With their business concluded, the three left the room and were standing out in the hallway, Mike seeing the two off.

“Now remember, if you ever want to get your healing checked, or pick up healing down the road, be sure to come to the guild. We will help you either way.” Mike said, looking down at the two “with that light affinity I doubt you can’t heal… I wish you’d let us check now…”

“No.” Mia shook her head, she was set back in place in her sister’s arms, dangling in the air “Will try, won’t worry.” Mia herself figured she had no need for it, if anything bad happened to her and she sustained a major injury, she could just go back and try again and avoid the injury.

To her, she believed it was not needed.

“Hmmm.” Ria’s squinted her face “Would be nice and convenient.” She adjusted Mia in her grasp, pushing one arm under her to support her so she could free up one hand to pat Mia’s head “What if you got hurt like last time? It would be best to check.”

Mike nodded “Always good to be safe rather than sorry. It is a quick test, only takes about 5 hours and a small fee of 50 silver.”

“…No, will try on own.” She squirmed in Ria’s arm, making obvious her disapproval. Time aside, she wanted to use her money for something else at the moment.

“…Yeah, that isn’t a small fee.” Ria said ”Can’t afford that now that I have to look after Mia, our lodging, food…” Ria’s eyes dulled, the reality of her current living expenses hitting her “dungeon crawling alone I’d have to double my hunts…”

“Ria~”

“Hrm?” Ria snapped out of it, hearing her sisters voice, and her eyes focusing on Mia’s held up hand and what she held between 2 fingers “…a gold coin?” She blinked, looking down at her sister, a slight smirk dotted on her face.

“Can help too, am strong.” She said smugly “no worries.” When she got over her weakness debuff, she’d go right back to the dungeon, this time more prepared and even with her sister. She didn’t know how strong her sister was, but after all the escape attempts from her embrace she could tell she wasn’t weak by any means. She had been going out with her dad to hunt, and she had been in the dungeon the entire time Mia was sleeping… Mia was optimistic.

“…Right.” Ria gave a wry smile, her gaze falling on the gold coin “so, Mia?”

“Hmn?” Mia tilted her head to the side “What?”

“With that gold coin, you can afford the healing test, right?” Ria softly said, a pleasant smile spread across her face.

“-Erk?!” Mia froze, her body curling up “I-I, you see, I- uh, wanted to go to the m-market and buy skill orbs…” she looked away from her sister, hiding the gold coin behind her back “Can take test anytime, a-and I don’t need healing.”

“Mia.”

“-?!” Mia found herself lifted up, face to face with her sister who was smiling on the outside but absolutely not smiling on the inside.

“Did the girl who spent a week in the hospital, just say she did not need healing?”

“…I-“

“And! What if something happens to someone else? What if someone else needed healing and you can’t heal them because you didn’t take the test? Hm? What if I got hurt?”

“B-but that…” Mia held her tongue, she couldn’t say her reasons, but was also seeing her point “I-but the skill orbs…”

“We can make more money later and buy all the skill orbs you want.” Ria stated, then turned to mike, presenting Mia to him “Mike, she will take the test!”

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

“R-right.” Mike was taken aback a bit, he then stiffly pointed down the hall “Right this way, ladies.” He then guided the two.

‘My money…’ Mia cried inside her head, everyone was against her… she didn’t need healing and she didn’t even know if she had light affinity naturally or if it was just from her skill, did that even matter? maybe Ami could…

[While relative, the speed of light itself cau- Assist mode disabled]

‘…how long does she plan to lecture?’

The two were led by Mike to another room down the hall, where Mia experienced 6 grueling hours of a series of tests to determine her healing aptitude. Starting with a lecture on healing and its affinities and what is required of healing, which she largely ignored, followed by a written test on the body and how it functioned.

Mia, obviously, had not the slightest clue how to answer any of the questions, but Mike assured her with the way it was worded it was designed to teach, or at least implant the idea in your head… yeah she heavily doubted that, to her all it was doing was highlighting all the stuff she didn’t know ‘blood being that big of a deal… and magic not restoring it…’

After the test Mia was asked to demonstrate her casting ability with water and light, which she couldn’t do because she couldn’t cast light.

“Ah, well, we can sell you a light magic skill orb for 10 gold.” Mike suggested upon hearing that.

“S-so expensive!” Ria shouted.

“Expensive.” Mia said “Rip-off.” If all skill orbs were that expensive, she’d have to give up buying one for now.

Mike shrugged “Just how it is for light magic, all the other elements besides dark usually go for around 1 too 3 gold depending on stock, but certain groups tend to buy all the light and dark up till it gets too expensive for them to do that.”

“Who needs that much light magic.” Ria scoffed “…How much is a fire magic orb?” Ria said, scooting closer to Mike.

“1 gold, last time I saw one on the market.”

“Ooooh, why is that one so cheap?” Ria said, stealing glances towards Mia, who started to feel the money in her item box fly away on its own.

“Eh, skill orbs dropping isn’t that rare.” He sighed “and fire, while popular, is just damage for the most part, not like it potentially also gives you healing like water, wind, and light.” He said, then mumbled “or an edge case like dark” under his breath.

“Edge case?” Mia asked.

“A-anyways, just do water.” Mike said, retreating behind a weird device he had pointed at her.

Mia did what was asked, making a bit of water and moving it around, doing all that she could to show it off, which wasn’t much. Making a small drop of water and having it dance on a flat surface was all she could do, leaving a trail of ice behind it was just an uncontrollable side-effect.

Without saying a word about that, Mia was moved to the final step. She was sat in a chair, strapped down, and a helmet was placed on her head. While concerned, Mike assured them both it was fine and flipped a switch.

Mia was left like that for 2 hours.

Afterwards Mike had them both in chairs facing him “The results from the tests are… well~” Mike’s shoulders fell and he hung his head down “Sorry, she has zero healing ability.”

“”eh?”” The two faced each other, not believing it.

“What about light? If she learns light is there still a chance?” Ria spoke up first, worried about her sister.

“Only tested water.” Mia added.

Mike shook his head “Not likely.” He patted the machine he had pointed at Mia earlier “This device watches the flow of magic, having the ability to heal makes your mana flow a certain way unconsciously.” He then laid down the test Mia took “You know blood veins, right? Mana that is capable of healing flows through those very precisely, yours is like shooting air down a tube, aggressively, like a cannon.”

“That means…?”

“It would be like entering a raging Mad Boar into a high-class ball with the king and expecting it to perform a waltz” Mike stated “It just can’t perform the task.”

“…” Mia rose her hand, ice forming into in her palm before it was quickly lowered by her sister.

“S-so, she can’t heal? No matter what?” Ria asked, trying to change the subject while glaring at him.

“Right now? No, impossible.” He picked up the test, flipping through several pages before giving up “But, I am also no expert on the field, just guild staff following procedure.” He patted the chair “Who has been through this before and had a similar result…I’d be making a lot more if I could heal” he spat “but right now? Again, it’s impossible. Maybe some training exists at a dedicated school? Titles giving her the affinity is always a possibility; you can gain and lose elemental affinity with those all the time. Don’t see why one wouldn’t let you heal.”

“Haaa…” Ria sighed, exasperated “Well, at least we tried, right Mia?”

“…Told you didn’t need healing.” Mia pouted; she’d be lying to herself if she said she wasn’t a little bit disappointed, but there was nothing she could do to help it. “Now can we go shopping? Want skill orbs.”

“Yeah.” Ria stood up, carrying her sister like always “I want to see about that fire orb.”

“Ah! Before you go girls.” Mike stood up, the two watching as he held out his hand “That will be 50 silver, please.”

“”…””

‘My money…’ Mia wept. Only 2 gold and 78 silver left to her name.

And 18 bronze.