It was impossible for Rorschach to simply use the [Resuscitation Skill]; he had only ever used it on plants. Furthermore, when it ca to human injuries and illnesses, Rorschach had no idea what the consequences would be if the target of the "Su Sheng" effect was sothing like bacteria or cancer cells. ’It definitely wouldn’t be anything good, that’s for sure.’
In any case, he had to be cautious. This was also why he hoped not to expose his healing thods to the other villagers. If everyone with so chronic illness or another ca looking for "Divine Doctor Luo," it would be far beyond Rorschach’s capabilities.
However, Rorschach was confident he could handle Old lson’s case. The Divine Art’s ability to treat external injuries had already been verified twice, once in the Sub-plane and again at the Tower of Stars.
Rorschach glanced around, ensuring the door and windows were shut tight. He then activated [Deryats Forest].
"Whoa..." the old man murmured, watching as the blue phantom of a forest filled the entire room. The layout of the chief’s house was even simpler than the rcer Family’s, lacking partitions to separate different areas—a common design in the Empire’s rural hos. As a result, the space felt more expansive than the rcers’.
Now, the spacious room was packed to the brim with the blue, fluorescent phantoms of trees, and Rorschach had to carefully control their canopies to keep them from poking through the roof.
Fluorescent motes of light drifted toward the bed, converging on the village chief’s leg and ribs.
"My heavens! What kind of Magic is this?" lson felt his chest and abdon. He couldn’t find any trace of his wounds, only the old scars from his ti as a soldier.
"This is a spell that can’t treat every kind of ailnt," Rorschach said, managing expectations.
"Well, I’ll be. No matter how many tis I see it with my own eyes, I still find Magic incredible. Rorschach, my boy, what does the Black Forest have to do with healing? Did you learn this spell from the Long Ears?"
"You recognize this as the Black Forest?" Rorschach had known his power was related to "Deryats" and that the Black Forest had once borne the sa na. By comparing the tree species, he had managed to narrow down the location of the phantom to a general area: sowhere on the eastern side of the forest’s mountain range.
He couldn’t pinpoint it any further himself. His only hope was that the Mages from the Tower of Forest could narrow the area down after he showed them the spell. It was impossible for Rorschach to conduct a grid search, but he believed the forr ho of a Divine Spirit would surely have left traces behind, including myths and legends passed down among the locals. If he could peel back the layers of epic tales and mythology, he would eventually find the kernel of truth.
"My first battle under a Knight was in the Black Forest. We fought a fierce battle against the Long Ears in the na of the Empire."
"Were there Elves in the forest?"
"There used to be plenty. They’d set up camp among the trees and even held rituals. Rorschach, my boy, I think I might have even been to the place you just summoned. See that tallest, biggest tree?"
’Huh? The tallest, biggest tree?’ Hearing a potential lead, Rorschach quickly activated the spell again, causing the dim phantom to beco more substantial.
The old man pointed to a canopy that stood a head taller than the rest. It had a peculiar shape: a straight, branchless trunk supporting an umbrella-like crown of leaves.
"There, that’s the one. The Long Ears used to perform rituals under that tree. In the old days, the village had legends about a giant tree in the Black Forest, but no one rembers them now. My squad fought our battle right at the foot of that tree. Our whole unit couldn’t even wrap our arms around its trunk. If you hollowed it out, you could probably house the entire village inside..."
’Was that a single tree?’ Rorschach hadn’t noticed it before. Within the phantom conjured by the Magic, the tree the chief pointed to was indeed taller than the others, but only by a tiny amount.
’Could it be a distant object within the spell’s projected illusion?’
Rorschach had always overlooked this possibility. Because the trees seed to "burst from the ground" when [Deryats Forest] was activated, he had assud it was part of a single tree. That, combined with the phantom’s appearance, had prevented him from realizing his mistake. He had believed the Divine Art rely reproduced a close-up view of a small corner of the forest.
Pacing to change his position, Rorschach discovered he could no longer see the distant giant tree. This confird it was a far-off object projected by the Divine Art, its tiny peak visible only from a specific angle.
"You have sharp eyes!"
"Sigh, I still dream about that battle." The old man lifted his coarse linen shirt, revealing a long scar surrounded by nurous other mottled marks.
"Fighting the Long Ears in the forest is no easy task. When it cos to archery, hunting, and scrambling through the trees, they’re naturals. The ones we were sent to clear out even knew so damn Witchcraft."
Exposing his belly to the winter air made one shiver, and he quickly lowered his shirt before continuing his recollection. "At first, they were just shooting stone arrows and the like. But the deeper we went into the forest, the closer we got to that giant tree, the more vicious they beca."
"They used arrows that were both poisoned and could corrode Leather Armor, and vines that would whip and entangle you—that’s what got . Luckily, I couldn’t go on after that, hehe."
He grinned, revealing a gap-toothed smile. "They say that under the giant tree, the Long Ears conjured a thick, yellowish-green smoke. Forget people—even the surrounding grass and trees rotted away. I, on the other hand, missed that fight because I was wounded."
’That attack thod sounds familiar.’ Rorschach’s expression grew serious, and he quickly asked, "What was the outco of the battle?"
"We had a Knight with our army, and a very powerful Mage. To be honest, and don’t take this the wrong way, he was probably more powerful than you, Rorschach, my boy." lson’s expression was complicated.
"I’m not saying whose Magic is stronger; I wouldn’t know. But that Mage had a ruthless streak. Even the hardened old soldiers among us were afraid of him. In the end, the Lord Mage burned the Long Ears’ stronghold to the ground with a massive fire. Our commander led us out of the forest after that, but the Mage didn’t return with us."
"Can you show the general location?" Rorschach retrieved a charcoal pencil and a map of the area around Fortenburg from his Storage Ring, handing them to the old man on the bed. The map covered this small village (though it wasn’t marked) and most of the Black Forest.
"Heh, I haven’t seen one of these in a long ti." The old man held the map close to his face to read the text, then pointed to a town near the foot of the mountains. "We set out from here, heading straight west. On the second day, we passed through this town."
He gestured on the map. "It took us ten days to reach the human settlent inside the forest. After resupplying, it took another six days to push on to the giant tree. We almost ran out of provisions on the way back. And keep in mind, the mountain trails were tough, so our speed was at least halved."
lson estimated the distance between two of the towns on the map, then used half of that distance as a unit of asurent. Starting from the edge of the forest, he asured sixteen of these units westward and circled a general area.
He thought for a mont. "In my experience, even though our squad tried to walk in a straight line, we usually tended to drift a bit to the right." The chief picked up the charcoal pencil again and adjusted the circle he had drawn.
"Thank you. This is very important information."
Old lson grew a little uneasy. "Rorschach, my boy, tell what you’re planning to do there. The Long Ears should have been driven out, but it’s been so many years, I can’t be sure. The forest is a dangerous place on its own..."
"I understand. I won’t go in deep by myself. I’m on a mission and will be going with Mages from the Tower of Forest. They’re the experts on forests."
"Like the Long Ears?" Old lson had never heard of such a group of Mages.
’Natural Magic was indeed inherited from the Druids...’ Rorschach nodded. "Just like them. And they might be even more capable."
...
With all his business concluded, Rorschach’s trip to the countryside was coming to an end.
The young man left wine and a sum of money for Old rcer, a bolt of fashionable Valuva cloth for Madam rcer, and finally, produced two books of poetry: an epic of the Heroic King for Franz, and a collection of short poems about flowers, grass, mountains, and rivers for Angela.
"If you can’t read, ask Old lson to read them to you. Have him teach you. The old man is just lying in bed with nothing better to do," Rorschach told them.
"I want this one!" Angela was more interested in the story of the Heroic King. Franz, who had little interest in books to begin with, simply gave his to his sister.
The carriage arrived—the sa one he had taken to get here. The driver hadn’t forgotten Rorschach’s booking.
"Goodbye!" After hugging everyone, Rorschach boarded the carriage bound for town and departed from the small village.
"The road out of the village seems smoother," the driver remarked, noticing the ride was less bumpy.
"It is," Rorschach replied with a yawn.
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