The woman was sitting cross-legged on top of a rock big and soft enough to act as a chair while enjoying the incoming breeze that softly touched her skin. Then, fixed her bright and energetic eyes at the dragon's lifeless body in front of her.
Around half of the body was badly burnt, and the other half solidly frozen. This result was only made possible after its thick metallic skin shattered. Up close, she was able to see how badly damaged the skin was. No wonder her magic got through.
Would she be able to produce the magic that could bypass a dragon's robust defense in the future? This was no question whether she could do it or not, she had to.
Once in a while, the woman took a glance at a brown trekking pole tent at her back that looked no different than a normal tent. However, the inside was spacious, enough to house large furniture and more, due to being incorporated with space magic, it was an expensive item. The woman thought she was already in the city inside a building, and was genuinely shocked when actually still in the forest and a tent moreover.
"Miss Bellwether, we'll be leaving shortly" said a kind, yet firm voice.
"I told you, call me Mikaela" the woman shifted her attention to the owner of that voice, showed a pouty look, and complained.
"Right, sorry, Mikaela" answered the voice's owner who smiled apologetically.
A young man with free, yet kempt hair. He wore a blue shirt and somewhat baggy pants with simple leg protectors. Utility belts and thigh bags could also be seen. His look? She knew men more handsome than him. Having said that, the man was courteous and his presence...calming.
"That's better, Mr. Alfraed Logick"
"Just Alfraed, please"
"Sure, but don't forget to call me 'just' Mikaela"
"...I'll take it to heart" said him with a wry smile.
Mikaela was satisfied with his reply. The man in front of her was Alfraed Logick, the one who amended her torn magic circuit and broken bones, as well as gave a potion to replenish her mana and stamina. With his thorough treatment, Mikaela was saved, and recovered in a short amount of time, only 12 hours passed since her battle with the dragon ended.
In fact, she felt better than before engaging the dragon.
But, restoring a person's magic circuit? Was it possible? She did inquire about this and he said fixing such a thing was indeed possible. Moreover, her wounds were still fresh which made it easier for him to reconstruct the damaged circuit.
Mikaela did not really understand his explanation, but she was really grateful for what he did for her. She also deduced fixing a person's magic circuit was no easy task and not generally known expertise, because no healer she knew could accomplish such a task.
Unbeknown to Mikaela, Alfraed's thorough treatment made a great change to her ability in wielding magic, and she would only realize it later on.
One more thing, he was the one who threw the massive boulder at the dragon.
Though, Mikaela still doubted his claim because her mind was unable to imagine this lean, normal-looking person was able to do such a feat. She would not question his claim if he appeared to be a shirtless, three-meter giant with buffed body.
Was he lying? To impress her? But, he did not strike as a liar. Then again, if he looked exactly like her imagination, she would not believe he could do a delicate treatment like fixing a magic circuit.
She was confused and full of doubts.
"Are you able to find what you are looking for?" Mikaela decided to set aside that matter and inquired about something else to him.
"Yes, only one though. But, I guess it's better than nothing"
There was a hint of sadness and disappointment in his tone as he showed a beautiful flower with six colorful petals on his gloved hands.
The reason Alfraed went to this forest was to secure this rare flower, which only grew at places with high mana density. Coincidentally, one of the places was in this area, where Mikaela fought the hateful dragon.
The area was now severely damaged, it was doubtful that the flower would grow again here. Fortunately, there were other various medicinal plants available that could be gathered. So, generally, it was a good harvest.
"What is that for?" Mikaela had little knowledge of herbs. But, despite this, she had never seen such a bizarre flower before.
"For making Perfect Grade Health Potion" answered Alfraed. To be exact, this was one of the ingredients, yet the most crucial of them all.
"You... can make that?!" Perfect Grade Health Potion was the highest tier for a health potion, which could perfectly heal all kinds of physical wounds. A mortally wounded person could be saved in almost an instant with this. According to market price, one bottle costs no less than a million rune.
However, this item was scarce, and higher-ranked adventures would spend anything to get this. No amount of money could ever replace the importance of life, at least, that was true for adventurers. She could not talk on behalf of the rest of the people out there.
"Yes, I have those in my store... Are you interested? I can give you a discount if you buy more than one" sensing a solid business opportunity, he showed a trained business smile to interact with a potential customer.
"You... have more than one?!" asked Mikaela in surprise, desperate to get an answer.
"Y-yes?!!" Alfraed's composure crumbled instantly because there was practically no distance between the two as of now, making him conscious of her body and charming visage, as well as her sweet scent that was not possible to be ignored. In addition, he could feel a pleasant sensation from something soft, yet elastic that was leaning on his chest.
'Too close! Too close! Too close!' protested him in complete silence. But, of course, unless the other party was a mind reader, she had no way to know that.
Then, their transaction resumed awkwardly, for Alfraed.