55. Does That Even Make Sense?
55. Does That Even Make Sense?
He wasn't happy about having to deal with more pointless work at night.
The doctor who came to examine him wasn't the one he'd seen on the first day.
It was Professor Nico Praha.
"Professor, last time you said you'd absolutely never do it. What made you come?"
"...You're a sponsor, so I have to take care of you, don't I? I'm confident in my skills, so don't worry."
Apparently, just as she was skilled at drawing out demonic energy from demons, she was also adept at treating toxic gas poisoning.
Considering how adamantly she'd refused to treat Amy before finally being persuaded, this was an enormous change.
Her source of funding really was a terrifying thing.
But staying in the hospital any longer was a waste of time. He intended to get discharged quickly, and treatment was meaningless anyway.
"That's true, but I'm going to get discharged tomorrow. Can't you see I'm perfectly fine?"
"No, there's no way you're perfectly fine after inhaling toxic gas for several minutes."
When he said he was discharging, Professor Praha panicked and tried to stop him.
The reason he'd withstood inhaling the paralyzing toxic gas was purely because he was a Master.
His body had certainly been poisoned by the gas, but the aura that saturated his body had resisted it, so the effects only manifested as a tingling sensation and difficulty moving.
Still, since he had been poisoned, something could go wrong.
Staying until he was judged to be fine was the right thing to do.
"...Then, if the tests prove I'm fine, will you let me discharge?"
"The moment when you look fine on the outside is when you have to be most careful. But... well, this works out. Since you're getting a detailed examination, let's check what's going on inside."
Professor Praha's glasses glinted.
She'd definitely said before that they'd do the detailed examination once the drug's effects on his body had worn off...
They'd lost the timing after the rematch uproar, but it was fortunate to do it now.
However, there was something he had to make clear before the examination.
"I'll take the detailed exam, but... I won't take this one."
"This is... yes, let's do that. This won't have any effect on you anyway."
The examination he'd refused was the one that could detect traces of a Master.
A person who had reached the realm of a Master couldn't be identified just by outward appearance.
It was hard to tell even with a standard physical examination.
A Master was a superhuman among superhumans, but since even top-tier Experts were already superhuman, the test results alone didn't show much of a difference from top-tier.
To those top-tier Experts, a Master looked like an entirely different creature, but on examination, their bodies weren't that different from a top-tier Expert's. From their perspective, it must have just seemed absurd.
There was only one test that could distinguish between a Master and an Expert... and that was the Astral Body... in other words, an examination of the soul.
A Master's soul registered as a much darker color than an ordinary person's.
If that were discovered, one of his Shadow identities would be exposed, so he had to be particularly careful.
Having received confirmation, he headed to the examination room in his patient gown, where large machines lined the walls.
————————————-
The examination proceeded in several stages.
First, they examined the parts of his body affected by the gas poisoning, then performed a full-body scan.
He then ingested the growth medicine—which they'd already confirmed no longer had any effect—and they measured the changes in his body.
It didn't take long.
Once again, the growth medicine produced no changes whatsoever.
"Everything really is fine."
"Right?"
Professor Praha brought over the data and racked her brains.
If there had been a noticeable cause like meridian blockage, it would have been solvable, but without any visible reason for the lack of results, it seemed to be giving her a massive headache.
"Hmm... strange. The stimulation definitely reached each part properly... let's do the next test."
She applied gel to his dantian and heart area and attached several pads.
It was an examination to check his overall mana flow.
"Sponsor...? Something's wrong with your body?!"
"Is there a problem?"
Professor Praha was flustered after seeing the results.
"No, why is something like this inside your body?"
"Ugh, what is this."
The test results she was looking at showed about ten circles, large and small, all in various colors.
Professor Praha pointed at the largest of those circles.
"This is a dragon's essence. And besides that, you're packed full of other things..."
When she mentioned a dragon's essence, something came to mind.
It was the Polymorph Potion he'd recently mistaken for a Growth Potion in the Snow Country and drunk.
That potion was one that allowed you to learn Polymorph, one of a dragon's Authorities... since it was a dragon's potion, the likelihood that it contained a dragon's essence was high.
As for the other things packed inside him, they were obvious without even looking.
"I probably ate all sorts of things that were supposed to be good for my body since I was young. Could that be a problem?"
Since childhood, the Titan family had gathered things from everywhere, calling them good for growth, and those were likely the cause.
He'd thought they'd all melted into his body and become one, but apparently, even though they were sitting together in a pouch, they hadn't all mixed together.
"It's hard to explain exactly what the problem is... but this could be one of the causes."
Professor Praha wore a serious expression as she looked at the essences coiled up inside his stomach.
"The numerous essences lying dormant in your stomach might be interfering with the drug's effects, preventing them from working properly."
"Is there... any way to fix it?"
He was shocked.
'I ate those because they were supposed to be good for my body...!!'
Among them, many were potions that could even raise his realm.
He'd just eaten them and, to avoid indigestion, had even used a special cultivation method to somehow digest them all and survive until now—and that could be the problem?
The drugs that hadn't helped his growth one bit could now be interfering?
He felt as if his entire life until now had been invalidated.
"...Hmm, I'll have to research more... but there is one method that comes to mind right away."
Professor Praha pondered for a while and then suggested one method.
"We make a drug so powerful that it won't be interfered with by these essences."
"Could there be something that won't lose to a dragon's essence?"
"...If it were the same dragon... it might be possible."
She was telling him to go catch a dragon?
He weighed his options.
A dragon was... what you could practically call an endangered species.
As a mighty race, dragons lived long and didn't die easily.
But reproducing was also difficult, so their population didn't increase much.
They used the Authority of Polymorph to transform their bodies into entirely different-looking species, enjoying the 'hidden power' game among other races, or settling somewhere and being worshipped like gods.
He'd never clashed directly with a dragon in earnest, but he knew painfully well how powerful a race they were.
A Master was strong by human standards.
Against races like dragons that vastly transcended humans, it was hard to secure an absolute advantage.
Come to think of it, the most famous dragon currently alive did come to mind.
'Saint Macinto...'
One of the highest authorities in the Church, who had become a saint as a member of the dragon race.
If it was Saint Macinto, the Red Dragon who breathed holy breath imbued with divine power, he would also know where other dragons were.
But would he really tell him?
He'd be asking to be told where they were so he could steal the essence of his fellow dragons...?
"No, why are you listening so seriously??"
"I've never killed a dragon before, but I was contemplating how to do it."
He'd been pondering it very seriously, and Professor Praha spoke as if she found it absurd.
"I was just saying...! It's hard enough just to find a dragon these days... I'll look for another method, so please forget what I just said."
That was just the most brutish method that had popped into her head. She said she'd look for another method and asked him to wait.
Actually, it hadn't even been definitively concluded that that was the cause.
"What's important is to clarify whether the dragon's essence is truly interfering, and if it is interfering, whether there's a way to escape its influence."
If it turned out to be because of the essences packed inside his body, that would actually be a relief.
'It would have been more horrible if it were because I'm a Master that I can't change.'
The variable that Professor Praha still didn't know about was the fact that he was a Master.
A Master's body possessed homeostasis.
It meant the body had the property of trying to maintain a certain optimal state.
That was why the Director, who was the same age as the Five Pillars—people whose peers all had children in their twenties—still maintained the appearance of a twenty-something.
And since he'd looked the same for several years before reaching the Master's realm, he hardly felt the difference.
'Surely... it's not because of this.'
If the Master's realm turned out to be the problem, it would give him a real headache.
—————————————-
Atlas was discharged.
It was good that he was discharged quickly, but his state was a little strange.
"Atlas, what are you thinking about so intently?"
"Should I try hunting a dragon...?"
"Have you finally gone crazy?"
After his discharge, Atlas was saying strange things, perhaps as a lingering effect of the gas.
What was this about hunting a dragon?
But the Companion took it quite seriously.
-A dragon...? Could it be... are you planning to kill McIntosh? Why would an Empire Shadow go after a saint...?
It smelled suspicious... the fact that Atlas had implied he would subjugate McIntosh after the head of the Imperial Knights died meant something had happened to the Emperor...
'He's jumping ahead again. And he said he'd only give advice from now on.'
He stopped the Companion's thoughts before they could concoct an elaborate conspiracy.
The Companion had decided not to issue orders to him from the point Atlas's misunderstanding was cleared up.
He'd said he'd only give advice and let him make decisions for himself.
-...That's right. Let it go in one ear and out the other.
The Companion had told him he was jumping ahead, but the sight of Atlas staring somewhere into the distance was somehow terrifying.