The smell of charred flesh spread through the air.
The two ogres that had seemed so dangerous and had driven the Rock party to the brink were wiped out with ease by a single Lightning spell.
The atmosphere grew quiet.
Even Dosari, whose ankle had just been crushed and who had been screaming in pain, fell silent.
"3rd-tier spell 'Lightning' discovered. Requirement: basic mage class, level 15–21. Current conditions not met…"
The message appeared on Aaron's status panel.
He could convert into a basic mage via Genius, but the level requirement was something he clearly could not meet yet.
"What a shame."
Aaron said to himself.
Then, noticing the heavy silence hanging over the group, he could easily guess what the Rock party was feeling.
The monsters they had been unable to defeat despite going all out had been casually dispatched by their own client.
No way that did not sting.
Not to mention,
anyone who could cast 3rd-tier spells would, in adventurer terms, be around Platinum or even Mithril rank.
Rock was still struggling just to reach Gold. Those higher ranks were out of reach.
After the brief silence,
Aaron broke the mood first, hurrying over to Dosari.
The leader lay on the ground, his expression twisted from the pain.
Aaron knelt down. Seeing that the ogre's severed hand was still gripping Dosari's ankle in a deathlock, he said, "Captain Dosari, let me get this ogre hand off you."
Dosari nodded reflexively, then his face flushed red.
Whether from the pain as Aaron pried the ogre's fingers open, or from something else, was hard to say.
The ogre's dark-yellow, rough-skinned hand came free under Aaron's grip, and he tossed it aside casually before looking at Dosari's lower leg.
The entire section of his lower leg had been crushed flat, hanging twisted against the ground. The state of the bone inside went without saying—a shattered fracture was certain.
An injury like this would basically mean lifelong disability in Aaron's previous world.
In this one, it was serious, but not insurmountable. After all, resurrection magic existed here.
"Light Wounds Healing."
Aaron extended both hands toward the lower leg and spoke quietly.
Soft white light enveloped Dosari's leg. Under the healing spell's effect, the flattened limb slowly puffed up again, as if being inflated, and the twisted shape gradually straightened.
The leg, which had lost all feeling a moment ago, was now returning to searing pain, making Dosari suck in a breath through his teeth, though he gritted them and did not cry out.
As the light faded,
the leg, which had been mangled beyond recognition, now at least looked vaguely like a leg again.
Seeing that,
Aaron cast Light Wounds Healing a second time.
By the end of the second spell, Dosari's lower leg looked almost completely restored.
"On the surface, it's fine now, but the bone inside was shattered."
"Two spells can only manage basic repair. To fully heal it, we'll need a few more. I'll help you again once my mana recovers."
Aaron exhaled and spoke in a low voice.
The Rock party had treated him quite well along the way, so if he could help, he was not about to hold back.
Dosari's face was drenched in sweat, and his lips were pale. The pain of his leg knitting back together had clearly been intense. "Thank you, Aaron."
"No need to be so formal, Captain Dosari," Aaron replied.
Just then,
Bask came over, supporting the injured brothers Rand and Ler. Seeing their leader's condition, they all breathed a sigh of relief, and more than a little gratitude showed in their eyes when they glanced at Aaron.
"You two okay?"
Aaron stood and looked at the brothers.
"We'll live," Ler said with a grimace. Aside from his pale face, he did not seem badly hurt on the surface.
But since Bask was supporting him, even without visible wounds he had likely taken internal injuries. Aaron remembered he had been the one kicked flying by the second ogre.
"Broke a few ribs," Rand added, a smear of blood at the corner of his mouth. "But I'll live."
"I'll treat you as well once my mana's back," Aaron said with a nod.
Rand laughed. "Alright."
"Huh?" Bask's ears twitched. He jerked his head toward the ogre whose arm had been blown off and who lay on the ground. "It's not dead yet?"
At that,
the Rock members' expressions all hardened.
Aaron, however, brightened. Before they could move, he was already striding over to the collapsed ogre.
His short sword flashed.
He drove the blade through the eye socket already opened by Bask's arrows, plunging it deep into the ogre's brain and giving it a harsh twist.
The creature, which had only been clinging to a sliver of life, finally went still.
The clean, decisive motion made the Rock party stare for a second.
Even Aaron himself might not have noticed that his actions now carried a certain ruthless edge.
"EXP +300!"
Seeing the prompt flash across his status panel, Aaron felt a jolt of delight.
That was a lot.
It pushed him up by a full level, and combined with the scattered EXP he had already gained, his overall level now sat at 5.
"Are you all okay?" Nfirea jumped down from the wagon and hurried over, his face full of worry.
The Rock members instinctively shared a look, then turned toward Nfirea with respectful expressions.
"Don't worry. We won't delay the rest of the journey," Dosari said quickly, pushing himself upright on his hands and standing on one leg.
"That's not what I meant."
Nfirea flushed, waving his hands. Just as he was about to continue, he noticed the Rock members all looking past him, their faces showing a mix of awe and respect.
"You should all rest a while."
Lizzie walked over with her hands behind her back, expressionless.
"Yes, ma'am."
Dosari answered solemnly, though standing on one leg did look a bit comical.
A caster capable of using third-tier magic was not someone a small party like theirs could afford to offend—especially when she had just saved their lives.
The other three Rock members lowered their heads, cheeks flushed. As adventurers, it was humiliating to be rescued by their own client.
They never would have imagined
that someone with that kind of power would hire them as an escort. No—more likely, from the beginning she had only meant to hire porters.
Ignoring the Rock party, Lizzie turned her gaze toward the spot where the goblins and ogres had appeared.
That direction led into the Great Forest of Tob, south of the Azerlisia Mountains. Vast in size and extremely dangerous, it bordered directly on E-Rantel.
"Looks like it's time to clear out the monsters again," Lizzie muttered.
Goblins bred extremely fast, and with the forest's beasts and other monsters, there were raids against humans almost every year.
Because of that, the Adventurer Guild in E-Rantel kept monster-clearing requests posted year-round.