'they sure look like they have been through h.e.l.l....'

there was not a single uninjured merc to see, all of them had bandages that smelled strongly of medicine and iron somewhere on their bodies, the caravan itself also looked like it had been through something fierce with what looked like hastily repairs all over the wagons, all except for one the wagon in the middle of the convoy that looked like it was made of solid steel with 2 armored rhino looking magic beasts dragging it forwards

"sure looks like a prison wagon"

Mars gave a nod besides him the middle aged man from the guild gave a sigh and asked Mars

"mister Shady are you sure you're up for it? I can still cancel the arrangement"

"no it's fine, it looks just like I thought it would"

"okay if you say so..."

the middle aged man gave another sigh and walked over and talked with one of the merc's guarding the caravan, after about a minute he gestured for Mars to come over which he did, the merc the middle aged man was talking with looked Mars over once before he gave a scoff before he said with a disdainful tone

"welcome aboard Shady"

Mars simply gave a nod, if the merc was going to disregard him then he was inclined to care even less about him then normal, the merc then turned and left leaving Mars alone with the middle aged man that patted Mars on the shoulder

"good luck mister Shady, remember if you survive you can always come back to my guild and have a drink"

"sure I'll tell you all about it then"

the middle aged man gave a wry smile before he turned and left, Mars looked around for a empty spot in the formation and placed himself there, soon the caravan started moving and slowly left the small town which Mars had forgot the name of long ago...

"This sure is a party"

not even half an hour after the caravan had left the small town were it attacked by a large group of bandits, Mars tapped his staff and summoned a group of shadow soldiers to protect himself before he began supporting the merc's around him with well timed spells, mostly he used his self created spell the shadow glue to seal the bandits movements by hitting their feet but after a bandit avoided his spells twice Mars got annoyed and switched to aiming for headshots, one can imagine the horror of having a ball of glue covering one's own face much less the super shadow glue, fortunately for the bandits their horror was shot lived as they were quickly finished off by the merc's once they got their eyes covered with the dark glue. Soon the bandits realized Mars was one of the bigger threats and focused their efforts in trying to kill him, unfortunately for the bandits the merc's also realized Mars' impact on the battlefield and moved to protect him and all to soon the bandits were forced to turn and run, Mars gave a wry smile and tapped his staff against the ground twice as two dozen more shadow soldiers appeared and gave chase to the bandits, the merc's around Mars raised their weapons and let out a cry of victory and gathered around Mars and showered him with praises

"man you really are a lifesaver!"

"I thought I was a goner, but then you supported me!"

"thanks for the a.s.sist!"

Mars liked to get praised so he put on a praise-me-more expression under the bandages before he not so humbly said

"it was nothing, we are after all mercenaries that have accepted the same request so helping you all was natural"

"someone help over here!"

just as Mars was feeling smug a anguished cry came from the other side of the convoy, his face hardened at once before he kicked off the ground and with the rest of the merc's that was praising him a moment ago arrived at the other side of the convoy

'this is... bad'

bad was one way to put it, the mortality rate for the side were Mars was not at was almost 25%, or in other words every 4th merc had died under the a.s.sault of the bandits and most of the rest was injured, some more then others Mars looked around and soon found the source of the yell and rushed over

'this is horrible..!'

when Mars saw the wounded merc he almost lost his lunch, his left leg had almost been severed and another merc was holding the wound with his hands trying to stop the bleeding but there was too much blood and the injured merc was already in shock

"please help!"

"...I can, as long as you move!"

Mars pushed the merc that was holding the wound aside and activated his [Energy: healing] with full power and touched the wound which then closed at a speed which the naked eye could see, as soon as the wound closed the wounded merc stopped hyperventilating and seemed to calm down. Mars gave him a pat on the leg and stood up before he walked over to the next injured person and healed them too, sure he had other things to use his energy units on but helping the merc's was like helping himself as the bandits attacks was far from over and there was a long way to the capital, once Mars was done treating the ones that could be treated he ignored the looks of praise he was getting and directly sat down on the ground and acted like he was tired

"mister Shady are you okay?"

Mars waved his hand in front of his face

"I'm fine, just a little tired..."

Mars closed his eyes to drive the point home, as for why he acted tired it was simple he wanted to seem more human if he simply healed everyone with tired the merc's might start to avoid him or treat him like some kind of monster or G.o.d...

Later that evening Mars sat in front of a campfire along with some of the merc's he had fought with earlier that same day

"so why is it that you cover your face mister Shady?"

Mars gave a sigh

"I'm disfigured"

"oh... sorry"

"I don't mind Mat"

Mars gave the mercenary named Mat a pat on the shoulder before he stood up and stretched

"I think I'll retire for the night"

Mat gave a nod

"please sleep well mister Shady"

"I will..."

Mars walked away from the convoy and found a tree which he quickly climbed and sat down on a branch and closed his eyes.

Meanwhile the mercenaries gathered around the campfire and talked with hushed voices

"you ever seen anything like that old Tom?"

old Tom was a old gold ranked mercenary clad in iron armor with a long white beard, he closed his eyes and stroked his long beard for a moment before he slowly shook his head and spoke

"no, the healing spell mister Shady uses is far beyond what I have ever seen... Not only the quality of the healing but the times he was able to use it is beyond what I have ever seen, it's most likely a bestowed skill"

the other mercenaries nodded, right it had to be a bestowed skill anything else was simply impossible, after a long silence a other mercenary raised his hand, she looked like a teenage girl and carried twin swords, her sharp ear revealed she was a half elf, she was also one of the ones Mars had healed during the day and unlike her fragile looks she was one of the most bloodthirsty mercenaries of the lot and had only been injured because she chased to far, no one knew her real name so they just called her blood Mary

"when mister Shady healed me I saw something..."

the other mercenaries leaned in and listened as she continued

"...I saw a glint of a silver star in his robe he, mister Shady might be a apostle"

old Tom gave a nod and spoke

"that would make sense given the power of his bestowed skill"

the other mercenaries nodded along again only Mat gave a frown and spoke

"but if he's a apostle then why have he not gone to the holy union to the west? I heard they treat apostles like royalty there"

old Tom gave a frown and spoke

"it might be because he's disfigured all you hear from the holy union isn't true and I figure a disfigured apostle would revive more scron than anything else"

"I see.... poor mister Shady, if he wasn't disfigured he would live a great life in the holy union..."

nods all around again as another part of Mars' alter ego backstory got added without his permission