Collecting the Reward

Pan Long stood alone on the empty road. After a moment's thought, he decided to get his arm healed first.

He didn't practice Wu Song's boxing style, and he wasn't playing at being a one-armed swordsman. Dragging around a useless right arm made even daily life inconvenient.

If he wanted his arm healed, he naturally had to visit the temple. His limb was still intact; the bones were merely shattered. A single Lesser Restoration would fix that, and he was sure his reward money would cover it.

But a missing arm or leg would require the more powerful Restoration. If someone's body was badly damaged, or hidden injuries still lingered inside, they might even need Greater Restoration.

Those spells were expensive—far beyond what he could afford right now. If he lost a limb while adventuring in this world, he would have no choice but to end the adventure and leave.

His mind made up, he shouldered his heavy pack and headed toward the fortress.

He had barely walked any distance when two Goblins came trembling out of the roadside brush, sharpened sticks in hand. They shrieked and charged him. Pan Long kicked up a stone, sending it flying through one Goblin's skull. The other fled into the grass even faster than it had charged and vanished in a flash.

Pan Long meant to kick another stone and kill that one too, but he hadn't expected it to run so fast. He paused, shook his head, and couldn't help laughing.

"Now that's fantasy!"

Apart from that little interruption, he met with no more trouble. He happened to spot a hunter searching for prey in the grass, but didn't call out to him.

Wild animals were cautious. If Pan Long scared them off by shouting, the hunter would go hungry.

At the