Supreme Magus

ead of checking for their conditions, he would only take note of the status of their cores and the blue veins.

At the end of the day, he had barely managed to visit around fifty persons, and the results were bleak. All of them showed signs of deep mana poisoning (AN: the blue veins) and their mana cores were discoloured if not downgraded.

The good news was that the stronger the core, the higher its resistance. Blue and cyan cores had just turned to deeper shades, only from the yellow level and below they had suffered an almost complete colour change.

The bad news was that at high levels, even changing a shade was a big deal. Lith had gained a whole set of new abilities just going past the middle level of cyan. There was no saying what an even stronger mage would experience.

During dinner his mood was gloomy, searching the right words for his report. He needed all the help he could get, but couldn ’t tell the truth, at any cost.

– ”Now not only I must find a foolproof cure, I also need to make certain that no one Awakens. I can achieve it in two ways. Either I make the cure slow and prolonged over time, or I do not extract all the toxins after killing the parasites.

Either way, the specimens wouldn ’t be able to perceive the mana flow in their body while the cores recover their strength, and my a*s would be out of the frying pan. Both methods have evident flaws, though.

The first one could be improved by other healers not aware of the dangers it will pose. As for the second one, with no more parasites, I don ’t know how long the toxins would retain their potency. I need more data. ” –

Lith ’s trains of thoughts was interrupted by Colonel Varegrave.

”What is the problem with those blue veins that Kilian was telling me about? ”

”It ’s a sign of the infection nearing the critical point. At this rate, the patients will be dead soon. ” Lith ’s lie killed two birds with one stone. It would give him plausible deniability if he was forced to kill someone, and ensure his research to get priority.

”I see. ” Varegrave didn ’t seem surprised, mostly worried.

”Are you going to extract more toxins tomorrow? ”

”Most likely. Why? ”

”Because we need to establish a safer chain of custody. ” Varegrave handed to him a gold ring with the Royal family ’s crest engraved.

”Only people with one of these will be allowed to handle the vials containing the toxins. Use it to stamp the custody release note every time you produce a vial, and always check the courier has a ring too. ”

Lith took the ring, pondering about the implications of the sudden increase in security. His mind went to the most paranoid answer.

”Let me guess, you want to weaponize the toxins. ”

Varegrave was taken aback, he didn ’t expect a kid to understand the severity of the situation.

”Yes. If we manage to stabilize them and apply them on clothes and armours, we could obtain anti magic protections. But that ’s not the only reason. Today an alchemist was discovered trying to steal a vial. He is currently being interrogated. ”

Lith inwardly scoffed at their wishful thinking. If such a thing was possible, he had no doubt that Hatorne would have already found a way to do it and sold her merchandise for a high price.

On the contrary, he expected Hatorne to prevent it from happening. She was a mage too, after all, he doubted she could be so stupid to leave behind something that could take away her greatest weapon. Yet Lith could benefit from their wild goose chase.

”Whatever they discover about the anti mana toxins, I need to be informed as soon as possible. Without a cure, all the infected will die shortly, and with them all your precious toxins will be lost forever. ”

Varegrave didn ’t miss Lith ’s hidden allegation, and was outraged by it.

”Are you implying that the army would care more about a possible weapon rather than the lives of the citizens of the Kingdom? ” He indignantly stood up from his chair.

”I ’m not implying anything, I know it. ” Lith replied between mouthfuls.

”I wasn ’t born yesterday. ’It ’s too dangerous to let it fall in the wrong hands. It ’s for the greater good. Collateral damage and all that stuff. ’ Isn ’t the way the army works? ”

What Lith had just stated were the bullet points a small faction within the army was actually using to try to convince the King to not cure all the infected, but keep some of them as human breeding grounds for the parasites.

The mana blocking parasite, was the one that had raised the most expectations. In a world were a single mage could obliterate a battalion, it would give a chance to those without great magic powers to fight on equal footing.

”What can I do to help you? ” Varegrave didn ’t have the strength to lie anymore to Lith, so he preferred to change the topic.

”I need the strongest mages among the infected. If I find a cure for them, treating the others will be easy. I ’m not capable of devising a single spell to cure them, but I ’m confident to find the right steps that will later be merged into one.

No one aside me must interact with my patients. ”

”It will be done. ” Varegrave nodded.

”I know you have no reason to trust me, but I need a favour from you. Please, find a way to kill those monstrosities before I ’m ordered to do something that I would regret for my whole life. ”