Chapter 31

Nick had obtained the [Healing Magic] skill, this should greatly help him in his attempt to heal himself, each skill in the magic school made magic easier to use. Quickly adding the [Life Force Manipulation] skill to the main class, he decided to ask to learn a more advanced spell.

"Kaeti, which spell would be better in my circumstances?"

"It would be better in your circumstances to learn life magic, arcane healing requires more mana and better skill. Of course, you don't have time to properly master the school of arcane healing and you can't waste your life force on life magic, it's up to you to choose."

"What healing spells do you know, Kaeti?"

"Hmm, I'm lucky to have learned a lot of spells":

Level 1:

"Accelerated Healing"

"Directed Blood Coagulation"

Level 2:

"Guided Healing"

"Accelerated Bone Recovery"

"Accelerated Flesh Healing"

"The Healer's View"

Level 3:

"Recreation of Nerve Cells"

"Flesh Control"

"Life Force Manipulation"

"Destruction of Bacteria"

"Virus Destruction"

"Acceleration Stamina Regeneration"

Level 4:

"Body Reconstruction"

"Advanced Healer's View"

"In your case, I would use accelerated recovery on the body every day. I'll upset you right away, you won't be able to attach the hand to the body yourself. In my case, this requires two 4th level spells, Max needs one, but only because he has life magic and several skills that greatly help with this."

"Okay, Max, do you have any advice for me?" The half-elf looked at him with a flat gaze and replied.

"Learn the magic of life." Nick rolled his eyes in response. It was his own fault for asking something so obvious.

"Okay, okay. Kaeti, show me the accelerated recovery spells for bones and muscles." Kaeti created a more complex spell between her hands.

"To use these spells correctly, you need to know exactly where you are using them. If you cast the spell incorrectly, you may think that you have completely healed over time, but you may still have areas of your body where it does not work. If you use the "Technique" at this moment, you will receive multiple internal bleeding. This can even kill you, depending on how poorly you cast the spells. To do this correctly, you need to learn the spell "Healer's View". With it, you can evaluate where and how to cast the restoration spell."

"As far as I understand, the spell allows you to see the body from the inside in three dimensions?"

"Yes, you can certainly try to do this with your sense of mana and aura. But to properly treat other people, this is not enough."

"Okay, I get it."

Having started to examine the spell, Nick realized that it works on the principle of scanning the body and at the same time changing perception by imposing on it what the spell sees. The spell was the peak of level 2 in complexity. Its casting required significant control, since the slightest change in the spell can incorrectly transmit information about the body.

"It's hard, how did you even learn all these spells before you were 15?"

"Before I was 15, I knew 2 1st level spells, 4 2nd level spells, 1 3rd level spell, and a 4th level spell called "Body Reconstruction". I learned the rest of the spells after I got my class, and now I have 3 months left before I turn 16."

"Still not bad. Max, you're 20 years old? Yes? Why did you just enter the academy?"

"Half-elves receive classes at age 20, elves at age 30."

"And how many spells do you know?"

"A lot."

"You're not a man of many words, okay, keep your secrets. But I'll ask anyway, do you know combat spells?"

"Hah, of course. You think my family are twisted healers?"

"No, of course not, I'm just curious."

"Even I know a few combat spells Dylan, though they don't belong to healing magic." Kaeti said.

"I understand that you need someone else's protection so as not to use your mana, although you can stand up for yourself?

"Of course I can stand up for myself, but wasting our mana on this instead of healing people is stupid for us." Max answered.

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"I can't stand up for myself against someone of my power level. I know a couple of spells, the highest of which is a 3rd level spell, and my mana output stat isn't as high as I'd like." Kaeti replied modestly.

"I see, thanks for your answer."

Nick began to recreate the spell that Kaeti showed. He tried to weave it and even pour will into it, but he did not succeed. Trying further, he became very tired mentally, this happened because he did not want his mana to dissipate in the air. Strong control over mana cost a lot of will even for him.

It's good that I have 361 MP left, it will save me 10 hours of meditation. It's a pity that yesterday I didn't have the necessary willpower to use meditation correctly and get +50% to the amount of mana.

After Nick's failed attempts to learn the spell, Max and Kaeti left, leaving him alone. He didn't have much to do, so he went back into meditation, trying to get an additional percentage of mana recovery from the skill.

***

For three days, Nick had occasional visitors. He mostly meditated and practiced healing magic. He talked to Evander and Linella every day, and Cassandra also came to visit him along with Seth and Alistair. He had a pleasant conversation with them, and Cassandra brought his hand and showed him the spell she used to artificially support it. He talked to Seth about the correct use of endurance techniques. Nick apologized to him for not being able to teach him more in his condition and to demonstrate his techniques. Alistair came to carefully examine his sword in the hopes that it would tell him how to correctly place the spells and graft the cursed core into a wooden sword made of Ent. On the seventh day after his injury, Evander came to him along with Max and Caeti. He looked very upset, as did the other two.

"Did something happen?" Nick asked.

"Yes, it has happened. Five people fell ill with the plague. One is in serious condition, and the others are only showing mild symptoms so far." The Prince said regretfully.

"And this is a big problem for us?" Nick asked, not understanding.

"Yes, the plague is not ordinary, it is advanced. Max and Kaeti cannot cure it, they only alleviate the symptoms and remove the affected areas."

"But Kaeti has spells to destroy bacteria and viruses." Nick asked in confusion.

"The problem is that these spells are not able to kill only the disease in the whole body. If I were to use this spell on the whole body, it would kill not only the disease, but also all the bacteria. Which would leave the person too susceptible to the same disease, or any other. The spell "Destroy Bacteria" should only be used on completely infected areas of the body that can no longer fight the disease with their immunity. In order to cure the plague, you need a spell that I do not know, now we can only support the body until it copes with the disease itself." Kaeti answered.

"And that means I'll be especially susceptible to the plague and that you'll have to heal people rather than repair my arm. That's unfortunate, but is there a real chance we'll die from the plague?"

"Yes, and it's very high. At first, of course, it won't cause any particular problems, but when we start actively treating people, we'll start running out of mana until either enough people die, or they can't cope with the disease on their own." Max answered.

"Max, can't you cure the disease?"

"Among my spells, there is only one that strengthens the body's immune system, but I don't have an exact spell to destroy the disease."

"This is very bad and what do you plan to do?"

"We will, of course, quarantine all those who are sick and hope that the plague has not spread among us too much." Evander replied.

"Who got sick anyway?"

"The first was Chester Larin [Adept of the Sword], then the people around him got sick. We haven't figured out what caused the illness yet, but we're sure it wasn't because of the river. The main assumption is that they came across the plague in the forest and got infected."

"Okay, I'll take the [Disease Resistance] skill, that's why you came to me, right?"

"Generally yes, but we would like to get your advice." Evander said.

Nick used the skill [Reincarnator's Madness] and he didn't like what he learned at all. Firstly, half of the camp was infected, he didn't know who exactly, but he knew that Cassandra, Seth, Evander and Max were healthy. This gave him the idea that Kaeti might be infected, but didn't know it yet. Secondly, he learned that at this rate, the healers would run out of mana and the probability of several people losing the trials was almost 100%, but that was if he did nothing. Thinking over a strategy, he answered the prince.

"It's too late to isolate only the people who are definitely infected with the plague. We need a full quarantine, for everyone. We need to isolate everyone one by one, or two by two. Max and Cassandra will be the ones interacting with them, it will take something stronger than this disease to infect them. But that puts us in a very bad position because of the amount of provisions. I hope we have enough food for about 4 days, so that we can determine with limited success who is infected and who is not. Healthy people can then be sent out to hunt, but we still need to keep the isolation so that everyone only comes into contact with Cassandra and Max. We should also prioritize Alistair in creating a cure for the plague."

"I'm sure it will work, but if some powerful monster finds us, we will be too vulnerable to it. Is it worth the risk?" Evander asked.

Nick wanted to answer that there was such a possibility, but if they didn’t do it, someone would definitely go to the academy before the rest.

"I think it's worth it."

Evander, Kaeti and Max thought about his proposal. They all thought it was logical, but everyone thought about their circumstances, it was unknown whether the Orcs were still searching and whether they would be able to find their camp during the isolation. Also, the appearance of a strong beast or a group of monsters should not be ruled out. If they did as Dylan suggested, it would greatly undermine their defenses and food supplies. Evander decided to think about it today and decide later.

"Okay, we'll think about it and consult with the others. Have a nice rest."

As they left, Nick thought about whether he had managed to convince them or not without revealing his [Special] Prediction Skill. Nick thought that even if they all went to the academy early, he still shouldn't do it. The potential of such a skill was too great, and if people found out about its existence and found various weaknesses, its effectiveness would drop greatly. Although Nick was currently too vulnerable to the plague, he wasn't too afraid of dying. With his new [Disease Resistance][Common] skill and the healing magic that he could only use on himself, he knew he could handle it.

***

The next day, Evander walked around the camp, carefully checking people for symptoms. As much as he hated to admit it, Dylan was right. He noticed several more people coughing. Deciding that he needed to do something fast, he followed Nick's plan. Standing on the highest point, he raised his voice and began to speak.

"Comrades, classmates, I call your attention to announce bad news. There are several infected with the plague in our camp."

Evander saw the lack of understanding of the people and the faces that said "is this really a problem?" The prince was upset that most of the nobles really did not understand this problem, people needed better training to understand the common people and their problems. Without being distracted by his thoughts, he continued.

"I see that many of you do not understand the main problem, but I will explain it to you quite simply. Over time, a large number of people will become infected despite their high constitution characteristics. To treat them, mana is needed, which we do not have much of. Over time, the amount of mana that healers use will exceed regeneration. Then the symptoms will begin to worsen until some people either die or recover. To reduce the spread of the plague, I have decided that everyone will be isolated one person at a time for three days."

There was a murmur that even the prince found hard to bear, Evander was beginning lto jelly that he had volunteered to be the leader as his father had asked, it was causing more trouble than it was worth. Many objected to his decision and called it unfounded, or simply did not want to agree with him. Now he should show his character so that there would be fewer such incidents in the future.

"Silence! I say that everyone will be isolated and this is not discussed. If we do not do this, then everything will happen as I said. You will have time to choose a place for yourself in which you will spend the next three days and it cannot be by the river. Further circumstances you will learn from the Healers." Evander said and left, while the others complained about his unfair and harsh attitude.