Patrol Mission

The woman in leather armor was named Katerina. She was an Intermediate Peak assassin and had indeed graduated from the Imperial Magic and Martial Arts School, five or six classes ahead of Jialan.

After handing the Nishang Grass to Jialan, she hurried away as if she had a mission to attend to. Before leaving, she only tossed out one sentence: "After some time, I'll personally go to the Barracks to collect the medicine."

After she left, Jialan asked the plump Tavern Owner and learned what had happened.

It turned out that after Jialan's mental power had been depleted and he entered deep meditation, the Tavern Owner had gone into the cave himself as a precaution to gather the Nishang Grass. By the time he arrived, however, the Nishang Grass had vanished without a trace. Alarmed, he searched everywhere but found no clues.

Only when he came out of the cave did he discover that there was someone outside. Within a few moves, she had beaten Ike and the other man until they could not fight back, then easily approached Jialan. Afraid that she would harm Jialan while he was still in deep meditation, no one dared act rashly. They could only wait for Jialan to awaken.

In the end, the Tavern Owner gave the large Ice Leopard to Jialan as payment, keeping only the smaller Ice Leopard to turn in for his own mission. He even personally escorted Jialan back to the Barracks.

If not for Jialan, the spellcaster, the entire mercenary squad might have been wiped out. They might need to rely on this young mage in the future, and opportunities to build goodwill were rare.

From the large Ice Leopard's corpse, Jialan only took the Magic Crystal and some soft fur from its belly that could be tanned into blank scrolls.

He had originally wanted some blood to make ink as well. After all, the Ice Leopard was an intermediate mid-rank ice-element magical beast, and ink made from its blood was highly useful for crafting ice-element Magic Scrolls. Unfortunately, too much time had passed. Its blood had long since frozen and lost its usefulness. He gave the rest to Ike and the other man.

Ike and the other man felt unworthy of accepting it. After all, they had contributed little, had even nearly placed Jialan in danger, and had used up an extremely precious Magic Scroll.

Only after Jialan repeatedly insisted did they accept. It was a considerable fortune. Although the most valuable Magic Crystal was gone, the remaining hide, fangs, and claws were still worth a great deal—equivalent to a year's wages for the two of them. The other nearby soldiers were green with envy.

Unlike the border mages who had been stationed here before, who always acted lofty and looked at them as if they were lower life forms.

Although Mage Jialan also looked like someone who wanted strangers to keep their distance, at least he treated them like people. In less than a year here, every time they did something for him, they received more or less some compensation.

This was a reward from Lord Mage. They could brag about it to their companions and feel especially proud. Moreover, he used magic to help the physician treat severely wounded soldiers. Poor Old Henry would likely have returned to the True God's embrace last time if not for Mage Jialan's aid.

After Jialan returned to his cabin and rested for half a day, he began preparing the Nishang Potion. He had already obtained all the ingredients in town on his way back.

Brewing the Nishang Potion was not difficult for him. The main problem was simply that its primary ingredient, Nishang Grass, was too rare.

In less than half a day, four doses of potion were neatly arranged on Jialan's table, shimmering with radiant colors and looking exceptionally beautiful.

The Nishang Potion was extremely helpful for the advancement of professionals below the higher ranks, increasing their chance of promotion by ten to twenty percent. However, each person could only take it once in their lifetime; taking more had no effect. Even so, that was enough to make countless low-level professionals flock to it.

Another seven or eight days passed in the blink of an eye, and Jialan's border patrol assignment began. The main duty of this force of more than a hundred people stationed here was to patrol the border. The entire force was divided into three squads, each with a little over thirty people.

At the beginning of every month, the first squad set out. After patrolling for half a month, it returned to the garrison in the middle of the month. Then the second squad departed and returned at the end of the month. At the beginning of the following month, the third squad set out...

And so it continued. One of the three squads was always out on patrol. The border mage only needed to accompany them for half a month during each rotation.

Jialan did not actually like patrol assignments, since they delayed much of his training time. However, the spellcaster had priority when choosing from the squad's spoils. There was always some gain from each trip, however small, so it was better than nothing.

During every patrol, the spellcaster's duties were not easy. He not only had to deal with magical beasts that ordinary warriors could not handle, but also map geographical changes along the route, record the migration paths of magical beasts and wild animals, the distribution of herbs and ores, signs of invasion by enemy nations, and many other matters.

After everyone checked their equipment, the party of one mage, one blacksmith, one physician, and over thirty warriors began advancing into the Misty Forest...

Sturdy knee-high leather boots creaked against the thick snow. Few people spoke along the way, perhaps because they were about to face unknown dangers.

The captain leading this expedition was named John Marcus. It could be said that he was the person Jialan knew best in the border camp.

At twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, he was the eldest son of a minor noble family. When he was young, Old Marcus had been determined to raise him into a noble knight and sent him to the best local church for knight training.

However, young John had been far too restless by nature and could not endure the strict rules of knighthood. He secretly ran away and became a warrior instead, infuriating Old Marcus so badly that he drove him out.

The proud and ambitious John then joined the army, declaring that he would make something of himself before returning home in glory.

Whenever John thought of this now, he wanted to slap himself hard a few times. If he had listened to the old man back then, he would not still be stuck in this freezing wasteland where even birds would not shit. By now, he should have been a noble knight, or at worst, a lord whom everyone in the countryside respected and feared.

The blacksmith in the party was a taciturn, dull fellow who knew nothing but hammering iron. Jialan did not know much about him. The physician, on the other hand, had an exceedingly common name: Jack.

He was a lively, talkative young man, seemingly only a few years older than Jialan, and came from a family of physicians.

Priests existed in this world, and some High Priests could even save a patient as long as they still had a breath left. Yet this did not affect the status of physicians in the slightest, because most people could not afford to hire priests, not even apprentice priests.

There was not a single priest at Jialan's garrison. Jack had volunteered to come to this border post. He said that border conflicts were frequent and more physicians were needed here. By staying here, he could encounter more patients, which would greatly help improve his medical skills.

Jack had always been very curious about Jialan, yet somewhat afraid of him. He was constantly sneaking glances at him, which Jialan found rather amusing, so he pretended not to notice.