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A New Realization and a New Ability
In a corner of the village, there was a small pile of earth, where the last woman of the Pozi village rested. A short distance away from the golden buildings was a small clearing with some dead grass left on the soil.
Tolua didn’t want to leave the golden structures, so he simply watched Hikaru and the girls as they headed for the clearing.
Talk about ironic, Hikaru thought as he glanced at the red wyvern. It went through all the trouble of burying the woman, but it could no longer move from there.
Hikaru felt that maybe Tolua was right and they should just forget about the gold and head back down the mountain. Either way, they could not stay here much longer as they were running out of food anyway.
Hikaru thought that their investigation into the woman might be their last chance. He arrived at the neglected lot gently illuminated by moonlight. There was no sign of any living thing around.
「I don’t sense any mana.」
Hikaru knew it the moment he arrived. No, even before that. He saw nothing with his Mana Detection. If there was any piece of gold buried with the body, he would’ve sensed it.
「I see.」Lavia said.
「So there’s nothing we can do.」Paula added.
Both girls could not hide their disappointment. Hikaru was expecting to find a magic item. The existence of an unfamiliar kind of magic made him believe that the village also had some sort of mysterious item that dispelled the mana from the gold.
But his guess was off the mark.
「What now, Hikaru?」Lavia asked.「Wanna dig the grave?」
「I’m not sure… We’ll only find a skeleton anyway.」
Digging up graves was not his thing, and he didn’t think he could find out anything by examining a skeleton.
「So does that mean there was something about the woman herself?」Paula said.
「What do you mean by that?」
「Maybe she had a high Mental Strength like us?」
「Ah, yes. Probably.」
She just happened to be strong. But it also meant that there was no universal way to counter the gold’s mana.
We have no other choice but to leave the gold… and the wyverns to die.
Hikaru turned to the skies and sighed. There were no lights on the ground, and the moon and stars were clearly visible through the clear atmosphere.
This would’ve been a magnificent scene if we came here for camping or a picnic. Unlike the squalid city, nature is relaxing.
Then Hikaru realized something. Disease.
The last female survivor had fallen ill. But the other villagers weren’t showing any symptoms. If so, there must have been others like her who were quarantined.
Did the disease repel the mana? Is that even possible? How did she even contract the disease in the first place?
「Hikaru? What’s wrong?」
They were deep in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere. There should be no virus that could be transmitted to people. The Pozi rarely had contact with the outside world, as evidenced by the lack of sightings.
Infection from wildlife, then?
A disease common to all creatures that grow by cell division. A disease that causes abnormal cells to copy continuously. Cancer.
「I need to check something with Tolua.」Hikaru said.
Hikaru then took the time to get details from the red wyvern about the condition of the woman. The questioning went on until dawn. Lavia and Paula fell asleep, but Hikaru endured and arrived at a conclusion.
「The last remaining survivor died of cancer. Probably terminal, and the cancer had spread to many of her internal organs.」
Unfortunately, he hadn’t acquired that much medical knowledge when he was in Japan, but he had gathered enough information to be sure.
「Haa… Hikaru-sama?」Paula said as she woke up.「You’re still up? I’ll make you some tea.」
「There’s more important matters at hand.」Hikaru said, stopping her.「I need you to ask you something. And I need your healing magic.」
After a quick breakfast, Hikaru and the girls immediately took action. Hikaru had been awake all night, but he didn’t want to miss that single ray of light in the darkness.
He observed the wyverns that could move and those that could not. According to Tolua, young and vigorous wyverns could move, but apparently there were old wyverns among them that hunted for food.
This was where healing magic came into play. Among the spells that Paula could use, there was one that served as some sort of a physical examination. Combine that with Hikaru’s Life and Mana Detection, and they had a CT scan or an ultrasound scan to examine the wyverns’ bodies.
「I knew it.」After checking the bodies of more than ten wyverns, Hikaru was able to get a good grasp of their internal structure.「Many of the younger ones are healthy, but the older, more mobile ones have cancer cells.」
He couldn’t say for sure that they were cancer cells, but he spotted enlarged tumors in their internal organs. Whether they were benign or malignant, he didn’t know. However healing magic could heal them regardless, which made it incredible.
So much for scientific medicines.
Hikaru couldn’t help but chuckle.
「Hikaru-sama, should I heal this wyvern?」
「No, you can’t. If you do, their minds will fall to the gold’s mana.」
Healing them would have to come after the problem with the gold was solved.
「So these ‘cancer cells’ prevent them from falling to the mana’s spell. How does that work?」Lavia asked.
Hikaru explained his conjecture. Cancer cells are abnormal cells, but they are self-generated. They require a large amount of nutrients and energy, so red blood cells are busy transporting them, causing them to multiply.
Hikaru guessed that when the mana from the gold enters the body, the cancer cells demand it, sucking it up as if it were a nutrient. Hence, the mana does not affect normal bodies.
Upon checking, the amount of mana in the bodies of the wyverns with cancer cells was less than the others.
Lavia and Paula still looked perplexed. It might have been difficult to understand without prior knowledge about how cells divide and what happens inside a human’s body.
「Does everyone in Japan know that?」Lavia asked.
「I don’t know. It’s taught in compulsory education, so I think most people know about it.」
「Mmm.」
「Are you interested?」
「Very much so.」
Hikaru burst into laughter. It wasn’t so much the knowledge that she wanted, but books in Japan.
But she has to study Japanese. Even if she could get them, she probably wouldn’t be able to read them. No, wait. She might say she wants to learn a new language, even if she had to max out her Language Comprehension.
「We now know how to not fall under the effects of the gold’s mana.」Paula said,「but how do we heal the ones obsessed with the gold? Make them gulp down cancer cells or something?」
「No, that won’t do any good. They just end up being digested.」
Cancer cells are created inside one’s body. They can’t be transplanted.
「I think—and this is only a guess—there’s a magic spell that can create cancer cells.」Hikaru said.
「What?」
「Right, Lavia?」
Being a Mage, Lavia often read books about magic. In fact, there were things that she knew about Healing and Support Magic that Paula didn’t.
Hikaru had heard something about the current subject from Lavia in the past.
「Hmm… You mean magic to generate something evil in the target’s body?」
「Yup.」
Hikaru did not know what something evil meant, but it probably meant tumor—artificial cancer cells. Once again, he was reminded of how amazing magic was.
「But that’s Accursed Magic. Paula and I have the Holy attributes, so we can’t learn anything related to Evil.」
「She’s right.」Paula affirmed.「The Church says that ‘those who have faith cannot abandon it, because God is always watching over them.’」
「I know.」Hikaru opened his own Soul Board.「So I’m gonna learn it.」
He had ten points available. He already had Willpower unlocked, so all he had to do next was unlock the Evil attribute and put points on Accursed Magic. He already one point on Mana. He would have to spend at least two points to unlock the Evil tree and learn Accursed Magic. There’s no way he would use up all ten points he had saved.
I really didn’t want to do this.
Hikaru had a premonition. It was the reason why he hesitated to learn Accursed Magic.
「You’re going to step into the path of evil?」Paula asked.
「You’re making it sound like I’m gonna turn into a villain all of a sudden.」
「That’s great.」Lavia said.「I’ve always been interested in Accursed Magic. I’ll teach you a lot of things.」
「What are you planning to do with me?」
「Make you into a Dark Overlord.」There was a twinkle in Lavia’s eyes.
She’s serious.
「Anyway, here goes. Bam, bam, and done. Accursed Magic learned.」
Magic was incredible, but so was the Soul Board’s ease-of-use. A few seconds and he could already use magic. Thinking back, when he came to this mystical world, he wanted to use magic, but he didn’t have a lot of points to work with so he built his whole kit around Stealth.
My first magic is of the Accursed type, huh… No point in lamenting.
From her backpack, Lavia produced a notebook that contained information related to Magic.「Let’s see. We’ll begin with basic spells.」She flipped through the pages.「Hikaru, repeat after me.」
「Okay.」
Lavia opened her hands and held them out in front of her, so Hikaru did the same.
「In the name of the King of Hell that rules the depths of the earth, O accursed soul, I command you.」
「In the name of the King of Hell that rules the depths of the earth, O accursed soul, I command you.」
Already ominous right off the bat…
Paula distanced herself from the two.
「Let foul blood boil, and evil mind run free. From my flesh comes impurity.」
「Let foul blood boil, and evil mind run free. From my flesh comes impurity.」
Lavia looked at HIkaru.「Evil Air.」
「Evil Air…?!」Hikaru repeated.
Suddenly he felt the strength being drained from his body. So this is what happens when you use magic. With the aptitude, one could cast spells simply by reciting an incantation. How does it even work? Hikaru’s curiosity reared its head.
Then out of nowhere, brown-colored air spewed from every pore of his body.
「It stinks! What is this?! My eyes!」
「That is Evil Air.」Lavia said as she pinched her nose and backed away.「You give off an awful stench.」
「Why would you make me use this? Ugh, yuck! Who in the world created this spell?!」
「Paula.」
「G-Got it. Purification!」
Paula cast a spell that eradicated any presence of evil. She had already recited the incantation beforehand, and the highly-advanced magic spell erased Hikaru’s foul smell.
「Ugh… that was awful.」Hikaru sobbed, both his hands on the ground. His first experience with spellcasting being horrendous brought him to tears.「That wasn’t nice.」
「That was only a basic Accursed Magic spell.」Lavia said.「It’s the first spell that Evil Mages learn.」
「Why learn it first?」
「It can be used as a distraction when the Church closes in on you. You can also give people you don’t like a bad time.」
「…」
Terrible use-case either way. The moment they began chanting, Paula immediately knew that there would be an awful stench.
「Why does the Church even know about this?」Hikaru asked.
「Well, they’re enemies.」Paula answered.
「But only high-ranking clergy can use Purification, right? What do you do, then?」
「Just bear with it.」
「…What?」
「We work on our endurance.」
I guess the Church can be half-assed too.
Two hours of practice passed. It was past noon and Hikaru was so sleepy that he took a nap. When he woke up from his short slumber, he felt the mana he spent returning to him. All in all, he needed five points.
One point for unlocking Evil. Three points for Accursed Magic. One point for Mana.
「Tolua. I’m going to save the wyverns now.」Hikaru said.
Tolua, who had been dozing at the edge of the village, opened its eyes.「You still have not given up, puny child of man?」
「I’ll do everything I can.」
「You are one strange human. You people usually scream ‘Kill it!’ when you see a wyvern.」
「You looked after a sick human. You’re just as strange yourself.」
Tolua fell silent. Maybe it agreed with Hikaru’s statement, or it was just sleepy.「You are attempting something dangerous, aren’t you? I felt a hint of evil while I was asleep.」
「Yeah, I wanted to discuss that with you. You’re right in that I’m gonna do something a little risky.」
「Try it on me.」
「Are you sure? It’s dangerous.」
「I do not mind. I was just becoming sick of lying around here.」
This was different from the healing magic experiments they had conducted. Hikaru was going to create a tumor in Tolua’s body using Accursed Magic. Once the mana from the gold weakened, they would take the wyvern away from the village where the mana couldn’t reach, then heal it.
If it failed to work, it would be fine. But there was no telling what would happen if Accursed Magic spells mixed with mana from the gold.
「Do it.」Tolua said.「There is no other way, is there?」
「Are you really sure?」
「I said I do not mind.」The wyvern sounded as if he needed no explanation.「I told you I wanted to fight as well.」
「All right.」
Hikaru inched closer to the wyvern. He could feel the gold’s mana wrapping itself around him like tentacles.
「Hikaru.」
「Hikaru-sama.」
「Stay back, both of you.」
Hikaru confirmed that Tolua had entered the range of the spell.
To make it easier to use Accursed Magic, Hikaru pulled out his guild card from this pocket.
I knew it.
The reason why he really didn’t want to do this. New classes had been added to his card.
Ordinary Faith Magic User God[7]: Basic Faith Mage
Ordinary Accursed Magic God[5]: Evil Mage
Invisibility Accursed Magic God[5]: Dark Demon Mage
Accursed Invisible Assassin God[4]: True Coward
There’s a lot I want to say…
But there was one more.
Stealth Demon God[2]: Eternal Darkness Wanderer
Hikaru quietly chose Evil Mage. He had set his class to Greater Angel, allowing him to use five classes at once, but he couldn’t choose anything related to Accursed Magic, presumably because they clashed with the Holy attribute. So he decided it would be best to choose the spellcaster type class.
「Let’s do this.」Hikaru said to the leader of the wyvern pack.
No rehearsals, but it did not mean there was no chance of success.