The morning after the mage's attack, Jaren woke with a new understanding.
He could not continue as he had been. The Venom-Weaver core had been a mistake—not because he had taken it, but because he had sold it without understanding the consequences. In this world, value attracted attention. Attention attracted danger. And danger, in his current state, meant death.
He needed to become stronger. Not just in level, not just in Merit Points, but in capability. He needed skills that would let him survive what was coming.
He needed to heal.
---
The temple of the Green Mother stood in the city's oldest quarter, its walls covered in living vines, its doors open to all who sought mercy. Jaren had passed it a hundred times but never entered. Temples were for people who could afford to believe in something. He could afford nothing.
Today, he pushed open the door.
The interior was cool and dim, lit by soft green light that seemed to come from the walls themselves. A fountain murmured in the center of the space, its water clear and clean. Benches lined the walls, occupied by a handful of petitioners—the sick, the wounded, the desperate.
At the far end, behind a simple wooden altar, stood a priestess.
She was old—not in the way of humans, but in the way of things that had been alive for a very long time. Her skin was the color of bark, her hair the texture of moss, her eyes the deep green of a forest canopy. When she looked at Jaren, he felt the weight of centuries.
"You are not here to pray," she said. Her voice was rustling leaves and flowing water. "You are here to learn."
"I need a healing spell. Something simple. Something I can use on myself when—" He stopped.
"When you are hurt and alone and no one else will help." The priestess nodded. "Yes. I see that in you. The aloneness. It is very old."
Jaren said nothing.
"The Green Mother does not sell her blessings. But she gifts them—to those who prove worthy." The priestess gestured to the fountain. "Sit. Wait. Watch. Those who come here seeking healing will teach you more than any spell."
---
[System Notification]
New Quest: The Green Mother's Trial.
Objective: Observe and assist the temple's petitioners for 7 days.
Reward: Access to Basic Healing Spell.
Failure: Temple Ban (Permanent).
---
Jaren sat.
The first day, he watched.
A woman came with a child whose arm had been burned—badly, the flesh red and blistered. The priestess did not wave her hand and chant. Instead, she fetched water from the fountain, clean cloths from a cabinet, and a pot of salve that smelled of honey and herbs. She cleaned the wound gently, talking to the child in a low voice, distracting him from the pain. She applied the salve, wrapped the arm in clean bandages, and gave the mother instructions for care.
No magic. Just attention.
The second day, he watched more.
A man came with a deep gash in his leg—a farming accident, he said. The priestess cleaned it, stitched it with practiced hands, and bound it. She gave him herbs to chew for the pain and told him to rest. Again, no magic.
The third day, Jaren began to help.
He fetched water. He held cloths. He learned to clean wounds without causing more pain, to apply pressure to bleeding, to recognize the difference between a wound that would heal and one that would fester. The priestess watched him work, offering quiet corrections, never praise.
"She doesn't use magic," Jaren said on the fourth day. "None of this is magical."
"Magic is not the only healing. Often it is not even the best healing." The priestess was preparing another batch of salve, her hands moving with the precision of long practice. "The body knows how to heal itself. It only needs help—cleanliness, rest, nourishment. Magic can speed the process, but it cannot replace it."
"Then why teach me magic?"
"Because you will not always have clean water and rest and nourishment. Sometimes you will need to force the body to heal when conditions are not ideal. That is what magic is for—not to replace nature, but to aid it when nature struggles."
---
[System Notification]
Skill Unlocked: Basic Wound Treatment (Level 2).
Effect: +20% healing speed for mundane wounds, reduced infection chance.
---
The fifth day brought a different kind of patient.
A young woman, not much older than Jaren, carried in by two friends. Her face was gray, her breathing shallow, her skin cold and clammy. Something was wrong inside her—something the priestess could not see.
"The healers at the Academy refused her," one friend said, her voice angry. "Said they don't treat 'unregistered adventurers.' Said she should have known better than to get hurt."
The priestess examined the woman with gentle hands, her brow furrowed. "Internal bleeding. The body is shutting down. I cannot help her with herbs and bandages alone."
Jaren stepped forward. "What do you need?"
"Time. And magic." The priestess looked at him with those ancient eyes. "You asked for a healing spell. I will teach you now. But you must use it immediately, on her."
"I don't know if I can—"
"No one knows until they try." She took his hand and placed it on the woman's abdomen. "Feel. Beneath the skin, beneath the muscle. There is a place where blood pools when it should flow. Can you feel it?"
Jaren closed his eyes. He reached out with his Life-Web Sense, the skill he had been rebuilding since arriving in this world. The woman's body was a landscape of warmth and cold, of flowing energy and blockage. There, deep inside, a dark pool where light should be.
"I feel it."
"Good. Now—" The priestess placed her hand over his. "Reach for the Green Mother. She is not a person, not a being. She is the kindness of growing things. The mercy of a leaf that turns toward the sun. The patience of a root that seeks water through stone. Feel that. Be that."
Jaren reached.
It was like the Life-Web, but simpler. Less complex, more direct. A flow of energy that asked nothing, demanded nothing, simply offered. He took that energy and directed it toward the blockage, toward the wound, toward the place where the woman's body was failing.
The dark pool began to shrink.
Not quickly—agonizingly slowly. But steadily. The woman's breathing eased. Her color improved. The cold clamminess of her skin gave way to something closer to normal.
When Jaren finally withdrew his hand, he was shaking with exhaustion. His mana was nearly depleted—something he hadn't even been tracking. But the woman was alive. Would stay alive.
The priestess smiled—the first time he had seen her do so.
"You have the gift. Not everyone does. You can learn technique, but the kindness—that must already be there." She touched his forehead gently. "The Green Mother sees you, Jaren. She will remember."
---
[System Notification]
Skill Unlocked: Green Mother's Mercy (Level 1).
Type: Healing Spell.
Effect: Restores 50 + (Wisdom x 2) HP. Cost: 30 Mana.
Special: Effectiveness increased when caster has genuine desire to help.
Quest Complete: The Green Mother's Trial.
Rewards: Basic Healing Spell, +200 Reputation (Green Mother's Temple), Title: 'The Merciful.'
---
The sixth and seventh days passed in a blur of practice.
Jaren healed minor wounds under the priestess's supervision—cuts, bruises, a child's fever. Each use of the spell drained him, left him exhausted, but also taught him something new. How to gauge how much energy was needed. How to let the patient's own body do most of the work. How to listen to what the wound was telling him.
On the evening of the seventh day, the priestess called him to the altar.
"You have learned what I can teach. The rest is practice—years of it, if you continue on this path." She held out a small pouch. "Seeds. Not magical ones—ordinary. But they carry the Green Mother's blessing. Plant them where you need healing most, and they will grow into herbs that ease suffering."
Jaren took the pouch, weighing it in his hand. "Thank you."
"Thank me by using what you have learned. By being kind when you could be cruel. By healing when you could kill." Her ancient eyes held his. "The world has enough people who take. Be one of the few who give."
---
[System Notification]
New Item: Green Mother's Seeds (x20).
Effect: When planted, grows healing herbs (Chamomile, Comfrey, Willowbark).
Duration: Perennial (regrows each season).
---
That night, in his tiny room, Jaren planted three seeds in a cracked pot on his windowsill.
They would take weeks to grow—months to be useful. But they were a start. A reminder that not everything in this world was about killing and surviving. Some things were about nurturing. About care.
He thought of the valley. Of the fields he had planted, the orchard he had tended, the people he had healed with nothing more than attention and patience.
He was still that person. Even here. Even now.
The mage who had attacked him was still out there. The Venom-Weaver core had marked him. Danger was coming.
But he had a new tool now. Not for fighting—for preserving. For keeping himself and others alive long enough to fight another day.
He closed his eyes and slept.
And for the first time in weeks, he did not dream of the cracks in the ceiling.
---
[Status: Jaren (Age 16)]
Level: 11
Merit Points: 1,277
New Skill: Green Mother's Mercy (Level 1)
Daily Progress: +15 MP
Total Progress: 1.277% of Goal
---
The bell tower chimed five times.
Jaren's eyes opened.
Another day began.
But today, he had something new to carry with him.