Chapter 55: The First Step
Thanks to hurrying on the way back, Jin and his party managed to reach the guild a little after three in the afternoon.
They immediately headed to the reception desk to report the completion of their request—but Aria wasn’t there.
"Hello, Samantha-san. We’d like to report our request as complete. Also, is Aria-san off today?"
Since Samantha was the next-most-familiar face after Aria, Jin addressed her directly and handed over the paperwork.
"Hello, Jin-san. Actually, the orphanage is a bit short on help right now. Aria went there to lend a hand."
"Eh? Did something happen?"
Even after his first visit, Jin had stopped by the orphanage a couple of times, bringing news of Aria and Burke’s improving relationship. He’d grown close to the kids, too, so it wasn’t something he could just ignore.
"There’s been an increase in children running a fever. So, during slower hours like this, Aria’s been going over to help out."
Samantha explained as she processed the paperwork. Her tone was calm, not overly worried, but Jin couldn’t relax. A fever among children could mean that the same mysterious illness is spreading around town again. Supposedly, the fever subsided after a day, but if so many kids were sick that they needed extra hands, maybe something had changed.
That thought sent a wave of unease through him. Still, there was nothing he could do for now. Frustrated but trying to stay composed, he waited for Samantha to finish processing their request. Once it was done, he quickly wrapped up the remaining paperwork and left the guild.
As soon as they stepped outside, Jin turned to Erza and Rachel.
"I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I’m going to stop by Bean-san’s place to drop off the herbs and ask what he knows. Rachel, could you go with Erza to the temple and see if there’s any new info? If possible, try to talk to Clark-san."
The same unease Jin felt was written all over their faces too, so both women immediately agreed.
"Got it. We’ll regroup at home once we’re done," Erza said.
Jin nodded, forcing himself to breathe and calm down.
"Whew… yeah. There’s no proof that things have gotten worse yet. Let’s stay calm."
He told himself out loud, exhaling deeply.
"Erza, Rachel—when you get back, could you clean the house? We’ve been away for more than two days. I’ll pick up groceries for dinner on my way home."
Panicking wouldn’t help anyone. Times like these call for a clear head.
His face, though still tense, now carried a faint, deliberate smile.
"Understood."
"Alright, see you later."
The two mirrored his expression with faint smiles of their own before parting ways—Erza and Rachel heading toward the temple, and Jin making his way to Bean’s shop.
"Welcome, Jin-san."
Maggie was greeted warmly as the bell above the door jingled.
"Hello, Maggie-san. Is Bean-san inside?"
"Yes, he’s in the back. Go right ahead."
With her permission, Jin stepped into the workshop behind the shop.
Inside, everyone was busy mixing and brewing medicines. Bean was working in front of a large cauldron with his apprentices when he noticed Jin. Handing off his work to one of them, he approached with a tired but relieved smile.
"Jin-san, thank you for coming. Did you bring the herbs I asked for?"
"Hello, Bean-san. Of course—I’ve got them right here."
The fact that Bean mentioned the request before anything else was unusual for him, and it made Jin even more certain that something was wrong.
He handed over a bag filled with the herbs he’d gathered earlier. Normally, this kind of work would go through the guild, but this time, Jin had offered to handle it privately between the two of them.
It was only natural that going through the guild would make things more expensive—but that also meant the price of the medicine would rise. Since a large amount of fever medicine was needed for the children this time, Bean had chosen to handle it privately, hoping to keep the cost low enough that parents could afford it.
"I didn’t expect you to gather this much, Jin-san. With this, we should be able to manage somehow. You’ve really saved us," Bean said gratefully.
The herbs Jin had collected weren’t only those used in fever medicine. Having been out for more than two full days and passing through three villages, he’d been able to gather a wide variety of medicinal plants along the way. In fact, just the herbs for the fever medicine alone were about twice the amount Bean had originally requested.
And yet, judging by Bean’s expression—relieved but clearly strained—it was obvious something wasn’t normal.
"Did something happen?"
Jin asked, a hint of worry creeping into his voice.
Unfortunately, Bean’s answer wasn’t reassuring.
He explained that, starting a few days ago, there had been noticeable changes in the condition of the children suffering from the mysterious fever. Until now, even the worst cases had only lasted a day—but lately, some had been running high fevers for nearly two days. Even after the worst of the fever broke, many were left with a lingering mild fever, and Bean feared the situation might worsen.
If the high fevers began lasting two or three days, the demand for fever medicine would skyrocket. That’s why Bean wanted to prepare as much as possible now—just in case the worst came to pass.
He had already reached out to other apothecaries in the city, as well as to fellow alchemists in nearby towns, to discuss the problem, but no clear answers had come yet. For now, the illness seemed limited to the area around Lientz, meaning the cause was almost certainly somewhere nearby.
However, even when Jin tried to search for clues using his MAP skill, the query "cause of the illness" was too vague to yield anything. Once again, he realized that he needed to use Appraisal to at least determine the exact name of the disease.
After finishing his discussion with Bean and doing his shopping, Jin returned home.
"I see, so they haven’t figured out the cause at the clinic either?"
Jin asked, sitting at the table with Erza and Rachel before dinner, to exchange what they’d learned.
"That’s right. Grandfather has been combing through old records, but high fever is such a common symptom that there are too many possible matches to narrow it down."
Rachel said, sounding frustrated.
There was a mid-tier healing spell called Diagnosis, which caused any abnormal parts of the body to glow, indicating the source of the problem. Rachel could use it, but when she tried it on the children, their entire bodies glowed faintly—no specific area was pinpointed. Even Clark, who was more skilled, had found the same thing, though he noted that the area slightly below the navel seemed to glow a bit more strongly.
"And another thing, it looks like most of the sick kids are between six and twelve years old."
Erza added, pouring herself more tea.
That was at least some relief—if the illness had spread to infants or toddlers with weaker constitutions, it would’ve been far worse. Still, they couldn’t relax, not with Airis, only four years old, already affected.
"How many kids under six have come down with it so far?"
Jin asked. The younger ones were at the highest risk.
"I think just three—Airis-chan, and two other children from the orphanage, ages four and five," Rachel replied.
Was that a few or many? Hard to say. Either way, it didn’t change what Jin needed to do.
"I’ll go check on Airis and the others tomorrow. Also… I might be up late tonight, doing a bit of tinkering, so don’t mind me."
"Hmm? Oh, that’s fine. I’ll go gather some nearby herbs in the morning. The more we have stocked up, the better, right?"
Having already learned the Gathering skill, Erza could handle that alone without issue. She did find Jin’s tone a bit odd but decided not to question it and simply shared her own plans instead.
"I’ll be spending the whole day helping out at the clinic. If anything happens, please contact me there."
Given the current situation, there really wasn’t any other choice for her. With that, the three of them decided on their plans for the next day.
"Alright," Jin said, clapping his hands once. "Then tonight, we’ll eat grilled meat to build up our strength. Let’s eat plenty, stay positive, and do everything we can!"
"Yeah!"
"Right!"
In uncertain times like this, keeping their spirits up was important.
The three of them dug into Jin’s special garlic-heavy barbecue sauce with meat and vegetables until they were full, then each took a bath to wash off the sweat. Afterward, Erza and Rachel went to bed early to rest for tomorrow, but Jin stayed up late into the night, working on leveling up his Appraisal skill.
The next morning, Jin quickly filled the hunger that came with leveling up by making himself a simple breakfast. Since he’d practically stuffed himself at dinner the previous night, he didn’t need as much as usual.
After breakfast, he parted ways with Erza and Rachel, who had their own plans for the day, and set out to continue training his Appraisal skill, which had stubbornly refused to level up yesterday.
He went around the morning market, using Appraisal on every unfamiliar vegetable, spice, and ingredient he could find. Whenever he ran out of MP, he didn’t wait for natural recovery—instead, he used mana potions to save time. He only used store-bought MP potions, not the duplicated ones he’d made using the tutorial reward bottles.
Those duplicate potions were based on a discovery he’d made during the fight with the Mutant Mad Boar—his old game-era tutorial HP and MP potions would automatically refill themselves over time. Later, he’d learned the refill cycle was about ten days. By transferring the contents to other bottles, Jin was able to duplicate the liquid itself. Of course, only the contents were copied—the refill function remained exclusive to the five HP and three MP potions he had when he first came to this world.
He’d already confirmed that the duplicated potions had the same effectiveness. At present, Jin possessed nineteen duplicated HP potions and eleven MP ones.
However, both types restored a fixed 20 points, which wasn’t much anymore. With his HP now over 200, a standard store-bought "Small Recovery Potion," which healed 20% of max HP, actually restored more. And with his MP now at 100 after his recent level-up, the flat 20-point recovery wasn’t impressive there either—and the gap would only widen as he grew stronger.
Still, Jin had other uses in mind for them. That’s why he kept duplicating the potions.
After burning through his supply of store-bought MP potions and even the duplicated ones, his Appraisal skill finally reached level 5.
"Phew… alright, time to visit Airis."
Letting out a breath of relief, Jin bought some fruit and a picture book as gifts and set out to see her.
About half an hour later, Jin was in Airis’s room with Orto, who had returned home to check on her.
The little girl had come down with another fever a few days ago, and although the worst had passed, she still had a lingering mild one and was resting in bed.
"Oh, Onii-chan!"
Airis said brightly when she saw him, smiling despite the heat in her small body. Even so, Jin could tell she didn’t have her usual energy.
"Hey there, Airis," he said gently, kneeling beside her bed. "I came to see how you’re doing."
He showed her the picture book he’d brought.
"Thank you, Onii-chan! I was bored, so I’m happy you came."
"Good. I’ll read it to you later, okay?"
Saying that, Jin reached out and softly patted her head before continuing.
"Hey, Airis. I’m going to try and figure out why you got this fever, okay? But I need your help. I want you to think, ‘Onii-chan can see anything,’ and ‘I’ll tell him everything!’ Just think it in your heart, alright?"
As he spoke, Jin smiled warmly, still stroking her hair.
A while back, he’d tried using Appraisal on one of the sick children at the clinic. Not only had the skill failed to show the illness’s name, but it had also left several other fields blank. At the time, he’d assumed it was just because his skill level was too low.
But later, he began to suspect there was more to it.
Unlike objects, people had their own will. Maybe that subconscious resistance was what blocked Appraisal from fully revealing information about them.
That’s why Jin had not only raised his Appraisal skill level, but also asked Airis—someone close to him—to open her heart to him.
He was doing it for Airis and the other kids to finally uncover the true nature of their illness.
"Ehehe, suree!"
Perhaps thinking it was some sort of game, Airis cheerfully agreed.
"Thanks. Now, close your eyes. And in your mind, just think, ‘I’ll show Onii-chan everything,’ okay?"
Following Jin’s words, Airis closed her eyes. Jin and Airis weren’t alone—Orto and Airis’s mother, Iris, were also watching closely as Jin focused his mind and whispered:
"Alright, here we go. Appraisal."
Using all his MP, Jin activated his level 5 Appraisal skill, trusting in Airis’s willingness to open up to him.
And for the first time, what had always appeared as "???" was now clearly displayed as "Mana Fever (Mana Overload Syndrome)."
At last, the true nature of the illness tormenting Airis and the other children had been revealed.
"Thank you, Airis. Thanks to you, I finally figured it out."
"Really? Yay!"
She didn’t really understand what was going on, but Airis smiled brightly, happy to be praised.
To protect that smile, to protect everyone’s smiles, Jin had long ago resolved to use everything he had.
His decision to use Appraisal in front of Orto and his wife, Iris, was proof of that.
Jin spoke gently to Airis.
"Hey, Airis. Big brother’s going to be really busy for a while, looking for clues and doing research. So I might not be able to come see you for a bit. But I promise, I’ll find a way to cure your illness and come back to see you again. Can you be patient until then?"
"Hmm… okay. Airis will wait."
Her face showed a bit of loneliness and disappointment, but in the end, she held it in and nodded.
"Thank you, Airis. Then let’s make a promise—I’ll definitely come back. Pinky swear?"
"Yeah!"
For the second time—the first being their promise over dinner—Jin linked his pinky with hers.
""Pinky swear, if you ever tell a lie, then you'll be in big trouble~! Pinky promise!""
And so, Jin made his vow to Airis.
Afterward, he read her a picture book until she drifted off to sleep. Once she was sound asleep, Jin quietly left the room with Orto and Iris.
"Orto-san, if Airis starts having a really hard time again, please have her drink about one-fifth of this potion. That should be enough to restore some of her stamina. For Airis, it’ll basically bring her HP back to full."
As soon as they stepped out of the room, Jin handed Orto three duplicated HP recovery potions.
He’d already confirmed that the amount consumed determined the amount of HP recovered.
With Airis’s max HP at six, drinking one-fifth of a potion would restore about four HP—almost full recovery. That would at least prevent the worst-case scenario of her body giving out from the high fever.
Jin knew it might be overly cautious, but given Airis’s age, he thought it was the right call.
However, while magic-based healing existed, a potion that restored a fixed amount of HP—rather than a percentage—was unheard of.
At least, Orto and Iris had never heard of such a thing.
"Jin-san… just who are you?"
It was a natural question, not only after his exchange with Airis but also after seeing that potion.
Yet Orto didn’t ask it aloud—a sign of the deep trust he’d placed in Jin.
"Orto-san, Iris-san… I promise I’ll find a way to cure Airis’s illness. Until then, please keep supporting her."
Jin looked them both in the eyes, his voice firm with conviction.
Orto and Iris silently took in his words — then bowed deeply.
""Please… we’re counting on you.""
Jin had no intention of ever betraying that trust.
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