John was in a great mood as he left the guild.

  The first stop of John's outing was right across the square from the guild hall, where Adrix's shop was located. His two guards waited outside while he went into the shop. The man Galba said to talk to turned out to be a Lionman beastfolk, and while he was human in shape, he had the cat ears and tail of a lion and a huge reddish-brown shaggy mane-beard. He welcomed John into the shop, and when John mentioned Galba, his smile changed and became more genuine.

  "Of course! Anything for Master Galba. Now what can I help you with?" He said, his voice almost a deep growl despite the happiness on his face.

  "I am looking for a ring. It is for a woman." John replied.

  "A ring? Is it a gift for a friend? Or are you by chance meaning a wedding ring?"

  "Well, I am new to Shrule, and I am not exactly well versed in the customs of this country. I do want to propose marriage to a woman though." John said, adlibbing on the fly.

  "Not a problem. Here in Shrule, and most of the surrounding countries, the wedding ring is just a simple band, and only for when you are being married. If you are just showing your intent to marry her, generally a pendant or another piece of jewelry is used as a 'promise'. Among commonfolk it doesn't have to be too fancy or anything, even a leather strap with a piece of polished agate, as it is the intent more so that the price of the jewel that counts."

  "I see, that is much better than where I come from then, it was traditional to spend three months wages on the 'promise' ring. Anyway, may I see what you have in stock. Preferably something with a blue gem and silver iny."

  With that Adrix nodded brought out a few neckces and bracelets, all of various sizes and qualities. There were a couple rather rge and gaudy looking ones he discarded immediately, and he hummed over the remaining ones for a few minutes. He finally picked out one with a small blue gem about half the size of his thumbnail that had a simple, yet elegant silver setting and a thin white metal chain.

  "Ahh, that was quality work done by my son, his journeyman piece no less. I cannot part with that for less than one gold coin." Adrix said, looking at the piece in John's hand.

  John paid him without question, since his new job had netted him over two gold in the past few days. Being a healer was definitely lucrative.

  Makes me wonder why they are trying to charge so damn much. I am under cutting them by a lot and still have cash to spare.

  The Lionman packed away John's purchase in a small box, and handed it to him. John thanked him and moved on.

  He made his way to the slums, his two guards in tow. Both were quite chatty and kept John entertained with stories of their antics growing up in the slums in town. They were indeed brother and sister, and had a friendly rivalry about who would hit C-Css first. Still enjoying their conversation, John set up shop in his usual spot and waited. He didn't need to advertise he was there, as the urchins and goodwives had all seen him approach. It did not take long for about twenty people to show up, all with various injuries or sicknesses.

  John couldn't really do anything for the ones who were malnourished, but he did the best he could with what spells he had. The patients all thanked him, and he just nodded and said he would be back one more time this afternoon after his magic recovered. His expanded mana pool was really helping him out with these greater numbers of patients.

  They headed back out of the slums and took a detour down a market street, where John browsed at various merchants wares. He didn't linger long as it was quite crowded and John despised crowds, so the trio headed back to the guild for lunch.

  "I'll be heading back down there in a few hours, then that will be all for the day. You two good with that?" he asked the twins on the walk back.

  "Yeah no problem with us. Galba is paying us to shadow you, and watching you heal all our kin like that, it really makes me happy." Taylor said.

  On arrival at the guild they separated for the moment, and John picked up Nanael at the desk to grab a quick lunch, much to the envy of many of the surrounding adventurers.

  Are they jealous of me or something? They could have asked her out anytime. (The Nanael fan club has it out for John now)

  After they finished, he gave her a quick kiss on the lips, causing her to blush deeply, then he moved down to the training hall. He had another skill he had been meaning to check out, but kept getting deyed.(He forgot) Finding the pce empty again, he moved over to the far corner of the room and spoke.

  "Umm...Open Skills" and a list of his DEN skills popped open in front of him.

  [Skills]

  [DEN Return (Ready)][General Magic - Adept][Pilot - Savant][Dig][Ambidextrous - Adept]

  [Ejacution Control - Novice][Tonal Connection - Novice][Scouter - Novice]

  [Known Magic]

  [Heal][Cure][Detoxify Poison][Paralysis Recovery][Sleep Recovery]

  "Wow, I am starting to gain a lot of stuff. Now, lets try this. Dig!" He said and pointed to the floor.

  As per the spell description, a 1 cubic foot block of dirt was removed from the floor, leaving a square hole that you could trap your foot in if you were not careful. Beside the hole was something curious. The dirt that was removed was sitting there in a perfect block, not breaking apart. John bent down with his knees and picked it up. It was fairly heavy, but he was careful and held his back straight as he examined the cube.

  The cube was, well dirt, but it had hard defined edges and he couldn't wiggle his finger into the block, though he could make small scratches on the surface. For all intents and purposes, he had a solid block of dirt.

  Hmm, this skill seems to have more to it than I originally thought. Now, what can I do with a block of dirt?

  He wasn't sure off hand, maybe build a crude shelter? Quickly dig his way out of a jail cell? He pced the block back in the hole and it rexed, filling the void. He poked it with his finger and he could dig into it again.

  Curious. I wonder, can I 'Dig' other things too?

  His skill was ready again, so he aimed it at the stone wall in front of him. "Dig"

  Once again, a neat hole was cut into the stone, this time at chest height, and a block sat at the base of the wall, this time it was mostly grey stone, with one side dressed like the rest of training hall. He went to pick it up, but it was significantly heavier. He could feel his back not liking the idea, so he stopped.

  He stripped his armour and sword off, then tried again. He managed to get it a few inches off the ground but released it, not wanting to throw out his back that had been working good all morning.

  "Well, shit." He said, wondering how he was going to put his new cube back where it belonged.

  "John-Sama! We have an emergency up in the reception area, a few of our new adventures got hurt pretty bad by some giant rats. Can you come up and help them?" Nanael yelled to him from across the training hall.

  "Double-shit, well I will have to deal with this ter." he said, grabbing his gear and following her up to the reception area. Honestly it made him think that the healing room was in a truly terrible spot. No one really was down here except for healing, why were injured people being brought down thirty steps just to get to his clinic. He would have to bring that up to Brod ter...actually probably better to bring it up to Galba, he was the one who actually seemed to run things here.

  Completely forgotten, a perfectly cubed, 120 pound block of rock sat there on the training room floor.

  After the emergency, John was invited up to Galba- rather Brod's office. It was a well appointed office, simir to his one in High School DxD, though the yout was a little different and the wood wasn't oak but something that looked simir to teak. In the seating area, several comfortable leather chairs surrounded a small coffee table, a table which had several short stacks of books on it.

  The guild master himself was absent, but Galba invited him to sit down. He poured a couple drinks and put one in front of John and joined him.

  "Thanks for that. The newbies sometimes take on more than they can handle, trying to make a little more cash." Galba said to John, and lifted his gss for a toast.

  "No problem. It's what I am here for right?" He replied, and took a sip of the drink. The strong alcohol had a nice fruity fvor to it, reminding him of some rums he enjoyed back on Earth.

  "True, but still, you saved those kids from dying or going into debt at the clinics today. Shallia really seemed to taking a liking to you as well."

  Shallia*, was the name of one of the female adventurers. Another cat girl, simir to the bck haired twins from earlier but with fairer skin, D cups and an athletic body, jumped up and hugged him when he healed the wound on her leg. It was really nice, but with Nanael nearby, he didn't feel comfortable with the embrace. (She saw. She didn't mind at all.)

  "Yes she did. So, why did you call me up here anyways? Not that I am not happy to have a drink with you or anything, but it was unexpected." He said, changing the subject.

  Galba smiled, and gestured to the books on the table. "These tomes. They are all spell books from various schools of magic. All low level spells from what I gather, but if you have the ability to use them, feel free to. Just return them when you are done."

  John's eyes twinkled a little as he reached over and started going through the titles.

  [Fire Bolt][Fire Ball][Water Ball][Wind Bde][Mud][Darkness][Cure][Bolt]

  He wasn't sure what some of them were, but a most of them sounded like attack magics. "Well I already know cure, but the rest of these seem promising, thank you."

  "You're welcome John" he said, the added with a smirk "Can't let Nanael's future husband be weak can I?"

  "Hun? How-"

  "From her of course. She has been quite the chatter box the st few days. She has gone on several group dates in the past, but this the first time she accepted going out with someone alone. I haven't seen her this happy in...a very long time. Not to mention you said you needed to go buy a ring."

  Privacy breach!

  "I got her a promise neckce instead after talking with Adrix. Seemed the proper course. I know we just met, but she means the world to me already. She said something about being my wife when I was waking up, and that is all I have thought about since then. I think I want to make it happen soon, but I don't know any of the customs in this country. Then we need to find a pce to live and...wait why am I babbling again?"

  This is the second time I started oversharing my thoughts in this world. (Substance X + Booze = Babbling John)

  "Good, you seem to be serious about this. Now take your books and enjoy the rest of your day off. I'll see you at the dining hall tonight." Galba said, trying to hide the smirk on his face behind his hands.

  John gathered his books and started making his way out of the room. When he reached the door Galba spoke up one st time.

  "If you hurt her John..." he said, then the most intimidating feeling he ever felt was unleashed upon him. Galba almost appeared to be emitting a bck aura around his body for a moment. Then it disappeared, the oppressiveness vanished like it never was. (Powerful fighters could do this**)

  "Right. Don't worry, I won't" John said and returned to his clinic, forgetting he wanted to talk to Galba about moving it to the main floor.

  Some of these people are just too bloody intimidating.

  Galba watched the door for a moment after John left the office, lost in thought, swirling his drink absently in his hand.

  I see the side effects of alcohol and substance X seem to make his lips looser. I will need to get him a little more drunk one night, then have Gulgar feed him another dose. That man is hiding something, something important, maybe even dangerous.

  He didn't think John was malicious by any means. If anything, he was too affable, too...soft for this dangerous world.

  When Nanael came to him with her concerns that he seemed like an exiled noble from somewhere, he used his network of spies to look into him, and found nothing. Until the day he showed up at the gates of Meritoni, there was no record of him in any country that had an adventures guild.

  This, along with the fact that he apparently had affinities to all magic types made him a very interesting person, one that many powerful people would either try to recruit to their side, or kill outright to prevent others from doing so. The st person who had affinities to all magic types was a Sage, and that was a very long time ago. (DEN's New World Bonus is going to cause John many problems it seems)

  He smmed his drink back, and poured another.

  He liked the man well enough, but anyone who was pnning on marrying Nanael was going to be looked into, thoroughly. He couldn't do less for the girl he thought of as his God-niece***.

  *Made up name, not an OC but was a unnamed adventurer the original MC healed, then was hugged by. I thought she was really cute, considering anyone who wasn't an Love Interest (LI) or side character in TGC, get rather generically drawn IMO. Not sure if I will add her as a reoccurring character or LI or not.

  ** While it wasn't stated in Canon exactly how strong Galba is, he was part of Brod's party and Brod, a level 451, said once that if Galba trained Luciel (original MC) to fight, he would die. I would suspect he is of simir level and SS rank at least.

  *** - AU reasoning. Her past is never really brought up much, other than it was bad in canon, and Brod, Galba and Gulgar all seem to protect her (personal impression). I pn on fleshing out more of her story as time goes on, and it will be completely AU.