Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

”Oh—” The Half-Elf Priest, Buni, let her head droop and waved Aive over. ”You sit here and wait. I’ll get ready.”

”Um... how much does the healing cost?” Aive walked over, feeling a little anxious. This kind of Divine Magic healing was usually expensive. Priests couldn’t just live on air, could they?

”Money? What money?” Buni looked at Aive in confusion. ”You’re friends that Lavinia brought over. There’s no charge.”

”Besides, you’re a Half-Elf, right? I quite like your race.”

As she spoke, the Priest Buni began Casting. Accompanied by a sacred chant, a holy light instantly enveloped Aive. When the light faded, the Half-Elf maiden showed no trace of her previous sickness—which hadn’t been very obvious to begin with—and stood up, full of life.

”Alright, that should do it, but I can’t do anything about your wounds,” Buni said, clapping her hands. ”Lately, I’ve been preparing Water Creation Magic every day, so I really don’t have any spare spell slots to heal you.”

”It’s fine, it’s fine! This is already a huge help. Thank you so much!” Aive thanked her profusely. The two old men from before had mentioned that many Casters in town were helping to alleviate the pressure from the refugees. This Half-Elf Priest must be one of them.

”You two must be really close,” Ron said, looking at Lavinia. ”Secondary Healing Technique is a pretty valuable spell, isn’t it?”

A Second Ring Spell. Considering how remote this place was, Ron figured it was probably the most powerful spell Buni could cast.

”No, we...”

”We go way back!” Buni said with a laugh before Lavinia could speak. ”I’m the one who dragged her out of there. Otherwise, this one probably would have molded away in the forest for the rest of her life!”

”This is why I can’t stand you Lightfoot Clan people...” Lavinia sighed. ”Anyway, thanks. If you need anything, let me know. I’ll do my best to help, too.”

”I just want you to believe in...”

”Not a chance,” Lavinia rolled her eyes at her friend. ”That’s the one thing I can’t do.”

Half-Elves tended to see their gods more as family members than as divine beings. They didn’t worship their gods in the same way Elves and Dwarves did, because Half-Elf gods were regarded as folk heroes—deities who had once been mortal, not divine beings from the Celestial Realm influencing the world from on high. Based on this belief, Half-Elves rarely worshiped a single deity; they respected all gods equally and expressed their reverence in appropriate ways.

For someone like Buni to fanatically believe in a Deity from a non-Half-Elf pantheon, even becoming that Deity’s Priest, was extremely rare among Half-Elves.

”Priest! Priest!” Just then, Delaford jumped out and ran up to Buni. ”Can you heal me, too?”

”You?” Buni froze. She was even a bit shorter than Delaford, so she had a clear view of what was hidden beneath his cloak: wrinkled, filthy skin and a large nose.

”If I’m not mistaken, you’re a—”

”Buni,” Lavinia said, putting a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture. ”That human helped me out a lot.”

”Alright,” Buni shrugged, dropping the issue. ”But you don’t seem to be injured, do you?”

”Not me, my pet.” As he spoke, Delaford let out a whistle. From some corner of the church, a white figure darted out. With a ”SQUEAK SQUEAK,” it shot into Delaford’s arms like a flash.

”My god, why did you bring it here?!”

Ron’s eyes widened. ’Isn’t that the giant white rat? I haven’t seen it at all. I thought Delaford left it back in the lair!’

”Big White is very good at hiding,” Delaford said with a grin, handing the giant white rat to Buni. ”Big White was bitten by one of his own kind. Can you heal him, too?”

Buni backed away, a little scared. But Big White seemed to have some sense, knowing the small person before him was there to heal him, so he showed no signs of aggression.

”This is the first time I’ve ever healed a rat...” Buni began to cast, deflated. ”Oh, well. Hold him tight. I’d rather not get bitten.”

The other Priests and worshipers in the church curiously watched the interaction between the small-statured figures. Most of them were ordinary humans, however, and couldn’t discern anything unusual. They just assumed Delaford was a Half-Elf with strange hobbies.

Half-Elves were known for all sorts of strange behavior, so this wasn’t particularly unusual.

”Done!”

Buni finished Casting. The moment Delaford let go, Big White immediately scurried away, vanishing without a trace to await his master’s next summons.

”Is there anything else you need?”

”Yes,” Ron spoke up quickly. ”I wanted to ask, is this entire region caught in a drought? And roughly how far do we have to go before it lets up?”

”It’s pretty much like this all around here,” Buni said after a moment’s thought. ”If you want to leave, I’m afraid you’ll need to prepare a considerable amount of water and food—at least enough to cross the Delusional Land to the south.”

”The drought has mostly lost its strength by the time it reaches Fromm Town, but there are no other towns around it. To find your next foothold, you’ll have to leave from there.”

”Delusional Land?” Ron had never heard the name before.

”A complex region where forests, swamps, and hills are all tangled together,” Lavinia interjected. ”I’ve heard it’s full of all kinds of dangers and opportunities, but the truth is that nine out of ten who enter never come out. It’s a deathtrap, plain and simple.”

”If that’s the case... how did you and your people get here, Aive?”

”To the east is a continuous chain of mountains called the Hezong Mountain Range,” Aive said, blinking. ”You can barely find any water in there. Even when we came through, we only dared to cross because we’d prepared plenty of drinking water. In the current situation, it’d be nearly impossible for us to make it to the other side alive.”

”Then... what about to the west?”

”The west is all Gobi Desert, and I hear it’s crawling with bandits,” Buni said, walking to the back of the room and taking out a map to show Ron. ”It’s a paradise for Adventurers and outlaws, but with only three of you, trying to cross would be extremely dangerous.”

”But the good news is that Cloud Port is on the other side of the Gobi,” Aive said, pointing to a large city marked on the map. ”The merchant we were escorting wanted to open up a trade route through this area. After all, a straight line is the shortest distance between two points.”

”Sounds like wishful thinking,” Lavinia scoffed. ”So where is he now? Don’t tell me he already died trying?”