A Dragon's Curiosity

“Illnesses, diseases and similar afflictions generally fall into the same frame of classification.

By separating them into stages or sections, it’s easier to understand their progression and find an appropriate treatment.”

Finished with taking samples, the Alchemist carefully stowed his small knife and the glass containers away in his robe.

Instead of turning around to speak face to face with his guest, the elderly man started stripping the corpse and tossed the burned rags into a corner.

The pants on the corpse were already mostly shredded from the roots exploding out of his body and the fire array burning them, so the man did not bother with them, his main target was the torso.

With a flick of his wrist, a much larger blade appeared in his hands.

“For the sake of convenience, the [Blackroot Plague] is split into five major stages.

The first three have methods to treat them, while the fourth and fifth are lethal in most cases - a minority of the fourth stage cases can be saved with expensive treatment and excessive holy magic. As far as I know, there’s a failure rate too, but from the sparse records I managed to gather, it doesn’t even happen often enough to record the method in detail.”

Nisha studied the unconscious man in front of her.

The knowledge about the [Draft Combustion] array keeping the disease at bay for now and her increasing understanding of the plague emboldened the elf to touch the infected person like the elder on the other side of the walled off section.

She pulled the unconscious man up from the ground and positioned him against the wall in a sitting posture.

Throughout the series of motions, he showed no reactions and did not flinch either when the girl accidentally touched the burned patches of skin on his body.

It was to the point where Nisha compared his lack of response to a dead body.

Despite the odd situation and the dead body next to them, the idea of studying the progress of the [Blackroot Plague] fascinated the dragon immensely.

She had observed other small sicknesses on the remaining members of the Dharnas household, as well as the maid twins.

Common colds, fevers, headaches and stomachaches infrequently troubled the friends and family around her, though such maladies counted as minor inconveniences at best.

Examining these ailments and portioning them into stages to address their effects and possible treatments interested the elf to a great degree, since it was a completely novel concept to her.

“From the first to fifth stage, there are Contamination, Infection, Sprout, Root and Bloom.

As the name implies, the [Blackroot Plague] is more or less part plant and influences how the disease spreads.”

Sometimes, [Spirit Sight] was a curse and a blessing at the same time, as the dragon did not need to turn around to notice that the Alchemist began using the big knife on the corpse.

Drawing a big Y line on his torso, the elderly man did not show any signs of trouble at all while he cut deep and fast.

The bones broke apart like brittle twigs, revealing the inner workings of the body hidden beneath them.

Nisha was not really appalled from seeing a human getting cut up.

She had torn apart her prey on her hunts as a dragon, which inevitably revealed the innards of different animals and monsters in the process.

While the deliciousness depended on the species, the inner structure was surprisingly similar for a lot of monsters that had quite different physiques.

The elf expected that humans followed the general trend, but was astounded to see that the organs inside the dead body were mostly hollowed out and replaced by black plant roots.

“Contamination is also a stage?”

Although the unexpected sight shocked the dragon, it was not possible to show it without giving away that she spied on the Alchemist through her [Spirit Sight].

She forcefully delved into the conversation to take her mind off the strange corpse.

The unconscious man in front of her did not even twitch or react in any way, limiting the options she had to investigate his condition.

“Of course, it’s one of the reasons why the plague is so difficult to combat.

After the tiny plants infect a living being, they do not take root right away. They contaminate the host and siphon excess aura and mana to multiplicate first and increase their concentration.

At the same time, the increase in number also means that the hosts act as infection sources and spread the disease unknowingly.”

Apparently, the Alchemist was not seeing anything unexpected at all and calmly retrieved more sample containers and his small knife.

Peeling the skin back from the Y cut, he stuck his hand inside the corpse and scraped off flesh tissue and root ends.

Nisha imagined thousands and thousands of small seeds floating through the air, spreading from one human to another.

Now it made sense that the fire array made the room safe to enter, it burned away all these tiny dangers.

“Then isn’t it possible to look for a method to prevent the spread of these seeds? That way the plague would not have a chance to spread anyway.”

Nisha left the unconscious man and joined the Alchemist’s side while he gathered his samples.

Her nonchalant attitude did get a raised eyebrow out of the old man when she walked over and did not freak out upon seeing his work.

Since the girl did not ask what he was doing, he was not going to elaborate either and continued with his explanation about the [Blackroot Plague].

“A logical approach, but it’s not just the air that gets contaminated. These countless seeds can cling to surfaces, animals, plants and pretty much anything they come in contact with.

Even if the air gets filtered with a spell, these contaminated surfaces can spread the disease on contact, it’s pretty much impossible to eliminate all of them.

Once there is an outbreak, it’s nearly inevitable that the plague will spread.

The only good thing is that the seeds are limited by the cultivation level of their host, most of them don’t even reach the first cultivation level when they are disseminated.

Only by growing inside a host will they mature and multiply.

That leads to the second stage of the plague, Infection.”

Stowing away his tools, the Alchemist pulled a flask from one of his many pockets.

He flicked the stopper away and poured the content of the bottle over his hands.

With angry hissing, the top layer of skin started to twist and flake off.

Nisha imagined that it must hurt quite a bit to use a potion like that, but the Alchemist barely changed his expression.

Fresh new pink skin emerged from the patches of melted skin flakes.

The elder shook his hands to get rid of the remaining patches, then used the same solution to clean his tools.

Given the context of their conversation, Nisha inferred that he was trying to get rid of the plague seeds stuck to them, since the potion acted like a potent acid without eating through his flesh.

“Do you perchance want to use the expunging potion as well or do you prefer to visit a temple later on for a [Cleanse]?

The only spores that might have survived should spread through direct contact, skin to skin.”

Somewhat convinced that the Alchemist did not stand to gain from harming her, the dragon accepted his offer and held out her hands for the potion.

As they were nearly equal in cultivation level, she had confidence to endure the pain and get it over with.

Seeing her decision, the elder gave her a nod of approval and stepped closer to pour the contents of the flask over her outstretched hands.

Just as Nisha prepared herself for the skin to peel and flake off, the liquid harmlessly slid over her skin, finding no purchase to work at all.

Surprised by the girl’s immunity to his own concoction, the old man poured another generous helping of the potion over her hands, observing very closely if there were any changes.

The result repeated itself and the elf could only allow him to stare with great focus, guessing what he thought about at this moment.

Abruptly, he withdrew another flask from his cloak, which in all likelihood had an infinite amount of pockets, seeing as he produced and stowed close to a complete pharmacy in them.

The new liquid spilled slowly out of the bottle, more viscous and clingy than the previous version, yet the outcome remained the same, it slowly pearled off Nisha's hand and dropped to the ground, where the soot and ash began to sizzle and dissolve.

Silence dominated the distance between them until the Alchemist kept this stronger version of the potion together with the flask and turned away.

“Since even this doesn’t affect you, you’re likely fine. Just to be sure, do visit a temple soon for good measure.

I take it that you have a blessing? It would explain the strong resistance.”

Nisha was unable to get a read on his emotions right now, even though she could see his face despite him turning away from her through her [Spirit Sight].

Nevertheless, it was not a big secret anyway and since he asked directly, she affirmed his query.

“Yes, the temple tested me and I have a Blessing of Darkness.

And I’m a frequent visitor anyway, so I will ask for a [Cleanse] the next time I go there.”

Technically, the elf did not lie with her answer.

She did possess a Blessing of Darkness, just that it was questionable whether this was the reason for her strong resistance or that she also had Blessings of Fire and Life and Death.

Nevertheless, the answer satisfied the Alchemist’s conjectures and he invited the girl back to the arrangement of furniture in the main section of the room.

“The third stage is Bud.

Once the body cannot fight off the multiplying seeds, they germinate into small buds cluttered around it each other.

Because they grow on the body's ambient mana and aura, it cannot detect the irregularity inside itself.

Similarly, scanning for it via spells and arrays is difficult, because their signature overlaps due to that similarity.

The only upside is that the plague has not really taken hold yet and can still get cleansed like debris inside a wound that healed, although the difficulty for the healer goes up.”

Seeing that Nisha seated herself again and paid attention, the elder continued his explanation on the five stages of the [Blackroot Plague].

Again, the glass wall slid back in place and sealed the bodies inside the partition without a visible sign of him activating a mechanism or triggering a spell.

She briefly wondered how exactly the trick to achieve that worked, but it was not the appropriate time and venue to ponder about it deeply.

The Alchemist was a veritable spring of information, telling the dragon many new and interesting tidbits of knowledge.

“Since it takes energy to grow, the mana and aura cultivation of the host slows down, one of the only signs that a host can notice by themselves.

Taking in the aura as nutrients and the mana as fertilizer, the buds grow into larger roots.

Once a single complete root forms, the third stage is complete and the fourth begins.

The small buds cluster and join, integrating into the host.

Because of this parasitism, it’s no longer possible to cleanly remove the growth without harm.

Hungry and incomparable to the small buds, the roots also begin invading the inner organs and meat, releasing numbing poison to deceive the body and quelling any pain.

At the start, this toxin numbs the body due to the small dose, while the infected eventually succumb to long term exposure and start twitching, lose consciousness or experience clouded awareness.”

Perhaps parched from speaking for an extended period of time, the Alchemist produced another flask from his pockets and downed the contents.

Nisha wondered if the man ever mixed up his containers and what a human body would go through after ingesting something like the skin peeling concoction.

“The final stage happens after the roots cannot sate their hunger with the exhausted body of the host anymore.

Burning through the last remaining aura and mana, the roots experience a surge in growth and break out of the body.

A large amount of new seeds are diffused into the air and look for new victims.

When the plague has run its course, it spreads once again after the death of the host.”

The Alchemist clapped his hands together and smiled at the elf opposite of him when the explanation came to an end.

There was a lesson here and an expectation from the elder, but Nisha did not want to come to a premature conclusion.