Damned Healer

Darian didn't just lift the staff — he spun it in his hand, and everyone around completely lost their minds. No one dared to believe what they were seeing.

'A single staff is this heavy? That's not good.'

Even so, inside, Darian was tense, with not a hint of joy on his face.

He had been training ever since he arrived on the planet — first in the desert, then by eating a lot of that strange fish and using the array, pushing his body to the limit. He felt he had improved a lot and believed he could reach two thousand points... but now, he was worried.

"Mr. Darian!"

Seeing Darian lost in thought, weighing the staff in his hand, Zelkov shouted, snapping him out of his trance.

Only then did he come back to his senses — and realized everyone around was completely dumbfounded.

"How is it not hard to hold? Is there something wrong with the staff? Let me see..."

Darian waved his hand and casually threw the staff.

*BOOM!*

It hit the ground, cracking the earth and shaking the entire field. There was nothing wrong with the staff.

"Mr. Darian, I asked to test it, not for you to throw it at me!" Zelkov was pale with fear.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to," Darian said as he pulled the staff back and set it on its original stand.

Everyone around stared at him like he was a monster. Shock and disbelief were written all over their faces — all the earlier disdain had completely vanished.

After all, for beasts, strength was everything. And seeing him lift that kind of weight so easily gave them a clear idea of the power he possessed. Now, they looked at him with respect — even reverence.

Seeing Tetoya's curious and expectant look, Zelkov smiled. "Mr. Darian is really strong! Why not challenge yourself and see your limit? You can adjust the weight using that mark — the staff's linked to the inscription, it increases automatically."

Soon after, Darian turned his gaze to a longer staff resting about thirty centimeters off the ground. It would take pure physical power to lift it.

He stepped forward and grabbed it.

"HEAVENS!"

Under countless stunned gazes, Darian lifted it off the ground. Everyone went pale as they looked at the weight mark on the inscription.

"O-one hundred... one hundred points... that's..." Tetoya muttered, trembling.

No one could believe what they were seeing.

Darian exhaled sharply, setting the staff back on the stand connected to the inscription. Then he looked at the mechanism beside it and moved the runes, doubling the weight without hesitation. His eyes glowed faintly in seven colors — and then he lifted the staff again.

"Two hundred points!"

"Four hundred points!"

"HEAVENS! Eight hundred points...!"

**BOOM!**

The entire field trembled as a staff heavier than anything ever seen before slammed into the ground.

Darian was drenched in sweat, breathing heavily. He had to burn all the power of his rings to push his stellar body to the absolute limit. That was his maximum — he couldn't go any further.

"Eight hundred points of Fiendgod strength..."

Someone muttered, completely frozen. It was worth remembering that, with four rings, the historical record was only twelve points. And eight hundred... was the record a legendary figure had reached with nine rings.

Was he even human? Not even a Draconic Beast race would have that kind of power, right? With only four rings, he had set the bar so high that no one could ever hope to reach it again.

Everyone stared at Darian, who looked at the staff with a dark expression.

In his mind, 'Eight hundred is still far from two thousand. Am I really this weak?'

***

"What? Eight hundred strength points? Are you sure that information's accurate?" Morion asked, shocked, inside the meeting room.

"There's no mistake. Even you — the one I acknowledge as the greatest talent after me — didn't have that kind of strength when you had nine rings," Painita replied calmly.

"That's impossible. Even if he has pure Primordial Dragon blood flowing in his veins, his body is still human. How can he possess that much power?" Morion just couldn't believe it.

Painita let out a small scoff. She had calmly watched everything and could feel Darian's fluctuations changing as he activated some kind of extremely abnormal physical technique.

She wasn't that physically strong herself, but she had developed a Spiritual Technique using her own blood, which gave her an unprecedented physical boost.

When she had nine rings and used that technique to its limit, she could lift up to three times what Darian had just raised. But that was only possible because she had personally created the technique — and even then, her body would never have endured that kind of strain before reaching nine rings.

But him... he only had four rings. When he reached nine, it was terrifying just to imagine. Not even she could compare to that.

Painita sighed and looked around the room at everyone present.

"It wasn't part of the plan, but now everything's changed. I trust him completely, and this will be a good opportunity to test him. We'll start the plan immediately."

Everyone swallowed hard.

***

Inside the Merchant Guild's meeting hall.

"Eight hundred Fiendgod strength points? Impossible!"

"That's total nonsense!"

"Princess Tetoya must be spreading that rumor on purpose. With just four rings — and being human — even the Matriarch wouldn't have that kind of power!"

Everyone there wore expressions of disbelief. Still, they had already received direct orders from their family head: report everything about Darian and never underestimate him again. Without delay, they began sending out messages.

News of Darian spread like wildfire across the planet. He had broken every record imaginable, and soon every beast knew.

When they first heard it, their immediate reaction was to call it fake — that it had to be some kind of equipment malfunction or test error. But after a full inspection, the truth became undeniable.

Days passed slowly.

By now, Darian was staying at Tetoya's mansion, accompanied by Zelkov — who flat-out refused to leave him. He'd even abandoned his own home to stay there, acting as Darian's personal assistant of sorts.

Tetoya, on the other hand, as a beast who respected power, had completely changed her attitude toward him.

When she finally took a closer look, she noticed something she'd missed before.

Inside the mansion, all the soldiers already treated Darian as the true leader of the place — even with her still there.

He'd only spent three days with them while she was imprisoned, yet his ability to draw people in and lead them had completely surpassed her own. Swallowing her pride, she asked one of the soldiers — a woman Darian often talked to — what he had done in those three days.

"Mr. Darian... he just gathered us all on the first day and told us to activate our powers and blessings to the fullest. Then he ran a simple evaluation, gave us some advice, and handed us a few pills."

"We were dismissed to train afterward, but when we took the pills... our bodies started expelling an insane amount of impurities nonstop. It went on for two full days."

"When we woke up, it felt like we'd taken a mountain off our backs. Our bodies were several times stronger, and we could tell we'd be able to improve way more easily. So, on the last day, we all gathered and started trying to repay him however we could."

Tetoya listened, stunned. Pills? Again? He had already given her one — and a really good one — without ever asking for anything in return.

She swallowed her pride even more, realizing how ridiculous her earlier behavior must have looked to him. But before she could sink further into self-blame, an emergency alert flared on her emblem.

"?"

It came from the mansion's entrance — a soldier was urgently calling for her.

She rushed over.

When she reached the gate, she saw two young, weak, mediocre-looking people — from some random family.

A young man and woman, both covered in blood, kneeling at the entrance. They were leaning on each other for support, but the man's eyes were already closed, while the woman was barely holding on — as if refusing to take her last breath.

As Tetoya approached, the woman lifted her face with great effort.

"Please... Lord Darian... I'm Lihan..."

She couldn't finish her sentence. Her eyes closed, and both of them collapsed to the ground, unconscious.