Damned Healer

Darian was standing inside the sect, just feeling the karma of the distant people. In a few minutes, he suddenly noticed a big commotion erupting... but soon it ended, and everyone dispersed.

'Hmm... it wasn't my intention, but I guess I drew enough attention in these two days.' Darian reflected for a moment, understanding: 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend. This sect must've accepted to protect me because they see me as a potential ally... good, that saves me time.'

He had come to the sect thinking this principle would be used. But he also knew there was a chance the enemies would try to buy him off. If that happened, he'd be in serious trouble. But at no point did he feel danger while being inside the sect; so he figured it would all be fine.

"Everyone doing the exam, we'll start now." Suddenly, a voice sounded, and Darian turned to the Elder examiner.

The sect had probably sent a message telling everyone to just keep going with what they were doing. Darian only nodded and moved closer.

***

Hours later, in the main building of the sect.

All the High Elders and the Sect Leader were gathered in the meeting hall, in a long discussion.

They had brought up every bit of information available about Darian. To help with that, in the corner of the room was Zaen, forced to report every little detail of what he'd witnessed about Darian.

It wasn't much. But he firmly stated: all nine thousand Heavenly Elemental Spirits adored him like a deity.

On top of that, the events at the Battle Institute and the Nature Institute were revisited. Soon, the High Elders calmed down about his character. At that moment...

The Chromaraic High Elder, commander of the Elemental Institute, received a serious message. He looked at the emblem and his eyes widened.

"Impossible! In the instructor exam, someone managed to fully dominate all five elemental hearts!"

The moment he spoke, the other two institute commanders let out heavy snorts.

"It can only be him... that little monster..." the High Elder leader of the Nature Institute commented.

The three institutes of the sect had a diagram that gave them terrifying potential. The elemental hearts themselves were complex mechanisms, capable of storing the elemental runes granted by the system. That was only possible thanks to the power of the diagram, of course.

The Elemental Institute's commander himself could barely dominate even one of those hearts — and even then, 'dominate' was an exaggerated word. But him... according to the report, he had dominated all five perfectly.

The Sect Leader stayed silent for a few seconds, then sighed, his expression clearly shaken: "All three institutes..."

Everyone swallowed hard. After a few minutes of reflection, the Sect Leader declared:

"We won't favor him too much. Follow the rules. Don't let anyone harm him, but don't do anything beyond that either. We'll observe his contributions and, besides... since he's already a Master Instructor of two institutes, being of all three won't be a problem. There's no rule forbidding the accumulation of positions."

***

For the third time, after the announcement of first place in the exam, all the Elders froze. Soon after, they told Darian to wait alone in a hall.

A short while later, the Chromaraic High Elder arrived and stared deeply into his eyes.

Darian smiled lightly — by now, he already knew everything about him had been found out. But right after Chromaraic entered, two other familiar figures appeared behind him.

They were the commanders of the other institutes. The woman smiled faintly and spoke: "Hello, Darian, we didn't have time to talk before. Still in a hurry?"

"I'm good."

After his reply, she nodded, and a golden, extremely bright emblem floated over to him.

"The Leader created this emblem for you. Since you passed perfectly in all three institutes, you'll officially be the Master-level Instructor of all of them. This is a unique position in history." She spoke and then bowed politely. "My name is Rondis. We can't break the rules to benefit you, but I hope we can get along."

"I'm Hothir," introduced the Chromaraic High Elder. "We already understand your situation. The Sect Leader sees you as an ally, but we barely have enough resources for ourselves... we can't do much for you."

Lastly, the final High Elder, a Fiendgod, added: "I'm Aegron. You'll get the accumulated points from the three positions. If you want more, you'll have to work. Not that it's a problem, with your skills it should be easy."

Darian nodded to the three. "No problem. I came to this sect just so I wouldn't have to keep running nonstop. I'd rather earn my things on my own. But I won't forget the sect's help and I'll do what I can for you."

The three nodded in relief. Darian wasn't some arrogant Young Master, the kind who would get pissed for them not treating him as someone special.

"Your monthly points are already registered in this new emblem. Later..." Rondis murmured, looking him in the eyes, "can I ask for your help refining some herbs? I'll pay you accordingly."

"Anytime," he answered.

She smiled. "Great, I'll prepare the best herbs of the sect and harvest them. In a few days, I'll call you."

Darian nodded, then turned to the other two. "Since I have my points, can you take me to the Scripture Pavilion?"

***

Darian was taken to the entrance of the Scripture Pavilion. That place stored all the techniques left behind by the sect's disciples over the centuries. These techniques had been gathered from the desert ruins, and the sect paid really well to anyone who brought something new.

As soon as Darian showed his new instructor emblem, the guards at the gate let him pass. The entrance was extremely strict, and he had to go through three inspections before finally getting in.

The shelves were massive, and next to them there were small rooms, each with just enough space for one person. In those rooms, you could place a book in a special spot, activating an inscription that helped you memorize its contents quickly. But every use drained the reader's mind heavily.

All the books there were extremely important, and that's why entry was expensive. Disciples had to pay a thousand points just to step into the pavilion and another two hundred to use one of the study rooms.

Because of that, many tried their best to learn everything they could in a single visit, using recovery pills until their bodies couldn't take it anymore.

As an instructor, Darian could enter for free, but he still had to pay to read the books. To do that, all he had to do was press his emblem against the shelf: the value was deducted, and then the book could be taken out.

He had thirty thousand points — ten thousand from each institute. That was his monthly allowance, and any regular disciple would go crazy with joy having that much in a whole year.

Darian, however, wasn't interested in techniques. What he wanted were the knowledge books.

There was vast information there about all the races that had ever appeared in the Savage World. Even more important: all the children of those who lived through the final phase of the Trial were born there, and so they left behind whatever knowledge they had of that region.

That was essential for Darian.

But soon his initial excitement turned into disappointment. He had dreamed of reading every knowledge book, but reality hit him: he didn't have enough points.

Moving on, he noticed that the most important books cost at least five thousand points, some reaching as high as twenty thousand.

Knowledge was power, and the sect knew it very well. That's why they paid so much to gather information.

Darian still needed it, so he had to think of a way to get more points.

Despite the prices, there were a lot of people there, and most of the rooms were occupied. He noticed that some disciples looked completely exhausted, but still kept studying hard.

While the other areas were packed, the general knowledge section had far fewer people. Since he could only pick a few books, Darian browsed through the titles, trying to spot the most important ones.

Then suddenly…

"The Tale of the Immortal Fairy Chromaraic!"

Darian's eyes widened, and immediately Remira came to mind. If anyone deserved that title, it was her. Very curious, and since the book cost "only" five thousand points, he bought it.

Reading it…

'This story claims to take place in a very ancient time… maybe 10, maybe 50, maybe even 100 thousand years ago…'

Remira didn't know how long she had been sealed inside that ship at sea. Nobody could know. If the content was true, then she really had been there for an absurdly long time, with no chance of escape.

The book told of a beautiful Chromaraic sent by the immortals to atone for her sins and save the people trapped in that world. She arrived in the desert and crushed every opponent with ease, advancing alone all the way to the Wild World.

The story described her as wild and powerful, detailing how she made the nine sects bow to her and work together during the eruptions for her benefit. Like that, in just ten years, she gathered enough points and moved on to the final phase. But the book ended without revealing what happened next.

At first glance, it looked like an overly exaggerated fairy tale and a waste of points — but it definitely wasn't.

'Diagrams? Twenty-seven of them, three in each sect?'

The book explained that Fairy Chromaraic had conquered the nine sects, controlling the power of their 27 diagrams.

'That must be the 27 Blood Sins from the special mission… so, I need to destroy them in the nine sects.' Darian muttered, then snorted: 'Well, eight are enemies anyway. As for this one… if I wipe out all the others and leave it as the only strong one, they probably won't care.'

…

While Darian was reading that book and then searching for other useful ones…

In the main building of the sect, the Sect Leader received an urgent message. After reading it, his face turned grim.

"The lowest-level primordial eruption… judging by the fluctuations, it'll happen in 48 hours, near the border of our territory with the Bloodnet Sect's… damn it… it's going to be at the Devil's Swamp."

He grew frustrated, because that place was like a desert "ruin." A special area with entry restrictions.

It was extremely rare for eruptions to happen inside places like that. The Devil's Swamp in particular was a place only demons could enter.

"Wait?! Wasn't he part demon hybrid?" Suddenly, the Leader smiled.