After the party introduced themselves, Syrenne made some preparations for the trip. The three of them patiently waited for her.

She packed the root crops inside a large rucksack. When the rucksack was full, she tried to carry it on her back. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to lift it off the ground.

"I'll… carry that…"

Kryllo stood up and offered to help her.

"Oh, thank you."

Syrenne smiled as she happily backed off from the large bag. Kryllo crouched down to put the rucksack on his back, but as soon as he stood up, he fell down on his face due to the heaviness of the root crops.

"Are you alright?"

Syrenne immediately knelt down to tend to him. 

"So, he's that weak when he is not in berserk, huh?"

Jaegar continued to drink his tea.

"I guess it's up to me, then."

Brittanya stood up and easily took the rucksack off Kryllo's back using only one hand.

"Don't worry Syrenne, I'll make sure we can safely bring these crops to Zokahelm."

Brittanya then smiled at her.

"Wow. You're really strong for a mage, Brittanya. Well, we can leave now, I guess."

Syrenne stood up and dusted her skirt. Brittanya laughed at Syrenne's remark.

"This is child's play for the greatest mage in world."

Brittanya put the large rucksack on her back. Jaegar then stood up from his seat.

"Hey greatest mage, can you kick Kryllo to make sure he isn't sleeping on the floor?"

---

The party, together with Syrenne, exited the southern gate of Dosael and headed toward Zokahelm. The way to that town required people to pass through a few grassy planes and a forest. While they were walking through the planes, Jaegar was on the lookout for possible hiding places of the bandits.

"There aren't any places those bandits can hide and ambush us in this area."

Jaegar had his guard up nonetheless.

"There is a forest we need to pass through before we can reach the town. That would be the most probable place where those bandits can lie in wait."

Syrenne looked at Jaegar to address his concern.

"I see. You really are a merchant, since you're that aware of your destination."

Jaegar momentarily looked at Syrenne and grinned at her.

"Actually, I'm not a member of the Merchant Union, so I can't call myself a real merchant just yet."

Syrenne let out a weak laugh.

"Why can't you call yourself a merchant even though you're not a member of the Merchant Union?"

Brittanya casually asked her, while carrying the heavy rucksack of root crops on her back like it was a bag of light clothing.

"It's the same for all the eight Job Class Organizations."

Jaegar answered without looking at Brittanya.

"You can only claim to be a certain Job if you are part of their Organization. That's just the rule."

Jaegar paused.

"Though I think that's stupid."

"I'm sure the Mage Academy is happy to have you as one of their mages."

Syrenne faced Brittanya and smiled at her. Brittanya forced a smile and then looked away without answering.

"The… forest… and… bandits…"

Kryllo pointed toward in front of them. The bandits came out of hiding one at a time, as the party was slowly reaching the forest.

"Hey. Hand over whatever that is you're carrying and all your money."

One of the bandits, wearing a red bandana on his head and holding out a knife that was sheathed, stood in front of the party to block their way. There were ten other bandits standing behind the one with the red bandana, waiting near the forest.

Brittanya walked faster so she could be in front of the party. Syrenne was now standing behind her. Jaegar was beside Syrenne while Kryllo was behind everyone. Brittanya dropped the rucksack on the ground.

"Just to make sure. Are you the leader of your bandit group?"

She looked directly into the eyes of the guy with the red bandana.

"Bandits? We're just guards."

He sneered at her.

"Everyone needs to pay if they want to pass through here."

The guy with the red bandana turned around and pointed at the forest. Some of the bandits behind him started laughing.

"Well then, here's my payment."

Brittanya grabbed the rucksack of root crops and swung it on the guy in front of her and hit him.

"Surprise Plant Magic Attack!"

The guy flew toward the forest, past the other bandits. She then looked at those other bandits.

"You guys want some payment, too?"

After Brittanya put down the rucksack, almost all of them shook their heads and started to run away. But before they could go far, they all collapsed on the ground. Syrenne let out a sigh of relief.

"What did you do to them, Brittanya?"

Syrenne looked at Brittanya. She turned around to face Syrenne.

"Umm. That wasn't me."

---

The party hurriedly went inside the town of Zokahelm. They told the people guarding the gates that the bandits collapsed in the forest, and then introduced themselves as the ones who brought the root crops. The guards pointed them toward the town clinic. Once they entered the clinic, they were met by a woman wearing clergy's clothes.

"Hi, are you here to meet the doctor?"

"Yes. Actually, we brought the root crops that he requested from Dosael."

Syrenne opened the rucksack and showed the woman the root crops.

"Ah, yes of course. Please come inside."

The woman led the party further inside the clinic.

Once they passed through some doors, they saw a man wearing a long, white coat. He was attending to people who were lying down on beds. There were about 8 beds inside the clinic, all of them occupied by a person.

"Excuse me, but are you the one who ordered the root crops from Dosael? We've brought all that is available from our farm."

Syrenne politely asked the person in the white coat. The man in the coat then turned around to greet them after tending to a person lying down.

"Ah, yes. Thank you. I'm the doctor of this town, Arbent. As you can see, these people here are sick."

"Do you know what illness they have?"

Brittanya asked the doctor after she placed the rucksack of root crops in the corner of the room.

"That's just it. We actually don't know what's causing this, or what the illness exactly is. We couldn't risk people go out of town and contract this illness, which is why we asked the root crops to be delivered to us. I'm sorry for the trouble."

The doctor shook his head.

"If you don’t know what this illness is, then how did you find out the cure is these root crops?"

Jaegar put both his hands behind his head.

"Well, I was boiling the same root crop to use it for other medication purposes, but when the first patient was brought here, I tried using it on him. After a day, he was able to move and then left here, like nothing happened."

Arbent scratched the back of his head.

"So, it must have been effective. With nothing to go on, this was the best solution we could go with. Even the healers of the Holy Clergy that are in town couldn't do anything. I guess all they can heal are physical wounds."

He let out a deep sigh.

"So, was there anything unusual that happened before people started getting sick?"

Jaegar put down his arms and sternly looked at the doctor. The doctor crossed his arms together as he was deep in thought.

"Actually, there is... The guards said that they sighted a large mushroom monster in the forest. They haven't seen that monster before, according to them."

"I knew a monster was involved!"

Jaegar puffed his chest in vindication.

"I was… the one… who thought… of it…"

Kryllo looked at Jaegar and pointed at himself.

"See? You didn't even want to do this request, at first. Good thing I was the voice of reason."

Brittanya pointed at Jaegar and smirked.

"Will you do something about that monster?"

The doctor cautiously asked the party.

"Once a monster is involved, we can't ignore it."

Jaegar now thumped his chest.

---

The doctor invited the party to stay in his house that was connected to his clinic. The party decided to rest for the night and look for the monster the next day.

Dinner was prepared by Syrenne using the ingredients graciously offered by the doctor. While eating, they talked about the request they accepted from the doctor.

"Maybe you should wait for us, before going back to Dosael?"

Brittanya looked toward Syrenne, who was now pouring tea on each of their cups.

"Thank you for your concern. At first I was planning to go back after we delivered the root crops."

Syrenne now sat down on her chair.

"But now that I know the situation here, I can't just leave."

She stared at her cup while holding it with both hands.

"I would like to help here while you guys are dealing with the monster. I'm sorry that I'm useless in battle."

She smiled at Brittanya.

"No, it's alright. The three of us are enough to deal with that monster."

Brittanya smiled back at Syrenne.

"Still, I'm surprised the healers from the Holy Clergy can't cure them."

Jaegar interrupted the sudden silence.

"As far as I know, their healing magic can cure physical injuries and some conditions like poisoning and paralysis. This illness must be really something else."

Jaegar then rested his head on his hand, with his elbow on the table.

"So… what are… doctors for…?"

Kryllo curiously asked as he sipped some tea.

"Well, for those conditions that are 'something else'."

Jaegar closed his eyes and smirked.