Of course that my fortune didn't go any higher. Players don't have a lot of money still if any at all. So, I had to be satisfied with the skill proficiency raising instead. That was a good thing actually. I just had to sit in front of the temple and the herbs and patients came to me.
Yes, you heard me right, patients. I became a village doctor. How did that happen? Word by mouth, of course.
As I planed, I started making medicine in front of the temple. I put my mortar and pestle on the ground, pulled the herbs I had left out of the bag and started making the medicine. If you don't know how to make the medicine let me tell you.
First, you put the herbs in the mortar and then you grind them slowly with the pestle. When you grind them and mix them together the herbs become a paste which you can put on the wound. This type of paste is the easiest one to make and the one with the simplest use. You can put it on the bleeding wound after you clean it to stop the bleeding or you can store it like I am doing now for the later use. After I filled two small wooden boxes, other players started noticing me.
At first, they were just watching me and talking about what I am doing and then one of them walked towards me. I pulled my head up and said:
, Can I do something for you, friend?"
, We were wondering at first if you were an NPC, but then one of us finally managed to use Appraisal skill on you and we found out you are a player like us. Can I ask you what are you doing?"
, I am making medicine for bleeding wounds."
, Really? How do you know to make them?"
, I became a herbalist so now I can make them."
, Are they for sale?"
, Yes they are, how much do you want?"
, Wait, let me call my friends." Then he waved his hand for the rest of them to come over. When all of them came we continued the conversation. There were three guys and two girls. They looked like college students.
One of the girls had a bow and a quiver of arrows the other had a short dagger and the other guys had swords and one of them short round wooden shield. Where the rest of the players got their weapons I have no idea. I didn't have a lot of encounters with other players so I don't know where did they get them. The logical solution is Donar's shop. Well, this shouldn't be a surprise, a lot of time passed since the launch of the game. Players should all have weapons by now.
I suppose that the guy who came to me was a leader of the group, so he continued talking with me.
, Friend how much for the medicine, we are willing to buy as much as we can?"
This is where he stumped me. I have no idea what is price supposed to be. I have a lot of money and the herbs were gathered by myself. I didn't buy them so the only thing I can think to include in the price is labor cost. And since I am both the boss and the worker all the earnings goes to me.
So what is the price and how do I determine the cost. One wooden box could be used a dozen times, if not more. I have maybe enough herbs to fill two more boxes. When you grind the herbs the volume only decreases, and more herbs are needed to make the medicine more effective.
One batch of herbs should be enough for one box, but boxes were not eternal. I have only several of them and I bought them for my own use.
, How much are you willing to buy one box for?"
Five of them looked at each other and the leader turned and said:
, We managed to gather 2 silvers, is that enough?"
2 silvers were more than enough, I didn't want to rob them so I decided to set the price at the 50 coppers without the box and 80 coppers with one.
, You know what, if you want it I will make it 50 coppers if you bring me a container to put it in. Otherwise, it is 80 coppers. Note that I don't have the endless supply of herbs with me, at the moment I can only fill two more containers. If you can bring me the herbs I will lower the price by 10 coppers."
Five of them agreed quickly. One of them went to buy the small boxes and the rest of them went to collect herbs. When they came back I filled them three boxes and earned 1 silver and 20 copper coins.
Soon the word spread out that I am making wound medicine. By the lunchtime, I earned almost 15 silvers. I had lunch with Donar, chief, and the merchants. Donar called me when he went towards the chief house. There the older merchant thanked me for giving him more profits from the village because the players bought small containers from him.
The only bad thing was that he sold all of them. Even I wanted to buy a few more. Instead, I bought the leather sheath for my staff. Now I carried it on my back, I didn't want to have it in my hand all the time when I walk around. I also remembered to buy a lot of cloth bandages, enough for one full leather bag. I couldn't put the leaves all the time on the wounds, they can't stick well enough anyway.
After lunch, I went by myself outside the village to gather more herbs. There were not many since rest of the players from the village collected them earlier. I went back to the village and continued to make the medicine with the rest of the herbs I had.
When I filled all the boxes I didn't know what to do. There were no more players coming, one reason was that the herbs around the village were dwindling and the other was, the players who had money already bought enough for them. Players who didn't have enough money couldn't buy it.
A little bit after I came back into the village two players came in. I could see that one was leaning on another, obviously wounded. They came to me and then the player which helped his friend asked me.
, Brother Wise Raven I heard that you make medicines, my friend is wounded but we don't have any money. I have herbs with me, we can pay you later."
, No need brother, give me the herbs and let him lay down first."
, Thank you, brother Wise Raven." Smiled the guy and lied down his friend in front of me.
I took out my mortar and pestle took the herbs and got to work. I mixed the herbs and put it on the wounded guy. His wound was on his back, it would seem that something caught him unprepared from behind. I spread the medicine on his wound and put on the bandage to hold it in place.
I talked a little with the one who brought his friend back. I would seem that a lot of players went into the forest and up the mountain after I brought the wolfs from my hunt. They started to hunt there and the number of the Rage Beasts didn't get lower. These two players managed to hunt one but since the other guy got wounded they had to come back. They had to leave the Rage Beast up in the mountains.
It would seem these two are good friends, someone would leave the other players for the monsters killed, but these guys didn't. I had a good impression of this guy. Some people would leave their comrades to die and go for the loot and treasure, but this guy valued friendship more. After I added him as a friend he left his friend to me to watch over and he went to the place they hunted the Rage Beast to try to find it's body.
By the time he returned, successfully I must add, I had my first real patients. There were two of them, one girl and one middle-aged man. They both had broken bones. By fixing their bones I managed to raise my Bone Mending skill. This was a lot harder than Wound Dressing, but proficiency raised also quickly.
It doesn't happen often that someone has broken bones, so scarcity and difficulty of this skill make it extremely difficult. On top of all my inexperience in this field makes it all the harder. Good thing that only broken bones were arm and leg.
The girl came with her friend who helped her back to the village. Two of them fought a boar and one of them got hit which broke her arm. Being near a girl was very weird. Especially touching one. I thought that I would show some signs of anxiety and nervousness, the girl was pretty after all. Because I didn't have much contact with girls before I thought that I would make some mistake but since only her arm was broken I didn't need to touch her anywhere else.
Also, Maria was far prettier than her, and thinking about her made me more relaxed. If I don't ask out Maria on a date soon I would probably regret it. Not because there could be other guys interested in her, but because she could maybe lose interest in me. According to my little sister she also liked me. That is a good thing for me.
The uncle with the broken leg had it rougher. He ran from two Rage Beasts and fell down the mountain. As he rolled down he broke the left leg. He was lucky though. A team of players was passing by the area he landed and they brought him back to the village. If some players had ulterior motives they could even kill him and rob him of his possessions. Fortunately, the people who found him didn't have bad intentions.
After I showed that I can also fix the broken bones, some players from the village started calling me Doctor Wise Raven, and soon after, the whole village called me by that name.
By the way, I didn't hear anything so far about player killers in our village so far. Our village seemed full of good people and was peaceful. The only noisy parts of this area were monster habitats.
Since I didn't have anything else to do I made an announcement that I will only make medicine by the end of the day in the future and that I will help with mending bones if players can find me or wait for me to return to the village. Even though I had great benefits by staying in the village and helping other players, I couldn't just stop my leveling progress. Before I logged out I chatted a little with Wolf and Marco about me becoming a herbalist. This was a good thing for our little team because I could heal the wounds and bones if someone got injured. I also urged them to find and try to find a production class of their own, preferably blacksmithing and leatherworking. Wolf would be a good blacksmith, he has a build for one and his striking power is also formidable. On the other hand, if Marco became a hunter, with hunters having skinning and butchering skills, leatherworking would be a good choice.
But I didn't want to make them choose something they didn't want so I just said that they should find something they think should be suited for them.
During the breakfast and ride to school, I was thinking about the best way to ask Maria out on a date. I was so preoccupied with my thought that I missed my exit spot, not one, but two stations away from school.