NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 1052
<1052 – 초병약가련모드(10)>
Empress Masugaki’s arrival in the Border City of the Empire was soon followed by the appearance of the Rank 10 Continental Healer, Speedmore.
He appeared with a massive storage box on his back that could remind you of a snail.
“Where are the patients in need of recovery?”
“Over there♡”
“Your face looks very serious. I’ll treat you right away.”
“…It’s not me. It’s the one next to me.”
The Senior Instructor gritted his teeth, wondering if it really needed to be said out loud.
“Indeed. A mask syndrome and a yukata syndrome, huh? If I give you the antidote that breaks the obsession with aesthetics and imprint casual wear on you, it should fix it. First, drink this mental disruption potion.”
“…It’s not me that needs treatment; it’s the one I’m carrying on my back. It’s a curse that’s eating away at Oknodie’s life.”
What’s wrong with a mask and a yukata?
Jiang glared at Speedmore.
With just two check-ups since his appearance, he made two people turn into enemies with his aggro skills!
Sadi Chocolate was seriously doubting whether Masugaki had brought a healer or a tank.
“This…! This is a really serious curse.”
“Can you identify what kind of curse it is?”
Jiang, whose trust in healers had dwindled, threw a question to gauge the doctor’s skills.
It could have come off as somewhat rude, but the already slightly rude doctor answered the question without holding any grudges.
“Simple. The curse on this child is a very powerful <Curse of No Growth>.”
“…”
Correct but incorrect!
Jiang couldn’t hide his discomfort.
“Aren’t there other curses?”
“There are. But the Curse of No Growth is no small threat. If one possesses the age and knowledge of an adult yet is trapped in the body of a small child for life, they can’t have true love, and even if they meet a man who loves them, they’d be forced to doubt his true intentions.”
“…That’s true, but the curse in question isn’t that one. Something else poses a greater threat.”
“That’s why this curse is even more important.”
In healing, understanding the condition is crucial.
Speedmore accurately grasped the mechanics of the curse.
“The other curse is currently parasitizing the <Curse of No Growth>.”
“A curse parasitizing another curse…?”
“A body that doesn’t grow. A physique that doesn’t change. What do you think will happen if ‘a curse’ is included as part of that physique?”
“Are we going to… suffer eternally?!”
“Correct.”
For a moment overwhelmed by shock.
Jiang felt a contradiction in Speedmore’s words.
“If it’s an unchanging curse, shouldn’t the condition not worsen?”
“That’s the insidious nature of this curse. It can ‘renew’ the effects of existing curses. While it obstructs recovery, it continuously worsens the condition.”
The human body can have higher or lower resistance to diseases depending on its condition.
The Heavenly Sovereign’s curse twisted the direction of that resistance into a dead end.
“Teacher, how do we treat Oknodie? Can this be fixed?”
Jiang’s address changed immediately.
With a pleading expression, Speedmore patted the huge storage box he had brought.
“There are plenty of potions. With enough usage, one of them should work.”
“…Are you sure about that?”
“If you don’t like it, then don’t.”
“No, please let me.”
Speedmore first placed a unique helmet on Oknodie’s head.
It was a helmet designed to analyze the patterns of mana waves and mix healing waves into that pattern for emission.
The helmet was deemed a part of Oknodie’s body and was instantly enveloped and rotting away in trash.
“If it’s not a legendary treasure, it’ll corrode in no time.”
Speedmore took out a sturdier, legendary, grim mental reconstruction helmet.
His plan was to halt the adaptation between the item and the body through mental reconstruction before aligning the mana wave with the body.
However, as soon as the helmet was placed on Oknodie’s head, the trash enveloped it once again.
“…Turns out, the one cursed is scarier than the curse itself.”
“Oknodie?”
“When an unregistered mana pattern contacts the body, an automated spell causing instant infection of the trash is triggered. At this rate, healing is impossible. First, let’s wake him up.”
Jiang bravely prodded Oknodie.
“Oknodie. Wake up.”
“Mnmm… hamburgers…”
“It’s time to eat.”
“I can’t eat anymore… I’m stuffed from the doujin.”
Even in his sleep, Oknodie couldn’t skip his doujin!
The kid had actually grown up.
Jiang felt a surge of emotions.
Of course, that’s that, and this is this.
Jiang took out his secret whisper to wake Oknodie.
“Titosso lost the light stand to the Flying Corps.”
“Where?!”
“I’m lying. You need to stay awake to get treated.”
“Is the Flying Corps not here?”
“Not here.”
Speedmore lifted the equipment covered in trash to the sulking Oknodie.
“I hope you can hold on tight to the trash to avoid this treatment tool ending up like this.”
“Okay… Huh? But you’re going to treat my curse?”
“Is there a problem?”
There is.
Oknodie planned to invest a hot 100 hours to develop high-level curse resistance in the meantime.
If he could overcome such a powerful curse, he might gain resistance to the curse of substitution as well.
Historical highest.
He would be able to reach the highest level of curse resistance never achieved before.
But what happens if the curse is treated?
That wouldn’t mean he overcame the curse by his own power.
The healer would get credit for it.
Experience points would rise for the healer’s healing experience, not for Oknodie’s curse resistance experience.
It would be like serving a dish to the dog.
‘That can’t happen!’
Oknodie secretly loosened the trash.
As the loosely contained trash covered the helmet again, the legendary-grade helmet couldn’t withstand the curse and warped.
“Ow, my head!”
“You’re wrong. You’re too weak to overcome the curse. In fact, your control might have been better when you were asleep.”
“Who’s weak?! Try again!”
Oknodie was sarcastically easy to trigger.
With his voluntary cooperation, he successfully put on the next helmet and poked at his consciousness.
“Oops!”
Oknodie barely escaped being treated without knowing it and hastily destroyed the equipment.
“I roughly get it now.”
“Huh?! Did you figure out the curse’s secret?”
“This curse adds another layer, forcing the cursed subject to protect the curse.”
It was a live diagnosis from Speedmore, the ultra-expert in curse psychology, whose skill level was hard to gauge.
“In situations like this, you need to give the cursed person a reason to overcome it. You could say it’s a case where the mind needs to heal before the body.”
“Sounds like a great doctor.”
Speedmore, worthy of being called the Continental Rank 10 Healer, exhibited his prowess in examination.
“If you just feed them something good and let them do what they want, they’ll get better on their own.”
“…Wait, but what happens if we lazily let a hundred years pass?”
“What could happen? By then, I’d be long dead, so it wouldn’t be my concern.”
Speedmore’s irresponsibly cool words!
With a face that didn’t want to comply, he pulled out a vial.
“If you want, there is a forced, quick treatment method: collapse the mind, incinerate the self, overlay identity, and change the direction of the curse.”
“I’m willing to drink that!”
“I’m glad to see the patient’s determination to get better.”
“I drank it all!”
“No effect. Could it be that you’ve developed a drug resistance? Then this one. It has side effects of memory and emotion loss while brainwashing, but the effect is more certain.”
“I drank it all!”
“Why is there no effect? Even the monsters become tame with this potion.”
Jiang panicked and slapped Oknodie’s palm.
“Why are you accepting that sort of thing so readily?!”
“It looks good for developing resistance!”
“Don’t pick up strange things!”
With the realization that he had taken the drug purely for resistance and not for healing, this time Speedmore felt annoyed.
“Then try this. It’s a slime potion. When consumed, the body transforms into a slime and through the slime’s purification, all impurities are removed, returning to human form; however, if purification doesn’t complete, you’ll have to live as a slime forever.”
“I drank it all!”
“You have mutation resistance too? Good. Let’s go crazy today. This is a personality elimination potion. This is a potion for paralysis. This is a resistance bomb potion. This is a deadly psychedelic potion.”
The names of the potions seemed to become increasingly lethal!
While Oknodie kept accepting the potions, Jiang pinched his palm.
“Ow!”
“Stop drinking. If you drink more, it’ll just hurt you more.”
“Okay… I got it…”
With all kinds of resistances stacked, Oknodie did not follow the guidance for the healing gear items and potions.
However, if they directly cast healing magic, the curse could flow back to themselves, so Speedmore ultimately shook his head.
“As expected, it seems I can’t do it.”
“Did you know that from the beginning?”
“That’s why I bought time. Time until Professor Weird arrives.”
“Wait?!”
“Don’t worry. With the healing powers of that person who restores Nature, he will surely fix you.”
As Speedmore spoke, there was a hint of delight in his eyes, as if he was thinking, “You got caught; serve you right.”
It was the side effect of having squandered Speedmore’s assets while trying to develop resistance.