the small clinic, Gerald was looking over a human woman’s left elbow and frowning. He gestured for us to wait and brought the woman into a consultation room.

When they came out fifteen minutes later, she had tears in her eyes and hugged the dwarf. “I thought my career was over. You saved my hide.”

“It’s going to take several treatments for you to fully improve. You have to do your part too.”

She nodded and left the building, looking beyond relieved.

He shook his head, let out a huff of annoyance, then turned his attention to us. “All you adventurers think you just need a bit of healing and you’ll be right as rain, but you have to take care of your body or the wear and tear will eventually get to you. Learn this lesson while you’re young.” Then he pointed at me. “Except you. You do whatever you can to reach 300 as soon as possible! Even if it breaks your body.”

Did he have to be so blunt about it? Still, I nodded in agreement. “That’s my plan.”

He blew a stray strand of beard away from his lips, then turned to Kron. “What do you need?”

“I wanted to know if you knew of any support spells for low-level healers that can weaken an enemy.”

He scowled. “I thought you already collected a ton of healer spells to learn later?”

Kron smiled sheepishly. “I was only interested in the healing ones. I didn’t collect many support spells.”

He sighed. “Typical! That would be something you’d do.” He sat down at a desk and rummaged around in his inventory, which looked a lot like someone sticking their hand into a different dimension. “This one? No, that’s too high-level for you. This? No. Not good for combat, even if some will tell you otherwise. Ah!”

He pulled out a pile of bound papers that had once been a book and blew a bit of dust off it. “Here it is.”

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/996145339650293891/1114866326452850689/SPOILER_input_copy.jpg]

[Image Link]

Kron leaned over to take a look, then he looked disappointed. “That’s just the Weaken spell.”

“Just the... Listen here! Not all spells are the same, even if they have the same name. This Weaken spell is something you can cast starting at level 8, but it’s not a one-and-done kind of thing like a lot of spells are. This one can level with you as long as you follow the instructions.”

Kron reached toward the tome, but the healer swiftly slapped his hand away.

“You might have apprenticed with me, but I’m not giving you a spell for free.”

Kron rubbed the back of his hand as if the healer had really hurt him. Considering that he was a golem, he had to be doing it for show. “I just wanted to see it first.”

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Gerald named a price that actually made Kron wince. Kron still took out a small pouch of gold coins and handed it over. The old dwarf handed the spell book over to him. The golem immediately started flipping through it.

Kron frowned and paused in his reading. “No. This can’t work like this,” he murmured to himself.

Gerald raised both of his bushy eyebrows and glared. “You think I would sell you a bad spell?”

“Of course not... but this. Can Life magic really function like this?”

“Like what?” I asked.

The two looked at me like they were shocked I was still here and had the gall to get between their discussion.

“Hey, I know some spells! If I weren’t a tank, I could have been a mage.”

Both of them rolled their eyes and ignored me. If I were a more spiteful person, I might consider casting Condense Water over their heads. Sadly, I was just too nice… and, I needed Kron to like me, so he’d keep me healed up.

“This spell uses life magic to weaken an enemy by moving their energy from their limbs to their brain, or thinking organ depending on the type of monster.”

My eyes bulged as I realized the ramifications of that. Not only would it weaken the enemy physically, but it would over-stimulate their brain, completely unbalancing them. “That sounds nasty.”

“Sadly, the effect is temporary. Just as a river reappears each spring, life energy wants to flow through a body in a certain way. You might be able to disrupt it momentarily, but it will inevitably return to its natural state.”

“But will this spell make it easier to do damage?”

He shrugged. “Depends on the monster. Mostly, it makes creatures do less damage... which is a boon for you, young Elven tank.”

He had a point. I rested my hand on Kron’s shoulder and squeezed. It did not give like it would have on someone made of flesh and blood. “I’m counting on you to learn this spell fast.”

He nodded and very seriously turned a page. “Don’t worry. I’ll do it to save your balls.”

***

After returning to our rented house, Kron studied the weaken spell, while I did my own aura manipulation practice. Mostly, I focused on attempting to create a net of aura extending outside of my own body. Since aura was essentially an internal power, anything that made me use it externally was insanely difficult. It would be easier to create one using mana. To prove that, I strung a bunch of strands of mana together… then I received a warning from the system that manipulating magic like that went against my class and how my body was developing. It also pointed out that if I kept trying, I could accidentally blow myself up. So, I stopped.

The limitations of living in Faeruled hit home at that point.

In my past life, the world was so open and free... and it was shit for a variety of reasons that still upset me. In this world, though, individuals weren’t free to choose their own direction. They couldn’t mix and match abilities and magic like in some games.

But that didn’t mean the people here hated the limitations and raged against them. Instead, people here became creative. If they wanted to do something, they found a way by using the things they had. Which was likely how this defense-destroying skill was originally created.

It would just take time, energy, and expertise. Things I might be lacking at this point.

By the end of the day, I barely managed to create a small sphere of aura web about the same size as the doge-sized crab I killed when I first entered the dungeon. It also wasn’t very pretty. To be honest, my aura looked less like a net and more like a spider web… if the arachnid had been fed caffeine. But I was positive I could improve it with time and repetition.

The real question was, could I even make this during combat?

I didn’t know. But I was going to find out!

***

For the rest of the day, Kron, Murr, and I ‌did our own training — something that wouldn’t have happened if we pushed ourselves to go deeper into the cave earlier. Our rogue didn’t even come back to our rented house until I was about ready to sleep for the night. When he came in, his face was pale. His feet dragged his exhausted form into his bedroom. He didn't even say anything as he passed me and just fell onto his bed without bothering to close the door or turn on the lights.

I closed the door for him without saying anything. While I was confused about what he did today aside from visiting an artificer I would let him have his rest.

Maybe he made an armor-piercing round or something and it took a lot out of him. Well, that seemed a little too difficult, considering his weapon was a simple slingshot. Unless he made a magic shot of some kind… but that would significantly cut into our team’s resources. Now that I considered it, I didn't think we had enough gold for something like that. But that just made me even more curious. What did Murr do?

Sadly, that was a question that would have to wait until later. Because as soon as I put my head down on my pillow, I was pulled into a deep sleep.

***

At the crack of dawn, we all groggily trudged past the beautiful beach to where Balrock’s mine's glowing yellow entrance was.

It was time to start another day of chewing gum and kicking ass. And gum hadn’t been invented in this world, so... there was only one option.

Since this wasn’t like a video game where the rooms either stayed cleared or the monsters respawned, we all carefully stepped into the dungeon. This was a real world. Whether each room was still clear or not would depend entirely on the creatures who lived there.

I half expected a monster to jump on me when I stepped through first. But I managed to scan the room in peace. Of course, just when I finished making sure the entrance was secure, that was when a menacing sound echoed down the main tunnel. The scratch of crab legs on stone.

It looked like we’d get to test out our preparations earlier than I thought.