The entire room felt like the temperature dropped severely from the statement. Despite the cold tone and violent presence Luna had carefully started unwrapping the bandage and examining the stump attached to Hatchet’s shoulder.

As for Ajax he was still looking at Luna with shocked eyes. Hatchet had let him know that his friend in the capital would be able to help and that they were both once part of the same team, even if he was a bit older than her back then the difference between them now was massive. While Hatchet had stagnated at what should have been the start of his career his teammate had clearly pushed forwards

“Which regrowth rooms are ready?” Luna asked without taking her eyes off Hatchet.

“Luna, you don’t ha-” Hatchet started to protest only to get a light smack to the temple.

“Hush you.” Luna said, sounding annoyed at his interruption.

“Room three is prepared, Guild Master.” The receptionist finally got back to her senses following Luna’s outburst and answered her question.

The answer however had an extensive effect on Ajax. Luna was the guild master of the Healing Union! No wonder Hatchet had seemed so confident in getting his arm healed, he would be confident in being able to pick up a quest at the adventurer’s guild too if he was friends with Guild Master. As he stood there slack jawed, Luna started herding Hatchet deeper into the building.

“Close your mouth and stop standing there like an idiot Ajax.” Hatchet lightly scolded him, but this was all it took for Ajax to get a hold of himself and he followed after Luna as they entered one of the rooms.

“So? Do you plan to tell me how you lost your arm, especially since you moved to that backwater to retire where there wasn’t anything dangerous.” Luna huffed as she started preparing a few gems and, to Ajax’s surprise, started cleaning the stump with what smelled like alcohol. “Also don’t think I haven’t noticed the kid. It seems like you finally found some adventure again after all these years.”

“This will hurt quite a bit at the beginning, you’ll also feel pretty drained afterwards but do your best to stand still.” she added before Hatchet could get a word in, her tone changed to the clinical matter of fact Ajax recognised from doctors who were explaining a procedure.

A strong glow encompassed Luna’s hands as she held them to the stump. The magic clearly took effect as the flesh started to regrow and elongate, the closed wound split open once again as the white bone could be seen growing and extending once more, the muscle and skin only an instant behind.

Hatchet hadn’t gotten to take a good look or even prepare himself after her warning as a massive burst of pain radiated from his stump all the way through his body. The worst part was that the type of pain didn’t stay consistent at all, shifting from pressure to burning to tearing. His elbow was beginning to take form as the pain finally subsided and Hatchet could finally watch the healing process with interest.

For Ajax the process was a marvel to behold. His ability to sense mana was, for the first time, overwhelmed. He couldn’t get a good enough feel of the processes taking place as the wound was opened, cleaned, regrown and created. Sadly he knew that he would need to spend a lot more time practicing with his light and holy affinities before he would even be capable of picking up anything useful to learn from a spell as strong as this.

Despite not being able to learn the magic he could still follow the process. The first thing he picked up was that the spell worked in two ways. First it would use mana to absorb as many nutrients in the body to start and regrow the missing flesh at an absurd rate. Only after the body started heading towards hunger and starvation did the spell change to creating the missing flesh and bone from mana.

The first part of the spell was much less mana intensive, but seeing as how nerves were regrown and pushed to mend and expand it sent a powerful sensory overload of pain to the patient. The hearty meal Ajax and Hatchet had both had before coming here was doing was quickly consumed however.

The second part of the spell saw mana take over the creation part, with just having the newly made flesh attached the pain subsided. Ajax already started forming the basis of another discovery he would be putting forward for the Healing Union. The discovery that pain and a good meal could lead to mana conservation could be one of the most important discoveries, especially for situations where healers needed to act sparingly with their mana.

“So, how did you lose the arm?” Luna gently pushed after Hatchet stopped being in pain.

“Salamander attack.” Hatchet heaved out, feeling very drained from the spell. A few of the ones that were higher level than me managed to ambush me when they started attacking the village.”

“I see.” She nodded, a few beads of sweat finally appearing on her forehead as the wrist finished forming and the output of mana increased further as the hand started to take shape. “What about you kid? Ajax he called you, what's your story?”

Ajax stayed silent for a second thinking it over before he decided there was no problem with sharing a little with her, chances were that Hatchet might share quite a bit more with his old friend especially after she had regrown his arm for him.

“I am just a kid that grew up in his village.” Ajax started. “I was a bit enamored with combat when I was younger and, as I turned of age, I managed to convince Hatchet to take me as an apprentice hunter. With my ability to use mana we then moved that into him training me to be an adventurer.”

“An adventurer at your age?” ‘Something is definitely not ordinary here’. Luna thought as she looked at the boy who identified to her mana as having barely aged a few months past ten years of age, if accounting for the five years most spent without aging once their system fully unlocks he should be close to sixteen years old. “Did you come to the capital to enroll in an academy?”

Despite her slightly condescending tone, it was all an act. Even before the boy answered Luna had already started thinking of what she should do so as to get him enrolled with the least amount of scrutiny from the nobles.

“No, I'm here to take jobs and delve as an adventurer, the dungeons here are much more welcoming than the one close to the village.” Age answered truthfully.

Luna’s whole thoughts ground to a halt, luckily she had finished healing Hatchet's arm so she wasn’t casting a spell as Ajex’s words left her flabbergasted. A commoner who not only can use mana but has already been part of the team to clear the first floor of a dungeon was unheard of. Hatchet couldn’t hold back a slightly vindictive chuckle as he watched Luna react.

“Thanks for this Luna.” Hatchet broke the silence. “I would love to stay and chat right now but neither of us have accommodations and I’m guessing you weren’t sitting around doing nothing as we came in this morning. What do you say we go try to find a place to sleep and we meet up again for dinner?”

“Oh, nonsense.” Luna quickly came back to her senses and denied. “I have more than one house in the noble district, you can just take one of them and use it for as long as you stay here.” she waved him off as if it was no big deal.

“Not to sound ungrateful Miss Luna,” Ajax carefully started talking. “But I would prefer to get my own place, it has nothing to do with my impression of you, it’s just that … well… I’d rather not draw too much attention to myself by living on the horse of the Guild Master of the Healing Union.”

“Oh, that. You don’t have to worry too much about that.” She waved off his concern. “Unlike all the other guilds, the Healing Union’s Guild Master position is more honorary than anything else. I still have quite a lot of influence and pull for an individual as the person who started it all but with crown backing and funding it for the last few decades it’s being run by a council they put in place.”

Ajax thought the situation over in his head, he didn’t want to be rude but neither did he want to draw unnecessary attention.

“In fact living in one of my places could make you seem important enough to give you a leg up when you register for the Adventurer’s Guild here.” she pushed further.

“If you insist, then I shall accept your hospitality tonight and try to find a place of my own tomorrow.” Ajax decided that this would be his best course of action.