As soon as the Elder was literally out of Lucas's face, he wasted no time in emitting a stream of neutral mana and flooding his mother's body with it. The spectators' murmurs picked up again as he did this, but he paid them no mind. Lucas knew going in that such a dramatic use of his unusual mana manipulation abilities would likely not go unnoticed in this company.

He'd only performed a process like this once, when he first observed Eugene's internal mana currents and earned the second aspect of [----------]. Lucas truly did not know what he was doing. Recklessly infiltrating and exerting any amount of influence over someone else's currents was bound to be highly dangerous, but he honestly did not know in what way.

All he knew was the the corruption had to be removed quickly, else his mom, and all the others, might become like those goblins.

Only, the moment his mana entered her currents, all the notifications Lucas had been holding back burst into view. Lucas was completely inundated with the characteristic ding, inhibiting him from focussing on anything else.

[*ding You have slain [Corrupted Goblin - level 59] x13!]

[*ding You have slain [Corrupted Goblin - level 68] x9!]

[*ding You have slain [Corrupted Goblin - level 80] x6!]

[*ding [Aspirant of the Storm] has reached level 37-50! You have 140 free stats!]

[*ding [Accelerant Frame] has reached level 27-50!]

[*ding [Rapid Regeneration] has reached level 27-49!]

[*ding [Arclight Renewal] has reached level 32-43!]

[*ding [Tempest Fighting] has reached level 37-50!]

[*ding [Storm Core] has reached level 37-50!]

[*ding [Shock] has reached level 21-40!]

[*ding [Overcharge] has reached level 17-50!]

[*ding [Quick Step] has reached level 21-46!]

[*ding [Hyper Processing] has reached level 25-49!]

[*ding [Adaptation] has reached level 3-50!]

[*ding [Identify] has reached level 14-39!]

[*ding [Keen Mind] has reached level 33-50!]

[*ding [Throwing] has reached level 2-12!]

[*ding [Vigilance] has reached level 27-50!]

[*ding [Learning] has reached level 37-50!]

[*ding [Reflexes] has reached level 7-50!]

For a moment--one, guilty moment--Lucas was awestruck and distracted from his purpose. It was a lot. Only a few of his Skills hadn't leveled in the fight against the goblins, but those that did received between ten and forty-eight levels. If he wanted to, Lucas could start his next Class evolution right. Now.

There were many reasons why he would not be doing that, but all this was to say he was reasonably distracted. Then he dismissed the notifications in their entirety and his mind returned to the urgent matter at hand. Levels were great and all, but there were people that needed his help, not least of all his own mother.

With the passing of the notifications, Lucas entered a new depth of concentration. His mana, having been released in his lapse of focus, flooded his mom's channels once again and started circulating with her own. Before his Mana Authority was upgraded, retaining control in this situation might have proven difficult. But between the upgrade and the concerning, sluggish pace with which Mary's mana was flowing, the task was well in hand.

Lucas started feeling for the ominous and cold presence of the corruption and found it instantly. It was everywhere, coating his mom's channels like an oily layer of scum and spreading further with every passing moment. Already, it covered something like a third of her channels.

But Lucas couldn't spot any signs the corruption had done irreversible harm. Without further pause, he shaped his mana into a thin but solid film and began spreading it down each and every stream. He pressed it close to the corruption wherever he found it and pulled the vile energy from its rest, all while remaining separate from the channels' native energy.

As urgent and sensitive as the whole issue was, the actual process Lucas went through was incredibly simple and straightforward. Lucas's mana grasped, joined with, and neutralized the corruption naturally, and in its presence, the corruption could not remain entrenched.

Once he had scrubbed everything from his mom's system, he withdrew from her channels completely, taking the neutralized corruption along as well. In the open air, the energy appeared pale and inert to his senses--scubbed of identity but quickly taking on the characteristic blue of his lightning affinity. Lucas drew it into his body and felt it become part of him in some ineffable way.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Is it done? Did it work?" a skinny man in the guards' leathers pressed close from among the spectators and asked.

The rest of the small group watching over him looked just as worried and eager to hear his answer, Elder Falon most of all. The old [Mage] stared into his eyes intently, as if attempting to scry the secrets of what had just happened from their depths. Lucas didn't answer the question, and instead turned back to his mother and scanned for any remaining sign of the corruption. When he was sure it was gone, he gave a single nod and moved straight to the next cot down the line.

"Well? Did it work, or not?" the same guard yelled at him, and Lucas perceived one of the others push through to Mary's side and grab hold of her arm.

He immediately halted in his path and twisted around to see exactly what this guard thought he was doing, but he continued to his next patient when the man used some form of a simple healing Skill to check her condition. On a whim, he threw out an [Identify] before completely turning his attention.

[Mage]

"She seems fine, Elder. The interference my Skill was getting is gone now, and she should wake up anytime."

One of the non-dedicated healers, then.

Though it was interesting that he finally got to meet one of the rumored guards that possessed healing magic, now of all times it was not an important occurrence. Lucas shook the thought from his head and got back on task, not bothering to even listen to how the rest of the group received the [Mage]'s news.

It was soon clear that, out of the handful of survivors, Mary was in the best condition of all. The next patient Lucas treated turned out to be the shield-bearer that protected his mother, and the corruption had spread to over half of his channels. It took him much more time to dredge it all out, and afterward he pulsed [Arclight Renewal] through the affected spans to be sure the process did not leave any lingering damage.

The trend only got worse with the next few patients. By the fourth guard, a woman this time, Lucas started to rush his purge of her system. The corruption clearly had time to replicate and spread itself within her, covering nearly all of her mana channels and turning the currents to a thick sludge. Lucas had to methodically score the substance out, and as the purge went on, the woman started producing a vile black sweat.

"What is happening, child?" Elder Falon calmly, yet with clear concern questioned.

"She's worse than the others," Lucas replied without ever looking away from his task, "it had more time to infect."

"What did?" the [Mage]'s presence at his back seemed to grow inexplicably larger as his voice turned grim.

Lucas wasn't sure what was with the man's attitude, but he was having none of it right now. He'd answered him in the first place because he believed it would be best to keep the small group at least a little informed, but now he needed space and silence.

"Unless you want this woman to die for some reason, you need to step back and be quiet, Elder," Lucas rebuked. "That goes for the rest of you as well."

"Brat! That is no way to speak--" a woman that had thus far remained silent started to say, before the [Mage] with healing magic forcefully clamped his hand over her mouth and dragged her back.

"Do what you need to do," the [Mage] told him.

Lucas grunted his thanks and redoubled his efforts. Without the talking and interruptions, he was able to get the last of the corruption from his patient's channels and then spent a long time dumping healing magic back in. She soaked up so much of it, that Lucas started to keep an eye on his remaining MP in his status. He needn't have worried, though, because with each patient healed and pocket of corruption absorbed, his MP had been progressively [Overcharging].

He actually finished healing her with it still a bit above 110% of his maximum capacity. The burning sensation that should have torn at his focus was hardly present at all--but he could consider that later. Lucas moved on to the next, and final patient with no more pause.

No, the pause came the moment he surveyed the spread of corruption within the patient. With all others, it had still been in the process of spreading through their channels, but with this man, for some reason or another, it had long since passed that point. Lucas looked on in mounting horror as the corruption soaked deeper and deeper into his very structure at a visible rate--not just infecting, but seemingly becoming him.

I-I don't know if I can fix this...

Even as he watched, the man started to move as if rousing, and Lucas's horror grew.

"Walt!" the same man that had to be hushed earlier exclaimed and started pushing forward. "He's waking up!"

"Stay back!" Lucas whirled on the man and prevented him from getting any closer, and a flurry of movement ensued.

"What? No, he's my brother, get out of my way!"

"It's not him!" Lucas tried to tell him.

"What do you mean, it's not--"

Once again, the man was cut off--this time by a disturbing squishing sound and a warm spray hitting his face and Lucas's back. Unfortunately, Lucas knew exactly what had happened. His Limited Sensory Enhancement didn't allow otherwise. He started to breathe deeply, and very rapidly.

The man started screaming.

"No-aaAHH!" the man clutched the sides of his head with both hands and pulled on his hair, then fell to his knees.

"Get him out of here," Elder Falon commanded from somewhere behind Lucas in a disturbingly calm voice, "he shouldn't see this any more than he has to."

The rest of the small group of guards rushed to obey, each and every one looking pale and stricken, and just a little red. Walt's brother didn't even fight them, he just kept screaming as they carried him out and never once looked away from what remained of his brother.

The whole time, Lucas didn't move. Couldn't move. It didn't feel real.

What...just happened.

"What did you do?" the words came out of his mouth all on their own and deceptively calmly. Suddenly, he could move again, and he turned slowly till he faced the gory mess that had become of the cot, and the Elder earth [Mage] that had conjured the offending stones and callously ended a man's life after only a few words from Lucas.

"What was necessary to protect the village," Elder Falon said sourly. He looked at Lucas as if he was displeased.

Lucas was no stranger to death. He'd meted it out to over two dozen monsters just earlier. The world was a dangerous place, and occasionally someone in the village would get into a bad accident, that was just the way of things. A few times, they even made it back to his mom's clinic before the end, carried by someone desperately hoping they could still be saved.

But this had been his patient. He hadn't known the man, but Walt had been in his care. And his life was stolen from him, not by sickness or injury, but by another person. Lucas couldn't make any sense of it.

As he was mired in shock and confusion, the Elder wiped himself down as best he could with a nearby cloth and moved to the room's exit. He looked back at Lucas over his shoulder, and said, "Someday, you will understand. Until then, please make sure no more of the infection persists. I'll have this room locked down till they are all healthy and awake, so you can get some quiet and maybe some rest."

He paused, but when Lucas didn't reply, he gave a curt nod and strode out the door. Lucas didn't move for some time.