The rest of the monster horde was easily cleared out as Shiro sat on the carriage roof as usual and ate her lollipops.
"Want some?" Shiro asked casually as Reyna had long finished her supply.
"…Sure." She replied after a short pause. Reyna couldn't help but feel a twitch in the corner of her mouth as Shiro casually slaughtered a monster horde and offered her a lollipop.
"How did you do that? I though mages were supposed to be weak in close quarters?" She asked as she unwrapped the lollipop and put it in her mouth.
"Well, I trained up my close quarters a lot since I knew it was a weak point. If you know it's a weak point, why would you do nothing about it?" Shiro replied with a tilt of her head. It should be obvious if one thought about it.
"True… But most mages opted to increase their fire power though. Something like 'kill them before they reach me'."
"That's stupid. What if the monster was faster than your casting time? Plus, can't they multitask with fighting and casting? Why the hell do they take years to cast a single spell? Che amateurs." Shiro scoffed.
Little sis! Not everyone can be as ridiculous as you ok?!
###
The horde was completely cleared out after 30 minutes of fighting.
Due to Shiro's demonstration of power, the gaze the entire crew sent her was a mix of fear, shock and reverence.
They made sure that she wasn't displeased at all, she was fed with the best food they had and even somehow made the roof of the carriage into a miniature throne for her.
Not rejecting their kindness, Shiro only chuckled and sat on the throne.
The material of the throne was amazing as Shiro couldn't help but relax her body and close her eyes. It was soft to the touch and was similar to memory foam that would curve around your body to make sure that it was as comfy as possible.
The latter half of the journey was smoother as they didn't experience any bandit raids nor did any monsters attack them.
Upon their arrival at Hythe, the bodyguards left after they were paid.
"What are you going to do now?" Shiro asked with a small smile.
"Well, the main reason I came to Hythe was because the healers in the city are struggling with a disease that had appeared in the west. Right now, they've quarantined the area off so that no one else can be affected.
[Side Quest: Epidemic]
You have discovered that a rare disease was being spread around the western area of Hythe. You have the choice of curing the disease, finding the cause, or just assisting the healers with helping the infected.
Do you accept the quest? Y/N?
Rewards will be given at the end of the trial.
Seeing the side quest that had suddenly appeared, Shiro thought about it carefully.
'I don't know about any time constraint with Silvermoon Keep's cultists. Therefore, the chances of failing the main task could increase if I took the side quest… However, if I was to just help out with healing the affected, I should be able to increase my rewards while still saving myself some time to clear the main quest.'
"Can I help? Since I've just learnt a healing spell, this can be both practice and voluntary assistance. Though I won't be able to help for too long since I need to make my way towards Norbury." Shiro smiled as Reyna was surprised before excitement welled up in her.
"Sure! Come, let's go quickly." Reyna said as she pulled on Shiro's hand and ran towards the quarantine zone.
Smiling at her enthusiasm, Shiro allowed herself to be pulled over to the quarantined area.
Upon arriving at their destination, Shiro widened her eyes in shock as the situation was worse than she thought.
Not only are the infected lined up row by row like graves, but their complexions were horrible as well. Pale skin that was closer to a ghostly white with blotches of purple on their skin. There were lumps all over their body as she could faintly see a yellow puss ooze out from these lumps. Looking up in the air, Shiro could even see the faint signs of spirits being formed.
While the formation of a spirit was common for situations like this, there were a small number of solutions that one could use.
Not only that, but she could see the half-formed spirits leaching from the infected, causing their symptoms to worsen.
Unfortunately, it seemed like no one else could see the spirits leaching from the infected.
"Hello, I'm Reyna, the one who signed up to help." Reyna said towards a man who was currently writing something down on a board.
"Reyna? The one who applied in Arkala?" He asked.
Shiro could see the dark circles under his eyes, showing the lack of rest from dealing with the epidemic.
"Yes, I also have a friend here that can help with healing magic. Her capabilities are no less than mine." She replied.
"Alright, just find yourself an empty spot and start to heal the person. It's best that go get some protective clothing as well in case you're affected." He said whilst pointing towards a group of people that were handing people some protective outfits.
The duo nodded and headed over to the stall.
The protective outfit was just a layer of fabric over their entire body and a face mask.
'A little crude and it does f*ck all to protect you from the spirits.' Shiro thought as she glanced back into the sky. The biggest spirit was still only a baby spirit as it hasn't matured yet. This was good news for her since it meant that she could kill it easier.
Spirits were weak to a lot of things, but one needed to make sure that they could see and hit the spirits first. Not only that, but spirits are also somewhat immortal. Given enough time they'll reform themselves unless they had an exorcist that could purge the spirits.
Changing into the outfit, they walked towards a few of the infected. Reyna crouched down and started to heal the patients.
Shiro, on the other hand, was making eye contact with the spirits.
Narrowing her eyes, she then crouched down and clicked her finger. A green fire lit up on her hand as Shiro hovered it over one of the purple blotches on the patient's skin.
*TSSS!!!!!
A sizzling like sound rang out as the fire was burning away the infection. Since her fire was the Fire of life that healed anything it touches, it also meant that it was extremely deadly to diseases.
'Maybe I can purge the spirits with my fire.' Shiro thought.
"ARGGG!!!"
However, the more she hovered the fire over the infections, the louder the patient's screams were. This attracted the main healer's attention as he ran over.
"What are you doing?!" He shouted and was about to push her away from the patient. However, Shiro's chilling glare caused him to pause in his actions before glancing at the patient.
Much to his shock, the patient's complexion was much better than the other infected that they had treated.
The sizzling sound and the screams were due to the green fire that was forcefully purging all of the infected areas.
"Can you tell me what's happening?" He asked as he had never seen a fire like the one in Shiro's hand.
"The fire in my hand is one that will heal anything it touches. It is forcefully burning away the infection so naturally they'll scream in pain. However, once it completely cleanses then, they'll be free from the infections." Shiro replied but her hands didn't stop. She continued to trace the infection and after a few short moments, all of the infection was cleansed.
Not only that, but the man's complexion looked better than before.
"Urg… A goddess?" He muttered while opening his eyes with some difficulty.
"Don't call me a goddess, I don't believe in god nor do I want to be associated with one. Now f*ck off and don't come back or else you'll be infected again." Shiro dismissed his sentence and moved onto the next patient.
Both the main healer and Reyna was shocked at her sudden rejection to god and glanced at each other.
"If she doesn't believe in god how did she heal?" He asked curiously.
"Well… she did say that she recreated the effects using mana." Reyna replied as she didn't know what to think of this either.
After healing a few more patients and responding with the same lines, Shiro saw that the spirits were getting agitated about her healing everyone.
An idea sparked in her mind as she walked over to the main healer.
"I got an idea that'll heal the entire area of infected. But there is a slight problem." Shiro said as the healer was curious.
"What's the problem?" He asked. If she could indeed heal all of the infected, he would accept the idea without a second thought.
"On a visual standpoint, it would look like I set the entire place on fire. Not only that, but the screams will be quite loud as well."
"…" The healer paused in realisation. It would look like they purged the entire place due to a lack of ability to heal the patients.
There would certainly be a few adventurer's that will try to stop this even though they didn't know the full picture.
"And what do you want me to do about it?" He asked.
"Just hold them back and survive." She shrugged.
Taking a deep breath in, he sighed.
"I'll take care of the intruders. Just heal everyone if you can." He replied.
"Great." Smiling at the response, Shiro walked to the centre of the infected and crouched down.
A neon green magic circle started to expand outwards as sweat dripped from her forehead. Even though her links were sorted out, they were still broken so she couldn't push it too much.
Thankfully, the skill was still within her limits as the circle covered everyone that was infected.
Raising up her right hand, a green fire lit up in her palm as she slammed it into the centre of the circle.
*BOOM!!!!
"ARGGGGG!!!!!"
Ghastly screams resonated from all of the infected. At the same time, the magic circle had amplified the Fire of life and effectively set the place ablaze.
One would need to be blind in order to miss the huge ball of green fire that had suddenly appeared in Hythe.
Naturally, as expected, some of the adventurers were enraged about this.
Shiro could hear the rioting of the adventurers amidst the screams but chose to ignore them.
Thankfully, the fire seemed to be purging the spirits as well since she could see their outline growing thinner as time passed.
After around 10 minutes of burning, the entire place was free of the infection along with the spirits.
Shiro flicked her wrist and retracted the magic circle.
Seeing that the fire had disappeared, the adventurers checked up on the infected and were shocked at their recovery.
Shiro, the cause of their recovery, had already snuck away and was walking next to Reyna.
"I've healed all of the infected. Though I'm not sure if anyone else is gonna be infected." Shiro shrugged nonchalantly.
Reyna could only look at Shiro with admiration as she managed to heal everyone with a single idea of her's.
"I still can't believe that you've managed to make such a strong skill in such a short time." Reyna sighed.
'Well… I didn't make the skill but rather discovered the skill. Not that she needs to know.' Shiro thought to herself.
However, her brows were furrowed due to the fact that the side quest seemed to have just disappeared. It never told her about its completion or if there were more to do.
'Since I've already helped heal the patients and cleared out the spirits, it should amount to something I guess.' She thought.
"Since the infected are healed, I'll be making my way to Norbury. What are you going to do?" Shiro asked.
"Me? I'll probably stay in this city for a while. See if anyone else needs my assistance." Reyna replied.
"Heh~ Is that so. Well, it was fun while it lasted. I need to go to Norbury, so I'll see you later if fate allows it." Shiro said with a small smile.
"Erm before you go, can I have one more of those lollipop things you gave to me before?" She asked as Shiro chuckled when she saw some drool threatening to flow out.
"Sure, here." She said and passed her one of the lollipops.
Bidding farewell, Shiro made her way to the stables once more to see if there were any carriages to Norbury.
However, due to the fact that Norbury was one of the closest towns to Silvermoon Keep, merchants and adventurers have been cautioned to stay away from Norbury.
This resulted in not many carriages actually travelling to Norbury much to her annoyance.
"Young miss, you said that you were looking for a carriage to Norbury?" A man asked.
"Mn? Yeah, you got a carriage old man?" Shiro replied with a side glance.
"Old man? I'm only 34." The man replied with a twitch of his lips.
"Yeah your 34 and I'm 13. Obviously, you'll be an old man when compared to me." Shiro rolled her eyes. Her mood wasn't the best right now as she had spent quite a while asking around for carriages to Norbury but none was up to the task.
"Well what if I said I had a way to Norbury. I heard that you were strong so I want you to guard my shipment of goods to the town." He smiled.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she knew he wasn't anyone with good intentions.
"What shipment?" She asked.
"You don't need to know. A trip to Norbury with no questions asked. All you need to do is to protect my shipment."
'Well, what's the worst that can happen.' Shiro thought to herself.
"Sure, take me to Norbury and I'll guard your shipment with no questions asked."
"Deal."
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