With me leveling up, my mana also was replenished. I had really hoped this would be the case. I didn't really know if my mana and health went back to full. I think it was more like my total mana increased and that increase was pre-filled. From level 1 to 2, that was probably close to doubling my total mana, so it was substantial, but as I leveled up it'd be less meaningful. Furthermore, I hoped with each level that the strength of my healing spells would also increase. I had gained a new ability to heal poison, but no one was getting poisoned on these low-level mobs.
As I considered my recent achievement, two men were brought up, but with more levels, I was more confident in my healing. First, I tried to cast weak heal on both of them together. I wanted to see if I could do a group heal. Regrettably, that didn't work. In the end, I could only target one person at a time. If there was a group heal, it'd be something I'd need to unlock later on. I healed both of the men; it took about 5 spells between the two of them.
Usually, the fighting would get more extreme as more people were dropped out of the fighting, but since I kept healing everyone who got injured, the fight kept going strong, and eventually, the zombie population was defeated. It took so long because the zombies didn't come as one single horde. Instead, there was a continuous trickle of zombies that came in by a handful at a time.
This was fortunate, as, by the end of the fight, there were about ten zombies for every man. Had they all come at once, the town would have certainly become overrun with zombies, and we would have had to flee for our lives. Luckily, they only came in a trickle, and because I healed every man, the force never weakened. I felt pretty proud of myself. I wasn't the only one.
"Weak Heal…" I saw the familiar white light, having been cast enough times I was pretty familiar with it now.
I swayed slightly, and the men nearby grabbed my arms and held me up.
"Woah there… you've done quite well for yourself. I have to say… I'm delighted to meet my first… what did you call it, a White Mage?" The guy who spoke was the one who was leading this militia.
He was a muscular guy who didn't wear a shirt and had an impractically large sword. I wanted to hate the guy instantly, especially since he drew the eyes of all the female adventurers, but he was actually pretty alright.
"Yes, I focus on combat healing," I explained, too tired to show modesty.
The man nodded thoughtfully. "Most of the men here would have been down or possibly even dead. The guild would be responsible for resurrecting them at that point. It isn't cheap. As the guild master, I must say, you really saved me a lot."
I gave a smile, but I didn't know how to respond. Besides finding out this guy was actually the Adventuring Guild's master, I also learned that death didn't faze them too much. He told me earlier that had they been overrun and all perished, all that would have happened was that a neighboring village would be called, a force would be sent to clear out the zombies, and then the men would be resurrected to life. You had an entire month upon death to be brought back, so these men would then set out to resurrect their lost families.
People in this world didn't die by accident. Only old age or some particularly nasty curses could mean permanent death. The only other reason someone would die is that no one would resurrect them. For example, if I died, since I hadn't done any official paperwork with the guild, there would be no one to pay the resurrection fee for me. The lonely, the poor, and the friendless in this world are the ones who died. It was kind of sad.
"Since you're not part of the guild yet, I, unfortunately, can't pay you based on your contributions." The guild master suddenly announced.
Seriously?