“First of all, we might need more of that medicine you made.” Gantz instructed. Bear nodded and faithfully followed his orders to make a new batch of medicine. He began by choosing some herbs from his sling bag, and then cleaning them a bit by picking any weeds he saw mixed in, before putting a handful of herbs inside his mouth-

“Wait-!” Gantz somehow managed to extend his hand to stop Bear. A few seconds before Bear wanted to chew the herbs—which he had done when he treated Gantz—Gantz threw himself towards Bear, simultaneously stepping on the magic circle that he drew on the ground and erasing it a bit. A small THUD was heard when his face sunk into Bear’s lush and thick coat, before his hand gripped on Bear’s lifted hand. With a troubled look over his face, his tone wavered a bit—partially out of breath—as he said, “Do you have to chew the herbs to make the medicine?”

Bear blinked his eyes. He was wondering how Gantz managed to sprint towards him in that matter of seconds, when his eyes laid upon Gantz’s hands that was holding his.

“No mortar, no pestle.” Bear stated, guessing the reason. Although chewing the herbs are one of the methods that Bear would usually use to treat the animals he found inside the forest, Bear had thought that from where Gantz hailed from, that kind of method is not the norm.

Not that he knew where the goblin came from. He had never seen one being intelligent enough to put on a tunic, a pair of trousers, and even a pair of shoes.

“If you want a mortar and a pestle, I can borrow those to you.” Gantz replied, snapping Bear out of his thought, while slowly withdrawing himself from Bear. After a sharp sigh, he then paced to his bag, sat in front of it, before unearthing it until the depths of the bag. Bear found himself feeling slightly concerned by the amount of trinkets Gantz took out from his inventory, until Gantz pulled out a wooden mortar and coincidentally, a stone pestle.

“These are not the correct pair, and the mortar will get wrecked quickly, but anyways,” Gantz returned to Bear—who was still holding the handful of herbs in his hand—and handed him the items. “This should do great in crushing the herbs.”

  Bear placed the mortar and the pestle down on the ground in front of him. Then once again, he peeked at the herbs in his hand, cleaned it, before putting it into the mortar.

While Bear was busy with grinding, Gantz picked up a couple of empty bottles with big lid for Bear. He then walked back to Bear and sat next to him, as he stared at Bear.

“So… From where do you start learning how to make medicine?” Gantz began, “From your family? Friends? Or did you just magically know about it one day?”

Bear suddenly stopped pounding the herb. The surroundings—which was filled with pounding sounds—quickly replaced with a deafening stillness, which made Gantz wondered about what he just asked.