We tinued our jourhe following day and reached another rest stop by midday. It had fewer people than the previous one—probably because it was the middle of the day—but I stopped, anyway. The air was fresh, carrying a hint of pine from the nearby forest, and birds chirping created a pleasant background symphony. After lunch, I approached a rge group of people, feeling the sun’s warmth on my bad the subtle rustle of leaves in the gentle breeze.

  “Greetings, I am a mert and a skilled healer. If you require any of my services, I am at your disposal,” I announced, radiating fidence despite the unfamiliar surroundings. I maintained a posed demeanor, my eyes sing the crowd for any signs of i or doubt.

  One man stepped forward, curiosity gleaming in his eyes. “What do you have?”

  “What is you? Tell me, and I’ll show you.” I replied smoothly, my heartbeat quiing a bit.

  A woman beside him lightly nudged his arm, her expression transitioning from curiosity to . “Let's not get ahead of ourselves. If he is indeed a healer, he assist Reno.” She turo me, her eyes pleading. “ you mend bones?”

  “Yes, I ,” I said with a nod.

  “e with me.” She led me to a cart with a teenager sitting in it, his face torted in pain. “He thinks he’s a russ and climbs every tree he sees; maybe now he will learn his lesson.” She sighed, shaking her head fondly.

  The boy winced but said nothing. His pride clearly wounded more than his body. I k beside him and diagnosed him quickly—a sprained ankle and a badly bruised knee. Pg my hands gently on his injuries, I cast Healing Touch. A warm glow enveloped my hands and flowed into the boy, mending his injuries with a gentle hum of magic. He hardly used any of his energy, being otherwise healthy.

  He hopped off the cart, testing his healed ah a cautious smile befiving his mother a sheepish look and running back to the rest of the group, his footsteps light and joyous.

  “How much for the healing?” the woman asked, her eyes filled with gratitude.

  “Three copper,” I replied, watg her rea closely.

  She looked surprised but paid me without hesitation. “Why did you look so surprised when I told you the price?”

  “I never met a healer that charged less than a silver for anything.” She said, her brows knitting together in fusion.

  “Ahh, I like to help people and don’t like to exploit them.” I shrugged, feeling a bit embarrassed but also proud of my principles.

  She patted my shoulder warmly and said, “You are a good man. A little young and na?ve maybe, but a good person.”

  I blushed and thanked her; the praise made me proud and bashful. We returo the group, and I showed them some of my goods. The men admired my jeans; the sturdy fabrid modern design intrigued them. I dispyed more jeans, and they were an instant hit. The zippers captivated the women, calling them a “clever iion.” I showed them a box full of zippers in every color ah. Initially, I was unsure about the zippers when I bought all the sewing supplies, but now I was gd I did. They went crazy over them. The Appraisal said they were worth a silver each, but I sold them for 7 coppers; I still felt unfortable charging the full Appraisal price.

  The womeement grew as I dispyed my other sewing and knitting supplies. When one of them mentiohey were a traveling theatre group, an idea sparked in my mind.

  “I also have theatre es,” I announced, pulling out evening gowns, men’s jackets, and colorful clothes from my Ste. Their eyes wide the sight.

  “Those are noble clothes, not es.” One woman excimed, her fingers brushing against the delicate fabric.

  “Those are es of noble clothes, so they are cheaper.” I tered smoothly, my Mert css instincts guiding my words.

  I ended up selling them a nice assortment of clothes, two rolls of fabrie in red and one in purple—the sewing supplies, jeans, all the marioes I had, some pillows, bs, and cookware. ting all the silver and copper, I made 37 gold, 5 silver, and 2 copper. They were good ers, and the air buzzed with their excitement and satisfa. Stretch made friends with the boy I healed, and they ran around the rest stop, the boy’s ughter ringing through the air. I found their antics adorable despite the occasional grumble from others.

  Other people approached me, and I sold a few more items, though signifitly less than before. I made anold and 1 silver, mostly in copper s. After spending about two hours at the rest stop, I decided to tinue and reach the rest stop or camp on the road.

  By evening, we arrived at another rest stop. I made some sales and did some healing before spreading out my b aling down for the night. Stretch found some children to py with and had a lot of fun while I “worked.”

  The following day, after a few hours of traveling, we reached a town that looked very simir to the one I had visited. The road cut through the town, with shops oher side, streets with houses brang off the main road, and fields stretg out in the distaheir greenery glistening with m dew.

  I located the inn, which looked simir to the other one, a in. The warm, inviting st of baked bread and stew wafted from the kit.

  “Hello, traveler.” The innkeeper greeted me with a friendly smile.

  “Good day. I want a room for two nights, three meals a day, and a hot bath in my room every day.”

  “Two silver and four coppers. Food for the dog is another silver for two days.”

  “There’s no need; I have food for him. It’s only for me, and he will stay in my room.”

  “It’s your room, do what you want.” He replied with a nont shrug. I really liked this world’s policy about pets.

  “I’m also a healer and mert. If you’re ied, I have fancy dishes to serve nobles. Also, if people in town need healing, I’ll rent another room tomorrow to treat them, if you don’t object to your inn turning into a treatmeer.”

  “A healer is always wele; I will spread the word. For the dishes, I will call my wife.”

  He called his wife from the kit, and I spent an hour showing her my goods. She bought fewer cookware items than I had expected but a lot of linen and was delighted with the prints, her eyes lighting up with excitement.

  It started raining again during the night. Ugh. The sound of rain pattering against the roof was soothing and frustrating, given the invenie had caused.

  In the m, I had a full on room waiting for healing. After breakfast, I rented another room, moved the bed aside, brought two wooden chairs from the on room—made a mental o buy sur chairs for such occasions—and told the people te themselves by order of severity. I begaing them, my hands glowing softly with healing magic.

  In my experiments with the mukar/bison, I learo trol the amount of mana I used. When healing, I tried to use the minimum amount of mana needed for each person. It worked! By the end of the day, I had treated everyohis time, no operations required—and still had a little ma: 370/6900. The satisfa of helping so many people filled me with a warm glow, despite my exhaustion.

  I paid for awo days in the inn—it was still raining, and I ee—had dinner, ao sleep, the rhythmic patter of rain a lulby that eased me into slumber.

  The following day, it was still raining. I went to the general store to offer my merdise. Stretch refused to leave the inn, found a pleasant spot in front of the fire, a back to sleep—zy dog.

  The shopkeeper was more amenable and bought quite a lot of general household goods and cookware for his store, not only for himself and his family. He used the hated “too fancy” a few times, but I fave him. This store also had a bucket with damaged used swords.

  Standard dispy method?

  I had an idea and took one sword.

  “Damaged Iron Sword, five copper.” I read aloud, appraising the item.

  “How much?” I asked, holding up the sword.

  “One silver.” The shopkeeper replied.

  “One silver?! Please remember I’m a mert, not just a person from the street. I know how much things are worth.” I tered, my tone firm.

  He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, thought for a moment, and said, “Four coppers.”

  “That’s more like it, I’ll take it.” I agreed, feeling a small thrill of victory.

  Outside, I cast Mend on the sword. The chips and nicks disappeared, but it still looked terrible. I cast , and the dirt and rust that was fking off disappeared, but it was still rusty.

  Hmm.

  Purify did nothing, aher did se. I was stumped. Standing in the rain, the cool droplets running down my face, I thought for a moment and then got an idea. I checked the Spell list and fouore. It also cost two ability points, like the light spell, and was a eled spell. With 41 ability points left, I was worried; it was my first world, and I had already spent 9 points. Maybe I didn’t “farm” enough points?

  I eled the spell into the sword and watched as it restored.

  Magic is awesome.

  Returning to the store, I appraised all the junk swords, and calcuted a total of 1 gold, 1 silver, and 3 copper.

  “I’ll give you a gold for all the swords.” I offered.

  He thought about it and agreed. Rest all the swords right now was not my iion. I was still low on mana and regeing, so I stored them and decided to hahem ter. I looked around the stain, searg for other things I could use this spell on, but I saw nothing.

  “Do you have other damaged cheap things?” I asked.

  “Why damaged?” He replied, curiosity piqued.

  “Not everybody affood hings. I have a lot of good things, but nothing for poorer people.” I expined.

  “Just a moment.” He said, a bad forth from the back of the store to the front, bringing out three saddles that had seeer days, five swords—two of them extra-rge—two axes, and a bow without a string. The saddles looked different from what I saw in the movies; they were shorter, thinner, and had more curvature in the seating area.

  “How much for all of it?” I asked, my i growing.

  He thought about it and said, “Five gold.” My Appraisal showed a total of 6 gold and 3 silver. I paid him mostly in cot on the road, and some copper from my personal stock from Earth.

  He looked at the copper from Earth. “I never saw s like this; where did you get them?”

  “From my homend in the isnds in the south,” I replied smoothly.

  “Do you have more?” He asked, eyes gleaming with i.

  “Yes.”

  He produced 63 gold and 41 silver s and asked, “You think you have enough copper?”

  “Yes, give me a minute,” I said. He looked at me strangely, but I didn’t ask why; I was getting used to this particur look.

  I ted out 6,710 coppers—it took a while. He also liked the pouches. The Appraisal showed their worth at 1 silver, and I sold them for that price. He leased about the cost, probably because he thought it was genuiher.

  “I have more old ons at home if you are ied.” He offered.

  “Very ied,” I replied eagerly.

  “Wait for me a few moments to close, and I’ll take you.”

  I waited outside, the rain tinuing to pour. After a few minutes, he joined me and took me to his home. It was a lovely two-story house made from wood and sto also looked fahan its neighbors. He led me around the back to a big wooden shed and ope. Inside was aensive assortment of old and rusty ons.

  “Why so many ons, and why are they in such terrible dition?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “After the war, many people sold their ons, and my father bought them thinking of reselling, but nobody was buying ons, so he got stuck with them. He also tried selling them to bcksmiths, but with the low prices of ore because of the mines in the north, nobody was willing to pay the full price. I try to take care of them so they won’t turn to rust, but it’s a lot of work, and I’m no expert. Once, I paid a metal mage to improve them or do something, but he could only stop their deterioration.” He expined with a sigh.

  “I see. How much for everything?” I asked, my mind already buzzing with possibilities.

  “You sure? A lot of them are in terrible dition.” He said, eyeing me skeptically.

  “Yes, I like a challenge,” I replied with a grin. He gave me another funny look but said nothing.

  He started s through the ons, pig this and that one and looking at them. I think he also had Appraisal or something simir because his eyes kept getting out of focus. After ten or fifteen minutes, he said, “Fifty gold if you pay in regur s. Forty-eight if you pay with the fancy copper.”

  I ted out another 4,800 “fancy” coppers and stored everything. My pn was to restore them in the evenings when I stopped for the night, if my mana was full.

  I returo the inn, took a long hot bath, had lunch, and spent the rest of the day, and the one, in front of the fire with a book. Stretch had the right idea about the essential things in life—a zy, smart dog.

  After two days, it was still raining, but we left to tinue our journey. I didn’t want to get stuck for a week or two because of the rain, and the road looked still usable. My mana wasn’t full yet, only 5100/6900, but I could always regee on the way.

  Our jouro the capital tinued like this for ahree weeks. One or two rest stops a day, making camp in the forest in my “fancy” tent, a town after a day or two on the road, healing people, selling some stuff at rest stops and the general store, buying old, junky ons and other stuff left mainly from the war, and two days tee a out of the rain. The rain finally stopped after two weeks, and I wao kiss the heavens. Maybe I was the spoiled ohe rest of the people on the road didn’t seem to mind it much.

  After three weeks, I saere getting close to the capital. We had only one more town after the one we were in. Stretch ate much more than usual for the st two days and slept a lot. I identified him.

  Stretch Adult Bushnd Dress to awakening 98%

  Okay!!

  I didn’t know what awakeniailed, but I thought the town wasn’t the best pce. Thank God I fihe healierday. I took out my bicycle, woke Stretch, who washusiastic about the idea, and headed out of town.