“Umm… @*#$&%?” asked one of the villagers, as he observed the group. “Hello! @3%*#@ @#*$&#,” sang Allira, in fluent in Fendrallian. “Illvarian? Not speak… not speak Illvarian good,” said the villager. He stumbled over his words as he spoke, and sounded almost… anxious as he spoke with Allira. “@*#$*&# @# %#@ @#$#@ @#$@ @#$#@#$ @#$# #$#@$@?” “@#*($&#@ @#(*$&#(*@&#$ @#(*$*!” sang Allira, smiling brightly at the man. Alice started to wish that she spoke Fendrallian. Being unable to participate in the conversation was frustrating. “Do you want me to translate?” asked Ethan. “Yes please,” said Alice. “I know Allira said that she was going to talk about killing some ‘heart of the swamp’ or something, but I want to know exactly what she says. That way I can try to observe how people’s beliefs impact the swamp.” Ethan nodded thoughtfully as he glanced at the swamp in the distance. Then, he cleared his throat. “The man started out by asking if we were Immortals, since our [Dexterity] and [Charisma] seemed to be so exceptionally high.” Ethan seemed a bit amused by that, and shot Allira a glance. Allira rolled her eyes at Ethan while she continued speaking to the villager. “Allira confirmed that three of us were Immortals, and the rest of the group were ordinary people. Then, he asked if the conversation could be conducted in Fendrallian, since he’s not very confident in his Illvarian. Allira said she was happy to speak in Fendrallian,” he said. Ethan continued to translate the conversation, and Alice and the others started to get a rough idea what the conversation was about. “The others are here for various reasons – although Alice over there is Immortal Ethan’s apprentice,” said Allira, as she laughed. Alice took a second to marvel at the fact that Allira somehow wove laughing into her singing, and made it sound natural. “The woman apologizes. She forgot that you were a foreigner,” said Ethan. “It’s a bit more normal for people in this country to hug strangers. As for why she’s so eager to see you… it seems that she wants you to heal her wife. She got sick from class mana poisoning, and no longer does anything but obsessively wash clothes over and over again. The [Blacksmith] is quite… enthusiastic about seeking help.” Alice sighed, and decided to just pretend that the woman had never hugged her. Alice had never been a very touchy-feely person, and had a hard time dealing with huggers, but she wouldn’t make an issue out of it. “Just tell her to bring her wife here. I’ll treat her while the [Blacksmith] gets the cages ready for Allira.” Ethan translated, and the woman happily nodded before she left. Meanwhile, other villagers started to arrive. One after another, Alice saw other villagers appear. Several of them weren’t even self-aware enough to make it to the area on their own – their friends, neighbors, and family members had to guide them or carry them to Alice. Alice took a look at the mixture of children and adults, all of whom were suffering from uncontrolled mana, and sighed. There were nearly four hundred people in the village, and all of them were starting to suffer. “Tell them to give me {Patient’s Consent},“ said Alice. Ethan translated for her, and the group quickly gave Alice a series of consent statements. Alice wasn’t entirely sure whether {Lesser Patient’s Consent} would work with her treatment of mana illness, but there was no harm in giving it a shot. Then, Alice got to work. The first patient was a [Farmer]. Alice had an easy time cleaning up the mana inside of his body and filtering all of it back into [Farmer] mana. Just like when she corrected the mana inside of her own class seeds, Alice only needed a minute or two to convert everything into [Farmer] mana, unclog his other class seeds, and get everything straightened out. Partway through her treatment, as if he had realized what was happening, the man’s eyes widened. It seemed that he had returned to some level of self-awareness. The [Farmer] sat as still as a rock, as if he was afraid any wriggling on his end might mess up Alice’s treatment attempts. Once she finished fixing the mana in his body, he tried to give her a thank-you hug, which Ethan rejected after Alice sent him a pleading look. The man seemed a little uncertain what to think of Alice’s rejection of the hug, but after a few words from Allira and Ethan, he nodded and moved away so that the next patient could come to Alice. Alice continued working her way through the villagers. As she did, she started to reflect on her actions during the crisis so far. She had done her best to find ways to spread knowledge of how to combat the collapse of the System. She genuinely believed that she had worked very hard to control the crisis and try to help people. On the other hand, she also didn’t interact with the people who were directly harmed by the crisis. She hadn’t really done this sort of mass-healing before. Usually, she was more than willing to fix her own class mana, and also healed a few close friends, such as Cecilia. She had always thought that it made the most sense to find a way to fix the crisis at its roots instead of treat a few people that would just get sick again anyway. Any amount of mana she spent healing others could also be spent researching a way to fix the problem for everyone. There was no way for Alice to ever heal every human on the planet, after all. So she had just tried to focus on mass-producing ways to fix the issue at its roots. For that reason, she hadn’t actually stepped up and healed people directly before – she simply worked on her research and hoped that she would find a solution before time ran out for the planet. In a way, Alice still thought that was the correct approach to things. It was probably the most efficient way to solve the crisis, and a part of Alice couldn’t help but feel like mass-healing people was a waste of time and mana. The other part of her felt like she should have started doing this sooner. There was something to be said about using her magic to help people and seeing their eyes light up in gratitude. Even if healing every single person she ran into might not be the ‘optimal’ way to handle the crisis, it made Alice feel good about herself in a way that she hadn’t since the crisis had started. It took away some of her stress and anxiety at not correcting the current crisis yet, and not having every single solution she needed. It felt… nice to know that right here, right now, she was solving problems wrought by the catastrophe. That she was helping people survive. There was less thinking and worrying involved, and more doing. After getting through nearly two hundred patients, Alice was amused to see a few System notifications pop up. Explorer of Magic: 86 -> 87, Legendary Organic Mage 7 -> 8 Alice… had not used any organic mana during her healing process. Despite that fact, she had still gotten levels in [Legendary Organic Mage]. Of course, most people associated organic magic and healing with each other, which was probably why Alice had gotten a level in [Legendary Organic Mage]. But the idea of getting levels in [Organic Mage] without using organic magic was quite absurd. Alice couldn’t help but wonder if people had encountered similar problems before the System had broken. Had the System originally had some way of ‘fixing’ issues if they were too obviously hinting at the true nature of the System? Alice suspected that might have been the case. Of course, the mana that her [Legendary Organic Mage] class seed absorbed seemed to be quite a bit less focused than usual, so Alice lost quite a bit during the filtration and conversion process. However, at the end of the day, it was still not bad to get a few free levels. Alice was actually a bit curious to see what Perks she would get from [Legendary Organic Mage] as well. Surely a class with ‘legendary’ in its name wouldn’t give her ordinary Perks. As Alice took a few moments to look over her new Systme notifications, she saw the [Blacksmith] woman return. She was now carrying a few large, sturdy-looking metal cages, and she was also leading another woman, who seemed almost completely oblivious to her surroundings. The woman was constantly washing a rag she held in her hands. The rag was already spotless, but the woman kept cleaning it over and over again despite her actions having no meaning. “@#($ @#*$(#@&$*( @#*$@#*( @#$*#@! @#*$#&$@ @#($#*!” said the [Blacksmith], as she handed Allira the cages. Alice looked at the cages, and grinned. Allira wouldn’t have to keep singing anymore. The cages were quite large, so all of the monsters should fit inside of them. The [Blacksmith] brought her wife towards Alice. Alice didn’t tarry, and immediately helped fix the woman’s [Laundress] class. Meanwhile, Allira started stuffing the swamp monsters into metal cages, before she finally gave her poor throat a rest and stopped singing. Alice was impressed that the Immortal had kept her singing up for so long. Immortal or not, Alice still suspected that Allira’s throat should have gotten sore eventually, but the woman had simply soldiered on until they finally had cages ready. After Alice finished treating all of the people in the village, she got two new surprises. First, after she purified her own mana, she had enough to level up [Legendary Organic Mage] one more time. Legendary Organic Mage 8 -> 9 She was only one level away from getting a Perk in [Legendary Organic Mage] now. However, much more interestingly, as Alice healed villagers, she had also observed little threads of belief cycle through her body and towards the little mana gem in her brain. Until finally, the little mana gem shone with rainbow light, and then a new Achievement appeared. You have gained an Achievement! Distributing the Cure (I) (Rarity: 4) You have treated the strange illness in the village of Frostriver. The villagers are grateful for your help!