Trapped

"So what did you want to talk about hero?"

Romeo was eying me in intrigue.

I decided to get straight to the point: "I can heal you so that you will be able to walk again."

"This better not be a joke!" his entire demeanor suddenly shifted.

Romeo might have been sitting on the wheelchair but the aura he was emitting right now was quite scary.

"I am being completely serious."

Romeo still seemed suspicious of me.

"It sounds way too good to be true. So, tell me what do you really want?"

"I just want to be treated fairly. I want to be compensated for my work and I want to be able to choose who to heal and when."

Romeo's expression softened.

"I promise you that if you heal me I'll put in a good word for you. As for the compensation itself..."

"I'll take one hundred mana crystals," I replied.

"That's a cheap price for being able to walk again. Actually, I'll give you my entire stash. So, around 150 crystals," Romeo nodded.

I approached Romeo, clasped his hand and activated 'Miracle'.

I could feel a tingling sensation move across my spine and then suddenly I felt a sharp pang of pain. Wait, pain? I totally forgot about the pain!

That was my last thought as an overwhelming sensation smashed into me, making me feel like my spine was being torn out. My back arched and I fell to the ground before passing out.

After this banquet many nobles are sure to seek my help. Without modern medicine I am their only option and with time I am sure I will be able to build a robust network of clients.

However if I could I would never use my ability ever again after the pain I had to go through last time.

For the last event of the day we were led to the armory where they told us that each of us could choose a weapon.

As I browsed the shelf I stopped in front of a pair of silver gauntlets. The only martial art I had any experience in was boxing so I decided to try them on. The moment I picked up the gauntlets I noticed small circular patterns engraved into them.

"I wonder what do these do?"

[Pristine Enchanted Gauntlets (normal)

Enchantment: Every hit has a 0.5% chance of inflicting neurotoxin effect onto the enemy]

I guess my ability lets me appraise objects as a side effect of letting me change their effects. After all how could I change the effect of something without knowing what it does.

I grabbed the gauntlets and made my way out of the armory.

"Are you sure you want these. You might not know but the enchantment on them is quite bad. I recommend you pick one of those flaming swords instead."

A knight suggested but I firmly refused.

"Well, it's your loss."

After we all chose our weapons Marvin gathered us in the hallway and announced: "Tomorrow we will be going to explore the Great Lionheart Labyrinth that is hidden below the royal palace. The labyrinth is the final resting place of the legendary hero and is a sort of an enormous training ground. No one has ever made it to the bottom but the upper floors where we will be training have been surveyed many times so you don't have to worry."

"Until then try to relax and adjust to your new life here. You can go sightseeing in the city or visit the temple."

With that he left us all alone.

I met up with Amelia, James and Leonard in my room.

"What do you guys think about the situation," I asked.

"I am scared. I want to go home. They don't have internet or chocolate here," Amelia immediately replied.

"Well, it's not that bad. They gave us food and roof over our head plus we got unique abilities now," James tried to argue.

Leonard thought a bit about his answer before responding with a question: "Daniel, you never do anything without a reason. Why did you heal the prince?"

"The fight for the throne is a conflict we were involved from the moment we arrived here, so I decided to complicate things by adding additional variables. I don't want them to focus on you guys too much."

"Brilliant thinking as always Daniel, it looks like you managed to figure out their intentions without my help," Leonard praised.

"Can you guys stop with this sophisticated speech and dumb it down so the rest of us can understand what you're talking about," Amelia

Instead of answering Leonard took out a golden coin and said: "Members of the Royal family did not have any sinister intentions toward us in the last month."

Then he threw the coin into the air and when the coin reached its maximum height an otherworldly light illuminated the coin.

Leonard caught the coin and continued: "My blessing is called coin divination and it lets me know about any fact about the present or past."

"But what are their intentions?" James asked confused.

"I don't know much about this world but it seems obvious to me that they want to use us as political tools in the coming conflict."

Amelia gasped.

"But surely they will send us back to our world after this is over," James tried to reason optimistically.

"The royal family does not possess the ability to send us back," Leonard dropped a bombshell.

Amelia covered her eyes and hid behind James' wide back.

"Maybe we can just leave the palace and sign up as mercenaries or something," I suggested.

"They won't let us escape that easily after spending so many resources on summoning us. However, while the royal family does not possess the way that does not mean there is no way," Leonard explained.

"So there is a way?"

"Yes, but my blessing is limited to giving yes and no answers so I am kind of stuck now."

Now we truly are trapped. Wait, maybe that person might know something.