Chapter 247 - A Possible Better Idea
In the end, Ryan found that all the state of New York was now under some thick snow. Thanks to that, he and the others traveled quite fast, but things slowed down quite a bit when they tried to move above the asphalt. The tent easily crumbled apart with all the movement. in the end, Katelyn and the kids were forced to climb over the dire wolf's back while Ryan run. In any case, they reached the base before sunrise.
"Nothing changed here… my guess was right. Anyway, why I didn't see any dragon flying all this way?"
When Ryan reached the entrance of the base, Mark was there waiting for him with Hugo. It looked like he was using the satellite to keep an eye on him. While that saved Ryan some time telling certain things, it was a pain in the ass.
"You arrived faster than we predicted," Mark said. "Given how much in a hurry you have been as of late, I decided to talk with you while we move."
"That is fine," Ryan said. "But before that, I should introduce your new residents. A woman who killed a dragon without having any class and some brats."
"Hey!" Elle protested.
"Don't call me a brat," Gustav said. "Your weird old man."
"… Hugo, please show our new friends their new residences," Mark said.
"Yes, sir," Hugo nodded. "Follow me."
"… Thank you, Ryan," Katelyn said after hesitating for a little bit. "For healing me."
"I don't accept thanks with words. I only accept coins," Ryan said.
"I guess that is fine," Katelyn forced a smile. "At least it won't make me think that you are aiming for something else."
"Be careful not to fall from your high horse," Ryan said.
Mark waited for a while for Katelyn, and the kids disappear alongside Hugo. And during the whole time, he looked at Ryan's right arm. Although Ryan had a lot of information to sell, Mark was really looking forward about the dungeon in which he obtained the skill to heal completely destroyed limbs.
"I will spare you of some boring details," Ryan said and then took some pages of his notebook and then gave it to Mark. "Everything that I learned is written here."
Mark started to read the papers while they walked. Although Ryan had no real reason to stay in the base at the moment, he decided to do so because he was sure that Mark had some news… probably bad ones.
"Alissa told us a few things, but she doesn't care about small details, so you really helped us with this much information," Mark said. "Although I think you deserve more, we only can pay you 250.000 coins for this much intel. We don't have anything more."
"I am surprised that you have that much," Ryan said.
"We need as much information as we can, and everyone is helping with the coins that we are using to buy intel from you," Mark explained. "Only a few of us can walk around the country and obtain classes easily, and those who can't need more information about the classes that they want. Information like the location of the dungeons in which these classes can be obtained and the level of the monsters that can be found there."
At the very least, Mark didn't talk as if Ryan and Alissa weren't risking themselves by looking for more classes. Many people already knew that to obtain some, a price had to be paid. However, only a handful of them had the will to risk their lives to a certain point.
"Regardless, the High Priest class is too far away, and the monsters there are quite difficult," Mark said. "I am surprised that you two alone managed to win… you also even survived a fight against the watchdog from hell."
"So, you saw that?" Ryan asked.
"We found signs of a monster following you," Mark said. "And Alissa confirmed our guesses."
It looked like Alissa read Ryan's mind while he wasn't aware… she needed to be punished, and Ryan already knew what to do.
"Do you feel anything odd with your left arm?" Mark asked.
"No," Ryan replied.
"So, everything is back to normal?" Mark frowned.
"Pretty much," Ryan said.
"Forgive me for saying this, but that is hard to believe," Mark said.
"I can't blame you for thinking that way," Ryan shrugged.
"You healed that friend of yours, right?" Mark asked. "So, do you have a good grasp of the limits of the spell?"
"Not yet…" Ryan sighed. "Just stop beating around the bush."
"Very well…" Mark nodded. "I would like to ask you to use this skill on Zoe. She is a remarkable child, and she can fight much better than most adults here. However, her condition prevents her from showing her true potential."
Ryan imagined that something like that was bound to help. Most likely, Zoe and the others tried to heal her legs with potions and simple healing spells, but they didn't obtain any success. Now, Mark wanted to test a high-level healing spell. To be honest, Ryan was absolutely sure that it would work, but something was still bothering him. If something happens and someone loses a limb, the survivors will look for Ryan since he did that before. He couldn't let that kind of thing to happen again and again. Besides, Ryan also couldn't let the information that he had such skill spread. He might get some troublesome individuals' attention since most humans would rather take their chances against him than an army of dire wolves and several Fenrir.
"Why didn't you ask Alissa to do it?" Ryan asked.
"We asked, but she said that just like Orgar, she is bad at support magic," Mark explained.
"I guess that isn't unexpected…" Ryan sighed. "Well, I won't heal her… I will do something even better to avoid all kinds of future troublesome situations. I am not a good Samaritan, so I can't help others while knowing that some actions will cause trouble me in the long run."
"… What exactly do you have in mind?" Mark frowned having no idea what Ryan meant by that.
"I will teach Zoe the spell, and she will use her own strength to recover the movement of her legs," Ryan replied.