A Dragon's Curiosity

Got through the final month of the semester, my break starts now and chapters resume ~ Hope you enjoy

“Who would have thought that the undead army was only the precursor for even greater suffering.

Starting with that fallen priest who opened the ruins, nearly every single undead contracted the [Blackroot Plague] from the undead before they were killed.

Before they had the chance to show signs of infection, the skeleton army massacred them and picked up new spores from the bodies before repeating the process by raising new undead.

Consequently, the whole army remained in a constant state of contamination.

When the rescue party had decimated the undead and rescued the trapped expedition forces, they had already fallen prey to the disease.

The spells needed to cleanse contamination from deceased bodies and those required to combat a plague differ more than just a bit, hence the first treatment at the battle site and later on by the local branches only cured wounds, but did not purge the disease.

Similar to a prairie fire, new pockets of infection appeared along the route back without anyone knowing.

By the time the head priest figured out the grave danger from the buried ruins, the rescue party had returned to Thurgau.

To their grief, the guards who followed him and our leader of the Hall of Life and Death noticed the abnormality too late, and their own bodies showed signs of advanced symptoms of the plague, which they had previously attributed as sequela of the battle instead.”

Nisha perked up and closely followed the story that Miss Thana reverently explained to her.

Presently, the connection between the [Blackroot Plague] and the Undead Disaster that befell Leandar in the past became clear and it renewed the dragon’s interest in learning about the seriousness of diseases.

The sudden appearance of a sea of skeletons already gave the youthful girl some ideas about the gravity of disasters and their effect on people, but the real main point was yet to come.

“Do you know why the plague is different from a common disease that a priest can heal easily with a spell and prayer?

The main reason for the difference comes down to the complexity and resilience of a sickness.

[Blackroot Plague] is not the only plague, and generally all diseases and sicknesses that earn the classification of plague do not have a set rank.

Other more common sicknesses like the [Red Fever] only afflict those who do not exceed the rank of itself, higher ranked beings have enough natural defenses to ward it off.

A priest only needs a spell one level higher than the rank of the sickness to resolve it, and while treatment is costly for higher level spells, it is still possible to treat those afflicted in a timely manner.

Plagues, on the other hand, either are too powerful for most priests below the second great divide to treat, and only manifest weakened signs when afflicting lower ranked people according to their cultivation, or they need to grow for some time in the host first and determine their rank accordingly, meaning that there is a complete set of the same disease but with different ranks.

The [Blackroot Plague] comes from the second category, and the roots - which are one of the most prominent symptoms - are produced after the spores that infect the host grow on the mana of the patient.

Furthermore, the most disgusting part about this plague is that the spores produced from a victim with a higher mana cultivation will differ from someone with a lower state.

Hence, a cleansing spell from a priest at the third rank might work on some afflicted, yet the spores from a victim from the fourth rank or higher will resist the treatment even if both patients never trained their mana and are still at the first rank!”

The talk included more technical details and the elf had to concentrate hard to completely grasp all the details correctly.

By her own analysis, Nisha concluded that plagues were indeed terrible disasters for the common people, as the treatment possibility might decide whether they can live or die.

All her personal experience was limited to small colds and other minor illnesses that the people around her contracted, but a plague did not simply end by itself.

Untreated, these maladies threatened to take many lives and spread far throughout the land, making them a grave threat.

As for the two different types of plagues, the first was at a high level from the start and only exhibited symptoms based on the strength of the host, while the second type did the opposite and had no strength by itself and plundered the cultivation of the host to grow stronger.

Nonetheless, either option was feared high and low everywhere.

“As an outstanding servant of the church who had briefly touched the ninth rank, our head priest managed to contain the plague inside his own body and prevent it from deteriorating further, as well as the state of his companions, the royal knights and mages.

Hurrying after the path the rescue party took on their way back to the capital, they warned the cities and urged the divisions of the church there to start cleansing their priests and prevent them from falling under the disease, as well as making preparations to treat those who already became infected.

Back in Thurgau, the king and the church were horrified to learn that another serious crisis emerged right after the other and made an effort to minimize the impact of the plague.

Unfortunately, the delay between learning about the disease and rushing back to inform everyone meant that some of the earliest victims already showed advanced symptoms and roots broke through their skin, essentially denying them any chance of survival and further spreading high ranked spores.

The Adventurer’s Guild issued notices of emergency through all of their branches in Leandar, albeit too late for many, to warn them of the danger and advise them to stay away from strangers and keep the plague from spreading.

It did not end with pockets of infection in several cities, as traders, adventurers and travelling citizens spread the plague towards other settlements unknowingly.

In big places like the capital, the dense population also increased the spread, causing more and more victims to emerge everywhere, much more than the priests from all Halls had any hope to treat on short notice.”

Schooled in geography the dragon had the map of Leandar overlap as an imaginary map in front of her with countless black and rotting roots grasping everywhere they could reach, strangling cities and villages everywhere with their touch.

From her initial lax attitude towards the [Blackroot Plague], Nisha now properly recognized the danger and helplessness that overcame people when they heard that there might be a new outbreak of this disease.

“While the involved three parties all made efforts to diminish the problems that were bound to follow and save more lives, there were little effective measures available to them.

The head priest managed to make it back to the main temple and asked for help from the other Halls, especially their head priests, to treat him, yet the plague already ingrained itself into his body when they searched the ruins.

Furthermore, the entire church lacked a master who surmounted the ninth level and stepped into the next realm, and as such it was impossible to drive out the illness entirely.

At most, the combined strength of several priests only guaranteed that there was no danger going forward and that his status would not decline further, leaving him stranded at the early eighth rank.

Similarly, the notices and warnings from the kingdom, church and guild meant little to the common people and fear took hold as anyone treated strangers with wariness and suspicion.

Within a short moon, the first victims that did not get managed to receive treatment in time appeared and the plague broke out in earnest.

Corpses layered the streets, citizens who denied that they had been infected covered up their symptoms in denial and died as a result.

Each deceased sent a new wave of infectious spores around, making everyone unwilling to touch the dead bodies and consequently letting them rot out in the open.

The produce on the field also spoiled, the plants carried the plague without too much issues, but rendered it unsafe for consumption.

Cattle who grazed on contaminated plants died on the fields, dropping dead faster than the local priests had the chance to heal the people first before worrying about the animals owned by those under their care.

Between half and three fourths of the harvest rotted without anyone willing to care about it.

Finally, the cities which were less affected closed their gates entirely and denied access to any travellers.

The other settlements had no choice and followed suit, sealing off themselves in hope of controlling the situation.”

If the previous accounts did not manage to instill fear into the elven girl, the thought of a dying and rotting country evoked a great sense of horror.

She mutely sized up the old priestess, who had personally lived through that nightmare.

Her recount did not intentionally play up any fears or exaggerations, yet it was entirely sufficient to conjure an accurate depiction of the graveness involved with the [Blackroot Plague].

Thinking about the consequences and challenges involved with managing such a scary disease, Nisha felt dismayed to discover that she had no strategy in mind to bring the situation under control.

“But like all great challenges, humanity also managed to live through the second disaster.

The food available in the cities dropped sharply, if only barely manageable without even more people dying of starvation.

It actually helped that the plague lowered the number of people that needed to be fed, though that’s a rather grim comment by an official from court who was in charge of recording the casualties throughout the country.

Thurgau had more people to feed, and it was the generosity of the Sheridan clan that supplied the city with fresh seafood free of charge from their islands, which were largely free from the plague, that allowed every commoner to eat a full meal every day.

Finally, the confinement of each city meant that the priests in the divisions stationed there had some manner of control over the spread of the plague.

Starting with a district, the priests went from house to house and cleansed the people one by one before instructing them to stay inside their houses.

Cleansing their city one step at the time, the [Blackroot Plague] was systematically driven out, eventually out of the city completely.

With no more of their believers at danger of dying, the priests reinforced the sealed state of the city by going around the villages and cleansing them of the disease as well, before rescuing whatever produce or livestock was still alive.

Reestablishing the supply of food meant that there remained little risk in continuing the confinement before the plague was eradicated in other parts of the country.

Dispatching every priest minus those who were required to make sure that there was no new outbreak and the need to cleanse the city again for reassurance, the troubled cities and villages who struggled to stay alive suddenly had an influx of capable help.

Travelling in large groups, the different halls burned all the contaminated areas in short order, freeing up more food and priests to travel to even further regions.

In the end, some villages did not make it in time and died off completely, but the majority received help in time and managed to recover with only some deceased instead of everyone.

As for Thurgau, the head priest of our Hall of Life and Death sacrificed himself to the cause of the people.

He kept heading out and using his spells and prayers to save those which other priests had already given up as hopeless cases.

Many lives were pulled back from the brink of death and the survivors praised him as a true saint.

Unfortunately, he also concealed his own state, weakened by battle and illness, until he passed away after he collapsed from overexertion.

A priest from the Hall of Water found him on a patrol through the districts and hurriedly called help from the church, but it was too late to save him.

The head priest blamed himself a lot for not noticing the danger sooner and took it as his personal mission to combat the [Blackroot Plague].

Did that sufficiently answer your question, young Nisha?”

Rather than waning, the sadness grew even more when Miss Thana finished her story.

Unable to answer in a meaningful way, the elf served another cup of tea to the old priestess and offered her company instead of any words of consolation.