Unfairly Fired From the Healer's Guild After Five Years of Dedicated Service

Episode 21 – The Taste of Dumbbell Weed

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After lightly brushing the plant off, I immediately brought the Dumbbell Weed to my mouth. When ingesting plants for appraisal, I had to swallow them whole without chewing, but since this was not the first time ingesting this plant, I wanted to take my time to experience and savor the taste. There was a chance that the sap or juice exuded from the plant was important in providing the effect.

“…..Blechh!!”

After putting it in my mouth and chewing a few times, my face warped as the acridness spread throughout my entire mouth, and it felt like the taste would continue on to perforate my entire body with its acerbic intensity. Holding back the reflex to vomit, I forcefully resisted, refusing to spill even a single drop. With teary eyes, I held my mouth closed as I mustered my determination to finally gulp down the Dumbbell Weed.

Even after swallowing it, my mouth was entirely numb with pins and needles, and my stomach was in so much pain that I couldn’t get up for the time being. After lying down momentarily while deep in thought, I realized that, although I still couldn’t feel anything from my mouth, it had become a little easier to move.

Phew… After catching my breath, I sat up and began to examine my body for any changes.

First, the appearance… there didn’t seem to be anything different; my arm was still as thin as a branch. I walked over to the corner of the room and tried to lift the old bed, but it seemed just as heavy as normal. Taking into account the plant’s rarity, I did my best to eat all of it, but the results seemed to be a bit of a let-down. Well, I guess the effect’s potency did say “Low”, after all. Maybe it was because only taking one dose wouldn’t be enough to cause any visible change?

Due to the lack of any immediately noticeable effects, it was very likely that the Dumbbell Weed’s effect was not just a temporary boost. There was also the possibility that it could be a delayed activation of a temporary effect, but there were also many cases of the effects impacting the body immediately.

Since I couldn’t detect any changes in my body at the moment, it seemed that I wouldn’t be able to get any further data for now. I had one more Dumbbell Weed left, but I decided to tuck that one away for the time being and examine the situation for any changes for a day or so.

……Well, even if I wanted to eat another one, I probably couldn’t.

I couldn’t deny the disappointment I felt with the Dumbbell Weed, but I was quite satisfied with the state of the other plants. I decided to go to bed for now to recover my physical strength, and then tomorrow I was planning to sell some of the sorted plants and use some Magical Grass. As I was thinking that, I laid down on the bed and immediately fell asleep.

The next day.

I had a lot of accumulated stress and fatigue, so it seemed that I slept quite a bit. After what happened with Ahmed during the trip to the mountains, it felt like it had been a long time since I last woke up in a state where I had a lot of fatigue, no stomach ache, and an empty belly. The numbness effect I was feeling in my mouth from the Dumbbell Weed had already faded away. It felt wonderful to be in a great physical condition. After waking up, I rolled around in bed for a bit, but I soon started feeling like I was wasting my time, so before long I got out of bed.

My objectives for today were to sell the plants and consume some Magical Grass. Rather, since I had earned enough money this time, I felt like my days of consuming Magical Grass had just begun and were likely to continue for a long time. Now that I knew I could make enough income by collecting plants, in the end my intent was still to be self-sufficient. To make those ends meet, first and foremost I had to increase my total magic power.

After some quick preparations, with the low-quality plants and herbs in hand, I headed towards the Adventurer’s Guild. I preferred there to be fewer people around like that time when I had gone in the early morning to the Adventurer’s Guild, but, since I had slept quite a bit, the sun was already beating down high in the sky. Oh well, I was tired and couldn’t help it. Pushing those thoughts out of my head, I entered the Adventurer’s Guild and went to the reception desks.

Where was I supposed to make transactions here? Since there was no reception desk dedicated to trade, I was wondering where to go. I ended up deciding to go to the quest commission request counter, since I figured trade requests could be considered requests too, in a way.

Oh, there happened to be no customers in front of the booth of the receptionist lady who helped to introduce me to the [Azure Alliance] before. It might have been a one-sided interaction, but I had talked with her before, so I decided to go up to her.

“Excuse me.” (Lewin)

“Welcome. This is the reception desk for putting in quest commissions, how may I help you?” (Receptionist Lady)

This canned phrase was given to me once again, and I inwardly chuckled to myself a bit. There had to be some kind of manual they were following after all. It really wasn’t that great of a way to go about having a conversation.

“Rather than putting in a quest commission, I wanted to sell some things. Is this reception desk okay?” (Lewin)

“A trade request, is that right? It’s fine to do it here. I’ll call over the person in charge of that, so please provide me with your name, age, and current profession.” (Receptionist Lady)

“Oh! Are you the one looking to submit a trade request?” (Male Staff Member)

“Yes, that’s right. I look forward to working with you.” (Lewin)

“Wahaha!! You don’t have to get so worked up. My bad. With these looks, I probably won’t be as entertaining to you as that receptionist lady back there.” (Male Staff Member)

He looked pretty scary, but he gave me a friendly, amiable smile. The receptionist I’d been talking to thus far made me feel like I wasn’t even talking to a human, but this guy exuded a strong sense of humanity that felt like a breath of fresh air. If anything, I felt that this person was far more entertaining.