Chapter 18

Glimmerstone Town was built against the mountains, surrounded by them on three sides. There was only one road in or out, and it wasn't very wide—just enough for two carriages to pass side by side.

At that moment, an overturned carriage lay across the road, blocking a group of merchants who were struggling noisily to right it. Passersby were stuck on the road, unable to move either forward or back. The scene was a mess: shouts, curses, and arguments all blended together, and a few hotheads were already rolling up their sleeves as if a fight were about to break out.

"What a hassle!" Gerald frowned and made his way over. The crowd was noisy, but when they saw such a massive fellow approaching, they obediently parted to make way for him.

But he didn't know that a pair of ill-intentioned eyes was watching him from the crowd.

The "accident" on the road had actually been arranged by the vice president of the Thieves Guild in Glimmerstone Town, to test the giant's strength and character. He was always cautious. Until he knew what he was dealing with, he would never make a move lightly.

The overturned carriage was a freight wagon carrying iron ore and other cargo. Though its load had spilled across the road, the wagon itself remained intact, showing that it had been sturdily built. The horse pulling it, however, had been injured in the fall and couldn't get back up.

Gerald frowned, walked over, and grabbed the frame. With a slight effort, he flipped the carriage and its half-load of cargo upright. The people around him gaped in astonishment; some even pinched their cheeks, thinking they must be dreaming.

The carriage had been built with plenty of sturdy materials. Its load-bearing parts, such as the shafts, were made of hardwood as thick as a man's arm, and its cargo was ore, known for being heavy. The wagon and its load together must have weighed three or four thousand pounds. Yet in front of this giant, they seemed as light as air. He'd lifted them with one hand.

"That guy's incredibly strong!" someone exclaimed.

"No wonder he's a giant!" someone else said admiringly.

But the experienced adventurers were even more astonished. Giants were naturally strong, but even the most exceptional among them—the hulking fellows known as Mountain Giants—could usually lift only two or three thousand pounds. Flipping a wagon and half its cargo with such ease was utterly impossible for them!

In other words, the big fellow wasn't just a giant. He was also a high-level adventurer.

Veteran adventurers were often far stronger than ordinary people, but even among them, only those who focused especially on strength could manage to be a thousand pounds stronger than the average person. And if you considered that this was a thousand pounds beyond the strength of an ordinary giant, it was all the more terrifying.

Because... the more exceptional a race's natural gifts, the slower its members grew stronger through training...

Seeing what Gerald could do, Grey Eyes shuddered, his legs going weak. At that moment, he was immensely grateful he'd brought only a few thieves and not the Thieves Guild's thugs. Otherwise, those idiots with muscles where their brains ought to be might have tried to ambush Gerald as soon as he reached the carriage.

What would that have been besides asking to die?

Never mind that this big fellow was a powerful adventurer of the giant race. Even if he'd been from an ordinary race, strength like that was proof enough of his might. The Quick Blade brothers? Even if every man, woman, and child in the Glimmerstone Town Thieves Guild attacked him together, they might not win...

Gerald had no idea anyone was plotting against him, nor did he know what a tremendous shock his monstrous strength had given his enemies. His attention was entirely on the old horse lying on the ground.

The horse was a dull gray, its body marked with countless old and fresh scars, proof of all it had endured. It was trying desperately to stand, but couldn't. On closer inspection, its spine seemed to be broken. Its hind legs wouldn't move, while its front legs continued to struggle. Pain and misery filled its eyes, stirring pity in anyone who saw it.

Gerald sighed. With an injury like that, neither a person nor a horse could be saved. All he could do was help ease its suffering.

Since his resurrection, he'd grown increasingly able to feel other people's pain, and his compassion had steadily deepened. But no matter how much he sympathized, there was nothing he could do for the poor animal.

"Do you want to save it?" Sui Xiong asked.

Gerald was startled. "Your Majesty, are you willing to help this poor creature?"

Sui Xiong smiled. "To be honest, I don't feel much sympathy for animals. But if you want to save it, I'm willing to help."

"Your Majesty's kindness warms the heart like sunshine!"

"All right, enough flattery. Put your hand on the horse's injury. I'll use the Bone Bracelet to channel your magic and help heal it," Sui Xiong said with a smile. "To be honest, it's in pretty bad shape, and I'm not sure I can save it. But we can at least try. That's better than leaving it to die, isn't it?"

Following Sui Xiong's instructions, Gerald crouched and pressed his right hand, the one wearing the Bone Bracelet, against the gray horse's back. The blood in his body began to surge, drawing out some of the magic stored in his Magic Core and sending it into the horse. Under Sui Xiong's precise control, the magic worked like countless tiny, intricate machines. It set the horse's displaced bones back in place, rejoined its torn muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, then transformed into abundant vitality that nourished its body, stimulated its growth, and healed its injuries.

Half a minute later, the gray horse, which had been on the verge of death, let out a joyful neigh and stood up again.

"Heavens! What am I seeing?!" someone cried.

"Is that big fellow a priest? Are there priests among the giant race?" an experienced adventurer asked, unable to trust his eyes.

"And... a priest's healing spells come from a deity. Which great god is so benevolent that He'd use divine power to heal a horse? Could it be the Centaur God?"

"Bah! The Centaur God is a demon! He only tells His followers to capture people for blood sacrifices..."

"Could he be a druid?"

"I've never heard of druids among the giant race..."

"But I've never heard of priests among the giant race either."

"Druids wouldn't use magic to save an old horse. They'd only help it pass on. Have any of you ever even met a druid?"

In the crowd, Grey Eyes' eyes widened like pigeon eggs as he stared fixedly at the Bone Bracelet on Gerald's wrist.

A moment ago, Sui Xiong's power had flowed out through the bracelet as he helped Gerald cast the spell, and Grey Eyes had sensed something unusual.

"There's an immensely powerful will residing in that bracelet—powerful enough to cast a healing spell! No, that wasn't an ordinary healing spell. It was a Regeneration spell, a divine miracle that could heal broken bones and torn muscles, even reattach severed limbs! That horse's spine must have been broken, and it was healed in no time... This giant isn't some damned priest. He's a chosen one! The deity he worships intervened personally! That Bone Bracelet must be a holy relic of their faith! Heavens, I was going to steal a holy relic inhabited by a True God's will! Thank goodness I hadn't made a move yet... The Golden Finger must be protecting me, or I'd have made a fatal mistake..."

He suddenly realized what this meant. He hurriedly shut his eyes, afraid to look at the Bone Bracelet inhabited by a deity's will, and turned to leave. Before departing, he remembered to send word to his men, telling them to withdraw as well.

After a while, he returned to the Glimmerstone Town Thieves Guild and reported the matter to the president, his face deathly pale.

"What?! A holy relic inhabited by the will of a True God?!" Even the usually composed old man was so startled that his heart skipped half a beat. "Are you sure you saw correctly?"

"I'm absolutely sure!" the vice president insisted. "Think about it, president. What kind of spell can heal a broken spine in the time it takes to say a few words?"

Before the president could answer, he continued, "Regeneration! It's a divine miracle more advanced than Healing or Restoration. Ordinary priests can't cast it at all. Even powerful priests have to hold a holy symbol and pray for a while before they can perform it. Druids take even longer—but that giant skipped the whole process... It makes no sense. The only explanation is that he wasn't the one casting the spell. It was the will inside the Bone Bracelet."

"Perhaps... the Bone Bracelet is a powerful magic item that can produce an effect equivalent to a Regeneration spell..." the president mused. "I've never heard of such a divine item, but perhaps druids can make things like that..."

Grey Eyes shook his head repeatedly. "President, no matter how powerful a magic item is, there's a limit to how many times it can be used in a day. For a Regeneration spell, probably once or twice at most. If you had a treasure like that, would you waste one of its only one or two daily uses on a horse?"

"Of course not!"

"Exactly. No one would. Even the most benevolent person wouldn't dare waste a use like that right before leaving town and entering the wilderness," the vice president said with a sigh. "Only the great beings with an inexhaustible supply of divine magic could waste it so casually."

For a moment, the cottage fell silent. The two leaders of the Glimmerstone Town Thieves Guild stared at each other, speechless.

After a while, the president gave a dry chuckle. "At least... we hadn't made a move yet."

"That's right! Thank goodness we didn't," the vice president said, looking relieved. "Thank the heavens!"

"Wait... I've had another idea." The crafty old president's eyes shifted as he came up with a new scheme. "What do you think would happen if we let some of this information slip to our old rivals?"

Grey Eyes' eyes gradually brightened. The corners of his mouth curled into a smile.

"President, that's a brilliant idea! With those bastards' greed and ruthlessness, they'll definitely go after the lone giant..."

"And that's why I'm the president and you're only the vice president!" The president laughed. "I can't wait to see those fools run headfirst into a rock and smash themselves to pieces!"

The two sly old foxes burst into laughter inside the cottage.

On the road outside town, Sui Xiong warned Gerald, "Be careful. Someone was spying on you just now, and they were probably planning to ambush you. They must have realized how strong you were and decided to back off."

His senses were far sharper than Gerald's, and he'd detected the hostility of the Thieves Guild members almost immediately. But since they hadn't turned their hostility into murderous intent or taken any action, he hadn't bothered to intervene.

Still, not acting didn't mean he could skip the necessary warning.

He was growing fonder of Gerald, the bald fellow (though he wasn't really bald anymore), and naturally didn't want anything to happen to his capable subordinate.

In fact, he'd realized that Gerald might actually be pretty impressive!

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