Ball of Nothing

"I... I did it!"

It took Zero one week to finally succeed in reviving all the fishes and maybe some birds that Hua Tuo caught. After ten successful revives, it wasn't even lunch time yet. That was a huge leap in progress and Zero wanted to cry in both joy and relief.

Hua Tuo was proud of his student. With such an astonishing rate of progress, the old physician had no doubts that his apprentice will one day surpass him. For now, it was time to celebrate a little. Lunch will be lavish and dumplings sounded great.

"You did well," Hua Tuo commended and Zero beamed.

Yesterday's failure paved the road for today's success. Zero's perseverance managed to allow him to transcend and overcome all obstacles. Although Zero didn't mention it, Hua Tuo knew that the young boy had been training secretly behind Hua Tuo's back. The doctor didn't discourage that but he didn't mention anything about it and pretended not to know. After all, Zero's method of training was truly bizarre.

Normally, students would get familiarised with the steps of healing and practice to make the flow second nature. However, Zero wasn't the same. Instead, the young boy explored different ways to save a life using healing magic. Some ended with results crueller than death but Hua Tuo was in equal parts curious and worried at Zero's unique way of thinking.

He didn't know how Zero thought about fusing two dying or dead animals to improve his success rates. The creatures lived but seeing that they were two very different species, they couldn't come to agree on which prey to hunt and that resulted in their deaths by starvation - something Zero learnt the hard way.

Hua Tuo didn't understand how Zero thought it would be a great idea to pour healing magic constantly into a dead creature for more than three minutes. The unexpected happened when the creature morphed into a zombie who came alive in the form of a spirit taking over possession of its rotting body. Even after its resurrection, Zero faithfully continued to supply it healing magic and Hua Tuo almost fainted when the creature became a zombie mutant capable of absorbing mana for its survival. Without knowing what he did, Zero left happily. Hua Tuo only knew about a massacre of a small village the day after and had to secretly end that monster's 'life'. Endow Hill's magic was strong enough to drive the weak-willed minds insane. With an indestructible body and a weak mind, it was only a matter of time before what Zero 'saved' morphed into everyone's nightmare. If not put to a stop, it could very well turn into a calamity class demon, given enough time. When Zero learnt about the monster he created from Gaia who heard it from Hua Tuo, he mourned for the deaths of those innocent villagers and promised to never do that again.

Despite all that, Zero's secret nightly experiments paid off. In less than a week, the young boy came to understand the nature of healing magic after pushing it to extents that not even Hua Tuo did. He proved to be highly intelligent when Hua Tuo was surprised with a perfected revival of the fourth fish that he caught. The first three were revived but died shortly after. The fourth fish was the mark of Zero's first successful attempt as it was set free back into the river.

Hua Tuo was impressed and amazed by Zero's ability to improve. He began to coach Zero seriously on the finer points in the art of revival magic. Zero learned fast and he perfected his revival magic on fishes. The physician took it to the next level on the sixth day of their training and introduced new species.

Initially, Zero couldn't perform very well with species that didn't have similar organs and system due to his lack of understanding. Hua Tuo then explained that Healing Magic was a very innate thing. The healer was merely a mediator between the magic and the patient receiving treatment. If Zero was able to sync his mind with the patient's, the magic would flow naturally and Zero would only need to follow the flow, supplying more when it is needed to places more critical as determined by the magic.

The young boy turned out to be very gifted in following his intuition, much to Hua Tuo's delight. Normal healers were unable to master this final level of healing because it required one to be in tune with soul magic - a very rare attribute. According to the legends, spirits attracted to healing magic will guide the healers with their superior knowledge in exchange for a taste of that ambrosia-like mana. In truth, those 'spirits' were often the souls of the dying, clutching onto another chance at life. With Hua Tuo's Medicine God's Eye, the doctor witnessed many souls in action after death before King Yama's escorts came for them.

Zero didn't quite understand what it was to sync his mind with his patient but with Hua Tuo's detailed explanation on how to identify the tug at his mind, the young boy mastered it within a day. Hua Tuo decided to push his schedule forward a little and taught the boy a little more in preparation for their trip to the village of half-humans. All the villagers had very different constitutions so Hua Tuo wanted to give Zero more chances to get familiar with that tug at his mind. The closer to death, the stronger the pull.

"What happens if it's a little wound or illness?"

Hua Tuo grinned. "That's when your medical knowledge comes in handy. While what I've taught you are medicine for human consumption, most work for animals as well. The village is full of half-humans and they are outcasts of the society. Healthcare isn't available there so I drop by every few months to check on them. While they are half humans, some of them are allergic to certain medicines that we normally prescribe."

"Allergic?"

Hua Tuo coughed lightly. Zero's confused expression and tilted head looked absolutely adorable and the doctor needed to resist pinching those cheeks.

"Allergy is a condition when a body rejects normal food or environmental condition. It causes the body's immune system to fail, making it vulnerable to many side effects such as respiratory malfunction, breakouts on the skin, runny nose, watery eyes and in some cases, death."

Zero swallowed. "How do I know what they are allergic to?"

Hua Tuo sighed. This was something he had problems with when he was human. He didn't know for sure what a person could be allergic to. People could be allergic to anything and so could animals. With half-humans, they number of things only increased. He had a skill after becoming a Sage God called Medicine God's Eye and it allowed him to know exactly what a person's condition was. Illnesses could be identified with it and so could allergies. However, he did not know how to explain his unique skill to Zero.

"For starters, nobody really knows what kind of allergy they have until it happens. We can only take measures after it surfaces. When symptoms start to appear, immediately cast the strongest calming magic you can. It's best if you can put the patient to sleep so that you can continue with the emergency treatment. Most times, allergies are not treated as illnesses so healing magic does not work. In fact, refrain from using healing magic because it may worsen the reaction. usually, after calming magic is cast, the body will make an auto recovery from ten minutes to half a day although some effects may take up to a week to wear off. You can help accelerate the healing process by treating the side effects instead."

Zero paid attention to every word and nodded as Hua Tuo demonstrated how to use different magic.

Magic Buff #1: Tranquil Mind

Effects: Calming

Magic Buff #2: Slumber

Effects: Sleep

Magic Buff #3: Binding

Effects: Paralysis

Magic Buff #4: Health Boost

Effects: Rejuvenate

Magic Buff #5: Warrior Spirit

Effects: Adrenaline

Hua Tuo wasn't sure about the mana to effectiveness conversion rate so Zero didn't have many chances to practice it. After all, he had to conserve his energy for the healing he needed to do next week.

"Remember the Slumber and Tranquil Mind spells. It will be used during surgery for long periods of time. Normally we will use numbing grass potions but for practice this time, you will maintain them."

Zero nodded. He was both excited and nervous about his first trip on Earth. He couldn't wait to see those half-humans!

***

"Using water and earth, mud is created. A higher tier spell that involves adding light magic creates wood. A combination of wood and fire gives birth to ash. Ash can be then combined with mud with high heat to form stone. Stone crushed and mixed with dirt becomes sand. Stone under intense pressure and heat becomes metal. Water and heat form steam or rain depending on the intensity. Ice is made by removing heat from water. Ice and cloud moved by air currents under high speeds cause lightning. Cyclones are formed using air currents, sped up by contrasting heat. Exactly how many tiers did Merlin use for this spell?" Truen groaned.

The fake grimoire was indeed helpful. However, the level of complexity was driving Truen insane. How many tiers of casting did Merlin manage to complete in such a short frame of time when he threw out those calamity-tier spells? That precise level of control required for every step was something that spoke of many years of experience. The fact that Merlin engaged in passive and active attacking made Truen feel a sense of hopelessness. It wasn't a mere cyclone storm. Merlin used the metal created to direct the lightning towards his enemies while maintaining that trajectory of the cyclone. It was an oppressive attack that forced the enemy to retreat. Truen knew that from experience. There was no way to defeat that, his only option back then was to run.

Unlike Zero who reported his success, Truen was struggling. A week had gone by since Truen's solo research and development but he still hasn't found a way to develop unique spells of his own. He'd been simply analysing Merlin's creations and that alone took everything the wood elf had. How could he chant a twenty level spell in less than a second?

Clearly, he missed something. Maybe he had to read in between the lines like before?

The wood elf was tired. Coping with two vastly different time realities took up more Parallel Minds to cope. Truen was surprised when he found six out of twenty-three Minds dedicated to supporting the Mind trapped in the dream dimension. The wood elf had lesser resources to train new Parallel Minds and his progress of devouring books slowed significantly.

Would he be able to complete his training in time?