Over the next hour, I made my way towards Sallia’s house. I also periodically used my rune ability to scan the area around , to check if soone was following . I had already realized that asking people in this area for directions was unlikely to be productive - after all, the people in this neighborhood seed afraid of interacting with strangers.
Even if I didn’t understand why they were afraid of other people, if everyone else was afraid of talking to strangers, there might be a good reason for that. So I followed suit.
Even so, after an hour, I noticed soone following . They were wearing gang insignias, so after so hesitation, I decided to hit them with a non-lethal extinguish. Just big enough to wipe out a good chunk of their life force, but not strong enough to kill them. I didn’t know why soone wearing a gang sign was following , but I suspected I didn’t want to find out, either.
I didn’t know if anyone could trace my extinguishes back to in this world, since I didn’t understand the local magic system very well, so for now, I avoided killing the gangster. I didn’t think I could fight an entire gang at once, and it was best to be cautious.
The extinguish hit the gang mber without any incidents, and a mont after my extinguish hit him, he doubled over, as if he had suddenly caught the worst case of the flu ever. Which was interesting. I had never seen sothing react like that when I wiped away a large chunk of its life force. There was clearly sothing a bit unique about how my extinguish worked with the local laws of physics, but I didn’t have ti to study that right now.
I also felt a little bit bad about hitting soone with an extinguish when they hadn’t directly attacked or tried to hurt , but a gang mber following a child was probably a bad sign already. I had taken a few turns, but they had kept shadowing my footsteps, so I was pretty sure they weren’t just walking in the sa direction as or sothing.
It took another hour after reaching the area where Sallia lived before I found her house, even with Sallia doing her best to guide . Many of the streets of the slum looked similar to each other, and while so streets had street signs that clearly labeled them, there were also plenty of unlabeled streets that made navigating a huge trial. Luckily, Sallia’s mother had at least taken her out of the house a few tis, so Sallia was able to help steer in the right direction.
Eventually, I managed to find her house, and a few monts later, Sallia ca out to et .
“Miria!” she said, giving a huge grin as she ran out to et .
A few passersby gave us strange looks, but nobody paid us much more attention than that.
“Sallia!” I said, before giving Sallia a proper look.
It was my first ti seeing Sallia’s body in this world. Instead of her characteristic red hair, Sallia’s hair had beco a bit more copper-colored - sothing that she shared with many of the other passerby in this country. Copper and gold-blonde seed to be the two most common hair colors in this area.
But even though her hair color and facial features had been tweaked a bit compared to her Market body, she was still unmistakably Sallia.
I walked up to her and gave her a huge hug.
A few monts later, Sallia pushed back, and then took a look at .
“You’re way too skinny,” she said. “Also, why aren’t you wearing your dress?”
“I have it dematerialized for now,” I said. “It looks way too fancy for this area, even after I tried to ss with it a bit. Also, I noticed that the bottom part of the dress started out a bit ssed up. Did you have that issue as well?” I asked.
Sallia nodded.
“It was actually much worse for my robes. I looked at the item descriptions, and I noticed that our items state that they repair themselves when we return to the Market - not when we exit the Market. Your dress might have just looked a bit weird, but my swordsman’s robes still have a massive hole near the stomach where I got stabbed during the fight with the giant spider,” said Sallia. She sighed. “I just wear them underneath my regular clothes. On the bright side, their defensive properties weren’t that useful in this world anyway. I care much more about the other effects.” Then, she sighed, and shook her head.
“Anyway, you really need a good al. Here, take the noodle bowl.” A mont later, a bowl of noodles materialized in her hands, before she gave it to .
I didn’t say a word before I started gulping down the food in Sallia’s noodle bowl. It was only now that I appreciated how much better Sallia’s noodles tasted compared to the rotting apples and mushy grain porridge I had been eating before. Unlike the half-spoiled food I had eaten until now, Sallia’s noodle bowl tasted delicious and salty, with just a hint of spiciness. I normally didn’t care very much about the flavor, but now, it tasted simply divine.
“Here, take this package too. My family isn’t wealthy this life, but we aren’t struggling with food, at least. We struggle with clothes though,” said Sallia, as she chuckled and handed a white package. It was small, but I could see a few packs of the weird grain inside. It was probably enough for a few extra days worth of als.
There was also a fresh fruit of so kind. Unlike the apple, I had no idea what it was - but it looked nice and crisp.
“Go ahead and take the noodle bowl with you. You definitely need it more than right now. Do you have a plan for a more long-term solution to your situation?”
“I do! Currently, I plan to pretend that I’m an alchemist, and start selling healing potions,” I said. “My healing spells are a bit different from a proper healing potion, but I can probably sell my abilities as a healer as long as I’m careful.”
Sallia paused, as if mulling over my plan for a while, before she nodded. “That could probably work. Just be careful of the gang that runs your area. They will probably demand so money from you, if you start succeeding. They might also demand to know where you’re getting potions, or sothing. Do you have an idea for how to handle that situation, if it cos up?”
“Fight them head on?” I asked.
Sallia rolled her eyes. “We’ll need to talk about how to handle gangs later, then. It might co down to a fight, but there might be ways to avoid one, too. We’ll think about what works later. Also, how do you plan to actually sell the potions? I don’t think most people will be willing to buy potions from a four year old.”
I nodded. “I’ll probably pretend to be selling them for my ‘master’ or sothing. And I’ll need to find an opportunity to show off the effects of one of my ‘potions,’ to convince people that it’s a real healing potion.”
“That could work, but…” Sallia’s voice faded for a mont. “What happens if a person buys a potion from you and then tries to save it for later? All of your healing spells only work if you directly heal the person, right? Is it actually possible for you to create a bottle of water that ‘saves’ a healing spell for later? Also, how effective are healing potions in this world? If your healing spell is way stronger than a potion, or way weaker than a potion, things might get dangerous.”
I paused.
I could use general shaping to bend the way rules worked a little bit… but I had never tried doing any sort of long-term essence preservation using the shaping magic system. I strongly suspected that it would take months of trial and error to turn Renewal into a healing-potion producing spell. In fact, months might be a massive underestimate.
And during that ti, the food problem would still be unresolved. Sallia’s ran bowl could fix so of the food shortage issue I was facing, but I needed more food than that if I wanted to remove the impact of malnutrition on my body. My mother sotis brought back food for to eat, but she was wildly inconsistent about it. The fact that I had lived to the age of four was already sothing of a small miracle. Sallia’s noodle bowl could probably keep alive, but I wanted more food than just one al a day.
“Hmm… do normal alchemy potions have expiration dates?” I asked.
“I… don’t know,” said Sallia, as she frowned. “We should ask Anise. My family is too poor to afford using healing potions.”
sent Sallia.
There was a pause for a few monts, before Anise replied.
said Anise.
I said.
sent Anise.
I thought about it, and then nodded. The fact that I was four years old still posed a huge problem, of course. Who would believe that a four year old was a competent doctor? But at least it would solve my other problems if I could sohow pull it off. Maybe I could disguise myself as an old lady with height problems?
I frowned.
Alteration essence was supposed to be good at shapeshifting, and the Orukthyri from our previous life proved that shapeshifting and even permanently altering body shape was possible using the shaping magic system. But I had no idea how to do it, and I was very worried that I would ss up if I tried to shapeshift myself into looking older than I was. I was pretty sure ssing up a shapeshifting spell would kill or seriously injure , so I wasn’t eager to experint on myself. Not to ntion, learning shapeshifting would also require years of research, and I needed a solution now.
I sighed. Maybe I could get around the problem of looking young if I deliberately disguised myself to look mysterious, and then proved my ability by healing a few people for free when they were hurt? I could use that to spread word of mouth, and if I wore clothes that covered my entire body, it was possible that I could pretend to be older than I was. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but if I got chances to prove my skills, I figured that people living in a literal slum wouldn’t be too picky about what their doctor looked like.
It was an idea, and it was the best one I had for now that didn’t violate my morals.
I was hungry, and I needed a source of inco. I couldn’t just keep leeching off of Sallia. Healing would give a source of inco, and also help farm Achievent for curing people’s injuries. I also felt good about healing people, so it was the ideal profession for if I could pull it off.
As I was thinking about ways to disguise my healing spell as a potion, I ca across another idea.
Perhaps I could pretend that I had drunk one of those ability potions that soone had ntioned earlier, and gotten a healing ability? It would be closest to the truth. Of course, it would also raise questions about what I was doing in a slum. Ability potions were rare and expensive, so the idea that I was wealthy enough to afford an ability potion but poor enough to live in the slums definitely raised so questions. But it seed like the least problematic option overall, since it was the closest to the truth. There was a possibility that a local gang might try to kidnap and force to work for them, or threaten to hurt my mother… but at least when it ca to upfront combat ability, I could handle most things besides guns already. With Sallia’s help, I felt that the two of us could probably handle a normal gang as long as we were careful. We just needed to make sure to avoid guns. And if I pretended that I had just gotten lucky enough to steal a potion and drink it, it would make far more sense than most other ideas I had.
“I think I’m going to see if I can make myself look mysterious, and then go heal people as an ‘ability user,” I said. “It has so hidden long-term risks, but I think it’s actually the least problematic developnt plan for myself in the future. And I think we can handle the risks involved. Are you willing to help later on?”
“Absolunt!” said Sallia. “If you need to help beat up so local gangsters or sothing, I can take them on. If you give another couple days, I can probably handle guns pretty well, too. Are you planning on starting right now?”
I nodded. “I need a way to deal with food. I can’t just leech off of you, so I plan to get working on the problem right now. It’ll take so ti for word of mouth to spread, and I doubt a gang will act so quickly that we won’t have an opportunity to build our second runes first. And with two runes we should be able to handle gangsters with guns.”
“Then let co with you,” said Sallia, materializing her sword before twirling it around a few tis. “I have my swordsmanship back up to interdiate grade, so I can definitely help in a fight if one breaks out. I got tal control built for my first rune, and I’m a good chunk of the way towards completing my second rune. I don’t want to leave you alone when you’re at your weakest.”
I thought about it for a few monts, before I glanced at Sallia’s house. Her ho was also dilapidated and rotten. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as my house, but it was obvious that Sallia also wasn’t living very well. She could definitely use so supplentary inco too.
I nodded, and grinned.
“Let’s go!” I said.
The two of us set off towards the deeper parts of the slums, to look for people in need of healing.
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