Jon did not ask Angor for support. Before his legs became wilted, he designed a wheelchair himself which could help him climb the stairs with the help of additional wheels and springs.
As Leon explained this tool, Mara quietly thought.
A true talent in mechanics. He would have made great achievements in the path of alchemy. What a pity that such talent wouldn’t be helping him now, as he’s just too aged.
The first impression Mara had on Jon was fixed on one word – aged.
Mara himself was approaching the age of 80 now. He was not a formal wizard, so he could only watch as time left its traces on him. He tried a number of means of recuperation though, so he currently appeared as someone who had just gotten past 60.
As for Jon… If Angor had not already told him that Jon was only beyond 50, Mara would believe the man in front of him was well above the age of 100.
“Pathology on the flesh? Failed blood flow? Or did someone put a curse on him that could quicken his aging?”
By mentioning the “big trouble”, Angor hoped that Mara could cure his teacher. This was why Mara’s first attempt was to try to ascertain the nature of Jon’s condition.
However, Mara frowned as Jon approached him. He felt strange, as though something very wrong was coming from Jon’s body.
He knew about this feeling. When he saw those otherworldly slaves captured by wizards back at the Crimson Auction, he had felt something similar, as if what he saw did not belong to this world.
This man was a visitor from another plane? Mara frowned harder.
Speaking of visitors from another plane, Jon did not really seem like one. Mara recalled reading a book from the library in the academy, Pros and Cons of Expeditions Against Foreign Planes written by the Great Twisted Wizard, Barzel. The book clearly explained that although there were sapient creatures in the other planes, no one had ever discovered identical humans out there.
There were, however, many creatures that looked like humans; the ones with three eyes, the ones with fish scales behind their ears, those as small as palms, winged ones… They looked similar to mankind, but people only gave them a common name: The Humanoids.
“Maybe this man is a humanoid from another plane?” thought Mara as he took a guess in his mind. However, he kept his kind smile on the outside.
It this was true, he could just capture Jon and sell him to the wizards which would win him at least ten Magic Crystals. Mara worked day and night for all these years, yet he only saved up a little less than a hundred of them.
With that in mind, Mara’s smile grew so big that his eyes were only thin slits again.
When Jon sat down before him, Mara cleared his throat and explained, “First, I need to use a Detect Disease on you. Once I find the right approach, there should be no problem in treating you.”
Mara did not even wait for Jon and Angor’s reply before he simply summoned his crystal ball and began mumbling something.
Soon, a pale green aura emerged from the crystal ball and slowly covered Jon’s body.
The amazement Jon felt upon witnessing such miracle gradually calmed down under the gentle touch of the aura, and his face regained its vigorous color. In the end, Jon closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber.
Everyone else wondered about Mara’s method. They only thought that Mara was casting a cure. No one was aware that what Mara used was not the level 1 cantrip, Detect Disease, but a level 2 cantrip that only Level-2 Apprentice Wizards could barely manage to cast: Expel Deceit.
This was a support cantrip which could be used to help someone see through illusions or deceits. The spells could not be defined by a simple explanation. For example, Grease was used to obstruct people’s steps, but with a little tweak, it could also facilitate burning fire. Every spell had infinite possibilities, the fact that wizards pursue truth was essentially a process in which they made infinite possibilities into infinite absoluteness. This was also true for the Expel Deceit spell—with a little change, it could be directed onto another target in order to ascertain that target’s original race.
However, there was a prerequisite for this method to work; the target must accept it. If he or she held any will to resist, the cantrip would fail. Now, Mara was pretending to be helping Jon as a cover-up, Jon would of course not resist him.
The green aura persisted for half a minute. It first covered Jon’s head, and slowly moved down to his feet, like a scanning process. When everything was finished, the aura returned to the crystal ball.
With a shift of his eyes, Mara silently injected his spirit power into the crystal ball to read the result of the Expel Deceit spell.
“Human… One hundred percent, absolutely pure human??
“Of course,” Mara secretly reassured himself about the result. However, he still had a tiny bit of doubt, for he had trusted his instinct earlier. Yet he could not reach a reasonable conclusion after quite some thinking, so he could only choose to believe the result of the spell. Jon was human, he should not worry too much about helping him.
Since Jon was not an otherworldly creature, Mara lifted his misgiving and began to fulfill his promise to Angor.
He waved his crystal ball again, and quietly constructed a new cantrip pattern using his magic. This time, he was constructing the real Detect Disease spell.